I saw more than I needed to yesterday afternoon. We all did. Having watched yesterday's Dolphins-Jets game from a horizontal position on my sofa, without turning on my computer or laptop, I have no idea what the rest of the sports world thought, but at precisely 2:28pm Eastern Daylight Time on October 28th, I tweeted from my phone: Rex [Ryan] and [Tony] Sparano need to go.
I also have no idea what the rest of the sports world thinks today about the Jets, because I've yet to open my newspapers or deeply listen to local radio or television coverage (a pending hurricane kinda has me preoccupied), so this column is quite free of influence from anyone else. No one planted any seeds in my mind or thoughts... canning the head coach and offensive coordinator, effective 9:00am Tuesday morning, is my own idea, and exactly what I would do if owner of the New York Jets.
Yes, a relative pillar of patience and stable supporter of Rex Ryan, I finally reached the point of no return, and reiterated my thoughts on Twitter to Jets fans at 4:32pm, after the carnage of a 30-9 debacle was complete, and yet again at 4:38pm to SNYTV during Rex Ryan's post-game press conference and one last time for good measure at 5:05pm. The Jets have begun their bye week and changes need to be made... contrary to popular consensus, the change shouldn't be at quarterback. It should be at head coach, offensive coordinator, and the "back-up" quarterback.
Working backwards, Mark Sanchez is not the problem. He's neither the only reason nor the main reason for the Jets offensive putridness. He's forced to play in a dysfunctional scheme, behind a porous offensive line, with a revolving door of receivers and running backs, and a less-than-holy mercenary looking over his shoulder while he finds the best angle to stick a knife in Sanchez's back. As I said a few days ago, just like I've said months ago and more than a year ago, Tim Tebow is not an NFL quarterback. He's a hybrid fullback-tight end with religious-based delusions of being a starting quarterback.
The Jets traded for him in March after Tebow became expendable in Denver, after playing a key role in the Broncos playoff run last season. Fact: The Broncos brain trust viewed Tebow as a novelty act, not the man to lead the Broncos back to Super Bowl contention as a starting quarterback. To lose one's job to Peyton Manning is hardly a sin or blasphemy. Manning is sure to be enshrined in Canton in the not-too-distant future. The real sin was Tebow's refusal to step back and stay on as Manning's understudy for a couple of years, learning to develop the physical and intellectual skills necessary to play quarterback in this league. Tebow had and has an overinflated sense of his talent and worth for someone who can't effectively throw a football in a passing league.This is more profound than the struggles Sanchez has quarterbacking the Jets. Tebow doesn't understand game plan nuances, reading defenses, searching for progressions, or the mechanics of dropping back from center, standing in the pocket, and throwing the ball. Sanchez knows what has to be done, but struggles to do it consistently. Tebow ignores the fundamentals and simply wants to be the hero when the clouds darken and the Burning Bush emits commands.
The best thing Tebow could've done for himself, the NFL and his loyal flock of zealot fans was to admit he had tons to learn and miles to go before he would ever be the real level of quarterback he needed to be, or prophesized himself to be, and agree to apprentice at the foot of the master, Manning. Manning could've given the Broncos the resurrection this great franchise and its fans craved and deserves, and after completing the greatest personal comeback story in sports for two or three years, he could've handed the position back to a better-groomed, polished and educated Tebow, who would've been properly ready to lead the Broncos for a decade or more. But Tebow wants to be the Messiah, not an Apostle, and a trade became a necessity.
Only two NFL teams wanted Tebow once he became available: the Jets and the Jacksonville Jaguars. Tebow's originally from the Jacksonville area, so returning to his hometown could've been good, but the Jags made it clear they were committed to the development of Blane Gabbert as their starting quarterback, and there was no way Tebow would play second banana in his own hometown, so he forced a trade to the Jets, where his "Great friend", Sanchez, was in crisis after an uneven third year as quarterback during an 8-8 season. Hmmm... with friends like Tebow, who needs enemies, right? Just remember... the Apostles supposedly killed Jesus, Aristotle, Plato and Socrates were all killed by their proteges, and even Julius Ceasar was done in by the man closest to him, Et Tu, Timmy?!
