So one has to wonder why these golden boys aren’t doing miraculous things once they graduate from school and start getting a paycheck for their work. Like head coaches who were worshiped when they led college football teams to astounding records and bowl game victories but who withered when exposed to the realities of professional sports, the rookies playing quarterback in pro football typically don’t have a great deal of success. And among pundits of the NFL a popular topic of discussion has always been; when is the right time to play a highly drafted rookie quarterback?

“The best position for a rookie quarterback is ‘clipboard’ ” according to Steve Mariucci, former NFL head coach and himself a three time All-American quarterback at Northwest Michigan. “The only quarterback I can think of who came in and starred as a rookie was Dan Marino,” Mariucci said. “Everybody else needs time to learn. A rookie quarterback comes in and sees things he’s never seen before, and it takes him time to adjust. In the meantime, he’s getting knocked around. He’s always been the star, but now he’s being humbled. Sometimes, these quarterbacks get to thinking they’re just no good, and they never really recover.”

One of the most important things to remember when considering the situation that pro football rookies face is that the NFL is an organization that is dedicated to a concept called parity. This roughly stipulates that no one team is allowed to be too strong or dominant on a consistent basis. Towards that end, weaker teams which have had very poor records are the ones who get first choice among the new crop of college graduates.

The NFL rules notwithstanding, star quarterbacks are often seen as the shining hope for teams that have fared particularly poorly with the result being that extremely talented college quarterbacks many times go to play for NFL teams that are just plain bad, particularly on the offensive line which is the group that’s charged with protecting the quarterback. Sometimes a few talented players are drafted alongside the quarterback and the team improves, but more often than not the team remains poor and the rookie passer just gets beaten up.

Dan Marino, famed Dolphins QB certainly achieved success as an NFL quarterback almost immediately upon joining the league, garnering a rookie record 96.0 rating even though he only played in 11 games, 9 of which he started. But Marino was brought onto a Miami team that was pretty solid already, having just gone to the Super Bowl the previous year.

Marino, who’s passing numbers had been relatively disappointing in his senior year at the University of Pittsburgh was the 27th pick of the draft and thus was obviously not seen as the saving grace for any of the perennial losers in the league. Had anyone known at that time that Marino had the potential to become one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history his future would probably have turned out much differently.

Peyton Manning, the first player drafted into the pros in 1998 was thrust into the limelight by the Colts right away. Unlike Marino who didn’t start until Week 6 of the 1983 season, Manning was the Indy’s starter from day one. He struggled at first, throwing three touchdowns and eleven interceptions in his first four games and ranking extremely low compared to other quarterbacks in the AFC.

Peyton eventually started throwing more TD’s and lessening the number of pickoffs although he wound up the season with about the same number of each. The Colts finished 3-13 that year, but Manning, a mature competitor with the ability to grasp the complicated offensive schemes run by todays NFL teams rebounded to lead Indianapolis to a 13-3 season the following year. Remember also that he is the son of two time pro-bowl quarterback Archie Manning, who was able to give Peyton a lot of advice on making the transition from collegiate to professional football.

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer is an example of a rookie quarterback who’s entry into the game was handled properly. A Heisman Trophy winner and the very first player picked in the entire 2003 NFL draft, Palmer did not take a single snap in his first year in the pro’s. Instead, he stayed on the sidelines and was mentored by quarterback John Kitna who is now starting for the Detroit Lions. Kitna led the Bengals to an 8-8 season that year, but was probably resigned to the fact that Palmer would be taking the reins very shortly.

By January of 2004, Cincinnati head coach Marvin Lewis had named Palmer as his starter. In only his second year as a first stringer Palmer was named to the pro bowl, and before he suffered a low blow to his knee, a type of tackle that is now illegal in the NFL, the Bengals had every expectation that Palmer would lead them past the Steelers in the AFC championship game and on to victory against the Seahawks in the Super Bowl. And they were probably right.

Although quarterbacks like Marino and Manning have started as rookies and survived the plunge their stories are the exception rather than the rule. The defensive alignments in pro football, the complex play calling, the requirement for a quarterback to “read” the defense and make the appropriate adjustments and for him to be on the same page with his receivers and backs who are making the same decisions all within a 10 second time frame – all these combine to form a formidable barrier to successful decision making by a newcomer.

