Introducing the worst tweet about the Xavien Howard situation

I imagine by now many of you have seen this electrifying ridiculous tweet that Pro Football Talk set off, whose mouthpiece is Mike Florio, that labels the Miami Dolphins as the problem in the Xavien Howard contract dispute. I didn’t have time to write about it yesterday and I feel it necessary to do so. But man alive, what a wild take.

First off, hats off to Florio who knows a little something about how to unleash an Mt. Vesuvius eruption level hot take. The hot take game is a crowded room of grifters and just when you think you have a take that’s going to take the internet by storm it dissolves into nothing. Kudos to Mike Florio for having this one stick. You also have to tip your hat to him and all the other talking heads who know there’s money in talking negatively about the Dolphins.

They all know that all they have to do is mention the Dolphins in a slightly shady tone and they’re going to have a stampede of fans racing to their phones looking to engage with them and tell them how wrong they are. So to that, I say bravo.

Let’s look at this tweet as if it wasn’t done with the malicious attempt of playing puppet master with the masses. I’m on record and cassette saying that I really don’t fault either Xavien Howard or the Miami Dolphins in this unfortunate and really annoying contract dispute. I understand Howard’s belief that he at the very least should be the highest-paid cornerback on his team and possibly the NFL due to what he did last year.

You may not like how Howard is handling it since he was made the highest-paid cornerback in the league only a few years ago, but and you may not like to hear this, but it’s that type of mentality that is part of Howard’s makeup that makes him one of the best defenders in the league. Maybe if he wasn’t so prideful Howard wouldn’t be as good?

Then you have the Miami Dolphin’s position which is what I just wrote. In 2019 Miami made Howard the richest cornerback of all time at that time. Now we, and I would like to think Howard, knew that wouldn’t last long and it didn’t. Byron Jones was signed in 2020 and he was making more than Howard. Now in 2021, Howard wants to make even more money than he already is.

Why the tweet is Ludacris is that if you had to do a ranking system on who is more at fault in this situation I don’t see how you can rank the Miami Dolphins as being more wrong than Howard here even if you’re a staunch Xavien Howard defender.

In the end, it can’t be refuted that in 2019 Miami gave Howard the most lucrative contract a cornerback has ever been given and Howard willingly signed it. It doesn’t help Howard’s case that he has said that he signed a contract that he fully admits that he didn’t completely understand or was comfortable with.

You can get into the semantics of respect, loyalty, and risk management if you want. I know all about risk management, trust me, so if you want to explain it to me ala George Constanza that would be fine. The bottom line is the Miami Dolphins signed Howard to a massive deal that seems like it had some perks in there for them as well. Was that wrong to do? I’d say that’s business and I’d also say that Xavien Howard didn’t get screwed in this deal.

Really what happened here is that he had 10 INTs last year, came in 3rd for defensive player of the year, and the iron would never be hotter to ask for more. I get that and I don’t begrudge any athlete who goes down that road.

So if Pro Football Talk wants to be cool and assess blame to the Miami Dolphins for not having a crystal ball and not being able to predict Howard’s amazing 2020 season then I guess the Miami Dolphins are guilty as charged. Maybe just maybe nobody is really at fault here as both parties have good points.

What I do know is that it’s pretty lame to solely blame the team that made a guy the wealthiest secondary player of all time as a villain. The Dolphins are and have been a lot of things but a villain in the Xavien Howard situation they are not. Have yourself a Saturday unless you’re Mike Florio. I hope your beer or whatever you’re drinking is skunked.

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