Athletes are afraid to compete now and it’s OUR fault as sports fans

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August 22, 2018

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August 22, 2018

There are so many things about the world of sports that are amazing.

The competition, the teamwork, the camaraderie amongst teams — they are all things that cannot be found anywhere else in society.

But for all the good, there is a little bit of bad, too, and we saw a little piece of that play out this past week in Baton Rouge.

Quarterback Lowell Narcisse announced his intentions to transfer out of LSU and to a junior college in hopes of finding another opportunity in the 2019 season.

I am not here to personally pick on Narcisse, but I am going to use his situation as an example to illustrate a huge problem that we have right now in collegiate sports.

Simply put: Athletes have become spoiled and it’s our fault. We’ve succeeded in entitling them, over empowering them and now, they think that if they don’t see the field from their first nanosecond on campus, that it’s some sort of failure and it’s time to move on.

Through the growth of recruiting, we are making superstars out of high school kids who are not mentally ready to handle the hype and who are not physically ready to handle their tasks on the field.

Through that, the athletes develop entitlement, then an inflated ego and then a sense that the program owes them something — and none of those things are actually the case.

Coaches aren’t without blame. Knowing that freshmen arbitrarily “have” to play in their first years, coaches lie and tell them that they will compete for starting positions in their first days on campus, knowing full-well that those jobs are spoken for and are not up for grabs.

Narcisse fell victim to that.

Anyone who follows Tigers football knows that there was a 0 percent chance of Narcisse winning the starting job in Baton Rouge this fall. That battle has always belonged to Joe Burrow or Myles Brennan and no one else.

Narcisse is just not ready. I watched every snap of the spring game several times and have a lot of eyes and ears on the practice fields out there. The young man can run the football, yes. But he’s not a gifted enough pocket passer to move an SEC offense and utilize LSU’s receivers. And the Tigers’ new offense will require accuracy in a short, quick passing game.

It’s no fault to Narcisse. He’s never played much football — even in high school. He was the victim of two serious knee injuries, which have sidelined him for years of action. The fact that he’s even back on the field at all is actually admirable and impressive.

LSU shouldn’t have been dishonest with Narcisse about his chances to be the starter. That’s wrong.

But holding the university hostage isn’t right, either and that’s exactly what Narcisse was doing by consistently threatening to transfer if not on the field.

Narcisse was going to be a redshirt freshman at LSU — one of the best college football programs in the country.

That’s it — still a FRESHMAN!

He still had four seasons to compete in Baton Rouge, but opted to leave.

There are 14 teams in the SEC and most (if not all) of them will have upperclassmen quarterbacks in the 2018 season. Sitting out for a year or two and polishing one’s skills under a veteran player is not an insult, nor a slap in the face. It’s part of being a teammate and part of a program.

But student-athletes arrive on campus now with an inflated sense of self and a belief that they were born ready for the grind of an SEC schedule — even if they’re not.

Student-athletes don’t want to compete anymore. They want to be a “brand.”

They don’t want to practice, they want to tweet out highlight videos from 7-on-7 drills or practice.

The trigger word is “exposure”.

Well, let me tell you guys a little story about exposure. It’s not one-sided and only on the terms of the student-athlete. It’s a two-way street and it can do more damage than good.

Yes, being seen is awesome, but a student-athlete had better be sure that when growing their exposure base, they’re 100 percent ready to be seen.

Coaches will see that touchdown pass in 7-on-7 drills, yes. But they will also see social media posts, how one reacts to coaching and how one respond to their teammates’ energy.

They will study ones strengths, yes. But they will also study ones weaknesses.

They will examine ones willingness to compete or ones propensity to run off to be the big fish in a small pond when things get tough.

Time is not always on the side of the student-athlete. Justin McMillan’s case is a great testament to that. He had to transfer out of LSU or risk running out of eligibility.

But in the case of freshmen growing impatient and transferring, it’s just not the right move.

Anything can happen in sports and sometimes, good things come to those who wait.

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