The ongoing feud LA Rams QB Stetson Bennett is waging that nobody is talking about

First shots fired

The 'feud' began when the Reese's Senior Bowl invited Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett to participate in the annual Senior Bowl. Unfortunately, Bennett declined the invitation, for reasons that we will discuss later. The story could have, should have ended there. Players decline invitations all the time. Whether it is recovering from injury, other commitments, or a more direct focus upon the NFL Scouting Combine, declining invitations by NFL prospects is common.

What made this newsworthy, and perhaps was mishandled/misinterpreted was the fact that Stetson Bennett was arrested in Dallas Texas, and charged with public intoxication. Even that was no cause for dispute, but the friction point began to chafe when reporters asked Senior Bowl Executive Director Jim Nagy to weigh in on Bennett's situation.

Weighing in on today's top stories

Nagy was place in a tough spot. As Executive Director of the Reese's Senior Bowl, he has a long-standing reputation of calling it down the middle. And that role of working with so many young men can only succeed if he avoids sugar coating anything. He delivers the hard truth, and expects a certain level of maturity in his young players to take it as constructive criticism to use to become better and more NFL-ready.

But the helpful fatherly advice tendered by Jim Nagy immediately after Stetson's arrest, and delivered via public interview, missed the mark.

Perhaps it was not the time to point out that Stetson Bennett had declined his invitation to participate in the Senior Bowl. But to be fair, what else was the Executive Director of the Senior Bowl going to say about Bennett? He didn't coach him in college. He did not live in his neighborhood. Jim Nagy's knowledge and expertise about Stetson Bennett centered around the Senior Bowl invitation.