The Loyalty of Adrian Wilson
January 26th, 2009 | 2 Comments
I enjoyed this article about Adrian Wilson and his tenure with the Arizona Cardinals. He was drafted by them seven years ago, and they never had a winning season during that time.
Despite being a standout (with a 66′ standing high jump) who could have gone free agent, he chose to stick it out in Arizona.
[...] Wilson passed on his opportunity to become a free agent after the 2004 season. He re-upped for five more years with the hope that things would somehow get better — and the conviction that they could not get much worse.
“I never downplayed the organization or even talked bad about them,” Wilson says, “because this is somewhere I want to be and somewhere I want to finish my career. It’s all about working and making the team better.”
I’ve always wondered about players that bounce from team to team in search of a ring. What does that prove? That you can keep abandoning one team after another until you’re lucky to land at the right one?
I have great respect for players who stick it out at a sub-par team season-after-season in an attempt to win with that team. For guys like this, it’s not the desintation (the ring), it’s the journey.
January 27th, 2009 at 9:05 am (#)
For 99% of the players who make it out of high school and into a competitive college program, even at that point it’s no longer about the team. It’s about personal stats and the only reason to worry about the team’s image is to help improve your own image. It’s all about personal glory.
That’s what bothered me about college football, I wasn’t there for the same reason that everyone else was apparently.
January 27th, 2009 at 5:02 pm (#)
Couldn’t agree more. I always love the guys who stick it out as long as they can with one squad.
Loved the on-field interview with Adrian after the win over the Eagles–the guy was pretty emotional. His loyalty had finally paid off…