Late, but entertaining observations

by:Bomani Jones04/28/08

Long time, no see, all that fun stuff.  Apologies to those concerned by my absence and something else to those that enjoyed it.

Seeing how this is SEC country, I figured this was a good place to document a couple of observations I’ve got about Darren McFadden’s so-called “character” concerns.  I can’t blame a team for being worried about anything when zillions of dollars are on the line.  At the same time, I think teams can scare themselves into a bad decision and pass on a player because of issues that, if considered on a very basic level, wouldn’t look bad at all.

That’s Darren McFadden.  Sure, you could argue that none of the teams in the top 3 needed him, but you’re not going to tell me there isn’t a team that thought he was a top 3 talent — running back or not — and couldn’t have traded up to snag him.The case against McFadden goes like this…a handful of chilluns, a couple of incidents at night clubs, and two gang-affiliated brothers.  Oh, and an eccentric mama.  Yeah, we’ll say eccentric.  I’m not keen on talking about people’s mama’s.  Especially not mama’s with a couple of gang-affiliated sons.

(I joke in that paragraph somewhere.  I’m not even sure where, myself.)

Well, let’s take the case piece-by-piece.

  1.  The babies.  McFadden’s got a couple.  None in wedlock, for those concerned with such things.  Who should be concerned?  Well, that would be the Raiders.  Of all the questions marks surrounding McFadden, this is the one most likely to cause drama.  Why?  Because, no matter the workplace, nothing affects performance more than money problems and woman problems.  Well, there’s a two-in-one right there.  That said, a few players have found a way to play well while supporting a couple of seeds.
  2. The night club incidents.  Now, if I recall, one was where McFadden injured his toe fighting a couple of dudes in a club parking lot that were trying to steal his Cadillac.  The real problem, from where I sit, is that he wore flip flops to the club; you can’t be that country, catdaddy.  Now — raise your hand if you’re just gonna watch somebody steal your car, a Cadillac at that.  Raise your hand so I can never hang out with you.  You’re just not my kind of guy.  Now, another incident involved McFadden fighting some guys that got into it with his brother.  Now, raise your hand if you’d just watch your brother get mollywopped.  For the same reason.  Maybe I just think of “character” differently than the average man.  But speaking of the McFadden brothers…
  3. …two of them are gang-affiliated.  That’s two out of 12 siblings.  Now, a couple of things to remember.  First — if you’re looking for someone from Little Rock that isn’t more than a couple of degrees of separation from a gang member, watch this.  They bang in Little Rock.  But think about this — if his brothers were banging and McFadden wasn’t, what makes you think his people would try to take him down now?  Don’t you think, if that was the program, he’d have wound up as a banger and not a running back?

Ultimately, I could be all the way wrong.  I still can’t make myself do anything to a man that’ll take it to the concrete for his Cadillac other than shake his hand.  That right there is a boy that was raised right.

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