NFL players are enjoying not playing football? No way! That’s not allowed.
First, it was Reggie Bush, the on-again-mostly-off-again running back for the New Orleans Saints. On Sunday, little more than a week after the Saints presumably drafted his replacement, Bush tweeted:
Everybody complaining about the lockout! Shoot I’m making the most of it! Vacation, rest, relaxing, appearances here and there! I’m good!
Fans didn’t take too kindly to this. Neither did ESPN squawking head Skip Bayless. It’s that attitude that got his ass replaced! was the general theme. He should be fully committed to the cause. He should want to be on the field. He should be spouting out the company line. Really?
Yesterday, DeAngelo Hall of the Washington Redskins echoed some similar sentiments to Bush. He’s not as nationally known—he never dated a reality show sister and never won an imaginary Heisman—so the comments haven’t reached as far. He told reporters that he was content not playing, getting a workout in while the lockout was briefly lifted, and then collecting his $500,000 bonus.
Not really antsy. I’m definitely enjoying this time off. I’ve still been working out and doing things like that, definitely staying in shape, but to not have any pressures of being [in Ashburn], strict rules and things like that, it definitely feels good. Feels good to just have a break. You know, we normally start this stuff up March 15, so to have all that time off feels great right now.
Maybe the players admitting that they’re enjoying their time off is sending the wrong message (re: the “irreparable harm” argument the players are selling to the judges), but the outrage seems a little misguided, if not mostly unwarranted.
Yeah, the lockout sucks and the NFL is intrinsically screwed, but there’s nothing wrong with the players enjoying some unexpected time off. Playing football is a job for these guys. It’s a grueling, dangerous job. So what if they’re taking some time off while the owners are telling them they’re not allowed to play?
Sure, it’s not that Kobe Bryant ideal of every waking moment devoted to being the best, but it’s a more realistic one. And it’s a more human one.
“I mean, when you were a kid and you had a snow day,” Dan Steinberg writes, “that was the school telling you to stay away; you didn’t do homework, you chilled out.”
And who doesn’t love snow days?
(H/T to David Roth at the Daily Fix)
—Photo AP/Carlo Allegri