There have been many opinions and comments regarding the Los Angeles Lakers’ decision to draft Bronny James, the son of LeBron James. Here’s one that’s relevant to the NFL.
Agent Rich Paul reportedly told other teams not recruiting Bronny Jamesexplaining that if they did he would play in Australia.
While there is no Australian equivalent for NFL players, the point is that James and his agent identified an alternative, were willing to pursue it, and informed teams about it.
And no one called his bluff. Why would they do this? Teams want players who want to be there. The relationship starts off horrible if the player arrives kicking and screaming. Or if he doesn’t arrive.
When talking about power plays in the NFL draft, we typically mention John Elway and Eli Manning. But it was Bo Jackson who told the Buccaneers in 1986, “Don’t draft me. I’m going to play baseball.” They did it anyway. And he didn’t show up. (The Raiders took a seventh-round flight against him the following year.)
As more players who earn more money in college reach the draft, they are becoming less shy about telling teams what it will be like. On bucking the outdated notion that it’s “an honor and a privilege” to be on the wrong end of Harry Potter’s professional football sorting hat, sent to a place they don’t want to live to play for a team they don’t want to join .
You’re late. It’s inevitable. I’m rooting for this, in part because I love a good story — and in part because we’ve seen NFL careers derailed by starting with a dysfunctional organization.
If this happens to enough dysfunctional organizations, perhaps they will make a real effort to no longer be dysfunctional.
Football people complain from time to time about players who seem entitled. Frankly, nothing says “right” like a crappy franchise taking solace in the fact that failure gives them automatic rights to the best of the best incoming players.
