This decade ends in 12 days. There’s little doubt who the team of this decade is, the Patriots own that title. And yet, even before the end of this one, I think we already have an idea who the team of the next decade will be. What made the Patriots, and the Steelers and Colts for that matter, the elite teams of this decade? Well for one they all have a stud quarterback, and I mean a complete stud. Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Ben Roethlisberger are three of the best QB’s of this generation, and two of them are two of the best ever. And that is exactly what the Saints have.
Drew Brees is perhaps the best passing quarterback in the league since Dan Marino. He barely missed the single season passing record last year and leads fourth quarter comebacks like few people ever have. Numbers wise he doesn’t, in any way, seem anything less than elite. Lets start with time span. Brees will turn 31 on January 15th, if your judging by Brett Favre years (like dog years in reverse), then Brees will still be this good in 2019. He also has the experience factor. He has 9 years experience, it’s not like teams haven’t seen him before. Of those 9 years he has played 16 games in 6 of them. And he doesn’t have down years, he consistently hovers around 65 percent completion. His yards have actually been increasing year on year and his passer rating has only been below 90.0 four times, and two of those years he had 89.2 and 89.4. He is also the defining factor in the offence. Like Peyton Manning he is the leader of the team, you are confident in him in any situation and he is clearly having fun in New Orleans.
There are other reasons that the Saints offence has been so successful. The first is the run game. It’s a new aspect that has never really existed in New Orleans before. The desperate attempts to make Reggie Bush the player that most people thought and hoped he would be has made sure of that. This year both Mike Bell and Pierre Thomas have well over double the carries Bush has. Bush has instead become a really successful all-purpose back. He has 62 rushing attempts for 310 yards and 39 catches for 281 yards. So in total Bush has contributed 591 yards to the Saints offence. That is the kind of yardage the team would have been hoping for from him as a running back. The rushing game on it’s own is the fifth best in the country, averaging 138.9 yards per game. This is how Brees has been freed to play as well as he is. When you have backs who are averaging 4 or 5 yards per attempt the opposition defence has other things to worry about.
The receivers are all having great years as well as the backs. As the saying goes; Brees’ favorite receiver is the open one. Seven players have over twenty receptions this year. Twelve in total have caught a ball for the Saints. You have to remember that for a team to have a successful passing game they need good receivers. The 287.2 yards averaged by the aerial offence is as much a tribute to the receiving core as much as it is Drew Brees. Playing against this Shaun Payton offensive plan gives defensive coordinators all kinds of nightmares, and everyone plays a part.
However New Orleans having offence is nothing new. New Orleans having defence is something nobody really expected. This is also where the Saints show the kind of mentality that makes great teams great. It’s a Tony Dungy idea which, by default, makes it a good one, the “next man up” idea has been displayed by the New Orleans secondary all year long. Chris McAlister’s two weeks in Louisiana demonstrates exactly how this works. McAlister does his job for a couple of games, the Saints think that they’ve had the best out of him, cut him, sign Mike McCauley. It’s getting to the perfect point where, regardless of who is on the Saints depth chart, they will do their job, or a good enough job. The addition of Darren Sharper is perhaps the best signing made by any team. He leads the Saints in interceptions (8), intercepted return yards (355) and passes defended. He also has the fourth most tackles (54). Whilst the other secondary pieces keep changing he has remained the consistent that has improved this defence so much. They average 21.1 points per game, 18th in the NFL, while the offence averages 35.8 points per game. Whilst the D isn’t the dominant force that the Steelers were last year it sets the table for the offence to do what is does. At this point that’s all they need to do.
It also cannot be overlooked how important this team is becoming to the city. For New Orleans, still feeling some after effects of Katrina, the Saints represent all that is good about the place. The gold uniforms shine like a beacon of light and hope from the Superdome. After Katrina the grand, old structure was filled with desolate and desperate people who’s lives had just been torn apart. Now if you watch New Orleans against Dallas tonight, or any Saints home game for that matter, it is a different person in the arena. It is a different team. It is a different city.
Saturday 19 December 2009
Saturday 12 December 2009
The more things change the more they stay the same
Everything was different. Tim Tebow was outplayed by an opposition quarterback. Urban Meyer was completely out coached and Florida was dominated. From the very first play it was obvious that this was a very different game to any we have seen for at least three years. Nick Saban is renowned for deferring when winning the coin toss, not Saturday. He grabbed that ball to make a statement. Alabama is very possibly the last college team in the country that doesn’t run a spread offence, first play Saturday they just did. That play was an indicator of how the rest of the game would go. Everything Alabama did was a statement, from the kick off, to the spread, to scoring first drive. The game plan was obvious, punch Florida in the nose and leave them bloody. Every time the CBS camera’s zoomed on Meyer or Tebow there was a concern I have never seen before. Did they panic? Get confused? or scared? Whatever, they had no answer. How did ’Bama blow away the reigning national champions? It’s a question that every member of ’Gator Nation has been asking since about 7pm in the Georgia Dome. Florida lost all the key match ups, and these a just some of them;
QB; Greg McElroy vs. Tim Tebow
If this was your first ever college football game and you were told the best player in the country was on the field, you would have thought it was Alabama’s number 12. On Saturday night it was. From the first pass to the when he ran off the field McElroy was in complete control of the football, almost every pass was where it needed to be. In fact McElroy attempted less passes than Tebow completed, but ended with only 8 yards less. Whether it was the coach who panicked or the player, Florida completely lost control, they lost perspective and forgot the game plan. Tebow had 10 rushing attempts to 35 passing attempts. Last week against Florida State he had 21 passing attempts and 15 rushing. Tebow looked like a wide eyed freshman not a senior Heisman winner. While McElroy made the big plays, either with his arms or legs, they were completely taken away from Tebow. As Pat Forde wrote for ESPN McElroy "out-Tebowed" Tebow, and this match-up boils down simply to that.
CB; Javier Arenas vs. Joe Haden
Arenas was supposed to be more dangerous on special teams than defence. Florida’s approach to Arenas on special teams was perfect he was shut down. As a defender he shut Florida down. This was not the predicted story line in regards to the two corner backs. It was predicted the Joe Haden could have a potentially huge game while covering Julio Jones. It was telling that it was against Haden Jones managed to get open on the very first play of the game. All game either Maquis Maze or Julio Jones were managing to get open, wide open. No receiver could consistently do this. You only have to compare two end zone passes, Arenas put himself in perfect position to steal Tebow’s last gasp heave. With 10 minutes left in the Third Quarter Colin Peek, the Alabama Tight End, escaped Haden’s coverage to catch McElroy’s perfect pass into the end zone. Arenas didn’t do what he was supposed to do, he did what he needed to do, Haden couldn’t.
WR; Julio Jones vs. Riley Cooper
This was supposed to be the big receiver match-up, like many predictions it didn’t happen that way. In fact this was the one key contest Florida won. That straight head-to-head shows Jones has 2 catches for 28 yards and Cooper had 3 for 77. Saying that negates the impact that Marquis Maze and Mark Ingram made as receivers for Alabama. Maze had 5 of ‘Bama’s 12 receptions and made 96 yards and Ingram went 2 for 76. Despite both Riley Cooper and Aaron Hernandez’s big games the Tide receivers all made big plays when it mattered and the Gators didn’t.
RB; Mark Ingram vs. Florida
Was this ever a real match-up? It turned out not. It’s impossible to measure Ingram against any other Florida rusher, Tebow is the Gators running back regardless of what he’s listed as. This, plus the fact Ingram alone ran the ball twice as much as the whole Gator team, shows the imbalance in this argument. Ingram had his Heisman game all over the Florida defence, whether catching or running it was all about Mark Ingram making big plays. He beat Tebow rushing, he beat Demps rushing and he beat the Florida defence in general.
Was there a defining match-up that won the game for Alabama? You could say it was Saban vs. Meyer and have a great case. But in the grand scheme of things it seems that on a day when the past met the present, a day when everything changed but stayed the same, the Crimson Tide as an entity was better than Florida, nothing more nothing less. It was the first time in a long time that Alabama emerged the bear shaped shadow, just for a day. If they win on January 7th there may be a new shadow looking over Tuscaloosa.
QB; Greg McElroy vs. Tim Tebow
If this was your first ever college football game and you were told the best player in the country was on the field, you would have thought it was Alabama’s number 12. On Saturday night it was. From the first pass to the when he ran off the field McElroy was in complete control of the football, almost every pass was where it needed to be. In fact McElroy attempted less passes than Tebow completed, but ended with only 8 yards less. Whether it was the coach who panicked or the player, Florida completely lost control, they lost perspective and forgot the game plan. Tebow had 10 rushing attempts to 35 passing attempts. Last week against Florida State he had 21 passing attempts and 15 rushing. Tebow looked like a wide eyed freshman not a senior Heisman winner. While McElroy made the big plays, either with his arms or legs, they were completely taken away from Tebow. As Pat Forde wrote for ESPN McElroy "out-Tebowed" Tebow, and this match-up boils down simply to that.
CB; Javier Arenas vs. Joe Haden
Arenas was supposed to be more dangerous on special teams than defence. Florida’s approach to Arenas on special teams was perfect he was shut down. As a defender he shut Florida down. This was not the predicted story line in regards to the two corner backs. It was predicted the Joe Haden could have a potentially huge game while covering Julio Jones. It was telling that it was against Haden Jones managed to get open on the very first play of the game. All game either Maquis Maze or Julio Jones were managing to get open, wide open. No receiver could consistently do this. You only have to compare two end zone passes, Arenas put himself in perfect position to steal Tebow’s last gasp heave. With 10 minutes left in the Third Quarter Colin Peek, the Alabama Tight End, escaped Haden’s coverage to catch McElroy’s perfect pass into the end zone. Arenas didn’t do what he was supposed to do, he did what he needed to do, Haden couldn’t.
WR; Julio Jones vs. Riley Cooper
This was supposed to be the big receiver match-up, like many predictions it didn’t happen that way. In fact this was the one key contest Florida won. That straight head-to-head shows Jones has 2 catches for 28 yards and Cooper had 3 for 77. Saying that negates the impact that Marquis Maze and Mark Ingram made as receivers for Alabama. Maze had 5 of ‘Bama’s 12 receptions and made 96 yards and Ingram went 2 for 76. Despite both Riley Cooper and Aaron Hernandez’s big games the Tide receivers all made big plays when it mattered and the Gators didn’t.
