(I didn't mean to post this, but it's been read, so go down to the next post and read MMQB for this week, it's really, really, really good (not at all) and I don't accuse Peter of loving young men this week)
I don't like writing about my favorite team on this here ol' blog, but this old Bleacher Report article must be addressed. This is representative of the type of articles Bleacher Report used to churn out on a more frequent basis. To call it trolling would be underestimating the terribleness of the writing. To call it any form of sports journalism would be laughable. This dude from Bleacher Report begged for pageviews by writing an article titled, "Cam Newton: Why Carolina Panthers' New QB is the Worst Draft Pick Ever." Sadly, this might be the highlight of this article and it is downhill from there. He's spitting fire and getting attention. That's what it is all about for the author. I wouldn't normally post something like this, but the author is so sure of it and continues his bullshit on his Bleacher Report profile. So, from May 9, 2011, here is a hot draft take.
The author is probably even more pissed-off now that Newton got a $100+ million contract.
Cam Newton is a sure-fire bust.
A sure-fire bust. Close the doors, put the chairs up on the tables, because it's all over before it begins.
I am so certain of this that if he is the Panthers'
starting quarterback in 2016, I will buy a Cam Newton jersey and stand
in the stadium parking lot in my underwear when the Panthers come to Tampa Bay
I am certain that I would not want to see this. I am also certain that the author will have to do this unless Newton suffers a season-ending injury of some kind during the 2016 season. To be clear, the author would be cheering for a season-ending injury to Cam Newton.
and hold a sign proclaiming that Auburn rules over Florida and Carolina rules over Tampa Bay.
Not that he has this fiery hot take purely for the sake of attention, but if he's wrong then he wants the world to give him more attention. What's really happening is the author is a Buccaneers fan and doesn't like Auburn, plus Cam transferred from his favorite college football team. There is a lot of biased, irrational hatred towards Newton built up in the author.
This guy will be long gone by then. Here are just a few of the reasons
why I believe he will make Ryan Leaf only the second-biggest draft bust
in history.
What's really sad is the author spits out hot takes in an effort to gain attention and he can't even succeed at that. He has 11 followers on Twitter and even Bleacher Report doesn't seem to want him writing for them anymore.
1. Cam Newton has not had enough experience as a starting quarterback
to warrant a No. 1 pick. He only really played one year of meaningful
college football. Yes, it was a fantastic year. Yes, his team went
undefeated and won it all. But it was still only one year. How do we
know that it wasn't a fluke?
While it was a valid point that Newton didn't have a ton of experience starting in college, it doesn't mean he was going to be a bust in the NFL. He started at a junior college before he played for Auburn for one season. Maybe that's not "meaningful" enough to have played at a junior college.
How do we know that Auburn didn't win because of a fantastic supporting cast? We don't.
Yes, "we" don't, except for the fact there were probably 2-3 players other than Newton on that offense that would even have a chance of playing in the NFL. So a few years down the road, it's easy to see he didn't have a fantastic supporting cast. Even at the time, Auburn wasn't spitting out NFL prospects on offense.
2. Cam Newton has never lost a game as a starting quarterback. Wouldn't
it be nice to know how he will react when he does lose a game?
Newton is TOO MUCH of a winner. This is an interesting reason to say he would be the biggest draft bust in NFL history. Newton wins too many games, what will it be like when he starts losing games? Because I'm sure Newton would have been the first college quarterback to come to the NFL and start experiencing losing at a higher rate than he experienced in college. This isn't a battle only Newton would face, so it's not a reason to claim Newton would be the biggest bust in NFL draft history either.
Is he going to learn from his mistakes? Is he going to repeat them?
Again, these aren't questions that would be exclusive to Cam Newton. Your reasoning sucks.
Will he go all "Vince Young" and threaten to hurt himself?
Yes, yes, will he go all "Vince Young." They are both black quarterbacks who won national titles. Will Cam Newton threaten to commit suicide when he doesn't become the winner in the NFL that he thought he would be? In fairness to the author, this question is still up in the air and will be until the day Cam Newton dies. Will Cam Newton, at some point, kill himself? The author asks the tough questions with no easy answers.
Will he lose all confidence? We don't know. Sure would be nice to know these things before using a No. 1 pick though.
Considering it's impossible to know these things about ANY NFL DRAFT PICK THAT IS EVER SELECTED, it would be nice to know these things. If only Cam Newton's future could have been predicted much in the same way most draft picks can have their future predicted. It would be nice to know how a draft pick will react to losing, but...ummm...that's impossible to know for any draft pick so the author's reasoning still sucks.
3. Cam Newton is no brainiac. From all accounts, he came off as an
idiot on Jon Gruden's show on ESPN. He looked as if he had no idea what
was going on. He was stumped by Gruden's questions. Some even said he
looked bored.
Perhaps Newton was bored to death. Was Newton looking to go all "Vince Young" and threaten to hurt himself while on Jon Gruden's show? THESE ARE THE TOUGH QUESTIONS THE AUTHOR IS WILLING TO ASK THAT NO ONE ELSE WOULD TOUCH!
Did he get by at Auburn on sheer athletic ability? Of course he did. He's a freak athlete.
Actually, Newton isn't really a freak athlete in terms of speed or athletic ability. He doesn't run extremely fast, but he's fast for his size and hard to bring down. He has a great arm as well. Still, a lot of college players get by on athleticism. It doesn't mean that player will be a bust in the NFL.
But this is the NFL.
THIS IS THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE WITH NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE PLAYERS!
There are many people alleging that the real reason Cam Newton left the
University of Florida was not because he was caught with a stolen
laptop computer, but because he was caught with papers written by other students.
This is a character issue, not a reason that Newton can't play quarterback at the NFL level.
Now, I don't know if this is true or isn't true. But before I used a
No. 1 pick on this guy, I'd sure want to consider the possibility that
it could be true.
And how on Earth would this brain dead author know that the Panthers didn't check on whether Newton really plagiarized another student's paper? Because the guy who writes for Bleacher Report has so many connections in the NFL that he is aware of every investigation every NFL team starts on every prospect they are considering drafting? It's ridiculous to think the author will criticize an NFL team for not considering a possibility he has no idea whether they considered or not.
It tells us that he is not smart enough to do his own work and get a
passing grade. But you expect him to outsmart guys like Dick LeBeau?
A quarterback isn't expected to outsmart the opposing defensive coordinator. He's expected to run the plays that are called, recognize the coverage, and find the open receiver or audible to another play. Few quarterbacks are expected to outsmart the opposing defensive coordinator any more than recognize what the opposing defense is trying to do.
I like how the author thought Cam Newton is stupid because there is a rumor he was caught with papers written by other students and KNOWS Carolina didn't check up on this. Brilliant writing.
When things are going rough for the team, Cam is going to be the guy
the other players are going to look to for leadership. How is that
going to work? He has no credibility. His word means nothing.
Gee, this almost seems like a personal opinion of Cam Newton and not an opinion that he will be the biggest NFL bust ever because of his skill set.
5. Cam cannot hit the broad side of a barn with a football. All other
issues aside, isn't the number one job of an NFL quarterback to
complete passes?
His completion percentage was 3rd in the SEC. It's not like being 1st in the SEC, but Newton completed 66% of his passes to a group of receivers few have heard of or remember.
Did you NFL guys not watch the BCS title game? How many touchdowns did
Cam leave on the table by missing receivers who were running free? That
game should not have even been close.
His completion percentage was 58.8% in the BCS title game. I don't remember how many receivers he missed, but given the author's ability to be intellectually honest and fair, I'm sure he's telling the complete truth here.
On Newton's pro day at Auburn, there were reports of him missing
receivers badly while throwing against air. What will happen when he
has NFL defensive linemen with bad intentions bearing down on him?
With no sense of irony, the author is about to cape up for Tim Tebow. When Florida won the National title, Tebow's completion percentage was 60% in that BCS title game.
How can an NFL franchise waste a No. 1 draft pick on a guy with this
many question marks? Last year all we heard was how Tim Tebow was not
worth risking a first-round pick because of his throwing motion—not
just the top pick, but anywhere in the top 32.
And what we have here is a University of Florida football fan who just doesn't like Cam Newton because he (the author) is a Tim Tebow fan. Mystery solved. Trolling reason now obvious.
Name another issue with Tebow. Character? Please. Intelligence? No. Accuracy? Not really.
Accuracy was an issue for Tebow. One issue for Tebow is quarterbacking ability, which is a trait that most NFL quarterbacks need to have that Tebow seems to somewhat lack. Newton may be a terrible person who missed an open receiver in an important game, but his skills translated better to the NFL than Tebow's did.
Yet somehow because he came from a spread system he was deemed unworthy of a top pick. Guess what system Cam came from.
As always when it comes to Tebow fanatics, this is really about Tebow more than it is about Cam Newton (or whatever NFL player, usually a quarterback, that is being discussed). Tebow was deemed unworthy because he had a long motion and NFL teams didn't see how his leadership skills combined with his quarterbacking ability translated to the NFL.
So how is it we go from "Tebow sucks" to "Cam is awesome" in one year?
Cam Newton will be the biggest bust in NFL draft history because Tebow doesn't suck? Of course.
When these two guys played on the same team for two years, Cam was the
one riding the bench while Tebow was breaking records and winning
championships.
The stupidity of this statement can not be understated. Tebow was a sophomore and Newton was a true freshmen. When Tebow played on the same team as Chris Leak, it was Chris Leak who was the starter while Tebow only played sparingly in certain packages. Does that mean Chris Leak had a better NFL future than Tim Tebow did? Of course not. That's one reason why this statement is incredibly stupid. Tom Brady sat the bench at Michigan for Drew Henson at times. Drew Brees sat behind Billy Dicken at Purdue, so obviously that means Dicken would go on to a storied NFL career while Brees would bust, right?
So how is it that the treatment of Cam by the "draft people" is 180 degrees different than Tebow's? I don't know.
So what does this have to do with Cam Newton being the biggest bust in NFL draft history? I don't know. What I do know is saying Newton will be the biggest bust in NFL draft history based on questions that nearly every other draft prospect has about them probably isn't the best reasoning for coming to this conclusion.
Let's ask Denver Broncos fans if they would like to trade Tebow for Newton straight up.
Yes, after Peyton Manning retires perhaps you should ask this question. I'd be very interested to hear the answer.
They would laugh in your face. Football fans know even if the experts have no clue. We can spot a fraud when we see one.
I agree that football fans can spot a fraud when they see one. I'm looking at you, author of this column. I have spotted you. A fraud. You. Even Bleacher Report doesn't want you anymore. Right now, people are laughing in this author's face. Such is life for trolls.
In five years, when Tebow is leading Denver into the playoffs and Cam Newton is riding someone's bench, remember this article.
Oh, this article is remembered and will never be forgotten. This last sentence is the best. Notice how this article went from "Why Cam Newton is the Biggest Bust in NFL Draft History" to "Why Do People Like Cam Newton More than Tim Tebow?" It's almost like the author came to a conclusion on one player based on his feelings for another player. Football fans like this author would never do that though, because they can spot a fraud when they see one. In 2016, football fans can spot a fraud in the Tampa Bay parking lot wearing a Cam Newton jersey and only his underwear.
Showing posts with label Cam Newton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cam Newton. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
4 comments MMQB Review: Chip Kelly Still Hates the Combine, Except When He's Quoting Stats from the Combine Of Course
Peter King breathlessly quoted Chip Kelly last week in MMQB regarding how Kelly thought the NFL Draft had too much hype surrounding it and it unfairly put pressure on these players coming out of college to perform. Peter then went about criticizing E.J. Manuel for checking down too much as a rookie last year and I'm sure Peter will have a few jabs to throw in Geno Smith's direction for his performance as a rookie. As usual, Peter won't take the advice that he seems to agree with. He's not putting too much pressure on Manuel or Smith to perform well immediately, he just expects them to play well immediately. Peter also stated he probably wouldn't sign Jon Lester for a contract over $20 million per year due to the declining performance of pitchers that age, then suggested maybe $21 million per year is the right price for Lester. This week Peter still continues his training camp tour, talks about Cam Newton having matured now that Peter and Newton buried the hatchet, is shocked to see Devin Hester in a Falcons uniform, calls Chip Kelly an "outsider" and starts a new weekly section of MMQB called "Chip Kelly Wisdom of the Week" (see, I wasn't exaggerating last week when I said Peter hangs on every word out of Kelly's mouth), and gives us his thoughts on the MLB trading deadline.
“Can I see you for a couple of minutes before you leave today?”
(Peter's doctor) "Peter, I don't know of another way to tell you this. You have been infected with loftiness and an extreme case of pretention. There is no cure."
(Peter King) "I noticed a few things you are doing wrong with your medical practice. Despite the fact I have no background in medicine or business, let me tell you everything you are doing wrong and I will criticize you publicly if you chose not to make the improvements I have suggested."
I looked up, and it was Cam Newton speaking. From my seat in the lobby of the Wofford College student union, just outside the cafeteria the Carolina Panthers use at training camp here, I was a bit taken aback.
Here is that moment...that moment when the cool athlete on campus finally comes up to the journalism dork in the cafeteria and wants to talk to him. Peter would be giddy, but it's Cam Newton so he doesn't really care.
It was the first time Newton had spoken to me since Feb. 22, 2011, when he told me in a telephone interview, “I see myself not only as a football player, but an entertainer and icon,” and I reported it. Newton thought it was a cheap shot for me to report it—more about that in a minute—and so we’d gone into radio silence whenever I was around him since, which wasn’t that often.
Before I get accused of homerism by nobody, let me get my feelings on this situation out of the way. I have probably only done this twenty times before. Peter King wasn't completely wrong to only tweet the "entertainer, icon" quote out, but he's a complete moron if he pretends like he didn't know what tweeting that select quote was going to represent to his followers. He took the entirety of an interview and summed it up in a quote that he had to know was going to reflect on Newton in a way that probably wasn't going to be ideal. I don't believe Peter didn't realize this tweet would have the impact it did have. It didn't represent the full conversation or story and I think Peter knew that.
Cam Newton has been a little bit of a baby through all of this. I'm in the minority among my fan base regarding this. I don't think Newton should bow down to Peter, but it was three years ago, it was a quote that didn't end up hurting Newton. He only looks like a small person for not forgiving Peter and at least giving him a few minutes of his time. Part of life is having to deal with people you would rather not deal with. I have people misquote me, ignore what I'm saying and lie about things I have said many times a week and I don't have the option of ignoring these people. It's the real world, deal with it, set the record straight and forgive Peter for this one incident and move on. If Peter does it again, then I see a great reason to choose not to speak with him.
So in terms of blame, I do blame Peter for the situation, but it's a bad look for Cam to simply choose to never forgive Peter and not move on. It looks resentful and small.
This item is about the maturation of a person and a player, and about something I don’t recall ever experiencing covering the league.
Notice how Peter thinks that Cam has matured simply because he has chosen to speak with Peter again. Not that Peter creates narratives based on how stories and events affect him of course. There's no way Cam could be fully mature without talking to Peter again.
In Miami, Joe Philbin’s doing bed check. The players actually like it.
You know, there is a Penn State joke in here that I will not make.
I have an item Rolling Stone will dig. (Does that mean I’m Almost Famous?)
No. It does not.
Last note: When I got to 9,200 words Sunday night, I decided to hold off on including my Tennessee, Tampa Bay and Jacksonville items, all of which I like. But I rarely write 9,000 words during the season, never mind in early August. So you’ll have to read my Tuesday column to learn who the second-best player is who I’ve seen on my camp tour. On with today’s show.
Sorry, Tennessee, Tampa Bay and Jacksonville fans. It's not like there are three pages of filler in this column that Peter could have easily gotten rid of to provide coverage for your team. It's now considered more important that Peter add a part to MMQB about Chip Kelly, provide information on what teams play music at camp and which don't, give quotes/stats/travel/facts of the week and list an entire page of what Peter thinks he thinks than it is to provide information about NFL teams to readers. If you ever wondered how important reporting on the NFL actually is to Peter when writing MMQB, no need to wonder anymore. His personal thoughts and comments are staying in MMQB, even if coverage of NFL teams has to be removed in order to make room for Peter's own personal thoughts and comments. MMQB is about Peter.
Newton finished a press conference with the local media
NEWTON TALKED TO THE LOCAL MEDIA FIRST! HE DOESN'T VALUE PETER ENOUGH TO MAKE HIM A PRIORITY!
15 or 20 minutes after he approached me initially, and when he finished, I was waiting outside the room. Steven Drummond of the Carolina PR staff found us a room, an auditorium the team uses for meetings at Wofford. He closed the door, and Newton and I stood there together. I wasn’t taking notes in our 20 minutes together, but I remember a lot of what he said.
Normally, I would criticize Peter for not taking notes, especially since he transcribes conversations complete strangers have, but it makes sense in this case.
He got right to the point. He said most of the people close to him wanted him to never speak to me again. Ignore me. I was one of the haters, so don’t deal with me; just deal with the media who were either fair—in their minds—or consistently supportive. “But I am my own person,’’ he said. “I think for myself. I make my own decisions. I decided I wanted to talk to you to see if we could work this out. I don’t want to walk the other way every time I see you. That’s not what a man does.”
A man pretends to be Superman when he scores a touchdown. What's more manly than pretending to be a superhero?
And I said I wanted to explain to him exactly what happened that day three-and-a-half years ago, when I quoted him accurately after our telephone interview; that way, he could decide for himself if he wanted to ever speak to me again.
I like how Peter felt the need to include "accurately" as if the accuracy and not the context isn't what matters. Sure, it's an accurate quote if I said,
"At first I wanted to kill him for backstabbing me, but I've gotten over it. He's just a person to me now and I don't think about what he did often. I won't be friends with him and sometimes I think 'I'd like to kill him,' but those feelings aren't really important anymore,"
and the reporter chooses to quote me saying,
"...sometimes I think 'I'd like to kill him,'"
but it's not entirely accurate with the full conversation or quote. I think this is important for Peter to try and understand.
