Quick blog note. I have had to slow down my posting due to time issues. Mainly, I've had precious little time to write. I post everything in my spare time that doesn't take away from time with my family. It's like a subset of a subset of spare time if you will. So I don't have any real spare time of late and work has made me more busy to where I don't have time to look for terribly written articles at work. So bitching about bad sportswriting is the first thing to go. As terribly written as many of these posts may be grammatically and sentence structure-wise, they do take a little bit of time. It takes effort to write run-on sentences. Sometimes, like writing TMQ and MMQB, they take a lot more than a little bit of time. Finding the right articles takes some time as well and it's just not time I've had recently. So I'm looking to pump it back up to four posts per week and keep coming back to the site.
Denver Broncos beat writers tend to think of some odd ideas this time of year that they believe are necessary to win the Super Bowl. A few years ago, Mike Klis found the key to the Broncos winning the Super Bowl was to lose as many regular season games as possible. This year, Mike Kiszla, with a little help from Broncos legend Rod Smith, says the Broncos can win the Super Bowl by having a little bit more love in the locker room. Ubuntu, if you will, but not calling it that. The Broncos have all the talent in the world, but they need to be close in order to win the Super Bowl. Everyone probably doesn't remember how the 2014 Patriots were seen as an extremely close team and that's how they won the Super Bowl. You don't remember, because I'm not sure this is a real thing that happened. The Seahawks weren't a divided team, but there were differing opinions on the release of Percy Harvin among the players on the Seahawks roster, yet they found a way to be close enough to almost win the Super Bowl. Perhaps it wasn't the fact the Seahawks threw the ball near the goal line that lost them the Super Bowl, but was instead that the team spent too much time playing on their phones during the bus ride to the stadium. That lack of closeness could have lost them the Super Bowl.
It's a cool $70
million contract. But what Demaryius Thomas wants, money cannot buy. He
envies the Super Bowl rings of Broncos legend Rod Smith.
No, literally...money CAN buy a Super Bowl ring.
"He wants a Super Bowl ring. ... And I kind of rub it on his chest," Smith said Tuesday.
You rub it on his chest? Why the fuck would your rub it in his chest? Don't normal braggarts rub things in the face of others?
If the Broncos want
to get back to the Super Bowl and win it this time, Smith offered novel
advice for an NFL franchise he loves like family.
Play in 3-4 playoff games, all while scoring more points than the opposing team in every playoff game? It's a winning strategy. Bank on it.
In the estimation of
Smith, the Broncos have all the talent needed to win a championship. But
the difference between hoisting the Lombardi Trophy and going home
disappointed from the playoffs can often be attributed to the lack of
brotherhood in the huddle.
No Ubuntu, no Super Bowl win for you. This is some high-level analysis here. Here I thought the Broncos could win the Super Bowl by having Peyton Manning not wear his arm out before the season is over or have Rahim Moore jump just a little bit later so he can bat a deep pass from Joe Flacco down.
Denver players need
to stop living inside the cellphone and spend more time finding out what
really makes the heart of a teammate tick.
But Mark, you HAVE to have a cellphone in order to answer this question.
How else does Kiszla expect these Broncos players to get to WebMD in order to find out what makes the heart of a teammate tick if they don't have their cell phones? Bring a laptop into the locker room?
"Put the (expletive)
phones down and have real conversations with people," declared the
45-year-old Smith, so fired up he preached for more than an hour with
passion hotter than the sun dancing in the gray flecks of his beard.
I bet Demaryius Thomas rubs it in Rod Smith's chest that Demaryius doesn't have gray flecks in his beard yet.
"Today, with social media, nobody knows who the hell they're working with.
I know who I am working with better than I ever could have because of social media. I'm friends with some co-workers on Facebook so I get to see pictures of their friends, family, loved ones, quotes they like, political views, the food they ate, and their opinion on a variety of topics. I would actually like to know the people I work with LESS than I currently do. I'm not sure Rod Smith has a firm grasp on how social media works.
You all work
together, but you have no idea what makes him tick. This is the locker
room right now. This is why the locker room is so divided. Everybody
worried about 'likes' versus worried about what (a teammate) is going
through at home.
Yes, because Von Miller is going to open up to Demaryius Thomas about his struggles at home. Perhaps they can talk about male impotence and figure out how to fight this battle together, as opposed to facing this issue alone.
But seriously, again, people put on Facebook the things they are going through all the time. I don't know if professional athletes do this, but I doubt they would open up in the middle of the locker room either.
I need to know that, because I've got to go to battle with this dude. But they're all disconnected."
They are connected through social media.
From linebacker Von
Miller to receiver Emmanuel Sanders, the Broncos sent 10 players to the
Pro Bowl after the 2014 season. They were also eliminated after one sad
game in the playoffs. From the beginning, however, the Broncos were
better at fantasy football than on the field, when the going got tough.
And of course, the reason behind the Broncos not being good when the going got tough is that they weren't close enough to each other. Were previous Super Bowl champions really close teams or something? Is there some sort of proven correlation that teams that like each other win more Super Bowls that I don't know about? Like the Patriots were super-close all year and that's how Malcolm Butler managed to intercept a pass on the goal line?
"The answer is not putting more pieces in. It's taking the pieces you have and putting them closer together."
Yes, but what if the pieces you have don't fit closer together? What if the pieces fit how they fit and success isn't determined by how these pieces fit anyway?
It's a simply
powerful idea: What the Broncos need is not more talent in the locker
room. It's more genuine love for one another.
It's a powerful idea and it's a very anecdotal idea that lacks the anecdotal evidence for me to even believe it. In fact, the very idea a team won a title because they were close is too anecdotal for me to ever believe. It seems too much like "Here is a result and let's fit in a narrative that explains this result."
while lamenting these
kids in the league today don't know the meaning of true commitment,
there's an expectation the final exclamation in his rant will be: Get
off my lawn!
Despite the growling,
what makes Smith a cuddly bear is knowing he was the same curmudgeon
while earning his first trip to the Pro Bowl at age 29 that he is now in
middle age.
This isn't a "Get off my lawn!" rant because Rod Smith has always wanted people to get off his lawn.
To this day, there's
not a soul in Broncos Country who wants to see Denver back on top more
than Smith. To help the cause, Smith has served as a mentor to Thomas,
first in the refinement of receiving skills and later in the development
of the quiet, unassuming D.T. as a leader.
Maybe Rod Smith and Mark Kiszla can help create a fictional "Broncos Way" and then state that is why the team will win the Super Bowl. Then any variation away from this "Broncos Way" will result in a few columns churned out about how the Broncos have lost the "Broncos Way" because failure occurred.
"As long as Peyton Manning's here, it's always going to be Peyton Manning's team," Smith said.
"Thanks," says Gary Kubiak.
But here's my theory: Since the Broncos signed Peyton Manning in
2012, the team has leaned so heavily on his Hall of Fame ability that
when former coach John Fox told me for the umpteenth time that Manning
raises all boats, I began to wonder who was in charge of this clambake.
So Mark Kiszla's theory is that the Broncos leaned on Manning so much that Kiszla wondered who was really in charge. His theory is that he has no theory but a question that he's wondering about. My theory about this column is whether it is really such a slow news day that writing about how the Broncos need to love each other more seemed like a good idea.
they raised him to
such mythical status as a leader that Manning has lost touch with the
common grunt in the Broncos locker room.
PEYTON MANNING IS THE HILLARY CLINTON OF THE NFL!
I've listened as too many teammates speak about Manning with hushed reverence, as if Manning were Santa Claus,
Yes, the same hushed reverence that Santa Claus receives in most NFL locker rooms.
What an odd statement. Santa Claus?
"I've listened as too many teammates speak about Demaryius Thomas with pure amusement and joy, as if Thomas were Dora the Explorer..."
omnipresent and the final arbiter of who's naughty or nice.
This is stupid to call Santa Claus the final arbiter of who's naughty or nice. Everyone knows that person is Roger Goodell.
When all the best
plans go to pieces as the snap sails over the QB's head at the Super
Bowl, however, there needs to be a strong voice that can rally
downtrodden teammates,
Hey, how about the quarterback? I mean, the offense goes back to the bench and Manning can be a strong voice to rally his teammates.
while Manning sits on the bench and studies the All-22 photographs to analyze how it went wrong.
Ah, I get it. In order to become a close team, the Broncos offense should exclude Peyton Manning from any leadership opportunities and sneak off to meet while he's reviewing film from the previous drive. This, undoubtedly, will bring the team closer together. It moves the pieces closer together, almost like Manning and the rest of the Broncos offensive players are the Santa and Mrs. Claus of the NFL.
When Thomas insists
his lucrative contract only makes him hungrier, it's music to the ears
of Smith. His hunger is for championships. To get that ring, Thomas
must instill the hunger in teammates.
This hunger must be instilled. And obviously "this hunger" is directly related to "being super-close with your teammates." It's pretty much the same thing, you know, since this entire column is about how the Broncos should be closer to each other and now Mark Kiszla is randomly discussing how the Broncos need to be hungrier.
"It pays off,
honestly, when you're down in the fourth quarter and you've got a minute
and a half left to win the game," Smith said.
Like when things got tough in the Super Bowl and the Broncos needed a first down, so John Elway ran for the first down to keep the drive alive? So when the leadership came from someone who happened to be the quarterback?
That's more than leadership. That's a band of football brothers, sharing the love.
Put down the phone, get to know your teammate, then win the Super Bowl. What happens if all 32 NFL teams do this? Will they all win the Super Bowl?
The best part of this column is one of the comments from a "macomment" who says in a very articulate way:
I think Rod has a good point. Drop that twitter, facebook, instagram,
snapchat, tumblr crap for the season and focus on football. PLEASE! I
dumped facebook a couple years ago and never looked back.
And "maccomment" won the Super Bowl THE VERY NEXT SEASON. Coincidence? Probably not. He dumped Facebook and his life became much more fulfilling and obviously this anonymous Internet commenter's professional life is analogous to the professional life of an NFL player.
It's great not
seeing ugly baby photos and closeups of your neighbor's dinner while
being bombarded with focused advertisements.
You mean seeing things that help you to know more about your neighbor and friends? Those things that Mike Kiszla says the Broncos need to do more of by getting away from social media?
That being said, Fox
showered the Broncos with love.
Yes, ugly babies aside, AND WITH THAT BEING SAID...
These guys don't need that kind of love
...
Not the John Fox kind of love. More of a tough love. Perhaps love bordering on the edge of child abuse. Instead of taking pictures of an ugly baby, go out and beat the shit out of an ugly baby until it chokes on it's pathetic baby tears and can't breathe through it's stupid baby mouth. THAT is the kind of love the Broncos need.
they need the type of love that Adrian Peterson delivers to his 4 yr
old son so that none of us ever has to endure a half-baked effort like
that playoff game against the Colts.
I agree. In order for the Broncos to play better as a team, they should all be beaten with a switch. I mean, obviously this is something that should occur. Nothing will bring the Broncos together closer than to know they each have the same scars from where Gary Kubiak bent them over his knee and beat them until they bled with a switch.
Showing posts with label Peyton Manning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Peyton Manning. Show all posts
Saturday, September 12, 2015
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
6 comments MMQB Review: Other Than All of His Success, Peter Wonders What He's Missing That's So Great About Dave Dombrowski Edition
Peter King mentioned how "lithe" and "penetrating" Caraun Reid looked this year in last week's MMQB. Peter also talked about how Blake Bortles threw a really good pass and this means something, just like Sam Bradford hasn't blown his ACL out in the past week, so that means something too. What does it mean? Probably nothing because Peter says that preseason games don't mean much, but certainly enough for Peter to begin writing about how Bradford and Bortles look good. So what Peter wrote may or may not mean much. Good to know. This week Peter talks about Cris Carter's "fall guy" comment, gives us six things to know about Peyton Manning (wait, there are six things we don't already know about him?), and apparently Peter's sources are lying to him again. I get part of reporting is having sources who you need to rely on in order to write a story, but I've always felt that many of Peter's sources play him for a fool and use him to get misinformation out there to benefit themselves. The whole Ray Rice debacle sort of confirmed it for me, but I routinely can't shake the feeling Peter is used as a conduit for misinformation or is a naive person who disseminates information the sources wants out there. Of course, as we have learned from "SI's" own media guy lack of comments on mistakes made by "SI" employees, as long as Peter apologizes for his mistakes in meek fashion then there is nothing to see here. Now if someone from ESPN used two sources that gave him bad information, this "SI" media guy would crush this ESPN reporter. It's how it goes.
I’d planned to lead this column with Sunday night’s compelling return to the field of San Francisco all-pro linebacker NaVorro Bowman after 19 months away, and to so much else from the final week of my training camp tour—including how Peyton Manning has no feeling in the fingertips of his throwing hand to this day, after his 2011 surgeries. (Which stunned me.)
So many inappropriate sexual jokes I could include here as to why Peter would be shocked that Peyton didn't have feeling in the fingertips of his throwing hand. I will refrain.
But Sunday was one of those hurricane-of-news days you don’t get very often in the preseason, so let me get to all things Jordy and Maurkice and Cris Carter and, well, here goes …
THIS WAS THE CRAZIEST PRESEASON DAY SINCE AT LEAST ONE PRESEASON DAY LAST YEAR!
NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported the initial diagnosis for wideout Jordy Nelson was a torn ACL, after the wideout landed awkwardly Sunday. Nelson last year set a Packer record with 1,519 receiving yards and is Aaron Rodgers’ favorite target, and his loss would make the Packers significantly less multiple in the deep-receiving game.
Oh no, I guess Aaron Rodgers will have to rely on the 3-4 other high draft picks the Packers have used on offense in order to score points. However will he manage to do it?
• There has to be a common-sense approach to the preseason. It’s easy to say, “Just napalm the damn thing.” After days like Sunday—the two-injury debacle in Pittsburgh, the Cowboys worried about playing on a field with a terrible reputation in Santa Clara, the Giants reeling over losing six of the nine safeties on the roster in the first two preseason weeks—it makes sense to ask this question: When is the NFL going to come to its senses and reduce the preseason from four to two games?
Yes, will this happen? What could stop the NFL from caring about the risk of injury to their players and cause the league to reduce the number of preseason games? Roger Goodell certainly can't think of a single reason.
The exhibition games are fan-cheaters; charging full price for the games is robbery, which is the most no-duh statement in the NFL today.
Yes, if it was the mid-90's then this would be a "no-duh" statement for sure.
They should now follow by cutting out two more chances of injury. Do the math: If Jordy Nelson suits up 17 or 18 times instead of 19 or 20, it follows that he’d have less exposure to the kind of injury that can kill a team’s season in a totally meaningless exercise.
Usually, Peter's math can be a little shaky, but he is in fact correct about his math this time. Though, Kelvin Benjamin just tore his ACL while practicing, so there is only so much the NFL and their teams can do to reduce the chance of injury. Cutting the number of preseason games will certainly help of course. Players still get injured in practices though.
• You are kidding me, Cris Carter—and you are kidding me, NFL. My first reaction to the story of Carter telling NFL rookies at the 2014 Rookie Symposium that they have to find a “fall guy” in a player’s “crew” who will take the blame when the player commits a crime: My jaw dropped.
Yes, how dare Cris Carter encourage that NFL players do something that has thus far remained unspoken. Everyone was shocked when Mike Scott of the Hawks admitted some drugs were his, because that's not how it's done. But it's better to pretend this shit doesn't go on rather than the NFL just admit it, right? I love how Robert Klemko was present for this comment, yet refrained from commenting on it. I see he's learned from Peter King that it's best to withhold information in order to gain or keep access. Be a reporter when it doesn't risk your access.
Precisely. Carter apologized, and though the NFL tried to distance itself from Carter’s idiotic remarks, how could the league have placed the offending video of his talk on NFL.com until yanking it Sunday? This is so offensive it boggles the mind that some person with the NFL would say, Let’s show the world this great advice about obstructing justice from a Hall of Fame hero to impressionable rookies.
I don't think Carter should have said this, but NFL players find a "fall guy" all the time when they get in trouble. It's not advice Carter should be giving obviously, but why would Peter's jaw hit the floor? He doesn't think this type of stuff goes on?
Carter, by the way, was in his yellow Pro Football Hall of Fame blazer. In all ways, this is the biggest example of inmates running the NFL asylum that I’ve seen in years.
It's terrible advice, but again, it happens. The only shocking thing is that Carter said aloud what actually happens in secret. I think it's more funny than shocking.
• The fallout over Terrell Suggs’ hit on Sam Bradford continued. I side with Suggs, who dove at Bradford because he wasn’t sure if Bradford was going to hand off or keep a read-option-appearing play in Saturday night’s Ravens-Eagles game. Suggs said if you’re going to call such a play for a quarterback with ACL reconstructions the past two seasons, you do it at your own peril.
This is very true, but I think it's also important to note that the defender shouldn't be simply going for only the QB's legs when trying to make a tackle. I don't believe Suggs did only go for Bradford's legs, but it would be nice if the defender hit the QB and didn't try to only take his legs out in another situations.
Chip Kelly shouldn’t be putting Bradford in such a position to be hit violently anyway—and certainly not in a dumb preseason game.
For a smart guy, leaving Bradford out there to run a read-option play wasn't the smartest move that Kelly could have called. I get that they want to practice these read-option plays, but in a preseason game that is simply setting your QB up for an injury in a pointless preseason game. What kind of dumbassery is that to call this read-option play?
