Peter King reminded us last week in MMQB that Anquan Boldin got traded this summer to the 49ers. He was confused as to why more people weren't talking about this trade. Of course, Peter also thought this past offseason the Ravens may trade Joe Flacco or let him go in free agency and then sign Alex Smith. Peter got angry last week because he is a Zone 1 passenger who is forced to endure being around the Zone 3 passengers who dare to stand in front of him as he tries to board a plane. Peter also warned us to not count out the Eagles from contending this year. I guess he feels there are people counting the Eagles out in late July. This week in MMQB, Peter talks about Riley Cooper, updates us on Darrelle Revis (thank God he isn't still talking about how the Jets shouldn't have traded Revis like he was doing every week all summer), visits NFL training camps (he likes Tavon Austin! Who knew?), and believes he attended an Amish barn raising.
On Sunday afternoon, new coach Chip Kelly ran his 89 players (90 minus
the mentally rehabbing Riley Cooper) through another practice. And I
mean “ran.” It’s different here, with a fast pace and a soothing robot
voice telling players what to do next and music. Lots of loud music.
Cooper was away, apparently trying to figure out why he would scream the
worst racial epithet a white person can scream.
I think I can guess why he would scream the worst racial epithet a white person can scream, though I do wonder...is that not the worst racial epithet a Hispanic or Asian person could scream as well? I don't think it is socially acceptable for a person of any race to use the word that Riley Cooper used.
“This is the first training camp I’ve ever been to,’’ said a bemused
Atlanta Braves pitcher, Brandon Beachy, as the session wound down.
Beachy and four mates, in town to play the Phillies Sunday night,
stopped by to see Camp Chip across Broad Street from the Eagles’
complex.
Peter doesn't know who you are Brandon. I would spend more time working on not giving up seven runs in 2 1/3 innings and less time hanging out with Peter King.
Nope, though a few (Seattle, most notably) do. I don’t know of any camps
that run nearly all of their offensive plays without huddling, or
during seven-on-seven drills use three ballboys with three-foot-high
“fly-swatters’’ on shoulder pads to imitate very tall pass rushers with
their arms up, or have each player wear GPS units and heart-rate
monitors that track every step they take and every heart beat they
experience.
If only there were a drill or monitor that would allow Mike Vick to not fumble the football or throw the football to the opposing team.
My simplest question to Kelly, back inside the NovaCare Complex after practice: “Why run it this way?’’
Peter with the hard-hitting questions for Chip Kelly.
The Eagles imported Kelly from Oregon in January, and he quickly began
to change things all over the facility, and in the locker room.
I can see that Kelly changed things in the locker room. Apparently he decided he wanted a more "racially-tinged" tone to the locker room and Riley Cooper was glad to oblige.
His reign, I believe, will be the most interesting college-to-pro
transition since Jimmy Johnson went from the University of Miami to
Dallas in 1989.
I believe this isn't true and I also believe it doesn't matter. I believe Steve Spurrier's transition to the NFL was probably considered the most interesting college-to-pro transition back when he signed on to be the Redskins head coach, but Peter chooses not to remember it that way. It's interesting to me how Spurrier's failure in the NFL causes some writers to not remember how eagerly awaited Spurrier's "Fun 'N' Gun" offense was by many.
“I’ve always been a ‘why’ guy,’’ he said. “Like, I want to know why. And
a lot of times the why is crazy. I understand it. I just always have
been inquisitive. The only thing I won’t accept is because that’s the
way we’ve always done it. I ask you: Why did you change from your old
Monday Morning Quarterback format to a new one?
Peter hasn't changed the format of MMQB to a new one. He changed websites and prior to that he just kept adding parts to the current MMQB format until it became somewhat bloated.
Well, it wasn’t just for the sake of change. It was because you figured
out why it was a better idea, and you thought it made sense.
No really, the only change in MMQB over the last decade has been the change from CNNSI.com to The MMQB and Peter has added more personal thoughts, Tweets, quotes, complaints about how the world treats him while he travels.
I think the one thing we’re very conscious of is we don’t have an ego in our program. So it’s not: We are gonna do it our way no matter what and I don’t care what
anyone else thinks. If it makes sense, and the science is behind it,
we’ll do it.’’
I said: “So science is more important than tradition to you.’’
That's absolutely not at all what Chip Kelly was saying. Chip Kelly is saying what works best is more important to him than tradition. I don't get how Peter comes back with "So science is important than tradition to you" after this group of sentences where Kelly explains how there is no ego in the Eagles program. Kelly is open to ideas as long as there is proof the idea could work. That's what he is saying. These are the types of follow-up questions Peter asks apparently.
They used to give you salt pills in the old days. They used to tell you
that if you took water during practice you were soft. The science aspect
of things can help and I think the biggest thing is when you look at
the other sports out there’s so many people out there that are more
advanced than us from a science standpoint in sports that if you don’t
listen to them then …
"Keep an open mind" is all Chip Kelly is saying. He's not making a Science v. Tradition argument. He's making an argument that he has to pay attention to ideas that may work and he recognizes the progress and change in the line of thought used by football coaches over the years. This follow-up question by Peter feels so vapid to me.
“I just think it make practice efficient,’’ he said. “That’s all it is.
That doesn’t mean we’re gonna be a no-huddle team for the entire game.
I’ve always believed that it’s easier to slow down than it is to speed
up. So if we always practice fast, and then when you get into the game
it seems to slow down for you, it’s easier for you.’’
"So speed in the no-huddle is more important to you than making sure you call the right plays?"
One more piece of misinformation out there: The Chip Kelly offense is
going to be great for the quarterbacks, not so great for the runners.
I don't get this. If anything, wouldn't the perception be that Chip Kelly's offense isn't good for the quarterback, but good for the runners? I'm confused because then Peter gets quotes from Mike Vick that makes it sound like Vick thought the Kelly offense would be great for the runners, but not passers.
“First off, when he came, I was actually worried whether we’d throw it
at all,’’ said Michael Vick. “But we just play the numbers. We know why
he’s doing what he does. He explains it. We know the ‘why.’ “
We will see what Kelly's offense consists of once the Eagles start playing regular season games. It's stupid to try and guess until that time.
Now came a loud “Sweet Emotion’’ remix by some Aerosmith knockoff band.
Knowing Peter's knowledge of music, this song was probably just "Sweet Emotion" by Aerosmith.
Pass, pass, pass. But what about those numbers—the 63 percent run ratio
over the last two years at Oregon? Some of that, surely, comes from the
fact that Oregon was beating up on some tomato cans and just wanted to
run the clock out. But some, GM Howie Roseman said, was certainly by
design. “I think what’s surprised me the most,’’ said Roseman, watching
from the sidelines Sunday, “is how much he wants to be a physical
offensive team in the image of this city.’’
That surprised Howie Roseman? Did he watch any Oregon football games before hiring Chip Kelly? The Ducks were a pretty physical team, especially considering they were very good at running the ball down their opponent's throats.
Another surprise, in a summer full of them. It’s only Aug. 5. I don’t
know what’s coming next, but I can’t wait to see what it is.
So feeling surprised is more important to you than playing the regular season football games?
A word or two about practice: Aqib Talib intercepted Tom Brady. Twice
So does this mean Talib is a better player than he was last year or Tom Brady isn't as good as he was last year?
Take this for what it’s worth: Tim Tebow made three beautiful downfield
throws that I saw, completions thrown 25 yards or more hitting receivers
in stride. Tebow was also the personal protector on punts (kudos to
you, Mike Westhoff, for getting him started on that last summer) and ran
down on punts with energy. I bet the Patriots keep three quarterbacks,
knowing they’re able to use Tebow as a utility player. Not necessarily a
guy they’d have active every week, but a guy they could use in certain
matchup situations against some teams.
Peter wrote two sentences about players in Patriots camp who aren't Tim Tebow and four sentences about Tim Tebow. Just remember this next time Peter talks about the insanity that surrounds Tebow and seems confused as to why writers constantly talk about Tebow.
So how about that—E.J. Manuel winning the job (I’d say he’s in the lead, especially with Kevin Kolb’s weekend knee tweak)
Plus it helps E.J. Manuel win the starting quarterback job that Kevin Kolb is Kevin Kolb.
And it could be that Rex Ryan and John Idzik will do the safe thing and
give the start opening day to Sanchez, figuring they can go to Smith in
relief if Sanchez continues his erratic, buttfumbly type of play. If
it’s close, I don’t think that’s a good idea. If Sanchez throws two
straight incompletions in the opener Sept. 8, the crowd will shower him
with boos. And is that really the way the Jets want to open the season,
with that kind of negativity? I think not.
I see the point here, but what if Geno Smith comes out and has two straight incompletions and looks terrible? At that point will the Jets fans be patient with him, will they boo him, and worry that both quarterback options suck? Is it worth having Smith start and not give him a chance to succeed? My point is that if Rex Ryan picks his quarterback on who could get booed less then he deserves what he gets for making a personnel decision based on what the fans want. You don't want to ruin Geno Smith before he has a chance to succeed either.
Friday, Aug. 2, Latrobe, Pa.
The Steelers
Finally, a team that tackles.
Ninth team I’ve seen practice. First team that tackled.
