One week ago, a certain wide receiver announced his intention to play college football at the University of Missouri. Succumbing to the alcoholic charm of head coach Gary Pinkel and an irrefusable offer of part-ownership in offensive coordinator David Yost's booming haircare product line, Dorial Green-Beckham chose the Tigers over a bunch of lesser schools.
The positives of this move are obvious for both sides. Mizzou gets the number one recruit in the nation, a 6'6", 220-pound wide receiver that can run 40 yards in 4.3 seconds and catch any ball thrown in the 10-foot radius around him. DGB arguably becomes one of the biggest icons in school history just by committing here, proving the program's relevance after a disappointing 8-5 season in the face of a much-scrutinized move to the rugged (read: shitty offense goes up against awesome, physical defense) SEC. Condensed: there ain't anything wrong with getting good players. Ever.
(He also avoids the putrid state of Arkansas and legendary "happiness succubus" Bobby Petrino, as one would know had they followed the signing day Twitter conversation of crazy Joaquin Phoenix and fatass Spiderman).
It gets tricky when you consider the second-worst human invention of all time (behind relationships, of course): expectations. I'm not quite sure either party knows quite what they're getting into.
Many Mizzou fans expect DGB to step on the field and become not only the best player on the field, or in school history, but in all of college football. Obviously, anybody with DGB's skill set will succeed to some extent no matter who he's going up against, but the jump from Class 5 high school football in Missouri to the SEC is a daunting one. We have to realize that DGB probably won't catch 100 balls for 1800 yards right away. He will disappear in games due to double and triple-coverage and the consistently questionable strategy of Gary Pinkel and the decidedly mediocre pocket passing of James Franklin. He won't win the Heisman because his team won't be good enough.
It's not to say he's not the second coming of Randy Moss or Calvin Johnson (those two, after all, are gods). He could become the greatest player in school history. He may break every school receiving record halfway through his junior season. He may win every individual award and break every NFL Combine record and lead the Rams to six Super Bowls and get elected to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot, but he is still a single solitary human playing the ultimate team game. He will not lead Mizzou to a national championship.
If the fans expect superhuman performances from DGB right away (as I think many do), a certain segment on the lunatic fringe will turn on him. They'll say he doesn't try hard enough, that he relies on his prodigious talent, that he's a bust. They are exactly the same people that relentlessly chanted his name for two straight hours two Saturdays ago at Mizzou Arena. When you receive the kind of fierce adoration DGB got before even committing (much less playing) here, even the most grounded, realistic people would expect an everlasting honeymoon, and eighteen-year old kids (I was one just three weeks ago) aren't that grounded and realistic.
In the end, there's little we know about DGB's college career right now. We can guess with some certainty that he has a healthy ego (or at least enough to hashtag his own nickname in a tweet). Don't begrudge him that, as anybody that can do the things he does deserves to feel pretty damn good about his life.
We can also guess what he'll expect from Mizzou fans - hell, he's already told us:
Ultimately, the size of DGB's ego must remain proportional to his stats on the football field. If he lives up to the staggering expectations, he could have all the understatement and humility of Kim Jong Il and we will still love him unconditionally. If he does not - and there will be times when he simply cannot meet the bar, no matter how high his vertical leap - he must realize how bright the spotlight is. He cannot react to adversity with petulance and expectations of acceptance from fans. He cannot coast through his college career as a brief pitstop in the race for NFL millions. He cannot let DGB, the mythical supercreature, replace Dorial Green-Beckham, the tough-luck teen that just happened to hit the genetic lottery.
At some point, DGB will disappoint. Mizzou fans have not conditioned him for the criticism he will inevitably receive. It doesn't mean he can't take it. It doesn't mean this whole thing won't end real, real well.
(He also avoids the putrid state of Arkansas and legendary "happiness succubus" Bobby Petrino, as one would know had they followed the signing day Twitter conversation of crazy Joaquin Phoenix and fatass Spiderman).
It gets tricky when you consider the second-worst human invention of all time (behind relationships, of course): expectations. I'm not quite sure either party knows quite what they're getting into.
Many Mizzou fans expect DGB to step on the field and become not only the best player on the field, or in school history, but in all of college football. Obviously, anybody with DGB's skill set will succeed to some extent no matter who he's going up against, but the jump from Class 5 high school football in Missouri to the SEC is a daunting one. We have to realize that DGB probably won't catch 100 balls for 1800 yards right away. He will disappear in games due to double and triple-coverage and the consistently questionable strategy of Gary Pinkel and the decidedly mediocre pocket passing of James Franklin. He won't win the Heisman because his team won't be good enough.
It's not to say he's not the second coming of Randy Moss or Calvin Johnson (those two, after all, are gods). He could become the greatest player in school history. He may break every school receiving record halfway through his junior season. He may win every individual award and break every NFL Combine record and lead the Rams to six Super Bowls and get elected to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot, but he is still a single solitary human playing the ultimate team game. He will not lead Mizzou to a national championship.
If the fans expect superhuman performances from DGB right away (as I think many do), a certain segment on the lunatic fringe will turn on him. They'll say he doesn't try hard enough, that he relies on his prodigious talent, that he's a bust. They are exactly the same people that relentlessly chanted his name for two straight hours two Saturdays ago at Mizzou Arena. When you receive the kind of fierce adoration DGB got before even committing (much less playing) here, even the most grounded, realistic people would expect an everlasting honeymoon, and eighteen-year old kids (I was one just three weeks ago) aren't that grounded and realistic.
In the end, there's little we know about DGB's college career right now. We can guess with some certainty that he has a healthy ego (or at least enough to hashtag his own nickname in a tweet). Don't begrudge him that, as anybody that can do the things he does deserves to feel pretty damn good about his life.
We can also guess what he'll expect from Mizzou fans - hell, he's already told us:
"I kind of like that they didn't get too fired up. They weren't trying to distract me from what I had to do in the game. Wherever they came from, whether it was Columbia or St. Louis or back home, I thought they did pretty good. That gives me comfort in knowing, ‘OK, they're cool. They're not going to bother me while I'm in a game, trying make me float out mentally from what I should be doing to pay attention to what they're doing.'"The entire state of Alabama would scoff at the intensity of even the most unhinged Missouri football fans. DGB needs to realize, though, that Columbia ain't always Chillumbia; people give a shit about Mizzou more than SEC partisans currently give them credit for. I know basketball is a foreign sport in the South, but the intensity at that Kansas game? Palpable, to say the least. Faurot Field will never be Bryant-Denny or Jordan-Hare, but Mizzou has good fans that expect good efforts and good results.
Ultimately, the size of DGB's ego must remain proportional to his stats on the football field. If he lives up to the staggering expectations, he could have all the understatement and humility of Kim Jong Il and we will still love him unconditionally. If he does not - and there will be times when he simply cannot meet the bar, no matter how high his vertical leap - he must realize how bright the spotlight is. He cannot react to adversity with petulance and expectations of acceptance from fans. He cannot coast through his college career as a brief pitstop in the race for NFL millions. He cannot let DGB, the mythical supercreature, replace Dorial Green-Beckham, the tough-luck teen that just happened to hit the genetic lottery.
At some point, DGB will disappoint. Mizzou fans have not conditioned him for the criticism he will inevitably receive. It doesn't mean he can't take it. It doesn't mean this whole thing won't end real, real well.
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