Of course, I said. I was the first of the four to talk with him that day, and during the interview, he said the icon and entertainer thing.
I figured there were certain messages about work ethic and image he wanted to get across in the interview, which he did. And I figured I wouldn’t be the only one he said that line to. I just figured if I didn’t use it, and fast, one of the next three interviewers would hear it and use it, somewhere. And so I threw it on Twitter, and said NFL people wouldn’t like to hear it.
Peter hasn't really said much about this quote from Newton, but what little he has written about it he sort of plays like he didn't know the exact reason it caused the stir that it did or why Newton was so angry. Peter rushed to put this quote on Twitter. Why? Because he knew it was a good quote that didn't reflect well on Newton and NFL teams wouldn't like to hear it. He KNEW the quote taken in that context had a negative impact and he rushed to use it. So I don't believe the facade of innocence that Peter has put up at times. He knew what the quote was going to do.
One quarterback-needy coach high in the draft said the comment totally soured him on Newton, and he caught some crap for it, and I caught some crap for it too, for what some thought was taking a quote out of context.
Which, it was.
“I’ve thought about what I’d have done differently,’’ I told Newton, standing there in the auditorium. But I said we weren’t face-to-face, and maybe if we were I’d have cautioned him about it; I wasn’t sure. But I just figured he’d say it to someone else at some point, and so I used it.
Notice how Peter seems to try to differentiate between using the quote because he believed it to be made to a group of of four journalists and stating he would have cautioned Newton if they were face-to-face and if it was a quote he knew was only given to him. I'm not sure there is a difference. Why is the quote fine to quickly post to Twitter if Peter is in a race to be the first one to use it? It's fine to use a juicy quote if the athlete says it to multiple people, as part of the sportswriter rat race, but if the athlete gives a juicy quote to one journalist then it's okay not use the quote and counsel the athlete on what he said and how it might play? That seems to be what Peter is sort of getting at. If that were the case, then Jeff Pearlman should never have used any of the quotes from John Rocker in his famous "Sports Illustrated" piece on Rocker.
On one hand, Newton said what he said, and I reported it. But in the end, I feel bad that he was branded with those comments because his three years as a player has proven him to be, after some missteps at post-game podiums following losses, a good person and leader.
Newton has shown himself to be a much better person than a quarterback. This has been the case for a couple of years now. He's not where he needs to be or could be yet as a quarterback, so it's always annoyed me a little bit he hasn't ever made peace with Peter because from everything I've seen/heard about Newton he is better than that. Peter "did him wrong" in his point of view, but he has to let that crap go. I'm glad he did, but I also have a hard time buying Peter's excuse that he was just trying to report the quote before others did. It's not the quote, but the context of the quote that always made me irritated with Peter. It didn't have the proper context of the entire 15 minute conversation.
We talked a while longer. We were about to walk out, and he looked at me. “Let’s let bygones be bygones,’’ Newton said, and he stuck out his right hand. We shook.
Fantastic. Now Newton can spend his time worrying about real issues he has, like whether his offensive line will get him murdered this year and whether the receivers will get open for him.
But hey, Cam is mature now that he has let bygones by bygones with Peter King. Not that the world revolves around Peter of course.
“This camp,’’ Philbin said, “I’m doing every bed check. Every night. I knock on every door.’’
How many doors? Sixty. At 10:30 p.m. nightly, Philbin knocks—ranking vets have singles, younger players have roommates—and checks. Some players, like quarterback Ryan Tannehill, are zonked (“I’ve been asleep every time he’s come in the room”),
I can see Joe Philbin walking into the players rooms and just standing there to make sure that player is indeed asleep. In fact, I have an exclusive picture of Joe Philbin in Ryan Tannehill's room.
but some, like defensive end Cameron Wake, engage Philbin in a daily Q&A about practice, or a current event. “You guys okay?’’ Philbin will ask, or “Ready for practice in the morning?” Or “Anything we need to discuss?”
And Joe Philbin is like, "Geez, Cameron. I'm tired and ready for bed. I'm not trying to have a conversation, just trying to make sure you are in your room."
“I think I’ve been more vigilant,’’ Philbin told me in his office Friday before the team’s 8 a.m. practice. “I am trying to do a better job communicating with players and staff.
Philbin’s been called Clueless Joe for not knowing what was going on in his locker room and, in some cases, on the practice field as guard Jonathan Martin was getting hazed into a near-breakdown by a Richie Incognito-led group of tormentors.
I have to believe if Drew Brees didn't know his fellow defensive teammates were participating in a bounty program then there is a chance Joe Philbin didn't know Jonathan Martin was being hazed by Richie Incognito.
(Chokes on sarcasm)
I asked Wake what kind of coach Philbin was to play for and relate to. “He’s probably one of the most interested coaches I’ve had as far as what you think or how you feel about certain things.
"Ryan, how does it feel to be put on your ass a lot because your offensive line doesn't block sufficiently for you?"
Example: The players asked Philbin for music during practices, instead of the old white-noise crowd noise that most teams blast when trying to practice communicating in noise. On Friday, the music—a rap/salsa/pop/oldies mixture—played for maybe 70 percent of practice.
Salsa music? Victor Cruz has demanded an immediate trade to the Miami Dolphins.
On Saturday, the Dolphins picked up their former center, smallish Samson Satele, off the street, trying to find depth for the interior line, which has struggled in even the basics. The centers in camp have been adventurous, let’s just say, with something as simple as the shotgun snap. One flew over Tannehill’s head in practice Friday.
Oh, well Tannehill was a receiver in college so maybe he should just act like he's trying to catch a pass and then these shotgun snaps over his head won't be a problem.
Every year when I go on my training-camp trip, there are things that I see and players in different uniforms and coaches in odd places that I just didn’t expect. In my first 12 stops I was stopped in my tracks only once: when I saw Devin Hester wearing a strange number, 17, and the red jersey of the Atlanta Falcons.
I always figured that Hester, who played eight years for the Chicago Bears, would one day join Butkus, Luckman, Halas, Sayers and so many legendary Monsters of the Midway, guys who played or coached their entire careers in Chicago and went to Canton with the full-throated support of rabid Bears fans. Now, I am not automatically putting Hester in.
Mostly because Hester isn't going to play his entire career in Chicago? I guess since Hester is playing for the Falcons now he can't be automatically put on this list since he no longer fits the criteria required for the list.
He may well end up in Canton as the best kick-and-punt returner in history (he’s not there yet, but he’s close), but now he’ll have to have a second act to ensure that. He’ll have to do it in Atlanta, where the return game has stunk and where he has signed a three-year, $9-million contract contract to rejuvenate Falcons special teams (he had a 14.2-yard punt-return average last year, and a 27.6-yard kick-return average, both very good), and to be a field-stretcher as a fourth or fifth receiver for Matt Ryan.
Yeah, because the Falcons need more offensive weapons at wide receiver and all.
Hester knows that his role primarily is to be the kick- and punt-returner, and whatever happens in the passing game happens. I was more interested in his future.
“If you don’t play another snap, are you a Hall of Famer?” I asked him.
Peter is asking the deep questions with completely non-obvious answers and all. Yeah, I'm sure Hester will say,
"No, I'm not a Hall of Famer because I'm not good enough yet to be considered one."
What's the point of this question? Did Peter really expect to get an answer where Hester says he isn't a Hall of Famer if he never played another snap?
“Oh yeah,” he said.
(Faints from astonishment)
“I think I am. I think I’ve done enough. I’m satisfied with what I’ve done stat-wise. I think I’ve done things that have never been done. I think I’m the best returner who has ever played the game of football. But if I don’t get [into the Hall of Fame], it wouldn’t be disappointing to me. I know, the guys I played against know. The rest is out of my hands.”
Unlike the football on kickoff and punt returns, this decision on whether he makes the Hall of Fame or not isn't in Hester's hands. Am I right?
I’m a voter.
GEE PETER, I NEVER KNEW YOU WERE A HALL OF FAME VOTER! WHY HAVEN'T YOU MENTIONED THIS AT EVERY POSSIBLE OPPORTUNITY IN MMQB?
I think Hester, in this era of football, has been a singular returner. In an era of such great athletes who have played this game, I think Hester has a superb case.
Well, until Peter considers the backlog of receivers who will be entering the Hall of Fame over the next decade and he has to consider whether Hester's return skills make up for his lesser receiving numbers as compared to other wide receivers and leaves Hester off his ballot. It sounds great to say Hester has a superb case for being in the Hall of Fame, but when the time comes and Hester is compared to other eligible players is Peter really going to feel the same?
Then Peter talks about which teams play music during training camp or not. Of course the team he notes has the best playlist is of course the team that plays U2. Peter learned everything he knows about pretention from Bono.
Some music notes: In Buffalo, Doug Marrone started it last year, early in the season. “You have to respect how young people live today,’’ said GM Doug Whaley. “For so many of them, their motto is, ‘Life’s better with a sound track.'” … The big reason for it, basically, is that lots of teams for years have tried to distract players and imitate stadium noise by playing at loud volume a sound track of stadium noise.
Based on how many times he has discussed which teams play music during camp and which do not, Peter must find the use of music during training camp to be one of the most important NFL preseason stories. I'm not sure a MMQB has gone by in the last three that he didn't talk about training camp music at least once.
The way I look at it: If you’ve got to have noise at practice, why not make it noise everyone enjoys, or everyone at least tolerates?
The way I look at it is this isn't that exciting of a story and there's really no need to mention it every week in MMQB.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is changing the bylaws for enshrinement. Starting next year, there will still be a maximum of five modern-era candidate slots for entry each year, but there will be a new category for contributors to the game, and it will impact the senior nominees each year (currently two seniors, or players more than 20 years out of the game, are eligible in each class) of voting. The upshot is there will be a maximum of eight enshrinees each year for the next five years, up from seven.
Does Peter still have a Pro Football Hall of Fame vote? I'm not sure since he hasn't mentioned he has a Hall of Fame vote in the last several paragraphs.
Over the next five years, here is the way the voting will be conducted:
Secretly and without revealing any of the information the public deserves to know about what percentage each player got and which writer voted for which player. After all, the Pro Football Hall of Fame is for the fans, so why should the fans be privy to information on how the candidates were elected or denied entry? That's just silly.
2015—Five modern-era candidates, two contributors, one senior. 2016—Five modern-era candidates, one contributor, two seniors. 2017—Five modern-era candidates, two contributors, one senior. 2018—Five modern-era candidates, one contributor, two seniors. 2019—Five modern-era candidates, two contributors, one senior.
The problem with getting contributors in now is that it’s not a fair process for them. If you favor Ron Wolf, for example (and I do—vociferously), you have to consider him alongside Michael Strahan and Charles Haley and Bill Parcells, and when that happens, history says most of the 46 voters will go the player/coach route. That leaves team-builders like Gil Brandt (who has other important qualities for his candidacy, by the way), Wolf and Bill Polian most often on the outside, in a big backlog, when the voters’ list is pared down to the semifinal list of 25 each winter, then of course off the final list of 15 for debating the enshrinees each year.
I get what Peter is saying, but the coaches and players are also more likely those that the general public are going to attend the Pro Football Hall of Fame to see. I doubt too many people in the public really want to go see Gil Brandt's bust at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. That's where many of these baseball writers get it wrong. Being in a hall of fame is about who deserves it and who doesn't, but it's also about the fans who go visit that hall of fame. Most fans I imagine would like to see Bill Parcells' bust in Canton before stopping by to see Gil Brandt's bust.
Those I feel deserve very strong consideration for the contributor category at the start of the process: Wolf, Brandt, Polian, Eddie DeBartolo Jr., Paul Tagliabue. I hope the new process lets the sun shine on their candidacies.
If the biggest issue with the Pro Football Hall of Fame is there is a backlog of qualified candidates then I think that's a pretty minor issue honestly.
My only objection to the change is I feel it’s pushing the limits of exclusivity to have, potentially, eight-man classes. Let’s see how this goes, but I like it being hard to get into the Hall.
Yeah well, any Hall of Fame with Floyd Little in it has probably already pushed the limits of exclusivity. The voters essentially put DeAngelo Williams (with a lower per carry average but the ability to return punts and kicks) into the Hall of Fame when they voted Little in. But it was a different time during the late 1960's and early 1970's, not like in today's game where the run game is the focal point of an offense and running backs don't share carries.
Williams' numbers.
Little's numbers.
Let's just say if this were the Baseball Hall of Fame then there would be sportswriters stating if Little can get in the Hall of Fame then DeAngelo Williams should as well.
It should be hard.
That's what she said.
Brett Favre is one of Peter's Quotes of the Week because Peter has gone WAY too long without mentioning Favre in MMQB.
“Improbability means nothing, because absolutely anything is possible.”
—Michael Strahan, in his Hall of Fame induction speech Saturday night in Canton, Ohio.
Well Michael..."improbability" does actually mean something because it just means something isn't probable. Improbable does mean something COULD happen, it's just not likely to happen. So improbability does mean something. You know what word might have made more sense in the context of this quote that Peter seems to find so deep, yet isn't actually as deep as Peter thinks once it's thought through? "Impossible." Impossible may mean nothing, because absolutely anything is possible. That would make more sense in the context of this sentence.
“They are cheaters. I give them all the credit in the world,
Yep, that's sort of a contradiction. If you call someone a cheater, then you are essentially taking away credit for an achievement and saying they cheated while achieving a goal. I know, I know, I am Mr. Semantics Guy here of late and probably have no right to be.
but one fact remains: They haven’t won a Super Bowl since they got caught.”
While true, this overlooks the fact the Patriots have been to two Super Bowls since they got caught. So I would say the fact the Patriots have been to quite a few AFC Championship Games and two Super Bowls since they were caught reflects that they didn't need to cheat to win football games, even in the postseason. Who am I to argue with a man like Cary Williams though? I'm sure these comments are well-thought through.
—Philadelphia cornerback Cary Williams, on his feelings about the New England Patriots, who were punished harshly by commissioner Roger Goodell in the “Spygate” case in 2007.
It sounds like Cary Williams has been receiving his daily talking points from Gregg Easterbrook. That's never a good thing.
Chip Kelly Wisdom of the Week
He's an NFL head coach. He says things. Peter King thinks these things are super-deep and very interesting. I don't see it that way, but it seems Peter marvels at nearly anything that Chip Kelly says of late.
(Note: I’ve made an editorial decision about the “Monday Morning Quarterback” column in 2014. I’m going to comb the weekly Chip Kelly press conferences and find a quote I like. There might be some weeks when I cannot find one, and in that case, this note will disappear. But most weeks, I feel sure I’ll have a Kellyism for you. The reason I like to listen to him is that he’s the kind of an outsider who says things that make lots of sense. And I’ll try to pass on some of that comment NFL sense to you each Monday.)
Let's be real for a minute here. Chip Kelly is not an outsider. He was the head coach at the University of Oregon before he became the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. He's been coaching football since 1990. It's his profession and pretty much all he has ever done. He coached at lower college levels before getting his shot with the Oregon Ducks as the offensive coordinator, but this doesn't make him an outsider any more than Jim Tressel was an outsider while coaching Ohio State. Chip Kelly worked his way up to being the head coach at one of the best football programs in the country and now is the head coach of one of thirty-two NFL teams. I don't get how he's an outsider. Sure, it's fun to pretend he is and follow that narrative, like the narrative that every quote out of Kelly's mouth is pure genius, but it doesn't ring true to me.
“He asked me what was surprising me and I just think the hype that surrounds the draft in general. The fact that people would watch the Scouting Combine … There’s times at the Combine where I fall asleep. So I don’t know why people watch it on television. They are running 40-yard dashes.”
Is this really wisdom? This certainly seems like an opinion to me. So I guess since the 40-yard dashes aren't important then neither Chip Kelly or the Eagles organization will be in attendance at next year's Combine to watch the 40-yard dash?
For a person who doesn't care much about the Combine and the hype around the Combine, Chip Kelly sure likes to mention statistics put up by a prospect at the Combine to defend his draft choices. So the Combine is boring and over-hyped unless Chip Kelly needs to use information learned at the Combine to defend his pick.
Here are Marcus Smith's Combine statistics.
What Chip Kelly said about Smith,
He's a very, very good athlete. He's over 6'3", in the 250, 255 pound range, ran 4.68, He's got speed coming off the edge.
All statistics learned at the Combine.
On Smith's long arms (34 inches)
Long levers are strong levers. You know our motto on that. Again, he fits the mold for what we're looking for. I think kind of that ceiling I talked about, because there is such an upside to him. How many guys are that size, 250‑plus pounds, running the 4.6 range, have the long arms.
Where was Smith's arm length measured? The Combine. Oh, and there is that boring 40-yard dash time again. Funny how Chip Kelly likes to quote a number that Smith put up while Kelly was asleep.
So the combine is over-hyped and boring until Chip Kelly has to defend one of his picks using numbers put up by a prospect at the Combine.
Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note of the Week
The MMQB Tour pulled into Gaffney, S.C., late last Sunday night. The four of us—driver Andy DeGory, me, PFF’s Neil Hornsby, video man John DePetro—hustled into an Olive Garden for dinner before it closed at 10. “Anything to drink for y’all?’’ the waitress said. I blurted out, “Glass of Chianti, please.” She said she is sorry, but this is a dry county and there is no alcohol served or sold in this county on Sundays. We are crestfallen.
If only there were other counties in the area where alcohol could be purchased at such a late hour. Also, remember the next time you feel bad for Peter that he has to drive all over the country with his training camp tour that he isn't actually doing the driving. Someone gets paid to do that. Otherwise in regard to the alcohol issue, hit up a convenience store or grocery store in the county over. The North Carolina border is right there and it's always smart to have alcohol on the bus anyway. Any smart person knows that.
The MMQB Team had time Sunday to work out at a Planet Fitness in Louisville. I’ve never been to one. A couple of observations: They spell “judgment” wrong. They insert an “e,” and make it “judgement,” as in “No Judgement Here.” They’re trying to say that if you’re overweight, it’s fine—just come in and work out and get started on a healthy path. Cool, other than the spelling.
