The Terrell Owens plunge into reality TV shows a lot of things—including the fact that LA rental agents apparently jump into hot tubs faster than even Blind Date contestants.
But mostly what The T.O. Show reveals is that Donovan McNabb blew up his and Andy Reid’s best chance to ever win a title in Philadelphia because he refused to stand up and be a true friend to T.O.
One doesn’t have to watch T.O.’s reality turn for more than 20 minutes to realize that this is a man who desperately needs a real friend—one who isn’t on his payroll.
It appears that Owens has three people who are close to him in his daily life: His paid publicist duo Kita Williams and Monique Jackson, who got him into this mess of a show to bring publicity to themselves—and Pablo Cosby, his paid bodyguard/valet/room clearer.
Seriously, the kid in high school who sits all by himself at lunch has more real friends than T.O.
Owens obviously counted on McNabb to be his friend back in the day. T.O. likely figured that the dream 2004 season when he caught 14 touchdowns in 14 regular season games, made the Eagles look like the best team in the NFL for much of the year and put on one of the gutsiest performances in Super Bowl history, brought him a buddy.
Instead, T.O. watched McNabb stay silent as Eliot Spitzer at a nun’s convention when he asked to renegotiate his below market-value contract.
Remember, this is when it all started to fall apart. None of the craziness—TO’s public swipes at McNabb, his silly shirtless sit-ups in his driveway, his fight with puffed up team ambassador Hugh Douglas—began until after McNabb let him down by refusing to speak up.
This is typical of the quarterback who only looks out for himself.
McNabb never calls out an Eagles organization that stayed under the salary cap even with championship opportunities calling out in the early part of his decade. McNabb only makes waves if he’s looking for his own payday.
His latest new contract, secured this offseason, is just more case in point. McNabb wanted more weapons right until he got the money he wanted more.
Now…well, he’s more than pleased with his targets, even if the Eagles are still counting on a rookie wide receiver and a rookie secondary tailback to both produce right away—Even if DeSean Jackson will never be a Terrell Owens offense changer.
And all Owens needed was a friend, an influential teammate who’d have his back with management. It wouldn’t have mattered if T.O. still didn’t get his Eagles deal redone. Strong public words of support from McNabb would have been enough.
It’s easy to make fun of Owens, more effortless than ever now that he’s turned himself into a reality show joke and been banished to Buffalo.
The new T.O. reality show is the brainchild of his publicists and it’s clearly designed to give Kita and Monique almost as much TV time as Owens. The problem for Kita and Monique is they use this platform to show that they are the most inept publicists in the history of a profession not exactly doted with Rhodes Scholars.
It’s a wonder that Owens gets any work done with this amazingly annoying vapid duo around.
At one point in the first episode, Kita and Monique interrupt T.O.’s pool workout with demands that he call his ex finance. Kita also gleefully breaks out the mission mantra, “The plan is working on the man.” Mo’s biggest contribution is observing, “It looks like he’s been crying” on seeing Owens for the first time after his Dallas Cowboys release.
It really never looked like T.O. was crying, but hey, what athlete who’s already went through a suicide scare doesn’t need a publicist who makes him appear more unstable?
Maybe Isiah Thomas can hire these two next.
Owens calls Kita and Monique his friends, and the only other person he appears close to is bodyguard/lackey Pablo—who actually comes across as a decent guy. But again, he’s still being paid by T.O.
This is what makes The T.O. Show more sad than anything.
Sure, Owens does manage to apparently bed the rental agent who shows him his LA house in no-time flat and bring an entire club of women home for an instant party, but that stuff seems much more fun when Vince is doing it for fake on Entourage.
In VH1’s real life, T.O. is more than anything a guy who needs a real friend.
Donovan McNabb refused to step up in that regard—even if it could have brought him a ring. You could argue that it’s pathetic that Owens is this needy and you’d be half right. His possessive girlfriend-like traits clearly helped torpedo his Cowboys tenure too.
Watching The T.O. Show, it’s obvious why Tony Romo’s buddy-buddy, secret plays relationship with tight end Jason Witten would have driven T.O. batty. This is a man who more than anything yearns to be included.
But Romo had much less to lose than McNabb. Jerry Jones will spend the money to get him another T.O.. Five years later, Joe Banner hasn’t—and won’t.
McNabb threw away his best chance at a ring because he refused to stick up for a teammate. That’s what T.O. reality TV shows. That’s part of Donovan’s legacy too.
A miracle mirage run to the Arizona desert last winter doesn’t change this sad truth.
