On Kyler, On being Different
Difference makers and the difference between differences
It’s hard being different. It’s difficult. Standing out from the crowd, it certainly shines a spotlight. Or lends itself to study under magnifying lens. Or both. Or more. But there’s differences between the shades of different. There’s good different and bad different. Funny different and boring different. Tall different, small different. Maybe likes video games a little too much different. Quiet different. Shy different. Tired different. Likes his steaks cooked through different. People look different, act different, are different. And it makes the others feel funny. The normals. They stand there in their normal ways, looking upon all their normal things in their normal kingdoms, all going normally. All mould fitting and space filling. All going to plan. Until it’s different. That’s when you know. When the plain joe, zoom meeting, morning running masses rise up as one, as a tidal tower, looking to come down on any woeful obtrusions that happen to lay bare with a seismic force. To admonish them, to belittle them. To erode them. At once is preferable, over time will do. That’s when you know that it’s different. Some differences crumble. Some oxbow over time. Some differences lose the difference, a new normal. But some resist.
Now, this isn’t some pitiful diatribe about the woes and tribulations of being me. I’m fine. Wilfully worn down just enough. But for all the high school winningness, the college Heismaness, the number one overall pickiness and the 230 million other reasons why, it’s been tough being Kyler Murray. At least NFL Kyler Murray. Because in almost every way of being an NFL quarterback, he’s not normal. He’s different.
Eroding Differences
Maybe you’ve missed the years of constant jokes on twitter, x, facebook, what have you. It feels like it’s gone on so long there may still be memes of it on tumblr and myspace. Kyler Murray likes playing video games, Call of Duty in particular. Just this month, one of my favourite national NFL podcasts was pondering the decision to draft K1 in fantasy given that there will be a new CoD game for him to enjoy in November. Hehe, Haha, big athlete man likes pretending to shoot people on his TV screen.
In truth, it wasn’t long ago that anyone with a penchant for mouse and keyboard based enjoyment was considered an outsider. A weirdo. A nerd. But we have a new equilibrium. A new morass of normal. Attempting to demean a popular video game or it’s consumers online now would see your extremities shorn off at the behest of our new Twitch streaming, YouTube video essaying overlords and their armies of fervent cultists. Sorry, subscribers. And many young athletes are part of this congregation. This flock. Madden, 2k, CoD, Pokemon, Train Simulator 17. You name it, there’s a professional athlete somewhere talking about it in an interview or streaming it online. And no one cares. The difference stopped being different. Until Kyler.
In particular, until the homework clause. Or the video game clause. That’s what it became. A once in a generation, cataclysmic, dumbfounding error of judgement on behalf of a presumably drunken mind melding meeting of Steve Keim and Michael Bidwell. And that’s giving them the benefit of the doubt. The homework clause didn’t throw fuel on the fire of discontent surrounding Kyler Murray, it was the poisonous lighter fluid that started it all. And the kindling and the tinder. And the oxygen and the charcoal. Steve Keim lit the match and started a barbecue glorious enough in it’s depth and girth to stoke the appetites of every media member, engagement farm account and twitter troll from here to the ice fields of Pluto. Where before there was a quiet young competitor, happy in his own company and learning to take on the role of a leader, good different; now there was a lazy piece of sulking, privileged shit. A nerd, a weirdo, an object of ridicule. Bad different. He probably doesn’t even like football that much anyway.
I’m not here to justify the behaviour of Kyler in pursuing his contract, but his removal of the Cardinals from his online presence certainly falls under the purview of normal NFL star behaviour; or the actions of his agent, who strangely had the power to negotiate the contracts of the star QB and Head Coach at the same time. It’s all a bit gross, and it makes me feel bad. But I am in favour of the transfer of wealth from NFL owners to NFL players. And for all the crying cacophony around the size of K1’s contract extension, he’s now the 6th highest paid QB in the league by APY. Mammoth but expected extensions for Love, Prescott, Lawrence and Tua will soon see his deal perch perilously on the precipice of the top ten.
And for all that, Kyler in 2024 isn’t who he was before the video game clause, or who he was made out to be after it. This moody, loner boy didn’t act like the smelly teenager those aggregators accounts claimed he is. He grew. Take a little pinch of time, add it to a hefty cut of public and private support from the Cardinals powers that be, dab lightly with some introspection, douse with an outpouring of respect from your coaches, and it seems you get a true, unmistakeable, almost normal, franchise QB. One that teammates old and new can’t seem to stop raving about. That’s taking colleagues on trips to NBA games, to his alma mater, showing off his athletic prowess on the mound and the court. That’s becoming a pillar of the community. The first in, last out. What was bad different is lost to time, as flame gives way to ash. And the scent is certainly much sweeter than whatever Keim was cooking up.
