I found it very enlightening a little over a year ago to find out that Mitch Williams has a blog. Last time we heard from him on this blog he was telling us that Jack Morris should be in the Hall of Fame and Curt Schilling should not. Not that Mitch would hold a grudge against Schilling from their time together with the Phillies of course. Not at all. Mitch also railed against these "smart guys" who think they are capable of running an MLB team. Guys like Jon Daniels of the Rangers and Andrew Friedman of the Rays who have clearly shown they can not run an MLB team effectively. I also find it enlightening that Mitch Williams has apparently earned his medical degree. I say he has earned his medical degree because he seems to know exactly why so many pitchers are having elbow injuries. See, pitchers aren't throwing enough these days and the fact more medical information is available to explain why a pitcher has "dead arm" or just doesn't feel right when he throws...well, those aren't the explanation for why so many pitchers are having elbow injuries.
At what point does baseball as a whole finally figure out that a pitch
count is not the way to stop arm injuries? By the way, who was the
pitching mastermind who decided 100 pitches was the magic number?
It certainly wasn't someone with a M.D. like Mitch Williams has, that's for sure.
It seems to me that it is happening way more today that it ever did back in the 80s and earlier.
It seems that way because wider knowledge of elbow injuries leads to better and quicker diagnosis of those injuries. It's like a home owner who asks the question, "Why does it seem like we have more cockroaches now that the pest guy has sprayed for them?" It's because more knowledge about a problem leads to a greater awareness of that problem, which leads to the perception the problem is a big problem. Back in the 1980's pitchers weren't having Tommy John surgery and bouncing back in 9-12 months like many modern pitchers are either. Mitch needs to keep that in mind as well.
When will organizations get back to what is really important? That being teaching proper mechanics
This coming from a guy who as a pitcher had the absolute opposite mechanics that a pitching coach would consider "proper" and admits he didn't always know where the ball was going to go.
and throwing a whole lot more than they do presently. They spend all
this money to get pitching, then treat it as though it is a fragile
piece of crystal. If I’m an owner and I am going to pay the kind of
money they are paying, I would make darn sure that the pitching coach
knows the proper way to throw a baseball to limit injury.
I didn't know there was a proper way to throw a baseball to limit injury. Please describe this proper way for us Mitch, because you know, there is one definite way to throw a baseball in order to avoid injury.
The only real way to strengthen all the throwing muscles is to throw every day and do it properly.
Again, what the fuck does "properly" mean? This seems like a vague use of a word in order for Mitch to make it seem like he knows exactly what he means when I don't really think he does.
I watch pitchers at the big league level that long toss and the
mechanics of their long toss is absolutely nothing like the mechanics
they use on the mound. They are trying to throw the ball 300 feet.
So Mitch is saying that he used the same pitching motion and mechanics to throw a baseball during a game that he used for long toss? I'm just wondering because I feel like he has to have adjusted his mechanics and throwing motion just a little bit or else the ball would have gone all over the baseball field.
It should be called long throwing.
You are the one who just called it "long toss" twice in that last paragraph.
That is getting a maximum of 120 feet and walking into it using the same
arm slot, the same step, and staying behind your head with your fingers
on top of the ball and throwing it as hard as you can high to low. That
is how you strengthen the throwing muscles.
And of course Mitch is working under the assumption that strengthening the throwing muscles is the key to avoiding major elbow injuries. I'm not a doctor and every pitcher's arm is different, so this is an assumption I'm not willing to make at this point.
The other thing: eliminate the slide step to hold baserunners...I don’t believe in sacrificing stuff and command to hold a baserunner.
This coming from a guy who spent most of his career sacrificing command in order to make sure he had good stuff. William has a career 1.21 strikeout to walk ratio. The only year in his career he threw over 100 innings he was 10th in the American League in walks. It's absolutely hilarious to me that Mitch Williams is talking about himself not wanting to sacrifice command to hold a baserunner. Mitch Williams' entire pitching style sacrificed command.
And yes, I also find it funny that a guy who pitched 691.1 innings in his career thinks he's an expert on how starting pitchers should stay healthy and try to avoid major elbow injuries. The most innings Williams pitched in one appearance during his career was 4.0 innings and the most pitches I could find he pitched in one start is 70 pitches. So, to hear Mitch Williams lecture about 100 pitches being an arbitrary number is interesting considering he never hit that number in the majors. But hey, I'm sure he knows 100 pitches is arbitrary because he knows a guy who could pitch over 100 pitches without any type of issues...perhaps a guy like Curt Schilling.
Mitch seems like an old school-type guy and many of those old-school guys will say those "who've never played the game" don't know what they are talking about when it comes to injuries to pitchers (or any other baseball-related knowledge...in fact, this was Mitch's criticism in his column last year about how Daniels/Friedman were running their respective teams). I can accept that, even though I think it's dumb, but what's the difference in a guy "who never played the game" running a MLB team and Mitch Williams, a guy who never had to make 100 pitches during an appearance in the majors lecturing his readers on what it takes the body to recover from throwing 100-120 pitches in a start?
Bottom line is: it ain’t the number of pitches thrown, it is the manner in which they are thrown.
Fine, I can accept this. Bottom line: This is still an opinion and not a statement of fact. Kris Medlen and Brandon Beachy both have pretty easy and normal throwing motions and mechanics and they are working on a combined four Tommy John surgeries right now. I'm sure Mitch Williams knows exactly what they did wrong in throwing the baseball of course. Because Mitch's mechanics and throwing motion were so stellar and all.
The only people in a baseball stadium who should have a clicker are the people counting how many hot dogs they have sold.
Yeah Mitch, it's 2014 and they don't need a clicker to count how many hot dogs are sold. Them computers can figure out how many hot dogs were sold.
If you need a clicker to tell you when a pitcher is tired, you shouldn’t be a pitching coach.
The "clicker" doesn't tell a manager or pitching coach when the pitcher is tired. It just states how many pitches the pitcher has thrown. From that number, the pitching coach or manager decides whether to pull the pitcher or not. A pitch count isn't used to determine exactly when a pitcher is tired, this seems to be what Mitch believes, but is used as a way of determining when the manager will pull the pitcher for having thrown too many pitches.
A pitcher’s body doesn’t feel the same every day!
OMG! You are probably so right!
Some days he may be tired after 80 pitches, some days he may not tire until 150 pitches.
Or some days he may throw 20 pitches and 20 years later lecture pitching coaches and managers on exactly how a pitcher's arm feels after throwing 150 pitches.
That is why there are pitching coaches.
At this point, it is probably best to point out that Mitch Williams was a pitching coach for two years in 2002 and 2003. He's no longer a pitching coach, but I'm sure his team had great mechanics and never got injured.
To sit and watch their pitcher and know when his legs are breaking down,
when his mechanics are changing to deliver the ball, or when the other
team is beating him all over the park. A clicker can’t tell you any of
those things.
No, but a person's eyes can tell you these things. I don't think any pitching coach or manager uses a clicker to determine if a pitcher is getting killed out there. Mitch is basically just speaking nonsense at this point. Pitching coaches and managers aren't a slave to a pitch count to the point they don't notice how the pitcher is throwing the ball or haven't noticed the other team just scored four runs in an inning.
I played professional baseball from the time I was 17 until I was 32. In
that time, there was never a day that went by that I didn’t throw if we
were at the ballpark. I never got stiff, sore or hurt.
Again, a key point that Mitch has left out is that he threw a total of 691.1 innings in the majors. In terms of workload, he wasn't exactly killing it one day and then going out to throw the next day. He was a relief pitcher whose job it was to be ready everyday. So when discussing how he never got stiff, sore or hurt then he needs to remember he wasn't pitching heavy workloads every fifth day.
My arm was trained to throw — and to throw a lot.
Except Mitch's arm didn't throw a lot without giving his arm a day of rest when he played in the majors. I'm sure he threw on the side and everyone knows a pitcher really throws more than X amount of innings per year when side work between starts, warming up prior to a start and long toss are included. It's just Mitch is using himself as an example of how a player can throw a lot of pitches and then bounce back, except Mitch was a reliever, so he didn't throw a lot of pitches in one appearance. This is like a sprinter telling a long distance runner how to conserve his energy and prevent injury. The experience of the sprinter on what he has to do in order to recover and prevent injury could be different from that experience of a long distance runner.
People laughed at my delivery, because I fell off the side of the mound after throwing.
Mitch's delivery and mechanics are not something a pitching coach would necessarily teach his pitchers to replicate.
Two things accounted for that: I threw across my body,
Some people try to account for injuries to certain pitchers by explaining the pitcher throws across his body and puts undue stress on his arm. I just hope Mitch understands that when he's talking about arm injuries and how he went about avoiding them.
and from 1990 until 1997 I had no PCL in my right knee.
That doesn't sound like a major injury potentially caused by Mitch's pitching motion at all.
So at a certain point, my landing leg would give out. I don’t care if a
pitcher bursts into flames after he lets go of the ball. As long as he
gets up and back with his lower half to allow his arm to catch up and be
in the correct spot at release, that is what matters.
And that is the way to avoid major arm injuries, right? I think I'd be much better persuaded if Mitch Williams, M.D. had some sort of other data to inform me his opinion is correct other than to say, "I threw a lot of pitches and didn't get hurt." Especially since Mitch didn't throw a lot of pitches in one appearance.
These pitchers are not china dolls.
No, but they are investments and can be rather expensive investments at that.
They simply need to throw more and throw correctly.
I can get behind throw correctly, but I'm a little shaky about saying a pitcher should throw more. Constant repetition can strengthen muscles, but it's also a good way to wear down a muscle or tendon if overused. There's really no perfect formula on how to prevent elbow injuries that I have heard. Of course maybe I should pay more attention to Mitch Williams, M.D. who knows through his vast experience of never throwing 100 pitches in a major league game what it takes to recover from throwing 100 pitches in a major league game.
Monday, May 26, 2014
Saturday, May 24, 2014
2 comments Skip Bayless Says He Hasn't Found His New Tim Tebow in Johnny Manziel By Writing a Column Where He Compares Tebow To Manziel
Look everyone, Skip Bayless has not found his new Tim Tebow. Johnny Manziel is not his new Tim Tebow, the guy that Skip will go on television everyday and talk about in his typical trolling manner. It's not happening. See, Manziel is so much better than Tebow. That's how they are different. To prove he hasn't found his new Tebow in Manziel, Skip Bayless writes an entire column comparing Tebow and Manziel. That'll show us that Skip hasn't moved on from Tebow to Manziel. In fact, Skip thinks it's an insult to Manziel to say he is the "new Tebow" and he will prove it by talking about Manziel in the exact same way he used to talk about Tebow. On a related note, Skip Bayless is the worst. Can't we deport him to another planet?
I was right about Tim Tebow and I will be right on a much higher level about Johnny Manziel.
As usual, this column isn't really about Johnny Manziel, the NFL, Tim Tebow or anything sports-related. It's about Skip Bayless. Naturally.
What Tebow kept pulling off late in games for the 2011 Denver Broncos, Manziel will make happen for all four quarters of NFL games.
But again, they are NOT comparable and Skip Bayless isn't saying Manziel is the "new Tebow." Not at all, but let's continue with the comparisons of the two players shall we?
Manziel has Tebow's miracle-making will, electrified by far more quickness, speed, accuracy, radar and football IQ.
But again, Manziel isn't Skip's "new Tebow," not at all. He's just going to compare the two quarterbacks continuously.
Manziel has Tebow's rare intangibles heightened by rarer tangibles.
Manziel isn't the "new Tebow," he is the "bigger and better" Tebow whose numerically intangible skill set has been heightened by his numerically tangible skill set. He isn't "the new Tebow," but is Tebow 2.0...which is totally different.
Tebow was a phenomenon. Manziel will be a perennial Pro Bowler, a Michael Vick fully capable of picking you to pieces from the pocket.
Great analysis since two of the weaknesses criticized in Manziel's game are his ability to see coverage and throw the ball from the pocket and that his preference is to escape from the pocket at the first sight of pressure. Clearly Skip has been watching zero tape of Manziel nor read a scouting report on Manziel's game.
So please do not say I now have my "new Tebow." That's an insult to Manziel.
"You know everything I said about Tebow? Just ignore that. It's not that I was wrong, but the hyperbole I constantly threw in the face of viewers when discussing Tebow isn't even being as close to true as the hyperbole I am going to throw in the face of viewers when discussing Manziel. Again, I wasn't wrong about Tebow, I just exaggerated for effect...which is completely different from being wrong."
I wrote a year ago that Manziel was already operating on a higher level than Tebow ever had --
"My obsession with talking about Johnny Manziel makes my obsession with Tim Tebow look like a little school boy crush."
Next season, Manziel will have the same national impact on some lucky city that Tebow did on Denver and its Broncos in 2011. And it will last.
"No, guys. It's for real this time. I'm really in love with Johnny Manziel and nothing is going to make it go away. We are going to live together and get married on a mountain, then our children are going to form a band and hold concerts that none of you will be invited to."
Before Tebow's draft, I said I would take him late in the first round. Josh McDaniels, then Denver's coach, took him 25th.
"Me, me, me...I was right. Look at me, guys! Look what I can do! Give me attention!"
I said Tebow would never make a Pro Bowl but he would win games as a starting quarterback if given a chance in his college spread-option offense.
Yes, if given the chance to run a college offense against college players Tim Tebow certainly would thrive. Unfortunately, he played in the NFL against professional football athletes.
Only one team did: a desperate 1-4 Denver, the year after McDaniels was fired.
See? Skip Bayless was right. All it took was a desperate team to put Tebow as their starting quarterback, the right schedule against teams with a losing record and Tebow showed that he indeed could lead his team to a .500 record in a weak division as long as circumstances occurred during these games that could probably never be replicated by Tebow again which would lead to the same result. So...Skip was right.
All Tebow did that season was have the NFL's best QBR in the final five minutes of games. Onward, Christian soldier.
Now remember, this column is about Johnny Manziel and how Skip Bayless DOES NOT think Manziel is the "new Tebow." So far, all Skip has talked about is Tim Tebow. There's a shock.
Yet, after the Broncos landed Peyton Manning and traded Tebow to the Jets, he never had a chance to play quarterback.
After the Broncos landed Peyton Manning the Broncos also went to the Super Bowl. So..............well, this is awkward.
He lost confidence, visited his third or fourth independent passing coach, began to think too much about what had come so instinctively and regressed as a passer in his one preseason with New England.
Or NFL teams figured out how to defend Tebow and understood he can't throw the football well and even a quarterback-hungry team like the Jets couldn't find a way to get Tebow on the field. But however you want to shade it, Skip. It sounds like you are in denial about Tebow's ability, much like you are in denial this column isn't about the "new Tebow."
This is how much better Manziel is: The Houston Texans, with this year's No. 1 overall pick, will forever regret it if they don't take the Texas kid with the movie-title nickname, Johnny Football.
Here's the cliffsnotes version of Skip Bayless and his terribleness. He writes, "This is how much better Manziel is:" followed by Bayless giving his opinion on how much better Manziel is. When a normal, non-troll writer would state a fact, Skip Bayless smacks facts in face, kicks them out of the house and then backs up his opinion that Manziel is better than Tebow with an opinion that Manziel is better than Tebow. Skip's opinion that Manziel is better than Tebow is proof that his opinion Manziel is better than Tebow is correct. ARGUE AGAINST THAT LOGIC! YOU CAN'T!
Manziel built his legend at Texas A&M, just an hour-and-a-half drive from Reliant Stadium.
Thanks, Skip. I no longer have a need for Mapquest or a GPS now that you have provided me with this information.
Manziel, with his infectious It Factor, would immediately turn the Texans into the It Team. They've been just a quarterback away for three seasons; Matt Schaub completed lots of passes, but never THE pass.
I feel like Skip Bayless paused while writing that last sentence and smiled to himself, marveling at his own creativity.
If I ran the Texans, and Bill O'Brien, who has never been head coach for a down of NFL football, dug in and concluded Manziel was too short and too Hollywood and too headstrong for him, I'd thank my new coach and fire him.
If Skip ran the Texans then Bill O'Brien would not be the head coach. Skip Bayless would be the head coach and the Texans would have the #1 pick every single season.
While ESPN's Todd McShay calls freakishly gifted pass-rusher Jadeveon Clowney a "once in 20 years player," Manziel is once in a lifetime.
Now see, this is the type of comment that isn't serious and is simply being written to troll all of ESPN's readers. I won't overreact to it. Manziel is not a once in a lifetime player. That would mean he's better than any other quarterback in our lifetime, which he is not now nor will he ever be the best quarterback of our lifetime. Skip trolls as hard as possible though.
Kiper won't even rank Manziel on his QB list because he's not sure what to make of him.
Well, that and Kiper is terrified of being wrong so he refuses to take a stand one way or another. It's the same reason he gives most teams a draft grade between a "B" and a "C."
Jon Gruden is all-in. Gruden, ESPN's "Monday Night Football" analyst, has the advantage of studying all the top draftees for his Quarterback Camp. Gruden breaks down their college tape, grills them face-to-face on camera, tests them at the chalkboard, gets to know them during off-camera lunches, then puts them through the equivalent of a pro day on the field. He had Manziel for two days.
Jon Gruden loves everybody and everything. If Saddam Hussein could have thrown a forward pass and sat down with Gruden for two days then Gruden would be marveling at Hussein's "pure dedication to his job" and say, "This guy really gets people behind him and isn't afraid to do some dirty work to win games."
On "First Take" the other day, Gruden told me: "I think he can create offense unlike most guys I've ever seen. And he has guts, quickness, vision, and he loves the big arena, the big stage. Guys like him don't come across the map very often.
