Gregg Easterbrook revealed his lowly anticipated TMQ Non-QB Non-RB MVP last week and I revealed my highly anticipated BotB Highly-Drafted Glory-Boy Only MVP. Gregg also talked about high scoring teams, felt like Andre Reed was held back in the Buffalo Bills offense, and then sort of agreed with but also sort of criticized the NCAA's new admission requirements for athletes. This week Gregg takes on the hard-hitting football issues like whether Iran's space monkey is fake, talks about Hollywood toys, and decides what the best book of 2012 ended up being. He also heroically manages to fit in some discussion of the NFL, which is convenient since TMQ is posted on ESPN.com and is supposed to be a column about football. More interestingly, Gregg doesn't include an "all-unwanted team" in any of this year's TMQ's. Does this mean the fight to oppose Gregg believing undrafted and unwanted players are better than highly-drafted players is over? Probably not. Most likely Gregg didn't have the energy to mislead his readers into believing unwanted players are better than highly drafted players. I am sure next year he will have an all-unwanted team again and will just ignore there weren't enough unwanted or lowly drafted players to form a team during the 2012 season.
After a season of praising Jim Harbaugh for being smart and using college tactics in the NFL, Gregg has decided Harbaugh isn't a good head coach anymore and is guilty of the single worst play of the season. I'm sure next year when the 49ers win the Super Bowl Gregg will be criticizing those writers who criticized Jim Harbaugh this past year. Gregg's a hypocrite like that.
Offense rules this decade, so it was only appropriate that Ravens-Niners
became the second Super Bowl in which both teams scored at least 30
points. When the Baltimore Ravens made it 31-23, your columnist opined,
"The '77 Cowboys were the only team to reach 30 points and not win the
Super Bowl. The Ravens have reached 30 points. They will win."
Notice how offense rules this decade but zero Super Bowls in the last decade had both Super Bowl teams reach 30 points in the game and the last time this happened was 1977. So did offense rule the 70's as well?
We also know Gregg would never have brought up he stated "Game Over" if the Ravens ended up losing the Super Bowl to the 49ers. Gregg probably wrote "Game Over" in his notebook with reference to Baltimore when the Ravens started playing poorly in the second half and the 49ers started to come back. I would bet he did.
Not only for the fifth time in the past six seasons was the Super Bowl
decided by one score; not only for the fifth time in the past six
seasons was the outcome in doubt until only a few seconds remained; for
the fifth time in the past six seasons, the Super Bowl was the best game
of the year. Once, Super Bowls were known for being clunkers. Recently,
the Super Bowl has been consistently terrific, showing why America is
crazy about football.
America is crazy about football, but remember that Gregg has said multiple times there is no law stating the NFL must stay popular. So he's fully expecting America to either quit watching the sport or for American to continue to be crazy about football. Either way, he's right.
The Niners offensive line was run-blocking very well, San Francisco
rushing for 182 yards. How could Baltimore's exhausted defense stop the
Niners from gaining the final seven yards and the Lombardi?
With help from Jim Harbaugh, that's how!
I do think the 49ers should have run the ball more than they did on the goal line, but as documented in MMQB by Peter King, the Ravens were running a zero blitz specifically to stop the 49ers from running the football. Contrary to Gregg's opinion, an offense just can't do whatever it wants anytime it wants. If the defense has a great play-call it can prevent the offense from doing what it wants to do.
Baltimore leading 7-3, the Forty Niners have third down at the Ravens'
8. Presaging the endgame, once San Francisco reached goal-to-go, Colin
Kaepernick did not rush. (When he runs in the red zone in the fourth
quarter, it's a 15-yard touchdown.)
I realize Gregg is equal part stupid and equal part willing to mislead his audience, but this 15-yard touchdown was not a designed run play. Gregg is suggesting the 49ers design a run for Kaepernick and then saying Kaepernick ran for a 15 yard touchdown earlier in the game. The difference, and why Gregg's point is up for debate, is that Kaepernick's touchdown run was not a designed run. So maybe the 49ers should have called a passing play that didn't work and caused Kaepernick to scramble. That's how Kaepernick ran for a touchdown earlier in the game.
In a game they would go on to lose by three points, the Niners reached
Baltimore's 9, 8 and 5 without scoring a touchdown -- sour indeed.
It's no credit to the Ravens defense this happened, it is just the 49ers offense didn't call the right plays to score a touchdown. Gregg thinks NFL defenses can never just stop the opposing offense. There always was a bad play call that caused the offense to not score a touchdown in the red zone.
First-and-goal at the 7. LaMichael James up the middle for two yards.
Frank Gore just ran for 33 yards and has been repped out for a down. But
what Baltimore's tired defense most fears, a Colin Kaepernick sprint
run, doesn't happen.
Gregg now has the ability to not only read one mind, but read multiple minds. He knows a Kaepernick sprint run (as differentiated from a "run"?) is what the Ravens defense fears the most. Of course, Gregg is sort of correct and the Ravens had a zero blitz called to try and make sure a Kaepernick run did not work, but this reality is irrelevant to Gregg. He lives in his own world where a defensive play call has no effect on the offense's ability to gain yardage and the 49ers should have done what the Ravens defense fears the most.
Third-and-goal at the 5. Gore is taken out! This tells the Ravens they don't need to honor the rush.
Frank Gore being out of the game tells the Ravens they don't need to honor the rush, even though the 49ers just ran the ball with LaMichael James and Gregg claims the Ravens fear a Kaepernick sprint rush the most. I am sure it all makes sense when you are a hack writer like Gregg, but exactly how can the Ravens fear Kaepernick running with the ball most, but the Ravens also don't believe they need to honor the rush when Kaepernick is in the game without Frank Gore?
Think what's happened here. Three straight plays from the Baltimore 5,
Colin Kaepernick, one of the most dangerous players in the sport, has
not rushed. Frank Gore hasn't touched the ball. Three straight pass
attempts to the same guy, Crabtree, and all three toward the right
corner.
It wasn't great play-calling, but the Ravens also did a good job of taking away what the 49ers wanted to do.
Inexperienced right-handed quarterbacks are more comfortable throwing to
their right. The Ravens' defense was expecting passes, and passes to
the right -- just what San Francisco delivered.
I'm pretty sure Colin Kaepernick threw a touchdown pass to his left earlier in the game, but no, I'm sure inexperienced right-handed quarterbacks are more comfortable throwing to their right. They are also more comfortable throwing to their best receiver, Michael Crabtree, who just happened to be lined up on the right.
New York Times Corrections on Fast-Forward: During recent months the Paper of Record has, according to its corrections box:
This is the part where Gregg talks about all the errors the "New York Times" made during the year. Only Gregg Easterbrook could point out errors made by other media outlets in TMQ when he states misleading and sometimes erroneous comments in TMQ.
Said penguins are indigenous to Louisiana.
Here is a great example of Gregg citing an article and misleading his audience. The "New York Times" did not say penguins are indigenous to Louisiana. Well, they did, but they meant to type "pelicans" are indigenous to Louisiana. So they confused penguins with pelicans, and that was the error, the error was not believing penguins are indigenous to Louisiana. So yes, in theory Gregg is correct, but he misleads his audience about the actual mistake that was made.
This year's challenge was to create a visual representation of a TMQ
stalwart, such as Tis Better to Have Rushed and Lost Than Never to Have
Rushed at All.
The winner is R.C. Torres
of Eagle Pass, Texas, whose accompanying visual incorporates both Cold
Coach = Victory and the all-important concept of cheerleader
professionalism.
It's a very good drawing that R.C. did. I'm sad for him that he participated in this game that Gregg created, but if he participated purely to use TMQ to get his art out to the world, then good for him.
John Harbaugh's December decision to install Jim Caldwell as offensive coordinator paid off with higher scoring.
What was that Gregg? Is that an "I'm wrong" I am reading? It's not, well it should be. Gregg from December 18:
Chan
Gailey has acted all season as though he was fired last season. John
Harbaugh was more concerned with shifting blame than fixing his team.
By firing Cameron now -- rather than this past offseason, when the
offensive coordinator position could have turned over in an orderly
manner -- Ravens coach John Harbaugh sent the signal that he expects yet
another playoff collapse and wants an excuse lined up. At the postgame
media event following the playoff collapse Harbaugh/East appears to
expect, he can blame Cameron for the team's troubled offense. Firing an
assistant coach just before the playoffs isn't a bold move to invigorate
the team. It's a desperate move about blame shifting.
Gregg Easterbrook from January 1:
John Harbaugh fired offensive coordinator Cam Cameron midseason, trying
to make the Ravens' plodding offense his fault: though Baltimore
averaged 25 points under Cameron, and has averaged 23 points since.
It's always awkward when it is just hanging out there in the world that a writer was wrong, and dammit, he just won't admit it. This is one of the big things I dislike about Gregg Easterbrook. He knows he is wrong, but he just won't say it because he is too damn proud that his readers might think he isn't this all-knowing person that he believes they believe him to be.
Flacco's rollout under pressure on third-and-7, stopping to throw a
perfect 30-yard strike to Anquan Boldin, was a Hall of Fame-class play.
That is the kind of play the best quarterback in the NFL is expected to make. Right, Merrill Hoge?
Everyone's noting that the gamble of switching to Caldwell as offensive coordinator paid off.
Yes, but is everyone apologizing for accusing John Harbaugh of trying to shift the blame off another eventual playoff collapse? Apparently not.
The next item in TMQ is Gregg thinking of movie ideas based on board games and they are terrible ideas.
"Chutes." A young slacker who inexplicably has a red-hot swimsuit-model
girlfriend takes a college class in Indian mythology. A mysterious
professor hands him a map and tells him to dig up what he finds. He
discovers an incredible 3D board, thousands of years old, that opens
ladders that take him to space stations on other worlds but also
fantastic snakes that try to drag him down to a hell dimension.
I liked this movie better when it was called "Jumanji" and the hell dimension doesn't scream "family-fun time" to me.
"Tonka." A lonely boy whiles away time by playing with classic
1960s-style metal Tonka trucks. One day the trucks start driving around
on their own. Zany mischief follows as the trucks build things behind
his mom's back, then become toys again whenever she looks. A starship
lands and out steps Tonka, leader of an embattled race of living
machines that has come to protect Earth from invasion by an evil race of
living automated speeding ticket cameras. Though they possess advanced
faster-than-light technology, the trucks can only win if they have a
child to guide them.
I'm getting these are jokey sort of movie ideas, but they are close enough to reality in that they aren't funny nor are they original. Somehow Gregg has found the middle ground between a terrible movie idea and a non-funny parody of bad movie ideas.
"Erector." Gigantic steel monsters attack the Earth. A lonely teen who
inexplicably has a red-hot girlfriend gets text messages telling him to
buy an old 1960s-style Erector Set on eBay. When he does, the text
messages start giving him instructions on how to build a siege engine
that will defeat the invaders.
Notice how every one of Gregg's ideas involve aliens or machines coming alive? I know he is basing these ideas on "Transformers" but at least be somewhat original. Also, the movie is called "Erector?" Really?
"Not So Silly." A group of teen misfits finds a strange pink lake, where
the stuff in the lake feels like putty. They take some home. A girl
molds some putty into a super-handsome boy-band leader who does whatever
she wants. A boy molds some putty into a flying pack that can outrun
jet fighters. They make other amazing stuff, which they hide so the
government doesn't seize it, then go back for more, only to discover the
"lake" has begun to glow and seethe. Something evil has taken over the
putty and is using it to make Lucifer. The only hope is if they mold
their dwindling supply of putty into clever weapons that stop the evil.
Again, not funny, and also not really original. We are back in the middle ground of not-funny parody and a bad original idea. All Gregg needs to do is hire Brett Ratner to direct these movies and he will ensure no one wants to see them.
Sing the Whole Song! Your columnist complains about the Super Bowl, and other public events, in which only the first verse of "America the Beautiful" is sung.
Sunday, children from Newtown, Conn. sang the first verse. Then Jennifer
Hudson joined them, and sang the first verse. First verse performed
twice, other verses unsung. Never-sung lyrics include, "America!
America! God mend thine every flaw/Confirm thy soul in self-control/Thy
liberty in law," and, "God shed His grace on thee/Till selfish gain no
longer stain/The banner of the free." Do organizers of public events
think Americans are too shallow to entertain such thoughts?
More likely the organizers just want the Super Bowl to start at 6:30pm. So "America the Beautiful" gets one verse and somehow we all manage to move on with our lives.
Bill Belichick Was Behind This Somehow: The new nonfiction book
"Last Ape Standing," by Chip Walter, details new research that suggests
Neanderthals, rendered extinct by Homo sapiens about 30,000 years ago,
were stronger and had larger brains than people. So how, the book asks,
did we beat them? TMQ thinks we must have videotaped their sideline.
A Spygate joke! Very timely and relevant. I expect Gregg to start making jokes about the 1919 Black Sox very soon.
Buck-Buck-Brawckkkkkkk: Trailing 28-6 midway through the third
quarter of the Super Bowl, the Forty Niners, their hot offense facing a
weak defense, had fourth-and-7 at midfield and punted.
This was a "weak defense" that had held the 49ers to six points midway through the third quarter by the way. So I'm not sure how "weak" the Ravens defense really was. Gregg can't stop misleading his readers even when it is quite obvious his statements don't match the factual data he provides when making that statement. I wouldn't consider a defense that has given up 6 points in the Super Bowl through two-and-a-half quarters to be a weak defense.
Harbaugh/West thought defensive holding should have been called on the
fourth-and-goal. It could have been, but Michael Crabtree was pushing
off too, and on the opposite side of the field, San Francisco receiver
A.J. Jenkins pretty much threw his defender to the ground, which could
have been flagged.
Maybe it could have been flagged if Jenkins was outside the five-yard bump limit, but otherwise as long as he literally didn't throw his defender to the ground the illegal contact should not have been called.
A full-time professional coach should know this, and know it's a reason
why, on fourth-and-goal from the 5 to win the Super Bowl, a fade is a
weak call.
Is this as opposed to a part-time professional coach? Plus, is a fade to the 49ers best receiver who is being defended by a rookie really that weak of a call? It feels like a passive call, but I don't know if I would consider it weak since Crabtree against a rookie seems like a good matchup to me. Then I could defend the play call by saying the only reason it didn't work is there was a good case for defensive pass interference on Jimmy Smith's part. I don't think I like the passivity of the call, but it wasn't a weak call because it went to the 49ers best receiver matched up against a rookie.
"Vertigo," a 1958 film often praised as one of the best movies ever,
seems to have started this trend: It was about climbing tall objects. By
the 1989 movie "Batman," the climactic scene involved Michael Keaton
and Jack Nicholson climbing a spire. Why would a criminal mastermind try
to escape Batman by climbing to the top of a high spire? To see who
falls off, of course!
Actually, in the original Batman the Joker went to the top of the spire so that he could catch a helicopter and get away safely with Vicky Vale. It was easier to catch the helicopter on top of a huge building rather than have the helicopter try to land or pick up the Joker on the streets of Gotham. In fact, Nicholson almost got away with it if it weren't for the meddling Batman. So there was a purpose to the Joker's climbing the spire.
Movies are full of clichés.
Remember, Gregg gets paid to write this type of content on a weekly basis. "Movies are full of cliches." No way? Do tell.
Surely the goofiest dangling scene was in the 1959 thriller "North by
Northwest." Eva Marie Saint dangles off Mount Rushmore, grasping the
hand of Cary Grant, who himself appears to be dangling by his
fingertips. Could even the strongest man hold this position for more
than a few seconds? In Hollywood, complications like that do not matter.
Adrenaline can make people do crazy things. Lift heavy cars or do something else that seems extraordinary. I think helping a woman hang from a ledge while also hanging from a ledge by one hand could qualify as something adrenaline-fueled that seems extraordinary.
Kaepernick's second-quarter interception was intended for Moss, and the
pass was high. But Moss did not try to knock the ball away from Ed Reed.
Seeing the pass was high, Moss just stopped and stood there watching
the interception, then stood there watching the return. What a punk.
Moss didn't make the greatest effort to catch this ball, but this was such a terrible pass I'm not even sure if he didn't alligator-arm the catch then he could have gotten a hand or fingertip on the ball to make sure Reed didn't catch it.
Moss vanished in the Vikings' 1998 home NFC title-game loss; he vanished
in Minnesota's epic 41-0 playoff destruction by the Giants in the 2000
championship game; he was held in check in New England's 2008 Super Bowl
loss and vanished in the San Francisco's 2013 Super Bowl loss. Some
greatest receiver. He wouldn't even make my top 10.
Of course he wouldn't. How's that Crabtree Curse going for the 49ers, Gregg?
By the way, Moss had 5 catches for 62 yards and a touchdown in the 2008 Super Bowl. If that's holding him "in check" then I'm not sure I understand what this phrase means. For his career, Moss has 54 catches for 977 yards and 10 touchdowns in the playoffs over 15 games. Considering he is playing a higher level of NFL team in the playoffs this isn't too shabby.
Did Iran fake its space-monkey launch?
Wouldn't put it past a country that five years ago issued fake pictures of a missile launch.
Great point. More importantly, why does it matter in a column about football whether Iran faked its space-monkey launch? Even more importantly, who cares?
Nate Silver of the 538
blog is a hot name. His political forecasts are consistently sound,
though Silver did not, as some have said, precisely call the 2012
presidential election. On the morning of the balloting, Silver forecast
that Obama would win with "314.6" electoral votes. That absurd tenth of
an elector aside,
It's a mathematical calculation taken by many different simulations that Silver ran. The tenth of an elector isn't absurd, but just shows the results of the different political simulations that Silver ran. Nate Silver obviously (at least to any sane human being who isn't being willfully ignorant) wasn't saying that Obama would win 314.6 electoral votes.
Obama won with 332 electoral votes. So Silver was close, but off by 5 percent -- or as he might say, by 5.53083 percent.
Good one, Gregg. Good zinger. You really stuck it to math and the overuse of hyper-specificity in numbers.
Sunday, The New York Times ran a full page boldly titled "Nate Silver Picks the Super Bowl!" The article was rich with pseudo-scientific decimal-place ratings of various stuff -- but never got around to saying which team would win. Your columnist predicted the winner would be Baltimore by three points. And yea, verily, it came to pass.
If Gregg took the time to read Silver's column, which I doubt he did, then he would see Nate Silver essentially picked the 49ers to win.
All San Francisco talk in the playoffs has been about whiz kid Colin
Kaepernick and the Niners' college-inspired offense. What jumps out at
your columnist is the postseason decline of the Niners' pass defense.
What Gregg means to say is "pass rush." A good pass rush can make the pass defense look really good. The decline of Justin and Aldon Smith coinciding with the decline of the 49ers pass defense is not a coincidence. How can Gregg not understand this?...outside of the fact he doesn't understand football, of course.
One factor in the decline of the Niners' pass rush was Justin Smith nursing injuries.
Aldon Smith depends on Justin Smith to play well, along with the fact the 49ers were playing a higher level of quarterback and I think these are the biggest contributing factors to the 49ers secondary struggling.
The game's Hidden Play came in the first quarter, when Flacco threw
incompletion on third-and-9 from the San Francisco 18, but the Niners
were called for offside. Now facing third-and-4, Flacco threw a
touchdown pass -- a four-point swing in a game the Ravens would win by
three points.
First off, there are no hidden plays in the Super Bowl. Second, a play that results in a touchdown pass is never a hidden play. An offsides that gives one team another chance on third down and this second chance results in a touchdown pass is never ever, ever, ever hidden.
Your offense gains 468 yards, your team scores 31 points -- and you lose
the Super Bowl. Of course a special teams breakdown was an issue. But
San Francisco's poor pass coverage throughout the playoffs was the
problem hiding in plain sight.
Sort of wrong. The 49ers poor pass rush was the problem hiding in plain sight.
