I Ain’t No Slowpoke: Why Some NFL Players Are Mad at Madden

Roy Williams is one angry dude.

Like many football fans, the always-colorful Dallas Cowboy was quick to pick up a copy of the eagerly anticipated Madden 10.

Upon opening the game, to his shock, Williams noticed his speed rating had gone down from the previous year’s edition by six points from 92 to 86, forcing the former Pro Bowl wide receiver to speak out about the atrocity.

“I can’t be mad because I didn’t have a good year last year. They go off that year, but geez Louise, 86 speed? That’s like tight-end speed, like I’m a slowpoke.”

At first glance it may appear as though Williams is acting like any another egotistical athlete and simply overselling his abilities as a football player but if you look a little deeper, he might just have a point.

In 2008, Williams did not match the success he had in 2006 or 2007 when he was still a member of the Detroit Lions, however, it’s also important to note that after he was acquired by the Cowboys he wasn’t 100 percent and had to make big adjustments to a new offense midseason.

If that isn’t enough, there’s always playing behind Terrell Owens on the depth chart.

It’s not an excuse as much as it is a sort of explanation. But where in the midst of all that did his natural speed suddenly drop off? 

And as mad as Williams was, he wasn’t the only player in the NFL who went public with how he really felt about his Madden rating. 

Seattle Seahawks wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh wasn’t at all impressed with his overall rating of 91, feeling that the numbers didn’t coincide with his play and in turn he decided to give up playing Madden altogether.

At least until the folks over at EA bump his virtual counterpart up to at least a 130 overall.

“I understand I averaged 10 yards a catch, but it’s the offense, not me. I’m not playing Madden no more until they get my rating right. I used to be the best in the world at Madden. I’m going to miss not playing it, but until they do me right, I’m not playing it any more.”

Now that’s more of what we’re used to, a football player who’s full of himself and isn’t afraid to come off as vain. And while Williams may actually present a valid argument as to why his speed should not have been tampered with, Houshmandzadeh and his 91 rating do not.

As the sixth best NFC wide receiver in the video game, Houshmandzadeh is behind five players all of whom in real life are, bluntly put, better than him: Larry Fitzgerald, Steve Smith, Anquan Boldin, Roddy White, and Calvin Johnson.

Quite honestly, Houshmandzadeh is even lucky to have a rating of 91 after coming off his worst season statistically since 2002 with 902 yards and four touchdowns, a mere third of the touchdowns he amassed the season before.

Come on T.J., 91 overall can’t be that bad, just ask Washington Redskins long snapper Ethan Albright.

Albright had the lowest overall rating of all NFL players in Madden ’07 at 53 out of a possible 99 and he quickly became the subject of Internet parody in a mock e-mail addressed to John Madden written by Juan Turlington for a satirical sports website called the Phat Tree.

To rub more salt in the wound, long snapping isn’t even a rated skill in Madden.

“Some guys are into it. I’m not. Doesn’t register with me at all. Rate me whatever, I don’t care.”

Who knows where Albright’s care-free attitude regarding the matter came from, did he sincerely not care about his Madden rating or was he so embarrassed about his rating that it seemed like the only smart thing to say to avoid even more embarrassment?

Does it even matter?

The point is, players really shouldn’t take these sort of petty things to heart because at the end of the day, no matter how popular Madden is and how big your ego is, it’s only a video game.

Not reality.

It’s easy to see how some, as well as which, players would take issue with Madden ratings as though their larger-than-life personalities propel them to succeed in every aspect of football, even virtual.

That’s why nobody, apart from Emmitt Smith, complains when they’re too good in the game.

On the flip side, it also has to be an extremely strenuous task for EA Sports to accurately rate every single player included in their game year in and year out flawlessly.

There are going to be mistakes and slip-ups and that’s when players should realize that the conclusion a video game draws about them isn’t an exact science at all. 

And who said football players weren’t insecure?

Wildcat In The NFL: Here To Stay Or Doomed To Fail?

During the Michael Vick press conference that introduced the troubled NFL superstar as the newest member of the Philadelphia Eagles, current Eagles starting quarterback Donovan McNabb had some interesting words when the topic of Vick and the recently popularized Wildcat offense at the NFL-level was brought up.

“It was something that came out last year with some teams starting to do it, but I don’t think it will last that long.”

McNabb did, however, admit that the Wildcat worked in college but it seems according to him, as it stands in the NFL, its effectiveness will only deteriorate.

Tell that to the Miami Dolphins.

The Wildcat became the Dolphins bread and butter last season as they took the AFC East division title by surprise because this was the same team that a mere year earlier had been the laughing stock of the entire league after going 1-15.

Miami’s Wildcat was mostly the brainchild of Dolphins quarterback coach David Lee, who had run the same formation as an offensive coordinator for the Arkansas Razorbacks in 2007.