Difference Maker
Of course, some facets of Kyler Murray’s uniqueness cannot be altered, and some definitely shouldn’t. His Korean and African-American heritage for one, his 5ft10 height another. At a position historically dominated by tall white dudes, this certainly stands as a point of difference, even with the proliferation of superstar black quarterbacks in recent times. His height in particular draws the eye of the norm-enforcing NFL illuminati. Over the past few years, when Kyler Murray is brought up in wider NFL discussions, the only moment the conversation is saved from persistent video game playing references is the brief moment of respite that is taken to discuss his decidedly diminutive stature. Relatively speaking.
It’s almost a breath of fresh air when the issue of height is raised. Because it actually impacts how he plays the game of football. Whilst the issue of being able to pass over the middle has always been slightly overblown, the idea that Kyler might benefit from some designed roll-out plays incorporated into the offensive system seems an obvious and well-made point. Also, Kyler tends to scramble rather than step up into the pocket. Is that because of his struggle in seeing over rushers and linemen, or his outrageous movement skills enabling him to find yards on his feet when there are none? So it’s a difference, sure. Maybe it’s bad different. But if Kyler Murray always stepped up in the pocket, we’d never have seen this.
In my mind, it’s the play that truly exemplifies the wonderful divergence that is K1. Watch it again. I have. Did you? Again. First game back after a year out with injury. The Cardinals languishing, 1 win from their previous 15 games. Just a week after the Cleveland debacle. 3rd & 10. Don’t make the 10 yards here, it’s pretty much game over.
Yes, Kyler is an exceptional passer of the football with a cannon of an arm and a deft touch such that he might send an egg through a pinhole from 50 yards whilst maintaining it’s shell structure. It’s a rare talent. But it’s not unique. Different to you and me, sure. Unless that’s Patrick Mahomes I spy reading this piece. But not different as an NFL skill. Not different like this. There is no one in the history of the NFL who could quite do this.
The Falcons are showing a blitz. Not quite all-out. Six men on the line, not a one with their hand in the dirt. Hyenas, waiting to pounce on the helpless carcass. Not to know how unserious they’ll soon be made to look. There are three of them lined up either over or outside of the left tackle, but he is invisible to them, meaningless. To them he is a dying stump, alone in the wilds, barely casting a shadow on their target. Kyler takes the snap, and it begins.
The three horsemen, no, hyenas are thwarted. The bounding running back and shifting left guard slide. Without a free shot they must rely on persistence, and others. But one has fled into coverage, and a double-team from center and right guard takes care of another. Where once there were five hungry pups, no, terrifying horsemen, their meal ticket now rested with one. 17. But he’s in. At this point, Kyler can see five things. Four receivers either blanketed in coverage or well short of their break, and a big violent white shirt blazing in to meet him dead to rights where he stands.
He turns and runs. Away from the blinding light of that white shirt. He could’ve attempted a pass. But it would be to throw his hands up in surrender. Somehow, and only for Kyler, the best option is to sprint the wrong way. The cackling horsemen/ apocalyptic hyenas smell blood. They have done this hundreds of times and they know the truth, there are no creatures on earth who survive from here. They can feel the flesh on their teeth, the snap of bone.
Wait, what?
Nearly 70 yards untouched. Reaching over 20mph. An impossible feat. He may have gone 18/31 before then, without a passing touchdown, with an interception. But in this moment, he made the single biggest play of the game, in the most outrageous way possible, a way no one else can, to win. That’s different. Good different.
Maybe Kyler himself wishes he was taller. There’s certainly many who wish that for themselves. And we all have something we wish for. We’re all a little bit different. But you don’t build quarterbacks in a build-a-bear workshop. They come relatively ready made. And they’re all a little bit different. Kyler’s short different. Korean different. Likes video games more than most different. He’s injury-prone different, a little ‘grow into his role’ different. But learns from mistakes different. Dedicated different. Quiet different sure, but he’s getting louder different. He’s not perfect different, far from it, but he just so happens to be one of the greatest all-around athletes in the world different with a completely unique skillset at his position. That’s my sort of different.
I write every week about the Arizona Cardinals on this feed. If you made it this far, it’d mean a lot if you subscribed. Only together can we forget whatever Steve Keim was cooking up.