| 20 September 2009
We get to experience the second week of the NFL today and there is one thing we know for certain; someone is going to make a dumb play. I wrote my Top Ten Tuesday article last week about the dumbest plays from last week’s football and over the week I repeatedly read and heard about the excuses for why these players made these plays. Over and over again I heard excuses that it was because of a play call, miscommunication, the coach didn’t tell the player beforehand, the receivers ran the wrong route, etc. Why does everything need an excuse to be justified? Why can’t the player ever just make a completely dumb play and live with it. Maybe we feel sympathy for these athletes that screw up in times where it’s essential that they don’t. Maybe because their screw up affects more than just the one play or the team, but it affects the entire fan base as well. I’m not sure if there is exact reasoning, but it needs to stop. Many of these athletes are playing on the highest stage and making a large amount of money to do their job. They need to accept the good with the bad and we need to accept the good with the bad. Most of the time the player can accept it, hopefully persevere, use it as fuel, and get better from it. We can’t though. We need the feeling that the play would’ve never happened if something was done right before the play happened.
The dumbest play on my list was Leodis McKelvin running the ball out of the end zone, struggling for yards, fumbling the ball, and we know what happens from there. He made an extremely dumb mistake and so be it, it happens. I heard numerous people on the radio and television stating that it’s the coaches’ fault because they didn’t tell him to down the ball if kicked in the end zone; they say that the team didn’t huddle up before the play and talk about the scenario; or they say it’s his natural prowess to break a long return that he fumbled. None of those things matter. It is his job to be the returner and to know the scenario and understand the score and know the situation that is in front of him. His teammates and coaches may be able to give him guidance beforehand, but he’s a professional and shouldn’t need that guidance in that important situation. The next day after the boneheaded play some complete and utter idiots in Buffalo decided to vandalize his lawn. Being the bigger man, McKelvin forgave the young men for the vandalism and is moving on from the lawn incident and the fumble. So if he can move on from his mistake and a mistake from two other men then why as fans can’t we move on from another person’s mistake as well?