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Lots of reasons to say ‘Wow’ about NaVorro Bowman this morning.
Question to Bowman on Friday: “How long does it take you to get ready to practice or play right now?”
Bowman: “About two hours. The massaging and the bending, the flexing of the knee. Once I do that I have a five-minute period where it just needs to relax and then I’m ready to go.”
Peter knows how Bowman feels because he used to roll out of bed and then go to a team's training camp with his notebook, but now he has to roll out of bed, take a shower and then go to a team's training camp with his notebook. It's just so hot out these days that Peter must prepare more to stand out in the heat than he used to. So Peter completely empathizes with Bowman.
Question: “Before the injury, how long would it take you to be ready?”
Bowman: “Nothing. No time.”
So Bowman didn't stretch all before practice in order to be prepared to practice? He threw an uniform on and just started to play football with zero stretching or bending of his body?
Look what happened to San Francisco’s D this offseason. No Justin Smith; retired. No Patrick Willis; retired. No Aldon Smith; cut. No Chris Borland to train as the next great inside ‘backer; retired, shockingly.
Peter's jaw hit the floor when he heard that Borland retired. It made him lose all feeling in his heart.
Bowman sure knows how to make an entrance. Until Sunday night against Dallas, Bowman hadn’t played in a game since shredding multiple left knee ligaments on the ugly goal-line play in the NFC Championship Game in Seattle in January 2014. He played three plays against the Cowboys. From his spot in the nerve center of the Niner defense, Bowman stoned Darren McFadden up the middle for a one-yard gain on first down. He stoned McFadden over right tackle on second down; loss of one. He stopped running back Lance Dunbar on a dumpoff pass from Tony Romo on third down; loss of one. Three plays, three tackles, two of them for losses. That was an impressive three minutes of football right there.
Or really shitty blocking from the Cowboys offensive line that probably wasn't trying too hard for fear the horrendous turf on the 49ers field would swallow up their legs and tear ligaments doctors didn't know existed in the human body.
“I thought I ended my career,” Bowman said Friday afternoon in the bowels of Levi’s Stadium.
Given the condition of the field, "the bowels of Levi's Stadium" could very well pertain to a few locations in the stadium or on the field.
Two hours of prep work, daily. Just to be able to practice. Seventeen months of arduous, painful work to try to be NaVorro Bowman, all-pro linebacker, again … while so much of the team is crashing and burning around him.
Has it been worth it?
Peter King asks the tough questions which he knows will result in an obvious answer. Like, what does Peter think Bowman will say? "No, it's hasn't been worth it. I retire, effective immediately."
“I don’t play this game for money,” he said. “I play it for respect and ultimately to make it to the Hall of Fame. That’s what drives me. In order to be the best, this work comes with it, and I’m willing to fight through it.”
This is the answer I would expect to hear from Bowman. It's remarkably easy to say you don't play football for the money when you are sitting on a contract worth almost $26 million guaranteed. At that point, saying you play the game for respect sounds more noble than it probably is. I'd like to hear Bowman say he doesn't play football for money and then back it up by taking less money and gain the respect of his teammates by allowing them to get paid. It's always about the money. Always, even when he claims it's not about it right now for Bowman, the game of football was about the money before he got paid.
He said he doesn’t think he’ll feel that way all season, and he’s not sure exactly how to describe the difference in the knee; he just knows it’s not the same as it was two summers ago.
Well, that doesn't sound positive at all.
I find one thing about the Niner dynamic fascinating right now. Bowman and Borland, health permitting, were set to be the next great combo platter of inside linebacker for the next three or four years. Bowman’s injury was one of the factors that made Borland play so much last year—and, it turns out, he played very well.
Ah yes, Peter is lightly treading down the "NaVorro Bowman is playing despite fighting back from a very traumatic knee injury, while Chris Borland is being a pussy and retiring before he gets hurt" road right now. Again, Peter is lightly treading down this road, but I know he wants to hammer this point home a harder than ends up hammering the point home.
So here’s Bowman, who stones people, playing. And Borland isn’t. Bowman, a Harry Carson block-of-granite type, and Willis keyed a defense that went 14 straight games in 2011 without allowing a rushing touchdown. Three times he was first-team all-pro, the classic kind of run-stuffer who also had the ability to turn and run with tight ends. Bowman's fought through it all, and Borland chose another path.
"Chose another path." Come on Peter, you know you want to go there, just like you wanted to go there last week and complain about the "Black Lives Matter" protesters blocking the street. Go full heel on us. Bowman has chosen to stick around and play through injuries, while Borland is retiring before he can get injured. You know you want to write this point of view. Just do it.
Concerned about the impact of football on his long-term health—a rising tide among current players—Borland walked away from the game after one starry season.
Peter describes the guy who fought back from injury as "a Harry Carson block-of-granite type" and states the other guy "chose another path." It's like saying, "My oldest son is running his own company and is successful, but my youngest son chose a different path and hasn't found his calling yet." It's on the edge of judging, but trying to do so in a polite way.
That’s one of the things that makes this comeback compelling. There’s nothing dramatic about the way Bowman says this. It’s simply his ethos. He’s a man making a choice, the way Borland made his. And the 49ers, in this seismic season, need Bowman desperately, and he knows it.
Bowman has an ethos. Chris Borland has no ethos. One chose a compelling comeback and the other tapped-out through "walking away." Regardless of what Peter says, the wording he uses says what he really thinks. At least I think I think I know what Peter thinks.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Six things you need to know about Peyton Manning, at 39.
Again, at this point there is very little I don't know about Peyton Manning, but I'm sure learning six more things won't hurt.
1. He still doesn’t have feeling in the fingertips on his right hand.
Peter is still stunned upon hearing this.
“I can’t feel anything in my fingertips,” Manning said Thursday. “It’s crazy. I’ve talked to a doctor recently who said, Don’t count on the feeling coming back. It was hard for me for about two years, because one doctor told me I could wake up any morning and it might come back. So you wake up every day thinking, Today’s the day! Then it’s not.” I find his production all the more impressive since four neck procedures caused him to miss the 2011 season, and caused him to lose—maybe forever—the comfortable grip on the football.
I don't know how it usually works with a quarterback, but I would think it would be a much bigger deal for a wide receiver to not be able to feel the ball with his fingertips than it would be for a quarterback. Maybe not, but this still sounds like a semi-serious medical issue. A medical issue that Peter King thinks NaVorro Bowman would fight back from, but Chris Borland would choose his own path and walk away if faced with this fingertip condition.
2. He traces the physically crummy end to last season not to age but to a vomitous December night in San Diego.
Now I'm the one whose jaw is on the floor. You mean Peyton Manning isn't attributing his poor ending to the season to getting older? He isn't saying, "Oh sure, I'm really old and can't play an entire season at a high level anymore"? What an unexpected thing for Peyton to attribute his crummy ending last season to, as opposed to acknowledging he's getting older.
Before the Broncos’ 14th game, in San Diego, Manning says a bug he caught from his sick daughter made him violently ill. “I threw up all night,” he said. “Then, in the game, I moved to the right on a simple scramble and my quad cramped on me. It lingered. I couldn’t shake it the rest of the year. I really studied it hard this offseason, whether it could linger into this year or whether it was isolated. I just think I got dehydrated, and that caused it. I don’t think you can blame it on my age. It was just an isolated thing.
Manning was just dehydrated for an entire month. It's not that he is older or anything. It's just one of those things that happened as a result of being dehydrated for a few weeks. No big deal, let's all move on and just accept this reason.
4. Manning got advice from Derek Jeter on the contract thing. His wife Ashley weighed in too, importantly. “I talked about it with Ashley, about what I wanted to do, and I wanted to be here,” he said. And Jeter told him: “Do what you want—not what they want.”
Ah, the Jeter always has such great advice. "Use your leverage as an icon to engage in a battle over your contract, fully knowing you have the media on your side and it's going to be hard for you to look like the bad guy." I mean, it's true though, so I'm not sure I can mock it.
6. The Broncos will likely do the Romo thing this year, and give Manning every Wednesday off. Just for insurance—and so the Broncos can see a little more of Brock Osweiler getting quality time with the first unit. “I think that’s the plan right now,” Elway said. “I think he’d feel better right now if he takes Wednesday off. His health is not a concern. His freshness is a concern.”
Absolutely. The Broncos know Manning can play a full season with no problem, even though he can't feel his fingertips and his arm strength seems to have slowed as the season progresses. So no worries from them here. They just don't want Manning to get dehydrated for an entire month again.
And yes, the whole "The Broncos are resting Manning just for insurance and not because they are concerned about his health/arm strength" is one of those things I think NFL teams and other sources tell Peter that he buys hook, line and sinker because he likes Manning and wants to believe it.
OXNARD, Calif. — You think this team doesn’t have one foot out the door to L.A.?
What a scene here Monday and Tuesday, when the Rams, after a Friday night preseason game in Oakland, scheduled a couple of days of work against the Cowboys at their training complex here. It was enough to see the fans, who outnumbered the Dallas fans by 2-to-1 (my estimate) Tuesday, be nuts for the Rams; one even had a huge flat-head cutout of owner Stan Kroenke in the crowd. Imagine fans cheering for Stan Kroenke. Amazing. He’s not exactly a fan favorite in St. Louis.
Well, if California wasn't trying to lure the Rams to their state through flattery than I imagine there would be zero fat-head (not flat-head) cutouts of Stan Kroenke. I mean, of course St. Louis isn't going to love Kroenke. He's trying to take the NFL team away from the city. What the fuck does Peter expect?
On Monday and Tuesday, the Rams did a morning walk-through practice near their hotel between Los Angeles and Oxnard. In one of those sessions, coach Jeff Fisher stuck his head into the offensive huddle and said, “Guys, I’m putting Eric Dickerson in the backfield, and you’re going to block power for Eric Dickerson.” Hall of Fame running back Eric Dickerson, he meant. And Dickerson took a handoff in this walkthrough practice, ran through a hole, and folks cheered.
Jeff "8-8" Fisher sure knows how to pump the team up. But hey, if I were an NFL head coach who so far had gotten paid over a million dollar for every victory then I'd be in a good mood too. I don't know what Peter expects though. Everything will be all sunshines and rainbows for the Rams in California. They want the Rams to move from St. Louis to their state.
RENTON, Wash. — Nothing changes for Russell Wilson.
Not really, but I guess it's more fun to go with this story than to check whether it's realistic or not. He just got a huge new contract and is dating a famous pop star. Things have changed, regardless of whether he wants to acknowledge it or not.
Ten minutes before the official start of Seahawks practice, on a pristine field a short spiral east of Lake Washington, Russell Wilson is throwing to the tight ends. Fast. Snap, set up, throw, over and over. I’m guessing before practice even started he’s thrown 30 or 40 passes in anger. I’ve seen this movie before: last year, and the year before. Super Bowl win, Super Bowl loss.
Wait, so Russell Wilson hasn't stopped practicing entirely now that he has a new contract? I completely expected him to stop practicing now that he's really wealthy and focus on baseball. Perhaps God spoke to Wilson as he signed his new contract and decided that Wilson should focus on football-only, thereby closing the door on a possible baseball career.
The quarterback who threw the interception heard ’round the world in the Super Bowl last February and made Malcolm Butler a household name doesn’t seem much worse for wear.
He's dating a singer and he got a huge new contract. He's been to two straight Super Bowls. I'm trying to figure out why Peter would think Wilson would be down in the dumps and worse for wear.
The interception might be in a place deep inside him, burrowing a hole he’ll always feel. But if it is, Wilson’s doing a good job hiding it. Or pretending it’s not there.
That's sort of what he has to do in order to move on isn't it? Being able to forget about a bad play that cost his team the game is how he can avoid allowing one play to ruin the next football season.
Wilson said it took about a week before he got over it. Since then, his off-season has been pretty much the same as his others work-wise—just a bit more spotlighted because he’s dating a celebrity.
It's also a bit more spotlighted because Wilson and his agent took his fight for a new contract to any media outlet who was willing to listen to them, while pretending that Wilson totally had complete interest in playing baseball again so that was a fallback option if the Seahawks don't give Wilson exactly what he wants. Of course, Peter won't question Wilson's insistence the spotlight is on him more because of his dating Ciara. Peter isn't here to question. He is here to get quotes and write them down word-for-word as they were told to him, which is why he can be used by some members of the NFL and NFL organizations to disseminate the information they want disseminated. Breathlessly writing down quotes is how Peter gets his sources and how his sources use him from time-to-time.
No matter what the circumstances are, can you stay laser focused on the idea of what can you do for the next moment? That’s the trick. If you ask any great players—and I’ve had the fortune to be around a lot of great players—Derek Jeter to Michael Jordan to other quarterbacks who have played the game—
(Bengoodfella makes wanking motion with his hand)
My mental coach, Trevor Moawad, has this idea: conscious competence.
Not to be confused with conscious uncoupling of course. Speaking of conscious uncoupling, how smart was Russell to divorce his wife before he got paid? He knows what he's doing, even if he tries to act like he doesn't.
Seattle's quarterback coach, Carl Smith, and offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell both said Wilson’s the exact same guy this summer, post-contract and post-calamitous interception.
Wilson got the new contract like a month ago. It's not like an athlete gets paid and then always immediately starts to turn evil and lazy, refusing to show up for practice and hanging out with Justin Bieber. Sometimes it takes a year or so for a player to change after he has gotten paid, once he has faced tough situations and realizes he is rich so the motivation to dig himself out isn't as great. I'm not saying this is the case for Wilson, and I don't believe it would be, but it's been a month since he signed a new contract. It's a bit early for the whole "HE'S THE SAME GUY!" talk.
When you go on the road to training camps, there are some days you know fun things might happen.
Tickle contest between Peter and Klemko every night before bed!
Last Tuesday, I walked into Cowboys PR VP Rich Dalrymple’s office at camp—a converted Marriott Residence Inn room, right by the practice fields—and who was sitting there chewing the fat with Dalrymple? Tommy Lasorda.
"Chewing the fat" and then Peter mentions Tommy Lasorda. I see what you did there Peter.
The conversation was so good I thought the best way to relay it was to give you a seat in one of the chairs in the room, across from Dalrymple’s desk, and let you just listen to Lasorda, 87, tell his tales.
I won't cover this much except to show you the contributions (or lack thereof) Peter made to the conversation.
Garrett: “Did you come to the playoff game against Detroit?”
Lasorda: “I was there! And we should have won. What about that catch?”
King: “The Dez Bryant catch that wasn’t a catch?”
Lasorda: “That was the greatest catch I ever saw in my life, and they took it away from them. Otherwise they’d have been playing Seattle.”
King: “For the NFC Championship Game.”
No Peter, the Cowboys would have been playing in Seattle against the Sounders, because the winner of the Dallas-Green Bay game got to play a soccer match against the Sounders for the right to play in the NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Yes, for the NFC Championship Game. That's what Lasorda meant. No need to interject.
Lasorda: “That’s right, yeah.
Tommy Lasorda is like, "Aren't you supposed to be the one who covers the NFL?"
King: “Seems like the rivalry is missing from baseball now. Football too. Guys are pretty friendly.”
Dalrymple: “Our guys pray with the other team on the field after the game.”
Lasorda: “If I saw my players ever talking to the other players, I would chew their ass out.
Brilliant observation from Peter. Of course, Peter is the same guy who loves to relay stories on how Peyton Manning and Tom Brady run into each other at exclusive restaurants and golf clubs and then marvel at how these two players are such good friends and run in the same circles. I guess it's okay for Manning and Brady to be friends and still have a rivalry, but Peter thinks guys are pretty friendly in sports and it takes away from the rivalry. That is unless Peter thinks it's cool two superstars get along well.
“It’s intoxicating. It’s a drug, a drug that gives you the most incredible feeling there is. Outside of sexual intercourse, there's probably nothing like it. But fun is the wrong word for it. I don't consider football fun. It's not like a water park, or a baseball game.”
—Former 49ers linebacker Chris Borland, on football, in a terrific longform story on ESPN.com by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru about the post-football life of Borland
Hey, he made his choice according to his ethos.
“When you run the read option, you have to know the rules. If you want to run the read option with a starting quarterback that’s had two knee surgeries, that’s on you. It’s not my responsibility to update you on the rule. I could have hit him harder on that. I didn’t.”
—Ravens pass rusher Terrell Suggs, after hitting quarterback Sam Bradford in the left knee in Saturday night’s preseason game against the Eagles.
It seems Suggs sort of went at Bradford's knee, though it's hard to tell. He may not have and I can't figure it out. Either way, I don't know why the hell the Eagles would run the read-option with Sam Bradford in a preseason game. Many teams who actually have quarterbacks who run the read-option aren't running it in preseason, mostly because it's preseason and it's stupid to expose a quarterback to an injury risk.
Whether Suggs had malice on the play, I don’t know. I don’t know why he would. But I don’t know how Suggs said he could have hit him harder. He lunged quite hard into Bradford’s knee.
I think overall it is a cheap play to dive into a player's knee. I don't know if Suggs meant to or not, but it's never cool to dive into a player's knee, no matter if he's the quarterback, kicker, punter or a wide receiver.
“L-A-RAMS! L-A-RAMS! L-A-RAMS!”
