16 comments MMQB Review: Peter Works on Some Revisionist History Edition

Last week after writing the many truths that had been discovered about this NFL season in MMQB, Peter King is back this week to put more knowledge into his reader's brains. Did you know New York City is crowded and cabs are expensive? Well, you do now. Also, we find out you can't spell "elite" without "Eli" and Manning is "A Giant among men." Not that either of those statements are necessarily false, but Peter seems intent on channeling his inner Woody Paige in this week's MMQB.

But before I get into the two Games of the Week, Eli Manning playing at a postseason 2007 level (sweet music to Giant ears everywhere) and a very weird scene involving Rex Ryan and a Belichick bobblehead

I don't need to know about your and Brett Favre's sex life, Peter. Some things your audience doesn't need to read.

To Aaron Rodgers, who is halfway to the best season a quarterback has ever had in the 92-year history of the NFL.

Sure, Rodgers may be having one of the greatest seasons a quarterback has ever had, but has he played gritty and like a child would play football? What about Rodgers' beard? Is is grizzled? Is his wife's name Deanna? How about a child? DOES RODGERS PLAY LIKE A CHILD OR JUST AN ADULT? If he doesn't play like a child, he'll never be Brett Favre. Plus, Rodgers doesn't take those chances that Favre took which is what set Favre above every other quarterback who has ever played the game. Rodgers barely throws interceptions into triple coverage while just trying to make a play. So he can have his "historic" season, but he'll never be Favre.

The man hasn't had an off day. Sunday, in showery San Diego, he completed a season-best 81 percent of his throws -- in the pocket, pressured, on the run, wherever. He zinged one ball 38 yards in the air to Jordy Nelson while on a dead run right. He threw four touchdown passes. He ran for 52 yards.

Then Rodgers healed a nine year old wheelchair-bound boy simply by smiling at him, which really pissed off Tim Tebow when he heard about this, because spontaneous and miraculous healing of the sickly is supposed to be his area of expertise.

Every team that passed on Rodgers in the draft -- Miami, for Ronnie Brown, Minnesota (Troy Williamson), Washington (Carlos Rogers), Minnesota again (Erasmus James), Jacksonville (Matt Jones), and, just one pick before Green Bay, Oakland (Fabian Washington) -- has to be retching right now.

This revisionist history-type stuff really has always annoyed me. It doesn't happen with just Aaron Rodgers, but writers do this kind of thing a lot. Start talking about all the teams that passed on a player, while not determining whether that team had a need at that position or not. Yeah, most teams would want Aaron Rodgers right now, but some of these teams had no need for a quarterback in the first round of the 2005 NFL Draft. So while teams regret it now, let's do the logical, less knee-jerk thing and see if these teams needed a quarterback in the first round...

Minnesota had zero need for a quarterback. None. Zero. Daunte Culpepper was coming off a year where he threw for 4700+ yards with a 69.2 completion percentage and threw for 39 touchdowns to 11 interceptions. Peter is just plain stupid if he thinks quarterback was anywhere in the Top 10 needs for the Vikings at this point. To suggest the Vikings would have needed a QB at the time is incredibly stupid and Peter should be embarrassed. Sure, you can go back and make a case on how history worked out to say the Vikings should have taken Rodgers, as long as Culpepper's descent into mediocrity could have been predicted, but at the time they zero need for a quarterback.

Washington and Oakland probably could have used a starting quarterback, though Oakland had Kerry Collins and had gotten Randy Moss to pair with him. So it wasn't like the Raiders didn't feel they had a plan at the quarterback position. Miami got Ronnie Brown, who was pretty successful in Miami for a period of time, so I can't completely blame them. Of course, in retrospect there are tons of decisions like drafting a RB over a QB that could be second-guessed. The Dolphins made a mistake on passing on Aaron Rodgers, there's no doubt, but Ronnie Brown wasn't terrible. Who is to say Rodgers would have flourished like he did if he were thrust into the starting spot immediately?

