STOP ACTING SURPRISED THAT MICHAEL SAM WAS CUT

         

Over the weekend a rookie that was fighting for one the final roster spots on the defense for an NFC West team was cut. He was a defensive end in college with an impressive resume, a sack specialist that won the Defensive Player of the Year Award for his conference -one of the largest and most prestigious ones- in his senior year.
          But he was what the NFL calls a "Tweener," not quite big and strong enough to play end in the NFL, and not quick and athletic enough to play linebacker. And he was trying to make his team at a position that was very deep and included at least one Pro Bowler.
          His name is Jackson Jeffcoat, the 2013 Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year from the University of Texas., who was trying to break into the Seattle Seahawks roster this year.

          Were you expecting someone else?
         
          Of course you were, because thanks to the mainstream media, Michael Sam was the only great college player this year that was struggling to make an NFL Roster.
          Look, Sam took a very courageous step in coming out before the NFL Draft. He put himself in a position where he would not only have to deal with his own physical shortcomings -compared to his peers not me of course- but also fight against the macho stereotypes and locker room culture that often treats homosexuality about as welcoming as an air traveler would treat a victim of the Ebola Virus that wants to sit next to him on a plane.
          But Sam's greatest battle was always going to be this; players with his type of physical tools and ability have a hard time making a dent in the NFL.
          Here are some names; Nick Reed, Cornell Brown, John Roper, Zeke Gadson. If you are a die-hard NFL Fan that rarely watches college, I am willing to bet that you have never heard of any of these guys. If you love college football and are at least 30 years old, you probably recognize every one of them.
          What do they all have in common? Aside from the fact that they all had, at best, short termed careers as backup NFL players if they ever made the league at all, each one of them was a dominant -but undersized by NFL standards- pass rushing specialist in college.
          Every year college football programs produce guys like Sam, Jeffcoat, and a bunch of other players that essentially have one major skill, they can do a mean outside pass rush and be a disruptive force -in college.
           College also allows you to be only about 6'2" or so and 250 pounds as long as you have a great burst off of the line and you can perfect just one reliable pass rush move -usually a hard outside rush with an underarm rip.
          But in the NFL, offensive tackles are about 325 pounds, and unlike a lot of college tackles they  have great feet, superb technique, and if you use one move over and over again, they will learn how to counter in quickly and force you to try something else.
         Some tweeners can still play end in the NFL if the have freakish lower body strength and make themselves into what the great football writer Doug Farrar calls "Leverage Monsters," think Dwight Freeney or Elvis Dumervill; or they are athletic enough to make the switch to linebacker, guys like Teddy Bruschi and Mike Vrabel come to mind.
          But Sam doesn't appear to have the body or the quickness to be one of those guys. He plays in the 250's and doesn't have that kind of physique. When he was asked to do linebacker drills at the combine he learned that playing in space can make a guy that has spent his entire football life putting his hand in the dirt and just taking off feel like he was trying to learn another sport altogether.
          I think the only way he can ever make a team is if he can prove to a staff that he can be an asset on special teams. Which, after watching him play, I don't see happening. Special teams play involves many of the same skills you need to play linebacker -good field vision, the ability to move laterally and backwards with ease, smooth hips- that Sam sorely lacks.
          So it is a mystery to me why NFL writers and analysts are loudly proclaiming with certainty  that Sam "can play in this league" and "Will end up on somebody's roster." Have they ever been so confident about the prospects of a seventh round draft pick? Ever? I they took a moment to review the history of players of his size and skill set they would see that he is far from a sure thing.
          And I will only buy that they actually believe what they are selling when they start talking about guys like Jackson Jefcoat with the same degree of confidence.

         

JOSH GORDON IS DUMB; BUT SO IS THE NFL's POLICY ON WEED

               

              In the past four months the people of Cleveland experienced the type of ecstasy followed by agony that could only occur in the town whose fans have had to deal with The Drive, The Fumble & The Decision.

              In May , Johnny Manziel gets drafted by the Browns, giving hope to a downtrodden franchise that hasn’t won a championship since 1964. Then LeBron James returned to the Cavaliers in move that shook the entire NBA landscape and gave fans every reason to believe that an NBA Title is within their grasp.

 So what happens? Manziel struggles throughout the pre-season, getting more headlines for giving the Redskins the finger and being sacked by Michael Sam than for anything positive he did on the field, and now Josh Gordon, the Brown’s superstar wide receiver, failed another drug test for using marijuana and has been suspended for the entire 2014 season.

