That Was A Bad Choice

With NFL training camps starting up over the weekend, it was only a matter of time before we got this year's first "Controversy that isn't really a controversy, but for God's sake it's July and there is nothing else going on so the sports media needs to make a big deal out of every little thing until baseball gets interesting in a month." Most of the time it's a holdout or a former all-pro guy who's switched teams in the offseason, but this year it's Cowboy's rookie wideout Dez Bryant, who refused to go along with the typical rookie hazing of carrying some of his veteran teammates' pads after practice. Now, I find some of the excessive hazing traditions to be a stupid, but I think 'carrying a veteran's shoulder pads' is acceptable. No one can get hurt doing that and frankly, you're on your way to the locker room anyway. If he stopped and thought about it, by only having to carry one teammate's pads, Bryant would realise that he's lucky and that he's getting off pretty light for a big-money first-round draft pick. Usually those guys are looking at picking up four to five thousand dollar restaurant tabs or having to pick up bar tabs for the season. A couple weeks of pad carrying isn't so bad in comparison.

But instead, Bryant thinks that he was brought there to play football, not uphold some stupid tradition and said that if he was brought in as a free agent this wouldn't be an issue. Yes, well Dez, if you had wings you could catch every thing thrown you direction as well. You weren't brought in as a free agent, so you've already lost that part of the argument. What Bryant may not realise is that by refusing to do this he is essentially saying that he is better than all the players who have come before him and done this simple rite of passage. Not to mention this is a guy who missed his last year of college after being suspended for lying to NCAA officials about attended a party at Deion Sanders' house, so he'd probably be better off just shutting up, carrying the pads and not trying to bring more attention to himself. Now Bryant has put a bull's eye on himself and not only are teammates going to get pissed because they are going to be asked about this for a week, but they are also likely to step the eventual hazing up a notch (Dez, they're gonna getcha one way or another). The only thing Bryant has going for him is that the teammate he shunned is wide receiver Roy Williams who might be the least-liked Cowboy on the team, due to the fact that he's being paid a huge contract, cost the team a lot to get him in the first place and hasn't been that good on the field. Still, Bryant can't afford to act like he's better than anyone else on the first day of camp. I'm sure he'll have plenty of time to think about that when he's looking for the trainers to cut him down from the goalposts he has been taped to.

-Today is the 30th Anniversary of Caddyshack, a movie that was released to initially poor reviews, but over time has grown into a classic, much like a fine wine. (Fun Fact: did you know the "Cinderella Man" speech was completely ad-libbed and done in one take?) In honor of its anniversary, I give you the best moment in the movie.