The Official NFL Gadfly Is…

MLB has José Canseco whose mission in life seems now to be to inject random outrageous thoughts into the sports conversation aperiodically.  For a while, Terrell Owens served in that capacity for the NFL, but ever since T.O. boycotted his own induction into the Hall of Fame, he seems to have moved on to other pursuits in his life.  It appears to me that the “football vacuum” created by Owens’ retreat toward sanity is now being filled by Antonio Brown.

The last time we saw Brown in an actual NFL game wearing an actual NFL uniform, he punctuated his presence by removing that uniform in the middle of the game and walking out on the Bucs rather vociferously.  That dramatic exit – – stage right as I recall – – put him in the position to become the NFL random gadfly and it appears that Antonio Brown has seized that opportunity.

Recall that there have been multiple reports saying that Brown was signed by the Bucs at the urging of Tom Brady and that Brady had welcomed Brown to the Patriots where his stay was very brief due to off-field events.  After the end of the last season, Brown said that Brady was a great teammate and one of his “true friends in the midst of adversity”.  Measure all that sentiment against later remarks:

• Brown alleged on social media that Brady “lied to him” about being targeted if he played in a game where he was hurt.  He says he played but Brady never threw him the ball and that was part of why Brown left the field sans uniform,
• Brown followed that up with an appearance on a podcast where he said, “Tom Brady’s my friend why? Because I’m a good football player. He needs me to play football. People have different meanings of what friendship is.”
• Now that Brady has taken about a week off from Bucs’ camp for “personal reasons”, Brown has once again seized the opportunity to hit social media again with this gem – – “Tom brady 9sic) manipulate the game gets 14 days go home get his mind rt lol Now u see the difference Put that Shit on”
• That mysterious exposition which failed to explain what “manipulate the game” might mean in this context was followed up soon after with this bit of insight – – “No hard Feelings But these Feelings Hard,”

In the span of about 6 months, Tom Brady has gone from a great teammate and a true friend in the midst of adversity to a guy who only likes Antonio Brown because he needs Brown’s football greatness and who is now manipulating the game.  I don’t know about you, but I think that is quite a journey in such a brief time.

The only other NFL player who can come close to Antonio Brown  when it comes to random mercurial thoughts/actions would be Aaron Rodgers.  It was only about a week ago that Rodgers felt compelled to tell everyone about his psychedelic experiences in Peru with his former girlfriend and how those experiences had shown him how to love people unconditionally and how that was so important in football.  Earlier this week, he showed that unconditional love for his teammates by berating the young wide receivers in training camp with him for “a lot of drops, a lot of bad route decisions, running the wrong route”

But that exhibit of unconditional love was ameliorated by a meeting yesterday between all the Packers’ QBs and all the WRs in camp.  Obviously, I was not in that meeting but one of the young WRs there, Romeo Doubs, said this was his takeaway from that meeting:

“Aaron spoke to us about what he likes or what not just based on concepts or what he sees.  He just wants us to see what he sees.  So then that way we can be able to react faster, play faster and just be able to dominate and continue to be who we are.”

Do not even try to parse that first sentence and try to find significance in it.  People like to talk about “value-added processes”; in that first sentence, each word after “what he likes” is a value-subtracted process.  Move along to the second sentence and ask yourself if any QB at any level of football would want or say anything different.  Of course he wants you to see what he sees; were that not the case, there would be no need for practices or designed plays.

And then the third sentence demonstrates the clarity of Rodgers’ communication under his aura of unconditional love.  Playing faster leads to dominance which allows everyone to “continue to be who we are”.

• Memo to WR corps:  The last thing you want to do is to continue to be who you are.  You are “insufficient” now – – or else there would be no need for such a meeting.  You need to change for the positive and do it quickly.

On the other hand, the WRs should not worry all that much because Aaron Rodgers loves them unconditionally…

One bit of news out of the Lions’ training camp caught my eye this week.  Third-year RB, DeAndre Swift set a goal for himself in the 2022 season that is lofty indeed.  Swift said that he wants to amass 1000 yards and 1000 yards receiving during the season.  Only three players in NFL history have ever done that:

• Christian McCaffrey 2019:  1387 yards rushing and 1005 yards receiving
• Marshall Faulk 1999:  1381 yards rushing and 1048 yards receiving
• Roger Craig 1985:  1050 yards rushing and 1016 yards receiving

Setting personal goals is a good thing; setting achievable goals is critically important.  DeAndre Swift’s goal is clearly achievable since it has been done before, but it will take top-shelf effort from him to get there.

Bonne chance, DeAndre Swift…

Finally, let me close here with an observation by Larry Bird that might be useful for DeAndre Swift:

“A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………