Lee Judge of "The Kansas City Star" writes a blog-ish type online section of the paper called "Judging the Royals." It gets updated daily or so. No journalist whose last name is "Judge" should allow an opportunity to go by without inserting his/her last name into the title of his column. So Judge wrote his opinion on the subject of Jonathan Papelbon choking Bryce Harper, which again, is a great metaphor for what the Nationals team has been doing all year to Harper. Of course, Judge's take on Harper was pretty hot and it drew some attention, which I am sure was by pure coincidence. This then gave the editor of the "Star" a chance to publicly comment on the attention this post by Judge received. So now Judge gave an opinion and an editor is commenting on that opinion. This is how you make yourself a part of the story. Give an opinion, then comment on your own opinion and the attention it receives. ESPN would be proud.
"Hey, look at the attention we received for something one of our columnists wrote!"
Then, OF COURSE, Judge had to address his previous comments in his next "Judging the Royals" blog-ish post. I mean, he would be remiss if he didn't address the story he had created. Now Judge is commenting on his comments about a story. I may have missed it, but I'm surprised an editor didn't then comment on Judge's comments about his comments about the story. Really, he tried to explain himself at more length, because any chance to get more attention for the "Star" (which I do understand by the way) can not be passed up. People are paying attention now to what he's said and discussing his opinion. He's become part of the story. That's how it goes.
I'll start first with the original post that asks if Jonathan Papelbon should have choked Bryce Harper. Considering choking seems like an extreme act, I would go with "no," but Judge takes a more nuanced view. Much like a nagging wife, sometimes a person is just asking to get choked a little bit. Bryce Harper is one of these people begging to be choked.
(By the way, I am not a Bryce Harper fan because I don't like the Nationals. I'm sure I've wanted to metaphorically choke him at some point, but never literally)
I don’t know Bryce Harper from Adam,
"I know nothing about this person...but I'm going to go ahead and say that my perception based on watching him play a sport is probably 100% accurate. I mean, I'm advocating for him to get choked by a teammate. How could I be wrong?"
but he certainly seems like a young man who needs an attitude adjustment.
It's a good thing Lee Judge isn't a policeman.
"I don't know this kid standing on the corner, but he looks like he is up to no good. I'm going to go ahead and arrest him, perhaps shoot him if he insists too intently he's done nothing wrong."
I feel bad for the defendant if Judge is ever on a jury. And yes, I have no doubt he would write a blog post about his jury experience and call it "Judge and Jury."
"I don't know this kid who is on trial, but he has hair longer than I'd like to see on a young man. Plus, he just looks like he needs an attitude adjustment. I've heard the evidence against him, which was all unpersuasive, but my intuition has never been wrong. I say convict him."
Unfortunately he was choked by the wrong guy in the wrong place.
Bryce Harper needed to be choked, but the wrong person choked him. Much like a disobedient woman MUST be choked by her husband and only her husband, this is a very strict rule with no exceptions, Bryce Harper must be choked by another position player. It's only right. If Lee Judge sees a child being hit in the head with a baseball bat, he will immediately stop and make sure the person doing the hitting is the parent. If so, carry on. If not, this isn't right and he is not afraid to be the hero and do something about it.
In
baseball culture, pitchers — especially relievers — do not get to
criticize position players for lack of hustle.
So the choking was fine, but the wrong person choked Harper. I can't see how this doesn't make sense.
So if you spend a fair amount of time sitting in the shade eating
popsicles, you don’t get to criticize position players for failing to
run out a fly ball.
In fact, if the world were fair then someone would choke Jonathan Papelbon for choking Bryce Harper. It just has to be a position player or starting pitcher who chokes Papelbon though, because another reliever doesn't get to criticize Papelbon for choking Bryce Harper.
And I hope you realize the irony of a sportswriter, a person who works hard but literally could spend an entire baseball game eating popsicles in the shade, commenting on which baseball players can and can not choke Bryce Harper based on whether that player can eat a popsicle in the shade during a game.
The second problem was location: if you want
to choke Bryce Harper —
I know what Judge is going to say. Do it in private. Beat your loved ones, commit senseless violence in life to anyone you know or work with, but for God's sake keep it private.
and I suspect if you played with him, you might —
This suspicion being based on the fact that Lee Judge has already stated he in no way knows Bryce Harper. It's a strong take for someone who doesn't know Bryce Harper at all.
ask him to come up the tunnel and then choke him.
You don’t do it in the dugout for everyone in the world to see; you keep that stuff private.
To an extent, yes, but maybe just don't choke a teammate. Now I realize that teammates get in scuffles all the time. That's not really my issue here, despite the fact Judge will later try to frame that as the issue his critics have with his comments. My issue is Judge essentially is excusing Papelbon from choking Harper because he just feels like Harper is the type of person who should be choked. Therein lies my issue. Scuffles happen, I get it. Saying a guy should be choked has nothing to do with privacy though.
So you can blame either guy for what happened, but you should probably blame both.
I'm not sure Harper should be blamed for seeming like he should be choked. But hey, when could Judge's perception of an athlete ever be wrong?
Then Judge has some thoughts about a manager using his closer in a tie game on the road. I don't think I agree with these thoughts. There is some logic to his explanation as to why a manager shouldn't use his closer on the road in a tie game that I think Judge is missing.
So using a closer in a tie game at home gives you two shots to win a ball game.
But
use your closer in a tie game on the road and no matter what you’re
closer does, you’ll still need more pitching to win the game.
And you will also need more offense to win the game, as well as make sure your pitcher on the mound doesn't give up a run or else the game is over. So a good way to ensure your team gets another chance to score a run and win the game is to make sure the relief pitcher who is pitching in the bottom of the inning doesn't give up a run to lose the game. I don't think hoping an inferior relief pitcher doesn't give up a run is the best way to win a game. The assumption your team will score a run and the closer will get an opportunity to pitch seems like a faulty assumption to me. If the point is to win the game, do all you can to ensure your team gets a chance to do so. This means potentially pitching your closer on the road in a tie game.
Not using the closer in a tie game on the road is like not filling up a plane with gas before going to the next destination. I mean, you still need gas when you to your next destination, so why fill up twice?
So if you
were wondering why Ned Yost didn’t use Wade Davis on Monday night — and
apparently some fans were — if Wade had pitched a scoreless bottom of
the eleventh, someone would still have had to get three outs in the
bottom of the twelfth.
Right, but that someone would have had an opportunity to get three outs in the bottom of twelfth, while using an inferior pitcher means the game may not get to the bottom of the twelfth.
So if Miguel Almonte is going to give up a walk-off homer, you want him to do it before you waste an inning from your closer.
If ensuring the game is still tied and the Royals still have a chance to win the game is "wasting" an inning from the closer then I am all for "wasting" an inning. How is it a waste of an inning to ensure the Royals still are playing in a tie game at the top of the twelfth?
So now the editor of the "Star" comments on the attention the post received. Because, commenting on the story is a great way to keep the original post alive, right?
Twitter is the most negative corner of the Internet, in my opinion. Its
short bursts of 140 characters tend to be long on outrage, and media
sources are constant targets.
This is partly true. Sometimes a person is asking to be a target when they suggest a human being deserves to be choked though. Twitter is long on outrage, but there are ways to make yourself a target on social media and Lee Judge managed to do so.
The Washington Nationals’ Bryce Harper and Jonathan Papelbon got into
a fight in the dugout during a game Sunday. Papelbon has been suspended
for four games without pay. The Star’s Lee Judge wrote about it in a
blog post asking, “Should Jonathan Papelbon have choked Bryce Harper?”
Writing a post titled "Should Jonathan Papelbon have choked Bryce Harper?" is asking for negative feedback. It's begging for negative attention.
It
starts: “I don’t know Bryce Harper from Adam, but he certainly seems
like a young man who needs an attitude adjustment. Unfortunately he was
choked by the wrong guy in the wrong place.” An earlier version read,
“…he certainly seems like a young man who needs choking.”
The critics, such as Gawker sports commentary site Deadspin, called the post things such as “psychopathic.”
I mean writing that is a bit psychopathic. Saying a person needs to be choked sounds a little bit crazy.
I reached out to Lee, who it should be noted has also been a
political cartoonist for The Star for some 30 years. He’s well
accustomed to expressing provocative opinions, sometimes in blunt
language. His reply, in which he stands by what he wrote:
Judging
the Royals is an inside look at big league baseball; it not only deals
with how the game is played, it also reveals some of the game’s
unwritten rules. In today’s column I said that if Jonathan Papelbon
wanted to choke Bryce Harper, he should have done it in private.
Ballplayers have scuffles and arguments more often than fans know, but
those scuffles and arguments are supposed to take place out of the
public eye.
If Judge thinks the sum total of the outrage is over his comment that the scuffle should have taken place in private, then he's missing part of the point. It's the whole "I don't know Bryce Harper but think he needs an attitude adjustment and should be choked" comment that is part of the point as well.
Whether fans like it or not, baseball players throw at each other,
do takeout slides on each other and sometimes fight with each other.
When they do those things, there’s a right way to do it and that’s what
today’s column was about.
He's still not totally getting the point on why there was some outrage.
My own opinion is that a blog may be a place for frank ruminations on
these sorts of topics, and I find some of the Twitter hand-wringing disingenuously genteel.
You hear stuff far less considered than this every day on sports talk
radio and — for crying out loud — from well-known voices on Twitter
itself.
If sports talk radio is the standard by which Lee Judge's columns are held, then the bar is being lowered for him further than it should be.
"The opinions at our newspaper are consistently on-par with the opinions of the lowest common denominator of sports fans."
That's the defense. R.I.P. sports journalism.
So now Lee Judge must of course re-comment on his own story and how he "accidentally" became a part of the story.
In 2010 I was given space on this website and the freedom to cover baseball in my own way.
I’d
been hanging out with pro ballplayers for years and thought the way
they looked at the game was fascinating and I wanted to bring that point
of view to other baseball fans.
I love baseball, but I find the point of view the players have to be less than fascinating. Unwritten rules, bizarre beliefs that dinosaurs don't exist, and various other bizarre theories about life and politics...I like to watch them play the sport though. It's just I don't necessarily care about their point of view simply because I like to watch them play baseball.
We’re in a bold, new age of journalism, which is a nice way of saying
we sometimes put stuff on the web site and if an editor has time, he
might proofread your work after it’s been posted.
"We lowered our editing standards, but that's not our fault at all. It's just what we are forced to do. This is what 'the people' want in this new era of journalism. Don't blame us."
On Tuesday
morning, the freaking out began early and editors almost immediately
changed “seems like a young man who needs choking” to “seems like a
young man who needs an attitude adjustment.”
"Almost immediately." So it got fixed almost immediately, what's the big deal?
"I cursed out my co-worker, but almost immediately apologized and handed her a Kleenex. Can't we all move on?"
One night back in 2010 while I was writing a column and trying to think of another word for pitcher. I came up with the word moundsman.
That night I decided my writing was bad or sucked. I have never in my life uttered the word moundsman
and thought it was BS that I was about to write it. That night I
decided to just tell readers what I had to say in my own words, just
like if I’d met them in a bar on the way home from a game, and if you go
to the right bar, that’s entirely possible.
The defense of "shooting from the hip" or having "real talk" doesn't serve as an excuse for the comments that you are making. This is a general rule me thinks.
So when I said Bryce Harper needed choking I was probably only 97 percent serious.
It was a joke! Judge was only 97% serious. So he was pretty much entirely serious, except for when you want to criticize him, because then it was a 3% joke. I'm guessing Judge isn't a fan of Sabermetrics and numbers, but even a third-grader knows 97% of anything is pretty damn close to 100% of that thing.
But here’s why I would say that, even in jest: Bryce Harper has acted
like a jerk on a baseball field and I’m not the only one that thinks
so.
But it was 97% serious. That doesn't even come close to qualifying for "even in jest" status.
Here’s a headline from The Washington Post published last
summer: “Bryce Harper is still just 21 years old, but he needs to stop
acting like he’s 12.”
That headline appeared above a column written by Mike Wise.
Poke around the internet and it’s not hard to find stories about Harper
blowing kisses to pitchers, taking an exaggerated amount of time to jog
around the bases, getting ejected from games and yelling at opponents,
umpires and teammates.
Bryce Harper is an asshole. I can absolutely agree with this. I don't like him and I don't like the Nationals.
His defenders tend to make three points:
1.) He’s really good at baseball.
2.) He’s changed.
3.) And he’s really good at baseball.
Letting a guy get away with bad behavior just because he’s good is how Bryce Harper became Bryce Harper.
So why does Jonathan Papelbon get away with some of his behavior? What gives him the ability to be the Official Unofficial Unwritten Rules Spokesman for the Washington Nationals? Isn't he getting away with bad behavior by choking Harper?
And I gotta say that if Bryce Harper managed to provoke a teammate into
choking him in front of the whole world, he probably hasn’t change all
that much.
You gotta say it. It has to be said. Ask Stephen A. Smith about it. If you provoke someone constantly, then whatever act of violence that happens to you is most likely deserved in some way.
After my original blog was posted, it got picked up by Deadspin — the website that will tell you why your team sucks —
Yeah, but they are only being 97% serious. So it's all a joke.
I began getting emails saying I was promoting violence in the workplace
and if Papelbon had attacked Harper anywhere but a baseball field,
Papelbon could be charged with assault. Co-workers should not solve
their differences with violence.
If every NFL player who got in a scuffle with a teammate was charged with assault, you couldn’t field a team.
I personally recognize the difference in a normal work place and a work place in the athletic arena. Scuffles will happen in the athletic arena. Placing "right" and "wrong" in these situations where the person getting choked feels like a bit much, especially when you don't know for certain what happened and have no idea first hand about the personality of the two players involved.
If Papelbon putting his hands around Harper’s throat was assault — and
I’ve seen a third-grader’s birthday party with more actual violence —
What kind of third-grade birthday parties is Lee Judge attending? I'm assuming by looking at Judge that all of his children are grown by now. Does he still attend third-grade birthday parties? If so, does he attend these parties in anticipation of the violence? If so, I think that would answer a few questions I have about his take on Harper v. Papelbon.
Pretending that professional sports teams are bound by the same
restrictions that apply in an accountant’s office or a grocery store is
disingenuous; it’s just isn’t so and the people who do it are looking
for an excuse to be outraged.
You are missing the point. The point isn't really the fight. It's that a person got choked and you said he deserved to get choked without even knowing that person. Also, you indicated you had no issue with a fight, but it just should have happened in private. Fights happen. I get that. It's reasonable also to accept that fights happen, but this doesn't mean they are justified fights and it doesn't mean a person deserves to be choked.
“Retired pitcher C.J. Nitkowski, writing for FoxSports.com, laid out the old-school case against Harper and for Papelbon.
If you want the ballplayer’s point of view — and that’s the main reason
you might want to check out this blog — I gave it to you. Teammates
sometimes scuffle (I know of several physical confrontations that never
got public scrutiny). Bottom line: If you’re going to scuffle, don’t do
it in the dugout.
Nitkowski bravely got anonymous players to comment on the Harper versus Papelbon scuffle. For that, these players should be admired. After all, they feel so strongly one way that they aren't even brave enough to put their name to their opinion. It's "old-school" to suggest Bryce Harper should be choked and not put your name to the opinion. So anonymous players saying Papelbon was in the right doesn't really do it for me.
The same thing applied to the Papelbon-Harper confrontation, so I
thought fans who want to know how things work in the big leagues would
be interested in that distinction. It wasn’t a long bit and originally
it was tucked in at the bottom of a longer post.
But, pageviews! The editors knew they had a hot take that could get them some web traffic.
But we’re being encouraged to do everything we can to increase
traffic to our website, so I figured I’d put it at the top of the post
because it was big topic of conversation in the world of baseball. If
increasing traffic was the goal, I succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.
Increasing traffic is always the goal. It would be nice if Lee Judge increased traffic by not suggesting violence against an athlete was justified, but hey, take the pageviews where you can get them I guess.
But
right now I just want to take the opportunity to say something to all
the people I offended and I say it with complete sincerity:
Thanks for the page views.
Edgy! You know, if acting like a jerk means a person should be choked, then maybe Lee Judge would suggest that Lee Judge suggesting Bryce Harper should be choked is a jerk thing to do. Therefore, maybe Lee Judge would believe he should be choked by one of his co-workers.
Showing posts with label random acts of violence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label random acts of violence. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Thursday, October 29, 2015
7 comments MMQB Review: MMQB Brought To You By Yahoo and the NFL Edition
Peter King still doesn't know what a factoid is and thinks that Johnny Manziel (who he doesn't know personally at all he admits) needs to do better in order to keep his NFL career alive. This week Peter talks about winning streaks, how Internet football is all the rage around the world, discusses the Dolphins turnaround under the bro Dan Campbell, and he writes "What a country" because there is hockey in Brooklyn. Peter King gets to write a weekly column AND hockey is in non-traditional cities. WHAT A COUNTRY THIS IS! Except for the gun violence, of course. The gun violence and the people who insist on acting in a way while in public that Peter disproves of. Those people who talk on the phone while running in the park can fall into a lake, but otherwise, what a country!
