The 5 stupidest stories of the NFL offseason (already!)
The season just ended a week ago and the conversations around the league have taken a turn straight to Dumbsville.
The NFL offseason is just over a week old. So far, no big trades have happened. The NFL Combine is set for next week, with a few hiccups along the way. Starting today, teams can begin using the franchise tag up until the March 8 deadline. Eight days later, free agency opens.
The real news will be coming soon and it won’t stop until, I don’t know, one day in the middle of June. Right now, though, the NFL is in the midst of one of its stupid cycles.
For the past week, I’ve seen one story after another pop up in my feed that I can only describe as Shakespearian … in that they are much ado about nothing.
While we wait for actual developments to unfold in the NFL, let’s take a look at the five dumbest, most internet-y stories that have ushered in this offseason.
The discontented QB drama: Kyler Murray and the Cardinals
When I first saw that Kyler Murray had wiped his socials of any mention of the Cardinals, all I could do was roll my eyes. Not at Murray, who I thought was probably doing it for branding purposes. But at the histrionic reactions to what Murray had done. Oh no, a 24-year-old changed his social media profiles? SOUND THE ALARMS, THERE MUST BE TROUBLE IN PARADISE.
Well, the truth is probably somewhere in between “nothing burger” and “panic mode.” It’s clear to me now that Murray’s actions, which came right after he hung out with other star players at the Pro Bowl, were calculated. As was the Cardinals’ decision to follow suit with an Instagram scrub and leaked comments to the press about how Murray is “immature” but also still “their QB.”
I understand why both sides would be frustrated with the way the season ended, once again on a downward slide for Murray and the team. Their performance against the Rams in the Wild Card Round was the low point of the first (and worst) weekend of the playoffs. However, I don’t buy that Murray is being treated as the scapegoat; it seems like most of the blame, rightfully so, is being put on Kliff Kingsbury and the coaching staff.
Last week, Murray broke his silence with a statement that … didn’t really say anything:
The most likely explanation for this battle being played out through the media is also the simplest: It’s about money. These situations are almost always about money. Murray is eligible for a contract extension this offseason and could be trying to put pressure on the Cardinals to pay up sooner rather than later. The Cardinals, like the Browns and Ravens have done, would prefer to wait another year to lock down their quarterback.
No matter what, though, I expect this squabble, like almost every other one we see between a quarterback and his team at this time of year, to resolve itself. The Cardinals used the top pick on Murray just three years ago. He’s played like an MVP candidate at times, even if injuries have kept him from maintaining that consistency. The relationship between Murray and the Cardinals would have to be irretrievably broken to lead to a split. I don’t think that will happen.
Recency bias strikes: Pretty much every debate on sports TV
I get it. It’s easy to get caught up in the moment when you’re covering football on a daily basis. But when you are a prisoner of the moment, and forget about the bigger picture, it can lead to you embarrassing yourself on national TV.
Like:
Or:
And:
Siiiiigh. What Cooper Kupp did this season is historic, and we should celebrate that. Why do we need to drag Calvin Johnson into this conversation simply because both played with Matthew Stafford (for different teams and in vastly different offenses)? Johnson is a first-ballot Hall of Famer and one of the most physically gifted receivers the NFL has ever seen. Just because Megatron played for the Lions in his relatively short (nine years) career doesn’t mean we can retcon how dominant he was.
Similarly, I like Joe Burrow and cannot praise him enough for the huge role he’s played in the Bengals’ drastic turnaround. But it was only a month ago when we watched Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen stage a quarterback duel for the ages. Burrow, for as much success as he’s had in his young career so far, hasn’t consistently put the team on his back like either Mahomes or Allen has — or divisional rival Lamar Jackson, for that matter. Justin Herbert, who outshone Burrow in a Chargers blowout win over the Bengals in December, is pretty good too.
There’s plenty of time for Burrow to reach the top of the QB rankings and potentially win a league MVP award, as Mahomes and Jackson have. Despite a Super Bowl appearance, Burrow is not there yet, and that’s totally fine!
Piling on a player’s family: Patrick Mahomes defends his fiancée and brother
I stay in the loop on most NFL matters, and until last year, I had been blissfully unaware of how opposing fans disliked Patrick Mahomes’ longtime love, Brittany Matthews, and his younger brother, Jackson.
I understand why they might be perceived to be annoying, and they have at times crossed a line — Jackson, when he stepped on Sean Taylor’s number and Brittany for dousing fans with champagne after the Chiefs’ overtime victory against the Bills. But they’re not spouting conspiracy theories or harmful disinformation. As far as I can tell, they’re mostly just hyping up Patrick and doing things for the ‘gram (Brittany) and TikTok (Jackson), like so many other 26-year-olds and 21-year-olds out there. And they’re pretty easy to ignore!
This is not limited to the NFL. It’s not unusual for any sports fans to pick on a player’s significant other, especially if that person is a woman who doesn’t believe in being “seen but not heard.” I mean, just look at what NBA fans had to say about Ayesha Curry during the All-Star Weekend.
However, the vitriol for Brittany and Jackson has seemed over-the-top, particularly the homophobic slurs that have been thrown Jackson’s way. I did a little internet sleuthing and discovered why that might be, and of course I can trace it back to Barstool. And a lot of the “poor Patrick” reactions anytime an out-of-context video of Brittany pops up are coming from, you guessed it, Barstool personalities.
I won’t go into all the reasons Barstool and Dave Portnoy are destructive, parasitic voices in the sports world (and beyond), or why no one should ever listen to them or engage with their content in any form whatsoever. Unfortunately, others do not follow my advice, and so two years ago after a Patriots-Chiefs game began a smear campaign that trickled into non-Barstool areas of the NFL ecosphere.
So much so that a fake source led a former NFL player to erroneously report that Patrick asked Brittany and Jackson to not attend his games anymore. It set off my BS detector immediately, even before Patrick shot down that rumor.
I think some fans are coming from a genuine place, in that they feel protective of Mahomes, one of the faces of the league and a great ambassador for the sport:
But I promise you, it’s not that hard to be a Mahomes fan without tearing down his family or thinking he needs to get away from them. He’s right that “people are weird.”
Milkshake Duck: Matthew Stafford and the Rams photographer
I can think of no story that encapsulates Twitter more than this one. It goes like this:
1. Matthew Stafford, like many quarterbacks before him, got drunk at his team’s Super Bowl victory parade. He saw a female photographer fall off the stage right in front of him and then walked away to let his wife, Kelly, deal with it:
2. People were outraged because that looked like a pretty jerk move from Matthew, who later said he and the Rams would pay for the photographer’s medical expenses.
3. Old tweets of the photographer’s were dug up, including multiple uses of the n-word. This woman was probably a teenager when she sent those tweets, but WHY ARE YOU, AS A WHITE PERSON, EVER USING THAT WORD? She deleted her account.
It was the Milkshake Duck of the week.
If you are a well-adjusted person who doesn’t spend much time on Twitter, all of that probably sounded insane to you. Good! Please, continue to stay off Twitter.
Overanalyzing a player’s Instagram post: Aaron Rodgers gets sentimental
Why did Aaron Rodgers choose President’s Day to share his feelings of gratitude for his teammates and ex-fiancée? Is he leaving the Packers? (He’s still under contract.) Is he retiring? (Doubtful!)
If anyone else posted that, it might seem sweet if a bit mushy. But this is Rodgers:
So it’s probably best to not think about it any more than we did just now.