Things move slowly, meaning that things that wouldn’t hit the radar screen when things aren’t moving slowly, otherwise make a splash.
Here is something that has struck a chord.
In response to the nonsensical “Baby Gronk”[ads1]; phenomenon, Senior Bowl director Jim Nagy posted a lengthy tweet aimed at making the point that preparing a kid to play pro football at a young age doesn’t matter. That ultimately it’s about being big and strong and fast and willing to run full speed into other football players — and the development of these skills is irrelevant to any amount of training during childhood.
Nagy’s opinion is relevant for some positions. For others, like the quarterback, a sudden growth spurt or some fluke event that gives the player a rocket arm overnight won’t really matter if the player has little or no experience reading defenses, processing information before and during the game, studying playbooks and film, and/or leading other footballers.
Rams quarterback Stetson Bennett opted for something more direct than that, in response to Nagy.
“‘Rare matters when you start babysitting,'” Bennett tweeted. “Thanks for parent council, Jim. Perhaps parents with dreams for their children, or children with dreams in general, should just listen to you, master king of talent evaluation. Lol – a scout who saw an opportunity…”
There is a story here. Bennett declined an invitation to attend the Senior Bowl. And Nagy then described Bennett as a low prospect.
“The only quarterbacks in the last five years since I’ve been here that we haven’t gotten in the past were Joe Burrow and Trevor Lawrence,” Nagy said earlier, via Jonathan Williams of SI.com. “These guys were the presumed No. 1 overall picks. We called around before we started reaching out to Stetson’s people, and he was a sixth or seventh pick, which is a lot better than he was going into the year, a priority free agent.
The Rams selected Bennett in round four, even without Bennett participating in the Senior Bowl.
The selection was a surprise, given that Bennett was seen as a guy who would go in the later rounds. How much did Nagy’s comments affect Bennett’s perceived status? It obviously didn’t affect the Rams.
Still, Bennett seems to hold a grudge. It’s hard to fault him for that. The Senior Bowl is a business, and it depends on as many potential customers as possible turning up and participating. If too many players refuse to continue to practice and play football for free after not getting paid for two or three or four years, the Senior Bowl will be a youth production at best.
That said, it’s Nagy’s job to get players to come. But it’s easy to see why Bennett would view Nagy’s dismissal of Bennett as a sixth- or seventh-round pick as sour grapes.