(Author’s note: This article, while NFL-related, does NOT contain any references to Brett Favre or Michael Vick. No Michael Jackson whatsoever either. I promise.)
Human beings could be classified as, quite paradoxically, a race of individuals.
At the end of the day, a human being is an incarnation with a singular, independent conscious (as opposed to the “hive-mind” behavior of creatures such as bees and mackerel).
At the end of the day, twins and artificially-inseminated-octuplets aside, we develop in and emerge from the womb largely bereft of company (as opposed to being born in litters or groups like dogs, pigs, and other mammals).
At the end of the day, the Darwinian instructions encoded in one’s very genes compel us, as a species, to ensure the survival of you and you alone, and worry about others as a secondary consideration.
Despite the apparently lonely essence of our existence, human beings as a culture and as a society, are seemingly obsessed with the notion of duplicity.
Every word has another word that applies in the same context, but are diametrically opposed in definition.
Every human is born alone to find the one person they are meant to spend a vast majority of their life with, to die as a pair.
Every sports team, while enjoyable to watch by fans on their own, have an “arch rival” that gives each season a little extra meaning.
I for one guarantee I wouldn’t enjoy the NFL season as much without the epicness of two “Cowboys-Redskins” and “Cowboys-Eagles” matchups on the schedule every season.
Equal but Opposite.
Yin and Yang.
Heaven and Hell.
Jim Carrey’s comedy career and Jim Carrey’s drama career.
DeMarcus Ware…and Anthony Spencer.
Spencer, the Cowboys’ first round pick in 2006 out of Purdue, has shown glimpses of brilliance in his first two years in the league.
However, he spent an overwhelming majority of that time buried behind veteran and Pro Bowl linebacker Greg Ellis, better known to the Harry Potter crowd as “He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named-Because-The-Cowboys-Drafted-Him-Over-Randy-Moss.”
He also spent extensive time, especially last year, on the injury report, an unfortunate turn of events that completely deflated all the momentum Spencer built up during a stellar 2008 training camp.
However, as the saying goes, there’s always next year.
The good news for a healthy Spencer? Next year is finally here.
With Ellis departed to the Black Hole in Oakland (a moniker now taking on a rather duplicitous meaning itself), Spencer is poised to have a breakout 2009 campaign and create one of the league’s most fearsome defensive duos alongside 2008 NFL sack leader DeMarcus Ware.
Physical Attributes and Skills
A quick glance at the 2008 Scouts, Inc. Scouting Report on Spencer is all it takes to recognize the wonderful physical gifts this 6′ 3″, 255 lbs. linebacker is blessed with.
Classified before last season as a “good overall athlete,” the report goes on to praise Spencer’s speed and awareness.
From a purely physical standpoint, Spencer excels on getting off the ball quickly. He augments this awesome first step with a great ability to change direction and the ability to “flatten quickly to chase” run and pass plays that travel to the opposite side of the field.
He has the “speed to turn the corner with good shoulder dip and body lean,” and he combines that with a “good inside chop hand” to eliminate tackles trying to gain hand purchase on him as he comes around the corner on the speed rush.
After commending his uncanny feel for hand use and the pass rush sequence for a player so young, the Scout’s, Inc. report puts the final period on its evaluation by stating that Spencer is “still developing into the responsibilities of a 3-4 outside linebacker, but he has the physical tools to succeed with experience.”
Obviously, Spencer was gifted with all the physical tools and attributes that have made past NFL defensive ends into the dominating forces they were. However, according to Scouts, Inc. last year, all Spencer needed was experience.
Enter Greg Ellis, and another important factor in the predicted emergence of Anthony Spencer in 2009.
Unparalleled Opportunity to Learn
Three years of tutelage under the aforementioned Pro Bowler Greg Ellis have provided the experience Spencer has needed to finally put together an All-Pro 2009 season.
A learning environment unique for most first rounders served to accelerate Spencer’s adjustment from a traditional hand-down 4-3 defensive end at Purdue to a stand up outside linebacker in Wade Phillips’ 3-4 scheme.
Greg Ellis, the Cowboys’ first round selection in 1998, had a largely productive and successful career as a defensive end in Dallas. He topped 8.0 sacks 5 times in his career, including a monstrous 12.5 sacks in 13 games outing in 2007 that earned him his first bid to the Pro Bowl.
Ellis had 12.5 and 8.0 sacks respectively in the two seasons since Spencer has been a rookie.
Ellis has also topped 50 tackles in four separate seasons.
