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Hopefully by now you are planning your week three lineups with help from our Assistant G.M. tools and my week three fantasy football rankings. But as good of a job as we do with our rankings there are always questions as to why so and so is so high and others so low down. That is why I will try my best to answer your questions even before they are asked, here in Wednesday’s Rankings Review.

Those of you know have read my articles or listened to my show on SiriusXM radio, you know that I tend to have some strong opinions. Every now and then I will rant and rave about a topic that is important to me. Luckily (or unlucky I suppose) as Assistant G.M. subscribers you will receive one of these rants in your email box every week. It’s a little thing that I like to call: One MANS Opinion.

I apologize in advance, as the following is not what you would classify as a “Fantasy Football Article.” I assure you the fantasy content will resume tomorrow with the weekly Practice Reports.

Most of the time I reserve these pages for statistical breakdown, deep fantasy sports advice and politically incorrect attempts at humor. But tonight I want to talk about some things that that I feel are in the backs of most of our minds. That is the current state of the NFL and its players.

There are a couple of points I would like to make. The first is that the NFL has done this to themselves. Roger Goodell has taken every single opportunity that has come along over the years to sell the NFL to corporations, networks and even foreign governments. The NFL is more than just a game. It is one of the largest businesses in the entire world. So now they are at the mercy of those companies they have aligned themselves with.

 

The NFL has officially lost control of the NFL. This is what happens when you run your business in a way that ignores its current and former employees, players and fans. This happens in many different walks of life. People worry more about money and how to scratch and claw for every last dollar rather than maintaining control of their own existence. I have witnessed people and businesses become prisoners of their money. The irony is that in each instance these were great people and successful companies. Back in the 80’s Gordon Gekko said that,

“Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures, the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind…”

Well, as beloved as that quote has become over the years it is complete bullshit. Greed has ruined friendships, families and empires. The NFL’s greed has lead to everything from increased injuries to Thursday Night Football. It will eventually be the downfall of the league and the game that we all love so much.

A Message To NFL Players

The league doesn’t love you. The league doesn’t care about you. The league literally doesn’t give a damn about you. You are all replaceable.

These are some cold, harsh truths I know but the more you understand them the more serious you may decide to take your career. For as big, fast and immensely talented as you may be, there is somebody else just as good ready and willing to take your place.

It doesn’t matter who you are or what name you have made for yourself or even how important you are to your team. To the NFL you are a number, just like the one that they assign you when you join the league. At one point in time there was another you. Young, athletic, talented and he played your position. But now he is an old man with bad knees and a worse memory. He doesn’t sell premium game packages, jersey’s or PSL’s. Therefore, he doesn’t even exist anymore in the eyes of the NFL.

As great as it may be to see the fans line the streets attempting to get an autograph or to hear them chanting your name the moment you are not putting up the numbers they could care less. The profession that you’ve chosen is a fickle one to say the least. You have a limited amount of time to reap in all of the praise, accolades and money that you possibly can before your body and the league kicks you aside.

So why do you risk these few precious years that you so desperately need to fuel the rest of your life by smoking weed, driving while drunk or by becoming physical with ANYBODY off of the field especially a woman or a child? We do not live in a day and age where any of this behavior is tolerated. The world will sniff at you like a bloodhound at an airport to try and point out all of your flaws and to take away whatever they can from you. So, don’t let them.

There are temptations everywhere when you are at the top of your game. Money, women, drugs and opportunities that the 15 year old you would never have even dreamed possible. But all of that happens ONLY because of football. Once that is gone, so are all of those opportunities. That skills that God gave each of us are the fuel that must transports us through the rest of our lives. If you give into temptation and destroy your opportunity in the NFL, you will never recover. Your family will never recover and the friends that you thought you had, that supposedly had your back will disappear quicker than a far in the wind.

 

The NFL doesn’t care about you. The media who begs your relentlessly for even the most brief moment of your time doesn’t care about you. The fans that buy your jersey, chant your name and draft you on their fantasy football team don’t care about you. You need to protect and watchout for yourself. You have been given a golden ticket at life but it will be revoked in an instant if you do anything that paints your teammates, your team or the league in a negative light. At the end of the day, the league is there to make money. They will cut your throat if it means saving their precious image.

So don’t do it. Don’t take those drugs, don’t drive after a night out and for crying out loud stop with the physical altercations. Everybody knows that you are big and you are strong. There is absolutely zero need to have to prove this to anyone. Women that mess with you are trying to have you write them a check and/or to mess with your future. Don’t give in.

The Bottom Line

The NFL is a soulless corporate behemoth that feigns mega power but is truly at the very mercy of their fellow corporate sponsors. They have sold out the right to function, operate and manage their business. If Campbell’s Chunky Soup decides it wants Richard Sherman’s Mama playing RB for the Kansas City Chiefs then that is exactly what will be done.

Players like Justin Blackmon, Josh Gordon and Adrian Peterson come and they go. They think that because they have been idolized their entire lives that it’s them that we all love. But it’s not. We don’t love the players and we don’t love the NFL. We love the game. It’s football. Sure we love to see people who are incredibly good at this game. But when all is said and done the yards that Adrian Peterson could be racking up this season will not go away. Matt Asiata, Jerick McKinnon and others will happily more the chains for the Vikings. Miles Austin will step in for Josh Gordon and won’t reel in 1600 yards but will make big plays that make the entire city of Cleveland rock. Ben Tate or Terrance West will become the new face of the franchise and the name Josh Gordon will be just another of the one year wonders we like to do on our Top 5 from time to time.

 

Of course, what do I know? I am just a frosted tip radio show host who has dedicated his life to commenting on sports. You may not agree, but that is OK because this was just One MANS Opinion.