The NFL is a cold business. I've been saying it for twenty years. I will keep saying it until the day I retire the microphone. And if you need the starkest possible illustration of just how cold it gets, look no further than what is happening to Kenneth Walker III right now.

The man just won the Super Bowl MVP. He carried the Seattle Seahawks to a championship on his back. He was the best player on the biggest stage in American sports. And now, according to Adam Schefter, it is unlikely the Seahawks will use their franchise tag on him.

Let me say that one more time. The guy with the MVP trophy from Super Bowl LX may not even get the franchise tag. Not a long-term extension. Not a franchise-altering contract. Not even the safety net that the tag provides. Just... the door.

Here's the Seahawks' situation, to be fair to them. This is a team with multiple free agents they want to retain. They're also trying to lock up wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba on a long-term deal - a legitimate priority for their offensive future. When you're trying to balance a salary cap in a league that enforces it with zero mercy, difficult decisions get made.

But difficult does not mean right.

Running backs in this league have been at the bottom of the NFL's compensation hierarchy for years. We've watched stars get cut, restructured, and replaced with rookies on cheap deals over and over and over. Le'Veon Bell held out for a fair contract and watched his career crater. Ezekiel Elliott went from cowboy icon to scrap pile in four years. Derrick Henry had to switch teams in his prime just to keep getting paid.

And now here comes Walker, a player who just delivered the performance of a lifetime on the most watched television event in human history, and the team he delivered it for may not protect him with even the most basic contractual protection the league offers.

The NFL will tell you that running backs are fungible. Replaceable. That their value depreciates faster than any other position on the field. And you know what? Statistically, they're not wrong. Statistically.

But statistics don't stand at the podium at Radio City Music Hall holding the Lombardi Trophy for a city of passionate fans who thought their team would never get there. Walker did that. The least the Pacific Northwest could do is give him a chance to negotiate a real deal before the door swings shut.

That's the NFL though, folks. That's always been the NFL.