Howe: I’d Be OK with Desmond King Skipping Outback Bowl

[deanvogs]

MVP in a bowl game means nothing to a scout? You need to change the hamster wheel in your head.

I'm not an NFL scout, but I can't imagine that one more good game, on top of a good year is gonna make much of a difference draft wise. The NFL seems to be more into the combine and raw numbers anyway.

If Iowa wins or loses on Jan 2nd really means nothing. Sure it is always nice to win your bowl game, but who cares. I'd rather see the Hawks the I cheered for go out and make the most they can outside of the college game. I am about people winning, and if Jewell and King, and Wadley and CJ all want to focus on the NFL, I'm fine with that.

We don't have to agree on this Josh, that's cool, we can have different opinions on this, it is just one more thing you are wrong about is all, no sweat off my balls.

 

[SpiderRico]

So for all the people that are saying that CM is "skipping out" or "abandoning" or "quitting" on the guys he plays with...I assume all of you are at the same job you started....or that if you did move jobs, that you didn't leave your employer in the middle of an important project/assignment? Sure.

Get over yourselves....seriously. CM or DK or any number of high profile players have MORE THAN paid for the scholarship money that was spent on them....several times over. Coaches leave teams before a bowl game, employees leave employers in the middle of a project, and yes, players can certainly leave teams in order to protect the contracts that they are certain to get. Sure, they could step funny off a curb tomorrow and tear an ACL....but to play in the freaking Sun Bowl when in a few short months you could sign a contract that pays a $5M signing bonus would be just dumb.

 

[Xerxes]

Great point Rob. Coaches move around, don't go to bowl games, all to take bigger and better jobs, and they are grown ass men. I mean they wanna bump their pay from 1 mil a year to 4 mil a year, so everyone says hey, that is ok, he's gotta do what he's gotta do. No problem, just bail on your team, the kids you recruited and the kids you made promises to. Yet we set a completely different standard for 22 year old kids, where it might be their only shot to make life changing money???

Some of your guys are a trip. 99.9% of you would leave your crappy job for another to go from 50K a year to 50.5K a year. Yet some kid is supposed to risk everything to play in an exhibition game, that really means the difference in a bigger bonus for their coach, but puts NOTHING in their back pocket? Give me a break, I say take the money, protect yourself and your family, you have given plenty to the university.

Well said. As much as I'd hate to see an Iowa player skip out on an important bowl game, I can't say I'd blame them. The combine is at the end of February I believe so the next 2 months are critical to draft prospects. The more you can improve your spot, the more you stand to see guaranteed money with that first contract.

I am anxious to see the first time a player from a playoff team will opt out and get ready for the draft. Sooner or later, it will and I'm interested to see the national reaction then.

 

[deanvogs]

 

[Fryowa]

SOLID gold right there.

 

[blubberhawk]

And that would be your right as a fan. I think if this trend picks up, bowl attendance could be affected. And now that becomes a problem for the events and the schools.

High-paid coaches, like Tom Herman, leave before bowl games to better their futures at a different school. Happens every year. If a player wants to do the same thing, so be it.

At what point do the Universities start paying the players? Hey, the Universities make millions of the back of these guys. Why shouldnt they throw those kids a couple grand?

So for all the people that are saying that CM is "skipping out" or "abandoning" or "quitting" on the guys he plays with...I assume all of you are at the same job you started....or that if you did move jobs, that you didn't leave your employer in the middle of an important project/assignment? Sure.

Get over yourselves....seriously. CM or DK or any number of high profile players have MORE THAN paid for the scholarship money that was spent on them....several times over. Coaches leave teams before a bowl game, employees leave employers in the middle of a project, and yes, players can certainly leave teams in order to protect the contracts that they are certain to get. Sure, they could step funny off a curb tomorrow and tear an ACL....but to play in the freaking Sun Bowl when in a few short months you could sign a contract that pays a $5M signing bonus would be just dumb.

