There are moments almost on a daily basis where I try to be fair and understanding about how things are today. Most of the time I’m pretty good with going with the flow but every once in a while, the ‘old school’ in me takes over. In the last 24 hours, that mentality has dominated my thinking. It started with a decision by Mike McCarthy to leave a number of players in Pittsburgh and continued when D.K. Metcalf decided to be a real dick.
Metcalf Was Out of Bounds
The last thing I’m going to do is pretend that I’ve never criticized someone for their appearance. I have many times and probably will in the future. I’m far from perfect and would certainly deserve similar criticism were it aimed at me. I’m certainly no fashion plate or Greek god when it comes to appearance.
The difference however is that I would never think of posting myself making such comments about someone. This is exactly what Metcalf did. He thought it would be funny to record himself mocking a man who was doing his job at a grocery store. He then posted it to his Instagram account.
I tried to put myself in his position and at no time would I have ever thought, “Hey, I’m going to record myself going at this guy and post it to my socials.” This says far more about Metcalf than it does anyone else and to think of how much I defended him during the incident in Detroit. Metcalf has been rightfully dragged by most fans for this. Whether he learns anything from it I feel confident when I say “I doubt it.” And consider this, can you imagine Troy Polamalu doing such a thing?
Not Like It Used to Be
During last night’s preseason finale in Buffalo it became apparent there were a number of players who weren’t visible. Maybe they were in the press box? I didn’t give it much thought to be honest. But when it was announced that Cam Heyward, T.J. Watt, Aaron Rodgers, D.K. Metcalf and Michael Pittman, Jr all stayed back in Pittsburgh, I had an immediate thought. “Why aren’t they with the team?” After all, this wasn’t a trip to Los Angeles. It was a three-hour road trip north.
So much of what we do as individuals is built on our own personal experiences and that’s immediately what I drew on when I heard these guys weren’t at the game. I consider myself fortunate to have played for coaches who held us accountable and instilled discipline and taught us what it meant to be leaders. I’m not apologizing for this either. It was instilled in me that regardless of whether you were playing in a game or scrimmage, you were there. By telling these guys or “allowing” these guys to remain in Pittsburgh Mike McCarthy is setting a really awful precedent.
Being a professional athlete is not the same as it is in high school or college. In other words, not everyone is treated the same and most of everyone knows it. To me however, this is different. If these guys not being in Buffalo wasn’t a big deal then why were they even at the first two games in Pittsburgh? McCarthy should have just told them to stay home. I recognize that at the end of the day this isn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things but the little things matter. No one knows that quite like a football coach.
These two incidents aren’t going to make or break this team but in my opinion neither of them is good.
