MMQB Review: Troy Polamalu Was a Pure Safety, Except When He Wasn't Edition

Peter King asked a veteran last week in MMQB how many people he had killed, which was shockingly insensitive, and he revealed that he was always dubious going to rehab was Johnny Manziel's idea. Peter just forgot to mention that going to rehab was not Manziel's idea until he found out the Browns have moved on from Manziel as their quarterback. This week evaluates Troy Polamalu's Hall of Fame chances (Peter spends 25% of MMQB talking about Polamalu...which is a lot of space...but he played for the Steelers so it's space well-spent obviously), talks about the impact of a female official (she might better be able to fit in if sportswriters didn't make such a big deal of her inclusion as an NFL official), and apparently Gary Myers is writing a book about the Brady-Manning rivalry which sounds like a book I'm 100% guaranteed not to read. I get enough of the "IT'S BRADY VERSUS MANNING" during the NFL season. I don't need a whole book about it. The book has "untold" stories, which I wish had stayed that way for a little while longer. Apparently their rivalry changed the NFL. Who knew?

This is for all of you, in the wake of Pittsburgh’s Troy Polamalu retiring the other day after 12 seasons, wondering if he’ll be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, or whether it’ll be he or Ed Reed who gets into Canton first, or whether they might go in together:

This is for all of us? I don't really give a shit if Troy Polamalu makes the Hall of Fame or not. The NFL Hall of Fame vote for Polamalu is five seasons away and even then I probably don't care if he makes it or not. I don't see the need to have a discussion about his candidacy right now. I think it can wait, no?

Over the past 26 years, covering 147 enshrinees to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, one of the 147 has been a safety. I’m talking a player who played safety his entire career, not one (such as Ronnie Lott or Rod Woodson, both of whom played significant portions of their careers at cornerback) who split time between corner and safety. The one: Minnesota’s Paul Krause, the league’s all-time interceptions leader.

Peter I'm one of your readers, which means you need to treat me like I am stupid. Explain it in terms that someone who has the IQ of 85 can understand please. TALK DOWN TO ME!

Put another damning way: No safety who has played in an NFL game in the past 35 seasons is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Thank you for making that easy for me to understand. I was so confused previously when you used big words like "significant" and talked about players splitting time between two positions.

Three things really struck me about Polamalu’s retirement:

1. He was good at football.

2. He played for the Steelers his whole career.

3. His hair looked like a huge mane of pubic hair, which sort of disgusted me at times.

1. He’s a unique player in NFL history, a safety/linebacker/cover guy who blew up people, was as instinctive as they come, and played with the kind of dignity so few men have consistently shown over long careers.

Wait, what? Polamalu was a safety/linebacker/cover guy? So while Polamalu didn't play another position outside of safety, he was used in a variety of roles? Interesting since Peter just wrote the following as a reason why Polamalu was a pure safety:

Over the past 26 years, covering 147 enshrinees to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, one of the 147 has been a safety. I’m talking a player who played safety his entire career, not one (such as Ronnie Lott or Rod Woodson, both of whom played significant portions of their careers at cornerback) who split time between corner and safety.

I realize Polamalu played safety his entire career, but isn't it possible that some of the other Hall of Fame voters will see Polamalu in the same way Peter does and not consider him a pure safety due to the variety of roles he played for the Steelers over the years? Peter sees Polamalu as a hybrid defensive player and he is a Hall of Fame voter. Couldn't other Hall of Fame voters see it that way too?

2. I feel we might be in the midst of a golden age for safeties, with the recently retired Brian Dawkins, Ed Reed and Polamalu leading the way, and so many top-notch ones in their prime now. Earl Thomas, Eric Weddle, Kam Chancellor, Devin McCourty to start with … then the group of new guys who spend part-time doubling as inside linebackers, the way Arizona did last year with much success. Is that a trend that will continue?

Probably, as long as NFL teams want safeties that can play in the box and cover tight ends.

the versatility of so many safeties says to me that more and more coordinators are trying to find their own Polamalus.

While understanding that Polamalu was great, let's also not forget that he was allowed to freelance in the Steelers defense at times and as he got older he was out of position more and more often. I feel like this is important to know.