Actually, I think "judgement" is just a variant spelling of the word "judgment." I've seen it both ways and am not sure there is a real difference to justify one as "wrong" and the other as "right." I guess there is judgment by Peter on how well Planet Fitness can spell.
No scales in the men’s locker room. I went to the front desk and asked the fellow where I might find a scale. “We don’t have scales,’’ he said. “This is a judgment-free zone.” Those were his words: This is a judgment-free zone. Or maybe a “judgement”-free zone.
Or maybe there are two varied spellings.
The esteemed columnist for the Boston Globe
He's not esteemed, he's a highly paid troll who is being a drama queen about the Red Sox coming in last place in the AL East one year after winning the World Series. Kansas City-on-the-Charles? I bet Kansas City would kill to have three World Series titles in the past decade.
Ten Things I Think I Think
1. I think Roger Goodell has had happier anniversaries. Friday is the eight-year anniversary of Goodell’s ascension to the commissioner’s job. I doubt in the wake of the Ray Rice decision he’ll be feted in many corners.
Yeah, but he has the NFL players wear pink in October! He can't be such a bad guy!
2. I think Goodell erred Friday when addressing the Rice suspension to reporters for the first time. He was fairly dispassionate and clinical, giving a Tagliabue-type, stiff, not too intimately-detailed explanation of how the league arrived at the decision that two games and a $530,000 fine for Rice was appropriate.
I'm amused by what Goodell "should" do. He's the NFL commissioner and when he has ever given a shit what anyone thinks about him? He doesn't care what women think, he doesn't care what fans think. He just wants to see games sold out and the NFL making money. That's all he cares about and all the approval he needs. Until fans stop buying tickets or women stop coming to NFL games (which isn't happening soon), Roger Goodell isn't about to give a meaningful speech about why he gave Ray Rice a two-game suspension. Get serious. Goodell isn't about to explain himself to a group of people he doesn't feel are on his level and therefore he doesn't believe he should have to explain himself to anyone.
6. I think I would have felt a lot better about the 2014 fortunes of the Bills had E.J.Manuel been better than two-of-seven, and had connected at least once—particularly on the long throw down the left sideline in the first quarter Sunday night—with star rookie wideout Sammy Watkins. Three targets, zero receptions for Watkins. Nothing huge. Just a bummer for the first outing of what’s supposed to be a beautiful relationship.
It's an exhibition game. Probably not wise to feel good or bad about what happens on the field. The beautiful relationship between Watkins and Manuel can somehow survive a bad first exhibition game since they haven't played together that long.
8. I think, after pondering the prospective 2015 Pro Football Hall of Fame class, I would predict these five modern-era finalists for entry: Marvin Harrison, Will Shields, Junior Seau, Charles Haley and … now this is a tough one, because there are so many close calls in the modern-era class, but I’ll say Orlando Pace, narrowly, over Jerome Bettis. We shall see. Even though I’m one of the voters, I’m always lousy at predicting the outcome of the vote.
Wait, so Peter does have a Pro Football Hall of Fame vote? He hasn't mentioned it in an entire page of MMQB and this is only the third time he's mentioned it in this column. I was wondering if Peter was still a Pro Football Hall of Fame voter.
10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:
b. I know nothing about basketball, and it is always dangerous to speak of things you know nothing about, certainly.
And of course, Peter will now speak of things he knows nothing about. After all, he's Peter fucking King and even if he doesn't know much about basketball, he has an opinion and it's worth something.
But if I were an NBA general manager, I might draw up in my contracts that a player can play in the Olympics, but not in any of these other international tournaments. There’s just too much at stake, and basketball is too much of a contact sport, to risk getting hurt severely in a scrimmage between national team members preceding an international tournament that no one really cares much about anyway.
Yeah, but for some of these players they won't have a chance to play in the Olympics if they don't show the Team USA coaching staff they are worthy of making the Olympic team through playing in the international tournaments. So draw up the contracts like this, that's fine, but understand if Paul George wants to play in the Olympics then choosing to play in the international tournament may be one of his chances to show he deserves to make the team. Maybe not Paul George, but other players had to play in the international tournaments to show they deserve to be on the 2016 Olympic team.
c. Love the baseball trading deadline. What a fun day Thursday was. Many thoughts.
Please don't.
The Rays got 18 cents on the dollar for David Price.
I would disagree strongly. The Rays received two really good prospects in Nick Franklin and Willy Adames, along with a pitcher in Drew Smyly who I think was somewhat undervalued behind those other great pitchers in Detroit. Who am I to argue with Peter King though? This is the guy who doesn't even know the best prospects in the farm system of his favorite team.
Eleven of the 24 players on Boston’s World Series roster nine months ago are gone.
What's being ignored is the Red Sox team is being rebuilt to contend again next year. Maybe Peter should call the esteemed Dan Shaughnessy and they could have a nice Chianti together to mourn the Red Sox not contending for two months. I bet Peter's brother-in-law is going to threaten to not renew his season tickets. Two months of non-contention? That's unacceptable!
The Red Sox should have made Jon Lester a better offer last February than four years, $70 million. Say, five years, $105 million. But much beyond that, and I have to say it gets too rich for my blood for a pitcher who will be 31 next year. He could be great for the next five years and I’ll be wrong when someone pays him $25 million a year next winter.
My only problem with the whole thing: The Red Sox got too dug in on a “reasonable” price for Lester last off-season and never got serious about paying market value for a true ace.
Two issues:
1. Who is to say Jon Lester would have accepted this deal giving him $17.5 million per year last offseason?
2. If the Red Sox got serious about paying market value for a true ace then they would pay Lester $20 million or more per year. That's the going market value. So Peter has already stated market value is too rich for his blood, but he wanted the Red Sox to be more serious about paying market value for Lester.
The Adieu Haiku
Jags coach Gus Bradley
Could sub for Tony Robbins.
The man can inspire.
If only Tony Robbins could inspire Peter to never write the Adieu Haiku again.
“Can I see you for a couple of minutes before you leave today?”
(Peter's doctor) "Peter, I don't know of another way to tell you this. You have been infected with loftiness and an extreme case of pretention. There is no cure."
(Peter King) "I noticed a few things you are doing wrong with your medical practice. Despite the fact I have no background in medicine or business, let me tell you everything you are doing wrong and I will criticize you publicly if you chose not to make the improvements I have suggested."
I looked up, and it was Cam Newton speaking. From my seat in the lobby of the Wofford College student union, just outside the cafeteria the Carolina Panthers use at training camp here, I was a bit taken aback.
Here is that moment...that moment when the cool athlete on campus finally comes up to the journalism dork in the cafeteria and wants to talk to him. Peter would be giddy, but it's Cam Newton so he doesn't really care.
It was the first time Newton had spoken to me since Feb. 22, 2011, when he told me in a telephone interview, “I see myself not only as a football player, but an entertainer and icon,” and I reported it. Newton thought it was a cheap shot for me to report it—more about that in a minute—and so we’d gone into radio silence whenever I was around him since, which wasn’t that often.
Before I get accused of homerism by nobody, let me get my feelings on this situation out of the way. I have probably only done this twenty times before. Peter King wasn't completely wrong to only tweet the "entertainer, icon" quote out, but he's a complete moron if he pretends like he didn't know what tweeting that select quote was going to represent to his followers. He took the entirety of an interview and summed it up in a quote that he had to know was going to reflect on Newton in a way that probably wasn't going to be ideal. I don't believe Peter didn't realize this tweet would have the impact it did have. It didn't represent the full conversation or story and I think Peter knew that.
Cam Newton has been a little bit of a baby through all of this. I'm in the minority among my fan base regarding this. I don't think Newton should bow down to Peter, but it was three years ago, it was a quote that didn't end up hurting Newton. He only looks like a small person for not forgiving Peter and at least giving him a few minutes of his time. Part of life is having to deal with people you would rather not deal with. I have people misquote me, ignore what I'm saying and lie about things I have said many times a week and I don't have the option of ignoring these people. It's the real world, deal with it, set the record straight and forgive Peter for this one incident and move on. If Peter does it again, then I see a great reason to choose not to speak with him.
So in terms of blame, I do blame Peter for the situation, but it's a bad look for Cam to simply choose to never forgive Peter and not move on. It looks resentful and small.
This item is about the maturation of a person and a player, and about something I don’t recall ever experiencing covering the league.
Notice how Peter thinks that Cam has matured simply because he has chosen to speak with Peter again. Not that Peter creates narratives based on how stories and events affect him of course. There's no way Cam could be fully mature without talking to Peter again.
In Miami, Joe Philbin’s doing bed check. The players actually like it.
You know, there is a Penn State joke in here that I will not make.
I have an item Rolling Stone will dig. (Does that mean I’m Almost Famous?)
No. It does not.
Last note: When I got to 9,200 words Sunday night, I decided to hold off on including my Tennessee, Tampa Bay and Jacksonville items, all of which I like. But I rarely write 9,000 words during the season, never mind in early August. So you’ll have to read my Tuesday column to learn who the second-best player is who I’ve seen on my camp tour. On with today’s show.
Sorry, Tennessee, Tampa Bay and Jacksonville fans. It's not like there are three pages of filler in this column that Peter could have easily gotten rid of to provide coverage for your team. It's now considered more important that Peter add a part to MMQB about Chip Kelly, provide information on what teams play music at camp and which don't, give quotes/stats/travel/facts of the week and list an entire page of what Peter thinks he thinks than it is to provide information about NFL teams to readers. If you ever wondered how important reporting on the NFL actually is to Peter when writing MMQB, no need to wonder anymore. His personal thoughts and comments are staying in MMQB, even if coverage of NFL teams has to be removed in order to make room for Peter's own personal thoughts and comments. MMQB is about Peter.
Newton finished a press conference with the local media
NEWTON TALKED TO THE LOCAL MEDIA FIRST! HE DOESN'T VALUE PETER ENOUGH TO MAKE HIM A PRIORITY!
15 or 20 minutes after he approached me initially, and when he finished, I was waiting outside the room. Steven Drummond of the Carolina PR staff found us a room, an auditorium the team uses for meetings at Wofford. He closed the door, and Newton and I stood there together. I wasn’t taking notes in our 20 minutes together, but I remember a lot of what he said.
Normally, I would criticize Peter for not taking notes, especially since he transcribes conversations complete strangers have, but it makes sense in this case.
He got right to the point. He said most of the people close to him wanted him to never speak to me again. Ignore me. I was one of the haters, so don’t deal with me; just deal with the media who were either fair—in their minds—or consistently supportive. “But I am my own person,’’ he said. “I think for myself. I make my own decisions. I decided I wanted to talk to you to see if we could work this out. I don’t want to walk the other way every time I see you. That’s not what a man does.”
A man pretends to be Superman when he scores a touchdown. What's more manly than pretending to be a superhero?
And I said I wanted to explain to him exactly what happened that day three-and-a-half years ago, when I quoted him accurately after our telephone interview; that way, he could decide for himself if he wanted to ever speak to me again.
I like how Peter felt the need to include "accurately" as if the accuracy and not the context isn't what matters. Sure, it's an accurate quote if I said,
"At first I wanted to kill him for backstabbing me, but I've gotten over it. He's just a person to me now and I don't think about what he did often. I won't be friends with him and sometimes I think 'I'd like to kill him,' but those feelings aren't really important anymore,"
and the reporter chooses to quote me saying,
"...sometimes I think 'I'd like to kill him,'"
but it's not entirely accurate with the full conversation or quote. I think this is important for Peter to try and understand.
Of course, I said. I was the first of the four to talk with him that day, and during the interview, he said the icon and entertainer thing.
I figured there were certain messages about work ethic and image he wanted to get across in the interview, which he did. And I figured I wouldn’t be the only one he said that line to. I just figured if I didn’t use it, and fast, one of the next three interviewers would hear it and use it, somewhere. And so I threw it on Twitter, and said NFL people wouldn’t like to hear it.
Peter hasn't really said much about this quote from Newton, but what little he has written about it he sort of plays like he didn't know the exact reason it caused the stir that it did or why Newton was so angry. Peter rushed to put this quote on Twitter. Why? Because he knew it was a good quote that didn't reflect well on Newton and NFL teams wouldn't like to hear it. He KNEW the quote taken in that context had a negative impact and he rushed to use it. So I don't believe the facade of innocence that Peter has put up at times. He knew what the quote was going to do.
One quarterback-needy coach high in the draft said the comment totally soured him on Newton, and he caught some crap for it, and I caught some crap for it too, for what some thought was taking a quote out of context.
Which, it was.
“I’ve thought about what I’d have done differently,’’ I told Newton, standing there in the auditorium. But I said we weren’t face-to-face, and maybe if we were I’d have cautioned him about it; I wasn’t sure. But I just figured he’d say it to someone else at some point, and so I used it.
Notice how Peter seems to try to differentiate between using the quote because he believed it to be made to a group of of four journalists and stating he would have cautioned Newton if they were face-to-face and if it was a quote he knew was only given to him. I'm not sure there is a difference. Why is the quote fine to quickly post to Twitter if Peter is in a race to be the first one to use it? It's fine to use a juicy quote if the athlete says it to multiple people, as part of the sportswriter rat race, but if the athlete gives a juicy quote to one journalist then it's okay not use the quote and counsel the athlete on what he said and how it might play? That seems to be what Peter is sort of getting at. If that were the case, then Jeff Pearlman should never have used any of the quotes from John Rocker in his famous "Sports Illustrated" piece on Rocker.
On one hand, Newton said what he said, and I reported it. But in the end, I feel bad that he was branded with those comments because his three years as a player has proven him to be, after some missteps at post-game podiums following losses, a good person and leader.
Newton has shown himself to be a much better person than a quarterback. This has been the case for a couple of years now. He's not where he needs to be or could be yet as a quarterback, so it's always annoyed me a little bit he hasn't ever made peace with Peter because from everything I've seen/heard about Newton he is better than that. Peter "did him wrong" in his point of view, but he has to let that crap go. I'm glad he did, but I also have a hard time buying Peter's excuse that he was just trying to report the quote before others did. It's not the quote, but the context of the quote that always made me irritated with Peter. It didn't have the proper context of the entire 15 minute conversation.
We talked a while longer. We were about to walk out, and he looked at me. “Let’s let bygones be bygones,’’ Newton said, and he stuck out his right hand. We shook.
Fantastic. Now Newton can spend his time worrying about real issues he has, like whether his offensive line will get him murdered this year and whether the receivers will get open for him.
But hey, Cam is mature now that he has let bygones by bygones with Peter King. Not that the world revolves around Peter of course.
“This camp,’’ Philbin said, “I’m doing every bed check. Every night. I knock on every door.’’
How many doors? Sixty. At 10:30 p.m. nightly, Philbin knocks—ranking vets have singles, younger players have roommates—and checks. Some players, like quarterback Ryan Tannehill, are zonked (“I’ve been asleep every time he’s come in the room”),
I can see Joe Philbin walking into the players rooms and just standing there to make sure that player is indeed asleep. In fact, I have an exclusive picture of Joe Philbin in Ryan Tannehill's room.
but some, like defensive end Cameron Wake, engage Philbin in a daily Q&A about practice, or a current event. “You guys okay?’’ Philbin will ask, or “Ready for practice in the morning?” Or “Anything we need to discuss?”
And Joe Philbin is like, "Geez, Cameron. I'm tired and ready for bed. I'm not trying to have a conversation, just trying to make sure you are in your room."
“I think I’ve been more vigilant,’’ Philbin told me in his office Friday before the team’s 8 a.m. practice. “I am trying to do a better job communicating with players and staff.
Philbin’s been called Clueless Joe for not knowing what was going on in his locker room and, in some cases, on the practice field as guard Jonathan Martin was getting hazed into a near-breakdown by a Richie Incognito-led group of tormentors.
I have to believe if Drew Brees didn't know his fellow defensive teammates were participating in a bounty program then there is a chance Joe Philbin didn't know Jonathan Martin was being hazed by Richie Incognito.
(Chokes on sarcasm)
I asked Wake what kind of coach Philbin was to play for and relate to. “He’s probably one of the most interested coaches I’ve had as far as what you think or how you feel about certain things.
"Ryan, how does it feel to be put on your ass a lot because your offensive line doesn't block sufficiently for you?"
Example: The players asked Philbin for music during practices, instead of the old white-noise crowd noise that most teams blast when trying to practice communicating in noise. On Friday, the music—a rap/salsa/pop/oldies mixture—played for maybe 70 percent of practice.
Salsa music? Victor Cruz has demanded an immediate trade to the Miami Dolphins.
On Saturday, the Dolphins picked up their former center, smallish Samson Satele, off the street, trying to find depth for the interior line, which has struggled in even the basics. The centers in camp have been adventurous, let’s just say, with something as simple as the shotgun snap. One flew over Tannehill’s head in practice Friday.
Oh, well Tannehill was a receiver in college so maybe he should just act like he's trying to catch a pass and then these shotgun snaps over his head won't be a problem.
Every year when I go on my training-camp trip, there are things that I see and players in different uniforms and coaches in odd places that I just didn’t expect. In my first 12 stops I was stopped in my tracks only once: when I saw Devin Hester wearing a strange number, 17, and the red jersey of the Atlanta Falcons.
I always figured that Hester, who played eight years for the Chicago Bears, would one day join Butkus, Luckman, Halas, Sayers and so many legendary Monsters of the Midway, guys who played or coached their entire careers in Chicago and went to Canton with the full-throated support of rabid Bears fans. Now, I am not automatically putting Hester in.
Mostly because Hester isn't going to play his entire career in Chicago? I guess since Hester is playing for the Falcons now he can't be automatically put on this list since he no longer fits the criteria required for the list.
He may well end up in Canton as the best kick-and-punt returner in history (he’s not there yet, but he’s close), but now he’ll have to have a second act to ensure that. He’ll have to do it in Atlanta, where the return game has stunk and where he has signed a three-year, $9-million contract contract to rejuvenate Falcons special teams (he had a 14.2-yard punt-return average last year, and a 27.6-yard kick-return average, both very good), and to be a field-stretcher as a fourth or fifth receiver for Matt Ryan.