Tebow is poison to the Jets offense and Sanchez's development... a bigger potential cancer than Santonio Holmes could ever be, because no matter how much Tebow tries to say the right things to the Jets, the fans and media, and be a "team player", Tebow sees himself as a Christian Conquistador who will rescue New York from its moral and athletic failings. He silently thrives on idiot fans at MetLife Stadium yelling for him to replace Sanchez, and publicly roots for Sanchez to be the best failure he can possibly be, so Tebow can step in and act out his fanatsy of conquering whatever the hell he thinks he's supposed to conquer. Listening on TV and radio, reading in the local and national newspapers, it's more andmore evident he's on a warped mission to save the world's heathens one busted play at a time.
It's personally offensive and enraging that the media gives this third-rate talent as much publicity and attention as they do. He's the third-best quarterback on the Jets and makes too few positive contributions on gameday to warrant all this attention. Shame on ESPN, SNY, USA TODAY and the New York Daily News -- among other media sources -- for giving Tebow such an undeserved forum, especially at the expense of Sanchez. As loathe as I am to call out people by name, shame on Manish Mehta for recently interviewing Tebow, unless the intent was for all Jets fans to see how little regard or respectTebow has for Sanchez, evidenced by Tebow's repeated refusal to even state Sanchez's name, regarding the most benign questions as well as straight-to-the-core questions about who is and deserves to be the Jets starting quarterback. Shame on Herm Edwards, for incessantly calling for Tebow to replace Sanchez as quarterback, referring to Tebow as the "Toot-toot Train" ready to pull out of the station. I've known of Herm Edwards since 1977, when he was still a young and obscure defensive back with the Philadelpha Eagles. I watched him play while I shared Veterans Stadium during my Temple University Days. Eagles and Owls are birds of a feather who flock together. I celebrated Herm's hiring as Jets head coach in 2001 and mourned his parting five years later.
But Herm's making a buffoon of himself, going "Toot! Toot!" on Sportscenter. Yes, Herm made the switch from aging and beat-up Vinny Testaverde to young and fresh Chad Pennington in 2002 and it paid off well, but the 2012 Jets are not the 2002 version, and Tim Tebow is no Chad Pennington in any of the most remote senses. Chad Pennington was a legitmate NFL quarterback who had the physical and intelectual tools and tangibles. Tebow doesn't... I repeat... Tebow DOESN'T.
The NFL trading deadline is November 6th, Election Day. If the Jets front office and coaching staff truly hopes to save this season and Sanchez's career, everyone will admit the Tebow trade was a mistake, the trade was made for reasons that had nothing to do with the genuine success of the team, no one knows what to do with Tebow, and Tebow clearly has zero commitment to helping the team in a role other than starting quarterback, so it's time to cut bait and trade him or cut him outright if no other team is stupid enough to covet him.
Tebow sealed his fate in the first quarter when the Dolphins blocked a punt and recovered it in the end zone to open up a 10-0 lead. The punt blocker came right through theheart of the Jets offensive line, right through the middle... the region the backfield punt protector is personally responsible for. Tebow was the backfield punt protector and completely ignored the rusher... he didn't try to block him and whiff... he simply ignored him and stood his ground like a cardboard cut-out. Sorry, Mr. Tebow, but if that's your job assignment, and as a 255-LB fullback, you play where the coaches put your ass and what justifies the paycheck your general manager pays you. Sabotaging a punt play deep in your own territory will not force the coaches to make you the quarterback, and if that's your approach as part of a covert hostile takeover campaign of the quarterback position, clean out your locker, pack your duffle bag, and get the hell out of Florham Park.
Billy Kilmer quarterbacked the New Orleans Saints and Washington Redskins during the late-1960s and early-1970s, but he started off his NFL career playing halfback for the San Francisco 49ers during the early-1960s. Joe Theismann quarterbacked the Redskins to back-to-back Super Bowl appearances in 1982 and 1983, but he returned punts during the mid-1970s, just to prove to the late George Allen that he could contribute to the team and be a real football player.