I guess teams are afraid of injuries. I'm not sure how to reconcile Peter saying "Finally, a team that tackles" while also writing last week about the season-ending injuries suffered by Jeremy Maclin and other NFL stars at the beginning of training camp. Not that tackling goes hand-in-hand with injuries of course, but I would think a team that tackles in training camp has a better chance of suffering injuries to the players getting tackled.
I ask Tomlin after the 150-minute practice why the Steelers do it this way when so many teams do not.
"So contact in training camp is more important to you than practicing and preparing your team effectively?"
You’ve got to pit man versus man out here. You’ve got to compete. And
that’s what we’re going to do. We’re not going to run away from it.
Football is a game that’s continually evolving, and we acknowledge that.
But the physicality of the game will never go anywhere.”
Actually, the physicality of football is decreasing in some ways due to the new rules about helmet-to-helmet contact and the greater awareness about the long-term effects of concussions. I get what Tomlin is saying, but he's wrong about the physicality of the game never going anywhere.
The fact that Cooper is white, and plays on a team with some black
players who are now inclined to hate him, makes this a very slippery
slope for a team in modern sports to handle. The first response—and
maybe the second and third—was that the Eagles should cut him. Make a
statement that this won’t be tolerated by any employee of their
organization.
Buuuut...the Eagles do need quality wide receivers, so..........
and my gut feeling is they’ll bring him back to the team, likely as a
member of the 53-man roster when they’re set in four weeks.
Why? Lots of reasons. But one of them could very well be the ghost of LaGarrette Blount.
Wait, LaGarrette Blount is dead and haunting NFL training camps?
Kelly, the first-year head coach of Oregon, suspended Blount for the
rest of the season. A month later, convinced Blount truly regretted what
he’d done, Kelly changed course, setting in motion a plan for Blount to
rejoin the team if he followed a strict set of guidelines on the field
and at school. Blount followed the rules, and played the last two games
of the season. One of Kelly’s advisers on the Blount case was former
Colts coach Tony Dungy.
And if Tony Dungy thinks LaGarrette Blount is a swell guy then how could this be wrong?
So when Blount unexpectedly rushed for a rookie-high 1,007 yards in
Tampa Bay, Dungy took a photo of a big banner celebrating Blount’s
accomplishments and emailed it to Kelly. Dungy told Kelly, in effect,
that without the coach’s forgiveness, Blount probably never would have
been in the NFL, never mind rushed for 1,000 yards.
Why is Peter skipping the part where LaGarrette Blount got in a shoving match with a teammate while with the Titans and threw a punch at that teammate? Oh yeah, that doesn't fit the narrative. Blount hasn't been in trouble since he joined the Buccaneers but he was traded to the Patriots for a 7th round pick and Jeff Demps this past offseason. So his fairy tale after punching a Boise State player hasn't quite ended happily yet.
Three years ago, Dungy recalled Sunday night, “Chip could have kicked
Blount to the curb. He chose to believe in him. And it worked out. With
Riley Cooper, this kid made a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes. The big
issue, too, is the alcohol. That has to be dealt with. But Chip will
make the right decision. He doesn’t care what the popular opinion. He
cares about what’s right.’’
Not coincidentally, in the case of Blount punching a Boise State player what was popular among some Oregon Ducks fans also happened to be something that would benefit Chip Kelly and the Oregon team, so Blount got reinstated. Crazy how that works isn't it? There is some comparison between Blount and Riley Cooper, but Blount punched a member of the opposing team, while Riley Cooper insulted and angered his own teammates. It's easier to bring Blount back since nobody on the Oregon Ducks team felt personally insulted he punched a Boise State player, while it's not as easy to call Reverend Dungy in for this situation to help rehab Riley Cooper's image and use Cooper's affiliation with Dungy as a reason to forgive him. Cooper pissed off his teammates, not members of an opposing team. It's not as easy to do the right thing and keep the team happy as it was in the Blount situation.
I left the Eagles’ complex Sunday feeling Cooper will have the chance
to—as he told the team when the news broke last week—“make it right.”
Then it’ll be up to him, and to how forgiving his mates will be.
I'm not entirely sure how Riley Cooper can make it right for it not to disrupt the Eagles season or cause some bad blood in some way on the Eagles team. Say an opposing safety takes a cheap shot at Cooper because he didn't like Cooper's use of a racial slur, is one of Cooper's Eagles teammates going to come to his defense? Obviously that question can't be answered now, but it's going to take some time to make this right.
My feeling? I definitely think the Eagles should keep Cooper, unless the
situation becomes powerfully untenable in the locker room.
The issue is that the Eagles want to take care of the problem PRIOR to the locker room becoming powerfully untenable. There's no use in allowing the situation to boil over and then take action. That's the issue I see, because once the Eagles locker room becomes untenable then it may be too late. Obviously things need time to play out, but to say "I think the Eagles should keep Cooper, unless it turns out Cooper turns the entire Eagles locker room into a hostile environment in which case the Eagles should cut Cooper."
Cooper has told friends (believe it or not; and I’m not sure I believe
it) that he was shocked when he saw the video of himself using the
racial epithet, because he says he doesn’t remember doing it. That’s how
drunk he claims to have been that night.
It's very convenient that Cooper doesn't remember saying it. Should that let him off the hook or be a sign that perhaps Cooper has other issues with alcohol that also deserve his attention? I'm saying he's an alcoholic, but I've tried the "I was drunk and didn't mean it" excuse a few times and seem to fail a lot of the time in it being considered a valid excuse.
Two of his best friends on the team over the years have been black. He
cried when Cornelius Ingram, a tight end, was cut in 2011. He put a
towel over his head and displayed anguish when Jeremy Maclin tore his
ACL in training camp a week ago.
He can't be a racist, he has two black friends!
Cooper is a fighter, and a guy who lives hard. But there hasn’t been any
sign that he is a racist to anyone on the team, from what I was told by
three Eagle sources over the weekend. There’s something disturbing
inside the man, and if he’s being honest (we’ll know soon enough), he
wants to learn why such a vile thing came out of him that night two
months ago.
Cooper may not have meant to say it, but he did and it got caught on-camera. Maybe there would be more signs that Cooper was racist if his teammates got him drunk and took him to a country music concert. Maybe Cooper just said something he didn't mean and will regret that comment didn't show what he truly thinks. Either way, if Peter can forgive the Marriott for not having fresh hot coffee at 6am, surely the Eagles players can forgive Riley Cooper.
I spoke with Revis, Dominik and coach Greg Schiano late in the week and,
interestingly, Revis was probably the least optimistic of them all
about his September readiness.
Yeah, that's really not good news considering Revis is the one who knows first-hand how good his knee feels. The fact Revis is less optimistic than Dominik and Schiano doesn't strike me as a good thing, especially considering we just experienced a basketball player (Derrick Rose) who missed the entire 12-13 season because he didn't think his knee felt good enough for him to play.
Revis said he has had no swelling in the knee; has been able to test it
consistently; and that it has responded well to his testing, torquing
and quick-twitch movements.
So I asked Revis: Do you wonder how the knee’s going to react a month from now?
“Not really,’’ he said. “I’m very confident. Very.
Revis is so confident his knee is going to hold up in regular season games he is thinking about holding out and refusing to play any regular season games until he gets a new contract. At this point he may as well, since it's a tradition.
It also sounds like Schiano is okay with Revis going back out to
Revis Island—taking the opponent’s best receiver one-on-one. It’s what
Revis did to become the best corner in football in 2010 and 2011, and he
expects to be able to do it again—with Schiano’s blessing.
“Coach and I have talked about it,’’ Revis said, “and he’s open to
it. It’ll be predicated on the gameplan. But I think you’ll see it a
lot. I might have to dust the cobwebs off, but it’s the way I play best.
I’ve said, ‘Coach, this is the way I play best,’ and I think he
agrees.”
Not to be rude, but considering the Buccaneers traded for Revis and paid Revis to be the best corner in the NFL, I don't know what kind of gameplan would predicate Revis doesn't guard the opposing team's best receiver one-on-one. The Bucs paid for Revis to be the best, they may as well try and allow him to be the best.
“I’ve often thought about that day in 1996 when you drafted me
instead of Lawrence Phillips. I think that worked out well for
everyone.’’
—Former Baltimore tackle Jonathan Ogden, during his Hall of Fame
speech, looking at the man who drafted him, Ravens GM Ozzie Newsome.
This did sort of work out for everyone since the Rams later drafted Orlando Pace to play left tackle.
What I’ve always thought was a silly theory was out in force again over
the weekend: namely, that Bill Parcells was nothing without Bill
Belichick. It’s true that Parcells won his two Super Bowls with
Belichick as his defensive coordinator, and he made his only other Super
Bowl appearance with Belichick on his coaching staff—in 1996, in New
England.
I think it’s wrong-headed.
Now there is a shock. Peter King is defending someone he covered who he personally likes? Wouldn't see that coming. Peter then defends why he thinks this is wrong-headed by muddying the waters a little bit.
Did you know:
• Don Shula, in 15 coaching seasons without Bill Arnsparger on his
defensive staff, was a 6-7 playoff coach with no world titles?
• Paul Brown never won a playoff game without Otto Graham as his quarterback.
• Bill Belichick’s career record without Tom Brady under center: 51-62 (.451).
• Bill Walsh’s career record without Joe Montana under center: 17-23-1 (.427).
