The arrival of fall brings with it the start of football season. After college football launched prior to Labor Day, the NFL resumes action this weekend, with a special Thursday night special featuring the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.
Apart from the question of whether the Chiefs can repeat this victory and the changed status of two superstar quarterbacks — Tom Brady retired from football, and Aaron Rodgers left the Green Bay Packers to join the New York Jets — much speculation over the offseason has focused on the diminished status of running backs in pro football. It is a position that in the past has featured legends like Jim Brown — arguably the greatest football player at any position and in any era — yet has become sorely devalued.
But in the NFL, as in so many other things, trends can ebb and flow over time. An innovative coaching mind, for example, can find value in creating, or recreating, a running back-oriented offense — proving the motto that one person’s trash can become another person’s treasure.
Contract Disputes
Over the offseason, several prominent running backs engaged in prolonged discussions with management as part of attempts to win long-term contracts. Josh Jacobs, last year’s league-wide rushing leader (and of no relation to the author), engaged in a training camp holdout before signing a one-year deal for just over the amount that his Las Vegas Raiders squad would have paid him under the “franchise tag” system.
Likewise, New York
