We've probably been in personal or professional situations where a narrative gets created and, whether it's true or not, the narrative won't change. I've seen it my entire career...whether it's about personnel or something else. For instance, at my current company we had an entry level employee that was often late. The kid hit his sales numbers, but he was late arriving to work. CEO saw him roll in at 11:00 several times, and regardless of this guy hitting his number and regardless of the guy leaving work at 7:00 PM, the CEO had it in his head the guy was lazy. To this day he'll still mention this guy. It annoyed him, got in his head, and at that point, facts didn't matter.

I've also seen it with marketing activities. People get it in their head that something works or doesn't work and the data won't change their mind.

Narratives are powerful.

I fear that the narrative has now taken over about Zach. McAfee had an entire segment about the perception in the league that Zach is a bad teammate, that he's entitled, that he's arrogant. So have other national and local NY media. I fear that no matter what happens next, he'll never be able to shake that narrative in New York. I worry it'll even follow him around the league. Narratives matter regardless of whether or not they're true. Makes me sad for the kid.