BACH
Superbowl, Homeboy!
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/tim_layden/10/20/oct20.layden/index.html
NFL Week 7 is upon us. And I'm thinking back to the long offseason and the early autumn and wondering, since hindsight is a beautiful thing: If we only knew then what we know now. How decisions can be so wrong, how assumptions can be so far off:
If Nick Saban only knew last winter that Drew Brees was going to heal up so thoroughly and play this well, surely the Dolphins coach would have signed Brees instead of Daunte Culpepper.
Trust me, it's not like Saban didn't agonize over his decision. I talked to him about it in June, and even with Culpepper way ahead of schedule in his rehab (boy, was that misleading), Saban was still uncertain if he had made the right decision. "I love Drew Brees,'' said Saban, who coached against Brees in the Big Ten when he was at Michigan State and Brees was at Purdue. "But here you've got a throwing athlete with a shoulder injury.'' Saban played with the pinch of chaw he keeps inside his lower lip and shook his head. Tough call. He went with what appeared to be the safer play and here he is, approaching late October with a 1-5 record, while Brees has led the Saints to a 5-1 mark.
This is not entirely shocking. Brees has been a courageous winner at every level of football, despite suggestions that he was/is too small, too weak of arm, too hurt. Saban made the wrong call and the Dolphins are paying in a big way, while the Saints are the story of the young season.
If only the pundits and at least nine NFL teams only understood last April that Matt Leinart didn't win all those games at USC with a weak arm or a weak stomach. Leinart, cool five o'clock shadow and cool entourage in waiting, was allowed to drift embarrassingly close to the middle of the first round because it had been determined by the draft machinery that he lacked arm strength, foot speed and some other intangibles (toughness, intelligence ... which of these things had Leinart not proven over and over again at USC?) of some sort.
Two recollections: First time I talked to Leinart. He was a couple weeks shy of his first start as a sophomore at USC. Taking over for Carson Palmer, Leinart was walking into the plains of Auburn, untested, thrown to the Tigers. I talked to him and he was as cool and confident as he is today. Didn't seem to mean much at the time, but you look back and there you go. It was no act.
Right after Leinart's senior year, I spent time with USC offensive coordinator Norm Chow. We watched some of USC's dismantling of Oklahoma in the national championship game and Chow, who would soon leave for the NFL, raved about Leinart's progress as a quarterback. Still, nine teams saw a weak-armed Cali-boy.
If only we in the media -- and that's all media -- were a little more patient and not so quick to build and then jump on bandwagons, we might see the flaws in early-season flashes.
Take the Baltimore Ravens: I covered their first game of the year, a win over Tampa Bay, and came back crowing -- in print and in person to anyone who would listen -- that Steve McNair was the answer to Baltimore's offensive problems and that the defense was back to 2000 standards. Well, given a few more weeks, McNair proved not to be the answer and got hurt. Brian Billick has canned Jim Fassel and the franchise seems to be in desperation mode before Halloween.
Take the Cincinnati Bengals: I covered their win over Pittsburgh in Week 3. It seemed like Palmer was back to full strength and the Bengals had shrugged their cops-and-robbers offseason issues. They haven't won a game since.
Take the Chicago Bears: On the Sunday before their fifth game of the season, The Chicago Tribune splashed a position-by-position comparison between this year's Bears and the beloved '85 Bears. The former had four wins, the latter lost one game and dominated three postseason opponents en route to a Super Bowl win. Web sites were full of polls asking whether it was more likely that the Bears would go 16-0 or the Raiders 0-16. Then the Bears and the good-but-still-developing Rex Grossman played a stinker and barely survived the Cardinals through a bizarre aligning of fates, and now it's obvious that 16-0 is a longshot, at best.
If only Brett Favre had known just how bad his farewell tour could be. Five games into the season the Packers are 1-4 and long gone from postseason dreams. Favre, a certain Hall of Famer who owes nothing to anybody, has seven touchdown passes and five picks and his passer rating is an odious 76.7... right behind Culpepper in the rankings. And get this: He hasn't played all that badly. This is what happens to a legend on a bad team. He said he wasn't ready for the farm, and he's earned the right to finish playing football on his own terms; but you've got to think that tractor looks better every day.
If only Chris Simms had known that he would be minus one internal organ before Columbus Day when he rolled the dice on his financial future and turned down an eight-figure contract extension, in favor of a one-year deal. Now he's lost his spleen, his job and most of his value on the open market. Simms is one of the really good people in any sport at any level, a bright and sincere guy who you'd love to call your son, brother, father ... whatever fits. This is a hell of a lousy break and will make a great story if and when Simms plays well again. For now, Simms' tale is instructive for young quarterbacks to recall. A serious injury is always one snap away. Take the money if it's offered.
If only Albert Haynesworth had learned at some point in his football career that even in a fast and violent game, a man cannot shut down his sense of reason. The football field is one of the few places on earth where it's not only legal to apply physical punishment to another person, but necessary. That punishment, as Haynesworth now knows, has limits, and his failure to understand it before stepping on a man's head will follow him the rest of his life. He is forever destined to be an ugly punch line.