Gruden says positive things about every quarterback. Here's what he said about Blaine Gabbert:
"I do think Blaine Gabbert is a Top 10 pick. All you have to do is see the ball come out of his hand. He's got a very quick, strong arm, prototype size. He's over 6'4", 235 pounds, a finance major, so you know he has intelligence. He has speed. I mean, Gabbert ran very well at the combine. He's elusive back there. His scrambling and play making ability I think will be very enticing. Once again, here's a junior quarterback that comes from a very unique, different style of spread offense at Missouri where he's been in the no‑back set, and the shotgun predominantly. But I think his physical talents are very noticeable to everybody."
Jon Gruden on Jake Locker:
"This is one tough guy. I mean, Jake Locker has played for two head coaches. He had to endure an 0‑12 season. This guy took a lot of punishment. The whole offense was built around No. 10. From a running standpoint, from a passing standpoint, this guy was involved significantly on every snap for the Huskies. He does have to improve his accuracy. But I think when you're hit a lot and asked to do as much as Locker's been asked to do, sometimes your fundamentals wane a little bit. They disappear in key situations. He does have a good, strong arm. He's an outstanding athlete. He's got very good elusiveness and straight line speed with some power, and I think he loves football. I think there is a real passionate fire inside this guy that somebody's going to capture. He would be a fun guy to coach. I know that."
I think that is a big concern with Jake Locker, because he does miss some throws. But if you pick up the Southern Cal film from this year, if you pick up the Oregon State film from this year, you can see what this guy's capable of doing. He can be a one‑man wrecking machine.
Jon Gruden on Ryan Mallett:
The thing I really liked about Ryan Mallett was his background playing under Bobby Petrino at Arkansas. And I know Coach Petrino well enough to know that he coaches quarterbacks hard, very demanding. If you watch Mallett play, he's in a lot of pro style situations, underneath the center, in the shotgun, audibling, check‑with‑me's. They do a lot of good things on offense at Arkansas. Ryan Mallett can draw protections, blocking schemes, and he does have a beautiful throwing motion that I know a lot of guys in the league are excited about. He can really hum it.
So yes, Jon Gruden likes every quarterback and rarely has an actual negative evaluation of a quarterback. The fact he likes Manziel means very little.
Saban had an entire offseason to find the Johnny Football antidote, ahead of a Sept. 14 game in College Station, Texas. Manziel went for 562 total yards and 42 points. Yet an A&M defense that wound up allowing the 109th-most yards among 123 Division I teams allowed Alabama 49 points.
Saban called Manziel as tough a competitor as he has faced in 40 years of coaching. Saban also faced Tebow twice (and also lost, then won).
But again, despite the constant comparisons to Tim Tebow, Skip Bayless does not think Johnny Manziel is the "new Tebow."
You sniff he's too short? At 5-11¾, he's a little more than an inch taller than Seattle's Russell Wilson, now a Super Bowl winner. And Manziel's hands and feet are freakishly big -- Gruden marveled at how Manziel could catch and quick-throw a special ball without laces.
Jon Gruden marvels at how the sun moves across the sky, how stoplights work, and the rate at which butter melts on bread. It's just his personality.
You roll your eyes that scrambling, gambling Johnny Football won't be able to dodge injury in the NFL? His shoulder was hurt against Auburn (which nearly won the national championship) only because Manziel knew (1) he had a chance to put his Aggies up 14 early in the fourth quarter and (2) his defense couldn't stop Auburn. So Manziel bolted hell-bent up the middle and took on two Tigers at the 2-yard line. A third fell on his shoulder.
Not that I'm arguing Manziel will be injured alot in the NFL, but the difference is that Johnny Football (please, let's drop that nickname ASAP) will be playing against NFL players and not college football players. There is a huge difference in the hitting power on the two levels of football.
Manziel convinced Gruden he will not take that kind of a risk in pro football. I've heard the same thing from him, that he will happily slide if cornered in the NFL. But he will torment defenses by occasionally running -- his plant-and-cut quickness in the open field will break some ankles and bruise some pro egos.
For someone who isn't the "new Tebow," Skip Bayless sure talks about Johnny Manziel much in the same way he once referred to Tim Tebow.
So how did a white kid from Tyler, Texas, manage to become such good buddies with LeBron James and Drake? Because they know unique talent. Cool attracts cool.
Which perfectly explains why pro athletes like Kevin Durant, Terrell Suggs and Richard Sherman don't like Skip Bayless and Bayless hangs out mostly with Stephen A. Smith and a cardboard cut-out of himself he calls "Steve Bayless."
That contagious star power will come with the Johnny Franchise package. Chip Kelly gets it. Kelly says it "broke my heart" when Manziel broke a verbal commitment to play for Kelly at Oregon.
Somehow Kelly managed to get his heart back together and recruit Marcus Mariota to be his quarterback during his last season at Oregon. His broken heart healed quickly.
Rumors have flown that Eagles coach Kelly has been trying to figure out a way to trade up for Manziel. Kelly would be the best coaching/scheme fit for him. Imagine the rabbits Kelly could pull out of his hat with Johnny Football running his show.
There would be so many rabbits that Philly fans would attend games and think, "What? What are these rabbits doing on the field when there is only one hat they could have come out of? Johnny Manziel must be a wizard!"
So how, I asked Gruden, can the Texans afford not to take Johnny Manziel?
"Well, this guy...this guy...well, they just can't Skip."
"I don't know," Gruden said. "Unless they want to play Case Keenum or Ryan Fitzpatrick."
Jon Gruden on Case Keenum prior to the draft:
Guys that are interesting to me, I think Case Keenum’s name needs to come out somewhere. He’s the all‑time leading passer in NCAA history, reminds me of a young Jeff Garcia, finds a way to get it done. He’s a lot more athletic than people think. No‑huddle, throw it every snap, makes a lot of game‑day decisions, has helped put the Houston Cougars at the forefront of college football. They beat Penn State in the Bowl game. Who would have thought that? The stadium is packed. He’s done a lot of great things. I think he’s going to be an interesting guy.
So in a couple of seasons it seems Case Keenum has gone from "a young Jeff Garcia" to not worthy of being a starter in the NFL. Funny how that works with Jon Gruden isn't it? He's loves these quarterbacks coming out of college, because he's afraid to say anything negative, but he'll be a little critical once they reach the pros. You would think a real QB guru could be critical of the QB coming out of college after seeing film of that quarterback and evaluating that film, but I guess not.
Anyway, so this article is about how Johnny Manziel is not the "new Tebow," where Skip Bayless compared Manziel to Tebow. Well, actually this article was written by Skip Bayless and it's mostly about Skip Bayless and his hot sports takes designed to attract attention.
I was right about Tim Tebow and I will be right on a much higher level about Johnny Manziel.
As usual, this column isn't really about Johnny Manziel, the NFL, Tim Tebow or anything sports-related. It's about Skip Bayless. Naturally.
What Tebow kept pulling off late in games for the 2011 Denver Broncos, Manziel will make happen for all four quarters of NFL games.
But again, they are NOT comparable and Skip Bayless isn't saying Manziel is the "new Tebow." Not at all, but let's continue with the comparisons of the two players shall we?
Manziel has Tebow's miracle-making will, electrified by far more quickness, speed, accuracy, radar and football IQ.
But again, Manziel isn't Skip's "new Tebow," not at all. He's just going to compare the two quarterbacks continuously.
Manziel has Tebow's rare intangibles heightened by rarer tangibles.
Manziel isn't the "new Tebow," he is the "bigger and better" Tebow whose numerically intangible skill set has been heightened by his numerically tangible skill set. He isn't "the new Tebow," but is Tebow 2.0...which is totally different.
Tebow was a phenomenon. Manziel will be a perennial Pro Bowler, a Michael Vick fully capable of picking you to pieces from the pocket.
Great analysis since two of the weaknesses criticized in Manziel's game are his ability to see coverage and throw the ball from the pocket and that his preference is to escape from the pocket at the first sight of pressure. Clearly Skip has been watching zero tape of Manziel nor read a scouting report on Manziel's game.
So please do not say I now have my "new Tebow." That's an insult to Manziel.
"You know everything I said about Tebow? Just ignore that. It's not that I was wrong, but the hyperbole I constantly threw in the face of viewers when discussing Tebow isn't even being as close to true as the hyperbole I am going to throw in the face of viewers when discussing Manziel. Again, I wasn't wrong about Tebow, I just exaggerated for effect...which is completely different from being wrong."
I wrote a year ago that Manziel was already operating on a higher level than Tebow ever had --
"My obsession with talking about Johnny Manziel makes my obsession with Tim Tebow look like a little school boy crush."
Next season, Manziel will have the same national impact on some lucky city that Tebow did on Denver and its Broncos in 2011. And it will last.
"No, guys. It's for real this time. I'm really in love with Johnny Manziel and nothing is going to make it go away. We are going to live together and get married on a mountain, then our children are going to form a band and hold concerts that none of you will be invited to."
Before Tebow's draft, I said I would take him late in the first round. Josh McDaniels, then Denver's coach, took him 25th.
"Me, me, me...I was right. Look at me, guys! Look what I can do! Give me attention!"
I said Tebow would never make a Pro Bowl but he would win games as a starting quarterback if given a chance in his college spread-option offense.
Yes, if given the chance to run a college offense against college players Tim Tebow certainly would thrive. Unfortunately, he played in the NFL against professional football athletes.
Only one team did: a desperate 1-4 Denver, the year after McDaniels was fired.
See? Skip Bayless was right. All it took was a desperate team to put Tebow as their starting quarterback, the right schedule against teams with a losing record and Tebow showed that he indeed could lead his team to a .500 record in a weak division as long as circumstances occurred during these games that could probably never be replicated by Tebow again which would lead to the same result. So...Skip was right.
All Tebow did that season was have the NFL's best QBR in the final five minutes of games. Onward, Christian soldier.
Now remember, this column is about Johnny Manziel and how Skip Bayless DOES NOT think Manziel is the "new Tebow." So far, all Skip has talked about is Tim Tebow. There's a shock.
Yet, after the Broncos landed Peyton Manning and traded Tebow to the Jets, he never had a chance to play quarterback.
After the Broncos landed Peyton Manning the Broncos also went to the Super Bowl. So..............well, this is awkward.
He lost confidence, visited his third or fourth independent passing coach, began to think too much about what had come so instinctively and regressed as a passer in his one preseason with New England.
Or NFL teams figured out how to defend Tebow and understood he can't throw the football well and even a quarterback-hungry team like the Jets couldn't find a way to get Tebow on the field. But however you want to shade it, Skip. It sounds like you are in denial about Tebow's ability, much like you are in denial this column isn't about the "new Tebow."
This is how much better Manziel is: The Houston Texans, with this year's No. 1 overall pick, will forever regret it if they don't take the Texas kid with the movie-title nickname, Johnny Football.
Here's the cliffsnotes version of Skip Bayless and his terribleness. He writes, "This is how much better Manziel is:" followed by Bayless giving his opinion on how much better Manziel is. When a normal, non-troll writer would state a fact, Skip Bayless smacks facts in face, kicks them out of the house and then backs up his opinion that Manziel is better than Tebow with an opinion that Manziel is better than Tebow. Skip's opinion that Manziel is better than Tebow is proof that his opinion Manziel is better than Tebow is correct. ARGUE AGAINST THAT LOGIC! YOU CAN'T!
Manziel built his legend at Texas A&M, just an hour-and-a-half drive from Reliant Stadium.
Thanks, Skip. I no longer have a need for Mapquest or a GPS now that you have provided me with this information.
Manziel, with his infectious It Factor, would immediately turn the Texans into the It Team. They've been just a quarterback away for three seasons; Matt Schaub completed lots of passes, but never THE pass.
I feel like Skip Bayless paused while writing that last sentence and smiled to himself, marveling at his own creativity.
If I ran the Texans, and Bill O'Brien, who has never been head coach for a down of NFL football, dug in and concluded Manziel was too short and too Hollywood and too headstrong for him, I'd thank my new coach and fire him.
If Skip ran the Texans then Bill O'Brien would not be the head coach. Skip Bayless would be the head coach and the Texans would have the #1 pick every single season.
While ESPN's Todd McShay calls freakishly gifted pass-rusher Jadeveon Clowney a "once in 20 years player," Manziel is once in a lifetime.
Now see, this is the type of comment that isn't serious and is simply being written to troll all of ESPN's readers. I won't overreact to it. Manziel is not a once in a lifetime player. That would mean he's better than any other quarterback in our lifetime, which he is not now nor will he ever be the best quarterback of our lifetime. Skip trolls as hard as possible though.
Kiper won't even rank Manziel on his QB list because he's not sure what to make of him.
Well, that and Kiper is terrified of being wrong so he refuses to take a stand one way or another. It's the same reason he gives most teams a draft grade between a "B" and a "C."
Jon Gruden is all-in. Gruden, ESPN's "Monday Night Football" analyst, has the advantage of studying all the top draftees for his Quarterback Camp. Gruden breaks down their college tape, grills them face-to-face on camera, tests them at the chalkboard, gets to know them during off-camera lunches, then puts them through the equivalent of a pro day on the field. He had Manziel for two days.
Jon Gruden loves everybody and everything. If Saddam Hussein could have thrown a forward pass and sat down with Gruden for two days then Gruden would be marveling at Hussein's "pure dedication to his job" and say, "This guy really gets people behind him and isn't afraid to do some dirty work to win games."
On "First Take" the other day, Gruden told me: "I think he can create offense unlike most guys I've ever seen. And he has guts, quickness, vision, and he loves the big arena, the big stage. Guys like him don't come across the map very often.
Gruden says positive things about every quarterback. Here's what he said about Blaine Gabbert:
"I do think Blaine Gabbert is a Top 10 pick. All you have to do is see the ball come out of his hand. He's got a very quick, strong arm, prototype size. He's over 6'4", 235 pounds, a finance major, so you know he has intelligence. He has speed. I mean, Gabbert ran very well at the combine. He's elusive back there. His scrambling and play making ability I think will be very enticing. Once again, here's a junior quarterback that comes from a very unique, different style of spread offense at Missouri where he's been in the no‑back set, and the shotgun predominantly. But I think his physical talents are very noticeable to everybody."
Jon Gruden on Jake Locker:
"This is one tough guy. I mean, Jake Locker has played for two head coaches. He had to endure an 0‑12 season. This guy took a lot of punishment. The whole offense was built around No. 10. From a running standpoint, from a passing standpoint, this guy was involved significantly on every snap for the Huskies. He does have to improve his accuracy. But I think when you're hit a lot and asked to do as much as Locker's been asked to do, sometimes your fundamentals wane a little bit. They disappear in key situations. He does have a good, strong arm. He's an outstanding athlete. He's got very good elusiveness and straight line speed with some power, and I think he loves football. I think there is a real passionate fire inside this guy that somebody's going to capture. He would be a fun guy to coach. I know that."
I think that is a big concern with Jake Locker, because he does miss some throws. But if you pick up the Southern Cal film from this year, if you pick up the Oregon State film from this year, you can see what this guy's capable of doing. He can be a one‑man wrecking machine.
Jon Gruden on Ryan Mallett:
The thing I really liked about Ryan Mallett was his background playing under Bobby Petrino at Arkansas. And I know Coach Petrino well enough to know that he coaches quarterbacks hard, very demanding. If you watch Mallett play, he's in a lot of pro style situations, underneath the center, in the shotgun, audibling, check‑with‑me's. They do a lot of good things on offense at Arkansas. Ryan Mallett can draw protections, blocking schemes, and he does have a beautiful throwing motion that I know a lot of guys in the league are excited about. He can really hum it.
So yes, Jon Gruden likes every quarterback and rarely has an actual negative evaluation of a quarterback. The fact he likes Manziel means very little.
Saban had an entire offseason to find the Johnny Football antidote, ahead of a Sept. 14 game in College Station, Texas. Manziel went for 562 total yards and 42 points. Yet an A&M defense that wound up allowing the 109th-most yards among 123 Division I teams allowed Alabama 49 points.
Saban called Manziel as tough a competitor as he has faced in 40 years of coaching. Saban also faced Tebow twice (and also lost, then won).
But again, despite the constant comparisons to Tim Tebow, Skip Bayless does not think Johnny Manziel is the "new Tebow."
You sniff he's too short? At 5-11¾, he's a little more than an inch taller than Seattle's Russell Wilson, now a Super Bowl winner. And Manziel's hands and feet are freakishly big -- Gruden marveled at how Manziel could catch and quick-throw a special ball without laces.
Jon Gruden marvels at how the sun moves across the sky, how stoplights work, and the rate at which butter melts on bread. It's just his personality.
You roll your eyes that scrambling, gambling Johnny Football won't be able to dodge injury in the NFL? His shoulder was hurt against Auburn (which nearly won the national championship) only because Manziel knew (1) he had a chance to put his Aggies up 14 early in the fourth quarter and (2) his defense couldn't stop Auburn. So Manziel bolted hell-bent up the middle and took on two Tigers at the 2-yard line. A third fell on his shoulder.
Not that I'm arguing Manziel will be injured alot in the NFL, but the difference is that Johnny Football (please, let's drop that nickname ASAP) will be playing against NFL players and not college football players. There is a huge difference in the hitting power on the two levels of football.
Manziel convinced Gruden he will not take that kind of a risk in pro football. I've heard the same thing from him, that he will happily slide if cornered in the NFL. But he will torment defenses by occasionally running -- his plant-and-cut quickness in the open field will break some ankles and bruise some pro egos.
For someone who isn't the "new Tebow," Skip Bayless sure talks about Johnny Manziel much in the same way he once referred to Tim Tebow.
So how did a white kid from Tyler, Texas, manage to become such good buddies with LeBron James and Drake? Because they know unique talent. Cool attracts cool.