—Thousands of fans chanting at a practice between the St. Louis Rams and Dallas Cowboys on Tuesday at the Cowboys’ training camp field in Oxnard, Calif.
What made the display interesting was that at least two-thirds of the fans on hand that day identified as Ram fans. You don't often see a road team in a practice or game setting dominate the local crowd, but that’s what the Rams fans did in Oxnard.
Yet again, these are fans of football who want an NFL team in California. Of course they are going to put on a good show in order to convince the Rams to come out there. It's not really remarkable if you know these fans want a chance to prove they can support the Rams once they move to California.
MLB Payrolls We Have Loved Dept.:
Los Angeles Dodgers (14 games over .500) payroll: $298.5 million.
Combined payroll of Pittsburgh, Houston, Kansas City (61 over .500): $300.6 million.
This statistic just makes me roll my eyes. It's interesting I guess, but the Astros have a low payroll because they essentially disintegrated their entire team a few years ago to rebuild the organization from top to bottom. They have players working under cheap contracts who are producing at a high level.
Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Notes of the Week
On the later flight, a Japanese boy, about 5 or 6, sat in the middle seat of our row, with me on the aisle. He was exceedingly polite. He had to get up twice to use the restroom, and each time he said he was sorry. While seated, he devoured a large picture book about dinosaurs, and pulled out a folder of dinosaur drawings that I am assuming he made.
Peter is like, "Of course it makes sense this little boy likes dinosaurs. All Japanese people love Godzilla and he is pretty much a dinosaur, so the fact this child devoured a book on dinosaurs did not stun me or make my jaw drop to the floor."
We get it. Pretty good jo---
The Astros shortstop was commenting how small he felt (a la 5-7 shortstop Jose Altuve) while visiting the city’s NFL team.
And of course Peter has to explain the joke to his readers, because he believes his MMQB readers to be too stupid to figure out the joke for themselves. Not everyone can be as smart about baseball as Peter King, but give him credit for trying. One day, maybe one day, he can educate his readers to where they are close to his level.
Ten Things I Think I Think
1. I think if you wanted to tell me that San Diego pass-rusher Melvin Ingram will lead the NFL in sacks this year, I would not argue with you.
Oh, thank God. I was very worried Peter would argue with me if I said Melvin Ingram would lead the NFL in sacks this year. That's a load off my mind knowing I have Peter's approval should I hold this opinion.
2. I think it feels very much like you can see the end for Robert Griffin III in Washington. It started last year, with the blunt criticism of Griffin from his head coach, and it continues with subpar play this summer, and another mini-controversy last week, when he said he thought he was the best quarterback in the NFL. Which would be hilarious if it wasn’t so ridiculous.
I just can't believe a professional athlete had an unrealistic perspective of his true athletic ability. This never happens.
3. I think you’re owed an explanation from me, in the wake of Ben Volin of the Boston Globe writing Sunday that it wasn’t just Chris Mortensen who got a bum steer from someone in the NFL about the deflated footballs in the AFC title game. Volin said it was me, too. I reported after Mortensen’s story that 11 of the 12 footballs were at least two pounds per square inch under the minimum limit of 12.5 psi when tested by the league at halftime. I reported that I’d heard “reliably” that the story of the footballs being at least two psi under the minimum limit was correct.
Being not an employee of ESPN, I won't copy work that others have done. Here is how I feel about this apology from Peter. I agree with what is written there and I think it undermines the credibility of THE MMQB that Robert Klemko also held back the comments Cris Carter made at the rookie symposium about finding a "fall guy." But hey, he learned from Peter King. Hold back information when you are asked. It's how you best gather sources who eventually mislead you. Peter criticized Chris Mortensen a few weeks ago for not taking back his report, yet I forgot that Peter didn't take his report back either. Peter seems to have forgotten as well. No one cares. The "SI" media guy who eviscerated Cris Carter for his comments had very little to say except "You judge yourself" when confronted with the idea Klemko covered up the "fall guy" comment and Peter flip-flopped. Why? I'm guessing because he can't go as hard against "SI" employees as he can employees of other organizations. So, Peter is excused from receiving the type of criticism others would get in this situation. What a world.
As I said on Twitter on Sunday, I believe the person who told me this believed the story was accurate when, obviously, it clearly was not. So, were we used by someone to get a storyline out in public? Maybe …
No, pretty clearly "yes."
but the reason I’m skeptical about this is because with the knowledge that there would be a full investigation and clearly the air pressure in the footballs would be publicized at some point, the league would look stupid for putting out false information that would eventually come back to embarrass it.
Great take, Peter. Because the NFL is always so worried about it's image and looking like they are giving out false information that they may eventually have to take back. We all know the NFL is deeply worried about being seen as hypocritical and willing to mislead. The NFL knows that fans will still watch, while the reporters who reported this false information would look stupid.
Clearly, this story, along with the Ray Rice story from last fall, has made me question sources and sourcing in general, and in a story as inflammatory as this one, you can’t just take the story of a person whose word you trust as gospel. It’s my error.
Again. You said this same thing last year. The two biggest NFL scandals of the last two years and Peter fumbled the ball on reporting both of them. It's almost like it's a trend. But hey, "SI's" media guy is cool with an apology, so I should be too.
I need to be better than that. Readers, and the Patriots, deserve better than that.
Which is also something Peter said last year. He said he needed to be better. Then when the next big scandal pops up, Peter gets his sourcing and reports wrong again. Readers do deserve better. Can Peter do better?
6. I think this is bad news for the future of Chris Cooley in Washington: New tight end Derek Carrier, acquired in trade with San Francisco on Friday, will be wearing number 47. For all either outside the Beltway or just casual fans of tight-end numbers in recent NFL seasons, that was Cooley’s number. He wants to play again, badly, and his old team sent him a message with that news Saturday.
This is an update for those worried about retired tight ends like Cooley and his ability to make it back into the NFL. So, this is an update for like five people.
7. I think this was a first: I interviewed Tony Romo the other night at Cowboys camp, and he brought his own soundtrack: a boom box with Bruce Springsteen playing at a moderate volume. During our chat, he interrupted his football chatter when “Wrecking Ball” came on.
I don't want to spoil the ending, but Romo and Peter bonded over how great Bruce Springsteen is live. Which is something we already know. I do like how both Peter and Romo pretend like seeing Springsteen live is some secret they both share, instead of something that probably millions of people have in common with them.
9. I think the Cowboys deserve credit for recruiting La’el Collins hard and signing him as a rookie free-agent after the draft … but 31 other teams deserve blame for not using a sixth- or seventh-round pick to take him on draft day. Pro Football Focus named him the top-rated rookie of the first full weekend of the preseason, and people in camp told me last week he’s been terrific in all phases with the second unit. I don’t expect him to stay second-team for the season.
Hey revisionist history, this is Peter King on the line wanting to speak with you. If Peter recalls correctly, and maybe he needs one of his sources to confirm this, Collins was a part of a murder investigation prior to the draft. If it turns out Collins had a part in this murder then I imagine Peter would be writing, "I can't believe Team X spent a draft pick on a player they knew had no chance of playing this season or even in the NFL at any point."
Peter seems to not be able to recall his own words. I'll help him. Here is what he said about Collins prior to the draft:
1. I think La’el Collins, the LSU tackle projected to be a first-round draft choice, has a problem. A pregnant woman Collins apparently knew was murdered last week in Louisiana, and police want to speak with Collins. Police say he is not a suspect. But one team I talked to that is interested in drafting a tackle in the first round is now re-thinking whether Collins will even be on its board on Thursday night. This team’s thinking goes: How can you draft a guy who’s being sought in connection with the death of a woman, even if police are saying now he isn’t a suspect? He needs to be exonerated by Thursday. Fair or unfair, Collins needs to address this today, and with finality.
But now that Peter has revisionist history on his side he thinks some NFL team should have drafted Collins because he's so talented. Peter does an excellent job of forgetting that Collins' status was very much up in the air when the draft occurred. What a farce for Peter to act like 31 teams (and the Cowboys, they didn't draft Collins either, dumbass) dropped the ball in not spending a pick on Collins.
10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:
b. I think having a The MMQB-style site for covering the 2016 election would be an awful lot of fun right now. I think I’d have Klemko writing a daily Trump story, and Vrentas doing a what’s-wrong-with-Hillary’s-campaign takeout right about now.
Peter always has the pulse on what his readers want. He thinks his readers want MORE coverage of Donald Trump, as if the wall-to-wall coverage he gets every evening on FOX and CNN isn't enough. It's like when Peter writes about Tim Tebow, because that's what his readers want to read about. Peter knows us better than we do it seems.
e. In the midst of this bizarro-world bad Red Sox season, I note that, in the span of eight-and-a-third innings last week, Boston got 25 hits and 18 runs off King Felix and Johnny Cueto.
f. You just can’t predict baseball, Suzyn. You really can’t.
It's not like the Red Sox have a team full of shitty hitters or anything. They are 3rd in the majors in runs scored, 4th in OBP, and 3rd in the majors in hits. Scoring runs isn't their issue. So you can't predict baseball, but you can know the strengths of your own favorite team.
g. Not saying Dave Dombrowski wasn’t a good hire by the Red Sox.
And we all know that Peter will basically now say Dave Dombrowski wasn't a good hire by the Red Sox. Peter does this all the time. "I don't want to do this..." and then Peter proceeds to do that thing.
But just for the record: Boston made a change because the current franchise architect spent huge money on players (Sandoval, Porcello, Hanley) who are not huge-money players. And the franchise now has hired an architect who spent huge money on players (other than Miguel Cabrera and maybe Victor Martinez) who didn’t produce enough to win big.
Yes, other than the players who Dombrowski spent big money on that have so far worked out well, he's really signed some huge busts. Just ignore all the good signings he made and his record looks pretty bleak.
What am I missing?
You mean other than the two World Series champions Dombrowski built in Florida, the fact he took a Tigers team that was the worst in the majors and built them into a team that made two World Series, and drafted guys like Rick Porcello, who he then traded so the Red Sox could give him a huge contract? Other than all the success Dombrowski has had? Other than that, you are missing nothing.
I see the division titles, and it’s important to get in the derby every year, so maybe I’m being too hard on Dombrowski. But the Tigers are 12 over .500 since opening day 2014 (including the playoff three-game sweep last year by the Orioles). Going forward, I’d like Boston to be more of a farm-system team and less of a free-agent team. Too many Crawford/Hanley mistakes in big-money land.
You mean draft good players like Curtis Granderson, Justin Verlander, Andrew Miller, Rick Porcello, Alex Avila, and Drew Smyly? Or do you mean the part where he used prospects he drafted to land guys like Miguel Cabrera, Austin Jackson, Max Scherzer, Anibal Sanchez, and David Price?
The funny part is Peter is bemoaning the Red Sox re-signing Rick Porcello, yet he can't seem to make the connection that Dombrowski is the guy who traded Porcello to the Red Sox before he wanted a big contract the Red Sox eventually gave him.
j. Coffeenerdness: This was a first, driving from the airport in Denver to the Broncos’ practice facility last Thursday: a standalone drive-through Starbucks. No store. Just a skinny little drive-through, on the southeast side of town. No idea such a place existed. Some of their stores could take a lesson from said drive-through: From time of order (three drinks) to pickup of drinks: less than 90 seconds.
One minute Peter wants to have a discussion with the barista and talk about how kind everyone is when having conversation, the next minute he wants everyone at Starbucks to shut the fuck up and just hand him his coffee. I guess it just depends on Peter's mood whether he wants conversation and kindness or a quick drink without any talk.
l. Took Greg Bishop of SI to Coors Field for his first trip there on a lovely night for baseball (Nats/Scherzer-Rockies) Thursday. Good to be joined by one of America’s bright young sportswriting lights, Tim Rohan of the New York Times. Coors has one of the best concession stands in all of sports: a salad bar on the lower concourse between first base and right field. Romaine, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, red onion, with balsamic vinaigrette, topped with chicken, for about $8.
Yeah, Max Scherzer. Which MLB GM traded for him before he flourished again? I can't remember.
m. Uh, no line in the sixth inning Thursday night. There should have been.
Because I know when I go to a baseball game I'm thinking, "I'm hungry as hell, where is the nearest salad bar at? All I can think about is devouring a delicious house salad with my beer while watching some baseball."
The Adieu Haiku
So L.A. beckons.
My best guess: Rams in ’16,
Chargers close behind.
I only include the Adieu Haiku now because I want everyone who reads this blog to suffer through the inanity of it along with me.
I’d planned to lead this column with Sunday night’s compelling return to the field of San Francisco all-pro linebacker NaVorro Bowman after 19 months away, and to so much else from the final week of my training camp tour—including how Peyton Manning has no feeling in the fingertips of his throwing hand to this day, after his 2011 surgeries. (Which stunned me.)
So many inappropriate sexual jokes I could include here as to why Peter would be shocked that Peyton didn't have feeling in the fingertips of his throwing hand. I will refrain.
But Sunday was one of those hurricane-of-news days you don’t get very often in the preseason, so let me get to all things Jordy and Maurkice and Cris Carter and, well, here goes …
THIS WAS THE CRAZIEST PRESEASON DAY SINCE AT LEAST ONE PRESEASON DAY LAST YEAR!
NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported the initial diagnosis for wideout Jordy Nelson was a torn ACL, after the wideout landed awkwardly Sunday. Nelson last year set a Packer record with 1,519 receiving yards and is Aaron Rodgers’ favorite target, and his loss would make the Packers significantly less multiple in the deep-receiving game.
Oh no, I guess Aaron Rodgers will have to rely on the 3-4 other high draft picks the Packers have used on offense in order to score points. However will he manage to do it?
• There has to be a common-sense approach to the preseason. It’s easy to say, “Just napalm the damn thing.” After days like Sunday—the two-injury debacle in Pittsburgh, the Cowboys worried about playing on a field with a terrible reputation in Santa Clara, the Giants reeling over losing six of the nine safeties on the roster in the first two preseason weeks—it makes sense to ask this question: When is the NFL going to come to its senses and reduce the preseason from four to two games?
Yes, will this happen? What could stop the NFL from caring about the risk of injury to their players and cause the league to reduce the number of preseason games? Roger Goodell certainly can't think of a single reason.
The exhibition games are fan-cheaters; charging full price for the games is robbery, which is the most no-duh statement in the NFL today.
Yes, if it was the mid-90's then this would be a "no-duh" statement for sure.
They should now follow by cutting out two more chances of injury. Do the math: If Jordy Nelson suits up 17 or 18 times instead of 19 or 20, it follows that he’d have less exposure to the kind of injury that can kill a team’s season in a totally meaningless exercise.
Usually, Peter's math can be a little shaky, but he is in fact correct about his math this time. Though, Kelvin Benjamin just tore his ACL while practicing, so there is only so much the NFL and their teams can do to reduce the chance of injury. Cutting the number of preseason games will certainly help of course. Players still get injured in practices though.
• You are kidding me, Cris Carter—and you are kidding me, NFL. My first reaction to the story of Carter telling NFL rookies at the 2014 Rookie Symposium that they have to find a “fall guy” in a player’s “crew” who will take the blame when the player commits a crime: My jaw dropped.
Yes, how dare Cris Carter encourage that NFL players do something that has thus far remained unspoken. Everyone was shocked when Mike Scott of the Hawks admitted some drugs were his, because that's not how it's done. But it's better to pretend this shit doesn't go on rather than the NFL just admit it, right? I love how Robert Klemko was present for this comment, yet refrained from commenting on it. I see he's learned from Peter King that it's best to withhold information in order to gain or keep access. Be a reporter when it doesn't risk your access.
Precisely. Carter apologized, and though the NFL tried to distance itself from Carter’s idiotic remarks, how could the league have placed the offending video of his talk on NFL.com until yanking it Sunday? This is so offensive it boggles the mind that some person with the NFL would say, Let’s show the world this great advice about obstructing justice from a Hall of Fame hero to impressionable rookies.
I don't think Carter should have said this, but NFL players find a "fall guy" all the time when they get in trouble. It's not advice Carter should be giving obviously, but why would Peter's jaw hit the floor? He doesn't think this type of stuff goes on?
Carter, by the way, was in his yellow Pro Football Hall of Fame blazer. In all ways, this is the biggest example of inmates running the NFL asylum that I’ve seen in years.
It's terrible advice, but again, it happens. The only shocking thing is that Carter said aloud what actually happens in secret. I think it's more funny than shocking.
• The fallout over Terrell Suggs’ hit on Sam Bradford continued. I side with Suggs, who dove at Bradford because he wasn’t sure if Bradford was going to hand off or keep a read-option-appearing play in Saturday night’s Ravens-Eagles game. Suggs said if you’re going to call such a play for a quarterback with ACL reconstructions the past two seasons, you do it at your own peril.
This is very true, but I think it's also important to note that the defender shouldn't be simply going for only the QB's legs when trying to make a tackle. I don't believe Suggs did only go for Bradford's legs, but it would be nice if the defender hit the QB and didn't try to only take his legs out in another situations.
Chip Kelly shouldn’t be putting Bradford in such a position to be hit violently anyway—and certainly not in a dumb preseason game.
For a smart guy, leaving Bradford out there to run a read-option play wasn't the smartest move that Kelly could have called. I get that they want to practice these read-option plays, but in a preseason game that is simply setting your QB up for an injury in a pointless preseason game. What kind of dumbassery is that to call this read-option play?
