Consider this a warning to all of the NCAA's juniors and redshirt sophomores considering declaring early for the NFL draft next spring: Be careful what you wish for. The NFL is a brutal place.
Just ask Trent Green. The Dolphins' QB, who had his cerebellum turned into scrambled eggs last season, moved heaven and Earth to get a new start in Miami. Sunday, Green took a vicious knee to the head and suffered yet another concussion while trying to block on a broken play. And to literally add insult to injury, Houston defensive tackle Travis Johnson drew a 15-yard penalty for taunting the less-than-conscious remains of Green.
Just ask Matt Leinart. The 2004 Heisman winner, fresh off a week filled with barbs from critics about his comments railing against Arizona's QB rotation, is done for the year after breaking his collarbone against the Rams. Many questioned Leinart's decision to stay in school for his senior year, but at least he didn't have to take shots from guys like Will Witherspoon in his ballroom dancing class.
Just ask Reggie Bush. Leinart's teammate and Heismanic peer, Bush is facing an 0-4 start in New Orleans and whispers that maybe that "h" at the end of his last name should be a "t" — as in "bust." While those suggestions are preposterously premature, it's worth noting that ABC named Bush one of the 25 greatest college football players of all-time the same week that Bush-busting heated up.
Just ask Jamarcus Russell. While Russell could have shared in LSU's hard-fought win over Florida Saturday night in Baton Rouge, he instead sits buried on the Oakland bench, a victim of extreme tardiness. Do you think the professors at LSU would have batted an eye had Russell not shown up to class for a month? It seems that Raiders' coach Lane Kiffin is a little stricter.
Just ask the slew of once-famous running backs that paraded through Sunday's Green Bay/Chicago game. Cedric Benson garnered Heisman consideration at Texas. DeShawn Wynn won a national title last year at Florida. Vernand Morency was a local hero at Oklahoma State. Heck, the Bears' Adrian Peterson, who set the D-1 rushing record at Georgia Southern, has to be distinguished from the other Adrian Peterson running wild in the division. What do they all have in common? You probably didn't notice them in Wisconsin Sunday, as John Madden and seemingly 37 NBC cameras fixated on Brett Favre. I think Favre's wife, Deanna, got more face time than these horses.
Most of all, just ask Jim Harbaugh. The former well-traveled quarterback uncovered a secret only Pete Carroll had known: it's a lot more gentle on Saturdays than Sundays. Less than a decade removed from fleeing NFL linebackers, the first-year Stanford coach sleighed Goliath USC Saturday night in Los Angeles. Sure beats facing the Pittsburgh zone blitz.
It's a vicious, blood-thirsty world we delve into on Sunday afternoons. It's a world where average Joes root for the destruction of knee ligaments of real human beings, all in the name of knocking off Bob in Accounting's fantasy team. Even making harmless picks no longer gets the kid gloves treatment; now we play suicide pools to see who can go the longest without picking a loser.
So maybe when the Mike Vicks and the Pacman Joneses crawl out from dark corners of this savage universe, we shouldn't be shocked. Sure, come Monday morning, the soul-paring violence of NFL Sundays is reduced to a box score to be studied over our Starbucks. We all emerge from the previous day's tryst as Mr. Hyde and refamiliarize ourselves with our Dr. Jekyll morals. But for these guys, this universe is life.
Does that make it right to disregard the right to decency for dogs or the rule of law? Of course not. But maybe we can see the dark place that those digressions from order come from when we look at the carnivorous culture of pro football. Anyone who dismisses the literal bloodlust that the NFL walks hand-in-hand with is kidding himself. We can't get enough of it.
So go ahead and enjoy these Sundays packed with controlled violence and mayhem — I know I will. Unlike the Christians in Ancient Rome, these gladiators fully choose to enter this carnage, and they get paid pretty well for it, too. But, Mr. Darren McFadden, for instance, think long and hard about that decision. Today's gladiators face far scarier things than Lions; they have Patriots and Cowboys to fight, too.
Leave a Comment