2014 NFL Draft: Clowney Lazy? Don't Indulge Spy Fantasies

We all have fantasies as small children of growing up to be something really cool or interesting. Maybe you wanted to be a superhero or an astronaut. Maybe you wanted to be a fireman or a cowboy.

For NFL general managers and scouts, I'm pretty sure they all wanted to be super spies. They probably fantasized about having clandestine adventures and shaping public opinion in enemy territory with well placed misinformation campaigns. I can only conclude this based on the dumb stuff they try to pull every year:

Not every scout, personnel director, or general manager is in love with Jadeveon Clowney.

There’s at least one who doesn’t like the University of South Carolina pass rusher at all.

"He’s spoiled, and he’s lazy,’’ the NFC personnel man said. "He’s never worked hard a day in his life, now all of a sudden you’re going to give him a bunch of money and expect him to work hard. I don’t see it.’’

No one—not one person who has ever lived—can be as good at anything as Clowney is at football without working hard at it. And, not just working hard at it, but working hard consistently over time. In case you've forgotten, here is what Clowney's 40-yard dash looked like compared to that of the speedy De'Anthony Thomas from Oregon:

Now, it's indisputable that the good Lord above blessed Mr. Clowney with more athletic ability than everyone reading this post combined has. However, even he doesn't get to just fall out of bed and be that fast at that size. Or any size, really, because you'd probably blow out every ligament in your legs attempting it.

The piece this quote comes from includes comments from an NFC personnel guy, and AFC executive, and an NFC scout. They give their quick assessment on seven top defensive line prospects. Three of the players get a direct "lazy" label from either the personnel guy or the executive, and the scout basically uses it once without actually saying the word. If you took these guys' word, there's hardly a hard worker among any of the top D-line players.

Again, this is mostly these guys getting to live out their James Bond fantasies. They're hoping to sow seeds of doubt in other teams' minds about these players so they might possibly fall to their own teams. It happens every year, and it's certainly the season for it right now. These same guys were also perfectly willing to throw some shade on the quarterbacks, running backs, receivers/tight ends, and offensive linemen of the draft too. Only three receivers, two running backs, and three O-linemen escape without an insult or backhanded compliment. Presumably this series will finish out with linebackers and defensive backs later, and they're probably all garbage too.

The thing is, I can't imagine how this sort of thing works anymore. Maybe it might have years ago before we all really understood what was going on, but it's no secret anymore. I bet if you ask these guys, they'll tell you that they don't read headlines and instead go on their own evaluations. If that's true, then they must think a bunch of suckers are running the other teams. While they might not be wrong on that point, they probably also are lying about ignoring all headlines.

And that "lazy" quote about Clowney from the weekend? It caused him to fall all the way to... let me see here... No. 1 overall in yesterday's mock draft. Give it up, guys. You're not fooling anyone anymore.