Sunday was a historic day in the NFL, a little bit on the field, and a big bit off. On: Carolina’s 27-16 win over the Eagles means the NFL has five 6-0 teams simultaneously for the first time in league history—Carolina, Cincinnati, Denver, Green Bay and New England.
One team sticks out pretty badly on the list as not belonging. Probably the team that can't throw the football very well and has had a somewhat shaky time in the passing game with a thrice-rejected wide receiver as their #1 receiver.
And though Buffalo-Jacksonville in London wasn’t a marquee game, it accomplished just what the NFL and Yahoo, the provider, had hoped. Yahoo announced that it had 15.6 million unique viewers and 33.6 million total live streams of the game; roughly 33% of that viewership came from outside the U.S.
This goes to show that if the NFL live streams one game between two non-playoff teams then people will watch the game possibly. Also, it shows that Peter King is going to sound like he is doing PR for the NFL and Yahoo in this MMQB. You know I have been somewhat suspicious about the NFL trying so damn hard to have success overseas, but Peter King is very, very fucking impressed with this first live stream result. This could open up the NFL to being able to live stream games and then not have games on television anymore. Which means NFL fans in the United States, you know, the people who buy the vast majority of the apparel, season tickets and actually support these teams, can all huddle around a computer or tablet (maybe even Roku!) at a party to watch a game stream. Sounds like fun.
And there’s little doubt that, though the league treats its 256 regular-season games like home-TV gold, it’s likely to parcel out more than one game to an internet company in 2016.
Probably not a bad idea. I bet the NFL's dream is to have teams in several different countries and never actually show the games on television. They can just live stream them all and everything will be great because people in other countries TOTALLY don't know that the NFL is a clusterfuck when it comes to concussions and doling out punishment to players who step outside the law or choose to deflate a football by a few PSI. Foreigners are so blind to all the NFL's faults. That's the ideal market for the NFL.
Let’s begin with the stories of the week, from south Florida, New England, Charlotte, London, Indianapolis, New Jersey and Seattle, with stuff about donuts, the ticking time bomb that is Greg Hardy, and the deep scar that won’t be leaving Lovie Smith anytime soon.
Man, having Rex Grossman as his quarterback in Chicago has really left an impression on Lovie Smith. I bet he has nightmares about Grossman randomly throwing the ball deep in the hopes of a completion.
Greg Hardy. I think the sooner we realize that Hardy is a member of the Dallas Cowboys only and absolutely only because he is a very good defensive end with rare pass-rush skills, the better off we’ll be.
Hey Peter, I think "we" already knew that Hardy is on the Cowboys roster because he's good at football and don't need to be reminded of this. If Hardy had a down year before his legal issues, like Ray Rice had, then maybe he wouldn't be defended and enabled like the Cowboys are doing for him. It's never been unclear as to why Hardy is with the Cowboys. If he couldn't play, he wouldn't be on the Cowboys roster.
The video put on air by Mike Florio at NBC on Sunday night, showing Hardy in a sideline conflagration with Dallas special-teams coach Rich Bisaccia—slapping the clipboard in the coach’s hand threateningly, causing the coach to shove Hardy and Hardy to get in his face—showed a player bordering on out of control.
Yeah, but he is a team leader according to Jerry Jones. This is just an example of Hardy being a leader and telling the special teams coach that as a leader of the Cowboys team he isn't going to give a flying fuck what he thinks and he feels the need to be disrespectful in order to prove just how much of a team leader he is.
Hardy is a troubled guy and enabling his behavior, as has been done during parts of his NFL career isn't going to help this situation stay in control.
I don't expect the Cowboys to cut Hardy. He plays too well. But it would be nice if, instead of saying things like what a great and fiery competitor he is, someone with the Cowboys would say: “If Hardy continues to act volcanic, he’s going to have to find somewhere else to play. If anyone will have him.”
Okay, well that's stupid Peter. The Cowboys are never going to publicly say that no one else will want Hardy nor will they say publicly he's on the edge of not being a Cowboy anymore. Should they? Possibly, but I don't think any NFL teams would call out a player on the team in this fashion. If a Cowboys player did it, and I'm sure at least one thinks it, then he knows his comments would be chum in the water for a circus surrounding the team. These types of comments just aren't happening.
Midway through the fourth quarter in a rout of Houston, Tannehill threw a 10-yard out pass to backup tight end Dion Sims. It was high, but Sims raised one hand and the ball bounced off it. Had he put both hands up, who knows? But it was a catchable ball, for sure. So Tannehill finished 18 of 19 for 282 yards with four touchdowns (all in the first 16 minutes) and no interceptions.
Player on the rise. Tannehill should play for the Rams so they could have a player on the rise for a team on the rise. In all non-snark, Tannehill has plenty of good players around him and it's about time the Dolphins let him play to the strengths of those players around Tannehill. Maybe now Tannehill won't feel the need to berate practice squad players, though I'm sure that report was totally untrue.
Afterward I said to Tannehill it was a shame about that 19th throw. “What’s that?” he said. You know, I said, the fact that it ruined his perfect day. He acted as if it wasn’t a big deal, because of the way the day was game-planned.
Peter loves to do this shit. He loves to be cutesy by bringing up the one thing that went wrong on an otherwise flawless day when interviewing a player, as if no one but Peter is aware that one thing went wrong. It's like Peter wants the player to come off as a team player and be like, "My God, you are so smart to notice this one thing I didn't notice about my or the team's performance today." Why the fuck would Tannehill think this missed pass was a big deal when the Dolphins played so well otherwise?
Obviously, the coaching change in Miami is agreeing with Tannehill. He’s an 83.3 percent passer in the two games since Dan Campbell took over. “He wants us to play like we played as kids, with a love of the game,” Tannehill said.
Peter King has a massive fucking erection right now. Ryan Tannehill says Dan Campbell wants the Dolphins to play the game like kids, precocious little kids who haven't a hair on their body from puberty and don't know the evils of life and how disappointing it is to grow up and be a man. Playing like kids for the love of the game as Peter stands to side and wonders why can't HE be a little kid. Then he could play the game like a little kid like Tannehill does. They could both be little kids, hugging after a touchdown, giving half-fives and grabbing some lemonade and hoping mom will let Ryan sleep over on a school night. Just this once. Brett Favre played the game like a child and that's how Dan Campbell wants the Dolphins to play, just like precocious little kids. Nothing is better in Peter's mind than watching kids play sports, even if he has to stay by law on the other side of the fence and at least 250 yards away from the action.
Dan Campbell. Stop saying, “Who cares? He’s beaten Tennessee and Houston, and they stink.”
I mean, I'm not saying that, but this is still a relevant point. Even if Joe Philbin was a disaster as a coach, it doesn't mean the Dolphins aren't playing above their head right now. Maybe not, but it's possible the Dolphins aren't as good as they have shown themselves to be over the last two games and Joe Philbin was terrible at his job. There is an opinion in between these two that could be factual.
Part of my job at NBC on Sundays is to pay particularly close attention to the 1 p.m. ET games before production work for the Football Night show begins in earnest. And the difference in the Dolphins has been startling. One sack in the first four games. Ten sacks in the two games since Campbell took over. Clearly the players are playing with more drive, more passion. If you don’t love what you’re doing, it’s going to show in your work, negatively. And it’s clear these players like playing for the new boss.
Well, the Dolphins also claimed to like playing for Joe Philbin at one point. Remember Cameron Wake with his "Philbin comes and talks to us at night and seems to really care for us now" comments? The Dolphins are now winning, which means they like playing for their coach.
Tom Brady. The Patriots are 6-0. Brady has thrown one interception, in 251 passes. For those inclined to hate him, or treat him the way so many baseball fans treat Alex Rodriguez, for instance, nothing he does will change your mind about him.
I don't know if I understand the A-Rod comparison here, but that may just be me. Even some Yankees fans don't like A-Rod, while Patriots fans are fiercely protective of Brady. I guess it's an easy comparison because they are both considered cheaters.
Rex Ryan. The Bills had the fourth-best defense, statistically, in football last year, and Ryan said in the spring, “I know we’ll be better this year.” They’re 11th this morning. Players are grousing about roles. The quarterback who played Sunday, EJ Manuel, shows occasional flashes of good deep-ball throwing, but he cannot be saved.
Another flashback moment...remember last year when Peter suggested that E.J. Manuel should just say "fuck it" and throw the ball deep down the field? I'm not sure what that memory has much to do with anything right now, but Peter's suggestion that Manuel can't be saved and he's good at throwing a deep ball every once in a while just made me remember it.
Kawann Short. Short is the one demanding more attention these days, and he’s proving that Gettleman was smart to eschew a receiver or cornerback early in that ’13 draft. When you can get quick big guys on the defensive front, Gettleman believes you never pass on them—and the pick of Short is proving him right.
Actually, when a team can get quick big guys on the defensive front, I think nearly every GM thinks you can't pass on these types of players. It's not just Gettleman who is smart enough to think, "Man, that big guy sure is fat, fast and dominant. Perhaps I should try to acquire him through the draft."
The great live-streaming experiment.
“First,” said Brian Rolapp, “we wouldn’t call it an experiment. We waited until now because we wanted to make sure the internet could handle it;
Of course. I mean, so many people have dial-up phones and Internet these days that the NFL and Yahoo had to make sure these people who wanted to watch the Buffalo-Jacksonville game had enough free hours of AOL to watch the entire game.
My experiment with Bills-Jags on Yahoo,
Geez Peter, it's not an experiment!
I suppose, was not unlike others in the United States with things to do on Sunday morning. In my Manhattan East Side apartment, I tried two devices, a laptop and a smart phone, just before the game kicked off. Got into Yahoo.com immediately on both, and painlessly got the game up in time to see Kevin Harlan and Rich Gannon give me a quick preview.
In Peter's "Manhattan East Side apartment" as opposed to simply, "my apartment," because it's important to know the exact location of Peter's apartment in order for this story about Internet to be told. Without Peter mentioning he lives on the East Side, I would have been totally confused.
Rolapp and some NFL employees watched from a conference room on Park Avenue. “We had it up on laptops, tablets, Surfaces, iPhones, Roku, Xbox, everything we could think of,” he said, “and the stream held up well on all of them.”
I'm amazed to hear the NFL didn't have problems with the live stream video of the NFL football game that is the beginning of a new era in how the NFL presents their product to consumers. Here I thought the NFL would report the live stream didn't work at all and they are giving up trying to live stream games and any revenue they may go along with it.
So the NFL wanted to see three things when it decided to take one of its three Sunday morning games from London and show it free on the internet only,
1. Will it lead to the league making more money?
2. Is there a way to present this product while also taking away a home game from one of the current NFL teams while also increasing how much money the NFL makes?
3. Will it lead to additional revenue for the NFL?
Two: The league wanted to see if there was an appetite for the game in some of the places where the NFL is underserved. Russia and China, for instance, and a Sunday morning game in Eastern Time would be a Sunday evening prime-time game in large swaths of Asia.
You know what? Fuck it, let's just put an NFL team in Taiwan. Why not? This live stream did well in that country, so obviously that means an entire NFL team can be supported in the country. Actually, here is a better idea. What if each NFL team has to play one international home game every year? Each team will play seven home regular season games per year and eight road games with an international game in there as a home game. Of course, season ticket holders will still be charged for 10 home games.
Three: Would it all go smoothly enough so that the project might expand and more games would be exclusively streamed to the net beginning next year?
And if it goes smoothly once, why not expand the project to see if the Internet can handle more games exclusively streamed to the net? What if the NFL just stopped having football games in actual stadiums, still charged money to watch the games on the Internet, and simply played games in an empty venue where every person who would normally watch the game in the stadium has to pay to watch it on a computer? Of course, season ticket holders will still be charged extra for the 10 games they would go to if they actually were able to attend any of these games.
The vast majority during the regular season and post-season are spoken for through 2020 and 2021. But there are three Sunday games (currently the early-window London games, starting at 9:30 a.m. ET) available, and there will be the Thursday night package in 2016; CBS is on a one-year deal for Thursdays in 2015, simulcasting with NFL Network and then ceding to NFL Network alone beginning in Week 9. That 16-game package is now up for negotiation for 2016 and beyond.
Money! Money! Money!
I think it’s likely there could be a Sunday game plus at least one Thursday game headed for the internet in 2016.
It's a great idea actually. Usually the Thursday night games are shit, so why not share that shit with the rest of the world that doesn't have CBS or NFL Network?
The MMQB asked fans around the world who watched the game on Sunday to send us their views of the streaming experience. Their responses were what you’d think if you watched: positive.
It's impossible for Peter to ignore this live streaming non-experiment of course, but it does sometimes feel like he's doing PR for the NFL and Yahoo in this MMQB. Nary a negative word was spoken about the live stream. Apparently no person in the world had an issue viewing the live stream.
Tyrone Carriaga
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Gametime: 8:30 p.m. Sunday
“I watched at home using Apple TV. I watched because I do not see a live game as part of the TV package here. The start time was convenient as well. It looked like standard definition most of the game.
Standard definition? Where can I sign up for watching sports in standard definition? I have a television that I paid $2000 for which shows the best picture possible, but if I can get sports in standard definition instead of high definition then I'd like to sign up for this immediately!
The rest of the comments are basically an advertisement for Yahoo and the NFL, including:
“I watched at home, on my phone and then my laptop. I try to watch as many games as I can. Big NFL fan. Playing at Wembley adds a little something extra. It's great to see a soccer temple being used for football. The quality was excellent. I expected a less-fluent transmission, but it turned out to be flawless.
Overall it was good. Quality on par with NFL Game Pass [the NFL’s subscription streaming service for fans outside the U.S. and Mexico]. No hassle, just click the link and it worked.”
I'll take any bit of NFL football any way I can.
I feel like the famous picture of Peter beside Roger Goodell eating lunch should be somewhere in this MMQB. It is not though, much to my dismay.
Watching NFL games on TV in Brazil is a very choppy experience: Between snaps (commercial breaks, timeouts, on-field reporting etc.), a lot of footage you see in the U.S. doesn't get televised here, so the viewing experience is not as good. The online stream was a smooth and consistent viewing experience. It was great. Much better than expected. Yahoo outdid themselves on the streaming quality.”
What if the NFL televised games on the Internet AND on a regular television? Or would that not work because it would mix revenue streams too much? I'm glad the game was a success, but it was one game, so I'm not jumping out of my seat with excitement quite yet. But Peter wants everyone who reads MMQB to know this non-experiment was a success. There was no hassle and it was in standard definition. All dreams have come true.
More progress needs to be made. The co-chair of the NFL’s Head, Neck and Spine Committee, Seattle-based doctor Richard Ellenbogen, was in London for the conference. He is also one of the NFL’s unaffiliated head-trauma experts on the sidelines, and has the power to take a player off the field if he sees the player wobbly or otherwise showing symptoms of a concussion.
He has "the power" to do this. I'm a little confused as to how this gentleman is the co-chair of an NFL committee, but also unaffiliated with the NFL. Perhaps I'm just stupid. It just seems if he is the co-chair of an NFL committee then he is affiliated with the NFL in some way.
I asked Ellenbogen if he ever felt like he, and those in the think tank Saturday, held the future of football and perhaps other contact sports in their hands. It’s clear that football is under such fire that its existence could be threatened if the fathers of the game don’t do more for the health and safety of players.
Because, yes Peter, Ellenbogen is going to say the NFL's existence would be threatened if they don't do more for the health and safety of the players. He's the co-chair of an NFL Head, Neck and Spine Committee, but he will also pronounce the league DOA if he and the rest of his committee don't do more. I simply don't believe Ellenbogen would make it sound like the future of the NFL is in his hands, because that makes the situation sound dire. The NFL disapproves of this.
“No question it’s important,” Ellenbogen said. “But the unintended consequences of getting rid of contact sports would be an unmitigated disaster. Whatever we do, please do not have the conversation about banning these [contact] sports. The benefits of sports—for physical health, for the benefits of being on a team—far outweigh the risks. I can’t even imagine the consequences if enrollment started declining in sports like football and lacrosse.”
Ah yes, a doctor who sounds like he is carrying water for the NFL. The benefit of sports OVERALL far outweigh the risks, but the risks of individual sports could outweigh the benefits of those sports. It is not as if lacrosse, football or any other sports considered "dangerous" were no longer active sports that kids and adults would have no other way of being in good physical health or exercising in any fashion. Contact sports aren't the only sports which provide good physical benefits to those who participate in sports. There are plenty of other sports that adults and children could play which would provide an opportunity for good physical health. I'm not saying to ban football, but this doctor isn't doing too much to convince me he's not carrying water for the NFL by answering a question this way. Ellenbogen is making it sound like there are no other options for those who want to exercise, other than these contact sports.
“All losses hurt. Some leave a deep scar. This is one of those.”
—Tampa Bay coach Lovie Smith. The Bucs blew a 24-0 lead at Washington and lost, 31-30.
This may not be a good thing for a head coach to say. The last thing a head coach usually wants is for his players to dwell on a difficult loss. Great way to set an example for a young quarterback and Lovie's team by saying a loss left a deep scar. Even if it's true, does Lovie really want his team focusing on the tough loss and not trying to move on to the next game? Kudos to him for being honest, I guess.
“If they trade me, I’d quit today.”
—Baltimore wide receiver Steve Smith Sr., perhaps nervous that one of the teams most inclined to trade in recent NFL history—the Ravens and their pragmatic GM, Ozzie Newsome—are on the verge of going 1-6 with the trading deadline eight days away. He made his remarks to the team’s website.