Paul Hornung made a Hall of Fame worthy transition form quarterback to halfback for the 1960s Green Bay Packers. George Blanda survived a 26-year Hall of Fame career kicking when his quarterback days became reduced. Marlin Briscoe and Freddie Solomon became very capable wide receivers on Super Bowl teams, forced to change positions when African-American quarterbacks were very rare. John Sciarra and Scott Frost became defensive backs, Brian Mitchell became an all-purpose running back and kick returner.
Lots of players have had to change positions and reinvent themselves in order to have meaningful NFL careers. Tebow's inability and refusal to honestly view himself as anything other than a starting quarterback has been a disturbing issue since before he was drafted in 2010. We can't all be what we want to be at certain junctures of our lives. I wanted to be a quarterback in the worst way, but there aren't that many successful NFL quarterbacks under six feet tall, so I learned to be a running back, punter and kick returner. When I arrived at Temple University as a 195-LB fullback, the coaches told me I needed another 30 LBS in order to survive as an every-down halfback. When I moved from a physics department to a chemistry department, I had to adjust my teaching and research focus, and did it in reverse years later when I ended up back in a physics department. It's call adapting to your situation. Tebow is completely incapable of this. This ends up being a drag on the offensive roster.
The Jets are in crisis at 3-5, 1-4 in their last 5 games, and Tebow at quarterback is not the answer... his passive-agressive insistance on being groomed to be the Jets quarterback is an underlying part of a problem. We solve problems in our world. Trading or outright releasing Tebow is a key part of the solution to fixing what ails the Jets. I'd rather not waste the second half of the season waiting for the inevitable. Unless Tebow is going to be told "you're the starting fullback; shut up, get in the huddle and stay there", there's always going to remain a circus surrounding him and what his role should or could be while Sanchez dangles in the wind. It's no longer fair to Sanchez or Tebow. Sanchez is the quarterback; end of story and debate. Tebow can either join the backfield and take handoffs from Sanchez and improve his ability to catch swing passes, or he can become the NFL's most popular unemployed player for the second half of the 2012 season.
The bigger problem with the Jets is coaching, particularly on offense. Regardless of Tebow's personal agenda,Tony Sparano has no clue of what he's doing with this Jets offense, and it's clear he lacks the vision, intuition and insight to be an offensive coordinator. Just as it became evident in Miami, it's evident here in New York that Sparano is ill-suited to be anything other than an offensive line coach. For the second straight year, the Jets offensive line is playing well-below its reputation. One year is either an aberration or a consequence of discontinuity of talent. Two years running indicates failed coaching. It's no secret Matt Slauson and Aaron Howard aren't the second coming of Pete Kendall, alan Faneca and Damien Woody, but good coaching can help overcome the drop-off in talent and experience while a unit learns to grow together with new parts. Bill Callahan is one of the best offensive line coaches in the NFL, and the Jets made a huge mistake letting him slip away while pursuing Sparano as a two-for-one replacement for Callahan and former coordinator Brian Schottenheimer. Fans and media members vilified Schottenheimer for the Jets falling short of offensive greatness during the past six years, but Schottenheimer wasn't the problem. He was handcuffed by too much player turnover and the fear all coaches inherently have in young quarterbacks. It was a disservice to Sanchez, Schottenheimer and the entire Jets offensive unit to put a muzzle on Sanchez and use "Ground and Pound" as a "Prevent Offense." Sometimes you just have to open up the playbook, give the young quarterback all the plays, and let him learn how to run the offense, mistakes and all. Instead, the Jets are still operating on a limited scheme, hoping play calls are limited to anything that doesn't result in disaster, and that's not the way to handle a quarterback, especially one supposedly under contract until 2015.
As I wrote in my previous column, lots of other NFL quarterbacks have made their fair share of ugly and repeated mistakes without fear of losing their jobs, so why should that be the case with Sanchez on account of coaches too hell-bent on saving their own asses? I'd rather have an offensive coordinator with an unlimited imagination and faith in Sanchez to do his best, mature as a leader, and get positive results far more often than not. Sparano, no matter the pass-run ratio of his play calling, lacks faith in Sanchez and certainly doesn't know Sanchez as well as he should. Sparano, an offensive line coach, can't even get his front five to block like its capable of, and there are three All-Pros on that line: center Nick Mangold, Left Tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson, and Right Guard Brandon Moore. Even with that talent there's no excuse for the line springing leaks on pass protection as much as it does.
