Jamie Mottram's Sports Blog - www.misterirrelevant.com

Rudy Martzke's column in yesterday's USA Today included this snippet: "Phil Simms said, 'Wide receivers are without a doubt the most selfish group of players. We win? Who cares?'" Everyone knows Phil McConkey was a bastard (I kid), but Simms misses the mark here. Take this weekend, for example.

Redskins WR Rod Gardner gave the keys of his GMC Envoy Denali to a perfect stranger outside of Washington, DC nightclub MCCXXIII. Rod thought the man was a valet so it was all good. Especially when the Denali showed up in the FedEx Field parking lot three hours later w/ several missing items, including its tires.

Then there's Randy Moss. With the Vikings season in the balance, Moss gave his mates a shot at personal glory by heading in the locker room prior to an onside kick w/ his team down by three. Perhaps he won't show up at all in Lambeau Field this weekend in an attempt to generate more pub for unheralded homies Nate Burleson and Marcus Robinson. See Phil? WRs aren't selfish -- they're giving people!

It's the running backs who're the real-life Leons (you know, from the Bud commercials).Shaun Alexander felt the national spotlight after saying he was "stabbed in the back" by his coach for not getting more chances at the rushing title (which he lost by one yard to Curtis Martin). This is both fascinating and nauseating for two reasons: 1) His comment directly followed a victory that won the NFC West and home field in the Wild Card. 2) Who cares about the rushing title?

 Shaun says, "I'm all about winning."

Another Leon-level move comes from Clinton Portis, who's being sued by former teammate Ifyeanyi Ohalete for $20,000. Portis, w/ a $17 million signing bonus filling his pockets, offered Ohalete $40,000 last June to wear #26. Ohalete, who made 95 tackles for the 'Skins the previous season, deferred to the new alpha male in town and accepted the deal. Problem is, instead of paying the man 0.2% of his signing bonus, or 40k, Portis only gave him 20 and hasn't paid a dime since the former #26 was cut by the 'Skins in August.

So you tell me, who's more like Leon: WRs or RBs?

1/4 update: Portis' plans for the offseason include, "To live like I ain't never lived before. If y'all see me in the news, and I make the news for something that I ain't got no business making it for, don't bash me. Say it was a young guy living."

Long live Leon.

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• #3 Comment from bigmike3212 
  1/7/05 2:47 AM | Permalink

  I believe there are Leon's at every position. Moss, Alexander, Sapp, "Jason Can't white the big game", Keyshan "I catch 20 balls a year" Johnson, the list could go on. The problem is that they are all on teams that lack the one person like Romanowski, Butkus, Singletary, Mike Curtis( 32 MLB Balt. Colts 70'S), Ray Lewis, Brett Farve, that has the intestinal fortitude to engage them and say "pull that stunt again and you"ll have a big problem.
• #2 Comment from bigmike3212 
  1/7/05 2:46 AM | Permalink

  I believe there are Leon's at every position. Moss, Alexander, Sapp, "Jason Can't white the big game", Keyshan "I catch 20 balls a year" Johnson, the list could go on. The problem is that they are all on teams that lack the one person like Romanowski, Butkus, Singletary, Mike Curtis( 32 MLB Balt. Colts 70'S), Ray Lewis, Brett Farve, that has the intestinal fortitude to engage them and say "pull that stunt again and you"ll have a big problem.
• #1 Comment from monponsett 
  1/6/05 11:10 PM | Permalink

  Ifyeanyi Ohalete ..... pronounced "Ifyeanyi Ohalete" I hear every St. Patty's Day, he changes his name to O'Halete and tries to pass himself off as Samoan-Irish.