The media and fans are piling on Bryant McKinnie as they assume he is piling on the pounds. But if you could, open your mind to another possibility.
Let me start by reminding everyone that during OTA’s Bryant McKinnie was in much better shape than he was during Super Bowl XLVII.
Now let’s assume that McKinnie’s new deal with the Ravens is tied to prescribed weight hurdles. That seems like a safe assumption, right? So if you accept this assumption then obviously McKinnie failed to achieve the first hurdle for training camp.
But that said, it’s quite possible that even though he is technically over the prescribed weight, that weight may still be less than the weight he played at during that now infamous playoff stretch.
It’s not as though McKinnie couldn’t take the field yesterday but failure to meet weight goals had to come with some repercussions – one of which is the embarrassment of not making weight and that fact becoming public knowledge.
It’s akin to a parent punishing a child.
John Harbaugh could have allowed McKinnie to practice. It’s not as though there aren’t other Ravens out there who are unpleasantly plump. But he didn’t want to let McKinnie off the hook and if there are weight incentives in the contract that the Ravens tackle agreed to, then why should he?
Harbaugh said he was disappointed. His body language this time around was different than in the past when McKinnie’s weight issue reared its ugly head.
“Disappointed”… sounds a bit like a parent, doesn’t it?
The bet here is that McKinnie was close to the prescribed weight and will be back on the practice field today or tomorrow. And when he is, observers will wonder why he was held back at all when comparing this version of McKinnie to the 2012 edition.
Just like everyone will soon forget that Jacoby Jones flunked his initial conditioning test, they’ll soon forget about McKinnie’s weight and write both off as unnecessary drama.
And really that’s all it is.