By all accounts, Ellis has the numbers to back up any knowledge he decided to impart on young Anthony Spencer.
Spencer was also able to receive this knowledge in an environment largely absent from the pressures to immediately succeed that so often submarine promising first round draft picks.
When Spencer was drafted in 2007, the Cowboys already had defensive stalwart Greg Ellis and the up-and-coming DeMarcus Ware as the starting defensive ends.
Therefore, unlike other first rounders like Mario Williams, Chris Long, and Brian Orakpo, the pressure to come in, learn the playbook, and immediately play like a veteran was largely non-existent in Anthony Spencer’s case.
Absent was the media and fan scrutiny that so often surrounds first round draft picks (especially those picked by the Dallas Cowboys), scrutiny which can serve to sever the focus of young players trying to adjust to the NFL game.
Spencer was allowed to develop in a veritable media black hole, and has apparently thrived in the relative quietude Ellis and Ware provided him, as all reports out of Dallas’ mini camps seem to confirm that no single player is working harder, or impressing more, than Anthony Spencer.
Additionally, the awfully large amount of time he spent on the injury report last year had the added (and opposite) effect of providing Spencer more time to mentally internalize all of Phillips’ complex schemes and packages, taking what are known more commonly as the “mental reps” that are so essential to a young and developing player.
If all Spencer needed was the experience to take his immense talent to the next level, three years as an understudy to a tenured and accomplished veteran like Greg Ellis should be more than sufficient, especially when allowed to develop largely absent of pressure and media scrutiny.
All that being said, the final and most crucial element in Spencer’s breakout 2009 campaign has yet to be mentioned:
DeMarcus Ware
This is where the synergy of individual and opposing pair becomes so beautifully apparent, as the very existence of DeMarcus Ware, 2008 NFL sack leader, on the opposite side will single-handedly be the most important factor of Spencer’s success in 2009.
Unlike the aforementioned Williams, Long, and Orakpo, Anthony Spencer has the luxury of starting opposite a player who recorded 20 sacks and forced 6 fumbles in 2008.
While rather blatant on the surface why this excess of talent might be advantageous to the young Spencer, a deeper understanding of the O-Line vs. D-Line dynamic will demonstrate just how advantageous Ware’s presence will be.
DeMarcus Ware takes a majority of his snaps on the right, which would be the offense’s left side.
A vast majority of NFL quarterbacks are right-handed. In order to throw a football as a right-hander, a quarterback needs to stand with his left shoulder pointed down field, closer to the line of scrimmage, to maximize leverage and throwing power.
Consequently, the quarterback has his back facing the entire left side of his line, and is completely blind to any incoming defensive pressure coming from that side.
As a result, a team’s best pass blocker is usually put at the left tackle position to protect the quarterback from being blind-sided by a rusher coming of the left edge.
In fact, this responsibility has become so important that it is not uncommon to have the left tackle be the second highest paid player on the entire roster, behind only the quarterback.
To make a long story short, for a majority of the match ups in 2009, DeMarcus Ware will be occupying the opponent’s best pass rusher on the left side of the line, leaving the freakishly talented Spencer to deal with the lesser of two evils at right tackle for a majority of the season.
The interior lineman in Phillips’ 3-4 scheme are no slouches either.
Pro Bowler Jay Ratliff is complemented by the 6′ 6″, 309 lbs. Igor Olshansky and the 6′ 4″, 315 lbs. Marcus Spears, a triumvirate that should provide more than enough pressure to make doubling either end with an interior offensive linemen both risky and difficult.
This fact becomes especially interesting when you take into account the one major flaw in Spencer’s game listed on the Scouts, Inc. report.
At 6’3″, 255 lbs., Anthony Spencer isn’t a status quo immovable object by any means.
Consequently, Spencer “will lose ground working against big offensive tackles.”
Scout’s, Inc. quickly counters to point out that despite his struggles against those tackles he “can handle blocking tight ends well.”
DeMarcus Ware not only serves to take away the offense’s biggest advantage by occupying their best pass blocker, he simultaneously mitigates Spencer’s biggest weakness by leaving the opponents to use a great number of smaller tackles and tight ends to block Spencer than he would have faced had he come in as the #1 pass rusher a la Mario Williams.
Anthony Spencer has the physical attributes to be a dominant defensive end in the NFL. Injuries aside, the most prohibitive factor in Spencer attaining said dominance ultimately lay in his lack of experience as both a stand-up defensive end and as an NFL player in general.