3. Regarding the Hall conundrum: Dawkins will be eligible for election in 2017, Reed in 2019, Polamalu in 2020. John Lynch has been a consistent finalist for election recently, but he hasn’t been close yet.

It sounds like John Lynch should have been drafted by a team from the Northeast. If he were a safety with the Jets then I wonder if that would do anything for his candidacy?

The voters for the Hall of Fame—I am one of 46—

What? Peter is a Hall of Fame voter? I had no idea because it has been a few weeks since he mentioned it.

stink at electing safeties. We do. Seven pure safeties have been elected in 53 years. It took the voters until Krause’s 14^th year of eligibility to elect the man with the most interceptions in history. Ten NFL all-decade safeties have not been put in, including four of the five on the all-decade first or second teams from the 1980s. “We have completely disregarded the safety position,” said one of the veteran voters, Rick Gosselin of the Dallas Morning News. He is fed up with the voting at safety and has a couple ideas how to fix it, which I’ll get to in a few moments.

The Hall of Fame voters are going to rectify this issue by pushing through any and every reasonably qualified safety for the next 5-10 years. That will fix this issue and balance out the number of safeties in the Hall of Fame, because there HAS to be balance for each NFL position of course.

I bring this up because so many of you, and so many around the league, nodded when Polamalu called it quits Thursday and said or thought, “Hall of Famer. Easy call.” 

Oh, we did? I didn't know about this.

You can say he and Reed, and maybe Dawkins, will make it, but now that you know the history, you have to feel a little shaky.

Oh, I do have to feel a little shaky? I wasn't sure how I would feel knowing that a pure safety hasn't elected into the Hall of Fame for the past 35 years. But now I do know that I feel a little shaky. Of course, I also know the Hall of Fame voters are going to try and fix this issue, so I should feel a little bit less shaky, right?

Gosselin’s idea about solving the Canton logjam is an interesting one: When the NFL has its 100^th season in 2019, Gosselin suggests the Hall should have an amnesty year, in effect. Elect 10 players from the pool of Senior candidates, the old timers whose cases have been drydocked for years. And elect 10 players from the modern pool. The one-time 20-man class would clear up a growing logjam. It certainly would.

I really doubt something like this would happen. The Hall of Fame elect 20 players into a class at one time? I'm all about increasing the amount of players who can get into the Hall in one year, but 20 players in one class seems extreme to me.

I’m not sure it’s the best idea, but I am in favor of getting a slew of Mick Tingelhoffs considered rather than have them needlessly wait to hear their names called for years, or decades. Twenty sounds like too many to me, but the concept Gossellin suggests has merit.

How about the Pro Football Hall of Fame just decides they will elect more than a few players into the Hall on a yearly basis? That way there is no cap and players who the committee thinks are deserving get in during the regular elective process?

Flacco on Polamalu.

That postseason, Flacco and the Ravens went to Pittsburgh for the AFC Championship Game, and that point got hammered home—brutally, as it turned out for Flacco—in a piece of education Flacco will never forget. With less than five minutes left and the Steelers leading 16-14 in as physical and punishing a game as I’ve covered, Baltimore had a third-and-13. Flacco knew this could be their last chance. The call was for a two-man route—one on a deep route across the middle to, hopefully, clear out Polamalu and one corner; and one on a 15-yard corner stop, as the Ravens called it, with Derrick Mason running 15 yards and juking the corner on a timing route, knowing the ball could be coming to a small window when he turned and looked for it.

One problem: The Steelers were playing Polamalu at linebacker on the play.

He's a pure safety, remember. Will he make it into the Hall of Fame as a pure safety? That's Peter's question as he explains what a hybrid defensive player Polamalu was.

Flacco threw to Mason, and if Polamalu hadn’t been there, the YouTube video six years later makes it look like the ball might have been good enough for a conversion.

In a fantasy world, yes, that would have been a conversion. It seems Peter is trying so hard to tell fictional tales of Troy Polamalu's greatness that he ignores the Steelers cornerback that could easily have stepped in front of the pass and intercepted it if Polamalu had not. The Steelers' corner was right there, ready to pick the pass off. It doesn't mean Polamalu didn't make a great play, it's just an example of how sportswriters like to exaggerate a little bit in order to create legends about athletes. Polamalu's play simply can't stand on it's own, there has to be some sort of exaggeration. I think that Steelers defender was Ike Taylor and he was right there on the play to break it up or intercept the pass.