I don't believe Smith would retire if he were traded. Still, one can see why the Panthers inexplicably released Smith two seasons ago. It's not that he's a bad guy by any measure, but he can be difficult at times. This is one of those times. He'd rather continue to play on a losing team than move teams halfway through his last season in the NFL in an effort to get a Super Bowl ring.
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, cornerback, New York Giants. There’s the Matt Cassel factor here—he threw interceptions on three straight series midway through the Giants’ 27-20 win over the Cowboys on Sunday in New Jersey—but credit Rodgers-Cromartie for being in the right place at the right time for two picks totaling 70 return yards and one touchdown.
The important thing to note here is that Peter believes Matt Cassel was terrible in his only start this season, yet later in MMQB Peter will make it seems like the Bills made a mistake by trading Cassel at the beginning of the season and keeping E.J. Manuel. I guess the terrible QB the Bills traded is better than the terrible QB on the Bills' roster.
GOAT OF THE WEEK
The Houston Texans. Just an awful performance, falling behind 41-0, being outgained at one point 275-0. Time to do the proverbial look-selves-in-the-mirror and the gut-check and, well, all the other clichés.
I can't imagine what could go wrong when the Texans collect every backup quarterback the Patriots didn't want. How can Bill O'Brien fail as a head coach? He is affiliated with the Patriots AND he seemed like such a decisive team leader when the cameras were rolling for "Hard Knocks." It's almost like cameras can lie.
EJ Manuel, quarterback, Buffalo.
He followed that up with interceptions on the next two series, including one right into the arms of Telvin Smith, who returned it for a touchdown. Great end zone view on the Yahoo stream, with Manuel staring the entire time at the spot he threw to, and Smith baiting and waiting. Easy pick.
Excellent view by that Yahoo stream. Enough about football, Peter wants to talk some more about Yahoo and how great the stream was of the Bills and Jaguars game. You could see, in standard definition, by how much Blake Bortles was overthrowing his receivers. What a country! No, because this was an international broadcast, what a world!
Buffalo’s worst nightmare—first when drafting Manuel in 2013, then when dealing Matt Cassel to Dallas for a 2017 fifth-round pick.
Is this their worst nightmare? Is Matt Cassel playing for the Bills really what would fix their season? Cassel didn't exactly blow the roof off the joint in his one start with the Cowboys behind a pretty good Cowboys offensive line. Is the crappy QB not on the roster really a better option than the crappy QB on the Bills' roster?
You may not recall this. It’s been almost 10 years. But when the Patriots decided to let Adam Vinatieri go in free agency, the team was criticized in some corners for not ponying up to re-sign the kicker, who’d been the epitome of clutch.
I remember it vividly. Shockingly, someone other than Peter King can recall events that occurred longer than a few years ago. It comes as a huge surprise to Peter this is true.
• In Vinatieri’s six years (regular-season and post-season) playing for Bill Belichick, he made 82.9 percent of his field goals.
• In Gostkowski’s 10 years playing for Belichick, he has made 87.7 percent of his field goals.
Yeah, but Vinatieri was the epitome of clutch, so that has to count for something, right?
In the last 10 games against each team in their division, the Patriots are:
• 8-2 against the Jets.
• 8-2 against the Dolphins.
• 8-2 against the Bills.
Again I will ask, is this a product of the Patriots being great or the division not being very good? The AFC South is crap and the Colts have been feeding from that division for quite a few years now, but when criticizing teams like the Seahawks who make the playoffs at 7-9 just remember there may be a 12-4 team that made the playoffs based on competing in a shitty division.
Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note of the Week
I traveled six miles Friday evening to Barclays Center—what a pleasant surprise, seeing Mr. and Mrs. Brasco, Don and Alissa Banks, there—to watch an Islanders hockey game. Hockey in Brooklyn. What a country.
Rich white people all got to the same hockey game in Brooklyn. Peter left his apartment on the East Side and went to this hockey game. What a country to see someone that Peter knows at a hockey game! What a world! What a planet! What a solar system!
The place wasn’t invented for hockey. I feel for the fans who have to travel from the Island to see the Islanders.
The venue sucked. What a country.
Bonus: The drinks and food are really good there. Brooklyn Lager on tap, with a slice of square Williamsburg Pizza, terrific crust and fairly light, complete with fresh basil.
The pizza had good crust and fresh basil? So basically it was...pizza?
I was unsure if this was terrible or not, but now that the Football Coach Jesus says it is, then I guess Greg Hardy's behavior was terrible. I bet Tony Dungy wants to mentor Greg Hardy. That is Dungy's thing. He wants to mentor. Perhaps someone should mentor Dungy on how to win more than one Super Bowl with Peyton Manning.
Ten Things I Think I Think
1. I think this is what I liked about Week 7:
c. Fantastic throw, catch and lunge for the touchdown by the Jags’ Blake Bortles and Allen Robinson on the first touchdown of Sunday.
Ask Davon House, Blake Bortles can throw the ball just like Aaron Rodgers. Just minus the talent, throwing ability, feel for the pass rush and any other attribute that makes Rodgers so great.
i. Good CBS graphic in the first half at Foxboro: Pats 46-4 in their previous 50 home games, best 50-game home record in the league in at least the past 50 years.
BREAKING NEWS: The Patriots are a really good team.
m. The tip-of-the-fingertips catch by Gary Barnidge, Cleveland’s emerging stalwart tight end. (You just might read about him very soon at The MMQB.)
Don't tease us about this, Peter. I bet Barnidge is a free agent after this season and Peter wants to describe how Marvin Demoff (I have no idea if that is Barnidge's agent or not) can structure a compensation package exactly to where the Browns won't be able to compete with it.
p. Incredible effort by Detroit’s Ziggy Ansah, sprinting 72 yards to catch Adrian Peterson and knock him out of bounds at the 3-yard line. It saved Detroit four points. Instead of Peterson scoring a touchdown, the Vikes settled for a field goal.
This note about great hustle from Ansah will not appear in TMQ, because Ansah is a first round glory boy pick. If it does show up, I'm sure Peter would focus on how Peterson, a highly-drafted glory boy who brags about how great he is, was caught from behind.
w. The transcendent year Josh Norman is having for Carolina. Did you see the pass-breakup he had near the end of the first half, which looked absolutely like the touchdown the Eagles desperately needed? Norman sold out, flicked it away, and saved four points; the frustrated Eagles settled for a field goal.
Norman made a great play, but he was sort of beaten. He had no choice at the time but to sell out and dive to block the pass away from the Eagles player.
2. I think this is what I didn’t like about Week 7:
b. Folks online (Twitter, elsewhere) grousing they couldn’t watch the Buffalo-Jacksonville on their big screens. Stop. Just stop. Buffalo-Jacksonville, first of all. Second: It’s bonus football, in a specially created window because it’s a London game. Third: 95 percent of the complainers would never have watched this game anyway. So stop.
I love how Peter writes this. He's really pushing this Yahoo live stream isn't he? Peter wants to write about how popular the game was, while also dismissing the game as not being worth showing on television because it is Buffalo-Jacksonville. Apparently Buffalo-Jacksonville is good enough to be watched by 30 million+ people online, but not good enough to be shown on the television. This is as opposed to all those great games played in London that have been televised. You know, all those games between two teams that don't have winning records.
I actually tried to watch the game, but didn't feel like watching it on my computer. I did not complain about it, but I can understand why some people may have. Peter doesn't think this complaints are worth much though, because 95% (and that's an exact number) would not have watched this game anyway.
k. Brandon LaFell’s hands in his first game back from injury for New England. Four first-half drops. Six for the game.
Brandon LaFell at his worst. Hands of stone.
n. Valuable and versatile Carolina rookie hurricane Shaq Thompson (knee), who’s been an eye-opening addition, sitting on Sunday night.
q. The Bills’ inactive list for Sunday: the starting quarterback (Tyrod Taylor), two starting-caliber wideouts (Sammy Watkins, Percy Harvin), one of the best defensive tackles in football (Kyle Williams), a starting offensive tackle (Seantrel Henderson), and an emerging running back (Karlos Williams).
Players get hurt. This is why an 18 game schedule would never work. I'm not sure the playoffs would be much fun to watch if the NFL went to an 18 game schedule.
y. Not to harp on this stat,
Peter will now harp on this stat. As soon as he says he doesn't want to or won't do something, he tends to do that exact thing.
but there’s a symmetry to the Colts in the Pagano/Luck Era now: Indy is 20-20 in games outside the division, including playoffs.
I mean, it was just last year that Peter was talking about what a great coach Chuck Pagano is and all of that. Now Peter is pointing out how the Colts can't beat teams that aren't in their division. Life comes at you fast.
Though his production has plummeted, he’s gotten paid. In his three post-Vikings seasons, Harvin has been paid $31.5 million. Comparing his production as a Viking to his production with the Seahawks, Jets and Bills:
• Vikings (54 games): 387 touches from scrimmage, 10.3 yards per touch, 24 touchdowns … 27.9 yards per kick return, five touchdowns.
• Seahawks, Jets, Bills (19 games): 109 touches from scrimmage, 8.7 yards per touch, three touchdowns … 24.8 yards per kick return, no touchdowns.
He's the Josh Freeman of wide receivers. Of course, Peter won't harp on Harvin's lack of production as he did for Freeman's lack of production because Harvin didn't help to get Peter's buddy fired.
8. I think if you believe Sunday was the end of the Jets for this season, after the Patriots made sure all is back to normal in the AFC East with a home win over New York, consider these points:
I don't know if anyone thought this was the end of the Jets for the season. I'm not sure why Peter is writing this.
• The Jets are 4-2.
• In the next seven weeks, they play teams with a combined record of 18-28: at Oakland (3-3), Jacksonville (2-5), Buffalo (3-4), at Houston (2-5), Miami (3-3), at the Giants (4-3), and Tennessee (1-5).
Tell me why it’s unlikely the Jets could be 10-3 entering the final three games of the season: a fascinating Week 15 Saturday night game at Dallas (with Tony Romo, presumably, back), the Patriots at home two days after Christmas, and a nippy affair at Buffalo three days into 2016. I’m just saying I certainly don't consider the AFC East race to be wide open, but it might not be over yet.
Peter, you are the one who is talking about how dominant the Patriots have been in their division. Not many other people are claiming the AFC race is over. You are countering an argument that I'm not sure many people are making.
10. I think these are my non-NFL thoughts of the week:
g. RIP Cory Wells, one of the lead singers of Three Dog Night. I show my age here, but I loved that band. “Shambala” and “Mama Told Me Not To Com,” were two of Wells’ best.
"Mama Told Me Not to Com" was the first song to encourage people to stay off the Internet. It's the anti-technology song to end all anti-technology songs. Mama told him not to com, but he logged on anyway. Probably to watch the Buffalo-Jacksonville live stream.
k. Did you see the Georgia Tech player, waving teammates away from the loose ball that would become a return for the winning touchdown of Florida State-Georgia Tech? Good thing at least one Yellow Jacket paid no attention. Coaches: Don’t assume your players know all the rules.
NFL players don't know the rules. There is evidence the officials in the NFL don't know the rules. So this doesn't surprise me the players in college and the NFL may not know the rules.
m. Beernerdness: Had a Sidewinder Southwest Pale Ale (Revolver Brewing, Granbury, Texas), made with water from an aquifer on the property of the brewery—and a hint of agave, which is a first for me in a beer, I think—and really enjoyed it.
Peter drank a pale ale! This was a beer that didn't require a fruit or anything like a slice of an orange in it to taste good! This is progress!
n. Hockey’s a strange game. The Devils lost their first four games, 3-1, 5-3, 3-1 and 2-1. In the past week, they won their next four: 2-1, 3-2, 5-4 and 4-2.
It's crazy that one result for a team doesn't mean that team will have the result in every single game. How amazing that professional sports teams will play well or play poorly over short stretches of the season. What a country. Only in hockey.
The Adieu Haiku
The byes wreak havoc.
No Bengals, Packers, Broncos.
Week seven: quite meh.
There are six undefeated teams, but none of the undefeated teams were interesting enough for Peter. Much like the Adieu Haiku, Week 7 was "meh." In fact, the best thing about the week was the Yahoo live stream. What a great success for the NFL! Has Peter mentioned what a great success it was? He really enjoyed watching it in his apartment on the East Side of Manhattan.
Sunday was a historic day in the NFL, a little bit on the field, and a big bit off. On: Carolina’s 27-16 win over the Eagles means the NFL has five 6-0 teams simultaneously for the first time in league history—Carolina, Cincinnati, Denver, Green Bay and New England.
One team sticks out pretty badly on the list as not belonging. Probably the team that can't throw the football very well and has had a somewhat shaky time in the passing game with a thrice-rejected wide receiver as their #1 receiver.
And though Buffalo-Jacksonville in London wasn’t a marquee game, it accomplished just what the NFL and Yahoo, the provider, had hoped. Yahoo announced that it had 15.6 million unique viewers and 33.6 million total live streams of the game; roughly 33% of that viewership came from outside the U.S.
This goes to show that if the NFL live streams one game between two non-playoff teams then people will watch the game possibly. Also, it shows that Peter King is going to sound like he is doing PR for the NFL and Yahoo in this MMQB. You know I have been somewhat suspicious about the NFL trying so damn hard to have success overseas, but Peter King is very, very fucking impressed with this first live stream result. This could open up the NFL to being able to live stream games and then not have games on television anymore. Which means NFL fans in the United States, you know, the people who buy the vast majority of the apparel, season tickets and actually support these teams, can all huddle around a computer or tablet (maybe even Roku!) at a party to watch a game stream. Sounds like fun.
And there’s little doubt that, though the league treats its 256 regular-season games like home-TV gold, it’s likely to parcel out more than one game to an internet company in 2016.
Probably not a bad idea. I bet the NFL's dream is to have teams in several different countries and never actually show the games on television. They can just live stream them all and everything will be great because people in other countries TOTALLY don't know that the NFL is a clusterfuck when it comes to concussions and doling out punishment to players who step outside the law or choose to deflate a football by a few PSI. Foreigners are so blind to all the NFL's faults. That's the ideal market for the NFL.
Let’s begin with the stories of the week, from south Florida, New England, Charlotte, London, Indianapolis, New Jersey and Seattle, with stuff about donuts, the ticking time bomb that is Greg Hardy, and the deep scar that won’t be leaving Lovie Smith anytime soon.
Man, having Rex Grossman as his quarterback in Chicago has really left an impression on Lovie Smith. I bet he has nightmares about Grossman randomly throwing the ball deep in the hopes of a completion.
Greg Hardy. I think the sooner we realize that Hardy is a member of the Dallas Cowboys only and absolutely only because he is a very good defensive end with rare pass-rush skills, the better off we’ll be.
Hey Peter, I think "we" already knew that Hardy is on the Cowboys roster because he's good at football and don't need to be reminded of this. If Hardy had a down year before his legal issues, like Ray Rice had, then maybe he wouldn't be defended and enabled like the Cowboys are doing for him. It's never been unclear as to why Hardy is with the Cowboys. If he couldn't play, he wouldn't be on the Cowboys roster.
The video put on air by Mike Florio at NBC on Sunday night, showing Hardy in a sideline conflagration with Dallas special-teams coach Rich Bisaccia—slapping the clipboard in the coach’s hand threateningly, causing the coach to shove Hardy and Hardy to get in his face—showed a player bordering on out of control.
Yeah, but he is a team leader according to Jerry Jones. This is just an example of Hardy being a leader and telling the special teams coach that as a leader of the Cowboys team he isn't going to give a flying fuck what he thinks and he feels the need to be disrespectful in order to prove just how much of a team leader he is.
Hardy is a troubled guy and enabling his behavior, as has been done during parts of his NFL career isn't going to help this situation stay in control.
I don't expect the Cowboys to cut Hardy. He plays too well. But it would be nice if, instead of saying things like what a great and fiery competitor he is, someone with the Cowboys would say: “If Hardy continues to act volcanic, he’s going to have to find somewhere else to play. If anyone will have him.”
Okay, well that's stupid Peter. The Cowboys are never going to publicly say that no one else will want Hardy nor will they say publicly he's on the edge of not being a Cowboy anymore. Should they? Possibly, but I don't think any NFL teams would call out a player on the team in this fashion. If a Cowboys player did it, and I'm sure at least one thinks it, then he knows his comments would be chum in the water for a circus surrounding the team. These types of comments just aren't happening.
Midway through the fourth quarter in a rout of Houston, Tannehill threw a 10-yard out pass to backup tight end Dion Sims. It was high, but Sims raised one hand and the ball bounced off it. Had he put both hands up, who knows? But it was a catchable ball, for sure. So Tannehill finished 18 of 19 for 282 yards with four touchdowns (all in the first 16 minutes) and no interceptions.
Player on the rise. Tannehill should play for the Rams so they could have a player on the rise for a team on the rise. In all non-snark, Tannehill has plenty of good players around him and it's about time the Dolphins let him play to the strengths of those players around Tannehill. Maybe now Tannehill won't feel the need to berate practice squad players, though I'm sure that report was totally untrue.
