Josh Rosen’s Draft Dilemma
Every week in ‘The Junction,’ the GSC staff weighs-in on debates and controversies related to sports and other off-field issues. This week, we’re talking Josh Rosen’s hesitance to enter next year’s NFL Draft, whether Christmas Day games will help the NBA surpass the NFL, the #MeToo movement in sports, and a booster being way out of line in confronting a college basketball player.
ESPN reported that top quarterback Josh Rosen is hesitant to enter the draft knowing that the Browns could select him first overall, and he’d prefer to land with the Giants. Rosen is not the first player to express discontent at the possibility of joining a team, as Eli Manning also stated publicly that he would refuse to play for the Chargers, who also held the 1st overall pick in the 2004 NFL Draft. What does this say about how much power teams have over players coming into the league, and does that pose as an issue? If so, how could that be rectified?
Dan Szczepanek: There’s a difference between choosing where you want to play and avoiding a potentially fatal career move. In Rosen’s case, he has every right to want to play for a team that’ll put him in a position to succeed. He shouldn’t be able to cherry-pick the best possible situation, but he can and should use whatever leverage he has to avoid the really, really bad ones. Speaking of bad ones, when a tire-fire like the Browns is allowed to burn unsupervised for the better part of two decades, the real question should be, “Why hasn’t the league stepped in yet and taken custody of the team?”
Sandy Mui: Rosen choosing not to enter the draft next year would not be the only way he could avoid playing for the Browns, but it could ironically be a more respectable way. Hear me out. He’s already made it known that he does not want to play for Cleveland at all, so there could be another Eli Manning situation — if you like the NBA, don’t forget Kobe Bryant was drafted by the Charlotte Hornets and demanded out immediately — where the Browns would be forced to trade Rosen to another team. Either way, it’s an interesting discussion on how much power teams hold over selecting new rookies every year. Aside from essentially announcing there is no way he will play for a certain team, a player holds zero power in which team he ends up on. I can’t say there’s any better alternative since drafts exist for balance of talent and assets, so it’s just an unsolvable “problem.” After all, you can’t have over 200 guys all say they want to play for the top five teams.
Gord Randall: Rosen is a seriously intelligent dude, and I’d suspect business interests factor as much into his (rumored, not sure how the actual info would get out) thinking here. The real issue, however, is one that I’ve seen a fair number of fans bring up in recent years… players entering the major sports leagues have close to ZERO influence on where they play. Due to various free agency rules, particularly in hockey and baseball, that remains the case for the better part of a decade. The power is entirely in the hands of the teams, and for me it’s a really fascinating issue. On one hand, it’s essential to the competitiveness (and likely the long-term health) of these sports leagues that there be a draft system like this. It’s the one major factor that isn’t money that can change the face of a league, and it’s a hope every fan needs to be able to fall back on when their team sucks. I’d hate to see a sports landscape where rookies were just free agents, and money dictated everything.
On the other hand, however, in how many professions would you be told, “Hey, you’ve got the job but we’ll tell you next week whether you’re living and working in Minneapolis or New Orleans?” There are some, and one can argue that’s the price players pay for making millions (which is a fallacious argument with rookie contract restrictions in some sports), but what a tough way to live your life. Want to raise a family? Good luck, they can be uprooted at any time. Trying to meet someone? Hopefully you fall in love with your new home city because you will have to meet someone from there. It is what it is, and it’s a tough gig, but players should be allowed to leverage whatever little bit they can in this process. Do not forget: putting off declaring for a year sets a player’s entire career track back a year. This is particularly relevant financially, as you’re not making your rookie salary for an extra year, and not finishing your rookie contract for an extra year either. The risk in putting off declaring to avoid a specific team is massive, and totally not worth it in my opinion. Making that call would be a huge statement to the Browns organization. Also, skipping the draft because you assume you’ll go first overall is so cocky that I hope guys like that free fall through the draft.
Let’s get into the holiday spirit the only way we know how — by debating how Christmas could bridge the gap between two sports leagues! Tim Bontemps published an article on The Washington Post that brings up how Christmas can help the NBA exceed the NFL in popularity. He compares the potential of Christmas Day NBA games to what the NFL has already established with its Thanksgiving Day games. Do you think the NBA will ever get to a point where Christmas Day games can help push it over the top, and why or why not?
Szczepanek: If the NBA ever wants to truly compete, it’ll need to introduce just the right amount of violence into the game to bridge the gap between the two leagues. Fans love blood and guts and hits, and that’s unassailable in my mind. Short of that, I am in favor of expanding the NBA’s offering and trying to monopolize several other holidays. I’d start with Halloween and Valentine’s Day, and create custom jerseys and shoes for each. With two new days, maybe the league will finally recognize the Raptors as a top-tier franchise, and let them play in one of them.
Mui: There are few things I love in life, but NBA basketball and Christmas are two of them. Combine the two, and you get something magical. I think this viewpoint with the comparison between the NFL’s Thanksgiving Day games and the NBA’s Christmas Day games, is fascinating. The NFL is already losing a lot of its respectability due to all of its on- and off- field issues, as Bontemps points out, and that has been the main conversation for a while. I never thought of a holiday helping to bring the NBA over the top, but I could see that. I’m sure what already happens is hardcore (or even casual) sports fans spending time with their families on Christmas Day, want something to tap into, and NBA basketball is always an option. I can’t speak too much on it becoming the NFL’s Thanksgiving equivalent since I don’t follow football that often, but Christmas Day NBA games are pretty up there in popularity. Oh, and it would be even better if Nike brought Christmas NBA jerseys back.