Flacco said he’ll have great memories of playing against Polamalu. “Now [that he retired], I’ve got to take a step back and appreciate the games we played against him and the Steelers. I am a man of few words, and so is Troy, but I do know I’ll tell my children and grandchildren I was lucky enough to play in these games, and lucky enough to play against Troy so many times. Troy’s an example of the right way to do things, on the field and off the field. Such a great competitor on every play, and he treats everyone the right way. That’s the right way to handle yourself. The image he had, the example he set … he just did it right.”

BUT JOE, DID POLAMALU PLAY THE GAME THE RIGHT WAY? YOU WEREN'T CLEAR ENOUGH ABOUT THIS ISSUE!

Polamalu would have made a great baseball player. It seems he played the game the right way, which as we all know is the sole goal of a baseball player, as described by baseball sportswriters.

“What were your conversations like?” I asked. “You get to know him very well?”

Peter always with the hard-hitting questions that readers probably don't care about.

"Did you eat lunch with him? What did he order for lunch? Tell me what you talked about."

It must be the cornball in me. I’ve seen so many of those Steelers-Ravens games, and seen the intensity and the on-field hatred, and it appeals to me that the triggerman of the Baltimore offense is so genuinely respectful of the best man on the other side of the field. 

It's almost like they both played in the age of free agency where the guy Flacco hated for the past decade could end up being his teammate the very next year. 

Dick LeBeau has played and coached in the NFL for the past 56 years. He entered the NFL in 1959 as a defensive back for Detroit, playing opposite Hall of Fame cornerback Night Train Lane, and transitioned to coaching when his playing career was done. He was Polamalu’s defensive coordinator with the Steelers for 11 of his 12 seasons.
 
This, then, is the money quote from LeBeau when I reached him Sunday:

“Troy is a once-in-a-lifetime player. I have never seen an athlete in the secondary, at any level, do as many things at the absolute highest level as Troy did. He could play linebacker; he played linebacker more than people know.

"WILL A PURE SAFETY LIKE TROY POLAMALU MAKE IT INTO THE HALL OF FAME?" PETER KING MUST KNOW THE ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION.

I do like how Peter insists Polamalu was a pure safety, but this is the third time it is mentioned that Polamalu essentially played linebacker at certain points too. Dick LeBeau has referred to Polamalu as playing linebacker a lot, yet Peter continues with the "pure safety" line of thought while putting Polamalu in the same conversation as Dawkins, Lynch and Ed Reed.

He was an excellent run player. All the raw material you’d want in a defensive back, he had the best.”

“Are you including all the DBs you’ve seen in your life, going back to your playing days?” I asked.

No Peter, he's a crazy person like you who says a player is the "best" of his lifetime but only means the past 20-25 years. If you recall, a few years ago Peter said Derek Jeter was the best baseball player of his lifetime, then clarified he only meant the last 20-25 years after MMQB readers wrote in astounded at this idiotic comment.

“I do mean to say that,’’ LeBeau said. “Yes I do. I mean to say he has every skill a defensive back would need to play at the highest level, all over the defensive backfield.”

Polamalu is the best defensive back of Peter's generation. What Peter means by this is Polamalu is the best safety over the last five years. 

It’s not like Sarah Thomas, hired by the NFL last week as a line judge for one of the league’s 17 officiating crews, is immune to some boos and some coach-screaming after a call she made that people didn’t like. But even the biggest crowd for a college game—she said last week she thinks it was probably 55,000 or so for Utah State-Brigham Young—won’t compare to the intensity and the spotlight Thomas will face this season when she becomes the first full-time female official in the 96-year history of the NFL.

This is the second week that Peter has brought up Sarah Thomas as a new official and discussed how she will fit in with the rest of NFL officiating crews. Maybe she'll fit in better if Peter stops talking about and wondering how she will fit in? Has Peter ever wondered how other NFL officials would be able to stand scorn from large crowds at NFL games? This isn't exclusive to Sarah Thomas, but is an issue any official who is making the jump to the NFL would have to face. So I'm not sure what her sex has to do with having to deal with large crowds who will boo and coaches that will scream at her.