Afterward I said to Tannehill it was a shame about that 19th throw. “What’s that?” he said. You know, I said, the fact that it ruined his perfect day. He acted as if it wasn’t a big deal, because of the way the day was game-planned.
Peter loves to do this shit. He loves to be cutesy by bringing up the one thing that went wrong on an otherwise flawless day when interviewing a player, as if no one but Peter is aware that one thing went wrong. It's like Peter wants the player to come off as a team player and be like, "My God, you are so smart to notice this one thing I didn't notice about my or the team's performance today." Why the fuck would Tannehill think this missed pass was a big deal when the Dolphins played so well otherwise?
Obviously, the coaching change in Miami is agreeing with Tannehill. He’s an 83.3 percent passer in the two games since Dan Campbell took over. “He wants us to play like we played as kids, with a love of the game,” Tannehill said.
Peter King has a massive fucking erection right now. Ryan Tannehill says Dan Campbell wants the Dolphins to play the game like kids, precocious little kids who haven't a hair on their body from puberty and don't know the evils of life and how disappointing it is to grow up and be a man. Playing like kids for the love of the game as Peter stands to side and wonders why can't HE be a little kid. Then he could play the game like a little kid like Tannehill does. They could both be little kids, hugging after a touchdown, giving half-fives and grabbing some lemonade and hoping mom will let Ryan sleep over on a school night. Just this once. Brett Favre played the game like a child and that's how Dan Campbell wants the Dolphins to play, just like precocious little kids. Nothing is better in Peter's mind than watching kids play sports, even if he has to stay by law on the other side of the fence and at least 250 yards away from the action.
Dan Campbell. Stop saying, “Who cares? He’s beaten Tennessee and Houston, and they stink.”
I mean, I'm not saying that, but this is still a relevant point. Even if Joe Philbin was a disaster as a coach, it doesn't mean the Dolphins aren't playing above their head right now. Maybe not, but it's possible the Dolphins aren't as good as they have shown themselves to be over the last two games and Joe Philbin was terrible at his job. There is an opinion in between these two that could be factual.
Part of my job at NBC on Sundays is to pay particularly close attention to the 1 p.m. ET games before production work for the Football Night show begins in earnest. And the difference in the Dolphins has been startling. One sack in the first four games. Ten sacks in the two games since Campbell took over. Clearly the players are playing with more drive, more passion. If you don’t love what you’re doing, it’s going to show in your work, negatively. And it’s clear these players like playing for the new boss.
Well, the Dolphins also claimed to like playing for Joe Philbin at one point. Remember Cameron Wake with his "Philbin comes and talks to us at night and seems to really care for us now" comments? The Dolphins are now winning, which means they like playing for their coach.
Tom Brady. The Patriots are 6-0. Brady has thrown one interception, in 251 passes. For those inclined to hate him, or treat him the way so many baseball fans treat Alex Rodriguez, for instance, nothing he does will change your mind about him.
I don't know if I understand the A-Rod comparison here, but that may just be me. Even some Yankees fans don't like A-Rod, while Patriots fans are fiercely protective of Brady. I guess it's an easy comparison because they are both considered cheaters.
Rex Ryan. The Bills had the fourth-best defense, statistically, in football last year, and Ryan said in the spring, “I know we’ll be better this year.” They’re 11th this morning. Players are grousing about roles. The quarterback who played Sunday, EJ Manuel, shows occasional flashes of good deep-ball throwing, but he cannot be saved.
Another flashback moment...remember last year when Peter suggested that E.J. Manuel should just say "fuck it" and throw the ball deep down the field? I'm not sure what that memory has much to do with anything right now, but Peter's suggestion that Manuel can't be saved and he's good at throwing a deep ball every once in a while just made me remember it.
Kawann Short. Short is the one demanding more attention these days, and he’s proving that Gettleman was smart to eschew a receiver or cornerback early in that ’13 draft. When you can get quick big guys on the defensive front, Gettleman believes you never pass on them—and the pick of Short is proving him right.
Actually, when a team can get quick big guys on the defensive front, I think nearly every GM thinks you can't pass on these types of players. It's not just Gettleman who is smart enough to think, "Man, that big guy sure is fat, fast and dominant. Perhaps I should try to acquire him through the draft."
The great live-streaming experiment.
“First,” said Brian Rolapp, “we wouldn’t call it an experiment. We waited until now because we wanted to make sure the internet could handle it;
Of course. I mean, so many people have dial-up phones and Internet these days that the NFL and Yahoo had to make sure these people who wanted to watch the Buffalo-Jacksonville game had enough free hours of AOL to watch the entire game.
My experiment with Bills-Jags on Yahoo,
Geez Peter, it's not an experiment!
I suppose, was not unlike others in the United States with things to do on Sunday morning. In my Manhattan East Side apartment, I tried two devices, a laptop and a smart phone, just before the game kicked off. Got into Yahoo.com immediately on both, and painlessly got the game up in time to see Kevin Harlan and Rich Gannon give me a quick preview.
In Peter's "Manhattan East Side apartment" as opposed to simply, "my apartment," because it's important to know the exact location of Peter's apartment in order for this story about Internet to be told. Without Peter mentioning he lives on the East Side, I would have been totally confused.
Rolapp and some NFL employees watched from a conference room on Park Avenue. “We had it up on laptops, tablets, Surfaces, iPhones, Roku, Xbox, everything we could think of,” he said, “and the stream held up well on all of them.”
I'm amazed to hear the NFL didn't have problems with the live stream video of the NFL football game that is the beginning of a new era in how the NFL presents their product to consumers. Here I thought the NFL would report the live stream didn't work at all and they are giving up trying to live stream games and any revenue they may go along with it.
So the NFL wanted to see three things when it decided to take one of its three Sunday morning games from London and show it free on the internet only,
1. Will it lead to the league making more money?
2. Is there a way to present this product while also taking away a home game from one of the current NFL teams while also increasing how much money the NFL makes?
3. Will it lead to additional revenue for the NFL?
Two: The league wanted to see if there was an appetite for the game in some of the places where the NFL is underserved. Russia and China, for instance, and a Sunday morning game in Eastern Time would be a Sunday evening prime-time game in large swaths of Asia.
You know what? Fuck it, let's just put an NFL team in Taiwan. Why not? This live stream did well in that country, so obviously that means an entire NFL team can be supported in the country. Actually, here is a better idea. What if each NFL team has to play one international home game every year? Each team will play seven home regular season games per year and eight road games with an international game in there as a home game. Of course, season ticket holders will still be charged for 10 home games.
Three: Would it all go smoothly enough so that the project might expand and more games would be exclusively streamed to the net beginning next year?
And if it goes smoothly once, why not expand the project to see if the Internet can handle more games exclusively streamed to the net? What if the NFL just stopped having football games in actual stadiums, still charged money to watch the games on the Internet, and simply played games in an empty venue where every person who would normally watch the game in the stadium has to pay to watch it on a computer? Of course, season ticket holders will still be charged extra for the 10 games they would go to if they actually were able to attend any of these games.
The vast majority during the regular season and post-season are spoken for through 2020 and 2021. But there are three Sunday games (currently the early-window London games, starting at 9:30 a.m. ET) available, and there will be the Thursday night package in 2016; CBS is on a one-year deal for Thursdays in 2015, simulcasting with NFL Network and then ceding to NFL Network alone beginning in Week 9. That 16-game package is now up for negotiation for 2016 and beyond.
Money! Money! Money!
I think it’s likely there could be a Sunday game plus at least one Thursday game headed for the internet in 2016.
It's a great idea actually. Usually the Thursday night games are shit, so why not share that shit with the rest of the world that doesn't have CBS or NFL Network?
The MMQB asked fans around the world who watched the game on Sunday to send us their views of the streaming experience. Their responses were what you’d think if you watched: positive.
It's impossible for Peter to ignore this live streaming non-experiment of course, but it does sometimes feel like he's doing PR for the NFL and Yahoo in this MMQB. Nary a negative word was spoken about the live stream. Apparently no person in the world had an issue viewing the live stream.
Tyrone Carriaga
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Gametime: 8:30 p.m. Sunday
“I watched at home using Apple TV. I watched because I do not see a live game as part of the TV package here. The start time was convenient as well. It looked like standard definition most of the game.
Standard definition? Where can I sign up for watching sports in standard definition? I have a television that I paid $2000 for which shows the best picture possible, but if I can get sports in standard definition instead of high definition then I'd like to sign up for this immediately!
The rest of the comments are basically an advertisement for Yahoo and the NFL, including:
“I watched at home, on my phone and then my laptop. I try to watch as many games as I can. Big NFL fan. Playing at Wembley adds a little something extra. It's great to see a soccer temple being used for football. The quality was excellent. I expected a less-fluent transmission, but it turned out to be flawless.
Overall it was good. Quality on par with NFL Game Pass [the NFL’s subscription streaming service for fans outside the U.S. and Mexico]. No hassle, just click the link and it worked.”
I'll take any bit of NFL football any way I can.
I feel like the famous picture of Peter beside Roger Goodell eating lunch should be somewhere in this MMQB. It is not though, much to my dismay.
Watching NFL games on TV in Brazil is a very choppy experience: Between snaps (commercial breaks, timeouts, on-field reporting etc.), a lot of footage you see in the U.S. doesn't get televised here, so the viewing experience is not as good. The online stream was a smooth and consistent viewing experience. It was great. Much better than expected. Yahoo outdid themselves on the streaming quality.”
What if the NFL televised games on the Internet AND on a regular television? Or would that not work because it would mix revenue streams too much? I'm glad the game was a success, but it was one game, so I'm not jumping out of my seat with excitement quite yet. But Peter wants everyone who reads MMQB to know this non-experiment was a success. There was no hassle and it was in standard definition. All dreams have come true.
More progress needs to be made. The co-chair of the NFL’s Head, Neck and Spine Committee, Seattle-based doctor Richard Ellenbogen, was in London for the conference. He is also one of the NFL’s unaffiliated head-trauma experts on the sidelines, and has the power to take a player off the field if he sees the player wobbly or otherwise showing symptoms of a concussion.
He has "the power" to do this. I'm a little confused as to how this gentleman is the co-chair of an NFL committee, but also unaffiliated with the NFL. Perhaps I'm just stupid. It just seems if he is the co-chair of an NFL committee then he is affiliated with the NFL in some way.
I asked Ellenbogen if he ever felt like he, and those in the think tank Saturday, held the future of football and perhaps other contact sports in their hands. It’s clear that football is under such fire that its existence could be threatened if the fathers of the game don’t do more for the health and safety of players.
Because, yes Peter, Ellenbogen is going to say the NFL's existence would be threatened if they don't do more for the health and safety of the players. He's the co-chair of an NFL Head, Neck and Spine Committee, but he will also pronounce the league DOA if he and the rest of his committee don't do more. I simply don't believe Ellenbogen would make it sound like the future of the NFL is in his hands, because that makes the situation sound dire. The NFL disapproves of this.
“No question it’s important,” Ellenbogen said. “But the unintended consequences of getting rid of contact sports would be an unmitigated disaster. Whatever we do, please do not have the conversation about banning these [contact] sports. The benefits of sports—for physical health, for the benefits of being on a team—far outweigh the risks. I can’t even imagine the consequences if enrollment started declining in sports like football and lacrosse.”
Ah yes, a doctor who sounds like he is carrying water for the NFL. The benefit of sports OVERALL far outweigh the risks, but the risks of individual sports could outweigh the benefits of those sports. It is not as if lacrosse, football or any other sports considered "dangerous" were no longer active sports that kids and adults would have no other way of being in good physical health or exercising in any fashion. Contact sports aren't the only sports which provide good physical benefits to those who participate in sports. There are plenty of other sports that adults and children could play which would provide an opportunity for good physical health. I'm not saying to ban football, but this doctor isn't doing too much to convince me he's not carrying water for the NFL by answering a question this way. Ellenbogen is making it sound like there are no other options for those who want to exercise, other than these contact sports.
“All losses hurt. Some leave a deep scar. This is one of those.”
—Tampa Bay coach Lovie Smith. The Bucs blew a 24-0 lead at Washington and lost, 31-30.
This may not be a good thing for a head coach to say. The last thing a head coach usually wants is for his players to dwell on a difficult loss. Great way to set an example for a young quarterback and Lovie's team by saying a loss left a deep scar. Even if it's true, does Lovie really want his team focusing on the tough loss and not trying to move on to the next game? Kudos to him for being honest, I guess.
“If they trade me, I’d quit today.”
—Baltimore wide receiver Steve Smith Sr., perhaps nervous that one of the teams most inclined to trade in recent NFL history—the Ravens and their pragmatic GM, Ozzie Newsome—are on the verge of going 1-6 with the trading deadline eight days away. He made his remarks to the team’s website.
I don't believe Smith would retire if he were traded. Still, one can see why the Panthers inexplicably released Smith two seasons ago. It's not that he's a bad guy by any measure, but he can be difficult at times. This is one of those times. He'd rather continue to play on a losing team than move teams halfway through his last season in the NFL in an effort to get a Super Bowl ring.
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, cornerback, New York Giants. There’s the Matt Cassel factor here—he threw interceptions on three straight series midway through the Giants’ 27-20 win over the Cowboys on Sunday in New Jersey—but credit Rodgers-Cromartie for being in the right place at the right time for two picks totaling 70 return yards and one touchdown.
The important thing to note here is that Peter believes Matt Cassel was terrible in his only start this season, yet later in MMQB Peter will make it seems like the Bills made a mistake by trading Cassel at the beginning of the season and keeping E.J. Manuel. I guess the terrible QB the Bills traded is better than the terrible QB on the Bills' roster.
GOAT OF THE WEEK
The Houston Texans. Just an awful performance, falling behind 41-0, being outgained at one point 275-0. Time to do the proverbial look-selves-in-the-mirror and the gut-check and, well, all the other clichés.
I can't imagine what could go wrong when the Texans collect every backup quarterback the Patriots didn't want. How can Bill O'Brien fail as a head coach? He is affiliated with the Patriots AND he seemed like such a decisive team leader when the cameras were rolling for "Hard Knocks." It's almost like cameras can lie.
EJ Manuel, quarterback, Buffalo.
He followed that up with interceptions on the next two series, including one right into the arms of Telvin Smith, who returned it for a touchdown. Great end zone view on the Yahoo stream, with Manuel staring the entire time at the spot he threw to, and Smith baiting and waiting. Easy pick.
Excellent view by that Yahoo stream. Enough about football, Peter wants to talk some more about Yahoo and how great the stream was of the Bills and Jaguars game. You could see, in standard definition, by how much Blake Bortles was overthrowing his receivers. What a country! No, because this was an international broadcast, what a world!
Buffalo’s worst nightmare—first when drafting Manuel in 2013, then when dealing Matt Cassel to Dallas for a 2017 fifth-round pick.
Is this their worst nightmare? Is Matt Cassel playing for the Bills really what would fix their season? Cassel didn't exactly blow the roof off the joint in his one start with the Cowboys behind a pretty good Cowboys offensive line. Is the crappy QB not on the roster really a better option than the crappy QB on the Bills' roster?
You may not recall this. It’s been almost 10 years. But when the Patriots decided to let Adam Vinatieri go in free agency, the team was criticized in some corners for not ponying up to re-sign the kicker, who’d been the epitome of clutch.
I remember it vividly. Shockingly, someone other than Peter King can recall events that occurred longer than a few years ago. It comes as a huge surprise to Peter this is true.
• In Vinatieri’s six years (regular-season and post-season) playing for Bill Belichick, he made 82.9 percent of his field goals.
• In Gostkowski’s 10 years playing for Belichick, he has made 87.7 percent of his field goals.
Yeah, but Vinatieri was the epitome of clutch, so that has to count for something, right?
In the last 10 games against each team in their division, the Patriots are:
• 8-2 against the Jets.
• 8-2 against the Dolphins.
• 8-2 against the Bills.
Again I will ask, is this a product of the Patriots being great or the division not being very good? The AFC South is crap and the Colts have been feeding from that division for quite a few years now, but when criticizing teams like the Seahawks who make the playoffs at 7-9 just remember there may be a 12-4 team that made the playoffs based on competing in a shitty division.
Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note of the Week
I traveled six miles Friday evening to Barclays Center—what a pleasant surprise, seeing Mr. and Mrs. Brasco, Don and Alissa Banks, there—to watch an Islanders hockey game. Hockey in Brooklyn. What a country.
Rich white people all got to the same hockey game in Brooklyn. Peter left his apartment on the East Side and went to this hockey game. What a country to see someone that Peter knows at a hockey game! What a world! What a planet! What a solar system!
The place wasn’t invented for hockey. I feel for the fans who have to travel from the Island to see the Islanders.
The venue sucked. What a country.
Bonus: The drinks and food are really good there. Brooklyn Lager on tap, with a slice of square Williamsburg Pizza, terrific crust and fairly light, complete with fresh basil.
The pizza had good crust and fresh basil? So basically it was...pizza?
I just saw the whole video of Cowboys Greg Hardy on the sidelines. He is totally out of control going after one of their coaches. Terrible.
— Tony Dungy (@TonyDungy) October 26, 2015
I was unsure if this was terrible or not, but now that the Football Coach Jesus says it is, then I guess Greg Hardy's behavior was terrible. I bet Tony Dungy wants to mentor Greg Hardy. That is Dungy's thing. He wants to mentor. Perhaps someone should mentor Dungy on how to win more than one Super Bowl with Peyton Manning.