RB; Mark Ingram vs. Florida
Was this ever a real match-up? It turned out not. It’s impossible to measure Ingram against any other Florida rusher, Tebow is the Gators running back regardless of what he’s listed as. This, plus the fact Ingram alone ran the ball twice as much as the whole Gator team, shows the imbalance in this argument. Ingram had his Heisman game all over the Florida defence, whether catching or running it was all about Mark Ingram making big plays. He beat Tebow rushing, he beat Demps rushing and he beat the Florida defence in general.
Was there a defining match-up that won the game for Alabama? You could say it was Saban vs. Meyer and have a great case. But in the grand scheme of things it seems that on a day when the past met the present, a day when everything changed but stayed the same, the Crimson Tide as an entity was better than Florida, nothing more nothing less. It was the first time in a long time that Alabama emerged the bear shaped shadow, just for a day. If they win on January 7th there may be a new shadow looking over Tuscaloosa.
Sunday 6 December 2009
Is it Really the Time?
Even today wasn’t too ugly, not when you consider the situation this time last year. Vince Young is still well on track to revive his career. Just when it looked like the NFL had seen the end of VY he proves everyone wrong. But where did this revival come from? It has come from the one entity there isn’t enough of these days. It’s an old fashioned value that is now very unpopular. It came from Old Mother Time. Long ago in a distant time, kids were given time to become men. They developed, took their lumps and watched older guys. Most importantly these young men learned their craft. It’s easy to forget exactly how different the NFL is compared to college. College quarterbacks play 12 games a year facing maybe 5 or 6 elite linemen or linebackers maximum, especially in these times of cupcake games. They then switch to the pro’s, walk out in their first game and face 8 elite linemen and linebackers. They have maybe a quarter of the time they have at college level, and they have less open receivers. Vince Young’s decline in his second and third years show the difference in the games, as soon as teams have film you have to adjust, Vince never did. So he sat, for a long year he sat. And he watched, he watched the gnarled veteran Kerry Collins lead the Titans to 13-3 regular season. He then lead the Titans to an 0-6 start this year, an opportunity introduced itself. November became the month of Young, a different Young, a mature Young. We know why Young was rushed into the NFL, we know why all these young QB’s are rushed to start. The amount of money that is invested in these young men that teams become tied to them, they need returns on their investments. But for those investments we get seasons like this 2009 vintage. Three first year quarterbacks and two high-profile sophomores, none of them playing well. What do they all have in common? They don’t fully understand the National Football League craft. They are all throwing interceptions, making bad decisions and looking inexperienced, at this level talent doesn’t get you too far on it’s own. The two aforementioned sophomore QB’s, Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco, are experiencing exactly what happened to Vince Young first hand. Both blew peoples doors off last year, they looked poised, relaxed and mature beyond their years. This year everybody has tape on these guys and they are struggling. Maybe Mike Smith and John Harbaugh should maybe be brave and take the plunge, sit both these two future stars and let them learn what they need to from veteran guys. You only have to watch Matthew Stafford, Mark Sanchez and Josh Freeman for a short time to realise how far they have to come. All three make plays, they also make plenty of mistakes, more than they should be making. The Lions had the best chance to get the best out of their number one pick. there is no doubting the amount of talent that Matt Stafford has, he just has no experience and very little knowledge. Detroit had Daunte Culpepper, a perfect stop gap to let Stafford just study NFL defences, let him understand what he has to beat.
So what about this years draft class. Colt McCoy, Sam Bradford, Jimmy Clausen and Tim Tebow. It’s safe to rule Tebow out of this discussion, he will never play quarterback at the pro level. That leaves McCoy, Bradford and Clausen. None of these three young men are anywhere near NFL ready. They all have big arms, are football clever and two of them seem somewhat sensible. They are the best of the 2010 draft and none of them have anything close to a pro skill set…yet. It’s just one or two years at a maximum, two years in which you can build a young team, let them grow together and learn the league. Building however takes time and money. NFL owners only have one of those two qualities.
So what about this years draft class. Colt McCoy, Sam Bradford, Jimmy Clausen and Tim Tebow. It’s safe to rule Tebow out of this discussion, he will never play quarterback at the pro level. That leaves McCoy, Bradford and Clausen. None of these three young men are anywhere near NFL ready. They all have big arms, are football clever and two of them seem somewhat sensible. They are the best of the 2010 draft and none of them have anything close to a pro skill set…yet. It’s just one or two years at a maximum, two years in which you can build a young team, let them grow together and learn the league. Building however takes time and money. NFL owners only have one of those two qualities.
Tuesday 1 December 2009
The Other Legacy
There is a quarterback in Texas who implodes at crucial points of his season. Now there is also one that does the exact opposite. After the Texas-Oklahoma game on October 17th Colt McCoy looked over hyped, over stressed and over awed. It was by far his worst game in the last 2, maybe 3, years. Just in case you’ve forgotten, lets recap; McCoy completed 21 passes from 38 attempts, he had 1 touchdown and 1 pick and, worst of all, Colt McCoy the potential Heisman winner passed for 127 yards. And only 33 yards rushing, at an average of 2.4. This was a painful degeneration of a great player, McCoy looked a shadow of the player who took his team to within 10 seconds of a perfect season. Whilst the numbers were awful it was the play that was the worst aspect. He was making bad throws, failing to make any plays outside the pocket and making the Sooners defensive job easy. Just as the well looked empty, McCoy and the entire Texas team looked wildly overestimated at National Championship contenders.
Then came Missouri and the Colt McCoy everyone knows, and loves to watch, walked out of the locker room with the rest of his team. It wasn’t vintage, more classical, but the touch was back, the fire in the eye returned and so did the performance level. There was no great statement, nothing to thrust him back into the forefront of Heisman voting, just a nice game. These nice games continued, three in total between Oklahoma and now; Missouri, Oklahoma State and Baylor. If there were other nice games there would be nothing special or significant about the season that Colt McCoy has had. These three games were however highlighted by three outstanding efforts. The one’s where McCoy puts the Burnt Orange on his back and carries them, like he did all last year. Central Florida became the first team this year to play against the real McCoy. 470 yards later and the doubts had begun to seep away, slowly though, tempered by only throwing 2 touchdowns and still giving up a pick. Then came the last two games of the year, Kansas and Texas A&M. This was when the intangibles as well as the measurable were both on display. The toughness that is bred in most young men in Tuscola, Texas shone through, the leadership qualities of the fourth year senior, the accuracy and the mobility all came together again to form a new Colt McCoy. 700 yards passing and 204 yards rushing over the last two games combined showed the statistical prowess but there was more. It was the leadership against Kansas, on paper not a tough game, but in practicality a big banana skin. This was when the passing game came back to him, the incredible accuracy, the touchdown passes and finally zero interceptions. Did anyone ever honestly believe that last years version of the Texas quarterback could be bettered? Well over the last two weeks we have found out the answer to that question. Emphatically yes. This was highlighted in a glorious pyrotechnic display in the tightest spot of his, and Texas’, year. Whilst his usual accuracy deserted him he found a way. A way to contribute 479 yards to the Texas offence and again showed the leadership that was required at the crucial time.
The nation has seen the Tebow moments; the jump passes, the rushing touchdowns, the charging down the touchline. Thanksgiving night in College Station, Texas was the first genuine McCoy moment. It is different to that of Tebow’s, he is a different person, a different player, a different entity to that of the Gator. He is just as good a person, like Tebow he provides missionary work to South America, he is Tebow’s equal in leadership and his superior in quality of play. He is just quieter and from a different programme, a different state. He has maybe taken on more in leading the Texas Longhorns than Tebow has in leading the Gators. Consider coming into that team after Vince Young, the National Championship and handling, handling it well enough to become the winningest QB in college football history. Regardless of these outstanding features to McCoy and his legacy he will always be measured against Tebow. Can he surpass the Florida QB and all he has achieved? Can he establish himself as the best player of his class? There are two accolades that McCoy needs to do this, one will be won in New York and the other in Pasadena. If he achieves this, the legacy is complete. If not 2009 is still turning into a year of McCoy.
Then came Missouri and the Colt McCoy everyone knows, and loves to watch, walked out of the locker room with the rest of his team. It wasn’t vintage, more classical, but the touch was back, the fire in the eye returned and so did the performance level. There was no great statement, nothing to thrust him back into the forefront of Heisman voting, just a nice game. These nice games continued, three in total between Oklahoma and now; Missouri, Oklahoma State and Baylor. If there were other nice games there would be nothing special or significant about the season that Colt McCoy has had. These three games were however highlighted by three outstanding efforts. The one’s where McCoy puts the Burnt Orange on his back and carries them, like he did all last year. Central Florida became the first team this year to play against the real McCoy. 470 yards later and the doubts had begun to seep away, slowly though, tempered by only throwing 2 touchdowns and still giving up a pick. Then came the last two games of the year, Kansas and Texas A&M. This was when the intangibles as well as the measurable were both on display. The toughness that is bred in most young men in Tuscola, Texas shone through, the leadership qualities of the fourth year senior, the accuracy and the mobility all came together again to form a new Colt McCoy. 700 yards passing and 204 yards rushing over the last two games combined showed the statistical prowess but there was more. It was the leadership against Kansas, on paper not a tough game, but in practicality a big banana skin. This was when the passing game came back to him, the incredible accuracy, the touchdown passes and finally zero interceptions. Did anyone ever honestly believe that last years version of the Texas quarterback could be bettered? Well over the last two weeks we have found out the answer to that question. Emphatically yes. This was highlighted in a glorious pyrotechnic display in the tightest spot of his, and Texas’, year. Whilst his usual accuracy deserted him he found a way. A way to contribute 479 yards to the Texas offence and again showed the leadership that was required at the crucial time.
The nation has seen the Tebow moments; the jump passes, the rushing touchdowns, the charging down the touchline. Thanksgiving night in College Station, Texas was the first genuine McCoy moment. It is different to that of Tebow’s, he is a different person, a different player, a different entity to that of the Gator. He is just as good a person, like Tebow he provides missionary work to South America, he is Tebow’s equal in leadership and his superior in quality of play. He is just quieter and from a different programme, a different state. He has maybe taken on more in leading the Texas Longhorns than Tebow has in leading the Gators. Consider coming into that team after Vince Young, the National Championship and handling, handling it well enough to become the winningest QB in college football history. Regardless of these outstanding features to McCoy and his legacy he will always be measured against Tebow. Can he surpass the Florida QB and all he has achieved? Can he establish himself as the best player of his class? There are two accolades that McCoy needs to do this, one will be won in New York and the other in Pasadena. If he achieves this, the legacy is complete. If not 2009 is still turning into a year of McCoy.
