It has been enlightening to watch Carolina Panthers general manager Marty Hurney navigate the NFL’s messy free agency process in his second try at this job – one in which Hurney is obviously determined to learn from the mistakes he made the first time around.
The old Hurney got really emotional. He was overly loyal and handed out enormous contracts like Oprah once handed out new cars – “You get a contract! And you get a contract!” – to too many of the players he drafted.
Loyalty sounds like a great characteristic but in a cold-hearted profession where rosters must churn constantly (see Patriots, New England), it turned out to haunt Hurney.