Ten Things I Think I Think
1. I think this is what I liked about Week 7:
c. Fantastic throw, catch and lunge for the touchdown by the Jags’ Blake Bortles and Allen Robinson on the first touchdown of Sunday.
Ask Davon House, Blake Bortles can throw the ball just like Aaron Rodgers. Just minus the talent, throwing ability, feel for the pass rush and any other attribute that makes Rodgers so great.
i. Good CBS graphic in the first half at Foxboro: Pats 46-4 in their previous 50 home games, best 50-game home record in the league in at least the past 50 years.
BREAKING NEWS: The Patriots are a really good team.
m. The tip-of-the-fingertips catch by Gary Barnidge, Cleveland’s emerging stalwart tight end. (You just might read about him very soon at The MMQB.)
Don't tease us about this, Peter. I bet Barnidge is a free agent after this season and Peter wants to describe how Marvin Demoff (I have no idea if that is Barnidge's agent or not) can structure a compensation package exactly to where the Browns won't be able to compete with it.
p. Incredible effort by Detroit’s Ziggy Ansah, sprinting 72 yards to catch Adrian Peterson and knock him out of bounds at the 3-yard line. It saved Detroit four points. Instead of Peterson scoring a touchdown, the Vikes settled for a field goal.
This note about great hustle from Ansah will not appear in TMQ, because Ansah is a first round glory boy pick. If it does show up, I'm sure Peter would focus on how Peterson, a highly-drafted glory boy who brags about how great he is, was caught from behind.
w. The transcendent year Josh Norman is having for Carolina. Did you see the pass-breakup he had near the end of the first half, which looked absolutely like the touchdown the Eagles desperately needed? Norman sold out, flicked it away, and saved four points; the frustrated Eagles settled for a field goal.
Norman made a great play, but he was sort of beaten. He had no choice at the time but to sell out and dive to block the pass away from the Eagles player.
2. I think this is what I didn’t like about Week 7:
b. Folks online (Twitter, elsewhere) grousing they couldn’t watch the Buffalo-Jacksonville on their big screens. Stop. Just stop. Buffalo-Jacksonville, first of all. Second: It’s bonus football, in a specially created window because it’s a London game. Third: 95 percent of the complainers would never have watched this game anyway. So stop.
I love how Peter writes this. He's really pushing this Yahoo live stream isn't he? Peter wants to write about how popular the game was, while also dismissing the game as not being worth showing on television because it is Buffalo-Jacksonville. Apparently Buffalo-Jacksonville is good enough to be watched by 30 million+ people online, but not good enough to be shown on the television. This is as opposed to all those great games played in London that have been televised. You know, all those games between two teams that don't have winning records.
I actually tried to watch the game, but didn't feel like watching it on my computer. I did not complain about it, but I can understand why some people may have. Peter doesn't think this complaints are worth much though, because 95% (and that's an exact number) would not have watched this game anyway.
k. Brandon LaFell’s hands in his first game back from injury for New England. Four first-half drops. Six for the game.
Brandon LaFell at his worst. Hands of stone.
n. Valuable and versatile Carolina rookie hurricane Shaq Thompson (knee), who’s been an eye-opening addition, sitting on Sunday night.
q. The Bills’ inactive list for Sunday: the starting quarterback (Tyrod Taylor), two starting-caliber wideouts (Sammy Watkins, Percy Harvin), one of the best defensive tackles in football (Kyle Williams), a starting offensive tackle (Seantrel Henderson), and an emerging running back (Karlos Williams).
Players get hurt. This is why an 18 game schedule would never work. I'm not sure the playoffs would be much fun to watch if the NFL went to an 18 game schedule.
y. Not to harp on this stat,
Peter will now harp on this stat. As soon as he says he doesn't want to or won't do something, he tends to do that exact thing.
but there’s a symmetry to the Colts in the Pagano/Luck Era now: Indy is 20-20 in games outside the division, including playoffs.
I mean, it was just last year that Peter was talking about what a great coach Chuck Pagano is and all of that. Now Peter is pointing out how the Colts can't beat teams that aren't in their division. Life comes at you fast.
Though his production has plummeted, he’s gotten paid. In his three post-Vikings seasons, Harvin has been paid $31.5 million. Comparing his production as a Viking to his production with the Seahawks, Jets and Bills:
• Vikings (54 games): 387 touches from scrimmage, 10.3 yards per touch, 24 touchdowns … 27.9 yards per kick return, five touchdowns.
• Seahawks, Jets, Bills (19 games): 109 touches from scrimmage, 8.7 yards per touch, three touchdowns … 24.8 yards per kick return, no touchdowns.
He's the Josh Freeman of wide receivers. Of course, Peter won't harp on Harvin's lack of production as he did for Freeman's lack of production because Harvin didn't help to get Peter's buddy fired.
8. I think if you believe Sunday was the end of the Jets for this season, after the Patriots made sure all is back to normal in the AFC East with a home win over New York, consider these points:
I don't know if anyone thought this was the end of the Jets for the season. I'm not sure why Peter is writing this.
• The Jets are 4-2.
• In the next seven weeks, they play teams with a combined record of 18-28: at Oakland (3-3), Jacksonville (2-5), Buffalo (3-4), at Houston (2-5), Miami (3-3), at the Giants (4-3), and Tennessee (1-5).
Tell me why it’s unlikely the Jets could be 10-3 entering the final three games of the season: a fascinating Week 15 Saturday night game at Dallas (with Tony Romo, presumably, back), the Patriots at home two days after Christmas, and a nippy affair at Buffalo three days into 2016. I’m just saying I certainly don't consider the AFC East race to be wide open, but it might not be over yet.
Peter, you are the one who is talking about how dominant the Patriots have been in their division. Not many other people are claiming the AFC race is over. You are countering an argument that I'm not sure many people are making.
10. I think these are my non-NFL thoughts of the week:
g. RIP Cory Wells, one of the lead singers of Three Dog Night. I show my age here, but I loved that band. “Shambala” and “Mama Told Me Not To Com,” were two of Wells’ best.
"Mama Told Me Not to Com" was the first song to encourage people to stay off the Internet. It's the anti-technology song to end all anti-technology songs. Mama told him not to com, but he logged on anyway. Probably to watch the Buffalo-Jacksonville live stream.
k. Did you see the Georgia Tech player, waving teammates away from the loose ball that would become a return for the winning touchdown of Florida State-Georgia Tech? Good thing at least one Yellow Jacket paid no attention. Coaches: Don’t assume your players know all the rules.
NFL players don't know the rules. There is evidence the officials in the NFL don't know the rules. So this doesn't surprise me the players in college and the NFL may not know the rules.
m. Beernerdness: Had a Sidewinder Southwest Pale Ale (Revolver Brewing, Granbury, Texas), made with water from an aquifer on the property of the brewery—and a hint of agave, which is a first for me in a beer, I think—and really enjoyed it.
Peter drank a pale ale! This was a beer that didn't require a fruit or anything like a slice of an orange in it to taste good! This is progress!
n. Hockey’s a strange game. The Devils lost their first four games, 3-1, 5-3, 3-1 and 2-1. In the past week, they won their next four: 2-1, 3-2, 5-4 and 4-2.
It's crazy that one result for a team doesn't mean that team will have the result in every single game. How amazing that professional sports teams will play well or play poorly over short stretches of the season. What a country. Only in hockey.
The Adieu Haiku
The byes wreak havoc.
No Bengals, Packers, Broncos.
Week seven: quite meh.
There are six undefeated teams, but none of the undefeated teams were interesting enough for Peter. Much like the Adieu Haiku, Week 7 was "meh." In fact, the best thing about the week was the Yahoo live stream. What a great success for the NFL! Has Peter mentioned what a great success it was? He really enjoyed watching it in his apartment on the East Side of Manhattan.
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
3 comments MMQB Review: Peter Talks About Tim Tebow, Not Because He Wants to, But Because One Anonymous Coach Said Tebow May Make the Eagles Roster
Peter King described Troy Polamalu as a pure safety in last week's MMQB in order to explain how safeties aren't often elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, then went out of his way to get quotes from Dick LeBeau and Joe Flacco that show Polamalu was more of a hybrid safety. He also spotlighted Sarah Thomas again and wondered if she could handle grown men yelling at her. Peter also continued his useless Adieu Haiku. This week Peter talks about Tim Tebow being signed by the Eagles (not that he is just another media member obsessed with Tebow of course), talks yet again about Malcom Butler's interception in the Super Bowl, and has some strong feelings about how the NHL does their draft lottery. Oh, and Peter thinks the Patriots should have done more homework on Aaron Hernandez prior to giving him a contract extension. That's easy to say now.
Timeline of Sunday night:
It's important that Peter breakdown the timeline here. We are about two weeks away from Peter mocking the Tebow-mania that goes on in the media. It's the same Tebow-mania he is guilty of himself, but he won't be self-aware enough to realize this.
6:34 p.m. ET: FOX’s Jay Glazer reports the Eagles will sign quarterback Tim Tebow, unemployed by any NFL team for the past 20 months, on Monday.
7:46 p.m.: ESPN’s Darren Rovell tweets, “98,000 Tweets on Tim Tebow in last hour.”
9:02 p.m.: Assistant coach in the NFL who knows Kelly but does not work with him says to me, “This is not a prayer. There’s a chance here. If there’s one coach in the NFL who could figure a way to use Tebow, it’s Chip. Maybe not every week, but in spots.”
Substitute the word "Belichick" for "Kelly," then "Bill" for "Chip" and I have heard this shit before. I believe it was previously Bill Belichick who could use Tebow on the Patriots roster and would figure out a way to utilize him best.
Tebow signing with most teams in the NFL today might not lead this column, especially because I’ve got two other items I really like. Tebow signing with the Eagles leads the column because, as my anonymous coach says, Kelly will give Tebow a legitimate chance to be one of his three quarterbacks this season. I say “chance,” because that is what this is.
Don't bullshit us, Peter. It's unbecoming. You have Tebow lead the column because putting "Tim Tebow" in the title of MMQB and leading off with it increases pageviews. Don't be a liar and don't use horseshit excuses. It doesn't make sense to write, "Well, I wouldn't normally lead the column off with Tebow, but I'm doing it because some anonymous coach says Tebow has a chance to be the third-string QB for the Eagles." So simply because some anonymous coach gives Tebow "a chance" to make the roster all of a sudden it's worthy of leading MMQB with this story? Please. Just say you know Tebow provides pageviews and that's why you are leading the column off with Tebow. You can find an anonymous coach to give credibility to any roster move if you really want to. Peter really wanted to find one, so he can act like it's worth leading off MMQB with Tebow.
This morning, Kelly has five quarterbacks on his roster, which will expand to 90 players in the next two weeks, once the draft and the signing of free agents is done. Kinne might be gone then. Who knows? Barkley might be gone then, traded or released. But Chip Kelly wants to get a good look for himself at Tim Tebow in the offseason program and presumably at training camp for at least a while.
Thanks for the inside information there, Peter. This does seem to explain why the Eagles signed Tebow, to get a look at him. The fact Tebow has "a chance" to make the roster, doesn't mean all of a sudden this Tebow is story more important than it otherwise would have been. Just say you wanted to lead off the column with the story that provides the most discussion and pageviews.
I don’t blame him. I applaud him. You’ve got 90 spots on your roster. If you think a player has a chance to help your team win a game somewhere down the road this season, wouldn’t you want to take a look at him for a few months—for free? Because the Tebow trial will cost Kelly essentially nothing.
I don't think anyone is blaming Chip Kelly. Little defensive here, Peter?
In 2010 he was a first-round pick.
Stupidly he was, yes.
He has a skill set that fits in Kelly’s spread scheme with an emphasis on quarterback runs (at times). I still think Kelly wants to have a mashing-type running game, with a physical back (he has that now, in DeMarco Murray) and a quarterback who, at least occasionally, can be a running threat.
Tim Tebow could succeed. He may not succeed.
Let’s be real about what this is:
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh, Peter is about to get real!
It’s a trial. It’s a chance. It’s a coach who doesn’t care about the distraction of having Tim Tebow in his camp, because he thinks Tebow might help his team. And about that distraction thing: Did you ever hear Bill Belichick or Robert Kraft or Tom Brady talk about Tebow being a distraction in Foxboro in 2013, when Tebow was on that team for the whole of training camp? No.
Well, I partially didn't hear them complain because I don't cover football for a living nor am I around the Patriots team to where I could hear them complain. The fact a tight-lipped organization didn't publicly complain about distractions a player brought to the team doesn't really mean there was no distraction. Do I ever hear Brady, Kraft or Belichick complain about any player being a distraction? No? It doesn't mean that player wasn't a distraction.
Cutting Tebow was justified. Tebow didn’t deserve to be on that team. He might deserve to be a cog in the wheel in Philadelphia. We’ll see.
But more importantly, Peter didn't lead off this column with Tebow because he wants pageviews, it's because there's "a chance" Tebow makes the Eagles roster. That is enough to give Tebow the lede for this MMQB. Peter almost HAD to lead the column with Tebow or he wouldn't be doing his job as a serious journalist.
Tebow getting signed by the Eagles is not the decline of western sporting civilization.
No one said it was. Calm the fuck down.
It is a coach running an offensive system that’s a good fit for a mobile quarterback just looking into whether one of the best mobile quarterbacks in college football history—and one, by the way, who beat the Dick LeBeau-led Steelers defense in an NFL playoff game—can be That Guy.
Oh my God. How long is Tebow going to be given credit for beating the Steelers at home in a playoff game?
Hall of Fame GMs on Winston vs. Mariota
Before we learn the real story behind the Malcolm Butler interception, and why I think Big Ben is bound for the season-opener, and finally someone going on the record in San Francisco on L’Affair Harbaugh,two voices of sanity on the great quarterback debate of 2015.
Peter sort of already did this. I'll guess he'll do it again. The Super Bowl was over two months ago. There is nothing better to kill space than hearing the "real" story of Malcolm Butler's interception? Nothing else?
In August, Ron Wolf and Bill Polian will become the first general managers since 1995 enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Both are still active in the game. Wolf has been a consultant to several teams in recent years, most recently the Jets in a scouting and coach-and-GM-advisory capacity.
Oh. He was involved with the Jets recently.
Polian works for ESPN as an NFL analyst, and has been watching tape of college players preparing to work the draft.
Bill Polian is like, "Draft Peyton Manning and then reap the benefits. That's my advice to the Buccaneers and Titans."
Polian had to choose between Peyton Manning and Ryan Leaf in 1998 as general manager of the Colts, and between Kerry Collins and Steve McNair for the Panthers in 1995.
Hey, one for two isn't bad. Then Polian had to choose whether to build the Panthers for success for the future or build them for short-term success that would enable him to get a job somewhere else and I think I remember which option he chose.
I asked both Hall of Fame GMs over the weekend: If you had to choose between quarterbacks Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota in this draft, who would you take?
In fairness, both answered with asterisks, which I’ll explain.
In fairness, I'm going to need a fucking solid answer if I'm to believe these two Hall of Fame GM's aren't just going to say nothing in the hopes they won't be seen as wrong.
“I’d probably lean toward Mariota,” Polian said.
“If I had to pick, based strictly on what I know now, I’d pick Winston,” said Wolf.
Actually Ron Wolf, you will be allowed a five minute look into the future. Put your head into this metal contraption that looks like a bear trap, but is totally NOT a bear trap, so just stick your head in there and I'll let you make the decision based on what you know in the future. But you only get a five minute look!
Every single decision a GM makes is based strictly on what he knows now.
The provisos: Polian said it’s unfair to make a definitive choice without knowing everything your organization would know about the mental makeup and off-the-field behavior of the players. Wolf said “it isn’t fair” for him to judge Mariota with finality because he’s done much more work on Winston, even seeing him on the field in warmups before the Florida State-Miami game last fall.
Well great, I'm glad Peter asked your opinion then. Because I know Peter's readers are looking for an opinion with a huge asterisk beside that essentially says, "I don't know enough about this player to provide an opinion on this topic, even though I've been set up as an expert on the topic."
With those “yeah buts” out of the way, it was clear in talking to both men they have strong opinions on these players.
Strong opinions that they would prefer not to be held to, because their strong opinions are based only on what they know now and they can't predict the future so if they are right please remember they were right, but if they were wrong then let's forget about it and hey look remember Brett Favre and Peyton Manning?
“I’ve seen Mariota on tape—I’d have to see a lot more of him—and I’ve seen Winston in-person and on tape,’’ said Wolf. “I’ve been exposed to Winston more. I watched Winston versus Miami before the game, down on the field, and then will his team back from a 16-point deficit. He’s an imposing guy. He has everything you’d want in a quarterback. I thought he was superb. What I know about Winston I like a lot. I’d take him in a heartbeat.”
But this doesn't mean in the next heartbeat he wouldn't take Marcus Mariota.
I asked: “If the psychological report on Winston was clean, would it still be Mariota?”
Polian: “Very, very close. But I’d probably lean toward Mariota, as I said. It’s closer than Manning-Leaf was. Way closer. More like Collins-McNair in ’95. With Mariota, I don’t think playing from the pocket will be an issue; he did a lot of that in the eight or nine games I saw. And he didn’t throw 18 interceptions either. On 14 of those 18 interceptions, Winston didn’t see linebackers underneath or he zeroed in on the receiver regardless of coverage.