Which perfectly explains why pro athletes like Kevin Durant, Terrell Suggs and Richard Sherman don't like Skip Bayless and Bayless hangs out mostly with Stephen A. Smith and a cardboard cut-out of himself he calls "Steve Bayless."
That contagious star power will come with the Johnny Franchise package. Chip Kelly gets it. Kelly says it "broke my heart" when Manziel broke a verbal commitment to play for Kelly at Oregon.
Somehow Kelly managed to get his heart back together and recruit Marcus Mariota to be his quarterback during his last season at Oregon. His broken heart healed quickly.
Rumors have flown that Eagles coach Kelly has been trying to figure out a way to trade up for Manziel. Kelly would be the best coaching/scheme fit for him. Imagine the rabbits Kelly could pull out of his hat with Johnny Football running his show.
There would be so many rabbits that Philly fans would attend games and think, "What? What are these rabbits doing on the field when there is only one hat they could have come out of? Johnny Manziel must be a wizard!"
So how, I asked Gruden, can the Texans afford not to take Johnny Manziel?
"Well, this guy...this guy...well, they just can't Skip."
"I don't know," Gruden said. "Unless they want to play Case Keenum or Ryan Fitzpatrick."
Jon Gruden on Case Keenum prior to the draft:
Guys that are interesting to me, I think Case Keenum’s name needs to come out somewhere. He’s the all‑time leading passer in NCAA history, reminds me of a young Jeff Garcia, finds a way to get it done. He’s a lot more athletic than people think. No‑huddle, throw it every snap, makes a lot of game‑day decisions, has helped put the Houston Cougars at the forefront of college football. They beat Penn State in the Bowl game. Who would have thought that? The stadium is packed. He’s done a lot of great things. I think he’s going to be an interesting guy.
So in a couple of seasons it seems Case Keenum has gone from "a young Jeff Garcia" to not worthy of being a starter in the NFL. Funny how that works with Jon Gruden isn't it? He's loves these quarterbacks coming out of college, because he's afraid to say anything negative, but he'll be a little critical once they reach the pros. You would think a real QB guru could be critical of the QB coming out of college after seeing film of that quarterback and evaluating that film, but I guess not.
Anyway, so this article is about how Johnny Manziel is not the "new Tebow," where Skip Bayless compared Manziel to Tebow. Well, actually this article was written by Skip Bayless and it's mostly about Skip Bayless and his hot sports takes designed to attract attention.
Thursday, May 22, 2014
4 comments Bill Simmons Attempts to Get All Sentimental about the Oklahoma City Thunder
Bill Simmons thinks, maybe/perhaps/possibly, Oklahoma City Thunder's championship window is closing. He writes a column about this belief where he uses the word "we" 29 times. Yes, he has written a column about how HE thinks the Thunder's championship window is closing and uses "we" that often. So basically Bill believes that he speaks for everyone and his opinion is our opinion. If the Thunder's championship window does close, Bill will link this column for us, but if the Thunder's championship window doesn't close then "we" were so wrong! That's how it works for Bill. He's right, "we" are wrong. Anyway, here is a shot at analysis (not really) and sentiment in one column. It's not even really about the Thunder's championship window, but is a thinly veiled excuse to talk about the Westbrook/Durant dynamic.
There’s a poignant moment in Jonathan Abrams’s oral history about the 2002 Kings,
It's the first sentence of the column and Bill is already pimping out a Grantland feature. Granted, a good Grantland feature, but it's the first sentence and he's already using his supposedly-weekly column to push other Grantland features. Bill is quickly becoming the NASCAR driver of writing. His columns feature links to other columns (hence the sponsors in NASCAR) on ESPN or Grantland.
That moment resonated for a simple reason: That WAS their shot. And that WAS it.
The boss wasn’t describing a “shot” as much as a window. If you’re blessed with Michael and Scottie in their mid-twenties, that window should last for a decade, as long as nothing funky happens.
You mean like Michael Jordan retiring for two seasons because his father was killed over his gambling debts or does Bill mean like how the Kings would have made the NBA Finals if it weren't for the lone wolf official (and there were no more, not at all...and I don't believe that at all) who was gambling on NBA games who screwed the Kings over in Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals? Funny how both the Kings and Bulls windows closed during a period where there were rumors of a conspiracy involving David Stern and his attempts to keep the integrity of the NBA together. I don't miss David Stern.
If you’re teaming up Pierce and Garnett and Allen at the tail end of their primes, you’re publicly hoping for five healthy years and secretly praying for three.
Come on, it's the Boston Sports Guy. Like he wasn't going to mention the Celtics as early as possible in this column. Bill only mentions the Celtics two more times in this column, which is quite the achievement for him. The article is about the Thunder, but it's no secret Bill shoves some Celtics talk down the throats of his readers whenever possible.
Every A-list contender has a built-in window, and almost always, you know what it is. When that window slams shut well before you’re ready, you never really get over it.
Fine, but how do we know a team is an A-list contender? The Bulls were second-fiddle to the Pistons until 1991. The Kings never really were an A-list contender because the Lakers were in their way, right? They never made an NBA Finals and even the Lakers had to share a few titles with the Spurs during Kobe and Shaq's prime.
Will we remember Oklahoma City that way someday? We know that it’s Kevin Durant’s seventh season and his sixth with Russell Westbrook. We know they’re playing for a small-market franchise that actively avoids the luxury tax. We know Durant’s contract expires in 2016, and Westbrook’s deal expires one year later.
We, we, we, we. I don't give care if Bill is reciting facts here, the repeated use of "we" in four sentences would make an English teacher cry or give up out of frustration.
We know Westbrook endured three knee surgeries in the past 12 months. We know that bad luck comes in all shapes and sizes. We know the West is loaded, and we know LeBron is never going away. We know they easily could have blown the Memphis series, and we know the bumbling officials saved their season Tuesday night.
We overrate youth and potential with sports, movies, TV, music, art and even politics — it’s more enjoyable to imagine what something might become. We envision the Thunder overpowering LeBron’s Heat in Durant’s MVP season because that’s the age-old NBA formula, right?
Bill begins 10 straight sentences with the word "we." 10 straight sentences. I'm not the best writer in the world at all and my sentence structure isn't very good, but Bill has to do better than this. The use of "we" in 10 straight sentences is ridiculously bad writing.
A few thoughts about these "we" sentences:
1. LeBron is going away. Not anytime soon, but he will go away at some point. His window does coincide with the Thunder's window, though I feel like it will be running out in a season or two with Wade getting older.
2. The Lakers had their 2001-2002 season saved by the officials too. This wasn't a sign their dynasty was done, it was just a sign the officials wanted them to win Game 6 to force a Game 7.
3. "We" don't overrate sports, movies, TV, music, art and politics. Bill Simmons overrates sports, movies, TV and music. He has built an entire career on overrating these subjects and tying them into his sports columns. I don't want to hear about how "we" overrate these things. Bill has used them as a writing crutch for 15 years and tied together any sports event with movies, TV or music. Bill needs to find a mirror so he can see who is the one that really overrates these things. As usual, he's happy to take the success caused by tying these subjects to sports, but when it's a bad thing "we" are the ones who overrated these subjects.
Just like we overrate youth and potential, we underrate injury luck, unfortunate breaks, untimely trades, the Disease of More, greed and egos, poor coaching and plain old bad luck.
Stop saying "we"! YOU write these columns. "We" don't write weekly columns for ESPN/Grantland or any other national sports publication/site. Simply because you overrate youth and potential doesn't mean everyone else does also.
The Thunder could definitely topple San Antonio and Miami next month, but they’re just as likely to not win a single title with Durant and Westbrook.
The Thunder may or may not win the NBA Title this year. Step back people, this is expert analysis occurring. This is how Bill got a prime job on "NBA Countdown," by making bold statements like this.
On paper, OKC should evolve into this generation’s version of the 1990s Bulls: Durant as Jordan, Westbrook as Pippen, and Ibaka as Grant/Rodman. It’s a star-driven league with the least amount of playoff variance in any professional sport. When you have a top-two player, a top-eight player and a top-25 player on one team, you should definitely win a ring.
I really feel like arguing Ibaka as a top-25 player but I have bigger fish to fry right now. Or as Bill would say, "We thought Ibaka was a top-25 player but it turns out we were wrong."
Unfortunately, you never know when “The Rains of Castamere” will start playing.
Hey everyone, it's a relevant pop culture reference squeezed awkwardly into the column!
A similar window opened after Game 7 of the 1962 Finals, when the Lakers came within Frank Selvy’s errant 15-footer of upending Bill Russell’s budding dynasty. That Lakers team employed 27-year-old Elgin Baylor and 23-year-old Jerry West, two of the league’s best five players. (Sound familiar?)
No, it doesn't because Westbrook is not one of the NBA's five best players.
Fifteen years later, Bill Walton’s precocious Blazers
These professional athletes displayed traits that belied their years. Sure, they were grown-up adults but trying to win an NBA title is just so child-like. Thanks Peter King.
toppled Philly for the 1977 title, then took a 40-8 record into the ensuing All-Star break looking like Russell’s Celtics reincarnated.
Bill isn't really even comparing apples-to-apples here. Jerry West did win an NBA Title with the Lakers and the Trail Blazers won an NBA Title with the team Bill is referencing here. The idea of this column is the Thunder's championship window may be closed without them winning a title and Bill is giving examples, but so far he's given examples of players/teams who did win a title with the team whose championship window supposedly closed. Now if Bill's contention is the Thunder may not be a dynasty, that's entirely possible, but considering the discussion is about championship windows then any team/player who has won an NBA Title with the team Bill is referencing would not be a good example.
Every generation has its version of the ’62 Lakers and ’77 Blazers, contenders that fooled us into thinking their window would last longer than it did.
I can buy this but the Thunder may not even win one NBA Title according to Bill Simmons. Their window is being eaten up by the existence of the Miami Heat. The 1977 Blazers had won one NBA Title, so there is a difference when using them as an example. Also, I wasn't fooled into thinking these team's window would last longer than it did because I wasn't alive when these teams were alive. When I don't exist as a human in the world, I can't have an opinion on a team's championship window. Don't "us" me.
An alpha-dog battle submarined the Shaq-Penny dynasty in Orlando and, later, a possible seven-title run for Shaq and Kobe in Los Angeles. Derrick Rose, C-Webb and James Silas suffered untimely knee injuries that ruined legitimate title windows for the Bulls, Kings and Spurs. Steve Nash’s critically acclaimed Suns teams kept falling short in increasingly unfair ways.
Basically what Bill is getting at is that luck plays a part in whether a team wins multiple championships. He can dress it up all he wants to over-complicate the situation, but this obvious-type statement is what he's getting at. This isn't a new perspective Bill is offering, even though he's trying to make it new by looking at it from the perspective of the Thunder, which is weird since this column is 20% complete already and he hasn't really discussed them much.
Four unstoppable-at-the-time duos — Hakeem and Ralph, Penny and Shaq, GP and Kemp, and Malone and Stockton — somehow finished with a combined 8-20 Finals record. Can we really say, with any certainty whatsoever, that “Those guys are gonna be chasing championships and competing for years to come”?
I would argue that Payton and Kemp, as well as Malone and Stockton were not considered an unstoppable-at-the-time duo due to the existence of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. They were the unstoppable team. But Bill is going to twist facts/opinions the way he wants them to go to fit his needs.
And "we" aren't saying the Thunder will chase championships for years to come.
You’re more likely to bemoan the opportunities that slipped away.
Oh I am more likely to bemoan the opportunities that slipped away? I didn't know that about myself. Thanks for telling me about myself because you don't know me and all.
My father and I talk about the Celtics blowing the 2010 title waaaaaaaay more than we talk about the Celtics winning in 2008.
That's probably because you both traffic in misery rather than celebrate the successes of your teams. Bill really, really, really wants to be a tortured fan. It's pretty much his dream to be tortured by his favorite teams.
How does that make sense?
It makes perfect sense based on who Bill is and how he made his living as a writer. Bill made his living whining about how tortured and cursed his favorite teams are. In fact, he still does this, except he has expanded it to include fans of other professional sports teams emailing him to whine about how tortured their favorite team is. I would say Bill has expanded his horizons, but he really just found a new group to share his misery with.
Then Bill whines about Game 7 of the NBA Finals because life is unfair and he prefers to act like a child and stomp his feet when his teams don't succeed. Not that Bill acts like a child when he doesn't get what he wants. Not that there is a "Rolling Stone" feature on Bill that somewhat proves this to be true.
We thought we were in the minority … until Doc Rivers told me about eating dinner with former assistant Tom Thibodeau last summer. For whatever reason, they spent an hour talking about Game 7...They just sat there eating and drinking and making each other miserable. Only later did Doc realize that the 2008 Finals never came up.
And because Doc Rivers (who was the coach of the Celtics, so it makes sense why he would rehash everything) and Bill Simmons talk more about failures rather than the successes this means "we" must do it also. Obviously.
By the way, remember this column is about the Oklahoma City Thunder? It's easy to forget with Bill's rambling form of writing.
When should you start feeling real anxiety over something as simple as “We might have Durant and Westbrook for their entire careers … how could we NOT win a couple of titles?”
LeBron didn't win a title until he was 27 years old. Durant and Westbrook are both 25 years old. Let's take it easy about them not winning a title during their careers.
When Durant’s beautiful MVP speech seemingly inspired their best basketball in Game 2 and Game 3, as well as the first three quarters of Game 4, that seemed like something of a “Voilà !” moment...And then the last quarter happened. If you want to watch OKC at its worst, just watch the last nine minutes of Game 4: one-on-one offense, overdribbling, wrong lineups, bad strategy, no composure, no crunch-time savviness and 27-foot heaves.
You know Bill was sitting at this game (because it was against the Clippers and Bill has season tickets to Clippers games and knows Jimmy Kimmel...you need Kimmel's phone number, because Bill has it right here) thinking, "I have to write a column about this."
That unsettled malaise carried over to the first 47 minutes of Game 5, with their defense floundering and Durant inexplicably turning into a right-handed Josh Smith. Everything flipped again in the last 50 seconds, thanks to Durant’s monster 3, two utterly ridiculous calls, three egregious Chris Paul mistakes, and Westbrook draining three of the ballsiest free throws I can remember.
Bill looks at it as the Thunder not playing well, while I look at it as an example of a good team winning a game they shouldn't have won...which is something good teams do, right?
I left that game thinking two things …
1. Why am I out of column ideas?
2. Can I squeeze a column idea out of the Thunder's championship window closing?
How can anyone believe in this Thunder team?
And how can anyone NOT believe in this Thunder team?
It’s a great question. And it’s a great question.
Bill thinks he asks himself some great questions. No, he asks fantastic questions of himself that only he has the intelligence to appropriately answer. Bill thinks that Bill Simmons has a beautiful, inquisitive mind.
We always hear about the “journey” with NBA champions. Wilt couldn’t get past Russell until 1967, when he regrouped and unleashed the best Russell imitation that’s ever been done. West couldn’t shed that “Greatest Player Who Never Won” label until the magical ’72 season.
Jerry West didn't win a title until he was 34 years old. This is important to remember when Bill is writing a column about how two 25 year olds have their championship windows closing.
Julius never climbed the mountain in Philly until a man named Moses showed up.
We see what you did there, Bill!
Jordan didn’t become an NBA champ until Scottie matured into a top-five player. Shaq and Kobe kept belly flopping until their unforgettable Game 7 comeback against the 2000 Blazers. The Heat kept caving in 2011 and 2012 until Game 6 against Boston, when LeBron finally said, “Out of my way, this is MY team.”
So basically there is still time for the Thunder to win an NBA Title. Great, fantastic. "We" knew this.
With their best four players younger than 25, they seemed like the safest bet for a multi-title dynasty since the 1995 Magic.
Incorrect. Either the Shaq-Kobe Lakers were the best best for a multi-title dynasty or the Spurs "Big 3" of Duncan, Ginobli, and Parker were the other best bet. I like how Bill uses the example of the 1995 Magic, as a direct comparison to the current Thunder which would lead to the assumed conclusion that the Thunder won't win a title either.
If Durant and Westbrook never win Oklahoma City a title, the Harden trade will forever be the first reason mentioned.
The Thunder EASILY could have afforded Durant, Ibaka, Westbrook and Harden these next two seasons. Right now, they have Steven Adams and the 21st pick of next month’s draft to show for a first-team All-NBA guard. Can you ever recover from that?
Me? Can I recover from that? Yes, I can recover from it because I'm not a Thunder fan. But no, it's hard for a team to recover from trading away a young player like Harden, though the Thunder have won 59 and 60 games in the two seasons since Harden left. The Thunder lost to the Grizzlies last year in the Western Conference Semifinals, but that was after losing Russell Westbrook for the series. This is a big reason why the Thunder didn't advance further in the playoffs last year. This year the Thunder have made the Western Conference Finals. So they seem to be recovering fairly well.
After Westbrook’s untimely knee injury ruined their 2013 playoff chances, you could hear the Thunder’s window creaking for the first time.
I could? And here I thought that was just the wind.
KD threw up a 34-7-6 every night with 51-38-87% shooting splits. Even better, he started carrying himself like a Liam Neeson character — unfriendly, cold-blooded, blessed with a specific set of skills unique to him and only him.
Boy, this reference feels really forced.
As for Westbrook, it took 11 months and three surgeries before he finally looked like Force Of Nature Westbrook again. He’ll always be polarizing — the point guard who shoots 20-plus times a game, the creator who creates mostly for himself, the leader who rarely makes teammates better, the ultimate 90/10 guy,
"90/10" will not become a "thing" Bill. I will not allow it to happen.