For his failure with the line and overall offense, Sparano needs to be let go. The Jets can either import an offensive line coach for the remainder of the season or pool together duties among current assistants. The time has come to promote Matt Cavanaugh form quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator. He's been there since the start of Sanchez's career, so he knows his offensive leader, follows his wavelength of thinking, is in rhythm with the kid's temperament. If this is a passing league, commitment to running notwithstanding, your offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach really should be the same person. Cavanaugh's been around the game for a long time, dating back to his days as a young backup in New England during the late-1970s. He's played and coached in the NFL for over thirty years. Let Sanchez and the rest of the offensive unit get the full benefit of Cavanaugh's experience and wisdom.
This finally brings me to Rex Ryan. Sometimes you have to go with facts, your gut and what you hear when a head coaching change is warranted. Here's the key fact: exactly one year ago, the Jets were 5-3 and in second place in the AFC East and holding one of the wild card positions. Since then, 6-10 and 3-8 since the Eagles cleaned the Jets clock going into the final three weeks of the 2011 regular season. Rex calls himself a winner, but the last 12 months doesn't reflect it.
As I wrote in my last column, Rex lacks a full feel for all three parts of the game: offense, defense, special teams. Just as "the vision thing" did in George Bush-41's re-election bid in 1992, this lack of vision is Rex's ultimate undoing as head coach of the Jets. Think about it... Rex was one of the league's hottest defensive coordinators for years in Baltimore and couldn't even land the head coaching job with the Ravens. I'm not going to completely rule out Rex's battle with obesity and yellow teeth as factors, but perhaps the biggest knock on him was that he's a Ryan, a chip off the ol' Buddy, and anyone who follows football history and the Ryan family legacy knows that members of the Ryan clan have a limited shelf life as coaches before their act grows old and stale, or the players become too old and slow, or opponents finally catch up to a Ryan defense and learn how to score bunches on it.
Yes, Buddy Ryan was the architect of the famed "46 Defense" that helped lead the 1985 Chicago Bears to a Super Bowl title. Yes, Buddy Ryan was the mastermind milking two more solid seasons (1976-1977) out of the "Purple People Eaters" defense in Minnesota, as the Vikings won their eighth and ninth NFC Central Division titles during a 13-year span (1968-1980, 11 division titles, 4 conference titles, 4 Super Bowl losses). Yes, Buddy Ryan was the head coach of a Philadelphia Eagles team that earned three straight playoff berths (1988-1990) for the first time since Dick Vermeil led the Eagles to four straight playoff berths and one Super Bowl (1978-1981). And yes, Buddy Ryan was one of Weeb Ewbank's bright stable of assistant coaches when the Jets won Super Bowl III in January 1969.
But Buddy Ryan was also the same head coach who got fired after five years coaching the Eagles because his team lost in the first round of the playoffs each time, each loss more disappointing than the previous one. Buddy Ryan is the same head coach who got fired after two seasons (1994-1995) leading the Arizona Cardinals to a 12-20 record after declaring Cardinals fans "finally have a winner."
Buddy Ryan was also the defensive coordinator of the 1993 Houston Oilers who was encouraged to leave after throwing a punch at offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride (offensive guru of the 2007 and 2011 Super Bowl champ New York Giants) during a sideline dispute -- during a regular season game the Oilers were winning -- and after the biggest post-season meltdown in history, blowing a 35-3 lead at Buffalo and losing 41-38 to the Bills in overtime.
Buddy Ryan was also the defensive coordinator when the bottom fell out on the Jets defense in 1975, giving up a then-dubious record of 433 points in 14 games. Yes, unable to rescue an aging and slow unit, Ryan's defense gave up 30 or more points six times, surrendering 31, 37, 42, 43, 45 and 52 points during those six games. The 1976 defense wasn't much better after Buddy moved onto to the Vikings. That Jets defense gave up 30 or more points seven times, surrendering 33, 37, 38 twice, 41, 42, and 46 points.