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Lots of reasons to say ‘Wow’ about NaVorro Bowman this morning.
Question to Bowman on Friday: “How long does it take you to get ready to practice or play right now?”
Bowman: “About two hours. The massaging and the bending, the flexing of the knee. Once I do that I have a five-minute period where it just needs to relax and then I’m ready to go.”
Peter knows how Bowman feels because he used to roll out of bed and then go to a team's training camp with his notebook, but now he has to roll out of bed, take a shower and then go to a team's training camp with his notebook. It's just so hot out these days that Peter must prepare more to stand out in the heat than he used to. So Peter completely empathizes with Bowman.
Question: “Before the injury, how long would it take you to be ready?”
Bowman: “Nothing. No time.”
So Bowman didn't stretch all before practice in order to be prepared to practice? He threw an uniform on and just started to play football with zero stretching or bending of his body?
Look what happened to San Francisco’s D this offseason. No Justin Smith; retired. No Patrick Willis; retired. No Aldon Smith; cut. No Chris Borland to train as the next great inside ‘backer; retired, shockingly.
Peter's jaw hit the floor when he heard that Borland retired. It made him lose all feeling in his heart.
Bowman sure knows how to make an entrance. Until Sunday night against Dallas, Bowman hadn’t played in a game since shredding multiple left knee ligaments on the ugly goal-line play in the NFC Championship Game in Seattle in January 2014. He played three plays against the Cowboys. From his spot in the nerve center of the Niner defense, Bowman stoned Darren McFadden up the middle for a one-yard gain on first down. He stoned McFadden over right tackle on second down; loss of one. He stopped running back Lance Dunbar on a dumpoff pass from Tony Romo on third down; loss of one. Three plays, three tackles, two of them for losses. That was an impressive three minutes of football right there.
Or really shitty blocking from the Cowboys offensive line that probably wasn't trying too hard for fear the horrendous turf on the 49ers field would swallow up their legs and tear ligaments doctors didn't know existed in the human body.
“I thought I ended my career,” Bowman said Friday afternoon in the bowels of Levi’s Stadium.
Given the condition of the field, "the bowels of Levi's Stadium" could very well pertain to a few locations in the stadium or on the field.
Two hours of prep work, daily. Just to be able to practice. Seventeen months of arduous, painful work to try to be NaVorro Bowman, all-pro linebacker, again … while so much of the team is crashing and burning around him.
Has it been worth it?
Peter King asks the tough questions which he knows will result in an obvious answer. Like, what does Peter think Bowman will say? "No, it's hasn't been worth it. I retire, effective immediately."
“I don’t play this game for money,” he said. “I play it for respect and ultimately to make it to the Hall of Fame. That’s what drives me. In order to be the best, this work comes with it, and I’m willing to fight through it.”
This is the answer I would expect to hear from Bowman. It's remarkably easy to say you don't play football for the money when you are sitting on a contract worth almost $26 million guaranteed. At that point, saying you play the game for respect sounds more noble than it probably is. I'd like to hear Bowman say he doesn't play football for money and then back it up by taking less money and gain the respect of his teammates by allowing them to get paid. It's always about the money. Always, even when he claims it's not about it right now for Bowman, the game of football was about the money before he got paid.
He said he doesn’t think he’ll feel that way all season, and he’s not sure exactly how to describe the difference in the knee; he just knows it’s not the same as it was two summers ago.
Well, that doesn't sound positive at all.
I find one thing about the Niner dynamic fascinating right now. Bowman and Borland, health permitting, were set to be the next great combo platter of inside linebacker for the next three or four years. Bowman’s injury was one of the factors that made Borland play so much last year—and, it turns out, he played very well.
Ah yes, Peter is lightly treading down the "NaVorro Bowman is playing despite fighting back from a very traumatic knee injury, while Chris Borland is being a pussy and retiring before he gets hurt" road right now. Again, Peter is lightly treading down this road, but I know he wants to hammer this point home a harder than ends up hammering the point home.
So here’s Bowman, who stones people, playing. And Borland isn’t. Bowman, a Harry Carson block-of-granite type, and Willis keyed a defense that went 14 straight games in 2011 without allowing a rushing touchdown. Three times he was first-team all-pro, the classic kind of run-stuffer who also had the ability to turn and run with tight ends. Bowman's fought through it all, and Borland chose another path.
"Chose another path." Come on Peter, you know you want to go there, just like you wanted to go there last week and complain about the "Black Lives Matter" protesters blocking the street. Go full heel on us. Bowman has chosen to stick around and play through injuries, while Borland is retiring before he can get injured. You know you want to write this point of view. Just do it.
Concerned about the impact of football on his long-term health—a rising tide among current players—Borland walked away from the game after one starry season.
Peter describes the guy who fought back from injury as "a Harry Carson block-of-granite type" and states the other guy "chose another path." It's like saying, "My oldest son is running his own company and is successful, but my youngest son chose a different path and hasn't found his calling yet." It's on the edge of judging, but trying to do so in a polite way.
That’s one of the things that makes this comeback compelling. There’s nothing dramatic about the way Bowman says this. It’s simply his ethos. He’s a man making a choice, the way Borland made his. And the 49ers, in this seismic season, need Bowman desperately, and he knows it.
Bowman has an ethos. Chris Borland has no ethos. One chose a compelling comeback and the other tapped-out through "walking away." Regardless of what Peter says, the wording he uses says what he really thinks. At least I think I think I know what Peter thinks.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Six things you need to know about Peyton Manning, at 39.
Again, at this point there is very little I don't know about Peyton Manning, but I'm sure learning six more things won't hurt.
1. He still doesn’t have feeling in the fingertips on his right hand.
Peter is still stunned upon hearing this.
“I can’t feel anything in my fingertips,” Manning said Thursday. “It’s crazy. I’ve talked to a doctor recently who said, Don’t count on the feeling coming back. It was hard for me for about two years, because one doctor told me I could wake up any morning and it might come back. So you wake up every day thinking, Today’s the day! Then it’s not.” I find his production all the more impressive since four neck procedures caused him to miss the 2011 season, and caused him to lose—maybe forever—the comfortable grip on the football.
I don't know how it usually works with a quarterback, but I would think it would be a much bigger deal for a wide receiver to not be able to feel the ball with his fingertips than it would be for a quarterback. Maybe not, but this still sounds like a semi-serious medical issue. A medical issue that Peter King thinks NaVorro Bowman would fight back from, but Chris Borland would choose his own path and walk away if faced with this fingertip condition.
2. He traces the physically crummy end to last season not to age but to a vomitous December night in San Diego.
Now I'm the one whose jaw is on the floor. You mean Peyton Manning isn't attributing his poor ending to the season to getting older? He isn't saying, "Oh sure, I'm really old and can't play an entire season at a high level anymore"? What an unexpected thing for Peyton to attribute his crummy ending last season to, as opposed to acknowledging he's getting older.
Before the Broncos’ 14th game, in San Diego, Manning says a bug he caught from his sick daughter made him violently ill. “I threw up all night,” he said. “Then, in the game, I moved to the right on a simple scramble and my quad cramped on me. It lingered. I couldn’t shake it the rest of the year. I really studied it hard this offseason, whether it could linger into this year or whether it was isolated. I just think I got dehydrated, and that caused it. I don’t think you can blame it on my age. It was just an isolated thing.
Manning was just dehydrated for an entire month. It's not that he is older or anything. It's just one of those things that happened as a result of being dehydrated for a few weeks. No big deal, let's all move on and just accept this reason.
4. Manning got advice from Derek Jeter on the contract thing. His wife Ashley weighed in too, importantly. “I talked about it with Ashley, about what I wanted to do, and I wanted to be here,” he said. And Jeter told him: “Do what you want—not what they want.”
Ah, the Jeter always has such great advice. "Use your leverage as an icon to engage in a battle over your contract, fully knowing you have the media on your side and it's going to be hard for you to look like the bad guy." I mean, it's true though, so I'm not sure I can mock it.
6. The Broncos will likely do the Romo thing this year, and give Manning every Wednesday off. Just for insurance—and so the Broncos can see a little more of Brock Osweiler getting quality time with the first unit. “I think that’s the plan right now,” Elway said. “I think he’d feel better right now if he takes Wednesday off. His health is not a concern. His freshness is a concern.”
Absolutely. The Broncos know Manning can play a full season with no problem, even though he can't feel his fingertips and his arm strength seems to have slowed as the season progresses. So no worries from them here. They just don't want Manning to get dehydrated for an entire month again.
And yes, the whole "The Broncos are resting Manning just for insurance and not because they are concerned about his health/arm strength" is one of those things I think NFL teams and other sources tell Peter that he buys hook, line and sinker because he likes Manning and wants to believe it.
OXNARD, Calif. — You think this team doesn’t have one foot out the door to L.A.?
What a scene here Monday and Tuesday, when the Rams, after a Friday night preseason game in Oakland, scheduled a couple of days of work against the Cowboys at their training complex here. It was enough to see the fans, who outnumbered the Dallas fans by 2-to-1 (my estimate) Tuesday, be nuts for the Rams; one even had a huge flat-head cutout of owner Stan Kroenke in the crowd. Imagine fans cheering for Stan Kroenke. Amazing. He’s not exactly a fan favorite in St. Louis.
Well, if California wasn't trying to lure the Rams to their state through flattery than I imagine there would be zero fat-head (not flat-head) cutouts of Stan Kroenke. I mean, of course St. Louis isn't going to love Kroenke. He's trying to take the NFL team away from the city. What the fuck does Peter expect?
On Monday and Tuesday, the Rams did a morning walk-through practice near their hotel between Los Angeles and Oxnard. In one of those sessions, coach Jeff Fisher stuck his head into the offensive huddle and said, “Guys, I’m putting Eric Dickerson in the backfield, and you’re going to block power for Eric Dickerson.” Hall of Fame running back Eric Dickerson, he meant. And Dickerson took a handoff in this walkthrough practice, ran through a hole, and folks cheered.
Jeff "8-8" Fisher sure knows how to pump the team up. But hey, if I were an NFL head coach who so far had gotten paid over a million dollar for every victory then I'd be in a good mood too. I don't know what Peter expects though. Everything will be all sunshines and rainbows for the Rams in California. They want the Rams to move from St. Louis to their state.
RENTON, Wash. — Nothing changes for Russell Wilson.
Not really, but I guess it's more fun to go with this story than to check whether it's realistic or not. He just got a huge new contract and is dating a famous pop star. Things have changed, regardless of whether he wants to acknowledge it or not.
Ten minutes before the official start of Seahawks practice, on a pristine field a short spiral east of Lake Washington, Russell Wilson is throwing to the tight ends. Fast. Snap, set up, throw, over and over. I’m guessing before practice even started he’s thrown 30 or 40 passes in anger. I’ve seen this movie before: last year, and the year before. Super Bowl win, Super Bowl loss.
Wait, so Russell Wilson hasn't stopped practicing entirely now that he has a new contract? I completely expected him to stop practicing now that he's really wealthy and focus on baseball. Perhaps God spoke to Wilson as he signed his new contract and decided that Wilson should focus on football-only, thereby closing the door on a possible baseball career.
The quarterback who threw the interception heard ’round the world in the Super Bowl last February and made Malcolm Butler a household name doesn’t seem much worse for wear.
He's dating a singer and he got a huge new contract. He's been to two straight Super Bowls. I'm trying to figure out why Peter would think Wilson would be down in the dumps and worse for wear.
The interception might be in a place deep inside him, burrowing a hole he’ll always feel. But if it is, Wilson’s doing a good job hiding it. Or pretending it’s not there.
That's sort of what he has to do in order to move on isn't it? Being able to forget about a bad play that cost his team the game is how he can avoid allowing one play to ruin the next football season.
Wilson said it took about a week before he got over it. Since then, his off-season has been pretty much the same as his others work-wise—just a bit more spotlighted because he’s dating a celebrity.
It's also a bit more spotlighted because Wilson and his agent took his fight for a new contract to any media outlet who was willing to listen to them, while pretending that Wilson totally had complete interest in playing baseball again so that was a fallback option if the Seahawks don't give Wilson exactly what he wants. Of course, Peter won't question Wilson's insistence the spotlight is on him more because of his dating Ciara. Peter isn't here to question. He is here to get quotes and write them down word-for-word as they were told to him, which is why he can be used by some members of the NFL and NFL organizations to disseminate the information they want disseminated. Breathlessly writing down quotes is how Peter gets his sources and how his sources use him from time-to-time.
No matter what the circumstances are, can you stay laser focused on the idea of what can you do for the next moment? That’s the trick. If you ask any great players—and I’ve had the fortune to be around a lot of great players—Derek Jeter to Michael Jordan to other quarterbacks who have played the game—
(Bengoodfella makes wanking motion with his hand)
My mental coach, Trevor Moawad, has this idea: conscious competence.
Not to be confused with conscious uncoupling of course. Speaking of conscious uncoupling, how smart was Russell to divorce his wife before he got paid? He knows what he's doing, even if he tries to act like he doesn't.
Seattle's quarterback coach, Carl Smith, and offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell both said Wilson’s the exact same guy this summer, post-contract and post-calamitous interception.
Wilson got the new contract like a month ago. It's not like an athlete gets paid and then always immediately starts to turn evil and lazy, refusing to show up for practice and hanging out with Justin Bieber. Sometimes it takes a year or so for a player to change after he has gotten paid, once he has faced tough situations and realizes he is rich so the motivation to dig himself out isn't as great. I'm not saying this is the case for Wilson, and I don't believe it would be, but it's been a month since he signed a new contract. It's a bit early for the whole "HE'S THE SAME GUY!" talk.
When you go on the road to training camps, there are some days you know fun things might happen.
Tickle contest between Peter and Klemko every night before bed!
Last Tuesday, I walked into Cowboys PR VP Rich Dalrymple’s office at camp—a converted Marriott Residence Inn room, right by the practice fields—and who was sitting there chewing the fat with Dalrymple? Tommy Lasorda.
"Chewing the fat" and then Peter mentions Tommy Lasorda. I see what you did there Peter.
The conversation was so good I thought the best way to relay it was to give you a seat in one of the chairs in the room, across from Dalrymple’s desk, and let you just listen to Lasorda, 87, tell his tales.
I won't cover this much except to show you the contributions (or lack thereof) Peter made to the conversation.
Garrett: “Did you come to the playoff game against Detroit?”
Lasorda: “I was there! And we should have won. What about that catch?”
King: “The Dez Bryant catch that wasn’t a catch?”
Lasorda: “That was the greatest catch I ever saw in my life, and they took it away from them. Otherwise they’d have been playing Seattle.”
King: “For the NFC Championship Game.”
No Peter, the Cowboys would have been playing in Seattle against the Sounders, because the winner of the Dallas-Green Bay game got to play a soccer match against the Sounders for the right to play in the NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Yes, for the NFC Championship Game. That's what Lasorda meant. No need to interject.
Lasorda: “That’s right, yeah.
Tommy Lasorda is like, "Aren't you supposed to be the one who covers the NFL?"
King: “Seems like the rivalry is missing from baseball now. Football too. Guys are pretty friendly.”
Dalrymple: “Our guys pray with the other team on the field after the game.”
Lasorda: “If I saw my players ever talking to the other players, I would chew their ass out.
Brilliant observation from Peter. Of course, Peter is the same guy who loves to relay stories on how Peyton Manning and Tom Brady run into each other at exclusive restaurants and golf clubs and then marvel at how these two players are such good friends and run in the same circles. I guess it's okay for Manning and Brady to be friends and still have a rivalry, but Peter thinks guys are pretty friendly in sports and it takes away from the rivalry. That is unless Peter thinks it's cool two superstars get along well.
“It’s intoxicating. It’s a drug, a drug that gives you the most incredible feeling there is. Outside of sexual intercourse, there's probably nothing like it. But fun is the wrong word for it. I don't consider football fun. It's not like a water park, or a baseball game.”
—Former 49ers linebacker Chris Borland, on football, in a terrific longform story on ESPN.com by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru about the post-football life of Borland
Hey, he made his choice according to his ethos.
“When you run the read option, you have to know the rules. If you want to run the read option with a starting quarterback that’s had two knee surgeries, that’s on you. It’s not my responsibility to update you on the rule. I could have hit him harder on that. I didn’t.”
—Ravens pass rusher Terrell Suggs, after hitting quarterback Sam Bradford in the left knee in Saturday night’s preseason game against the Eagles.
It seems Suggs sort of went at Bradford's knee, though it's hard to tell. He may not have and I can't figure it out. Either way, I don't know why the hell the Eagles would run the read-option with Sam Bradford in a preseason game. Many teams who actually have quarterbacks who run the read-option aren't running it in preseason, mostly because it's preseason and it's stupid to expose a quarterback to an injury risk.
Whether Suggs had malice on the play, I don’t know. I don’t know why he would. But I don’t know how Suggs said he could have hit him harder. He lunged quite hard into Bradford’s knee.
I think overall it is a cheap play to dive into a player's knee. I don't know if Suggs meant to or not, but it's never cool to dive into a player's knee, no matter if he's the quarterback, kicker, punter or a wide receiver.
“L-A-RAMS! L-A-RAMS! L-A-RAMS!”
