This brings us to what, in my opinion, is Finley’s biggest problem: his attitude and behavior. People write that off to his age, that most 24 year-olds don’t have to deal with the very public spotlight of the NFL and it’s just his lack of, well, life shining through. Then explain it to me that someone like Randall Cobb–who wasn’t even old enough to legally belly up to the many bars in Green Bay until the end of training camp–doesn’t have this type of problem? After all, Cobb is three years younger. And then there was Aaron Rodgers who was only a year older than Finley when he became the starting quarterback. Again, no one blamed that 6-10 season on his young age.
Age doesn’t determine your behavior. Your attitude does.
And then there was the stunt before the New Years Day game against the Lions where Finley surprised everyone including Mike McCarthy by dodging practice. He’s excuse was, “My legs really weren’t feeling right today…” No one knew what was going on with him, and he sat.
Not to go into full hyperbole mode, but My legs really weren’t feeling right today has a certain uncomfortable yet familiar ring to it. I’ll be honest. It sounded too much like Randy Moss’ famous declaration, Imma Gonna Play When I Wanna Play.
I’m perfectly aware that Jermichael Finley has never pretended to moon an end zone nor has he hit anyone with his car. But that egocentric behavior usually starts with more insidious overtones. You know, the passive aggressive stuff like blaming the quarterback and not calling him by name and also playing the obnoxious victim. That type of behavior can fester in a locker room and blossom into a full-blown malignancy if it is not cleaved off before it can metastasize.
Now I hope you clearly understand me; I am not condoning what happened to Finley or his wife on Twitter after the loss to the Giants. That was cyber bullying to the nth degree. But you can’t play the Whoa is Me victim then turn around the very next day and start kicking the hornet’s nest to hack off your critics. That, my dear, is also a form of trolling. Unless you’re talking grammar, two wrongs never equate a right.
By now you’ve saw the train wreck. The dregs of humanity piled on the Finleys which was followed by a very succinct column from CBS’s Mike Freeman condemning the dog piling. But Finley couldn’t keep his mouth shut. Later that night he started tweeting asinine jokes (which have since been retracted) about dropping stuff. First he joked about dropping the popcorn. And if we all didn’t realize he was breaking down that fourth wall trying to knock that hornet’s nest out of the tree, he followed it up with:
@JermichaelFinley88: I guess I have butterfingers. Lol just Thought I would give y’all something to talk abt.
Seriously, Finley, you are not helping your own image with these type of outbursts. Are you twelve or what? The again, no one has ever said he was subtle about anything.
