In Cowboys fans circles, it has long been a gripe that Jerry Jones passed on drafting Randy Moss in 1998 when Moss was there for the taking at the No. 8 draft pick. The view of the Cowboys front office at the time was that although Moss was tremendously talented, he had a great deal of off-field character issues and the team’s reputation was already in bad shape and couldn’t afford another troublemaker like Moss.
Some claim that Jerry regretted it for a long time and that it was a reason he traded up to draft Dez Bryant 12 years later.
So - suppose that you are a GM - and there is a player of the caliber of LeBron James or Tom Brady that is available for you to draft to your team - fabulously talented - but he has a long rap sheet of issues (let’s say, DUI, assault charges, domestic violence, self-centered, or has politically reprehensible views, does drugs, etc.) would you take him or not?
I am British, and have no idea who these people are.
However, I do follow the cricket. Kevin Pietersen was (is) a very talented cricketer, who played for a number of years for England before he was dropped for being, basically, a bit of a dick and not fitting in with the spirit of the team. From your list, I would say he was “self-centered” - there was never any suggestion that he was into anything illegal.
More recently, Ben Stokes is currently suspended from the England cricket team whilst he waits for the police to decided whether to charge him with assault following a brawl outside a bar in Bristol last month. He is one of the most talented players in the England team on his day, and he will missed in the upcoming Ashes tour, but I think they’re right to suspend him.
The upshot of all this is that no, I wouldn’t take a fabulously talented player if he had character issues, because it can eat away at your team. Not worth it.
Looking at all the suspensions going on, I’d probably avoid taking a player with multiple issues in Round 1. That kind of poor judgement/immaturity means it’s just too much of a risk of him being suspended. It also depends on the infractions. A couple of times smoking pot? Okay. Beating up a girlfriend and putting her in the hospital? No way.
In later rounds, it’s a different story. I’d certainly take a player with character issues in Round 5 in hopes that teammates can light a fire under his ass. That’s a risk worth taking.
Nope, particularly not in the first round. There are just too many examples of high draft choices who were known to have issues coming into the draft (Johnny Manziel and Josh Gordon are two who immediately come to mind) who couldn’t stay out of trouble once in the league. And, the amount of money involved in a high draft choice (plus the opportunity cost if you draft a bust) means you need to be risk-averse.
Even Moss, for all of his production at times, was also infamous for giving up on his teams from time to time. He had some tremendous seasons with the Vikings and Patriots, but also pouted his way out of both Minnesota and the Raiders.
But that’s the question, ain’t it? He may have the talent, but his issues may destroy the team or he might end up a washed up has-been like Johnny Football. Is it worth it? I would say it totally depends on his rap sheet, but it’s a real risk and I’d rather go for someone perhaps slightly less qualified, but with a history of discipline.
Off the field issues become on the field issues when either the player is arrested, suspended, or causes the locker room to become unhinged.
Especially in team-oriented sports, it’s not worth it to have the one prima donna that destroys the rest of the team. Let him be someone else’s problem.
Draft him, yes, but with the knowledge that this player is a project. Don’t build your team around the player and know that you risk a Manziel-like washout. But you never know, with the right culture on the right team, and with the right mentors and coaches a player can be turned around.
Remember these are college kids getting drafted and some still have a chance to grow up and mature. Some are lost causes but some might not be.
In basketball one player can turn your team from worst to first overnight so a once in a generation player like Lebron would be worth dealing with some terrible personality flaws but I’m not sure it would be worth someone who was probably going to be in prison in a couple of years.
In baseball, I think team chemistry is crazy important and one person can’t make that big of a difference so I wouldn’t put up with much. On the other hand in football one person can make a huge difference but only if they’re willing to put in the work so their flaw would have to be something that wouldn’t get them into jail and wouldn’t interfere with them living football so I’d be a lot more choosy.
I don’t know if I want Randy Moss if Tom Brady and Bill Belichick aren’t setting the tone. And I don’t know if I really want to put up with Dennis Rodman’s volatility if Michael Jordan and Phil Jackson aren’t there to make sure that he’s behaving. If my team’s leadership is solid, I’m a lot more likely to take a chance on a weirdo.
Randy Moss played 218 games in the NFL and played brilliantly. The level of performance and dedication required in pro sport suggests to me that whatever Moss’s character flaws, they did NOT prevent him from doing his job very well. He must have worked damned hard or he woudn’t have played 18 games in the NFL, much less 218.
It is in fact the case that quite a great many talented young men are bypassed from being drafted or signed, or sometimes even making the jump from high school to college play, because their character is simply not right. Perhaps they are drug addicts, or sociopaths. Sometimes they are simply lazy or insufficiently interested in the sport. Sometimes it is ot that they are bad people but that they suffer from anxiety issues, or some other psychological ailment that precludes athletic success at higher levels. It’s actually quite common, and you almost never hear about them. They’re not good enough to ever get to the point you WOULD hear about them. Johnny Manziel is the rare case of a kid with serious, performance-affected character flaws who got far enough for you to hear his name, but 99% of Manziels are screened out early.
