NFL Observations… things I saw in the preseason that made me laugh.
The first thing is the sad fate of the Chicago Bears. Being a quarterback in Chicago has become the NFL equivalent of a helicopter door gunner during Vietnam. I think the life expectancy of a Chicago QB is 14 snaps. I have the NFL network and watch quite a bit of it, it’s good to have on in the background while I’m writing… anyway, I saw clips from three different Bears games this preseason and in each one they interviewed wide receiver and new Bear Mushin Muhammed on the QB position. In the first one he spoke about how well Rex Grossman was doing and how he was looking forward to the season. The next one, after Grossman was announced out for the year, Muhammed spoke of how well new starting QB Chad Hutchinson was doing and how he was looking forward to the season. The third interview was last night; Hutchinson has been demoted and most likely will be cut today. Muhammed was interviewed and spoke of how well new QB Kyle Orton was doing and how he was looking forward to the season. How well do you think Muhammed will do running his routes if he has to spend so much time ‘towing the team line’. I so wanted him to look at the camera and say ‘we’re fucked’.
Sports Illustrated has recently put out their Football Preview special and in it they announce that the winner of this years Super Bowl will be the Carolina Panthers who will beat the Indianapolis Colts 31-27. As a Carolina fan, this news scared the hell out of me. First off… has there been any time in the history of the NFL that anyone has been able to successfully predict the season? Just by making the guess, they are almost guaranteeing that it won’t happen. Second thing that scared me is that they put Jake Delhomme on the cover. Well, for those non-sports fans, there is a supposed curse on those poor soles that appear on the covers of Sports Illustrated. Many times after appearing on the cover, individuals or teams have suffered various jinxed events that have included everything from loses, injuries, divorces and even death. Sports Illustrated itself did an article on the curse back in 2002 and couldn’t get anyone to pose for the cover. Here is a portion of the article dealing with the statistics involved in the curse. --- In investigating virtually all of SI's 2,456 covers, we found 913 "jinxes", a demonstrable misfortune or decline in performance following a cover appearance roughly 37.2 percent of the time. --- So over a third of the people who appear on the cover suffer some level of tragedy following the appearance. My Panthers are doomed… and poor Delhomme is probably going to end up never taking a snap this season.
The only curse more prevalent than the Sports Illustrated one is being on the cover of the Madden Football video game. The Madden curse all started in 2001 where Eddie George was featured on the cover. George's Titans missed the playoffs in 2001, and George failed to make the 1,000-yard rushing mark. In 2002 the cover star was Daunte Culpepper. He started only 11 games in 2001 due to injury, and he threw for 19 fewer touchdowns than in 2000. 2003 featured Marshall Faulk that year he only managed 953 yards in 2002, the first time he rushed for fewer than 1,000 yards since 1996. 2004 came out and this time it featured Michael Vick a broken leg suffered during the preseason kept Vick sideline for the first 11 games of the year. Last years Madden 2005 featured Ray Lewis; he managed only one sack and no interceptions in 2004 and missed a game due to injury. So who is this year’s cover boy and curse recipient? Sorry Philly fans but it’s the soup-selling arm-slinger Donovan McNabb.
Now, just some quick observations:
At 5’6”, San Diego running back Darren Sproles shows amazing quickness and speed but I think his greatest asset is that no one can see him behind the offensive line.
Bill Parcells will be hard pressed to win in Dallas until he finally develops a quarterback and sticks with him.
Brett Farve can still play but has almost nothing around him and will probably regret coming back after the 20th sack… which should be by week 6.
I think the era of great quarterbacks like Elway, Marino, Montana is far in the past now. I look around the league and can honestly say that there are maybe a half-dozen quarterbacks out there that I would want on my team. You want to win in the NFL today what you need is a powerful running game and a quarterback who knows when to throw and when to throw away. I know I’ll get a lot of grief for this, but my top four list of quarterbacks are the following: 1 Payton Manning 2. Tom Brady 3. Donovan McNabb 4. Jake Delhomme. Now why do I not have Daunte Culpepper, Michael Vick, Chad Pennington or Drew Brees on this list? Because I want a quarterback that walks into the huddle and fires up his troops and says ‘we’re going to win’ and goes out there and gets it done. I haven’t seen that kind of fire from Culpepper or Vick. And the ones who used to have it, Farve and McNair just don’t have the physical ability to back it up anymore.
My prediction of teams that will be vying for Matt Linart in next year’s draft: Miami, Detroit, Dallas, Chicago, Cleveland and Tennessee.
Expect the Saints to end up in Los Angeles at some point this year and don’t be surprised if they don’t go back.