Monday 30 November 2009
The young and the hopeful
I was wrong. I may have slightly over hyped Joe Cox. Ok more than slightly. There was probably never any realistic chance that Georgia would ever get near an SEC championship with Cox under center. Unfortunately it took Mark Richt and Mike Bobo 12 weeks to figure out what might. Washaun Ealey and Caleb King broke out big time Saturday night in Atlanta. Just to clarify Georgia Tech is supposed to be the best rushing offence in the country, not Saturday. All year the Dawgs had disappeared in any kind of big games, national TV camera’s apparently give UGA players rashes these days. Having been picked apart by both Tennessee and Florida, then proceeding to crap all over the memory of Uga VII last week against Kentucky, would anyone have believed anything other than embarrassment would happen at Bobby Dodd. Well try these; surprise, elation, vindication, redemption. Joe Cox never became the player I was predicting but Ealey and King suddenly did. Of Georgia’s 44 carries Ealey and King combined for 38 of them. Those 38 attempts equalled 349 yards, that’s an average of 9.2 yards per carry. The amazing early success of the big play passing game, that was almost exclusively an A.J Green highlight reel, perhaps delayed the progress of this running game. The confusion over who was the guy to replace Knowshon Moreno also contributed., you only have to watch Alabama and the success of Trent Richardson working alongside Mark Ingram to see how it can work in the SEC. Despite coming 8 weeks to late to save the season the Bulldogs as a team, and I mean a complete team of offence, defence and special teams, rebounded from the troubles this year to pull out a win at the number 7 ranked team in the country. A lot of credit has to go also to the much maligned Willy Martinez and his defence. To hold the funky triple option to just 205 yards rushing and force the Yellow Jackets into passing 13 times shows how well the D played. Paul Johnson was sufficiently freaked that he threw out his playbook. If you’ve ever Josh Nesbitt on a football field you will know he is not a passing quarterback. So why make him throw? Was Tech so intimidated by the Bulldog that they felt incapable of using an offence that has been so successful for them both this and last year. It was a complete role reversal of the game in Athens last year, remember those desperation heaves by Matthew Stafford? Swap Stafford for Nesbitt this year. Remember Jonathan Dwyer tearing apart the Georgia run defence? Swap Dwyer for either King or Ealey.
There’s going to be plenty of chance to look ahead to both bowls and next year but I want to get an early jump. Cox had, unfortunately, proven inadequate. I said to a friend a couple of weeks ago “Cox is Big 12 or Pac 10 good, not SEC good” now I’m not even sure he’s that good. From now on, with the one exception in January, Joe Cox will no longer be the University of Georgia starting quarterback. It will either prove to be Aaron Murray or Zach Mettenberger. Most seem to think it will be Murray but, from what I’ve seen, do not count out Mettenberger. Next year both will have had a year as part of the team, they will have matured and they will have an incredible Sophmore and Redshirt Junior running back. There is suddenly potential, excitement and, dare I say it, expectation in Athens again. Whether it’s right or wrong I’m suddenly more excited about this Springs G-Day game than whichever bowl the Dawgs are in. It took 1 hour and over 300 yards hard labor but all of a sudden Georgia football has a pulse again.
There’s going to be plenty of chance to look ahead to both bowls and next year but I want to get an early jump. Cox had, unfortunately, proven inadequate. I said to a friend a couple of weeks ago “Cox is Big 12 or Pac 10 good, not SEC good” now I’m not even sure he’s that good. From now on, with the one exception in January, Joe Cox will no longer be the University of Georgia starting quarterback. It will either prove to be Aaron Murray or Zach Mettenberger. Most seem to think it will be Murray but, from what I’ve seen, do not count out Mettenberger. Next year both will have had a year as part of the team, they will have matured and they will have an incredible Sophmore and Redshirt Junior running back. There is suddenly potential, excitement and, dare I say it, expectation in Athens again. Whether it’s right or wrong I’m suddenly more excited about this Springs G-Day game than whichever bowl the Dawgs are in. It took 1 hour and over 300 yards hard labor but all of a sudden Georgia football has a pulse again.
Tuesday 24 November 2009
The Future's Bright...But not Orange
Tim Tebow, perhaps the greatest college quarterback ever, will not be playing college football in two months. For three years Tebow has been the face of the SEC. The most talked about, most competitive, most challenging division in all of college football has been encapsulated in this one young man. It has not just been his record setting on the field play, it has also been the immeasurable intangibles that Tebow possesses that has set him apart. He is everything and more a team wants out of it’s leader, throughout his collegiate career everything involving the University of Florida had been about Tebow. A quick review of the aforementioned numbers shows what an incredible player Tim has been; 8,335 career passing yards, 81 passing touchdowns, 2,743 career rushing yards and 54 rushing touchdowns. Despite those outlandish numbers Tebow is so much more than an outstanding football player. He is an outstanding person, both in and out of school. His missionary trips in the summer and spring breaks just go to show what a good person he continues to be, despite his growing public profile. He is academically outstanding. There is no doubt about that, he has been voted to the Academic All-American Team for the second consecutive season. He has an outstanding GPA of 3.66 in Family, Youth and Communications Studies which is the kind of example that Freshmen need to see. Last year was also the season that Tebow cemented his legacy, the was “The Promise” (in case you missed it You Tube ‘Tim Tebow Speech’) perhaps more impressive than the speech itself was the fact Tebow followed through on it. Then there was the scene in the National Championship, Tim charging down the sideline into a Florida defensive huddle. There wasn’t any other moment filled with more raw passion in the whole of college football. But by January 8th at the latest there will be no more Tim Tebow in the Southeastern Conference. This will leave a faceless conference, an SEC without a center piece. So who can fill this vacuum? Nobody will be able to supply the intangibles that Tebow has shown over the past 4 years; that’s just who Tim is. But someone needs to stand up as a good person, a good player and a good student.
It’s going to be easier carrying out this role if your playing on a winning team, that’s how you get national coverage, just ask Case Keenum. So immediately if you play for the University of Alabama there’s an immediate advantage. And there are two straight forward choices; Greg McElroy and Mark Ingram. If these two young men were combined into one then you have the perfect Tebow replacement, but their not and both have great merits of their own. McElroy is possibly the academic equal of Tebow, and this year statistically the equal but does he have the leadership skills? Maybe, they haven’t really been tested this year yet. Going toe to toe with Tebow in Atlanta in 10 days might answer these questions, but until then we can’t really know. Ingram is a little different to McElroy. He doesn’t have the outstanding academics and is to all intents and purposes purely a football player. This would make him a less obvious Tebow replacement, but maybe would put him ahead of McElroy for face of the SEC. It is after all a football conference. McElroy is unlikely to be in the Heisman competition next year, which will be his last year of eligibility. Ingram will very probably be in the conversation for the next 2 years, that could be 3,000 more yards and 30 more TD’s.
How about if another team starts wining? The most primed seems to be Ole Miss. Next year the team will be all Jevan Snead’s. This is either a really good thing, or a really bad thing. Snead showed earlier this year that, when he is surrounded by expectations, he struggles. He has excelled the last two years after Ole Miss has fallen out of contention, but he has at least excelled. He already has a certain amount of exposure and seems to have the same drive to succeed that Tebow possesses, does this mean he could become the face of the conference? Well, yeah if he can have a good year. Say Mississippi goes 11-1 regular season next year losing the SEC west by 1 game and goes to a BCS bowl, what’s to say that Snead won’t be the outstanding figure in the SEC.
The most ready to light up the record books like Tim Tebow has done looks like Ryan Mallett at Arkansas. He’s already profiled his physical gifts and has two potential years of eligibility left. If he was to lead Arkansas to any kind of success then he could gain the kind of cult status as Tebow has in Florida. He is also one of the higher profile players in the SEC, all it takes is for a good Arkansas season to gain Mallett a national stage. In Bobby Petrino, Mallett has a coach that can build a system to best use the young man’s skill set. He does need to grow into an out and out leader of this young Arkansas team, which would set him apart. He has the opportunity to do this in the next couple of years, if he stays. And that’s potentially the only thing that stands between Mallett being the next face of the SEC and someone else doing it; his leadership.
Whoever takes over Tebow’s crown as Prince of the Southeastern Conference they will be very different to the Florida quarterback. He is a once in a generation player, much like Herschel Walker and Peyton Manning. Much like those when those two individuals left whoever takes up the mantle left by Tim Tebow, the SEC will continue as the premier conference in America and that is a certainty.
It’s going to be easier carrying out this role if your playing on a winning team, that’s how you get national coverage, just ask Case Keenum. So immediately if you play for the University of Alabama there’s an immediate advantage. And there are two straight forward choices; Greg McElroy and Mark Ingram. If these two young men were combined into one then you have the perfect Tebow replacement, but their not and both have great merits of their own. McElroy is possibly the academic equal of Tebow, and this year statistically the equal but does he have the leadership skills? Maybe, they haven’t really been tested this year yet. Going toe to toe with Tebow in Atlanta in 10 days might answer these questions, but until then we can’t really know. Ingram is a little different to McElroy. He doesn’t have the outstanding academics and is to all intents and purposes purely a football player. This would make him a less obvious Tebow replacement, but maybe would put him ahead of McElroy for face of the SEC. It is after all a football conference. McElroy is unlikely to be in the Heisman competition next year, which will be his last year of eligibility. Ingram will very probably be in the conversation for the next 2 years, that could be 3,000 more yards and 30 more TD’s.
How about if another team starts wining? The most primed seems to be Ole Miss. Next year the team will be all Jevan Snead’s. This is either a really good thing, or a really bad thing. Snead showed earlier this year that, when he is surrounded by expectations, he struggles. He has excelled the last two years after Ole Miss has fallen out of contention, but he has at least excelled. He already has a certain amount of exposure and seems to have the same drive to succeed that Tebow possesses, does this mean he could become the face of the conference? Well, yeah if he can have a good year. Say Mississippi goes 11-1 regular season next year losing the SEC west by 1 game and goes to a BCS bowl, what’s to say that Snead won’t be the outstanding figure in the SEC.