While I don't think there is necessarily anything to the "Bill Parcells is nothing without Bill Belichick" argument, I'm not sure it is a good comparison to use a coach's record without his starting quarterback as a comparison to what head coaches have done without specific coordinators. To me, these are two different things. Maybe they are different versions of the same thing, but I see a difference in a coach's record without a certain quarterback and that coach's record without a certain coordinator.
Of course as I have mentioned before, I don't think Bill Parcells sucks, but I also think he got by on reputation towards the end of his coaching career.
Below this is a video of "Peter King's favorite Bill Parcells memory" where Peter tells a story in honor of Parcells' induction into the Hall of Fame. So, there's that...
Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note of the Week
1. Save the Jamestown Jammers. In the western New York
hamlet of Jamestown Wednesday night, The MMQB RV stopped for five
innings of tip-top minor-league baseball. Jamestown is the birthplace of
Roger Goodell and Lucille Ball,
It must have been an honor for Peter to go to Roger Goodell's hometown. Maybe he and Goodell could take a picture together again while they are out to eat.
So the Jamestown mayor, who was in attendance for the game, saw our
little crew and came over to our seats in the grandstand to see how we
were enjoying Jamestown … and to make his case to keep the team in this
lovely hamlet.
Because, you know, Peter King has full control over whether this team stays in Jamestown or not.
2. And thanks to your groundskeeper, Josh Waid. I did a dumb thing in Jamestown, but it led to a very cool thing.
The cool thing was that Peter tore up the Jamestown Jammers parking area with his big fucking RV. How hilarious!
I directed our staff aide and RV driver, former Colgate safety Andy
DeGory, to park on the slightly sloping grassy area outside the park
that serves as the parking lot for Diethrick Park. And so, of course,
the RV got stuck on the soft ground.
Who would have ever thought a huge massive RV could get stuck in wet mud? Not Peter and ex-Colgate safety Andy DeGory that's who.
In the sixth inning, Waid brought a tractor out to gently coerce the
back of the RV out of the little trap. We attracted a local crew of
do-gooders, maybe 10 or 12 in all, who helped us push, and Waid used the
tractor to do the final bit of work, and we were free.
The lesson here? Don't drive your RV onto a slightly sloping area of grass. Instead try to find a piece of concrete to park your huge RV on and then walk (gasp!) to the ball park so you don't need the groundskeeper to get out a freaking tractor to help you move your RV.
“It’s like an Amish barn-raising,’’ I said to Waid, thanking him profusely.
I would be like an Amish barn-raising if the Amish person built his barn with balsa wood on the side of a mountain and then everyone in the Amish community had to help move the house before it collapsed. So basically it was like an Amish barn-raising if the community had to pitch in simply to prevent the idiot who raised the barn from having it collapse on him.
5. Gotta love Homer, N.Y. A gas-station attendant in
Homer provided us our quote of the trip. We’d just filled our 40-foot RV
with gas—it was near empty—when the country fellow shook his head and
mused, “Boy, that beaver was thirsty.”
Then later in the day the gas-station attendant and some neighbors had to help Peter move the RV because he had parked it in the middle of a lake.
“It amazes me that Riley Cooper is not suspended—that is PATHETIC.”
—@DickieV, announcer Dick Vitale.
Really, who better to give such an insightful perspective on the situation than Dick Vitale? I look forward to his 2013-2014 Diaper Dandy list that gets posted to ESPN.com. It will essentially be the 2013 Scout 100 top 10 or 15 players.
“Fueling up at gas station. Guy is trying to convince wife to let him
go to bathroom. She’s yelling at him, telling him no. His life stinks.”
—@granthpaulsen, beat reporter for Washington’s 106.7 The Fan.
This guy should just tell his wife the beaver is really thirsty.
Ten Things I Think I Think
f. Intense practice/scrimmage for the Saints Saturday. Sean Payton means business.
If I was the head coach of a team that had given up the most defensive yards in NFL history I would think the practices and scrimmages would be pretty intense. I wonder if Payton is motivating the players by financially compensating players for hits that injure someone. Not that Sean Payton would ever do this and Drew Brees knows absolutely NOTHING about this either.
i. The Jags had 19,000 at Everbank Field Saturday night, more than
doubling last year’s stadium practice attendance. Gus Bradley Fever,
evidently.
More like Chad Henne fever to be exact.
l. Biggest applause-receivers at the Friday night Hall of Fame dinner in
Canton, in order: Jim Brown, John Madden, Joe Namath, Joe Greene.
So basically you only get applause if your name is Jim, John, or Joe. In fact, I don't know how Bill Parcells got elected into the Hall of Fame alongside Jonathan (Jon Ogden?) Ogden with a name like "Bill."
m. The Cards love Ryan Williams, but he’ll never make the team if his chronic injury history continues.
"Ryan Williams may never be a good NFL player if he isn't able to actually play in NFL games." #analysis
3. I think one of the good developing training camp stories
Is that Anquan Boldin got traded to the 49ers from the Ravens?
I’ve said this since I spent a day with the Cards in June, but Arians is
going to try to be imaginative and explosive—and I’ll be surprised if
he doesn’t shock the three teams in the division with schemes they’ve
never seen from the Cards. He’s got Peterson in about 15 offensive
plays, and could use him as a wideout at anytime. On Saturday, Arians
said Peterson could be one of the top five wideouts in football if the
Cards chose to put him there.
I say that Blaine Gabbert is the best quarterback in the NFL, but that doesn't make it true. We can all make outrageous unprovable claims, but that doesn't mean these claims are true. Of course the guy Arians has running the imaginative and explosive scheme is Carson Palmer, so I guess we will have to see how that's going to work out.
(Peter's phone rings) "Hello?"
(Marvin Demoff) "Hey asshole, it's Marvin Demoff."
(Peter King) "Hello sir, how may I assist you to the best of my ability?"
(Marvin Demoff) "I like the new site kid, but it seems to be missing a lot of the talk about the Rams and just how exciting that team is. Don't you think that merits a mention?"
(Peter King) "Oh, well...sir...I think I took a break off because there were other NFL stories to talk about."
(Marvin Demoff) "You don't take weeks off. Don't do it. Do you think Jeff Fisher cares about the other stories? No. Are your other stories going to help my son keep his job with the Rams? No. Write about the Rams and how exciting they are (hangs up)"
(Peter King starts typing furiously trying to think of something positive to write about the Rams)
8. I think I keep hearing great things about two offensive weapons: St. Louis utility star Tavon Austin
I've never heard of this Tavon Austin fellow. Why hasn't Peter mentioned Austin or what a great offensive weapon he could be before this very MMQB?
and the guy who, to me, is a sort of Tavon Austin Jr., Jacksonville wideout/multipurpose player Ace Sanders.
He's like Austin, but nowhere near as good as Austin is, right? How could he be?
The Rams practiced in the Edward Jones Dome Saturday and gave local fans
a whiff of what to expect from Austin, playing him at several spots.
“You’re going to have to come out, watch and see what we do with him,’’
said coach Jeff Fisher. “Obviously, there’s things everybody does across
the league in camp that they don’t show until the regular season.”
During draft prep in St. Louis, the Rams privately knew if they somehow
weren’t able to get Austin, they’d have gone after Sanders, who is
emerging in camp as the kind of versatile weapon Jacksonville hoped it
was drafting last April.
Thanks again for covering who the Rams would have drafted if they had not gotten the chance to draft Tavon Austin. It's not like Peter has covered the Rams 2013 draft in any depth already, so it's good that it is early August he is still telling us about the Rams draft strategy and who they would have taken had they not taken Tavon Austin. Marvin Demoff is smiling somewhere.
10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:
a. Johnny Manziel’s got to have a death wish. I mean, is he trying to get the NFL to hate him?
Make racist comments (Riley Cooper) and the NFL forgives you.
Drive drunk and kill someone (Leonard Little) and the NFL forgives you.
Be involved with a dog fighting ring (Mike Vick) and the NFL forgives you.
Drive drunk and run over someone (Donte Stallworth) and the NFL forgives you.
Be a 20 year old college student (Johnny Manziel) who likes to party and you'll be lucky to get drafted.
c. The mailbag is back, every Tuesday. I won’t have a top on it, but
I’ll answer the best eight or 10 questions emailed or communicated to me
through one of the aforementioned forums.
I used to cover Peter's mailbag from time-to-time, but it has become so monotonous to read I didn't even know the mailbag had not been running on a weekly basis.
g. Depressing how out of touch I get on the road. Really depressing. Now
I see we’re under a terrorism alert. Hope I’m safe driving all over the
land the next two weeks.
I think the biggest thing Peter has to worry about in regard to his safety over the next two weeks is making sure he doesn't park in his massive RV in the path of an oncoming train.
i. No, I have not decided my Super Bowl pick yet, though I did tell Charlie Rose my early guess is Denver-San Francisco.
No way! Peter is thinking about picking Peyton Manning to make the Super Bowl? I don't believe it. I wonder if this is a Gregg Easterbrook-type early pick where Peter will make this pick, but then make a real pick in "Sports Illustrated" that is his "real" pick, but he will gladly take credit for the Denver-San Francisco pick if that should end up being the Super Bowl matchup.
k. Pete Abraham covers the Red Sox for the Boston Globe. Red Sox owner John Henry just bought the Boston Globe.
I assume at some point John Henry, as new owners/publishers of media
outlets do, will walk into the paper’s newsroom and speak to the
reporters, editors and photographers about his hopes for the paper. I
can’t imagine how strange it would be to have the boss at my job also be
the boss of the entity I cover.
