The days and months leading up to the NFL Draft were littered with news of positive drug tests, allegations of domestic abuse, and a bunch of other character related issues attached to a handful of top draft prospects. For the most talented prospects, the red flags didnt stop NFL teams from calling their names on draft day.
As Marshall head coach Doc Holliday explained during his draft show held at Recovery Sports Grill, the NFL is making the job of college and high school coaches much harder. Why? Because they're talking out of both sides of their mouth.
"The NFL is talking all the time about how they're taking so much character into consideration."
"You know, every time that I talk to our football team, the last thing that I tell them every time before they walk off the field is that every decision you make has consequences. Well I'm anxious to see, in this draft, some of the decisions that some of these top 10 players have made, does it have a consequence?" Holliday explained
"For a guy like me who sits there and tells kids that everyday after practice, and then a guy with all the issues in the world gets drafted as a top five pick - that just makes our job harder."
"The NFL talks out of both sides of their mouth. They talk about wanting to draft character guys, and how important character is and all that, but then they turn around and the first player taken in the draft has all these issues. It just sends the wrong message to the type of kids that I've had to deal with and it send the wrong message to high school players."
Holliday has a great point. It's tough for any coach to stand in front of their team and preach character and the importance of good decision making if you have the dream of one day playing in the NFL, when the NFL is clearly willing to overlook certain character flaws in the name of talent.