I can see it now: a dedicated camera on Thomas for her first game of the regular season, by whichever network has the game. It’s history. A good history—assuming Thomas can handle it.

Which is a huge assumption given that she is a female, will have her period at some point during the season and probably will be over-emotional like all women are during their time of the month. Great point, Peter. Can Sarah Thomas and her girl feelings handle being yelled at?

But this is not North Texas at Middle Tennessee she’ll be reffing. I want to see Thomas’ reaction the first time Bill Belichick or Bruce Arians or John Fox screams, “What the %&*# was THAT call?” I used Belichick’s name the other day in just such a scenario.

Again, why hasn't this been an issue for any of the other NFL officials who have gotten promoted from officiating college football games to officiating NFL games? Not that Peter is a raging sexist, but I've never read anything he has written before about a concern that a male official may not be able to handle being yelled at by NFL head coaches. It sounds kind of sexist is my point.

“I really have not thought of it,” Thomas said.

Oh okay, so Peter really asked Sarah Thomas, "How are you going to handle being yelled at by grown men in a football setting?"

If this is a question based on Thomas officiating at a lower level in college, that's fine, but I don't recall Peter ever bringing this question up to any male officials who have made a similar leap to the NFL. So if the question is being asked because she's a woman, well, that's a little bit sexist. Of course Peter can't be sexist because he has two daughters, much in the same way someone can't be racist because he/she has two black friends.

That’s by far the best answer she could have given. Think about it: If she says, Well, I have tremendous respect for Coach Belichick, and it would be tough, but I have worked long and hard to be sure I’m ready for this chance, then she’s messed up. Why? Because Bill Belichick, to her, now has to be the same as the coach at North Texas or Middle Tennessee. He’s a coach. Coaches scream sometimes. You explain, and if they don’t shut up, you turn away and the game goes on.

Right, which is why the question could have probably survived as being not asked if Peter wouldn't ask the same question to another official.

For now, Thomas must get used to being a symbol as well as an official. Like it or not, she’s going to be a beacon for women and girls, and not just in women and girls interested in football or interested in following her to the NFL. School kids are going to write reports on her. In fact, they already are. And she is into it.

But if these school kids that are girls don't get a good grade on these reports they write about Sarah Thomas, how will it affect their self esteem? Will a middle school kid that is a female be able to handle the rejection of not receiving a good grade on a report? It's different being a female writing a report in elementary school as compared to being a female writing a report in middle school.

No word yet which referee and crew Thomas will be paired with—my money is on the terminally patient Peter Morelli’s crew—but in whatever crew, the ref won’t be the focus, at least in 2015. Sarah Thomas will be.

I hope the NFL is able to pair her with a crew that can support her emotionally when she's on the rag or a head coach has hurt her feelings and she spends most of halftime in the locker room crying. What if she's having a bad hair day or can't get her makeup just right? This is a disaster waiting to happen for sure.

Sarah Thomas will be the focus as long as further attention is drawn to the fact she is officiating NFL games AND she's a woman person.

Two teams will work out Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota this week in Eugene. St. Louis and San Diego travel to Oregon (on different days) to put Mariota to work on the field and in the classroom. I absolutely do not expect the Rams to trade up for Mariota, but in the unlikely event that Mariota falls to No. 10, I believe the Rams seriously would consider drafting him. The Chargers’ workout might be a story. It might not be.

Thanks for the reporting. This may or may not mean something. Only time will tell. Once Peter finds out whether it means something or not, he will be sure to tell his readers what it means and how he knew previously that's probably what it meant.
 
Too early for speculative stuff like this to be anything to take to Vegas. 

Here is some speculation that Peter wants you to take seriously if it turns out to be correct, but ignore entirely if it turns out not to be correct because it's just speculation you know.

Jon Gruden favors Mariota over Winston

I'm not sure how Gruden became a QB expert. Maybe he's an expert as long as his track record in the NFL of being a QB expert is ignored. I think this means I'll favor Winston over Mariota.

Melvin Gordon will not get past Baltimore at No. 26

But again, this is just speculation. So just forget Peter wrote this, unless it happens, in which case remember that Peter said Gordon wouldn't get past Baltimore at No. 26.

