Ernest Lover has always been impressed by the size of the egos on the offensive side of the ball. And when there is even a bit of friction between these egos, sparks fly and things can quickly ignite. It’s well known in the Sarasota locker room that there is a competitive, tense, but deep friendship between quarterback Mike Boss Jr. and wide receiver Tre’Darius J’Vathon. They elevate each other’s play, pushing each other to be the best they can be. But that also means they can be quick to place blame on each other when the connection isn’t quite there. A few incompletions in a row can be enough to send things spiraling a bit, with fingers pointing at each other and a lack of introspection. Now Boss Jr. and J’Vathon would never hear of a defensive player like Ernest as a mediator, dismissing him as not knowing the techniques/playbooks on the offensive side.
In the past few seasons, the other offensive players on the team have done their best to diffuse the situation, particularly James Angler who gets so uncomfortable with the heated words that he jokes around to try to lighten the mood. While others just steered clear and tried to let the fire burn itself out. But the real change came when Stumpy Jones joined the team on the OL. His calm, kind, and humble demeanor helped him quickly join the good graces of all players on the team and his position on the offense (but not competing for stats) with Boss Jr. and J’Vathon gave him the space to mediate. Within a season it was as if he had been on a special bomb diffusion course and relationships between the quarterback and wide receiver began to improve. Just in time for a breakout season for the duo as J’Vathon stepped into the role of primary wide receiver.
I would definitely just address the team as a whole. I wouldn't want to talk to the individuals and potentially isolate them even more so by addressing the team and bringing everyone together I would hope to keep the team focused but also reflect on the fight that broke out. If it was a fight that was a result of either rules or team practices, I would ask the entire team for their thoughts on if things need to be changed. By inviting opinions, I would hope to encourage my teammates to think about how to make things better and avoid conflict over thinking about the fight that occurred. Dexter Hall would definitely want the help of veterans like Troy Abed and Siege Cameron. Troy has always been the leader of the offense and is respected by everyone on the team. Likewise, Siege is the heart of the defense and is loved by the entire team. Having these two on board would really help the bring the team together. Having three players on the team that are highly respected by teammates and coaches would hopefully knock some sense into those involved in the fight and avoid and further conflicts on the team.
So here we are the final week before the end of the season, to be sepcific it was game day fourteen and the Berlin Fire Salamanders were in a good place to secure the first week bye in the division. The team knew if they won our they'd get the bye. Their star cornerback opted to bulk up and move to offensive line leaving Swantavius Jones and Jeeeeroy Lenkins to hold the opposition's wide receiver's to minimal yards. The Berlin Fire Salamanders played a couple of games and let's be real here, the secondary did not hold up. So the Berlin Fire Salamanders made a trade to acquire Chicago Butchers bum, general manager and cornerback Tyron Shields. They gave up an early round draft pick for him, which based on hindsight and the Berlin Fire Salamanders win now mentality and it's work. The issue arose when little bitty Tyron Shields got his first ever pick 6 and started thinking he was the big dawg. The man could cause a riot in an empty house, the issue is his prodigy Jeeeeroy Lenkins out shone him whilst he was still 0laying in the dsfl with his 87 yard pick 6 and another interception to get the team Minnesota Grey Ducks to the playoffs. The moral of the story is, never trust a Butcher...
The fight which broke out this afternoon in practice was started by none other than Soulja himself, so it would be hard for him to be the one to help restore the situation. It went down when he was chatting up the kicker, Levy Tate, and talking about their favorite cereal. It turns out they both love the now discontinued cereal Fruity Cherrios. So they reminensced about its flavor and that there was no good alternative. That was until Tate went on about how she loved the cereal with ‘melk.’
“What? Did you mean ‘milk,’” Soulja then asked like any reasonable person would. This then started a whole debate on the team about how it should be pronounced until other people joined in with other examples of words like “care-a-mel” versus “carmel,” or the Minnesota relevant one of ‘soda’ versus ‘pop.’
Things quickly got out of hand where even the GMs/coaches had to step in. Well expect they stepped and picked a side against each other. This effectively cancelled practice for the day since we were all too riled up to actually work. Nothing got resolved in the end, people just pretended it did not happen the next day. But I am pretty sure everyone found a new enemy on the team.