There are literally dozens of young inexperienced players who will get trampled in their first outing as a starting NFL quarterback assuming they even make it that far. For every ten quarterbacks who actually get signed to a contract in the league maybe one will ever become anything more than an occasional starter. Given those kinds of odds, one has to believe that Steve Mariucci may have gotten it right. Just give the kid a clipboard.

Tomlinson had his sixth 100+ yards rushing game of the year against Denver this week putting him over 1400 yards for the fifth time in his seven year career. Tomlinson has never rushed for less than 1000 yards a season – his worst season was as a rookie when he ran for 1236 yards and 10 touchdowns, and last year was his best ever when he led the league with over 1800 yards and had an NFL all time record 28 rushing touchdowns in a single season.

As if all that wasn’t enough, Tomlinson is also a substantial threat as a receiver averaging close to 500 yards receiving per year. In 2003, his best performance as an outlet receiver he caught a 4th best in the NFL 100 passes for 725 yards and in total yardage he was the only running back listed in the top 40 receivers for that season. Jets Curtis Martin, Seahawks Shaun Alexander and Cleveland’s Jamal Lewis have garnered around 300-350 yards receiving per year but no other running back with Tomlinson’s rushing numbers has been as accomplished a receiver in their first seven seasons as LaDainian has, including the great Thurman Thomas who played for Buffalo from 1988 to 1999.

Tomlinson would almost certainly be over 1500 yards this season if he was allowed to play more, but in his last two outings he has been taken out of the game at or near halftime so as to keep him healthier for the post season. Tomlinson strained his hamstring slightly in the Denver contest but wanted to continue playing anyway. Next week the Chargers travel to Oakland to play a Raiders team that has the worst run defense in the league except for the 1-14 Dolphins.

Tomlinson may yet have competition for the rushing title from Eagles Brian Westbrook (1291 yards) and Vikings Peterson (1305 yards), however. That’s because this weekend Philadelphia is playing Buffalo with the 27th ranked run defense in the league, and in pursuit of the last remaining NFC wild card, the Minnesota Vikings will host the Broncos who are almost as awful at stopping the rush as Oakland. Either way, Tomlinson will finish the year as one of the NFL’s premiere all time running backs and will probably continue to be a league leader in years to come.

San Francisco; The 49ers defense has not been a significant force this year by any stretch of the imagination. They haven’t ranked above 22nd in the league in either pass or run defense, and they have allowed an average of almost 23 points a game. Defensive tackle Bryant Young, who is the last remaining player from the glory days when San Francisco was a Super Bowl dynasty joined the 49ers in 1994, the year they picked up their last and [then record] fifth Super Bowl victory with quarterback Steve Young at the helm.

Last week, as a tribute by some of the younger 49ers, the 14 year veteran and four time pro-bowl selectee was carried off the field following the victory over the NFC South champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It was Young’s last home game before he retires at the end of this year, and his departure represents the last flicker of an era marked by personalities such as Joe Montana and Jerry Rice. But out of the smoking rubble of a 5-10 season in 2007 that featured an eight game slide and saw four different starting quarterbacks, a young phoenix is rising.

Other than some notable exceptions like Dallas Cowboys DeMarcus Ware and Greg Ellis, Patriots Mike Vrabel and Chargers Shawne Merriman, pro football linebackers are not notorious for being sack leaders. But tackling is a different arena altogether, and among the top 30 tacklers in the league right now, the first 27 are linebackers, including a man who is far and away the most prolific takedown artist in the NFL this year.

Rookie linebacker Patrick Willis, a little known talent on an otherwise unremarkable San Francisco team is a first round draft pick who was chosen 11th overall and in his brief professional career has racked up some truly amazing numbers on defense. The former first team All-American and 2006 Butkus award winner from the University of Mississippi has recorded 162 tackles so far this season. That’s 29 more tackles than the second ranked LB in that category (Broncos D.J. Williams) who has 133. Out of his total, 123 are solo tackles, and that also leads the 102 solo’s by D.J. Williams by a huge margin.

