The Dawn of the Divas

By jawarrener  |   Saturday, August 29, 2009  |  Comments( 1 )

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The NFL wide receiver. Perhaps I am not old enough to remember the by-gone days of the NFL when wide receivers weren’t the spoiled crybabies they are today. My oldest memories are of Cris Carter mouthing off to referees and showboating in the end zone. I have even seen clips of Billy “Whiteshoes” Johnson demonstrating some of the off-color antics that denote the modern day wide receiver. Now, before I go any further, let me point out that there are always exceptions. There were exceptions then, just as there are now. You never once saw Jerry Rice grabbing his crotch or throwing a tantrum over a bad call. Just the same, you will never catch Larry Fitzgerald showboating or acting a fool. Heck, the guy just re-structured his contract so that the team would have more cap space. So, bear this in mind as I rail on the position as a whole and on certain individuals therein.


Modern NFL wide receivers have become the biggest prima donnas in all of sports. I dare say, in the history of sports. Never is this stone cold fact more prevalent than this year. I of course am implying the likes of Brandon Marshall and Michael Crabtree. These two characters baffle the imagination. Does it really mean more to them to squeeze more money from their respective teams’ coffers than it does to actually play the game? Now, I understand the charade of holding out of OTAs to make a case for a new contract and as much as I like to say that agents are ruining the game, agents are simply a by-product of owners’ greed. The NFL took the same labor route that the major industries in America took following the Industrial Revolution. They figured they could cut overhead by marginalizing their employees. It got so bad that full time workers couldn’t make a living wage. The product of this was labor unions. Unions are now the bane of most major industries right now. GM is going under because of all of the benefits they are contracted to pay out to their past and present employees. This is a product of both the industrialists’ and the unions’ greed and now the industries themselves are on the brink of collapse. The NFL took the same path, ironically enough, many years after this shakedown. Owners ruled the olden days of football and soon enough the players realized there would be no NFL with out the players and they began to unionize and acquire representation. The owners pushed back and staged lockouts and attempted to cobble together seasons with “replacement players”. The players union staged strikes. These failed miserably and forced the owners to now play ball with newly formed unions (NFLPA) and agents. So, I don’t really blame agents, they are merely a product of owners’ greed. However, the tug-of-war that goes on between the NFLPA, the players’ agents, and the owners is intolerable.

I’m sure we all remember last year when the NFLPA and owners were immovable in their demands on how to split up the billions in new television contracts. The negotiations went right down to the wire, endangering the start of the regular season. Were they really going to walk away from the billions of dollars that stood to be made because they couldn’t agree on how to divvy it up? Truly, both sides have lost their perspectives on the realities of the situation. The problem is, agents are almost a necessity to prevent productive players from being taken advantage of. Just look at all the money that teams are throwing at rookies nowadays. Highly drafted rookies make insane salaries with astronomical amounts of guaranteed money. All for a player that has not caught a single ball or made a single block in the NFL. Then look at all-pro veterans getting the shaft. Future Hall of Famer Derrick Brooks, can’t even find a job right now and Michael Crabtree is willing to sit out the entire year because he wants 27 million guaranteed dollars? It makes you wonder, who is really behind this? Is his agent pushing this agenda? Is it self-inflicted? Neither excuse is a good one. If it’s just him pushing it then he’s even more of a jerk. Where does he come off? Who does he think he is? Has he ever won a Super Bowl? Has he ever gone over 1K yards in the NFL? Has he even played a snap in the NFL? What credence does he have to demand this? Oh, he played in a pass-happy, spread offense at Texas Tech and never even led his team to a conference championship. On the other hand, if it’s his agent that’s putting him up to this, then Crabtree is the biggest puppet I have ever seen. Is he going to sit back and let his agent ruin his professional career? I like to think he’s doing this on his own, at least then he’s not a pushover. He is still a jerk. Marshall is no different and his mouth and attitude have dug holes for him that I don’t think he’ll emerge from. He is upset over his old contract, wants a new one. I seem to remember Boldin being unhappy with his contract but Is ure as hell see him in camp, in practice and did Boldin not have one of the most productive rookie seasons in the history of the NFL? So what does Marshall do? He pisses and moans about how awful his pampered, privileged life is. He sows division with his coach and his teammates and dogs it in practice after finally showing up. Is this helping his value as trade material? If he wants out of Denver so bad he ought to be making himself more appealing as a player by showing up and working hard. Teams might be interested if they saw that he would fight through his chagrin. He has proved himself to be such a liability that other teams don’t want to touch him. This only weakens his chance at a trade and further alienates him from his team. Maybe he should take up track. He’d fit right in with Usain Bolt chest thumping himself twenty yards before he finishes the 100m. Football is a team sport and somehow these diva wide receivers think that they are a one-man team.

It’s part of the mechanics of how the game has changed. In the old days “wide receivers” were actually “wide outs” or even “flankers” and they played up close to the line like a tight end. They blocked, they ran routes, they did everything and they fit into their place in the team’s offensive schemes. Back then, teams were more run heavy and the receivers were not protected the way that they are now. The league itself is somewhat responsible for the “cry-baby” syndrome of many wide receivers in the NFL. First of all, you can’t touch them. Except within five yards of the line of scrimmage, if you reach out and brush the guy, flags come flying from all corners of the field. Second, you split him way out away from the rest of the team, almost on the sideline. Third, you don’t demand that he makes plays in the running game. Is there any wonder why running backs don’t break 60, 70, 80-yard touchdown runs like they used to? If you watch some old footage of Jim Brown, yes, Brown could run over 11 guys on his way to the end zone but he had help. Watch how receivers hustle and make key downfield blocks so that the back can maneuver and get into pay dirt. It’s like they put receivers on an island and gave them flip-flops and an ice bucket of Coronas and said, “there ya go”. The modern receiver is not a part of the team the way he used to be. This stokes the fire of the malcontents and gives them a sense of entitlement that is not only convoluted but is downright childish. Oh, and now that Marshall has been suspended, he comes out and apologizes. How nice that when it comes down to you are sitting on the bench, with no new contract and no trade, you suddenly see all the folly of your actions and come crawling back, looking for playing time. I sincerely hope that teams and owners act in a way that shows they don’t tolerate this type of behavior. Because truly, if Crabtree sits out the whole year, re-enters the 2010 draft and signs a big payday, it will only serve to perpetuate and excuse this type of behavior. There comes a point when a star player can become a cancer to your team. It must be set down that if you do this, even if the team is bad and needs you, you will be ostracized from the NFL, from any and all teams. It breaks my heart because I know there are so many guys out there with not as much talent that are getting passed over all because their team is babysitting a diva wide receiver. I was reading SI a few issues ago. There was an interview with Joe Montana by Dan Patrick. Joe confessed to accepting 75K his rookie season. Now I know that was then and inflation and such need to be factored in but this is such a small fraction of what these primadonas are demanding out of the gate, it makes me sick. It is up to The Commissioner, The NFLPA and the teams themselves to put their collective feet down and put an end to this rookie racketeering and isolate, suspend and teach these diva wide receivers a lesson. There is no “I” in team but there is a big “I” in “diva”.
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