The San Diego Chargers have made it abundantly clear how they feel about first-round pick Joey Bosa and his holdout in recent days, and Bosa’s camp has made it no secret how they feel about the Chargers in return.
The back-and-forth has generated national headlines, but now it’s beginning to rub other NFL players the wrong way.
During a Thursday appearance on NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football,” Indianapolis Colts linebacker D’Qwell Jackson delivered a blunt message to Bosa: enough with the nonsense, it’s time for you to get to work.
“At the end of the day, this is what you love to do — you love to play this game,” Jackson said. “We get compensated very well, so at some point you have to talk to your agent, talk to the powers that be and like ‘I want to play football, do whatever you can to get me into camp.’ You need to show up to camp.
“We all know you can’t flip a switch and, ‘OK, I’m going to get 10 sacks or I’m going to get this many tackles.’ You have to actually build a rapport with your teammates, build a rapport with your coaches. And understand this game plays at a different speed. It takes a different type of conditioning to get yourself prepared week-in and week-out. So, there’s a ton that goes into it.”
Jackson isn’t the first NFL star to step up and address Bosa’s situation, either. Earlier this month, then-free agent cornerback Antonio Cromartie injected himself into the conversation, calling out Bosa and essentially telling him to man up and sign his contract.
On Thursday, former New York Giants cornerback Brian Witherspoon also addressed the Chargers-Bosa standoff, saying the highly-touted rookie must think he’s “bigger than the game.”
Joey Bosa is a prime example of a player thinking that he's a gift to a game that's a privilege to play. You're not bigger than this game.
— Brian Witherspoon (@Spoony29) August 24, 2016
The longer this situation lingers, the more and more likely we are to see other NFL players chime in. And with each passing day, the critical comments will become more personalized.
