NFL PLayers…What Did You Do On Your Summer Vacation?
By Joe Tufaro
As it has been said many times, the NFL Players got what they wanted from the new CBA. It wasn’t guaranteed contracts. It wasn’t better equipment. It certainly wasn’t about the health and well being of their fellow players. It was about more time off. Less practices, less hitting, shorter training camps and less OTA’s. What does this result in? Trouble.
Dez Bryant and Marshawn Lynch are the latest casualties of too much time off, or too much time at home actually. Lynch is the bigger disaster as he has repeatedly been in trouble since high school. His drivers license revoked, a misdemeanor weapons charge, a hit and run pled down to reckless driving, and now a DUI. Thank goodness he can afford good lawyers. Unfortunately the NFL is unimpressed with attorneys, and Lynch will certainly be suspended AGAIN. On a team with three back-up caliber QB’s, a College Caliber Coach who thinks discipline is a four letter word, and no wide receivers….their only weapon will be missing for a while come the regular season.
Dez Bryant has been a ticking time bomb since his days in college. He may never grow up, or realize that making it to the NFL is not the prize, but staying there and changing your lifestyle and of those around you is. Dez may not be suspended, but we need to see how it all plays out.
Others like Elvis Dumerville, Odrick Ray, Dion Lewis, Adrian Peterson, Kiante Tripp, Eris Wright, Aaron Berry, David Diehl, Justin Blackmon, Jerome Felton, Nick Fairley, Darrius Heyward-Bey, Caleb King, and Brandon Meriweather have all been arrested for some infraction since May. More time off you say? I don’t think so. These guys live in a world of discipline and routine…take them out of that routine and they get lost. Another failure by the players union, but hey, it keeps their fellow attorneys working.