“But look, both guys have a chance to be successful. They’re both gifted.
Thanks Bill Polian! I feel smarter now knowing that you would choose Marcus Mariota.
And I’ve got to go with the more sure thing in my mind—Mariota.”
But this isn't a definitive choice of course.
Memo to Tampa Bay GM Jason Licht: The moral of this story, this year, is there isn’t a 100-percent sure thing, for a variety of reasons. You’d better go with your gut. The gut sounds like it’ll be Winston as we sit here, 10 days before D-Day.
Oh yeah, D-Day. That's the day that resulted in Peter King having a lot of chances to ask soldiers how many people they killed.
I hope I don't forget to remember Peter called the 10 days before the draft as "D-Day" the next time Peter gives a lecture to someone about taking football too seriously.
The inside story of how Malcolm Butler made that interception.
(Deep sigh)
The still-stunning play that decided Super Bowl 49, of course, was little-used nickelback Malcolm Butler’s interception of a Russell Wilson pass with 23 seconds left in the game at the Patriots’ goal line, preserving New England’s 28-24 victory. On a soon-to-be released video series, a part of which I recently got to watch, you’ll be able to see the rest of the story. Namely, why Butler made the play, and how the Patriots’ coaches made sure an error in Thursday’s practice by Butler would not be repeated.
I'm not still-stunned. Miraculously, I have managed to move on with my life.
The still-stunning play that decided Super Bowl 49, of course, was little-used nickelback Malcolm Butler’s interception of a Russell Wilson pass with 23 seconds left in the game at the Patriots’ goal line, preserving New England’s 28-24 victory. On a soon-to-be released video series, a part of which I recently got to watch, you’ll be able to see the rest of the story. Namely, why Butler made the play, and how the Patriots’ coaches made sure an error in Thursday’s practice by Butler would not be repeated.
It's almost like practice is useful or something.
We were anticipating a bunch of pick routes, rub routes [by Seattle],” Boyer says on the video. “We didn’t do a very good job at the point … Malcolm kind of gave some ground there. Garoppolo ended up hitting Josh Boyce for a touchdown. Obviously, as a coach, that doesn’t make you feel good. Coach Belichick, Coach Patricia, they’re like, ‘Malcolm, you’ve got to play this a little better … You’ve got to stick your foot in the ground and go and not give any ground and beat him to the junction point and make a play on the ball.’ ”
In the Super Bowl, of course, Butler went around the attempted pick by the first man in the stack—Jermaine Kearse, who was being blocked by cornerback Brandon Browner—and powered into position for the interception. Butler blasted Ricardo Lockette and caught the Wilson pass simultaneously. The coaches’ point hit home.
It did hit home. It was a great play by Malcolm Butler and he learned from his mistake in practice. So the inside story seems to be that the Patriots practiced defending this play prior to the Super Bowl and it paid off in the Super Bowl. I'm pretty sure I had heard that Butler got burnt for a TD in practice on a similar play, so maybe this wasn't quite an "inside" story. But hey, I guess Peter can't talk about Tim Tebow throughout MMQB.
Pittsburgh at New England, Sept. 10.
I’ll tell you why:
Why Peter? What reason is it? Could it be some in-depth scheduling quirk the NFL doesn't allow the public to know about? Is this matchup traditionally one of the higher rated games?
Ben Roethlisberger.
Okay. So I guess that explains it then...I guess.
So what do we have as candidates in a relatively weak New England home schedule? Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, along with the refurbished Buffalo Bills and New York Jets. Tom Brady will be on one side, and the Patriots will be favored against any team on the other sideline that first night. But the one thing the NFL can’t have is a 24-3 game at halftime. Pittsburgh is the best insurance against that risk.
And Ben Roethlisberger is the only one who plays for the Steelers, so as the quarterback of the Steelers he is the key to the defense not giving up 24 points in the first half? It makes perfect sense to me.
Philadelphia, likely with new quarterback Sam Bradford, who has missed 25 of his last 32 games with back-to-back ACL surgeries in 2013 and 2014. What if he gets hurt again, or is rusty coming back to the game?
The Jets, with Ryan Fitzpatrick or Geno Smith. Could be a debacle by halftime.
Buffalo, with Matt Cassel or EJ Manuel. Less of a chance to be a debacle at halftime, but there’s still that chance.
Pittsburgh, with two-time Super Bowl champ Roethlisberger at the controls, a gunslinger capable of playing a four-quarter shootout with Brady.
So basically it took Peter a couple of paragraphs to explain that he thinks the opening game will be Steelers-Patriots because the Patriots don't have too many good teams coming to play them in Foxboro and the Steelers are the best team with the best quarterback that is coming to Foxboro. Wow, it took me once sentence to say it AND I saved the dramatics that Peter attempted.
One interesting point about the opener, if it’s Steelers-Patriots: Each team would be without a suspended running back from the same pot-smoking incident in August 2014—Le’Veon Bell for Pittsburgh and LeGarrette Blount for New England.
What a nugget of coincidence!
I'm surprised Peter didn't write,
"Two key players from both teams will be missing that first game if it is Steelers-Patriots. I'll tell you why."
"Drugs, carousing."
"Le'Veon Bell and LeGarrette Blount are both in the same boat. A drug boat that is. Let me tell you why they are in a drug boat."
"Suspensions."
"Both Le'Veon Bell and LeGarrett Blount won't be present for the first game of the season due to being suspended and let me tell you why."
"Drugs, cars. What does this have to do with LeGarrette Blount and Le'Veon Bell? I'll tell you."
"They are both suspended for the first game of the season due to an incident they both participated in where they had drugs in a car. I'll tell you more in a second."
"They were in the same car and will be suspended the same amount of time for the same drug violation. I'll tell you in a minute which team they were on when this happened and how it's relevant now."
"They were both on the Steelers team at the time and they would be facing each other if the Steelers-Patriots play at a certain time during the season. I'll tell you which game that is."
"The first game of the season."
Peter has to extend those dramatic reveals a bit.
The schedule will be announced sometime this week. I’ve been wrong before, many times on many things. But Pittsburgh-New England makes the most sense to me.
Because this may be the most competitive home game for the Patriots. It's not complicated, yet Peter got a whole section of MMQB out of it.
Andrea Kremer has an insightful story Tuesday night on “HBO Real Sports” on Jim Harbaugh, who wore out his welcome in San Francisco and is now the University of Michigan coach. The piece has detailed quotes from Niners guard Alex Boone, who says Harbaugh gave the team a great initial spark when he got there in a time of major malaise for the franchise in 2011.
Continues Boone: “He just keeps pushing you. And you’re like, ‘Dude, we got over the mountain. Stop. Let go.’ He kinda wore out his welcome. I think he just pushed guys too far.
I know. I hate it when NFL coaches are constantly trying to push professionals to be better than they think they can be. Lay off them, the 49ers had won a few Super Bowls. They were over the mountain.
There’s no question San Francisco owner Jed York wanted a little more of a kumbaya attitude with the front office out of Harbaugh that wasn’t forthcoming.
Jim Tomsula says the attitude around the team still isn't going to be all Kumbayan, it's going to be a straight American attitude. These Kumbayan people probably don't know how to motivate themselves like Americans do.
And now we see that some of the players—at least one, and I’ve heard reliably it isn’t just one—didn’t like Harbaugh as time went on in San Francisco either. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean he should be gone. I covered the Giants in the eighties, and Bill Parcells was hardly a players’ favorite in all corners of the locker room, even after the Giants won a Super Bowl.
Bill Parcells, Bill Parcells, Bill Parcells. The standard upon which Peter King compares all head coaches.
“The players have nothing to do with him getting fired,” Boone says to Kremer. “I think that if you’re stuck in your ways enough, eventually people are just gonna say, ‘Listen, we can’t work with this.’ ”
That's a great point. The 49ers had reached the mountain, so what else did they have to accomplish at that point? So Harbaugh should have just laid off knowing he had an incredibly successful team that achieved every team goal an NFL team could achieve. Every. Single. One. Mountain. Climbed.
“Why did Pete Carroll throw that ball? Seattle’s at the half-yard line. If anybody in the league can get a half-yard, it’s Beast Mode [Marshawn Lynch].”
—Spike Lee, speaking at the premiere of “The Greatest Catch Ever,” his half-hour documentary on the David Tyree catch in Super Bowl 42 that helped the Giants end the Patriots’ dream of a 19-0 season.
Well first off, Pete Carroll doesn't call the plays. He may have signed off on this play, but he isn't directly responsible for the play call. There is no second off. That is all.
I was at the documentary premeire Sunday in New York, and three things occurred to me:
That you were subtlety trying to brag about being at the premiere of the documentary?
1. Lee kept coming back to this in a post-doc Q&A on stage. He was legitimately angry, confused and befuddled by the Carroll call, and no one in the theater could give him a smart answer on it.
If no one in the theater could give Lee a smart answer, then obviously the theater was full of sportswriters like Peter.
2. The star of the doc was Rodney Harrison, and I don’t say that just because I work with him.
Yes, Peter probably does just say this because he works with Rodney Harrison.
He was, well, just so moved, in a bad way, by the failure to dislodge the ball from Tyree. So moved, in fact, that when he went back to his hotel after the game, he said he holed himself up in the bathroom of his room and cried.
This is probably a typical response to losing the Super Bowl, though this catch didn't win the game for the Giants so Harrison would have had a few other chances to make up for not dislodging the ball. Like maybe he could have figured out a way for Plaxico Burress to be covered better in the end zone.
“I never want to kill the dream of playing two sports. I would honestly play two sports … I may push the envelope one of these days … I know I can play in the big leagues. With the work ethic and all that, I think I definitely could, for sure. And that’s why the Texas Rangers, you know, got my rights. And they want me to play. You know, Jon Daniels, the GM, wants me to play [baseball]. We were talking about it the other day.”
—Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson, in an interview with Bryant Gumbel for Tuesday’s “HBO Real Sports” show.
I personally find Russell Wilson to be a disingenuous person. He's a great quarterback and I don't think he's much worse than other pro athletes, but I don't buy the whole "nice guy" act he puts on. I think he creates his own reality at times (for example, his comment about being "kicked off" the N.C. State football team) and this quote is simply Wilson trying to get some leverage in negotiations with the Seahawks. That's all. Wilson chose to play professional baseball and that's why he got "kicked off" the Wolfpack football team in favor of a quarterback who had talent (Mike Glennon) and actually cared to be with the team during the summer. But of course Wilson sees himself as the victim there. Now he's pretending he can or would really play for the Rangers. I don't buy it for a second.
Very interesting. This quote will make the bulletin board of Seattle GM John Schneider, who is trying to get Wilson signed long-term. The two-time NFC champion quarterback’s contract expires at the end of this season, and the two sides are eligible to sign a new deal now, though no agreement is close.
This is all it is. A feeble attempt to pretend he would actually play baseball for the Rangers rather than play in the NFL. I don't buy it and Wilson will play football over baseball for the same reason he didn't play for the Rockies and chose to transfer to Wisconsin. That reason being he'd rather be a football player and knows it would be hard to make it in baseball at this point.
“I owe private apologies to a lot of people that I disappointed but a very public one to the Browns organization and the fans that I let down. I take full responsibility for my actions and it’s my intention to work very hard to regain everyone’s trust and respect. I understand that will take time and will only happen through what I do and not what I say.’’
—Part of a statement attributed to Johnny Manziel and released through the Cleveland Browns on Friday, after his three-month stay in a rehab facility for treatment of substance abuse.
The last part is most important: Manziel said a lot between February 2014 and December 2014 about his devotion to football and his maturity and—well, all the good stuff he had to say to convince everyone in the NFL he was worth a first-round pick,
Yes, but the only ones who believed it were the ones who wanted to believe it. The idea Manziel would stop partying and get more serious about football just as soon as he gets paid to play the sport was just not realistic. This of course wouldn't matter if he performed on the field.
For the Why Would Philip Rivers Ever Favor A Trade To Tennessee crowd:
Rivers is a homebody.
He and wife Tiffany, both from northern Alabama, have their strongest family ties to the Deep South.
Yes, but Tennessee is not the Deep South. Maybe northern Alabama is, but Tennessee is not.
Rivers was born in Decatur, Ala., 114 miles south of Nashville.
Rivers was a high school football star in Athens, Ala., 97 miles south of Nashville.
The closest NFL franchise to Athens, Ala., by far, is Tennessee. The Atlanta Falcons are twice as far away.
In his most accurate season as an NFL quarterback, 2013, Rivers’ offensive coordinator was Ken Whisenhunt, now the Titans coach and a fervent Rivers fan.
It makes sense, but the thought of Rivers in Tampa Bay with Evans and Jackson is terrifying to me.
Let me make it clear that I am not saying Rivers would rather play anywhere else but San Diego. But too many people wonder why he’d ever want to play for Tennessee. Those are a few clues.
"Tennessee bound for Rivers? Maybe. Why? Peter will get to this."
"Why would Philip Rivers like to play in Tennessee? I will tell you in a minute."
I should probably be happy that Peter didn't have any dramatics surrounding why Rivers would like to play in Tennessee.
Ten Things I Think I Think
1. I think there are two points about Aaron Hernandez that can’t be forgotten.
I should probably just be happy that Peter didn't write he has a few "bullet points" regarding items about Hernandez that can't be forgotten. Peter would write that, Richard Deitsch would defend him saying Peter takes too much shit and then Peter would apologize explaining that he didn't know guns shot bullets.
One, if a player has strong ties to a sordid past—either gang-related or simply sordid in some other way—it’s not very smart for that player to be playing in the backyard of his youth. Hernandez’s hometown of Bristol, Conn., is 115 miles from Foxboro.
Well Hernandez certainly wasn't going to request that he didn't play for the Patriots because he was afraid he would end up murdering someone. The Patriots probably didn't know the extent to which Hernandez had gang ties.
As Greg Bedard reported last month, Hernandez went to the combine in 2013, ostensibly to ask Bill Belichick for a trade to distance himself from some dangerous friends back home. Bedard couldn’t nail down the details of the story. Was Hernandez trying to start a new life and just couldn’t get out of his current one?
Hmmm...this seems like an action that was too self-aware for a guy who later committed murder.
Two: The Patriots can, and should, be faulted for their private-eye work, or lack of it, before giving Hernandez a rich contract in 2012. It’s true that teams can’t know everything about their players, but I’d think it’d be reasonable to expect that if you’re going to commit $40 million to a player on your team with a history of some transgressions off the field (and Hernandez did have them at Florida), you’d do more investigating than the Patriots did before signing him to the rich extension.
Perhaps the Patriots did what they thought was a sufficient amount of investigation into Hernandez prior to the draft and then prior to his signing an extension. I would imagine the Patriots looked into Hernandez prior to drafting him and then the organization saw him all the time when he was actually a member of the Patriots. In hindsight, more investigating makes sense, but the Patriots may have felt like they knew Aaron Hernandez. Besides, plenty of NFL players have gang ties and that doesn't mean they end up murdering someone. It's fun to fault the Patriots for what they should have known, but whether a guy will commit murder or not after being drafted by an NFL team isn't exactly predictable.
3. I think I’m starting to have my mind changed. I’ve thought all along that Adrian Peterson has likely played his last game for Minnesota, because he obviously doesn’t want to be there. But the question is: What team out there wants to commit $13 million in cash to a 30-year-old running back—albeit a great one—with salaries of $15 million in 2016 and $17 million in 2017 on the horizon?
That's a great question and one reason I thought it was a bit silly that Peter thought Peterson could force his way out of Minnesota. Peterson can hold out of camp all he wants, but he's only getting older and more expensive for whatever team trades for him. While Peterson has leverage over the Vikings, the Vikings have leverage in that Peterson understands if he wants to play in the NFL, time isn't on his side and he can't afford to hold out of training camp.
I don’t believe Vikings GM Rick Spielman will be pressured into a deal. And I don’t believe Peterson will choose to forfeit the weekly paychecks of $765,000 this season. So though it may get ugly, I think there’s an increasing chance the Vikings are not going to bend to Peterson by draft weekend unless the offer for him is a high pick or picks.
I feel sad for Adrian Peterson that he thinks this is going to work. Running backs are being devalued, Peterson is on the wrong side of 30, and he's a very expensive player with a weird history of tangling with the court system over the whipping of his kids. He's got baggage, so Peterson may want to just play for the Vikings.
5. I think if I were the Giants at No. 9, I’d take Trae Waynes over Brandon Scherff. Rare cornerbacks—and the 6-1, sub-4.4-in-the-40 Waynes is potentially quite rare—are harder to find than very good offensive line prospects. Pro Football Focushas Waynes
Is "Pro Football Focushas" the international version of "Pro Football Focus"?
with problems on change of direction, which would be a issue with a cornerback, so it’ll be interesting to see how teams factor that in—if they agree—as the first round approaches.
I can't imagine why a cornerback would need to change direction.
6. I think the Seahawks players did a smart thing, both in inviting new tight end Jimmy Graham along on a training/fun trip to Hawaii last week, and in poking public fun at the feud they had from the 2013 season with Graham. Before a playoff game, Bruce Irvin and Graham jawed at each other on the field, and last week Irvin sent out a photo on Instagram of Graham having to be restrained from fighting Irvin. They were play-acting.
