Stop calling Sammy Watkins a stud

[mild]

The lizard king is old news

"COLD.... BLOOD-ED!!"

[Ray Finkle]

I couldn’t make it through the entire article. I really tried and made it pretty far but I gave up when an evil spirit or negative energy or whatever knocked his beer bottle over.

[Jigga94]

So he's the Josh Gordon who never got busted?

[FantasyFreak]

I couldn’t make it through the entire article. I really tried and made it pretty far but I gave up when an evil spirit or negative energy or whatever knocked his beer bottle over.

Thank you for being a pioneer and saving valuable seconds or even minutes for my life to do other things.

[dynastyninja]

This gives us insight into the "story of Sammy," if nothing else. Explains the disappointment to a degree. Substance abuse, family issues, etc.

[mild]

I couldn’t make it through the entire article. I really tried and made it pretty far but I gave up when an evil spirit or negative energy or whatever knocked his beer bottle over.

Thank you for being a pioneer and saving valuable seconds or even minutes for my life to do other things.

Same boat... I made it to Chapter IV where he was talking about how he was casting spells on the Jaguar's DB's that big week he went off and had to tap out...

[OhCruelestRanter]

I’m wondering if knowing that a bust is addressing a problem with drugs and alcohol is a bad thing. I mean, until now the prevailing theory was that he’s just an average talent who fooled us despite one of the best prospect profiles ever. You can’t really fix average talent. You can stop drinking, hard as it may be.

Apply this to any other player who has underwhelmed- Sony Michel, Corey Davis- if any of these guys admitted that they partied way too hard their first few years in the league, I might be more interested in them than I am right now. My current theory is that they both just kinda suck.

[M-Dub]

Sammy does seem like a pretty wacky dude, until you remember that a large majority of NFL players believe that every game they win is because the magical, immortal spirit of some hippie who died more than 2000 years ago was a bigger fan of their team than their opponents on that particular day.

Good for Sammy for overcoming his vices and seemingly finding inner peace. As far as his nutty, superstitious beliefs go, I’ll defer to the words of the above-mentioned dead hippie: “let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”

[_yeti]

I think he has never stopped being the kid who can just outplay the competition. Some people have so much talent, they make it to the highest level of the game and still are able to coast while other people are killing themselves to compete and still can't. Martellus Bennett also comes to mind

[FantasyFreak]

I’m wondering if knowing that a bust is addressing a problem with drugs and alcohol is a bad thing. I mean, until now the prevailing theory was that he’s just an average talent who fooled us despite one of the best prospect profiles ever. You can’t really fix average talent. You can stop drinking, hard as it may be.

Apply this to any other player who has underwhelmed- Sony Michel, Corey Davis- if any of these guys admitted that they partied way too hard their first few years in the league, I might be more interested in them than I am right now. My current theory is that they both just kinda suck.

True. Well, Michel has a bum knee, that was known pre NFL draft, so everybody should have know. It's like being told Gurley was coming before it did. Same with Ajayi. People knew. Not sure why the Pats didn't. The Pats fooled people. I mean, I had enough info on Michel's knee to avoid him, not sure why the Pats couldn't figure it out, but hey, they did win a SB with Sony.

[Pullo Vision]

I’m wondering if knowing that a bust is addressing a problem with drugs and alcohol is a bad thing. I mean, until now the prevailing theory was that he’s just an average talent who fooled us despite one of the best prospect profiles ever. You can’t really fix average talent. You can stop drinking, hard as it may be.

Apply this to any other player who has underwhelmed- Sony Michel, Corey Davis- if any of these guys admitted that they partied way too hard their first few years in the league, I might be more interested in them than I am right now. My current theory is that they both just kinda suck.

True. Well, Michel has a bum knee, that was known pre NFL draft, so everybody should have know. It's like being told Gurley was coming before it did. Same with Ajayi. People knew. Not sure why the Pats didn't. The Pats fooled people. I mean, I had enough info on Michel's knee to avoid him, not sure why the Pats couldn't figure it out, but hey, they did win a SB with Sony.

They were in a window. A repeat of the first two years of Ajayi's career would've rebuilt the ground game. They were already a contender but taking him at that point was all about the upside, perhaps with the understanding they wouldn't sign him to a 2nd contract.