Lee also was also named “Innovator of the Year” in 2008 by Sporting News for introducing the Wildcat to the NFL.

The Dolphins began to integrate the Wildcat in the third game of the 2008 season, and they found immediate success with it after thumping the New England Patriots 38-18. In the victory, they used the formation against the Patriots on six plays—producing five touchdowns.

After their upset over the Patriots, Miami also began to garner a great deal of publicity for their use of the Wildcat that began with lining up either running back, Ronnie Brown or Ricky Williams, in the shotgun formation—with the option of handing off, running, or throwing.

In the weeks that would follow, the Dolphins would continue to rely heavily on the Wildcat and it paid off, as they would eventually finish the season with a 11-5 record and make the playoffs for the first time since 2001.

But the big question that still remains is: can the Wildcat stand the test of time?

Given the evidence, it’s safe to say that the Wildcat has so far only really worked in the NFL with the Dolphins. And though other teams have since began instituting it as a part of their own playbooks, there has still yet to be another team that has used the formation with such a favorable outcome.

Many teams have also claimed that the Wildcat takes an inordinate amount of time to prepare for and requires that not every offense is built to accommodate such a play.

One of the saving graces that came with the Wildcat was the fact that no one had really seen it in action at the NFL level. This gave the Dolphins the element of surprise, as teams didn’t anticipate the Wildcat and in turn, they were able to win their fair share of games by getting the jump on them. 

That, in turn, could ultimately be the Wildcat’s downfall.

It became evident that by the time playoffs came around, teams had already began to catch onto the offensive scheme and were better prepared for it.

The best example of this was when the Baltimore Ravens knocked out the Dolphins in the first round of the playoffs. They did so with relative ease after spending time to find ways to contain the Wildcat.

So will it last?

At this point, it’s rather difficult to say. On one hand, it’s going to be a stretch for teams to start incorporating it next season simply because of the awareness that has been raised as a result of how much the Dolphins ran it.

However, there is a possibility that the new generation of college players coming into the NFL will be more versatile and perhaps already have experience running the Wildcat, giving them the necessary edge to keep the play alive and well.

Pat White anyone?

Whatever the answer is, it’s bound to be an exciting journey to get to the answer to the perplexing question that has become the Wildcat.

Through Youthful Eyes: The Bleacher Report Learning Experience

About 10 months ago, I stumbled upon a website called BleacherReport.com, partly as a result of mere chance and partly because it was exactly what I was looking for.

At the time, of course, I had no idea it was what I was looking for.

Described as a “fan journalist” site, I had virtually no idea of what I was getting into when I decided to sign up for a membership except for the fact that I wanted to write articles about sports for people to read and discuss.

My passion.

I started with a small article about a player from the Vancouver Canucks. That piece got just over 400 reads, and I said what most people would say when over 400 people have read your work.

“Sweet!”

For my second article, I decided to tackle a bigger challenge: Michael Vick and his dog fighting scandal, as well putting forth a controversial question to the readers, Does Michael Vick Deserve A Second Chance?

With the second article amassing over 3,000 reads, I said what most would say when over 3,000 people have read your work.

“Wow!”

As time went by, I wrote more and more articles and eagerly anticipated the response they would bring with them. So much to the point that I would log on to one of my school’s computers during the lunch hour just to see if there were any new reads or comments left behind.

In a matter of months, Bleacher Report suddenly became a site that I visited regularly, reading and writing articles, giving and receiving comments, and for the first time in my life, I felt as if people cared about what I had to say regarding sports.

Because, at least in my eyes, it doesn’t matter how large of audience is reading what you wrote if it’s not the right audience that’s reading it.

And in the time that I’ve been writing articles I have felt as if every single one of my articles have been presented to the right audience. Good or bad, well-researched or poorly-reasearched as they might have been, they have never been read by the wrong people.

A feeling that I didn’t have when I first joined Bleacher Report.

As hard as it is to admit, I used to be a lot more of a stubborn person than I think I am today. I used to cringe at the sight of a negative comment and think of ways how to make some sarcastic response to salve my ego. But after a while, I realized something.

At 18, I figured that I have to be one of the younger writers on this site, so why was I so hard on myself when things didn’t go precisely according to plan in terms of how my articles were received?

Am I a bad writer? Do people not like my style? Am I too pushy leaving messages on people’s bulletin boards to read my articles? But the conclusion I came to didn’t involve any of these scenarios.

It’s all a part of a learning experience.

I realized that by asking myself all these questions, I had taken all the negative feedback that I had been faced with and turned it into a situation where I could develop as a writer because I wanted so badly to prove them wrong.

Isn’t that what good writers do?

Maybe it is and maybe it isn’t, to know the answer to that question I first must become one.

But what I can say is that had it not been for Bleacher Report I would have definitely still wanted to pursue sports journalism as I am planning to currently, but I would have likely missed a very important life lesson.