I do think that it is ok for the kids to bail on the bowl games. They should, however, make that public before bowl bids are issued. I think if a bowl commits to pay out a million dollars to a team, they should at least know what they are getting in that team. The bowl may had made a different choice had they known Stanford's marquis player was not going to play.

 

[blubberhawk]

Exhibition game. Hmm. Now that I know these bowl games are just exhibitions, I will no longer feel compelled to spend thousands going to the games. I feel bad for all of the fans spending their money thinking that these games were important to the players and schools involved. Boy did we get suckered.

 

[Joshbrown]

I do think that it is ok for the kids to bail on the bowl games. They should, however, make that public before bowl bids are issued. I think if a bowl commits to pay out a million dollars to a team, they should at least know what they are getting in that team. The bowl may had made a different choice had they known Stanford's marquis player was not going to play.

So your cool with McCaffrey skippin the bowl? I could've sworn I read something different from you somewhere.

 

[blubberhawk]

So your cool with McCaffrey skippin the bowl? I could've sworn I read something different from you somewhere.

Do not really care. I would not go to the game now if I were a Stanford fan. I would not go to Iowa's game if Dez does not play. You may want to re-read my previous posts.

 

[TychoBrahe]

You don't quit on your teammates and you don't quit on your fans. A bowl game counts in your team's season record, and in the stats, so it's a real game, as much as the opener in September. So Rob, hell no it would not be okay for Des King to skip the last Iowa game of this season.

 

[TychoBrahe]

I'm not an NFL scout, but I can't imagine that one more good game, on top of a good year is gonna make much of a difference draft wise. The NFL seems to be more into the combine and raw numbers anyway.

If Iowa wins or loses on Jan 2nd really means nothing. Sure it is always nice to win your bowl game, but who cares. I'd rather see the Hawks the I cheered for go out and make the most they can outside of the college game. I am about people winning, and if Jewell and King, and Wadley and CJ all want to focus on the NFL, I'm fine with that.

We don't have to agree on this Josh, that's cool, we can have different opinions on this, it is just one more thing you are wrong about is all, no sweat off my balls.

It means nothing if Iowa wins or loses its bowl game? Really? So why don't you vow to never watch another Iowa bowl game again and prove your point. Seriously, the Tate-Holloway pass meant nothing, the beat-down of Zook's Florida team--nada, nuthin. The upset of Mizzou, the upset of Washington in a Sun Bowl, the epic destruction of Texas in the Freedom Bowl. Nope, who cares.

Welp.

 

[trj]

Unless I missed something he is going to participate in the bowl so it makes this conversation kinda moot. He still has to run a good 40, despite everything on film he still has to show NFL scouts that he can turn and run with NFL receivers. If he runs a 4.6 and he can't turn his hips he is going to slide anyway.

If he is going to sit out the bowl game he should have just left last year.

 

[MiniMoeHawk]

might as well cancel the senior bowls, north/south, shrine bowl and whatever other games now too. Young kids are getting soft these days! You might tear an acl on a combine drill too. Better skip that also!

 

[homes]

Sorry. Was at a doc appointment. Not ducking questions.

A player can walk away from his scholarship at any time, as far as I know. That's his right. He can't be forced to play. Matt Neubauer walked away, albeit not during the season.

My opinion is when you take the scholarship for the semester, you play for that semester. The bowl game is after the semester. King has graduated.

I think most players would play in their team was in the playoff. That's why many of them, like King, return. I could even see it if it were a New Year's Six bowl. But, again, that's the decision of the player that has money on the line.

One point of the column is that I would be OK with DK skipping the Outback. He could have left last year but he came back. Yes, he graduated like and and his family wanted, but he also made the school a whole lot of money.

The other part of the column is to say even through we're going to avoid this with DK, I wouldn't be surprised to see it coming up for us again. It's a think now with what Fournette and McCaffrey have decided.

A contrivance.

