Colts’ Trent Richardson Lacking Dedication?
It’s bad enough when your team trades a first round draft pick for you, and you manage to rush for under 1,000 yards, for a two-season total, but when the staff starts questioning your dedication, it might just be time to go.
It’s no secret that the Trent Richardson experiment was a huge disappointment for the Colts organization. In his two years in Indianapolis, Richardson failed to have a single 100 yard game, and was routinely outplayed by his lesser touted teammates in the Colts backfield. When he failed to see any playing time in the playoffs, the writing was on the wall. Richardson’s days in Indy were pretty much done. I know I wasn’t the only Colts fan who jumped for joy when those rumors began to emerge.
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Now, the story behind the story has started to emerge. Per ESPN reports, the Colts were unhappy with a 15 lbs weight gain that Richardson experienced in the middle of the season. Richardson wasn’t exactly the swiftest back in the league. Known for his power run game, it was obvious that GM Ryan Grigson didn’t bring him in for his break-away speed. When a guy puts on 15 lbs in the middle of the year, in the middle of some of the most grueling physical tests a human body can go through, it really makes you wonder if he’s really that in to playing football. If those reports are true, it would seem that Richardson had very little concern for keeping his body in top game shape. It certainly showed on the field.
In the same report, it was also reported that throughout the season, Richardson was increasingly difficult for the Colts coaching staff to reach, and even missed the walk-through game prep just before the AFC title game against the Patriots.
Exactly how much money does someone have to be paid in order to take this kind of thing seriously? Each and every one of these alleged issues points to one central theme: Trent Richardson simply didn’t care.
Coming out of college as the third overall pick out of Alabama, the sky appeared to be the limit for the truck of a running back from Pensacola , FL, but less than stellar performance in Cleveland started to fuel the doubters.
When he went to Indianapolis, many thought his numbers would improve inside a Colts offense that ranked among the league’s best in scoring. Certainly sharing a backfield with QB Andrew Luck would change Richardson’s fortunes? Well…. Not so much. Now we apparently know why.
All signs would seem to point to a guy who thought he had “made it” and that somehow certain rules no longer applied to him. Could being drafted third overall have gone to the once promising back’s head? With all the information starting to leak out, it doesn’t leave much room to wonder what went on with T-Rich. My guess is 10-15 years from now, he’ll be sitting down wondering what could have been, had he just given his best effort and shown a little more dedication to the game he supposedly loves. Playing professional sports requires a level of 24/7 dedication that few people in this world possess. For Trent Richardson, this could either be the wake-up call he needs to maybe resurrect his career, or might just be the dose of reality he needs to move on with life after football.
I certainly wish the young man the very best in life, but it’s clear he’s got a lot of tough decisions to make in the near future. If he wants to continue to grace the gridiron on Sundays, he has some growing up to do.