—Thousands of fans chanting at a practice between the St. Louis Rams and Dallas Cowboys on Tuesday at the Cowboys’ training camp field in Oxnard, Calif.
What made the display interesting was that at least two-thirds of the fans on hand that day identified as Ram fans. You don't often see a road team in a practice or game setting dominate the local crowd, but that’s what the Rams fans did in Oxnard.
Yet again, these are fans of football who want an NFL team in California. Of course they are going to put on a good show in order to convince the Rams to come out there. It's not really remarkable if you know these fans want a chance to prove they can support the Rams once they move to California.
MLB Payrolls We Have Loved Dept.:
Los Angeles Dodgers (14 games over .500) payroll: $298.5 million.
Combined payroll of Pittsburgh, Houston, Kansas City (61 over .500): $300.6 million.
This statistic just makes me roll my eyes. It's interesting I guess, but the Astros have a low payroll because they essentially disintegrated their entire team a few years ago to rebuild the organization from top to bottom. They have players working under cheap contracts who are producing at a high level.
Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Notes of the Week
On the later flight, a Japanese boy, about 5 or 6, sat in the middle seat of our row, with me on the aisle. He was exceedingly polite. He had to get up twice to use the restroom, and each time he said he was sorry. While seated, he devoured a large picture book about dinosaurs, and pulled out a folder of dinosaur drawings that I am assuming he made.
Peter is like, "Of course it makes sense this little boy likes dinosaurs. All Japanese people love Godzilla and he is pretty much a dinosaur, so the fact this child devoured a book on dinosaurs did not stun me or make my jaw drop to the floor."
"I feel like the Altuve here," Astros shortstop Carlos Correa at #Texans practice.
— Tania Ganguli (@taniaganguli) August 18, 2015
We get it. Pretty good jo---
The Astros shortstop was commenting how small he felt (a la 5-7 shortstop Jose Altuve) while visiting the city’s NFL team.
And of course Peter has to explain the joke to his readers, because he believes his MMQB readers to be too stupid to figure out the joke for themselves. Not everyone can be as smart about baseball as Peter King, but give him credit for trying. One day, maybe one day, he can educate his readers to where they are close to his level.
Ten Things I Think I Think
1. I think if you wanted to tell me that San Diego pass-rusher Melvin Ingram will lead the NFL in sacks this year, I would not argue with you.
Oh, thank God. I was very worried Peter would argue with me if I said Melvin Ingram would lead the NFL in sacks this year. That's a load off my mind knowing I have Peter's approval should I hold this opinion.
2. I think it feels very much like you can see the end for Robert Griffin III in Washington. It started last year, with the blunt criticism of Griffin from his head coach, and it continues with subpar play this summer, and another mini-controversy last week, when he said he thought he was the best quarterback in the NFL. Which would be hilarious if it wasn’t so ridiculous.
I just can't believe a professional athlete had an unrealistic perspective of his true athletic ability. This never happens.
3. I think you’re owed an explanation from me, in the wake of Ben Volin of the Boston Globe writing Sunday that it wasn’t just Chris Mortensen who got a bum steer from someone in the NFL about the deflated footballs in the AFC title game. Volin said it was me, too. I reported after Mortensen’s story that 11 of the 12 footballs were at least two pounds per square inch under the minimum limit of 12.5 psi when tested by the league at halftime. I reported that I’d heard “reliably” that the story of the footballs being at least two psi under the minimum limit was correct.
Being not an employee of ESPN, I won't copy work that others have done. Here is how I feel about this apology from Peter. I agree with what is written there and I think it undermines the credibility of THE MMQB that Robert Klemko also held back the comments Cris Carter made at the rookie symposium about finding a "fall guy." But hey, he learned from Peter King. Hold back information when you are asked. It's how you best gather sources who eventually mislead you. Peter criticized Chris Mortensen a few weeks ago for not taking back his report, yet I forgot that Peter didn't take his report back either. Peter seems to have forgotten as well. No one cares. The "SI" media guy who eviscerated Cris Carter for his comments had very little to say except "You judge yourself" when confronted with the idea Klemko covered up the "fall guy" comment and Peter flip-flopped. Why? I'm guessing because he can't go as hard against "SI" employees as he can employees of other organizations. So, Peter is excused from receiving the type of criticism others would get in this situation. What a world.
As I said on Twitter on Sunday, I believe the person who told me this believed the story was accurate when, obviously, it clearly was not. So, were we used by someone to get a storyline out in public? Maybe …
No, pretty clearly "yes."
but the reason I’m skeptical about this is because with the knowledge that there would be a full investigation and clearly the air pressure in the footballs would be publicized at some point, the league would look stupid for putting out false information that would eventually come back to embarrass it.
Great take, Peter. Because the NFL is always so worried about it's image and looking like they are giving out false information that they may eventually have to take back. We all know the NFL is deeply worried about being seen as hypocritical and willing to mislead. The NFL knows that fans will still watch, while the reporters who reported this false information would look stupid.
Clearly, this story, along with the Ray Rice story from last fall, has made me question sources and sourcing in general, and in a story as inflammatory as this one, you can’t just take the story of a person whose word you trust as gospel. It’s my error.
Again. You said this same thing last year. The two biggest NFL scandals of the last two years and Peter fumbled the ball on reporting both of them. It's almost like it's a trend. But hey, "SI's" media guy is cool with an apology, so I should be too.
I need to be better than that. Readers, and the Patriots, deserve better than that.
Which is also something Peter said last year. He said he needed to be better. Then when the next big scandal pops up, Peter gets his sourcing and reports wrong again. Readers do deserve better. Can Peter do better?
6. I think this is bad news for the future of Chris Cooley in Washington: New tight end Derek Carrier, acquired in trade with San Francisco on Friday, will be wearing number 47. For all either outside the Beltway or just casual fans of tight-end numbers in recent NFL seasons, that was Cooley’s number. He wants to play again, badly, and his old team sent him a message with that news Saturday.
This is an update for those worried about retired tight ends like Cooley and his ability to make it back into the NFL. So, this is an update for like five people.
7. I think this was a first: I interviewed Tony Romo the other night at Cowboys camp, and he brought his own soundtrack: a boom box with Bruce Springsteen playing at a moderate volume. During our chat, he interrupted his football chatter when “Wrecking Ball” came on.
I don't want to spoil the ending, but Romo and Peter bonded over how great Bruce Springsteen is live. Which is something we already know. I do like how both Peter and Romo pretend like seeing Springsteen live is some secret they both share, instead of something that probably millions of people have in common with them.
9. I think the Cowboys deserve credit for recruiting La’el Collins hard and signing him as a rookie free-agent after the draft … but 31 other teams deserve blame for not using a sixth- or seventh-round pick to take him on draft day. Pro Football Focus named him the top-rated rookie of the first full weekend of the preseason, and people in camp told me last week he’s been terrific in all phases with the second unit. I don’t expect him to stay second-team for the season.
Hey revisionist history, this is Peter King on the line wanting to speak with you. If Peter recalls correctly, and maybe he needs one of his sources to confirm this, Collins was a part of a murder investigation prior to the draft. If it turns out Collins had a part in this murder then I imagine Peter would be writing, "I can't believe Team X spent a draft pick on a player they knew had no chance of playing this season or even in the NFL at any point."
Peter seems to not be able to recall his own words. I'll help him. Here is what he said about Collins prior to the draft:
1. I think La’el Collins, the LSU tackle projected to be a first-round draft choice, has a problem. A pregnant woman Collins apparently knew was murdered last week in Louisiana, and police want to speak with Collins. Police say he is not a suspect. But one team I talked to that is interested in drafting a tackle in the first round is now re-thinking whether Collins will even be on its board on Thursday night. This team’s thinking goes: How can you draft a guy who’s being sought in connection with the death of a woman, even if police are saying now he isn’t a suspect? He needs to be exonerated by Thursday. Fair or unfair, Collins needs to address this today, and with finality.
But now that Peter has revisionist history on his side he thinks some NFL team should have drafted Collins because he's so talented. Peter does an excellent job of forgetting that Collins' status was very much up in the air when the draft occurred. What a farce for Peter to act like 31 teams (and the Cowboys, they didn't draft Collins either, dumbass) dropped the ball in not spending a pick on Collins.
10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:
b. I think having a The MMQB-style site for covering the 2016 election would be an awful lot of fun right now. I think I’d have Klemko writing a daily Trump story, and Vrentas doing a what’s-wrong-with-Hillary’s-campaign takeout right about now.
Peter always has the pulse on what his readers want. He thinks his readers want MORE coverage of Donald Trump, as if the wall-to-wall coverage he gets every evening on FOX and CNN isn't enough. It's like when Peter writes about Tim Tebow, because that's what his readers want to read about. Peter knows us better than we do it seems.
e. In the midst of this bizarro-world bad Red Sox season, I note that, in the span of eight-and-a-third innings last week, Boston got 25 hits and 18 runs off King Felix and Johnny Cueto.
f. You just can’t predict baseball, Suzyn. You really can’t.
It's not like the Red Sox have a team full of shitty hitters or anything. They are 3rd in the majors in runs scored, 4th in OBP, and 3rd in the majors in hits. Scoring runs isn't their issue. So you can't predict baseball, but you can know the strengths of your own favorite team.
g. Not saying Dave Dombrowski wasn’t a good hire by the Red Sox.
And we all know that Peter will basically now say Dave Dombrowski wasn't a good hire by the Red Sox. Peter does this all the time. "I don't want to do this..." and then Peter proceeds to do that thing.
But just for the record: Boston made a change because the current franchise architect spent huge money on players (Sandoval, Porcello, Hanley) who are not huge-money players. And the franchise now has hired an architect who spent huge money on players (other than Miguel Cabrera and maybe Victor Martinez) who didn’t produce enough to win big.
Yes, other than the players who Dombrowski spent big money on that have so far worked out well, he's really signed some huge busts. Just ignore all the good signings he made and his record looks pretty bleak.
What am I missing?
You mean other than the two World Series champions Dombrowski built in Florida, the fact he took a Tigers team that was the worst in the majors and built them into a team that made two World Series, and drafted guys like Rick Porcello, who he then traded so the Red Sox could give him a huge contract? Other than all the success Dombrowski has had? Other than that, you are missing nothing.
I see the division titles, and it’s important to get in the derby every year, so maybe I’m being too hard on Dombrowski. But the Tigers are 12 over .500 since opening day 2014 (including the playoff three-game sweep last year by the Orioles). Going forward, I’d like Boston to be more of a farm-system team and less of a free-agent team. Too many Crawford/Hanley mistakes in big-money land.
You mean draft good players like Curtis Granderson, Justin Verlander, Andrew Miller, Rick Porcello, Alex Avila, and Drew Smyly? Or do you mean the part where he used prospects he drafted to land guys like Miguel Cabrera, Austin Jackson, Max Scherzer, Anibal Sanchez, and David Price?
The funny part is Peter is bemoaning the Red Sox re-signing Rick Porcello, yet he can't seem to make the connection that Dombrowski is the guy who traded Porcello to the Red Sox before he wanted a big contract the Red Sox eventually gave him.
j. Coffeenerdness: This was a first, driving from the airport in Denver to the Broncos’ practice facility last Thursday: a standalone drive-through Starbucks. No store. Just a skinny little drive-through, on the southeast side of town. No idea such a place existed. Some of their stores could take a lesson from said drive-through: From time of order (three drinks) to pickup of drinks: less than 90 seconds.
One minute Peter wants to have a discussion with the barista and talk about how kind everyone is when having conversation, the next minute he wants everyone at Starbucks to shut the fuck up and just hand him his coffee. I guess it just depends on Peter's mood whether he wants conversation and kindness or a quick drink without any talk.
l. Took Greg Bishop of SI to Coors Field for his first trip there on a lovely night for baseball (Nats/Scherzer-Rockies) Thursday. Good to be joined by one of America’s bright young sportswriting lights, Tim Rohan of the New York Times. Coors has one of the best concession stands in all of sports: a salad bar on the lower concourse between first base and right field. Romaine, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, red onion, with balsamic vinaigrette, topped with chicken, for about $8.
Yeah, Max Scherzer. Which MLB GM traded for him before he flourished again? I can't remember.
m. Uh, no line in the sixth inning Thursday night. There should have been.
Because I know when I go to a baseball game I'm thinking, "I'm hungry as hell, where is the nearest salad bar at? All I can think about is devouring a delicious house salad with my beer while watching some baseball."
The Adieu Haiku
So L.A. beckons.
My best guess: Rams in ’16,
Chargers close behind.
I only include the Adieu Haiku now because I want everyone who reads this blog to suffer through the inanity of it along with me.
Thursday, February 19, 2015
5 comments MMQB Review: In This MMQB Featuring Mostly Combine News, Peter Wonders Why Football Fans are Combine-Nutty
Peter King went play-by-play of the Patriots' fourth quarter comeback in the Super Bowl win against the Seahawks in last week's MMQB. He also did a little Josh McDaniels/Tom Brady fan fiction and explained why he would quit the Pro Football Hall of Fame committee if Darren Sharper weren't considered on the ballot. It's still strange how strongly Peter caped up for Sharper, but Peter never really understand why others found it odd. This week Peter previews the combine, talks about how EVERYONE makes too big deal of the combine and then makes a big deal out of it himself, and discusses the roosters in Key West. Peter also discusses how people on Twitter are mean, which seems to be a popular thing for sportswriters to talk about these days, just how mean everyone on Twitter is. Meanwhile, those people that Peter hates on Twitter are the same people who read his columns on a weekly basis. It's tough when your fans are the assholes you don't like.
Over the past decade or so, since the NFL combine has gotten so much traction in this football-crazed country, I always think of combine week as the beginning of the new season.
It’s always amazed me how combine-nutty so many people inside and outside the sport are.
This is called "looking a gift horse in the mouth." If some people weren't combine-nutty then there may be no need for a web site called "THE MMQB" and Peter King would just be a haughty, self-involved sportswriter who isn't nearly as successful and famous as he is now. Peter would take most of February through May off from writing about football, perhaps taking a pay cut or have to focus on other sports he doesn't like as much, if he didn't get the chance to be so amazed at how combine-nutty some people inside and outside the sport are.
And of course, after mentioning how amazed he is at how combine-nutty so many people inside and outside the sport are, Peter will of course spend a lot of this MMQB talking about the combine. He will also have Mike Mayock give comments about prospects and how they will perform at the combine. It's amazing how combine-nutty people are, but it certainly makes for a good topic to discuss in MMQB. I just can't wait to find out which player Mayock will drop from #1 at his position to out of the top 5 of that position based on one bad workout. Which player will Mayock ignore all of his other impressions of in favor of making a knee-jerk reaction?
But ratings and the audience were up 60 percent in 2014 over 2010 numbers on NFL Network, and the ratings have climbed on ESPN too.
I wonder if the ratings for the combine have increased as talk about how popular the combine has become has increased? Basically what I'm saying is the NFL media talks about the combine more than they used to, so is this the result of an increased interest in the combine or is the increased awareness of the combine result in an increased interest? Is the media helping to drive this interest in the combine by increasing awareness of when the event takes place and how it can be viewed?
The other day I asked NFL Network draft guru Mike Mayock, the cornerstone combine expert in the business, why he thinks the four-day event has become such an extravaganza.
Peter says people are combine-nutty and then he refers to Mike Mayock as a "combine expert." Okay, then. I guess there is such thing as a person being an expert on the combine.
“So, I thought people would never watch it. But with that as a backdrop, I think there’s three things that have gotten people into it over the years. One: There’s a crossover audience, of college football fans and pro football fans. The college football fans want to see how their guys are doing matched up against the best guys from around the country.
Quick update. Jameis Winston sneezed prior to throwing a pass and it went off-target. Mike Mayock has dropped Winston down in his rankings to where he'll be surprised if Winston gets drafted.
Two: NFL fans, especially fantasy football fans, want to compare one receiver to another, or one quarterback to another. I’m amazed how much I hear that from fans.
Really? This is a real thing? I wouldn't ever imagine the combine could be used for fantasy football purposes. Combine results would seem to be completely useless as it pertains to fantasy football and people are idiots, so maybe that does make sense.
Another update. Todd Gurley's neck size isn't ideal for a running back, so Mike Mayock has dropped Gurley to 10th in his running back rankings and moved a running back into his top 5 who has ideal neck size, but hasn't actually scored a touchdown during a college football game.
Three: I think people love to see players without helmets and pads on. To see a 270-pound man run a 4.6 40-yard dash, viscerally, is a really cool thing to see.”
Another bad break for Todd Gurley. Mayock now projects him to be drafted in the 5th or 6th round because, while everything looks good on tape, Mayock remembers now that he saw one practice when Gurley was at the University of Georgia where Gurley fumbled and didn't look sharp.
I asked Mayock for the storylines he’ll be watching.
WHY ARE PEOPLE SO COMBINE-NUTTY?
Meanwhile, Peter is creating "storylines" for the combine.
1. Who will challenge Chris Johnson’s combine-record 4.24-second 40-yard dash?
Sammie Coates, Auburn, 6-2, 213. “Biggest of the three, a real specimen,” said Mayock. “I don’t think he catches the ball as naturally as the other two. I want to see how naturally he can catch it.”
Who cares if he can catch the football? He's a receiver, all he has to do is run fast. Also, if Mayock sees at the combine that Coates catches the ball well, sees on tape that Coates doesn't catch the ball well and then at his Auburn Pro Day Coates only catches the ball so-so, will Mayock's head explode because he doesn't know which set of information to overvalue?
