Drew Lock Responds to His Mom's Outspoken Criticism of the NFL
The last week has probably been one of the longest in Drew Lock's professional life. After taking the initiative to rally his fellow quarterbacks and drive into the Denver Broncos' facility for some film study last Tuesday, which was the players' day off, Lock got into hot water with the NFL for not perfectly obeying the intensive mask-wearing protocols.
Lock and all the Broncos' QBs, in the wake of Jeff Driskel testing positive for COVID-19, were pulled off the practice field on Saturday afternoon by the NFL and ruled out of Week 12's bout with the New Orleans Saints. The league's ultimatum to the Broncos? Play the red-hot Saints without a quarterback or forfeit — the game is not getting rescheduled.
The Broncos were trounced 31-3 as practice squad rookie wideout Kendall Hinton had to play emergency QB. Lock, meanwhile, was embarrassed by the NFL's harsh treatment of the Broncos which also resulted in a fine from the team for his COVID-19 violation.
Amid the tumult, Drew's mother, Laura Lock, posted a statement on Twitter highly critical of the NFL in which she 'shamed' the league for using her son's indiscretion to make an example of the Broncos.
On Wednesday, after testing negative for COVID-19 for the requisite number of days, Lock was allowed back in UCHealth Training Center to begin preparations for the Broncos' Week 13 road trip to take on the Kansas City Chiefs. Outside of Lock's own statement on mask-wearing faux pas, it was our first chance to hear from the second-year QB since the crisis.
It didn't take long for Lock to be asked whether he was "embarrassed" by his mother's behavior in the arena of public scrutiny.
“Moms will be moms, that's just a fact," Lock said on Wednesday. "They're going to back up their kid. They're going to stand up for their kid regardless of the situation. My mom is fiery."
Lock's father, Andy, played offensive line at the University of Missouri and was a pupil of current-Chiefs' head coach Andy Reid. Andy Lock tried his hand in the NFL after going undrafted but was unable to stick.
Considering his lunch-pail football background, you'd think that when it came to the spirit of competition, as a young athlete, Lock would be a dad-fearing player more so than his mom. Not the case.
"There's never a game where I played bad and wasn't more scared of her than my dad," Lock said. "So, she's just always been that way. It's gotten me to this point. She's taught me a lot of lessons to help get me to the league and she's just always been fiery. We'll leave it at that.”
What more could one expect Lock to say? He was obviously shocked at the NFL's extreme, punitive response to a relatively minor mask-wearing indiscretion last week but as the face of the team right now, he's not about to go to war with Roger Goodell and the league front office.
His mom, however, has no such inhibition. And as Lock's mom, she might be biased, but she also recognized the double-standard the NFL was holding up in its treatment of her son and the Broncos, and fired off in defense of them.
The protective instinct in mothers is strong and it's only made more powerful when bolstered by a justified, righteous cause. Lock explained his mother's behavior without necessarily endorsing it. And he certainly didn't condemn it.
Not an easy position to be put in but he walked the line like the 'True Son' that he is.
Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen and @MileHighHuddle.