The experienced gleaned from Greg Ellis combined with the lack of pressure that surrounded Spencer during this time has left Spencer as one of the hardest working and most motivated players, if not on the whole team than certainly on defense.
At the end of the day, Anthony Spencer will police the left side of the Cowboy’s defense by himself.
However, conforming to the duplicitous nature of humanity itself, on the opposite side of the defense Spencer will find the biggest element of his success in 2009, DeMarcus Ware, opening up countless opportunities for him all season and contributing to a monstrous 2009 season from Anthony Spencer.
As in the Newtonian Law of Physics, the axiom describing the duplicity that permeates every level of human interaction typically conforms to the phrasing “Equal, but Opposite.”
In the case of Anthony Spencer and DeMarcus Ware, I would pose a more accurate phrasing to be “Opposite, but Equal.”
For while Spencer and Ware might now be sentries on Opposite ends of an intimidating Dallas front line, by the end of the season, they will be regarded as Equal threats to the safety and well being of all quarterbacks who look to drop back against the Dallas Cowboys in 2009.
Anthony Spencer and DeMarcus Ware.
Opposite but Equal.
We can all only pray somebody comes up with a much cooler nickname for this tandem before the season starts in 2009.
(Check back in a few days for the Dallas Cowboys’ Offensive Breakout Player of the Year…and FYI, it’s not Felix Jones.)
The Denver Broncos made their first roster move in quite some time on Wednesday when the signed fifth round draft pick Kenny McKinley.
According to The Denver Post, McKinley’s deal is similar to seventh round pick Blake Schlueter’s, and is four years in length.
McKinley is the second of 10 Broncos draft picks to sign, and most, if not all rookies expect to have deals finalized prior to training camp.
The Broncos traded up in the fifth round to acquire McKinley, so the team really feels he has some skill, possibly as a return man initially.
A former South Carolina star, McKinley was regarded as the “best wide receiver” former head coach Steve Spurrier has ever coached.
In his time with the Gamecocks, McKinley hauled in 207 passes, which is third best in the history of the Southeastern Conference.
Some close to the Broncos’ camp feel he would be an ideal heir apparent to slot receiver Brandon Stokley, and McKinley certainly fits the bill of a solid route-running receiver with deceptive speed and good hands.
The Post also reported that former SEC rival and first round draft pick Robert Ayers, a hybrid DE/OLB that Mike Klis calls a “defensive tackle” expects to sign his deal well before the start of training camp.
I am proud to be an American, and proud to be a member of Steeler Nation. We live in the greatest country in the world, and have the greatest football team in the world.
Sometimes, when things seem to go bad in life, we can look to our sports to get away from reality, if only for a couple hours.
But when things go wrong with our sports, then where do we look?
I remember three years ago. It was shortly after the Steelers’ Super Bowl victory over the Seattle Seahawks. There was a report on PFT that Big Ben Roethlisberger had been in a motorcycle accident.
What was my first thought?
I hope he can play this season. If you say your FIRST thought was anything other than that, you are lying.
After the initial report, and realizing how serious it was, the real concern for the person set in. Suddenly, football was not that important.
After he had a chance to recover, just before the beginning of the season, Ben had an emergency appendectomy. He was to miss the first game of the season, against the Miami Dolphins.
Now, here we are, three years later, and again, we get bad news about our beloved quarterback, Big Ben.
This is in no way as serious as the motorcycle accident that almost killed him, and also in no way as dangerous as his appendectomy.
I am not saying that these charges are not serious, or if they happened, not criminal. What I am saying is that the plaintiff wants money, not justice.
If you would like to read the entire complaint, you can right here. However, you are going to need a good amount of time because it is very long.
Anyway, there are a few things that bother me about her story, but I can honestly say, I don’t believe her.
Is it because I am such a sports fan, I don’t want to? Is it because I am a Steelers fan, so I don’t want to believe it?
It is because, in my opinion, had he really done the things that she said he did, I believe that this entire situation would have been handled differently.
First, there were no criminal charges that were filed when it happened.
At this point, everyone that wants to compare this to the Kobe Bryant incident has to stop. The lady that accused Kobe immediately went to the police. Andrea McNulty did not.
Starting at point 53: Ben Roethlisberger said in front of Ms. McNulty and other employees that his T.V. was not working.
Here he is, a good friend of the owner, and he says in front of a group of employees that his T.V. is not working properly.
How many of you out there believe for one second that someone who is a close personal friend of the owner of one of these prestigious clubs, that there would not be a fleet of maintenance men there in 30 seconds flat to fix or replace that T.V.?