[_yeti]

Alright, we're going to 'Monday Morning Quarterback' this...

Watkins could talk all night. Seriously. The pink sunset behind him has faded to black. The beer bottle in front of Watkins has barely been sipped and the po'boy hardly nibbled as his arms flail, eyes bulge and diamond necklace sparkles. All other patrons are long gone. His wife, Tala, calls twice, asking where he is. Bartenders stack chairs on tables all around as Watkins goes on…and on…and on…

HE IS SITTING THERE RANTING TO A REPORTER UNTIL THEY CLOSED THE RESTAURANT. His wife is worried about him, and he said enough to tank his career, he has clearly always been nuts but now (a la the film 'Almost Famous'), "he's telling secrets to the one guy you don't tell secrets to."

Can you imagine the army of enablers around this guy? Everyone has an agenda, his wife, his mom, his coach, etc. And that's not for sympathy that I say that, just the truth. He clearly needs help, but they will say anything that they need to say to keep him on the field or keep him giving them money. "Sure Sammy, whatever you say Sammy, oh yeah that spirit realm will get ya, yeah the astral realm, yeah, say Sammy, can I borrow-"

As other receivers in his class became stars—OBJ turning early success into full-fledged celebrity—Watkins' irritation and isolation grew. In October of his second season, he demanded the ball 10 times a game and said the front office was making itself look bad by not force-feeding him. In came the sarcastic cheers from 70,000 fans the next game. In came the social media blasts when he inevitably got hurt again, and no, telling fans on IG to "continue working y'all little jobs" didn't quite help his cause.

Diva WR. Never has worked at the game like others. Mentally weak and mentally ill. Puts in little work and then breaks down when he can't walk through everybody without trying. He's like a mentally weaker and less dominant version of Allen Iverson.

No one in the locker room had a clue. His best friend on the team (Caleb Holley) had been cut before that second season, and after that, Watkins shut everyone out.

Yeah, that's a no for me chief. Pretty sure the multi-billion dollar business of the NFL wasn't perplexed and in the dark about him, one of the highest rated/drafted WRs of the decade. Just because you got a soapbox and just because he tells you they didn't know, (because that was his perception), doesn't mean they didn't know. When a toddler covers their eyes they really believe they are invisible and we play along, then this reporter shows up like, "holy sh*t guys, that baby disappeared."

Then we're off to the tale of the traumatic place he is from. Reporter just kinda gives that a cursory going-over because we all know the story, right?This guy said he is like Jesus to his family and that he has to figure everything out for them... reporter is not gonna approach that from the angle of, 'he is a kid who always was treated like the star athlete, never had a job, waltzed into millions at 22, and was told by the world he was an adult, believing he is some sort of messiah with no financial training, no real-world experience, and adults (30s, 40s, 50s) with real agendas pulling him in every direction.' Nope, let's get back to the astral realm! That's more fun for me and as soon as I shoot this article off that I somehow managed to get this schizophrenic to tell ME, I'm off to the next!

In Watkins' third season, the Bills informed him that there was a warrant out for McMiller's arrest in Florida. The FBI was involved

Sooooo, the team that had no clue of his issues... according to him and author... told Watkins.... the guy who tried to help keep this McMiller guy on the straight and narrow... that there was a warrant for the guy. Not that he was arrested, that there was a warrant AND that the FBI was involved... with just some 'Lake Boyz' guy that is related to you. That sounds like a lot of inside information by an organization that is paying very close attention to you... but once again we gotta get this 'aw shucks, I'm telling a story' version because it is sports reporting and it has to have a feel-good vibe, and couch it in the feeling that Watkins is just an interesting character.

Watkins paid a $1 million bond and vowed to pay for any lawyers his brother would need.

*Beauty and the Beast singing* "It's a tale as old as time----"

Watkins didn't think his "dark place" could get any darker then, but it did. After McMiller's arrest, football itself became trivial. Back to the basement he went

He just told us! Right there, right there. He didn't f***ing care about football. It's so funny because the same thing putting money on the table for his whole extended family, that he used to try to get this guy to stop, he loses interest because that guy doesn't give a **** about him. Read Mike Tyson's story, it's the same story! And the Bills know that, his agent knows that, but they can't tell it to the schizophrenic narcissist athlete because they have to let him keep signing the checks and stay in the driver's seat.

