Marcus Peters on NFL Network

[Chief Northman]

Originally Posted by pugsnotdrugs19

Not going to quote due to length, but that was a great post Chief Northman. Well thought out and not a knee jerk reaction.

All most people want to see is the stats and the highlights, while ignoring what they can’t see. They’ll try to spin the facts and say this trade was made for whatever reason is convenient for them.

The truth is in the details. A 25 year old star CB was available for trade, huge red flag. Said CB had one true suitor in the Rams, huge red flag.

I challenge people to think deeper and connect some dots here.. Marcus Peters is an amazing player. But he’ll continue to flame out with teams after brief stints, much like other great players before them who were ‘cancers’.

I won’t prolong this much more, but what inspired my post is a kid I coached 7 and 8 years ago. I won’t divulge much to protect some privacy, but I was a DC for a private high school program (and later became the HC for four years - am no longer there and am with a different program) and we inherited a young man who was sponsored to attend the institution I was at, to get out of a troubling home situation (broken home, poverty, minority, truancy at school, etc.). He essentially transferred from a rival school, but they had done all they thought they could do for him.
The school I worked at had a reputation for athletic development, was out of and away from “city” distractions and was a boarding school. This afforded the young man an opportunity to be away from squalor, family violence, and allowed for a better monitored academic compliance while still affording athletic opportunities for the young man who was a tremendously gifted athlete. I also was his basketball coach.

Long story short, his on-field/court performance brought him all star accolades and praises. Kid was a natural. Opponents gunned for him, and he relished it. Things were generally good when we were winning, but his ugly side came out in losing. He’d verbalize disagreements with playcalls, or who should touch the ball. Then he would half-ass in practice, and slowly but surely his grades dropped as he felt he didn’t need academics as some football program would just forgive him that because of his talent. After antics such as calling out teammates for mistakes, taking unsportsmanlike/taunting penalties, it was clear that his ego was taking over the greater good of the team. The HC at the time sort of had his hands tied by upper admin. - a booster/donor had paid this kid’s way and the school didn’t want to upset the alumni by penalizing this kid, but it was killing morale. Teammates turned on him. Although we had a really good football season, with only one loss, it felt way emptier.

I had my battles with him, and my real world moment with him came in the winter/early spring when recruiters came calling. I reassured this young man that I had a reputation of being forthright with recruiters and that I would divulge my honest estimation of his talent and character. He was not without charm, but he sort of laughed off my warning and said, “I know you got me coach...”

Universities closer to home were more cautious of the young man knowing of his character flaws. I did have a couple out of province schools come calling. I was forthright in my estimation of the young man.

He received a recruitment offer/commitment with a strong out of province program and they envisioned him being the #2 rb as a freshman in an offense behind one of the league’s most decorated backs going into his 4th year.

Their recruiter called me two weeks after the start of camp and said, “We let him go. What a waste of talent - some of the best we’ve seen, but I don’t know how you put up him him for two years - we couldn’t put up with him for two weeks. The kid makes everything about him, and refuses to take accountability for when things don’t go his way”.


This whole Peters situation has brought back a rush of those memories for me. I’ve run into the young man a few times since he graduated high school, but he hssn’t done much with himself since. He’ll pop into a gymnasium now and then to watch whatever team I’m coaching, he will reminisce about old times, and then we go off to live our lives.

Sad.

The kid could have been great.