Rams rookie wide receiver Mardy Gilyard is no Dez Bryant.
Days after Bryant caused a controversy in Dallas by declining to carry the pads of veteran Cowboys receiver Roy Williams, Gilyard said today that he views himself as the low man on the totem pole and is willing to do whatever the veterans tell him to do.
“I’m willing to carry the [veterans’] helmets, the shoulder pads, lace their shoes up, serve the Gatorade, fix their dinners, brush their hair,” Gilyard said, per the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Gilyard said he learned his lesson about hazing in his first year at the University of Cincinnati, when the older players made it clear to him that there’s a hierarchy on a football team by taping him to the goal posts and spraying him with a hose.
“Whatever it is, Mardy’s not going to be that guy that says, ‘I’m not going to do that,’” Gilyard said, already talking about himself in the third person like a seasoned pro. “Because I didn’t do it [in college]. I was a knucklehead; I was real cocky and arrogant. And I got jumped by the older guys.”
I’m not sure how good it is for team morale to have young players think they’ll get “jumped by the older guys” if they don’t fall in line. But that’s the reality on many football teams. And unlike Bryant, Gilyard isn’t one to challenge the system.