I wish more players had his can-do attitude. And I'm glad that more players don't have his devil-may-care behavior. Like biking without shoes. We could have gotten another three years out of him, or rather, he might have actually been playing during the years that we paid him.
Three years is generous. The guy had a short shelf life. Large body, reckless, not particularly bright. He could have had another year in MLS with a decent score rate, but the league passed player like him by very quickly. 2012 was the last gasp of the Neanderthal, as it were (though it's not a particularly good expression as it would be unfair to label Neanderthals as unintelligent). He hit a career high under some crazy coinciding circumstances, but he was never going to repeat that success and the Quakes would have been roughly as bad, anyway. What happened to him was inevitable.
Their own stupidity did that. They re-signed him knowing he wouldn't be able to play because Doyle is a moron.
Missed the chia, got the wig. No matter what you think of him, he provided us with some unforgettable entertainment. Who among us will forget the Josh Saunders red card? Maybe his behavior wasn't always befitting of a professional, but I'd rather see a mediocre player with heart than an overpaid has-been who can barely be bothered to phone it in. We've had more than our share of those.
Yes, the Quakes stupidity contributed, but it doesen't make Lenhart any less the thief. Is someone leaves their car door unlocked, it doesn't make the car thief any less dishonest.
This reminds me of a public service TV ad that was popular when I was a kid. "Lock your car. Take your keys. Don't help a good boy go bad." You have to wonder that the victim was somehow to blame for empowering the "good boy."
If he was hurt, what was he supposed to do? If you feel bad about him, how do you feel for Innocent who walked about with over $2 million for 13 games?
The assumption is that he held the team to the contract even though he knew he couldn't play. But it's possible that he offered to break the contract and for whatever reason, the team declined.
Sadly, no one seems or wants to remember the fact the Lenny suffered a major psychological breakdown after the passing of his father in 2011 when he took a leave of absence from the team and the game. I know he was a professional and maybe should have accepted things different that most ordinary people but somehow we all forget that pro athletes are human too.
Sorry, but I'm the queen of major psychological breakdowns, and my father died when I was 15. He's an adult and a professional and he would have gotten more respect if he had retired at the point he realized that he couldn't keep up with with the game psychologically or physically. . There are plenty of jobs that you can do without becoming emotionally invested in your work. Soccer is not one of them. If you don't have the passion, it shows.
FWIW, I don't think his father simply "died." I don't know for sure, but my memory is that it was considerably more tragic than that.
This happens all the time in professional sports, and it's not theft. Every player is under the constant threat that their livelihood could evaporate in an instant, and contracts that pay them when they are injured are partial compensation for that risk. Anything less would be incredibly unfair to the athletes.
Yes you are correct! It was very tragic and sad. Out of respect for the dead, I refrained from elaborating further. RIP!
Well said. Lenny and the team signed a contract, both parties adhered to the contract. What obligation did he have to abandon his contract if he became injured? To make someone on the internet happy?
I find Lenny's conduct far less egregious than Innocent's. Lenny gave everything he had while he was here, whereas Innocent was simply cashing a (much larger) paycheck and giving nothing in return. If Doyle stupidly signed him to a contract extension, then that's on Doyle and the team. Blaming Lenny for that is unfathomable to me.
He came back after his leave and had his 10-goal 2012 season, so it seems he was able to keep up with the game psychologically and physically after he got the help he needed. Mental health issues are health issues. If you tell players with mental health problems that they should just retire, the likelihood is that they will suppress their issues so they can keep playing, and thus never get the care they need.
Quakes offered him a contract and he signed it.....he's not a thief. If Lenny is a thief then the Quakes FO is as well for under paying Wondo during his peak seasons.....other DP's that were producing much less were getting paid more than double the amount Wondo was....
If psychological problems were getting in the way of his work, he should have dealt with those. If the Quakes knew he needed help and wouldn't pay for it, that's on them. We don't know and at this point it's kind of irrelevant. As for "suppressing their issues" -- that's what many of us have to do thanks to "pre-existing conditions." We have a terrible health care system, but that's for another day.
He did. He took a half-season of leave to deal with it and then came back and had his career-best season. I wasn't talking anything about who paid for it. The Quakes knew he needed help and let him take his leave.
Why do people always feel that Wondo has been "cheated" in his contracts with the Quakes? He acts as his own agent, signs a contract the he feels pays he what he feels he is "worth". They renegotiated his contract after his "breakout" season and the following season. Does he make what quite a few of us feel he should be making? Apparently not, but Wondo does not feel the same it would appear.
I hope Lenny has a happy retirement and finds fulfillment in his post-soccer pursuits and gets to surf many radical swells in clean glassy conditions with no crowds (he'll probably have to stay out of socal to do that though!). He was a great striker for us who unfortunately had his career cut short by injuries. 4 years on since his last productive season and we still haven't found a proper replacement for him.