Doyel: Jonathan Taylor joins Andrew Luck, Victor Oladipo as star athletes receiving b

[JAFF]

Doyel: Jonathan Taylor joins Andrew Luck, Victor Oladipo as star athletes receiving bad advice

https://www.indystar.com/story/sport...t/70493644007/

Well this sucks,

Colts running back Jonathan Taylor completed his 180-degree pivot from face-of-the-franchise to jackass Saturday when he asked Colts owner Jim Irsay for a trade, the latest and least surprising escalation in a conflict that has little to do with Taylor and less to do with the Colts.

The star of this immorality play is Taylor’s new agent, some dude named Malki Kawa, who promises on his website to get things done for his clients. Good news, Malki: You can show future clients just what you've done for Taylor:

From Colts protagonist to pariah in two months.

Impressive, really.


Before we go farther on this dude named Malki Kawa – and I’m going farther, believe me – let’s be clear about something: This is Jonathan Taylor’s fault. And because of that, this is crushing. Taylor is, or was, everything you could have wanted in a franchise star and community pillar: super intelligent, kind, generous with his time and money, unselfish.

But then he approached the final year of his four-year NFL rookie contract, replaced his agent with the same guy who helped Shaq Leonard get a $99 million contract from the Colts in 2021, and changed. I mean, Taylor changed like that. He started passively aggressively whining on Twitter about money. He shocked the Colts into deciding he should begin the season on the Physically Unable to Perform list. He even changed his wardrobe when he reported to training camp last week, making it clear he was playing for the team on the front of his T-shirt:


Welcome to Taylortown.

Insider:Colts RB Jonathan Taylor requests trade, team owner Jim Irsay says they won't deal him

Malki Kawa is the guy behind the scenes, the one pulling the strings, the one whispering into Taylor’s ear that the Colts are disloyal, that he deserves better.


But Taylor is the one listening. And without having met this dude named Malki Kawa – wouldn’t know him if I saw him – I’m saying this: Jonathan Taylor is smarter than Kawa, because he’s smarter than almost everyone. While one of Kawa’s social media sites says he “studied at Miami Dade College,” Taylor was accepted into Yale and Harvard. He wanted to major in astrophysics at Wisconsin, but the school didn’t offer it, so after considering a double major (astronomy and physics, duh), he chose a degree that centers entirely on deep thinking:

Philosophy. He left school after three years, but has his degree. The guy’s brilliant, I’m telling you – Taylor, not that dude named Malki Kawa.


So I’m asking you, Jonathan: Have you thought deeply about what you’re doing? Do you know what you’ve done, thanks to some dude name Malki Kawa?

You’ve trashed your name in this city, the only one that cares about you in an NFL that is growing less interested in running backs by the day.

Malki Kawa may be the smartest guy in the room, but only if he’s in there alone.

What’s your excuse, JT?

Indianapolis Colts running back Jonathan Taylor (28) makes his way around the field Friday, July 28, 2023, during an indoor practice at Grand Park Sports Campus in Westfield, Indiana.
NFL is full of lemmings; remember 2021 here?

First Nyheim Hines, now Jonathan Taylor.

Remember Hines? He was Taylor’s backup, one of the best No. 2 running backs in the league, a weapon in the return game and as a receiver, and an underrated ball carrier between the tackles. Hines wanted more than his slow-growing stardom here, though, and asked for a trade late last season.

The Colts gave him what he wanted, and not because they’re weak. No, they did it because Nyheim Hines is weak. In today’s professional sports marketplace, once a player has mentally checked out on his team – once he lets the team know he has checked out – that player has to go. An NFL locker room, no matter what its muscular and macho inhabitants want to believe, is like the any large room in the world: Only as strong as its weakest link.

Doyel on Wednesday:Colts RB Jonathan Taylor knows he won't get a huge contract and isn't taking it well

And like any room with 75 or so people, there are some weak links in there. Followers, you might say of a decent number of NFL players. Cavities, I call them.

Look, do you want the truth or don’t you? These are things I’ve thought, I’ve known, for years. Never had the chance, or the desire, to write them until now, until Jonathan Taylor goes like a lemming over the cliff.

Whatever you think about Covid and the vaccine, you have to see how it worked out in the NFL: Players followed other players. Here in 2021, the Colts had a quarterback and an offensive line coach – both now gone – who were deeply religious and strongly anti-vaccination. Hey, what do you know? Almost the entire Colts starting offensive line decided it was anti-vax, too. Coincidence? Nope.

Follow the leader? That’s what that team did, like lemmings, right over the 2021 postseason cliff.

Doyel in 2022:Colts' anti-vaxxers cost them spot in 2021 playoffs

The Colts talk so much about their “locker room culture.” They work so hard to find strong leaders like Zaire Franklin, DeForest Buckner and, once upon a time, Jonathan Taylor, because they know a handful of cavities can ruin the whole room.