Oh, so they were play-acting and weren't really going to fight? Thanks for clearing that up Peter. If you had not cleared it up then I'm sure your readers would have been so foolish as to think Bruce Irvin would Instagram a picture of him fighting one of his new teammates.
Also, Jimmy Graham IS soft. I don't want that to get confused.
8. I think Georgia running back Todd Gurley, five months after ACL surgery, got some good news the other day at the combine medical re-check in Indianapolis. So good, in fact, that one team interested in Gurley now thinks it’s legitimately possible he wouldn’t have to start the year on the physically unable to perform list; he could well be active. Seems little doubt Gurley will be a first-round pick.
Draft Todd Gurley or pay $45 million for three years of Adrian Peterson...I know which one I would take personally.
9. I think one name stands above others on the Mysteries of the 2015 Draft list: wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham. Boom or bust. Very big boom or very big bust. A GM who takes Green-Beckham in the first round is a GM who feels very secure in his job
Just write it Peter. You know you want to. List the same teams you always list that could draft a player like Green-Beckham and surround him with veteran players who will show him the right way. The Patriots, Seahawks, etc. Or have the Patriots been kicked off that list due to the whole "Aaron Hernandez committed murder so there goes the Patriot Way" issue?
10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:
Quick joke for college football fans...did you know Nick O'Leary is Jack Nicklaus' grandson? You would think this could get mentioned every once in a while.
e. I’m not much of an NBA fan (in fact, I’m not one at all),
And here comes a conclusion based on Peter's lack of experience in watching NBA games. It's a guarantee Peter will come to a definitive conclusion after stating he doesn't watch the NBA.
but did anyone notice the Celtics finished the year on a 17-7 run and ended 40-42? Brad Stevens must be pretty good.
Yes Peter, Brad Stevens must be pretty good based on your observation the Celtics played well at the end of the year in a bad Eastern Conference. You don't watch the NBA at all, but you feel free to come to conclusions about players/coaches/teams in the NBA.
f. Paul Blart. One of the great, and most apt, names in film history.
Peter King. One of the lofty, and most apt, names in history for Peter's opinion of himself.
h. The Edmonton Oilers won the lottery to pick number one in the 2015 NHL draft. Okay. Shouldn’t sports leagues have some sort of rule how many times you can have the top picks in an X-year span? Since 2010, and including this year, Edmonton has picked (in order) first, first, first, seventh, third and first. This year they’re bound to take an incredible prospect, Connor McDavid. Edmonton must have taken some other incredible players the past five drafts, and the Oilers still stink. Why reward this?
What's the alternative, Peter? Be a problem solver, not just a problem spotter. The lottery is designed to allow the worst teams an opportunity to acquire the best players in the draft. If Peter thinks this shouldn't be rewarded, then I'm sure the NHL would love to hear suggestions on how to fix this. Suggestions that of course Peter doesn't have.
j. Maybe I’m wrong about this. Tell me if I am. But to continue to reward a team that simply can’t turn it around … It just seems wrong to me.
Says the guy who covers a sport where the Raiders have picked in the Top 10 over the last decade. What's the alternative that Peter prefers? A lottery like the NBA (a sport Peter doesn't watch) has? It's not like there aren't teams in the NBA who get Top 10 picks every year and still can't turn their team around.
k. Coffeenerdness: It’s okay on a warm afternoon to stray from coffee. You can have the occasional unsweetened iced green tea, and you’ll get the desired jolt. And the quenching of the thirst at the same time.
Thanks for the permission to drink unsweetened iced green tea. By the way, "unsweetened iced green tea" sounds like the way someone who is in the 1% of income earners like Peter is would drink iced tea. I can think of no loftier, more haughty way to drink iced tea.
n. Man, that Britt McHenry video is tough to watch.
She's on television, bitch.
o. This must have been weird: The Giants, riding an eight-game losing streak, got their World Series rings Saturday night.
It possibly could have been more motivational than weird. The Giants did win the World Series last year. It would be weird if there were few players from the 2014 World Series winning Giants team still on the roster when they got their World Series rings.
The Adieu Haiku
Draft’s 10 days away.
Still. Explain that. I beg you.
Thing should be in March.
Why would Peter's readers have to explain this? It's the NFL's decision. Also, the haiku is still pointless and useless.
Timeline of Sunday night:
It's important that Peter breakdown the timeline here. We are about two weeks away from Peter mocking the Tebow-mania that goes on in the media. It's the same Tebow-mania he is guilty of himself, but he won't be self-aware enough to realize this.
6:34 p.m. ET: FOX’s Jay Glazer reports the Eagles will sign quarterback Tim Tebow, unemployed by any NFL team for the past 20 months, on Monday.
7:46 p.m.: ESPN’s Darren Rovell tweets, “98,000 Tweets on Tim Tebow in last hour.”
9:02 p.m.: Assistant coach in the NFL who knows Kelly but does not work with him says to me, “This is not a prayer. There’s a chance here. If there’s one coach in the NFL who could figure a way to use Tebow, it’s Chip. Maybe not every week, but in spots.”
Substitute the word "Belichick" for "Kelly," then "Bill" for "Chip" and I have heard this shit before. I believe it was previously Bill Belichick who could use Tebow on the Patriots roster and would figure out a way to utilize him best.
Tebow signing with most teams in the NFL today might not lead this column, especially because I’ve got two other items I really like. Tebow signing with the Eagles leads the column because, as my anonymous coach says, Kelly will give Tebow a legitimate chance to be one of his three quarterbacks this season. I say “chance,” because that is what this is.
Don't bullshit us, Peter. It's unbecoming. You have Tebow lead the column because putting "Tim Tebow" in the title of MMQB and leading off with it increases pageviews. Don't be a liar and don't use horseshit excuses. It doesn't make sense to write, "Well, I wouldn't normally lead the column off with Tebow, but I'm doing it because some anonymous coach says Tebow has a chance to be the third-string QB for the Eagles." So simply because some anonymous coach gives Tebow "a chance" to make the roster all of a sudden it's worthy of leading MMQB with this story? Please. Just say you know Tebow provides pageviews and that's why you are leading the column off with Tebow. You can find an anonymous coach to give credibility to any roster move if you really want to. Peter really wanted to find one, so he can act like it's worth leading off MMQB with Tebow.
This morning, Kelly has five quarterbacks on his roster, which will expand to 90 players in the next two weeks, once the draft and the signing of free agents is done. Kinne might be gone then. Who knows? Barkley might be gone then, traded or released. But Chip Kelly wants to get a good look for himself at Tim Tebow in the offseason program and presumably at training camp for at least a while.
Thanks for the inside information there, Peter. This does seem to explain why the Eagles signed Tebow, to get a look at him. The fact Tebow has "a chance" to make the roster, doesn't mean all of a sudden this Tebow is story more important than it otherwise would have been. Just say you wanted to lead off the column with the story that provides the most discussion and pageviews.
I don’t blame him. I applaud him. You’ve got 90 spots on your roster. If you think a player has a chance to help your team win a game somewhere down the road this season, wouldn’t you want to take a look at him for a few months—for free? Because the Tebow trial will cost Kelly essentially nothing.
I don't think anyone is blaming Chip Kelly. Little defensive here, Peter?
In 2010 he was a first-round pick.
Stupidly he was, yes.
He has a skill set that fits in Kelly’s spread scheme with an emphasis on quarterback runs (at times). I still think Kelly wants to have a mashing-type running game, with a physical back (he has that now, in DeMarco Murray) and a quarterback who, at least occasionally, can be a running threat.
Tim Tebow could succeed. He may not succeed.
Let’s be real about what this is:
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh, Peter is about to get real!
It’s a trial. It’s a chance. It’s a coach who doesn’t care about the distraction of having Tim Tebow in his camp, because he thinks Tebow might help his team. And about that distraction thing: Did you ever hear Bill Belichick or Robert Kraft or Tom Brady talk about Tebow being a distraction in Foxboro in 2013, when Tebow was on that team for the whole of training camp? No.
Well, I partially didn't hear them complain because I don't cover football for a living nor am I around the Patriots team to where I could hear them complain. The fact a tight-lipped organization didn't publicly complain about distractions a player brought to the team doesn't really mean there was no distraction. Do I ever hear Brady, Kraft or Belichick complain about any player being a distraction? No? It doesn't mean that player wasn't a distraction.
Cutting Tebow was justified. Tebow didn’t deserve to be on that team. He might deserve to be a cog in the wheel in Philadelphia. We’ll see.
But more importantly, Peter didn't lead off this column with Tebow because he wants pageviews, it's because there's "a chance" Tebow makes the Eagles roster. That is enough to give Tebow the lede for this MMQB. Peter almost HAD to lead the column with Tebow or he wouldn't be doing his job as a serious journalist.
Tebow getting signed by the Eagles is not the decline of western sporting civilization.
No one said it was. Calm the fuck down.
It is a coach running an offensive system that’s a good fit for a mobile quarterback just looking into whether one of the best mobile quarterbacks in college football history—and one, by the way, who beat the Dick LeBeau-led Steelers defense in an NFL playoff game—can be That Guy.
Oh my God. How long is Tebow going to be given credit for beating the Steelers at home in a playoff game?
Hall of Fame GMs on Winston vs. Mariota
Before we learn the real story behind the Malcolm Butler interception, and why I think Big Ben is bound for the season-opener, and finally someone going on the record in San Francisco on L’Affair Harbaugh,two voices of sanity on the great quarterback debate of 2015.
Peter sort of already did this. I'll guess he'll do it again. The Super Bowl was over two months ago. There is nothing better to kill space than hearing the "real" story of Malcolm Butler's interception? Nothing else?
In August, Ron Wolf and Bill Polian will become the first general managers since 1995 enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Both are still active in the game. Wolf has been a consultant to several teams in recent years, most recently the Jets in a scouting and coach-and-GM-advisory capacity.
Oh. He was involved with the Jets recently.
Polian works for ESPN as an NFL analyst, and has been watching tape of college players preparing to work the draft.
Bill Polian is like, "Draft Peyton Manning and then reap the benefits. That's my advice to the Buccaneers and Titans."
Polian had to choose between Peyton Manning and Ryan Leaf in 1998 as general manager of the Colts, and between Kerry Collins and Steve McNair for the Panthers in 1995.
Hey, one for two isn't bad. Then Polian had to choose whether to build the Panthers for success for the future or build them for short-term success that would enable him to get a job somewhere else and I think I remember which option he chose.
I asked both Hall of Fame GMs over the weekend: If you had to choose between quarterbacks Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota in this draft, who would you take?
In fairness, both answered with asterisks, which I’ll explain.
In fairness, I'm going to need a fucking solid answer if I'm to believe these two Hall of Fame GM's aren't just going to say nothing in the hopes they won't be seen as wrong.
“I’d probably lean toward Mariota,” Polian said.
“If I had to pick, based strictly on what I know now, I’d pick Winston,” said Wolf.
Actually Ron Wolf, you will be allowed a five minute look into the future. Put your head into this metal contraption that looks like a bear trap, but is totally NOT a bear trap, so just stick your head in there and I'll let you make the decision based on what you know in the future. But you only get a five minute look!
Every single decision a GM makes is based strictly on what he knows now.
The provisos: Polian said it’s unfair to make a definitive choice without knowing everything your organization would know about the mental makeup and off-the-field behavior of the players. Wolf said “it isn’t fair” for him to judge Mariota with finality because he’s done much more work on Winston, even seeing him on the field in warmups before the Florida State-Miami game last fall.
Well great, I'm glad Peter asked your opinion then. Because I know Peter's readers are looking for an opinion with a huge asterisk beside that essentially says, "I don't know enough about this player to provide an opinion on this topic, even though I've been set up as an expert on the topic."
With those “yeah buts” out of the way, it was clear in talking to both men they have strong opinions on these players.
Strong opinions that they would prefer not to be held to, because their strong opinions are based only on what they know now and they can't predict the future so if they are right please remember they were right, but if they were wrong then let's forget about it and hey look remember Brett Favre and Peyton Manning?
“I’ve seen Mariota on tape—I’d have to see a lot more of him—and I’ve seen Winston in-person and on tape,’’ said Wolf. “I’ve been exposed to Winston more. I watched Winston versus Miami before the game, down on the field, and then will his team back from a 16-point deficit. He’s an imposing guy. He has everything you’d want in a quarterback. I thought he was superb. What I know about Winston I like a lot. I’d take him in a heartbeat.”
But this doesn't mean in the next heartbeat he wouldn't take Marcus Mariota.
I asked: “If the psychological report on Winston was clean, would it still be Mariota?”
Polian: “Very, very close. But I’d probably lean toward Mariota, as I said. It’s closer than Manning-Leaf was. Way closer. More like Collins-McNair in ’95. With Mariota, I don’t think playing from the pocket will be an issue; he did a lot of that in the eight or nine games I saw. And he didn’t throw 18 interceptions either. On 14 of those 18 interceptions, Winston didn’t see linebackers underneath or he zeroed in on the receiver regardless of coverage.
“But look, both guys have a chance to be successful. They’re both gifted.
Thanks Bill Polian! I feel smarter now knowing that you would choose Marcus Mariota.
And I’ve got to go with the more sure thing in my mind—Mariota.”
But this isn't a definitive choice of course.
Memo to Tampa Bay GM Jason Licht: The moral of this story, this year, is there isn’t a 100-percent sure thing, for a variety of reasons. You’d better go with your gut. The gut sounds like it’ll be Winston as we sit here, 10 days before D-Day.
Oh yeah, D-Day. That's the day that resulted in Peter King having a lot of chances to ask soldiers how many people they killed.
I hope I don't forget to remember Peter called the 10 days before the draft as "D-Day" the next time Peter gives a lecture to someone about taking football too seriously.
The inside story of how Malcolm Butler made that interception.
(Deep sigh)
The still-stunning play that decided Super Bowl 49, of course, was little-used nickelback Malcolm Butler’s interception of a Russell Wilson pass with 23 seconds left in the game at the Patriots’ goal line, preserving New England’s 28-24 victory. On a soon-to-be released video series, a part of which I recently got to watch, you’ll be able to see the rest of the story. Namely, why Butler made the play, and how the Patriots’ coaches made sure an error in Thursday’s practice by Butler would not be repeated.
I'm not still-stunned. Miraculously, I have managed to move on with my life.
The still-stunning play that decided Super Bowl 49, of course, was little-used nickelback Malcolm Butler’s interception of a Russell Wilson pass with 23 seconds left in the game at the Patriots’ goal line, preserving New England’s 28-24 victory. On a soon-to-be released video series, a part of which I recently got to watch, you’ll be able to see the rest of the story. Namely, why Butler made the play, and how the Patriots’ coaches made sure an error in Thursday’s practice by Butler would not be repeated.
It's almost like practice is useful or something.
We were anticipating a bunch of pick routes, rub routes [by Seattle],” Boyer says on the video. “We didn’t do a very good job at the point … Malcolm kind of gave some ground there. Garoppolo ended up hitting Josh Boyce for a touchdown. Obviously, as a coach, that doesn’t make you feel good. Coach Belichick, Coach Patricia, they’re like, ‘Malcolm, you’ve got to play this a little better … You’ve got to stick your foot in the ground and go and not give any ground and beat him to the junction point and make a play on the ball.’ ”
In the Super Bowl, of course, Butler went around the attempted pick by the first man in the stack—Jermaine Kearse, who was being blocked by cornerback Brandon Browner—and powered into position for the interception. Butler blasted Ricardo Lockette and caught the Wilson pass simultaneously. The coaches’ point hit home.
It did hit home. It was a great play by Malcolm Butler and he learned from his mistake in practice. So the inside story seems to be that the Patriots practiced defending this play prior to the Super Bowl and it paid off in the Super Bowl. I'm pretty sure I had heard that Butler got burnt for a TD in practice on a similar play, so maybe this wasn't quite an "inside" story. But hey, I guess Peter can't talk about Tim Tebow throughout MMQB.
Pittsburgh at New England, Sept. 10.
I’ll tell you why:
Why Peter? What reason is it? Could it be some in-depth scheduling quirk the NFL doesn't allow the public to know about? Is this matchup traditionally one of the higher rated games?
Ben Roethlisberger.
Okay. So I guess that explains it then...I guess.
So what do we have as candidates in a relatively weak New England home schedule? Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, along with the refurbished Buffalo Bills and New York Jets. Tom Brady will be on one side, and the Patriots will be favored against any team on the other sideline that first night. But the one thing the NFL can’t have is a 24-3 game at halftime. Pittsburgh is the best insurance against that risk.
And Ben Roethlisberger is the only one who plays for the Steelers, so as the quarterback of the Steelers he is the key to the defense not giving up 24 points in the first half? It makes perfect sense to me.
Philadelphia, likely with new quarterback Sam Bradford, who has missed 25 of his last 32 games with back-to-back ACL surgeries in 2013 and 2014. What if he gets hurt again, or is rusty coming back to the game?
The Jets, with Ryan Fitzpatrick or Geno Smith. Could be a debacle by halftime.
Buffalo, with Matt Cassel or EJ Manuel. Less of a chance to be a debacle at halftime, but there’s still that chance.