"I don't think the world knows what athletes go through off the field," Watkins says. "We have family. We have lives. You have good and bad in your family. I'm like f--king Jesus in my family. I was putting family before football. I wasn't focused on football. I was like: 'F--k football. I have to figure out how I'm going to put my family in a position to be successful or not to get killed or not to get in a situation where they can go to jail.'

You're not gonna believe this guys... but he started getting beat in football by guys who were dedicating their time and energy to football. Did you guys ever play high school football? Did you see the guys who lifted for 4 years and the athletic kids who never picked up a weight? All of a sudden at the end of 4 years that gifted athlete was getting smacked in the mouth. Our favorite athletes may be this crazy, but the vast majority put the work in. Only the rare rare rarest can coast on the gifts they already have (think Shaq). Jordan worked like a madman. Lebron too (if in a much more annoying diva way). Tom Brady has a bunch of crazy pseudo-science ideas about what keeps him great but they serve as a placebo and the fact remains he is constantly obsessed with being good at the game. You can't "coast" in the NFL - the "Not-For-Long" league.

Retire. That's all that made sense to him on the team bus after he injured his foot again in Year 3. In front of the entire team, Watkins collapsed into the arms of his position coach, Sanjay Lal, and cried. He was ready to give up. Right then.

Pissed off at the world, he went on a self-imposed hiatus.

He boycotted "everything."

Instead of getting scheduled treatment, he stayed away from the Bills' facility. Nobody heard a peep from Watkins as he, admittedly idiotically, ripped the boot off his foot to jog around town. He returned to action too soon, in two-and-a-half months, and only damaged his foot further. Of course, he was doing all this damage to himself, but he couldn't see that. Not at the time. His life was at a crossroads.

Pretty sure he was always-and still is doing damage to himself. Now he can see some of the ways he damaged himself in the past. In 5-10 years he will see how he is damaging himself now. That's hopefully, or he will just be stone-cold crazy having continued to put his body on the line in the league until he was of no more value, bled dry of all his money, chock-full of CTE, hearing voices, and off to whatever future that has in store.

One article, one book, one YouTube clip led to another. And another. Never much of a student at Clemson, Watkins studied 24/7 for six months straight.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it was about a 90/10 ratio of Youtube videos to everything else.

Reemerging in July, Watkins felt nothing but bad energy from new Bills head coach Sean McDermott. Like McDermott was testing him, triggering him, waging a "mental war" to make him explode. Watkins never demanded a trade, but he wanted out. Needed out. Literally stared into a mirror in his St. John Fisher College dorm room at Bills training camp and prayed, nightly, Get me out of here. Please, God.

"And," Watkins says, "I think McDermott heard my prayers."

Hahahahhahaa. Can you imagine BEING that coach and reading this? His eyes probably rolled to the back of his head, out of his head, down the street... he's blind now, he's f***ing blind now because of this

So after the confetti fell, after he stretched a Super Bowl shirt over his pads and fielded questions in a crowded, musty interview room, he felt an energy, a vibe. He knew it was time to tell his story. The whole thing. Aliens, demons, reincarnation...everything. That's why he's here at the Big Easy. And all you can do to understand is try to keep up. To ride along on his stream of consciousness.

I feel I have finally arrived and can let you in on my crazy... I have not considered that this interview may be used against me in the future when it all falls apart again

He's convinced some players and coaches get joy out of seeing others suffer injuries. Their raw adrenaline ramps to an "I'm going to kill this motherf--ker!" level—a demon inside getting precisely what it wants. Watkins? He's messed up for days if anyone—on either team—gets injured.

It's almost like... some guys entire job is hitting people, probably difficult for a schizophrenic narcissist to understand, but not everyone plays wide receiver. They literally "play" an entirely different "game" in which they NEVER catch a ball, they NEVER score a touchdown, they HIT for a living.

From there being two of him, two Sammy Watkinses: "Maybe I'm not even playing."

To other dimensions. He can't see them yet, but he can feel them. After one of his teammates scored a touchdown last fall, another Chiefs player stormed in Watkins' direction to shout, "Good s--t, Sammy!" Watkins looked at him, dumbfounded. His interpretation for the mistaken identity? His soul had leaped into the player who actually scored.

