Tomorrow is the Pro Bowl.
Today is just dedicated to NFL happenings.
I wish Kurt Warner had returned. His retirement is a loss for the league. He is not only a great player, but a great ambassador for the league. Based on his statistics alone, he is absolutely a first ballot hall of famer.
His retirement speech was inspiring.
The cynic in me says that he retired because he took the Cardinals as far as he could. I think that if he truly felt he could get them to the Super Bowl, he would have returned.
The Cardinals are now done. Matt Leinart will not lead them anywhere.
Maybe he is no longer the bimbo dating Paris Hilton and hanging out in the Jacuzzi with other women, but he needs to prove it.
In 2006, the Cardinals led the Bears 23-3 in the fourth quarter against the Bears on Monday Night Football. That was the game where Dennis Green had one of the all time great press conference tirades.
Before the game, Matt Leinart found a Cardinals staffer and told them to make sure that his friends Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore had their needs taken care of. This should not be what a quarterback worries about right before kickoff.
While the Cardinals have just regressed, the Oakland Raiders seem to have made some very good moves. It is hard to get excited about the Raiders given how awful the last few seasons have been, but the recent changes seem positive.
Al Davis did the right thing by Keeping Tom Cable. The big gulf between them is that Cable has given up on JaMarcus Russell and Davis has not. There are no villains in this dispute. Cable wants to win. If he plays Russell and loses he gets fired anyway. Davis gave Russell 40 million bucks. He wants to do everything he can to try and turn this kid into a winner.
Like Leinart, Russell has shown brief flashes but has been awful overall. He has lost the locker room. Bruce Gradkowski inspired the players, and Charlie Frye was better than Russell as well.
Russell is fat, slow, lazy, and may be too dumb to play the position. Dumb is a harsh word, but why sugarcoat it? He has no pocket presence. He needs to show that he cares.
Al Davis brought in Hue Jackson from the Ravens to be the quarterbacks coach. If Jackson cannot teach Russell, then get rid of him.
Davis surrounded Cable with some respected assistants. We shall see.
One team on the rise is the Jets. I loved Buddy Ryan, and am a huge Rex Ryan fan. He shows up to interviews with his big gut hanging out, his t-shirt barely able to not cover it. This is the most blue collar millionaire since John Madden. He is a throwback to the old NFL where running and defense won games.
They may take a step back next year as many teams do, but the next 5 years should be good for Jets fans. Buddy Ryan won Super Bowl III as an assistant with the Jets. Rex is good enough to get one as the top dog.
Pro Bowl weekend is fun because everybody is so relaxes, which makes for some hilarious interviews.
Jared Allen of the Vikings had the best comment regarding Brett Favre.
For those who remember, after the Vikings won the divisional round, Favre sang “Pants on the ground” and slapped Allen on the hide.
Allen has words for the man he calls Silver Fox.
“Silver Fox. We love you. Everything except my backside loves you. If you come back, I promise you that you can slap my rear end every single day.”
This brings us to the story that will dominate the offseason once the Super Bowl Ends.
Groundhog Day is not upon us yet, but Favre-watch 2010 is here.
As I have said every year, I love # 4 and hope he comes back.
Brad Childress, who is bald and Catholic, is handling the situation perfectly. He has told Brett to take as much time as he needs.
I think Favre comes back because unlike the Cardinals and Kurt Warner, the Vikings do have the talent to get to the Super Bowl next year. They outplayed the Saints, and lost due to freak occurrences.
For those who complain that Favre received special treatment by skipping training camp, life is unfair. If he is that good that he does not need it, leave him alone and keep him fresh. He went to enough training camps.
The players want him back. He played brilliantly this past season. He did not let the team down in the NFC Title Game. They let him down.
That is the past. The future sees Favre coming back for the 2010 season. I sure hope so anyway.
Time for Favre-watch 2010!
Oh yeah, and tomorrow is the Pro Bowl and next week the Colts and Saints play in the Super Bowl.
eric
Favre is a hard call. The Vikes have a good team up there. Fvare is a short-term position filler no matter how else you look at it. If the Vikes want to build for the future, they may want to move on from Favre. Tough call.
The Raiders are in a rut. No doubt about it. Russell’s problems with the Raiders started from the get-go. Russell never seemed ot have his head in the game, or his spirit with the team. He comes off as self-indulgent and apathetic. And that doesn’t even address his skill set. There are too many intangibles for any coach to fix. Either he’s a pro-QB or he’s not. I think he’s not. One of the big problems with the draft in recent years has been these huge signing deals. You just don’t really know what you’re getting. That’s why so many pro-teams are leery of signing QB’s at the top of the draft. The position is just too important to gamble with. And Davis is a gambler. In today’s NFL, gamblers most often get eaten alive. It would be different if Davis had built a team like the Jets, that fundamentals-based system where even an average QB can win with it, but Davis always tries to build these high-flying circus teams, and for that you need high-skilled skill-position players. You can’t gamble with those positions on that type of team.
Warner has to retire. He’s going to get killed out there if he keeps it up. The Cards have all the makings of a great team. An average veteran QB from another team may be great with the Cards. It’s time to find out.
Whatever any of the teams do, they’d best think twice before signing Tebow. I don’t think that guy is going to make it in the NFL. I don’t say that because of his stupid TV ad (what an %$#@$#), but because he’s not a pro-style QB from a pro-style team. The Gators produce a lot of great players – just not from the QB position.
JMJ