Point 85: If there are cameras all the way around the hotel, especially outside of Ben’s door, don’t you think that the evidence of how long Ms. McNulty was in the room should have been copied?
If it were, then they would have not only been able to see how long she was in the room, but the state of her appearance as well.
I used to install high-end surveillance systems, and unless marked as important to save, they are usually erased within two weeks.
If this video was not dubbed over then, by now, it is gone.
Point 89: The next day, Ms. McNulty tells the head of security what happened.
I have two questions about this:
1. Why did she feel compelled to tell the head of security?
2. Why did she not file a police report?
What could a security guard do?
The police, had they been notified, would have done the rape kit to pull DNA to see if there was any sexual contact at all.
The points go on and on, but in reality, as it was said in an article by Daniel Rose, no one but Ben Roethlisberger, Andrea McNulty, and God have any idea of what happened in that room.
That is if anything even happened.
I often watch NFL games in spite of, not because of, the media coverage surrounding them.
Let’s face it: In today’s sports television scene, there are numerous trends that hamper coverage of the games. Instead of surrounding the game with solid analysis and sober thought, networks ensconce today’s contests in promos and talking heads.
The following is my list of helpful suggestions to improve the overall quality of game coverage (and why they probably won’t be followed).
1. Stop hiring former athletes just for the sake of hiring former athletes.
I think we can all understand why networks almost exclusively hire former players to serve as analysts and color commentator—former players are known to the public and have established fanbases.
However, being good on television is a talent unto itself. NFL players, no matter how successful their pro careers may have been, usually do not possess that talent. For every successful player-analyst (like Ron Jaworski), one can think of numerous disasters (Emmitt Smith’s wholesale slaughter of the English language, for example).
Furthermore, does anyone watch the games (or even the pregame shows) to see their former heroes? (To be fair, trying to guess what Shannon Sharpe is saying is an excellent way to amuse oneself every Sunday afternoon.)
I’d really rather networks hire people who are talented at talking and who know the game, and I suspect most fans feel that way as well.
2. A pregame show does not need 19 analysts.
NBC’s Sunday night crew is the prime example of this—why do they need Dan Patrick, Keith Olbermann, Jerome Bettis, Bob Costas, Tiki Barber, and Peter King? Surely there’s some overlap there.
I really think that’s the reason why NBC’s show is the least watchable out there—there’s no consistent voice to it, merely a cast of celebrities struggling for airtime. How can so many people be expected to provide cogent analysis at halftime?
Of course, the networks’ reasoning on this is simple and ties in to the above point: If one player brings in one fanbase, two players will bring in two fanbases. What we see now is that thinking taken to its logical extension, and there’s probably no way the networks will reverse themselves as long as the product (NFL games) sells so well.
(ESPN’s Bill Simmons goes on an excellent rant on this topic here.)
3. Devote more time to actual analysis of games.
It seems NFL coverage is divided into two categories—highlights and feature stories. What little time that is spent on actual analysis is usually gobbled up by obvious statements (“Tom Brady is a great quarterback”) or contentions cynically designed to create controversy (think anything Skip Bayless has ever said, or ever will say).
One thing I’d like to see examined more is the thinking that goes into the game. Why did the coach choose to run in that situation? Which coaches take the most chances, and why? How does equipment alter bad-weather games?
We get some of that, but it’s only snippets—designed to fill space in the short lull between plays. If the color man forgets to mention (or fails to notice) something, it’s forever lost. In a game where winning and losing are often separated by a single play, little things matter.
4. Try hiring outside the box.
Sadly, the high-profile problems with Dennis Miller and Tony Kornheiser will likely prevent the networks from ever following this advice.
However, is it that bad to bring in different voices to speak about the game? The analyst pool seems disturbingly incestuous—old ones seem to pop up again and again, no matter what level of success they may have achieved.
New voices could stimulate viewers to think about the games from a different angle, which could never be a bad thing.
5. The promos, oh God, the promos.
Memo to CBS: I, like all American males under 93 years of age, do not watch 60 Minutes. I do not particularly care what Andy Rooney is complaining about this time. The only thing you’ve shown in the past four years that I considered watching was that feature on LeBron James (and then I realized the promo gave away the best part—the three quarters-court, underhanded shot).
So could you limit yourself to five reminders that 60 Minutes is, in fact, coming up next (except on the West Coast)? Thanks.
As a matter of fact, I think there needs to be some level of coordination for commercials in general. Too often, the same commercials are repeated ad nauseam, leading me to swear never to buy the products advertised. (Want to send a NFL viewer into fits of rage? Three words: “Saved by Ze-rrrroooo.”)