Nyheim Hines was a cavity in November 2022. He had to go.

Once upon a time Jonathan Taylor was the sturdiest molar in this team's mouth. But since changing agents he's been walking like a cavity, talking like a cavity and quacking like a cavity. And what do you know? On Saturday, Taylor approached Jim Irsay and said, basically, “I’m a cavity.”

Yank him out, Mr. Irsay.

Good riddance.

Need a ride to the airport, JT?

Doyel in 2021:No vaccine for you, Carson Wentz? Here, let me drive you to the airport

Malki Kawa represents pro wrestlers for god's sake

About this agent.

About this dude named Malki Kawa.

He’s impressive, perhaps, in that he’s earned a lot of money. But by that definition Elon Musk would be the most impressive person on the planet, and Musk isn’t that. He’s poisonous, belching wherever he wants and being congratulated for it by toadies and falling in love with the smell of his own burps. Richest idiot in the world, that guy.

So anyway, Malki Kawa. He founded First Round Management in 2008. Today the agency has dozens of employees, according to the company website, with 10 people devoted to MMA and eight to football, though most of those are listed as NIL specialists. Two of Kawa's employees work with "influencers." Two others work with professional wrestlers.

Read those last two sentences again, before you read this next one.

What is it with the best athletes in our market, putting their careers in the hands of the incompetent?


Look, I’m not calling Malki Kawa incompetent as an MMA agent. He represented Jonathan Jones and Jorge Masvidal, among others. They’ve done well. MMA could be Kawa’s calling. Or maybe professional wrestling or "influencers," whatever they are. And in football, yes, he helped Shaq Leonard get that $99 million contract from the Colts.

But let’s see what he’s done lately:

Turned Jonathan Taylor into a cavity.

Kawa is the latest bizarre operative to help torpedo a promising sports career around here. This discussion starts with beloved Andrew Luck, a former Stanford star who for some reason chose a Stanford surgeon to repair his shoulder. Never mind the small list of world-famous surgeons who’ve successfully taken care of NFL quarterbacks for years. Nope, Luck went with his guy. How’d that turn out?

Then you have Victor Oladipo, who became the first major client of his young IU buddy, and almost overnight went from happy, lovable NBA star to a quitter who was openly asking opposing teams to trade for him … during games.

Turns out, a locker room isn’t the only thing as strong as its weakest link. So is a professional athlete, someone like Jonathan Taylor, a one-man $50 million corporation in the right hands, assuming he’s surrounded by a team of wise leaders. The evidence about Taylor’s current advisory team points in the other direction, with a new agent who has gone on Twitter to taunt the Colts and now has a client in search of a new team – in a marketplace losing interest in running backs, never mind a back as disgruntled as Jonathan Taylor.

Irsay says he won't trade Taylor, but we'll see. Culture is delicate, cavities are destructive, and running backs are replaceable. And in Malki Kawa, Taylor has an agent who misjudges Taylor's worth, not to mention his own intelligence. But Kawa can offer clients their own barber. His name is Edgar. His name’s on the company website and everything.

That Edgar guy better be good with the clippers, because Jonathan Taylor needs a makeover.

Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar.

[JAFF]

Just adding this

Jim Irsay holds hour-long bus chat with Jonathan Taylor amid contract and trade requests

https://www.indystar.com/story/sport...s/70493384007/

WESTFIELD -- Jim Irsay spent close to an hour on a luxury bus parked at the edge of the Colts training camp practices talking to Jonathan Taylor. He didn't want to disclose what the meeting was about, but moments later, everything became clear.

Taylor requested a trade from the Colts, a source confirmed to IndyStar.

This meeting was supposed to be a clearing of the air.

But with how far apart the two sides appear now -- Irsay told IndyStar, "We will not trade Jonathan Taylor. That is a certainty. Not now, or not in October" -- it's fair to wonder exactly what the meeting accomplished.


"I felt a need not to clear the air but that nobody treats their players as well as this franchise," Irsay said of the meeting. "... Everyone knows that no organization -- and I mean no organization -- treats their past or present players like the Colts do. ... I represent each player and it's my responsibility to be fair and to make sure everyone is treated as fairly as can be to get their piece of the cap."

Indianapolis Colts running back Jonathan Taylor (28) makes his way around the field Friday, July 28, 2023, during an indoor practice at Grand Park Sports Campus in Westfield, Indiana.
Taylor has spent the past couple months asking for actions to prove these ideas for himself. He first asked for a contract extension that would align with his value as a top-tier running back, which based on current contracts would pay between $12 and $16 million. Then this week, in lieu of not receiving any offer, he asked for a trade.