Yeah, because the Falcons need more offensive weapons at wide receiver and all.
Hester knows that his role primarily is to be the kick- and punt-returner, and whatever happens in the passing game happens. I was more interested in his future.
“If you don’t play another snap, are you a Hall of Famer?” I asked him.
Peter is asking the deep questions with completely non-obvious answers and all. Yeah, I'm sure Hester will say,
"No, I'm not a Hall of Famer because I'm not good enough yet to be considered one."
What's the point of this question? Did Peter really expect to get an answer where Hester says he isn't a Hall of Famer if he never played another snap?
“Oh yeah,” he said.
(Faints from astonishment)
“I think I am. I think I’ve done enough. I’m satisfied with what I’ve done stat-wise. I think I’ve done things that have never been done. I think I’m the best returner who has ever played the game of football. But if I don’t get [into the Hall of Fame], it wouldn’t be disappointing to me. I know, the guys I played against know. The rest is out of my hands.”
Unlike the football on kickoff and punt returns, this decision on whether he makes the Hall of Fame or not isn't in Hester's hands. Am I right?
I’m a voter.
GEE PETER, I NEVER KNEW YOU WERE A HALL OF FAME VOTER! WHY HAVEN'T YOU MENTIONED THIS AT EVERY POSSIBLE OPPORTUNITY IN MMQB?
I think Hester, in this era of football, has been a singular returner. In an era of such great athletes who have played this game, I think Hester has a superb case.
Well, until Peter considers the backlog of receivers who will be entering the Hall of Fame over the next decade and he has to consider whether Hester's return skills make up for his lesser receiving numbers as compared to other wide receivers and leaves Hester off his ballot. It sounds great to say Hester has a superb case for being in the Hall of Fame, but when the time comes and Hester is compared to other eligible players is Peter really going to feel the same?
Then Peter talks about which teams play music during training camp or not. Of course the team he notes has the best playlist is of course the team that plays U2. Peter learned everything he knows about pretention from Bono.
Some music notes: In Buffalo, Doug Marrone started it last year, early in the season. “You have to respect how young people live today,’’ said GM Doug Whaley. “For so many of them, their motto is, ‘Life’s better with a sound track.'” … The big reason for it, basically, is that lots of teams for years have tried to distract players and imitate stadium noise by playing at loud volume a sound track of stadium noise.
Based on how many times he has discussed which teams play music during camp and which do not, Peter must find the use of music during training camp to be one of the most important NFL preseason stories. I'm not sure a MMQB has gone by in the last three that he didn't talk about training camp music at least once.
The way I look at it: If you’ve got to have noise at practice, why not make it noise everyone enjoys, or everyone at least tolerates?
The way I look at it is this isn't that exciting of a story and there's really no need to mention it every week in MMQB.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is changing the bylaws for enshrinement. Starting next year, there will still be a maximum of five modern-era candidate slots for entry each year, but there will be a new category for contributors to the game, and it will impact the senior nominees each year (currently two seniors, or players more than 20 years out of the game, are eligible in each class) of voting. The upshot is there will be a maximum of eight enshrinees each year for the next five years, up from seven.
Does Peter still have a Pro Football Hall of Fame vote? I'm not sure since he hasn't mentioned he has a Hall of Fame vote in the last several paragraphs.
Over the next five years, here is the way the voting will be conducted:
Secretly and without revealing any of the information the public deserves to know about what percentage each player got and which writer voted for which player. After all, the Pro Football Hall of Fame is for the fans, so why should the fans be privy to information on how the candidates were elected or denied entry? That's just silly.
2015—Five modern-era candidates, two contributors, one senior. 2016—Five modern-era candidates, one contributor, two seniors. 2017—Five modern-era candidates, two contributors, one senior. 2018—Five modern-era candidates, one contributor, two seniors. 2019—Five modern-era candidates, two contributors, one senior.
The problem with getting contributors in now is that it’s not a fair process for them. If you favor Ron Wolf, for example (and I do—vociferously), you have to consider him alongside Michael Strahan and Charles Haley and Bill Parcells, and when that happens, history says most of the 46 voters will go the player/coach route. That leaves team-builders like Gil Brandt (who has other important qualities for his candidacy, by the way), Wolf and Bill Polian most often on the outside, in a big backlog, when the voters’ list is pared down to the semifinal list of 25 each winter, then of course off the final list of 15 for debating the enshrinees each year.
I get what Peter is saying, but the coaches and players are also more likely those that the general public are going to attend the Pro Football Hall of Fame to see. I doubt too many people in the public really want to go see Gil Brandt's bust at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. That's where many of these baseball writers get it wrong. Being in a hall of fame is about who deserves it and who doesn't, but it's also about the fans who go visit that hall of fame. Most fans I imagine would like to see Bill Parcells' bust in Canton before stopping by to see Gil Brandt's bust.
Those I feel deserve very strong consideration for the contributor category at the start of the process: Wolf, Brandt, Polian, Eddie DeBartolo Jr., Paul Tagliabue. I hope the new process lets the sun shine on their candidacies.
If the biggest issue with the Pro Football Hall of Fame is there is a backlog of qualified candidates then I think that's a pretty minor issue honestly.
My only objection to the change is I feel it’s pushing the limits of exclusivity to have, potentially, eight-man classes. Let’s see how this goes, but I like it being hard to get into the Hall.
Yeah well, any Hall of Fame with Floyd Little in it has probably already pushed the limits of exclusivity. The voters essentially put DeAngelo Williams (with a lower per carry average but the ability to return punts and kicks) into the Hall of Fame when they voted Little in. But it was a different time during the late 1960's and early 1970's, not like in today's game where the run game is the focal point of an offense and running backs don't share carries.
Williams' numbers.
Little's numbers.
Let's just say if this were the Baseball Hall of Fame then there would be sportswriters stating if Little can get in the Hall of Fame then DeAngelo Williams should as well.
It should be hard.
That's what she said.
Brett Favre is one of Peter's Quotes of the Week because Peter has gone WAY too long without mentioning Favre in MMQB.
“Improbability means nothing, because absolutely anything is possible.”
—Michael Strahan, in his Hall of Fame induction speech Saturday night in Canton, Ohio.
Well Michael..."improbability" does actually mean something because it just means something isn't probable. Improbable does mean something COULD happen, it's just not likely to happen. So improbability does mean something. You know what word might have made more sense in the context of this quote that Peter seems to find so deep, yet isn't actually as deep as Peter thinks once it's thought through? "Impossible." Impossible may mean nothing, because absolutely anything is possible. That would make more sense in the context of this sentence.
“They are cheaters. I give them all the credit in the world,
Yep, that's sort of a contradiction. If you call someone a cheater, then you are essentially taking away credit for an achievement and saying they cheated while achieving a goal. I know, I know, I am Mr. Semantics Guy here of late and probably have no right to be.
but one fact remains: They haven’t won a Super Bowl since they got caught.”
While true, this overlooks the fact the Patriots have been to two Super Bowls since they got caught. So I would say the fact the Patriots have been to quite a few AFC Championship Games and two Super Bowls since they were caught reflects that they didn't need to cheat to win football games, even in the postseason. Who am I to argue with a man like Cary Williams though? I'm sure these comments are well-thought through.
—Philadelphia cornerback Cary Williams, on his feelings about the New England Patriots, who were punished harshly by commissioner Roger Goodell in the “Spygate” case in 2007.
It sounds like Cary Williams has been receiving his daily talking points from Gregg Easterbrook. That's never a good thing.
Chip Kelly Wisdom of the Week
He's an NFL head coach. He says things. Peter King thinks these things are super-deep and very interesting. I don't see it that way, but it seems Peter marvels at nearly anything that Chip Kelly says of late.
(Note: I’ve made an editorial decision about the “Monday Morning Quarterback” column in 2014. I’m going to comb the weekly Chip Kelly press conferences and find a quote I like. There might be some weeks when I cannot find one, and in that case, this note will disappear. But most weeks, I feel sure I’ll have a Kellyism for you. The reason I like to listen to him is that he’s the kind of an outsider who says things that make lots of sense. And I’ll try to pass on some of that comment NFL sense to you each Monday.)
Let's be real for a minute here. Chip Kelly is not an outsider. He was the head coach at the University of Oregon before he became the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. He's been coaching football since 1990. It's his profession and pretty much all he has ever done. He coached at lower college levels before getting his shot with the Oregon Ducks as the offensive coordinator, but this doesn't make him an outsider any more than Jim Tressel was an outsider while coaching Ohio State. Chip Kelly worked his way up to being the head coach at one of the best football programs in the country and now is the head coach of one of thirty-two NFL teams. I don't get how he's an outsider. Sure, it's fun to pretend he is and follow that narrative, like the narrative that every quote out of Kelly's mouth is pure genius, but it doesn't ring true to me.
“He asked me what was surprising me and I just think the hype that surrounds the draft in general. The fact that people would watch the Scouting Combine … There’s times at the Combine where I fall asleep. So I don’t know why people watch it on television. They are running 40-yard dashes.”
Is this really wisdom? This certainly seems like an opinion to me. So I guess since the 40-yard dashes aren't important then neither Chip Kelly or the Eagles organization will be in attendance at next year's Combine to watch the 40-yard dash?
For a person who doesn't care much about the Combine and the hype around the Combine, Chip Kelly sure likes to mention statistics put up by a prospect at the Combine to defend his draft choices. So the Combine is boring and over-hyped unless Chip Kelly needs to use information learned at the Combine to defend his pick.
Here are Marcus Smith's Combine statistics.
What Chip Kelly said about Smith,
He's a very, very good athlete. He's over 6'3", in the 250, 255 pound range, ran 4.68, He's got speed coming off the edge.
All statistics learned at the Combine.
On Smith's long arms (34 inches)
Long levers are strong levers. You know our motto on that. Again, he fits the mold for what we're looking for. I think kind of that ceiling I talked about, because there is such an upside to him. How many guys are that size, 250‑plus pounds, running the 4.6 range, have the long arms.
Where was Smith's arm length measured? The Combine. Oh, and there is that boring 40-yard dash time again. Funny how Chip Kelly likes to quote a number that Smith put up while Kelly was asleep.
So the combine is over-hyped and boring until Chip Kelly has to defend one of his picks using numbers put up by a prospect at the Combine.
Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note of the Week
The MMQB Tour pulled into Gaffney, S.C., late last Sunday night. The four of us—driver Andy DeGory, me, PFF’s Neil Hornsby, video man John DePetro—hustled into an Olive Garden for dinner before it closed at 10. “Anything to drink for y’all?’’ the waitress said. I blurted out, “Glass of Chianti, please.” She said she is sorry, but this is a dry county and there is no alcohol served or sold in this county on Sundays. We are crestfallen.
If only there were other counties in the area where alcohol could be purchased at such a late hour. Also, remember the next time you feel bad for Peter that he has to drive all over the country with his training camp tour that he isn't actually doing the driving. Someone gets paid to do that. Otherwise in regard to the alcohol issue, hit up a convenience store or grocery store in the county over. The North Carolina border is right there and it's always smart to have alcohol on the bus anyway. Any smart person knows that.
The MMQB Team had time Sunday to work out at a Planet Fitness in Louisville. I’ve never been to one. A couple of observations: They spell “judgment” wrong. They insert an “e,” and make it “judgement,” as in “No Judgement Here.” They’re trying to say that if you’re overweight, it’s fine—just come in and work out and get started on a healthy path. Cool, other than the spelling.
Actually, I think "judgement" is just a variant spelling of the word "judgment." I've seen it both ways and am not sure there is a real difference to justify one as "wrong" and the other as "right." I guess there is judgment by Peter on how well Planet Fitness can spell.
No scales in the men’s locker room. I went to the front desk and asked the fellow where I might find a scale. “We don’t have scales,’’ he said. “This is a judgment-free zone.” Those were his words: This is a judgment-free zone. Or maybe a “judgement”-free zone.
Or maybe there are two varied spellings.
Welcome to Kansas City-on-the-Charles http://t.co/isuCNRXL4c
— Dan Shaughnessy (@Dan_Shaughnessy) July 31, 2014
The esteemed columnist for the Boston Globe
He's not esteemed, he's a highly paid troll who is being a drama queen about the Red Sox coming in last place in the AL East one year after winning the World Series. Kansas City-on-the-Charles? I bet Kansas City would kill to have three World Series titles in the past decade.
Ten Things I Think I Think
1. I think Roger Goodell has had happier anniversaries. Friday is the eight-year anniversary of Goodell’s ascension to the commissioner’s job. I doubt in the wake of the Ray Rice decision he’ll be feted in many corners.
Yeah, but he has the NFL players wear pink in October! He can't be such a bad guy!
2. I think Goodell erred Friday when addressing the Rice suspension to reporters for the first time. He was fairly dispassionate and clinical, giving a Tagliabue-type, stiff, not too intimately-detailed explanation of how the league arrived at the decision that two games and a $530,000 fine for Rice was appropriate.
I'm amused by what Goodell "should" do. He's the NFL commissioner and when he has ever given a shit what anyone thinks about him? He doesn't care what women think, he doesn't care what fans think. He just wants to see games sold out and the NFL making money. That's all he cares about and all the approval he needs. Until fans stop buying tickets or women stop coming to NFL games (which isn't happening soon), Roger Goodell isn't about to give a meaningful speech about why he gave Ray Rice a two-game suspension. Get serious. Goodell isn't about to explain himself to a group of people he doesn't feel are on his level and therefore he doesn't believe he should have to explain himself to anyone.
6. I think I would have felt a lot better about the 2014 fortunes of the Bills had E.J.Manuel been better than two-of-seven, and had connected at least once—particularly on the long throw down the left sideline in the first quarter Sunday night—with star rookie wideout Sammy Watkins. Three targets, zero receptions for Watkins. Nothing huge. Just a bummer for the first outing of what’s supposed to be a beautiful relationship.
It's an exhibition game. Probably not wise to feel good or bad about what happens on the field. The beautiful relationship between Watkins and Manuel can somehow survive a bad first exhibition game since they haven't played together that long.
8. I think, after pondering the prospective 2015 Pro Football Hall of Fame class, I would predict these five modern-era finalists for entry: Marvin Harrison, Will Shields, Junior Seau, Charles Haley and … now this is a tough one, because there are so many close calls in the modern-era class, but I’ll say Orlando Pace, narrowly, over Jerome Bettis. We shall see. Even though I’m one of the voters, I’m always lousy at predicting the outcome of the vote.
Wait, so Peter does have a Pro Football Hall of Fame vote? He hasn't mentioned it in an entire page of MMQB and this is only the third time he's mentioned it in this column. I was wondering if Peter was still a Pro Football Hall of Fame voter.
10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:
b. I know nothing about basketball, and it is always dangerous to speak of things you know nothing about, certainly.
And of course, Peter will now speak of things he knows nothing about. After all, he's Peter fucking King and even if he doesn't know much about basketball, he has an opinion and it's worth something.
But if I were an NBA general manager, I might draw up in my contracts that a player can play in the Olympics, but not in any of these other international tournaments. There’s just too much at stake, and basketball is too much of a contact sport, to risk getting hurt severely in a scrimmage between national team members preceding an international tournament that no one really cares much about anyway.
Yeah, but for some of these players they won't have a chance to play in the Olympics if they don't show the Team USA coaching staff they are worthy of making the Olympic team through playing in the international tournaments. So draw up the contracts like this, that's fine, but understand if Paul George wants to play in the Olympics then choosing to play in the international tournament may be one of his chances to show he deserves to make the team. Maybe not Paul George, but other players had to play in the international tournaments to show they deserve to be on the 2016 Olympic team.
c. Love the baseball trading deadline. What a fun day Thursday was. Many thoughts.
Please don't.
The Rays got 18 cents on the dollar for David Price.
I would disagree strongly. The Rays received two really good prospects in Nick Franklin and Willy Adames, along with a pitcher in Drew Smyly who I think was somewhat undervalued behind those other great pitchers in Detroit. Who am I to argue with Peter King though? This is the guy who doesn't even know the best prospects in the farm system of his favorite team.
Eleven of the 24 players on Boston’s World Series roster nine months ago are gone.
What's being ignored is the Red Sox team is being rebuilt to contend again next year. Maybe Peter should call the esteemed Dan Shaughnessy and they could have a nice Chianti together to mourn the Red Sox not contending for two months. I bet Peter's brother-in-law is going to threaten to not renew his season tickets. Two months of non-contention? That's unacceptable!
The Red Sox should have made Jon Lester a better offer last February than four years, $70 million. Say, five years, $105 million. But much beyond that, and I have to say it gets too rich for my blood for a pitcher who will be 31 next year. He could be great for the next five years and I’ll be wrong when someone pays him $25 million a year next winter.
My only problem with the whole thing: The Red Sox got too dug in on a “reasonable” price for Lester last off-season and never got serious about paying market value for a true ace.
Two issues:
1. Who is to say Jon Lester would have accepted this deal giving him $17.5 million per year last offseason?
2. If the Red Sox got serious about paying market value for a true ace then they would pay Lester $20 million or more per year. That's the going market value. So Peter has already stated market value is too rich for his blood, but he wanted the Red Sox to be more serious about paying market value for Lester.
The Adieu Haiku
Jags coach Gus Bradley
Could sub for Tony Robbins.
The man can inspire.
If only Tony Robbins could inspire Peter to never write the Adieu Haiku again.
Friday, December 27, 2013
5 comments MMQB Review: Who Knew Peyton Manning is a Student of the Game? Edition
Peter King enjoyed the Hollywoodiness of the Week 15 games in the NFL. It was all very dramatic. Peter also defended the choice of Peyton Manning as the "Sports Illustrated" Sportsman of the Year, and Peter's defense basically consisted of Peter say, "But it's Peyton Manning." Peter also recalled the story which caused him to rename his "Annoying/Aggravating Travel Note" after a Starwood Preferred member. Nothing says Christmas like hearing the same story over and over again. This week that whole line of demarcation thing between the Seahawks and every other team has gone away, Peter talks playoff tie-breakers, and in the most important story of the week, discusses how bad it smells when a guy burps continuously on a plane.