Many folks like to point to the Rich Kotite Jets of 1995-1996 as the darkest period in Jets history because of their 4-28 record, but I beg to differ. Those Jets at least were 6-5 and tied for first place in the AFC East in 1994 before a stunning collapse inspired by a "Fake Spike" play by Dan Marino, and that same core of players went 9-7 in 1997, Bill Parcells' first year resurrecting the franchise. The 1975-1976 Jets, who went 6-22, were a collection of over-the-hill remnants from Super Bowl III and inexperienced free agents and draft picks. The defense's collapse was swift and painful, and it took years to properly rebuild the unit Buddy Ryan let decline. Like all people and coaches, Buddy Ryan has a golden legacy and a not-so-golden legacy, but the take-home lesson is that when things go bad on a Buddy Ryan-coached team or unit, it goes bad fast. Like it or not, we could be seeing the swift decline of a Jets defense Rex Ryan touts on par with his dad's '85 Bears or Rex's old group, the Ravens of the turn of the century.
Yes, the Dolphins only generated 235 yards of total offense yesterday, and yes, the offense only mustered two touchdowns, but the Jets lost 30-9, which means the Jets defense failed to keep the Dolphins off the scoreboard enough times relative to scoring opportunities. The very first drive of the game more than demonstrated how the defense wasn't ready to back up its own trash talk, as the Dolphins drove the ball down the field and into the red zone. Even though the drive was aided by a foolish 15-yard penalty by Antonio Cromartie and only ended in a Dan Carpenter field goal, the Jets defense wasn't really stopping anyone when it most needed to in order to set the tone for the game. This goes to the heart of Rex's failing as a head coach and defensive guru: too much talk and bluster between Monday and Friday and not enough readiness to impose their will on Sunday.
Rex said he never saw it coming. He should have. He's known for over a year that his mouth writes too many checks for his players to cash on Sunday, he's acknowledged it and pledged to rectify the matter. But he hasn't. In his defiant way to be himself, he continues to put his team at a big disadvantage as soon as the National Anthem is sung, and 6-10 and 3-8 is all we need to know anymore. This is not the same team that went to back-to-back AFC title games in 2009 and 2010, and Rex is no longer the man with all the answers and spirit to guide this team. With each post-game press conference he sounds more and more lost of the big picture, and this is even after games the Jets win, as infrequent as that's become.
Perhaps the most damning indictment of Rex comes from the image of seeing Sanchez's frustration after throwing another incomplete pass to a receiver he didn't want to throw to. Sanchez plays like the naive math and science student who gets shell-shocked by a mid-term exam that looks nothing like all the repetitious end-of-chapter review questions and exercises he or she did from the course textbook while cramming for the exam. In other words, the ill-prepared student rehearsed on low-level regurgitative content but never really studied the subject matter. Sanchez's pre-game preparation seems disturbingly familiar. Whatever Sparano and Ryan are doing during the week is not getting Sanchez fully ready for Sunday and Sanchez is encountering what he's not anticipating and vice-versa. That's not on the player. That's on coaching. Smart math and science educators are supposed to properly prepare students for exams that use and apply course content, not just present the "lectureable" content. Smart football coaches need to properly prepare players, especially quarterbacks and receivers, with real game situations, not just situations that simulate basic mechanics of a play. In other words, instead of avoiding what could go wrong, build coaching and preparation around everything that could go wrong and see how plays can still succeed. Rex Ryan keep claiming Sanchez gives the Jets the best chance to win, but how can Sanchez win if he continuously thrown to the wolves without tools to ward off predators?
Yes, if I owned the Jets, Rex would be fired effective 9:00am Tuesday morning, along with Tony Sparano, and Tim Tebow would either be traded or unconditionally waived. I'd hand the head coaching duties to Mike Westhoff, yesterday's special teams debacles notwithstanding, elevate Matt Cavanaugh to offensive coordinator, advise my assistant coaches to pool together and fix our offensive line and defensive issues, and tell Mark Sanchez to go play quarterback, worry about making the best of plays instead of avoiding the worst, and stop looking over his shoulder.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Friday, October 26, 2012
I’LL TAKE MY SPORTS WITHOUT THE HYPERBOLE, THANK YOU -- Doc's Bark for October 27, 2012
Dear sports fans --
I have something difficult to tell you, although by the end of this column you will understand why I feel compelled to tell you some harsh reality at the very start of things.