I was fortunate enough to watch Jordan and Pippen in person during their collective apex, when they were ripping through overmatched teams like varsity studs whupping on the JV.
Bill watched Pippen and Jordan. "We" didn't watch Pippen and Jordan, but Bill watched them. Not like "we" watched them, but he WATCHED them in the mid-90's when they were unstoppable. On the other hand "we" were wrong that the Shaq-Penny combination wouldn't lead to multiple titles. See how that works? "We" were wrong about the Magic in the mid-90's, but Bill watched the Bulls tear up the NBA in the mid-90's.
That doesn’t stop the general public from picking them apart. Following the NBA has become a 24/7 thing thanks to social media, YouTube, Instagram and everything else; we never leave these guys alone. They’re constantly accessible.
Oh yeah, it's the general public's fault for sure. The general public is always on pregame shows, debate shows and talk radio bashing Westbrook or giving hot sports takes in small soundbites about Westbrook and Durant that gets published nationally. That's always what the general public is doing, because the general public and not behemoth sports organizations like ESPN set out the talking points for athletes like Durant and Westbrook. Blame the people because it sure as hell ain't the fault of Bill's employer.
I hate how the general public are such monsters don't you? The same general public that has elevated Bill to what he is and gives him the traffic at Grantland that makes him so much money. The same general public that Bill looks down on with such disdain high upon his pedestal as he talks on an NBA pregame show handing out soundbites and hot takes all while blaming the general public for what's coming out of his mouth. If there was ever any doubt Bill has cognitive dissonance on how he became what he is today and how he was at one point similar to the blogs and the public he has such a distaste for that "Rolling Stone" feature removed all of that doubt.
Shaq and Kobe never would have survived life together in 2014 — they would have imploded well before that third title. Scottie Pippen never would have survived the Migraine Game in 1990 or the Self-Benching in 1994; he would have been skewered and reskewered and rereskewered,
So who would have skewered and reskewered Pippen again? Is it the general public or is it the 24/7 coverage and hot takes handed out by the brainless trolls at ESPN, when Pippen's migraine situation would end up being discussed on all of ESPN's daily news/opinion shows and every "SportsCenter" at length? I think I know the answer to this long question, but does Bill? He needs to be more self-aware.
That’s why there wasn’t a snippier, angrier, more hostile contender than OKC during the regular season. They hated hearing about Harden, hated falling short, hated the Westbrook microscope, hated the constant scrutiny. Everything about them oozed the words “Leave us alone, let us play basketball.”
Who should leave them alone? The general public or Skip Bayless? Does Bill think that Westbrook and Durant hear the criticism from the public or the criticism from the talking heads at ESPN more? Again, I know the answer and I'm not surprised that Bill doesn't.
When Jackson saved Game 4 in Memphis, Durant and Westbrook bear-hugged him for unusually long times. You could feel the relief pouring out of them. This wasn’t just about escaping a threatening playoff moment. It was bigger than that.
And I didn’t totally understand until Durant’s incredible MVP speech, which was simply one of the greatest off-the-floor moments in NBA history.
It was a really good speech. The inability for Bill to understand the criticism of Durant and Westbrook is partly (mostly?) coming from his fellow co-workers at ESPN is baffling to me. I get that he can't just call out Skip Bayless or other ESPN employees, but the mention of "the general public picking them apart" is infuriating to me.
To me, it shows his dislike for the public and those people who have made him the person he is. He's Bill Simmons, fuck you, he's not like the general public and apparently thinks the general public don't take their cues from ESPN at all...despite ESPN being the most popular sports/entertainment organization around. ESPN creates stories out of soundbites by their employees and then runs the story through the ESPN vacuum to get as much mileage out of the story as possible. "Colin Kaepernick could be the best QB ever," "LeBron/Durant aren't clutch," or "I see bust written all over Johnny Manziel," there's no story created by ESPN that ESPN won't beat into the ground. I just take offense to the idea the general public are the ones who are picking Durant/Westbrook apart. That talks from the public is just noise to those guys, but they pay attention when their name is on "SportsCenter" because Skip Bayless is crying for attention again. Durant/Westbrook aren't bothered by guys they don't know giving an opinion on their performance, but when they see themselves being discussed on the national stage in a negative way, these are the types of comments that gets their attention.
He remembered every obstacle he overcame, every moment that mattered, everyone who helped him along the way. He didn’t read from anything. It was unclear how much he even prepared.
"We" were shocked that Durant didn't seem prepared.
Bill won't mention this moment because he's too busy talking about Westbrook/Durant, but the best moment was that one shared between Durant and Butler. Butler hasn't been on the Thunder team long but it's clear he has made an impact on Durant by leaving a note in his locker (yeah, it does sound juvenile) calling him the MVP. It was obvious it all meant something to Durant.
But enough about that, Bill wants to pick apart the Westbrook/Durant dynamic that the general public likes to pick apart so much. Bill is only writing about this dynamic because the general public, not the media, likes to pick this relationship apart.
I mean, can you even compare it to anything? Could even the great Bill Russell have pulled this off?
Bill is essentially a parody of himself at this point. "Could even the great Bill Russell have pulled this off?" I don't remember when Bill Russell became the go-to reference for good speeches, but he was a Celtic and that's all that matters to Bill.
“I know you guys think I forgot Russ,” he joked as everyone laughed nervously. “I could speak all night about Russell. An emotional guy who would run through a wall for me. I don’t take it for granted. There’s days where I just want to tackle you and tell you to snap out of it sometimes. I know there’s days you want to do the same thing with me. I love you, man. I love you.”
Stop there.
You are the one writing the column. You can stop at any point you want.
No way Jordan would ever describe Pippen that way. No way LeBron describes Wade that way. No way Kobe describes ANYONE that way. Durant’s best quality was always Duncan’s best quality — he doesn’t care how his team wins, just that they do. He’s one of the best teammates ever. And just with those eight sentences, he squashed even the most remote possibility of an Avon-Stringer ending.
Well, that's it then. The Thunder's championship window isn't closed and they still have time to win championships. I mean, isn't that what this column is about? Or was about? More importantly, remember how Bill talks about those who pick apart the Westbrook/Durant relationship? What's Bill doing now? The exact same thing. As we learned in the "Rolling Stone" article Bill has rules for others that don't apply to him. He's tired of the general public picking them apart, but it's fine for him to do so.
So much for trading Russell Westbrook.
Bill has now decreed it...RUSSELL WESTBROOK WILL NEVER BE TRADED! WHO SAYS "NO" TO THIS?
I have been following sports for something like 40 years — I can’t remember a teammate sticking up for another teammate better than that. Not ever.
NEVER! EVER! Not even the great Bill Russell could have stuck up for a teammate like this.
Terrell Owens crying about Romo being his quarterback was him sort of sticking up for a teammate. I'm sure there are other examples of a player sticking up for his teammate, but it's pointless for me to try to remember them because Durant just did it better than any other player ever.
Kevin Durant flipped the script on the “journey,” just like that, in less than 50 seconds. Either KD sticks around like Duncan stuck around in San Antonio, or he’s a greater actor than Daniel Day-Lewis. I’m betting on the former. You can’t fake that stuff. You just can’t.
Right, because athletes haven't said things they later take back or have sworn dedication to a team/teammate publicly and then reneged on this dedication later. If Westbrook decides he's not sticking around when he hits free agency, then maybe Durant decides he'll test free agency. There's still a lot of time. And wasn't this column supposed to be about the Thunder's championship window and whether it was closing or not?
And you know what else? Even if they drive us bonkers sometimes,
Yes, "us" are driven crazy by Durant and Westbrook. "Us" are.
Would LeBron have ever dumped Cleveland if he had Westbrook there?
Bill is tapping into his inner Skip Bayless. This is what being a talking head on television does to a person.
And why would Durant leave OKC when he has Westbrook there?
But he may not always have Westbrook there. Therein lies the rub. Westbrook didn't seem all that touched by Durant's comments and he doesn't have a lifetime contract with the Thunder. Westbrook can become a free agent after Durant can. If he thinks Westbrook isn't staying, why would Durant stay?
It’s the rarest of basketball partnerships — two alpha dogs coexisting and complementing each other (for the most part, anyway), with their friendship transcending every conceivable landmine. Why would you break THAT up? Keep that window pried open, baby. For as long as you can.
So what if this is the Thunder's last shot? That was the question in the title and it remains unanswered, though Bill did a great job of rambling around for a few hundred words until he could lazily talk about the Westbrook/Durant relationship, which has been done a thousand times before (mostly by the general public of course).
So was last night’s remarkable comeback something of a watershed moment for the Durant-Westbrook “journey”? Can they extend their window for 10 years, or 12, or maybe even 15?
15 years seems a bit much. Simmer down a little.
Or will some Thunder employee be wondering What if that was it? What if that was our shot? next month and end up looking like Nostradamus? I don’t know, I don’t know, and I don’t know.
Glad you wrote this column then. NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING ABOUT ANYTHING, EXCEPT NO ONE KNEW NOTHING ABOUT ANYTHING AS MUCH AS THE GREAT BILL RUSSELL KNEW NOTHING ABOUT ANYTHING.
Just remember to keep enjoying the ride. Even when it’s a roller coaster.
If Bill doesn't want to write columns anymore, I just wish he would stop. It's clear his heart isn't in it anymore. I'm assuming Bill still has a heart and didn't leave it in Boston as he headed out to California to become a talking head and hopefully a pop culture celebrity.
There’s a poignant moment in Jonathan Abrams’s oral history about the 2002 Kings,
It's the first sentence of the column and Bill is already pimping out a Grantland feature. Granted, a good Grantland feature, but it's the first sentence and he's already using his supposedly-weekly column to push other Grantland features. Bill is quickly becoming the NASCAR driver of writing. His columns feature links to other columns (hence the sponsors in NASCAR) on ESPN or Grantland.
That moment resonated for a simple reason: That WAS their shot. And that WAS it.
The boss wasn’t describing a “shot” as much as a window. If you’re blessed with Michael and Scottie in their mid-twenties, that window should last for a decade, as long as nothing funky happens.
You mean like Michael Jordan retiring for two seasons because his father was killed over his gambling debts or does Bill mean like how the Kings would have made the NBA Finals if it weren't for the lone wolf official (and there were no more, not at all...and I don't believe that at all) who was gambling on NBA games who screwed the Kings over in Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals? Funny how both the Kings and Bulls windows closed during a period where there were rumors of a conspiracy involving David Stern and his attempts to keep the integrity of the NBA together. I don't miss David Stern.
If you’re teaming up Pierce and Garnett and Allen at the tail end of their primes, you’re publicly hoping for five healthy years and secretly praying for three.
Come on, it's the Boston Sports Guy. Like he wasn't going to mention the Celtics as early as possible in this column. Bill only mentions the Celtics two more times in this column, which is quite the achievement for him. The article is about the Thunder, but it's no secret Bill shoves some Celtics talk down the throats of his readers whenever possible.
Every A-list contender has a built-in window, and almost always, you know what it is. When that window slams shut well before you’re ready, you never really get over it.
Fine, but how do we know a team is an A-list contender? The Bulls were second-fiddle to the Pistons until 1991. The Kings never really were an A-list contender because the Lakers were in their way, right? They never made an NBA Finals and even the Lakers had to share a few titles with the Spurs during Kobe and Shaq's prime.
Will we remember Oklahoma City that way someday? We know that it’s Kevin Durant’s seventh season and his sixth with Russell Westbrook. We know they’re playing for a small-market franchise that actively avoids the luxury tax. We know Durant’s contract expires in 2016, and Westbrook’s deal expires one year later.
We, we, we, we. I don't give care if Bill is reciting facts here, the repeated use of "we" in four sentences would make an English teacher cry or give up out of frustration.
We know Westbrook endured three knee surgeries in the past 12 months. We know that bad luck comes in all shapes and sizes. We know the West is loaded, and we know LeBron is never going away. We know they easily could have blown the Memphis series, and we know the bumbling officials saved their season Tuesday night.
We overrate youth and potential with sports, movies, TV, music, art and even politics — it’s more enjoyable to imagine what something might become. We envision the Thunder overpowering LeBron’s Heat in Durant’s MVP season because that’s the age-old NBA formula, right?
Bill begins 10 straight sentences with the word "we." 10 straight sentences. I'm not the best writer in the world at all and my sentence structure isn't very good, but Bill has to do better than this. The use of "we" in 10 straight sentences is ridiculously bad writing.
A few thoughts about these "we" sentences:
1. LeBron is going away. Not anytime soon, but he will go away at some point. His window does coincide with the Thunder's window, though I feel like it will be running out in a season or two with Wade getting older.
2. The Lakers had their 2001-2002 season saved by the officials too. This wasn't a sign their dynasty was done, it was just a sign the officials wanted them to win Game 6 to force a Game 7.
3. "We" don't overrate sports, movies, TV, music, art and politics. Bill Simmons overrates sports, movies, TV and music. He has built an entire career on overrating these subjects and tying them into his sports columns. I don't want to hear about how "we" overrate these things. Bill has used them as a writing crutch for 15 years and tied together any sports event with movies, TV or music. Bill needs to find a mirror so he can see who is the one that really overrates these things. As usual, he's happy to take the success caused by tying these subjects to sports, but when it's a bad thing "we" are the ones who overrated these subjects.
Just like we overrate youth and potential, we underrate injury luck, unfortunate breaks, untimely trades, the Disease of More, greed and egos, poor coaching and plain old bad luck.
Stop saying "we"! YOU write these columns. "We" don't write weekly columns for ESPN/Grantland or any other national sports publication/site. Simply because you overrate youth and potential doesn't mean everyone else does also.
The Thunder could definitely topple San Antonio and Miami next month, but they’re just as likely to not win a single title with Durant and Westbrook.
The Thunder may or may not win the NBA Title this year. Step back people, this is expert analysis occurring. This is how Bill got a prime job on "NBA Countdown," by making bold statements like this.
On paper, OKC should evolve into this generation’s version of the 1990s Bulls: Durant as Jordan, Westbrook as Pippen, and Ibaka as Grant/Rodman. It’s a star-driven league with the least amount of playoff variance in any professional sport. When you have a top-two player, a top-eight player and a top-25 player on one team, you should definitely win a ring.
I really feel like arguing Ibaka as a top-25 player but I have bigger fish to fry right now. Or as Bill would say, "We thought Ibaka was a top-25 player but it turns out we were wrong."
Unfortunately, you never know when “The Rains of Castamere” will start playing.
Hey everyone, it's a relevant pop culture reference squeezed awkwardly into the column!
A similar window opened after Game 7 of the 1962 Finals, when the Lakers came within Frank Selvy’s errant 15-footer of upending Bill Russell’s budding dynasty. That Lakers team employed 27-year-old Elgin Baylor and 23-year-old Jerry West, two of the league’s best five players. (Sound familiar?)
No, it doesn't because Westbrook is not one of the NBA's five best players.
Fifteen years later, Bill Walton’s precocious Blazers
These professional athletes displayed traits that belied their years. Sure, they were grown-up adults but trying to win an NBA title is just so child-like. Thanks Peter King.
toppled Philly for the 1977 title, then took a 40-8 record into the ensuing All-Star break looking like Russell’s Celtics reincarnated.
Bill isn't really even comparing apples-to-apples here. Jerry West did win an NBA Title with the Lakers and the Trail Blazers won an NBA Title with the team Bill is referencing here. The idea of this column is the Thunder's championship window may be closed without them winning a title and Bill is giving examples, but so far he's given examples of players/teams who did win a title with the team whose championship window supposedly closed. Now if Bill's contention is the Thunder may not be a dynasty, that's entirely possible, but considering the discussion is about championship windows then any team/player who has won an NBA Title with the team Bill is referencing would not be a good example.
Every generation has its version of the ’62 Lakers and ’77 Blazers, contenders that fooled us into thinking their window would last longer than it did.
I can buy this but the Thunder may not even win one NBA Title according to Bill Simmons. Their window is being eaten up by the existence of the Miami Heat. The 1977 Blazers had won one NBA Title, so there is a difference when using them as an example. Also, I wasn't fooled into thinking these team's window would last longer than it did because I wasn't alive when these teams were alive. When I don't exist as a human in the world, I can't have an opinion on a team's championship window. Don't "us" me.
An alpha-dog battle submarined the Shaq-Penny dynasty in Orlando and, later, a possible seven-title run for Shaq and Kobe in Los Angeles. Derrick Rose, C-Webb and James Silas suffered untimely knee injuries that ruined legitimate title windows for the Bulls, Kings and Spurs. Steve Nash’s critically acclaimed Suns teams kept falling short in increasingly unfair ways.
Basically what Bill is getting at is that luck plays a part in whether a team wins multiple championships. He can dress it up all he wants to over-complicate the situation, but this obvious-type statement is what he's getting at. This isn't a new perspective Bill is offering, even though he's trying to make it new by looking at it from the perspective of the Thunder, which is weird since this column is 20% complete already and he hasn't really discussed them much.
Four unstoppable-at-the-time duos — Hakeem and Ralph, Penny and Shaq, GP and Kemp, and Malone and Stockton — somehow finished with a combined 8-20 Finals record. Can we really say, with any certainty whatsoever, that “Those guys are gonna be chasing championships and competing for years to come”?
I would argue that Payton and Kemp, as well as Malone and Stockton were not considered an unstoppable-at-the-time duo due to the existence of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. They were the unstoppable team. But Bill is going to twist facts/opinions the way he wants them to go to fit his needs.
And "we" aren't saying the Thunder will chase championships for years to come.
You’re more likely to bemoan the opportunities that slipped away.
Oh I am more likely to bemoan the opportunities that slipped away? I didn't know that about myself. Thanks for telling me about myself because you don't know me and all.
