Franklin: Von Miller one of the ‘most unselfish’ players he played with
Dec 14, 2018, 11:27 AM | Updated: 11:28 am
Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller made headlines this week after saying he went into the San Francisco 49ers game with a “selfish” mindset to set the franchise’s all-time record for career sacks, which cost the team in the form of three offside penalties against him.
But on Friday, Miller’s former teammate and 104.3 The Fan host Orlando Franklin said he doesn’t necessarily believe that’s was on his mind heading into the 49ers game.
“I think Von Miller’s one of the most unselfish football players that I’ve ever been around and played with in this league,” Franklin said, filling in on “Schlereth and Evans.”
Franklin said that Miller has “never really come across as a selfish player” to him and that he believes what he was doing this week was trying to absorb some of the blame for the team’s poor play last weekend.
“He’s trying to find a way to point things back at him because he can handle it. He’s a player that can go out there and literally handle the pressure,” Franklin said.
Miller certainly took some heat for the comments, specifically from “Schlereth and Evans” co-host Mark Schlereth on Thursday.
Said Miller on Wednesday: “I’m coming into that game like. ‘Man, all I need is two sacks.’ So, at the beginning of the game, I’m aggressive all the way. I’m trying to get these sacks out the way, and that’s my fault. It was selfish of me to try to do that. But that was just my mindset, and it’s a totally different mindset now. That was just the San Francisco game, I’ll be a whole lot better this week.”
But Schlereth said Miller’s mea culpa was too little too late.
“You know, you can sit there and say, hey man, I was selfish and I apologize for being selfish and, you know, I’m going to be a whole lot better this week. It’s too late,” Schlereth said. “You are not going to the playoffs. It’s over.”
On Friday, “Schlereth and Evans” co-host Mike Evans, however, said couldn’t really work up and “anti-Von emotion” when it comes to this comments because it’s his job to “rush the quarterback.”
“I don’t find that single-minded pursuit of a sack to be a bad thing because that’s who he is, that’s what makes him great, that’s what makes him a future Hall of Famer, that’s what makes him a Super Bowl MVP, that’s what makes him one of the highest-paid guys in all of the NFL,” Eans said. “It’s because of his ability to drop a quarterback on his back.
“In the pursuit of trying to do that, yeah he’s helping himself, he’s racking up sack numbers, he’s breaking records, but he’s also doing what he’s supposed to do.”
Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @JohnnyHart7.