 

[deanvogs]

It means nothing if Iowa wins or loses its bowl game? Really? So why don't you vow to never watch another Iowa bowl game again and prove your point. Seriously, the Tate-Holloway pass meant nothing, the beat-down of Zook's Florida team--nada, nuthin. The upset of Mizzou, the upset of Washington in a Sun Bowl, the epic destruction of Texas in the Freedom Bowl. Nope, who cares.

Welp.

Winning is always better. I had a great time last year at the Rose Bowl, so it isn't the end of the world if they lose

If you think that kids should be held to a higher standard than coaches, administrators, and basically every person in every walk of life, then cool, that is your opinion.

I just know that if someone said they were willing to pay you between 1-5 million bucks, but the base pay was going to be determined by interviews to be conducted in a few months.....well I'm guessing 99% of people would drop their current job and get to preparing for those interviews.

 

[hawkdrummer1]

If it's OK for these guys not to play in their bowl game, then they should at least announce it BEFORE the invite is extended.

And I have to disagree with one thing you said, Rob. You said that Desmond "made Iowa a lot of money" by coming back for his Senior year. How so? Did we get some special donation I missed, where the donor said "I'm doing this because DK came back". The TV contract was the TV contract, I highly doubt more people bought season tickets simply because DK came back.

How exactly did he make Iowa a lot of money by coming back?

 

[CP87]

I think there are some problems with the 2 most common comparisons being made.

With regards to comparing this to coaches switching jobs, you must consider the timing factor. If a coach is going to get hired for a new job, he CANNOT wait until after the bowl game. The hiring period is as soon as possible following the season. And while a coach could take a new job and continue to coach his old team, it is bound to be awkward and it is probably best to just rip that bandaid off. The player is under no such time constraints. They do not HAVE to bail on their teams now in order to take advantage of their next career opportunity.

As for comparing it to the workaday jobs that we are all holding down, sports are different. Sports are special. The bonds these players forge with their teammates will exceed anything they are likely to experience in the workplace. You do not spend hundreds of hours with your coworkers pushing yourself to your absolute physical and mental limits. For most people, your success at your job does not rely extensively on dozens of other people, and you don't operate with the knowledge that the success of dozens of other people relies extensively on your performance. If it wasn't for this special aspect of sports, people would not care about it.

 

[homes]

If it's OK for these guys not to play in their bowl game, then they should at least announce it BEFORE the invite is extended.

And I have to disagree with one thing you said, Rob. You said that Desmond "made Iowa a lot of money" by coming back for his Senior year. How so? Did we get some special donation I missed, where the donor said "I'm doing this because DK came back". The TV contract was the TV contract, I highly doubt more people bought season tickets simply because DK came back.

How exactly did he make Iowa a lot of money by coming back?

It's just manufacturing reasons to bolster an opinion. Sometimes it's just an opinion. I doubt there is any verifiable evidence for that assertion.

 

[RobHowe]

If it's OK for these guys not to play in their bowl game, then they should at least announce it BEFORE the invite is extended.

And I have to disagree with one thing you said, Rob. You said that Desmond "made Iowa a lot of money" by coming back for his Senior year. How so? Did we get some special donation I missed, where the donor said "I'm doing this because DK came back". The TV contract was the TV contract, I highly doubt more people bought season tickets simply because DK came back.

How exactly did he make Iowa a lot of money by coming back?

He's a huge reason Iowa was 8-4 and going to a nice bowl. That helps sell season tickets for next year a heck of a lot more than a 7-5, 6-6 season would. It also helps sell bowl packages for the university.

He was promoted on the team posters, a giant billboard in Cedar Rapids and on the media guide. If his image, likeness, etc. have no impact on sales, why use it? They also sell his jerseys all over town and in the state. I see them being worn and being sold in stores.

Iowa made it crystal clear that DK and CJB were the faces of this program this season with their marketing.

 

[RobHowe]

It's just manufacturing reasons to bolster an opinion. Sometimes it's just an opinion. I doubt there is any verifiable evidence for that assertion.

No. I'm actually sharing opinions on a topic that doesn't have a concrete, right or wrong answer. But, I could just post passive aggressively to let others know I disagree with them.