The most ready to light up the record books like Tim Tebow has done looks like Ryan Mallett at Arkansas. He’s already profiled his physical gifts and has two potential years of eligibility left. If he was to lead Arkansas to any kind of success then he could gain the kind of cult status as Tebow has in Florida. He is also one of the higher profile players in the SEC, all it takes is for a good Arkansas season to gain Mallett a national stage. In Bobby Petrino, Mallett has a coach that can build a system to best use the young man’s skill set. He does need to grow into an out and out leader of this young Arkansas team, which would set him apart. He has the opportunity to do this in the next couple of years, if he stays. And that’s potentially the only thing that stands between Mallett being the next face of the SEC and someone else doing it; his leadership.
Whoever takes over Tebow’s crown as Prince of the Southeastern Conference they will be very different to the Florida quarterback. He is a once in a generation player, much like Herschel Walker and Peyton Manning. Much like those when those two individuals left whoever takes up the mantle left by Tim Tebow, the SEC will continue as the premier conference in America and that is a certainty.
Sunday 15 November 2009
(Inter)National Football League
I’ve waited a couple of weeks to write. I wanted to let the dust settle, reassess the situation, see if my opinion changed. It hasn’t so I thought I’d unload. In case you missed it, and if you follow sports it’s difficult to, on October 25th Wembley stadium in London, England played host to an NFL regular season game. For the third year running. I don’t have much of a problem with NFL teams playing games in England, just regular season games. In 2008 the San Diego Chargers played the New Orleans Saints at Wembley. Before the Chargers played the Saints they had to fly across eight time zones, EIGHT! Imagine flying from California to England alone, it wrecks anybody for about a week. Then they were asking these guys to play to the highest standard of their profession. Unsurprisingly they lost. There are now four pre-season games for NFL teams, play one of those at Wembley, it’ll keep the fans happy, it will make the NFL the same amount of money and it takes less out of the players both physically and mentally.
While I don’t like the idea of playing regular season games in London I positively despise the other idea that’s come out of it. An NFL franchise in London. Yeah double take, I always do. This idea is so unsustainable in so many different ways. It would provide a scheduling nightmare for the league figuring out how to plug a five hour time difference. Can you imagine trying to figure out how to work in 8 home and 8 road games for a team who are nine hours away from the closest current NFL franchise. Another big problem is talent. Where would the London teams players magically appear from? College is the obvious answer. Do you however really believe that a 21 year-old kid will want to move to a foreign country regardless of the pay check? Some of these kids will not have been out of their State never mind the United States.
This is different to Hockey, who opened their league season with games in Scandinavia. The easy reason this worked is because over half the NHL players are from Scandinavia or Eastern Europe. The distance however means that an NHL franchise in Norway or Sweden isn’t even being talked about. The influx of big name European players into the NBA also makes playing games in Europe a little more feasible as well. David Stern has mentioned an European NBA franchise but, like normal, no one listened to David Stern.
If the British public had an NFL franchise in London what is there that’s unique about the sport to this public. It is an American sport, and that is it’s appeal to a big group of people whether they know it or not. It doesn’t have the history or tradition as it does in America, because it’s American. Would people continue to go and pay the NFL prices if it was 8 weeks a year instead of 1. There’s the scary prospect of any London franchise becoming a cold weather Jacksonville with an increasing low attendances and dwindling fan bases.
What should be the final nail in this ideas coffin is this; look at how American sports have faired in Britain so far. They have become irrelevant, almost ignored and why? Because people lost interest. This has been one of the biggest things I noticed about this talk; people saying they fell in love with football in the 80’s lost interest in the 90’s and now have found fallen back in love. What if this happens with a franchise in London? What do they do if it becomes like British hockey and basketball? It would be a disaster for England, Football and the NFL and would be on the very first plane to Los Angeles.
While I don’t like the idea of playing regular season games in London I positively despise the other idea that’s come out of it. An NFL franchise in London. Yeah double take, I always do. This idea is so unsustainable in so many different ways. It would provide a scheduling nightmare for the league figuring out how to plug a five hour time difference. Can you imagine trying to figure out how to work in 8 home and 8 road games for a team who are nine hours away from the closest current NFL franchise. Another big problem is talent. Where would the London teams players magically appear from? College is the obvious answer. Do you however really believe that a 21 year-old kid will want to move to a foreign country regardless of the pay check? Some of these kids will not have been out of their State never mind the United States.
This is different to Hockey, who opened their league season with games in Scandinavia. The easy reason this worked is because over half the NHL players are from Scandinavia or Eastern Europe. The distance however means that an NHL franchise in Norway or Sweden isn’t even being talked about. The influx of big name European players into the NBA also makes playing games in Europe a little more feasible as well. David Stern has mentioned an European NBA franchise but, like normal, no one listened to David Stern.
If the British public had an NFL franchise in London what is there that’s unique about the sport to this public. It is an American sport, and that is it’s appeal to a big group of people whether they know it or not. It doesn’t have the history or tradition as it does in America, because it’s American. Would people continue to go and pay the NFL prices if it was 8 weeks a year instead of 1. There’s the scary prospect of any London franchise becoming a cold weather Jacksonville with an increasing low attendances and dwindling fan bases.
What should be the final nail in this ideas coffin is this; look at how American sports have faired in Britain so far. They have become irrelevant, almost ignored and why? Because people lost interest. This has been one of the biggest things I noticed about this talk; people saying they fell in love with football in the 80’s lost interest in the 90’s and now have found fallen back in love. What if this happens with a franchise in London? What do they do if it becomes like British hockey and basketball? It would be a disaster for England, Football and the NFL and would be on the very first plane to Los Angeles.
Friday 6 November 2009
Brave new world?
We’re not 48 hours removed from the end of the World Series, congratulations to the Yankees are due, and I’m already thinking what’s ahead for the Braves in 2010. This has been a constant on my mind since the end of our play off push this year but seeing as today players filed for free agency and I got my e-mail trying to sell season tickets today I got thinking. Well number 1 this, officially for a change, will be Bobby Cox’s lat year as Atlanta Braves manager, this is plain emotional for anyone involved with the organisation, especially for the people who have had the chance to be involved over the last 2 decades. There is no doubt Bobby will one day be smoking his victory cigar in Cooperstown, NY of that there is absolutely no doubt, there will be no asterix alongside his name he’s just plain earned it.
This brings me to my first big unknown, will this also end up being Chipper Jones’ last season with the team? Chipper has never known anything in the majors except for Bobby Cox, hell Chipper could well be the Braves next manager, but that’s a half baked idea for another time. Chipper, as everyone including him knows, stunk last year, I mean good old fashioned stunk. In 12 months Jones dropped 100 average points, he has only been that bad 3 times in his career, 1995, 2004 and this year. The injuries are well reported as well as Chipper himself saying he would call it quits if he’s that bad again, so he’s already thinking about it. I just can’t think of a more fitting way for Chipper to go out than at the same time as the manager that brought him up way back in 1993. Of course this would involve Chipper having to boycott his last year of his contract and walk away on his own accord, not exactly the easiest thing to do, there is also the possibility that if he gets his production back to where it has been he will happily see out the contract and hopefully continue helping out the Bravos. Jones is purely me speculating on an idea that I’ve been thinking about for some time, however there are some other things about the Braves that make me a little nervous about next year.
The first is that we have over half our payroll hooked up in only 9 players: Javier Vazquez, Tommy Hanson, Jair Jurjenns, Derek Lowe, Tim Hudson, Kenshin Kawakami, Chipper, Brian McCann and Nate McClouth, one of those (knock on wood Lowe or KK) will be traded, that however still leaves a lot of money being spent for not many bodies however talented. Those 9 were almost exclusively, with the exception of Martin Prado and Matt Diaz, where our best players last year so where in the payroll do we have enough financial movement to bring in players to improve our team. Nowhere, that’s the answer.
Second, we have almost twice as many contracted starters as we do competent relievers. JJ, Vazquez, Tommy, Hud, D-Lowe and KK, in case you can’t count, that’s 6. Eric O’Flaherty, Peter Moylan, Boone Logan and Kris Medlan are the only relievers under contracts who you would want in a game. Medlan could possibly even start the year as a AAA starter, which personally I want to see, but it was certainly interesting to see the developing trust in Medlan from Bobby through the season but maybe not to the point that he becomes the Braves Phil Hughes. There guys like Luis Valdez, Todd Redmond and Stephen Marek who there seems to be some belief in, especially Valdez. Even in both Rafael Soriano and Mike Gonzalez re-sign (and it’s unlikely both will) then that’s still a weak bullpen, and this is even without mentioning it was by far the most burdened in 2009. So even if our 6 starters are able to carry the team in each and every game how can we ask the bullpen to finish the job. Soriano’s meltdown at the end of the year is evidence enough of how hard the ‘pen worked throughout the year and even now there is very little help. The signing of Scott Proctor to a minor league contract is intriguing in that it happened before there was any attempt to sign back Gonzo or Rafa, and used money, even just a little bit, that could have gone towards either of those deals. Unless the starting rotation turns out to have 3 or 4 Cy Young candidates (which it could) this bullpen could end up churning out bull-something else by the end of the 2010 season.
The biggest concern is the Arizona Fall League. Last year Tommy Hanson went and became the first pitcher to win the winter league MVP and this year was supposed to be the year of Jason Heyward. Instead the AFL became a pain in the ass for Heyward, literally, the gluteus strain putting him out of the league. Then there was Freddie Freeman slumping like a rollercoaster, luckily he seems to be bouncing back but the start was worrying. Luckily Mike Minor, our number 7 draft pick, is throwing nicely, maybe not Hanson nice but promising nice. The worrying about the AFL is that it’s made me realise that the next generation of Braves superstars are maybe a little further away from Major League service than we hoped. Heyward will likely be starting the year in Gwinnett at AAA, Freeman at AA in Mississippi and I have no idea about Minor, I don’t even know if the Braves management do.
By the start of Spring Training Frank Wren may have made some of the kind of moves he did last year with the starting rotation and made me have a little more faith. I’m running on hope heading into the cold, dark winter months but does anyone else see this year being anything but a passing the torch one? All every Braves fan in the world asks, and we don’t care how, give Bobby the best baseball year of his life in his last one.
