University of Oklahoma Athletics
Mossman Prophecies No. 005
July 02, 2007 | Athletics
July 2, 2007
There is one thing in sports today that is in greater
supply than ever before, and it's not performance-enhancing
substances.
It's opinion.
With the proliferation of internet blogs, message boards,
chat rooms and sports talk radio, opinion is more prevalent
than mosquitoes around standing water. The latter
is a bad thing. The former may not be a lot better.
We're finding that more time and space simply
provides more opportunity for people to say something
dumb.
Along those lines, I had to jerk the Buick back onto
the roadway recently when a local sports talk host,
discussing athletes who dramatize themselves via injury,
named Oklahoma running back Adrian Peterson.
That particular host could talk non-stop for the rest
of the year and not say anything else so completely
without merit.
Now I am no apologist for Adrian Peterson. I've
worked in college athletics a long time and been fortunate
to interact with several celebrities. The hero worship
thing wore off a long time ago. Adrian is a great football
player. He's also a college student and
a human being.
That said, I am stunned that anyone would suggest that
Peterson accentuates injury. The guy dislocated his
shoulder in the first scrimmage of his true freshman
camp, then went out in the season opener and gained
100 yards.
After the season, that same injury required surgery.
In 2005, when an ankle injury should have relegated
him to street clothes for something like two to four
games, he played through the ailment and eventually
gained more yards than any other running back in the
Big 12 Conference.
In the Holiday Bowl game that same year, as the Sooner
sideline celebrated a touchdown, Peterson took a helmet
to the noggin'. The accident opened a gash
on his forehead and left him flat on his back, groggy
and bloody.
It was after that incident that he reeled off his most
memorable run of the game. He flattened one Oregon
defender then drug several others on a 14-yard blast,
the tone of which was far more important than the first
down it gained.
To say that this particular player somehow magnifies
injury and attempts to exalt himself in the process
makes one wonder if the state should consider background
checks on microphone purchases.
Yes, too much opinion really is a bad thing. And
since that's the case, I'll shut up now.
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Kenny Mossman, Associate Athletics Director for
Communications, provides his perspective on Oklahoma
Athletics in his regular column on SoonerSports.com.