Baltimore facing third-and-10 at the 2-minute warning of the first half,
Jacoby Jones ran a stutter-go. San Francisco was in a Cover 2. Niners
cornerback Chris Culliver simply let Jones blow past,
Which is obviously what the design of the defense required him to do, so he should be free of blame.
On Jones' 108-yard kick return to start the second half, Delanie Walker
and Tramaine Brock had the best angles. Walker quit on the play at
Baltimore's 45, Brock quit on the play at San Francisco's 25.
Delanie Walker is a fullback and Tramaine Brock tried hard but had no chance at catching Jacoby Jones, who is very, very fast.
Probably neither would have caught the runner. But it's the Super Bowl,
why are you standing there watching, maybe he'll stumble!
Yeah, I guess so, but I don't see how giving up on a kickoff return where you would not have caught the runner is the single worst play of the season. The odds of Jones falling are not high and he wasn't going to be caught otherwise, so acting like they were lazy to stop running is silly. How is this the single worst play of the season?
But verily, it is not the single worst play of the season! Gregg threw us a curveball!
But the single worst performance of the 2012 NFL season was turned in by
Jim Harbaugh. In the third quarter, the Niners kicked on
fourth-and-short when trailing and on fourth-and-7 from midfield when
trailing. San Francisco reached first-and-goal at Baltimore's 7 at the
endgame, facing an exhausted defense. Harbaugh didn't let Kaepernick
run. Harbaugh didn't let Gore run. He sent in play calls that might have
been right for the guy he benched, Alex Smith. Offensive coordinator
Greg Roman may have made the calls but Harbaugh/West was in charge, he
could have told Roman what he wanted at the last. Then when the Niners'
odd tactics failed, the coach tried to blame the officials!
As Peter King explained on Monday, the Ravens had designed a defense to force Kaepernick to beat the Ravens with his arm and not his legs. They ran a zero blitz on three of the four calls down in the red zone to prevent Kaepernick from running. Perhaps the 49ers should have tried to run with Kaepernick anyway, but the Ravens used good defensive tactics to stop the 49ers from doing what they wanted to do.
Also, Harbaugh wasn't completely at fault for blaming the officials. It was a tough no-call in that situation. An argument could have been made for pass interference.
TMQ folds its tent and steals off into the desert till next season, though will resurface briefly around draft time.
I'll try to act sad. Nope, can't do it.
I do enjoy eviscerating Gregg on a weekly basis, but it's good to take a break. It's bittersweet though when I temporarily lose a writer who embodies the very reason I write on this site.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
7 comments MMQB Review: Peter Doesn't Like it When Brett Favre Is Interrupted Edition
Peter King did not include a travel note of the week in last week's MMQB. He did bitch that the line for Terry Francona to sign a book was too long, but there was no official travel note. Fortunately, Peter did slip in a Brett Favre reference. It's important Peter knows where he makes his money, which is on forced Brett Favre references. We get two Brett Favre references this week. Peter also failed to understand that if the Jets got a 1st and 2nd round pick for Darrelle Revis this wouldn't be folly simply because they traded a 1st and 2nd round pick to move up in the draft and get Revis. Peter seems to think that if the Jets get in return what they traded for Revis, then the production they got from Revis doesn't really count as having helped the Jets over the last six years. Since the Super Bowl was last night, Peter obviously talks about the Super Bowl and all of the blackouts and critical non-calls that went with it.
Oh, and have no fear, while Peter has a pretty boring travel note for this week he still found time to bitch about getting free coffee.
I've watched the fourth-down pass into the corner of the end zone, the Colin Kaepernick-to-Michael Crabtree misfire, with cornerback Jimmy Smith in contact with Crabtree and Crabtee with Smith. It lasts two yards beyond the five-yard bump zone. It's close, but I don't think it was interference. Crabtree was an aggressor there too.
It wasn't the bumping that I found to be borderline in that situation, it was how Smith prevented Crabtree from moving to the back of the end zone to possibly catch the pass. It was more of Smith impeding Crabtree's progress than anything else. It's a tough no-call. If I am a 49ers fan then I am pissed, if I am a Ravens fan then I think it wasn't pass interference and being a neutral fan I can see why there was a no-call and I can see why pass interference would be called. If I was the official I probably wouldn't have blown the whistle, though it is a near-impossible call to be 100% right in making.
I still think, blitz and all, I'd like to have taken one chance with the ball in Kaepernick's hands, running on the last series (instead of a LaMichael James run for two, incompletion, incompletion, incompletion).
I thought Greg Roman's play-calling left a little to be desired in that spot. I'm pretty sure Ngata was injured and out of the game, so I probably would have used Kaepernick's mobility at some point. I'm sure Gregg Easterbrook will hammer this point home 1000 times in TMQ.
"MVP! MVP! MVP!'' Joe Flacco's extended family and friends chanted when he walked into his family's private party at Huck Finn's in the French Quarter this morning, just before 1 a.m.. Is there any doubt? Elite, schmelite. I don't care what you call it, Flacco's in the top echelon of quarterbacks right now.
I'm not sure this is true or not. Joe Flacco as an elite quarterback...I'm going to need some time to adjust to the rapidly changing emotions this is causing for me.
Still can't believe head linesman Steve Stelljes didn't throw out Baltimore cornerback Cary Williams for the two-handed shove of Stelljes in the first half. Blatant, obvious, ridiculous.
"That's because the officials clearly favored the Baltimore Ravens," said everyone on Twitter during the Super Bowl. Everyone knows Jerome Boger sent out a directive to get the Ravens a Super Bowl no matter how many shady calls it took.
The first game of the NFL's 94th season, on Sept. 5, 2013 ... think of the possibilities. Ben Roethlisberger at Baltimore. Tom Brady at Baltimore. Aaron Rodgers at Baltimore. Adrian Peterson at Baltimore. J.J. Watt at Baltimore. An embarrassment of possibilities, NBC and the NFL.
I'm pretty sure the Ravens are going to have an advantage if they are only going against one player and not an entire team. Oh, and J.J. Watt at Baltimore really isn't that exciting sounding. The Texans against the Ravens is a little bit better, but I think Peter is the only one getting a journalistic erection at the thought of J.J. Watt versus the Ravens.
It's good to see Peter is still doing hype for his employer even though the 2013 NFL season has yet to begin. Peter is a good company man. I'm just always excited to see ProFootballTalk put portions of Peter's MMQB in the "Rumor Mill" once it is posted. Corporate synergy is always exciting to see. Peter King reports a story, then Mike Florio reports on that person reporting a story, and then another NBC employee reports on the report of that report and the next thing you know corporate synergy is achieved.
We'll get to the Hall of Fame, but let's focus on the game, of course, first.
Can we first talk about the most inexcusable thing that happened during the Super Bowl first? I'm talking about Jim Nantz's tie. There is no excuse for wearing that ugly green, yellow, and orange tie when millions and millions of people are watching. Nantz chose to wear a tie with green, yellow, and orange on it. I'm surprised he didn't throw in a light red on the tie so that all colors that don't go well together could be on one tie.
In the NFC Championship Game, linebacker NaVorro Bowman had his hands on wideout Roddy White on Atlanta's last-chance play of the game. Bowman impeded White, maybe enough that it should have drawn a flag. No flag.
I thought Jimmy Smith's contact with Michael Crabtree in the Super Bowl, on fourth down in the end zone, wasn't as physical.
He definitely impeded Crabtree's progress towards the back of the end zone with grabbing. That was my issue, not so much the physical play, but the fact Crabtree was held up from a chance at making the catch by his progress being impeded.
Kaepernick still rushed seven times for 62 yards -- his fourth-highest output on the ground this season -- and he scrambled for a 15-yard touchdown with 10 minutes to play. But faced with making a goal-line stand as they clung to a 34-29 lead at the end, the Ravens were determined to make Kaepernick throw the ball.
On first and goal from Baltimore's 7-yard line, LaMichael James took a handoff but ran straight into a zero blitz, picking up just two yards before the two-minute warning. The zero blitz, or an all-out blitz, is the most effective way to disrupt the read-option.
Zero blitz takes away that wiggle room, with several defenders converging on the mesh point -- the few feet of space where it's not clear if the quarterback will keep the ball or hand it off. The downside, of course, is that an all-out blitz leaves the secondary in man coverage and wideouts will typically get open. This, however, wasn't a typical situation. A short field hems in the receivers, making the coverage effective even if the blitz is slow.
The reason I include this wall of text is because Gregg Easterbrook criticizes teams who he deems "blitz too much" in his TMQ section "Stop Me Before I Blitz Again!" I know this is MMQB, but blitzing is a good way to disrupt an offense's timing and Gregg Easterbrook can never understand this. The Ravens blitzed three out of the last four plays when making a red-zone stand in the Super Bowl. Gregg will neglect to mention this next year or even this week when he criticizes a team for blitzing too much. Like most things, when done correctly blitzing can be very effective.
During the two-minute warning, John Harbaugh asked for zero blitz, telling defensive coordinator Dan Pees through the headset, "I do not want them to run the ball right here." Pees had already called for a base defense, zone coverage, but Harbaugh had him rethinking the plan.
Matt Weiss, the Ravens defensive quality control coach who was listening in on the conversation, told Gagne. "But he didn't, and that turned out to be a great call. Dean almost got talked out of his instinct, which would have been bad for us. If we're in zero blitz there, there's a good chance they score a touchdown."
This is why (and I include myself in this statement) coaches get too much credit and too much blame when things go wrong or right. A smart coordinator is just as crucial to a team's success. If Dan Pees lets John Harbaugh have his way, the 49ers are expecting blitz and rolling Kapernick out right away from the blitz to find an open receiver.
Ray Lewis: The end.
Thank God. I have no issue with Ray Lewis, but I've had my fill of camera shots on Ray Lewis as he cries or yells loudly about something.
The Hall of Fame got it as right as any year I recall.
I am prejudiced, of course, as one of the 46 voters of the pro football shrine.
BREAKING NEWS: Peter King reports that Peter King does a good job of electing players into the pro football Hall of Fame.
But in my 21st session inside the voting room, I thought the seven-member class was just as I'd have drawn it up -- with only this proviso: Michael Strahan or Charles Haley or Aeneas Williams would have absolutely been fine with me as the fifth and final member (on my ballot) instead of Warren Sapp.
Warren Sapp needs to be in the Snitch Hall of Fame. Jeremy Shockey told me that Sapp was a snitch.
Five thoughts on the seven-man class of 2013:
Not seven thoughts, Peter? Why not seven thoughts?
The way I figure it, we could have 12 receivers with 1,000 catches who are not in the Hall by 2016, and I am just glad we, as a voting group, put one of the deserving pass catchers in this year. But it won't get easier in 2014. Marvin Harrison enters the fray next year, and that can't be good for Reed or Brown. Harrison caught 151 more balls than Reed -- in three fewer seasons.
Gregg Easterbrook still says Andre Reed could have been the greatest receiver of all-time if he had been drafted by the 49ers. If only Reed had played in a more pass-friendly offense like the 49ers had rather than playing for the Bills with that bum Jim Kelly throwing the ball around the field.
The Parcells call wasn't hard. I know some questioned his winning percentage of .570, but look at the bad teams he inherited (Giants, Pats, Jets, Cowboys), and look at his peers in the .570 neighborhood: Stram (.576), Noll (.572), Levy (.562). You take two teams to the Super Bowl, three to conference title games and four to the playoffs, you're a Hall of Famer.
Parcells' ability to take different teams to the playoffs and to the Super Bowl is impressive. This is why I wouldn't make a very good Hall of Fame voter. I can't get past Parcells constantly lying and saying he has no interest in a certain job and then taking that job. Also, his time in Dallas never really impressed me that much, once he left the Giants his team won their division twice in 11 years and he won one playoff game over the last seven years he coached. He probably is a Hall of Fame coach, but I always look at his coaching record outside of his time with the Giants and don't really feel super-impressed. I have a weird bias against Bill Parcells I can't explain. I know he is a Hall of Fame coach, but I still feel like he is more glitz and glamor than production.
As for the Class of 2014 ... Here come Marvin Harrison, Derrick Brooks and Tony Dungy, added to strong candidates Aeneas Williams, Charles Haley, Michael Strahan, Will Shields, Jerome Bettis and Andre Reed. It will be tough to argue against Harrison, and Dungy and Brooks have good arguments too. Another Saturday in paradise coming up next February in New York.
It's such a cross to bear when having to elect football players into the Hall of Fame. Pity poor Peter that it isn't an easy thing to do. What a burden.
Peyton Manning wants the Pro Bowl to continue.
Well, it should absolutely continue then. Problem solved.
"I got to throw a touchdown pass to Jerry Rice one year in practice -- I'll never forget that. One year, I'm out there before practice with Tony Gonzalez -- we're at the Pro Bowl now, everybody relaxing, supposedly -- and he says to me, 'Hey, throw me 10 balls.' I've had the chance to be coached by so many different coaches other than my own, and I've taken something from all them -- Coughlin, Gruden, Shanahan, Belichick, Cowher, others. But here's my favorite Pro Bowl story. I'm 4 years old. My dad is at the Pro Bowl, and he takes the family, and one day my mom can't find me. It's an hour, two hours. My dad and mom are thinking, 'Do we call the police?' So finally who shows up with little Peyton? Walter Payton. Walter Payton had me out on a catamaran!
Walter Payton had you on a catamaran, Peyton? Did he offer you candy to draw you onto the catamaran? He didn't want to play any games that involved taking your shirt off, did he? You can tell us Peyton, we won't be mad. How did Walter Payton lure you onto the catamaran?
"I keep hearing the commissioner wants to cancel it, and I just really hope it doesn't happen. Guys played harder this year. J.J. Watt was playing hard out there.
Well of course J.J. Watt plays hard. He's a grinder.
By the way, Peter still hasn't acknowledged that J.J. Watt spit on the Patriots logo. I can imagine Peter's reaction if one of his less-favorite players spit on another team's logo. If Jay Cutler did that I can imagine Peter would have a rather strong scolding directed at Cutler for these actions.
Pro Football Focus then details Justin and Aldon Smith's struggles in the Super Bowl and the last few weeks of the regular season...
"Last year Smith picked up 90 quarterback disruptions on 754 rushes or, to put it another way, he got pressure on 12 percent of all dropbacks, leading his position. However, since returning from a triceps injury he sustained at New England in December, Smith has managed only two disruptions on 115 rushes or on 2 percent of passing plays, a level of disruption comparable with some of the worst pass rushing tackles in the NFL.
"That lack of pressure has also affected Aldon Smith, who since Week 15 has played well only once (making life miserable for Atlanta tackle Sam Baker in the Championship Game). Thus, the rush from the right of the 49ers defense has been almost nonexistent.
"Smith had the chance to go up against a rookie making only his fourth start at the left guard position in Kelechi Osemele and with a week's rest surely things would be different. Right? Things only got worse. Not only was Smith held without any pressure, but Osemele, playing by far his finest game of the year, also bested him in the running game too, sometimes sealing him inside, sometimes pushing him back and sometimes cutting him to ground.
So the 49ers pass rush has struggled without two of their best rushers playing well. This means the secondary has to cover guys longer and work harder. Yet, Peter can't seem to understand a strong pass rush means the secondary looks good and a weak pass rush means the secondary looks bad. This isn't a hard concept.
Fine Fifteen
2. San Francisco (13-5-1). If I'm GM Trent Baalke, I think I wake up this morning convinced I've got to do major surgery on the secondary. Just not trustworthy.
Does Peter just not get it? The 49ers secondary is trustworthy when the 49ers have a strong pass rush. When they don't have a strong pass rush then the secondary doesn't look good at all because they have to cover receivers for a longer period of time. The 49ers secondary hasn't gotten less trustworthy, the 49ers pass rush has just gotten worse.
3. Atlanta (14-4). Mike Smith has an assignment for his defensive staff later this month, and if you read the Sports Illustrated coming in your mailbox this week with the Super Bowl on the cover, you'll find out what it is.
Find a way for the Falcons offense to move the ball on the ground and chew up clock so they can hold a lead in a playoff game?
8. Green Bay (12-6). Kudos to Donald Driver, who celebrated his 38th birthday Saturday, a day after word surfaced he was retiring. One of the best seventh-round picks in NFL history, Driver had consecutive seasons as Brett Favre's go-to guy of 84, 86, 92 and 82 catches between 2004 and 2007. "The perfect receiver,'' Favre once said. "Always exactly where he was supposed to be, and great, great hands.''
Whew, I was very concerned that Peter King couldn't shoehorn a Brett Favre reference into this column. It was close there for a second. He even has a Favre quote to use when referencing Favre's "go-to guy." And here I thought Favre's "go-to guy" was whichever member of the opposing secondary he felt like throwing an interception to.
15. St. Louis (7-8-1). Regarding the embarrassment of sort of hiring Rob Ryan and then sort of letting him go: You're better off admitting a mistake early than ignoring it and hoping it goes away.
See, so it is a good thing Jeff Fisher made a bad hire at the defensive coordinator position for the second time in just over a year. I'm sure Fisher and King's shared agent encouraged Peter to talk up Fisher's decision and not focus on the fact Fisher has hired Rob Ryan, Gregg Williams and Blake Williams over the last year to oversee and teach the Rams' defense and none of these guys worked out. Damage control this situation quickly! Let's look at it in a way that it is a good thing the Rams admitted their mistake quickly, rather than look at it as Fisher and the Rams making another bad hire on the defensive side of the ball.
"There is no question in mind that there was pass interference and then a hold on Crabtree on the last one."
-- San Francisco coach Jim Harbaugh, who thought his receiver was impeded to the point of penalty on the last drive of the game.
It's time for my favorite game I call "Imagine if." Anyone else notice when Jim Harbaugh throws a childish hissy-fit on the sidelines he is viewed by sportswriters and announcers as "passionate" and they marvel at how much of a fit he can throw? Imagine if Bill Belichick or a player threw a hissy-fit like that when an official made a call. Can you imagine the media and announcers proclaiming Philip Rivers as "passionate" when he acts like a child on the field? Can you imagine Jim Nantz marveling at how much Brandon Marshall cares about winning if he flipped out on a play call that didn't go his way? I realize a comparison between a head coach and a player isn't completely analogous, but that type of behavior seems celebrated when it comes to Jim Harbaugh, which I think is sort of bizarre. It makes for good television though and I guess that is all that matters.
The Super Bowl will be held in East Rutherford, N.J., on Feb. 2, 2014, outdoors in MetLife Stadium. Kickoff, unless the NFL amends recent history, will be at 6:30 p.m.
Exactly one year before that, on Saturday night at 6:30 in East Rutherford, here were the weather conditions:
Temperature: 27 degrees.
Winds: 10 mph from the west.
Wind chill temperature: 17 degrees.
Light snow began to fall at about 8 p.m., which a year from now would likely be around the two-minute warning of the first half.
I may be the only one who doesn't have a huge problem with the Super Bowl being played in cold or snowy weather. I get how it would be a problem for fans, but as long as it isn't snowing a blizzard then I think it will be interesting to see the Super Bowl played outside.
"Heck of a job, Brownie."
-- @ClydeHaberman, New York Times' columnist on the Metro Desk, when the lights went down in Louisiana.
New Orleanians knew exactly what he meant. If you don't, google it.
Not everyone can be the open-minded guy who is up-to-date on current and past events like Peter King. Peter encourages everyone who isn't as smart as he is to look up "Heck of a job, Brownie," on the Internet. He would do it himself but he has to berate some stupid, ignorant asshole immigrant cabbie and then bitch about a long line at a bookstore.
A multi-tweet string, from Carolina tight end @gregolsen82, after President Obama said he might not let his son play football if he ever had a son.