Good news, Peter! You don't have to imagine! You can be a shill for Roger Goodell and the NFL teams without actually having them be your boss. It's not like Peter doesn't have some conflicts regarding who he covers and other aspects of his career, like he shares an agent with some NFL head coaches and that agent is the father of an NFL team's COO. You can't tell me Peter's access to Brett Favre didn't cause issues with his job, especially related to Peter's friendship with Favre.
Also, this is sort of what it would be like working for NFL Network, no? Sort of? You work for NFL Network, but the NFL Network is run by the NFL and Roger Goodell.
l. Coffeenerdness: Angel In A Starbucks Dept.: Nice man walks into the
Starbucks on Broad Street in Philadelphia Sunday evening. Introduces
himself, says he enjoys my work. I thank him. He goes and gets a coffee.
I am pounding away at my column. He comes back five minutes later,
shakes my hand and hands me a $10 Starbucks card. Thanks me again. I am …
without speech. “Th-th-thanks!’’ I said. People are good.
And of course, the same Peter King who gladly earns seven figures per year, accepts a $10 gift card from this very nice man. No Peter, perhaps you should be buying THIS GUY a Starbucks gift card for reading and enjoying your column that helps make you so wealthy. I'm not sure it's the other way around. To be fair, Peter wouldn't think to buy some random guy a Starbucks gift card. Still, seems to be the case of giving a gift to a person who doesn't need the gift. It's like giving celebrities swag at awards shows.
The Adieu Haiku
Six months of football
started Sunday in Canton.
Life is good. Quite good.
This is a haiku that an 8th grader could have thought of. If you are going to put a haiku at the end of your column at least make it seem somewhat meaningful or intelligent-sounding.
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Monday, August 5, 2013
3 comments Baseball Hall of Famers Preach Integrity and I Laugh
You shouldn't make fun of old people. It's not nice. I'm (hopefully) going to be old someday and my punishment for making fun of old people is going to be to get made fun of when I get old or not make it to enjoy my non-existent Social Security check. So I won't make fun of them. I will mock them for their hypocrisy and splitting of hairs when it comes to what really constitutes cheating. Bill Madden has written about how the Hall of Fame members preached integrity at the recent Hall of Fame induction and also preached leniency for Pete Rose. One might thing preaching integrity and preaching for leniency for Pete Rose is somewhat contradictory, but this is the Baseball Hall of Fame for you. No one in the Hall of Fame talks about the greenies and methods of cheated used by current Hall of Fame members because they are too focused on pointing out what a terrible bunch of cheaters the current players are. It's not very self-aware of them, but there has always been this overwhelming feeling of "yesterday in baseball was better than today" in baseball, so it shouldn't be a shock Hall of Fame members like Joe Morgan seem to live this as their mantra. It's just a simple case of past baseball players covering for their own legacy while doing their best to dump on the legacy of current players in order to better realize the mantra.
With the steroids scourge having turned the Hall of Fame induction ceremony into a gallery of ghosts, the theme of the day Sunday was integrity.
With the steroids scourge having turned the Hall of Fame induction ceremony into a gallery of ghosts, the theme of the day Sunday was integrity.
Friday, August 2, 2013
5 comments Jason Whitlock Seems to Believe Tony Soprano is a Real Person
Jason Whitlock has written on the topic of Aaron Hernandez and says Hernandez is a by-product of our culture and really society is partly at fault for his actions. It also appears that Whitlock thinks Christopher Moltisanti and Tony Sopranos are real people.
It would be a mistake to dismiss the monstrous allegations facing Aaron Hernandez as an aberration that says nothing about American sports and American society.
It would also be a waste of a perfectly good column that could serve as a way to get attention.
He is, in my eyes, a symbol that popular culture has installed Tony Soprano as America’s most celebrated and revered icon above Joe Montana.
I'm not entirely sure where it states that Tony Soprano is the most celebrated symbol in pop culture replacing Joe Montana, but I guess to get to his point Jason Whitlock has to makes some shit up as he goes along.
Let me explain. For nearly two decades, I’ve been writing columns detailing the impact on the sports world of popular culture’s glamorization of prison/gangster/hip-hop culture.
But there are athletes who enjoy the hip-hop culture that don't around killing people. While Whitlock is smart to detail this impact, he needs to be careful to chalk up every incident involving an athlete to this culture.
Jay-Z, a rapper who glorifies his former life as a drug dealer, has far more cultural influence than LeBron James.
In way, this is true. In the realm of sports LeBron James and Jay-Z's impact collide. What LeBron does on the court has a large impact on culture as well.
Aaron Hernandez is a reflection of where we are as a society. Like Allen Iverson and an endless plethora of fatherless and directionless modern athletes since the end of Michael Jordan’s reign, Hernandez saw his athletic gifts as a platform to represent where he was from, not where he hoped to go.
Yeah, this is sort of true. I tend to not like agreeing with Jason Whitlock because I feel like he is talking in generalities here by painting "an endless plethora" of athletes with the same brush. I agree in principle, but I don't like how he paints with such a broad brush.
This is what a 40-year drug war, mass incarceration, a steady stream of Mafia movies, three decades of gangster rap and two decades of reality TV have wrought: athletes who covet the rebellious and marketable gangster persona.
I have to think Hernandez's actions can be explained by other things outside of his embracing the gangster persona. A lot of athletes don't have to covet and chase the gangster persona because they are born into it. It's not that Hernandez chased being a gangster, but he could have been born into and didn't have the strength to escape from his situation. We are only as good as we were raised to be, so I don't have to think Hernandez looked at "Scarface" and thought "That's what I want to be," but instead saw the movie and noticed small parallels in his life or the lives of others he knew growing up. You can grow up in a middle class household and still not have been brought up correctly. If Whitlock is going to paint athletes with such a broad brush then he needs to understand not all athletes chase the gangster persona, but just lack the want and ability to change their surrounding which encourage this persona.
The unhealthy side effects of drug prohibition and popular culture have made murderous drug dealers respected members of American society. Random, murderous violence and the people who commit those crimes have been normalized in America, thanks in large part to popular culture.
So it is television's fault?
We all loved and respected Tony Soprano. This is why James Gandolfini’s death was such a big story.
No. Not at all. You can tell Bill Simmons and Jason Whitlock are friends because they love to use the proverbial "we" when they want to lump a large group of people together in order to help prove one of their points. It's lazy writing. In the face of a lack of evidence, just say "we" all believe something.
The reason James Gandolfini's death was such a big story is because he was one of the most talented actors of this generation and he died a premature death. Plus, I personally held out hope of a "Sopranos" movie and I know I'm not the only one. So his death means that movie is definitely not happening. He is best known as Tony Soprano, but he was a talented actor and that's why his death was a big deal.
Modern athletes carry guns. They do drugs. They mimic rappers and gangster pop-culture icons.
Partially because some of them grew up around people who patterned themselves after these people. Yes, these athletes want to mimic some gangster pop culture icons, but what takes the athlete from being a mimic to putting this mimicry into action can be partly attributed to the familiarity of these icons.
It was only a matter of time before some athlete was accused of imitating Tony Soprano. The gangster influence in our society is that strong.
Okay, no one was imitating Tony Soprano when he (allegedly) committed this murder. I know Jason Whitlock is very tenuously trying to tie Aaron Hernandez in with Tony Soprano, but the comparison isn't doing a hell of a lot for me.
Aaron Hernandez is not Rae Carruth or O.J. Simpson. Carruth and Simpson were accused of committing crimes of passion, emotion and greed. They had motives. Hernandez is being described by police as simply violent, volatile and dangerous.
Supposedly Hernandez wanted to shut up Odin Lloyd because Lloyd knew too much about another crime Hernandez is alleged to have committed. There's the motive.
He’s Joe Pesci’s character in the movie “Casino.”
Stop trying for parallels to pop culture. Aaron Hernandez isn't Joe Pesci in "Casino."
It’s written to argue that athletes of the previous generations belonged to an athletic culture that sat atop American pop culture. There was no incentive for Hank Aaron to acquire street cred. He was the gold standard.
Well, gangster culture wasn't as prevalent when Hank Aaron broke in the majors. So besides the fact there was no incentive to acquire street cred, it was also just a different time with a different culture. Times change.
Jay-Z is the new gold standard.
Just like Frank Sinatra was the gold standard a few decades earlier. Just like other pop culture icons were the gold standard for athletes in one way or another during other decades.
The whole sports world played along with Jigga Man’s charade of NBA ownership. Now Kevin Durant and other athletes are flocking to Hova’s sports agency. An unrepentant, flamboyant former drug dealer has the White House, President Obama-stamped seal of approval.
Not to beat the Frank Sinatra comparison into the ground, but had the stamp of approval of John F. Kennedy and various other prominent athletes' stamp of approval too. You don't have to do too much research to see the ties to illegal crime (i.e. the Mafia) that Sinatra had during his lifetime. I'm not a huge Jay-Z fan, but he is a former ("former" being the key word) drug dealer and he isn't the first successful person to have a shady background and eventually be looked up to by athletes.
Proving we learn nothing from our history, drug prohibition has legitimized the drug dealer the same way alcohol prohibition legitimized bootleggers (Joseph Kennedy). You let corrupt people make enough money and eventually they’ll use their wealth, power and influence to bait others into participating in and rationalizing their corrupt actions.