              First off, Gordon is an idiot and has nobody to blame but himself. As a previous violator of the NFL Substance Abuse Policy he was aware of the ramifications of a positive test and to act so recklessly after a career year will have long-term effects on his team and his future as well.

              That being said, it is time for the NFL to get with the times in the same way as the seventeen states that have de-criminalized marijuana to some degree (Meaning either outright legalization or limiting the charge of possession to the level of a traffic violation) and remove weed from the list of banned substances.

              If you ever spent any time around athletes, or any men in their twenties for that matter, it is no secret that a lot of them enjoy smoking pot. I’m sure that most of the players that indulge do it for recreational use. My friends –who will remain nameless- that smoke on a regular basis do it for the same reason I enjoy a scotch or two on Friday nights after work, it feels good and helps you relax.

 But you can’t tell me that these players don’t use it as a painkiller as well. And when it comes to painkiller use in the NFL, the league is far from being anti-drug. On the contrary, you can make the argument that they encourage what could broadly be defined as the use of performance enhancing drugs. If you can deal with your pain during recovery, you are going to play better, it’s common sense.

             Think of the hypocrisy of the NFL when it comes to drugs under their current rules. Let’s say you’re a backup linebacker and special-teams player coming off of shoulder surgery in the off-season and you are clinging to your job by a thread as the last pre-season game approaches.

             During the off-season, you would have been able to inject yourself with Human Growth Hormone in order to help in your rehab without fear of suspension since the NFL doesn’t currently test for HGH. That’s called willful blindness.

On Sunday morning, about an hour before kickoff, the team doctor can inject you with Toradol, a powerful anti-inflammatory drug that can have severe side effects but is ubiquitous in NFL locker rooms. In a report by the Washington Post on painkiller abuse in the NFL, Hall of Famer Warren Sapp said Toradol shots were dispensed like “tic-tacs” in the locker room.  After the game, in order to dull the throbbing pain in your shoulder, you can select from the training room a litany of other opiate based painkillers such as Vicodin and Percocet.

This is all endorsed –or in the case of HGH ignored- by Emperor Goodell and all of his 32 bosses throughout the league. All done in the guise that they are concerned with the health of their players and that player safety is paramount to the League’s goal……

 I’m sorry; I can’t even finish writing a sentence that reeks of so much hypocrisy. The next time the NFL states that player safety is paramount to their mission, think about how much NFL players must love playing on Thursday nights, just four days after their previous game when their injuries are still fresh, limiting their precious recovery time. And never forget that this is the same organization that spent decades denying obvious disability claims by CTE victims like Mike Webster and Ray Easterling, slowly dragging their heels through the legal system while players suffered through health problems related to dementia that many times led to suicide.

Until they reached a settlement with the NFLPA, the NFL spent millions of dollars in legal fees and avoided helping many of the greats in this game as they disputed the irrefutable fact that 300 pound men repeatedly slamming their heads into one another tends to cause brain damage.

But I digress, back to the backup linebacker. If this player hates needles or doesn’t want to risk getting addicted to the types of drugs that have led to addicts murdering drugstores full of people just to get steal more pills; and opts to get through the aches and pains that are a way of life to NFL players by lighting up a joint, you will be fined, suspended, and if it happens often enough, run out of the league.

Think about that for a minute.

I’m trying not to sound like Woody Harrelson at a Pro-Hemp Rally here but does anyone outside of the director of the DEA actually believe anymore that weed is so dangerous that the NFL needs to classify it with drugs like cocaine, heroin and crystal meth?

Please.

There is a reason that 17 states are moving towards full legalization like Colorado and Washington have; people enjoy smoking marijuana and it just isn’t all that dangerous. You can even make an argument, and win it pretty easily just by raw numbers, that alcohol is a far more dangerous drug based on any metric you can find.

For many people, this is their only vice. I don’t smoke; but when I was younger I enjoyed it a handful of times, but I can see why your average football player would be attracted to its effects.  

NFL players spend a huge portion of their lives living in pain. The injuries they play with every week would keep most adults in bed for days and away from their desk job, let alone a football field. Is it really such a big deal if they want to light up a few times of week to relax, numb those aches and get some sleep?

For those who say that the teams have an interest in keeping their players healthy and off drugs, I would say to look up the side effects of drugs like Toradol and Percocet. Better still; check the rates of overdoses of these drugs as compared to marijuana. According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 2010 there were 38,329 fatal drug overdoses in the United States, over 16,000 of them from opiate based painkillers like the drugs that the NFL doles out like candy to its players.

