More FireDavidHaugh.com Stuff

Miraculously, David Haugh just had an article posted about the Bears optimism this year being crap and based on nothing.  It might be a 2 foot putt, but after reading Dan Pompei recently it actually needed to be said by a Trib writer.

But since I'm all about snarkiness and cutting people down, we're going back to his last two columns (I'll get to Dan Pompei's sunshine & cotton candy article a little later).  Since I'm in a football and Bears mood, I'll start with his article on hazing.  Haugh says that every profession in America has a way of hazing.  That it builds trust and whatnot. 

About Dez Bryant and Roy Williams' shoulder pads: I don't really care.  If players have fun with traditions then there's no harm.  But there is no greater meaning as Haugh says.  There's some nice contradiction of his own words in the article too. 

Well, here's some new Arcade Fire.  Article after the song.  And I'll try to get caught up over the weekend.
 


NFL rookie initiation a harmless throwback
Bryant's defiance of tradition a display of arrogance
By David Haugh 
July 28, 2010 


When Shannon Sharpe told rookie Broncos teammate Desmond Clark back in 1999 that he wanted a fried chicken breast with his Popeye's order, a thigh or leg just wouldn't do.

One day when Clark returned from his regular lunch run for Sharpe without the right assortment of chicken, Sharpe went to pieces.

"He didn't eat any of the food I brought back because he said I pissed him off getting the wrong thing and there'd be repercussions," the Bears tight end recalled. "I didn't make the mistake again. I knew when you're willing to do those things for veterans, they're more willing to accept you as their teammate. So that's what I did."

Players use their experience and position within a team to pick on the rookies.  Okay, it's football and professional sports and grown men acting like children.  I can accept that.  But remember Shannon Sharpe's actions for later...


Clark didn't like it and it didn't matter. Every NFL rookie goes through a similar rite of passage that begins at training camp and often lasts through their first season intended to remind them where they stand — and it's no longer on a college campus. Every Bears rookie who reports Thursday to Bourbonnais will undergo similarly harmless exercises in initiation that 99 percent of the time aren't hazardous enough to one's mental health to be called hazing.

That 1% should should be a problem for you.  So a new guy, possibly with more talent, is coming into camp and the veterans are establishing dominance. 

The whole "where they stand" thing-- isn't that going to be obvious when everyone they play against is bigger, faster, stronger, fitter, happier, more productive than any competition they've played against?


It's how egos are shrunk, teams are shaped and character is built.
"That's what football is all about; you humble yourself for the next guy and in return he does the same for you," Clark said. "You learn that you need that guy and he needs you."

I thought that was accomplished by playing.  Not by fetching a guy's lunch. 

"How egos are shrunk"?  Until next year, when they throw hissy fits over people getting them their fried fast food orders.  (See first line of story).


Nobody's advocating taping guys to goalposts or piercing body parts against someone's will or anything stupid and borderline criminal. But with due respect to other former college football players who write columns in town, these days most tasks merely require rookies to fetch meals or carry shoulder pads and sing their alma mater's fight song.

Feel free to say Rick Telander's name.  Just because its a harmless tradition doesn't make it any less dumb.


Every profession in America has its own method of establishing a pecking order and making clear where the new guys fit in that hierarchy. This is football's.

I was not hazed when I started my job.  Actually I wasn't hazed at any of the jobs I've ever had.  There is a hierarchy in football:  its called a depth chart.  There's also other ways to show pecking orders:  like All-pro selections and championships and work ethic.  I think don't think Dez Bryant really cares where Roy Williams thinks he is in the pecking order.


Silly or not, the custom has become so accepted it only creates attention when somebody objects — like Cowboys prima donna Dez Bryant did the other day. Bryant sparked a debate because he refused to carry teammate Roy Williams' shoulder pads after practice, a show of defiance that everybody later tried to downplay. Bryant claimed he knew nothing about the equipment-carrying practice that probably dates back to the leather-helmet days.

Seriously?  Roy Williams is someone who demands that much respect?  Since when has he been a sympathetic character?


"I didn't know nothing about no tradition," Bryant told Dallas media.