Surprisingly, there appear to be a couple of quotes from Cam Newton in this column. I'm not sure if Peter actually collected these quotes or piggy-backed them from another writer. It's interesting to me because of the whole "entertainer/icon" thing that happened prior to the 2011 NFL Draft which has caused Peter to be upset that Newton was upset he felt he was taken out of context. Maybe Peter called Newton "precocious" and that is part of their beef as well.
About that whole "massive line of demarcation" thing. Here is what Peter wrote:
Fine Fifteen
1. Seattle (12-2).
Here is what I wrote:
The 49ers and the Seahawks just played a very close game two weeks ago and the 49ers ended up winning that game. I guess if the Seahawks are playing at home then this is a massive line of demarcation, but considering the 49ers beat the Seahawks just two weeks ago I don't think the line of demarcation is that massive.
Sportswriters love to make bold, hard-and-fast statements like this and then act very, very surprised when their bold statement turns out to not be as true as they thought. The Seahawks are beatable at home and the Seahawks aren't tremendously better than every other NFL team. It wouldn't surprise me if the Seahawks won the Super Bowl, but they aren't heads and shoulders better than every other NFL team. But this doesn't stop Peter from writing something ridiculous despite evidence to the contrary (barely beating Carolina in Week 1, the 49ers beating the Seahawks in San Francisco) that the Seahawks are beatable. Seattle is tough at home, but the Cardinals proved they could be beaten in Seattle. It's dumb to suggest otherwise, though this doesn't ever stop Peter and many other sportswriters from writing stupid declarative statements like this now and in the future.
Before we start on the three big events of the weekend (by my estimation: Panthers slay the Saints, Peyton Manning makes history, Arizona shocks the world),
I'm shocked Peter didn't include the Cowboys staying alive in the Wild Card chase among his big events.
let’s talk about My Favorite Tiebreaker.
I'm not entirely sure why Peter capitalized this. I guess he thinks it's a real thing and not simply a matter of opinion.
In a five-way playoff tie, you first break ties within divisions. The Jets would eliminate Miami by virtue of a better division record (3-3 to 2-4). Pittsburgh eliminates Baltimore by having a better division record (4-2 to 3-3). That narrows it to Pittsburgh, San Diego and the Jets.
Peter is praying it's not San Diego so that one of his Northeast teams can make it into the playoffs. It makes it so much easier to cover games when they take place closer to Peter. San Diego is just so far away and Peter wasn't even sure they still had an NFL team until he saw they could make the AFC Playoffs.
We go to conference-games tiebreaker. Pittsburgh would be 6-6. San Diego and the Jets would be 5-7. That’s it. And Pittsburgh would make it … after being 2-6 at the midway point, losing to Minnesota in London and Oakland in the Black Hole, and giving up 55 points to the wounded Patriots. Crazy league.
Any team that is 8-8 probably has one or two really bad losses on their resume, so while the NFL is crazy, this isn't all that insane in my opinion. A team goes 8-8, then they probably lost a few games ugly or lost games they should have won.
Time was drawing short for Cam Newton to justify why he’d been the first pick in the 2011 draft, and why the Carolina Panthers made him the franchise cornerstone 32 months ago.
Because carrying the Panthers offense over the past two seasons while the defense has been bad apparently wasn't justifying his choice as the #1 overall pick. Oh, by the way, Matthew Stafford just got a new contract and hasn't justified his choice as the #1 overall pick. But I guess if Stafford has helped his Lions team not be in playoff contention, while Newton has helped his team get in playoff contention then it is Newton who gets the criticism for not justifying his selection as the first pick in the 2011 draft. Stafford has been in the NFL two more years than Cam by the way. I realize I am making a straw man argument, but it's simply silly to say Newton had to win THIS VERY GAME to justify his selection as the first overall pick. It's overdramatic and typical of Peter King.
In the last 20 minutes of the NFC South title game Sunday in Charlotte, he’d gone three-and-out four straight times. Four series with the division on the line, 16 yards. Playing at home. Losing, 13-10, the only touchdown coming on a 43-yard run by DeAngelo Williams. Sitting there at NBC, I’d seen enough. I tweeted: “Has Cam Newton made a play today? One?” Then: “Carolina drafted Newton first overall for games like this, and he’s failing them miserably today.”
Peter King did Tweet that and it was ridiculous even as Newton was being really, really bad prior to the final drive. Newton was terrible, but Peter had these Tweets ready to go and fired away joyfully. For some reason Peter was ignoring anything Cam may do in the future or in the past, but this very drive is when Cam had to justify his selection as the #1 overall pick in 2011.
One of the marks of great quarterbacks is playing big when it counts, and Newton’s 65-yard, 32-second, no-timeouts drive to all but win the division (the Saints need to beat the Bucs and have the Panthers lose to the Falcons in Week 17) was as big as it gets, and on this day, it showed that the Panthers’ faith in Newton in 2011 was well-placed.
This wasn't the final justification on whether the Panthers' faith in Newton in 2011 was well-placed. If Newton had been terrible and didn't drive the Panthers down the field to win the game, this one game wasn't the final decision on whether he should have been the #1 overall pick in 2011. Again, Matthew Stafford got a new huge contract and Peter doesn't feel like he has to continuously justify his selection as the #1 overall pick.
Good for Newton,
Said Peter King through gritted teeth.
who has morphed from a quarterback too reliant on his running ability to a good all-around quarterback who can make the biggest plays when it counts the most.
Newton threw for more yards during his first two seasons in the NFL than Russell Wilson and Colin Kaepernick. I wouldn't say Cam has ever been too reliant on his running ability. This is just a lazy statement. Newton has always had running as part of his game, but this isn't the year he became a good all-around quarterback. Newton still has the same flaws he had the previous two seasons, it's just the Panthers are winning.
“Luke Kuechly, with 24 tackles,” said Newton. “That’s unheard of.”
Then Newton for old time's sake threw a pass 10 feet over his receiver's head .
Peyton Manning thinks his records are temporary.
They probably are. Manning threw his 51st touchdown pass of the season with 4:34 left in the fourth quarter in a 37-13 rout of Houston Sunday, breaking Tom Brady’s six-year-old record.
Which leads me to asking why Manning was still throwing the ball when his team was up big late in the fourth quarter. But that's just me and my silly insistence that coaches don't allow players to break personal records when there is still a game left in the season for this player to break a personal record.
Offensive coordinator Adam Gase sent in the play, with first down at the Houston 25. This would be the last series of the game the Broncos would try to score, and Gase thought of a smart one.
How very kind of him to stop trying to score with 4 minutes left in the fourth quarter.
This would be the last series of the game the Broncos would try to score, and Gase thought of a smart one.
No one is a student of the game like Peyton Manning. Peyton Manning can't emphasize this enough.
“I will enjoy it while it lasts,” the 37-year-old Manning said. “I’m such a fan of the game, a student of the history of the game.
I didn't know that at all. It's not like every analyst takes the time to point this out to the audience during every Broncos game nor did "Sports Illustrated" do 20 pages this past week on what a student of the game Manning is after naming Peyton Manning "Sportsman of the Year" for achieving the accomplishment of being Peyton Manning and continuing to exist.
Manning, being the history guy he is, will give the ball to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
BUT IS MANNING A STUDENT OF THE GAME? NO ONE HAS EVER MENTIONED IT BEFORE!
Stats I think mean something.
They don't.
1. In the most storied passing season by a quarterback ever, Peyton Manning could lose out in passer rating to a guy who was a second-stringer the first month of the season. Nick Foles has a 5.7-point lead (118.7-113.0) over Manning entering Week 17.
Peter King can't get enough Peyton Manning this week.
2. Denver, the presumptive top seed in the AFC, has four players with at least 60 catches and at least 10 touchdown catches. Seattle, the presumptive top seed in the NFC, does not have a receiver with 60 catches, and does not have a receiver with 10 touchdown receptions.
An AFC team may make the playoffs by winning 8 games and an NFC team might miss the playoffs after winning 11 games. I guess that statistic doesn't suck at Peyton Manning's teat enough, so Peter doesn't mention it.
3. I agree the buck stops with the head coach, and Jim Schwartz is very likely to take the fall for the Lions’ going 1-5 down the stretch and falling out of the NFC North race they once owned. But Matthew Stafford has been awful down the stretch—undisciplined, not focused, clearly not as attentive to Calvin Johnson (four targets in five quarters against the Giants on Sunday) as he should be. Stafford’s being paid like a franchise quarterback, and he’s performing like a quarterback who should be benched for David Carr.
Yet Peter manages to refrain from sending out Tweets saying Stafford has to win THIS VERY GAME to justify his selection as the #1 overall pick.
4. Manning broke the touchdown-pass record Sunday against Houston, with Wade Phillips in charge of the Texans defense. Manning previously broke the touchdown-pass record held by Dan Marino in 2004 with his 49th against San Diego, with Wade Phillips in charge of the Chargers defense.
Peyton Manning. Peyton Manning. Peyton Manning.
5. How times are changing (thanks to Elliott Kalb for reminding me of these): Seven years ago Manning led the NFL with 31 touchdown passes. Andy Dalton has 31 this year, with four quarters to play.
Isn't it weird that Peyton Manning did something Peyton Manning football Peyton Manning right before the end of the Peyton Manning? I mean, Peyton Manning it all.
Perhaps more important for the rest of the NFC, Arizona burst the bubble of Seattle’s Pacific Northwest invincibility. We all thought the Seahawks would breeze to the Super Bowl in New Jersey
Don't "we" us Peter when you are the one who is wrong. "We" didn't think all think the Seahawks were going to breeze to the Super Bowl. You did. Don't blame the masses for you being wrong. When Peter is wrong it's "we" who thought what he thought, but when Peter is right then the "we" stuff goes away. It's like Peter thinks we believe what he believes because we read what he writes in MMQB.
Arians is a funny play-caller.
Funny like a clown? Like he amuses you? Like a clown?
If Carson Palmer throws four interceptions, as he did in Seattle, Arians is going to tell him to keep firing.
If Rashard Mendenhall is averaging 3.1 yards per carry, then Arians is going to keep ensuring that Andre Ellington doesn't get to touch the ball as often as Mendenhall does. It doesn't make it right, just like telling Palmer to keep firing after he has thrown four interceptions isn't necessarily right.
At the NFL meeting in Dallas earlier this month, a cadre of teams met to discuss something other sports have taken the lead on: pricing tickets to a team’s 10 games differently, depending on the quality of opposition and whether it’s a preseason or regular-season game.
My inclination is to hate this idea.
I do not, however, see this solving the problem of the NFL charging full prices for preseason games. It is possible that a team charging, say, $750 for a full-season ticket (eight regular-season games, two preseason games) would still charge $750 next season.
An NFL team absolutely would still charge full price for a preseason ticket. A person would have to be naive to believe these NFL teams are going to charge less money for a preseason ticket when they have a captive set of people who are forced to buy season tickets that include the preseason games. What will happen is ticket prices for "exciting" games will increase while other ticket prices stay the same. No NFL team is going to do anything to save their fans money or lower ticket prices. NFL teams know the fans will show up, so why lower prices?
But the way this was explained to me by a source with knowledge of several teams’ plans is that it would address the value of tickets on secondary markets like StubHub and Ticketmaster. A preseason game, rightfully, would have a lower base price than a decent game in November.
The preseason ticket cost may be lower than a decent game in November, but it doesn't mean the preseason tickets will be cheaper. It doesn't matter if the base price is cheaper for a preseason game if this only happens because the other games are so much more expensive.
Let’s say a good Chiefs’ season-ticket costs $1,000 for 10 games in 2014. The Chiefs have an attractive home slate next year. They could take visits by Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and the cross-state Rams, call them Tier 1 games and put a face value of $150 on those tickets. They could make the next four most attractive games Tier 2 at $100, and then call the final regular-season game and two preseason games Tier 3 at $50. (Those are my approximations, no one else’s.)
Great. Let's say Chiefs fans have to buy season tickets to 10 games or they don't get season tickets. Why would the team reduce the price of the preseason tickets if the fans are going to pay that money anyway to get tickets to the other eight games? NFL teams are greedy, never forget this.
A team like Buffalo, for instance, could put a premium price on the Patriots game and a much lower price on a game involving a less desirable team.
Or the Bills will raise the price for the Patriots game and keep the ticket price the same for the other games...assuming the NFL allows this to happen.
“I think you’ll see teams experiment with different price points the next couple of years,” said one executive of a team that will likely change pricing next season. “Then I think you’ll see the real final product in two or three years, when teams find out from their fans what they want the most.”
I love the idea that NFL teams can't figure out what fans want. What is really happening is NFL teams want to know the price-point at which NFL fans will stop buying tickets. What NFL fans want is easy. Don't make them pay full price for shitty preseason tickets and don't jack up ticket prices to other games. But yeah, good luck taking 2-3 years figuring this out. What NFL teams really want to know is, "If we raise ticket prices to exciting games by $20-50 will the fans still buy tickets to these games and will it affect how they purchase preseason game tickets?" It's all about money and the NFL teams want to know how much they can rip off the consumer before the consumer stops buying their product.
Fine Fifteen
1. Seattle (12-3). It’s only one game, against a variable Cardinals defensive front that changed things up on Russell Wilson consistently. I wouldn’t be too worried.
Because no other NFL team will change up their defensive front against the Seahawks. I'm surprised Peter didn't write that the Seahawks are still going to be in the Super Bowl and then claim "we" were wrong when they don't make it that far in the playoffs.
6. New Orleans (10-5). I wouldn’t throw the season in the dumpster just yet, Saints Nation, but barring a stunning upset by the Falcons Sunday over the Panthers with a Saints win over the Bucs, New Orleans will have to win four games away from the Superdome to win the Super Bowl this year. Points scored in the last three road games: 7, 16, 13.
In defense of the Saints (those are five words I don't write often) they did play the Seahawks, Panthers, and Rams on the road in those three games. Those teams are 1st, 2nd, and 13th in points allowed per game. It's not like they have played some shitty defensive teams in those three games on the road.
9. Indianapolis (10-5). The season’s long. Week 3: Colts travel to San Francisco and crush the Niners 27-7. Got crushed a few too many times since. But this is two straight weeks that the defense showed up and looked like it did that day by the Bay. There may be some January hope for this team.
There may be hope in January for them or there may not be. Ask Peter again in January when he can definitively tell you all of the flaws the Colts may or may not have after he has seen these flaws.
11. Philadelphia (9-6). Just when you think you’ve got the league figured out, a week after giving up 48 point to the Minnesota Vikings the Eagles go and beat the Bears by 43.
Every week in MMQB Peter talks about how the NFL is so hard to figure and he marvels at this. At some point, maybe he'll drop his child-like (precocious, if you will) wonder at how the NFL is unpredictable and just expect the unexpected.
13. Pittsburgh (7-8). Seven weeks ago the Steelers were 2-6. Just a friendly reminder that the season’s 17 weeks long.
Says the guy who had the Broncos playing a road wild card game against the Patriots four weeks into the season. Peter was also talking about the Undefeated Bowl (between the Chiefs and Broncos) four weeks into the season. But yeah Peter, your readers are the ones who should know it is a long season. The 2013 season has been the season of Peter King making overly-presumptuous statements, but he wants his readers to know it is a long NFL season.
15. Chicago (8-7). I’m open about who to put at No. 15. Ideas?
You just put Chicago there.
Offensive Players of the Week
Peyton Manning, quarterback, Denver.
Peyton Manning threw the Peyton Manning to the Peyton Manning. Peyton Manning.
Cam Newton, quarterback, Carolina.
This is a case of Peter over-compensating. Newton was terrible for 59 minutes of the game. He doesn't deserve this award for three passes.
Defensive Player of the Week
Luke Kuechly, linebacker, Carolina.
He deserves this.
Coach of the Week
Bruce Arians, head coach, Arizona.
He deserves this. Has any head coach ever won back-to-back Coach of the Year awards for two different teams? Peter would tell me to Google or Bing it, but I'm guessing it's not happened. Of course, I am liable to take this Coach of the Year award away from Arians if he doesn't play Andre Ellington more.
Then Peter criticizes a New Jersey climatologist for giving a prediction about weather on Super Bowl Sunday. Apparently Peter fancies himself a weather expert as well as a coffee expert. Peter can do every job better than someone who currently holds that job.
I’m not so stupid that I cannot learn.
Eh, not so sure. Every year Peter expects the NFL to be predictable and every year he marvels that the NFL isn't predictable.
In the wake of the success of so many running backs picked outside the first round, and after seeing the production (or lack thereof) of Trent Richardson since his trade for a first-round pick to Indianapolis, the lot of the running back in the modern NFL should teach us all one thing: Do not use a very high draft pick on one.
I do agree in part, but if a team wants to draft an elite running back then the best chance to do this is draft that guy in the first round. Peter then cherry-picks the 2008 draft to prove his point. Looking at the NFL leaders in rushing yards for the 2013 season there are nine guys drafted in the 1st three rounds of the draft and six guys drafted in either the first or second round. Including the players who are 11th-20th in rushing yards on the 2013 season there are seven players drafted from this sub-set in the 1st three rounds and all seven were drafted in the first two rounds. So drafting a running back in the first two rounds is still the best way to get an elite, productive running back. There are, of course, exceptions to this statement.
Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note of the Week
You know me. I’m not one to complain about little travel situations. (Oh really!) And on the scale of grand travel maladies, this would rate pretty low. But I present it to you for your delight.
If Peter knows his readers don't like his travel notes then why does he keep writing them?
Last Tuesday, returning from Sports Illustrated’s presentation of Sportsman of the Year to Peyton Manning in Denver,
Peyton Manning. Peyton Manning.
I was fortunate to be upgraded on my Delta flight, a good thing because I had a ton of writing to do. So when I sat down for the 8:30 a.m. flight, I thought it only slightly odd that the 40ish man next to me, informally dressed, said to the flight attendant: “Jack and Coke, please.” When it was delivered, he drank it like a man being handed a thimble of water in the Sahara. Gone in an instant. Then he asked for another. So … two stiff drinks before 8:30 a.m. I see.