My father and I talk about the Celtics blowing the 2010 title waaaaaaaay more than we talk about the Celtics winning in 2008.
That's probably because you both traffic in misery rather than celebrate the successes of your teams. Bill really, really, really wants to be a tortured fan. It's pretty much his dream to be tortured by his favorite teams.
How does that make sense?
It makes perfect sense based on who Bill is and how he made his living as a writer. Bill made his living whining about how tortured and cursed his favorite teams are. In fact, he still does this, except he has expanded it to include fans of other professional sports teams emailing him to whine about how tortured their favorite team is. I would say Bill has expanded his horizons, but he really just found a new group to share his misery with.
Then Bill whines about Game 7 of the NBA Finals because life is unfair and he prefers to act like a child and stomp his feet when his teams don't succeed. Not that Bill acts like a child when he doesn't get what he wants. Not that there is a "Rolling Stone" feature on Bill that somewhat proves this to be true.
We thought we were in the minority … until Doc Rivers told me about eating dinner with former assistant Tom Thibodeau last summer. For whatever reason, they spent an hour talking about Game 7...They just sat there eating and drinking and making each other miserable. Only later did Doc realize that the 2008 Finals never came up.
And because Doc Rivers (who was the coach of the Celtics, so it makes sense why he would rehash everything) and Bill Simmons talk more about failures rather than the successes this means "we" must do it also. Obviously.
By the way, remember this column is about the Oklahoma City Thunder? It's easy to forget with Bill's rambling form of writing.
When should you start feeling real anxiety over something as simple as “We might have Durant and Westbrook for their entire careers … how could we NOT win a couple of titles?”
LeBron didn't win a title until he was 27 years old. Durant and Westbrook are both 25 years old. Let's take it easy about them not winning a title during their careers.
When Durant’s beautiful MVP speech seemingly inspired their best basketball in Game 2 and Game 3, as well as the first three quarters of Game 4, that seemed like something of a “Voilà !” moment...And then the last quarter happened. If you want to watch OKC at its worst, just watch the last nine minutes of Game 4: one-on-one offense, overdribbling, wrong lineups, bad strategy, no composure, no crunch-time savviness and 27-foot heaves.
You know Bill was sitting at this game (because it was against the Clippers and Bill has season tickets to Clippers games and knows Jimmy Kimmel...you need Kimmel's phone number, because Bill has it right here) thinking, "I have to write a column about this."
That unsettled malaise carried over to the first 47 minutes of Game 5, with their defense floundering and Durant inexplicably turning into a right-handed Josh Smith. Everything flipped again in the last 50 seconds, thanks to Durant’s monster 3, two utterly ridiculous calls, three egregious Chris Paul mistakes, and Westbrook draining three of the ballsiest free throws I can remember.
Bill looks at it as the Thunder not playing well, while I look at it as an example of a good team winning a game they shouldn't have won...which is something good teams do, right?
I left that game thinking two things …
1. Why am I out of column ideas?
2. Can I squeeze a column idea out of the Thunder's championship window closing?
How can anyone believe in this Thunder team?
And how can anyone NOT believe in this Thunder team?
It’s a great question. And it’s a great question.
Bill thinks he asks himself some great questions. No, he asks fantastic questions of himself that only he has the intelligence to appropriately answer. Bill thinks that Bill Simmons has a beautiful, inquisitive mind.
We always hear about the “journey” with NBA champions. Wilt couldn’t get past Russell until 1967, when he regrouped and unleashed the best Russell imitation that’s ever been done. West couldn’t shed that “Greatest Player Who Never Won” label until the magical ’72 season.
Jerry West didn't win a title until he was 34 years old. This is important to remember when Bill is writing a column about how two 25 year olds have their championship windows closing.
Julius never climbed the mountain in Philly until a man named Moses showed up.
We see what you did there, Bill!
Jordan didn’t become an NBA champ until Scottie matured into a top-five player. Shaq and Kobe kept belly flopping until their unforgettable Game 7 comeback against the 2000 Blazers. The Heat kept caving in 2011 and 2012 until Game 6 against Boston, when LeBron finally said, “Out of my way, this is MY team.”
So basically there is still time for the Thunder to win an NBA Title. Great, fantastic. "We" knew this.
With their best four players younger than 25, they seemed like the safest bet for a multi-title dynasty since the 1995 Magic.
Incorrect. Either the Shaq-Kobe Lakers were the best best for a multi-title dynasty or the Spurs "Big 3" of Duncan, Ginobli, and Parker were the other best bet. I like how Bill uses the example of the 1995 Magic, as a direct comparison to the current Thunder which would lead to the assumed conclusion that the Thunder won't win a title either.
If Durant and Westbrook never win Oklahoma City a title, the Harden trade will forever be the first reason mentioned.
The Thunder EASILY could have afforded Durant, Ibaka, Westbrook and Harden these next two seasons. Right now, they have Steven Adams and the 21st pick of next month’s draft to show for a first-team All-NBA guard. Can you ever recover from that?
Me? Can I recover from that? Yes, I can recover from it because I'm not a Thunder fan. But no, it's hard for a team to recover from trading away a young player like Harden, though the Thunder have won 59 and 60 games in the two seasons since Harden left. The Thunder lost to the Grizzlies last year in the Western Conference Semifinals, but that was after losing Russell Westbrook for the series. This is a big reason why the Thunder didn't advance further in the playoffs last year. This year the Thunder have made the Western Conference Finals. So they seem to be recovering fairly well.
After Westbrook’s untimely knee injury ruined their 2013 playoff chances, you could hear the Thunder’s window creaking for the first time.
I could? And here I thought that was just the wind.
KD threw up a 34-7-6 every night with 51-38-87% shooting splits. Even better, he started carrying himself like a Liam Neeson character — unfriendly, cold-blooded, blessed with a specific set of skills unique to him and only him.
Boy, this reference feels really forced.
As for Westbrook, it took 11 months and three surgeries before he finally looked like Force Of Nature Westbrook again. He’ll always be polarizing — the point guard who shoots 20-plus times a game, the creator who creates mostly for himself, the leader who rarely makes teammates better, the ultimate 90/10 guy,
"90/10" will not become a "thing" Bill. I will not allow it to happen.
I was fortunate enough to watch Jordan and Pippen in person during their collective apex, when they were ripping through overmatched teams like varsity studs whupping on the JV.
Bill watched Pippen and Jordan. "We" didn't watch Pippen and Jordan, but Bill watched them. Not like "we" watched them, but he WATCHED them in the mid-90's when they were unstoppable. On the other hand "we" were wrong that the Shaq-Penny combination wouldn't lead to multiple titles. See how that works? "We" were wrong about the Magic in the mid-90's, but Bill watched the Bulls tear up the NBA in the mid-90's.
That doesn’t stop the general public from picking them apart. Following the NBA has become a 24/7 thing thanks to social media, YouTube, Instagram and everything else; we never leave these guys alone. They’re constantly accessible.
Oh yeah, it's the general public's fault for sure. The general public is always on pregame shows, debate shows and talk radio bashing Westbrook or giving hot sports takes in small soundbites about Westbrook and Durant that gets published nationally. That's always what the general public is doing, because the general public and not behemoth sports organizations like ESPN set out the talking points for athletes like Durant and Westbrook. Blame the people because it sure as hell ain't the fault of Bill's employer.
I hate how the general public are such monsters don't you? The same general public that has elevated Bill to what he is and gives him the traffic at Grantland that makes him so much money. The same general public that Bill looks down on with such disdain high upon his pedestal as he talks on an NBA pregame show handing out soundbites and hot takes all while blaming the general public for what's coming out of his mouth. If there was ever any doubt Bill has cognitive dissonance on how he became what he is today and how he was at one point similar to the blogs and the public he has such a distaste for that "Rolling Stone" feature removed all of that doubt.
Shaq and Kobe never would have survived life together in 2014 — they would have imploded well before that third title. Scottie Pippen never would have survived the Migraine Game in 1990 or the Self-Benching in 1994; he would have been skewered and reskewered and rereskewered,
So who would have skewered and reskewered Pippen again? Is it the general public or is it the 24/7 coverage and hot takes handed out by the brainless trolls at ESPN, when Pippen's migraine situation would end up being discussed on all of ESPN's daily news/opinion shows and every "SportsCenter" at length? I think I know the answer to this long question, but does Bill? He needs to be more self-aware.
That’s why there wasn’t a snippier, angrier, more hostile contender than OKC during the regular season. They hated hearing about Harden, hated falling short, hated the Westbrook microscope, hated the constant scrutiny. Everything about them oozed the words “Leave us alone, let us play basketball.”
Who should leave them alone? The general public or Skip Bayless? Does Bill think that Westbrook and Durant hear the criticism from the public or the criticism from the talking heads at ESPN more? Again, I know the answer and I'm not surprised that Bill doesn't.
When Jackson saved Game 4 in Memphis, Durant and Westbrook bear-hugged him for unusually long times. You could feel the relief pouring out of them. This wasn’t just about escaping a threatening playoff moment. It was bigger than that.
And I didn’t totally understand until Durant’s incredible MVP speech, which was simply one of the greatest off-the-floor moments in NBA history.
It was a really good speech. The inability for Bill to understand the criticism of Durant and Westbrook is partly (mostly?) coming from his fellow co-workers at ESPN is baffling to me. I get that he can't just call out Skip Bayless or other ESPN employees, but the mention of "the general public picking them apart" is infuriating to me.
To me, it shows his dislike for the public and those people who have made him the person he is. He's Bill Simmons, fuck you, he's not like the general public and apparently thinks the general public don't take their cues from ESPN at all...despite ESPN being the most popular sports/entertainment organization around. ESPN creates stories out of soundbites by their employees and then runs the story through the ESPN vacuum to get as much mileage out of the story as possible. "Colin Kaepernick could be the best QB ever," "LeBron/Durant aren't clutch," or "I see bust written all over Johnny Manziel," there's no story created by ESPN that ESPN won't beat into the ground. I just take offense to the idea the general public are the ones who are picking Durant/Westbrook apart. That talks from the public is just noise to those guys, but they pay attention when their name is on "SportsCenter" because Skip Bayless is crying for attention again. Durant/Westbrook aren't bothered by guys they don't know giving an opinion on their performance, but when they see themselves being discussed on the national stage in a negative way, these are the types of comments that gets their attention.
He remembered every obstacle he overcame, every moment that mattered, everyone who helped him along the way. He didn’t read from anything. It was unclear how much he even prepared.
"We" were shocked that Durant didn't seem prepared.
Bill won't mention this moment because he's too busy talking about Westbrook/Durant, but the best moment was that one shared between Durant and Butler. Butler hasn't been on the Thunder team long but it's clear he has made an impact on Durant by leaving a note in his locker (yeah, it does sound juvenile) calling him the MVP. It was obvious it all meant something to Durant.
But enough about that, Bill wants to pick apart the Westbrook/Durant dynamic that the general public likes to pick apart so much. Bill is only writing about this dynamic because the general public, not the media, likes to pick this relationship apart.
I mean, can you even compare it to anything? Could even the great Bill Russell have pulled this off?
Bill is essentially a parody of himself at this point. "Could even the great Bill Russell have pulled this off?" I don't remember when Bill Russell became the go-to reference for good speeches, but he was a Celtic and that's all that matters to Bill.
“I know you guys think I forgot Russ,” he joked as everyone laughed nervously. “I could speak all night about Russell. An emotional guy who would run through a wall for me. I don’t take it for granted. There’s days where I just want to tackle you and tell you to snap out of it sometimes. I know there’s days you want to do the same thing with me. I love you, man. I love you.”
Stop there.
You are the one writing the column. You can stop at any point you want.
No way Jordan would ever describe Pippen that way. No way LeBron describes Wade that way. No way Kobe describes ANYONE that way. Durant’s best quality was always Duncan’s best quality — he doesn’t care how his team wins, just that they do. He’s one of the best teammates ever. And just with those eight sentences, he squashed even the most remote possibility of an Avon-Stringer ending.
Well, that's it then. The Thunder's championship window isn't closed and they still have time to win championships. I mean, isn't that what this column is about? Or was about? More importantly, remember how Bill talks about those who pick apart the Westbrook/Durant relationship? What's Bill doing now? The exact same thing. As we learned in the "Rolling Stone" article Bill has rules for others that don't apply to him. He's tired of the general public picking them apart, but it's fine for him to do so.
So much for trading Russell Westbrook.
Bill has now decreed it...RUSSELL WESTBROOK WILL NEVER BE TRADED! WHO SAYS "NO" TO THIS?
I have been following sports for something like 40 years — I can’t remember a teammate sticking up for another teammate better than that. Not ever.
NEVER! EVER! Not even the great Bill Russell could have stuck up for a teammate like this.
Terrell Owens crying about Romo being his quarterback was him sort of sticking up for a teammate. I'm sure there are other examples of a player sticking up for his teammate, but it's pointless for me to try to remember them because Durant just did it better than any other player ever.
Kevin Durant flipped the script on the “journey,” just like that, in less than 50 seconds. Either KD sticks around like Duncan stuck around in San Antonio, or he’s a greater actor than Daniel Day-Lewis. I’m betting on the former. You can’t fake that stuff. You just can’t.
Right, because athletes haven't said things they later take back or have sworn dedication to a team/teammate publicly and then reneged on this dedication later. If Westbrook decides he's not sticking around when he hits free agency, then maybe Durant decides he'll test free agency. There's still a lot of time. And wasn't this column supposed to be about the Thunder's championship window and whether it was closing or not?
And you know what else? Even if they drive us bonkers sometimes,
Yes, "us" are driven crazy by Durant and Westbrook. "Us" are.
Would LeBron have ever dumped Cleveland if he had Westbrook there?
Bill is tapping into his inner Skip Bayless. This is what being a talking head on television does to a person.
And why would Durant leave OKC when he has Westbrook there?
But he may not always have Westbrook there. Therein lies the rub. Westbrook didn't seem all that touched by Durant's comments and he doesn't have a lifetime contract with the Thunder. Westbrook can become a free agent after Durant can. If he thinks Westbrook isn't staying, why would Durant stay?
It’s the rarest of basketball partnerships — two alpha dogs coexisting and complementing each other (for the most part, anyway), with their friendship transcending every conceivable landmine. Why would you break THAT up? Keep that window pried open, baby. For as long as you can.
So what if this is the Thunder's last shot? That was the question in the title and it remains unanswered, though Bill did a great job of rambling around for a few hundred words until he could lazily talk about the Westbrook/Durant relationship, which has been done a thousand times before (mostly by the general public of course).
So was last night’s remarkable comeback something of a watershed moment for the Durant-Westbrook “journey”? Can they extend their window for 10 years, or 12, or maybe even 15?
15 years seems a bit much. Simmer down a little.
Or will some Thunder employee be wondering What if that was it? What if that was our shot? next month and end up looking like Nostradamus? I don’t know, I don’t know, and I don’t know.
Glad you wrote this column then. NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING ABOUT ANYTHING, EXCEPT NO ONE KNEW NOTHING ABOUT ANYTHING AS MUCH AS THE GREAT BILL RUSSELL KNEW NOTHING ABOUT ANYTHING.
Just remember to keep enjoying the ride. Even when it’s a roller coaster.
If Bill doesn't want to write columns anymore, I just wish he would stop. It's clear his heart isn't in it anymore. I'm assuming Bill still has a heart and didn't leave it in Boston as he headed out to California to become a talking head and hopefully a pop culture celebrity.
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
6 comments MMQB Review: What Would Marv Levy Do? Edition
Peter King talked about Johnny Manziel again in last week's MMQB. It seems to be his go-to discussion in MMQB these days, mostly for the pageviews I would assume. Peter also talked about the unpredictable draft, picked apart Ryan Mallett and his four career pass attempts, and criticized Don Jones of the Dolphins for his statements on Twitter. Peter thinks only a drunk asshole like Bernie Kosar could agree with Jones' comments. This week in MMQB, Peter talks about the Falcons trying to get back on top, thinks it's a good decision Michael Sam isn't doing his reality te---I mean documentary for OWN, doesn't like people exercising their free will and smoking at a bar, and again looks an athlete from a football-only perspective when he runs afoul of the law...which is different from how he treated Jim Irsay when he was picked up for drunk driving a month or two ago. It's interesting the different language used by Peter for players and owners when they run into alcohol-related issues.
Many things to do today, the pivotal offseason of the Atlanta Falcons, the state of the 2015 NFL draft, why Michael Sam and new BFF Oprah did the right thing, Gregg Williams being in the prefect place at the right time,
It's a story of redemption for Gregg Williams! That's a great way to spin. Snark aside, I'm glad Peter has finally acknowledged the infallible Rams have hired the architect of the bounty scandal as their defensive coordinator. It only took several months for Peter to acknowledge this happened.
So we’ve started this 10-week series at The MMQB. It’s about the history of pro football, with an eye on the future in every story we do. We dispatched young Emily Kaplan down to NFL Films in south Jersey to see a living, breathing NFL museum, the office of the late NFL Films impresario Steve Sabol, whose workplace was left precisely how he last worked in it, right down to his last lunch order. Emily Kaplan wrote vividly of the place, and photographer Jeff Zelevansky took a breathtaking GigaPan photo of the office—you can put your cursor on anything in the office, focus on it and POOF! There it is, full and vivid, on your screen.
Technology, everyone! I see Peter King has gone to the Bill Simmons School of Synergy where he uses his popular weekly column to publicize the future and past columns that will be/have appeared on THE MMQB (again, not to be confused with the MMQB Peter writes every week).
Look at the notes Sabol took after a long session watching Bill Parcells coach. Focus on it. Put your cursor on the binder with the Parcells notes, and you’ll see, down near the bottom of the page, what Sabol found after his Parcells experience.