1: "Just tired hearing guys who made careers playing FB bash it. If it is so bad give back the money it gave u. Nobody forces anyone to play''
2: "I chose to play bc it's my passion since age 5 and allows me to provide for my family. My decision. I am fully aware of what's at stake''
3: "Of course I wish everyone could be injury free. And attempts to make safer are great. But bottom line it is COLLISION sport.''
4: "I also would never criticize a person for not allowing child to play. I understand that. All I'm saying is if you choose to play u get risks"
This is part of the reason I didn't think it meant much when much was made of Obama's "I would have to think about letting my son play football" statement. The players who play in the NFL know what they are getting into.They know they can get hurt or hurt someone else. Obama's statement was made purely on a hypothetical situation that he will very likely never have to face.
1. I think this is what I liked about Super Bowl XLVII:
c. And in the final media thing I liked: Judy Battista's New York Times story revealing the NFL and General Electric will combine to spend some $50 million to create technology to better diagnose and detect concussions, and perhaps to invent new protective devices for the brain.
Peter likes that General Electric will combine to spend $50 million on better technology to better diagnose and detect concussions. He's a good company man for NBC to bring this up isn't he? It's just a coincidence that Peter brings this story up and NBC is owned by General Electric. Just a coincidence.
f. Alicia Keys, not bad either. Longest anthem (2:35) in Super Bowl history, but who, other than Dr. Z, is counting?
I would say pretty much everyone who wanted Alicia Key to stop warbling endlessly so the Super Bowl could eventually begin was counting the length of her anthem. I'm at the point where I think some band or artist is going to turn the national anthem into a 10 minute song or just refuse to stop singing until forcibly removed from the field.
g. Ozzie Newsome, Eric DeCosta and company: That is a great free agent signing iin Jacoby Jones.
l. Jacoby Jones's homecoming. Jones, a New Orleans native, set a number of Super Bowl records on Sunday, including most combined yards in a game (290) and longest play (his 108-yard kickoff return). He also tied a record with two plays of 50-or-more yards. What a free agent signing the former Texan turned out to be by GM Ozzie Newsome.
Ignoring the misspelling of the word "in," which admittedly a six year old wouldn't have trouble spelling, isn't Peter basically restating the same thing in two separate outline entries here? Jacoby Jones was a great free agent signing and rephrasing the same thing doesn't mean Peter is saying something different. I guess it is his MMQB and he can repeat himself 100 times if that's what he thinks his readers want to read.
2. I think this is what I didn't like about Super Bowl XLVII:
a. Brett Favre not being allowed to answer a question about when he'll return to Green Bay on the NFL Network set, because there was too much shouting and merriment on the set. Lord, that stuff is tiring.
DAMMIT, DON'T INTERRUPT LORD FAVRE WHEN HE IS SPEAKING! IT'S NOT OFTEN FAVRE WANTS TO SPEAK AND WE SHOULD PAY HIM THE REVERENCE THAT HE AND PETER BELIEVE HE DESERVES!
Nothing annoys Peter King more than when someone doesn't pay Brett Favre the respect he deserves. How else are we going to find out the all-important question when Brett Favre is going to return to Green Bay? It's not like Favre craves the spotlight and will talk anytime someone throws a camera in his face.
b. Nice effort, Mr. Greatest Wide Receiver of All Time, on the Ed Reed interception.
Randy Moss did alligator-arm that pass thrown over the middle to him, but I like how Peter lets Colin Kaepernick off the hook for a horrendous, no-good pass that deserved to be intercepted no matter how much effort Moss put into catching the football. It was a terrible pass and even if Moss gave an effort I'm not sure he could have caught the pass.
j. Aldon Smith's disappearance. Playing his sixth straight sackless game, Smith finished the season with the same number of sacks -- 19.5 -- as he had as of Dec. 9.
Seems like Aldon Smith isn't much of a pass rusher when Justin Smith isn't there to hold the blockers and get Aldon Smith a free pass to the quarterback.
k. Worst, most claustrophobic winner's locker room I've ever worked. Good people in it. Just microscopic.
THIS LOCKER ROOM DOES NOT MEET PETER KING'S EXPECTATIONS! BE ASHAMED NEW ORLEANS!
e. Coach: I split my vote between Bruce Arians and Chuck Pagano, and Arians won with 36.5 votes. He's the first interim coach ever to win the award. His reward: a head-coaching job, a position he's wanted for two decades, with Arizona.
I still the split vote between Chuck Pagano and Bruce Arians is still a cop-out and doesn't make sense to me. Vote for Arians, since he coached the Colts all year.
8. I think Andrea Kremer is off to a very good start with NFL Network as its health and safety reporter. She aired an important story Sunday on Jacksonville receiver Laurent Robinson trying to recover from four concussions in four months, and he and his wife wondering about life after football.
Good work by Kremer. It's the kind of story that needs to be unearthed by her if the league's own network is going to be taken seriously on hiring a serious reporter and allowing her to do her work the right way.
I still don't believe the NFL is going to let Andrea Kremer make them look bad on their network when it comes to concussion reporting and research. She will be able to tell stories about NFL players being worried about concussions, but they aren't going to let the NFL Network air something they don't agree with or like.
9. I think it's easy for Roger Goodell to say he would let his son play football, and for Barack Obama to say he wouldn't. They don't have sons. They don't have to decide.
It hurts when I agree with Peter King. I think Peter is right though.
(punches self in face for writing that last sentence)
10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:
a. Casinos are sad places. The nearest Starbucks to my hotel in New Orleans was in a casino across the street. Friday morning around 7, I walked into the place with my laptop, ready to do some writing.
What kind of nimrod goes to a fucking casino at 7am to do some writing and is shocked by what he/she sees? I get Peter was going to a Starbucks in the casino, but what did he expect when he walks into a casino at 7am?
b. Smoking in bars in New Orleans. Really? Seriously? Went to a great bar on St. Charles Street the other night, The Avenue Bar, with a very serious beer menu, and noticed a cigarette vending machine, a huge one, next to the men's room. And by about 10:30, the downstairs was full of smokers.
So not only is the Ravens locker room microscopic and the casino full of sad people, but people can smoke in bars down in New Orleans? This city does not meet Peter King's standards for a city. He's disgusted by you city of New Orleans.
d. I know the meal I'd want as my last on death row. Two questions: What would the warden say if I said I wanted scallops in cigar smoke, with cocoa puffs and ice cream for dessert? And two, does Root deliver?
Why Peter, are you planning on killing someone very soon?
e. I don't care about the blackout, and I care only mildly about the choking traffic. This is a great place for a Super Bowl.
Peter only complained about the locker room size, the smoking in bars, casinos at 7am, and the blackout during the game...so that's a good trip in his opinion. Imagine how much he would complain if it were a bad trip.
h. Coffeenerdness: Thanks for the in-room coffee, Mr. Hilton. (He said sarcastically.)
How about using those six figures per year you make Peter and go purchase some coffee at a coffee shop if you don't like the free coffee the hotel provides? Free coffee? Only if it tastes like Starbucks.
Had some hope when I saw the Lavazza packets there. But I see the Hilton has gone to the Acela School of Coffeenerdness. The Italians would blanch at that coffee-flavored water.
Holy shit, it's free coffee. Free. Coffee. In a hotel. The Hilton isn't a fucking Starbucks or another coffee shop, it is a hotel, and they provide FREE coffee as a convenience. If you don't like it, go buy some. Stop acting like an entitled-little brat when hotel coffee doesn't meet your standards for free food.
l. MMQB will not end with the Super Bowl. It continues all year, so be looking for it on SI.com next Monday. Earlier. I promise.
Look for Peter King to complain about the gas mileage in the free van he was provided last summer during his trip to each NFL team's training camp. If you give Peter free shit, prepare to pay the price if it doesn't meet his standards for free shit.
Oh, and have no fear, while Peter has a pretty boring travel note for this week he still found time to bitch about getting free coffee.
I've watched the fourth-down pass into the corner of the end zone, the Colin Kaepernick-to-Michael Crabtree misfire, with cornerback Jimmy Smith in contact with Crabtree and Crabtee with Smith. It lasts two yards beyond the five-yard bump zone. It's close, but I don't think it was interference. Crabtree was an aggressor there too.
It wasn't the bumping that I found to be borderline in that situation, it was how Smith prevented Crabtree from moving to the back of the end zone to possibly catch the pass. It was more of Smith impeding Crabtree's progress than anything else. It's a tough no-call. If I am a 49ers fan then I am pissed, if I am a Ravens fan then I think it wasn't pass interference and being a neutral fan I can see why there was a no-call and I can see why pass interference would be called. If I was the official I probably wouldn't have blown the whistle, though it is a near-impossible call to be 100% right in making.
I still think, blitz and all, I'd like to have taken one chance with the ball in Kaepernick's hands, running on the last series (instead of a LaMichael James run for two, incompletion, incompletion, incompletion).
I thought Greg Roman's play-calling left a little to be desired in that spot. I'm pretty sure Ngata was injured and out of the game, so I probably would have used Kaepernick's mobility at some point. I'm sure Gregg Easterbrook will hammer this point home 1000 times in TMQ.
"MVP! MVP! MVP!'' Joe Flacco's extended family and friends chanted when he walked into his family's private party at Huck Finn's in the French Quarter this morning, just before 1 a.m.. Is there any doubt? Elite, schmelite. I don't care what you call it, Flacco's in the top echelon of quarterbacks right now.
I'm not sure this is true or not. Joe Flacco as an elite quarterback...I'm going to need some time to adjust to the rapidly changing emotions this is causing for me.
Still can't believe head linesman Steve Stelljes didn't throw out Baltimore cornerback Cary Williams for the two-handed shove of Stelljes in the first half. Blatant, obvious, ridiculous.
"That's because the officials clearly favored the Baltimore Ravens," said everyone on Twitter during the Super Bowl. Everyone knows Jerome Boger sent out a directive to get the Ravens a Super Bowl no matter how many shady calls it took.
The first game of the NFL's 94th season, on Sept. 5, 2013 ... think of the possibilities. Ben Roethlisberger at Baltimore. Tom Brady at Baltimore. Aaron Rodgers at Baltimore. Adrian Peterson at Baltimore. J.J. Watt at Baltimore. An embarrassment of possibilities, NBC and the NFL.
I'm pretty sure the Ravens are going to have an advantage if they are only going against one player and not an entire team. Oh, and J.J. Watt at Baltimore really isn't that exciting sounding. The Texans against the Ravens is a little bit better, but I think Peter is the only one getting a journalistic erection at the thought of J.J. Watt versus the Ravens.
It's good to see Peter is still doing hype for his employer even though the 2013 NFL season has yet to begin. Peter is a good company man. I'm just always excited to see ProFootballTalk put portions of Peter's MMQB in the "Rumor Mill" once it is posted. Corporate synergy is always exciting to see. Peter King reports a story, then Mike Florio reports on that person reporting a story, and then another NBC employee reports on the report of that report and the next thing you know corporate synergy is achieved.
We'll get to the Hall of Fame, but let's focus on the game, of course, first.
Can we first talk about the most inexcusable thing that happened during the Super Bowl first? I'm talking about Jim Nantz's tie. There is no excuse for wearing that ugly green, yellow, and orange tie when millions and millions of people are watching. Nantz chose to wear a tie with green, yellow, and orange on it. I'm surprised he didn't throw in a light red on the tie so that all colors that don't go well together could be on one tie.
In the NFC Championship Game, linebacker NaVorro Bowman had his hands on wideout Roddy White on Atlanta's last-chance play of the game. Bowman impeded White, maybe enough that it should have drawn a flag. No flag.
I thought Jimmy Smith's contact with Michael Crabtree in the Super Bowl, on fourth down in the end zone, wasn't as physical.
He definitely impeded Crabtree's progress towards the back of the end zone with grabbing. That was my issue, not so much the physical play, but the fact Crabtree was held up from a chance at making the catch by his progress being impeded.
Kaepernick still rushed seven times for 62 yards -- his fourth-highest output on the ground this season -- and he scrambled for a 15-yard touchdown with 10 minutes to play. But faced with making a goal-line stand as they clung to a 34-29 lead at the end, the Ravens were determined to make Kaepernick throw the ball.
On first and goal from Baltimore's 7-yard line, LaMichael James took a handoff but ran straight into a zero blitz, picking up just two yards before the two-minute warning. The zero blitz, or an all-out blitz, is the most effective way to disrupt the read-option.
Zero blitz takes away that wiggle room, with several defenders converging on the mesh point -- the few feet of space where it's not clear if the quarterback will keep the ball or hand it off. The downside, of course, is that an all-out blitz leaves the secondary in man coverage and wideouts will typically get open. This, however, wasn't a typical situation. A short field hems in the receivers, making the coverage effective even if the blitz is slow.
The reason I include this wall of text is because Gregg Easterbrook criticizes teams who he deems "blitz too much" in his TMQ section "Stop Me Before I Blitz Again!" I know this is MMQB, but blitzing is a good way to disrupt an offense's timing and Gregg Easterbrook can never understand this. The Ravens blitzed three out of the last four plays when making a red-zone stand in the Super Bowl. Gregg will neglect to mention this next year or even this week when he criticizes a team for blitzing too much. Like most things, when done correctly blitzing can be very effective.
During the two-minute warning, John Harbaugh asked for zero blitz, telling defensive coordinator Dan Pees through the headset, "I do not want them to run the ball right here." Pees had already called for a base defense, zone coverage, but Harbaugh had him rethinking the plan.
Matt Weiss, the Ravens defensive quality control coach who was listening in on the conversation, told Gagne. "But he didn't, and that turned out to be a great call. Dean almost got talked out of his instinct, which would have been bad for us. If we're in zero blitz there, there's a good chance they score a touchdown."
This is why (and I include myself in this statement) coaches get too much credit and too much blame when things go wrong or right. A smart coordinator is just as crucial to a team's success. If Dan Pees lets John Harbaugh have his way, the 49ers are expecting blitz and rolling Kapernick out right away from the blitz to find an open receiver.
Ray Lewis: The end.
Thank God. I have no issue with Ray Lewis, but I've had my fill of camera shots on Ray Lewis as he cries or yells loudly about something.
The Hall of Fame got it as right as any year I recall.
I am prejudiced, of course, as one of the 46 voters of the pro football shrine.
BREAKING NEWS: Peter King reports that Peter King does a good job of electing players into the pro football Hall of Fame.
But in my 21st session inside the voting room, I thought the seven-member class was just as I'd have drawn it up -- with only this proviso: Michael Strahan or Charles Haley or Aeneas Williams would have absolutely been fine with me as the fifth and final member (on my ballot) instead of Warren Sapp.
Warren Sapp needs to be in the Snitch Hall of Fame. Jeremy Shockey told me that Sapp was a snitch.
Five thoughts on the seven-man class of 2013:
Not seven thoughts, Peter? Why not seven thoughts?
The way I figure it, we could have 12 receivers with 1,000 catches who are not in the Hall by 2016, and I am just glad we, as a voting group, put one of the deserving pass catchers in this year. But it won't get easier in 2014. Marvin Harrison enters the fray next year, and that can't be good for Reed or Brown. Harrison caught 151 more balls than Reed -- in three fewer seasons.
Gregg Easterbrook still says Andre Reed could have been the greatest receiver of all-time if he had been drafted by the 49ers. If only Reed had played in a more pass-friendly offense like the 49ers had rather than playing for the Bills with that bum Jim Kelly throwing the ball around the field.
The Parcells call wasn't hard. I know some questioned his winning percentage of .570, but look at the bad teams he inherited (Giants, Pats, Jets, Cowboys), and look at his peers in the .570 neighborhood: Stram (.576), Noll (.572), Levy (.562). You take two teams to the Super Bowl, three to conference title games and four to the playoffs, you're a Hall of Famer.
Parcells' ability to take different teams to the playoffs and to the Super Bowl is impressive. This is why I wouldn't make a very good Hall of Fame voter. I can't get past Parcells constantly lying and saying he has no interest in a certain job and then taking that job. Also, his time in Dallas never really impressed me that much, once he left the Giants his team won their division twice in 11 years and he won one playoff game over the last seven years he coached. He probably is a Hall of Fame coach, but I always look at his coaching record outside of his time with the Giants and don't really feel super-impressed. I have a weird bias against Bill Parcells I can't explain. I know he is a Hall of Fame coach, but I still feel like he is more glitz and glamor than production.
As for the Class of 2014 ... Here come Marvin Harrison, Derrick Brooks and Tony Dungy, added to strong candidates Aeneas Williams, Charles Haley, Michael Strahan, Will Shields, Jerome Bettis and Andre Reed. It will be tough to argue against Harrison, and Dungy and Brooks have good arguments too. Another Saturday in paradise coming up next February in New York.
It's such a cross to bear when having to elect football players into the Hall of Fame. Pity poor Peter that it isn't an easy thing to do. What a burden.
Peyton Manning wants the Pro Bowl to continue.
Well, it should absolutely continue then. Problem solved.
"I got to throw a touchdown pass to Jerry Rice one year in practice -- I'll never forget that. One year, I'm out there before practice with Tony Gonzalez -- we're at the Pro Bowl now, everybody relaxing, supposedly -- and he says to me, 'Hey, throw me 10 balls.' I've had the chance to be coached by so many different coaches other than my own, and I've taken something from all them -- Coughlin, Gruden, Shanahan, Belichick, Cowher, others. But here's my favorite Pro Bowl story. I'm 4 years old. My dad is at the Pro Bowl, and he takes the family, and one day my mom can't find me. It's an hour, two hours. My dad and mom are thinking, 'Do we call the police?' So finally who shows up with little Peyton? Walter Payton. Walter Payton had me out on a catamaran!
Walter Payton had you on a catamaran, Peyton? Did he offer you candy to draw you onto the catamaran? He didn't want to play any games that involved taking your shirt off, did he? You can tell us Peyton, we won't be mad. How did Walter Payton lure you onto the catamaran?
"I keep hearing the commissioner wants to cancel it, and I just really hope it doesn't happen. Guys played harder this year. J.J. Watt was playing hard out there.
Well of course J.J. Watt plays hard. He's a grinder.
By the way, Peter still hasn't acknowledged that J.J. Watt spit on the Patriots logo. I can imagine Peter's reaction if one of his less-favorite players spit on another team's logo. If Jay Cutler did that I can imagine Peter would have a rather strong scolding directed at Cutler for these actions.
Pro Football Focus then details Justin and Aldon Smith's struggles in the Super Bowl and the last few weeks of the regular season...
"Last year Smith picked up 90 quarterback disruptions on 754 rushes or, to put it another way, he got pressure on 12 percent of all dropbacks, leading his position. However, since returning from a triceps injury he sustained at New England in December, Smith has managed only two disruptions on 115 rushes or on 2 percent of passing plays, a level of disruption comparable with some of the worst pass rushing tackles in the NFL.
"That lack of pressure has also affected Aldon Smith, who since Week 15 has played well only once (making life miserable for Atlanta tackle Sam Baker in the Championship Game). Thus, the rush from the right of the 49ers defense has been almost nonexistent.
"Smith had the chance to go up against a rookie making only his fourth start at the left guard position in Kelechi Osemele and with a week's rest surely things would be different. Right? Things only got worse. Not only was Smith held without any pressure, but Osemele, playing by far his finest game of the year, also bested him in the running game too, sometimes sealing him inside, sometimes pushing him back and sometimes cutting him to ground.
So the 49ers pass rush has struggled without two of their best rushers playing well. This means the secondary has to cover guys longer and work harder. Yet, Peter can't seem to understand a strong pass rush means the secondary looks good and a weak pass rush means the secondary looks bad. This isn't a hard concept.
Fine Fifteen
2. San Francisco (13-5-1). If I'm GM Trent Baalke, I think I wake up this morning convinced I've got to do major surgery on the secondary. Just not trustworthy.