And you know what? I just realized that’s what I’ve been looking for all along.

Brett Favre: Why Another Comeback Will Not Taint His Legendary Status

It goes without saying that Brett Favre is one of the greatest NFL quarterbacks of all time and that his name will undoubtedly go down in the Pro Football Hall of Fame for his incredible achievements and contributions to the game of football.

It also goes without saying that a player of Favre’s calibre doesn’t come around very often, and when he does, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that teams are still willing to put good money into a 39-year-old player, because even past his prime, Favre is still better than most quarterbacks half his age.

That is the difference between a great player and a legend.

A great player will do a lot for about 10 seasons, maybe even lead your team to a few championships, but once that expiration date hits and he comes back to play for a few more seasons, it just gets embarrassing and reputations are tarnished.

A legend is a player that is timeless. That’s not to say that when a player reaches a certain age he is still the same player that he once was during his prime, because that just wouldn’t be true.

But a legend is a player that can play those same 10 seasons, come out of retirement, and still make people not second-guess why he’s a future hall-of-famer.

When Michael Jordan returned to play for the Washington Wizards after his second retirement he didn’t lead his new team an NBA Title, put up as many points as he did with the Chicago Bulls, nor did he even technically make the first NBA All-Star team in 2003.

I don’t hear anyone bad-mouthing Jordan’s legacy.

As a matter of fact, Jordan is so respected that if he were to make another comeback this coming season, his legacy would still have “the greatest basketball player of all-time” written all over it, because that’s who he is.

However, obviously, to call Favre the “Michael Jordan of the NFL” would not be at all accurate because Jordan has done far more to the game of basketball than Favre has for football, but it is clear that certain legacies just stick. 

So you think a couple comebacks are going to destroy the legacy of one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time?

I don’t think so.

Even if Favre were to sign with the Minnesota Vikings this season, you think people would be talking about that in ten years and not the fact that he hold the NFL records for most career touchdown passes, most career passing yards, most career pass completions, and most victories as a starting quarterback?

Or how about that he was the first player ever to win the AP MVP three times, or that he led the Green Bay Packers to seven division championships, four NFC Championship Games, two NFC Championships, two Super Bowl appearances, and one Super Bowl championship—will they overlook all those things as well?

Not a chance.

You might be sick of hearing about another comeback in the works, but one thing you know is that at the end of the day, when it’s all said and done, those two or however many seasons that Favre finishes his career off with won’t change the impact he has had on the game of football, and that is something that can only be done by a player who is truly a legend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CFL-NFL: You Scratch My Back, and I’ll Scratch Yours

Ricky Williams once said of his Canadian Football League (CFL) experience that “People accepted me more, people didn’t think I was weird, people thought I was actually normal while I was playing football and that’s something that I never really experienced before.”

Will somebody please get Michael Vick on the line.

Sure, Williams was rather subpar during his short stint with the Toronto Argonauts while under suspension for drug abuse in the National Football League (NFL), but the experiment cannot be labelled as a failure by any means.

Williams’s star presence provided the Argos marketing with a golden opportunity to sell more tickets and memorabilia than ever before. On the flip side, the Miami Dolphins, the NFL team which Williams had been under contract with, benefited from the situation as well, as they got back an active, seemingly clean football player in 2008 as oppose to what he may have become had he not signed in Toronto.

How quickly things change.

Former CFL commissioner Tom Wright, in his final state of the league address, introduced a new rule, which was to be implemented at the start of the 2007 CFL season and prevents a player under suspension in the NFL from signing with a CFL club.

“The Ricky Williams Rule” as it has come to be informally known as.

Granted, Vick was caught up in a much more serious crime than Williams, one that he served prison time for, but just imagine the kind of media field day that would follow if he signed in Canada.

Front page, nationwide.

Obviously, Canadians aren’t stupid, they’re fully aware of Vick’s notoriety factor, and some kind of protest would be sure to follow, if in fact he was somehow able to sign with a CFL team. But the pressures of playing in, oh, let’s say, Vancouver, as opposed to really anywhere in the United States, would undoubtedly be dramatically less.

Then, after a year, Vick could return to the NFL, pending if they allowed him to get reinstated, and sign with a team there, in shape and out of trouble, while the CFL can be happy with the truckloads of they money made off his star caliber.

Everybody’s happy.

But unfortunately, it’s time to burst this hypothetical bubble, because as long as “The Ricky Williams Rule” stands, it doesn’t seem as though Vick, or any other troubled NFL stars for that matter, will be heading up to the Great White North to play football anytime soon.

It’s a shame really, these two leagues should be working with each other and even if that means setting up an NFL refugee camp in Canada, so be it. Because everyday that the NFL gets closer to expanding north is everyday that the CFL comes one step closer to dying.

 

 

 

 

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