Jacksonville had drafted Byron Leftwich just two years earlier and the perception was that he needed weapons around him to be successful. That's why the Jaguars drafted Matt Jones. So to think they should have drafted Rodger is ignoring their investment in Leftwich just two years earlier and the idea he needed weapons around him to be successful.

My basic point is that it is easy to go through the 2005 NFL Draft and rake teams over the coals for not drafting Aaron Rodgers. What isn't easy is taking the time to go through that team's needs in 2005 to see if drafting a quarterback in the first round was a team need at the time. If it wasn't, then it is hard to say a team should have drafted Rodgers, unless Peter King expects General Managers to also be psychics.

Projecting Rodgers' full season, with an asterisk next to what would be league records: .725* completion percentage, 5,238* passing yards, 48 touchdowns, 6 interceptions; 129.1* passer rating.

Minnesota twice?

This is stupid and Peter should be smarter than to print this crap. Daunte Culpepper was a Top 5 quarterback coming into the 2005 season. Top 5. Very little doubt about that. To draft a quarterback in the first round would have been one of the dumbest things the Vikings could have done after losing Randy Moss. Peter should be ashamed for thinking otherwise. I even sent Peter a strongly worded email asking him to explain this thinking, which I don't normally do...but I don't expect a response.

Eli: A Giant among men.

Thanks Woody Paige.

Then Peter shows the parallels between Sunday's Patriots-Giants game and the Super Bowl game. I find this fairly non-interesting, even though both games were very interesting.

"It's hard not to think about it,'' Manning told me from the locker room, after his biggest victory, all things considered, since that Super Bowl. "But in a way, before then, it was the complete opposite. Last time, it was the Patriots giving us the ball with three minutes left, up four. Today, after we took the four-point lead with three minutes to go, we're handing the ball to Tom Brady. And that's not a very good feeling.''

Don't screw with Peter's comparison, Eli, by pointing out how the latest Giants-Patriots game was actually the opposite of the Super Bowl.

He's right.

"I just made an extended comparison between two games by saying these two games are similar to each other. Who cares if it is gets pointed out my comparison is sort of wrong, I'm not editing all that work out even though it was proven incorrect."

Not to dramatize the throw, but FOX had a camera in the corner of the end zone focused on Manning's throw. There was no wavering. In the Super Bowl, he had to place the ball deftly over a New England corner into Burress' hands. Here, Manning had to rip it, and he did. It was a perfect dart.

This is the typical Peter King comment of where he states he isn't going to do something and then does exactly what he says he isn't going to do.

"No more talk about Brett Favre because I know everyone is tired of it." Followed by...

"One last thing about Favre..." Or he will say...

"I'm not going to make this game seem too important, but this was the biggest game in the history of the NFL."

Saw bits and pieces of Carson Palmer's starting debut with the Raiders. He threw two beautiful balls that I saw, a touch touchdown throw to Jacoby Ford and a laser to T.J. Houshmandzadeh over the middle for 28 yards. But in general, Palmer's first six quarters as a Raider are six quarters he'd like to have back.

There are still those who wonder why Mike Brown went back against his word to not trade Carson Palmer when he has said the same thing about other players and didn't trade them. The reason Mike Brown agreed to trade Palmer is because he got a 1st round and 2nd round pick for Palmer. That's a ridiculous amount of value for a guy who is probably only worth a 1st round pick at the very maximum.

The way I saw the play, William Gay had decent coverage on the speedy Smith, chasing down the right sideline, but safety Ryan Clark underestimate Smith's speed.

Clark underestimate Smith's speed. This make Peter mad. He know Smith be fast and his speed can not be underestimate in such situation like that.

In the span of six minutes in a game no one was watching, Julio Jones showed why the Falcons traded a ransom to move from 27 in the first round to six. His diving catch on the goal line for a touchdown -- first ruled incomplete by the officials -- was an example of his ability to be a physical and acrobatic receiver.

