Why wasn't Vick doing this in Atlanta? Well, the answer is actually kinda simple: Vick didn't have DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin, or LeSean McCoy in Atlanta. In fact, for most of his Atlanta days, he had maybe one really reliable receiver, and that was his tight end. I don't believe Roddy White came to Atlanta before Vick left. Now he can throw the ball to Jackson or Maclin, who will go up and get it, or just flat out run away with it. Also in Atlanta, Vick tended to run a LOT more than he does now. I know that seems crazy, since he runs a lot right now, but he was getting 100+ rushing yard games back in Atlanta. He felt he absolutely HAD to run it (and he probably did most of the time) for them to win. Hell, he wasn't famous back then for having an amazingly accurate arm, he was famous for being a running back that happened to play at QB and be able to throw a little bit, too. Since moving to Philly and getting out of prison he learned a few things. First, his legs will give out eventually, but his arm will last much longer, so in the long run it is smart of him to focus on throwing it. Second, he doesn't HAVE to run the ball every other down, because his guys can get open and make plays happen, unlike in Atlanta.
That's what I'm saying though, he wasn't famous for having an amazingly accurate arm, amazing receivers or not. Where did he learn these things from? I'm just not sure this was an epiphany like Mike and KT is making it sound like. Someone that was heralded and praised for running the "Michael Vick Experience" didn't just stop and think "Oh I should probably stop that, because my body is old." Someone HAD to sit him down and lay down some learning on them. Like if Adrian Peterson got went to jail and he came back two years later from jail and said "Oh, I need to stop running over people and try to dodge tackles because my body is older." Running over people is what he did and was praised for, then he came back and was dodging tackles left and right, no one could possible think that he just decided he was going to switch it up. Someone had to help him with that. Better WRs or not, you still have to throw the ball to where they are at. We're not talking about a higher completion percentage, we're talking about catch-able balls thrown to the receiver. That just wasn't a switch he flipped on while sitting in jail, someone had to help him out. Vick missed people back in the day, now he's en fuego. Give a little credit to Andy Reid, don't anoint him, don't call him great, just a little credit. But if Vick went to another team would we he be Run First Inaccurate Vick or would he be Pass First Accurate Vick? I'm betting he'd be back to running bootlegs runs and doing what he'd did before. That's all I'm saying.
It might sound silly but I think it was jail. That or just getting older matured him as an athlete. The WR's helped but mainly he just worked and got better. The thing you keep missing is nobody was working with Vick and trying to make him a starter, they were grooming Kolb. Vick was a wildcat player, backup and trade bait. They were not trying to correct all his flaws in Philly. Again I never said it had nothing to do with it, but most of change lies with Vick himself. Are you picturing Andy Reid standing behind Vick going "No Mike you can't run now, you have to keep your head up and look downfield!!" because it didn't happen. Vick continues to thank Reid and the Eagles for the opportunity to play and regain his starting role. I don't know why you want to give all this credit to Reid, in my opinion he got lucky. He may have saw something nobody else did, but if he did why was Kolb the QB of the future?? If he was spending all this time working out Vick why wasn't he going to start him? This I do agree with you. Maybe it's just sportscenter makes sure every concussion get's shown repeatedly? I never remember seeing so many players get knocked out, or this many players getting fined.
I think it's all BS. The only reason they are so many fines and they are "cracking down" is because of the people that whine that it was getting too violent. It's no more violent than it's always been. Let's not fool ourselves. And I have a pretty big beef with the higher ups that allowed the Minn v Bears game to be played on that hard ass frozen as fuck field on Monday night. So, you're so concerned about head injures right? Why then it makes total sense to allow a game to be played on a field with no heaters, in freezing temps. Hypocrite much? As for the Reid/Vick thing. Reid took him when no one would touch him. He quite obviously knew there was something great there already. Vick, what can you say about the guy and his abilites on the field? He's just tearing that shit up every time he takes the field. He's exciting to watch and good at what he does, isn't that his job? Yup. Isn't having his players realize their abilities and teaching them how to capitalize on them on the field for wins Reids job? Yup. And they both do theirs well.