Pittsburgh, with two-time Super Bowl champ Roethlisberger at the controls, a gunslinger capable of playing a four-quarter shootout with Brady.
So basically it took Peter a couple of paragraphs to explain that he thinks the opening game will be Steelers-Patriots because the Patriots don't have too many good teams coming to play them in Foxboro and the Steelers are the best team with the best quarterback that is coming to Foxboro. Wow, it took me once sentence to say it AND I saved the dramatics that Peter attempted.
One interesting point about the opener, if it’s Steelers-Patriots: Each team would be without a suspended running back from the same pot-smoking incident in August 2014—Le’Veon Bell for Pittsburgh and LeGarrette Blount for New England.
What a nugget of coincidence!
I'm surprised Peter didn't write,
"Two key players from both teams will be missing that first game if it is Steelers-Patriots. I'll tell you why."
"Drugs, carousing."
"Le'Veon Bell and LeGarrette Blount are both in the same boat. A drug boat that is. Let me tell you why they are in a drug boat."
"Suspensions."
"Both Le'Veon Bell and LeGarrett Blount won't be present for the first game of the season due to being suspended and let me tell you why."
"Drugs, cars. What does this have to do with LeGarrette Blount and Le'Veon Bell? I'll tell you."
"They are both suspended for the first game of the season due to an incident they both participated in where they had drugs in a car. I'll tell you more in a second."
"They were in the same car and will be suspended the same amount of time for the same drug violation. I'll tell you in a minute which team they were on when this happened and how it's relevant now."
"They were both on the Steelers team at the time and they would be facing each other if the Steelers-Patriots play at a certain time during the season. I'll tell you which game that is."
"The first game of the season."
Peter has to extend those dramatic reveals a bit.
The schedule will be announced sometime this week. I’ve been wrong before, many times on many things. But Pittsburgh-New England makes the most sense to me.
Because this may be the most competitive home game for the Patriots. It's not complicated, yet Peter got a whole section of MMQB out of it.
Andrea Kremer has an insightful story Tuesday night on “HBO Real Sports” on Jim Harbaugh, who wore out his welcome in San Francisco and is now the University of Michigan coach. The piece has detailed quotes from Niners guard Alex Boone, who says Harbaugh gave the team a great initial spark when he got there in a time of major malaise for the franchise in 2011.
Continues Boone: “He just keeps pushing you. And you’re like, ‘Dude, we got over the mountain. Stop. Let go.’ He kinda wore out his welcome. I think he just pushed guys too far.
I know. I hate it when NFL coaches are constantly trying to push professionals to be better than they think they can be. Lay off them, the 49ers had won a few Super Bowls. They were over the mountain.
There’s no question San Francisco owner Jed York wanted a little more of a kumbaya attitude with the front office out of Harbaugh that wasn’t forthcoming.
Jim Tomsula says the attitude around the team still isn't going to be all Kumbayan, it's going to be a straight American attitude. These Kumbayan people probably don't know how to motivate themselves like Americans do.
And now we see that some of the players—at least one, and I’ve heard reliably it isn’t just one—didn’t like Harbaugh as time went on in San Francisco either. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean he should be gone. I covered the Giants in the eighties, and Bill Parcells was hardly a players’ favorite in all corners of the locker room, even after the Giants won a Super Bowl.
Bill Parcells, Bill Parcells, Bill Parcells. The standard upon which Peter King compares all head coaches.
“The players have nothing to do with him getting fired,” Boone says to Kremer. “I think that if you’re stuck in your ways enough, eventually people are just gonna say, ‘Listen, we can’t work with this.’ ”
That's a great point. The 49ers had reached the mountain, so what else did they have to accomplish at that point? So Harbaugh should have just laid off knowing he had an incredibly successful team that achieved every team goal an NFL team could achieve. Every. Single. One. Mountain. Climbed.
“Why did Pete Carroll throw that ball? Seattle’s at the half-yard line. If anybody in the league can get a half-yard, it’s Beast Mode [Marshawn Lynch].”
—Spike Lee, speaking at the premiere of “The Greatest Catch Ever,” his half-hour documentary on the David Tyree catch in Super Bowl 42 that helped the Giants end the Patriots’ dream of a 19-0 season.
Well first off, Pete Carroll doesn't call the plays. He may have signed off on this play, but he isn't directly responsible for the play call. There is no second off. That is all.
I was at the documentary premeire Sunday in New York, and three things occurred to me:
That you were subtlety trying to brag about being at the premiere of the documentary?
1. Lee kept coming back to this in a post-doc Q&A on stage. He was legitimately angry, confused and befuddled by the Carroll call, and no one in the theater could give him a smart answer on it.
If no one in the theater could give Lee a smart answer, then obviously the theater was full of sportswriters like Peter.
2. The star of the doc was Rodney Harrison, and I don’t say that just because I work with him.
Yes, Peter probably does just say this because he works with Rodney Harrison.
He was, well, just so moved, in a bad way, by the failure to dislodge the ball from Tyree. So moved, in fact, that when he went back to his hotel after the game, he said he holed himself up in the bathroom of his room and cried.
This is probably a typical response to losing the Super Bowl, though this catch didn't win the game for the Giants so Harrison would have had a few other chances to make up for not dislodging the ball. Like maybe he could have figured out a way for Plaxico Burress to be covered better in the end zone.
“I never want to kill the dream of playing two sports. I would honestly play two sports … I may push the envelope one of these days … I know I can play in the big leagues. With the work ethic and all that, I think I definitely could, for sure. And that’s why the Texas Rangers, you know, got my rights. And they want me to play. You know, Jon Daniels, the GM, wants me to play [baseball]. We were talking about it the other day.”
—Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson, in an interview with Bryant Gumbel for Tuesday’s “HBO Real Sports” show.
I personally find Russell Wilson to be a disingenuous person. He's a great quarterback and I don't think he's much worse than other pro athletes, but I don't buy the whole "nice guy" act he puts on. I think he creates his own reality at times (for example, his comment about being "kicked off" the N.C. State football team) and this quote is simply Wilson trying to get some leverage in negotiations with the Seahawks. That's all. Wilson chose to play professional baseball and that's why he got "kicked off" the Wolfpack football team in favor of a quarterback who had talent (Mike Glennon) and actually cared to be with the team during the summer. But of course Wilson sees himself as the victim there. Now he's pretending he can or would really play for the Rangers. I don't buy it for a second.
Very interesting. This quote will make the bulletin board of Seattle GM John Schneider, who is trying to get Wilson signed long-term. The two-time NFC champion quarterback’s contract expires at the end of this season, and the two sides are eligible to sign a new deal now, though no agreement is close.
This is all it is. A feeble attempt to pretend he would actually play baseball for the Rangers rather than play in the NFL. I don't buy it and Wilson will play football over baseball for the same reason he didn't play for the Rockies and chose to transfer to Wisconsin. That reason being he'd rather be a football player and knows it would be hard to make it in baseball at this point.
“I owe private apologies to a lot of people that I disappointed but a very public one to the Browns organization and the fans that I let down. I take full responsibility for my actions and it’s my intention to work very hard to regain everyone’s trust and respect. I understand that will take time and will only happen through what I do and not what I say.’’
—Part of a statement attributed to Johnny Manziel and released through the Cleveland Browns on Friday, after his three-month stay in a rehab facility for treatment of substance abuse.
The last part is most important: Manziel said a lot between February 2014 and December 2014 about his devotion to football and his maturity and—well, all the good stuff he had to say to convince everyone in the NFL he was worth a first-round pick,
Yes, but the only ones who believed it were the ones who wanted to believe it. The idea Manziel would stop partying and get more serious about football just as soon as he gets paid to play the sport was just not realistic. This of course wouldn't matter if he performed on the field.
For the Why Would Philip Rivers Ever Favor A Trade To Tennessee crowd:
Rivers is a homebody.
He and wife Tiffany, both from northern Alabama, have their strongest family ties to the Deep South.
Yes, but Tennessee is not the Deep South. Maybe northern Alabama is, but Tennessee is not.
Rivers was born in Decatur, Ala., 114 miles south of Nashville.
Rivers was a high school football star in Athens, Ala., 97 miles south of Nashville.
The closest NFL franchise to Athens, Ala., by far, is Tennessee. The Atlanta Falcons are twice as far away.
In his most accurate season as an NFL quarterback, 2013, Rivers’ offensive coordinator was Ken Whisenhunt, now the Titans coach and a fervent Rivers fan.
It makes sense, but the thought of Rivers in Tampa Bay with Evans and Jackson is terrifying to me.
Let me make it clear that I am not saying Rivers would rather play anywhere else but San Diego. But too many people wonder why he’d ever want to play for Tennessee. Those are a few clues.
"Tennessee bound for Rivers? Maybe. Why? Peter will get to this."
"Why would Philip Rivers like to play in Tennessee? I will tell you in a minute."
I should probably be happy that Peter didn't have any dramatics surrounding why Rivers would like to play in Tennessee.
Ten Things I Think I Think
1. I think there are two points about Aaron Hernandez that can’t be forgotten.
I should probably just be happy that Peter didn't write he has a few "bullet points" regarding items about Hernandez that can't be forgotten. Peter would write that, Richard Deitsch would defend him saying Peter takes too much shit and then Peter would apologize explaining that he didn't know guns shot bullets.
One, if a player has strong ties to a sordid past—either gang-related or simply sordid in some other way—it’s not very smart for that player to be playing in the backyard of his youth. Hernandez’s hometown of Bristol, Conn., is 115 miles from Foxboro.
Well Hernandez certainly wasn't going to request that he didn't play for the Patriots because he was afraid he would end up murdering someone. The Patriots probably didn't know the extent to which Hernandez had gang ties.
As Greg Bedard reported last month, Hernandez went to the combine in 2013, ostensibly to ask Bill Belichick for a trade to distance himself from some dangerous friends back home. Bedard couldn’t nail down the details of the story. Was Hernandez trying to start a new life and just couldn’t get out of his current one?
Hmmm...this seems like an action that was too self-aware for a guy who later committed murder.
Two: The Patriots can, and should, be faulted for their private-eye work, or lack of it, before giving Hernandez a rich contract in 2012. It’s true that teams can’t know everything about their players, but I’d think it’d be reasonable to expect that if you’re going to commit $40 million to a player on your team with a history of some transgressions off the field (and Hernandez did have them at Florida), you’d do more investigating than the Patriots did before signing him to the rich extension.
Perhaps the Patriots did what they thought was a sufficient amount of investigation into Hernandez prior to the draft and then prior to his signing an extension. I would imagine the Patriots looked into Hernandez prior to drafting him and then the organization saw him all the time when he was actually a member of the Patriots. In hindsight, more investigating makes sense, but the Patriots may have felt like they knew Aaron Hernandez. Besides, plenty of NFL players have gang ties and that doesn't mean they end up murdering someone. It's fun to fault the Patriots for what they should have known, but whether a guy will commit murder or not after being drafted by an NFL team isn't exactly predictable.
3. I think I’m starting to have my mind changed. I’ve thought all along that Adrian Peterson has likely played his last game for Minnesota, because he obviously doesn’t want to be there. But the question is: What team out there wants to commit $13 million in cash to a 30-year-old running back—albeit a great one—with salaries of $15 million in 2016 and $17 million in 2017 on the horizon?
That's a great question and one reason I thought it was a bit silly that Peter thought Peterson could force his way out of Minnesota. Peterson can hold out of camp all he wants, but he's only getting older and more expensive for whatever team trades for him. While Peterson has leverage over the Vikings, the Vikings have leverage in that Peterson understands if he wants to play in the NFL, time isn't on his side and he can't afford to hold out of training camp.
I don’t believe Vikings GM Rick Spielman will be pressured into a deal. And I don’t believe Peterson will choose to forfeit the weekly paychecks of $765,000 this season. So though it may get ugly, I think there’s an increasing chance the Vikings are not going to bend to Peterson by draft weekend unless the offer for him is a high pick or picks.
I feel sad for Adrian Peterson that he thinks this is going to work. Running backs are being devalued, Peterson is on the wrong side of 30, and he's a very expensive player with a weird history of tangling with the court system over the whipping of his kids. He's got baggage, so Peterson may want to just play for the Vikings.
5. I think if I were the Giants at No. 9, I’d take Trae Waynes over Brandon Scherff. Rare cornerbacks—and the 6-1, sub-4.4-in-the-40 Waynes is potentially quite rare—are harder to find than very good offensive line prospects. Pro Football Focushas Waynes
Is "Pro Football Focushas" the international version of "Pro Football Focus"?
with problems on change of direction, which would be a issue with a cornerback, so it’ll be interesting to see how teams factor that in—if they agree—as the first round approaches.
I can't imagine why a cornerback would need to change direction.
6. I think the Seahawks players did a smart thing, both in inviting new tight end Jimmy Graham along on a training/fun trip to Hawaii last week, and in poking public fun at the feud they had from the 2013 season with Graham. Before a playoff game, Bruce Irvin and Graham jawed at each other on the field, and last week Irvin sent out a photo on Instagram of Graham having to be restrained from fighting Irvin. They were play-acting.
Oh, so they were play-acting and weren't really going to fight? Thanks for clearing that up Peter. If you had not cleared it up then I'm sure your readers would have been so foolish as to think Bruce Irvin would Instagram a picture of him fighting one of his new teammates.
Also, Jimmy Graham IS soft. I don't want that to get confused.
8. I think Georgia running back Todd Gurley, five months after ACL surgery, got some good news the other day at the combine medical re-check in Indianapolis. So good, in fact, that one team interested in Gurley now thinks it’s legitimately possible he wouldn’t have to start the year on the physically unable to perform list; he could well be active. Seems little doubt Gurley will be a first-round pick.
Draft Todd Gurley or pay $45 million for three years of Adrian Peterson...I know which one I would take personally.
9. I think one name stands above others on the Mysteries of the 2015 Draft list: wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham. Boom or bust. Very big boom or very big bust. A GM who takes Green-Beckham in the first round is a GM who feels very secure in his job
Just write it Peter. You know you want to. List the same teams you always list that could draft a player like Green-Beckham and surround him with veteran players who will show him the right way. The Patriots, Seahawks, etc. Or have the Patriots been kicked off that list due to the whole "Aaron Hernandez committed murder so there goes the Patriot Way" issue?
10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:
Quick joke for college football fans...did you know Nick O'Leary is Jack Nicklaus' grandson? You would think this could get mentioned every once in a while.
e. I’m not much of an NBA fan (in fact, I’m not one at all),
And here comes a conclusion based on Peter's lack of experience in watching NBA games. It's a guarantee Peter will come to a definitive conclusion after stating he doesn't watch the NBA.
but did anyone notice the Celtics finished the year on a 17-7 run and ended 40-42? Brad Stevens must be pretty good.
Yes Peter, Brad Stevens must be pretty good based on your observation the Celtics played well at the end of the year in a bad Eastern Conference. You don't watch the NBA at all, but you feel free to come to conclusions about players/coaches/teams in the NBA.
f. Paul Blart. One of the great, and most apt, names in film history.
Peter King. One of the lofty, and most apt, names in history for Peter's opinion of himself.
h. The Edmonton Oilers won the lottery to pick number one in the 2015 NHL draft. Okay. Shouldn’t sports leagues have some sort of rule how many times you can have the top picks in an X-year span? Since 2010, and including this year, Edmonton has picked (in order) first, first, first, seventh, third and first. This year they’re bound to take an incredible prospect, Connor McDavid. Edmonton must have taken some other incredible players the past five drafts, and the Oilers still stink. Why reward this?
What's the alternative, Peter? Be a problem solver, not just a problem spotter. The lottery is designed to allow the worst teams an opportunity to acquire the best players in the draft. If Peter thinks this shouldn't be rewarded, then I'm sure the NHL would love to hear suggestions on how to fix this. Suggestions that of course Peter doesn't have.
j. Maybe I’m wrong about this. Tell me if I am. But to continue to reward a team that simply can’t turn it around … It just seems wrong to me.
Says the guy who covers a sport where the Raiders have picked in the Top 10 over the last decade. What's the alternative that Peter prefers? A lottery like the NBA (a sport Peter doesn't watch) has? It's not like there aren't teams in the NBA who get Top 10 picks every year and still can't turn their team around.
k. Coffeenerdness: It’s okay on a warm afternoon to stray from coffee. You can have the occasional unsweetened iced green tea, and you’ll get the desired jolt. And the quenching of the thirst at the same time.
Thanks for the permission to drink unsweetened iced green tea. By the way, "unsweetened iced green tea" sounds like the way someone who is in the 1% of income earners like Peter is would drink iced tea. I can think of no loftier, more haughty way to drink iced tea.
n. Man, that Britt McHenry video is tough to watch.
She's on television, bitch.
o. This must have been weird: The Giants, riding an eight-game losing streak, got their World Series rings Saturday night.
It possibly could have been more motivational than weird. The Giants did win the World Series last year. It would be weird if there were few players from the 2014 World Series winning Giants team still on the roster when they got their World Series rings.
The Adieu Haiku
Draft’s 10 days away.
Still. Explain that. I beg you.
Thing should be in March.
Why would Peter's readers have to explain this? It's the NFL's decision. Also, the haiku is still pointless and useless.
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