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X’s and O’s are all well and good. Waxing lyrical about potential dangerous match-ups in the upcoming slate of games is an admirable weekly tradition.
We are three weeks from the end of the NFL season and yet why aren’t I overly depressed or nostalgic?
Because in many ways, I simply prefer the off-field shenanigans that occur in the NFL and in American sporting codes in general.
Some people enjoy watching 20-somethings engaging in promiscuous activities in less than reputable locations.
Others prefer watching dullards attempt to talk on a deep level only to then participate in silly games within a particular house located on the Gold Coast.
But if I have learnt anything over my time living, breathing, sleeping, dining with American Football it is that the NFL remains the single greatest piece of reality television on the idiot-box.
I have always been steadfast in this opinion but what better time to bring this topic up than the week in which;
1. The single hottest coaching prospect denies the NFL his services, commits his allegiance back to the college program, only to return out of nowhere and declare his NFL intentions for next year.
2. One of the most acclaimed college football players based on both on-field and personal intangible reasons whom is NFL bound, has his reputation brought into question over – now let me get this right – a deceased girlfriend whom apparently never actually existed.
Yep, there’s a new one.
I speak of course about Chip Kelly leaving Oregon to coach the Philadelphia Eagles and Notre Dame linebacker and (previously) sure-fire first round draft pick Manti Te’o.
Now the Manti Te’o saga has been well documented over the last few days so I won’t go into great detail but for those unfamiliar it goes something like this.
Man meets girl online;
Man develops relationship with girl;
Girl reveals struggle with Leukemia;
Girl loses fight with Leukemia merely hours after man loses his grandmother;
Girl’s funeral and man’s strength amid adversity becomes conduit for outstanding Notre Dame season;
Girl is discovered in early December to not actually exist and be part of a hoax.
My initial reaction was to feel complete and utter sympathy for Manti as I myself am not the most socially adept person and so I thought of it in this way.
Here is a 21-year-old man, soft spoken with the world’s expectations on his shoulders.
Perhaps he just doesn’t have the time given his commitments or his more comfortable speaking with girls from a distance? There is no crime in that and to each their own.
However since then we have discovered on various occasions since his personal knowledge of the hoax that Manti has continued to refer to his deceased make believe girlfriend as exactly that…minus the ‘make believe’ bit.
Now to pay homage to ‘Cool Hand Luke’, there’s no better way to put it…
“What we have here is a failure to communicate.”
Manti Teo is either:
a) A gullible and overly trusting young man who was greatly taken advantage of;
b) A young man capable of mistakes who was so embarrassed as to learn of this hoax that he decided to embellish rather than suffer the initial embarrassment of the reveal;
c) An intricate master of deception who was using the death of a fictitious person to receive the sympathy vote for the Heisman trophy.
I’m sure we will find out the details shortly but until then its just too mind-boggling a situation to even contemplate, and it is so ultimately confusing that it has actually taken the shine away from Conference championship week of the NFL.
In a slightly more fathomable yet equally as surprising move, Oregon coach and offensive mastermind Chip Kelly was revealed to be the new coach of the Philadelphia Eagles this week.
This was after he had extensive meetings with Cleveland, Buffalo and Philadelphia before deciding to pass over the NFL for a $1.5 million dollar raise from the University of Oregon, who’s late charge was led predominantly by a ‘booster’ and Nike co-founder Phil Knight.
All signs pointed to Kelly for the Eagles job once the season ended, a spanner was thrown into the works and a previously furious Philly fan-base were now positively Kelly-Green only to have their problems resolved shortly after.
Whether these problems will disseminate once football returns to the field for next season remains to be seen but until then Philly fans are optimistic again.
But to me, this is the exact reason I love the NFL.
The speculation and not knowing what red-banner headline is going to splash across your computer monitor between the time you fall asleep and when you make your breakfast in the morning.
It’s intrigue, unpredictability and in certain situations, all-out wackiness…possibly even zaniness.
Whether it be Roethlisberger allegedly groping a college girl, Jerome Simpson ordering a footlockers worth of Marijuana to his address, an Eagles quarterback making promises of a dynasty, the Saints proving to be nasty individuals or just the casual franchise GM asking a potential draftee if his mother was a prostitute.
There is always something to keep the NFL in the news and on a personal level I absolutely love it.
I am intrigued about the Manti Te’o situation not only because it is genuinely interesting but also because of its football implications as it pertains to his draft status.
Will he slip down the draft order due to this now clouded image of him as a person, or will his football acumen outweigh any person misconceptions of him?
Between the final play of the Superbowl and the start of the regular season we will more than likely see one of the following outcomes:
A potential draftee cost himself thousands of dollars due to a mistake made prior to the draft (see LeGarrette Blount);
A starting player in the NFL received some sort of felony charge against them;
Statements and possibly questionable personal ideologies taken way out of context;
A high-profile free agency acquisition will be released before the start of the 2013 season;
And a whole lot of New York Jets talk.
Between Manti and Chip, sportswriters world over have been provided adequate fodder for the upcoming weeks and that isn’t even taking into account the fact that the season hasn’t yet finished.
So I implore, nay demand, that as an Australian (presumably) you attempt to extinguish the habit of not paying attention in the off-season as in the American sporting culture the most interesting stories of the year take place off the field.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
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