Athletes and the entitlement mindset

I’ll never forget the first time I went back to my high school to watch my old team play in a football game without me. I told my dad how much smaller everything seemed and how briefly jarring it was to see another kid wearing my old number, as though I expected Blackford High School to retire the number of a completely forgettable player. He probably said something like, “Yeah, it happens.”

This is an experience that is not unique. It has happened to probably everyone who has ever played a sport at any level, in that there is always a next season, and there is always a next kid to wear your number. This is one of the many beautiful joys of sport, and it’s something I reflected on as I watched Week One of the NFL preseason (like Christmas morning for me) and saw the rookies I am excited about wearing jersey numbers of people that I was probably also excited about watching a few years ago.

Sports is unrelenting in teaching the following lesson: There is always someone else coming to take what you think is yours. This is also true of every other career. There’s another writer, another salesman, another pilot, another auto-body-tech, and another professor trying to be better than you are.

This is a lesson that current Washington Redskins (Commanders) quarterback Jayden Daniels is having a tough time with, as evidenced by the cease-and-desist he served to LSU Football, which had the temerity to allow another player to wear the number that Daniels wore three seasons ago as a member of the LSU Tigers.

Here’s the statement from the Daniels family: “The Daniels family is deeply disappointed and feels profoundly disrespected by LSU’s decision to give Jayden’s number to another player,” the statement from Daniels’ spokesperson said via ESPN. “Jayden and his family had every reason to believe that his number would remain a meaningful part of his LSU legacy and would be honored and protected in recognition of his extraordinary contributions to the university.”

Jayden has disallowed the university to use his name, image, and likeness in recruiting, merchandising, or the all-important hype video.

I have a few issues with this. First, the use of the term “The Daniels Family.” I have written and said many times that hell hath no fury like that of the Entitled Quarterback Dad—one of the most consistently repellent figures on the sports landscape—a category that should now probably be expanded to include Quarterback Mom and Quarterback Hangers-On.

Second, the use of “Daniels’ spokesperson.” If this is a problem for Daniels, he needs to either say it with his chest or not say it. I’m reminded of cool quarterbacks like Kenny Stabler and Joe Namath and Troy Aikman (and many others) who just said cool stuff on their own from time to time. We need to bring this back, as it will make sport gradations more interesting.

Finally, the Daniels Family feels “profoundly disrespected” that the school is treating Daniels differently than Joe Burrow, who was also a great quarterback at LSU. Both are tremendous quarterbacks. Burrow led his team to one of the greatest seasons in college football history, while Daniels went 9-3 and lost in the ReliaQuest Bowl. Both will, eventually, be forgotten.

Somewhere, JaMarcus Russell (another LSU quarterback) is checking his X mentions. I had to Google his name because I had forgotten it. Ultimately, Daniels’ contribution to the university isn’t all that extraordinary, in that every day there is another rich old person making another contribution to another university that probably doesn’t deserve it.

Parents, teach your kids that there is nobody less lovable than somebody who stands on a rooftop and shouts, “Love me!” Parents, remind your kids that, when it comes to much of life, they’re not that special, but that you love them deeply anyway. They’re special because they bear the image of God, not because they are good at throwing a ball and giving you something to brag about on Facebook.

Jayden Daniels is a gift to his parents because of how God made him, not because of his legacy at a university that is deeply committed to buying more players in order to make more money to buy even better players the next year.

Parents, allow your kids to litigate their own battles, which probably Matthew 18-ishly involves them going to someone else in private, without you. And without the media.

Sports is sometimes magical and sometimes self-parodic, but it always has something to teach us.