Once upon a time, or about than three months ago, there were two football players at the opposite end of the happiness spectrum. One was a quarterback seemingly ready to tear up the NFL in the nations’ largest media market, while the other, a college running back who had just lost his temper after his team lost their opening game.
From the outside looking in, one had the world by the balls while the other was about to get kicked in the nads.
This is a tale of how quickly things can change and how as sports fans we should lower the expectations we have of our sports heroes.
West Coast Knucklehead, East Coast Promise
After losing their season opener on the road at Boise State, Oregon senior running back LeGarrette Blount went ape shit. Blount sucker punched a player who had taunted him and had to be restrained from ‘Ron Artesting’ the home crowd at Boise State. Head coach Chip Kelly, just one game into his tenure at Oregon, was dealing with a possible team implosion. Kelly suspended Blount indefinitely and was intentionally vague about when, or if, Blount would ever play again for Oregon.
Mark Sanchez's GQ photo shoot
As the season progressed the media forgot about Blount, who was once considered a can’t miss first-round draft pick, while Mark Sanchez became the first rookie quarterback in NFL history to start and win his team’s first three games of a season.
While Blount was experiencing the worst of times Sanchez was experiencing the best of times. Oh, how quickly things can change.
West Coast Promise, East Coast Knucklehead
While Blount toiled away in near obscurity to deal with his issues, Sanchez fell apart right in front of our eyes. The rookie quarterback who could do no wrong suddenly could do little right.
Like Jay Cutler before him, Sanchez’s ego took over his brain. Thinking he could win games on the strength of his arm alone, Sanchez was suddenly throwing into double and triple coverage and the Jets dropped six out of nine games. Meanwhile, LeGarrette Blount worked hard with little fanfare to regain the trust of his teammates, his coaches, the media and all college football fans outside of Eugene.
Back in New York, Jets’ coach Rex Ryan enlisted the help of Yankees’ manager Joe Girardi to teach Sanchez how to slide so he wouldn’t get hurt. Yet the very next week Sanchez ignored the advice of his coaches and injured himself while diving head first for extra yardage. In Oregon, LeGarrette Blount’s indefinite suspension had come to an end but as his team moved closer to securing a PAC-10 title he was seeing less action than Glenn Beck at Gay Pride.
LeGarrette Blount's TD run ignited the Ducks
On a bitter cold Thursday evening at Oregon’s Autzen stadium, Chip Kelly offered his fallen star a chance at redemption. Against arch-rival Oregon State and in front of a nationally televised audience, senior running back LeGarrette Blount seized the opportunity, rushing for 51 yards on 9 carries including a 30-yard TD romp that ignited the home crowd and the Ducks offense on their way to victory over the Beavers.
While the next week in New York, Jets head coach Rex Ryan pondered what to do about the head-strong quarterback who he affectionately referred to as ‘our knucklehead’. Sanchez’s teachable moment came when Ryan announced that veteran quarterback Kelly Clemens, not Sanchez, would start the Jets next game
The Lesson
Whether it rears its ugly head over the course of a season or its part of a split-second decision, our egos are often the root cause of our issues. How a person, politician, or sports hero responds to their own self-created adversity determines the character of that individual.
And yet although Blount has seemingly exorcised his demons for now and Sanchez appears to be working through his, it could all change again, in the blink of an eye.
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