Randy Gregory’s positive pot test and weighing 235 at the combine scared off many teams near the top of the draft off—but some of those teams, after due diligence, are feeling more comfortable with Gregory early in the round. I get the feeling Gregory’s going to be this draft’s boom or bust guy

Until it comes time for Peter to talk about Jameis Winston, who will then become the draft's biggest boom or bust guy.

Not that anything’s going to hurt where the Florida State quarterback will get drafted—he’s still the overwhelming favorite to go number one—but I would file away this line from attorney David Cornwell: “He’s ready to be an NFL player on the field. But he’s not ready to be an NFL player off the field.”...But here’s the thing: If you’re drafting a quarterback number one overall, you want that player to make it or not based on his ability as a player, not on some off-field problems. Twelve quarterbacks have been picked first overall in the past 20 years: Andrew Luck, Cam Newton, Sam Bradford, Matthew Stafford, JaMarcus Russell, Alex Smith, Eli Manning, Carson Palmer, David Carr, Michael Vick, Tim Couch, Peyton Manning. Russell was the only real star-crossed guy entering the draft; Al Davis was in love with his arm strength and overlooked his lack of maturity. I don’t think any of the 11 others had much that concerned teams off the field before being drafted—though there was some question about Newton playing at three schools in college.

Part of the reason Newton transferred from the University of Florida is because he had Tim Tebow in front him on the depth chart, then he went to a community college and was able to transfer to Auburn after that. I remember one big question off the field about Newton were the accusations that he stole a computer during his time at Florida and there were other academic issues brought up. I don't recall the maturity issues surrounding JaMarcus Russell, but I also may not be remembering very well.

What is going on with Ted Wells? This is day 80 of his investigation into the Patriots and the deflated-footballs allegations. The AFC title game was 12 weeks ago. I respect the work of Wells and his staff, but this is getting ridiculous. The marathon bombing trial took five weeks. The Patriots’ investigation is in its 12th.

Maybe Ted Wells stopped investigating the deflated ball allegations for a while to help O.J. look for the real killers. Or maybe Roger Goodell is more interested in pretending like he cares long enough for the public to not care as much anymore (though I never really cared that much in the first place). I'd say the second line of thought may be more accurate.

“It’s about time.”
 
—Baltimore coach John Harbaugh, on the NFL, preparing for its 96th season, finally hiring its first full-time female official, line judge Sarah Thomas.

Yeah, but when Harbaugh starts yelling at Thomas is she going to go into a little ball and start crying about how he was so mean to her? If Thomas is married, will her husband come on the field and get angry at Harbaugh for yelling at her? I just hope John Harbaugh understands that Sarah Thomas will tuck her hair under her hat so that nobody gets distracted by the fact she's a girl and is officiating a man's sport. She'll look like a guy without a ponytail hanging out, but treat her with kid gloves because she is in fact a woman.

“Money wasn’t the first reason to make me want to come here. Even when I knew [about the contract offer], I was like, ‘I’m not going there. I don’t give a freak what they give me, I’m not going.’ And then I realized it was the best for me. This is a team that wants me. Coach [Rex] Ryan is a winner and he wants to run the ball.”
 
—Buffalo running back LeSean McCoy, recalling his stunning March trade from Philadelphia to the Bills to Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

This is something Bills fans are probably incredibly eager to read about. LeSean McCoy in no way wanted to be a Buffalo Bill, but then he realized he was on the team anyway and they seemed to want him, so why not? Without other options, outside of holding out, why not be a Buffalo Bill?

“I don’t project trades. But in talking to people, my sense is Mariota is likely to be taken [number two overall.]”
 
—ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper, the well-coiffed one, on what he’s hearing about where Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota will be chosen on April 30.

So Kiper is saying the Titans wouldn't draft Mariota and a team would trade up for him? Maybe the Titans don't like Mariota, but it seems to me like the Titans could draft Mariota #2 and then Mel wouldn't have to project any trades. 

Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me

In the matter of great safeties not playing anymore:

Washington strong safety Sean Taylor played his last football game at 24.