The amount the Falcons gave up to Cleveland to get Jones was completely justified simply by that one catch. Case closed, the Falcons got the better of the deal, even if it took eight games. No need for future information.

Who knows how history will view this trade.

Favorably for the Falcons. Jones made a great catch that one time.

Encouraging Sunday was Reggie Bush being an impact player for one of the first times of the year (142 rushing-receiving yards).

What's encouraging about a player having a great game when he hasn't proven he can be expected to this on a regular basis? So while ignoring Bush's entire history in the NFL until now, this one great game is encouraging, as if Reggie Bush has now magically turned the corner and will turn into the impact player he has never been on a regular basis. I don't know if I would call this game by Bush encouraging or just one great game in a sea of average games. It isn't like Bush has been in the league two years or so. He's a veteran. At this point, really great games feel like an outlier in his career.

"He's one of 25 college kids in shorts, just throwing,'' Mayock said. "Watching his throw, it still looked like he was warming up, and he threw a deep comeback.'' Mayock watched the throw and wondered if he was still warming up, or was that how Luck actually threw the ball? And Manning said, "But it gets there.'' And that's the thing with Luck. Mayock echoed Phil Simms, saying he doesn't have a howitzer, but the ball gets where it needs to go, and it gets there on time.

I will say that Andrew Luck's perceived lack of arm strength is not a huge, huge deal in the NFL. I will say the fact the ball gets there on time is fine. I will also say, in the NFL the speed of the defensive players is increased, so the ball may get there on time in college, but in the NFL "on time" may not be "on time" anymore. I'm just throwing this out there. I still think Luck will be a nine-time NFL MVP and marry a Hollywood starlet on the way to becoming the greatest NFL quarterback to have ever played in the NFL at the quarterback position in the history of NFL. I would never dare to doubt anything about him. There is simply less time for the ball to get there "on time" in the NFL.

Last summer, I got a call from a movie publicist friend of mine who asked if I'd like to come onto the set of an interesting movie being filmed in a suburb of Boston. "Rex Ryan's in it,'' he said. "I think you'd like it.''

Bill Simmons turns red with anger. He's supposed to be the one with Hollywood connections!

There was a catch: Writing about the movie would be embargoed until the week of the second Jets-Patriots game this season. I would be the print guy on hand, and ESPN would be there and cable nets that served the Jets and Patriots markets. Made sense to me. So I went over to the Lynn, Mass., site where the movie "I Hate You, Dad'' was being filmed.

It's an Adam Sandler movie! It's guaranteed to be terrible and only the addition of a good script, good acting and not-Adam Sandler in the cast would make it a good movie.

The second and third things I saw:

A Bill Belichick bobblehead doll on the desk. A Tom Brady MVP poster on the wall.

"Look at this little guy,'' Ryan told me, picking up Belichick off his desk and making the head bobble. "He's a sturdy dude."

The idea of the movie is that Adam Sandler's a former child star who's blown all his money. Rex is a seedy lawyer -- his name is Jim Nance -- with Sandler his client, and Ryan's job in his scene is to tell Sandler he hasn't been paying taxes, and now he owes the IRS $43,000.

You can't hear me laughing, but I'm really laughing hard right now. I wonder if Adam Sandler is forced to grow up in this movie, meets a girl who against all odds likes him and then eventually he proves his worth by being less immature and doing something very mature on a short term basis and then everyone loves him. If so, this movie could also be called "nearly every other movie Adam Sandler has done, except this one is less funny and much worse than the one that preceded it."