This article is all over the place. How is the world at-large supposed to stop someone from making money, especially if most of a person's money is gained through legal actions (Jay-Z's money may have started in drug dealing, but making music and his business sense has caused most of his current wealth)? I understand where Whitlock wants to go with this column, but he isn't pulling it off. He's trying to pull a fictional character into the real world (Tony Soprano), compare this fictional character's actions to Jay-Z, and then say the NBA shouldn't let Jay-Z have a sports agency. So the basic point is that Aaron Hernandez committed murder because the NBA allowed Jay-Z to become a partial owner of an NBA team. After all, Hernandez wants to be like Tony Soprano, who apparently is a real person now.
Walter White and Marlo Stanfield are heroes.
Wow, what a misinterpretation. I realize Jason Whitlock loves "The Wire" and considers himself the expert on the show, but Marlo Stanfield isn't a hero. There are no heroes on that show. Vince Gilligan specifically is taking Walter White from a sympathetic character into a character the audience has difficulty rooting for. Walter White is not the hero, we are simply following his journey from teacher to drug kingpin and we see this journey mostly from his point of view. Jason Whitlock is misunderstanding things. Walter White and Marlo Stanfield aren't heroes, they are the main characters.
Incarcerating people for profit is a legitimate form of business. It’s this cesspool that allowed Aaron Hernandez to hide out in the open.
Aaron Hernandez is not responsible for his actions. It's society's fault I tell you.
He reportedly threatened Wes Welker. Matt Light, a former Patriot, made it clear in a newspaper interview he could easily see Hernandez’s character flaws. A dozen NFL franchises took him off their draft boards based on their investigation of his behavior at Florida.
NFL franchises took Randy Moss and Warren Sapp off draft boards because of concerns regarding their behavior. I'm not downplaying the pre-draft concerns about Hernandez and how he has now been accused of murder, but dozens of other players have been removed from teams' draft boards due to concerns that team had and these concerns never came to fruition.
When he stood in chains before a judge at his arraignment, in a white T-shirt and his arms decorated in ink, Hernandez did not look out of place.
Partially because he been suspected and arrested for murder. It's easy to say a guy doesn't look out of place in chains when he is standing in court fresh out of jail wearing chains. Otherwise, Aaron Hernandez just looks like a regular athlete who chooses to have tattoos.
Guilty or innocent, he looked like someone who had prepared for this moment. He didn’t look like an athlete. He looked like an ex-con.
I don't think Jason Whitlock is racist, but he has made a career out of making statements like this that he knows he can get away with saying and other writers could not get away with saying. It's a sort of competitive advantage that Whitlock has claimed as his own. He doesn't race-bait, but he uses his background and race as a way to get attention (negative or positive) that would only give other writers negative attention.
Like nearly everything else in this society, athlete culture has been hijacked by mass incarceration and the pervasive gangster culture it has produced.
A lot of athletes also grew up in this culture. So the culture has less hijacked sports and more sports has become a part of this culture due to the background of some of these athletes who play the sports. It's a symbiotic relationship in a way.
Sports culture is steeped in patriotism and the ideals and values we claim make this the greatest country in the world. It’s not by accident the national anthem is played before every sporting event.
America, fuck yeah! Sports are steeped in patriotism, but everything steeped in patriotism can't stay pure and free from issues. Look at the military for an example of this. Nearly everything about the military is patriotic, but on nearly ever level there is some sense of impurity and even impropriety. It can't be prevented.
Rappers and musicians are rebels. They look normal in prison tattoos and white Ts.
Again, Jason Whitlock takes advantage of statements he can make that other writers can't make.
We can no longer distinguish bad from good. We no longer even aspire to be good; it has considerably less value.
Again with the "we" that Bill Simmons also seems to enjoy using so much. It's such a lazy way to try and make a point. Just lump everyone together and say "we" can't distinguish bad from good. It makes the problem more of a societal problem as Whitlock is suggesting rather than an isolated incident or one bad guy football player in a sea of good guy football players. The whole societal "we" thing just feels lazy to me.
Popular culture has so eroded the symbolic core principles at the root of America’s love affair with sports that many modern athletes believe their allegiance to gangster culture takes precedence over their allegiance to the sports culture that made them rich and famous.
Remember when this article was about how Tony Soprano is a real person and a person athletes aspire to be?
Aaron Hernandez wanted to be Christopher Moltisanti more than he wanted to be Kellen Winslow.
The difference being that Christopher Moltisanti isn't a real person and Kellen Winslow is a real person. Let's be honest about Hernandez wanting to be like Kellen Winslow. Kellen Winslow retired before Aaron Hernandez was even born, so should it really come as a shock that Hernandez wouldn't want to be like Kellen Winslow? There are much more modern tight ends that Hernandez would modern himself after.
Sounds crazy until you look around and see there are 1,000 times more aspiring Kim Kardashians than Hillary Clintons.
Wow, 1000 times more? I didn't know there was such a specific number available. This is another misleading comparison though. In the 1950's do you think more women wanted to be like Marilyn Monroe than Eleanor Roosevelt and don't you think more men wanted to be like Frank Sinatra than Dwight Eisenhower? Yes, men probably wanted to be like John F. Kennedy in the 1960's, but don't you think Elvis Presley or one of the Beatles had a draw to these men (or kids) as well? My comparisons really aren't excellent, but I think it goes to prove the point that pop culture didn't just start impacting how kids and athletes behaved over the last decade. Athletics always tie into pop culture at some point through history, and unlike Jason Whitlock, Aaron Hernandez realizes Tony Sopranos isn't a real person.
It would be a mistake to dismiss the monstrous allegations facing Aaron Hernandez as an aberration that says nothing about American sports and American society.
It would also be a waste of a perfectly good column that could serve as a way to get attention.
He is, in my eyes, a symbol that popular culture has installed Tony Soprano as America’s most celebrated and revered icon above Joe Montana.
I'm not entirely sure where it states that Tony Soprano is the most celebrated symbol in pop culture replacing Joe Montana, but I guess to get to his point Jason Whitlock has to makes some shit up as he goes along.
Let me explain. For nearly two decades, I’ve been writing columns detailing the impact on the sports world of popular culture’s glamorization of prison/gangster/hip-hop culture.
But there are athletes who enjoy the hip-hop culture that don't around killing people. While Whitlock is smart to detail this impact, he needs to be careful to chalk up every incident involving an athlete to this culture.
Jay-Z, a rapper who glorifies his former life as a drug dealer, has far more cultural influence than LeBron James.
In way, this is true. In the realm of sports LeBron James and Jay-Z's impact collide. What LeBron does on the court has a large impact on culture as well.
Aaron Hernandez is a reflection of where we are as a society. Like Allen Iverson and an endless plethora of fatherless and directionless modern athletes since the end of Michael Jordan’s reign, Hernandez saw his athletic gifts as a platform to represent where he was from, not where he hoped to go.
Yeah, this is sort of true. I tend to not like agreeing with Jason Whitlock because I feel like he is talking in generalities here by painting "an endless plethora" of athletes with the same brush. I agree in principle, but I don't like how he paints with such a broad brush.
This is what a 40-year drug war, mass incarceration, a steady stream of Mafia movies, three decades of gangster rap and two decades of reality TV have wrought: athletes who covet the rebellious and marketable gangster persona.
I have to think Hernandez's actions can be explained by other things outside of his embracing the gangster persona. A lot of athletes don't have to covet and chase the gangster persona because they are born into it. It's not that Hernandez chased being a gangster, but he could have been born into and didn't have the strength to escape from his situation. We are only as good as we were raised to be, so I don't have to think Hernandez looked at "Scarface" and thought "That's what I want to be," but instead saw the movie and noticed small parallels in his life or the lives of others he knew growing up. You can grow up in a middle class household and still not have been brought up correctly. If Whitlock is going to paint athletes with such a broad brush then he needs to understand not all athletes chase the gangster persona, but just lack the want and ability to change their surrounding which encourage this persona.
The unhealthy side effects of drug prohibition and popular culture have made murderous drug dealers respected members of American society. Random, murderous violence and the people who commit those crimes have been normalized in America, thanks in large part to popular culture.
So it is television's fault?
We all loved and respected Tony Soprano. This is why James Gandolfini’s death was such a big story.
No. Not at all. You can tell Bill Simmons and Jason Whitlock are friends because they love to use the proverbial "we" when they want to lump a large group of people together in order to help prove one of their points. It's lazy writing. In the face of a lack of evidence, just say "we" all believe something.
The reason James Gandolfini's death was such a big story is because he was one of the most talented actors of this generation and he died a premature death. Plus, I personally held out hope of a "Sopranos" movie and I know I'm not the only one. So his death means that movie is definitely not happening. He is best known as Tony Soprano, but he was a talented actor and that's why his death was a big deal.
Modern athletes carry guns. They do drugs. They mimic rappers and gangster pop-culture icons.
Partially because some of them grew up around people who patterned themselves after these people. Yes, these athletes want to mimic some gangster pop culture icons, but what takes the athlete from being a mimic to putting this mimicry into action can be partly attributed to the familiarity of these icons.
It was only a matter of time before some athlete was accused of imitating Tony Soprano. The gangster influence in our society is that strong.
