Potential pt.1

I was recently perusing through ESPN.com when I saw a headline that caught my eye: Pats, Lions and Cowboys interested in Pacman.

I looked closer and realized that I had read right, there were teams that were still willing to take a chance on Pacman Jones, the beleaguered cornerback, who will soon become formerly of the Tennessee Titans.

Mind you, he still has not obtained the necessary ok from commissioner Stern to get reinstated, but it looks like, barring anything major, that whenever Roger Goodell does decide his fate and bring him back into the NFL, Pacman will have a list of suitors willing to pony up a price of draft picks or available players for the rights to this nutjob.

When I say nut job, I mean that in the most polite way. Not to sound rude, but this is the same guy that has had more incidents in Las Vegas alone than some people have in their entire lives. This guy has been the center of numerous investigations that have resulted in many people getting injured and seriously hurt. I’m not trying to say that he was directly involved in any of these situations, but it’s too many to just rule them out as coincidence or as being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

First off, as a star, trouble comes with the territory. Fame brings more than just money and popularity, it brings recognition that you don’t like. There are more people aiming at you than trying to help you. Human nature does not allow all of society to be proud of a minority who made it out of tough living circumstances growing up, to make something of themselves. Some don’t see that as a point to look up at, motivate themselves or loved ones, they see that as reasons to cause problems.

Jealousy is one of the seven deadly sins for a reason and it is a major downer for those who drink from its cup every night, not being able to grasp that hard work and perseverance can pay off for them too. People don’t want to put the time and effort to do it the fair way, they would rather get it the easy way, or as Notorious BIG said, the ski mask way.

Many of the athletes that you see involved in altercations in public settings do that knowing the inherent risk involved. There is always a risk as a celebrity of a public that won’t accept their seemingly higher status of importance and will look upon it with hatred in their eyes.

But the question comes back to, why on earth would teams actually bid on this guy? What is so appealing about this guy’s infamous police record err, track record that would make teams salivate over him? The one word that gets every team in trouble now and again, and on April 25-26^th will be used as means to describe a reach pick in the NFL draft. Its called potential.

It’s the worst thing to hear for a team, because no one wants to hear about a pick that has potential. They want the sure thing, the major league ready pitcher with the deadly slider, or the NFL ready DE that runs a 4.4 40 time and dominated college.

This first part, I will look at potential in terms of a troubled player’s perspective. The second part will look at potential from a draft pick’s perspective.

Pacman has the potential to make any team better. He surely has God given talents that make him salivating to guys like Jerry Jones, after all this is the guy who handed out contracts to cocaine abusers Nate Newton, Michael Irvin, and super ego himself TO to name a few, because of the potential that they have in them to be the best possible player and on their best behavior.

Every team believes that they are the cure for a person’s personality malfunction. They are sure that they know how to keep a certain player’s ego in check and they can make them part of the team fabric, but once they publicly state that, they have already failed. Anytime you need to train a person to understand the team dynamic and the importance of playing within the team in a professional league, something they should have been understanding from the time they were in Little League or Pop Warner, you have already given the power to the player who’s coming in, which will in turn further pump his ego up another notch. Your coddling a grown man.

The team then invariably becomes an enabler. A situation that only further puts it in the player’s head that the team needs him more than he needs the team. When something happens, the team tries its best to hide the player from the media, then blaming the media for unfairly labeling him a certain way even though his behavior obviously suggests it. That’s why P.R. departments on sports teams are very important. There’s that one drug charge that will always need explaining. Its why TO pays people to do his P.R., he does after all have 25 million reasons to live, right? Give me a break!

But back to the issue at hand, teams will always have room for guys like Pacman. Even organizations like the Patriots that preach the team philosophy so fervently. It was this very team that forced the NFL to announce their entire team when having the decision to announce either offensive or defensive starting line ups were not just the norm but mandatory, during their first Super Bowl victory against the Rams. But this is the same team that fleeced Randy Moss from the Raiders, this after two very uninspiring seasons wearing the Silver and Black that made people very skeptical about what player they were actually getting. What made them think they could do wonders with Randy Moss?

Potential!

There’s that word again. The potential that him and Tom Brady could connect and be this unstoppable force that they were during the regular season and all the way up until the Super Bowl.

Its that same carrot that is dangling before them when they look at Pacman. A man who says he has cleaned up his act, although only time can tell that. A man who has had repeated incidents that are not only alarming but are telling of what kind of make up he has as a person; a man who is negatively influenced by the people he surrounds himself with and the fact that he is sucked in by this group of pariahs that use his fame and fortune to have a good time, even at the expense of both his reputation and his future earnings as an NFL player.

Once the label of a head case is put on you, its hard to shake it. Its like that one tattoo that you got in college as a dare, you thought it was cool at the moment, but years later your just kicking yourself everytime you look at it.

But there are plenty of teams that, despite the inherent risk of bringing a malcontent to a team, a guy who is a lightning rod of controversy to an organization that is usually problem free, will take that chance. Why? Not because the GM’s like a good challenge, but because if it works out, it will do wonders. Why other than their physical attributes would a team invest in a player like that? Guys like Pacman, sadly, will always have a job waiting for them somewhere, where as a clean cut guy with median ability will always have to bust his butt to even get a second look by coaches and scouts alike. Want to know why? Because for every ten experiments that don’t work, there comes along a Randy Moss who is a world class talent, that will work and it will further put in their heads that its possible for good teams to do well.

Teams like the Raiders (a cesspool of other team’s rejects) who are not only going to take a guy like DeAngelo Hall, who last year openly campaigned to be the worst teammate alive by arguing with his coach while national TV cameras were catching it all live, in a trade but will throw a $70 million contract his way. Teams like the Steelers with legendary owners like Dan Rooney, will keep James Harrison for beating his wife, but will release Cedric Wilson (a third string WR) after an altercation at a restaurant, that his girlfriend said was blown out of proportion just two days later.

That right there is the difference between potential and a player who has reached his supposed ceiling. That imaginary roof over someone’s skill set. Its things like this that make the world an unfair place, and always give the bad guys a reason to continue being bad, because we don’t punish them enough. We let a player like Pacman go out there and make a mockery of himself and be stupid with his friends, and we don’t hold him

accountable.

It reminds me of the first scene from the first episode of the Wire, where detective McNulty is talking to some street kid and he’s asking the kid why they let this young man, who was shot because of the incident, play every week in a dice game that they know will end up in him stealing the pot and running. The kid calmly replies “we got to, its America.”

If its true, and this is America and even people like Pacman deserve the chance to prove himself even though he makes the same mistake over and over again, isn’t it the saddest thing? Are we lowering our standards now? Are we redefining the word? Are we less and less worried about the character flaws of a player and how he will affect the team dynamic as opposed to the POTENTIAL of greatness he can bring?

I suppose that’s a front office’s decision to make, but let me make one thing clear to all of you. If by some miracle, we begin holding each player responsible for their acts, and start actually following some moral code and saying no to these goons and their penchant for causing problems, won’t it force them to change as oppose to us always having to lower the bar of expectation?

I guess its something to think about.