I think it has alot to do with sportscenter and the media in general making a bigger deal out of concussions. In the past couple years there's been alot more publicity given to ex-NFL players that have had permanent brain damage thanks to multiple concussions and the violent nature of the game. With more scientific data about the effects of concussions, the level of awareness, at least among fans and the media, is at an all-time high. And considering the owners' plans for an 18-game season, the league pretty much had to step up and start fining guys for dangerous hits, if for nothing but to counteract all of the negative publicity. Of course it's hypocrisy, because the only thing they're really concerned about with any of this is money. The decision to stage last week's game outdoors is a perfect example.
I agree that Reid was smart to take him, but I don't think he ever planned for him to be a starter or saw that much potential. At the time the eagles took on Vick because he was the best and one of the cheapest back ups in the league. They didn't believe he was going to turn into a top five QB, or at the least I highly doubt that.
I don't get this stance. Whether the league is trending towards more head injuries or not, football has been played on "hard ass frozen as fuck fields" since its origins. Are you advocating a ban on cold weather games, such as the remaining games in NE, Buffalo, Chicago, Green Bay, etc? Late season games in the snow and cold are a major part of the NFL season, and can increase home field advantage (see NE or GB). And what of the playoffs? If New England goes on to win the division, where would they play their playoff game if they weren't allowed to host, an advantage that they worked all season to earn? Cold games played on frozen fields are just a part of football. Period.
Normal NFL fields that are in cold weather climates are heated so they aren't frozen solid. The U of M field is not heated. Frozen ground is just that, it might as well be concrete.
Exactly. I thought everyone knew that. I didn't include it in my post because it was all over ESPN and such. Sorry about that. And JPrue of course not, that'd be stupid as hell. Beside that, the snow games are always more fun to watch.
Falcons-Saints Monday night. Big time game between two teams that have been red hot lately (yes, I know NO lost to a solid BAL squad last week). Who do you guys like in this one? I'll take Atlanta in a shootout.
I'm going with the saints. As long as Brees can keep the interceptions down I think they can outscore the falcons. It surprises me how under the radar New Orleans has been this season. I mean, they won the super bowl last season and are having another great year, but no one will talk about them. All I hear about from that division is how great the falcons are and how terrible the panthers are. Oh, and how the bucs are improving so much.
Players are bigger, stronger, and faster than they have ever been. This results in more violent collisions, and thus, more head injuries. You have linebackers running 4.6 40s at 250 pounds. Jason Pierre-Paul (DE) ran a 4.64 at 270 pounds. That shit just didn't go down back in the day. That being said, I think the huge emphasis on concussions is a combination of factors, with the biggest factor being the media's need to latch on to a story they can talk about all season long.
The point I'm making is Walsh built a system, and without it the 49ers wouldn't have had that success from 1989-1998. Walsh gave George Seifert Joe Montana, Ronnie Lott, Steve Young, Roger Craig, John Taylor, Charles Haley, Brent Jones, Tom Rathman and plenty more good-to-great players. Seifert also had a great offensive coordinator in Mike Holmgren, who was trained by Walsh to run the West Coast offense, which was created by Walsh and is still used by almost half the NFL teams today. Additionally, Seifert's defensive coordinator was Ray Rhodes, who was hired by Walsh. Walsh also handpicked Jeff Garcia for the 49ers later on to replace Young. What did Seifert do in Carolina without Walsh setting everything up for him? Fired after two years, his second season being a 1-15 finish. That should say it all about Seifert. It's unfair to compare the rebuilding projects Lombardi and Walsh walked into, since they were completely different. Bart Starr, Ray Nitschke, Paul Hornung, Jim Taylor, and Jerry Kramer had already been with the Packers for a few years before Lombardi got to Green Bay, so Lombardi had nothing to do with drafting them. When Walsh got to San Francisco in 1979 the cupboard was bare, and he didn't even have a first round pick because before he got there it was traded away for a washed up O.J. Simpson. As the coach and general manager, Walsh was the one who drafted Montana, Lott, Rice, Taylor, Haley, Craig, Rathman, Eric Wright, Keena Turner, Dwight Clark, and many others who formed the nucleus for multiple championship teams. He also made brilliant trades for Fred Dean, Hacksaw Reynolds, Russ Francis and, as I mentioned earlier, Steve Young. Also, from what I can tell, Lombardi pulled a Bill Parcells when he resigned from Green Bay. He knew that team was on the decline, and he wanted no part of building it back up. Walsh, on the other hand, never allowed the Niners to fall apart. As for Belichick, the guy was a complete failure in Cleveland and was lucky to get a second chance. He's been a head coach for 15 years with two different teams. If Walsh hadn't been screwed over by Paul Brown, who had promised him the head coaching job in Cincinnati, he would have had more time to win more Super Bowls than three in ten years. Walsh definitely accomplished more in his first 10 years than Belichick did in his first 10.
