This is the worst time of the year for professional football. Roster cuts. Most fans don't care much. The media reports it with blinders. The coaches dread it. The players turning in their playbooks certainly hate it the most.
Teams have until Tuesday to trim their rosters from 90 players to 75. That's 480 players that were professional footbal players last week that are looking for something else this week. Many teams have already started the process. The Minnesota Vikings released 15 players yesterday. There weren't many real surprises in those choices but I thought that rookie free agents Tydreke Powell and Ernest Owusu were playing well. Some of these players could be signed to the practice squads of any of the teams. Although practice squad signings usually come from the last cuts. Those are next weekend when the rosters have to get down to 53. That's another 704 players. 1184 football players that are no longer full time football players. Those last cuts suck the most as the players are so close.
All of these football players walking away from the game (for now) have been busting their ass for months, even years, to make it in the NFL. All have been playing the game for most of their lives. All have been stars at every stop, until now. It's a rough business. Occasionally, a player, for whatever reason, makes it easy to cut them. They don't try, they don't care or they assume a spot should be handed to them because they were a star once. Those clowns are usually discovered much earlier than this. Sometimes a player simply doesn't fit with a team. Being cut could actually give the player the chance to find a team that's a better fit. Those are the good stories. The others aren't so great. This is the toughest time for those in the football world.
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