Of an incident in the Week 12 game against Arizona in which Willis executed a game saving tackle in overtime that prevented a Cardinals touchdown, Willis says “When I took off running, after the first few yards I said ‘I can get this guy.’ I had to run. I wanted to make the sure tackle. I didn’t want to leap and slide off him. He shouldn’t have been down there in the first place.” Cardinals slot receiver Sean Morey had taken off upfield after executing a short crossing pattern and was closing in on the red zone when he was wrapped up by Willis after a 62-yard run. “There are things in the playbook I can’t coach.” says 49ers defensive coordinator Greg Manusky. “One of them is when he ran that guy down. I can’t coach that. He’s an amazing player.”

In addition to Michael, the cast includes his brother Marcus Vick who was briefly with the Miami Dolphins last season and who’s arrest for waving a gun actually took place about a week after the 2006 NCAA Gator Bowl in which he played quarterback for Virginia Tech. Other notable pics include ESPN commentator Michael Irvin who has had a couple of drug possession charges as well as Sean Taylor, the Washington Redskins safety who was recently slain in his Florida home and who’s death has been intensely painful for his many mourners both in and out of the NFL. The video wraps up and fades out with a shot of pro football’s most notorious suspect, O.J. Simpson following his arrest in 1994 for the murder of his wife, a crime for which he was ultimately acquitted.

The presentation is unfortunately a rather tasteless look at the issue, and lacks needed perspective. For example, the photo of former pro-bowl cornerback Deion Sanders grinning from ear to ear was taken following his arrest for the less-than-sinister crime of going fishing on a municipal lake. The problem of NFL players being involved in criminal activity certainly deserves comment, but a statement that is much more intelligent, balanced and informed than this sensationalist garbage is required.

Miami; With the loss to the (then) 2-9 Jets in Week 13 and this week’s loss to Buffalo who have twice this season used the Dolphin’s faces as a stepstool to boost themselves just above the .500 mark, Miami’s chances of cracking that seemingly indestructible goose egg in their ‘W’ column just got a whole lot worse. Their next two games are against the Ravens who just barely missed knocking off the undefeated Patriots 2 weeks ago, followed by the Patriots themselves. What a sensational story it would make if the winless Dolphins could erase the shame of this season by knocking New England off their pedestal thus at once destroying the Patriots run for a perfect season while preserving the record of the Miami alumni who were unbeaten in 17 games in 1972. *Sigh* The more likely scenario however is that the Dolphins will need to win their season finale when they host the Bengals on December 30. Cincinnati lives by the pass and Miami actually has the third best pass defense in the NFL. Of course that might be because Miami has the worst run defense in the league so nobody has even needed to throw against them to score points. The Bengals do have Rudi Johnson at running back though, and in spite of a slow season hampered by injuries he did have a good game against the Rams last week scoring Cincinnati’s only touchdown. If the Dolphins can pull out a victory over the Bengals, then head coach Cam Cameron might actually stand a slight chance of keeping his job for another year. A winless season however would no doubt see Cam-Cam doing the can-can out the door-door.

Atlanta; Falcons head coach Bobby Petrino left skid marks on the way out of Atlanta GM Rich McKay’s office on Tuesday after turning in his resignation and ending his 13 game NFL career. Petrino, who was 41-9 as a head coach at the University of Louisville before taking his first pro football coaching job with the Falcons, jumped the sinking ship after going 3-10 in a season marred by the incarceration of star quarterback Michael Vick who was the first player selected in the 2001 draft.

Petrino’s move back to college ball wasn’t entirely unprecedented in light of the general failure of NCAA coaches to be effective in the NFL, but he does seem to have a history of giving some awfully conflicting signals. For example;

Jan., 2006; “I understand my name is being mentioned in connection with job openings in the National Football League, but I want to reiterate my commitment to the University of Louisville, our players and all of our Cardinal fans. The University of Louisville has been great for me and family, and I’m committed to fulfilling our goal of taking the program to the next level.”

