As America's premier sports league in terms of fan interest, the NFL always manages to stay in the news once the Super Bowl is over and with the 2019 season seven months away.
Next up is the NFL Scouting Combine in two weeks that kicks the pre-draft season into high gear, and then free agency will stir up the fan bases beginning March 13 (for Vikings fans and for Kirk Cousins, the offensive line changes will be of paramount interest).
The April 25-27 draft will inspire plenty of speculation with intriguing prospects such as Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Kyler Murray who announced this week that he is choosing football over baseball.
It was a wise choice in terms of the likelihood of becoming a starting player at the highest level quicker in the NFL than with the Oakland A's, who drafted him in the first round (but he would probably have to spend a couple years toiling in the minor leagues). Joining an NFL team also should be much better for him financially as a sure-fire first round pick who will make significantly more money under his NFL rookie deal than with the A's. He also can reach free agency and a big bucks extension several years sooner in the NFL (with free agency in four years in the NFL vs. six years in MLB). Add in a lot more endorsement money as an immediate starting QB instead of playing minor league baseball for a couple years.
The Murray saga will be an exciting story to watch unfold as there will be questions about his lack of height at 5'10" (hey, it's worked out pretty well for Super Bowl winning QBs Drew Brees (6'0") and Russell Wilson (5'11"). Not to mention our own Vikings Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton,who was barely six feet and I watched him use his quickness and smarts to lead us to the Super Bowl in my rookie year on the Vikings staff.
And some NFL teams will question Murray's lack of experience as a one-year starter at Oklahoma but the same question was asked of Mitchell Trubisky two years ago. He became the No. 2 overall pick who just had a very good year with the Bears, to the chagrin of the Vikings. And, the likely first QB to be picked in this year's draft—Dwayne Haskins of Ohio State—also was a one-year college starter.
Murray also will be critiqued over playing in the no-defense Big 12 but the same charge was made against Patrick Mahomes coming out of Texas Tech. This year's NFL MVP is doing just fine in Kansas City.
The NFL loves stories such as Murray where a multi-talented player has chosen what he says is his first love—football—over baseball. NFL general managers, coaches and scouts will grill Murray at the Combine in Indianapolis during extensive interview sessions about his football over baseball decision and other issues such as his height, limited experience and playing in the Big 12. He'll be questioned again by teams at his Pro Day in March and visits to team facilities in April, all part of this three month job interview.
It will be exciting to see a team take a calculated risk by drafting Murray (as any draft choice is a risk to a certain extent but more so with first round QBs). I think the reward will be great for the team that selects him (and the list of QB-needy teams includes the Giants, Dolphins, Jaguars, Broncos, Bengals, Redskins or perhaps the team with three first round picks and soon a new fan base to excite in Las Vegas—the Raiders).
On Kareem Hunt
While Murray's future is a fun story to talk about, the NFL doesn't love the other big story that broke this week—the signing of Kareem Hunt by the Cleveland Browns. Hunt led the NFL in rushing in 2017 but was cut by Kansas City late this past season when a video surfaced that showed him kicking and shoving a woman in a horrible incident that occurred last February. Not to mention Hunt lying to the Chiefs leadership about his involvement.
I would never sign a player such as Hunt or Reuben Foster (a domestic violence offender claimed off waivers by Washington last November) or draft Joe Mixon as the Bengals did in 2017 after he had been involved in a terrible domestic violence attack on a woman while he was in college. These players do not deserve the privilege of playing in the NFL.
People love to talk about America as the land of second chances, but as a former team GM and president, I strongly feel (as I believe most pro sports team execs also believe) that crimes such as domestic violence must fall under the zero tolerance realm.
Browns GM John Dorsey drafted Hunt when he was Chiefs GM in 2017. He knows him better than other GMs around the league and the sad truth is if Hunt was not such a talented running back, no team would be trying to sign him. This was the case for Ray Rice, who was at the end of his career when the horrid elevator beating of his wife was caught on camera.
The NFL will likely suspend Hunt for the first six or eight games of the 2019 season under the league's domestic violence policy. And Dorsey is saying that Hunt is "extremely remorseful for his actions" and began counseling shortly after he was released by the Chiefs. When asked if the Browns would have a zero tolerance policy with regard to Hunt, Dorsey said "You know what, I'll say yes."
I wish he'd said no from the get-go and passed on Hunt just as I wish the Redskins had not claimed Foster and the Bengals had not drafted Mixon.
For me, any reward to a team in terms of their potential good play is clearly not worth it. If all sports leagues and their teams ban such players, it would send the proper message that an athletic career will be history when a player is involved in domestic violence, and would hopefully be a strong deterrent to such criminal behavior.