“He’s more than old school. He’s a one-room schoolhouse with no lunch and no recess.”
Did Parcells have any quotes about how he is able to drum up interest in himself for NFL jobs by pretending to have interest in an NFL coaching job, lying that he has interest, backing out at the last minute and then taking another NFL head coaching job all while denying he is taking the job? Were there any notes on how he won only three playoff games his last 11 years of coaching? Probably not.
When coach Mike Smith and GM Thomas Dimitroff looked at their team in the last couple of years, there were things they didn’t like much. But when you coach and manage a team for five years, and you win 56 games and lose just 24, and you make the playoffs four out of five years, you tend to say, “We’re okay.”
So their sense of complacency was perfectly understandable and absolutely fine. They had made a couple of Super Bowls over the past five years, so there was really nothing to improve upon. It's not like there were any younger, competitive teams in the NFC who had proven they could beat the Falcons at home in the playoffs, so an extra week of vacation and no major roster changes are no problem at all.
Said Smith: “Human nature, when you’re getting positive results, is not to stress the negative. But when you get humbled, which happened last year, you’ve got to be realistic about your team.”
I guess it depends on your definition of "positive results" (though this is a typical Atlanta area team attitude like the Braves sometimes have had isn't it? "We made the playoffs, everything is good, no need to improve in the offseason."), doesn't it? Me personally, if I had lost a home NFC Championship Game I probably would be ready to fix any small hole in the roster with a sense of urgency and go back at it again the next year with a better team. Perhaps the Falcons thought they had done that.
As the house-collapsing 4–12 season of 2013 proved, the Falcons were most definitely not okay. The pass-rush stunk. The offensive line stunk. The secondary leaked. And every time they got into the playoffs—Smith’s playoff record: 1–4—a team with a strong pass-rush and good secondary frustrated Matt Ryan and sent the Falcons home early.
So maybe if the Falcons had a bad pass-rush and a bad secondary they could win a few playoff games and make it to the Super Bowl!
Now came the next piece of drama in the Atlanta draft room. New assistant GM Scott Pioli was a voice of calm in the room;
Will some NFL team just hire Scott Pioli as their General Manager so Peter King can stop reciting the virtues of his good friend? Scott Pioli was a voice of calm in the Kansas City draft room too. Unfortunately being calm doesn't immediately translate to being a good GM. But hey, Pioli knows Bill Belichick, so he has to be a genius!
Atlanta sat at 37, and wanted a pass-rusher—either a defensive end or an outside linebacker. The Falcons really wanted Ohio State linebacker Ryan Shazier, who went to Pittsburgh at number 15. That was too high for Atlanta. Then the object of their affection was defensive end Dee Ford, and he would have cost a third-round pick for Atlanta to move into the mid-20s. But Kansas City grabbed Ford at 23, and there went the two rushers Dimitroff liked.
No snark here, but if I were Atlanta and I was willing to move up to get Jake Matthews then I would also be willing to give up a third round pick to move up and get Dee Ford. It's not like their Julio Jones deal with Cleveland hasn't gone really well for them so far. Go confidently in the direction of your dreams, get that pass rusher you want!
The night before the draft, it was clear Dimitroff wanted one more impact guy out of this draft that he just wasn’t able to get. “This league is about now, and it’s about impact players,” he said. “What did Marv Levy say? ‘Depth is great until you’ve got to use it?’ ”
Perhaps I'm stupid, but this doesn't make sense to me. Depth is great and if you have to use it then that makes it doubly great, right? It's better than not having depth and having to use the depth you don't have isn't it? I get what Marv Levy is trying to say, but it really doesn't make sense because the alternative is to have no depth and have to use it. So depth is great, but it sucks if you have to use it.
Getting an impact guy in the draft is important, but the NFL is also about having depth on the roster. Just ask the Seahawks who didn't have a problem after losing Brandon Browner to suspension and won the Super Bowl despite not having the best two receivers on their roster healthy for most of the season.
Soon after the season, Dimitroff and Smith had a summit meeting with owner Arthur Blank. “We have been the hardest on ourselves, and Mr. Blank was hard on us too,” said Dimitroff. “But I welcome that. We deserved it. I’ll be damned if I ever say adequate is okay.”
Except for last year when Dimitroff and Smith decided that making the NFC Championship was adequate and they admittedly got complacent and said they were okay.
“This is not in any way a quest to find excuses for why we went 4–12,” Dimitroff said. “It is just us being mindful to try to do everything we can to keep our players healthy and at a top performance level. And give credit to Smitty—he’s been on board with everything to try to be sure our players are playing at their peak.”
You wouldn't think a head coach would want his players playing at their peak and in great shape.
Mike Tice and Bryan Cox have been imported as assistants on the offense and defense, respectively, in part to instill a toughness that has been missing.
Hopefully Mike Tice won't try to install a "Julio Rule" or else Gregg Easterbrook will flip his shit and talk about what a diva player Jones is.
But if Matt Ryan gets whacked around like last year, and if Smith’s defense can’t pressure the quarterback, it’ll be a battle again to stay out of the NFC South basement. And Blank won’t be so patient then.
And then Scott Pioli can take over the Falcons team and lead them to the promised land! Peter and Pioli can drink the blood of Thomas Dimitroff and revel in the victory of calmness and genius over complacency and creating depth.
Gut feeling about the 2015 NFL draft: It will be in a city other than New York, and it will be a week earlier, starting on April 30 and running until May 2.
Gut feeling about NFL fans. They don't especially care where the draft will be held unless it's in their home city.
Why? It’s complicated.
Well Peter, I hope your reader's mini-sized brains can handle the complicatedness of the NFL Draft starting earlier and being in a different city. Just remember that very few of your readers are as smart as you are and avoid using big words.
Last year, Radio City delayed its decision about what dates were available in the spring of 2014, causing the NFL to put off planning for the 2014 draft. Then Radio City told the league the venue was going to be occupied in mid to late April by an Easter Spectacular show, something akin to the Radio City holiday show with the Rockettes. Okay, NFL officials said, we’ll push the draft back to the second weekend of May. Mother’s Day weekend wasn’t ideal, but what choice did the NFL have? Then, earlier this year, Radio City canceled the Easter show. The NFL seethed.
See, this irritates me. It makes perfect sense now why the draft was pushed back until May. Why didn't Peter King (if he even knew prior to the draft), the NFL or someone else just say, "Hey, Radio City was booked and we couldn't get a date until May." It makes sense and rather than have NFL fans and writers make comments about the NFL pushing the draft back until July, just state a completely understandable reason why the draft was pushed back until May 8-10. I have to admit though, I like that Radio City pissed off the NFL. The NFL not getting it's way does not displease me and I think it's good if the NFL is reminded from time to time they only control football in the United States, not everything related to sports in the United States.
now Radio City was going to be dark on the normal draft weekend. But the NFL couldn’t move the draft at that point, so the May 8-10 weekend went on as planned.
The poor little NFL didn't get it's way. I bet Roger Goodell stomped his feet, said he hates everyone, ran up to his room and then refused to come out for dinner.
Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel spoke to Roger Goodell twice about having the draft somewhere there—gigantic McCormick Place near Soldier Field, for instance
That's a great idea, though I'm not sure the NFL would enjoy the draft prospects having a 15% chance of being murdered while attending the draft. I guess it would be interesting to see something like a real like "Hunger Games," but people dying is not cool.
When? NFL officials hear the beefs of teams that want the draft in April. NFL officials also see the 30-percent-plus increase in TV ratings with the draft moved two weeks later. I maintain it wouldn’t matter—with the Manziel mystery, the where-will-Michael-Sam go, the fact that four of the top five picks in the draft were totally unknown as the first round approached. But the NFL does not ignore the ratings.
No way! The NFL likes ratings? I could never tell from the Monday Night Football and Sunday Night Football matchups.
My guess: Chicago, with the first round April 30, 2015.
The benefit of this is so many idiotic Jets fans won't be in attendance to boo or stick their ugly-ass face in the camera whenever the Jets choose a player. The problem is I'm scared of Chicago right now.
In the end, Michael Sam did the right thing. He told coach Jeff Fisher and GM Les Snead that he was going to make his situation right, after the Rams were blindsided by the news of the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) planning a “docuseries” on his rookie year as the first openly gay NFL player.
Because the only documentary that should be allowed about the NFL is the one the NFL forces on an NFL team every summer called "Hard Knocks."
The meeting Friday was only positive, I’m told, because OWN was clear that the only way it would do the series is if Sam wanted it and the Rams wanted it. And it’s just as clear that, for both sides, the series would be best done beginning next off-season, assuming Sam makes the team and plays some this year.
I'm pretty sure OWN would need the consent of Michael Sam to do a documentary about him, so I think the fact OWN was going to do a series about Sam at all is a sign that he wanted it done. Unless OWN planned on filming Sam and hoping that he didn't notice what they were doing.
In some ways, it’s a shame we won’t see (at least now) the trials of Sam in this rookie year, the personal side of trying to be the first openly gay player fighting for a spot on the team. It would be compelling to see Sam at home with his boyfriend, and certainly a help to the LGBT community, dealing with what surely will be a stressful time in his life. But for Sam, it’s just better that it be postponed.
Why? Because Sam is a football player, a rookie trying to find his way onto a football team as an underdog low-round draft pick. Could it help him make the team, or help him make his mark? I don’t see how. But I do see how teammates could either resent him or be angry with him as a low man on the team totem pole.
This is probably good advice from Peter. Sam doesn't need more to worry about right now as a 7th round pick trying to adjust to the speed of the NFL. I personally didn't have an issue with his documentary or reality television show or whatever he wanted to call it. I thought if he wanted to be seen as a football player-only then this was a weird way to go about reinforcing this notion.
There is going to be enough of a sideshow—big media names and TMZ showing up at Rams Park, clamoring to get a Sam story or interview—without Sam voluntarily adding to it. At the scouting combine, Sam semi-pleaded with the media to see him as a football player and not as a gay football player. It would have been hypocritical for him, then, to seek that attention by having OWN cameras in his face off the field as he battled to succeed in his first year.
Yet Sam's hypocrisy would not have been quite as annoying as the NFL forcing an NFL team to participate in "Hard Knocks" when that team does not want to participate.
I’ve thought a lot about this story in the past week, as I’m sure everyone who follows football has. And the more I think about it, the more I think Sam landed in a perfect spot. Absolutely perfect. Three reasons:
Here in list form is why the Rams are so great, you guys. Let Peter tell you about why the Rams are the perfect spot for Michael Sam, no check that, the perfect spot for any NFL player to land. This list sponsored by Marvin Demoff.
The Rams embrace the history of it. I can tell you with certainty that there was some regret in the Rams hierarchy that Sam’s rookie story won’t be told by OWN. Not enough to override the fact that the team really didn’t want it to be done. But the Rams are sure they’ll be a welcoming team and St. Louis a welcoming community for Sam. They’re fired up about the historical significance and the chance to show that a football team can be a change agent.
The Rams are really open-minded you guys. They are so open-minded about Michael Sam being gay, yet also really focused on him succeeding as a human being and a football player.
There are not two better coaches in the league, in tandem, for this task than Jeff Fisher and Gregg Williams. Williams especially.
This is true. Michael Sam knows that if he makes the Rams team he won't have to play much football after every early January, so he will have plenty of time to pursue his other interests. If he had landed on a team like the Patriots, Broncos, 49ers or even the Colts there was the risk that their NFL season could push the offseason back three weeks, maybe even four weeks, depending on how far the team advanced in the playoffs. Since Jeff "8-8" Fisher's teams have made the playoffs six times in his 18 full seasons (hey, that's how many winning seasons Fisher has as an NFL head coach too!) as an NFL head coach and he hasn't actually won a playoff game since 2003 then the future looks pretty bright for Sam to pursue his other interests in the offseason. What really seals the deal is Sam can make a few extra dollars during the season participating in Gregg Williams' bounty program that he will implement with the Rams. It motivates the defensive players and gives them some extra pocket change. So there's only a 33% chance playing under Fisher will result in an extended season, which is good news for the OWN documentary.
Gregg Williams has the kind of ego to believe he can take a player with limited athleticism but good college production at a high level and put him in position to make NFL plays. I can’t wait to see what he has planned, frankly. As for Fisher, he’s a staunch league guy. He knows this is good for football and great for the NFL. He will do everything to give Sam the best chance to make it.
If you put your head close to the keyboard, you can actually hear Peter King's conscience screaming out for a break from pimping out Marvin Demoff's clients. Alas, his conscience loses (much like Fisher's teams during the 12 seasons they have not made the playoffs) and Peter talks up the Rams coaching staff yet again this year. Remember last year when he painted Gregg Williams' son as an up-and-coming defensive assistant? This year Blake Williams (I think that's his name) has been relieved of his duties on the Rams coaching staff.
Not to mention, the Rams kept nine defensive linemen last year and they have only three must-keeps (Chris Long, Robert Quinn, William Hayes) at defensive end. Yes, Sam is in the right place,
Surely no doubt he's in the right spot. Maybe he can help lead the Rams to a 12-4 season, which will lead to a Jeff Fisher contract extension, followed by two straight seasons of the team having a 8-8 record. That would be great if that could happen.
Mike Tannenbaum was the general manager of the Jets for seven years before getting fired by owner Woody Johnson 16 months ago. In his former life, he traded for Brett Favre, hired Rex Ryan, drafted Darrelle Revis, starred in Hard Knocks, traded for Tim Tebow, was part of a team that won four road playoff games, watched in horror at The Buttfumble … in other words, did quite a few things to keep the Jets relevant, mostly successful and back-page-worthy.
He just did something else: As a rising star in the agent business, he represented Steve Kerr in negotiations to make him the new Golden State Warriors coach.
Clearly, Tannenbaum would like another shot at being an NFL GM, but he understands that despite his team’s 61 wins and three playoff appearances in seven years, often a general manager in the NFL gets only one shot. Look at the league now. Bruce Allen (Tampa Bay, Washington) is the only current general manager in his second life as a GM.
If only Tannenbaum was the son of an NFL legend and had the last name as that NFL legend, then maybe he could get another shot as an NFL GM. I mean it worked for Bruce Allen and even got Jay Gruden head coaching job with the Redskins. Unfortunately Mike Tannenbaum's name isn't Mike Parcells or Mike Schottenheimer.
One other non-football note. Wondering why Kerr chose Golden State?
No, I think it's pretty obvious why Kerr chose Golden State. The Knicks are a disaster and Kerr doesn't want to work for James Dolan. It seems like an easy decision to me.
NFL owners gather in Atlanta Tuesday for the annual one-day spring meeting, and they’re slated to pick a host city for Super Bowl 52 (I hate Roman numerals, but for you Augustans, it’s Super Bowl LII) on Feb. 4, 2018. The candidate cities are Indianapolis, Minneapolis and New Orleans. Here’s my tote board of favorites:
New Orleans: 2-1
2018 is the tricentennial for the city, and no one hates a New Orleans game.
As long as they pay the power bill this time it sounds like a good idea. Plus, hearing about how great New Orleans is NEVER gets old.
Minnesota 7-2
Northern dome teams always get at least one Super Bowl per new stadium.
And I guess the Vikings are only planning on staying in the stadium for around 10 years, so that's why they should get a Super Bowl just a few years after opening their new stadium?
I personally want another outside Super Bowl up north so I can hear/read sportswriters whining about potential snow and weather that could affect the game. Hearing the cries of a potential crisis, as if the idea of football being played in the snow or (gasp!) rain was too frightening to even imagine, pleased me greatly.
Indianapolis 7-2
Indy did a superb job on the 2012 game. The city is so easy to negotiate.
Since the city of Indianapolis is easy to navigate this means Peter won't have some ignorant immigrant who barely speaks English guiding him around town in a taxi. Peter will know where's going, so he can punch this taxi driver in the face and negotiate his own way to the nearest Starbucks. Peter won't be buying a latte at this Starbucks run like he normally does though. That story is later in this MMQB, so I don't want to ruin it now.
No question the league is inclined to return to central Indiana at some point in the future, but my guess is the owners will figure there’s not the urgency that New Orleans has in 2018. Wild card here will be the presence of owner Jim Irsay, who has been off battling his addiction issues and plans to speak as part of the Indianapolis bid. Will that help, hurt or be no factor?
I'm sorry, I thought Irsay's "addiction issues" have all been covered up and forgotten about. Are we still okay to talk about Irsay getting arrested for DUI and how the NFL hasn't done a damn thing in regard to punishing him? I wasn't sure. I also like how Irsay has "addiction issues" while Josh Gordon doesn't get the benefit of such doubt from Peter. Much like you are "eccentric" if you are crazy and wealthy (as compared to just being called crazy), an arrest for DUI/DWI while being a wealthy owners means you have "addiction issues," while any NFL player who gets arrested for DUI/DWI is a moron who needs to learn to call a cab.
“This offseason has been very frustrating for me … [I wonder] Is this still the place for me?”
—Houston wide receiver Andre Johnson, who obviously thought the Texans would go get a quarterback in free agency or the draft (one better than Ryan Fitzpatrick and Tom Savage).
Houston coach Bill O’Brien is in a tough spot. He’s got a wideout who’s going to be 33 this season, who, despite the inconsistency at quarterback for the team, has caught 221 passes over the last two years and missed zero games due to injury. If Johnson’s not going to be with the program, is it worth trying to get a 2015 or 2016 first-round pick for him—which some contender (New England? San Francisco?) might be willing to do?
