i don't want to be one of those guys who compares any level of football to the NFL or tries to bring back high school memories but I will for this post. but anyways...
My senior year we were ranked 3rd in the state, gave up the fewest points in school history on defense. Think it was maybe 3 touchdowns we gave up on D all regular season despite playing the best school from SC and other top 5 schools in NC, we had a few guys wind up signing with big time schools, Tennessee (our QB/S is best friends with Eddie Moore now

oop) a handful got small D1 offers, and then id say 50-60% of the rest of us got D2 offers. First round of the state playoffs, we drew a crap school, wasn't even supposed to be there, only reason they were there is cause the team above them had to forfeit all their games due to illegal players. Guys were half assing it during the week despite the coaches yelling at them. Come game day, almost everyone seemed to have their own agenda, especially the stars, offense didn't want to take a 3-4 yard gain when it was there, lets bounce it out and do something stupid, negative yards or turnovers, most of the guys on defense were trying to make their highlight tapes with big hits instead of wrapping up and missing tackles galore. Anyone that lives in a football town knows that a coach who benches his star player in high school is worse off than a NFL headcoach who would trade or release their best player for peanuts to nothing. The guy who took my spot ( I was suspended for the game :wall for punching a player the previous week :blackeye (one penalty in 4 years and it was unsportsmanlike in my very last game)) was so eager to try to I guess keep the spot he jumped off sides a handful of times, when he got through the OLine he was too busy worrying about the QB than to try to read out the play, 99% of time if you get a clean release on D-Line their is a reason dumbbutt. The stars that had been screwing up and missing tackles, holes, being careless with the ball, you could tell that it was in their DNA not to care, they didn't give 2 craps after the game about a loss, the half that did play their hearts out, mainly the cornfed lineman, you could tell it hurt because they gave it their all and had no energy to be dancing around in the parking lot after the game when we lost. I was in college the following year and went back to watch the guys in the playoffs, they went a few rounds further, half the guys still played with their own agenda, but you could tell a few more had finally gotten it and played with their hearts. People locally still talk about that team that lost in first round of playoffs.... I always end the story with... I didn't lose, I was suspended for the game... I knew how to wrap up :)
I know the NFL is a business, every player should know whats best for them, but they should also know that they are a team, look at the players that normally seem to get swopped up fastest in free agency, the super bowl teams get raided, even their turds look shinier than a good player on a bad team. If these guys didn't have as much as their own agenda and play team first mentality, we make it further. If we would've made the playoffs again and got a win or two in, I would almost bet ya that unless he screwed the pooch in the playoffs, someone would've given Landry a contract like he wanted.
I will never have an issue with Gase bringing in Cutler even though it had disaster written all over it. Gase its far from being blameless. The big play landry made I believe agasint the Rams in 2016 when he went for the TD was stopped short and the entire team pushed him in, are we gonna get that out of wright or amendola? the push by the wr, probably not, but when you have an entire team buying in and playing together I can see the OL still wanting it.
Everyone has a breaking point, this was just his. At work I try not to complain about anything, some of yall are like me in that idea im sure, some of yall are probably whiners at work...just playing the odds O:-) but last week I had kept getting parts from the manufacturer in and they weren't working, I got a brand new piece of equipment in and had to work on it for 2 days before it was ready to be put into production, it's been going on for a year with getting crappy replacement parts. I'd try to overlook it, but then when I got the new equipment in that was freshly built, not refurbished, not just a part for it, and I had to spend 2 days working on it that was my boiling point, the manager at the company got this long email and phone call, the local sells rep, and I pretty much told them when it comes time to order we'll look elsewhere.... well its time to order new players I guess in Gase mind. Dang this was al ong post, I really have got to stay off of here after my morning Monster