Those sharp-eyed bloggers at fatmanwriting.com caught a story that our boy Alfred Morris agrees with ESPN that he is not elite. That comes as a shock to most Redskins fans who, like all fans, see their team as the greatest because their players are the best.
Here are two things Hog Heaven observed about Alfred.
- Like the majority of professional athletes, he is deeply religious.
- He is very, very good, but not elite.
The Hand of God
We won’t get into deep psychobabble, but most elite athletes (and that is the overwhelming number of pro athletes) are deeply connected to The Lord. Hog Heaven has observed this over decades of hearing player comments, both in interviews and in off-hand comments when they thought no one was listening.
Morris provided the latest example in comments picked up by Fat Man Writing.
“I don’t see me not being elite as a knock against me but a testament of what God can do. He can take the seemingly ordinary things to accomplish extraordinary feats. And the craziest thing about it all is I did absolutely nothing to deserve where I am today! God was gracious (giving us what we don’t deserve) enough to use me to do what he could of chose anyone to accomplish.”
We can only take players by their words matched by their actions. I have read enough of these sentiments to conclude that there is a connection between high achievement on the field and a deep belief in something greater than yourself.
The gift of the right kind of religion is the strength to fight through adversity because someone greater than yourself stands with you.
We will end it there. Hog Heaven is neither smart enough nor blessed enough to say more. But NFL GMs must have noticed and made devotion to the Lord a factor in selecting players.
Why Morris is not yet Elite
Mike Shanahan’s departure may have been the worst thing to happen to Morris because it interrupted his development to elite status.
Everything declined with Jay Gruden’s arrival. We do not lay Morris’ 2014 performance on the player himself. Indeed, we think Gruden’s own learning curve is the root cause of most issues on the offense. With a boost in the coaching staff and a year under his belt, we look for progress on that front.
Morris excelled as a cut back rusher in Shanny’s zone running scheme as Clinton Portis once did while in Denver. Jay Gruden’s scheme is a version of the West Coast Offense meets Joe Gibbs’ power rushing.
Morris must adapt to the new guy’s power rushing game to hold off the likes of Silas Redd and Matt Jones. That’s not easy. Clinton Portis struggled initially to adapt from an edge rusher for the Broncos to a power rusher for Gibbs with the Redskins, but that worked out pretty well.
To be elite, however, Morris must get back to the performance he delivered in his rookie year while adding skills as a receiver out of the backfield and become the backfield pass blocker that we had in Portis.
With God’s blessing, he will get there.
h/t to Fat Man Writing for pointing to this story.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
