By Jeff Moss
DetroitSportsRag@GMail.com
August 25, 2016
As most of you know by now, I don’t care much about college sports. I didn’t go to U of M or Michigan State and I think it’s gross devoting extensive amounts of time to a collegiate program when you didn’t attend said school.
If I wanted to become a huge Wolverine or Spartan fanatic, I should have thought about that in high school when I was skipping class to go to Ladbroke DRC to bet the early Daily Double instead of studying. #RIP Canadian Challenge.
But this year I will be obsessing over a college football team for the first time since Bo Schembechler was roaming the sidelines in Ann Arbor and it won’t be for a school in this state. In fact, it will be for a program that I have never liked at all. The UCLA Bruins.
Why will I be rooting for a team from the Pac-12 that plays its home games in the Rose Bowl, 2,267 miles away from my doorstep? Because I love their starting sophomore quarterback Josh Rosen.
Look, I am not enamored with Rosen because he was a five-start recruit coming out of Manhattan Beach, California.
I am not a huge fan of his because he started as a true freshman and threw for 3,670 yards and 23 touchdowns.
It’s not because we share similar ancestry or that we are fellow countrymen as born Jews.
And I am not living vicariously through the kid because he thought it was appropriate to install a makeshift hot tub in his dorm room and invite a chick he CLEARLY met from JDate.com over for a test drive.
No, it’s because he is on the verge of breaking a major barrier in the ultra-Christian, bible-thumping, born-again sport of football. And no, it has nothing to do with him being born Jewish. Been there, done that. Go look up Sid Luckman’s Hall of Fame career if you don’t believe me. Or Bill Goldberg. Ok, maybe not him.
The point is that the extremely talented sophomore will one day enter the NFL as a high first round draft selection, thus becoming the Shield’s first outspoken Atheist quarterback. A man with little use for organized religion.
Now, we have had non-believers in the NFL before. One was a punter (Chris Kluwe) and his beliefs may or may not have cost him a job. And there have been running backs like Robert Smith and Arian Foster who have been known Atheists.
But Rosen will be the first Atheist signal-caller. The first potential star to draw attention to his non-belief. And as a fellow heathen who doesn’t believe in a 2,000-year-old book of fiction or fantastical resurrections, I can’t wait.
Because as a fan of the sport of football over the last forty years, I have basically seen two archetype QBs ..
The Caucasian religious zealot QB …
And the African-American religious zealot QB …
And I am not worried about Rosen’s progression as an elite QB as there aren’t many true freshman who can excel as a true freshman in a Power Five conference.
And because of the NFL and NCAA’s despicable collusion, Rosen still has at least two more years as an apprentice providing basic slave labor to the Bruins.
(Although based on Rosen’s intelligence and independence, it wouldn’t totally shock me if he were the ONE who challenged the NFL’s rule that draftees aren’t eligible to enter Roger Goodell’s monopoly until three years removed from high school.)
No, what I am worried about is a concerted effort by both outside forces and his head coach Jim Mora to CHANGE Josh Rosen.
This is what Mora had to say about Rosen this offseason on Rich Eisen’s show:
Unless he continues to work hard…unless he makes good decisions…unless he dedicates himself the way that guys like Tom Brady and Drew Brees and Peyton Manning have then it’s a pipe dream. And, I’ve asked him “Who do you want to be Johnny Manziel or Tom Brady? And, you need to make that decision right now and you need to start working in the direction that you want to work in. So, if you’re going to go out on Donald Trump’s golf course and wear a hat that says ‘F– Trump‘, I said, ‘You’re heading towards Johnny Manziel.’ So, let’s head toward Peyton Manning. Let’s head towards Tom Brady. Let’s head towards Troy Aikman,” who spent an hour with him on Sunday, which was fantastic…talking to him about the responsibilities of being a quarterback.
What?!?!?!?? What kind of straw man bullshit is this? Do you want to be Johnny Manziel or Tom Brady? Right, because Manziel’s problem was making political statements about a Presidential candidate he clearly feared and not alcoholism and domestic abuse.
Well, maybe there are other similarities between Rosen and Manziel that Mora is hinting at. Maybe, like “Johnny Football,” Rosen is lazy and doesn’t want to put the necessary work in to be great …..
In my opinion, he [would have been] the best quarterback in the draft and he would have gone first. I know that is really a strong statement for a true freshman, but I’ve never — well, I shouldn’t say never because I’ve been around Peyton when he was that age — I can’t remember ever seeing anyone at his age with the arm talent, the intelligence, the decision-making, the drive, the passion and the ability that he has.
Ummm, that was from the SAME INTERVIEW with Eisen and Mora stated that his QB had the drive, passion and intelligence. So where is the comparison with Manziel exactly?
Because he wore THIS hat as a form of political protest at a Donald Trump golf course??
Yep. This is a public lecture by Mora that Rosen should shut the hell up about his religious and political beliefs.
And the chutzpah (Josh knows what I am talking about) of Mora to tell Rosen that he should be more like PEYTON MANNING? Are ya fucking serious? I want to go into a Jim Mora, Sr-esque rant similar to his “Playoffs? You Kidding Me?” tirade after that despicable comment.
Are we talking about the same Peyton Manning who at 19 years old (the same age Rosen is CURRENTLY) allegedly sexually assaulted a University of Tennessee athletic trainer. The same Peyton Manning who, along with his father, Archie, subsequently badmouthed his alleged victim?
That’s the person Josh should take after, Jim? Why, because Peyton is a good Christian conservative who hobnobs with the douche bag anti-Obama Care founder of Papa John’s Pizza?
The absolute nerve of Mora to suggest that Rosen pattern himself off a guy who was embroiled in a sexual assault case when Josh’s biggest transgressions have been a political statement, revelations that he doesn’t believe in a God that doesn’t exist and a goofy hot tub photo with a young lady.
I mean, Mora is HIS coach. It’s not like Clay Helton is comparing Rosen to that scumbag Manziel. It’s the man who fucking recruited him!!!!
And just yesterday an article was released on the NFL’s own propaganda site (NFL.com) stating that an anonymous league personnel man had concerns with Rosen’s personality.
Uh-huh. It’s starting, Josh. You better get in line, boy. Stop making political statements about a man you probably believe is a racist, pathological lying, fascist who is a danger to this republic.
Might want to get a nose job to hide your ethnicity as well. And boy, you better start reading the good book. And we ain’t talking about that bullshit Old Testament either.
Start behaving like this fine, upstanding gentleman like your coach suggested or you aren’t going to fit in well in our Jesus Freak country club ….
Please don’t change, Josh.
(You can follow the writer of this piece on Twitter @JeffMossDSR. Also, you can join in on the discussion of this article on Facebook by clicking here.)
