What you smell is Football season
A pre-season game, a holdout, an arrest, a fight, a selfish superstar or two…Football season must be back. Well, just training camp which is good enough. And if you are anti-Olympics, Football is the perfect place for you!
To kick start this post, I read another good article written by Mark Kriegel on Brett Favre. Perhaps the real reason why I thought it was good is the fact that I have said over and over again that Favre is a "me-first" player, and Kriegel did a great job of exploiting that fact. Face it, we’ve been going after Terrell Owens, Randy Moss and Chad Johnson pretty hard. I am not the one that will say they did not deserve any ridicule they received from bloggers, but we have allowed Favre to skate under the selfish radar forever and that should have changed years ago, let alone today. Though he is a better quarterback than Aaron Rodgers, the question is whether the team can accept a Hall of Fame quarterback who will have no trouble throwing any one of those players under the bus at any time. Certainly not the kind of positive atmosphere you want from a team that was a QB choke-job away from getting to the Super Bowl. To have that team crumble with the talent they have would be a disaster that would be much worse than the situation that team is in as we speak.
Here’s a link to Kriegel’s article: http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/8410850/Never-thought-we’d-see-Favre-like-this
And speaking of Owens, he no-shows to a practice and already people are talking about it. Let’s overlook the fact that Dallas coach Wade Phillips also gave Jason Witten and Zach Thomas days off from practice as well. But Owens is a headline grabber and I the only reason I can say it wasn’t a mistake for me to read it is because I learned that Phillips is giving his veterans some rest. Other than that, Owens missing practice is a non-issue.
But what is an issue is Steve Smith beating the crap out of Ken Lucas. Every year we hear about teammates getting into a scuffle of some kind - it’s football and it happens. Although we haven’t heard about Smith getting into fights with teammates in a while that does not mean he hasn’t. All this means is this fight and the one he had several years ago that got him in trouble the first time were worse than any minor scuffle he’s had in between. He and several other football players have issues, that is a given. Odds are if you are a Carolina Panther player you better not cross Steve Smith unless you are absolutely 100% convinced that you can beat the shit out of him. Otherwise, be kind and rewind for Smith.
Speaking of rewind, don’t you think the biggest Super Bowl upset in history should allow the New York Giants to get more press than they have received? I would think they would be getting more respect than they have gotten up to this point. I would also think that Eli Manning would have received the benefit of the doubt by now and not have people question whether he’s The Man or just Peyton’s little brother. I will bold this for all of you to see: YOU CANNOT HAVE IT BOTH WAYS!!! Seriously, there’s a big deal over quarterbacks winning championships to enhance their greatness. People dog Dan Marino for not winning a title. People use to dog John Elway, and then appointed him the best clutch quarterback in NFL history. Eli now pulls into a tie for Super Bowl victories with Big Ben, Peyton, Brett Selfish-Favre and Kurt Warner, but he’s apparently still horseshit. What is really horseshit is Marino not getting the props he deserves for being a great quarterback, yet lesser quarterbacks get a pat on the back for winning a ring. Winning the Super Bowl is a team thing and not a quarterback thing.
If you are currently frustrated with everything I have written, simply go to this website and forget everything: http://green.msn.com/galleries/photos/photos.aspx?gid=220&page=1
Enjoy…
August 4th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
John Elway is a perfect example. He was a great QB for years, yet fought that constant criticism of “never winning the big one”. Ironically, his Super Bowl victories didn’t come until Denver went to a more balanced running attack…but those rings eliminated the criticism.
Eli Manning stepped up in the playoffs, but by most standards…he had a mediocre regular season. The Giants also had the worst defense of any team in the playoffs last year. They took care of business in the post-season, but I’m still not ready to call them the favorites in the NFC…or even in their division.
I think everyone involved in the Favre situation is to blame. Did you notice how the Packers’ perspective changed immediately after watching Aaron Rodgers in their first scrimmage? All of a sudden it’s an “open competition”.
August 5th, 2008 at 12:47 am
Shooter that is how the NFL works; if you don’t perform at the QB position you won’t be a lock. This situation is getting worse and worse for Green Bay.
Eli isn’t THERE if you know what I mean. I just can’t stand the criticism he’s still getting as if his team was bounced in the first round last year. Usually Super Bowl winning quarterbacks get more respect than that.
As for Elway, he didn’t win the Super Bowl until Denver went over the salary cap and was never caught by the NFL. That is one conspiracy we may never solve. But I was old enough to remember Elway being ridiculed for not winning the big one. The year before they won title #1 they were beaten by Jacksonville and they were suppose to run through everyone that year. He took some flack for the early exit. Talk about a 360 turn just 2 years later.
August 5th, 2008 at 7:46 am
I’ll give Eli the benefit of the doubt for now. He did his job, didn’t turn the ball over, and helped his team win. He made good decisions against the NFL’s best. You can’t really question what the Giants did last season, as they went through Dallas, Green Bay, and New England. Doesn’t get much tougher than that.
But still…it isn’t like he put up Marino numbers in the playoffs. He did what he needed to. And he delivered in the toughest possible conditions in that Green Bay game.
Are you implying that there should be more criticism for Tony Romo and the Cowboys?
August 6th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
All that just because they didn’t win a ring is horse shit. Luke Longly a better player than Charles Barkley? Hell no, but Luke benefited from playing on a great team, Chuck never had that lux.
Eli showed something he’d never shown in his pro career, will he be able to keep it up? Maybe he should click on that Green MSN link.
August 7th, 2008 at 10:04 am
I’m a Brett Favre fan.
I’m also a Jets fan now.
While I realize the Brett is a selfish player, by playing in Green Bay we appointed him that.
We really didn’t care because we won. And he made sure we won.
It was never talked about because it WAS Green Bay. How often does Green Bay get overlooked compared to Dallas and New York and the bigger markets? A lot.
While Eli gained some respect, he has to prove to me that he is a reliable quarterback over several seasons. That’s why Marino and Peyton and Warner and Favre are better. In a couple seasons, we might be able to put Eli up on that level. But let nature and the media take its course.
Check out the new Favre post (my first one, actually), as well as the NFL/NCAA Preseason Polls.
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