LA Rams rumors of trade now reality: Michael Brockers to Detroit Lions

Farewell, Michael Brockers

The NFL is as temporal as school, military service, and a host of other institutions that fill the chapters of our lives with very important persons who are temporal bonds. People whose importance and value in our lives spring from our interactions, or by following them closely as many of us do with our favorite NFL players.

Occasionally, there is an NFL player who is the exception. He is more approachable, laughs longer, smiles wider, and always seems to have a kind manner. They rush to help out their community but save their best devotion and love for their families and friends. They are the person you can picture making a Super Bowl-winning tackle but also cracking open a couple of cold ones at the backyard barbecue.  Michael Brockers is such a player.

Michael Brockers is more than a football player who happened to play for the LA Rams. He is truly one of ‘us’.  He was one of the few who knew that free agency might take him elsewhere. But he took the time to say farewell to the LA Rams fans a year ago and who continue to love him to this day:

He is a class act then and now. And here we are, saying goodbye once more. I’ve seen some speculations over this move being unrelated to getting the team under the salary cap limit. Their rationalization is that this news must have been triggered by a new free agent. That the Rams have some new free-agent target in their sights.

I don’t think so. The cuts to get to the salary cap ceiling were always going to hurt.  Restructures do not hurt, but they could only carry the Rams so far. In the end, the LA Rams needed more and found it. The LA Rams get their salary cap space, and the Detroit Lions get a true leader who will not only show up on the football field but will help provide the blueprint to their efforts to assemble a good defense in 2021.