This brings me to my first big unknown, will this also end up being Chipper Jones’ last season with the team? Chipper has never known anything in the majors except for Bobby Cox, hell Chipper could well be the Braves next manager, but that’s a half baked idea for another time. Chipper, as everyone including him knows, stunk last year, I mean good old fashioned stunk. In 12 months Jones dropped 100 average points, he has only been that bad 3 times in his career, 1995, 2004 and this year. The injuries are well reported as well as Chipper himself saying he would call it quits if he’s that bad again, so he’s already thinking about it. I just can’t think of a more fitting way for Chipper to go out than at the same time as the manager that brought him up way back in 1993. Of course this would involve Chipper having to boycott his last year of his contract and walk away on his own accord, not exactly the easiest thing to do, there is also the possibility that if he gets his production back to where it has been he will happily see out the contract and hopefully continue helping out the Bravos. Jones is purely me speculating on an idea that I’ve been thinking about for some time, however there are some other things about the Braves that make me a little nervous about next year.
The first is that we have over half our payroll hooked up in only 9 players: Javier Vazquez, Tommy Hanson, Jair Jurjenns, Derek Lowe, Tim Hudson, Kenshin Kawakami, Chipper, Brian McCann and Nate McClouth, one of those (knock on wood Lowe or KK) will be traded, that however still leaves a lot of money being spent for not many bodies however talented. Those 9 were almost exclusively, with the exception of Martin Prado and Matt Diaz, where our best players last year so where in the payroll do we have enough financial movement to bring in players to improve our team. Nowhere, that’s the answer.
Second, we have almost twice as many contracted starters as we do competent relievers. JJ, Vazquez, Tommy, Hud, D-Lowe and KK, in case you can’t count, that’s 6. Eric O’Flaherty, Peter Moylan, Boone Logan and Kris Medlan are the only relievers under contracts who you would want in a game. Medlan could possibly even start the year as a AAA starter, which personally I want to see, but it was certainly interesting to see the developing trust in Medlan from Bobby through the season but maybe not to the point that he becomes the Braves Phil Hughes. There guys like Luis Valdez, Todd Redmond and Stephen Marek who there seems to be some belief in, especially Valdez. Even in both Rafael Soriano and Mike Gonzalez re-sign (and it’s unlikely both will) then that’s still a weak bullpen, and this is even without mentioning it was by far the most burdened in 2009. So even if our 6 starters are able to carry the team in each and every game how can we ask the bullpen to finish the job. Soriano’s meltdown at the end of the year is evidence enough of how hard the ‘pen worked throughout the year and even now there is very little help. The signing of Scott Proctor to a minor league contract is intriguing in that it happened before there was any attempt to sign back Gonzo or Rafa, and used money, even just a little bit, that could have gone towards either of those deals. Unless the starting rotation turns out to have 3 or 4 Cy Young candidates (which it could) this bullpen could end up churning out bull-something else by the end of the 2010 season.
The biggest concern is the Arizona Fall League. Last year Tommy Hanson went and became the first pitcher to win the winter league MVP and this year was supposed to be the year of Jason Heyward. Instead the AFL became a pain in the ass for Heyward, literally, the gluteus strain putting him out of the league. Then there was Freddie Freeman slumping like a rollercoaster, luckily he seems to be bouncing back but the start was worrying. Luckily Mike Minor, our number 7 draft pick, is throwing nicely, maybe not Hanson nice but promising nice. The worrying about the AFL is that it’s made me realise that the next generation of Braves superstars are maybe a little further away from Major League service than we hoped. Heyward will likely be starting the year in Gwinnett at AAA, Freeman at AA in Mississippi and I have no idea about Minor, I don’t even know if the Braves management do.
By the start of Spring Training Frank Wren may have made some of the kind of moves he did last year with the starting rotation and made me have a little more faith. I’m running on hope heading into the cold, dark winter months but does anyone else see this year being anything but a passing the torch one? All every Braves fan in the world asks, and we don’t care how, give Bobby the best baseball year of his life in his last one.
Wednesday 28 October 2009
Life's a Pitch
Good pitching always beats good hitting, and that’s just how tonights going to go. C.C Sabathia and Cliff Lee, the two previous AL Cy Young award winners lock up for an, almost, certain pitching dual. After C.C and Cliff (that sounds like some awful 80’s synth pop duo) the rest of the rotations are uncertain at best. At the beginning of the year, and even at the All Star break, this series should have been about some of the best young pitchers in baseball. Instead Andy Petitte is throwing game 3 for New York and Pedro Martinez is going in game 2 for the Phillies. I’m not going to argue how great those two guys are and how good the Pedro storyline is, he could achieve promotion to the ultimate anti-Yankee with a couple of wins against them, but why have both these two, and others, been moved ahead of Joba Chamberlain for the Yanks and Cole Hamels and J.A Happ for the Phillies?
Despite my general dislike for both the Phillies and Yankees I always get excited by seeing young players come up and do well (the long, dark winter months will bring desires just to see one Tommy Hanson curveball I haven’t felt in a long time!) so I like seeing guys like Hamels, Joba and Happ. I don’t like seeing whats happened to them. Hamels would have been the opening day starter against (my) Braves way back in April but got hurt, and seems to have stayed hurt, and not wounded lion hurt much more of teething baby hurt. Coming of his post season mvp performance of last year he was expected to be THE guy in Philly and he just never pulled it out. This post season has been just a tiny bit different for Cole, he complained about playing a day game (those molars do hurt) got beat up in said day game, pitched badly against the Dodgers and has been changing fresh diapers every day (that ones definitely Hamels’ fault). The end of last season I really liked Cole Hamels, he seemed a pretty cool, likeable guy, a lot of the Phillies do, it seems fun, this year I really wouldn’t want to hang out with Cole anytime soon. You know when your at a party, everyone’s having a good time, you got the ridiculously smooth guys with their fancy threads (Howard and Rollins) the effortlessly cool guys (Utley and Pedro) and the stiffs that know their place (Lee) then you have that one person you hope won’t come because the musics too loud or the punch is too strong? That’s the 2009 Cole Hamels. Luckily for him he’s pitching against Pettite so he’s gonna look like Bill Clinton in comparison (the party Bill not the other Bill).
J.A Happ is a completely different Philly case, he never seemed any fun, he was the Philly party stiff before Lee arrived. It worked though, he was lights out all regular season, apart from the late arriving Lee and Pedro he was the ace, pitching in the 4th spot in the rotation, but the ace. He was the only Philly pitcher I thought could shut a team down this year prior to the big moves. And then came the play offs and his first bullpen outing for about 5 months and Seth Smiths line drive. I don’t know how much this affected Happ’s first ever post season start but, after his four pitches on October 8th he started October 11th and decided to try and rival Hamels’ year long average-ness. The 3 innings Happ threw was nothing more than glorified live batting practise, Manuel pulled him and since we’ve seen the potential rookie of the year become a one out bullpen guy. I don’t know what Happ(ened), it’s not as easy as Hamels just playing the little bitch, but something went wrong somewhere between the end of the regular season and the start of the post season. It’s come to a point where Happ’s use has become less and I’m ready to proclaim 2009 J.A Happ the Gunther from Friends of the baseball world. He started out in the background, came on strong and was given a larger role, floundered and was largely ignored for long periods and then, if you think about it could come back with one final flourish, the “I love you Philly” moment. There’s more hope for Happ than Hammels to do that, or maybe it’s just bad luck to have a last name beginning with H on the Phillies roster.
And now the most painful case of the three young, shouldda been W.S starters. The Curious Case of Joba Chamberlain. I thought it was great that even behind all the investment in Sabathia and Burnett the Yanks were still willing to put someone like Joba Chamberlain in their rotation. I like Joba and I think he’s got great stuff but I was watching the ALCS against the Angels, like a lot of people, and heard so much from so many experts about this 7th-8th-9th punch the Yankees had of Joba, Hughes and Rivera (Hughes is a different case all together) and thought that looked, and sounded, pretty freaking awesome, until I saw Joba. I occasionally catch those shows about neglected animals if the television has been abducted from my control by a person who will remain nameless and I swear Joba looks like on of those little lost, neglected, unhappy puppies that are picked up from dumpsters or home made kennels. The bullpen has become Joba’s dumpster. Everytime he waddles out to the mound there just isn’t any belief that he’s going to throw anything other than 94 down the middle and you can picture the sad look on his watching the ball fly back past him, like the boy in Free Willy when they try to kill Willy. If you follow baseball you know what happened to Chamberlain at the end of the year. The strange decision that rather than just shutting him down or sending him straight to the ’pen Joe Girardi would prefer to pitch him once ever 7 or 8 days, disrupt any kind of rhythm he had in favor of his favourite children. Joba became Cinderella to the step sisters of Burnett, Pettite and even Chad Gaudin, there hasn’t been a prince charming for Joba yet, just his ever decreasing velocity and relevance to this year. At least he’s got a new hat and t-shirt out of it already, maybe new ring will bring a smile to his face, maybe not. It is worth reminding Joe Girardi however that a Joba is for life, not just the summer.
Despite my general dislike for both the Phillies and Yankees I always get excited by seeing young players come up and do well (the long, dark winter months will bring desires just to see one Tommy Hanson curveball I haven’t felt in a long time!) so I like seeing guys like Hamels, Joba and Happ. I don’t like seeing whats happened to them. Hamels would have been the opening day starter against (my) Braves way back in April but got hurt, and seems to have stayed hurt, and not wounded lion hurt much more of teething baby hurt. Coming of his post season mvp performance of last year he was expected to be THE guy in Philly and he just never pulled it out. This post season has been just a tiny bit different for Cole, he complained about playing a day game (those molars do hurt) got beat up in said day game, pitched badly against the Dodgers and has been changing fresh diapers every day (that ones definitely Hamels’ fault). The end of last season I really liked Cole Hamels, he seemed a pretty cool, likeable guy, a lot of the Phillies do, it seems fun, this year I really wouldn’t want to hang out with Cole anytime soon. You know when your at a party, everyone’s having a good time, you got the ridiculously smooth guys with their fancy threads (Howard and Rollins) the effortlessly cool guys (Utley and Pedro) and the stiffs that know their place (Lee) then you have that one person you hope won’t come because the musics too loud or the punch is too strong? That’s the 2009 Cole Hamels. Luckily for him he’s pitching against Pettite so he’s gonna look like Bill Clinton in comparison (the party Bill not the other Bill).