All in all, a fun day. Absurd seeing Ryan in this setting, of course, but you only live once. I watched Ryan do a couple of takes of a couple of scenes, and he wasn't bad. Knew his lines -- and he had a few -- and had the proper back-and-forth with Sandler in the scenes. Sandler's a movie machine, obviously (he's got one, "Jack and Jill'' out this week, with this movie slated for release sometime next year),

For the record, “Jack and Jill” looks like it could be one of the worst movies of the year. I have watched many of Adam Sandler’s recent movies and thought, “The only way this could be worse is if Adam Sandler cross-dressed at some point.” I’m just glad Sandler is giving me a chance to see if his recent movies can be worse with him cross-dressing. Of course, there’s no chance I will ever know if I am right or not since there is a better chance of me watching any other movie currently in theaters rather than “Jack and Jill.”

Not really. It's one of the most fascinating stories in recent football history, and with the fervor over the potential star-studded 2012 quarterback draft class, I thought I would take you back to the month before the 1998 draft. That May, I took a VHS tape of 30 plays from Manning's 1997 season with Tennessee and 30 plays from Leaf's last season with Washington State. I sat down with six men, independent of each other, and showed them the 60 plays, and asked each who they would pick.

There is no fervor over the potential star-studded 2012 quarterback draft class. There is a fervor over Andrew Luck and the other quarterbacks who may come out of the draft seem to be essentially overlooked by many people discussing the 2012 NFL Draft.

The six: brilliant offensive innovator Sid Gillman (since deceased), coach Mike Shanahan, analyst and former quarterback Phil Simms, then-Tampa Bay personnel czar Jerry Angelo, former 49er coach Bill Walsh and UCLA coach Bob Toledo, who had faced both quarterbacks in their college careers.

Points from my SI story the week before the 1998 draft that I find interesting today:

Let me guess, Peter thinks the Vikings should have traded up to get Peyton Manning?

Walsh said he wouldn't take either player with the first pick, though he favored Manning ... and said he had a better arm than Johnny Unitas. "I don't see Favre or Elway. I see those guys on the next level. But Manning seems to be more pro-ready than Leaf ... I'd pick another top player, and then I'd take [Michigan quarterback] Brian Griese in the second round. I think he could have the tools to be special."

Who says Bill Walsh got lucky in getting Joe Montana in the 3^rd round? Clearly, this man knows his quarterbacks. Walsh, much like Mike “The Genius” Shanahan, loved himself some Brian Griese.

(I’m just kidding…we all know Bill Walsh was a very smart coach. I just like how he didn’t think Peyton Manning or Ryan Leaf were worth the 1^st overall pick. I can’t help but wonder which “top player” he wanted instead with the first overall pick)

Simms was incredulous when the question about Manning's questionable arm strength was posed. "His arm's plenty good. You know how many times Drew Bledsoe really aired it out last year? I mean, 50, 60 yards in the air? Five. Ten, maybe. In the NFL, you make your living throwing the intermediate pass, and look at how many good intermediate throws we're seeing Peyton make."

If you think Peter King doesn’t bring this up to be not-so-subtle and show how Phil Simms judges Andrew Luck on arm strength, but didn’t do the same thing to Peyton Manning…well then you don’t understand the media’s infatuation with Andrew Luck. It is not a coincidence Peter brings up this quote by Simms in the same MMQB where he mentions Simms' comments on Andrew Luck's arm strength. It is interesting to me Phil Simms didn’t seem to care about Manning’s arm strength, but seems to think it will be a problem with Luck. I wonder what the difference from 1998 to 2012 is for him?

It is very passive-aggressive of Peter to defend Luck by using Simms’ own words against him in a way though.

13. Cincinnati (6-2). I have to say that I'd to switch to Andy Dalton as my offensive rookie of the year, a week after I chose Cam Newton in SI.com's midseason report. The rookie out of TCU is 6-2, Newton's 2-6, and like Newton, Dalton walks into the offensive huddle like he owns the place.

So Dalton beats the Titans and Newton doesn’t play this week and Peter changes his vote for Offensive Rookie of the Year to Dalton. I guess that was a really impressive 22 of 39 for 217 yards and three touchdown performance that caused Peter to change his mind. Postseason awards like this are stupid anyway, but Dalton’s record was 5-2 when Peter made his choice to pick Newton, so changing your pick after another victory by the Bengals seems really kind of stupid. It isn't like Dalton has been bad the rest of the season, and Newton didn't play, so this is kind of a weird flip flop for me.