That’s it. Five simple ways to improve NFL coverage exponentially.
In order for a team to succeed on both sides of the ball, they have to get after the quarterback.
The Seahawk’s defensive line played a factor in the team’s decline in overall productivity. Last season, they finished with only 35 sacks, 10 fewer than the amassed in 2007. Thirteen of those sacks (more than one-third) came in two games against the San Francisco 49ers.
Pro Bowl defensive end Patrick Kerney missed nine games in 2008. His presence was sorely missed, as he is known for drawing constant double teams and opened up the rest of the defensive line to make plays. He was on pace to finish with 12 sacks before he was injured.
Former first-round pick Lawrence Jackson was a disappointment at defensive end last season for the ‘Hawks, only tallying two sacks in 14 starts. The team also acquired defensive end Cory Redding this offseason partly because of his 2008 performance.
The four starting defensive line spots appear to be set.
Patrick Kerney and trade-acquisition Cory Redding are slated to start at the two defensive end positions. The interior positions will be manned by defensive tackle Brandon Mebane and free-agent addition Colin Cole. The latter brings much needed size (330 pounds) to a unit known to be undersized.
The main position battles along the defensive line will ensue at the backup positions.
Early draft picks, Lawrence Jackson and Darryl Tapp, should both vie for the primary backup defensive end position. Both figure to be a factor in a deep defensive linemen rotation, and Jackson has a lot to prove after his largely unsuccessful 2008 campaign.
The team would not have added defensive end Cory Redding if it were confident with who they already had at the position. Darryl Tapp saw time as a replacement for the injured Patrick Kerney, yielding a mediocre five and a half sacks in 11 starts.
The primary backup position for the interior defensive linemen should come down to defensive tackles Craig Terrill and Red Bryant. Terrill provides needed insurance in case a starter does go down and can fill the role competently.
Bryant brings additional size to the interior, weighing in at 320 pounds. He was hampered by injuries in his rookie campaign, only appearing in four games and recording eight tackles. Look for Terrill to have the edge as the main rotational backup for the interior defensive linemen.
Two new starters have been added to an underachieving 2008 unit, and along with depth of former starters as backups and the return of Pro Bowl defensive end Patrick Kerney from shoulder surgery, this unit is poised for a much-improved 2009 campaign.
The Seahawks front four must provide effective pressure, or 2009 will be another lost cause in the Rainy City.
After losing Bernard Berrian and Muhsin Muhammad to free agency in 2007, the Chicago Bears have struggled to find consistency at wide receiver.
They have tried everything in the world to find a replacement, including converting dynamic return man Devin Hester to a receiver, and even bringing in veterans Brandon Lloyd and Marty Booker.
Unfortunately, Booker was a good fit in Chicago during the 2001 season, not 2008.
Last year, the team fielded Booker, Lloyd, Hester, Mark Bradley, and Rashied Davis as their receivers.
Unfortunately, the additions didn’t work out too well for the Bears.
Booker had a decent season for the Bears, but not good enough to be re-signed. Lloyd showed promise early in the year before getting hurt. Bradley was traded to Kansas City, where he is now a starter, while Davis had problems catching the ball all of last year.
The only good that came out of that so called “experiment” last year was the emergence of Hester as a wide receiver.
Hester finished the year with 51 receptions for 665 yards, and three touchdowns. Not a bad year for his first season as a starting wide receiver.
Still, none of the Bears receivers were good enough for the Pro Bowl. In fact, the Bears haven’t had a Pro Bowl receiver since Booker in 2002. Booker is also the only Bears receiver to have more than 100 receptions in a season.
Despite recently struggling to find wide receivers, the well hasn’t been completely dry for receivers in Chicago.
Berrian showed potential to be a dominant receiver in Chicago, but got greedy and signed a big contract to play for the Vikings instead.
Now, Berrian isn’t “spectacular” since he has never had over 1,000 receiving yards in a season.
But now with the acquisition of Jay Cutler, who is an established quarterback, things could have been better for Berrian if he had stayed with the Bears.
It’s a shame to have Gus Frerotte and Tavaris Jackson as your quarterback now, huh Berrian?
This leads us to the 2009 season and the receivers that will take the field for the Bears.
There is no doubt whether or not Hester will start the season as the No. 1 wide receiver on the depth chart, but who will follow him?
The most likely candidates to be No. 2 or No. 3 on the chart are Earl Bennett and Davis.