Honestly I think the exact opposite. Baseball’s full of examples of Grade A assholes who played on winning teams. When you’re hitting or pitching whether or not you like Jim doesn’t mean anything.
You know who was a total asshole and really was not likable and didn’t get along with his teammates? Joe DiMaggio. He played for nine World Series champions.
Football-wise: First 3 rounds? Nope. Not worth the risk of not having the player available because he did something stupid off the field (lookin’ at you, Zeke). A late round flyer? Sure. There’s a solid chance someone drafted in the last couple rounds aren’t even going to make the Week 1 roster - whether it’s for lack of talent or off-field issues at that point, does it matter?
When Jerry Jones passed on Randy Moss, he was probably still smarting from the embarrassment of Michael Irvin’s notoriously low-character behavior. The thing is, though, Irvin was also known as a tireless worker who wanted to win at any cost. Randy Moss was known as a guy who often coasted on outstanding athletic ability.
I think I might draw a line at the point where they meet. While both had great careers, Moss represented a much greater risk.
Lawrence Phillips had an abundance of talent, but an even greater abundance of problems. While in college he’d been convicted of two separate assaults, been investigated by the NCAA and suspended for six games.
Despite that, Phillips was rated as a top 5 pick in the 1996 draft. The Rams took him at #6. After Phillips turned pro he was released in the middle of his second season with the Rams, then released by Miami after two games, played for a season in Europe, then released by the 49ers after eight games, released by an Arena Football team, released by the Montreal Alouettes and finally released by the Calgary Stampeders.
Possibly the most “not worth it” player of all time.
I’ve worked with enough people who were very skilled in what they did, but had character and ego issues. There’s no way in hell that if I owned a sports team, I’d want to draft a person like that to be the focus of my team.
Oh, and Moss didn’t play “brilliantly” in all 218 games he played. He was known for coasting and not putting in much effort when he didn’t want to for a good chunk of his earlier years. I know that’s the problem we had with him as a Viking.
The New York Giants would have had two fewer super bowls if they hadn’t drafted Lawrence Taylor. (Not sure if he was known as a potential problem guy when he was drafted).
Mainly by a bunch of sensationalist reporters looking for column inches between Sundays, and by a bunch of fans who are willing to believe just about anything they hear about a guy who seems to have an inflated ego, and who desperately want to feel like they have a stake in “analyzing” the people who give their lives meaning.
I have no doubt that there’s a possibility that Randy Moss was, and maybe still is, a colossal asshole with an ego the size of the moon. But if you think that he “coasted” his way to the second-most touchdowns and the third-most receiving yards in NFL history on “athletic ability” alone, then i have some Florida swampland you might like to invest in. In the history of sports analysis, assertions about coasting on natural ability have, far too often, been code for “Black athletes, especially outspoken or surly black athletes, aren’t very smart and they don’t work hard enough.”
Yeah, he was a terrible coaster, especially in those early years in Minnseota.
Like in his rookie year, when he coasted for the third-most receiving yards, and for the most receiving touchdowns in the league. Oh, and the most receiving touchdowns ever by a rookie.
Or the next year, when he coasted to third in receiving yards and sixth in touchdowns. Or his third year, when his coasting placed him fifth overall in receiving yards, and third in touchdowns.
In his seven seasons as a Viking, Moss appeared outside the top ten in each of those categories only once, and for receiving yards it was in a year when he only played 13 of the 16 regular-season games. In those seven seasons, he produced over 9,000 receiving yards, and 92 touchdowns.
But Minnesota definitely should have passed on drafting him, and taken the next-drafted WR instead. I’m sure that Marcus Nash would have been just as valuable for them. And i’ll bet that Tennessee, who drafted five places before Minnesota, were happy that they went with Kevin Dyson instead.
It depends on what we mean by “character flaws”. If he’s got a history of mouthing off to reporters and saying impolite things in public, then I draft him and keep him away from reporters. Felony convictions, though? There’s too much risk. He could get himself arrested again and be unable to play by virtue of being jailed, and then I’ve lost my investment. And even if I got him for free, if he does something again, it can lead to public outcry and boycotts, which again aren’t worth it.
I remember the 1998 draft as a Cowboys fan. Jones almost certainly would have drafted Moss had he not already been dealing with some bad publicity with some of his players, most notably Michael Irvin. But Jones probably felt at the time that it might hurt the brand to bring in someone similar to another Michael Irvin. Besides that, they probably felt like they had other needs. They were also a team that, while not as good as it used to be a few years earlier, was still quite talented but had suffered a serious breakdown in trust and team chemistry in Barry Switzer’s final year. The Cowboys were bringing in a young, new coach and were trying to regain their footing as a franchise - they didn’t want to take a chance on a high-profile rookie turning out to be a bust because of personal issues. The Cowboys still had Deion Sanders, Michael Irvin, and other big egos and personalities on that squad - they didn’t need another.