This is an interesting factoid from Peter simply because his history of discussing Sean Taylor is another example of Peter saying stupid shit and then trying to defend it. Peter essentially called Taylor "a disappointment" for the Redskins because he didn't live up to being a franchise safety. Taylor mostly didn't live up to this billing because he was murdered. It had something to do with it. So now Peter is hoping his readers forget that and calls Taylor a "great safety." But just a few short years ago he wrote: 

Berry looks like a top-10 pick, but the team that takes him is going to be picking against history. Of the five top-10 safeties this decade, none has had franchise-player impact: Roy Williams (Dallas, eighth overall, 2002), Sean Taylor (Washington, fifth overall, 2004), Michael Huff (Oakland, seventh, 2006), Donte Whitner (Buffalo, eighth, 2006), LaRon Landry (Washington, sixth, 2007). 

But I don't know if Taylor, who was out with a knee injury at the time of his death, would have been the kind of franchise safety Ed Reed is, because to do so, you've got to stand the test of time.

The point of the item is that even the great safeties, the highly regarded ones, are such physical forces on the field that they often don't have long and impactful careers.

Except that wasn't Peter's point. He was hiding behind the whole "great safeties get injured" reasoning for why Taylor didn't make an impact on the Redskins franchise. Nevermind being killed isn't exactly an example of Taylor getting injured. Peter calls Taylor a "great safety" now, but he was a little dubious about Taylor's impact a few years ago.

Then Peter includes a Tweet from Steve Politi (a Tweet that would not embed on this blog for some reason) that says:

This event is my favorite of the year, but so far, it’s been the Masterzzzz.

I'm sorry, CBS can't hear your complaining over the 26% increase in ratings. Boring, but lucrative.

Ten Things I Think I Think

1. I think, with the Masters fresh on your minds, there’s this anecdote from Gary Myers of the New York Daily News, which he unearthed researching his book on the Tom Brady-Peyton Manning rivalry (“Brady Vs. Manning: The Untold Story of the Rivalry That Transformed the NFL,” by Crown Archetype, due out Sept. 22):

There is definitely a market for a book such as this, but I am not that market. Can't we wait until Brady and Manning have been retired for a few years before writing "untold" stories about their rivalry? Maybe a few years from now, perhaps 3-4 years after they have retired, this book should be written so Manning and Brady can be appreciated. For now though, why must there be such immediacy to write a book on how the Brady-Manning rivalry transformed the NFL (I'm not going to argue this point because I haven't read the book, but I'm skeptical of statements like this) when they are both still active players? It sounds like Gary Myers wants to sell some books and appeal to Brady-Manning fans while the iron is still hot and fans are eager to purchase this book while both players are still active. This is as opposed to writing the book 3-4 years after Brady and Manning retire when more perspective could be given on their impact on the NFL. If Myers waited a few years then a better narrative could be written once both players are retired. But I guess writing a better book with perspective isn't necessarily the goal is it?

Tom Brady and Tom Brady Sr. and Rory McIlroy and McIlroy’s father have a mutual friend. Through the mutual friend, they set up to play golf together at Augusta National Golf Club the second week in March. The Bradys and McIlroys, the mutual friend and his father and another friend and his father played their own father-son tournament on the Masters course. The night before they played, the Brady/McIlroy group walked into the restaurant at Augusta National to have dinner. Seated at another table were Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Cooper Manning, Jacob Tamme and John Lynch. Brady and Manning, who have played many rounds of golf together, chatted for a few minutes before Brady rejoined his group for dinner. Brady did not know Manning was going to be there. Brady and Manning were on the course the next day, but didn’t play together. Brady’s group played three rounds in two days. Tom went off the first tee with Rory. Not a bad scene.

This story is interesting in that it shows wealthy athletes tend to hang out with each other and in the same places. Also, the Masters is a fun course to play. Otherwise, I'm sure there are better anecdotes in this book about Brady and Manning. There better be. 

4. I think there is no more trusted player inside the Cleveland Browns than Joe Thomas, and no one more team-oriented in all ways. And when he says (as he did to ESPN Cleveland last week) that Johnny Manziel is “going to have to prove to the team football is important,” it’s a damning indictment of the impression Manziel left on the locker room last season.

(checks watch) Yep, I guess it's the time where Peter King will start to bash Johnny Manziel in as many MMQB's as possible. Why not? It's not like Peter sat down with Manziel and got a chance to judge him for himself prior to the draft, except, you know, he did. At the time, I thought it was a very good performance by Manziel. People don't change their behavior simply because they now have the chance to get paid handsomely for doing what they once did for free. But anyway, it's time to bash Manziel because he's essentially been the same person he was in college and the media wanted to believe he had made this huge change. Bash Manziel for not changing when writers like Peter King wanted him to have changed so badly.

