If you're reading Eleven Warriors dot com right now I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that you're aware that there was an NFL Draft last night, filled with intrigue and Buckeyes. I'm not the best at being succinct, but in brief, the night went mostly like this: quarterback, quarterback, Ohio State is awesome, HOLY CRAP WHAT, Ohio State is awesome, OH MY GOD SERIOUSLY WHAT, Johnny Manziel in a bar, old guys explaining weed on live TV, Ohio State is awesome, Ohio State is awesome.
The story of the night is going to be Laremy Tunsil. Duh. The offensive lineman from Ole Miss, once considered one of the top picks in the draft, ended up falling to the Miami Dolphins at #13 mostly because of a video leaked at almost literally the last minute that showed Tunsil smoking weed through a gas mask that made him look like a super dank member of Immortan Joe's gang of Mad Maxian hellraisers.
That was pretty bad, but then minutes later Tunsil's Instagram was hacked, purporting to show conversations between Tunsil and people within the Ole Miss program that imply payment to Tunsil and his mother. When asked about it later, a possibly flustered Tunsil admitted that "yeah," he'd taken money from coaches.
I'm giving him the benefit of doubt here in part because I'm kind of in shock that a player would go ahead and shove their college program into a wood chipper so easily; if it's really that simple I feel like NCAA compliance has literally the easiest job in the entire world.
Anyway, this is just the most recent, insane bit of drama that Tunsil has found himself embroiled in, not the first. Just a few days ago, Tunsil found himself being sued by his step-father:
Miller’s new lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages, attorney fees, pre- and post-judgment interest and all costs associated with the suit because of “past, present, and future bodily injury, pain & suffering, severe emotional distress, medical costs, damage to reputation, and/or other types of damages that he has incurred (and will likely continue to incur).”
According to the lawsuit, Polingo and Miller had a “heated conversation” about Tunsil’s relationship with agents, but that it ended when Polingo walked outside. The lawsuit alleges that Tunsil then “rushed inside the house and, without legal justification, violently attacked” Miller.
It's a ridiculous situation that will likely get much worse (or better, if like me you can't stand Ole Miss and/or Hugh Freeze) as the NCAA slams hard on their breaks as they roll out of Oxford, Mississippi and throw it in reverse, and it all started because of Laremy Tunsil falling victim to his own success.
But as I watched the draft last night, I couldn't help but think of Ezekiel Elliott as Tunsil's mirror image. Elliott is a player and a brand that has been managed and marketed near-perfectly, from the time that he arrived to Ohio State to the point that he stepped across the stage last night.
A gigantic star while in high school, Elliott exploded in popularity after his terrific 2014 season. Aided and abetted by a brilliant dagger in a critical game and some very snazzy shirts from a well-known Ohio State news site, Zeke was able to present himself to the country not just through his incredible play (although that would've been enough), but also through a specific sense of style and an attitude designed for mass appeal.
That's not to say that anything about the crop top or the cute dog or the twelve trillion megawatt smile that Elliott flashes at every available opportunity is somehow inauthentic. I am not Darren Rovell standing astride a gigantic motorized machine beast named "CASH MONEY" powered by propaganda and cynicism. In fact, part of the genius is that the brand, the player, and the person all mesh so well together; Zeke is still Zeke, in whatever incarnation that you see him. Even weirdly sappy ESPN specials still kind of work, because it's easy enough to root for a guy who helps your favorite team win a national championship.
There have been some missteps. Elliott's anger about not getting the ball enough during critical moments brought out some finger wags from Dikembe Mutombo enthusiasts, and his citation for driving on a suspended license was dumb and a pretty bad look for a guy who should know better. But ultimately those have been incredibly minor blips on the radar of a guy who has spent years grooming himself for last night. He's had a lot of help, and parents who are well-versed in this kind of environment have clearly pushed Zeke toward success.
Still, it's a minor miracle that Ezekiel Elliott has been able to accomplish as much as he's done without the kind of prat falls that stared Laremy Tunsil in the face last night.
I want to emphasize that despite pretty much everything leading up to this sentence, I'm not making a value judgement about the character of either Zeke or Tunsil; rather, I want to point out how incredibly difficult the meta game of managing expectations and transforming yourself into a brand can be for some people, particularly if you have external problems and pressures making it more difficult.
The truth is that I don't know Tunsil and I don't know Ezekiel Elliott (at least, not on any real personal level), and neither do the vast majority of football fans. All they know of either of these two men is based on the four hours or so of NFL-flavored Hot Takes that were beamed to their eyeballs by some very determined stylists, agents, coaches, and producers. That Ezekiel Elliott might be just as flawed a human being as Laremy Tunsil seemed to be, or that Tunsil might be just as much of a saint as we wish Zeke to be, is completely irrelevant. What matters is the image that was being projected, and in this instance, the newest member of the Dallas Cowboys passed his first great test in the National Football League with flying colors.
As for Laremy Tunsil, well... the dude still gets to be a millionaire in Miami. It's not a bad consolation prize for looking like a moron on national TV and possibly tanking the Ole Miss football program. But it's also a dangerous path to take. No one can walk that knife's edge forever, and by not managing both the pressures of success and your own hubris, eventually you might find yourself alone in a bar, wondering what might've been.