Bennett didn’t play in 2008 because he had trouble learning the playbook, so all this time studying should pay off, right?
On top of playing in Chicago this upcoming season, Bennett also has some history with Cutler. Both played for Vanderbilt in college, and know each other well enough on the field.
Davis has been with the Bears for over three seasons now, so he knows the system. He just needs to find a way to apply himself.
Look for Bennett to start as the No. 2 receiver, leaving Davis to be the slot guy.
Now that we have the starters figured out, who is left for the Bears?
The Bears selected two receivers in the draft last April: Juaquin Iglesias from Oklahoma and Johnny Knox from Abilene Christian.
Iglesias will most likely end up fourth on the depth chart, and should see some good minutes this season.
He also has the potential to move up to No. 2 or No. 3 on the chart if he plays well.
Knox will most likely be fighting for a roster spot on special teams, or even land on the practice squad.
The receivers may not be too good this year, so don’t expect much out of them.
What you can expect, though, is that these receivers should become better over time with Cutler.
Cutler has been known to make his receivers better. We saw it in Denver with Brandon Marshall and Eddie Royal. Hopefully, he can do the same with Hester, Bennett, Davis, and Iglesias.
The Bears receivers don’t have to be great this season for the team to succeed; they just need to be consistent and do their job when they are expected to.
If they can make key blocks, run the right routes, and catch the ball on third down, the Bears may have a successful 2009 season.
The Bears have enough talent to not need a big-time receiving threat and still win the division.
However, there are still other options for the Bears at wide receivers.
They can dip into the free-agent pool that includes Plaxico Burress, or even make a trade for Brandon Marshall.
I don’t expect the Bears to make either of these moves, even though they have shown interest in Burress.
So Bears fans, get ready for an exciting 2009 season. However, don’t be mad if none of our receivers make the Pro Bowl, even if they have a spectacular season.
Just enjoy watching Cutler try to make them better.
The NFL won’t admit this, but they are a monopoly.
I base this on the leading characteristic of a monopoly, as taught to me by the greatest economics professor of all time, Vincent D’Andrea. A monopoly is characterized by its formidable barriers to entry, and maintenance of limited to zero competition.
In Layman’s terms: not only can you not compete with the NFL, you can’t even feasibly think about it.
The NFL is the most watched sport in this country, and their marketing people are well aware of that. Despite being a multi-billion dollar business; the element of broadcasting the NFL still somehow appears to be a privilege.
In 2001, the NFL completely cut ties with NBC, after NBC agreed to be the flagship network of the XFL. It took NBC more than five years to get NFL programming back on their network.
In 2004 the NFL demanded that ESPN cancel their highest rated, and most critically acclaimed original show to this date, “Playmakers.” The NFL insisted that it was due to the harsh light which football players were projected, but also threatened to pull Sunday Night Football from ESPN if they didn’t follow along.
Especially in a recession, high ratings for football games have been one of the only sure things in the television industry—which is one of the reasons why television networks like Fox are willing to do anything the NFL tells them to, even after paying an annual check of $550 million (in case you were unsure, $550 million for a year of television programming is a lot of money).
While I’m sure that someone with a much more expensive degree than mine could find something genuinely illegal about this, I am looking at this story in a different manner. Because for the first time since the folding of the USFL, there is another football league that has an honest to god great shot at taking off.
The United Football League (UFL) is making continuous splashes by acquiring great second-string NFL talent, and their business model certainly shows that they have learned from the mistakes of the leagues before them.
It starts with the entire league’s mission statement, which openly admits that the UFL is not an alternative to the NFL, but rather a supplemental league. The league’s founders even declare that “the UFL will field teams comprised of the best players in the world and tomorrow’s rising stars.”
So here we have a league that admits it’s not competitively the same as the NFL, but rather a sophisticated and technically sound second league. And if their current actions are any indication, they are ready to back it up.
Their business plan is going to appeal to some big markets, but more importantly, every small market that the NFL has passed over. The first year will only feature four teams, but each team will play several games on a neutral site.
And it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that seats will be cheaper than they are in the NFL (hello Personal Seating Licenses).
Now I can hear the groans, “this is going to be bad football.” Well, it certainly won’t be NFL football. But I’m not sure that they are trying to be NFL football, and I think that is what has done in nearly every upstart league in the past.
And I’m not the only person buying into the hype. The four teams (Las Vegas, New York, San Francisco and Orlando) will be coached by three playoff experienced NFL head coaches and one renowned defensive coordinator.