Does Peter just not get it? The 49ers secondary is trustworthy when the 49ers have a strong pass rush. When they don't have a strong pass rush then the secondary doesn't look good at all because they have to cover receivers for a longer period of time. The 49ers secondary hasn't gotten less trustworthy, the 49ers pass rush has just gotten worse.
3. Atlanta (14-4). Mike Smith has an assignment for his defensive staff later this month, and if you read the Sports Illustrated coming in your mailbox this week with the Super Bowl on the cover, you'll find out what it is.
Find a way for the Falcons offense to move the ball on the ground and chew up clock so they can hold a lead in a playoff game?
8. Green Bay (12-6). Kudos to Donald Driver, who celebrated his 38th birthday Saturday, a day after word surfaced he was retiring. One of the best seventh-round picks in NFL history, Driver had consecutive seasons as Brett Favre's go-to guy of 84, 86, 92 and 82 catches between 2004 and 2007. "The perfect receiver,'' Favre once said. "Always exactly where he was supposed to be, and great, great hands.''
Whew, I was very concerned that Peter King couldn't shoehorn a Brett Favre reference into this column. It was close there for a second. He even has a Favre quote to use when referencing Favre's "go-to guy." And here I thought Favre's "go-to guy" was whichever member of the opposing secondary he felt like throwing an interception to.
15. St. Louis (7-8-1). Regarding the embarrassment of sort of hiring Rob Ryan and then sort of letting him go: You're better off admitting a mistake early than ignoring it and hoping it goes away.
See, so it is a good thing Jeff Fisher made a bad hire at the defensive coordinator position for the second time in just over a year. I'm sure Fisher and King's shared agent encouraged Peter to talk up Fisher's decision and not focus on the fact Fisher has hired Rob Ryan, Gregg Williams and Blake Williams over the last year to oversee and teach the Rams' defense and none of these guys worked out. Damage control this situation quickly! Let's look at it in a way that it is a good thing the Rams admitted their mistake quickly, rather than look at it as Fisher and the Rams making another bad hire on the defensive side of the ball.
"There is no question in mind that there was pass interference and then a hold on Crabtree on the last one."
-- San Francisco coach Jim Harbaugh, who thought his receiver was impeded to the point of penalty on the last drive of the game.
It's time for my favorite game I call "Imagine if." Anyone else notice when Jim Harbaugh throws a childish hissy-fit on the sidelines he is viewed by sportswriters and announcers as "passionate" and they marvel at how much of a fit he can throw? Imagine if Bill Belichick or a player threw a hissy-fit like that when an official made a call. Can you imagine the media and announcers proclaiming Philip Rivers as "passionate" when he acts like a child on the field? Can you imagine Jim Nantz marveling at how much Brandon Marshall cares about winning if he flipped out on a play call that didn't go his way? I realize a comparison between a head coach and a player isn't completely analogous, but that type of behavior seems celebrated when it comes to Jim Harbaugh, which I think is sort of bizarre. It makes for good television though and I guess that is all that matters.
The Super Bowl will be held in East Rutherford, N.J., on Feb. 2, 2014, outdoors in MetLife Stadium. Kickoff, unless the NFL amends recent history, will be at 6:30 p.m.
Exactly one year before that, on Saturday night at 6:30 in East Rutherford, here were the weather conditions:
Temperature: 27 degrees.
Winds: 10 mph from the west.
Wind chill temperature: 17 degrees.
Light snow began to fall at about 8 p.m., which a year from now would likely be around the two-minute warning of the first half.
I may be the only one who doesn't have a huge problem with the Super Bowl being played in cold or snowy weather. I get how it would be a problem for fans, but as long as it isn't snowing a blizzard then I think it will be interesting to see the Super Bowl played outside.
"Heck of a job, Brownie."
-- @ClydeHaberman, New York Times' columnist on the Metro Desk, when the lights went down in Louisiana.
New Orleanians knew exactly what he meant. If you don't, google it.
Not everyone can be the open-minded guy who is up-to-date on current and past events like Peter King. Peter encourages everyone who isn't as smart as he is to look up "Heck of a job, Brownie," on the Internet. He would do it himself but he has to berate some stupid, ignorant asshole immigrant cabbie and then bitch about a long line at a bookstore.
A multi-tweet string, from Carolina tight end @gregolsen82, after President Obama said he might not let his son play football if he ever had a son.
1: "Just tired hearing guys who made careers playing FB bash it. If it is so bad give back the money it gave u. Nobody forces anyone to play''
2: "I chose to play bc it's my passion since age 5 and allows me to provide for my family. My decision. I am fully aware of what's at stake''
3: "Of course I wish everyone could be injury free. And attempts to make safer are great. But bottom line it is COLLISION sport.''
4: "I also would never criticize a person for not allowing child to play. I understand that. All I'm saying is if you choose to play u get risks"
This is part of the reason I didn't think it meant much when much was made of Obama's "I would have to think about letting my son play football" statement. The players who play in the NFL know what they are getting into.They know they can get hurt or hurt someone else. Obama's statement was made purely on a hypothetical situation that he will very likely never have to face.
1. I think this is what I liked about Super Bowl XLVII:
c. And in the final media thing I liked: Judy Battista's New York Times story revealing the NFL and General Electric will combine to spend some $50 million to create technology to better diagnose and detect concussions, and perhaps to invent new protective devices for the brain.
Peter likes that General Electric will combine to spend $50 million on better technology to better diagnose and detect concussions. He's a good company man for NBC to bring this up isn't he? It's just a coincidence that Peter brings this story up and NBC is owned by General Electric. Just a coincidence.
f. Alicia Keys, not bad either. Longest anthem (2:35) in Super Bowl history, but who, other than Dr. Z, is counting?
I would say pretty much everyone who wanted Alicia Key to stop warbling endlessly so the Super Bowl could eventually begin was counting the length of her anthem. I'm at the point where I think some band or artist is going to turn the national anthem into a 10 minute song or just refuse to stop singing until forcibly removed from the field.
g. Ozzie Newsome, Eric DeCosta and company: That is a great free agent signing iin Jacoby Jones.
l. Jacoby Jones's homecoming. Jones, a New Orleans native, set a number of Super Bowl records on Sunday, including most combined yards in a game (290) and longest play (his 108-yard kickoff return). He also tied a record with two plays of 50-or-more yards. What a free agent signing the former Texan turned out to be by GM Ozzie Newsome.
Ignoring the misspelling of the word "in," which admittedly a six year old wouldn't have trouble spelling, isn't Peter basically restating the same thing in two separate outline entries here? Jacoby Jones was a great free agent signing and rephrasing the same thing doesn't mean Peter is saying something different. I guess it is his MMQB and he can repeat himself 100 times if that's what he thinks his readers want to read.
2. I think this is what I didn't like about Super Bowl XLVII:
a. Brett Favre not being allowed to answer a question about when he'll return to Green Bay on the NFL Network set, because there was too much shouting and merriment on the set. Lord, that stuff is tiring.
DAMMIT, DON'T INTERRUPT LORD FAVRE WHEN HE IS SPEAKING! IT'S NOT OFTEN FAVRE WANTS TO SPEAK AND WE SHOULD PAY HIM THE REVERENCE THAT HE AND PETER BELIEVE HE DESERVES!
Nothing annoys Peter King more than when someone doesn't pay Brett Favre the respect he deserves. How else are we going to find out the all-important question when Brett Favre is going to return to Green Bay? It's not like Favre craves the spotlight and will talk anytime someone throws a camera in his face.
b. Nice effort, Mr. Greatest Wide Receiver of All Time, on the Ed Reed interception.
Randy Moss did alligator-arm that pass thrown over the middle to him, but I like how Peter lets Colin Kaepernick off the hook for a horrendous, no-good pass that deserved to be intercepted no matter how much effort Moss put into catching the football. It was a terrible pass and even if Moss gave an effort I'm not sure he could have caught the pass.
j. Aldon Smith's disappearance. Playing his sixth straight sackless game, Smith finished the season with the same number of sacks -- 19.5 -- as he had as of Dec. 9.
Seems like Aldon Smith isn't much of a pass rusher when Justin Smith isn't there to hold the blockers and get Aldon Smith a free pass to the quarterback.
k. Worst, most claustrophobic winner's locker room I've ever worked. Good people in it. Just microscopic.
THIS LOCKER ROOM DOES NOT MEET PETER KING'S EXPECTATIONS! BE ASHAMED NEW ORLEANS!
e. Coach: I split my vote between Bruce Arians and Chuck Pagano, and Arians won with 36.5 votes. He's the first interim coach ever to win the award. His reward: a head-coaching job, a position he's wanted for two decades, with Arizona.
I still the split vote between Chuck Pagano and Bruce Arians is still a cop-out and doesn't make sense to me. Vote for Arians, since he coached the Colts all year.
8. I think Andrea Kremer is off to a very good start with NFL Network as its health and safety reporter. She aired an important story Sunday on Jacksonville receiver Laurent Robinson trying to recover from four concussions in four months, and he and his wife wondering about life after football.
Good work by Kremer. It's the kind of story that needs to be unearthed by her if the league's own network is going to be taken seriously on hiring a serious reporter and allowing her to do her work the right way.
I still don't believe the NFL is going to let Andrea Kremer make them look bad on their network when it comes to concussion reporting and research. She will be able to tell stories about NFL players being worried about concussions, but they aren't going to let the NFL Network air something they don't agree with or like.
9. I think it's easy for Roger Goodell to say he would let his son play football, and for Barack Obama to say he wouldn't. They don't have sons. They don't have to decide.
It hurts when I agree with Peter King. I think Peter is right though.
(punches self in face for writing that last sentence)
10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:
a. Casinos are sad places. The nearest Starbucks to my hotel in New Orleans was in a casino across the street. Friday morning around 7, I walked into the place with my laptop, ready to do some writing.
What kind of nimrod goes to a fucking casino at 7am to do some writing and is shocked by what he/she sees? I get Peter was going to a Starbucks in the casino, but what did he expect when he walks into a casino at 7am?
b. Smoking in bars in New Orleans. Really? Seriously? Went to a great bar on St. Charles Street the other night, The Avenue Bar, with a very serious beer menu, and noticed a cigarette vending machine, a huge one, next to the men's room. And by about 10:30, the downstairs was full of smokers.
So not only is the Ravens locker room microscopic and the casino full of sad people, but people can smoke in bars down in New Orleans? This city does not meet Peter King's standards for a city. He's disgusted by you city of New Orleans.
d. I know the meal I'd want as my last on death row. Two questions: What would the warden say if I said I wanted scallops in cigar smoke, with cocoa puffs and ice cream for dessert? And two, does Root deliver?
Why Peter, are you planning on killing someone very soon?
e. I don't care about the blackout, and I care only mildly about the choking traffic. This is a great place for a Super Bowl.
Peter only complained about the locker room size, the smoking in bars, casinos at 7am, and the blackout during the game...so that's a good trip in his opinion. Imagine how much he would complain if it were a bad trip.
h. Coffeenerdness: Thanks for the in-room coffee, Mr. Hilton. (He said sarcastically.)
How about using those six figures per year you make Peter and go purchase some coffee at a coffee shop if you don't like the free coffee the hotel provides? Free coffee? Only if it tastes like Starbucks.
Had some hope when I saw the Lavazza packets there. But I see the Hilton has gone to the Acela School of Coffeenerdness. The Italians would blanch at that coffee-flavored water.
Holy shit, it's free coffee. Free. Coffee. In a hotel. The Hilton isn't a fucking Starbucks or another coffee shop, it is a hotel, and they provide FREE coffee as a convenience. If you don't like it, go buy some. Stop acting like an entitled-little brat when hotel coffee doesn't meet your standards for free food.
l. MMQB will not end with the Super Bowl. It continues all year, so be looking for it on SI.com next Monday. Earlier. I promise.
Look for Peter King to complain about the gas mileage in the free van he was provided last summer during his trip to each NFL team's training camp. If you give Peter free shit, prepare to pay the price if it doesn't meet his standards for free shit.
Monday, February 4, 2013
4 comments Buzz Bissinger Thinks the NFL Sucks and Wants to Turn the NFL Players Into Girly-Men
When I think of Buzz Bissinger, the very first thing I think of is an angry old man screaming at bloggers. The second thing I think of is just how incredibly manly and tough he comes off as being on the television and in print. It's this very obvious toughness that caused him to write a column saying the NFL sucks, and even if it didn't suck, the sport is unwatchable because football doesn't require the players to be as tough as Buzz is. Actually, Buzz says the NFL has "Namby-pamby rules," so whatever that means, that's what Buzz really thinks about the NFL. Good burn, Buzz. Good burn.
The National Football League regular season ended Sunday …
Awaiting punchline...I'm sure it has something to do with the NFL being "namby-pamby."
If you were interested in the social ramifications of the murder-suicide by Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher (none),
It's almost been well two months since Jovan Belcher killed his fiance and then killed himself. That's not really that long of a time. Yet Buzz thinks the social revolution to ban all weapons and stop domestic violence entirely hasn't worked, so there's no point in continuing the fight. Buzz thought we could get all domestic violence stopped at the very most a week or two after Belcher killed himself and his fiance. Clearly no one cares anymore, since social change is so easy to do in such a short time span.
the continued debate over concussions (point taken), a possible rule change to dilute a game already too diluted (terrible idea),
"We need to eliminate concussions as much as possible, but keep the game as violent as it currently is. There's no way these are contradicting statements."
and this amorphous thing called the NFL culture, in which players act violent off the field because they are violent on it (duh), then it was maybe the best regular season ever.
I love how Buzz takes "the NFL culture" that a small percentage of NFL players participate in and then uses it to just say players act violent off the field because they are violent on it, like this doesn't go for other sports as well. There are plenty of NFL players who don't act violent off the field, just like there are plenty of baseball players who act violent off the field even though they don't play a violent sport. I don't know if NFL players act more violently than athletes in other sports, but there are NFL players who aren't violent, and violent athletes who play other (non-violent) sports.
If you were interested in the quality of play—watched only out of Pavlovian habit or fantasy football or gambling—then the 2012 season ranks among the worst.
This is an opinion, not a fact. Don't pass off your opinion as if it were fact. I enjoyed the 2012 NFL season. Maybe that makes me a "namby-pamby" person.
Not as bad as the 2011 season, in which a Pop Warner second-stringer could have passed for 5,000 yards because of defenses neutered by rule changes and stripped of aggression. But close.
In conclusion, Buzz Bissinger thinks every NFL season sucks. So we should obviously listen very intently to him when he says the 2012 season was boring, since he has such an open mind and doesn't seem to just dislike the NFL.
On Monday seven coaches got fired, and it should have been eight, with the New York Jets’ beyond-bombastic Rex Ryan.
Let's try to hang with Buzz Bissinger as he desperately attempts to prove his next point. Buzz says seven head coaches got fired and it should have been eight head coaches that got fired. So based on this statement, Buzz seems to not have an issue with these seven coaches being fired, and actually thinks there should have been eight head coaches fired.
Owner impatience is one reason,
Wait, so if these coaches deserved to be fired then the owners really weren't being impatient were they? In fact, Buzz doesn't seem to think the owners were impatient enough because he also thinks Rex Ryan should have been fired. So he shouldn't say the owners were impatient when he thinks more head coaches should have been fired.
but so were listless teams that played such quarterback studs as Ryan Fitzpatrick, Nick Foles, Brady Quinn, and roughly 35 different ones from the Arizona Cardinals.
And the 2012 season was, of course, the first season where mediocre quarterbacks started any games for NFL teams...which is why the 2012 season was no good. No NFL teams had ever started shitty quarterbacks prior to this past NFL year.
The NFL is troubled. It’s not because of concussions or violence off the field
I think Buzz meant to type, "It IS because of concussions or violence off the field" because that's a much more accurate statement.
or the league’s own politically correct, pussy-whipped ad campaign for improved safety.
Apparently Buzz's solution to the concussion and violence off the field issues is to make the game less safe overall, which would decrease player's safety. I'm not sure how that makes sense.
I'm not going to argue the league isn't working hard to make it seem like they care about player safety, but the NFL isn't in trouble because of the ad campaign for improved safety. The NFL is (potentially) in trouble because the league has a violent product. The NFL has had to adapt based on the litany of ex-players who are having their lives changed for the worse physically because of the time they spent playing in the NFL. The NFL is in trouble because the public is realizing more and more football is an inherently dangerous game and players are going to be severely injured playing the game, whether it is in the short-term or the long-term, no matter what the NFL tries to do. I don't like the kickoff moving up five yards, but I get why the NFL did it. They have to try and adapt to make the sport 5% less dangerous, or otherwise the sport would really be in trouble. The product is still watchable, no matter what Buzz says.
It is because the product itself is largely unwatchable, too many dull teams playing too many other dull teams,
There are always dull or shitty teams. The product is still watchable. The NFL has had to balance the fact it is an inherently dangerous sport with attempts to improve player safety. It's not exactly easy to do, but the measures they have taken can be frustrating at times (like the discussion over whether an offensive player moved his head and caused the helmet-to-helmet contact a defensive player got called for), yet the product is still very much watchable. It had to be changed in response to the concussion issues that ex-players were experiencing after their playing career was over.
I'm not sympathizing with Roger Goodell, but this is the balance he has to strike. On one hand you have those like Bill Simmons who criticize him for not paying attention to concussion issues early enough or doing enough to prevent players from experiencing concussion-related issues. On the other hand, you have those like Buzz Bissinger who thinks the game is being pussified and the changes are making the game unwatchable. He has to keep the violent spirit of the inherently dangerous sport while also increasing the safety of the inherently dangerous sport. I don't sympathize with Goodell, but he can't and won't please everyone.
the only excitement now guessing the halftime entertainment at the Super Bowl and which performer will trip or simply keel over from old age. Or wondering if the day will ever come that Tim Tebow throws an incomplete pass still in-bounds.
I hate to make a generalized statement (ok, I really don't hate it), but if you didn't enjoy the NFL this year then there is a possibility you don't like NFL football. This has been an exciting year for NFL fans. New stars have been drafted, new (and old debates) have started, and this is a year where there isn't one dominant team in either conference that seems destined to make the Super Bowl. So if Buzz doesn't find excitement in watching the NFL this season, it is possible he just doesn't like to watch the NFL. I am sure he would argue he does like the NFL, just not with the current rules, but that's a cop-out. The game hasn't changed all that much from five years ago. The NFL has cracked down on hits to the head, they don't allow defenders to man-handle receivers and are overall more concerned with player safety, but the game isn't unrecognizable.
Football is violent because it was designed to be violent. Football hurts because it is meant to hurt.
I 100% agree with this statement. Football is a violent sport that is designed to be violent and is difficult to play any other way. The problem that Buzz fails to grasp is that the NFL has to stay violent while also working harder to protect the NFL players. I'm not pushing the panic button, but the NFL had to make changes to save face in light of the concussion lawsuit brought by ex-players and the documented suicides of ex-NFL players caused by depression. Some of these suicides have been speculatively linked to concussions. Football is violent and to ensure the sport didn't go the way of boxing Roger Goodell and the NFL had to make tweaks to the game as opposed to putting their head in the sand hoping these concussion problems go away. Football is violent and that's the problem. If we want to still watch football on Sundays then the NFL had to change.
Hitting is not for the faint of heart, and I proudly number myself among the cowards after getting slammed into the ground on a missed tackle in eighth grade that I still remember.
Right, imagine getting slammed into the ground 20-30 times in a game by an overly-grown man (who weighs 220-300 pounds). That's the nature of the NFL. It is violent, but had to change slightly to endure as a sport. The fact Buzz admits he is a coward only shows that his tough guy act in calling the NFL "namby-pamby" is a farce.
But some of the referee calls this year in which contact was so clearly incidental, defensive linemen gyrating into contorted ballet to not touch the quarterback but still getting flagged, were ridiculous.
