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On Friday, we wrote about the importance of vetting
the backgrounds of prospects.
We touched on the work of Jets security chief Robert “Bobby” Mastroddi looking into the backgrounds of players, and the importance of him alerting the football decision-makers to stay away from prospects with red flags.
But these days, it’s more important than ever to vet beyond legal issues, and really look into their personalities. A guy could be an upstanding citizen, and totally law-abiding, but if they are obsessed with the wrong things from a football standpoint.
Obviously you want to avoid guys who don’t love football. That goes without saying.
But what I want to get into today is kind of a nuanced aspect of modern-day vetting that isn’t talked about enough – it’s guys too focused on their “brands” and “social media.”
NFL Insider Albert Breer reported on Monday that Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell isn’t enamored of Oregon defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux.
“You hear the head coach there isn’t a fan,” an NFL executive told Breer about the Lions.
Some have speculated that Thibodeaux could go #2 to the Lions.
Why could Campbell tell people around the league about his feelings on Thibodeaux? I have a theory on that. Campbell doesn’t have final say on personnel. So if he leaks this, it can steer the GM, the team president or the owner from forcing Thibodeaux on him. There are a lot of cooks in the kitchen in Detroit in a personnel decision-making process called “collaborative.”
The buzz around the NFL is that Thibodeaux might be too focused on his “brand.”
“A source with knowledge of the New York Giants’ thinking last month at the owners’ meeting in Palm Beach, Fla., said the team had concerns Thibodeaux was more interested in creating his own brand than becoming a great player,” wrote Paul Schwartz in the New York Post on April 14.
The Giants pick fifth overall.
These days, there are so many young players focused on their brand, even before they’ve made a play on the NFL level. Kind of putting the cart before the horse.
When Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes entered the league in 2017, he told his agent Leigh Steinberg, he didn’t want to hear about any off-the-field opportunities, like endorsements, until he established himself as a QB. He wanted to focus 100 percent on becoming a great QB.
So this idea of guys entering the league already focused on their “brand” should be a little bit of a red flag.
Also, guys who active on social media, that can also be a red flag.
The Pittsburgh Steelers picked two receivers high in the draft in recent years, who are big social media guys – JuJu Smith-Schuster and Chase Claypool – and that has led to distractions for the team, like Smith-Schuster ticking off opponents dancing on their midfield logos for his TikTok audience. TikTok is a popular social media site. The Steelers didn’t re-sign Smith-Schuster this off-season, and he is now with Kansas City.
You need guys who are more focused on watching football videos than TikTok videos.
So a couple of other red flags for the Jets and other NFL teams – guys obsessed with their brand before they played a down of NFL football, and players who spend too much time on social media.
As life coach Stephen Covey liked to say – “Make the main thing the main thing.”
And for players entering the NFL, the main thing is focusing on whatever it takes to become a great football player.
April 18, 2022
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