If only the Cowboys had understood that T.O. is always the whole show. If only Randy Moss had understood how bad the Raiders truly are. Check those last two: Some parties just deserve each other. Even in hindsight
NFL Week 7 is upon us. And I'm thinking back to the long offseason and the early autumn and wondering, since hindsight is a beautiful thing: If we only knew then what we know now. How decisions can be so wrong, how assumptions can be so far off:
If Nick Saban only knew last winter that Drew Brees was going to heal up so thoroughly and play this well, surely the Dolphins coach would have signed Brees instead of Daunte Culpepper.
Trust me, it's not like Saban didn't agonize over his decision. I talked to him about it in June, and even with Culpepper way ahead of schedule in his rehab (boy, was that misleading), Saban was still uncertain if he had made the right decision. "I love Drew Brees,'' said Saban, who coached against Brees in the Big Ten when he was at Michigan State and Brees was at Purdue. "But here you've got a throwing athlete with a shoulder injury.'' Saban played with the pinch of chaw he keeps inside his lower lip and shook his head. Tough call. He went with what appeared to be the safer play and here he is, approaching late October with a 1-5 record, while Brees has led the Saints to a 5-1 mark.
This is not entirely shocking. Brees has been a courageous winner at every level of football, despite suggestions that he was/is too small, too weak of arm, too hurt. Saban made the wrong call and the Dolphins are paying in a big way, while the Saints are the story of the young season.
If only the pundits and at least nine NFL teams only understood last April that Matt Leinart didn't win all those games at USC with a weak arm or a weak stomach. Leinart, cool five o'clock shadow and cool entourage in waiting, was allowed to drift embarrassingly close to the middle of the first round because it had been determined by the draft machinery that he lacked arm strength, foot speed and some other intangibles (toughness, intelligence ... which of these things had Leinart not proven over and over again at USC?) of some sort.
Two recollections: First time I talked to Leinart. He was a couple weeks shy of his first start as a sophomore at USC. Taking over for Carson Palmer, Leinart was walking into the plains of Auburn, untested, thrown to the Tigers. I talked to him and he was as cool and confident as he is today. Didn't seem to mean much at the time, but you look back and there you go. It was no act.
Right after Leinart's senior year, I spent time with USC offensive coordinator Norm Chow. We watched some of USC's dismantling of Oklahoma in the national championship game and Chow, who would soon leave for the NFL, raved about Leinart's progress as a quarterback. Still, nine teams saw a weak-armed Cali-boy.
If only we in the media -- and that's all media -- were a little more patient and not so quick to build and then jump on bandwagons, we might see the flaws in early-season flashes.
Take the Baltimore Ravens: I covered their first game of the year, a win over Tampa Bay, and came back crowing -- in print and in person to anyone who would listen -- that Steve McNair was the answer to Baltimore's offensive problems and that the defense was back to 2000 standards. Well, given a few more weeks, McNair proved not to be the answer and got hurt. Brian Billick has canned Jim Fassel and the franchise seems to be in desperation mode before Halloween.
Take the Cincinnati Bengals: I covered their win over Pittsburgh in Week 3. It seemed like Palmer was back to full strength and the Bengals had shrugged their cops-and-robbers offseason issues. They haven't won a game since.
Take the Chicago Bears: On the Sunday before their fifth game of the season, The Chicago Tribune splashed a position-by-position comparison between this year's Bears and the beloved '85 Bears. The former had four wins, the latter lost one game and dominated three postseason opponents en route to a Super Bowl win. Web sites were full of polls asking whether it was more likely that the Bears would go 16-0 or the Raiders 0-16. Then the Bears and the good-but-still-developing Rex Grossman played a stinker and barely survived the Cardinals through a bizarre aligning of fates, and now it's obvious that 16-0 is a longshot, at best.
If only Brett Favre had known just how bad his farewell tour could be. Five games into the season the Packers are 1-4 and long gone from postseason dreams. Favre, a certain Hall of Famer who owes nothing to anybody, has seven touchdown passes and five picks and his passer rating is an odious 76.7... right behind Culpepper in the rankings. And get this: He hasn't played all that badly. This is what happens to a legend on a bad team. He said he wasn't ready for the farm, and he's earned the right to finish playing football on his own terms; but you've got to think that tractor looks better every day.
If only Chris Simms had known that he would be minus one internal organ before Columbus Day when he rolled the dice on his financial future and turned down an eight-figure contract extension, in favor of a one-year deal. Now he's lost his spleen, his job and most of his value on the open market. Simms is one of the really good people in any sport at any level, a bright and sincere guy who you'd love to call your son, brother, father ... whatever fits. This is a hell of a lousy break and will make a great story if and when Simms plays well again. For now, Simms' tale is instructive for young quarterbacks to recall. A serious injury is always one snap away. Take the money if it's offered.
If only Albert Haynesworth had learned at some point in his football career that even in a fast and violent game, a man cannot shut down his sense of reason. The football field is one of the few places on earth where it's not only legal to apply physical punishment to another person, but necessary. That punishment, as Haynesworth now knows, has limits, and his failure to understand it before stepping on a man's head will follow him the rest of his life. He is forever destined to be an ugly punch line.
If only the Cowboys had understood that T.O. is always the whole show. If only Randy Moss had understood how bad the Raiders truly are. Check those last two: Some parties just deserve each other. Even in hindsight