Nov., 2006; “When Tom (Jurich) and I sat down this summer to talk about a new contract, we anticipated that there would be many high-profile job openings. The University of Louisville made a tremendous commitment to me, and I made a commitment to the University of Louisville. I’m not a candidate for any job openings.”

Jan. 2007; (After being named Falcons head coach) “I was able to see the commitment that has been made here. I believe this is truly the best football job in the NFL. It was an easy decision for me.”

Monday, Dec. 10, 2007; (While shaking hands with Falcons owner Arthur Blank) “You have a head coach.”

Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2007; (At a press conference announcing his departure from the Falcons) “It really wasn’t a change of mind, it was being able to work out the details and the ability to get here. I knew that I wanted to come back to coaching college football.”

Petrino left a personally signed note in the lockers of the Falcons players expressing regret and wishing them luck, but few are buying his bull. Falcons safety Lawyer Milloy summed it up by taking a red marker, crossing out Petrino’s signature on his copy of the note and writing in “Coward!”. Nuff said.

“In one of the most dangerous sports in the history of mankind, only 300 players are receiving disability payments?” That question, asked with an air of disbelief by Maxine Waters, the Democratic Congresswomen from California is one of the more pointed inquiries being put to the NFL and it’s players union the NFLPA (National Football League Players Association) by members of Congress who are investigating the system which determines whether or not an injured NFL player receives disability benefits. And as stingy as the union seems to be with compensation for football related heath issues, it may be even worse than that – the claim that 317 players are collecting a total of $20 million a year is one made by the Players Association themselves, but tax records for 2006 reveal that in actuality only 121 players are collecting benefits and that the total is more like $9 million.

That subject and quite a few others are being presented in a House Judiciary hearing being conducted by the Subcommittee for Commercial and Administrative Law regarding the treatment of retired NFL players. A heap of documentation was turned over to the committee this month by the NFL and a review of all that information is more likely than not to result in legislation that regulates how the administrators of one of the richest disability funds in professional sports must respond to claims from it’s members. “Neither the NFL nor the NFLPA keeps data on players who retire due to injury, a simple fact that I find amazing,” Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., who chairs the Subcommittee said in an interview with ESPN. “Sometimes you don’t keep track of something when you don’t want to know what the answers are.”

The amount and severity of physical damage sustained by members of the most watched sport in America is nearly incomprehensible. A statement in a 1985 HBO documentary by former all pro center Jim Otto who played 15 years for the Raiders sums it up pretty well. When asked how he feels when he gets up in the morning, Otto replied “I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck”. More recent focus has been put on the amount of concussions sustained by football players, and their long term effects. The suicides of Andre Waters and Terry Long both in their mid-forties as well as the death of all pro Steelers center Mike Webster of a heart attack at age 50 have been linked to brain damage the likes of which is rivaled only by weather beaten boxers and 80 year old men with varying stages of Alzheimers disease.

This level of carnage is the product of a culture that requires it’s participants to play when they are seriously hurt and to get back on the football field for more grueling punishment when even getting up and walking could seriously jeopardize their chances for recovery. Stories abound like the one by former Bengals guard Brian DeMarco who was carried off the field once barely able to breathe on account of the pain from a hit that had smashed several ribs and torn others loose from their cartilage. “The doctor took this needle, filled it up with lido[caine], and put a towel in my mouth saying, ‘This’ll burn,’ ” says DeMarco. “He stuck that four-inch needle up under my rib cage — six big shots from my rib cage to spine, and suddenly I couldn’t feel a damn thing. They wrapped up my ribs, which were sticking out sideways, and sent me back in on the same series.” According to DeMarco the trainers would have their staff huddle around the player before these treatments. “Anytime a crowd’s gathered around on the sideline,” he says, “they’re doing something they don’t want you to see.”