J.A Happ is a completely different Philly case, he never seemed any fun, he was the Philly party stiff before Lee arrived. It worked though, he was lights out all regular season, apart from the late arriving Lee and Pedro he was the ace, pitching in the 4th spot in the rotation, but the ace. He was the only Philly pitcher I thought could shut a team down this year prior to the big moves. And then came the play offs and his first bullpen outing for about 5 months and Seth Smiths line drive. I don’t know how much this affected Happ’s first ever post season start but, after his four pitches on October 8th he started October 11th and decided to try and rival Hamels’ year long average-ness. The 3 innings Happ threw was nothing more than glorified live batting practise, Manuel pulled him and since we’ve seen the potential rookie of the year become a one out bullpen guy. I don’t know what Happ(ened), it’s not as easy as Hamels just playing the little bitch, but something went wrong somewhere between the end of the regular season and the start of the post season. It’s come to a point where Happ’s use has become less and I’m ready to proclaim 2009 J.A Happ the Gunther from Friends of the baseball world. He started out in the background, came on strong and was given a larger role, floundered and was largely ignored for long periods and then, if you think about it could come back with one final flourish, the “I love you Philly” moment. There’s more hope for Happ than Hammels to do that, or maybe it’s just bad luck to have a last name beginning with H on the Phillies roster.
And now the most painful case of the three young, shouldda been W.S starters. The Curious Case of Joba Chamberlain. I thought it was great that even behind all the investment in Sabathia and Burnett the Yanks were still willing to put someone like Joba Chamberlain in their rotation. I like Joba and I think he’s got great stuff but I was watching the ALCS against the Angels, like a lot of people, and heard so much from so many experts about this 7th-8th-9th punch the Yankees had of Joba, Hughes and Rivera (Hughes is a different case all together) and thought that looked, and sounded, pretty freaking awesome, until I saw Joba. I occasionally catch those shows about neglected animals if the television has been abducted from my control by a person who will remain nameless and I swear Joba looks like on of those little lost, neglected, unhappy puppies that are picked up from dumpsters or home made kennels. The bullpen has become Joba’s dumpster. Everytime he waddles out to the mound there just isn’t any belief that he’s going to throw anything other than 94 down the middle and you can picture the sad look on his watching the ball fly back past him, like the boy in Free Willy when they try to kill Willy. If you follow baseball you know what happened to Chamberlain at the end of the year. The strange decision that rather than just shutting him down or sending him straight to the ’pen Joe Girardi would prefer to pitch him once ever 7 or 8 days, disrupt any kind of rhythm he had in favor of his favourite children. Joba became Cinderella to the step sisters of Burnett, Pettite and even Chad Gaudin, there hasn’t been a prince charming for Joba yet, just his ever decreasing velocity and relevance to this year. At least he’s got a new hat and t-shirt out of it already, maybe new ring will bring a smile to his face, maybe not. It is worth reminding Joe Girardi however that a Joba is for life, not just the summer.
Wednesday 21 October 2009
Coach's Fighting Championship
Even Raiders fans seem to have ceased being surprised by the mess that their organisation continues to wander blindly into. In fact it has almost become something of a humorous bone in the NFL world, unless your name is Cable, Goddell or Hanson. Notice the absence of Al Davies who, if we’re being perfectly honest, has just stopped giving a damn, perhaps he goes to sleep at night not by counting sheep but headlines. With the continuous dribble of information coming out of Oakland and as the media carries on piecing the mystery together it got me thinking, if I was in Randy Hanson’s position in any NFL coaches office which head coach would I least like flying at me, teeth bared, fists up? We quite clearly have our heavyweight champion in Cable who obviously would “f***ing kill you” given the opportunity, but who are his challengers and who are the good, gentle souls of the National Football League, this is my power rankings for head coach violence. For these rankings I will try and take into account everything although some may not get far past body size, Andy Reid aint coming near the bottom anytime soon for example. This is not based on team bias, I’m usually a huge homer I admit that, but Mike Smith wouldn’t break my teeth, I hope. It has to be remembered that even minutes after I post this Jim Zorn may be moving out of Washington D.C so his position will forever be tainted as he may not be in a job long enough to assault a defensive coach. Without further delay, the rankings for the Coach's Fighting Championship.
31. Brad Childress (Minnesota Vikings)
You just cannot imagine Childress hurting anything. As a person I’m sure he’s a great guy but he’s very gray. I couldn’t imagine having to put up much resistance to any attempted assault from Coach Childress, also the way he acted at the arrival of Brett Favre shows that he needs a strong man in his life and maybe couldn’t do much of his own dirty work.
30. Norv Turner (San Diego Chargers)
Norv’s kindda like one of your kind uncles, gives you a lot of hope and anticipation and then doesn’t fully deliver with the Christmas gift. Despite this he’s always at the family gatherings and always one of the nice guys. Try and picture this for a second, Phillip Rivers throws an interception in the end zone in the Super Bowl, whats Turner going to do freak out or give him a consolation hug? My point exactly.
29. Sean Payton (New Orleans Saints)
Another who you just can’t see throwing himself into a fight, but now we’re starting to see the kind of guy who’s probably at least try and put up a fight against Tom Cable, although not much of one. Plus he lives in New Orleans, Payton’s a lover not a fighter.
28. Todd Haley (Kansas City Chiefs)
This is one where I really wasn’t too sure where Haley deserved to go, I see a lot of Sean Payton in him just with more facial hair. This is now the primary reason that Haley is above Payton but also the blandness means that he will not get a shot at the heavyweight champ.
27. Lovie Smith
His names Lovie, how could you possibly imagine anything other than a good guy. Well I think that he has something more about him that prevents Smith being the number one lover on the list, that certain X factor that can just put that intimidation into a group of people, unfortunately in the end his first name and the fact he is now the proud owner of his own big baby in Jay Cutler so he has to set a good example.
26. Jim Schwartz
Living in Detroit keeps Schwartz off the very bottom of the rankings but otherwise Coach Schwartz is the perennial Mr nice guy. There is a certain toughness about guys from Detroit, it’s the same about guys from places like Seattle and Denver, Detroit then qualifies Schwartz for 26th position, if he coached the Patriots he wouldn’t be here.
25. Jack Del Rio (Jacksonville Jaguars)
I just get the feeling about Del Rio that football is his big hobby, he does it for fun and enjoys the Florida sun, his real passion has to be something like golf. He has a real good pro and college sports resume but he now seems set to sit on his fortune in the sunshine coast, play golf and make college related bets with Maurice Jones-Drew, that might possibly get him to fight, otherwise nothing.
24.John Harbaugh (Baltimore Ravens)
Again the city wins out for Harbaugh rather than his own persona, Baltimore definitely qualifies up there with those tough cities and living there gives Harbaugh some bonus points. You could however imagine taking him home to meet your mother and she wouldn’t be disappointed, clean cut and hard working but tough and living in Baltimore gets you 24 on this list.
23. Jim Zorn (Washington Redskins)
There’s something very Third Reich about Jim Zorn, you could easily imagine him spending his spare time dressed in a leather trench coat, there’s something about his eyes that you wouldn’t want to upset. He may however not be in work by the time I finish this sentence so the intimidation factor is slightly lower, although his stress levels are cranked up, approach with caution.
22. Mike Smith (Atlanta Falcons)
Smiddy is again just like a cool uncle, although this time you’d probably want him on your side in a fight, and you could at least imagine Mike Smith in an argument. Having seen the veins pop out of his head and the blood congregate in his face your realise he’s not a coach you’d happily upset, but one that wouldn’t be too intimidating, especially with that funny hat he wears at training.
21. Jim Mora (Seattle Seahawks)
Again city helps but you put Zorn in a fight with anyone in the list before this and, so long as Childress fights without Favre as his tag-team partner, he wins. He’s the first to really separate himself by this criteria but it says a lot that this can’t break him into the top 20.
20. Jim Caldwell (Indianapolis Colts)
Caldwell actually bumps the Colts up a few spaces in comparison to Tony Dungy but more suits the relaxing outside his house with some cold lemonade and maybe some fried chicken. He has though got a little look about him that you wouldn’t want to push too many buttons.
19. Bill Belichick (New England Patriots)
The Jedi master, Hoody, whatever you want to call him there is a feeling inside me that scares me an awful lot about Belichick. I feel like he can look deep into my soul and discover all my greatest fears, use his Jedi mind skills and pulverise me. However other NFL coaches immune to such tricks could beat down the senior coach.
18. Wade Phillips (Dallas Cowboys)
Just through sheer physical presence Phillips gets a middle of the field kind of mark, he’s a one punch kindda guy, if you can make him have to go anything over say 15 seconds he’ll be blowing and will be asking Mr Jones to pay for his hospital bills, he is the first though that I think is immune to the Jedi mind tricks.
17. Gary Kubiak (Houston Texans)
Kubiak is simply a scrapper, he’ll hang around in fights long enough to hold Wade Phillips, he won’t try stealing Caldwells lemonade and he doesn’t expect much for Christmas, personally though I just think he’d punch real hard and we may have our first teeth breaker!
16. Josh McDaniels (Denver Broncos)
McDaniels had the opportunity to score really highly in the rankings, he didn’t take a swing at Jay Cutler or Brandon Marshall, he sparred in the media and through official channels and avoided physical conflict. I’ve given him the benefit of the doubt in marking him high, although he could easily fall way out of the top 20 if he pussyfooted around a situation like that again.
15. Marvin Lewis (Cincinnati Bengals)
He just looks tough, stern and a little mean. I don’t know if this combination can amount to sporadic physical violence, he could beat a lot of people down though and beat them hard, and do it gentlemanly which is perhaps holding him back a little.
14. John Fox (Carolina Panthers)
Fox was a strange one to have to make a decision on, basically I think he could beat down anyone previously listed but would struggle against anyone higher on the list. That’s the only reason he is here and nowhere else.
13. Raheem Morris (Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
To me Raheem Morris looks an awful lot like he was miscast as a football coach and missed a great opportunity to star as some kind of gang affiliate in The Wire, especially in the sampled picture with his chosen head gear and shorts. This is no reflection in Raheem just that I would not choose to fight him but would happily pay money to see him in conflict with any other NFL coach.