Sure, and that's Cowboys owner Jerry Jones' real nose too. Anybody who has played college football at the level Bryant played it had to be aware of his sport's version of an apprentice program. Generations of stars have started out taking orders from players who had the edge in seniority, if not talent.

Don't teams have coaches and things?  How does carrying shoulder pads teach anything about being an NFL wide receiver?

Doug Buffone recalled being a Bears rookie linebacker in 1966 buying coffee for veterans such as Joe Fortunato and Dick Butkus and bringing whatever they wanted wherever they wanted it. Buffone always viewed those duties as a form of bonding more than bullying and saw his share of Bears rookie hot shots, including Walter Payton, accept the NFL reality without complaint.

"It was never bad, demeaning things but they'd let you know you were a rookie and that meant keep your mouth shut, do your job and go out and play," said Buffone, the WSCR-AM analyst who played in 186 games for the Bears. "It was never personal. It's about paying your dues."

I'm not sure how this made Doug Buffone a better player.  I also know that they were on a lot of bad teams.


The price remains the same for stars and subs. Brian Urlacher spent his first training camp in Platteville, Wis., lugging Barry Minter's shoulder pads back and forth.

"We had a long walk back (too) … it's a pain in the ass, but you do it," Urlacher told the Tribune's Vaughn McClure. "You're opening up the floodgates if you start acting like (Bryant). Vets don't like that."

Ah, Barry Minter.  Those were the days.  And Vets don't like a lot of things.  See: Olin Kreutz v. veteran Fred Miller.

Jerry Azumah chuckled recalling the way he used to run errands for vets Tom Carter and Walt Harris and later enjoyed returning the favor bossing Charles Tillman around during Tillman's initial exposure to the NFL in 2003.

"Peanut took it like a man because he knew nobody's an exception to the rule," said Azumah, a Comcast SportsNet analyst. "You do the dirty work, earn acceptance and move on."

I'll wait while you Google Tom Carter...

Alright, so there's really no earthly reason He or Walt "Beat By 10 Yards In The Highlight Shown On ESPN" Harris should be bossing anyone around.

And Jerry Azumah had a few good years, but pretty much sucked.  Yeah, I've got nothing clever for that.

More than other sports, football schemes rely upon trusting teammates. Bears defensive players talk about trust more than marriage counselors because the Cover-2 depends on it. So does the relationship between quarterbacks and receivers, guards and tackles, linebackers and defensive ends, et al.

So when Lance Briggs makes a play, its because he carried somebody's pads to the lockerroom during his rookie year.  Its not because he worked hard and practiced and got a lot of in-game experience.  Good to know.

That process has to start building somewhere. Usually it starts at training camp, except for the rare rookie who still is hung up on his college highlights.

"When you say you're not going to be part of that process, you're basically saying, 'Screw the things that usually work, this is how it's going to work for me,' " said Clark, who hosts an Internet talk show at voiceofamerica.com. "Then when you struggle — and everybody struggles — who do you turn to? You may want to turn to those teammates, but you won't have them."

So Dez Clark would've been a worse tight end if Shannon Sharpe would've eaten the chicken?  If I understand Clark correctly-- If you need help and support of your teammates your rookie year they'll only help you if you were they're obedient PA's.  Otherwise you're screwed.  Its basically building capital with the veterans for help later, not the romantic "paying your dues."  If you fight the tradition, your teammates will make sure you fail.  Classy.  Unless I misinterpreted that.

Back before the NFL draft the Dolphins crossed the line when they asked Bryant if his mom was a prostitute. Turns out some team really should have asked Bryant if he would sublimate his ego to carry the shoulder pads of a veteran teammate during training camp.

Maybe next year that question can be added to the Wonderlic test.

That isn't hazing-- that's just stupid recruiting.  And you can't worry about sublimating egos in a story that starts with Sharpe's demanding of a chicken breast.  That's the opposite of sublimating your ego.  You're just saying sublimate your ego til your second year, then you can establish dominance over the fresh fish. 

The whole thing is selfish and not a team building exercise.  It seems like its just creating capital with veterans so they don't team up against you.  If the players like it, then fine.  Otherwise, losing this crap wouldn't make much of a difference for a professional team.