Like most things in life, we can blame Tom Brady for this. Defenders aren't allowed to make contact with a quarterbacks head or dive at his knees. The way the NFL protects quarterbacks was a big issue prior to this season, so Buzz's whining about how the NFL protects quarterbacks didn't cause the 2012 NFL season to be no good. Buzz is just being crotchety.
Football still is football, but every year it edges closer to a tamped-down ersatz version thanks to Roger Goodell, the Mother Teresa of professional sports commissioners.
And yet, Buzz still misses the point that the NFL had to change or face more concussion-related lawsuits and a backlash from certain sectors of the public. Adapt or die. The NFL couldn't go allowing helmet-to-helmet hits to continue unabated while pretending to care about their player's safety. Of course that isn't the issue here. Buzzs think the NFL shouldn't have done anything at all to make the sport less violent, which not only isn't realistic, but also shows a fundamental ignorance of the player safety issues the NFL faces.
If Mother Goodell
Catchy nickname. I'd also like to point out Buzz is using a off-shoot of Mother Teresa's name in a negative light. Mother Teresa spent her lifetime helping out those less fortunate and more needy, but to Buzz Bissinger this just showed how pussified and weak she was.
has his way, don’t be surprised if “huddles” become “meditations,” “timeouts” turned into yoga breaks, posturpedic mattresses placed in the pocket to further protect the quarterback.
Buzz is the same guy who took one hard hit as an 8th grader and quit playing football forever. This is the guy who is complaining that football is becoming too soft. Admitting he is a wimp shouldn't cause the fact NFL players aren't wimps and this takes a toll on their body over the long-term to be ignored.
Now there is serious talk about banning kickoffs. Kickoffs are adrenaline-spiked kamikaze, players running at full speed trying to decapitate each other.
Based on that description I can't see why the NFL would look to ban kickoffs.
It seems that Buzz has a fundamental inability to understand how and why the NFL is trying to make the sport safer. Yes, football is an inherently violent sport and to remove this violence is to change the sport so basically it would no longer resemble football. Yes, I get there are people who think the NFL has gone too far to protect players, but this is something that needed to be done (dramatic voice inserted) to save the sport. Football will always be violent, but the last thing the NFL needed was the perception they don't care about the players, so they tweaked the game to make it a slightly safer sport.
Stop watching the sport if you don't like the changes. I used to love the NBA and rarely missed a game, but some of the rule changes and changes in the way the game is played makes it no longer my favorite professional league to watch. The NFL had to change in some ways. I don't always like it, but I also think the players understand the new rules and the sport hasn't been changed so much to me that it is no longer recognizable. Again, Buzz is being crotchety. I hate the new kickoff rule, but when Buzz describes it as,
"adrenaline-spiked kamikaze, players running at full speed trying to decapitate each other"
I can see this statement as an argument to eliminate the kickoff entirely.
Journeyman players whose only skill is total disregard for their bodies become legends, albeit short-term ones. It’s part of the visceral thrill, and no single play in football can shift momentum more than a kickoff return for a touchdown.
And there still are kickoff returns for a touchdown. If you notice, Buzz has slowly changed this article from "The 2012 season stunk and the league is becoming namby-pamby" to "I hate change and the NFL is ruining the product, but I still think concussions are an issue yet want to ignore that because I have a 3pm deadline to meet and can't think of anything else to write."
If that’s the case, it is only fair that other sports surrender—no more pitching inside in baseball for fear an errant throw might hit a batter, no more body checks in hockey, no more headers in soccer, bowling balls made of papier-mâché for the sanctity of those pins taking such brutal beatings.
Let's hold back the reins a bit you little drama queen. None of these sports, outside of maybe hockey, have had so many documented cases of ex-players having experience health-related issues after their playing days like NFL players have. Terry Steinbach isn't walking around in a daze or threatening to kill himself because he got beaned in the head 20 years ago. Pele isn't in a wheelchair due to too many headers during his playing days.
The evidence does mount that not only concussions but repetitive hits in football (how the hell are you going to get rid of that?) can have terrible after-effects.
The NFL knows this, which is why they are cracking down on helmet-to-helmet hits and trying to make the game as safe as it possibly can be. Buzz can't acknowledge the effect of concussions on NFL players and then claim the league is becoming namby-pamby and protecting players too much. He has to see the financial and societal reason for the NFL making the rule changes.
The adoption of a new rule pushing kickoffs from the 30 to the 35-yard line did result in 20 concussions in 2011 as compared to 35 in 2010. If you subtract kickoffs, the number of concussions rose from 235 in 2010 to 246 in 2011, although part of that increase may be due to more stringent reporting.
"May be due to more stringent reporting." May be? I would say this increase is directly and unequivocally connected to the more stringent reporting. Teams are becoming more and more aware of the signs of concussions and are focusing more on what concussions symptoms after a game is played can look like. With increased knowledge of concussions comes an increase reporting of concussion symptoms. There aren't necessarily more people with AIDS than there was 30 years ago, it's just there is a greater awareness of the disease.
Head injuries are an occupational hazard of the game.
I 100% agree players know what they are getting into. I also think the fact the players know what they are getting into isn't any reason to not try and make football safer.
A study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health showed that pro players from the 1960s and 1970s, and 1980s had lower mortality rates than the male general population.
Well that just proves football is really safe then, doesn't it? What this study doesn't include is the assumption pro players are more physically fit than the male general population, which would explain the higher mortality rate of the general male population. Being fat and out of shape kills people too. This study also doesn't include the quality of life of pro players versus the general male population. I'm not sure how to include this, but just because pro players aren't dying doesn't mean their quality of life isn't worse than the general male population.
To improve player safety and still maintain the necessary bloodlust spectacle of the game, the answer lies in better equipment, not in continued politically correct dilution. Some say helmets cannot be improved, but in the age of technology and advance medical discovery we live in today, that’s balderdash.
Namby-pamby balderdash to be exact.
Goodell also has to get off the increasingly wearisome holier-than-thou kick. He recently opposed instituting sports betting in Atlantic City. It may please the holy rollers who also own an arsenal of semi-automatic weapons for Armageddon, but football would be a higher form of bocce ball without gambling.
This really has nothing to do with why the 2012 season wasn't very good. This is what happens when you give a crotchety old man a forum to complain, he can rarely stay on topic.
It needs gambling, given the swill we are forced to watch.
There have been exceptions this season. Minnesota Viking running back Adrian Peterson may go down as the best runner in NFL history, and the same with Denver Bronco quarterback Peyton Manning after leaving the Indianapolis Colts.
How about the fact there are five outstanding offensive rookies that came into the league this year? How about the fact there are exciting second year quarterbacks in the NFL? None of this excites Buzz apparently. Things were better back in the good old days, whenever the hell that was.
But ponder the playoffs this weekend, and do you really want to see Christian Ponder at quarterback for the Vikings (17th in the league with a 53.8 total quarterback rating as calibrated by ESPN)?
Yes, I do. I saw Brad Johnson/Trent Dilfer win a Super Bowl and T.J. Yikes win a playoff game last year. Christian Ponder won't be the first or the last mediocre quarterback to lead his team to the playoffs. There have been plenty of other mediocre quarterbacks who have done this same thing in the past, so Buzz has no point.
As good as they have been, do you really trust two rookie quarterbacks in Robert Griffin III (6th) of the Washington Redskins and Andrew Luck of the Colts (11th), still young mixtures of exciting and woeful?
What the hell does it matter if I trust these quarterbacks or not? This doesn't make the NFL any less exciting to have two rookie quarterbacks (actually three) starting games in the playoffs. Does Buzz has some bizarre idea that the NFL can only be exciting when the best quarterbacks are all in the playoffs? Then why he didn't he like the 2012 regular season? All of the great quarterbacks played during the 2012 season, so Buzz should have thought the regular season was very exciting. You know, 2012 isn't the first year some NFL teams had shitty quarterbacks.
Does Houston Texans quarterback Matt Schaub (14th) do anything for you, given that he has thrown three touchdowns in the past five games? Or Andy Dalton of the Cincinnati Bengals (22nd)? Or Joe Flacco of the Baltimore Ravens (25th)?
The playoffs are not just about what quarterbacks are matching up against each other. Football is a team game and the playoffs are exciting because of the teams that are playing each other. The playoffs can't simply be dismissed as boring because every quarterback in the playoffs isn't elite based on an ESPN rating for that quarterback.
The big guns—Manning and New England Patriot Tom Brady and Atlanta Falcon Matt Ryan (maybe)—have first-round byes.
So the 2012 NFL season would be less boring if these elite quarterbacks didn't have a first round bye and had to play in the first round? Also, if both Brady and Ryan were playing with concussions this would prove they aren't namby-pamby pussy-boys and Buzz Bissinger would then feel like the NFL was worth watching again.
But last year’s Super Bowl winner, the wildcard New York Giants, tripped into the playoffs with a record of 9 and 7. Two years before it was the wildcard Pittsburgh Steelers. The last time the team with the best regular season record won the Super Bowl was the Patriots in 2004. Parity has become pariah.
Yes, it is terrible the NFL has a system set up where every NFL team feels like it can compete at the beginning of each year. As much as Buzz bitches about NFL parity becoming pariah, the Giants have won two Super Bowls in the last five years, the Patriots have been to two Super Bowls in the last five years, and there have been consistently good teams in both the AFC and NFC over the last decade. So there is parity, but it isn't like every NFL season is just a crapshoot. The NFL has good parity in that you know some of the these teams that will be good, along with teams that surprise and make the playoffs.
So just make sure your local bookie is on speed dial.
But gambling isn't endorsed by the NFL and this is why the 2012 NFL season was no good, boring, and namby-pamby. Well, along with the NFL trying small changes to prevent it's players from experiencing short and long-term health issues that Buzz acknowledges exist, yet can't seem to make the connection between the financial and societal repercussions these health issues could present if the NFL didn't make these small changes. I don't like all the changes, but the 2012 NFL season didn't stink because of these changes. If Buzz thinks the NFL stinks it could be because he doesn't like the sport.
The National Football League regular season ended Sunday …
Awaiting punchline...I'm sure it has something to do with the NFL being "namby-pamby."
If you were interested in the social ramifications of the murder-suicide by Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher (none),
It's almost been well two months since Jovan Belcher killed his fiance and then killed himself. That's not really that long of a time. Yet Buzz thinks the social revolution to ban all weapons and stop domestic violence entirely hasn't worked, so there's no point in continuing the fight. Buzz thought we could get all domestic violence stopped at the very most a week or two after Belcher killed himself and his fiance. Clearly no one cares anymore, since social change is so easy to do in such a short time span.
the continued debate over concussions (point taken), a possible rule change to dilute a game already too diluted (terrible idea),
"We need to eliminate concussions as much as possible, but keep the game as violent as it currently is. There's no way these are contradicting statements."
and this amorphous thing called the NFL culture, in which players act violent off the field because they are violent on it (duh), then it was maybe the best regular season ever.
I love how Buzz takes "the NFL culture" that a small percentage of NFL players participate in and then uses it to just say players act violent off the field because they are violent on it, like this doesn't go for other sports as well. There are plenty of NFL players who don't act violent off the field, just like there are plenty of baseball players who act violent off the field even though they don't play a violent sport. I don't know if NFL players act more violently than athletes in other sports, but there are NFL players who aren't violent, and violent athletes who play other (non-violent) sports.
If you were interested in the quality of play—watched only out of Pavlovian habit or fantasy football or gambling—then the 2012 season ranks among the worst.
This is an opinion, not a fact. Don't pass off your opinion as if it were fact. I enjoyed the 2012 NFL season. Maybe that makes me a "namby-pamby" person.
Not as bad as the 2011 season, in which a Pop Warner second-stringer could have passed for 5,000 yards because of defenses neutered by rule changes and stripped of aggression. But close.
In conclusion, Buzz Bissinger thinks every NFL season sucks. So we should obviously listen very intently to him when he says the 2012 season was boring, since he has such an open mind and doesn't seem to just dislike the NFL.
On Monday seven coaches got fired, and it should have been eight, with the New York Jets’ beyond-bombastic Rex Ryan.
Let's try to hang with Buzz Bissinger as he desperately attempts to prove his next point. Buzz says seven head coaches got fired and it should have been eight head coaches that got fired. So based on this statement, Buzz seems to not have an issue with these seven coaches being fired, and actually thinks there should have been eight head coaches fired.
Owner impatience is one reason,
Wait, so if these coaches deserved to be fired then the owners really weren't being impatient were they? In fact, Buzz doesn't seem to think the owners were impatient enough because he also thinks Rex Ryan should have been fired. So he shouldn't say the owners were impatient when he thinks more head coaches should have been fired.
but so were listless teams that played such quarterback studs as Ryan Fitzpatrick, Nick Foles, Brady Quinn, and roughly 35 different ones from the Arizona Cardinals.
And the 2012 season was, of course, the first season where mediocre quarterbacks started any games for NFL teams...which is why the 2012 season was no good. No NFL teams had ever started shitty quarterbacks prior to this past NFL year.
The NFL is troubled. It’s not because of concussions or violence off the field
I think Buzz meant to type, "It IS because of concussions or violence off the field" because that's a much more accurate statement.
or the league’s own politically correct, pussy-whipped ad campaign for improved safety.
Apparently Buzz's solution to the concussion and violence off the field issues is to make the game less safe overall, which would decrease player's safety. I'm not sure how that makes sense.
I'm not going to argue the league isn't working hard to make it seem like they care about player safety, but the NFL isn't in trouble because of the ad campaign for improved safety. The NFL is (potentially) in trouble because the league has a violent product. The NFL has had to adapt based on the litany of ex-players who are having their lives changed for the worse physically because of the time they spent playing in the NFL. The NFL is in trouble because the public is realizing more and more football is an inherently dangerous game and players are going to be severely injured playing the game, whether it is in the short-term or the long-term, no matter what the NFL tries to do. I don't like the kickoff moving up five yards, but I get why the NFL did it. They have to try and adapt to make the sport 5% less dangerous, or otherwise the sport would really be in trouble. The product is still watchable, no matter what Buzz says.
It is because the product itself is largely unwatchable, too many dull teams playing too many other dull teams,
There are always dull or shitty teams. The product is still watchable. The NFL has had to balance the fact it is an inherently dangerous sport with attempts to improve player safety. It's not exactly easy to do, but the measures they have taken can be frustrating at times (like the discussion over whether an offensive player moved his head and caused the helmet-to-helmet contact a defensive player got called for), yet the product is still very much watchable. It had to be changed in response to the concussion issues that ex-players were experiencing after their playing career was over.
I'm not sympathizing with Roger Goodell, but this is the balance he has to strike. On one hand you have those like Bill Simmons who criticize him for not paying attention to concussion issues early enough or doing enough to prevent players from experiencing concussion-related issues. On the other hand, you have those like Buzz Bissinger who thinks the game is being pussified and the changes are making the game unwatchable. He has to keep the violent spirit of the inherently dangerous sport while also increasing the safety of the inherently dangerous sport. I don't sympathize with Goodell, but he can't and won't please everyone.
the only excitement now guessing the halftime entertainment at the Super Bowl and which performer will trip or simply keel over from old age. Or wondering if the day will ever come that Tim Tebow throws an incomplete pass still in-bounds.
I hate to make a generalized statement (ok, I really don't hate it), but if you didn't enjoy the NFL this year then there is a possibility you don't like NFL football. This has been an exciting year for NFL fans. New stars have been drafted, new (and old debates) have started, and this is a year where there isn't one dominant team in either conference that seems destined to make the Super Bowl. So if Buzz doesn't find excitement in watching the NFL this season, it is possible he just doesn't like to watch the NFL. I am sure he would argue he does like the NFL, just not with the current rules, but that's a cop-out. The game hasn't changed all that much from five years ago. The NFL has cracked down on hits to the head, they don't allow defenders to man-handle receivers and are overall more concerned with player safety, but the game isn't unrecognizable.
Football is violent because it was designed to be violent. Football hurts because it is meant to hurt.
I 100% agree with this statement. Football is a violent sport that is designed to be violent and is difficult to play any other way. The problem that Buzz fails to grasp is that the NFL has to stay violent while also working harder to protect the NFL players. I'm not pushing the panic button, but the NFL had to make changes to save face in light of the concussion lawsuit brought by ex-players and the documented suicides of ex-NFL players caused by depression. Some of these suicides have been speculatively linked to concussions. Football is violent and to ensure the sport didn't go the way of boxing Roger Goodell and the NFL had to make tweaks to the game as opposed to putting their head in the sand hoping these concussion problems go away. Football is violent and that's the problem. If we want to still watch football on Sundays then the NFL had to change.
Hitting is not for the faint of heart, and I proudly number myself among the cowards after getting slammed into the ground on a missed tackle in eighth grade that I still remember.
Right, imagine getting slammed into the ground 20-30 times in a game by an overly-grown man (who weighs 220-300 pounds). That's the nature of the NFL. It is violent, but had to change slightly to endure as a sport. The fact Buzz admits he is a coward only shows that his tough guy act in calling the NFL "namby-pamby" is a farce.
But some of the referee calls this year in which contact was so clearly incidental, defensive linemen gyrating into contorted ballet to not touch the quarterback but still getting flagged, were ridiculous.
Like most things in life, we can blame Tom Brady for this. Defenders aren't allowed to make contact with a quarterbacks head or dive at his knees. The way the NFL protects quarterbacks was a big issue prior to this season, so Buzz's whining about how the NFL protects quarterbacks didn't cause the 2012 NFL season to be no good. Buzz is just being crotchety.
Football still is football, but every year it edges closer to a tamped-down ersatz version thanks to Roger Goodell, the Mother Teresa of professional sports commissioners.
And yet, Buzz still misses the point that the NFL had to change or face more concussion-related lawsuits and a backlash from certain sectors of the public. Adapt or die. The NFL couldn't go allowing helmet-to-helmet hits to continue unabated while pretending to care about their player's safety. Of course that isn't the issue here. Buzzs think the NFL shouldn't have done anything at all to make the sport less violent, which not only isn't realistic, but also shows a fundamental ignorance of the player safety issues the NFL faces.
If Mother Goodell
Catchy nickname. I'd also like to point out Buzz is using a off-shoot of Mother Teresa's name in a negative light. Mother Teresa spent her lifetime helping out those less fortunate and more needy, but to Buzz Bissinger this just showed how pussified and weak she was.
has his way, don’t be surprised if “huddles” become “meditations,” “timeouts” turned into yoga breaks, posturpedic mattresses placed in the pocket to further protect the quarterback.
Buzz is the same guy who took one hard hit as an 8th grader and quit playing football forever. This is the guy who is complaining that football is becoming too soft. Admitting he is a wimp shouldn't cause the fact NFL players aren't wimps and this takes a toll on their body over the long-term to be ignored.
Now there is serious talk about banning kickoffs. Kickoffs are adrenaline-spiked kamikaze, players running at full speed trying to decapitate each other.
Based on that description I can't see why the NFL would look to ban kickoffs.
It seems that Buzz has a fundamental inability to understand how and why the NFL is trying to make the sport safer. Yes, football is an inherently violent sport and to remove this violence is to change the sport so basically it would no longer resemble football. Yes, I get there are people who think the NFL has gone too far to protect players, but this is something that needed to be done (dramatic voice inserted) to save the sport. Football will always be violent, but the last thing the NFL needed was the perception they don't care about the players, so they tweaked the game to make it a slightly safer sport.
Stop watching the sport if you don't like the changes. I used to love the NBA and rarely missed a game, but some of the rule changes and changes in the way the game is played makes it no longer my favorite professional league to watch. The NFL had to change in some ways. I don't always like it, but I also think the players understand the new rules and the sport hasn't been changed so much to me that it is no longer recognizable. Again, Buzz is being crotchety. I hate the new kickoff rule, but when Buzz describes it as,
"adrenaline-spiked kamikaze, players running at full speed trying to decapitate each other"
I can see this statement as an argument to eliminate the kickoff entirely.