When was the last time you read about someone overdosing on weed? Or even committing a violent act for that matter? It is probably the mellowest drug out there. In contrast I’m willing to bet that every person reading this article has witnessed somebody drunk commit an extremely violent act.

If memory serves all I wanted to do when I smoked was sit on a couch, eat and watch movies. The only risks I ever felt were to my waistline.

If the argument against allowing players to indulge in pot is that they will abuse it and you will have meeting rooms full of sleeping potheads while the coaches are trying to go over game-plans I would just say that the teams can treat it the same way that they deal with alcohol. The NFL doesn’t stop players from drinking, they don’t even care when they get drunk. However, if you start getting DWIs, show up hung-over at practice and vomit in the huddle, the team is going to take some action; which means pretty much that if you are a starter, they will send you to Rehab, if you are a backup, you’ll get cut.

Is there any danger with treating marijuana the same way? If you use it in moderation, what is the harm? Now if a player develops a daily habit complete with a ritual of “Wake and Bake” and can’t make it through practice without sneaking off to the locker room for a bat hit, they have abused the privilege and it will be time to take some action.

Look at Gordon. Since his last suspension he had one of the most dominant seasons by a receiver in recent memory. While we aren’t privy to the internal day to day operations of the Browns there have been no reports of his missing meetings or skipping OTAs. By all reports he has been a model player since he re-joined his team last year. Is it a proportional response to now suspend this guy for a year for smoking weed when it clearly hasn’t affected his play or his contributions to the club?

These players live a tough existence. I know that nobody is forcing them to play and they get paid a lot of money but they deserve every dollar. They are the best in the world at a skill that generates billions of dollars for the networks, owners, and the league overall. More than any other pro athlete, they run the risk of being one play from retirement. In return for their limited years of glory the trade-off is crippling pain, sleepless nights and in many cases, decades of being disabled.

 Is it really too much to ask that they can smoke a blunt and relax on Sunday Night after slamming their bodies into one another for our personal enjoyment? Especially if they happened to live in a state where it isn’t even a crime?

Let them have their weed.

THE BACKDOOR LOSS: GOD'S WAY OF TELLING YOU TO STOP GAMBLING

Whether it is in the form of fans buying boxes at their favorite bar, knockout pools, or wagers with a local bookie, a huge part of the NFL's allure is the ability to bet money on it. I learned about point spreads when I was still in elementary school, when my dad brought home the parlay slips that were ubiquitous in every dive bar in the Northeast. Picking 4 or 5 games and having my dad bankroll the action with the local Wiseguys may not have been the most ideal way to raise a child, but hey, it helped me practice ratios and multiplication so it wasn't all that bad.
Even fantasy football is basically a form of gambling; I am in a league with dues that start at 300 dollars and issue a payout to the champion that typically reaches over three grand. Unless there are no dues, fantasy is gambling, just with less chance to lose a fortune than dealing with your typical bookie or website.
Anyone who has ever put down a bet can tell you a gut wrenching story of a backdoor loss. Remember when Westbrook dropped like he was hit by a sniper on the way to the end zone against Dallas a few years back? Killing the clock was more important than scoring for the Eagles on that play. So one of the smartest plays in history was also one of the worst backdoors ever.
Ah yes, the backdoor loss, that awful kick in the nuts that can have you planning a vacation in the Caribbean one minute, then selling you car the next as Matt Schaub throws another Pick 6 to turn your 5 point cushion into a 2 point loss in the blink of an eye.
Yes, I know that backdoor covers happen too, and you win a game that you should have lost, but loses are always more memorable.
So here is a short list -by no means all inclusive- of the many ways NFL teams will inevitably break your heart this season, and the most likely culprits.

1. The late Pick 6: Self explanatory and the most common method, popularized of late by the aforementioned Matt Schaub, and raised to a level of near artful failure by Tony Romo. Since Schaub is now a Raider, his frequency of turning a positive drive for the offense into a 6 point deficit can only go up. If you decide to bet a nickel on the Raiders this year, don't say I didn't warn you.