Irsay has dealt a star running back before, sending Pro Bowler Marshall Faulk to the Rams for second- and fifth-round draft picks following the 1998 season.

But in his 14-minute conversation from a golf cart with local media Saturday, Irsay dug in on how he wants Taylor to play out this season on his rookie contract, which will pay him $4.3 million. He emphasized that so many of his players, including its stars, have to prove themselves after last year's 4-12-1 faceplant.


Taylor appears to be in that same boat in his eyes. After two straight 1,000-yard seasons to begin his career and a rushing title in 2021, Taylor fell to 861 yards and four touchdowns last season. He dealt with a porous offensive line and a high-ankle sprain for much of the season and ended up missing six games. But he did show he had room to grow as a pass protector and receiver.

Irsay wants to see Taylor develop a run game with Anthony Richardson, the No. 4 pick in this spring's draft. The two, in theory, could form a dynamic duo on zone-read plays given their elite speed and burst. But given Taylor's request and the fact that he hasn't practiced yet while sitting on the Physically Unable to Perform List, it's up to question when anyone will get to see that develop.


"We're looking forward to a great season and hoping Jonathan's a part of that," Irsay said.

But not all of his comments were in a hopeful tone.

"If I die tonight and Jonathan Taylor's out of the league, nobody's going to miss us," Irsay said. "The league goes on. We all know that. The National Football League rolls on. It doesn't matter who comes and who goes, and it's a privilege to be a part of it."


The implicit message to Taylor is that he needs to suit up and play and feel proud to do so. It's not been the message any top running back has been happy to hear lately, though, as Saquon Barkley, Josh Jacobs, Tony Pollard and Austin Ekeler have all found themselves at odds with their current contract situations as the running back market has frozen. They've all struggled to find much new compensation with names like Ezekiel Elliott, Dalvin Cook and Kareem Hunt available in free agency.

The reasons for Irsay's stand are less hard to decipher. He continually brought up challenges with the salary cap and made a reference to the 2011 Colts, who had to cut Joseph Addai in order to keep together a collection of talent that included Pro Bowlers Dwight Freeney, Robert Mathis, Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark.

But the current Colts aren't paying veteran players like that at the positions that command high money such as quarterback, left tackle, wide receiver or cornerback. The Colts currently have $19 million in cap space available for 2023 and will have Richardson on a rookie contract for the next five seasons.

His roster isn't completely void of stars, of course, and he was happy to point out a couple of those.

"Both Jonathan and Quenton Nelson, I don't mind saying it, they're two guys who have a legitimate chance of making the Hall of Fame," Irsay said. "But there's a long way to go to get to that. A long way. But the talent is there, and you see the magic and the special talent."

A year ago at this time, Nelson was in the spot Taylor is now entering the final year of his rookie contract. The Colts made it clear that they wanted to get an extension done and did the night before the season began in the form of the biggest contract for a guard in NFL history at four years and $80 million with $60 million guaranteed.

Irsay declined to answer a question about how he can claim to be fair with all players if he won't extend Taylor on the same timeline of an extension as Nelson received, which was the same for center Ryan Kelly, cornerback Kenny Moore II, right tackle Braden Smith, running back Nyheim Hines and linebacker Shaquille Leonard as well.

This spring, Stephon Gilmore requested a trade and the Colts granted it, sending him to the Cowboys for a fifth-round pick.

Irsay was willing to admit his current roster has loads of questions.

"Unless you were on this roster in 2020, you've never played in a playoff game," Irsay said. "There is a lot of road to cover before we can start claiming and getting back to where we have a group of players that are playoff war-torn and ready to win an AFC championship."

None of it was likely what Taylor wanted to hear. He foreshadowed the trade request in June, when he said, "You see why guys request trades." That statement came weeks after he switched agencies to First Round Management, and this week, his agent, Malki Kawa, tweeted "I doubt it" to an NFL.com story about how Irsay hopes he can mend the relationship with Taylor.

The conversation on the bus was about trying to do that solely with words. Irsay has always spoken directly to his star players, and he said he did his best to smooth over the emotions that are clearly running hot.

"I told Jonathan, and I told all players who are here, you guys raised me," Irsay said. "I was 13 years old. You guys told me how to act when I became owner because you were my big brothers."

[Racehorse]

What's with Doyel making sense? It's not like him at all.

[JAFF]

Originally Posted by Racehorse

What's with Doyel making sense? It's not like him at all.

Up is down, right is left. None of this makes sense. Running backs have very little leverage, being injured at the time Taylor makes his demands is stupid. You want more money, but you cant play? He availability for opening day decreases every day he sits out.

WTF?

I tend to side with players when it comes to money. But demanding a raise when you can’t practice, wont win him any points. How often has Irsay played hard ball with guys who preform? I want Taylor to have a chance to prove his worth, but if he holds out, it will not help his cause