Journeyman players whose only skill is total disregard for their bodies become legends, albeit short-term ones. It’s part of the visceral thrill, and no single play in football can shift momentum more than a kickoff return for a touchdown.
And there still are kickoff returns for a touchdown. If you notice, Buzz has slowly changed this article from "The 2012 season stunk and the league is becoming namby-pamby" to "I hate change and the NFL is ruining the product, but I still think concussions are an issue yet want to ignore that because I have a 3pm deadline to meet and can't think of anything else to write."
If that’s the case, it is only fair that other sports surrender—no more pitching inside in baseball for fear an errant throw might hit a batter, no more body checks in hockey, no more headers in soccer, bowling balls made of papier-mâché for the sanctity of those pins taking such brutal beatings.
Let's hold back the reins a bit you little drama queen. None of these sports, outside of maybe hockey, have had so many documented cases of ex-players having experience health-related issues after their playing days like NFL players have. Terry Steinbach isn't walking around in a daze or threatening to kill himself because he got beaned in the head 20 years ago. Pele isn't in a wheelchair due to too many headers during his playing days.
The evidence does mount that not only concussions but repetitive hits in football (how the hell are you going to get rid of that?) can have terrible after-effects.
The NFL knows this, which is why they are cracking down on helmet-to-helmet hits and trying to make the game as safe as it possibly can be. Buzz can't acknowledge the effect of concussions on NFL players and then claim the league is becoming namby-pamby and protecting players too much. He has to see the financial and societal reason for the NFL making the rule changes.
The adoption of a new rule pushing kickoffs from the 30 to the 35-yard line did result in 20 concussions in 2011 as compared to 35 in 2010. If you subtract kickoffs, the number of concussions rose from 235 in 2010 to 246 in 2011, although part of that increase may be due to more stringent reporting.
"May be due to more stringent reporting." May be? I would say this increase is directly and unequivocally connected to the more stringent reporting. Teams are becoming more and more aware of the signs of concussions and are focusing more on what concussions symptoms after a game is played can look like. With increased knowledge of concussions comes an increase reporting of concussion symptoms. There aren't necessarily more people with AIDS than there was 30 years ago, it's just there is a greater awareness of the disease.
Head injuries are an occupational hazard of the game.
I 100% agree players know what they are getting into. I also think the fact the players know what they are getting into isn't any reason to not try and make football safer.
A study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health showed that pro players from the 1960s and 1970s, and 1980s had lower mortality rates than the male general population.
Well that just proves football is really safe then, doesn't it? What this study doesn't include is the assumption pro players are more physically fit than the male general population, which would explain the higher mortality rate of the general male population. Being fat and out of shape kills people too. This study also doesn't include the quality of life of pro players versus the general male population. I'm not sure how to include this, but just because pro players aren't dying doesn't mean their quality of life isn't worse than the general male population.
To improve player safety and still maintain the necessary bloodlust spectacle of the game, the answer lies in better equipment, not in continued politically correct dilution. Some say helmets cannot be improved, but in the age of technology and advance medical discovery we live in today, that’s balderdash.
Namby-pamby balderdash to be exact.
Goodell also has to get off the increasingly wearisome holier-than-thou kick. He recently opposed instituting sports betting in Atlantic City. It may please the holy rollers who also own an arsenal of semi-automatic weapons for Armageddon, but football would be a higher form of bocce ball without gambling.
This really has nothing to do with why the 2012 season wasn't very good. This is what happens when you give a crotchety old man a forum to complain, he can rarely stay on topic.
It needs gambling, given the swill we are forced to watch.
There have been exceptions this season. Minnesota Viking running back Adrian Peterson may go down as the best runner in NFL history, and the same with Denver Bronco quarterback Peyton Manning after leaving the Indianapolis Colts.
How about the fact there are five outstanding offensive rookies that came into the league this year? How about the fact there are exciting second year quarterbacks in the NFL? None of this excites Buzz apparently. Things were better back in the good old days, whenever the hell that was.
But ponder the playoffs this weekend, and do you really want to see Christian Ponder at quarterback for the Vikings (17th in the league with a 53.8 total quarterback rating as calibrated by ESPN)?
Yes, I do. I saw Brad Johnson/Trent Dilfer win a Super Bowl and T.J. Yikes win a playoff game last year. Christian Ponder won't be the first or the last mediocre quarterback to lead his team to the playoffs. There have been plenty of other mediocre quarterbacks who have done this same thing in the past, so Buzz has no point.
As good as they have been, do you really trust two rookie quarterbacks in Robert Griffin III (6th) of the Washington Redskins and Andrew Luck of the Colts (11th), still young mixtures of exciting and woeful?
What the hell does it matter if I trust these quarterbacks or not? This doesn't make the NFL any less exciting to have two rookie quarterbacks (actually three) starting games in the playoffs. Does Buzz has some bizarre idea that the NFL can only be exciting when the best quarterbacks are all in the playoffs? Then why he didn't he like the 2012 regular season? All of the great quarterbacks played during the 2012 season, so Buzz should have thought the regular season was very exciting. You know, 2012 isn't the first year some NFL teams had shitty quarterbacks.
Does Houston Texans quarterback Matt Schaub (14th) do anything for you, given that he has thrown three touchdowns in the past five games? Or Andy Dalton of the Cincinnati Bengals (22nd)? Or Joe Flacco of the Baltimore Ravens (25th)?
The playoffs are not just about what quarterbacks are matching up against each other. Football is a team game and the playoffs are exciting because of the teams that are playing each other. The playoffs can't simply be dismissed as boring because every quarterback in the playoffs isn't elite based on an ESPN rating for that quarterback.
The big guns—Manning and New England Patriot Tom Brady and Atlanta Falcon Matt Ryan (maybe)—have first-round byes.
So the 2012 NFL season would be less boring if these elite quarterbacks didn't have a first round bye and had to play in the first round? Also, if both Brady and Ryan were playing with concussions this would prove they aren't namby-pamby pussy-boys and Buzz Bissinger would then feel like the NFL was worth watching again.
But last year’s Super Bowl winner, the wildcard New York Giants, tripped into the playoffs with a record of 9 and 7. Two years before it was the wildcard Pittsburgh Steelers. The last time the team with the best regular season record won the Super Bowl was the Patriots in 2004. Parity has become pariah.
Yes, it is terrible the NFL has a system set up where every NFL team feels like it can compete at the beginning of each year. As much as Buzz bitches about NFL parity becoming pariah, the Giants have won two Super Bowls in the last five years, the Patriots have been to two Super Bowls in the last five years, and there have been consistently good teams in both the AFC and NFC over the last decade. So there is parity, but it isn't like every NFL season is just a crapshoot. The NFL has good parity in that you know some of the these teams that will be good, along with teams that surprise and make the playoffs.
So just make sure your local bookie is on speed dial.
But gambling isn't endorsed by the NFL and this is why the 2012 NFL season was no good, boring, and namby-pamby. Well, along with the NFL trying small changes to prevent it's players from experiencing short and long-term health issues that Buzz acknowledges exist, yet can't seem to make the connection between the financial and societal repercussions these health issues could present if the NFL didn't make these small changes. I don't like all the changes, but the 2012 NFL season didn't stink because of these changes. If Buzz thinks the NFL stinks it could be because he doesn't like the sport.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
4 comments NFL Playoffs Super Bowl Pick
Well, the NFL regular season and playoffs are winding down as quickly as we imagined they would. It's time for the over-hyped Super Bowl where the NFL champion will be crowned and either Joe Flacco or Colin Kaepernick will forever be defended by sports columnists as "a Super Bowl winning quarterback" no matter how terrible they may play in the future. It's one last chance for Ray Lewis to hog camera time as a Ravens player, one last chance for Joe Flacco to make an on-field demonstration that he needs a really, really large contract extension, one last chance to hear about the Harbaugh brothers for three hours, and one last chance for Alex Smith to stare bitterly on the sidelines as Jim Harbaugh's words that he wasn't trying to replace Smith with Peyton Manning this past offseason ring false as Harbaugh replaced Smith with Kaepernick at the first available opportunity.
(Jim Harbaugh) "Ouch, that looks like a mighty painful cut on your finger Alex. Better sit the rest of your 49ers career out."
(Alex Smith) "You mean "the rest of this drive," right?"
(Jim Harbaugh) "Yeah, sure, whatever. Kaepernick! It's finally your time! Hold still so I can take a picture of this momentous occasion."
It also appears Colin Kaepernick's biological mother has risen from the ashes in an effort to meet her son. She swears this has nothing to do with the fact Kaepernick is playing in the biggest game of his football career and wanting to meet him this upcoming week would provide her exposure, and if all goes right, a talk show in 10 years. It's all a coincidence and her sudden announcement she wants to meet Kaepernick isn't timed to when the amount of media exposure on him will be the greatest. It makes sense. There are 52 weeks in a year and Kaepernick has been alive for 25 years, so she has had 1300 weeks to urgently make contact with her son (well, being kind I will say seven years or 364 weeks if we say he wouldn't/couldn't have met her until he was 18 years old), but she chooses Super Bowl week to want to meet him. Sure, I believe the fact she wants to meet Kaepernick has nothing to do with the fact he is about to play in the biggest game of his life. It's just a coincidence. Sure.
It appears Bill Simmons is in the lead right now at 7-3. but Snarf and I are nipping at his heels and could conceivably win if we choose the right team to win the game and get a closer total number of points scored in the Super Bowl to break the tie. Don't get to leave the score in the comments with your pick because the total number of points in the Super Bowl is the tie-breaker in order to see who wins the ultimate prize of absolutely nothing or a box of Cheez-Its if the winner is especially insistent he win something.
Here is Peter's pick.
Here is Bill's pick.
Here is the line I will be using:
San Francisco (-3.5) over Baltimore
San Francisco 49ers (-3.5) vs. Baltimore Ravens
1. Let's the get the most important storyline out of the way first. The Harbaugh brothers have not spoken with each other all week reportedly. Very important to know this. No word on whether they don't have to speak because each knows how the other feels about their relationship. I say "no word" because I don't care about their relationship and I don't care who their parents are cheering for. I only care to watch the game. It kind of hit me earlier this week that either Colin Kaepernick or Joe Flacco will have won a Super Bowl by Sunday night. That's crazy to me. All the bashing of Flacco (with occasional complimenting) during this season by me will have looked really dumb in hindsight if he leads the Ravens past Andrew Luck, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, and Colin Kaepernick. It probably looks stupid even if the Ravens don't beat the 49ers in the Super Bowl. Luck, Manning and Brady are only first ballot Hall of Fame quarterbacks and Luck especially will probably have an entirely new Hall of Fame created for him as he blows past all existing quarterbacking records during his NFL career. Since it is the most fun to talk about the quarterbacks, let me decide whether I have more faith in Kaepernick or Flacco to win the Super Bowl. I think part of me has more faith in Joe Flacco to play well in this game. I have two reasons for this:
a. Flacco is still playing for that new contract. He's going to get a new contract, but if he wins the Super Bowl then Flacco is going to have that much more bargaining position. Don't think Flacco isn't thinking in some way about his new contract. He's taken shit almost his entire career from those people (points at self) who think he isn't good enough to take the Ravens to the Super Bowl and win it. He's one win away from winning a Super Bowl and getting these haters off him for a couple of years. Flacco has said he considers himself an elite quarterback and now he can prove it on the biggest stage? I think he will be ready to play.
b. Kaepernick has done so well this year, I'm not entirely sure he grasps the entirety of this Super Bowl. It sounds bizarre to say it, but everything has come up roses for Kaepernick so far this year, and while I don't think he will be unprepared or not focused, he probably doesn't completely grasp how important for his career this game will end up being. I don't believe too much in a player "wanting" the Super Bowl more than another, but I think while Kaepernick is a competitor deep down he still has that young athlete naivety of saying "I'll be back here at some point." I think Flacco grasps he has to win this Super Bowl because he has been close before and more than just playing his position well determines if he will he gets back. Flacco knows dropped passes and missed field goals can stop him from making it back to the Super Bowl in the future.
2. Now that I have over-analyzed the quarterback position for each team, let me get on record as saying I still (yes, STILL) don't have complete faith in the Ravens defense. They were getting gashed in the running game earlier this year, albeit without Ray Lewis, but they were getting beaten hard by teams on the ground. They gave up 122 yards per game on the year. Here is a 10 game stretch during the middle of the season and the rushing yards given up in these games:
Kansas City- 214 yards
Dallas- 227 yards
Houston- 181 yards
Cleveland- 116 yards
Oakland- 72 yards (though they were missing their top 2 running backs)
Pittsburgh- 134 yards
San Diego- 91 yards
Pittsburgh- 96 yards
Washington- 179 yards
Denver- 163 yards
Now some of those teams are very good at running the ball, but that's my point. The 49ers are very good at running the football too. So the 49ers are capable of running the ball for 179, 181, or 163 yards on the Ravens like some of the good running teams did during the regular season. The 49ers started struggling last week and their response wasn't to start slinging the ball all over the field, but calm the hell down and start running the ball more effectively. Of course the 49ers did throw the ball, but they seemingly cut a lot of the bullshit and simply started pushing around the Falcons defense on the ground, which helped to open up the passing game. The Ravens aren't as terrible on the ground to really deserve to be 20th in the NFL in rushing defense, but it has been proven that even with Ray Lewis some teams can run the ball on them. I'm not sure I believe the Ravens can contain the 49ers running game, especially if the 49ers throw in some of the zone-read option plays that can work for them.
3. I like the 49ers defense, but I think Matt Ryan and the Falcons showed last week that good receivers can catch passes on the 49ers secondary. The Ravens do have a good set of receivers. Anquan Boldin is a physical receiver and this gave the 49ers secondary some problems last week when going up against Julio Jones. Boldin doesn't seem to have quite the speed that Jones has, but he also isn't letting very many passes in his direction drop of late. The Ravens also have Torrey Smith, who is an excellent deep threat and can be used to stretch the 49ers defense and allow Ray Rice or Dennis Pitta to get open in the middle of the field. The 49ers linebackers were having some trouble keeping up with Tony Gonzalez last week and while Ednnis Pitterson (Dennis Pitta/Ed Dickson as a hybrid player) aren't Tony Gonzalez, the Falcons also didn't have any running backs who can catch the ball out of the backfield like Ray Rice is capable of doing. Throw in Bernard Pierce, who I irrationally like, running the ball and I can see how the Ravens offense under the non-blinking and unaffected direction of Jim Caldwell can find some matchups they like in the 49ers secondary. Of course running the ball on the 49ers isn't easy at all, and though Flacco has played well in the playoffs, the Ravens will still smile happily if they shut down Pierce/Rice on the ground and Flacco is forced to sling the ball around the field. We saw what happened last week against the Falcons once their battering ram running back (Michael Turner) got hurt and Matt Ryan had to sling the ball around more than he would like. Turnovers were created. Feelings were hurt and Atlanta was sad. This Ravens offense line is the key to this game in my opinion. If they hold up, the Ravens will win, if they can't get a push at the line or protect Flacco then the Ravens will lose. That should make Ravens fans feel good, that I think the most inconsistent unit for the Ravens is the biggest key to this game.
4. I can't seem to decide if Ed Reed or Ray Lewis will be more pumped for this game because it is going to be the last time at least one of them appear in the Super Bowl or they will be more even-keeled because of this. The Ravens secondary has held up very well in the playoffs against some really good passing teams. While I wouldn't call the 49ers a very good passing team, they have been more effective with Michael Crabtree suddenly becoming a #1 receiver and the constant threat that a rejuvenated and very motivated Randy Moss will decide to have a big game against the Ravens secondary. The Ravens are going to have to key on stopping the 49ers on the ground first and then worrying about the passing game. Running the ball is the bread-and-butter of the 49ers offense and it helps make everything else they want to do on offense more effective. So while the Ravens secondary has been playing well, Vernon Davis is still going to be a tough matchup and Greg Roman will want to get Davis matched up with a weak link in the Ravens linebacking group or secondary (ahem, Ray Lewis) in order to get him to control the middle of the field. This will leave the Ravens open to play-action and hopefully help the running game, which doesn't need much help in the first place. The Ravens have been good at taking away the big play in the playoffs and Colin Kaepernick certainly has a good enough arm to throw deep, so I think something will have to give. Hey, maybe Mario Manningham will make another excellent catch along the sidelines in the Super Bowl. Who knows?
5. This is a difficult matchup. I usually go into these previews knowing who I will pick before I start writing and this time I wasn't as sure. I don't particularly feel strongly one way or another who wins this game. Neither team really annoys me. All of my logic says that the 49ers are going to be able to run the ball and stop the run well enough to win this game. Kaepernick has played well since he took over the quarterback spot from Alex Smith due to his "concussion." Maybe the idea that Kaepernick doesn't grasp the entirety of what the Super Bowl is all about will help him, while the Ravens will feel pressure to win the game for Ray Lewis or Joe Flacco will feel pressure to be perfect in order to get an 8 year $120 million deal with $45 million guaranteed instead of a 6 year $80 deal with $30 million guaranteed in the form of a contract extension. So here I go choosing the winner with my gut feeling again. I really think the 49ers are going to be able to partly shut down the Ravens running game, but Ray Rice is kind of a pest and the Ravens will be able to use Rice effectively in the passing game by taking advantage of the fact there aren't many linebackers who can cover him. Both defenses are going to be motivated, but the 49ers were fortunate the Falcons let them back in the game last week, which is a mistake I don't think the Ravens defense or offense will allow to happen. I don't believe in "magic" or "meant to be" bullshit, but both teams have gotten somewhat fortunate to be at the point they are at. The Ravens converted a fourth-and-27 this year and wouldn't have even played the Patriots last week if it weren't for Jacoby Jones miraculously getting behind Raheem Moore in the Divisional Round. The Super Bowl appearance for both San Francisco and Baltimore required the Falcons and Broncos to both collapse at certain points in a playoff game. Kaepernick was given the starting quarterback job for this very game. On Thanksgiving night in 2011, these two teams played a low-scoring affair where the 49ers passing game didn't really take off under Alex Smith. Harbaugh doesn't want that to happen again. My gut feeling says the Ravens are going to try and jump on the 49ers, which is of course easier said than done, but I think they will take the lead in this game, not let the 49ers get back in the game by re-establishing the running game and take advantage of Kaepernick's relative inexperience to win the Super Bowl. Fuck it, I made it this far just guessing and going against what logic told me. What's one more time?
Baltimore Ravens (+3.5) over San Francisco 49ers 27-20
(Jim Harbaugh) "Ouch, that looks like a mighty painful cut on your finger Alex. Better sit the rest of your 49ers career out."
(Alex Smith) "You mean "the rest of this drive," right?"
(Jim Harbaugh) "Yeah, sure, whatever. Kaepernick! It's finally your time! Hold still so I can take a picture of this momentous occasion."
It also appears Colin Kaepernick's biological mother has risen from the ashes in an effort to meet her son. She swears this has nothing to do with the fact Kaepernick is playing in the biggest game of his football career and wanting to meet him this upcoming week would provide her exposure, and if all goes right, a talk show in 10 years. It's all a coincidence and her sudden announcement she wants to meet Kaepernick isn't timed to when the amount of media exposure on him will be the greatest. It makes sense. There are 52 weeks in a year and Kaepernick has been alive for 25 years, so she has had 1300 weeks to urgently make contact with her son (well, being kind I will say seven years or 364 weeks if we say he wouldn't/couldn't have met her until he was 18 years old), but she chooses Super Bowl week to want to meet him. Sure, I believe the fact she wants to meet Kaepernick has nothing to do with the fact he is about to play in the biggest game of his life. It's just a coincidence. Sure.