Okay, no one was imitating Tony Soprano when he (allegedly) committed this murder. I know Jason Whitlock is very tenuously trying to tie Aaron Hernandez in with Tony Soprano, but the comparison isn't doing a hell of a lot for me.
Aaron Hernandez is not Rae Carruth or O.J. Simpson. Carruth and Simpson were accused of committing crimes of passion, emotion and greed. They had motives. Hernandez is being described by police as simply violent, volatile and dangerous.
Supposedly Hernandez wanted to shut up Odin Lloyd because Lloyd knew too much about another crime Hernandez is alleged to have committed. There's the motive.
He’s Joe Pesci’s character in the movie “Casino.”
Stop trying for parallels to pop culture. Aaron Hernandez isn't Joe Pesci in "Casino."
It’s written to argue that athletes of the previous generations belonged to an athletic culture that sat atop American pop culture. There was no incentive for Hank Aaron to acquire street cred. He was the gold standard.
Well, gangster culture wasn't as prevalent when Hank Aaron broke in the majors. So besides the fact there was no incentive to acquire street cred, it was also just a different time with a different culture. Times change.
Jay-Z is the new gold standard.
Just like Frank Sinatra was the gold standard a few decades earlier. Just like other pop culture icons were the gold standard for athletes in one way or another during other decades.
The whole sports world played along with Jigga Man’s charade of NBA ownership. Now Kevin Durant and other athletes are flocking to Hova’s sports agency. An unrepentant, flamboyant former drug dealer has the White House, President Obama-stamped seal of approval.
Not to beat the Frank Sinatra comparison into the ground, but had the stamp of approval of John F. Kennedy and various other prominent athletes' stamp of approval too. You don't have to do too much research to see the ties to illegal crime (i.e. the Mafia) that Sinatra had during his lifetime. I'm not a huge Jay-Z fan, but he is a former ("former" being the key word) drug dealer and he isn't the first successful person to have a shady background and eventually be looked up to by athletes.
Proving we learn nothing from our history, drug prohibition has legitimized the drug dealer the same way alcohol prohibition legitimized bootleggers (Joseph Kennedy). You let corrupt people make enough money and eventually they’ll use their wealth, power and influence to bait others into participating in and rationalizing their corrupt actions.
This article is all over the place. How is the world at-large supposed to stop someone from making money, especially if most of a person's money is gained through legal actions (Jay-Z's money may have started in drug dealing, but making music and his business sense has caused most of his current wealth)? I understand where Whitlock wants to go with this column, but he isn't pulling it off. He's trying to pull a fictional character into the real world (Tony Soprano), compare this fictional character's actions to Jay-Z, and then say the NBA shouldn't let Jay-Z have a sports agency. So the basic point is that Aaron Hernandez committed murder because the NBA allowed Jay-Z to become a partial owner of an NBA team. After all, Hernandez wants to be like Tony Soprano, who apparently is a real person now.
Walter White and Marlo Stanfield are heroes.
Wow, what a misinterpretation. I realize Jason Whitlock loves "The Wire" and considers himself the expert on the show, but Marlo Stanfield isn't a hero. There are no heroes on that show. Vince Gilligan specifically is taking Walter White from a sympathetic character into a character the audience has difficulty rooting for. Walter White is not the hero, we are simply following his journey from teacher to drug kingpin and we see this journey mostly from his point of view. Jason Whitlock is misunderstanding things. Walter White and Marlo Stanfield aren't heroes, they are the main characters.
Incarcerating people for profit is a legitimate form of business. It’s this cesspool that allowed Aaron Hernandez to hide out in the open.
Aaron Hernandez is not responsible for his actions. It's society's fault I tell you.
He reportedly threatened Wes Welker. Matt Light, a former Patriot, made it clear in a newspaper interview he could easily see Hernandez’s character flaws. A dozen NFL franchises took him off their draft boards based on their investigation of his behavior at Florida.
NFL franchises took Randy Moss and Warren Sapp off draft boards because of concerns regarding their behavior. I'm not downplaying the pre-draft concerns about Hernandez and how he has now been accused of murder, but dozens of other players have been removed from teams' draft boards due to concerns that team had and these concerns never came to fruition.
When he stood in chains before a judge at his arraignment, in a white T-shirt and his arms decorated in ink, Hernandez did not look out of place.
Partially because he been suspected and arrested for murder. It's easy to say a guy doesn't look out of place in chains when he is standing in court fresh out of jail wearing chains. Otherwise, Aaron Hernandez just looks like a regular athlete who chooses to have tattoos.
Guilty or innocent, he looked like someone who had prepared for this moment. He didn’t look like an athlete. He looked like an ex-con.
I don't think Jason Whitlock is racist, but he has made a career out of making statements like this that he knows he can get away with saying and other writers could not get away with saying. It's a sort of competitive advantage that Whitlock has claimed as his own. He doesn't race-bait, but he uses his background and race as a way to get attention (negative or positive) that would only give other writers negative attention.
Like nearly everything else in this society, athlete culture has been hijacked by mass incarceration and the pervasive gangster culture it has produced.
A lot of athletes also grew up in this culture. So the culture has less hijacked sports and more sports has become a part of this culture due to the background of some of these athletes who play the sports. It's a symbiotic relationship in a way.
Sports culture is steeped in patriotism and the ideals and values we claim make this the greatest country in the world. It’s not by accident the national anthem is played before every sporting event.
America, fuck yeah! Sports are steeped in patriotism, but everything steeped in patriotism can't stay pure and free from issues. Look at the military for an example of this. Nearly everything about the military is patriotic, but on nearly ever level there is some sense of impurity and even impropriety. It can't be prevented.
Rappers and musicians are rebels. They look normal in prison tattoos and white Ts.
Again, Jason Whitlock takes advantage of statements he can make that other writers can't make.
We can no longer distinguish bad from good. We no longer even aspire to be good; it has considerably less value.
Again with the "we" that Bill Simmons also seems to enjoy using so much. It's such a lazy way to try and make a point. Just lump everyone together and say "we" can't distinguish bad from good. It makes the problem more of a societal problem as Whitlock is suggesting rather than an isolated incident or one bad guy football player in a sea of good guy football players. The whole societal "we" thing just feels lazy to me.
Popular culture has so eroded the symbolic core principles at the root of America’s love affair with sports that many modern athletes believe their allegiance to gangster culture takes precedence over their allegiance to the sports culture that made them rich and famous.
Remember when this article was about how Tony Soprano is a real person and a person athletes aspire to be?
Aaron Hernandez wanted to be Christopher Moltisanti more than he wanted to be Kellen Winslow.
The difference being that Christopher Moltisanti isn't a real person and Kellen Winslow is a real person. Let's be honest about Hernandez wanting to be like Kellen Winslow. Kellen Winslow retired before Aaron Hernandez was even born, so should it really come as a shock that Hernandez wouldn't want to be like Kellen Winslow? There are much more modern tight ends that Hernandez would modern himself after.
Sounds crazy until you look around and see there are 1,000 times more aspiring Kim Kardashians than Hillary Clintons.
Wow, 1000 times more? I didn't know there was such a specific number available. This is another misleading comparison though. In the 1950's do you think more women wanted to be like Marilyn Monroe than Eleanor Roosevelt and don't you think more men wanted to be like Frank Sinatra than Dwight Eisenhower? Yes, men probably wanted to be like John F. Kennedy in the 1960's, but don't you think Elvis Presley or one of the Beatles had a draw to these men (or kids) as well? My comparisons really aren't excellent, but I think it goes to prove the point that pop culture didn't just start impacting how kids and athletes behaved over the last decade. Athletics always tie into pop culture at some point through history, and unlike Jason Whitlock, Aaron Hernandez realizes Tony Sopranos isn't a real person.
Thursday, August 1, 2013
2 comments Bob Klapisch Doesn't See a Need for Matt Harvey to Tempt the Ladies with His Sexuality
Some baseball writers enjoy tackling hard-hitting important issues
surrounding baseball and then other baseball writers like to make a story out
of nothing. Bob Klapisch seems to be (at least today) in the latter group. He
thinks Matt Harvey posing nude in ESPN's Body Issue, which I will not be
providing links for these pictures, wasn't a good decision. After all, what
Hall of Fame pitcher would ever dare to pose in his underwear?
Simply put, great pitchers just don't do
that. Klapisch even asks Ron Darling who agrees that posing nude or paying
attention to celebrity outside of baseball is something that should be avoided at
all costs. Of course in Darling's GQ article there were comments critical
of Davey Johnson, and Matt Harvey simply took pictures without bashing his
manager, but Ron Darling warns others about trying to gain the type of
celebrity he chased. It can affect your pitching and being naked is wrong!
My copy of ESPN’s Body Issue arrived in the mail Tuesday and I admit I was curious enough to flip through the pages. Specifically, I wanted to know what attracted Matt Harvey to the idea of posing nude.
And because we know the best way to find out what attracted Matt Harvey to the idea of posing nude is to look at pictures of Harvey posing nude. He's so expressive!
I tried to use this reasoning for why I was looking at a Playboy when I was 11 years old, but for some reason my friend's mom didn't buy my reasoning.
"No, I'm not trying to look at naked women Mrs. Thompson! I just want to find out what attracted her to posing nude in the magazine and figured the best way to figure this out would be to stare at her naked body."
Oh, the layouts were creative and tastefully done: no argument about the graphics.
