In Defense Of Tony Dungy

When I first heard that Coach Dungy had spoken out against Rex Ryan's F bombs on HBO's "Hard Knocks" I immediately went to find the link to listen to the audio myself. After listening to it and recognizing that it was in response to questions asked at the end of a segment where he was on the Dan Patrick's radio show to promote his new book The Mentor Leader: Secrets to Building People & Teams That Win Consistently, I didn't think it was that big of a deal at all. I mean Tony is a guy that everybody knows is heavily involved in different ministries and goes out of his way to talk about his Christian faith and doesn't cuss himself. Was it really THAT surprising that he wasn't happy about hearing that Ryan was dropping F bombs left and right?

So I was as surprised as anybody when it became this huge media story and now Ryan is evidently all upset and hurt that Coach Dungy "judged" him and his Buddy Ryan, his father, felt compelled to respond as well.

Well in all of this very few people have focused on what exactly it was Coach Dungy said and instead focused on writeups of what he said which gave the impression that he was on some kind of crusade against Rex Ryan and cussing when Tony himself admitted that he has been around cussing, it was just that all those F bombs are not something he wants to be around constantly.

Therefore I took it upon myself to call into my guy Bomani Jones' satellite radio show and defend Coach Dungy a bit. If you want to hear the audio just click this link.

Kerry Rhodes Channels Latrell Sprewell

I don't think any real sports fan has ever forgotten Latrell Sprewell's quote in 2004 when he turned down a 3 year $21 million dollar contract extension from the Minnesota Timberwolves:

"I have a family to feed"

Yeah, $21 million, who could possibly eat off that?

Well we now have a new contender for Sprewell's throne for most financially out of touch pro player.

The guy's name is Kerry Rhodes and he fancies himself a model and an actor while his day job is formerly starting safety for the New York Jets.

I say formerly because he has just been demoted by first year head coach Rex Ryan. The same Rex Ryan who had been the defensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens. The same Rex Ryan who had favorably compared Rhodes to his all world safety in Baltimore, Ed Reed, prior to the season starting.

Having watched Rhodes play all year I was only surprised that it took this long to bench him. The guy had become a liability on defense and he didn't look very brave on some of his tackling opportunities.

Now I am not saying that his modeling or acting had anything to do with his fall off in play, but I will say this. I never was a fan of guys doing too much during the season. There is plenty of time in the off season to pursue other interests, ball to you fall, go back to school, whatever a guy might want to do. But when the season is going on I liked to know that guys were singularly focused on winning games. And I just don't know how you can give that kind of commitment if every Tuesday you are chasing other dreams.

But I digress.

This article on Rhodes' benching is pretty much predictable right until you get to his quote at the end justifying his modeling and acting pursuits.

"If I can't have a living and do what I want to do besides football, maybe they should pay my bills," said Rhodes, who will make close to $10 million this season. "I have to think of my career outside football. Football is not forever."

Yeah Kerry Rhodes, with unemployment over 10% in this country and people losing their homes everyday, I am sure all of those Jets fans are gonna be REALLY sympathetic to you needing more than the almost $10 million dollars you are making in this year alone so you can "pay your bills".

To call that a dumbass statement would be an insult to dumbass statements.

If that really is Kerry Rhodes' mentality then some how I doubt he will ever be the player that some folks thought he might become. He certainly has taken several steps back this season.

But who knows, maybe he will be the next Denzel.

And perhaps then he will never again have to worry about covering that pesky light bill.

It is what it is.

Grievance

Turns out twitter has claimed its first victim.

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — David Clowney might think twice before tweeting from now on.

The New York Jets' speedy wide receiver was benched by an angry coach Rex Ryan for the team's game against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday after Clowney complained on Twitter about a lack of playing time.

"I was upset with him, yep," Ryan said Monday. "For a couple of reasons. One of them is you'll hear things if a guy's unhappy or whatever. I'm not a big Twitter guy, but you hear different things. To me, this is about our team and understanding this is about our team. No individual is bigger than the team."

A few hours after the Jets beat New England 16-9 last Sunday, Clowney tweeted: "1 play in the 1st Half, 4 plays in the 2nd half ... A bit disappointed about my playing time but very happy and satisfied about the win."

Clowney added in a subsequent tweet that, "My team always comes first so I'ma just keep grinding."

Honestly I don't see anything wrong with what the guy tweeted. If I have a guy on my team who is happy riding the bench then we are going to have a problem. In both tweets he said regardless of his dissappointment he was happy with the win though. In fact I think his answer was about pitch perfect when it comes down to it. He didn't blame anyone for his playing time. He didn't say the coaches don't like him or he "deserved" more playing time. He just said he would have liked to have played more. I will bet you dollars to donuts that Coach Ryan didn't even read what the kid tweeted and just assumed he came with some TO mess. This was overkill if you ask me and what you are going to end up seeing is that sooner or later if this continues the NFLPA will have to step in and file a grievance. There is no team policy that you can't twitter and if there isn't guys have a right to free speech. Benching a guy hurts his reputation and his ability to make plays which is how NFL players get paid in their next contract.

I can't remember a time that a guy was benched because of such innocuous comments in any interview on TV or in print so its obvious that this is largely just a shot at those players using twitter in general. If the NFL wants to ban twittering altogether then they should do that, or at least attempt to. But bullying a guy trying to make an example is a buncha bullshit if you ask me.