Not doing that "ton of writing" you claim you have to do and are taking up time observing what everyone else around you is doing instead. I see.
Then, for about an hour, he belched. Not the loud kind of belch; rather, the modest kind with lots of air let out. Aromatic air. And I don’t mean aromatic in a good way. Every six or seven minutes, there’d be a slight guttural sound, a verbal whoooooosh, and a scent approximating a landfill. What did this guy eat Monday night? Deep-fried skunk?
I'm guessing this guy who knew who Peter was and wanted to end up in MMQB. Kudos to this guy for daring to mind his own business and have a few drinks (then burp) at an hour that Peter King deems to be too early to drink alcohol.
“Peyton Manning has thrown more touchdown passes this season (51) than his dad threw in his first five seasons combined (47).”
—@LATimesfarmer, Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times, after the Manning record was set Sunday afternoon.
Peyton Manning. Peyton Manning all day.
Ten Things I Think I Think
1. I think this is what I liked about Week 16:
g. Antoine Bethea, one of the most overlooked players in football. Always shows up, always hits the way a safety’s supposed to hit.
Peter King, one of the most precocious sportswriters, always clicheing (I made that word up) the way a sportswriter is supposed to write a cliche.
k. Carson Palmer made his share of gaffes (share is putting it nicely), but he did come through when it counted, finding Jake Ballard (remember him?) for 17 yards to convert a key third down with the game in the balance at Seattle.
It's a good thing Palmer won this game because he had to justify his selection as the #1 overall pick for the Bengals in 2003 and this was THE GAME where he had to justify this selection.
r. Unless something quite strange happens, Julian Edelman (96 receptions, 991 yards) is going to have a 100-catch, 1,000-yard receiving season. Raise your hand if you had that in your office pool out on Cape Cod in August.
"We" certainly never thought that would happen!
2. I think this is what I didn’t like about Week 16:
c. You’ve got to block Greg hardy around the edge, Terron Armstead, though I also think Drew Brees shouldn’t be taking a sack and taking his team out of field-goal range either.
Unfortunately, this was the game where Brees had to win it and justify his selection as the first pick of the 2nd round by the Chargers. Sad for Brees that everything he has done prior or will do in the future means nothing now.
i. I do not use this word lightly, but the Cowboys sure make some stupid plays.
From earlier in the column when Peter was joking about how he isn't stupid:
I’m not so stupid that I cannot learn.
j. What a terrible, horrible injury for the Broncos, the apparent torn ACL for Von Miller. That’s going to play a big role in the AFC pennant race over the next month.
A pennant race in football. I still don't get why Peter uses this term for anything other than baseball.
4. I think the Jets should not fire Rex Ryan. Period. End of story. A 7-8 record with a game to go, with that team? Hardly a fireable situation. Extend Ryan one year (his contract is up at the end of next season) and push this decision off until the end of 2014. Ryan, and Jets fans, deserve that.
Great idea. The Jets and Jets fans deserve to deal with a potentially lame duck coach two years in a row. I'm not sure why it's a good decision to kick this decision on Ryan down the road, but I don't think the Jets and their fans deserve to have to wonder if Ryan is going to get fired or be the Jets coach at the end of another season.
10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:
c. Filled with sadness at the death of Claire Davis, the 17-year-old Arapahoe (Colo.) High School senior who was minding her own business Dec. 13 when a classmate shot her in the head for no reason whatsoever. Utter madness.
I'm surprised Peter was able to hold off on giving another lecture about guns and Congress and how he is shocked that Congress hasn't done anything about guns yet. I'm guessing his editor just took that part out rather than Peter actually held back on this lecture.
f. Coffeenerdness: Diner breakfast Sunday in New York. Coffee-flavored water. Miserable. Who drinks this swill?
Someone who goes to a diner and pays $1.99 for bottomless coffee. If Peter wants bottomless coffee than he can't expect it to be a top of the line brew. Of course, no matter the situation Peter expects the best, even if he is staying at a hotel he can't see why the coffee can't be the best.
h. The thing I hate about this time of year: The 20 or so coaches and families who are on the edge of their seats wondering if they’ll have to move in a week. Sort of takes away from the joy of the season, totally.
Yeah, totally. NFL teams should not be able to fire their head coach or any coach on the staff until at least March right before the Combine. Peter is going to sit down and have a lobster dinner with Roger Goodell in Cincinnati and have a discussion to see if he can this changed, as well as get ticket prices to certain games jacked up.
The Adieu Haiku
So long to The ’Stick.
Seems every step I took there,
I stepped in a bog.
Can we say "Adieu" to the Adieu Haiku? Have I used that one yet?
Surprisingly, there appear to be a couple of quotes from Cam Newton in this column. I'm not sure if Peter actually collected these quotes or piggy-backed them from another writer. It's interesting to me because of the whole "entertainer/icon" thing that happened prior to the 2011 NFL Draft which has caused Peter to be upset that Newton was upset he felt he was taken out of context. Maybe Peter called Newton "precocious" and that is part of their beef as well.
About that whole "massive line of demarcation" thing. Here is what Peter wrote:
Fine Fifteen
1. Seattle (12-2).
MASSIVE LINE OF DEMARCATION
2. San Francisco (10-4).
2. San Francisco (10-4).
Here is what I wrote:
The 49ers and the Seahawks just played a very close game two weeks ago and the 49ers ended up winning that game. I guess if the Seahawks are playing at home then this is a massive line of demarcation, but considering the 49ers beat the Seahawks just two weeks ago I don't think the line of demarcation is that massive.
Sportswriters love to make bold, hard-and-fast statements like this and then act very, very surprised when their bold statement turns out to not be as true as they thought. The Seahawks are beatable at home and the Seahawks aren't tremendously better than every other NFL team. It wouldn't surprise me if the Seahawks won the Super Bowl, but they aren't heads and shoulders better than every other NFL team. But this doesn't stop Peter from writing something ridiculous despite evidence to the contrary (barely beating Carolina in Week 1, the 49ers beating the Seahawks in San Francisco) that the Seahawks are beatable. Seattle is tough at home, but the Cardinals proved they could be beaten in Seattle. It's dumb to suggest otherwise, though this doesn't ever stop Peter and many other sportswriters from writing stupid declarative statements like this now and in the future.
Before we start on the three big events of the weekend (by my estimation: Panthers slay the Saints, Peyton Manning makes history, Arizona shocks the world),
I'm shocked Peter didn't include the Cowboys staying alive in the Wild Card chase among his big events.
let’s talk about My Favorite Tiebreaker.
I'm not entirely sure why Peter capitalized this. I guess he thinks it's a real thing and not simply a matter of opinion.
In a five-way playoff tie, you first break ties within divisions. The Jets would eliminate Miami by virtue of a better division record (3-3 to 2-4). Pittsburgh eliminates Baltimore by having a better division record (4-2 to 3-3). That narrows it to Pittsburgh, San Diego and the Jets.
Peter is praying it's not San Diego so that one of his Northeast teams can make it into the playoffs. It makes it so much easier to cover games when they take place closer to Peter. San Diego is just so far away and Peter wasn't even sure they still had an NFL team until he saw they could make the AFC Playoffs.
We go to conference-games tiebreaker. Pittsburgh would be 6-6. San Diego and the Jets would be 5-7. That’s it. And Pittsburgh would make it … after being 2-6 at the midway point, losing to Minnesota in London and Oakland in the Black Hole, and giving up 55 points to the wounded Patriots. Crazy league.
Any team that is 8-8 probably has one or two really bad losses on their resume, so while the NFL is crazy, this isn't all that insane in my opinion. A team goes 8-8, then they probably lost a few games ugly or lost games they should have won.
Time was drawing short for Cam Newton to justify why he’d been the first pick in the 2011 draft, and why the Carolina Panthers made him the franchise cornerstone 32 months ago.
Because carrying the Panthers offense over the past two seasons while the defense has been bad apparently wasn't justifying his choice as the #1 overall pick. Oh, by the way, Matthew Stafford just got a new contract and hasn't justified his choice as the #1 overall pick. But I guess if Stafford has helped his Lions team not be in playoff contention, while Newton has helped his team get in playoff contention then it is Newton who gets the criticism for not justifying his selection as the first pick in the 2011 draft. Stafford has been in the NFL two more years than Cam by the way. I realize I am making a straw man argument, but it's simply silly to say Newton had to win THIS VERY GAME to justify his selection as the first overall pick. It's overdramatic and typical of Peter King.
In the last 20 minutes of the NFC South title game Sunday in Charlotte, he’d gone three-and-out four straight times. Four series with the division on the line, 16 yards. Playing at home. Losing, 13-10, the only touchdown coming on a 43-yard run by DeAngelo Williams. Sitting there at NBC, I’d seen enough. I tweeted: “Has Cam Newton made a play today? One?” Then: “Carolina drafted Newton first overall for games like this, and he’s failing them miserably today.”
Peter King did Tweet that and it was ridiculous even as Newton was being really, really bad prior to the final drive. Newton was terrible, but Peter had these Tweets ready to go and fired away joyfully. For some reason Peter was ignoring anything Cam may do in the future or in the past, but this very drive is when Cam had to justify his selection as the #1 overall pick in 2011.
One of the marks of great quarterbacks is playing big when it counts, and Newton’s 65-yard, 32-second, no-timeouts drive to all but win the division (the Saints need to beat the Bucs and have the Panthers lose to the Falcons in Week 17) was as big as it gets, and on this day, it showed that the Panthers’ faith in Newton in 2011 was well-placed.
This wasn't the final justification on whether the Panthers' faith in Newton in 2011 was well-placed. If Newton had been terrible and didn't drive the Panthers down the field to win the game, this one game wasn't the final decision on whether he should have been the #1 overall pick in 2011. Again, Matthew Stafford got a new huge contract and Peter doesn't feel like he has to continuously justify his selection as the #1 overall pick.
Good for Newton,
Said Peter King through gritted teeth.
who has morphed from a quarterback too reliant on his running ability to a good all-around quarterback who can make the biggest plays when it counts the most.
Newton threw for more yards during his first two seasons in the NFL than Russell Wilson and Colin Kaepernick. I wouldn't say Cam has ever been too reliant on his running ability. This is just a lazy statement. Newton has always had running as part of his game, but this isn't the year he became a good all-around quarterback. Newton still has the same flaws he had the previous two seasons, it's just the Panthers are winning.
“Luke Kuechly, with 24 tackles,” said Newton. “That’s unheard of.”
Then Newton for old time's sake threw a pass 10 feet over his receiver's head .
Peyton Manning thinks his records are temporary.
They probably are. Manning threw his 51st touchdown pass of the season with 4:34 left in the fourth quarter in a 37-13 rout of Houston Sunday, breaking Tom Brady’s six-year-old record.
Which leads me to asking why Manning was still throwing the ball when his team was up big late in the fourth quarter. But that's just me and my silly insistence that coaches don't allow players to break personal records when there is still a game left in the season for this player to break a personal record.
Offensive coordinator Adam Gase sent in the play, with first down at the Houston 25. This would be the last series of the game the Broncos would try to score, and Gase thought of a smart one.
How very kind of him to stop trying to score with 4 minutes left in the fourth quarter.
This would be the last series of the game the Broncos would try to score, and Gase thought of a smart one.
No one is a student of the game like Peyton Manning. Peyton Manning can't emphasize this enough.
“I will enjoy it while it lasts,” the 37-year-old Manning said. “I’m such a fan of the game, a student of the history of the game.
I didn't know that at all. It's not like every analyst takes the time to point this out to the audience during every Broncos game nor did "Sports Illustrated" do 20 pages this past week on what a student of the game Manning is after naming Peyton Manning "Sportsman of the Year" for achieving the accomplishment of being Peyton Manning and continuing to exist.
Manning, being the history guy he is, will give the ball to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
BUT IS MANNING A STUDENT OF THE GAME? NO ONE HAS EVER MENTIONED IT BEFORE!
Stats I think mean something.
They don't.
1. In the most storied passing season by a quarterback ever, Peyton Manning could lose out in passer rating to a guy who was a second-stringer the first month of the season. Nick Foles has a 5.7-point lead (118.7-113.0) over Manning entering Week 17.
Peter King can't get enough Peyton Manning this week.
2. Denver, the presumptive top seed in the AFC, has four players with at least 60 catches and at least 10 touchdown catches. Seattle, the presumptive top seed in the NFC, does not have a receiver with 60 catches, and does not have a receiver with 10 touchdown receptions.
An AFC team may make the playoffs by winning 8 games and an NFC team might miss the playoffs after winning 11 games. I guess that statistic doesn't suck at Peyton Manning's teat enough, so Peter doesn't mention it.
3. I agree the buck stops with the head coach, and Jim Schwartz is very likely to take the fall for the Lions’ going 1-5 down the stretch and falling out of the NFC North race they once owned. But Matthew Stafford has been awful down the stretch—undisciplined, not focused, clearly not as attentive to Calvin Johnson (four targets in five quarters against the Giants on Sunday) as he should be. Stafford’s being paid like a franchise quarterback, and he’s performing like a quarterback who should be benched for David Carr.
Yet Peter manages to refrain from sending out Tweets saying Stafford has to win THIS VERY GAME to justify his selection as the #1 overall pick.
4. Manning broke the touchdown-pass record Sunday against Houston, with Wade Phillips in charge of the Texans defense. Manning previously broke the touchdown-pass record held by Dan Marino in 2004 with his 49th against San Diego, with Wade Phillips in charge of the Chargers defense.
Peyton Manning. Peyton Manning. Peyton Manning.
5. How times are changing (thanks to Elliott Kalb for reminding me of these): Seven years ago Manning led the NFL with 31 touchdown passes. Andy Dalton has 31 this year, with four quarters to play.
Isn't it weird that Peyton Manning did something Peyton Manning football Peyton Manning right before the end of the Peyton Manning? I mean, Peyton Manning it all.
Perhaps more important for the rest of the NFC, Arizona burst the bubble of Seattle’s Pacific Northwest invincibility. We all thought the Seahawks would breeze to the Super Bowl in New Jersey
Don't "we" us Peter when you are the one who is wrong. "We" didn't think all think the Seahawks were going to breeze to the Super Bowl. You did. Don't blame the masses for you being wrong. When Peter is wrong it's "we" who thought what he thought, but when Peter is right then the "we" stuff goes away. It's like Peter thinks we believe what he believes because we read what he writes in MMQB.
Arians is a funny play-caller.
Funny like a clown? Like he amuses you? Like a clown?
If Carson Palmer throws four interceptions, as he did in Seattle, Arians is going to tell him to keep firing.
If Rashard Mendenhall is averaging 3.1 yards per carry, then Arians is going to keep ensuring that Andre Ellington doesn't get to touch the ball as often as Mendenhall does. It doesn't make it right, just like telling Palmer to keep firing after he has thrown four interceptions isn't necessarily right.
At the NFL meeting in Dallas earlier this month, a cadre of teams met to discuss something other sports have taken the lead on: pricing tickets to a team’s 10 games differently, depending on the quality of opposition and whether it’s a preseason or regular-season game.
My inclination is to hate this idea.
I do not, however, see this solving the problem of the NFL charging full prices for preseason games. It is possible that a team charging, say, $750 for a full-season ticket (eight regular-season games, two preseason games) would still charge $750 next season.
An NFL team absolutely would still charge full price for a preseason ticket. A person would have to be naive to believe these NFL teams are going to charge less money for a preseason ticket when they have a captive set of people who are forced to buy season tickets that include the preseason games. What will happen is ticket prices for "exciting" games will increase while other ticket prices stay the same. No NFL team is going to do anything to save their fans money or lower ticket prices. NFL teams know the fans will show up, so why lower prices?
But the way this was explained to me by a source with knowledge of several teams’ plans is that it would address the value of tickets on secondary markets like StubHub and Ticketmaster. A preseason game, rightfully, would have a lower base price than a decent game in November.
The preseason ticket cost may be lower than a decent game in November, but it doesn't mean the preseason tickets will be cheaper. It doesn't matter if the base price is cheaper for a preseason game if this only happens because the other games are so much more expensive.
Let’s say a good Chiefs’ season-ticket costs $1,000 for 10 games in 2014. The Chiefs have an attractive home slate next year. They could take visits by Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and the cross-state Rams, call them Tier 1 games and put a face value of $150 on those tickets. They could make the next four most attractive games Tier 2 at $100, and then call the final regular-season game and two preseason games Tier 3 at $50. (Those are my approximations, no one else’s.)
Great. Let's say Chiefs fans have to buy season tickets to 10 games or they don't get season tickets. Why would the team reduce the price of the preseason tickets if the fans are going to pay that money anyway to get tickets to the other eight games? NFL teams are greedy, never forget this.
A team like Buffalo, for instance, could put a premium price on the Patriots game and a much lower price on a game involving a less desirable team.
Or the Bills will raise the price for the Patriots game and keep the ticket price the same for the other games...assuming the NFL allows this to happen.
“I think you’ll see teams experiment with different price points the next couple of years,” said one executive of a team that will likely change pricing next season. “Then I think you’ll see the real final product in two or three years, when teams find out from their fans what they want the most.”
I love the idea that NFL teams can't figure out what fans want. What is really happening is NFL teams want to know the price-point at which NFL fans will stop buying tickets. What NFL fans want is easy. Don't make them pay full price for shitty preseason tickets and don't jack up ticket prices to other games. But yeah, good luck taking 2-3 years figuring this out. What NFL teams really want to know is, "If we raise ticket prices to exciting games by $20-50 will the fans still buy tickets to these games and will it affect how they purchase preseason game tickets?" It's all about money and the NFL teams want to know how much they can rip off the consumer before the consumer stops buying their product.
Fine Fifteen
1. Seattle (12-3). It’s only one game, against a variable Cardinals defensive front that changed things up on Russell Wilson consistently. I wouldn’t be too worried.
