Tramel's ScissorTales: Arizona Cardinals resort to shaming Kyler Murray into homework
Berry TramelOklahoman
Last week, the Arizona Cardinals made quarterback Kyler Murray one of the highest-paid players in the National Football League.
This week, the Cardinals made Murray one of the most embarrassed players in the NFL.
The NFL Network reported that Murray’s new $230.5-million contract includes an addendum requiring the quarterback to spend four hours a week in “independent study” of video on the Cardinals’ upcoming opponent. Other outlets confirmed the clause.
Four hours a week? Peyton Manning studied film four hours every morning before his first cup of morning coffee.
Four hours a week? Network analysts like Tony Romo and Troy Aikman spend more time than that in independent study, and their face is not on a wanted poster in NFL locker rooms.
Four hours a week? A true franchise quarterback spends 40 hours a week studying the defenses trying to take his lunch money.
We suddenly have learned a lot about the Cardinals and Murray and their strained relationship during these contentious 2022 contract negotiations.
Murray, OU’s 2018 Heisman Trophy winner, is a fabulous talent who has elevated the Cardinals since they took him No. 1 overall in the 2019 NFL Draft.
But Murray has gone 2-5 and 1-5 down the stretch of the past two seasons, and the Cardinals’ discouraging, 34-11 loss to the Rams in the first round of the playoffs last January raised antennas throughout the league. That Arizona-Los Angeles game was one of the most thorough post-season dominations we’ve seen in years. The Cardinal offense was inept.
Is Murray’s work ethic to blame? No way of knowing.
Is Murray’s work ethic in question? Now it is. Absolutely.
Murray in the past has talked about his belief in his innate football ability, that he learns by being in the pocket, not watching video. And no doubt, quarterbacks learn in different ways, same as musicians and chemistry students.
But requiring – by threat of defaulting on the contract – a quarterback to spend a measly four hours a week in independent study shows total exasperation by the Cardinals.
The addendum apparently doesn’t explain how Arizona will monitor Murray’s study, but he will not receive credit for time spent in mandatory meetings or if he’s viewing video while also engaged in using his tablet for video games, watching television or surfing the world wide web.
In other words, the Cardinals are treating Murray like a second-grader with attention deficit disorder. And heck, maybe he needs to be.
Murray is like many athletes and admittedly loves video games. Which is fine but also somewhat juvenile. There’s a big world out there. People with the time and resources to experience it, ought to.
I have no idea how the Cardinals will police Murray. Will he have to submit to a camera that is zoomed in on him watching the Seahawks? That would be drudgery for some soul, monitoring someone studying, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
For the addendum to be included in the contract, and then leaked to the media, you know either the Cardinals are a dysfunctional organization or at their wit’s end. Or more likely both.
The addendum should shame Murray, but it also embarrasses the Cardinals. Arizona just guaranteed more than $100 million to a quarterback who apparently doesn’t do even the minimum amount of private preparation.
And the addendum’s revelation can’t soothe Murray’s relationship with the Cardinals. During the off-season, Murray skipped Arizona’s voluntary workouts – not a good look for the face of the franchise – and removed the Cardinals from his social-media accounts.
Esteemed NFL journalist Chris Mortensen reported that Cardinal sources described Murray as “self-centered, immature and a finger-pointer.”
If Murray is not popular in the Arizona locker room, perhaps now we know why.
Overcoaching happens everywhere, so it can happen in the NFL. Too much video work is indeed possible.
But four extra hours a week seems ridiculously small. For the Cardinals to even have to suggest such a time commitment, much less implement it, then make it public, is not a good sign for Kyler Murray’s Arizona future. Or his NFL future.
