Good Monday to you Steelers’ fans.
I often refer to the period between mini-camps and training camp as the “dead period.” This is the time when players have no obligations to their respective teams as the long season approaches in late July/early August. It is often during that time when NFL players tend to get into the most trouble with the law. With the current situation, players have certainly had more time away from their teams than they normally would. Perhaps it isn’t surprising that we’ve seen a recent run on players getting arrested. On Saturday, cornerbacks Quinton Dunbar (SEA) and DeAndre Baker (NYG) turned themselves into authorities after a bizarre series of events that allegedly involved theft from people at a party. Cody Latimer (WAS) was arrested for shots fired among other things in Colorado and Ed Oliver (BUF) was arrested and charged with a DWI. Players in the NFL have largely done better in recent years at staying out of trouble but these four incidents only add to a couple of others already on the books this calendar year including Julian Edelman and Bashaud Breeland among others. There’s an old saying about “idle hands” but we’ve come to expect better from these guys haven’t we? I guess the good news is that no Steelers have been involved so we got that goin’ for us… which is nice.
My bad…
Last week I was talking about the ‘Tag’ TV show the Watt brothers are hosting. In doing so I mentioned previous times that Steelers’ players had been on TV and focused on Hines Ward and Antonio Brown who had both been on ‘Dancing With the Stars.’ For whatever reason I stated that both Ward and Brown won their respective competitions. While Ward did, AB finished fourth. No idea why I thought he won. Getting old sucks.
Tweet of the Day… Borrowing from myself to fit the above content.
Normally that period between mini-camps and Training Camps is when I worry most about NFL players getting arrested. Clearly that timeline has sped up.
— Steel Dad (@SteelDad) May 17, 2020
The Return of Sports
This weekend saw the return of NASCAR, golf and Bundesliga (German) soccer among a few others. At all of the events fans were not present. To say this was odd probably doesn’t do it justice but it certainly a bit weird. When one of the Bundesliga players scored his Stadium still played the music they normally would any time a player scores but it was very anti-climactic. Worse yet, is the fact this is probably what we have to look forward to with football. I suspect the NFL will not have any fans in the preseason and then will take it week by week from there. While it will be great to have the game, they aren’t the same without the fans. We all know that.
The New Proposal
I’m going to dig a little deeper into the potential “answer” the NFL has to the problem of minority hiring when it comes to head coaching positions before I say too much. There is always a fine line between “cronyism and qualified applicants” in this discussion but I think that line has gotten broader. I’ll explain more this week.
Have a great day Steeler Nation!
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