14. Chicago (4-3). Bears lose tonight and they're four games out of first in the NFC North and two games out of second. That would be trouble.

This would absolutely be a huge problem for the Bears if they lost. We all know there isn’t such thing as the Wild Card in the NFC and the upcoming schedule with the Bears facing the Lions, Chargers, Raiders, Chiefs, Broncos, Packers and Seahawks looks super non-brutal. The Bears essentially should just give up if they had lost to the Eagles.

"I want to die. This feeling feels like death. Nothing else can describe this. The pain is that bad.''

-- Pittsburgh Phil, Phil Gennaro, a friend of mine and a 41-year-old claims adjuster from Monroeville, east of Pittsburgh, leaving Heinz Field early this morning. He went on to text that today "will be miserable. I will have to deal with angry people, all because of this game.''

This was this week’s entry in “People with no fucking perspective on life.” I hope you enjoyed it.

There are many things to get used to when you move to Manhattan. The art of getting a cab at peak times is one I'm struggling with. Friday night at 8, I got off a train from Stamford, Conn. (our Versus NFL preview show ends at 7, and I take the Acela back to the city right after that) and was in a rush to get home to the east side of town. Stupid me:

Well, there’s one thing we can agree upon.

But I went above ground, began signaling for a cab on 34th. Fruitless. Then I started walking to the east side, hand up in the air, seeking a cab. Two blocks, three, four. Finally, at the corner of 37th and Fifth Avenue, a gypsy cab, one of older black former limos, pulled up. I gave him my address, which would have been a $6 cab ride. When I got out, he said: "Thirty, plus tip.''

That’s almost as much as Hertz charges to refill a car with gas!

From here on out, it's the subway for me.

People of New York: Be sure to avoid the subway on Friday nights.

j. Great line by FOX's Chris Myers on Dallas-Seattle: "Why do I think of the Big Lebowski when I see Rob Ryan?''

Not a great line. A superb line. Give it to Adam Sandler to use in his next movie.

l. Tim Tebow's 2-1.

And to think people believe the backlash against Tebow is because of his religion. No, it is because Tebow is his own religion to many people. I wonder if Tebow's 2-1 record has anything to do with playing the Raiders or Willis McGahee's strong performance? Probably not. Tebow singlehandedly won the game.

5. I think Forte and the Bears are at least $10 million guaranteed apart. Unless Forte comes down toward the Williams neighborhood of guaranteed money -- or unless he continues to put up 175 rushing-receiving yards per week -- I can't see the Bears folding.

Just put Bill Simmons on the case. He fixed the NBA lockout just a few weeks ago. He can fix any disagreement as long as neither side has a say in how he fixes the disagreement.

6. I think, as I said on NBC Sunday (what, you were watching the end of the Giants-Pats?), Forte's not the only back looking for a new deal. Ray Rice is too. Very quietly. Both Forte and Rice have contracts expiring at the end of the year.

Does putting in a widely-read national column that Ray Rice is looking for a new deal count as looking “very quietly” or not? If Rice is quietly looking for a new deal, surprise, Peter King knows and has publicly announced it.

7. I think DeAngelo Williams' season is a mystery. He's not hurt, but he's averaging only nine carries a game, and Jonathan Stewart and Cam Newton are equal rushing threats.

Peter gives the answer to Williams’ struggles and then wonders what the answer to Williams’ struggles could be. There are three equal rushers on one team in a passing offense and there is only one football. There's the answer.

8. I think Colt McCoy cannot afford games like he played in Houston Sunday. You're on trial, son. Cleveland's scouting quarterbacks, and the 2012 draft will be full of them, and you can't go 6-of-12 for 54 yards and a pick and fall behind 24-3 at the half against anyone. No way Cleveland won't be looking long and hard at quarterbacks next April.