If Andre Johnson keeps running his mouth about how he doesn't want to be on the Texans team anymore he could end up helping the Texans lose any leverage they may have when trying to get a first round pick in return for Johnson. At this point, I'm not sure the 49ers even have room on the roster at the wide receiver spot to trade for another wide receiver. Who would be the fourth receiver on this 49ers team with a run-based offense? Stevie Johnson? Anquan Boldin?
“I think I’m a lot more ready than people think. I think people label me as a project simply off of stats. I can understand what they see, what they think … but when you think of a project you think of building something from the ground up. I feel like I have a basis. It’s just a few things I’ve got to get down. Everybody has things to work on. I don’t think mine are as crazy as people want to make them out to be.”
—Arizona quarterback Logan Thomas, a fourth-round pick in the draft.
All Thomas has to do is work on making better decisions and improve his accuracy, which is something he wasn't able to do at all during his college career. I think it sounds easy enough, plus he really, really looks like a quarterback and has all the measurables. That's all that matters. Maybe one day Thomas will wake up and just be more accurate throwing the football.
Three times as many TV households (671,000 to 225,000) watched the first round of the NFL draft on May 8 as watched the opening game of the Subway Series between the Mets and Yankees May 12.
That's crazy, because everyone wants to watch the first game of a regular season matchup between the Mets and Yankees. There is no more compelling game than a Subway Series (it is to be capitalized because it's that important) regular season game.
Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note of the Week
Plumb forgot this one last week:
Well, golly gee! You plumb had it slip your mind.
So on a quick trip to Nashville a couple of days before the draft, I found myself having a beer and a bowl of turkey chili in a sports bar downtown. Ten minutes into my beer, I noticed it. Smoke.
My God, the place was on fire! Finish your bowl of turkey chili, grab the Brett Favre autographed computer case you carry, drain your beer and then get the hell out of there!
The guy and gal at the next table were both drinking and smoking—and they did neither casually.
This was opposed to Peter who was casually drinking his beer and casually eating his bowl of turkey chili. The difference is the loftiness and grace with which Peter drinks the beer and eats soup.
Now, where I live, New York, smoking has been banned in public bars and buildings for 11 years.
This is otherwise known as "civilization" where smoking has been banned, Big Gulps are banned and the people always respect each other's sense of privacy. New York is the utopia Peter King was looking for and has now found.
Smoking has been banned in city parks for the past three years.
“Surprising to see people smoking in the bar,” I said to my server. “Anybody ever complain?”
By the way, it took Peter 10 minutes to notice the smoke, either that or the people who were smoking didn't arrive until 10 minutes into Peter's beer.
“Not that I’ve heard,” the fellow said. “We’re pretty much still a smoking society down here.”
Bummer.
I don't know where "down here" is, but smoking has been banned in most public places where I live. There are even designated smoking areas at most places of employment. It sounds like Peter has been visiting some dive bars on his tour of Tennessee.
Sports columnist for the Newark Star Ledger, who presumably will be one of the (apparently reluctant) watchers of the Belmont Stakes in New York in 19 days, when California Chrome tries to become the first Triple Crown winner since 1978.
Ah, horse racing. A sport that isn't really a sport and something I have never understood the draw of.
Ten Things I Think I Think
And always try to remember that these are not things Peter knows, but things he thinks that he thinks. He isn't sure if he thinks them or not, but he thinks that he might.
1. I think I would be surprised if we didn’t read the following headline on the web sometime late Tuesday afternoon: “NFL owners make progress on expanded playoffs.” My guess is a vote is unlikely but possible, and commissioner Roger Goodell wants to be sure he hears every ownership voice that wants to be heard before calling a vote on it...One of the reasons is the increased TV exposure and ratings and ad revenue associated with two more playoff games. I expect the new format to include two valuable entities the league now does not have: Sunday night and Monday night games on wild card weekend, with six wild card games filling the weekend instead of the current four.
Why doesn't the NFL just allow every team to make the playoffs? That would be much easier, increase exposure, ad revenue and ratings also, plus more NFL head coaches could claim they took their team to the playoffs.
2. I think no one asked me (who ever does?), but I think 12 playoff teams is plenty, and 14 waters down the significance of making the postseason. And what’s to stop the league five years from now saying, “The ratings for wild card weekend are so boffo that we should go to 16.”
Now that I agree with Peter King on this, I would like to change my mind. What's the harm in more playoff games? It allows more fans to be a part of the playoffs and if a team isn't good enough to make the playoffs they will simply lose early. More playoff football isn't a bad thing. There, I have changed my mind. I can not in good conscience agree with Peter.
3. I think one of the players I’m anxious to follow in training camp this summer is undrafted free-agent defensive end Jackson Jeffcoat of the Seahawks.
You mean the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year that went undrafted and nobody gave a shit or was all up-in-arms about it because he's not gay? That guy?
Surprisingly undrafted after a 33-start career at defensive end for Texas, Jim Jeffcoat’s son caught the eye of Pete Carroll at a weekend minicamp. He’ll have to be special to dent a very good defensive line, but anyone who accounts for 32 tackles for loss (19 non-sack tackles behind the line, 13 sacks) in that program could open eyes when the real practices start in July.
You mean there was a quality college football player that went undrafted purely based on his skill at playing football? No way, I have been told the only reason that would happen is because teams aren't brave enough to draft a player like this.
4. I think this is why they paid you the big money, Dave Gettleman. The Panthers general manager has to decide what to do, if anything, about a long contract extension for star defensive end Greg Hardy, just 25 years old and in his prime, after Hardy’s run-in with a girlfriend and his temporary jailing … and being ordered to turn in 10 guns to authorities.
Gettleman doesn't have to decide what to do with Hardy until after the NFL season if it even comes to that. He can wait to see how the season goes and then decide what to do with Hardy from there after the case has been adjudicated. It's not against the law to own guns (though if this were an NFL owner I'm sure Peter will say that Irsay has "gun addiction issues") and nothing has been shown positive or negative in the case yet regarding Hardy's guilt.
In addition, the judge in the case ordered Hardy to attend three Alcoholics Anonymous classes.
No mention of "addiction issues"? That's right, Hardy is an NFL player, not an owner. NFL players get suspended for violating NFL rules all the time, but Goodell is still hard at work thinking about the appropriate punishment for Jim Irsay.
This could be a very tough call for Gettleman, particularly if Hardy is cleared to play at the start of the season and tears up the NFC South as he did last year.
Hardy did have nine of his fifteen sacks last year against NFC South teams, but he got seven of those sacks in the last two weeks of the season and was completely shut out by Joe Staley in the playoffs.
10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:
a. After the bitter Montreal-Boston series, TSN’s Aaron Ward reported that Boston’s Milan Lucic said to two Canadiens, “I’m going to —-ing kill you next year.” That’s nice.
b. Two days later, in front of the press, Lucic said, “I’m not apologizing for what was said in the handshake line.” That’s nicer.
c. I want to hear what Lucic thinks on July 19. Not May 19. If it’s the same, that’s not a guy I’d want on my team. Ridiculous Irony of the Week: Lucic recently released a book entitled, Not Cool to Bully in School.
I'm not sure that's ironic because I don't think one grown man telling two other grown men he'll "fucking kill you next year" could qualify as bullying at all. First off, they are all grown men, and second, it is one person threatening two people. Can one person bully multiple people in this way?
h. Coffeenerdness: So I’ve been working a bit with a nutritionist, and after studying my diet (or lack thereof), she said, “No more lattes.” The horror!
How can a person be "a bit" of a nutritionist? I would think a person is either a nutritionist or not.
We reached a bit of a truce there. I shan’t give up my favorite warm beverage, but I think I can handle three a week, with brewed Italian roast the rest of the time. We’ll see.
Speaking of people who have "addiction issues," if Peter can't limit himself to three lattes a week then he should perhaps go to coffee rehab.
j. Donald Sterling stories: Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.
These stories are boring, but they certainly weren't boring a few weeks ago when he commented on the Sterling situation in two straight MMQB's. It's a boring situation once Peter is done commenting on the situation.
The Adieu Haiku
Draft withdrawal sets in.
One hope I have this morning:
Mayock. Beach. St. Kitts.
Mayock certainly trolled hard enough when talking about Teddy Bridgewater to deserve a vacation. I mean, he ignored all of the tape he saw of Bridgewater and focused his entire evaluation on the bad Pro Day Bridgewater had.
Many things to do today, the pivotal offseason of the Atlanta Falcons, the state of the 2015 NFL draft, why Michael Sam and new BFF Oprah did the right thing, Gregg Williams being in the prefect place at the right time,
It's a story of redemption for Gregg Williams! That's a great way to spin. Snark aside, I'm glad Peter has finally acknowledged the infallible Rams have hired the architect of the bounty scandal as their defensive coordinator. It only took several months for Peter to acknowledge this happened.
So we’ve started this 10-week series at The MMQB. It’s about the history of pro football, with an eye on the future in every story we do. We dispatched young Emily Kaplan down to NFL Films in south Jersey to see a living, breathing NFL museum, the office of the late NFL Films impresario Steve Sabol, whose workplace was left precisely how he last worked in it, right down to his last lunch order. Emily Kaplan wrote vividly of the place, and photographer Jeff Zelevansky took a breathtaking GigaPan photo of the office—you can put your cursor on anything in the office, focus on it and POOF! There it is, full and vivid, on your screen.
Technology, everyone! I see Peter King has gone to the Bill Simmons School of Synergy where he uses his popular weekly column to publicize the future and past columns that will be/have appeared on THE MMQB (again, not to be confused with the MMQB Peter writes every week).
Look at the notes Sabol took after a long session watching Bill Parcells coach. Focus on it. Put your cursor on the binder with the Parcells notes, and you’ll see, down near the bottom of the page, what Sabol found after his Parcells experience.
“He’s more than old school. He’s a one-room schoolhouse with no lunch and no recess.”
Did Parcells have any quotes about how he is able to drum up interest in himself for NFL jobs by pretending to have interest in an NFL coaching job, lying that he has interest, backing out at the last minute and then taking another NFL head coaching job all while denying he is taking the job? Were there any notes on how he won only three playoff games his last 11 years of coaching? Probably not.
When coach Mike Smith and GM Thomas Dimitroff looked at their team in the last couple of years, there were things they didn’t like much. But when you coach and manage a team for five years, and you win 56 games and lose just 24, and you make the playoffs four out of five years, you tend to say, “We’re okay.”
So their sense of complacency was perfectly understandable and absolutely fine. They had made a couple of Super Bowls over the past five years, so there was really nothing to improve upon. It's not like there were any younger, competitive teams in the NFC who had proven they could beat the Falcons at home in the playoffs, so an extra week of vacation and no major roster changes are no problem at all.
Said Smith: “Human nature, when you’re getting positive results, is not to stress the negative. But when you get humbled, which happened last year, you’ve got to be realistic about your team.”
I guess it depends on your definition of "positive results" (though this is a typical Atlanta area team attitude like the Braves sometimes have had isn't it? "We made the playoffs, everything is good, no need to improve in the offseason."), doesn't it? Me personally, if I had lost a home NFC Championship Game I probably would be ready to fix any small hole in the roster with a sense of urgency and go back at it again the next year with a better team. Perhaps the Falcons thought they had done that.
As the house-collapsing 4–12 season of 2013 proved, the Falcons were most definitely not okay. The pass-rush stunk. The offensive line stunk. The secondary leaked. And every time they got into the playoffs—Smith’s playoff record: 1–4—a team with a strong pass-rush and good secondary frustrated Matt Ryan and sent the Falcons home early.
So maybe if the Falcons had a bad pass-rush and a bad secondary they could win a few playoff games and make it to the Super Bowl!
Now came the next piece of drama in the Atlanta draft room. New assistant GM Scott Pioli was a voice of calm in the room;
Will some NFL team just hire Scott Pioli as their General Manager so Peter King can stop reciting the virtues of his good friend? Scott Pioli was a voice of calm in the Kansas City draft room too. Unfortunately being calm doesn't immediately translate to being a good GM. But hey, Pioli knows Bill Belichick, so he has to be a genius!
Atlanta sat at 37, and wanted a pass-rusher—either a defensive end or an outside linebacker. The Falcons really wanted Ohio State linebacker Ryan Shazier, who went to Pittsburgh at number 15. That was too high for Atlanta. Then the object of their affection was defensive end Dee Ford, and he would have cost a third-round pick for Atlanta to move into the mid-20s. But Kansas City grabbed Ford at 23, and there went the two rushers Dimitroff liked.
No snark here, but if I were Atlanta and I was willing to move up to get Jake Matthews then I would also be willing to give up a third round pick to move up and get Dee Ford. It's not like their Julio Jones deal with Cleveland hasn't gone really well for them so far. Go confidently in the direction of your dreams, get that pass rusher you want!
The night before the draft, it was clear Dimitroff wanted one more impact guy out of this draft that he just wasn’t able to get. “This league is about now, and it’s about impact players,” he said. “What did Marv Levy say? ‘Depth is great until you’ve got to use it?’ ”
Perhaps I'm stupid, but this doesn't make sense to me. Depth is great and if you have to use it then that makes it doubly great, right? It's better than not having depth and having to use the depth you don't have isn't it? I get what Marv Levy is trying to say, but it really doesn't make sense because the alternative is to have no depth and have to use it. So depth is great, but it sucks if you have to use it.
Getting an impact guy in the draft is important, but the NFL is also about having depth on the roster. Just ask the Seahawks who didn't have a problem after losing Brandon Browner to suspension and won the Super Bowl despite not having the best two receivers on their roster healthy for most of the season.
Soon after the season, Dimitroff and Smith had a summit meeting with owner Arthur Blank. “We have been the hardest on ourselves, and Mr. Blank was hard on us too,” said Dimitroff. “But I welcome that. We deserved it. I’ll be damned if I ever say adequate is okay.”
Except for last year when Dimitroff and Smith decided that making the NFC Championship was adequate and they admittedly got complacent and said they were okay.
“This is not in any way a quest to find excuses for why we went 4–12,” Dimitroff said. “It is just us being mindful to try to do everything we can to keep our players healthy and at a top performance level. And give credit to Smitty—he’s been on board with everything to try to be sure our players are playing at their peak.”
You wouldn't think a head coach would want his players playing at their peak and in great shape.
Mike Tice and Bryan Cox have been imported as assistants on the offense and defense, respectively, in part to instill a toughness that has been missing.
Hopefully Mike Tice won't try to install a "Julio Rule" or else Gregg Easterbrook will flip his shit and talk about what a diva player Jones is.
But if Matt Ryan gets whacked around like last year, and if Smith’s defense can’t pressure the quarterback, it’ll be a battle again to stay out of the NFC South basement. And Blank won’t be so patient then.
And then Scott Pioli can take over the Falcons team and lead them to the promised land! Peter and Pioli can drink the blood of Thomas Dimitroff and revel in the victory of calmness and genius over complacency and creating depth.
Gut feeling about the 2015 NFL draft: It will be in a city other than New York, and it will be a week earlier, starting on April 30 and running until May 2.
Gut feeling about NFL fans. They don't especially care where the draft will be held unless it's in their home city.
Why? It’s complicated.
Well Peter, I hope your reader's mini-sized brains can handle the complicatedness of the NFL Draft starting earlier and being in a different city. Just remember that very few of your readers are as smart as you are and avoid using big words.
Last year, Radio City delayed its decision about what dates were available in the spring of 2014, causing the NFL to put off planning for the 2014 draft. Then Radio City told the league the venue was going to be occupied in mid to late April by an Easter Spectacular show, something akin to the Radio City holiday show with the Rockettes. Okay, NFL officials said, we’ll push the draft back to the second weekend of May. Mother’s Day weekend wasn’t ideal, but what choice did the NFL have? Then, earlier this year, Radio City canceled the Easter show. The NFL seethed.
See, this irritates me. It makes perfect sense now why the draft was pushed back until May. Why didn't Peter King (if he even knew prior to the draft), the NFL or someone else just say, "Hey, Radio City was booked and we couldn't get a date until May." It makes sense and rather than have NFL fans and writers make comments about the NFL pushing the draft back until July, just state a completely understandable reason why the draft was pushed back until May 8-10. I have to admit though, I like that Radio City pissed off the NFL. The NFL not getting it's way does not displease me and I think it's good if the NFL is reminded from time to time they only control football in the United States, not everything related to sports in the United States.
now Radio City was going to be dark on the normal draft weekend. But the NFL couldn’t move the draft at that point, so the May 8-10 weekend went on as planned.
The poor little NFL didn't get it's way. I bet Roger Goodell stomped his feet, said he hates everyone, ran up to his room and then refused to come out for dinner.
Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel spoke to Roger Goodell twice about having the draft somewhere there—gigantic McCormick Place near Soldier Field, for instance
That's a great idea, though I'm not sure the NFL would enjoy the draft prospects having a 15% chance of being murdered while attending the draft. I guess it would be interesting to see something like a real like "Hunger Games," but people dying is not cool.
When? NFL officials hear the beefs of teams that want the draft in April. NFL officials also see the 30-percent-plus increase in TV ratings with the draft moved two weeks later. I maintain it wouldn’t matter—with the Manziel mystery, the where-will-Michael-Sam go, the fact that four of the top five picks in the draft were totally unknown as the first round approached. But the NFL does not ignore the ratings.
No way! The NFL likes ratings? I could never tell from the Monday Night Football and Sunday Night Football matchups.
My guess: Chicago, with the first round April 30, 2015.
The benefit of this is so many idiotic Jets fans won't be in attendance to boo or stick their ugly-ass face in the camera whenever the Jets choose a player. The problem is I'm scared of Chicago right now.
In the end, Michael Sam did the right thing. He told coach Jeff Fisher and GM Les Snead that he was going to make his situation right, after the Rams were blindsided by the news of the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) planning a “docuseries” on his rookie year as the first openly gay NFL player.