3. Who are the boom-or-bust guys in this draft?
Phillips, for one. Said Mayock: “Back surgery two years ago, only started 16 games in college, but he’s a dancing bear,
It doesn't seem fair that a dancing bear could participate at the combine. Though I'm sure Mike Mayock would be really intrigued by a horse that can run a fast 40-yard dash and had a great shuttle time, but probably would wonder if the horse could catch the ball naturally.
Then there’s the “poster child for boom or bust—Dorial Green-Beckham,” Mayock said. Green-Beckham played two seasons at Missouri, was arrested on marijuana charges twice at Missouri, was dismissed from the team in April 2014, transferred to Oklahoma, was not granted eligibility for the 2014 season, then declared for the draft last month. At 6-5 and 225 pounds, he can run a 4.4 40-yard dash, and some team just might risk a low first-round pick on him. “I watched every target to him in 2013, and he has no idea what he’s doing,
Yeah, but is he fast and is he a dancing bear? Who cares if Green-Beckham has no idea what he's doing? At the very least Mike Mayock can just ogle his body for a few minutes and dream of what Green-Beckham could do if he actually knew how to play football.
but he changes games,” said Mayock.
Mostly Green-Beckham changes games because once he's declared ineligible or kicked off the team, then the opposing team knows they don't have to game plan for him. I would look for the Patriots to be connected to Green-Beckham about 1000 times until the draft happens under the guise that "Belichick and Brady will know how to deal with Green-Beckham." Also, I think the Seahawks will probably be linked to Green-Beckham too, because after all (says the media) they dealt with Marshawn Lynch so Green-Beckham wouldn't be so hard to deal with. Pete Carroll is a player's coach, he'll get through to Green-Beckham.
5. A chance to see through the fog at quarterback.
Mayock: “It’s not a good quarterback class. I’m scared to death of Jameis Winston off the field,
Because he is black? That's racist.
and I’m scared to death of how many interceptions he throws. He threw seven interceptions against Louisville and Florida, and could have been 12 or 13 if the other teams could catch the ball.
Winston also threw fewer interceptions during his freshman year. I guess that doesn't count since Mayock is usually overly-focused on what JUST HAPPENED and nothing before that.
But most quarterbacks come out of the spread now, and they’re projections, like Marcus Mariota. I love so much about Mariota, but he is a projection. I’m much more comfortable projecting Winston, even with the interceptions, because he was a pocket guy at Florida State. And his ability to win games in the second half is mind-boggling.”
So the lesson to be learned here is that if you are a quarterback, it's better to sort of be bad at throwing from the pocket, as opposed to not really throwing from the pocket as much, because it makes it easier to evaluate you. Also, every quarterback is a projection in some sense, it's just a quarterback coming from the spread has to be evaluated in a different fashion.
As for who’s number three, Mayock says, at least today, that would be UCLA’s Brett Hundley or Baylor’s Bryce Petty. “I have significant concerns about both of them,” he said. “I like Petty’s arm, accuracy and size, but he has no idea how to play in the pocket, from what I saw.”
And whereas a guy like Green-Beckham or Coates is intriguing to Mayock because they don't know how to play their position well and need further coaching, Bryce Petty isn't a good prospect because he doesn't know how to play his position well and needs further coaching. The lesson here is that if you don't know how to play your college position well, then just be athletic and it will be assumed you can learn. If you are not athletic, then it's assumed you have no chance of being taught to play your college position better.
Mayock likes comparing players he’s seeing now to players he’s seen in the past.
WHY HASN'T ANYONE ELSE THOUGHT OF DOING THIS?
It should be an illuminating week in Indianapolis. For The MMQB, I’ll be there, along with Jenny Vrentas, Robert Klemko and Emily Kaplan, and videographer John DePetro. Andy Staples also will be there, working on a couple of things for The MMQB, SI and SI.com. And photographer Todd Rosenberg will be with us, capturing the players and the flavor of the combine. Follow along here, and on Instagram and Twitter.
Right Peter? Everyone is so combine-crazy these days. Why is that? I'm just glad that Peter doesn't mention how everyone is combine-crazy and then seem to saturate THE MMQB with coverage of the combine or else it would seem like he was part of the media that is helping to make fans of the NFL to be combine-crazy.
Dave Goldberg died last week at 73. There’s a good chance you didn’t know Goldberg, even if you were a big football fan. That’s because, most often, Goldberg’s best stories would appear in your hometown newspaper without his name on them, because he wrote for the Associated Press. Such as this preview of the Super Bowl 27 years ago:
That’s called “foreshadowing.” Goldberg was good at that.
But for years, and through the 25 years he was the AP’s lead pro football writer (1984-2009), Dave Goldberg and his APbrethren were my news feed for the NFL. I knew he would give me the facts I needed to know, laced with some smart leanings, but never a hit-over-the-head opinion, because that’s not what wire services did. They reported facts. Then you decided what you thought about the facts.
I have absolutely no issue with what Dave Goldberg wrote, but I wouldn't call writing "Is there anyone else on the Broncos besides their quarterback?" to be anything but a hit-over-the-head opinion. It's a pretty strong opinion, even if it were true. That sentence is not a fact and it's a strong opinion. So Peter picked an interesting example to show how Goldberg reported facts and not opinions.
Remember those days?
Says the guy who writes a weekly column which prominently features his opinion. This is typical Peter King. He longs for the days when sportwriting didn't have opinion in it, but he of course doesn't mind giving some opinion on his sportswriting. This is another in a long line of Peter's "Do as I wish could be done but I won't do" statements he has made over the year. Most of them usually start with "I don't want to..." followed by Peter doing exactly what he stated he didn't want to do.
As he got older, Goldberg became one of the wise owls in the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection meetings. Unemotional, fact-based, very smart. He wouldn’t rail at much, really. But he did not like clichés. At all. Such as this one: future Hall of Famer. “Future Hall of Famer,” he’d grouse. “If every guy who was a future Hall of Famer became a real Hall of Famer, we’d have to put 50 guys in every year!”
I bet Goldberg would hate it if someone wrote something like,
For the second straight year, the Super Bowl comes down to John Elway against the world,
He would grouse at that and then talk about how writing like this is silly.
Dr. Elizabeth Nabel, appointed by the NFL last Monday to be the league’s first chief health and medical adviser overseeing all league medical affairs, will be at the combine to meet with the league’s various medical committees and trainers and executives.
See? The NFL cares about their players!
One immediate focus for Nabel, at least in the eyes of fans and teams, will be to examine the league’s concussion-diagnosis protocols and see if the NFL has it right. In the Patriots’ Super Bowl victory, Julian Edelman returned to play despite appearing shaken up after a fourth-quarter collision. He has declined comment about it since the game, including to The New York Times on Sunday. But with the emphasis on head trauma and long-term effects of hits to the head, there should be a crystal-clear policy on when players can return, and what precisely constitutes a concussion or a hit severe enough to bar a player from returning to a game. The policy has gotten better, but the cloudiness of the Edelman story makes it obvious the league still has a job to finish there.
And of course it wouldn't be an NFL hire if there wasn't just a small bit of a conflict of interest. So is Nabel going to point out how the Patriots should have sat Edelman IF he had a concussion given her ties to Robert Kraft? Maybe, maybe not. It wouldn't be the NFL though if there wasn't some sense they had rigged the game in one small way or another.
A Tweetup, for those who haven’t been to one, is an informal meeting of people who, theoretically, have encountered one another on Twitter. For the past six years in Indianapolis, some of my readers/followers/hecklers have come to a public place or bar when the combine is in town, and I’ve brought some of my media friends, and we talk football for a while. This year, we’re changing things up a bit.
So yes, you would have to pay to Tweetup with Peter. But all of the money goes to charity and it's better to just make people pay to speak with Peter King himself rather than ask those who attend the Tweetup to make a donation to Thrive360. Because people are terrible and would never donate to abuse the great privilege of getting to speak with Peter for free.
“I was told I wouldn’t be the coach any more, and then … You can call it mutual. I mean, I wasn’t going to put the 49ers in a position to have a coach they didn’t want anymore. But that’s the truth of it. I didn’t leave the 49ers. I felt like the 49er hierarchy left me.”
—Former 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh on “The TK Show” podcast with San Jose Mercury News columnist Tim Kawakami, on Friday.
Man, I hope Harbaugh's new contract he signed with Michigan just days after being forced against his will to not coach the 49ers anymore has a Kleenex stipend. He's going to need it. I'm sure Jim Harbaugh had absolutely NOTHING to do with his not being the 49ers' head coach anymore. They just got rid of him for no reason. He wasn't causing trouble, having a contentious relationship with Trent Baalke or putting out feelers for another job. The 49ers were just being big meanies.
I am not purposely advocating for Peyton Manning here,
Upon Peter writing this sentence, the only thing that can be known for sure is that he is going to come off as purposely advocating for Peyton Manning here.
but I am going to come down on one side of a question beginning to get some attention in Denver: Should Peyton Manning, who will be 39-and-a-half years old on opening day, take a pay cut from his scheduled $19 million salary in 2015 to stay a Bronco?
And of course Peter will say "no" because he likes Peyton Manning.
Those who would say yes would point to the fact that Manning looked 49-and-a-half down the stretch of the season, when he was plagued by leg injuries. And when you age, you are susceptible to getting hurt more.
OR...Peter could not misstate the opposition's point of view and say that those who say "yes" would have this point of view because the Broncos have several important free agents on the offensive side of the ball who they currently may not be able to afford. If Peyton Manning wants another ring then having the best offensive players possible (or a Pro Bowler at every starting skill position as it seems to require sometimes) is the best way to do this. So if Manning wants Julius and/or Demaryius Thomas back, then he may need to take a pay cut to get another Super Bowl ring.
Those who would say no, like me, would use this statistic for evidence:
There is only one quarterback, then, within 35 touchdown passes of Manning since he began playing for the Broncos in 2012.
I don't think there is an argument that Peyton Manning hasn't earned (in terms of the NFL) the ability to make $19 million for the 2015 season. Peter is misstating the opposition's argument. The argument is that Manning needs good players around him that the Broncos may not be able to afford if he doesn't offer them some cap relief. Manning may want another Super Bowl ring, but there is an argument to be made that allowing the Broncos to put good players around him for another run is the best way to help this second Super Bowl ring happen. Of course, Manning wouldn't be selfish for refusing to take a pay cut to allow the Broncos to fit in players around him, even knowing that these players would be there after Manning has retired. He also wouldn't get any criticism for not taking a pay cut. Who wants to take a pay cut even if meant increasing the chances of another Super Bowl ring?
Sam Bradford’s salary cap number in 2015 is $2.58 million more than Tom Brady’s. According to Spotrac, Bradford’s number is $16.58 million (which the Rams are intent on lowering); Brady, $14 million.
I only add this because as I was laid up in bed this week with a stomach virus I heard some talking head on ESPN talk about how "This is the year Sam Bradford needs to prove he can be counted on and stay healthy." How many years does he get? He can be a really good quarterback, but he's played in seven games over the last two seasons. At a certain point, the Rams need to move the fuck on from him. He's injury-prone, but talented. Evaluate him accordingly, but don't act like he gets more time to prove himself. He has to prove he can stay healthy and it should be assumed by the Rams he will not be healthy until proven otherwise. How many years is he going to be allowed the benefit of the doubt that he can stay healthy?
Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note of the Week
I’d never been to Key West before spending four days there last week with my wife. Cool place. Nobody ever told me about the roosters, though.
I guess those people that Peter spoke with about going to Key West just assumed given the fact he uses the words "precocious" and likes to infantilize grown men that Peter had previous knowledge of all the cocks in Key West.
Did you know that the place is crawling with roosters?
I think we are speaking the same code here with me calling them cocks. Yes Peter, I did know there were a lot of "roosters" down there in Key West. I've never visited, but it's well-known that some married men like to visit Key West and go visit the "roosters" at night while their wives are asleep. Key West is a beautiful area and there are a lot of roosters, but they peck so it's probably best to go see the roosters alone at night without the wife. If you know what I mean, based on the code we are talking right now. Key West does have a reputation for being a very rooster friendly city, so it is a bit shocking to someone who hasn't heard of this reputation, and I think I know what you are talking about. Very precocious of you, Peter, though I am afraid others may crack the code. There's nothing wrong with visiting the roosters, but plans must be made to tell others why you were visiting the roosters just in case you get caught IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.
The first night there, in the wee hours, I heard a strange noise. It woke me up. Pitch-dark out, about 4:45 a.m. Cock-a-doodle-doo! Over, and over, and over again.
Yes, many men go down to Key West and feel the roosters calling them in the middle of the night. It's a precocious sound I have heard, which I know is something that would appeal to Peter.
One morning it was raining, and they weren’t out in force then. But every other morning, before 5, a few of them just went off.
The bars close later down there in Key West, so the roosters will probably be a little more loud at that point in the morning.
They just walk around town. Everywhere.
Yes, they do. It's Key West. What's wrong with roosters walking everywhere? I feel like the code is now falling apart.
Went to the Hog’s Breath Saloon early one evening, and there were two on the sidewalk outside the place.
Again, there isn't anything wrong with this. Did you alert the roosters accidentally that you wanted to come try and pet them later or something? Were you concerned that the roosters would be denied entrance to the bar because they were overly-precocious and not...um...adult enough of a rooster to get into the bar? If so, it's probably best you stay away from them or they will bite you, IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.
On Duval Street, at the Ernest Hemingway House, in the parking lot of the 7-Eleven … everywhere.
Yes, it must have been hard to go there with a loved one and deal with so many roosters everywhere. I do think maybe Peter and I aren't talking about the same thing and he isn't referring to trolling Key West for young men, but I can't be sure.
The Bleacher Report draft analyst, after an unflattering picture of Jameis Winston (who looked a bit overweight) popped up Saturday.
I don't think the picture of Winston is a huge deal either, but to be fair, Winston is in his early 20's and Peyton Manning is in his late 30's. If Winston was getting fat now then it doesn't bode well for how well he stays in shape once he starts to get paid and gets older. But yes, it is a non-issue, though there is a difference in a quarterback not being in great shape and visibly being out of shape.
Now there’s one no one else thought of in the past few days.
I only read this like five different places. "No one" thought of it though.
Ten Things I Think I Think
1. I think Roger Goodell would be a more popular commissioner—and God knows he needs to work on that this offseason—if he told the league’s compensation committee: “Just pay me $10 million next year.”
Nope, he would be slightly less unpopular. If Roger Goodell displayed some self-awareness or ability to not sound like he was pulling something over on NFL fans then he could perhaps become more popular.
A man should be able to earn what he is worth in this country; far be it from me to limit what a person can fairly be paid.
Which means Peter is now going to try and limit what a person can fairly be paid. It's as if on cue.
But to me, Goodell’s earnings package is tone-deaf. Being compensated exactly double what the NFL MVP, Peyton Manning, made in 2013 ($15 million in salary, $2.5 million in pro-rated bonus, $17.5 million total) is just another reason for enmity to rise in those who think Goodell’s done precious little to earn it—whether he has or not.
And here we go. Often (nearly all the time) the CEO or President of a company makes more than that company's highest-paid or most valuable employee earns. It's just how life works.
2. I think Packers fans who saw their season tickets rise in price for the sixth straight year last week will renew through gritted teeth. But it’s a pretty good deal, if you ask me, to sit in the 30th row at the 45-yard line at Lambeau for $1,050 per season, for the 10 games. Of course, fans shouldn’t have to pay full price for the two preseason games, but that’s another matter.
Actually, that's very much a part of the matter. Fans shouldn't have to pay for two exhibition games they have no interest in seeing. Raising ticket prices for six straight years also means that Packers fans are paying more for two preseason games they have no interest in for the sixth straight year. So the two preseason games are tied into the season ticket cost because it would be $210 cheaper for the eight games the fans are really wanting to see.
4. I think the Broncos definitely want Manning back for 2015. Take that to the bank.
I don't believe it. So Peter is reporting the Broncos definitely want Manning back for 2015? Why on Earth would they want one of the best quarterbacks of all-time who is still performing at a high level back for next season? I'm glad I can take this to the bank, because it seemed sort of obvious to me.
Now, if they want to lower Manning’s cap number, that would be easy to do—by putting, for example, some of his $19 million salary in a guaranteed bonus. But to me, Manning making $21.5 million on the Denver cap—15 percent of the Broncos’ 2015 total cap—is not excessive. And if I were Elway, I wouldn’t push very much into 2016 or beyond, knowing this very well could be Manning’s last season in Denver.
And of course, because Manning has thrown a lot of touchdown passes over the past few years then it doesn't even make sense to ask him to take a pay cut of some sort.
You don’t want to carry a lot of dead money that will hurt your ability to manage a cap well down the road.
True and you also don't want to not ask Peyton Manning to take a pay cut so that you can keep a player or two that you would like to keep down the road once Manning is retired. There's that too.
6. I think that was smart of Mike McCarthy in Green Bay, to divest himself of play-calling duties and hand them to Tom Clements. McCarthy still will have his fingerprints all over the offensive game plan, and surely he’ll hang on to the ability to overrule Clements if he doesn’t like a call. One of the things Jason Garrett found in Dallas last season, in ceding play-calling on offense, was that it gave him more of a chance to be the coach of 53 players, not just the 25 (give or take a few) on offense. McCarthy needs to be more involved on special teams, where the Packers were a disaster last year.
