Off field troubles

The off season is not kind to many NFL players, or should we say that many NFL football players are not kind IN the off season! I realize that the summer can be a bit slow for NFL news so every ankle tweak or sore thumb becomes news because the headline or TV news teaser of “star running back leaves practice early” gets attention. The fact that it was because they had to pee ruins the story, but people tuned in at least. And looking back on the age old story of the boy who cried wolf it can be easy to miss stories that do matter, or injuries that might actually impact playing time in the fall.

Stories that are very tough to miss (although they keep coming so it gets tougher) but have bigger question marks surrounding them are off field issues. Recently, Marshawn Lynch and Cedric Benson have been involved in serious (alleged…see I’m covering my A here) incidents and with the new NFL strong arm with little tolerance we could see key players missing time.

Now this really hits home more with fantasy football players than it does with football handicappers because as handicappers we analysis week to week and in these circumstances we generally know if a guy will be on the field as we breakdown games (although game-time decisions are very frustrating) but we still had to bring this subject up. Not so much because if effects my ability to handicap games but because it really annoys me!

You have everything set up in front of you, you’re wealthy and essentially set for life. You are a professional football player – a dream come true and you can’t stay out of trouble. You’re an idiot.

Anyway, on to more important things. In the coming weeks during the off season I’ll be posted some thoughts on each teams off season and how I feel that will factor into picks for next season. Stay tuned.