Because no other NFL team will change up their defensive front against the Seahawks. I'm surprised Peter didn't write that the Seahawks are still going to be in the Super Bowl and then claim "we" were wrong when they don't make it that far in the playoffs.
6. New Orleans (10-5). I wouldn’t throw the season in the dumpster just yet, Saints Nation, but barring a stunning upset by the Falcons Sunday over the Panthers with a Saints win over the Bucs, New Orleans will have to win four games away from the Superdome to win the Super Bowl this year. Points scored in the last three road games: 7, 16, 13.
In defense of the Saints (those are five words I don't write often) they did play the Seahawks, Panthers, and Rams on the road in those three games. Those teams are 1st, 2nd, and 13th in points allowed per game. It's not like they have played some shitty defensive teams in those three games on the road.
9. Indianapolis (10-5). The season’s long. Week 3: Colts travel to San Francisco and crush the Niners 27-7. Got crushed a few too many times since. But this is two straight weeks that the defense showed up and looked like it did that day by the Bay. There may be some January hope for this team.
There may be hope in January for them or there may not be. Ask Peter again in January when he can definitively tell you all of the flaws the Colts may or may not have after he has seen these flaws.
11. Philadelphia (9-6). Just when you think you’ve got the league figured out, a week after giving up 48 point to the Minnesota Vikings the Eagles go and beat the Bears by 43.
Every week in MMQB Peter talks about how the NFL is so hard to figure and he marvels at this. At some point, maybe he'll drop his child-like (precocious, if you will) wonder at how the NFL is unpredictable and just expect the unexpected.
13. Pittsburgh (7-8). Seven weeks ago the Steelers were 2-6. Just a friendly reminder that the season’s 17 weeks long.
Says the guy who had the Broncos playing a road wild card game against the Patriots four weeks into the season. Peter was also talking about the Undefeated Bowl (between the Chiefs and Broncos) four weeks into the season. But yeah Peter, your readers are the ones who should know it is a long season. The 2013 season has been the season of Peter King making overly-presumptuous statements, but he wants his readers to know it is a long NFL season.
15. Chicago (8-7). I’m open about who to put at No. 15. Ideas?
You just put Chicago there.
Offensive Players of the Week
Peyton Manning, quarterback, Denver.
Peyton Manning threw the Peyton Manning to the Peyton Manning. Peyton Manning.
Cam Newton, quarterback, Carolina.
This is a case of Peter over-compensating. Newton was terrible for 59 minutes of the game. He doesn't deserve this award for three passes.
Defensive Player of the Week
Luke Kuechly, linebacker, Carolina.
He deserves this.
Coach of the Week
Bruce Arians, head coach, Arizona.
He deserves this. Has any head coach ever won back-to-back Coach of the Year awards for two different teams? Peter would tell me to Google or Bing it, but I'm guessing it's not happened. Of course, I am liable to take this Coach of the Year award away from Arians if he doesn't play Andre Ellington more.
Then Peter criticizes a New Jersey climatologist for giving a prediction about weather on Super Bowl Sunday. Apparently Peter fancies himself a weather expert as well as a coffee expert. Peter can do every job better than someone who currently holds that job.
I’m not so stupid that I cannot learn.
Eh, not so sure. Every year Peter expects the NFL to be predictable and every year he marvels that the NFL isn't predictable.
In the wake of the success of so many running backs picked outside the first round, and after seeing the production (or lack thereof) of Trent Richardson since his trade for a first-round pick to Indianapolis, the lot of the running back in the modern NFL should teach us all one thing: Do not use a very high draft pick on one.
I do agree in part, but if a team wants to draft an elite running back then the best chance to do this is draft that guy in the first round. Peter then cherry-picks the 2008 draft to prove his point. Looking at the NFL leaders in rushing yards for the 2013 season there are nine guys drafted in the 1st three rounds of the draft and six guys drafted in either the first or second round. Including the players who are 11th-20th in rushing yards on the 2013 season there are seven players drafted from this sub-set in the 1st three rounds and all seven were drafted in the first two rounds. So drafting a running back in the first two rounds is still the best way to get an elite, productive running back. There are, of course, exceptions to this statement.
Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note of the Week
You know me. I’m not one to complain about little travel situations. (Oh really!) And on the scale of grand travel maladies, this would rate pretty low. But I present it to you for your delight.
If Peter knows his readers don't like his travel notes then why does he keep writing them?
Last Tuesday, returning from Sports Illustrated’s presentation of Sportsman of the Year to Peyton Manning in Denver,
Peyton Manning. Peyton Manning.
I was fortunate to be upgraded on my Delta flight, a good thing because I had a ton of writing to do. So when I sat down for the 8:30 a.m. flight, I thought it only slightly odd that the 40ish man next to me, informally dressed, said to the flight attendant: “Jack and Coke, please.” When it was delivered, he drank it like a man being handed a thimble of water in the Sahara. Gone in an instant. Then he asked for another. So … two stiff drinks before 8:30 a.m. I see.
Not doing that "ton of writing" you claim you have to do and are taking up time observing what everyone else around you is doing instead. I see.
Then, for about an hour, he belched. Not the loud kind of belch; rather, the modest kind with lots of air let out. Aromatic air. And I don’t mean aromatic in a good way. Every six or seven minutes, there’d be a slight guttural sound, a verbal whoooooosh, and a scent approximating a landfill. What did this guy eat Monday night? Deep-fried skunk?
I'm guessing this guy who knew who Peter was and wanted to end up in MMQB. Kudos to this guy for daring to mind his own business and have a few drinks (then burp) at an hour that Peter King deems to be too early to drink alcohol.
“Peyton Manning has thrown more touchdown passes this season (51) than his dad threw in his first five seasons combined (47).”
—@LATimesfarmer, Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times, after the Manning record was set Sunday afternoon.
Peyton Manning. Peyton Manning all day.
Ten Things I Think I Think
1. I think this is what I liked about Week 16:
g. Antoine Bethea, one of the most overlooked players in football. Always shows up, always hits the way a safety’s supposed to hit.
Peter King, one of the most precocious sportswriters, always clicheing (I made that word up) the way a sportswriter is supposed to write a cliche.
k. Carson Palmer made his share of gaffes (share is putting it nicely), but he did come through when it counted, finding Jake Ballard (remember him?) for 17 yards to convert a key third down with the game in the balance at Seattle.
It's a good thing Palmer won this game because he had to justify his selection as the #1 overall pick for the Bengals in 2003 and this was THE GAME where he had to justify this selection.
r. Unless something quite strange happens, Julian Edelman (96 receptions, 991 yards) is going to have a 100-catch, 1,000-yard receiving season. Raise your hand if you had that in your office pool out on Cape Cod in August.
"We" certainly never thought that would happen!
2. I think this is what I didn’t like about Week 16:
c. You’ve got to block Greg hardy around the edge, Terron Armstead, though I also think Drew Brees shouldn’t be taking a sack and taking his team out of field-goal range either.
Unfortunately, this was the game where Brees had to win it and justify his selection as the first pick of the 2nd round by the Chargers. Sad for Brees that everything he has done prior or will do in the future means nothing now.
i. I do not use this word lightly, but the Cowboys sure make some stupid plays.
From earlier in the column when Peter was joking about how he isn't stupid:
I’m not so stupid that I cannot learn.
j. What a terrible, horrible injury for the Broncos, the apparent torn ACL for Von Miller. That’s going to play a big role in the AFC pennant race over the next month.
A pennant race in football. I still don't get why Peter uses this term for anything other than baseball.
4. I think the Jets should not fire Rex Ryan. Period. End of story. A 7-8 record with a game to go, with that team? Hardly a fireable situation. Extend Ryan one year (his contract is up at the end of next season) and push this decision off until the end of 2014. Ryan, and Jets fans, deserve that.
Great idea. The Jets and Jets fans deserve to deal with a potentially lame duck coach two years in a row. I'm not sure why it's a good decision to kick this decision on Ryan down the road, but I don't think the Jets and their fans deserve to have to wonder if Ryan is going to get fired or be the Jets coach at the end of another season.
10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:
c. Filled with sadness at the death of Claire Davis, the 17-year-old Arapahoe (Colo.) High School senior who was minding her own business Dec. 13 when a classmate shot her in the head for no reason whatsoever. Utter madness.
I'm surprised Peter was able to hold off on giving another lecture about guns and Congress and how he is shocked that Congress hasn't done anything about guns yet. I'm guessing his editor just took that part out rather than Peter actually held back on this lecture.
f. Coffeenerdness: Diner breakfast Sunday in New York. Coffee-flavored water. Miserable. Who drinks this swill?
Someone who goes to a diner and pays $1.99 for bottomless coffee. If Peter wants bottomless coffee than he can't expect it to be a top of the line brew. Of course, no matter the situation Peter expects the best, even if he is staying at a hotel he can't see why the coffee can't be the best.
h. The thing I hate about this time of year: The 20 or so coaches and families who are on the edge of their seats wondering if they’ll have to move in a week. Sort of takes away from the joy of the season, totally.
Yeah, totally. NFL teams should not be able to fire their head coach or any coach on the staff until at least March right before the Combine. Peter is going to sit down and have a lobster dinner with Roger Goodell in Cincinnati and have a discussion to see if he can this changed, as well as get ticket prices to certain games jacked up.
The Adieu Haiku
So long to The ’Stick.
Seems every step I took there,
I stepped in a bog.
Can we say "Adieu" to the Adieu Haiku? Have I used that one yet?
Saturday, June 8, 2013
7 comments Adam Schein Needs Some Attention You Guys
I didn't want to write about this Adam Schein column. I really didn't. I try to avoid writing about my favorite teams for fear of coming off as a blind homer or a cheerleader. Unfortunately, I tend to come across bad articles written about my favorite teams quite often (if you come across a bad column that I miss about your favorite team, email it to me). I can ignore some of these columns and other times I can not. I am compelled to write about this Adam Schein column. I have a choice, but he has given me almost no choice. Adam Schein states the Carolina Panthers are going nowhere with Ron Rivera and Cam Newton. That's fine. That's his belief and his opinion. I don't think he's wrong and I don't he's right because I can't predict the future and Rivera/Newton have a 13-19 record together. I can handle an opinion like this. What I can't handle is Adam Schein battering us with hyperbole, using his opinion as a fact in an effort to defend his point, and using "wins" as the main reason he believes himself to be right. Football is a team sport. Just like you can't entirely judge Drew Brees on the Saints record last year, you can't entirely judge Cam Newton for his team's record. All I ask is that Schein defends his point better than saying, "Well, he ain't a leader and don't win no games."
Let me start off with some facts. Yes, facts, something that Schein's column is woefully short on in defending his conclusion. From Doug Farrar of Shutdown Corner on Twitter:
SC_DougFarrar @SC_DougFarrar
There's just this problem I can't get past when it comes to Cam Newton, Ron Rivera and this year's Carolina Panthers.
I don't think they have a chance.
They may not have a chance. That remains to be seen. Everyone is entitled to an opinion as long as they don't present their opinion as fact.
They don't have a chance for anything.
Let's not turn on the Fall Out Boy and go emo quite yet. They have a chance at not being the worst team in the NFL. That is a little something.
I think the Panthers enter the 2013 season as the worst team in the NFC South. They finished last season at 7-9, tied in the division standings with the New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
They finished second in the division because they beat New Orleans twice and had won some sort of tie-breaker with the Bucs. Since the NFC South appears to be a moderately strong division this upcoming year, Carolina could indeed be last. It doesn't mean they are terrible, it could mean the division is strong.
While I liked the Panthers' haul in the 2013 NFL Draft, where did Carolina get noticeably better?
You mean other than at the defensive tackle position which was the biggest hole on the roster last year? Well, nowhere else I guess. Carolina has major salary cap issues and didn't get to play the free agent market as a major buyer. The Panthers are already noticeably better on paper at stopping the run. Where did the Saints or Buccaneers get better in the draft? The Saints drafted a safety to add to their historically bad defense and only had five draft picks with only one in the Top 81 picks of the draft. How did they magically fix their historically bad defense in the draft with one draft pick, but Carolina didn't fix their run defense with two defensive tackle draft picks? It's all on paper anyway.
The Buccaneers didn't have a first round pick because they traded for Darrelle Revis. Their first pick was a cornerback and their second pick was a backup quarterback. Are they noticeably better on paper after the draft? Probably, because they got Revis, but I'm not sure they did more to shore up their issues than Carolina did. It can't be understated how bad Carolina was against the run last year. Any draft pick at the defensive tackle position would be a noticeable improvement.
This is the type of bad logic that Schein shows in this column. He's not saying Carolina didn't improve as much as the Buccaneers or Saints did, he's saying he can't see where Carolina improved in the draft. This is just lunacy for anyone who watched Carolina against Michael Turner, Andre Brown, Doug Martin, and any other running back last year. Schein appears to be talking about draft-only improvement independent of what the other NFC South teams did.
Honestly, the Panthers could be one of the four worst teams in the NFC.
Well, as long as you are being honest about it I will accept your opinion as fact.
I don't believe Newton has what it takes to eradicate and/or mask areas of deficiency.
This is true. Cam Newton can't make the defense play better or make Rivera coach better. Clearly this all speaks to his deficiencies as a leader, quarterback, and human being.
I don't believe he is an elite, upper-echelon quarterback.
He's not. Many didn't believe Joe Flacco was an elite quarterback until he won a Super Bowl. Many didn't believe Colin Kaepernick was even an NFL starter until he led the 49ers to the Super Bowl. Newton may suck this year, but a person's belief isn't necessarily a fact.
He also can be inconsistent when it comes to protecting the ball
This is a common lazy criticism. Carolina has won one game in the past two years where Cam Newton has committed a turnover. That speaks to his supporting cast more than it speaks to his inconsistency turning the ball over. Good teams can withstand their quarterback throwing interceptions. Andrew Luck threw 18 of them this year, including three against the Lions in a game the Colts won.
Remember the press conference during which he asked for the suggestion box?
I do remember the press conference where he frustratedly asked for a suggestion box. He couldn't figure out why the Carolina offense wasn't performing the way it was expected to. I also remember what happened shortly after the press conference. Rob Chudzinski tweaked the way he was calling plays, which resulted in Carolina going 6-4 from that point on and Newton throwing six interceptions over that 10 game span. I never understood the uproar about this comment. I can see another quarterback saying the same thing and not getting any heat. Newton was simply saying he can't figure out what is wrong with the team, when some of what was wrong was obvious, it just turns out Newton didn't want to call out teammates/coaches at his press conference. Of course Newton needs to improve how he interacts with the media, but this comment seemed pretty innocuous to me.
His teammates have yet to vote him captain. That tells me something.
It tells you Carolina has veteran players who have been with the team for over a decade who are leaders in the locker room like Jordan Gross, Thomas Davis, Steve Smith, Ryan Kalil and Jon Beason? I also like the use of "have yet" like Newton has been in the NFL for a decade. The Panthers aren't the Jaguars or Redskins who lacked veteran leadership when their first round pick arrived. They had veterans who deserved to be captains.
Newton still needs to grow up. That's a problem.
Cam Newton needs to grow, of course he does. I won't argue that. He's not the only quarterback who needs to grow up, but because he hasn't been successful and rubs others the wrong way he gets the brunt of this criticism. Robert Griffin just speaks his mind when he references "the tyranny of political correctness" on Twitter. He's refreshing when he refers to those who want to change the Redskins name to something less offensive as participating in "tyranny." I guess since Griffin is well-liked and wins games he doesn't need to grow up.
He hasn't earned it. Luck and RG3 carried bad teams and were the epitome of clutch;
This is the worst of the worst when it comes to hyperbole. What does this even mean? Cam Newton carried a bad team in 2011, but didn't carry them far enough to make the playoffs. The statistics back up Newton's effect on Carolina's offense. Perhaps he does need to be more clutch though. Maybe there should be a suggestion box made available on how he can be more clutch.
the vets followed their lead.
Okay, Mr. Anecdotal Evidence. That's great proof, even though I'm not entirely sure how Schein came to this conclusion. It seems like Carolina's offense followed Cam's lead, but what do I know, I can't understand how clutch Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin really are.
Luck and RG3 would've put the flawed Panthers in the playoffs last year, just like they did with, respectively, the Indianapolis Colts and Washington Redskins.
This is an opinion and not in any way a fact. There's no way to know if Luck or Griffin would have taken the Panthers to the playoffs. To indicate they would have is useless speculation and the sign of bad writing.
If I remember correctly, Robert Griffin wasn't clutch enough to beat the flawed Carolina Panthers team at home in November of this past season, but that's beside the point I guess.
The Panthers are 13-19 with Newton. Quarterbacks are judged by wins and losses.
Anyone who judges a quarterback solely on wins and losses is a fucking moron. I feel so strongly I can't beat around the bush on this. There is more to judging a quarterback than simply on wins and losses. Cam Newton may be irritating and he may never be a great quarterback, but don't judge him based on wins and losses solely. In fact, don't judge any quarterback solely on wins and losses.
Going into Year 3, you can call Cam Newton electric, but you can't call him a winner.
We can't use meaningless hyperbole to describe him? Then what's the point of our existence as a human race if we can't overuse hyperbole?
Gettleman is the right guy for this difficult cleanup job, but I would've let him choose his own head coach. I don't believe Rivera will ever develop into a great head man.
I agree.
Former offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski took the Cleveland Browns' head-coaching gig, and then quarterbacks coach Mike Shula replaced him. This appointment was odd, considering that Newton really hasn't progressed.
I don't have access to NFL quarterbacks to poll them, but I would bet $100 if you asked an NFL quarterback what helped his development more than anything else he would say being able to play in the same system on a consistent basis early in his career. I didn't like the appointment of Shula to offensive coordinator, but having a young quarterback learn a new system isn't always the best move. Consistency in the offense is very important for young quarterbacks. Mike Shula provides that consistency, for better or worse.
Carolina needs an offensive guru who demands perfection and accountability from Newton. I would've handed the keys over to Mike McCoy, Jay Gruden or Ken Whisenhunt.
