The revelation of a clause in Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray‘s new contract that requires him to spend at least four hours a week engaged in “independent study” of “the material provided to him” by the team to prepare for their next game has garnered a lot of attention.
One of the most frequent reactions is that the Cardinals would not have asked for such a clause if they were confident that Murray is doing that work without a contractual requirement for it. Murray remained silent about the hubbub until he called an impromptu press conference from Cardinals training camp on Thursday.
Murray took issue with the implication that he doesn’t do the necessary homework required of an NFL quarterback. He said he puts in an “incomprehensible” amount of time into preparing for his job and joked that he’s “honored” by people who think he could have gotten to this point without doing that work.
“To think that I can accomplish everything in my career and not be a student of the game . . . it’s disrespectful. It’s almost a joke,” Murray said, via Kevin Zimmerman of ArizonaSports.com.
Darren Urban of the team’s website added that Murray declined to answer a question about whether he’s mad at the team for making that clause part of the contract offer.
Murray’s comments on Thursday are a departure from what he said on the topic last year. Murray said he is “not one of those guys that’s going to sit there and kill myself watching film” while crediting his “cognitive skills” with being able to make him successful on the field. That didn’t stop him from signing a contract including the clause and his response is unlikely to stop some from believing that the clause exists because the Cardinals were convinced he wasn’t doing enough work on his own.