It’s Easy — But Wrong — To Hate Josh Rosen

I’ll publicly admit what most people are afraid to say out loud: it’s not hard to dislike Josh Rosen.

In fact, you’re someone who was born into normal, “midde-class” circumstances, and despise those people who’ve basically had everything handed to them their entire lives, it’d actually pretty easy to hate Josh Rosen.

Rosen was born and raised in a city known for having the most expensive homes in the United States. His father was an Olympic athlete and a spine surgeon who was once in consideration for the role of Surgeon General to President Barack Obama. His mother was a collegiate athlete at one of the most prestigious universities in the world. He is literally a blood descendant of the gentlemen whom Cornell University, and the famous Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania were named after. He grew up playing tennis — likely at some exorbitantly expensive country club — and was nationally ranked in his age group by 12 years old.

On the football field, he played ‘ball at one of the most prestigious prep schools in the nation. As one of the most heralded quarterback recruits coming out of high school in recent memory, he was the crown jewel of a recruiting class for a well-known university that’s only a handful of miles away from Hollywood (UCLA). Before he played in his first collegiate game, he already had a hot tub in his dorm room. His nickname when he got to school was “Chosen” Rosen.

Yet, in his three years at UCLA, not only did Rosen get his head coach fired (though Jim Mora Jr. hasn’t done much on his own to prevent his own demise), but he never finished with more than eight wins in his three years there, and went 0–2 in his two bowl game appearances.

So why is it that, the more I read about Rosen, who sounds like a real-life version of Sack Lodge, (at least at a surface-level), the more i’m fascinated by him?

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson

It’s easy to peg Rosen as a football-playing version of Johnny Lawrence, and to hate him because of everything he’s “won” in the genetic lottery.

But is it really fair to let our bias, prejudice, or even jealousy of Rosen obscure the fact that he’s a talented football player, but also the type of person who’s not afraid to challenge the collective groupthink — and often meat-headed world-view — that dominates the NFL?

Put another way: do we realize that we’re slamming Rosen for being a legitimately intelligent, thoughtful, and insightful professional athlete?

Even with all the advances taking place within the confines of the more “cutting-edge” NFL teams, antidisestablishmentarianism beliefs are still a common denominator among nearly every team. NFL players should be athletic automatons who eat, sleep, and breathe football, spout the same banalities about “playing one game at time” and “focused on beating [opponent]” whenever they’re asked about virtually anything going on in the world, and ensure their off-the-field profile stays off the public radar. They should always remember the oft-used cliché: “it’s a privilege to play in the National Football League.”

So should we be so quick to dismiss this “silver-spooned golden boy,” and effectively tell him that he’s not allowed to ask “why” in regards to anything about the (borderline archaic) good old boys network that comprises the NFL?

• How ridiculous is it that we believe the fact that Rosen needs to be “challenged intellectually” is a bad thing?
• How ridiculous is it that we’re holding it against Rosen that he didn’t chug the “Kool-Aid” served by Trent Dilfer during his (increasingly-publicized) Elite 11 football camps?
• How ridiculous is the fact that NFL front office-types were reluctant to draft Rosen because he might want to use his public profile and his financial means — both inherited and earned — to perform humanitarian work?
• And, my favorite: how sad — and yes, ridiculous — is the fact that many teams weren’t keen on drafting Rosen because of the quarterback’s blatant disdain for our (highly polarizing) President, mostly because it conflicts with the political beliefs of their (insanely wealthy and even more greedy) owners?

If you’re not keen on Rosen because he’s not super fast (he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.94 seconds), he doesn’t have the strongest arm, and he tends to make the risky throws (because of his steadfast belief in his abilities), those are valid criticisms.

If you believe that he’s going to endure a lot of growing pains on account of the team that drafted him (the Arizona Cardinals), I definitely agree with you. The Cardinals have one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL, no wide receiver of note after Larry Fitzgerald (who’s probably playing his last year in the NFL), and not even a semi-reliable option at tight end. (As an aside: I also think Steve Wilks was the least-inspired head coaching hire this offseason).

But in an era where so many talking-head gasbags on so many politically-slanted broadcast programs and networks are telling professional athletes to ‘stick to sports,’ is it really fair to let our prejudice (or even jealousy?) of Rosen get in the way of the fact that his non-conformity to societal stereotypes is more of what the league, professional sports, and society as a whole, really needs?

2018 Week 1 NFL Picks

(picks in bold)

Atlanta at Philadelphia (-1) — pick made Thursday evening Pittsburgh (-4) at Cleveland San Francisco at Minnesota (-6.5) Cincinnati at Indianapolis (-3) Buffalo at Baltimore (-7.5) Jacksonville (-3) at NY Giants Tampa Bay at New Orleans (-9.5) Houston at New England (-6.5) Tennessee (-1.5) at Miami Kansas City at LA Chargers (-3.5) Seattle at Denver (-3) Dallas at Carolina (-3) Washington at Arizona (-1) Chicago at Green Bay (-7.5) NY Jets at Detroit (-6.5) LA Rams (-4.5) at Oakland