Well, thank God. I know I was concerned the graphics wouldn't be tasteful.
Harvey? He was photographed in his windup —his arm forming a perfect “L.” In the second shot, Harvey is holding a room-service tray over his privates as he peers out of an expensive-looking hotel room. Clever enough.
These naked pictures of Matt Harvey have Bob Klapisch's approval. Combined this with the very tasteful graphics and I think Bob is starting to see what attracted Harvey to posing for these pictures.
Still, I’m told the Mets were aghast to learn of Harvey’s participation in this project; they had nothing to do with it.
The Mets didn't encourage Harvey to pose naked in a magazine and he made an adult decision by himself? You don't say?
It was the pitcher’s marketing people and agent Scott Boras who convinced Harvey that modeling –modeling his body, that is –would somehow help his career.
And look, an article is being written about Harvey modeling in ESPN's Body Issue. Harvey gets noticed like he wants. I can't believe Scott Boras is encouraging young men to get naked and pose for pictures. He's worse than a Hollywood producer sleeping with the women talent in order to convince them they will get a role in his next film. One more reason Scott Boras is evil. He convinces his clients to model and take pictures in their underwear for his perverse pleasure. He convinces a vulnerable A-Rod to pose kissing himself in the mirror, now he has Matt Harvey posing naked for ESPN, and who can forget that time Boras convinced Derek Lowe and Barry Zito doing a video of "2 Guys, 1 Cup" would be good for their career? Clearly, Scott Boras is a pervert.
He’s also been blessed with a keen self-awareness, which means he knew exactly what he was getting into with ESPN, not to mention a follow-up photo fashion shoot with the New York Post.
Turns out Harvey’s talent and brains are matched by his ego and vanity.
Yeah, I know. It's so vain to be on the cover of magazines and newspapers. Don't you like how Matt Harvey is only a rookie and the New York media is already finding ways to tear him down?
Let’s be honest, it takes a good deal of narcissism to step out of your clothes and stand in front of a camera. Your message becomes clear: Look at me.
This is possibly true. Bob Klapisch is around 56 years old and he just now realized that athletes have an ego and can be narcissistic? Harvey is a rookie and whether he posed naked one time or not has nothing to do with how well he pitches. Posing in ESPN's Body Issue does give the media something to criticize Harvey for, which is probably his biggest issue, as opposed to his modeling affecting his ability to pitch.
If Harvey wants to prove he’s enlightened and open-minded, there are a million other ways to express that without putting a bull’s-eye on his back.
Does Colin Kaepernick have a bull's-eye on his back now? Do any of the other athletes in ESPN's Body Issue have bull's-eyes on their back now? I would bet you Bob Klapisch can't name three male athletes who posed in the 2011 and 2012 ESPN Body Issue. The only bull's-eye on Harvey's back is the one Bob Klapisch is trying to put there.
No one knows this better than Ron Darling, who calls games from the SNY booth, but remembers what it was like to be the Yale-educated pretty boy of the ’80s-era teams.
Darling appeared on the cover of GQ in August 1986, and although he was fully clothed, he still made history as the magazine’s first prominently featured Asian.
So because Ron Darling was on the cover of GQ and regrets it, every other professional athlete who appears on the cover of a magazine or does any modeling (even in a sports magazine) is going to eventually regret it? Everyone is the same and every athlete has the same experiences and what happened in 1986 is completely relevant to what may happen in 2013?
Looking back, Darling regrets the “lust” he had for GQ’s celebrity, because, “Inside, the article [that accompanied the cover shot] was critical of Davey [Johnson]. You end up selling yourself to the devil,” Darling said. “I was embarrassed.”
Matt Harvey had no quotes in the article that was critical of anyone. There were two pictures of Harvey in the ESPN magazine. Ron Darling should not project his experiences on others. Simply because Darling had a lust for celebrity and was critical of Davey Johnson in a GQ article doesn't mean this will be an experience Matt Harvey will share. Harvey took two naked pictures in a sports magazine along with other athletes in various sports and his photos in the New York Post were just douche-like, not anything that involves him selling his soul to the devil.
When Darling says, “You have to keep your mind on the prize,” it’s a gentle warning that outsiders will be looking at Harvey differently from now on,
I am an outsider and didn't even know Harvey took the pictures in the Post nor had I seen the pictures in ESPN's Body Issue. All I know is he played college baseball at UNC-Chapel Hill, so he must be a douchebag at heart.
“The toughest part is the clubhouse, the simple minds you have to wade through,” Darling said. “There’s going to be criticism that comes out of nowhere, [from] teammates that are small-minded and don’t get it.”
Matt Harvey is an adult and he will handle the criticism or comments from his teammates. It's also very important to note that Harvey's modeling hasn't affected his pitching as of yet ("OR HAS IT?" says Bob Klapisch) and plenty of other athletes have posed half-clothed including The Jeter.
Yet, Harvey was less than dominant in a 121-pitch performance against the Giants on Monday because, as it turns out, he has a blister on his right index finger. It’s more of a nuisance than a problem, but the Mets might skip Harvey’s start Saturday and keep him out of the All-Star Game.
It didn't happen. Harvey pitched in the All-Star Game and the blister caused by modeling didn't affect his pitching. Miraculously Harvey wasn't so distracted by his burgeoning modeling career that he completely forgot to show up for the All-Star Game. He showed up and started the game, all while managing to keep his massive ego and narcissism in check. It's almost like Bob Klapisch is creating stories where there isn't one (adds the tag to this post).
That’s smart thinking, but had it not been for the blister, the whispering campaign might’ve already begun. That’s the surcharge for Harvey’s desire for the spotlight –the second-guessers who’ll be asking hard questions about his priorities.
Bob Klapisch is writing a column asking hard questions about Matt Harvey's priorities. In this column Klapisch is writing he states that there will be second-guessers who'll be asking hard questions about Matt Harvey's priorities. See how this works? In the column on Harvey's priorities Klapisch is warning second-guessers will write exactly what he is writing in the column. It's all circular. It's like if I wrote an article on how Jake Locker might be a closeted homosexual because he drives a Dodge Neon and then in the article I state that some people are going to accuse Locker of being a homosexual for driving a Dodge Neon. I would be the person I am warning Locker about.
Remember how A-Rod allowed himself to be photographed shirtless by the New York Post in Central Park? Kissing himself in the mirror for Details magazine? Bad decisions, all.
It's all about A-Rod. It always is and it always will be. "Don't be A-Rod." That's the lesson. Remember that time Derek Jeter posed shirtless with other MLB shortstops? Whatever happened to that Jeter guy? It ruined his career didn't it?
(My favorite pose is that of Rey Ordonez. He's trying to give his best "sexy eyes" to the camera and it looks like he has to take a huge shit and would appreciate it if the cameraman would stop taking pictures so he can run to the bathroom)
There’s plenty of room for expressionism, but at age 24, Harvey probably could use some help picking his spots.
I'd love to know from Bob Klapisch which "spot" is best for Matt Harvey to do some modeling in. My guess would be "never and at no time."
“If I was playing today, I would be aware of Instagram and Twitter. I would make sure I had someone in charge of things that are in the public eye,” Darling said.
Oh sure, of course you would Ron. Darling was taken and "lusted" for fame and celebrity in 1986, but in an era where it is much easier to get your picture and thoughts out into the world Ron would have been MORE careful about what he put in the public. I completely don't believe this at all. Logic would indicate if Ron Darling wanted celebrity in 1986 at the age of 26 he would still want celebrity in 2013 if he was 26 years old. Let's not take part in some revisionist history here. Darling would most likely have acted the same way if he played baseball in 2013, except he would have had an Instagram and Twitter account and probably would not have minded appearing in the ESPN Body Issue.
Sure, knowing what he knows now Darling may have wanted to do things differently, but I'm betting if Darling were a 26 year old playing for the Mets he wouldn't have been as "in charge of things" as he wants us to believe he would be. It's nice to pretend otherwise though.
Drill down another level and the question becomes one of legacy. Who does Harvey want to be —a star pitcher or a celebrity?
He can actually be both. He can be a star pitcher who has appeared in the ESPN Body Issue and New York Post doing some modeling, and unlike Ron Darling, he managed not to criticize his manager.
Does he want the back page or Page Six? Is he a great guy or just a guy with a great body?
Does it really matter if it doesn't impact how he pitches? I'm not sure one appearance modeling in a sports magazine means Matt Harvey's priorities aren't where they should be.
My copy of ESPN’s Body Issue arrived in the mail Tuesday and I admit I was curious enough to flip through the pages. Specifically, I wanted to know what attracted Matt Harvey to the idea of posing nude.
And because we know the best way to find out what attracted Matt Harvey to the idea of posing nude is to look at pictures of Harvey posing nude. He's so expressive!
I tried to use this reasoning for why I was looking at a Playboy when I was 11 years old, but for some reason my friend's mom didn't buy my reasoning.
"No, I'm not trying to look at naked women Mrs. Thompson! I just want to find out what attracted her to posing nude in the magazine and figured the best way to figure this out would be to stare at her naked body."
Oh, the layouts were creative and tastefully done: no argument about the graphics.
Well, thank God. I know I was concerned the graphics wouldn't be tasteful.
Harvey? He was photographed in his windup —his arm forming a perfect “L.” In the second shot, Harvey is holding a room-service tray over his privates as he peers out of an expensive-looking hotel room. Clever enough.
