The Side Line

What is the deal with NFL wide receivers? Sure, most of them are hard-working guys who just want a chance to help their team win a Super Bowl, but I’m sure you know the other kind, the kind I’m getting increasingly disgusted with.

Obviously the topic is fresh because of Plaxico Burress, the NY Giants’ star wideout who decided it would be a good idea to carry an illegal firearm (also illegally concealed of course) into a crowded nightclub and then try to hide from police and team officials after getting shot in the thigh with his own weapon. It is just the latest incident for Burress in a string of problems that resulted in the receiver being suspended for the rest of the season.

I’m not going to try to understand this type of stupidity, only applaud teams such as the Giants and Bengals for dealing with prima donna passcatchers who do more on a weekly basis to harm their team and its image than they do to help win games.

Maybe it is the nature of the position: isolated outside the main group of players, matched up in a one-on-one battle most of the game, often with only four or five chances to make a game-changing play and having coaches, fans, and teammates expecting you to make the highlight catch every time. I guess it can drive a guy to do crazy things. But when those things happen outside the stadium, a line is crossed. It is no longer a game.

Before last season, the Bengals suspended and/or cut several players for off-field behavior disruptive to the team. A good start, to be sure. It sent a message to the league that coaches and owners are no longer at the mercy of the talent on their teams, but rather are putting the team first and the individual second.

The timing of the Bengals’ suspensions curiously coincides with the calming down of Terrell “T.O.” Owens and the Bengals’ own Chad “Ocho Cinco” Johnson, perhaps the most famous loudmouths at the wide receiver position. The most disruptive they have been in the last two seasons has been to complain about not winning enough and not getting the ball enough.

And I won’t argue with that. Throw them the ball. Throw all great wide receivers the ball. As long as they are on the field.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Dec 5 2008. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry