Professional athletes, and I guess everyone else, often use
good will like it is a banking system, storing up good will for the time when
they screw up and have to apologize. For
everyone else this just happens in private; for athletes it is very public. Johnny Manziel acted brash and arrogant, and
now having used up what little good will he had, he is keeping a low
profile. Tom Brady spent years
burnishing his title of Golden Boy, and he thinks that will insulate him from
being punished for getting caught cheating.
It largely has (many other QBs would have lost their jobs in similar
circumstances) but he has burned through a lot of good will.
Robert Griffin III created more good will in his first
season in the NFL than almost any other player.
He helped a storied franchise change their losing ways with his reckless
play and unqualified success. And he has
squandered almost all of it in two years.
The latest incident involves his Instgram account “liking” a
post ripping Washington team owner Dan Snyder and praising RGIII. Griffin blamed the incident on his social
media intern and reversed the “like.”
Where to begin?
First of all, he has a “social media intern”? I’m not sure which is more laughable; that he
has someone responsible for his social media, or that he doesn’t have a hired professional. Second, this is typical athlete behavior,
refusing to take responsibility and blaming some underling (like Brady blaming
equipment managers for deflated footballs).
Wasn’t the intern given instructions?
Why did the intern feel that “liking” this post was a good idea? Doesn’t he have anyone to ask when nebulous
ethical situations presented themselves?
It might not have been so bad if it hadn’t come soon after
RGIII was quoted as saying he thought he was the “best quarterback in the NFL.” That’s funny, because the NFL Fantasy site
ranks him 30th out of 40. It’s funny
because Tom Brady has four rings, Peyton Manning is breaking almost every career
regular season passing record, Aaron Rogers and Drew Brees have won Super Bowls, Russell
Wilson has been in the past two Super Bowls, and Ben Roethlisberger and Eli
Manning have two rings, and the guy who threw for 4 TDs last season thinks he
is better than all of those guys.
Confidence is one thing, but one must have a grip on
reality. Griffin may want to be the best
QB someday, or feel that if he works hard he will become the best eventually,
but for him to claim to be better than Tom Brady is either delusional or
stupid. It is one thing for a once great
player, like Tiger Woods, to hang on to the idea that he is still the best
golfer in the world (as he said several years ago; I doubt even he believes
that now), but for a guy who has played in 37 games over 3 seasons to claim to
be better than Peyton Manning is someone in need of therapy or heavy
medication.
Part of the problem goes back to another stupid thing
Griffin (or some publicist) said when he was injured at the end of his first
season. He announced he was “all in for
week one” like he had control over how fast his body healed from injury. Playing through pain is noble; playing
through injury is a ticket to early retirement.
He insisted on playing in the first game of the season despite missing
the entire pre-season, and he has never been the same since. His lack of mobility made him vulnerable to
additional hits, which reduced his mobility and created a vicious cycle.
Now he isn’t even the second best QB on his own team, as
Kirk Cousins is the starter and Colt McCoy is the back up.
RG III seems like a nice guy. People like him, or at least
they did before he became a loser. He
should take a lesson from Johnny Manziel.
Keep a low profile. Fire your
social media intern, and stay off social media altogether. Focus on being the
best football player you can be.
And for God’s sake, keep your mouth shut.
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