The Saints have more to play for, I think, because Atlanta can just wrap up homefield advantage the following week against Carolina. So I'm going with New Orleans, but I think it will be harder on Brees than it usually is. The Falcons' defense has a few up-and-comers who are coming on strong at the right time.
This was one of those things I caught after coming home, turned on the TV, then proceeded to take off my coat and all of that. I didn't realize what the hell was going on until Jim Rome started talking about it being a foot fetish video. It was on his first burn and he left it on WAY too long before stopping and commenting. That's fucked up. I feel sorry for his players having to answer questions about that and hell, having to look the man in the eye. There are many more fringe fetishes to have but that is something that caught me off guard. No mas ESPN, no mas.
What a shame. I mean a guy should be able to do whatever he wants with his wife for christ sake, even fat Rex Ryan. I always feel a little bit sorry for people in the public eye because of shit like this, I'm not sure I would trade money for privacy. In other news Shegirl thinks Brett Favre and Aaron Rogers have sexy feet.
Not really, McNabb and Tony Dungy kind of forced Vick down Andy Reid's and the eagles franchises throat. The idea was Vick would come in as a "wildcat" type player and then hopefully we could trade him to a team like Miami. McNabb never expected to be traded and Vick didn't expect to be a starter in Philly, as I said a million times Kevin Kolb was supposed to be the arm of the future in Philadelphia. I would think at a professional level "having his players realize their abilities and teaching them how to capitalize on them on the field" isn't exactly the situation. The coaches prepare them for the NFL, the speed, the elite. The players HAVE the ability by the time they hit the NFL. My point is (and honestly I would rather be talking about Vick's dominance then fucking Andy Reid) that most of the change was in Mike Vick. Andy Reid does not deserve a big old "atta boy" for Vick's performance on the field. Vick deserves the credit for transforming himself from a jailbird to the hottest topic in professional sports. Reid deserves the nod for giving him a roster sport when nobody else would, but the fact he is a starter as well as an MVP candidate came from within Vick. He was given support not some elaborate coaching drills. As for the concussions this article: (<a class="postlink" href="http://tahlequahdailypress.com/sports/x1613327438/NFL-concussion-reports-up-this-year" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://tahlequahdailypress.com/sports/x ... -this-year</a>) states that concussions are up 20% from last year. 30% from the year before that, so it seems at the very least more are being reported. I don't think some of the hits deserved fines, football can be a brutal game. However I was at the game when DeSean Jackson got blasted and you heard it in the second level. Watching the replay was a little hard, and that was a clean hit. I'm not sure if I want anything changed really but if something doesn't change we could have a fatality on the field. These guys are so big and so fast that you don';t have to be a genius to figure out the power that is coming at these athletes. SI once quoted getting hit in the NFL was equivalent to being in a 30 MPH car accident without your seat belt on.
This is some serious bullshit. First of all, everyone on tv, including the former head of officiating, agreed it was a penalty. Second of all, what the fuck. Not only did Ndamukong Suh not get an apology letter for his hit on Cutler, he fucking got FINED. For a legal hit. No apology, a fucking fine. Third of all, what about the other Suh non-penalty I posted. And the fucking Calvin Johnson "non"-TD in Chicago in week 1. Where's Detroit's fucking apology letters, NFL? Somebody explain to me what the fuck is going on here. Beside the blatant disrespect of Detroit and my rampant homerism, what does the NFL have to gain here? Other than taking away any credibility the refs may have still had?