So Colt McCoy had better watch out because the 2012 draft will be full of quarterbacks. That’s what Peter is telling us.

9. I think there's black crepe paper all over Miami this morning. They just experienced The Day They Lost Their Real Chance At Andrew Luck.

In the very next "thing" he thinks Peter acts like the 2012 draft class only includes one quality quarterback. Earlier in this MMQB Peter mentioned a fervor over the quarterbacks in the 2012 draft class and just one “thing” he thought earlier he stated the Browns were going to scout quarterbacks in the class. So I don’t think it would hard to assume Peter thinks there is more one quality quarterback in the 2012 draft. Yet here, he seems to think the entire city of Miami is sad because they lost their chance at getting Andrew Luck. Shouldn't the fervor for other quarterbacks and the idea of the draft is full of them make Peter think Miami is sad, but happy this is a quarterback-heavy class?

c. OMG! Pam pregnant!

OMG! The show premiered a month and a half ago!

d. I mean, I caught 10 minutes of The Office the other night and saw a weird-looking James Spader and Stanley being way too congenial (what's up with that?)

How about you watch the show and figure it out?

f. Good luck in the job, Ben Cherington. One piece of advice, and the only one, and one you probably don't need to hear, from a Red Sox season-ticket holder (with others):

PETER’S SEASON TICKET HOLDER BROTHER-IN-LAW WON’T BE ASKING ANY QUESTIONS BECAUSE HE’S DONE WITH THE RED SOX FOREVER/UNTIL APRIL!

Don't take lightly the anger of the fans over this players-drinking-during-games issue. Not acceptable under any circumstances.

Maybe I am in the minority, but I don’t mind starters having a few beers in the clubhouse during a game if they aren’t scheduled to pitch that day. It may just be me. Maybe Peter thinks it is fun to get up on his high horse. I'm pretty sure Peter drinks a beer or so while he does his job...especially since part of his MMQB every week is a beernerdness.

Other than some CYA words from John Henry on the radio, the team has done an awful job of addressing the stories of players not taking their jobs seriously enough. You, or someone of great importance there, need to understand it's not going away. I mean it when I say good luck. You come highly recommended.

Yes, Ben Cherington…be sure to take advice from a guy who didn’t know who Josh Reddick was a few seasons ago.

i. A huge thank you to the hotel where NBC housed me for the last couple of years on NFL weekends, the Omni Berkshire Place on Fifth and 52nd. Great hotel. Friendly but not obtrusive staff, and comfy, quiet rooms. I'll be back to say hi.

Thank you Omni Berkshire for having coffee ready for Peter at 5am. You don’t make Peter King brew his own coffee! That’s a good way for a bitch to get all cut up by Peter.

k. Beernerdness: Tried the Captain Lawrence Pumpkin Ale the other day. Not my style. I want a pumpkin ale with a heavy bite of pumpkin, not a faint taste.

Perhaps you should try eating a pumpkin. I hear they have a heavy bite of pumpkin in them.

m. Fun event of the weekend: Riding through Central Park on a bike Saturday morning. I could get used to that.

Then maybe instead of paying $30 for a cab you can bike from place to place and skip the subway all together? Problem solved.

Philadelphia 23, Chicago 21. Something's got to give: Eagles back LeSean McCoy's gashing the opposition for 5.6 yards a carry, Matt Forte of the Bears for 5.4.

Peter does understand what “Something’s got to give” means doesn’t he? Nothing has to give here. LeSean McCoy could run for 5.6 yards per carry and Forte could run for 5.4 yards per carry. They aren’t mutually exclusive like in a situation when a team gives up 2.6 yards per carry but a running back averages 5.2 yards per carry. So, nothing has to give.

My money's on the Eagles to hold the line slightly better, and to protect the quarterback loads better.

“Quarterback loads?” Was that a Jay Cutler joke? He’s not fat, he’s big-boned!