Yes, it makes sense for McCarthy to be less involved in the offense so that he has more time to become the head coach of the entire Packers team and get more involved in special teams. It sounds like McCarthy would be trading divesting himself of offensive play-calling only to get invested in special teams. Wouldn't this affect his ability to be the coach of 53 players as well?
7. I think the Vikings appear to be laying out the red carpet (purple carpet?) for Adrian Peterson to return to the team. Co-owner Mark Wilf and COO Kevin Warren both have said they would welcome back Peterson once he finishes his NFL-mandated discipline; Peterson is suspended until at least April 15. But it’s too soon to say Peterson will be back in purple. He’s been open in saying he’s not sure if he wants to return, and if spring comes around and he tells the club he thinks it would be better if they split, it’ll be interesting to see how they respond. As a free agent, Peterson would be in solid demand, I would think. Dallas would be the leader in the clubhouse, if DeMarco Murray is not franchised and his price tag is too high for the cap-strapped Cowboys.
Maybe I'm underestimating DeMarco Murray's value, but I can't imagine how Adrian Peterson would sign with the Cowboys for significantly less money than Murray would get on the free agent market. All things being equal, Peterson > Murray. If Murray's price tag is too high for the Cowboys, I just don't see how Adrian Peterson's price tag would not be as well.
8. I think it comes through loud and clear in Jim Harbaugh’s interview with Tim Kawakami that, right or wrong, Harbaugh thinks Jim Tomsula lobbied for the job and/or wasn’t loyal to him before the end of the 2014 season. We’ll see how that fares with Harbaugh loyalists who are left behind, but it bears watching.
From what little I know about Jim Tomsula, I can't imagine he was working behind the scenes for Harbaugh's job. That seems like a more devious plan of action than Tomsula is capable of. Of course, he may have gotten caught lobbying for the job because he's not devious enough, so maybe he was lobbying for the head coaching job and it didn't matter how well-known it was.
10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:
a. I don’t care what the investigation or the investigators in Chapel Hill, N.C., will say about the case of a man in a condo complex shooting three Muslim students, all in the head, all in cold-blooded murder. I will find it next-to-impossible to believe that one human can murder three humans in a dispute over a parking space.
This coming from a guy who almost got into a fistfight with a guy over an elevator spot at a hotel and has named his weekly travel note after the guy he almost got into a fight with. Murder is a HUGE step up, but it just takes a little bit more of crazy to go from almost getting into a fistfight over an elevator spot to shooting a person over a parking spot. It's hard to believe a triple murder is over a parking space, but Peter has a history of getting hostile with others in public, so if Peter were a crazy, hateful person...
b. Interesting story in The New York Times about the damage a dumb and racially insensitive Tweet did to a woman’s life—and about how so many people took delight in publicly shaming this woman they didn’t know.
c. Such a surprise, people on Twitter piling on someone.
It wasn't like she Tweeted one thing that was insensitive. There were multiple Tweets that failed the "Is it funny or is it offensive?" test. Plus, any person on Twitter who has their employer and is employed in the PR field has to know better. I read the Tweet, didn't see why it was funny and moved on. A lot of people like to shame others on Twitter, and I may have been guilty of it once or twice, but there is no need to pile on.
That being said, I didn't take this as a thing Twitter was piling on, but the attack of the PC police in Twitter form. She wasn't politically correct and made an unfunny joke, so she got attacked. I think it had less to do with Twitter than how any comment like that would gain traction on social media due to the PC police getting involved. This is why a lot of people don't put their employer on their Twitter profile by the way.
g. Wow: 13 three-pointers in a row for Stephen Curry. This guy is so smooth, so great, so easy to root for.
Peter doesn't care about or watch the NBA, but he thinks this Stephen Curry guy is probably the best basketball player over his lifetime, by which he means the last 20 years.
h. Happy 43rd birthday, Jerome Bettis. It’s your first one with the yellow coat.
I'm glad the Hall of Fame vote for Bettis from Peter seems completely unbiased and not because they are buddies. As always, be nice to sportswriters, smile a lot and play in a big market. You never know what accolades will come your way.
k. Coffeenerdness: The Tweeter who told me the tall Flat White is best—because more espresso is concentrated in smaller drink (two shots to a tall, three to a grande)—was absolutely right. So I have adjusted: Now I’ll go four shots in a grande. And you just couldn’t live without that news!
Addiction is a bitch. Well, addiction along with having way too much disposable income to spend on four shots in a coffee-flavored drink is a bitch.
l. Beernerdness: One of the fun things about Key West: The Hog’s Breath Saloon, with Rolling Rock in bottles. Knowing it might be one of the last times to enjoy a green Rock (the New Jersey brewery where much of the Rolling Rock bottle stock is produced will switch to cans only starting in April), I had three of them the other night. Brought back some great college memories—and memories of a having a few after Steelers training camp practices with the great Myron Cope.
Rolling Rock and roosters. It doesn't get much better than that. Ah, college.
m. Sad to see you go, Jon Stewart. The 2016 election just won’t be the same.
Where else can Peter go to hear his liberal-leaning fake news in a slightly comedic fashion? Other than the 2-3 other fake news shows that are comedic and lean to the left as well of course.
o. Really liked most of the Saturday Night Live 40th anniversary show last night. But you’re telling me Eddie Murphy couldn’t tell one joke?
It took them 20+ years to get his ass on stage. It may take another 20+ years, or take a movie he wants to promote, to get him to tell a joke while on stage. If Eddie Murphy really wanted to tell a joke then he could have just read his filmography over the last 15 years.
p. The good things: Debby Downer.
q. Miley Cyrus sounded great doing “Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover.”
r. Dana Carvey choppin’ broccoli.
s. Bill Murray doing anything. In this case, singing about the shark in Jaws.
t. Chris Farley was so funny, and is so missed.
Shouldn't all the good things be under one letter instead of spread out over five letters?
The Adieu Haiku
The scouting combine. Players in shorts. Though you don’t …
play football in shorts.
Every week Peter manages to find a way to write a more useless haiku. He even has to use unnecessarily ellipsis in order to push this haiku out.
Over the past decade or so, since the NFL combine has gotten so much traction in this football-crazed country, I always think of combine week as the beginning of the new season.
It’s always amazed me how combine-nutty so many people inside and outside the sport are.
This is called "looking a gift horse in the mouth." If some people weren't combine-nutty then there may be no need for a web site called "THE MMQB" and Peter King would just be a haughty, self-involved sportswriter who isn't nearly as successful and famous as he is now. Peter would take most of February through May off from writing about football, perhaps taking a pay cut or have to focus on other sports he doesn't like as much, if he didn't get the chance to be so amazed at how combine-nutty some people inside and outside the sport are.
And of course, after mentioning how amazed he is at how combine-nutty so many people inside and outside the sport are, Peter will of course spend a lot of this MMQB talking about the combine. He will also have Mike Mayock give comments about prospects and how they will perform at the combine. It's amazing how combine-nutty people are, but it certainly makes for a good topic to discuss in MMQB. I just can't wait to find out which player Mayock will drop from #1 at his position to out of the top 5 of that position based on one bad workout. Which player will Mayock ignore all of his other impressions of in favor of making a knee-jerk reaction?
But ratings and the audience were up 60 percent in 2014 over 2010 numbers on NFL Network, and the ratings have climbed on ESPN too.
I wonder if the ratings for the combine have increased as talk about how popular the combine has become has increased? Basically what I'm saying is the NFL media talks about the combine more than they used to, so is this the result of an increased interest in the combine or is the increased awareness of the combine result in an increased interest? Is the media helping to drive this interest in the combine by increasing awareness of when the event takes place and how it can be viewed?
The other day I asked NFL Network draft guru Mike Mayock, the cornerstone combine expert in the business, why he thinks the four-day event has become such an extravaganza.
Peter says people are combine-nutty and then he refers to Mike Mayock as a "combine expert." Okay, then. I guess there is such thing as a person being an expert on the combine.
“So, I thought people would never watch it. But with that as a backdrop, I think there’s three things that have gotten people into it over the years. One: There’s a crossover audience, of college football fans and pro football fans. The college football fans want to see how their guys are doing matched up against the best guys from around the country.
Quick update. Jameis Winston sneezed prior to throwing a pass and it went off-target. Mike Mayock has dropped Winston down in his rankings to where he'll be surprised if Winston gets drafted.
Two: NFL fans, especially fantasy football fans, want to compare one receiver to another, or one quarterback to another. I’m amazed how much I hear that from fans.
Really? This is a real thing? I wouldn't ever imagine the combine could be used for fantasy football purposes. Combine results would seem to be completely useless as it pertains to fantasy football and people are idiots, so maybe that does make sense.
Another update. Todd Gurley's neck size isn't ideal for a running back, so Mike Mayock has dropped Gurley to 10th in his running back rankings and moved a running back into his top 5 who has ideal neck size, but hasn't actually scored a touchdown during a college football game.
Three: I think people love to see players without helmets and pads on. To see a 270-pound man run a 4.6 40-yard dash, viscerally, is a really cool thing to see.”
Another bad break for Todd Gurley. Mayock now projects him to be drafted in the 5th or 6th round because, while everything looks good on tape, Mayock remembers now that he saw one practice when Gurley was at the University of Georgia where Gurley fumbled and didn't look sharp.
I asked Mayock for the storylines he’ll be watching.
WHY ARE PEOPLE SO COMBINE-NUTTY?
Meanwhile, Peter is creating "storylines" for the combine.
1. Who will challenge Chris Johnson’s combine-record 4.24-second 40-yard dash?
Sammie Coates, Auburn, 6-2, 213. “Biggest of the three, a real specimen,” said Mayock. “I don’t think he catches the ball as naturally as the other two. I want to see how naturally he can catch it.”
Who cares if he can catch the football? He's a receiver, all he has to do is run fast. Also, if Mayock sees at the combine that Coates catches the ball well, sees on tape that Coates doesn't catch the ball well and then at his Auburn Pro Day Coates only catches the ball so-so, will Mayock's head explode because he doesn't know which set of information to overvalue?
3. Who are the boom-or-bust guys in this draft?
Phillips, for one. Said Mayock: “Back surgery two years ago, only started 16 games in college, but he’s a dancing bear,
It doesn't seem fair that a dancing bear could participate at the combine. Though I'm sure Mike Mayock would be really intrigued by a horse that can run a fast 40-yard dash and had a great shuttle time, but probably would wonder if the horse could catch the ball naturally.
Then there’s the “poster child for boom or bust—Dorial Green-Beckham,” Mayock said. Green-Beckham played two seasons at Missouri, was arrested on marijuana charges twice at Missouri, was dismissed from the team in April 2014, transferred to Oklahoma, was not granted eligibility for the 2014 season, then declared for the draft last month. At 6-5 and 225 pounds, he can run a 4.4 40-yard dash, and some team just might risk a low first-round pick on him. “I watched every target to him in 2013, and he has no idea what he’s doing,
Yeah, but is he fast and is he a dancing bear? Who cares if Green-Beckham has no idea what he's doing? At the very least Mike Mayock can just ogle his body for a few minutes and dream of what Green-Beckham could do if he actually knew how to play football.
but he changes games,” said Mayock.
Mostly Green-Beckham changes games because once he's declared ineligible or kicked off the team, then the opposing team knows they don't have to game plan for him. I would look for the Patriots to be connected to Green-Beckham about 1000 times until the draft happens under the guise that "Belichick and Brady will know how to deal with Green-Beckham." Also, I think the Seahawks will probably be linked to Green-Beckham too, because after all (says the media) they dealt with Marshawn Lynch so Green-Beckham wouldn't be so hard to deal with. Pete Carroll is a player's coach, he'll get through to Green-Beckham.
5. A chance to see through the fog at quarterback.
Mayock: “It’s not a good quarterback class. I’m scared to death of Jameis Winston off the field,
Because he is black? That's racist.
and I’m scared to death of how many interceptions he throws. He threw seven interceptions against Louisville and Florida, and could have been 12 or 13 if the other teams could catch the ball.
Winston also threw fewer interceptions during his freshman year. I guess that doesn't count since Mayock is usually overly-focused on what JUST HAPPENED and nothing before that.
But most quarterbacks come out of the spread now, and they’re projections, like Marcus Mariota. I love so much about Mariota, but he is a projection. I’m much more comfortable projecting Winston, even with the interceptions, because he was a pocket guy at Florida State. And his ability to win games in the second half is mind-boggling.”
So the lesson to be learned here is that if you are a quarterback, it's better to sort of be bad at throwing from the pocket, as opposed to not really throwing from the pocket as much, because it makes it easier to evaluate you. Also, every quarterback is a projection in some sense, it's just a quarterback coming from the spread has to be evaluated in a different fashion.
As for who’s number three, Mayock says, at least today, that would be UCLA’s Brett Hundley or Baylor’s Bryce Petty. “I have significant concerns about both of them,” he said. “I like Petty’s arm, accuracy and size, but he has no idea how to play in the pocket, from what I saw.”
And whereas a guy like Green-Beckham or Coates is intriguing to Mayock because they don't know how to play their position well and need further coaching, Bryce Petty isn't a good prospect because he doesn't know how to play his position well and needs further coaching. The lesson here is that if you don't know how to play your college position well, then just be athletic and it will be assumed you can learn. If you are not athletic, then it's assumed you have no chance of being taught to play your college position better.
Mayock likes comparing players he’s seeing now to players he’s seen in the past.
WHY HASN'T ANYONE ELSE THOUGHT OF DOING THIS?
It should be an illuminating week in Indianapolis. For The MMQB, I’ll be there, along with Jenny Vrentas, Robert Klemko and Emily Kaplan, and videographer John DePetro. Andy Staples also will be there, working on a couple of things for The MMQB, SI and SI.com. And photographer Todd Rosenberg will be with us, capturing the players and the flavor of the combine. Follow along here, and on Instagram and Twitter.
Right Peter? Everyone is so combine-crazy these days. Why is that? I'm just glad that Peter doesn't mention how everyone is combine-crazy and then seem to saturate THE MMQB with coverage of the combine or else it would seem like he was part of the media that is helping to make fans of the NFL to be combine-crazy.
Dave Goldberg died last week at 73. There’s a good chance you didn’t know Goldberg, even if you were a big football fan. That’s because, most often, Goldberg’s best stories would appear in your hometown newspaper without his name on them, because he wrote for the Associated Press. Such as this preview of the Super Bowl 27 years ago:
SAN DIEGO (AP)—For the second straight
year, the Super Bowl comes down to John Elway against the world, the
world this year being the Washington Redskins rather than the New York
Giants. Is there anyone else on the Broncos besides their quarterback?
That’s called “foreshadowing.” Goldberg was good at that.
But for years, and through the 25 years he was the AP’s lead pro football writer (1984-2009), Dave Goldberg and his APbrethren were my news feed for the NFL. I knew he would give me the facts I needed to know, laced with some smart leanings, but never a hit-over-the-head opinion, because that’s not what wire services did. They reported facts. Then you decided what you thought about the facts.
I have absolutely no issue with what Dave Goldberg wrote, but I wouldn't call writing "Is there anyone else on the Broncos besides their quarterback?" to be anything but a hit-over-the-head opinion. It's a pretty strong opinion, even if it were true. That sentence is not a fact and it's a strong opinion. So Peter picked an interesting example to show how Goldberg reported facts and not opinions.
Remember those days?
Says the guy who writes a weekly column which prominently features his opinion. This is typical Peter King. He longs for the days when sportwriting didn't have opinion in it, but he of course doesn't mind giving some opinion on his sportswriting. This is another in a long line of Peter's "Do as I wish could be done but I won't do" statements he has made over the year. Most of them usually start with "I don't want to..." followed by Peter doing exactly what he stated he didn't want to do.
As he got older, Goldberg became one of the wise owls in the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection meetings. Unemotional, fact-based, very smart. He wouldn’t rail at much, really. But he did not like clichés. At all. Such as this one: future Hall of Famer. “Future Hall of Famer,” he’d grouse. “If every guy who was a future Hall of Famer became a real Hall of Famer, we’d have to put 50 guys in every year!”
I bet Goldberg would hate it if someone wrote something like,
For the second straight year, the Super Bowl comes down to John Elway against the world,
He would grouse at that and then talk about how writing like this is silly.
Dr. Elizabeth Nabel, appointed by the NFL last Monday to be the league’s first chief health and medical adviser overseeing all league medical affairs, will be at the combine to meet with the league’s various medical committees and trainers and executives.
See? The NFL cares about their players!
One immediate focus for Nabel, at least in the eyes of fans and teams, will be to examine the league’s concussion-diagnosis protocols and see if the NFL has it right. In the Patriots’ Super Bowl victory, Julian Edelman returned to play despite appearing shaken up after a fourth-quarter collision. He has declined comment about it since the game, including to The New York Times on Sunday. But with the emphasis on head trauma and long-term effects of hits to the head, there should be a crystal-clear policy on when players can return, and what precisely constitutes a concussion or a hit severe enough to bar a player from returning to a game. The policy has gotten better, but the cloudiness of the Edelman story makes it obvious the league still has a job to finish there.
