Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray was smart to fire back at 'study clause' critics

Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury watches almost every move quarterback Kyler Murray makes during training camp at State Farm Stadium, and Murray’s impromptu meeting with reporters on Thursday was no different.

“From what I saw, he did a tremendous job of just being who he is, making his point heard," Kingsbury said. "That’s not easy to do when you’re a young man, growing up, have all this chatter.”

As he said that on Friday, Kingsbury raised his right hand near his ear, then pressed his fingers against his thumb a few times, the international sign for people droning on and on.

Chatter comes with the NFL starting quarterback gig, but in successful franchises, it rarely originates from ownership or is conveyed via an addendum to the quarterback’s new contract.

Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill, and those who couldn’t talk him out of the now infamous “independent study” clause in the contract signed on Monday morning, are responsible for the noise it produced for the next three or so days.

By Wednesday, the Cardinals decided to delete the addendum, which required Murray to spend four hours per week during the season studying football away from team headquarters. But no one knew for sure the addendum was gone when Murray made an unscheduled appearance in the stadium’s interview room Thursday.

He was calm, but forceful, and for good reason, clearly peeved.

"To think that I can accomplish everything that I've accomplished in my career and not be a student of the game and not have that passion and not take this serious is disrespectful," Murray said. "And it's almost a joke.”

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This was a side of Murray we had not seen before, and it was wise of him to show it. His reputation had been battered for three days, and there only so much Kingsbury and teammates could do or say in their quarterback’s defense.

Murray realized that and spoke up. In doing so, he might have gone a long way in finding his voice as a leader and the “face of the franchise,” as Kingsbury called him.

It didn’t come off as pouty, whiny or insincere. The Cardinals starting quarterback was ticked off and didn’t mind everyone knowing it.

“He’s just learned to be a pro,” said Kingsbury, who added that Murray did it mostly on his own. His head coach had no NFL experience, said Kingsbury, the head coach with no experience, and in Murray’s first two years, “he didn’t have some 12-year veteran quarterback,” to mentor him.

“He’s had to learn on the fly, on his own,” Kingsbury said. “He’s been through some ups and downs now, had people call him this, call him that. Tough playoff loss. Been through the fire a little bit.

“I couldn’t be prouder of the way he handled all of it. The mental toughness that’s been developed through the end of last year, the Rams (playoff) game, this off-season, this recent thing. I’ve seen a marked change in him, and it’s been all positive.”

The "recent thing," the needless and inflammatory addendum, likely was Bidwill's idea, and he declined an interview request. The Cardinals released a statement Thursday that said, in part, the addendum was deleted because it “was clearly perceived in ways that were never intended.”

It’s clearly impossible to perceive it any other way other than the team doesn’t think Murray studies enough once he leaves its Tempe headquarters.

The addendum was more reminiscent of the Cardinals when they were run by Bill Bidwill, Michael’s father, a nice man who didn’t mind irritating players and agents during contract negotiations. It often seemed like a sport within a sport to him.

Back then, the Cardinals were called the franchise that time forgot, and Michael Bidwill worked hard to move the Cardinals into the modern era. Requiring the quarterback to do homework via a contract addendum was clumsy at best, petty at worst, and a throwback to an era in which players were charged for extra socks.

Murray and his agent, Erik Burkhardt, are culpable, too. Why would they negotiate and sign a contract requiring independent study, a clause that is unprecedented in the NFL, according to several other agents?

After his opening statement on Thursday, Murray declined to answer questions about the contract and the clause, saying he would only talk about football. So we might not ever know why he and his agent signed off on it to begin with.

Now that the clause is gone, will Murray’s anger about it disappear, too? Probably, but not overnight. But as Kingsbury said the other day, you can only be so mad for so long when you’re going to make $230 million over the next seven years.

Reach Kent Somers at Kent.Somers@gannett.com. Follow him on twitter @kentsomers. Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today. 

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kyler Murray was smart to respond to questions about his work ethic.