It appears Bill Simmons is in the lead right now at 7-3. but Snarf and I are nipping at his heels and could conceivably win if we choose the right team to win the game and get a closer total number of points scored in the Super Bowl to break the tie. Don't get to leave the score in the comments with your pick because the total number of points in the Super Bowl is the tie-breaker in order to see who wins the ultimate prize of absolutely nothing or a box of Cheez-Its if the winner is especially insistent he win something.
Here is Peter's pick.
Here is Bill's pick.
Here is the line I will be using:
San Francisco (-3.5) over Baltimore
San Francisco 49ers (-3.5) vs. Baltimore Ravens
1. Let's the get the most important storyline out of the way first. The Harbaugh brothers have not spoken with each other all week reportedly. Very important to know this. No word on whether they don't have to speak because each knows how the other feels about their relationship. I say "no word" because I don't care about their relationship and I don't care who their parents are cheering for. I only care to watch the game. It kind of hit me earlier this week that either Colin Kaepernick or Joe Flacco will have won a Super Bowl by Sunday night. That's crazy to me. All the bashing of Flacco (with occasional complimenting) during this season by me will have looked really dumb in hindsight if he leads the Ravens past Andrew Luck, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, and Colin Kaepernick. It probably looks stupid even if the Ravens don't beat the 49ers in the Super Bowl. Luck, Manning and Brady are only first ballot Hall of Fame quarterbacks and Luck especially will probably have an entirely new Hall of Fame created for him as he blows past all existing quarterbacking records during his NFL career. Since it is the most fun to talk about the quarterbacks, let me decide whether I have more faith in Kaepernick or Flacco to win the Super Bowl. I think part of me has more faith in Joe Flacco to play well in this game. I have two reasons for this:
a. Flacco is still playing for that new contract. He's going to get a new contract, but if he wins the Super Bowl then Flacco is going to have that much more bargaining position. Don't think Flacco isn't thinking in some way about his new contract. He's taken shit almost his entire career from those people (points at self) who think he isn't good enough to take the Ravens to the Super Bowl and win it. He's one win away from winning a Super Bowl and getting these haters off him for a couple of years. Flacco has said he considers himself an elite quarterback and now he can prove it on the biggest stage? I think he will be ready to play.
b. Kaepernick has done so well this year, I'm not entirely sure he grasps the entirety of this Super Bowl. It sounds bizarre to say it, but everything has come up roses for Kaepernick so far this year, and while I don't think he will be unprepared or not focused, he probably doesn't completely grasp how important for his career this game will end up being. I don't believe too much in a player "wanting" the Super Bowl more than another, but I think while Kaepernick is a competitor deep down he still has that young athlete naivety of saying "I'll be back here at some point." I think Flacco grasps he has to win this Super Bowl because he has been close before and more than just playing his position well determines if he will he gets back. Flacco knows dropped passes and missed field goals can stop him from making it back to the Super Bowl in the future.
2. Now that I have over-analyzed the quarterback position for each team, let me get on record as saying I still (yes, STILL) don't have complete faith in the Ravens defense. They were getting gashed in the running game earlier this year, albeit without Ray Lewis, but they were getting beaten hard by teams on the ground. They gave up 122 yards per game on the year. Here is a 10 game stretch during the middle of the season and the rushing yards given up in these games:
Kansas City- 214 yards
Dallas- 227 yards
Houston- 181 yards
Cleveland- 116 yards
Oakland- 72 yards (though they were missing their top 2 running backs)
Pittsburgh- 134 yards
San Diego- 91 yards
Pittsburgh- 96 yards
Washington- 179 yards
Denver- 163 yards
Now some of those teams are very good at running the ball, but that's my point. The 49ers are very good at running the football too. So the 49ers are capable of running the ball for 179, 181, or 163 yards on the Ravens like some of the good running teams did during the regular season. The 49ers started struggling last week and their response wasn't to start slinging the ball all over the field, but calm the hell down and start running the ball more effectively. Of course the 49ers did throw the ball, but they seemingly cut a lot of the bullshit and simply started pushing around the Falcons defense on the ground, which helped to open up the passing game. The Ravens aren't as terrible on the ground to really deserve to be 20th in the NFL in rushing defense, but it has been proven that even with Ray Lewis some teams can run the ball on them. I'm not sure I believe the Ravens can contain the 49ers running game, especially if the 49ers throw in some of the zone-read option plays that can work for them.
3. I like the 49ers defense, but I think Matt Ryan and the Falcons showed last week that good receivers can catch passes on the 49ers secondary. The Ravens do have a good set of receivers. Anquan Boldin is a physical receiver and this gave the 49ers secondary some problems last week when going up against Julio Jones. Boldin doesn't seem to have quite the speed that Jones has, but he also isn't letting very many passes in his direction drop of late. The Ravens also have Torrey Smith, who is an excellent deep threat and can be used to stretch the 49ers defense and allow Ray Rice or Dennis Pitta to get open in the middle of the field. The 49ers linebackers were having some trouble keeping up with Tony Gonzalez last week and while Ednnis Pitterson (Dennis Pitta/Ed Dickson as a hybrid player) aren't Tony Gonzalez, the Falcons also didn't have any running backs who can catch the ball out of the backfield like Ray Rice is capable of doing. Throw in Bernard Pierce, who I irrationally like, running the ball and I can see how the Ravens offense under the non-blinking and unaffected direction of Jim Caldwell can find some matchups they like in the 49ers secondary. Of course running the ball on the 49ers isn't easy at all, and though Flacco has played well in the playoffs, the Ravens will still smile happily if they shut down Pierce/Rice on the ground and Flacco is forced to sling the ball around the field. We saw what happened last week against the Falcons once their battering ram running back (Michael Turner) got hurt and Matt Ryan had to sling the ball around more than he would like. Turnovers were created. Feelings were hurt and Atlanta was sad. This Ravens offense line is the key to this game in my opinion. If they hold up, the Ravens will win, if they can't get a push at the line or protect Flacco then the Ravens will lose. That should make Ravens fans feel good, that I think the most inconsistent unit for the Ravens is the biggest key to this game.
4. I can't seem to decide if Ed Reed or Ray Lewis will be more pumped for this game because it is going to be the last time at least one of them appear in the Super Bowl or they will be more even-keeled because of this. The Ravens secondary has held up very well in the playoffs against some really good passing teams. While I wouldn't call the 49ers a very good passing team, they have been more effective with Michael Crabtree suddenly becoming a #1 receiver and the constant threat that a rejuvenated and very motivated Randy Moss will decide to have a big game against the Ravens secondary. The Ravens are going to have to key on stopping the 49ers on the ground first and then worrying about the passing game. Running the ball is the bread-and-butter of the 49ers offense and it helps make everything else they want to do on offense more effective. So while the Ravens secondary has been playing well, Vernon Davis is still going to be a tough matchup and Greg Roman will want to get Davis matched up with a weak link in the Ravens linebacking group or secondary (ahem, Ray Lewis) in order to get him to control the middle of the field. This will leave the Ravens open to play-action and hopefully help the running game, which doesn't need much help in the first place. The Ravens have been good at taking away the big play in the playoffs and Colin Kaepernick certainly has a good enough arm to throw deep, so I think something will have to give. Hey, maybe Mario Manningham will make another excellent catch along the sidelines in the Super Bowl. Who knows?
5. This is a difficult matchup. I usually go into these previews knowing who I will pick before I start writing and this time I wasn't as sure. I don't particularly feel strongly one way or another who wins this game. Neither team really annoys me. All of my logic says that the 49ers are going to be able to run the ball and stop the run well enough to win this game. Kaepernick has played well since he took over the quarterback spot from Alex Smith due to his "concussion." Maybe the idea that Kaepernick doesn't grasp the entirety of what the Super Bowl is all about will help him, while the Ravens will feel pressure to win the game for Ray Lewis or Joe Flacco will feel pressure to be perfect in order to get an 8 year $120 million deal with $45 million guaranteed instead of a 6 year $80 deal with $30 million guaranteed in the form of a contract extension. So here I go choosing the winner with my gut feeling again. I really think the 49ers are going to be able to partly shut down the Ravens running game, but Ray Rice is kind of a pest and the Ravens will be able to use Rice effectively in the passing game by taking advantage of the fact there aren't many linebackers who can cover him. Both defenses are going to be motivated, but the 49ers were fortunate the Falcons let them back in the game last week, which is a mistake I don't think the Ravens defense or offense will allow to happen. I don't believe in "magic" or "meant to be" bullshit, but both teams have gotten somewhat fortunate to be at the point they are at. The Ravens converted a fourth-and-27 this year and wouldn't have even played the Patriots last week if it weren't for Jacoby Jones miraculously getting behind Raheem Moore in the Divisional Round. The Super Bowl appearance for both San Francisco and Baltimore required the Falcons and Broncos to both collapse at certain points in a playoff game. Kaepernick was given the starting quarterback job for this very game. On Thanksgiving night in 2011, these two teams played a low-scoring affair where the 49ers passing game didn't really take off under Alex Smith. Harbaugh doesn't want that to happen again. My gut feeling says the Ravens are going to try and jump on the 49ers, which is of course easier said than done, but I think they will take the lead in this game, not let the 49ers get back in the game by re-establishing the running game and take advantage of Kaepernick's relative inexperience to win the Super Bowl. Fuck it, I made it this far just guessing and going against what logic told me. What's one more time?
Baltimore Ravens (+3.5) over San Francisco 49ers 27-20
Friday, February 1, 2013
9 comments Jim Caldwell Should Continue to be Ignored
Jim Caldwell didn't deserve another chance to be an NFL head coach during the 2013 NFL season. Harsh, but true (in my opinion). Maybe "deserve" isn't the right word, but I understand why there wasn't interest in retaining his services. I don't really have a strong opinion on the Rooney Rule and minority hiring. I can see why the NFL would expand the Rooney Rule to the hiring of offensive/defensive/special teams coordinators and I can see why this wouldn't happen. Generally, I think teams should hire the best coach available regardless of race, but everyone probably agrees with that statement. One position I feel strongly about is that Jim Caldwell should not be an NFL head coach again in the next year or so. David Steele disagrees and thinks the genius of Caldwell has been drastically overlooked. If you made me list the top 10 minority coaches who deserve a shot at an NFL head coaching job, I know Caldwell wouldn't make my top 10 and he probably wouldn't make my top 15. David Steele thinks Jim Caldwell is muy fantastico though and doesn't mind going to bat for him while pointing to Caldwell's resume as the reason he deserved another NFL head coaching job for the 2013 season.
Let me start off with listing Jim Caldwell's record as an NFL and college head coach:
1993-2000 Head Coach for Wake Forest University:
1993: 2-9
1994: 3-8
1995: 1-10
1996: 3-8
1997: 5-6
1998: 3-8
1999: 7-5
2000: 2-9
That's a career record at Wake Forest of 26-63, including going a horrendous 12-52 in the ACC. So maybe the fact Caldwell isn't getting any bites as an NFL head coach is karma for lasting five seasons too long at Wake Forest. He was terrible there and Jim Grobe has proven a coach can win at Wake Forest, so it isn't the school that was the entire issue.
2009-2011 Head Coach for the Indianapolis Colts:
2009: 14-2
2010: 10-6
2011: 2-14
That's a career record at Indianapolis of 26-22, including 2-14 without Peyton Manning as his quarterback and with a declining number of wins each season. In fact, Jim Caldwell is 28-77 for a winning percentage of 26.6% when Peyton Manning isn't his quarterback. If David Steele is shocked that Jim Caldwell hasn't gotten another head coaching job in the NFL, he needs to look no further than Caldwell's career record without Peyton Manning as his quarterback. Simply put, Jim Caldwell hasn't shown he is capable at this point of being an NFL-quality head coach in my opinion. He has shown he is pretty good when he has Peyton Manning as his quarterback, but Manning has made a lot of coaches look good.
Six days before departing to the site of the Super Bowl, the Baltimore Ravens took the “interim” tag off of Jim Caldwell’s offensive coordinator title.
Considering Jim Caldwell had never been an offensive coordinator in the NFL, I (and others that I had read the opinion of when Caldwell was named offensive coordinator) was a bit suspicious of his ability to do the job. It turns out Caldwell did a pretty good job calling plays for the Ravens. Still, the fact he did a good job as offensive coordinator for half of an NFL season isn't enough to make him a prime candidate for a head coaching job during the 2013 season. If Caldwell does another great job of offensively coordinating the Ravens next year then his name could be back in the ring for a head coaching job in 2014. I wouldn't hire him, but I can see how he would get interviews.
There is still unfinished business involving Caldwell for the Ravens to address, though. Their next move should be to vote Super Bowl shares to the eight franchises who made it possible for Caldwell to return to Baltimore next season—and for them to be in the Super Bowl at all now.
You know what, the Colts will be glad to pay the Ravens for having Jim Caldwell as their offensive coordinator since firing Caldwell led to Chuck Pagano being hired as the Colts head coach. Let's not get confused here, the Colts are doing very well after firing Jim Caldwell, and for a guy who is known for coordinating offenses and working with quarterbacks it doesn't seem Caldwell did a bang-up job of having the Colts backup quarterbacks ready to contribute during the 2011 season. Yes, Curtis Painter and Dan Orlovksy aren't exactly the best quarterbacks in the NFL, but more than just the quarterback position went wrong under Caldwell's watch during the 2011 season. There seemed to be a lack of leadership and direction for the Colts team. That starts with the head coach.
If not for them combining to completely whiff on the goals of the NFL’s Rooney Rule governing minority coaching hires, Caldwell wouldn’t be available to the Ravens.
Yes, it was these team's blatant disrespect for the Rooney Rule that caused them to not even give Jim Caldwell a token interview. As part of a massive conspiracy, these eight teams without head coaches were looking to satisfy the Rooney Rule with unqualified minority candidates as opposed to the qualified minority candidate who has led his NFL and college teams to a grand total of three winning seasons in 11 years of being a head coach. Forget Ray Horton, what team wouldn't Jim Caldwell? This is the same man who showed the tremendous leadership in allowing the Colts team to fall completely apart without Peyton Manning. Yes, when a Hall of Fame quarterback gets injured, things fall apart, but going from 10-6 to 2-14 is a mighty large fall that speaks to more issues than just missing Peyton Manning.
But these franchises made sure he wouldn’t. Caldwell didn't get a single interview for a head-coaching job.
The NFL’s loss is the Ravens’ gain.
Yes, he appears to be a very competent offensive coordinator. We've all seen what Caldwell can do as an NFL and college head coach. Let's let his offensive coordinating career breathe a little bit before trying to hand him another NFL head coaching job.
All it would have taken is one team with common sense, vision and smarts—heck, with a computer to do a Google search of “Past AFC Champions”—and Caldwell would have been distracted from working with Joe Flacco and devising a postseason game plan, to do head-coaching interviews.
Bill Callahan led the Raiders to a Super Bowl appearance, so does he deserve another NFL head coaching job? Not to take anything away from Caldwell, well no, to take something away from Jim Caldwell, he was given the keys to the Colts' car and basically told, "Do what Manning says and don't fuck it up." Manning got injured and anyone who saw that Colts team saw how lost the team looked. I'm being hard on Caldwell and for good reason. If he had a history of being a good head coach who can win games then I would be easier on him, but that's simply not the case. Caldwell didn't outwardly show the leadership abilities to help keep that Colts team together minus Manning. His work as the Wake Forest head coach was an abomination. One bowl appearance in eight seasons. That's not good. And yes, that is his record in college from the mid-90's, but it also goes to show the 2-14 season in 2011 isn't out of character for a Caldwell-coached team.
He only went to the Super Bowl once in his three seasons as an NFL head coach and won his division only one other time. Clearly, those two were flukes, and the year he went 2-14 with Curtis Painter and Kerry Collins at quarterback in Indianapolis indicated his true capability.
I absolutely believe this is the truth when also based on Caldwell's record at Wake Forest. Caldwell has a 11 year history of not winning many games when Peyton Manning isn't his quarterback. It's fine to ignore the 2011 season, but if a team like the Cardinals is looking to rebuild do they really want to go with the guy who went 2-14 on a Colts team that was a mess? What about the 2011 season showed NFL owners that Jim Caldwell can help build a winning team? He didn't do it at Wake Forest and when Peyton Manning was taken out of the picture he couldn't do it in Indianapolis.
Plus, Tony Dungy had him on his staff for seven years, seven playoff runs and one Lombardi Trophy-winning season, but that couldn’t have had anything to do with his football mind. Besides, since when does Dungy’s judgment and decision-making mean anything?
Well, Bill Belichick had Romeo Crennel, Charlie Weis, Josh McDaniels, and Eric Mangini on his staff in New England when the Patriots made it to several Super Bowls and how did they fare as NFL head coaches? Simply because a team has success with assistant coaches on staff doesn't mean those assistant coaches are head coaching material. This is just obvious to say.
Actually, reciting Caldwell’s resume is an insult to him and this entire issue.
Actually, reciting Caldwell's resume is very telling. I don't consider it unfair to use Caldwell's time with Wake Forest against him. It shows how he coaches and how he builds a team. There are plenty of coaches who have had one terrible year coaching and there are always extenuating circumstances. Good head coaches who have gone 1-15 or 2-14, like John Fox or Jimmy Johnson, either took over teams that were completely rebuilding or had the foundation of the team ruined. Fox had a past history of winning football games, which is why he got a second chance with the Broncos, and Johnson was in his first season with the Cowboys when they went 1-15. Plus, Johnson had a history of head coaching success at the University of Miami. Caldwell has two seasons of diminishing returns after he took over the Colts from Tony Dungy and a terrible college coaching record. Under Jim Caldwell the Colts went from 14 to 10 to 2 wins. Of course it isn't all Caldwell's fault, but this is part of his resume.
He should never be in position to prove his qualifications to anybody in this league, nor be forced to compare them to those of the candidates for whom he was passed over.
David Steele does realize Jim Caldwell has been an NFL head coach for three years, right? Three years or three seasons for 48 regular season games. That's Caldwell's career resume in the NFL, so Steele shouldn't act like Caldwell has this long history of coaching success. When you can't prove the point you want to prove, exaggerate a little.
Brian Billick, who won a Super Bowl but hasn’t coached in any capacity in five years, got an interview but not a job. Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly, a career college coach, got an interview.
Brian Billick has won a Super Bowl and has a career 80-64 coaching record. He has a longer history of coaching success in the NFL.
Brian Kelly has turned around four college football programs on all levels in a short matter of time. Kelly has turned around a Division II team (Grand Valley State), a mid-major team (Central Michigan, a Division I school (Cincinnati) and a traditional powerhouse (Notre Dame). He's won on all levels and turned every program around in a short time span. His resume should be the envy of Jim Caldwell's resume. Brian Kelly has lost 67 games from 1991-2012 at the college level and Jim Caldwell lost 63 games from 1993-2000. That's ridiculous when you look their records that way. Brian Kelly is the college coach that Jim Caldwell aspired to be. There's no comparison. Facts trump emotion. This is why Kelly was wanted by the NFL for a head coaching position and Caldwell wasn't.
If Caldwell is deemed not worth a single interview, though, then the entire concept of “qualifications” is garbage, and as such, should be taken out and burned to cinders.
David Steele, because he prefers to write from an emotional point of view rather than look at facts, called Brian Kelly "a career college coach," but what was Jim Caldwell before he was hired to be Tony Dungy's quarterbacks coach? He was a career FAILED college coach. At least Brian Kelly is successful. Prior to be handed the Colts head coaching job Caldwell's only experience at being a head coach was in college and he failed miserably. Then when he got the Colts job, he took them from losing two games in a season to winning two games in a season in a span of three years. Good effort, good job.
Oh, where can we find “qualified” minority candidates? What kind of plan, system or program can we put in place to uncover those “qualified” coaches who are so hidden from view?
