Blake Bortles: “I’m like the scapegoat for this team”
Posted by Darin Gantt on October 25, 2018, 2:11 PM EDT
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Blake Bortles may not be perfect. But at least he has self-awareness.
The Jaguars quarterback understands that as the quarterback of a team built to minimize the play of the quarterback, any praise he ever gets will be conditional and any criticism will be extreme.
“I’m totally at peace with that,” Bortles told Michael Silver of NFL.com. “I totally understand that I’m like the scapegoat for this team. When we play good, ‘The defense played well, the running back did good, the receivers made great plays.’ And when we play bad, ‘Blake Bortles is the worst quarterback on the face of the planet.’
“And I get it. Obviously, that’s not what I would have chosen for myself. And I’m sure it’ll never stop. But I couldn’t care less. I just want to win football games with this team.”
That interview happened last week, before he was benched and re-installed as the starter for Sunday’s game against the Eagles. And also before Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins left a crater where Bortles once stood by saying: “I can turn on the tape this week of our opponent and see that Colin Kaepernick deserves a job.”
Bortles is used to such criticism. And he’s deserved his share of it recently, with eight turnovers in the last three games. But for every bad Bortles, there’s also the guy who held the wheel while all the way to the AFC Championship Game, and was rewarded with a contract extension.
He gave up on social media after the 2016 season, and it’s probably a good idea for more of us. But he said he hasn’t faced as much personal criticism around town as some might think.
“There’s been plenty of crap talked in Jacksonville,” he said. “But everywhere I’ve been out in public, people have always been extremely nice — to my face, at least. Which is good: If you hate me, at least hate me when I’m not around. That’s nice.”
For at least this week, he has a chance to silence those critics for a moment. But he knows they’ll be back.
Posted by Darin Gantt on October 25, 2018, 2:11 PM EDT
Getty Images
Blake Bortles may not be perfect. But at least he has self-awareness.
The Jaguars quarterback understands that as the quarterback of a team built to minimize the play of the quarterback, any praise he ever gets will be conditional and any criticism will be extreme.
“I’m totally at peace with that,” Bortles told Michael Silver of NFL.com. “I totally understand that I’m like the scapegoat for this team. When we play good, ‘The defense played well, the running back did good, the receivers made great plays.’ And when we play bad, ‘Blake Bortles is the worst quarterback on the face of the planet.’
“And I get it. Obviously, that’s not what I would have chosen for myself. And I’m sure it’ll never stop. But I couldn’t care less. I just want to win football games with this team.”
That interview happened last week, before he was benched and re-installed as the starter for Sunday’s game against the Eagles. And also before Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins left a crater where Bortles once stood by saying: “I can turn on the tape this week of our opponent and see that Colin Kaepernick deserves a job.”
Bortles is used to such criticism. And he’s deserved his share of it recently, with eight turnovers in the last three games. But for every bad Bortles, there’s also the guy who held the wheel while all the way to the AFC Championship Game, and was rewarded with a contract extension.
He gave up on social media after the 2016 season, and it’s probably a good idea for more of us. But he said he hasn’t faced as much personal criticism around town as some might think.
“There’s been plenty of crap talked in Jacksonville,” he said. “But everywhere I’ve been out in public, people have always been extremely nice — to my face, at least. Which is good: If you hate me, at least hate me when I’m not around. That’s nice.”
For at least this week, he has a chance to silence those critics for a moment. But he knows they’ll be back.