Peter KNEW that going to rehab was not Johnny Manziel's idea. Sure, he never mentioned that prior to last week once rumors of the Browns being unhappy with Manziel started to leak out, but Peter was totally thinking it prior to this.

7. I think I love when guys say dumb things on social media and immediately claim their account was hacked. That’s what Darrelle Revis said Sunday after he or the hacker got into some ugly back-and-forths with fans unhappy with his decision to leave the Patriots for the Jets. Must be a lot of people out there who know Revis’ social media passwords. Or not.

Well Peter, not everyone can write something stupid on Twitter and then get away with very little criticism from anyone outside of the fans. When Darrelle Revis says something dumb on Twitter, it gets mentioned by the media (like how Peter just did), but when Peter King says something dumb on Twitter or in MMQB then there is only the fans to mention it and discuss it because Peter's friends in the media certainly will just blow it off as Peter not meaning what he wrote. 

10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:

a. Thanks for the invitation, Sports Business Journal, to be a part of Thursday’s future-of-the-media panel in Los Angeles, with ESPN heavyweight John Walsh, Jason Whitlock of the new site The Undefeated, Pam Oliver of FOX Sports, and SBJ’s John Ourand. 

Isn't it interesting how Grantland was announced and got off the ground within a month and a half, but Jason Whitlock was hired to run his own Grantland-type site almost a year and a half ago, yet the site hasn't debuted yet?

I like the idea of a site dedicated to shine the light on racial issues, inside and outside of sports, because of how much societal issues affect the people we write about and you watch. That showed up big last fall with the Rams players’ personal statements of empathy for those affected by the strife in Ferguson.

And Peter King knows how those citizens of Ferguson felt, because one time he was pulled over by the police and they thought he was Peter King the Republican Congressman from New York. It was pretty hostile there for a few minutes, but Peter and the cop had a good laugh about it later. Peter got off with a warning for a broken tail light and gained a new reader of MMQB. But for a few minutes, Peter felt he was being discriminated against because he was a Congressman.

d. Maybe I should get into “Game of Thrones.”

Oh no, you should not. You will be very, very confused. 

i. It’s hard to believe a modern athlete, such as Mets closer Jennry Mejia, would use a steroid (Stanazolol, the same one Ben Johnson used to prep for the Seoul Olympics nearly two decades ago) to get better, knowing baseball tests for it. It’s an intelligence test, to some degree, because Mejia knows he’ll be tested. And he obviously flunked the test.

I'm sure Mejia also thought he had used a masking agent or he wouldn't be tested again for some time. Maybe he is just stupid, but I can't imagine how a human would know something is wrong, know he/she could get caught and then do that stupid thing anyway. It's almost like it's human nature.

m. Coffeenerdness: Java Question of the Week, from the Peet’s barista in the JFK Airport Terminal 4 coffee shop, after I’d ordered a medium latte with an extra shot of espresso, paid, and was waiting near the espresso machine for my drink to come out. “You know this already comes with two shots, so you’re sure you want a third?” Yes. Quite sure.

Peter probably really said something in response like, "I know how many shots I want. Just give me the third shot and do your job" and then got back to texting Mitch Albom about how service industry workers are morons and continued holding up the rest of the line by not looking up when the barista was trying to hand him the drink.

o. Apropos of nothing: I was waiting for a plane at LAX the other night, and heard “That Smell” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. One of the worst songs ever created. Why did it become popular?

Whaaaaaaaaat? I wouldn't expect a fan of U2 to really appreciate "That Smell." It's not poppy and haughty-sounding enough. Sounds about drug and alcohol addiction don't always have a soaring chorus where fans can raise their arms in the air as a douchebag lead singer smiles knowing each of these morons paid $110 to watch his band perform. "That Smell" is about drug and alcohol addiction, it's not supposed to be a pretty song.

The Adieu Haiku

Troy Polamalu.  
His name’s not good for haiku.
I doubt he cares, though.

It gets worse every week. This is one of the worst haikus ever created. Please stop writing these haikus. Do it for the sake of our children's children.