Jim Fassel, Jim Haslett, Dennis Green, and Ted Cottrell are the four flagship coaches, and all four of them would without a doubt be coordinating the offense or defense of an NFL team right now, if it wasn’t for this.
Beyond that, the UFL also will run side by side with the NFL. Instead of trying to carry a usually exhausted fan base into March, the UFL will play its games on Tuesdays and Fridays in October and November.
So you’ve now heard about all of the UFL’s potential, but you’ve also heard about the NFL’s zero tolerance policy regarding competition. And this leads to what has the potential to be one of the biggest sports dramas of the decade.
The UFL can have all of the potential in the world, but if the games can’t make it to national television, this project is over before it even begins. And the fact that the NFL works with every major network station (and the biggest cable station) certainly doesn’t make things easier.
But that’s not to say the UFL won’t work. Especially with their mission statement in mind, the UFL may not just be a cheap alternative for the fans. But it may be a cheap alternative to some networks too. If a network like Spike or TNT (that already has a fleet of sports broadcasters under contract) could get their paws on the UFL, then this has a real shot.
There is a difference between great potential and great execution. And especially in this regard, history does not bode well for the UFL. But if you look simply at their business plan, their coaching staffs and their game play model, you can tell that the UFL has some really smart people pulling the strings here.
Realistically the ball is once again in the NFL’s court.
As any hardcore fan of the NFL can tell you, watching your favorite team’s four preseason games each year not only whets the appetite for the excitement of the regular season, but also plays host to many position battles. These fights for roster spots between the wily vets and young guns can be fun to watch as a fan. The New York Football Giants have been establishing a youth movement over the past couple off-seasons primarily due to the excellent draft classes general manager Jerry Reese has assembled. In this slide show, I will be detailing some of the more exciting position battles to keep an eye on this preseason.
“We talked about Vernon (Gholston). How he’s going to have to step up, how we expect him to make great strides this year, and how he was going to be a big reason in our successes moving forward,” said Rex Ryan to the New Jersey Star-Ledger.
“He’s just got a role with it now where he’s going to be a starter. We’ll see how he does.”
Interpretation is key. Ryan’s words can be deciphered as a simple motivational tactic, or be completely misconstrued as a declaration of something that has yet to be appropriately evaluated.
To put it bluntly, mid-July is too early to thrust a marginal player into a starting role without seeing how he performs when full contact is permitted in practice and in exhibition games.
All eyes have been on Gholston since Ryan’s arrival. After a disappointing rookie campaign, or whatever, the second-year linebacker has been the subject of resurgent expectations; especially given the nature of Ryan’s reputedly aggressive defense.
Rex Ryan may have chosen to confront everyone’s hesitation by implying Gholston’s starting role, but nothing was confirmed. The distorted analysis of his words has sparked a bounty of headlines prematurely certifying Gholston as a defensive starter.
It’s a false illustration of Ryan’s words, devoid of logic given what lies ahead for the New York Jets.
With training camp set to open in a little over a week, it’s beyond foolish to believe that the setting for a critical position battle to be decided would be on a podium.
Suffice it to say, fans should expect such gross estimations to happen often with a vocal, emotionally-driven head coach.
The rest of Rex Ryan’s words were errantly neglected to fuel the rampant, irresponsible speculation.
“The plan is that we’re going to play the best 11,” said Ryan. “This is a deep football team so we’re going to play all of our guys.
“Some guys will have maybe more of a role on first down, or maybe more of a role on third down,” continued Ryan. “We don’t have to play the same 11 guys. This is all about what’s best for our football team.”
Those comments offer no guarantees of Gholston’s role in 2009.
He may be the front-runner to supplant the suspended Calvin Pace during the first quarter of the season, but Ryan’s defensive vision clearly involves a fluid rotation of players who bring different skills to the gridiron.
By design, training camp is intended to be long and arduous. With a month of grueling practice sessions and game simulations, there is still plenty of time for Gholston to squander his opportunity.
Of course, the preference is that he thrives within Pace’s role and embodies the confidence Rex Ryan is trying to inject into the New York Jets.
Perhaps Ryan’s comments were motivation for a young man who struggled to find the field as a rookie. However, in this scenario, the only realistic motive centers upon Ryan’s obligation to finding out what kind of player Gholston will become.
The former sixth-overall pick can either embrace Ryan’s expectations this summer or validate every concern people have feared since April 2008. The path is Gholston’s to choose.
Regardless, with the season nearly two months away, who knows what can change between now and then? Well, maybe Bubba Franks has an idea.
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