These naked pictures of Matt Harvey have Bob Klapisch's approval. Combined this with the very tasteful graphics and I think Bob is starting to see what attracted Harvey to posing for these pictures.
Still, I’m told the Mets were aghast to learn of Harvey’s participation in this project; they had nothing to do with it.
The Mets didn't encourage Harvey to pose naked in a magazine and he made an adult decision by himself? You don't say?
It was the pitcher’s marketing people and agent Scott Boras who convinced Harvey that modeling –modeling his body, that is –would somehow help his career.
And look, an article is being written about Harvey modeling in ESPN's Body Issue. Harvey gets noticed like he wants. I can't believe Scott Boras is encouraging young men to get naked and pose for pictures. He's worse than a Hollywood producer sleeping with the women talent in order to convince them they will get a role in his next film. One more reason Scott Boras is evil. He convinces his clients to model and take pictures in their underwear for his perverse pleasure. He convinces a vulnerable A-Rod to pose kissing himself in the mirror, now he has Matt Harvey posing naked for ESPN, and who can forget that time Boras convinced Derek Lowe and Barry Zito doing a video of "2 Guys, 1 Cup" would be good for their career? Clearly, Scott Boras is a pervert.
He’s also been blessed with a keen self-awareness, which means he knew exactly what he was getting into with ESPN, not to mention a follow-up photo fashion shoot with the New York Post.
Turns out Harvey’s talent and brains are matched by his ego and vanity.
Yeah, I know. It's so vain to be on the cover of magazines and newspapers. Don't you like how Matt Harvey is only a rookie and the New York media is already finding ways to tear him down?
Let’s be honest, it takes a good deal of narcissism to step out of your clothes and stand in front of a camera. Your message becomes clear: Look at me.
This is possibly true. Bob Klapisch is around 56 years old and he just now realized that athletes have an ego and can be narcissistic? Harvey is a rookie and whether he posed naked one time or not has nothing to do with how well he pitches. Posing in ESPN's Body Issue does give the media something to criticize Harvey for, which is probably his biggest issue, as opposed to his modeling affecting his ability to pitch.
If Harvey wants to prove he’s enlightened and open-minded, there are a million other ways to express that without putting a bull’s-eye on his back.
Does Colin Kaepernick have a bull's-eye on his back now? Do any of the other athletes in ESPN's Body Issue have bull's-eyes on their back now? I would bet you Bob Klapisch can't name three male athletes who posed in the 2011 and 2012 ESPN Body Issue. The only bull's-eye on Harvey's back is the one Bob Klapisch is trying to put there.
No one knows this better than Ron Darling, who calls games from the SNY booth, but remembers what it was like to be the Yale-educated pretty boy of the ’80s-era teams.
Darling appeared on the cover of GQ in August 1986, and although he was fully clothed, he still made history as the magazine’s first prominently featured Asian.
So because Ron Darling was on the cover of GQ and regrets it, every other professional athlete who appears on the cover of a magazine or does any modeling (even in a sports magazine) is going to eventually regret it? Everyone is the same and every athlete has the same experiences and what happened in 1986 is completely relevant to what may happen in 2013?
Looking back, Darling regrets the “lust” he had for GQ’s celebrity, because, “Inside, the article [that accompanied the cover shot] was critical of Davey [Johnson]. You end up selling yourself to the devil,” Darling said. “I was embarrassed.”
Matt Harvey had no quotes in the article that was critical of anyone. There were two pictures of Harvey in the ESPN magazine. Ron Darling should not project his experiences on others. Simply because Darling had a lust for celebrity and was critical of Davey Johnson in a GQ article doesn't mean this will be an experience Matt Harvey will share. Harvey took two naked pictures in a sports magazine along with other athletes in various sports and his photos in the New York Post were just douche-like, not anything that involves him selling his soul to the devil.
When Darling says, “You have to keep your mind on the prize,” it’s a gentle warning that outsiders will be looking at Harvey differently from now on,
I am an outsider and didn't even know Harvey took the pictures in the Post nor had I seen the pictures in ESPN's Body Issue. All I know is he played college baseball at UNC-Chapel Hill, so he must be a douchebag at heart.
“The toughest part is the clubhouse, the simple minds you have to wade through,” Darling said. “There’s going to be criticism that comes out of nowhere, [from] teammates that are small-minded and don’t get it.”
Matt Harvey is an adult and he will handle the criticism or comments from his teammates. It's also very important to note that Harvey's modeling hasn't affected his pitching as of yet ("OR HAS IT?" says Bob Klapisch) and plenty of other athletes have posed half-clothed including The Jeter.
Yet, Harvey was less than dominant in a 121-pitch performance against the Giants on Monday because, as it turns out, he has a blister on his right index finger. It’s more of a nuisance than a problem, but the Mets might skip Harvey’s start Saturday and keep him out of the All-Star Game.
It didn't happen. Harvey pitched in the All-Star Game and the blister caused by modeling didn't affect his pitching. Miraculously Harvey wasn't so distracted by his burgeoning modeling career that he completely forgot to show up for the All-Star Game. He showed up and started the game, all while managing to keep his massive ego and narcissism in check. It's almost like Bob Klapisch is creating stories where there isn't one (adds the tag to this post).
That’s smart thinking, but had it not been for the blister, the whispering campaign might’ve already begun. That’s the surcharge for Harvey’s desire for the spotlight –the second-guessers who’ll be asking hard questions about his priorities.
Bob Klapisch is writing a column asking hard questions about Matt Harvey's priorities. In this column Klapisch is writing he states that there will be second-guessers who'll be asking hard questions about Matt Harvey's priorities. See how this works? In the column on Harvey's priorities Klapisch is warning second-guessers will write exactly what he is writing in the column. It's all circular. It's like if I wrote an article on how Jake Locker might be a closeted homosexual because he drives a Dodge Neon and then in the article I state that some people are going to accuse Locker of being a homosexual for driving a Dodge Neon. I would be the person I am warning Locker about.
Remember how A-Rod allowed himself to be photographed shirtless by the New York Post in Central Park? Kissing himself in the mirror for Details magazine? Bad decisions, all.
It's all about A-Rod. It always is and it always will be. "Don't be A-Rod." That's the lesson. Remember that time Derek Jeter posed shirtless with other MLB shortstops? Whatever happened to that Jeter guy? It ruined his career didn't it?
(My favorite pose is that of Rey Ordonez. He's trying to give his best "sexy eyes" to the camera and it looks like he has to take a huge shit and would appreciate it if the cameraman would stop taking pictures so he can run to the bathroom)
There’s plenty of room for expressionism, but at age 24, Harvey probably could use some help picking his spots.
I'd love to know from Bob Klapisch which "spot" is best for Matt Harvey to do some modeling in. My guess would be "never and at no time."
“If I was playing today, I would be aware of Instagram and Twitter. I would make sure I had someone in charge of things that are in the public eye,” Darling said.
Oh sure, of course you would Ron. Darling was taken and "lusted" for fame and celebrity in 1986, but in an era where it is much easier to get your picture and thoughts out into the world Ron would have been MORE careful about what he put in the public. I completely don't believe this at all. Logic would indicate if Ron Darling wanted celebrity in 1986 at the age of 26 he would still want celebrity in 2013 if he was 26 years old. Let's not take part in some revisionist history here. Darling would most likely have acted the same way if he played baseball in 2013, except he would have had an Instagram and Twitter account and probably would not have minded appearing in the ESPN Body Issue.
Sure, knowing what he knows now Darling may have wanted to do things differently, but I'm betting if Darling were a 26 year old playing for the Mets he wouldn't have been as "in charge of things" as he wants us to believe he would be. It's nice to pretend otherwise though.
Drill down another level and the question becomes one of legacy. Who does Harvey want to be —a star pitcher or a celebrity?
He can actually be both. He can be a star pitcher who has appeared in the ESPN Body Issue and New York Post doing some modeling, and unlike Ron Darling, he managed not to criticize his manager.
Does he want the back page or Page Six? Is he a great guy or just a guy with a great body?
Does it really matter if it doesn't impact how he pitches? I'm not sure one appearance modeling in a sports magazine means Matt Harvey's priorities aren't where they should be.
My
copy of ESPN’s Body Issue arrived in the mail Tuesday and I admit I was
curious enough to flip through the pages. Specifically, I wanted to
know what attracted Matt Harvey to the idea of posing nude. - See more
at:
http://www.northjersey.com/sports/Klapisch_Posing_nude_wasnt_Matt_Harveys_best_decision.html?page=all#sthash.XzvxMOKZ.dpuf
My
copy of ESPN’s Body Issue arrived in the mail Tuesday and I admit I was
curious enough to flip through the pages. Specifically, I wanted to
know what attracted Matt Harvey to the idea of posing nude. - See more
at:
http://www.northjersey.com/sports/Klapisch_Posing_nude_wasnt_Matt_Harveys_best_decision.html?page=all#sthash.XzvxMOKZ.dpuf
My
copy of ESPN’s Body Issue arrived in the mail Tuesday and I admit I was
curious enough to flip through the pages. Specifically, I wanted to
know what attracted Matt Harvey to the idea of posing nude. - See more
at:
http://www.northjersey.com/sports/Klapisch_Posing_nude_wasnt_Matt_Harveys_best_decision.html?page=all#sthash.XzvxMOKZ.dpuf
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