Greedy fans hold Miami Dolphins Kenyan Drake’s ball for ransom
By Brian Miller
Following the victory on Sunday Miami Dolphins running back and game winner Kenyan Drake had a chance to sit back and reflect. He realized he should have kept the ball.
The significance of that play was lost from the emotion of Kenyan Drake scoring the touchdown as time expired to keep the teams hopes for the 2018 season alive but also putting a loss on rival New England. The problem is Drake threw the ball into the stands. Now he wants it back.
On Monday Drake made a public service plea on social media offering gloves, cleats, a jersey, and even game tickets in exchange for the ball to be returned. No one bit. Late Monday rumors began to circulate that a Patriots fan had caught the ball and was not going to give it back. That proved to be both true and false.
The ball was indeed caught by a Patriots fan in section 107 but the fan immediately sold the ball to a Dolphins fan for $500.00 cash. There was a video of the sale that was on Twitter Wednesday.
Now there are rumors surfacing that the fan or fan group wants to start talking trade but not really trade as much as they want to start talking getting paid. One such rumor that was up from CBS Sports that had the price tag at $250,000.
That is a tad bit greedy for my taste. There is another circulating rumor that has them wanting Super Bowl tickets for 2020. So what exactly do they want? It is hard to say but what would the fair value be for a trade?
That too is hard to say. It is difficult to play the “what I would do in that situation” game because I’m not in that situation. As some have pointed out the trade that Drake was offering was nothing really special and the ball obviously means a lot to him. $250k is high and quite a bit of money but something will likely get done at some point unless they truly value the ball to be worth that much.
Had this been a game ball that was part of a Super Bowl win or maybe even a playoff win the value would be much higher. Right now the hype surrounding that game is still pretty high but that will wind down. Of course if the Dolphins win the next three games and advance to the post-season that play could be the big catalyst for changing the season around.
If we were to play the “what would I do” game, I’m not sure I would simply hand it over (my wife would have a big say in that) but I don’t think I would be holding the ball either. At least not for good. I think that something could be worked out that would benefit everyone for a reasonable offer. Without being in that position though, reasonable becomes a matter of opinion.
Fair or not fair? Greedy or sensible? It really lies within the individual or individuals who possess the ball and the value that Kenyan Drake puts on getting that ball back. One thing is for certain, this isn’t over just yet.