Perhaps I shouldn't be, but I'm surprised by just how much players seem to care where they fall on NFL Network's "The Top 100: Players of 2012" countdown.
This likely goes back to three main factors:
1) A lot of NFL players watch (and appear on) the league's network.
2) The order is determined by fellow players.
3) We're talking about hyper-competitive humans.
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One player unhappy with his placement on the list? Michael Vick, the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback who came in at No. 70, a 50-spot free fall from his 2011 ranking on the same list.
"Yeah, it's a joke," Vick told 97.5 The Fanatic in Philadelphia. "I mean, I won't say where I need to be, I let my peers and everybody else decide on that. Maybe it was voted on by the peers, but I just disagree. I know how good I am and what I bring to the table for my football team and the things I can do on the football field sometimes can be uncanny but I give a lot of credit to my coaches and the people around me.
"They got me ranked 70, I think the thing to do now is go out and prove why I feel like I should be even higher."
"If that's what they felt and based on what happened last year, then I got to deal with it," he said. "It's motivation, so thank you because they've motivated me to become a better player this year so I have that in the back of my mind as I go out and play this year as well."
Motivated by cable television. How very American.
