I am going to let you in on a secret.
If you are talented and work really hard at your craft, it doesn’t matter if you have no commercials or 1000 commercials you are going to be ok.
Who is the most branded athlete of the past 50 years?
Michael Jordan.
LeBron is in a million commercials, I think Peyton Manning has been in at least 2 billion commercials, Brady sells UGGS and is married to a supermodel who makes more than him.
It is easy to take shots at RG3 and if you want to critique his on the field play that is fine, but what Parcells is saying here makes no sense at all.
“Don’t get me started on these quarterbacks,” he told Eisen. “They get lauded in the draft — you guys do it on NFL Network, you build it up, you build it up. And pretty soon they go ‘I’m gonna be a high pick, I’m pretty important.’ And then the next thing is the apparel companies and the power drink companies and Subway sandwiches — they don’t want to miss the next Peyton Manning, so they reinforce that importance of the player by going after him and giving him these endorsements, and then he really thinks he’s important. And then the agent comes along and he says we’ve got to build our brand. That’s one step from the bus station.”
So what is to be done? What’s the solution?
“Why don’t you take a look at Andrew Luck. You don’t see him doing any of that stuff, do you?” Parcells said, in full sports-radio-caller dudgeon. “Because somebody told him, his father, that’s what we’re doing. But I’m just telling you, it happens. I can list them. There’s five, six in the last three or four years. They’re high picks, they’re lauded, they’re paid money, they give up draft choices for them, the apparel companies want them, the power drink companies want them, and they forget they’ve got to play. They’re too busy building their brand. They’ve got to play.
“And that’s why [Tony] Romo’s had a good career, because that didn’t happen to him. He had to grind his way onto the team. He didn’t even think he was going to make it. We had four quarterbacks; if we didn’t have an issue with one of them he might not have made it.”
Should note that after naming RG3 as the poster boy for brand QBs, Parcells also cited JaMarcus Russell and E.J. Manuel. Which is something
— Dan Steinberg (@dcsportsbog) September 25, 2015
I saw Andrew Luck on five commercials just last night. I don’t recall EJ Manuel EVER being on commercial for anything. EJ Manuel seems like a nice humble hard-working guy who just isn’t that great of a quarterback, it is wrong to stereotype him. Why were the three names mentioned all black quarterbacks, where was Blaine Gabbert in this discussion?
Also, it must be mentioned that RG3’s best season was his first one, right after the draft when he was doing all the endorsements.
It isn’t the commercials, it is the talent and ability to learn a complicated position that is the issue.
Parcells should have just said get off my lawn.
