Little People, Big Hits, Little Career

Alex Dunlap, Rosterwatch.com

Running backs have the shortest average careers of any position in the NFL at 2.57 years. They get hit the most by the most physical, meanest players on the field: The defensive line and the linebacking corps. Popular Mechanics says that hits dealt out by these players are frequently measured nearing 100 g’s of force, with the most violent hits reaching 150 g’s. Lets do an exercise. Picture yourself getting all suited up for an NFL game: Pads, helmet, get the old cleats laced up, ankles taped. Ok. Good to go? Great. Now climb up a ten-foot tall diving board, stand on the end, and then get pushed off awkwardly onto hard pavement.

That is approximately what happens every time five-foot, seven-inch Maurice Jones Drew touches the ball in an NFL football game.

Bellmen are loading luggage carts, there are lines at every check-in attendant’s station. An uncharacteristically overstaffed, buzzing hotel lobby to encounter during an after-show, 1:00 AM check-in.

Little people from far and wide, running the stereotypical gamut of American characters. Bikers, meat heads, accountants, women who hate their lower back tattoos, Tim Tebow fans.

The hispanic headbanger. The fat idiot. All accounted for in miniature form.

If you have ever seen a touring band’s crew check into a hotel, it’s a pretty obvious circus. Especially if they are all two feet taller than everyone else in the room. Conversations sparked up with fellow waiters-in-line about the instruments we were holding, where we played, all this. Easy answers and fun times. As the conversations turned towards asking as opposed to answering, though, that’s when things changed.

I made a friend in line.

“Why you scared?”

Since we’re talking stereotypes, this was the “little person version” of the thirty-something, African-American woman you might picture on the other end of the line when dealing with the cable company. I was struggling to appropriately ask what event was occurring around me. Stumbling over ways to acknowledge in a non-insulting manner that I was surrounded by literally hundreds of little people.

“It’s OK,” she said, laughing “we come here to be together. Don’t you like to be together with people like you?” She nodded her head at my group, all of us wearing eerily similar, publicist-approved clothes with indie facial hair (and likely body odor) to match.

So she wins.

In celebration of the Annual Little People of America Convention in Dallas, we’re going to stop and appreciate the some of the little things in life. Predominantly Jaguars five-foot, seven-inch RB Maurice Jones-Drew, and the ever decreasing importance (and career span) of the NFL running back.

MJD is a superstar, plain and simple. We can be honest here. He has carried a franchise in Jacksonville on his back for a career, and is currently holding out for more money. Running backs are getting fleeced right now as a function of league adaptations, trickling slowly but surely through various coaching tree playbooks as assistants advance, creating a cyclical arms race like no other.

Jones-Drew was the NFL’s leading rusher last season in a division that faced Houston twice. He also sees that Matt Forte is elite, and will likely continue to be treated like garbage by the Chicago Bears. Even after they fired GM Jerry Angelo. I asked Lovie Smith. He told me the #1 priority of the offseason was to “get Matt Forte signed”, but you could tell in his eyes he meant “get Matt Forte PAID”. Not stuck again. Not franchised. Not stripped of any long term security while playing what is becoming a short-term position.

So much for the Bears, and the idea that maybe one day when Angelo is gone, they might start living by the “free agency starts at home” mantra that he preached so much about, but never lived by. Ask Thomas Jones.

The fact is that the Jaguars organization holds all the cards. They gave MJD a new contract in what they thought was good faith and based on potential, at a point in time when he wasn’t really even a starter. It was obvious he was more effective than the aging Fred Taylor, but he was certainly not an NFL rushing leader and face of the franchise. Reggie Bush is making more money. Darrren McFadden. MJD isn’t even among the top 10 highest-paid NFL running backs.

John Clayton reported this week that there was no chance a new deal would get done, and all indications from his sources were that Jones-Drew would have to be there to start training camp. The fact is, missing training camp is expensive. Like, half a million dollars expensive. MJD is going to have to soldier on, knowing that there is a distinct possibility that he will be spending the remaining prime of his career playing out a contract he has distinctly outperformed on a bad team, taking an immense beating as they lean on him.

There is a distinct possibility that upon reaching his unrestricted free agency year in 2014, a franchise tag will be slapped on him, getting him paid (for one year) an amount equivalent to the average of the top 5 NFL players at the position. So, finally. A raise for MJD! A little bit of a bonus as the remaining use (out of what will be a 30-year-old body at the time) gets squeezed out before he can hit the free market.

It’s crazy. Like I said last week, patterns change, societies change quicker than mindsets. Kids grow up wanting to be rock stars just in time to see the record industry as they knew it commit suicide. Kids grow up wanting to be Barry Sanders just in time to realize the position is now occupied by people viewed as easily replaceable, rented mules. Cedric Benson ran for over 1,000 yards in the National Football League last season. In the AFC North no less. He is jobless currently. He has to wait and see who gets hurt at camp, or who blows their shot, opening up a spot to compete for.

Running backs have the shortest average careers of any position in the NFL at 2.57 years. They get hit the most by the most physical, meanest players on the field: The defensive line and the linebacking corps. Popular Mechanics says that hits dealt out by these players are frequently measured nearing 100 g’s of force, with the most violent hits reaching 150 g’s. Lets do an exercise. Picture yourself getting all suited up for an NFL game: Pads, helmet, get the old cleats laced up, ankles taped. Ok. Good to go? Great. Now climb up a ten-foot tall diving board, stand on the end, and then get pushed off awkwardly onto hard pavement.

That is approximately what happens every time five-foot, seven-inch Maurice Jones Drew touches the ball in an NFL football game. Mommas, don’t let your babies grow up to be running backs.