Because I'm sure Mike McCoy would have passed up the chance for an NFL head coaching job to coach as an assistant again in Carolina. Why wouldn't McCoy want to turn down one of the 32 NFL head coaching jobs if he could make a lateral move to a less successful NFL team? I'm also sure Jay Gruden would have also accepted a lateral move to Carolina so he could work with a non-playoff team despite the fact if he stays in his current situation in Cincinnati he could be a hot head coaching name after the 2013 season.
In defense of both Newton and Rivera, though, let's remember that this team just isn't very good.
What's the identity? Where are the Panthers strong? They lack depth at receiver. It's not a great offensive line.
I'm not sure how the fact Carolina isn't very good is a defense of Rivera since he is the freaking head coach of the team and has been for two years, but much like the clutchiness of a quarterback, maybe I don't understand how a team that isn't very good doesn't reflect in some way on the head coach. I also despise the way Adam Schein is playing both sides of the argument. Let's look at him playing both sides:
1. Schein writes Cam isn't a winner, doesn't have the respect of his teammates because he hasn't been elected captain, quarterbacks are judged by wins and losses so Carolina's 13-19 record with Newton reflects on Newton's abilities, and Schein also writes Luck/RG3 would have led the Panthers to the playoffs last year.
2. Schein also writes in defense of Newton that the Panthers team isn't very good, then points out the weaknesses in the Panthers offensive personnel. So all of a sudden the Panthers record with Newton isn't a reflection on Newton, but a reflection on the talent around Newton, but Schein is still going to judge him by his wins and losses...because that makes sense and all.
But this defense still has more holes than Swiss cheese.
Maybe, and I'm just spit-balling here, the Panthers record with Newton as the quarterback is a product of the bad coaching and porous defense more than it is a reflection on Newton's ability to lead and overall talent level. There have been games where Newton has been terrible and he significantly contributed to those losses, but there are also games where he played good enough to win and Carolina lost. After all, Carolina has won 1 game where Newton has committed a turnover. His margin for error is almost non-existent.
Here's the other ultra-important issue: Carolina clearly has the worst roster in the division.
I give up. This is a clusterfuck of an article. Carolina has the worst roster in the division, but Cam's not a leader because he doesn't will them to the playoffs with his clutchiness, as Robert Griffin and Andrew Luck undoubtedly would have done.
The Bucs traded for Darrelle Revis and signed Dashon Goldson, instantly turning an area of weakness (the defensive backfield) into an area of strength.
(coughs) Sort of like Carolina tried to do with their defensive line by drafting two defensive tackles in the first two rounds.
The Bucs are better than the Panthers in every area besides quarterback.
I'm going to pound my head into a wall. So Adam Schein says Cam Newton is better than Josh Freeman but the Panthers will finish the season below the Buccaneers in the standings? Obviously if the Buccaneers get in the playoffs it will be because Freeman is such a great leader and is the epitome of clutch and not because of any of the talent surrounding Freeman or because Greg Schiano may be a competent head coach.
Also, Carolina is better than Tampa Bay at tight end, defensive line, and linebacker. Right now I would take Greg Olsen over Luke Stocker, take Johnson/Lotulelei/Dwan Edwards/Hardy over Bowers/McCoy/Gibson/Spence/Clayborn, and Kuechly/Davis/Beason over David/Foster/Casillas. That's just my opinion.
And despite the Atlanta Falcons' loss in Carolina last December, I think it's safe to say Atlanta is a wee bit more talented.
I agree. I will add the flawed Panthers team beat Atlanta once in 2012 and if it weren't for a miracle throw (again, the defense let the Carolina team down) by Matt Ryan they would have beaten the Falcons in both head-to-head matchups during the 2012 season.
Cam Newton isn't focused enough -- or good enough -- to overcome the obstacles he'll face in this competitive division.
Plus, he is not the epitome of clutch.
I don't think Newton and Rivera are the guys to deliver a winning product.
They may not be, but probably not only for the reasons you have chosen to use. Rivera has shown himself to be incompetent in close games and Cam has shown he could be a more accurate passer, as well as learn to see the field better.
History and a glimpse into the crystal ball say so.
Unfortunately a glimpse into the crystal ball is simply guessing. Not too many people had the 49ers making the Super Bowl with Colin Kaepernick as their quarterback. I have no issue with criticism of Cam Newton or Ron Rivera (especially Rivera, I find him to be a very below average head coach), but at least make criticisms that make sense and aren't based on intangible leadership and clutch factors, while also acknowledging the lack of talent you believe surrounds Newton. I guess Schein wanted attention and he got some.
Let me start off with some facts. Yes, facts, something that Schein's column is woefully short on in defending his conclusion. From Doug Farrar of Shutdown Corner on Twitter:
SC_DougFarrar
2010 Panthers dead last in Offensive
DVOA. 2011 Panthers w/Newton raised to fourth, and 10th last year. 32nd
to 1st in rushing 2010-2011.
Panthers defense ranked 32nd in Defensive DVOA in 2011. CAR special teams have never ranked higher than 29th with Newton there.
You can argue the value of Offensive/Defensive DVOA amongst yourselves, but I find it to be a fairly decent measurement of how good a team is. Carolina has had 20 draft picks since 2011 (when Rivera took over as head coach). They have had eleven picks in Rounds 1-4 since then. Of these eleven picks in Rounds 1-4 and Carolina has drafted seven defensive players with those picks. Of the four picks on offensive since 2011 in Rounds 1-4, one of those picks was Cam Newton and the other was Joe Adams who is (was) considered a special teams guy mostly.
Carolina's defense hasn't been especially good. That's a fact. Cam Newton took over in 2011 and made the Carolina offense much, much better. That is also a fact. The biggest difference in the 2010 and 2011 Carolina Panthers teams was the presence of Newton. They had the same receivers, the same offensive line, and the same running backs. Only the tight ends and quarterback changed on offense. Don't get me wrong, I love Greg Olsen and Jeremy Shockey, but they aren't that big of a difference-maker on offense to raise Carolina to 4th and 10th (from dead last) in Offensive DVOA.
As far as Ron Rivera goes, I thought he should have been fired last year, but a strong finish against weaker teams saved his job. He's terrible in close games. He may not be the right guy for the head coaching job, but it is harder to argue against the progress Carolina has made with Cam Newton. No, Newton isn't perfect. He is 24 years old, not an accurate passer, could still mature some, and doesn't have a great touch on his passes all of the time. Nobody said he was perfect, but this column does contain the phrase "epitome of clutch" so you have to understand that's the level of bullshit we are dealing with here.
They may not have a chance. That remains to be seen. Everyone is entitled to an opinion as long as they don't present their opinion as fact.
They don't have a chance for anything.
Let's not turn on the Fall Out Boy and go emo quite yet. They have a chance at not being the worst team in the NFL. That is a little something.
I think the Panthers enter the 2013 season as the worst team in the NFC South. They finished last season at 7-9, tied in the division standings with the New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
They finished second in the division because they beat New Orleans twice and had won some sort of tie-breaker with the Bucs. Since the NFC South appears to be a moderately strong division this upcoming year, Carolina could indeed be last. It doesn't mean they are terrible, it could mean the division is strong.
While I liked the Panthers' haul in the 2013 NFL Draft, where did Carolina get noticeably better?
You mean other than at the defensive tackle position which was the biggest hole on the roster last year? Well, nowhere else I guess. Carolina has major salary cap issues and didn't get to play the free agent market as a major buyer. The Panthers are already noticeably better on paper at stopping the run. Where did the Saints or Buccaneers get better in the draft? The Saints drafted a safety to add to their historically bad defense and only had five draft picks with only one in the Top 81 picks of the draft. How did they magically fix their historically bad defense in the draft with one draft pick, but Carolina didn't fix their run defense with two defensive tackle draft picks? It's all on paper anyway.
The Buccaneers didn't have a first round pick because they traded for Darrelle Revis. Their first pick was a cornerback and their second pick was a backup quarterback. Are they noticeably better on paper after the draft? Probably, because they got Revis, but I'm not sure they did more to shore up their issues than Carolina did. It can't be understated how bad Carolina was against the run last year. Any draft pick at the defensive tackle position would be a noticeable improvement.
This is the type of bad logic that Schein shows in this column. He's not saying Carolina didn't improve as much as the Buccaneers or Saints did, he's saying he can't see where Carolina improved in the draft. This is just lunacy for anyone who watched Carolina against Michael Turner, Andre Brown, Doug Martin, and any other running back last year. Schein appears to be talking about draft-only improvement independent of what the other NFC South teams did.
Honestly, the Panthers could be one of the four worst teams in the NFC.
Well, as long as you are being honest about it I will accept your opinion as fact.
I don't believe Newton has what it takes to eradicate and/or mask areas of deficiency.
This is true. Cam Newton can't make the defense play better or make Rivera coach better. Clearly this all speaks to his deficiencies as a leader, quarterback, and human being.
I don't believe he is an elite, upper-echelon quarterback.
He's not. Many didn't believe Joe Flacco was an elite quarterback until he won a Super Bowl. Many didn't believe Colin Kaepernick was even an NFL starter until he led the 49ers to the Super Bowl. Newton may suck this year, but a person's belief isn't necessarily a fact.
He also can be inconsistent when it comes to protecting the ball
This is a common lazy criticism. Carolina has won one game in the past two years where Cam Newton has committed a turnover. That speaks to his supporting cast more than it speaks to his inconsistency turning the ball over. Good teams can withstand their quarterback throwing interceptions. Andrew Luck threw 18 of them this year, including three against the Lions in a game the Colts won.
Remember the press conference during which he asked for the suggestion box?
I do remember the press conference where he frustratedly asked for a suggestion box. He couldn't figure out why the Carolina offense wasn't performing the way it was expected to. I also remember what happened shortly after the press conference. Rob Chudzinski tweaked the way he was calling plays, which resulted in Carolina going 6-4 from that point on and Newton throwing six interceptions over that 10 game span. I never understood the uproar about this comment. I can see another quarterback saying the same thing and not getting any heat. Newton was simply saying he can't figure out what is wrong with the team, when some of what was wrong was obvious, it just turns out Newton didn't want to call out teammates/coaches at his press conference. Of course Newton needs to improve how he interacts with the media, but this comment seemed pretty innocuous to me.
His teammates have yet to vote him captain. That tells me something.
It tells you Carolina has veteran players who have been with the team for over a decade who are leaders in the locker room like Jordan Gross, Thomas Davis, Steve Smith, Ryan Kalil and Jon Beason? I also like the use of "have yet" like Newton has been in the NFL for a decade. The Panthers aren't the Jaguars or Redskins who lacked veteran leadership when their first round pick arrived. They had veterans who deserved to be captains.
Newton still needs to grow up. That's a problem.
Cam Newton needs to grow, of course he does. I won't argue that. He's not the only quarterback who needs to grow up, but because he hasn't been successful and rubs others the wrong way he gets the brunt of this criticism. Robert Griffin just speaks his mind when he references "the tyranny of political correctness" on Twitter. He's refreshing when he refers to those who want to change the Redskins name to something less offensive as participating in "tyranny." I guess since Griffin is well-liked and wins games he doesn't need to grow up.
He hasn't earned it. Luck and RG3 carried bad teams and were the epitome of clutch;
This is the worst of the worst when it comes to hyperbole. What does this even mean? Cam Newton carried a bad team in 2011, but didn't carry them far enough to make the playoffs. The statistics back up Newton's effect on Carolina's offense. Perhaps he does need to be more clutch though. Maybe there should be a suggestion box made available on how he can be more clutch.
the vets followed their lead.
Okay, Mr. Anecdotal Evidence. That's great proof, even though I'm not entirely sure how Schein came to this conclusion. It seems like Carolina's offense followed Cam's lead, but what do I know, I can't understand how clutch Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin really are.
Luck and RG3 would've put the flawed Panthers in the playoffs last year, just like they did with, respectively, the Indianapolis Colts and Washington Redskins.
This is an opinion and not in any way a fact. There's no way to know if Luck or Griffin would have taken the Panthers to the playoffs. To indicate they would have is useless speculation and the sign of bad writing.
If I remember correctly, Robert Griffin wasn't clutch enough to beat the flawed Carolina Panthers team at home in November of this past season, but that's beside the point I guess.
The Panthers are 13-19 with Newton. Quarterbacks are judged by wins and losses.
Anyone who judges a quarterback solely on wins and losses is a fucking moron. I feel so strongly I can't beat around the bush on this. There is more to judging a quarterback than simply on wins and losses. Cam Newton may be irritating and he may never be a great quarterback, but don't judge him based on wins and losses solely. In fact, don't judge any quarterback solely on wins and losses.
Going into Year 3, you can call Cam Newton electric, but you can't call him a winner.
We can't use meaningless hyperbole to describe him? Then what's the point of our existence as a human race if we can't overuse hyperbole?
Gettleman is the right guy for this difficult cleanup job, but I would've let him choose his own head coach. I don't believe Rivera will ever develop into a great head man.
I agree.
Former offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski took the Cleveland Browns' head-coaching gig, and then quarterbacks coach Mike Shula replaced him. This appointment was odd, considering that Newton really hasn't progressed.
I don't have access to NFL quarterbacks to poll them, but I would bet $100 if you asked an NFL quarterback what helped his development more than anything else he would say being able to play in the same system on a consistent basis early in his career. I didn't like the appointment of Shula to offensive coordinator, but having a young quarterback learn a new system isn't always the best move. Consistency in the offense is very important for young quarterbacks. Mike Shula provides that consistency, for better or worse.
Carolina needs an offensive guru who demands perfection and accountability from Newton. I would've handed the keys over to Mike McCoy, Jay Gruden or Ken Whisenhunt.
Because I'm sure Mike McCoy would have passed up the chance for an NFL head coaching job to coach as an assistant again in Carolina. Why wouldn't McCoy want to turn down one of the 32 NFL head coaching jobs if he could make a lateral move to a less successful NFL team? I'm also sure Jay Gruden would have also accepted a lateral move to Carolina so he could work with a non-playoff team despite the fact if he stays in his current situation in Cincinnati he could be a hot head coaching name after the 2013 season.
In defense of both Newton and Rivera, though, let's remember that this team just isn't very good.
What's the identity? Where are the Panthers strong? They lack depth at receiver. It's not a great offensive line.
I'm not sure how the fact Carolina isn't very good is a defense of Rivera since he is the freaking head coach of the team and has been for two years, but much like the clutchiness of a quarterback, maybe I don't understand how a team that isn't very good doesn't reflect in some way on the head coach. I also despise the way Adam Schein is playing both sides of the argument. Let's look at him playing both sides:
1. Schein writes Cam isn't a winner, doesn't have the respect of his teammates because he hasn't been elected captain, quarterbacks are judged by wins and losses so Carolina's 13-19 record with Newton reflects on Newton's abilities, and Schein also writes Luck/RG3 would have led the Panthers to the playoffs last year.
2. Schein also writes in defense of Newton that the Panthers team isn't very good, then points out the weaknesses in the Panthers offensive personnel. So all of a sudden the Panthers record with Newton isn't a reflection on Newton, but a reflection on the talent around Newton, but Schein is still going to judge him by his wins and losses...because that makes sense and all.
But this defense still has more holes than Swiss cheese.
Maybe, and I'm just spit-balling here, the Panthers record with Newton as the quarterback is a product of the bad coaching and porous defense more than it is a reflection on Newton's ability to lead and overall talent level. There have been games where Newton has been terrible and he significantly contributed to those losses, but there are also games where he played good enough to win and Carolina lost. After all, Carolina has won 1 game where Newton has committed a turnover. His margin for error is almost non-existent.
Here's the other ultra-important issue: Carolina clearly has the worst roster in the division.
I give up. This is a clusterfuck of an article. Carolina has the worst roster in the division, but Cam's not a leader because he doesn't will them to the playoffs with his clutchiness, as Robert Griffin and Andrew Luck undoubtedly would have done.
The Bucs traded for Darrelle Revis and signed Dashon Goldson, instantly turning an area of weakness (the defensive backfield) into an area of strength.
(coughs) Sort of like Carolina tried to do with their defensive line by drafting two defensive tackles in the first two rounds.
The Bucs are better than the Panthers in every area besides quarterback.
I'm going to pound my head into a wall. So Adam Schein says Cam Newton is better than Josh Freeman but the Panthers will finish the season below the Buccaneers in the standings? Obviously if the Buccaneers get in the playoffs it will be because Freeman is such a great leader and is the epitome of clutch and not because of any of the talent surrounding Freeman or because Greg Schiano may be a competent head coach.
Also, Carolina is better than Tampa Bay at tight end, defensive line, and linebacker. Right now I would take Greg Olsen over Luke Stocker, take Johnson/Lotulelei/Dwan Edwards/Hardy over Bowers/McCoy/Gibson/Spence/Clayborn, and Kuechly/Davis/Beason over David/Foster/Casillas. That's just my opinion.
And despite the Atlanta Falcons' loss in Carolina last December, I think it's safe to say Atlanta is a wee bit more talented.
I agree. I will add the flawed Panthers team beat Atlanta once in 2012 and if it weren't for a miracle throw (again, the defense let the Carolina team down) by Matt Ryan they would have beaten the Falcons in both head-to-head matchups during the 2012 season.
Cam Newton isn't focused enough -- or good enough -- to overcome the obstacles he'll face in this competitive division.
Plus, he is not the epitome of clutch.
I don't think Newton and Rivera are the guys to deliver a winning product.
They may not be, but probably not only for the reasons you have chosen to use. Rivera has shown himself to be incompetent in close games and Cam has shown he could be a more accurate passer, as well as learn to see the field better.
History and a glimpse into the crystal ball say so.
Unfortunately a glimpse into the crystal ball is simply guessing. Not too many people had the 49ers making the Super Bowl with Colin Kaepernick as their quarterback. I have no issue with criticism of Cam Newton or Ron Rivera (especially Rivera, I find him to be a very below average head coach), but at least make criticisms that make sense and aren't based on intangible leadership and clutch factors, while also acknowledging the lack of talent you believe surrounds Newton. I guess Schein wanted attention and he got some.
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