12. Mike Tomlin (Pittsburgh Steelers)
Ditto for Tomlin with cop shows, although he seems much more suited to playing the cop character. As I go I’m creating new ideas for this whole cop show using NFL head coaches, anyone for Axel Tomlin? Anyone? Anyone want to fight Tomlin? No? That’s why he’s twelfth.
11. Tom Coughlin (New York Giants)
He just looks mean, real mean. Even for the good cop, bad cop combination of Tomlin and Morris he looks mean. Add in the New York factor and suddenly Coughlin becomes a real adversary for anyone, right on the edge of the top 10 and, in my opinion well deserving of his place.
10. Jeff Fisher (Tennessee Titans)
Look at the picture hard, real hard. Now tell me if you see what I see, doesn’t Fisher just look the kinda guy who’s done some military service, worked the rail road, watched football at the weekend with his buddies after going deer hunting or fishing or some other carnivorous activity that is plentiful in Tennessee. Yup my thoughts exactly, barbrawl.com for more Jeff Fisher info.
9. Ken Wisenhunt (Arizona Cardinals)
Wisenhunt just looks trucker tough, and thats damn tough. He might not be the biggest coach or the most intimidating looking but he has that look of a genuine tough guy. Could anyone else see Wisenhunt as modern day Snowman? Kurt Warner could be the Bandit, I smell reboot!
8. Mike Singletary (San Francisco 49ers)
He goes out and hit people in the mouth. Period.
Joint 6. Steve Spagnuolo (St Louis Rams) Dick Jauron (Buffalo Bills)
I could not separate these two, they both have incredibly intense eyes, the scary kind that give children nightmares. I would not like to get on the wrong side of either of these guys, I’m worried for their players if they keep playing like they have been. Could you imagine trying to explain why you didn’t make that play to these two, not so much.
Joint 2. Eric Magini (Cleveland Browns), Mike McCarthy (Green Bay Packers), Rex Ryan (New York Jets), Andy Reid (Philadelphia Eagles)
As the last two were tied this time I have four tied for second position. This is such an important position in the rankings how can you possibly place one of these two above the other. If anyone can please tell me how, they are all basically physical clones of each other, give or take some dictator style facial hair and this would be a battle royal to end all battle royals, pay-per-view, yes please.
1. Tony Sparano (Miami Dolphins)
The champ is Tony Sparano. I could easily have included Sparano with the previous group, same physical characteristics, dictator moustache and intimidating presence. The one distinguishing factor, and we needed to have a clear number one, is the name and everyone I asked jumped on this real quick. Look real hard at the picture, transpose the bright green for a black shirt, move him from Miami to New Jersey and pow! You have a spitting image of Televisions favourite gangster. He won’t assault a member of his coaching staff, a member of the family will do it for him.
31. Brad Childress (Minnesota Vikings)
You just cannot imagine Childress hurting anything. As a person I’m sure he’s a great guy but he’s very gray. I couldn’t imagine having to put up much resistance to any attempted assault from Coach Childress, also the way he acted at the arrival of Brett Favre shows that he needs a strong man in his life and maybe couldn’t do much of his own dirty work.
30. Norv Turner (San Diego Chargers)
Norv’s kindda like one of your kind uncles, gives you a lot of hope and anticipation and then doesn’t fully deliver with the Christmas gift. Despite this he’s always at the family gatherings and always one of the nice guys. Try and picture this for a second, Phillip Rivers throws an interception in the end zone in the Super Bowl, whats Turner going to do freak out or give him a consolation hug? My point exactly.
29. Sean Payton (New Orleans Saints)
Another who you just can’t see throwing himself into a fight, but now we’re starting to see the kind of guy who’s probably at least try and put up a fight against Tom Cable, although not much of one. Plus he lives in New Orleans, Payton’s a lover not a fighter.
28. Todd Haley (Kansas City Chiefs)
This is one where I really wasn’t too sure where Haley deserved to go, I see a lot of Sean Payton in him just with more facial hair. This is now the primary reason that Haley is above Payton but also the blandness means that he will not get a shot at the heavyweight champ.
27. Lovie Smith
His names Lovie, how could you possibly imagine anything other than a good guy. Well I think that he has something more about him that prevents Smith being the number one lover on the list, that certain X factor that can just put that intimidation into a group of people, unfortunately in the end his first name and the fact he is now the proud owner of his own big baby in Jay Cutler so he has to set a good example.
26. Jim Schwartz
Living in Detroit keeps Schwartz off the very bottom of the rankings but otherwise Coach Schwartz is the perennial Mr nice guy. There is a certain toughness about guys from Detroit, it’s the same about guys from places like Seattle and Denver, Detroit then qualifies Schwartz for 26th position, if he coached the Patriots he wouldn’t be here.
25. Jack Del Rio (Jacksonville Jaguars)
I just get the feeling about Del Rio that football is his big hobby, he does it for fun and enjoys the Florida sun, his real passion has to be something like golf. He has a real good pro and college sports resume but he now seems set to sit on his fortune in the sunshine coast, play golf and make college related bets with Maurice Jones-Drew, that might possibly get him to fight, otherwise nothing.
24.John Harbaugh (Baltimore Ravens)
Again the city wins out for Harbaugh rather than his own persona, Baltimore definitely qualifies up there with those tough cities and living there gives Harbaugh some bonus points. You could however imagine taking him home to meet your mother and she wouldn’t be disappointed, clean cut and hard working but tough and living in Baltimore gets you 24 on this list.
23. Jim Zorn (Washington Redskins)
There’s something very Third Reich about Jim Zorn, you could easily imagine him spending his spare time dressed in a leather trench coat, there’s something about his eyes that you wouldn’t want to upset. He may however not be in work by the time I finish this sentence so the intimidation factor is slightly lower, although his stress levels are cranked up, approach with caution.
22. Mike Smith (Atlanta Falcons)
Smiddy is again just like a cool uncle, although this time you’d probably want him on your side in a fight, and you could at least imagine Mike Smith in an argument. Having seen the veins pop out of his head and the blood congregate in his face your realise he’s not a coach you’d happily upset, but one that wouldn’t be too intimidating, especially with that funny hat he wears at training.
21. Jim Mora (Seattle Seahawks)
Again city helps but you put Zorn in a fight with anyone in the list before this and, so long as Childress fights without Favre as his tag-team partner, he wins. He’s the first to really separate himself by this criteria but it says a lot that this can’t break him into the top 20.
20. Jim Caldwell (Indianapolis Colts)
Caldwell actually bumps the Colts up a few spaces in comparison to Tony Dungy but more suits the relaxing outside his house with some cold lemonade and maybe some fried chicken. He has though got a little look about him that you wouldn’t want to push too many buttons.
19. Bill Belichick (New England Patriots)
The Jedi master, Hoody, whatever you want to call him there is a feeling inside me that scares me an awful lot about Belichick. I feel like he can look deep into my soul and discover all my greatest fears, use his Jedi mind skills and pulverise me. However other NFL coaches immune to such tricks could beat down the senior coach.
18. Wade Phillips (Dallas Cowboys)
Just through sheer physical presence Phillips gets a middle of the field kind of mark, he’s a one punch kindda guy, if you can make him have to go anything over say 15 seconds he’ll be blowing and will be asking Mr Jones to pay for his hospital bills, he is the first though that I think is immune to the Jedi mind tricks.
17. Gary Kubiak (Houston Texans)
Kubiak is simply a scrapper, he’ll hang around in fights long enough to hold Wade Phillips, he won’t try stealing Caldwells lemonade and he doesn’t expect much for Christmas, personally though I just think he’d punch real hard and we may have our first teeth breaker!
16. Josh McDaniels (Denver Broncos)
McDaniels had the opportunity to score really highly in the rankings, he didn’t take a swing at Jay Cutler or Brandon Marshall, he sparred in the media and through official channels and avoided physical conflict. I’ve given him the benefit of the doubt in marking him high, although he could easily fall way out of the top 20 if he pussyfooted around a situation like that again.
15. Marvin Lewis (Cincinnati Bengals)
He just looks tough, stern and a little mean. I don’t know if this combination can amount to sporadic physical violence, he could beat a lot of people down though and beat them hard, and do it gentlemanly which is perhaps holding him back a little.
14. John Fox (Carolina Panthers)
Fox was a strange one to have to make a decision on, basically I think he could beat down anyone previously listed but would struggle against anyone higher on the list. That’s the only reason he is here and nowhere else.
13. Raheem Morris (Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
To me Raheem Morris looks an awful lot like he was miscast as a football coach and missed a great opportunity to star as some kind of gang affiliate in The Wire, especially in the sampled picture with his chosen head gear and shorts. This is no reflection in Raheem just that I would not choose to fight him but would happily pay money to see him in conflict with any other NFL coach.
12. Mike Tomlin (Pittsburgh Steelers)
Ditto for Tomlin with cop shows, although he seems much more suited to playing the cop character. As I go I’m creating new ideas for this whole cop show using NFL head coaches, anyone for Axel Tomlin? Anyone? Anyone want to fight Tomlin? No? That’s why he’s twelfth.
11. Tom Coughlin (New York Giants)
He just looks mean, real mean. Even for the good cop, bad cop combination of Tomlin and Morris he looks mean. Add in the New York factor and suddenly Coughlin becomes a real adversary for anyone, right on the edge of the top 10 and, in my opinion well deserving of his place.
10. Jeff Fisher (Tennessee Titans)
Look at the picture hard, real hard. Now tell me if you see what I see, doesn’t Fisher just look the kinda guy who’s done some military service, worked the rail road, watched football at the weekend with his buddies after going deer hunting or fishing or some other carnivorous activity that is plentiful in Tennessee. Yup my thoughts exactly, barbrawl.com for more Jeff Fisher info.
9. Ken Wisenhunt (Arizona Cardinals)
Wisenhunt just looks trucker tough, and thats damn tough. He might not be the biggest coach or the most intimidating looking but he has that look of a genuine tough guy. Could anyone else see Wisenhunt as modern day Snowman? Kurt Warner could be the Bandit, I smell reboot!
8. Mike Singletary (San Francisco 49ers)
He goes out and hit people in the mouth. Period.
Joint 6. Steve Spagnuolo (St Louis Rams) Dick Jauron (Buffalo Bills)
I could not separate these two, they both have incredibly intense eyes, the scary kind that give children nightmares. I would not like to get on the wrong side of either of these guys, I’m worried for their players if they keep playing like they have been. Could you imagine trying to explain why you didn’t make that play to these two, not so much.
