Todd McShay Opens His Mouth
And removes all doubt.
ESPN writer Todd McShay recently published this article about the best and worst picks of the 2007 NFL draft (the link requires ESPN Insider access).
In this article he claims that the Buffalo Bills made an egregious error in drafting Marshawn Lynch so high.
Here is what he says:
"Lynch is a very talented back with a strong build, above-average speed and good receiving skills. But he has too many question marks to justify selecting him No. 12 overall. Instead of paying Willis McGahee market value, the Bills will overpay for a less talented back who never carried the full load at Cal."
Wow. "Too many question marks"???
Firstly, like every reasonable person ever, I feel completely insulted when people lash out at Marshawn. But I am going to try to say this calmly and logically, because a)it’s important to foster that atmosphere and b)Mr. McShay’s comments are so laughibly wrong you don’t need much more than calm logic to disprove them.
Now, Mr. Todd McShay you must be talking about the alleged assault allegations. The allegations that never resulted in filed charges because the supposed "victim" could not keep her story straight. And how coincidental that the supposed "victim" only decided to try and file charges many many months after the supposed assault and right before Marshawn declared for the draft. Perhaps justice was not her first focus. In a post-Duke case world, we have to stick strongly to the "Innocent Before Guilty" ideal that our country was founded upon. It is really unfortunate that these rumors and innuendo keep spreading even though there appears to be no truth to them at all.
Or maybe it was the fact that Marshawn has dreads and a grill because we all know that people who have dreads and a grill are gang-bangers. I fear that there is a small amount of stereotyping here. People see an African-American athlete from an inner city neighborhood, such as Oakland (aka The Town), with all those accoutrements and instantly judge them a certain way. But if you take 30 seconds to read about Marshawn’s love for his mother and focus on many positive things, you’ll see that he is not that stereotype!Or perhaps, Mr. Todd McShay is talking about the fact that Marshawn Lynch was shot at in a drive-by shooting. A shooting where Marshawn was not the target and was simply mistaken as another person. The shooters even contacted his mother to apologize for accidentally shooting at him?!?!? Frankly, that is a sign of insane amounts of respect. That would be the type of person I would want on my team.
There are no character issues here. It’s all foolish and inaccurate reporting!
And now Mr. Todd McShay says that Marshawn Lynch won’t make it in the NFL because he never carried a full load at Cal? Since when does not getting 35 carries a game mean that you suck? In fact, NFL teams would be more attracted to drafting Marshawn Lynch over oh… let’s just say Adrian Peterson because of the fact that Marshawn had less carries (Lynch had 490 career carries while Peterson had 747 career carries). Why? Every back has an odometer. Every scout, every player, and every coach knows this. Runningbacks don’t last forever. In fact, runningbacks have the shortest average NFL career length than any other position because of the fact that they get hit every time they carry the ball and even sometimes when they don’t. The fact that Marshawn was spared some wear and tear means that he has more miles to go in the NFL than other backs that carried full loads.
Mr. Todd McShay, you are officially, ah forget it, you aren’t even worth it anymore. Marshawn is going to prove you, Mort, and any other doubter all wrong.