David Steele is confusing the issue because he is incapable of making a cogent argument for Jim Caldwell to get another chance. He starts talking about the Rooney Rule and the lack of "qualified" minority candidates in the eyes of NFL owners to cover up for the fact Jim Caldwell may not deserve a second chance at a head coaching job in the NFL right now. If you don't have a strong argument, confuse the issue.
Problem is, he said this during the 2005-06 offseason, in which the 10 openings were filled by eight white men, seven of them first-timers, plus Herman Edwards (who switched teams) and Art Shell (who returned to the Raiders after eight years out of coaching). The math says that 10 jobs produced one net gain in minority hiring ... and Shell was canned after one season. To be replaced by Lane Kiffin, speaking of insults.
What David Steele intentionally leaves out to mislead his readers is that Lane Kiffin was canned after one season and four games and Al Davis wanted to fire him after one season. It's not like he was given a much longer time to prove himself than Art Shell was.
This year, seven of the eight hires are first-timers. Two come from college, one from the Canadian Football League.
This isn't supposed to be about the Rooney Rule. This is supposed to be about Jim Caldwell and how he deserves more chances to interview for an NFL head coaching job. Maybe a minority should have been hired for one of these eight open positions, but the fact is each team complied with the Rooney Rule and still didn't interview Jim Caldwell. Jim Caldwell isn't a victim of an ineffective Rooney Rule, but is a victim of his resume and performance as an NFL head coach. NFL owners saw how the Colts floundered without Peyton Manning and saw how John Fox made the playoffs with Tim Tebow as his quarterback and then thrived with Manning as his quarterback. NFL owners see how Jim Harbaugh turned around the 49ers without making a big change at quarterback. Caldwell is supposed to be a quarterback teacher and the quarterbacks were a big problem with the 2011 Colts. They see how the Colts fell apart when losing Manning and rightfully question whether Caldwell deserves another chance to be an NFL head coach.
It was supposed to fill the so-called pipeline and ensure that the same handful of names didn’t get passed around to check off a box on a list.
I'm not against the Rooney Rule, but it actually serves to make sure teams check off a box in a list. I get the purpose of the Rooney Rule, but any rule made where a certain race, gender, or religion has to be represented during the interview process will result in a box being checked off at some point, even if the minority is the best candidate for the job. This is what imposing a rule saying an NFL team has to interview a minority for the head coaching position creates. It creates a box that has to be checked off. It's a good or bad thing, depending on your point of view, but David Steele can't advocate for the expansion of the Rooney Rule and then complain about a box on a list being checked off. That's the reality the rule creates. This could change in 50 years when white people are the new minority, but for now it is true.
Thus, while the Andy Reids and Chip Kellys and Bruce Arianses got to sit and stroke their chins and ponder which interview to take first, Jim Caldwell had his time freed up to hone his play-calling skills
I know everyone hates Andy Reid, but he has a long history of success as an NFL coach. I can see why he got another job very quickly. Chip Kelly has an offensive scheme and practice habits that could fit in very well with the NFL, plus (unlike Jim Caldwell) he has had success as a college head coach. Bruce Arians was able to do what Jim Caldwell couldn't do the year before, which is win more than two games as the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts.
I'm not saying there aren't minority head coaches who don't deserve an opportunity to be a head coach in the NFL. David Shaw, James Franklin and Kevin Sumlin all may get a shot to be an NFL head coach one day, but they either (a) aren't completely ready to run an NFL team or (b) won't leave their current job to take an NFL head coaching job. Ray Horton probably should have gotten more attention than he did, I'm surprised Hue Jackson hasn't gotten any interviews for a head coaching or offensive coordinator position, and I think Lovie Smith should have gotten another head coaching job as well. But hey, there aren't a lot of open head coaching positions and a lot of candidates who want those jobs. One thing is for sure, Jim Caldwell isn't among the group who was overlooked. He hasn't even been an NFL coordinator for one full year yet and is just coming off a 2-14 year as a head coach. He is not among the "qualified" minority candidates right now.
Jim Caldwell had his time freed up to hone his play-calling skills and bond with his quarterback the way he once bonded with Peyton Manning, back when everyone assumed that Manning coached himself.
So where was Jim Caldwell bonding and honing his play-calling skills when he had Curtis Painter as his quarterback last year? It was quite obvious Painter didn't coach himself and Painter had been in Indianapolis for three seasons, including the entire time Caldwell was the Colts head coach. If we give Caldwell credit for Peyton Manning, then how does that explain Curtis Painter and Dan Orlovsky? I guess they just weren't talented enough for Caldwell to bond with and help coach.
Maybe when he’s calling plays in the Super Bowl in a couple of weeks, he’ll do something that will seem head coach-worthy to some needy team next year.
Lucky for the Ravens, no team was needy enough or impressed enough to call him this year.
Maybe Jim Caldwell will call a great game. Maybe Greg Roman will call a great game too while continuing to be overlooked for head coaching positions despite the fact he has coordinated a 49ers offense that has been to the Super Bowl and NFC Championship Game with two different quarterbacks over the last two years. David Steele doesn't care about Roman though. It doesn't fit his agenda.
Either way, if Jim Caldwell does a great job as offensive coordinator then maybe he has found his calling for the time being. We've already seen from his time at Wake Forest how well he can coach a football team and we've seen from his work with any quarterback not named Peyton Manning in Indianapolis what kind of leadership ability he has shown that can translate to wins.
Let me start off with listing Jim Caldwell's record as an NFL and college head coach:
1993-2000 Head Coach for Wake Forest University:
1993: 2-9
1994: 3-8
1995: 1-10
1996: 3-8
1997: 5-6
1998: 3-8
1999: 7-5
2000: 2-9
That's a career record at Wake Forest of 26-63, including going a horrendous 12-52 in the ACC. So maybe the fact Caldwell isn't getting any bites as an NFL head coach is karma for lasting five seasons too long at Wake Forest. He was terrible there and Jim Grobe has proven a coach can win at Wake Forest, so it isn't the school that was the entire issue.
2009-2011 Head Coach for the Indianapolis Colts:
2009: 14-2
2010: 10-6
2011: 2-14
That's a career record at Indianapolis of 26-22, including 2-14 without Peyton Manning as his quarterback and with a declining number of wins each season. In fact, Jim Caldwell is 28-77 for a winning percentage of 26.6% when Peyton Manning isn't his quarterback. If David Steele is shocked that Jim Caldwell hasn't gotten another head coaching job in the NFL, he needs to look no further than Caldwell's career record without Peyton Manning as his quarterback. Simply put, Jim Caldwell hasn't shown he is capable at this point of being an NFL-quality head coach in my opinion. He has shown he is pretty good when he has Peyton Manning as his quarterback, but Manning has made a lot of coaches look good.
Six days before departing to the site of the Super Bowl, the Baltimore Ravens took the “interim” tag off of Jim Caldwell’s offensive coordinator title.
Considering Jim Caldwell had never been an offensive coordinator in the NFL, I (and others that I had read the opinion of when Caldwell was named offensive coordinator) was a bit suspicious of his ability to do the job. It turns out Caldwell did a pretty good job calling plays for the Ravens. Still, the fact he did a good job as offensive coordinator for half of an NFL season isn't enough to make him a prime candidate for a head coaching job during the 2013 season. If Caldwell does another great job of offensively coordinating the Ravens next year then his name could be back in the ring for a head coaching job in 2014. I wouldn't hire him, but I can see how he would get interviews.
There is still unfinished business involving Caldwell for the Ravens to address, though. Their next move should be to vote Super Bowl shares to the eight franchises who made it possible for Caldwell to return to Baltimore next season—and for them to be in the Super Bowl at all now.
You know what, the Colts will be glad to pay the Ravens for having Jim Caldwell as their offensive coordinator since firing Caldwell led to Chuck Pagano being hired as the Colts head coach. Let's not get confused here, the Colts are doing very well after firing Jim Caldwell, and for a guy who is known for coordinating offenses and working with quarterbacks it doesn't seem Caldwell did a bang-up job of having the Colts backup quarterbacks ready to contribute during the 2011 season. Yes, Curtis Painter and Dan Orlovksy aren't exactly the best quarterbacks in the NFL, but more than just the quarterback position went wrong under Caldwell's watch during the 2011 season. There seemed to be a lack of leadership and direction for the Colts team. That starts with the head coach.
If not for them combining to completely whiff on the goals of the NFL’s Rooney Rule governing minority coaching hires, Caldwell wouldn’t be available to the Ravens.
Yes, it was these team's blatant disrespect for the Rooney Rule that caused them to not even give Jim Caldwell a token interview. As part of a massive conspiracy, these eight teams without head coaches were looking to satisfy the Rooney Rule with unqualified minority candidates as opposed to the qualified minority candidate who has led his NFL and college teams to a grand total of three winning seasons in 11 years of being a head coach. Forget Ray Horton, what team wouldn't Jim Caldwell? This is the same man who showed the tremendous leadership in allowing the Colts team to fall completely apart without Peyton Manning. Yes, when a Hall of Fame quarterback gets injured, things fall apart, but going from 10-6 to 2-14 is a mighty large fall that speaks to more issues than just missing Peyton Manning.
But these franchises made sure he wouldn’t. Caldwell didn't get a single interview for a head-coaching job.
The NFL’s loss is the Ravens’ gain.
Yes, he appears to be a very competent offensive coordinator. We've all seen what Caldwell can do as an NFL and college head coach. Let's let his offensive coordinating career breathe a little bit before trying to hand him another NFL head coaching job.
All it would have taken is one team with common sense, vision and smarts—heck, with a computer to do a Google search of “Past AFC Champions”—and Caldwell would have been distracted from working with Joe Flacco and devising a postseason game plan, to do head-coaching interviews.
Bill Callahan led the Raiders to a Super Bowl appearance, so does he deserve another NFL head coaching job? Not to take anything away from Caldwell, well no, to take something away from Jim Caldwell, he was given the keys to the Colts' car and basically told, "Do what Manning says and don't fuck it up." Manning got injured and anyone who saw that Colts team saw how lost the team looked. I'm being hard on Caldwell and for good reason. If he had a history of being a good head coach who can win games then I would be easier on him, but that's simply not the case. Caldwell didn't outwardly show the leadership abilities to help keep that Colts team together minus Manning. His work as the Wake Forest head coach was an abomination. One bowl appearance in eight seasons. That's not good. And yes, that is his record in college from the mid-90's, but it also goes to show the 2-14 season in 2011 isn't out of character for a Caldwell-coached team.
He only went to the Super Bowl once in his three seasons as an NFL head coach and won his division only one other time. Clearly, those two were flukes, and the year he went 2-14 with Curtis Painter and Kerry Collins at quarterback in Indianapolis indicated his true capability.
I absolutely believe this is the truth when also based on Caldwell's record at Wake Forest. Caldwell has a 11 year history of not winning many games when Peyton Manning isn't his quarterback. It's fine to ignore the 2011 season, but if a team like the Cardinals is looking to rebuild do they really want to go with the guy who went 2-14 on a Colts team that was a mess? What about the 2011 season showed NFL owners that Jim Caldwell can help build a winning team? He didn't do it at Wake Forest and when Peyton Manning was taken out of the picture he couldn't do it in Indianapolis.
Plus, Tony Dungy had him on his staff for seven years, seven playoff runs and one Lombardi Trophy-winning season, but that couldn’t have had anything to do with his football mind. Besides, since when does Dungy’s judgment and decision-making mean anything?
Well, Bill Belichick had Romeo Crennel, Charlie Weis, Josh McDaniels, and Eric Mangini on his staff in New England when the Patriots made it to several Super Bowls and how did they fare as NFL head coaches? Simply because a team has success with assistant coaches on staff doesn't mean those assistant coaches are head coaching material. This is just obvious to say.
Actually, reciting Caldwell’s resume is an insult to him and this entire issue.
Actually, reciting Caldwell's resume is very telling. I don't consider it unfair to use Caldwell's time with Wake Forest against him. It shows how he coaches and how he builds a team. There are plenty of coaches who have had one terrible year coaching and there are always extenuating circumstances. Good head coaches who have gone 1-15 or 2-14, like John Fox or Jimmy Johnson, either took over teams that were completely rebuilding or had the foundation of the team ruined. Fox had a past history of winning football games, which is why he got a second chance with the Broncos, and Johnson was in his first season with the Cowboys when they went 1-15. Plus, Johnson had a history of head coaching success at the University of Miami. Caldwell has two seasons of diminishing returns after he took over the Colts from Tony Dungy and a terrible college coaching record. Under Jim Caldwell the Colts went from 14 to 10 to 2 wins. Of course it isn't all Caldwell's fault, but this is part of his resume.
He should never be in position to prove his qualifications to anybody in this league, nor be forced to compare them to those of the candidates for whom he was passed over.
David Steele does realize Jim Caldwell has been an NFL head coach for three years, right? Three years or three seasons for 48 regular season games. That's Caldwell's career resume in the NFL, so Steele shouldn't act like Caldwell has this long history of coaching success. When you can't prove the point you want to prove, exaggerate a little.
Brian Billick, who won a Super Bowl but hasn’t coached in any capacity in five years, got an interview but not a job. Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly, a career college coach, got an interview.
Brian Billick has won a Super Bowl and has a career 80-64 coaching record. He has a longer history of coaching success in the NFL.
Brian Kelly has turned around four college football programs on all levels in a short matter of time. Kelly has turned around a Division II team (Grand Valley State), a mid-major team (Central Michigan, a Division I school (Cincinnati) and a traditional powerhouse (Notre Dame). He's won on all levels and turned every program around in a short time span. His resume should be the envy of Jim Caldwell's resume. Brian Kelly has lost 67 games from 1991-2012 at the college level and Jim Caldwell lost 63 games from 1993-2000. That's ridiculous when you look their records that way. Brian Kelly is the college coach that Jim Caldwell aspired to be. There's no comparison. Facts trump emotion. This is why Kelly was wanted by the NFL for a head coaching position and Caldwell wasn't.
If Caldwell is deemed not worth a single interview, though, then the entire concept of “qualifications” is garbage, and as such, should be taken out and burned to cinders.
David Steele, because he prefers to write from an emotional point of view rather than look at facts, called Brian Kelly "a career college coach," but what was Jim Caldwell before he was hired to be Tony Dungy's quarterbacks coach? He was a career FAILED college coach. At least Brian Kelly is successful. Prior to be handed the Colts head coaching job Caldwell's only experience at being a head coach was in college and he failed miserably. Then when he got the Colts job, he took them from losing two games in a season to winning two games in a season in a span of three years. Good effort, good job.
Oh, where can we find “qualified” minority candidates? What kind of plan, system or program can we put in place to uncover those “qualified” coaches who are so hidden from view?
David Steele is confusing the issue because he is incapable of making a cogent argument for Jim Caldwell to get another chance. He starts talking about the Rooney Rule and the lack of "qualified" minority candidates in the eyes of NFL owners to cover up for the fact Jim Caldwell may not deserve a second chance at a head coaching job in the NFL right now. If you don't have a strong argument, confuse the issue.
Problem is, he said this during the 2005-06 offseason, in which the 10 openings were filled by eight white men, seven of them first-timers, plus Herman Edwards (who switched teams) and Art Shell (who returned to the Raiders after eight years out of coaching). The math says that 10 jobs produced one net gain in minority hiring ... and Shell was canned after one season. To be replaced by Lane Kiffin, speaking of insults.
What David Steele intentionally leaves out to mislead his readers is that Lane Kiffin was canned after one season and four games and Al Davis wanted to fire him after one season. It's not like he was given a much longer time to prove himself than Art Shell was.
This year, seven of the eight hires are first-timers. Two come from college, one from the Canadian Football League.
This isn't supposed to be about the Rooney Rule. This is supposed to be about Jim Caldwell and how he deserves more chances to interview for an NFL head coaching job. Maybe a minority should have been hired for one of these eight open positions, but the fact is each team complied with the Rooney Rule and still didn't interview Jim Caldwell. Jim Caldwell isn't a victim of an ineffective Rooney Rule, but is a victim of his resume and performance as an NFL head coach. NFL owners saw how the Colts floundered without Peyton Manning and saw how John Fox made the playoffs with Tim Tebow as his quarterback and then thrived with Manning as his quarterback. NFL owners see how Jim Harbaugh turned around the 49ers without making a big change at quarterback. Caldwell is supposed to be a quarterback teacher and the quarterbacks were a big problem with the 2011 Colts. They see how the Colts fell apart when losing Manning and rightfully question whether Caldwell deserves another chance to be an NFL head coach.
It was supposed to fill the so-called pipeline and ensure that the same handful of names didn’t get passed around to check off a box on a list.
I'm not against the Rooney Rule, but it actually serves to make sure teams check off a box in a list. I get the purpose of the Rooney Rule, but any rule made where a certain race, gender, or religion has to be represented during the interview process will result in a box being checked off at some point, even if the minority is the best candidate for the job. This is what imposing a rule saying an NFL team has to interview a minority for the head coaching position creates. It creates a box that has to be checked off. It's a good or bad thing, depending on your point of view, but David Steele can't advocate for the expansion of the Rooney Rule and then complain about a box on a list being checked off. That's the reality the rule creates. This could change in 50 years when white people are the new minority, but for now it is true.
Thus, while the Andy Reids and Chip Kellys and Bruce Arianses got to sit and stroke their chins and ponder which interview to take first, Jim Caldwell had his time freed up to hone his play-calling skills
I know everyone hates Andy Reid, but he has a long history of success as an NFL coach. I can see why he got another job very quickly. Chip Kelly has an offensive scheme and practice habits that could fit in very well with the NFL, plus (unlike Jim Caldwell) he has had success as a college head coach. Bruce Arians was able to do what Jim Caldwell couldn't do the year before, which is win more than two games as the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts.
I'm not saying there aren't minority head coaches who don't deserve an opportunity to be a head coach in the NFL. David Shaw, James Franklin and Kevin Sumlin all may get a shot to be an NFL head coach one day, but they either (a) aren't completely ready to run an NFL team or (b) won't leave their current job to take an NFL head coaching job. Ray Horton probably should have gotten more attention than he did, I'm surprised Hue Jackson hasn't gotten any interviews for a head coaching or offensive coordinator position, and I think Lovie Smith should have gotten another head coaching job as well. But hey, there aren't a lot of open head coaching positions and a lot of candidates who want those jobs. One thing is for sure, Jim Caldwell isn't among the group who was overlooked. He hasn't even been an NFL coordinator for one full year yet and is just coming off a 2-14 year as a head coach. He is not among the "qualified" minority candidates right now.
Jim Caldwell had his time freed up to hone his play-calling skills and bond with his quarterback the way he once bonded with Peyton Manning, back when everyone assumed that Manning coached himself.
So where was Jim Caldwell bonding and honing his play-calling skills when he had Curtis Painter as his quarterback last year? It was quite obvious Painter didn't coach himself and Painter had been in Indianapolis for three seasons, including the entire time Caldwell was the Colts head coach. If we give Caldwell credit for Peyton Manning, then how does that explain Curtis Painter and Dan Orlovsky? I guess they just weren't talented enough for Caldwell to bond with and help coach.
Maybe when he’s calling plays in the Super Bowl in a couple of weeks, he’ll do something that will seem head coach-worthy to some needy team next year.
Lucky for the Ravens, no team was needy enough or impressed enough to call him this year.
Maybe Jim Caldwell will call a great game. Maybe Greg Roman will call a great game too while continuing to be overlooked for head coaching positions despite the fact he has coordinated a 49ers offense that has been to the Super Bowl and NFC Championship Game with two different quarterbacks over the last two years. David Steele doesn't care about Roman though. It doesn't fit his agenda.
Either way, if Jim Caldwell does a great job as offensive coordinator then maybe he has found his calling for the time being. We've already seen from his time at Wake Forest how well he can coach a football team and we've seen from his work with any quarterback not named Peyton Manning in Indianapolis what kind of leadership ability he has shown that can translate to wins.
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