National Football League

Kyler Murray is directing his anger at the wrong target

Updated Jul. 31, 2022 7:53 p.m. ET

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By Martin Rogers
FOX Sports Columnist

Maybe Kyler Murray believed what he was saying. Maybe he really was mad and frustrated, not at the Arizona Cardinals, but at us.

Maybe he was angry at people like me, who write, report and impart commentary about notable happenings in the NFL. Things like, ooh, I don’t know, a franchise trusting a quarterback enough to give him $230.5 million but simultaneously inserting a "please, do your homework" clause into the deal.

Maybe he’s angry at people like you, who intelligently and rationally soak in the news that seeps out of the league’s inner workings during the offseason and make the entirely reasonable assumption that the Cardinals’ "independent study" subsection was the most bizarre proviso you’ve ever heard of.

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"To think that I can accomplish everything that I've accomplished in my career and not be a student of the game?" Murray said on Thursday, taking to the podium for an impromptu media session. "Not have that passion, not take this seriously, is almost … it's disrespectful and it's almost a joke."

Agreed, Kyler. Totally disrespectful. An utter joke.

Just one problem. That idea that something might be amiss came because of one reason and from one source only. Your employer. And, because of them, the joke centered on you, at the precise moment when you were given financial proof to back up your status as one of football’s best QBs.

Sure, Arizona made a late attempt to walk things back on Thursday, removing the study condition from the contract and publicizing the fact it was doing so. Too late. Too late to fix the damage. Too late to stop the most positive piece of summer news about the organization from turning into a public relations calamity. 

Hands up if you looked at Murray’s play over the last couple of seasons and whispered under your breath, "hmm, there’s a guy who doesn’t study hard enough." Nope.

Hands up if you believed Murray to be anything other than a trailblazing undersized signal caller who, at his best, is truly exhilarating to watch. Didn’t think so.

Speak up now if you felt that even a contract that will make him the second-highest-paid player in the history of the sport (per annual salary) was too much. No, me either.

That’s the level of respect Murray has from the football public, which is why his ire – totally rational and understandable ire, mind you – was directed at the wrong target.

There are some things that are the media’s fault. This isn’t one of them. There are times when football fans get a wrong read on a situation and take an unjust stance against a player, unfairly setting his reputation. Not here.

This is the Cardinals’ fault.

"This is a mark of an unserious organization," FS1’s Nick Wright said on "First Things First." "The fact that we now know they did not anticipate this reaction only proves they are an unserious organization. I think this is something that is going to be a storyline for the Cardinals throughout the year and, unfortunately, it could follow Kyler further."

Cardinals walk back Kyler Murray's 'homework clause' | FIRST THINGS FIRST

An unannounced presser for the Arizona Cardinals featured Kyler Murray defending his place as one of the top QBs in the league after an independent study clause called his focus into question.

If Arizona was worried about Murray’s study habits, $46 million a year is a funny way to show it. OK, whatever, that’s the market, and he wouldn’t have signed for less. But if they wanted greater reassurance that he would leave no stone unturned in his mental and tactical preparation, this wasn’t the way.

How were they going to enforce it? Then there were the embarrassing details that emerged, how Murray, like a naughty teenager, wasn’t allowed to have the TV on or be playing video games at the same time as his study. What were the Cardinals going to do, hire a couple of spies to bug his living room and hotel suite?

It’s all very unfortunate and, if anything, the removal of the clause on Thursday just kept the matter in the news cycle for that bit longer.

Murray is right. We should be talking about how he was a No. 1 draft pick at 5-foot-10. And about how no one has swifter feet and better scrambling. How he is both a current and future face of the league, how he took Arizona to 7-0 to begin last season, and how he’s just 24 years old, for goodness’ sake, and is going to be swimming in well-deserved cash.

But we’re not. We’ve instead spent a whole column and football has spent pretty much a whole week talking about studying and video games and a line in a contract, which is ridiculous and absurd and a storyline that would have belonged on one of those mischievous spoof Twitter accounts until, you know, it actually happened.

Murray deserves better. That’s the shame of it. That’s the maddening part of it all. That’s Kyler Murray’s current curse.

There’s no putting this one back in the box, not for a good while. All he can really do is move on and try to use the ruckus as motivation.

Which is probably why his criticism was leveled in the way it was, because it might be hard to use a comically daft storyline as mental fuel at the best of times.

Especially when those with most to gain from your efforts are the same people who created the entire nonsense in the first place.

Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports and the author of the FOX Sports Insider newsletter. You can subscribe to the daily newsletter here.

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Martin Rogers