Real football soon.
The first thing is the sad fate of the Chicago Bears. Being a quarterback in Chicago has become the NFL equivalent of a helicopter door gunner during Vietnam. I think the life expectancy of a Chicago QB is 14 snaps. I have the NFL network and watch quite a bit of it, it’s good to have on in the background while I’m writing… anyway, I saw clips from three different Bears games this preseason and in each one they interviewed wide receiver and new Bear Mushin Muhammed on the QB position. In the first one he spoke about how well Rex Grossman was doing and how he was looking forward to the season. The next one, after Grossman was announced out for the year, Muhammed spoke of how well new starting QB Chad Hutchinson was doing and how he was looking forward to the season. The third interview was last night; Hutchinson has been demoted and most likely will be cut today. Muhammed was interviewed and spoke of how well new QB Kyle Orton was doing and how he was looking forward to the season. How well do you think Muhammed will do running his routes if he has to spend so much time ‘towing the team line’. I so wanted him to look at the camera and say ‘we’re fucked’.
Sports Illustrated has recently put out their Football Preview special and in it they announce that the winner of this years Super Bowl will be the Carolina Panthers who will beat the Indianapolis Colts 31-27. As a Carolina fan, this news scared the hell out of me. First off… has there been any time in the history of the NFL that anyone has been able to successfully predict the season? Just by making the guess, they are almost guaranteeing that it won’t happen. Second thing that scared me is that they put Jake Delhomme on the cover. Well, for those non-sports fans, there is a supposed curse on those poor soles that appear on the covers of Sports Illustrated. Many times after appearing on the cover, individuals or teams have suffered various jinxed events that have included everything from loses, injuries, divorces and even death. Sports Illustrated itself did an article on the curse back in 2002 and couldn’t get anyone to pose for the cover. Here is a portion of the article dealing with the statistics involved in the curse. --- In investigating virtually all of SI's 2,456 covers, we found 913 "jinxes", a demonstrable misfortune or decline in performance following a cover appearance roughly 37.2 percent of the time. --- So over a third of the people who appear on the cover suffer some level of tragedy following the appearance. My Panthers are doomed… and poor Delhomme is probably going to end up never taking a snap this season.
The only curse more prevalent than the Sports Illustrated one is being on the cover of the Madden Football video game. The Madden curse all started in 2001 where Eddie George was featured on the cover. George's Titans missed the playoffs in 2001, and George failed to make the 1,000-yard rushing mark. In 2002 the cover star was Daunte Culpepper. He started only 11 games in 2001 due to injury, and he threw for 19 fewer touchdowns than in 2000. 2003 featured Marshall Faulk that year he only managed 953 yards in 2002, the first time he rushed for fewer than 1,000 yards since 1996. 2004 came out and this time it featured Michael Vick a broken leg suffered during the preseason kept Vick sideline for the first 11 games of the year. Last years Madden 2005 featured Ray Lewis; he managed only one sack and no interceptions in 2004 and missed a game due to injury. So who is this year’s cover boy and curse recipient? Sorry Philly fans but it’s the soup-selling arm-slinger Donovan McNabb.
Now, just some quick observations:
At 5’6”, San Diego running back Darren Sproles shows amazing quickness and speed but I think his greatest asset is that no one can see him behind the offensive line.
Bill Parcells will be hard pressed to win in Dallas until he finally develops a quarterback and sticks with him.
Brett Farve can still play but has almost nothing around him and will probably regret coming back after the 20th sack… which should be by week 6.
I think the era of great quarterbacks like Elway, Marino, Montana is far in the past now. I look around the league and can honestly say that there are maybe a half-dozen quarterbacks out there that I would want on my team. You want to win in the NFL today what you need is a powerful running game and a quarterback who knows when to throw and when to throw away. I know I’ll get a lot of grief for this, but my top four list of quarterbacks are the following: 1 Payton Manning 2. Tom Brady 3. Donovan McNabb 4. Jake Delhomme. Now why do I not have Daunte Culpepper, Michael Vick, Chad Pennington or Drew Brees on this list? Because I want a quarterback that walks into the huddle and fires up his troops and says ‘we’re going to win’ and goes out there and gets it done. I haven’t seen that kind of fire from Culpepper or Vick. And the ones who used to have it, Farve and McNair just don’t have the physical ability to back it up anymore.
My prediction of teams that will be vying for Matt Linart in next year’s draft: Miami, Detroit, Dallas, Chicago, Cleveland and Tennessee.
Expect the Saints to end up in Los Angeles at some point this year and don’t be surprised if they don’t go back.
Real football soon.
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