]]> http://www.24football.com/weekly-buzz/nfl-football-week-14-%e2%80%93-fallen-heroes-still-battling_20071205.html/feed 0 http://www.24football.com/weekly-buzz/sean-taylor-dies-at-24_20071129.html http://www.24football.com/weekly-buzz/sean-taylor-dies-at-24_20071129.html#comments Thu, 29 Nov 2007 19:52:30 +0000 Nick Lang http://www.24football.com/weekly-buzz/sean-taylor-dies-at-24_20071203.html Washington DC; “You can’t be scared of death,” Redskins starting safety Sean Taylor told a D.C. radio station this September in his last known interview. “When that time comes, it comes.” That time has come for Taylor who died from injuries he sustained during an armed assault in his Miami area home early on the morning of November 27. He was 24 years old, had an 18 month old baby and was just beginning what had promised to be a brilliant NFL career. Taylor’s death, which is the subject of an ongoing and far-reaching homicide investigation by the Miami Dade police department has left his team-mates and family stricken with grief.

Around 1:00am, someone entered Taylor’s house, busted down his bedroom door and fired two shots at him, hitting him once in the upper leg. Eight days before that attack, the same house had been broken into by unknown intruders. There was nothing missing from the house in that previous break in so it appears that robbery was not a motive. But in an ominous twist, a large kitchen knife was left on Taylor’s bed. On the night of the shooting, Taylor had a machete under his bed, which leads one to believe that he might have had something to fear in spite of the flimsy explanation by his father that he used it for “gardening”. And one other thing – the phone line to the house had been cut.

Speculation has surfaced that this weeks attack may have been related to an incident in 2005 when Taylor was arrested for pointing a gun at three men whom he thought stole a couple of ATV’s from him and then punching one of them. Later, Taylor was the target of a drive by shooting, ostensibly by the same group of men, who pumped 15 bullets into his car. Taylor escaped any injury at that time, and although he was arrested for assault the trial was postponed and the charges ultimately dropped as part of a plea bargain that included community service.

The death of Taylor has fueled a heated nationwide debate between critics who level charges of racism at some depictions of Taylor’s past by certain sectors of the public and the media, and the target of that criticism – those who cite the complex issues associated with young black men coming from economically deprived inner city environments and rocketing to fame and fortune in professional sports. In particular, the latter was exampled this week by the opinions of Richard “Doc” Walker and John Thompson, hosts of a program at a local Washington sports radio station called Sportstalk 980, WTEM.

The treatment of the subject by these radio personalities has provided a stark contrast to the description of Taylor by those that knew him and portrayed him simply as a man who was happily enjoying the good fortune his talents had brought him and who was a doting father to his infant daughter. “People keep saying it’s not about race,” says Walker, who is black and used to play tight end for the Redskins. “But it is a racial thing. We grew up differently. I have people in my life who were murdered, who are addicted.”

Violence in the lives of NFL players has become an all too common occurrence in recent years, and some institutions like the University of Miami where Taylor’s football career first took off have become known for the violent behavior of a disproportionately high number of their students and alumni. It seems that these hyper-competitive environments can sometimes breed a psychology that takes on a life of it’s own as players in the system try to live up – or down – to the tough reputations of the athletes who preceded them. “Miami’s problems are hardly isolated among large college football programs, but unfortunately these incidents do seem a reflection of the legacy,” according to Richard Lapchick, a social studies scholar from the University of Central Florida. “It’s a reminder that their goal now has to be to build a new legacy.”

It might surprise some to learn that Taylor came from an upper middle class background rather than the gun and drug ridden haven of some disadvantaged criminal element and that he went to Gulliver, an elite college prep school in Pinecrest Florida. Or to hear that his father is the chief of police in the nearby community of Florida City. In taking a step back and a relatively objective view of the current events we realize that perhaps the discussion about athletes who survive a childhood marked by deprivation and scenes of gang warfare and who rise to a measure of wealth and priveledge that most youngsters in the urban jungle can scarcely imagine might be a bit premature.

And yet, the fact that many of us initially respond to news stories such as Taylor’s murder by assuming that black sports stars have come from a culture of violence which quite inexorably follows them for the rest of their lives says a lot about our feelings on the difference between the races and our preconceptions about the reality of black society in this country. Somewhere deep in the psyche of white America lurks the idea that however highly esteemed a black football player becomes it’s never a surprise to find out that he was gunned down.