2. Backdoored by a thousand cuts, also known as the Tom Brady: This is the type of backdoor that a seasoned gambler can see coming, knows that it is going to happen, and just has to sit there and take it like a man. Here is the scenario; you will have a heavy favorite, between 7 1/2 and 13 points or so, needing just a field goal to cover. Your team will have the ball with about 7 minutes to play and they will engage on a slow methodical drive, gaining between 3 and 4 yards every play, slowly eating the clock -and your bankroll- away. Even if they have scored at will for the entire game, NOW they decide to be conservative and take the ball to the one yard line, where the quarterback will drop down to victory formation and rob you of the victory you deserve. "Oh no, we can't score again, that would be mean and rubbing it in." Only in the NFL could teams beat the hell out of each other for over fifty minutes then worry about hurting the feelings of their opponent. I hate this backdoor, it is like being beaten to death with a wiffle-ball bat.

3. The useless 2 point conversion: You will have an underdog, and after getting throttled all game your team finally pulls within a half point of covering with a late touchdown, now all you need is the extra point to be kicked, a play that is successful about 99 % of the time, you are counting your money. But wait, what's this? The coach is going for 2! And why? Because that will bring him to within 2 scores if they can only recover two on-side kicks and hit a couple of Hail Marys with two more conversions. Who cares if there are only 10 seconds left, it is mathematically possible! NFL coaches that apply math without the support of reality are the bane of gamblers. This year who will do this the most? Doug Marrone and Mike Pettine, two guys in over their heads with teams that could be lousy this year, and bad teams go for more useless 2 pointers thank anyone, proceed with caution.

4. The Romo: Betting on a football game involving Romo -whether you bet for or against him- is the gambling equivalent of riding on a roller coaster at a traveling carnival. It is unpredictable, always fun, but may just kill you in the end. Tony Romo is the greatest enigma in football, a supremely talented quarterback that can play like Brett Favre one minute, and then, well, Brett Favre the next. Bet against him and he an go for 400 yards and 4 TDs and look like an All-Pro; believe in him and he can crush your dreams with a no-look lateral that a defensive tackle will return for a touchdown that makes it seems as if he just took up the sport. The man's capacity for extremes is unparalleled.

5. The Andy Reid: Never have Reid's strengths and weaknesses been more prominently displayed that Kansas City's playoff loss to the Colts last year. Has a 28 point lead in the third quarter ever been so unsafe as in Reid's hands? In one game he devised a game plan that seemed to score at will, but he still fails to grasp the simple task of shortening a game by running the ball. I really think he should coach in Canada with the way he appears to despise running. Did I mention his team was up by 28 points in the third quarter? You almost have to try to blow a lead that big in an NFL game. The Chiefs didn't even have to score in the second half of that game, all they needed to do was not have three and outs that took only 2 minutes off of the clock, over and over again. No lead is ever safe with this man.

There are more but this is a Blog, not a novel. Feel free to add any that I missed. Happy betting.

WHAT IS OLD MAN FOOTBALL?

