The rise of the entitled athlete was bound to come to a shameful head sooner or later. With the NIL here to stay in college sports, killing off the notion of the student-athlete for good, it was only a matter of time.
Especially in college football, where players are raking in millions of dollars, and jumping from one school to another in the transfer portal, as if cruising through a mall.
We have fully entered the era of the “entitled athlete” who demands the sun rise and set, not on their actual achievements, but on their own expectations.
We’ve seen three recent cases of it play out in the last month or so. Two of them revolve around recent additions to the NFL who have yet to play a single down of professional football.
Shedeur Sanders
Sanders’ tumble from potential first overall pick to the fifth round is well-documented.
The reasons for that tumble are slowly trickling out. None of the information coming out is a good look for Sanders.
He apparently showed up to a meeting with the New York Giants, who were in the market for a franchise quarterback this year, not only unprepared but demanding considerations he hasn’t yet earned.
This after reportedly telling 27 other teams not to even bother drafting him.
You would think Team Sanders, and his father Deion Sanders shares in the blame, would have learned a valuable lesson. It certainly cost Shedeur Sanders millions of dollars.
But judging from this screenshot of a post on Twitter/X it seems like that lesson didn’t sink in.
Sanders is not guaranteed to be the Browns’ starter this fall. He’ll face tough competition from fellow rookie Dillon Gabriel.
And don’t forget there are three veteran quarterbacks on the Browns’ roster to contend with as well.
If Sanders doesn’t drop the attitude, and tell his dad he doesn’t need to hold his hand now that he’s in the NFL, he won’t beat out Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, or DeShaun Watson either.
Abdul Carter
Carter was the third overall pick in last month’s draft by the New York Giants.
The former linebacker from Penn State wore the number 11 for the Nittany Lions, much like Dallas’ Micah Parsons did when he played there.
Unfortunately for Carter, the number 11 has been retired in New York. The man so honored, Phil Simms, wanted to keep it that way and declined to give permission for Carter to wear it in New York.
This came after Carter tried to get the number 56.
Lawrence Taylor’s old number for the Giants. Also retired and also not available for an unproven rookie to wear.
He shouldn’t have even had the nerve to ask for either number in the first place.
It was as insulting to that organization as it would be for the next quarterback the Cowboys draft in the first round to ask for Roger Staubach’s 12 or Troy Aikman’s 8 jersey.
But in the age of the entitled athlete, respect for the team’s history is sorely lacking.
Carter settled for a compromise of sorts, taking the number 51. Now it’s up to him to make it his own and write into Giants’ lore.
Nico Iamaleava
One player may have derailed his professional career before even getting close to being eligible for the NFL Draft.
As I wrote about last month, Nico Iamaleava had an incredible season for Tennessee last year.
He got the Volunteers to the college football playoffs. Then he got greedy.
Not satisfied with the millions he got in addition to a free education, he wanted more money.
The school said no, so he hit the portal.
He’ll play for UCLA this fall for less money than he would have made at Tennessee. He’ll also be with a school that isn’t going to compete for the Big 10 championship, much less make the playoffs.
And one last delicious bit of karma, the quarterback he replaced at UCLA? That player will be the starting quarterback this fall for the Volunteers in all likelihood.
I was opposed to paying college athletes to play sports in a situation just like this.
It’s probably only going to get worse.
Entitled Athlete Is Nothing New
To be fair, there have been instances in the past in the NFL that were equally bad.
The top two examples were both quarterbacks. John Elway’s ultimatum to the then Baltimore Colts not to draft him, or else he’d play baseball, was one example.
Elway managed to land in Denver and win two Super Bowls. Then again, he at least had the talent to back it up.
Sanders is no Elway.
He wasn’t that at Colorado, and it seems unlikely he’ll be that in Cleveland.
The other one was Eli Manning.
At the time, I disagreed with the Manning family demanding San Diego not draft Eli. Even though he went on to win two titles, it is still a stain on his legacy.
One notes that his own brother didn’t pull that, at least not so openly as was done to the Chargers.
But I suspect it was more a desire to set up a potential Peyton vs. Eli Super Bowl matchup more than anything else that led to that stunt.
Old School Ways
I once interviewed Paul Larson. I’ll forgive you for saying “Who?”
Larson, who passed away in 2022, was a state championship-winning quarterback at Turlock (CA) High School in 1949 and played at Cal.
He finished fifth in the Heisman voting in 1954 and was drafted in the eighth round by the then Chicago Cardinals in the 1954 draft.
He played one year in Chicago, in 1957. Larson played for the Oakland Raiders for one game in 1960 in the old AFL.
When he landed in the NFL, then Commissioner Bert Bell sat him down and said: “You need the NFL. We don’t need you.”
That lesson stuck with Larson, who understood it to mean that the league would do just fine without his talents.
There are quite a few players, some still in college, who would be well-served to learn that lesson today.