It’s clear then that we ought to be on guard against prejudice in our reactions to such news, but while we need not be so naive as to believe that the media is color blind in it’s reporting about black athletes that’s still not a reason ignore the facts in this case. Football is a violent sport which naturally attracts those with aggressive tendencies, and to dismiss the possibility that in some players this aggression is finding an outlet beyond the playing field would simply be a denial of the truth.

Cincinnati; In a QB quandary that we have seen a few times this past week, Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer wins the battle of the throwing arms by passing for 329 yards and a pair of touchdowns but is intercepted four times as the lowly Arizona Cardinals put the Bengals playoff hopes on a shelf that’s probably way too high for them to reach this season. Cardinals cornerback Antrel Rolle picked off Palmer three times and ran two of those back for touchdowns thus singlehandedly accounting for almost half of Arizona’s points. “It feels terrible, horrible,” Palmer said. “I felt like I let the team and the coaches and the organization and the fans down. When you give up four interceptions and 14 points, it makes it almost impossible to win.” The Cardinals pull to .500 and prepare to take a run at the division leading Seahawks who at 6-4 are really kind of…well, bad.

Buffalo; I don’t like to compliment Tom Brady too much in this era of Patriots domination especially because if you look really closely on the NFL highlight films you can actually see Brady’s head getting bigger. In a season where New England has rampaged across the countryside like a colony of soldier ants laying waste to everything in their path, you watch in numb disbelief wondering if someone, anyone can stop these fiends. Could the Bills possibly be the ones to break the magic spell? Uh…no. If one has any illusions about the chances the NFC will have in this years Super Bowl, now is the time to chuck them out the window like a moldy grapefruit. Tony Romo and the Cowboys were picked off six times by this Buffalo team that just barely lost a gut wrenching game on a last minute field goal. By comparison the Patriots were completely in sync against the Bills, with Randy Moss breaking records left and right. And middle. Now granted, Dallas is the team to beat in their own conference, but in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king. Of course, Brett Favre also has one eye on that crown as he leads the Packers to their best record since Vince Lombardi was more than just the name of a trophy. Lets see what happens when those two dogs tussle.

Miami; Dolphins running back Ricky Wilson has been officially reinstated by the NFL after a suspension that’s lasted almost a year and a half for violating the leagues substance abuse policy four times, most recently testing positive for marijuana this past April. Williams, who makes no secret of the fact that he just loves to smoke pot should make an appearance against the Steelers when the Dolphins travel to the rust belt this week, although Miami head coach Cam Cameron hasn’t said for sure that Williams will be part of the new backfield. Yeah, that’s right, the one without any running backs in it. Well I think it’s just great that Williams is coming home. Sure it’s true that the Dolphins conspicuous absence from the playoffs started the moment Williams got traded to Miami from New Orleans, but hey, the situation has changed dramatically – these days you need a team with at least eight losses at mid-season if you want to have any chance at beating the Steelers, especially playing in Pittsburgh on Monday Night Football.

Atlanta; In the dumbest move since boxing promoter Don King played matchmaker between a fork and an electrical socket, Falcons rookie coach Bobby Petrino pulled quarterback Joey Harrington out of the lineup for this weeks game against Tampa Bay and inserted ex-Jaguar Byron Leftwich who is coming off an injury and barely threw 30 passes all year. Harrington, who has led Atlanta to the only two consecutive wins they have had all season heard about the decision after practice one day from the media; seems like Petrino couldn’t even tell his young quarterback to his face about his plans. Well, like the classic B-52 flying fortress, Leftwich bombed in spectacular fashion. Taking snaps behind an offensive line that has been hobbled with it’s own injuries, Leftwich had one of the worst games in his career going 15 of 28 for 106 yards with two interceptions and two fumbles. “To be honest with you, I’ve never been involved with something like this,” Leftwich said. “It’s difficult to deal with. It should bother everybody. I know it bothers me.” That’s just great, Byron, at least it shows that your injuries were only sustained from the neck down. Harrington took over late in the game but the wheels were already falling off by then and there wasn’t much he could do except avoid the shutout with a touchdown pass to WR Adam Jennings. Well Booby, if you don’t make it as an NFL coach you could always try running for Fire Marshal – you certainly have a talent for getting any crowd to head for the exits.