Because the only documentary that should be allowed about the NFL is the one the NFL forces on an NFL team every summer called "Hard Knocks."
The meeting Friday was only positive, I’m told, because OWN was clear that the only way it would do the series is if Sam wanted it and the Rams wanted it. And it’s just as clear that, for both sides, the series would be best done beginning next off-season, assuming Sam makes the team and plays some this year.
I'm pretty sure OWN would need the consent of Michael Sam to do a documentary about him, so I think the fact OWN was going to do a series about Sam at all is a sign that he wanted it done. Unless OWN planned on filming Sam and hoping that he didn't notice what they were doing.
In some ways, it’s a shame we won’t see (at least now) the trials of Sam in this rookie year, the personal side of trying to be the first openly gay player fighting for a spot on the team. It would be compelling to see Sam at home with his boyfriend, and certainly a help to the LGBT community, dealing with what surely will be a stressful time in his life. But for Sam, it’s just better that it be postponed.
Why? Because Sam is a football player, a rookie trying to find his way onto a football team as an underdog low-round draft pick. Could it help him make the team, or help him make his mark? I don’t see how. But I do see how teammates could either resent him or be angry with him as a low man on the team totem pole.
This is probably good advice from Peter. Sam doesn't need more to worry about right now as a 7th round pick trying to adjust to the speed of the NFL. I personally didn't have an issue with his documentary or reality television show or whatever he wanted to call it. I thought if he wanted to be seen as a football player-only then this was a weird way to go about reinforcing this notion.
There is going to be enough of a sideshow—big media names and TMZ showing up at Rams Park, clamoring to get a Sam story or interview—without Sam voluntarily adding to it. At the scouting combine, Sam semi-pleaded with the media to see him as a football player and not as a gay football player. It would have been hypocritical for him, then, to seek that attention by having OWN cameras in his face off the field as he battled to succeed in his first year.
Yet Sam's hypocrisy would not have been quite as annoying as the NFL forcing an NFL team to participate in "Hard Knocks" when that team does not want to participate.
I’ve thought a lot about this story in the past week, as I’m sure everyone who follows football has. And the more I think about it, the more I think Sam landed in a perfect spot. Absolutely perfect. Three reasons:
Here in list form is why the Rams are so great, you guys. Let Peter tell you about why the Rams are the perfect spot for Michael Sam, no check that, the perfect spot for any NFL player to land. This list sponsored by Marvin Demoff.
The Rams embrace the history of it. I can tell you with certainty that there was some regret in the Rams hierarchy that Sam’s rookie story won’t be told by OWN. Not enough to override the fact that the team really didn’t want it to be done. But the Rams are sure they’ll be a welcoming team and St. Louis a welcoming community for Sam. They’re fired up about the historical significance and the chance to show that a football team can be a change agent.
The Rams are really open-minded you guys. They are so open-minded about Michael Sam being gay, yet also really focused on him succeeding as a human being and a football player.
There are not two better coaches in the league, in tandem, for this task than Jeff Fisher and Gregg Williams. Williams especially.
This is true. Michael Sam knows that if he makes the Rams team he won't have to play much football after every early January, so he will have plenty of time to pursue his other interests. If he had landed on a team like the Patriots, Broncos, 49ers or even the Colts there was the risk that their NFL season could push the offseason back three weeks, maybe even four weeks, depending on how far the team advanced in the playoffs. Since Jeff "8-8" Fisher's teams have made the playoffs six times in his 18 full seasons (hey, that's how many winning seasons Fisher has as an NFL head coach too!) as an NFL head coach and he hasn't actually won a playoff game since 2003 then the future looks pretty bright for Sam to pursue his other interests in the offseason. What really seals the deal is Sam can make a few extra dollars during the season participating in Gregg Williams' bounty program that he will implement with the Rams. It motivates the defensive players and gives them some extra pocket change. So there's only a 33% chance playing under Fisher will result in an extended season, which is good news for the OWN documentary.
Gregg Williams has the kind of ego to believe he can take a player with limited athleticism but good college production at a high level and put him in position to make NFL plays. I can’t wait to see what he has planned, frankly. As for Fisher, he’s a staunch league guy. He knows this is good for football and great for the NFL. He will do everything to give Sam the best chance to make it.
If you put your head close to the keyboard, you can actually hear Peter King's conscience screaming out for a break from pimping out Marvin Demoff's clients. Alas, his conscience loses (much like Fisher's teams during the 12 seasons they have not made the playoffs) and Peter talks up the Rams coaching staff yet again this year. Remember last year when he painted Gregg Williams' son as an up-and-coming defensive assistant? This year Blake Williams (I think that's his name) has been relieved of his duties on the Rams coaching staff.
Not to mention, the Rams kept nine defensive linemen last year and they have only three must-keeps (Chris Long, Robert Quinn, William Hayes) at defensive end. Yes, Sam is in the right place,
Surely no doubt he's in the right spot. Maybe he can help lead the Rams to a 12-4 season, which will lead to a Jeff Fisher contract extension, followed by two straight seasons of the team having a 8-8 record. That would be great if that could happen.
Mike Tannenbaum was the general manager of the Jets for seven years before getting fired by owner Woody Johnson 16 months ago. In his former life, he traded for Brett Favre, hired Rex Ryan, drafted Darrelle Revis, starred in Hard Knocks, traded for Tim Tebow, was part of a team that won four road playoff games, watched in horror at The Buttfumble … in other words, did quite a few things to keep the Jets relevant, mostly successful and back-page-worthy.
He just did something else: As a rising star in the agent business, he represented Steve Kerr in negotiations to make him the new Golden State Warriors coach.
Clearly, Tannenbaum would like another shot at being an NFL GM, but he understands that despite his team’s 61 wins and three playoff appearances in seven years, often a general manager in the NFL gets only one shot. Look at the league now. Bruce Allen (Tampa Bay, Washington) is the only current general manager in his second life as a GM.
If only Tannenbaum was the son of an NFL legend and had the last name as that NFL legend, then maybe he could get another shot as an NFL GM. I mean it worked for Bruce Allen and even got Jay Gruden head coaching job with the Redskins. Unfortunately Mike Tannenbaum's name isn't Mike Parcells or Mike Schottenheimer.
One other non-football note. Wondering why Kerr chose Golden State?
No, I think it's pretty obvious why Kerr chose Golden State. The Knicks are a disaster and Kerr doesn't want to work for James Dolan. It seems like an easy decision to me.
NFL owners gather in Atlanta Tuesday for the annual one-day spring meeting, and they’re slated to pick a host city for Super Bowl 52 (I hate Roman numerals, but for you Augustans, it’s Super Bowl LII) on Feb. 4, 2018. The candidate cities are Indianapolis, Minneapolis and New Orleans. Here’s my tote board of favorites:
New Orleans: 2-1
2018 is the tricentennial for the city, and no one hates a New Orleans game.
As long as they pay the power bill this time it sounds like a good idea. Plus, hearing about how great New Orleans is NEVER gets old.
Minnesota 7-2
Northern dome teams always get at least one Super Bowl per new stadium.
And I guess the Vikings are only planning on staying in the stadium for around 10 years, so that's why they should get a Super Bowl just a few years after opening their new stadium?
I personally want another outside Super Bowl up north so I can hear/read sportswriters whining about potential snow and weather that could affect the game. Hearing the cries of a potential crisis, as if the idea of football being played in the snow or (gasp!) rain was too frightening to even imagine, pleased me greatly.
Indianapolis 7-2
Indy did a superb job on the 2012 game. The city is so easy to negotiate.
Since the city of Indianapolis is easy to navigate this means Peter won't have some ignorant immigrant who barely speaks English guiding him around town in a taxi. Peter will know where's going, so he can punch this taxi driver in the face and negotiate his own way to the nearest Starbucks. Peter won't be buying a latte at this Starbucks run like he normally does though. That story is later in this MMQB, so I don't want to ruin it now.
No question the league is inclined to return to central Indiana at some point in the future, but my guess is the owners will figure there’s not the urgency that New Orleans has in 2018. Wild card here will be the presence of owner Jim Irsay, who has been off battling his addiction issues and plans to speak as part of the Indianapolis bid. Will that help, hurt or be no factor?
I'm sorry, I thought Irsay's "addiction issues" have all been covered up and forgotten about. Are we still okay to talk about Irsay getting arrested for DUI and how the NFL hasn't done a damn thing in regard to punishing him? I wasn't sure. I also like how Irsay has "addiction issues" while Josh Gordon doesn't get the benefit of such doubt from Peter. Much like you are "eccentric" if you are crazy and wealthy (as compared to just being called crazy), an arrest for DUI/DWI while being a wealthy owners means you have "addiction issues," while any NFL player who gets arrested for DUI/DWI is a moron who needs to learn to call a cab.
“This offseason has been very frustrating for me … [I wonder] Is this still the place for me?”
—Houston wide receiver Andre Johnson, who obviously thought the Texans would go get a quarterback in free agency or the draft (one better than Ryan Fitzpatrick and Tom Savage).
Houston coach Bill O’Brien is in a tough spot. He’s got a wideout who’s going to be 33 this season, who, despite the inconsistency at quarterback for the team, has caught 221 passes over the last two years and missed zero games due to injury. If Johnson’s not going to be with the program, is it worth trying to get a 2015 or 2016 first-round pick for him—which some contender (New England? San Francisco?) might be willing to do?
If Andre Johnson keeps running his mouth about how he doesn't want to be on the Texans team anymore he could end up helping the Texans lose any leverage they may have when trying to get a first round pick in return for Johnson. At this point, I'm not sure the 49ers even have room on the roster at the wide receiver spot to trade for another wide receiver. Who would be the fourth receiver on this 49ers team with a run-based offense? Stevie Johnson? Anquan Boldin?
“I think I’m a lot more ready than people think. I think people label me as a project simply off of stats. I can understand what they see, what they think … but when you think of a project you think of building something from the ground up. I feel like I have a basis. It’s just a few things I’ve got to get down. Everybody has things to work on. I don’t think mine are as crazy as people want to make them out to be.”
—Arizona quarterback Logan Thomas, a fourth-round pick in the draft.
All Thomas has to do is work on making better decisions and improve his accuracy, which is something he wasn't able to do at all during his college career. I think it sounds easy enough, plus he really, really looks like a quarterback and has all the measurables. That's all that matters. Maybe one day Thomas will wake up and just be more accurate throwing the football.
Three times as many TV households (671,000 to 225,000) watched the first round of the NFL draft on May 8 as watched the opening game of the Subway Series between the Mets and Yankees May 12.
That's crazy, because everyone wants to watch the first game of a regular season matchup between the Mets and Yankees. There is no more compelling game than a Subway Series (it is to be capitalized because it's that important) regular season game.
Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note of the Week
Plumb forgot this one last week:
Well, golly gee! You plumb had it slip your mind.
So on a quick trip to Nashville a couple of days before the draft, I found myself having a beer and a bowl of turkey chili in a sports bar downtown. Ten minutes into my beer, I noticed it. Smoke.
My God, the place was on fire! Finish your bowl of turkey chili, grab the Brett Favre autographed computer case you carry, drain your beer and then get the hell out of there!
The guy and gal at the next table were both drinking and smoking—and they did neither casually.
This was opposed to Peter who was casually drinking his beer and casually eating his bowl of turkey chili. The difference is the loftiness and grace with which Peter drinks the beer and eats soup.
Now, where I live, New York, smoking has been banned in public bars and buildings for 11 years.
This is otherwise known as "civilization" where smoking has been banned, Big Gulps are banned and the people always respect each other's sense of privacy. New York is the utopia Peter King was looking for and has now found.
Smoking has been banned in city parks for the past three years.
“Surprising to see people smoking in the bar,” I said to my server. “Anybody ever complain?”
By the way, it took Peter 10 minutes to notice the smoke, either that or the people who were smoking didn't arrive until 10 minutes into Peter's beer.
“Not that I’ve heard,” the fellow said. “We’re pretty much still a smoking society down here.”
Bummer.
I don't know where "down here" is, but smoking has been banned in most public places where I live. There are even designated smoking areas at most places of employment. It sounds like Peter has been visiting some dive bars on his tour of Tennessee.
Well there goes a perfectly good Saturday in June I mean hooray for another Triple Crown try!
— Steve Politi (@StevePoliti) May 17, 2014
Sports columnist for the Newark Star Ledger, who presumably will be one of the (apparently reluctant) watchers of the Belmont Stakes in New York in 19 days, when California Chrome tries to become the first Triple Crown winner since 1978.
Ah, horse racing. A sport that isn't really a sport and something I have never understood the draw of.
Ten Things I Think I Think
And always try to remember that these are not things Peter knows, but things he thinks that he thinks. He isn't sure if he thinks them or not, but he thinks that he might.
1. I think I would be surprised if we didn’t read the following headline on the web sometime late Tuesday afternoon: “NFL owners make progress on expanded playoffs.” My guess is a vote is unlikely but possible, and commissioner Roger Goodell wants to be sure he hears every ownership voice that wants to be heard before calling a vote on it...One of the reasons is the increased TV exposure and ratings and ad revenue associated with two more playoff games. I expect the new format to include two valuable entities the league now does not have: Sunday night and Monday night games on wild card weekend, with six wild card games filling the weekend instead of the current four.
Why doesn't the NFL just allow every team to make the playoffs? That would be much easier, increase exposure, ad revenue and ratings also, plus more NFL head coaches could claim they took their team to the playoffs.
2. I think no one asked me (who ever does?), but I think 12 playoff teams is plenty, and 14 waters down the significance of making the postseason. And what’s to stop the league five years from now saying, “The ratings for wild card weekend are so boffo that we should go to 16.”
Now that I agree with Peter King on this, I would like to change my mind. What's the harm in more playoff games? It allows more fans to be a part of the playoffs and if a team isn't good enough to make the playoffs they will simply lose early. More playoff football isn't a bad thing. There, I have changed my mind. I can not in good conscience agree with Peter.
3. I think one of the players I’m anxious to follow in training camp this summer is undrafted free-agent defensive end Jackson Jeffcoat of the Seahawks.
You mean the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year that went undrafted and nobody gave a shit or was all up-in-arms about it because he's not gay? That guy?
Surprisingly undrafted after a 33-start career at defensive end for Texas, Jim Jeffcoat’s son caught the eye of Pete Carroll at a weekend minicamp. He’ll have to be special to dent a very good defensive line, but anyone who accounts for 32 tackles for loss (19 non-sack tackles behind the line, 13 sacks) in that program could open eyes when the real practices start in July.
You mean there was a quality college football player that went undrafted purely based on his skill at playing football? No way, I have been told the only reason that would happen is because teams aren't brave enough to draft a player like this.
4. I think this is why they paid you the big money, Dave Gettleman. The Panthers general manager has to decide what to do, if anything, about a long contract extension for star defensive end Greg Hardy, just 25 years old and in his prime, after Hardy’s run-in with a girlfriend and his temporary jailing … and being ordered to turn in 10 guns to authorities.
Gettleman doesn't have to decide what to do with Hardy until after the NFL season if it even comes to that. He can wait to see how the season goes and then decide what to do with Hardy from there after the case has been adjudicated. It's not against the law to own guns (though if this were an NFL owner I'm sure Peter will say that Irsay has "gun addiction issues") and nothing has been shown positive or negative in the case yet regarding Hardy's guilt.
In addition, the judge in the case ordered Hardy to attend three Alcoholics Anonymous classes.
No mention of "addiction issues"? That's right, Hardy is an NFL player, not an owner. NFL players get suspended for violating NFL rules all the time, but Goodell is still hard at work thinking about the appropriate punishment for Jim Irsay.
This could be a very tough call for Gettleman, particularly if Hardy is cleared to play at the start of the season and tears up the NFC South as he did last year.
Hardy did have nine of his fifteen sacks last year against NFC South teams, but he got seven of those sacks in the last two weeks of the season and was completely shut out by Joe Staley in the playoffs.
10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:
a. After the bitter Montreal-Boston series, TSN’s Aaron Ward reported that Boston’s Milan Lucic said to two Canadiens, “I’m going to —-ing kill you next year.” That’s nice.
b. Two days later, in front of the press, Lucic said, “I’m not apologizing for what was said in the handshake line.” That’s nicer.
c. I want to hear what Lucic thinks on July 19. Not May 19. If it’s the same, that’s not a guy I’d want on my team. Ridiculous Irony of the Week: Lucic recently released a book entitled, Not Cool to Bully in School.
I'm not sure that's ironic because I don't think one grown man telling two other grown men he'll "fucking kill you next year" could qualify as bullying at all. First off, they are all grown men, and second, it is one person threatening two people. Can one person bully multiple people in this way?
h. Coffeenerdness: So I’ve been working a bit with a nutritionist, and after studying my diet (or lack thereof), she said, “No more lattes.” The horror!
How can a person be "a bit" of a nutritionist? I would think a person is either a nutritionist or not.
We reached a bit of a truce there. I shan’t give up my favorite warm beverage, but I think I can handle three a week, with brewed Italian roast the rest of the time. We’ll see.
Speaking of people who have "addiction issues," if Peter can't limit himself to three lattes a week then he should perhaps go to coffee rehab.
j. Donald Sterling stories: Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.
These stories are boring, but they certainly weren't boring a few weeks ago when he commented on the Sterling situation in two straight MMQB's. It's a boring situation once Peter is done commenting on the situation.
The Adieu Haiku
Draft withdrawal sets in.
One hope I have this morning:
Mayock. Beach. St. Kitts.
Mayock certainly trolled hard enough when talking about Teddy Bridgewater to deserve a vacation. I mean, he ignored all of the tape he saw of Bridgewater and focused his entire evaluation on the bad Pro Day Bridgewater had.
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