One of the most popular words around NFL draft season is "character". What is this draft prospect's character? Is it good? Is it bad? Has he been arrested? Does he do community service?
Does anyone know exactly what "character" even means?
Ravens OT Michael Oher, who was labeled with the dreaded "character issues" by ESPN's Todd McShay before the 2009 draft, recently asked McShay via Twitter exactly what "character issues" are.
What is Character issues?!? Somebody tell me? Todd Mcshay said I had Character and he never met me! What if someone was to talk about his son that way! I never got in trouble with the Law...yes sir no sir guy But this Todd Mcshay guy acts if he knows ppl on a personal level get real! Is Todd Mcshay on twitter??
In the lead up to the 2009 NFL draft, McShay said he had received two negative reports from teams on Oher and labeled him as one of the three riskiest prospects in the draft. Oher's response at the time was much more cordial than it is today.
"It doesn't bother me," Oher said. "He (McShay) is probably a nice guy. If I see him at the draft, I'll shake his hand."
But...he probably wouldn't shake his hand today. Oher continued on McShay on Tuesday once he found out the ESPN analyst was on Twitter and started sending messages directly to him:
tell me what are character issues because I dont know... you said I had them and you never met me?! what if someone was to talk about your son...and he had character issues!! Thats how my family felt. you need to meet ppl first and then judge them not go off what you hear!! And I respect Mel Kiper way more then I respect you...your a joke!
To this day, Oher has been a solid draft pick. None of the "character issues" he supposedly had have come up. Teams place a higher emphasis on character these days because of the fame and fortune that comes along with being a high draft pick but, on Oher, it appears McShay was wrong.
I'm sure he's seen Oher's rant -- it's being talked about quite a bit -- but has yet to respond to him via Twitter.
Should he have to explain to Oher what the "character issues" were?