Joint 2. Eric Magini (Cleveland Browns), Mike McCarthy (Green Bay Packers), Rex Ryan (New York Jets), Andy Reid (Philadelphia Eagles)
As the last two were tied this time I have four tied for second position. This is such an important position in the rankings how can you possibly place one of these two above the other. If anyone can please tell me how, they are all basically physical clones of each other, give or take some dictator style facial hair and this would be a battle royal to end all battle royals, pay-per-view, yes please.
1. Tony Sparano (Miami Dolphins)
The champ is Tony Sparano. I could easily have included Sparano with the previous group, same physical characteristics, dictator moustache and intimidating presence. The one distinguishing factor, and we needed to have a clear number one, is the name and everyone I asked jumped on this real quick. Look real hard at the picture, transpose the bright green for a black shirt, move him from Miami to New Jersey and pow! You have a spitting image of Televisions favourite gangster. He won’t assault a member of his coaching staff, a member of the family will do it for him.
Friday 2 October 2009
The Stafford Theory
Would Georgia be a better team had Matthew Stafford chosen to complete his degree and take one more year of being the big fish in the Georgia locker room. Many, especially in Athens, felt that Stafford should have stayed, enjoyed one more year partying, earned a complete degree and given himself a shot at the SEC championship. The decision he did make is hardly unknown. There are however two questions that his choice has risen for me having seen him as an NFL starter and Georgia playing a Matthew Stafford-less offence; how much did the University of Georgia mean to Matthew Stafford? And how much did Matthew Stafford really mean to UGA?
After David Greene and then D.J Shockley there was already a Georgia QB dynasty blossoming and Matthew Stafford appeared to be the next one to lead the Dawgs to at least the SEC if not a national championship. Unfortunately for UGA and Matthew he arrived at the same time as Urban Meyer, Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators, but did this affect the way Stafford played for the Bulldogs? No simply. He lead his team to a win in Jacksonville but dropped conference games to South Carolina and Tennessee and your not going to win an SEC championship with 2 conference losses no matter how many times you beat Florida. Then perhaps in his best chance to win both the SEC and BCS in one attempt, starting the year ranked #1 in the country and with the nations best running back to balance his power arm the was supposedly no stopping the Bulldogs, wrong. Stafford, with a little help from his D and O-line, bombed in the two biggest games he would likely play for the university. However a capital one bowl win isn’t bad reward for the most multi-talented team in the country is it. Some Georgia fans, and I will include myself in this, felt Matt owed the university a bit, he owed his team mates and the fans one last shot, even without Moreno it became clear he had a ready made replacement for Mohammed Massaquai, perhaps even better, in A.J Green. Did the university, his friends and fans really mean as much as he said? Having seen Colt McCoy, Tim Tebow and Sam Bradford return to school for their senior years plus the emergance of Jimmy Clausen and Jevan Snead and a plethora of other great quarterbacks in Matthew Stafford could have challenged himself to lead the Bulldogs against a strong field of QB’s on strong teams, he left in a weak draft class for his position, he was chosen as the best of three and does anyone think Josh Freeman is going to do anything on Sundays? It seems to me that Matthew Stafford used the University of Georgia as a stepping stone to personal wealth, it also seems that UGA used Stafford as a stepping stone to collective success.
Has the Georgia offence actually missed Stafford this year yet? Maybe once, in the beating Oklahoma sun when #14 was suffocating under the kind of scrutiny that the former #7 never faced. Matthew Stafford tied the record for touchdown passes in a game (5)in his second to last start with team, Joe Cox matched the same feat in his 4th start. Joe Cox who has sat behind Stafford for 3 years and finally got his chance is leading a young team and actually winning the Dawgs games, he has them at 2-1(2-0 SEC). What those stats don’t actually tell you that he has had to beat South Carolina single handed, throwing for 576 yards combined and 7 TD’s helping the Bulldogs to 93 points across the two games. I’m not saying Cox is a better quarterback than Matthew Stafford, I think he has shown enough potential in his two NFL starts to have belief he can be widely successful, I am just suggesting that maybe for now he is the better one for Georgia. There is every possibility that this season if Joe Cox plays the way he has against SEC teams this year against everyone he may actually improve on Staffords 10-3 record last year, that is a huge claim that Georgia could go the rest of the year losing only 1 game, but if they learn to play defence smartish they could do it and Joe Cox could do something Matthew Stafford never gave himself a chance to do, win the SEC, big claims for a big goal.
After David Greene and then D.J Shockley there was already a Georgia QB dynasty blossoming and Matthew Stafford appeared to be the next one to lead the Dawgs to at least the SEC if not a national championship. Unfortunately for UGA and Matthew he arrived at the same time as Urban Meyer, Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators, but did this affect the way Stafford played for the Bulldogs? No simply. He lead his team to a win in Jacksonville but dropped conference games to South Carolina and Tennessee and your not going to win an SEC championship with 2 conference losses no matter how many times you beat Florida. Then perhaps in his best chance to win both the SEC and BCS in one attempt, starting the year ranked #1 in the country and with the nations best running back to balance his power arm the was supposedly no stopping the Bulldogs, wrong. Stafford, with a little help from his D and O-line, bombed in the two biggest games he would likely play for the university. However a capital one bowl win isn’t bad reward for the most multi-talented team in the country is it. Some Georgia fans, and I will include myself in this, felt Matt owed the university a bit, he owed his team mates and the fans one last shot, even without Moreno it became clear he had a ready made replacement for Mohammed Massaquai, perhaps even better, in A.J Green. Did the university, his friends and fans really mean as much as he said? Having seen Colt McCoy, Tim Tebow and Sam Bradford return to school for their senior years plus the emergance of Jimmy Clausen and Jevan Snead and a plethora of other great quarterbacks in Matthew Stafford could have challenged himself to lead the Bulldogs against a strong field of QB’s on strong teams, he left in a weak draft class for his position, he was chosen as the best of three and does anyone think Josh Freeman is going to do anything on Sundays? It seems to me that Matthew Stafford used the University of Georgia as a stepping stone to personal wealth, it also seems that UGA used Stafford as a stepping stone to collective success.
Has the Georgia offence actually missed Stafford this year yet? Maybe once, in the beating Oklahoma sun when #14 was suffocating under the kind of scrutiny that the former #7 never faced. Matthew Stafford tied the record for touchdown passes in a game (5)in his second to last start with team, Joe Cox matched the same feat in his 4th start. Joe Cox who has sat behind Stafford for 3 years and finally got his chance is leading a young team and actually winning the Dawgs games, he has them at 2-1(2-0 SEC). What those stats don’t actually tell you that he has had to beat South Carolina single handed, throwing for 576 yards combined and 7 TD’s helping the Bulldogs to 93 points across the two games. I’m not saying Cox is a better quarterback than Matthew Stafford, I think he has shown enough potential in his two NFL starts to have belief he can be widely successful, I am just suggesting that maybe for now he is the better one for Georgia. There is every possibility that this season if Joe Cox plays the way he has against SEC teams this year against everyone he may actually improve on Staffords 10-3 record last year, that is a huge claim that Georgia could go the rest of the year losing only 1 game, but if they learn to play defence smartish they could do it and Joe Cox could do something Matthew Stafford never gave himself a chance to do, win the SEC, big claims for a big goal.
The end of progress?
There will be many debates in the coming months over the admissions and omissions from the 2012 and 2016 Olympic games but one sport that appears dead in the Olympic water is Baseball. As an individual sport this is not a major problem, the World Baseball Classic has pretty much got international baseball down pat, however there is a greater issue that is given rise to by this exclusion.
Time hasn’t been kind to the relationship between the United States and Cuba, as time has gone on old wounds have festered and grown deeper and more painful. Whatever your views on the constant troubles since Fidel Castro took control and JFK authorised the Bay of Pigs invasion, the two countries so close together geographically could be so far apart.
Whilst the participation of baseball in the Olympic arena may not have benefited the game anymore than it not being there it did do one thing; brought the U.S and Cuba together over something which both countries feel so passionately. Whilst the political relations remain cold the competition provided on the diamond provided the closet thing to togetherness these countries could possibly hope to experience. Since the Barcelona Olympics of 1992 Cuba has one three gold medals and two silver, the U.S has won one gold and two bronze medals, now these two great baseball nations have no hope of competing again in the near future, the fans also have no chance of seeing these great players play together. There are thirteen Cuban players playing professionally in the MLB, all banned from playing in, or for, the Cuban national team. These players defected to the U.S leaving family and friends behind in the hope of finding better lives for themselves in the back of their own God given talents.
It would seem that the one thing bringing these two nations together has now been taken away from them by the International Olympic Committee, how long now until Americans and Cubans will gather together in search of one common goal?
Time hasn’t been kind to the relationship between the United States and Cuba, as time has gone on old wounds have festered and grown deeper and more painful. Whatever your views on the constant troubles since Fidel Castro took control and JFK authorised the Bay of Pigs invasion, the two countries so close together geographically could be so far apart.
Whilst the participation of baseball in the Olympic arena may not have benefited the game anymore than it not being there it did do one thing; brought the U.S and Cuba together over something which both countries feel so passionately. Whilst the political relations remain cold the competition provided on the diamond provided the closet thing to togetherness these countries could possibly hope to experience. Since the Barcelona Olympics of 1992 Cuba has one three gold medals and two silver, the U.S has won one gold and two bronze medals, now these two great baseball nations have no hope of competing again in the near future, the fans also have no chance of seeing these great players play together. There are thirteen Cuban players playing professionally in the MLB, all banned from playing in, or for, the Cuban national team. These players defected to the U.S leaving family and friends behind in the hope of finding better lives for themselves in the back of their own God given talents.
It would seem that the one thing bringing these two nations together has now been taken away from them by the International Olympic Committee, how long now until Americans and Cubans will gather together in search of one common goal?
Numero 1
This is the very first blog post I have made so bare with me. Basically once or twice a week I'm going to drop on a U.S sports blog to try and hone my writing with the hope of ending up with a nice little sports journo job in the U.S with a nice holiday home on the banks of the Savannah, it's all in the detail. So please whoever reads them please give me feedback, e-mail or whatever, feel free to critisize or even make it fun and argue with me! Whoever helps thank y'all very much whoever doesn't I hope you enjoy what you read.
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