And of course it wouldn't be an NFL hire if there wasn't just a small bit of a conflict of interest. So is Nabel going to point out how the Patriots should have sat Edelman IF he had a concussion given her ties to Robert Kraft? Maybe, maybe not. It wouldn't be the NFL though if there wasn't some sense they had rigged the game in one small way or another.
A Tweetup, for those who haven’t been to one, is an informal meeting of people who, theoretically, have encountered one another on Twitter. For the past six years in Indianapolis, some of my readers/followers/hecklers have come to a public place or bar when the combine is in town, and I’ve brought some of my media friends, and we talk football for a while. This year, we’re changing things up a bit.
Where: Sun King Brewing Co., 135 North College Ave., Indianapolis (about seven blocks from downtown).
When: Friday, 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Tickets: $10.
Yes, this used to be free. We decided to charge this year, with all
ticket money going to Thrive360 (formerly Kids Against Hunger of Central
Indiana), a group that packs meals for the needy and the hungry. You
must be 21 or older to attend. Beer will be sold at the event. Buy your tickets here.
So yes, you would have to pay to Tweetup with Peter. But all of the money goes to charity and it's better to just make people pay to speak with Peter King himself rather than ask those who attend the Tweetup to make a donation to Thrive360. Because people are terrible and would never donate to abuse the great privilege of getting to speak with Peter for free.
“I was told I wouldn’t be the coach any more, and then … You can call it mutual. I mean, I wasn’t going to put the 49ers in a position to have a coach they didn’t want anymore. But that’s the truth of it. I didn’t leave the 49ers. I felt like the 49er hierarchy left me.”
—Former 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh on “The TK Show” podcast with San Jose Mercury News columnist Tim Kawakami, on Friday.
Man, I hope Harbaugh's new contract he signed with Michigan just days after being forced against his will to not coach the 49ers anymore has a Kleenex stipend. He's going to need it. I'm sure Jim Harbaugh had absolutely NOTHING to do with his not being the 49ers' head coach anymore. They just got rid of him for no reason. He wasn't causing trouble, having a contentious relationship with Trent Baalke or putting out feelers for another job. The 49ers were just being big meanies.
I am not purposely advocating for Peyton Manning here,
Upon Peter writing this sentence, the only thing that can be known for sure is that he is going to come off as purposely advocating for Peyton Manning here.
but I am going to come down on one side of a question beginning to get some attention in Denver: Should Peyton Manning, who will be 39-and-a-half years old on opening day, take a pay cut from his scheduled $19 million salary in 2015 to stay a Bronco?
And of course Peter will say "no" because he likes Peyton Manning.
Those who would say yes would point to the fact that Manning looked 49-and-a-half down the stretch of the season, when he was plagued by leg injuries. And when you age, you are susceptible to getting hurt more.
OR...Peter could not misstate the opposition's point of view and say that those who say "yes" would have this point of view because the Broncos have several important free agents on the offensive side of the ball who they currently may not be able to afford. If Peyton Manning wants another ring then having the best offensive players possible (or a Pro Bowler at every starting skill position as it seems to require sometimes) is the best way to do this. So if Manning wants Julius and/or Demaryius Thomas back, then he may need to take a pay cut to get another Super Bowl ring.
Those who would say no, like me, would use this statistic for evidence:
Touchdown pass leaders since 2012
1. Peyton Manning (131)
2. Drew Brees (115)
3. Aaron Rodgers (94)
4. Tony Romo (93)
5. Tom Brady (92)
2. Drew Brees (115)
3. Aaron Rodgers (94)
4. Tony Romo (93)
5. Tom Brady (92)
There is only one quarterback, then, within 35 touchdown passes of Manning since he began playing for the Broncos in 2012.
I don't think there is an argument that Peyton Manning hasn't earned (in terms of the NFL) the ability to make $19 million for the 2015 season. Peter is misstating the opposition's argument. The argument is that Manning needs good players around him that the Broncos may not be able to afford if he doesn't offer them some cap relief. Manning may want another Super Bowl ring, but there is an argument to be made that allowing the Broncos to put good players around him for another run is the best way to help this second Super Bowl ring happen. Of course, Manning wouldn't be selfish for refusing to take a pay cut to allow the Broncos to fit in players around him, even knowing that these players would be there after Manning has retired. He also wouldn't get any criticism for not taking a pay cut. Who wants to take a pay cut even if meant increasing the chances of another Super Bowl ring?
Sam Bradford’s salary cap number in 2015 is $2.58 million more than Tom Brady’s. According to Spotrac, Bradford’s number is $16.58 million (which the Rams are intent on lowering); Brady, $14 million.
I only add this because as I was laid up in bed this week with a stomach virus I heard some talking head on ESPN talk about how "This is the year Sam Bradford needs to prove he can be counted on and stay healthy." How many years does he get? He can be a really good quarterback, but he's played in seven games over the last two seasons. At a certain point, the Rams need to move the fuck on from him. He's injury-prone, but talented. Evaluate him accordingly, but don't act like he gets more time to prove himself. He has to prove he can stay healthy and it should be assumed by the Rams he will not be healthy until proven otherwise. How many years is he going to be allowed the benefit of the doubt that he can stay healthy?
Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note of the Week
I’d never been to Key West before spending four days there last week with my wife. Cool place. Nobody ever told me about the roosters, though.
I guess those people that Peter spoke with about going to Key West just assumed given the fact he uses the words "precocious" and likes to infantilize grown men that Peter had previous knowledge of all the cocks in Key West.
Did you know that the place is crawling with roosters?
I think we are speaking the same code here with me calling them cocks. Yes Peter, I did know there were a lot of "roosters" down there in Key West. I've never visited, but it's well-known that some married men like to visit Key West and go visit the "roosters" at night while their wives are asleep. Key West is a beautiful area and there are a lot of roosters, but they peck so it's probably best to go see the roosters alone at night without the wife. If you know what I mean, based on the code we are talking right now. Key West does have a reputation for being a very rooster friendly city, so it is a bit shocking to someone who hasn't heard of this reputation, and I think I know what you are talking about. Very precocious of you, Peter, though I am afraid others may crack the code. There's nothing wrong with visiting the roosters, but plans must be made to tell others why you were visiting the roosters just in case you get caught IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.
The first night there, in the wee hours, I heard a strange noise. It woke me up. Pitch-dark out, about 4:45 a.m. Cock-a-doodle-doo! Over, and over, and over again.
Yes, many men go down to Key West and feel the roosters calling them in the middle of the night. It's a precocious sound I have heard, which I know is something that would appeal to Peter.
One morning it was raining, and they weren’t out in force then. But every other morning, before 5, a few of them just went off.
The bars close later down there in Key West, so the roosters will probably be a little more loud at that point in the morning.
They just walk around town. Everywhere.
Yes, they do. It's Key West. What's wrong with roosters walking everywhere? I feel like the code is now falling apart.
Went to the Hog’s Breath Saloon early one evening, and there were two on the sidewalk outside the place.
Again, there isn't anything wrong with this. Did you alert the roosters accidentally that you wanted to come try and pet them later or something? Were you concerned that the roosters would be denied entrance to the bar because they were overly-precocious and not...um...adult enough of a rooster to get into the bar? If so, it's probably best you stay away from them or they will bite you, IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.
On Duval Street, at the Ernest Hemingway House, in the parking lot of the 7-Eleven … everywhere.
Yes, it must have been hard to go there with a loved one and deal with so many roosters everywhere. I do think maybe Peter and I aren't talking about the same thing and he isn't referring to trolling Key West for young men, but I can't be sure.
Anyone criticizing Jameis Winston's body needs to look at Peyton Manning.
— Matt Miller (@nfldraftscout) February 14, 2015
The Bleacher Report draft analyst, after an unflattering picture of Jameis Winston (who looked a bit overweight) popped up Saturday.
I don't think the picture of Winston is a huge deal either, but to be fair, Winston is in his early 20's and Peyton Manning is in his late 30's. If Winston was getting fat now then it doesn't bode well for how well he stays in shape once he starts to get paid and gets older. But yes, it is a non-issue, though there is a difference in a quarterback not being in great shape and visibly being out of shape.
the daily show with marshawn lynch
— andy levy (@andylevy) February 11, 2015
Now there’s one no one else thought of in the past few days.
I only read this like five different places. "No one" thought of it though.
Ten Things I Think I Think
1. I think Roger Goodell would be a more popular commissioner—and God knows he needs to work on that this offseason—if he told the league’s compensation committee: “Just pay me $10 million next year.”
Nope, he would be slightly less unpopular. If Roger Goodell displayed some self-awareness or ability to not sound like he was pulling something over on NFL fans then he could perhaps become more popular.
A man should be able to earn what he is worth in this country; far be it from me to limit what a person can fairly be paid.
Which means Peter is now going to try and limit what a person can fairly be paid. It's as if on cue.
But to me, Goodell’s earnings package is tone-deaf. Being compensated exactly double what the NFL MVP, Peyton Manning, made in 2013 ($15 million in salary, $2.5 million in pro-rated bonus, $17.5 million total) is just another reason for enmity to rise in those who think Goodell’s done precious little to earn it—whether he has or not.
And here we go. Often (nearly all the time) the CEO or President of a company makes more than that company's highest-paid or most valuable employee earns. It's just how life works.
2. I think Packers fans who saw their season tickets rise in price for the sixth straight year last week will renew through gritted teeth. But it’s a pretty good deal, if you ask me, to sit in the 30th row at the 45-yard line at Lambeau for $1,050 per season, for the 10 games. Of course, fans shouldn’t have to pay full price for the two preseason games, but that’s another matter.
Actually, that's very much a part of the matter. Fans shouldn't have to pay for two exhibition games they have no interest in seeing. Raising ticket prices for six straight years also means that Packers fans are paying more for two preseason games they have no interest in for the sixth straight year. So the two preseason games are tied into the season ticket cost because it would be $210 cheaper for the eight games the fans are really wanting to see.
4. I think the Broncos definitely want Manning back for 2015. Take that to the bank.
I don't believe it. So Peter is reporting the Broncos definitely want Manning back for 2015? Why on Earth would they want one of the best quarterbacks of all-time who is still performing at a high level back for next season? I'm glad I can take this to the bank, because it seemed sort of obvious to me.
Now, if they want to lower Manning’s cap number, that would be easy to do—by putting, for example, some of his $19 million salary in a guaranteed bonus. But to me, Manning making $21.5 million on the Denver cap—15 percent of the Broncos’ 2015 total cap—is not excessive. And if I were Elway, I wouldn’t push very much into 2016 or beyond, knowing this very well could be Manning’s last season in Denver.
And of course, because Manning has thrown a lot of touchdown passes over the past few years then it doesn't even make sense to ask him to take a pay cut of some sort.
You don’t want to carry a lot of dead money that will hurt your ability to manage a cap well down the road.
True and you also don't want to not ask Peyton Manning to take a pay cut so that you can keep a player or two that you would like to keep down the road once Manning is retired. There's that too.
6. I think that was smart of Mike McCarthy in Green Bay, to divest himself of play-calling duties and hand them to Tom Clements. McCarthy still will have his fingerprints all over the offensive game plan, and surely he’ll hang on to the ability to overrule Clements if he doesn’t like a call. One of the things Jason Garrett found in Dallas last season, in ceding play-calling on offense, was that it gave him more of a chance to be the coach of 53 players, not just the 25 (give or take a few) on offense. McCarthy needs to be more involved on special teams, where the Packers were a disaster last year.
Yes, it makes sense for McCarthy to be less involved in the offense so that he has more time to become the head coach of the entire Packers team and get more involved in special teams. It sounds like McCarthy would be trading divesting himself of offensive play-calling only to get invested in special teams. Wouldn't this affect his ability to be the coach of 53 players as well?
7. I think the Vikings appear to be laying out the red carpet (purple carpet?) for Adrian Peterson to return to the team. Co-owner Mark Wilf and COO Kevin Warren both have said they would welcome back Peterson once he finishes his NFL-mandated discipline; Peterson is suspended until at least April 15. But it’s too soon to say Peterson will be back in purple. He’s been open in saying he’s not sure if he wants to return, and if spring comes around and he tells the club he thinks it would be better if they split, it’ll be interesting to see how they respond. As a free agent, Peterson would be in solid demand, I would think. Dallas would be the leader in the clubhouse, if DeMarco Murray is not franchised and his price tag is too high for the cap-strapped Cowboys.
Maybe I'm underestimating DeMarco Murray's value, but I can't imagine how Adrian Peterson would sign with the Cowboys for significantly less money than Murray would get on the free agent market. All things being equal, Peterson > Murray. If Murray's price tag is too high for the Cowboys, I just don't see how Adrian Peterson's price tag would not be as well.
8. I think it comes through loud and clear in Jim Harbaugh’s interview with Tim Kawakami that, right or wrong, Harbaugh thinks Jim Tomsula lobbied for the job and/or wasn’t loyal to him before the end of the 2014 season. We’ll see how that fares with Harbaugh loyalists who are left behind, but it bears watching.
From what little I know about Jim Tomsula, I can't imagine he was working behind the scenes for Harbaugh's job. That seems like a more devious plan of action than Tomsula is capable of. Of course, he may have gotten caught lobbying for the job because he's not devious enough, so maybe he was lobbying for the head coaching job and it didn't matter how well-known it was.
10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:
a. I don’t care what the investigation or the investigators in Chapel Hill, N.C., will say about the case of a man in a condo complex shooting three Muslim students, all in the head, all in cold-blooded murder. I will find it next-to-impossible to believe that one human can murder three humans in a dispute over a parking space.
This coming from a guy who almost got into a fistfight with a guy over an elevator spot at a hotel and has named his weekly travel note after the guy he almost got into a fight with. Murder is a HUGE step up, but it just takes a little bit more of crazy to go from almost getting into a fistfight over an elevator spot to shooting a person over a parking spot. It's hard to believe a triple murder is over a parking space, but Peter has a history of getting hostile with others in public, so if Peter were a crazy, hateful person...
b. Interesting story in The New York Times about the damage a dumb and racially insensitive Tweet did to a woman’s life—and about how so many people took delight in publicly shaming this woman they didn’t know.
c. Such a surprise, people on Twitter piling on someone.
It wasn't like she Tweeted one thing that was insensitive. There were multiple Tweets that failed the "Is it funny or is it offensive?" test. Plus, any person on Twitter who has their employer and is employed in the PR field has to know better. I read the Tweet, didn't see why it was funny and moved on. A lot of people like to shame others on Twitter, and I may have been guilty of it once or twice, but there is no need to pile on.
That being said, I didn't take this as a thing Twitter was piling on, but the attack of the PC police in Twitter form. She wasn't politically correct and made an unfunny joke, so she got attacked. I think it had less to do with Twitter than how any comment like that would gain traction on social media due to the PC police getting involved. This is why a lot of people don't put their employer on their Twitter profile by the way.
g. Wow: 13 three-pointers in a row for Stephen Curry. This guy is so smooth, so great, so easy to root for.
Peter doesn't care about or watch the NBA, but he thinks this Stephen Curry guy is probably the best basketball player over his lifetime, by which he means the last 20 years.
h. Happy 43rd birthday, Jerome Bettis. It’s your first one with the yellow coat.
I'm glad the Hall of Fame vote for Bettis from Peter seems completely unbiased and not because they are buddies. As always, be nice to sportswriters, smile a lot and play in a big market. You never know what accolades will come your way.
k. Coffeenerdness: The Tweeter who told me the tall Flat White is best—because more espresso is concentrated in smaller drink (two shots to a tall, three to a grande)—was absolutely right. So I have adjusted: Now I’ll go four shots in a grande. And you just couldn’t live without that news!
Addiction is a bitch. Well, addiction along with having way too much disposable income to spend on four shots in a coffee-flavored drink is a bitch.
l. Beernerdness: One of the fun things about Key West: The Hog’s Breath Saloon, with Rolling Rock in bottles. Knowing it might be one of the last times to enjoy a green Rock (the New Jersey brewery where much of the Rolling Rock bottle stock is produced will switch to cans only starting in April), I had three of them the other night. Brought back some great college memories—and memories of a having a few after Steelers training camp practices with the great Myron Cope.
Rolling Rock and roosters. It doesn't get much better than that. Ah, college.
m. Sad to see you go, Jon Stewart. The 2016 election just won’t be the same.
Where else can Peter go to hear his liberal-leaning fake news in a slightly comedic fashion? Other than the 2-3 other fake news shows that are comedic and lean to the left as well of course.
o. Really liked most of the Saturday Night Live 40th anniversary show last night. But you’re telling me Eddie Murphy couldn’t tell one joke?
It took them 20+ years to get his ass on stage. It may take another 20+ years, or take a movie he wants to promote, to get him to tell a joke while on stage. If Eddie Murphy really wanted to tell a joke then he could have just read his filmography over the last 15 years.
p. The good things: Debby Downer.
q. Miley Cyrus sounded great doing “Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover.”
r. Dana Carvey choppin’ broccoli.
s. Bill Murray doing anything. In this case, singing about the shark in Jaws.
t. Chris Farley was so funny, and is so missed.
Shouldn't all the good things be under one letter instead of spread out over five letters?
The Adieu Haiku
The scouting combine. Players in shorts. Though you don’t …
play football in shorts.
Every week Peter manages to find a way to write a more useless haiku. He even has to use unnecessarily ellipsis in order to push this haiku out.
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