Donte Stallworth says the Patriots can handle 'media circus', could take on Michael Sam

Donte Stallworth is a man who knows a great deal about the amount of the baggage that som football players carry throughout their careers. He also knows the difference between a team that is great at handling 'distractions' and one that is not. Since leaving the game, Stallworth has been moderately vocal to his fans and the public via social media, specifically Twitter. The 33-year-old recently voiced his opinion on a question that Herm Edwards posed on ESPN regarding the now openly gay NFL prospect, Michael Sam; can an NFL team/owner/coach handle the amount of media that will surely follow the young man?

Stallworth then went on a warranted (and insightful) rant about how some teams would be able to and some would not. Here is a text-version of the tweets, courtesy of Reddit.com;

-If any NFL team can't "handle the media coverage" of drafting Sam, then your team is already a loser on the field... let me tell you why...
-There are a multitude of issues that can arise in the long duration of an NFL season... some on the field, some off the field.
-You won't have any idea what that on the field/off the field situation is until it's already upon you and the entire organization...
-Which means that with drafting Michael Sam, you get a jump start on controlling the "media coverage" right from the onset.
-If an organization is inept to the magnitude of not being able to control things with prior knowledge, how will you handle the unexpected?
-Case Study 1: The Miami Dolphins and the bullying scandal... players talked more about THAT than they did football... for weeks!
-During that time I questioned (tweeted) why the Dolphins players were talking more about the scandal than their next opponent....
-Since the bullying story broke, the Dolphins finished the season 4-4...w/playoff hopes still alive, got spanked by division opp Jets, 20-7
-Case Study 2: The New England Patriots and Aaron Hernandez AND Tim Tebow situations...
-Beyond the state of shock I endured after the revelations of Hernandez, I knew that if ANY organization could handle this, it was the Pats.
-This all happened right before training camp where players are supposed to come in w/clear minds in preparation for a long, rigorous season.
-Not only were there questions about Aaron, but also about the health of Gronkowski and how those two combined affected the team as a whole.
-Aaron is still awaiting trial & Gronk played in only 7 games this season...but yet the Pats seemed to avoid those "distractions" altogether.
-Despite many season ending injuries to key pieces, the Pats finished 12-4 and lost to the Broncos in the AFC title with... ZERO distractions
-Not to mention the whole Tebow signing and (alleged subsequent) distraction wasn't even a blip on most radars... Why?
-Because Mr. Kraft and Bill Belichick would not allow ANY of that to be a "distraction" to ANYONE in the entire organization...
-In my 10 years as an NFL player, I've played for 6 different teams & have been in every kind of locker room. Vet, young, mature, immature...
-The leaders of an NFL organization AND the locker room better be able to handle adversity that is certain to emerge during a long NFL season
-In my experience, if your organization can't "handle media coverage", they will suck on the field anyway... but hey, there's always 2015...

Stallworth blatantly calls out the Dolphins for their mishandling of the Richie Incognito/Jonathan Martin case and praises the Patriots for their handling of both the Aaron Hernandez and Tim Tebow situations. He makes great points too, the most prominent being that the players and coaches NFL teams can choose what questions to answer or not answer. 'Tebowmania' was a national story until the Patriots basically threw a wet blanket on it by giving their standard Patriot answers; 'Tim works hard and we're happy to have him'.

My favorite of Stallworth's quotes from above is that if a team can't handle the 'distractions', then they are already part of a losing effort. The attention surrounding Michael Sam will not be negative, or at least we can only hope. However, there will simply be a great amount of coverage on the young man from both positive and negative perspectives. What Stallworth is saying is that a team's mentality will dictate how they react to the constant coverage, and this will reflect in their on-field performance.

Anthony Aidonidis
@aidonidis18