Randall: From everything I can tell, culturally speaking, the NBA’s Christmas games already rival the NFL and Thanksgiving. It’s the predominant topic of conversation on social media on Christmas Day, and it has the eyes of just about the entire sports world. The problem, though, is that the only thing allowing that to happen is the NFL’s reluctance to run more than a couple of their own games on that day. You still saw packed houses in Houston and Philly on Christmas, and I suspect that if the NFL ran a full slate out there anytime soon, it would still reduce the NBA to undercard status. The enormity of the NFL’s cultural impact and the structures it has put in place to support that are still out of reach. That may change someday down the road, but the only thing I see that could change the pecking order is if the NFL does not deal with the head injury concerns that go along with the game currently. That is the single issue that can crumble their throne.
Sports journalist Lisa Olson published a piece on The Athletic that discusses the #MeToo movement in sports amid all the sexual harassment allegations that have plagued sports networks and leagues recently. What was your reaction to the piece, and did any stories in particular shock you?
Szczepanek: Nothing about this surprised or shocked me, which is both a testament to the voices that have already shared their stories, and a sad reflection on just how crude some other examples of workplace harassment were. The Richardson case sticks out not because of his behaviour, but because of the supposed consequences he’s facing. Sure, he’s going to have to sell the team, but at the end of the day, he’ll pocket billions of dollars and float off into obscurity, with really no long-term repercussions outside of a tarnished image and a loss of this little sports hobby. Meanwhile, people have to live on with what he subjected them to. Unfair doesn’t even begin to describe this.
Mui: This is of course an issue near and dear to my heart, considering I’m also a woman in the sports journalism industry. I’ll admit that I’ve had a relatively positive experience thus far (definitely nothing compared to some of the horrifying stories from the likes of ESPN and the NFL Network), which I am always eternally grateful for, considering this #MeToo movement that’s been a timeless issue in sports. The story that appalled me the most was the one from the Boston Globe that discussed ESPN anchor Sara Walsh working her shift while suffering a miscarriage. Before Olson’s article, I actually read the Globe’s original investigative article while I was on a bus ride home, and I was so appalled by the details that my mouth literally fell open in shock.
Randall: What’s been more surprising to me about the #MeToo revolution has been how rampant that kind of behavior is on the broadcasting side. Institutionalized misogyny with the athletes themselves, an all-male workforce in the major leagues, isn’t at all surprising (sad as that may be)… But some of the stories we’ve heard out of places like the NFL Network and Sportsnet (in Canada) really floor me. It’s a huge systemic issue, clearly, and I think we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg so far.
Anthem protests involving fans are not new, as we saw in last week’s Junction. However, this particular case was certainly interesting. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) recently filed an inquiry that asked for clarification about why Rasool Samir, a basketball player at Garden City Community College (GCCC), was no longer at the school. This stems from an incident back in November when Samir was confronted by a GCCC booster for remaining on the court to shoot baskets while the National Anthem was playing. Samir pointed out he was not directly protesting the anthem and claimed he was forced to leave GCCC by head coach Brady Trenkle, hence the ACLU inquiry. (Trenkle also got into an altercation with Samir that night.) Who is in the wrong in this situation?
Szczepanek: This is a tricky one, because my instincts (and Friday Night Lights) tell me that boosters are always wrong. In this case though, it’s everyone involved. The booster was wrong for going nuts in a gym “filled” with like 15 fans. The coach was wrong for going off on a kid. And the kid was wrong for not using common sense. There’s a big difference between not worshipping something and disrespecting it, and absentmindedly shooting baskets during an anthem is definitely the latter. It’s not exactly giving the anthem the finger, but it’s definitely in mild-to-poor taste. Oh, the school was also in the wrong for letting this escalate to the point where the ACLU had to get involved. All in all, this seems like a colossal waste of everyone’s time, and should have been easily avoided.
Mui: God, I can’t stand when people think they’re so entitled to tell others what they can or can’t do. Without a doubt, the booster had no right to confront Samir about his actions during the anthem; I don’t care about how many years the booster was a member of the Broncbuster Athletic Association nor how much money he donates to the school. It’s a shame Samir *might have* left the school because of that incident, but I won’t speak too much on what happened between Samir and the coach. That seems more like a he-said-she-said situation, and is another truth that will come out eventually, whether it’s through the ACLU inquiry or a following investigation.
Randall: Samir should have stayed with his teammates, as any teammate in a team sport should. That was his only mistake here. I laughed pretty hard at the idiot booster who got all offended by a player ignoring the anthem… in a way he could witness. What did he think the rest of the team was doing back in the dressing room?! Standing at attention in front of their own flag in there??? Then you have the head coach, who knew the rest of the team wasn’t doing anything patriotic going after him, too! It’s just ridiculous. Look, everybody hates the guy who just screams racism at everything, but ask yourself this one simple question… would anybody have reacted this way if it was a Tom Brady-looking player practicing his layup? That answer is a pretty easy no for me, and gives you a good idea of what the actual root cause is here.