In 2012, as the Missouri Tigers were preparing to start their first season in the SEC, star defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson dismissively referred to the Georgia Bulldogs as purveyors of "Old Man Football," or, even worse to an SEC Fan, "Big Ten Football."
Georgia promptly took out the Tigers 41-20 and showed Richardson that while the Tigers spread offense may at times put up quick scores and light up a scoreboard against Big 12 level defenses, they would have to up their game, and respect their new conferences affinity for running the ball and playing great defense, if they were going to compete for the Conference Championship every year.
I love football, always have, always will. Since my parents bought me a Fran Tarkenton uniform for Christmas when I was five years old (Thank God I broke away my brief Vikings obsession) it is fair to say that I have been obsessed with the game.
I played for my entire life; pee-wees, high school, and a couple of uneventful years in Junior College until I tore my knee up and faced the truth that I wasn't nearly as good as the guys around me.
But I never wavered as a fan. Whether it is high school, college, or the NFL, the bulk of my autumn and winter weekends have been consumed with the sport for my entire life.
While I can never see my fanaticism going away, recently the sport, led by the monolith that the NFL has become, has, to be blunt, began to piss me off a little.
Little by little the game is changing. The way it is played, the way it is officiated, and even the way it is broadcast and followed by the multitude of fans in America.
I know that I can't stop progress, if you can call it that. But that doesn't mean I can't complain about it.
That is how "Old Man Football" was born.
It is a counterweight to all of the crap that is weighing down the sport and is slowly eating away at the simple and wonderful experience of just sitting in you favorite chair at home, pouring yourself a beverage and watching the game. This is a Blog that will celebrate defense, good tackling, and the beauty of a perfectly executed counter play.
What kind of crap will I be railing against do you say?
Let's start with the biggest and baddest, the NFL.
I know that it is a business, I know their job is to make money for the owners, but how much is enough for these billionaires. As Bud Fox told Gordon Gecco, "How many yachts can you water ski behind?"
The NFL has come to believe that points=ratings, and ratings=dollars. So over the past 40 years virtually every major rule change has been made to help scoring and hurt defenses.
Eliminating the bump and run, this year's emphasis on illegal contact penalties, protecting the QBs as if they were made of glass, fining defensive backs for hitting "defensive receivers", the list is endless.
Last year was the NFL's worst nightmare, the small market Seahawks (My favorite team in the interests of full disclosure,) playing aggressive defensive and a simple offense that focused on running the football, tore into the Broncos Flag Football style offense and God's Quarterback and kicked their ass.
The NFL's response? Throw of flag on aggressive defensive backs if they breathe wrong on a receiver..
Defense is slowly being legislated out of the game. I realize that the concussion crisis necessitated a response by the League, but this is ridiculous. It is a violent game, you can't eliminate the contact aspect of the sport and punish every big hit with a fine and suspension. It has gotten to the point where they expect defenders to be as accurate with their shoulders as if they were laser guided missiles. Incidental contact is now seen as unsportsmanlike conduct.
And they aren't only doing it for safety, the NFL seems to be of the opinion that running the ball and solid defense are "boring." Was Seattle boring last year? How about the '85 Bears? Or the Steel Curtain teams of the 70's. There is a way to protect players without turning the sport into the type of glorified flag football that you are starting to see in places like the Big 12, where defense is a dirty word and god tackling in nearly extinct.
And the sad part is, the new breed of fan, the fastest growing portion, and the group that the NFL seems to focus all of their energy these days, that being "The Fantasy Obsessed Douchebag," loves every bit of it.
Don't get me wrong. I enjoy fantasy, and I play it. But do I watch games for the sole purpose of keeping track of my team? Do I feel the need to tell every guy at the bar that I stole Nick Foles in the tenth round last year? Do I believe that Matthew Berry should take Roger Goodell's job? No.
I have had it with fantasy, the obsessives have jammed this activity down America's throat over the past few years. Enough of the ubiquitous scrolls during games, fuck these celebrities and their high end leagues that they need to share with the rest of us on Jimmy Kimmel. These people see the games as nothing more than a point source for their imaginary teams. I am convinced that half of today's modern fans could live with every game being blacked out just as long as the NFL provided instant stats to their God Damn I-Phones. And speaking of stats.
I enjoy Aaron Schatz, Bill Barnwell, and many of the other Football Metrics Geeks. However, at times it feels like they enjoy a little too much reminding us "old fashioned" fans how smart they are and that we have been watching the game the "wrong way" for our entire lives. Just like fantasy, it has gone a little too far, I can't take another article on Pythagorean Wins, Regression Totals, and I really don't care who the best slot corner in the NFL is against third receivers on 3rd down plays with more than 7 yards to go, I just want to watch the game. Put away your slide rule, end your judgmental criticisms of athletes performing a skill that you couldn't do at the junior high level, and get off your twitter feed already. The new breed of football writer engages in paralysis by analysis and has essentially devolved what was at one time an interesting idea of Sabermetrics for football into a group masterbatory exercise among the stat heads as they argue over which teams adjusted DVOA is likely to drop this year based on schedule strength. There is a human element to the game, there is stress, pressure, and even fear. the players aren't robots in pads and the coaches are don't have the benefit of time and hindsight when they decide to go for it and fourth and 5. Got that Barnwell?
And leading this charge, changing the game from the one I fell in love with, are the networks. Yes, the man behind the curtain. They have one job, make money. So what if they bombard the fan with endless sponsors and distracting ads, who cares if the scroll on the bottom of the screen takes away 10 percent of your picture? And when they throw it down to their useless eye candy reporter on the field to give you some cliché from the coach that they call a quote, they don't care if you just missed a play. Because they don't care about the game, and they don't respect the fact that some of us still just want to watch it without useless information being jammed down our throats.
We aren't watching it for the stats, and not the fantasy points, and sure as hell not for the announcers (I will get to them another day,) but for the game -and to gamble of course, I am not a romantic like Bob Costas for God's Sake.

So that is what this Blog is about. A celebration of what brought me and others into football, and an occasional rant against the powers that are trying to destroy it. I hope you enjoy it.