This is the stupidest man alive. The reporter knows he is saying it when he writes it, but it has to have that sports reporting shine. He is telling you, 'this dummy really came up with this explanation when a lineman just was confused as to what receiver scored because he was blocking and didn't see it. What an idiot!'

The Chiefs were losing, and Watkins was fuming. Open three times, he didn't get the ball. He hurt his hip. He took himself out, pouted and told teammate LeSean McCoy, "We're going to f--king lose." Moments later, Watkins reentered the game, dropped a pass, told a nearby coach this time, "We're going to f--king lose!" and grew angrier and angrier. And the next thing he knew, the Titans blocked a kick to win the game.

He blames himself for that loss.

Why does it not surprise me that McCoy, an absolute idiot in his own right, is someone he feels comfortable talking to and makes an appearance here?

Hell, yeah, he wants to be back in Kansas City next season. The No. 1 reason? Head coach Andy Reid.

Reid is like another father. Reid gets him.

Applaud Watkins for not giving into Pat Riley's "Disease of Me," for not craving numbers, and he cuts in.

"But I do."

Without warning, he's boiling.

He will not play third or fourth fiddle on this team anymore. Not that he's said a peep about it to the team. If anything, Watkins believes he's been the one keeping other young receivers in check. He taught selflessness. He put others in position to score and was the first teammate on site, in the end zone, to celebrate.

This fuggin guy

He thinks about his relationship with Reid. It's the best he's ever had with a coach. It started with 11 p.m. phone calls his first year in Kansas City. "Hey, Starship! How you doing?" (Reid calls him "Starship 14.") Reid would ask about life, about his two girls. (Watkins' daughters love Reid.) Their energies match. Reid gets him. Once, in a team meeting, Watkins leaned back to stretch a sore neck, and Reid, out of nowhere, yelled at him. "Sammy, stop! Stop talking to your people! They've been visiting me in my sleep! Stop!" Confused, Watkins asked him what he meant. "You know, Mars, Neptune…"

When the rest of the world freaked out over Watkins talking retirement mid-Super Bowl Week, Reid never even brought it up to him. He knew Watkins was fooling around. And whenever Watkins was frustrated last season, Reid called him into his office to tell him he was elite and his time was coming.

"Every word that he's said," Watkins says, "has turned true. Every single word."

So funny, so sad. The art of managing the egos of multimillionaire children who live on another planet. This is why some coaches have to run back to college where they get to run a quasi-military program, and keep an iron-grip on impressionable developing young people with no money and people like Reid thrive. Look at how he is able to effortlessly play to what Watkins wants to hear for the good of the team, for the good of himself as a coach. This is just one guy, and he does this with a whole roster (though Watkins is the craziest I'm sure). He calls him Starship and told him to stop talking to his people on other planets. This is a guy who interacts with football through only his mind and his words.... he realizes you're a fool Sammy, everyone does! Only you don't, that's the big joke. He confused you with that statement because he was, IS calling you a fool. He calls you starship because you don't live on this planet with the rest of us. He's saying you're crazy, but he can use you for now, so he does.

Instead of staring in front of a mirror and praying for a trade—for greener pastures somewhere else—this Sammy, New Sammy, agrees to a restructured, incentive-laden contract to stay in Kansas City. He can still make up to $16 million if he delivers. And he knows he'll deliver.

We know you're crazy. You perform, you get paid. Also, it's probably best for you too, because it will keep you focused and training and committed -- as opposed to wandering back into the basement, or out into traffic.

[BigBawseRoss]

i still like him a lot, mahomes is his qb and he can pop off at any given moment. the guessing when and if hes gonna ball out is the frustrating part.

most nfl players are a unique breed hes def out there but i dont care his cost is low and potential high.

[Lotto4Life]

This made me chuckle

When a toddler covers their eyes they really believe they are invisible and we play along, then this reporter shows up like, "holy sh*t guys, that baby disappeared."

[jenkins.math]

i still like him a lot, mahomes is his qb and he can pop off at any given moment. the guessing when and if hes gonna ball out is the frustrating part.

most nfl players are a unique breed hes def out there but i dont care his cost is low and potential high.

How many years do you have to underperform before you lose the "high potential" moniker?