The world isn’t as you imagine or expect it to be.
There’s no Santa Claus.
There’s no Easter Bunny.
There’s no Messiah.
There’s no Utopia waiting for us across the Great Beyond.
There isn’t even a Great Beyond.
I, the ultimate party-pooper, must tell you some harsh reality so you can accept less esoteric truths:
Over the past couple of weeks, baseball and football fans have suffered shocks to their collective systems as Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter broke an ankle during the ALCS and Baltimore Ravens middle linebacker Ray Lewis tore a triceps muscle. In both cases, the injuries were season-ending and their teams had a difficulty adjusting to losing their leader. The Yankees, already down two games to none against the Detroit Tigers, ultimately bowed out in a four-game sweep, meekly surrendering to a weaker opponent en route to the World Series. The Ravens limped into Houston, only to be blasted by the Texans, 43-13. For the Yankees, they now enter a long winter of discontent, regrets, and wound licking before starting 2013 anew in Spring Training. For the now 5-2 Ravens, they have one week to recover from a rude butt-kicking and get ready for their remaining nine regular season games and a playoff race.
While it’s sad, stunning and demoralizing to lose in such dominating fashion, everyone needs to remember that games are always won or lost, and sometimes we must play games without special leaders. Why? Just like winning and losing are a part of sports, so, unfortunately, are injuries, and the older we get, the more vulnerable we all are to injuries and breaking down. Contrary to whatever mantra Joan Rivers lives by, aging is not meant to be graceful, and even the best players’ bodies break down at age 37-38. Derek Jeter was the Yankees shortstop and captain for 17 years; a major injury at the worst possible time was bound to happen. Same thing with Ray Lewis. You can’t expect someone to play middle linebacker in a high-collision sport for 17 years without all those collisions catching up.
The Yankees were already having a bad series against the Tigers, so it’s possible Jeter staying healthy might not have prevented the inevitable. The Yankees weren’t hitting their weight and were helpless against Detroit pitchers. Surprise, surprise... As the Yankees played worse, the home fans booed them. However, this booing was going on before Jeter busted his ankle, so it’s hard to tell which really did in the Yankees: Jeter’s injury or angry words coming from the half-empty bleachers at the new stadium on 161st Street.
Here’s a novel thought: maybe Detroit was meant to win the series and American League pennant?! The Tigers certainly had more dominant pitching and were peaking coming into October, as opposed to staggering, like the Yankees. Contrary to popular theory, the World Series is no longer the Yankees birthright. Since winning their fourth of five World Series in 2000, a five-game Subway Series against the Bobby Valentine Mets, the Yankees have made the post-season 11 of 12 seasons since, winning three pennants (2001, 2003, 2009) and one World Series (2009). Granted, that’s not of Steinbrenner standards, but that’s still pretty good compared to the rival Boston Red Sox (2 pennants and 2 World Series titles, 2004 and 2007). The Tigers (2006, 2012) and Texas Rangers (2010, 2011) will each appear in two World Series, the California Angels have appeared once (winning in 2002), as did the Chicago White Sox (winning in 2005) and Tampa Bay Rays (2008).
There’s a little more “dominance” in the National League, as the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants have appeared in three World Series during this century. The Cards lost in 2004, and won in 2006 and 2011. The Giants lost in 2002 but won in 2010, and are now favored to win a second title this fall. The Philadelphia Phillies have appeared in two World Series, winning in 2008, losing in 2009. The Arizona Diamondbacks (wining in 2001), Florida Marlins (winning in 2003), Houston Astros (2005) and Colorado Rockies (2007) all appeared in one World Series.
More importantly, Yankee fans, your team, despite winning 95 regular season games, displayed a boom or bust lineup all season long. An aging team to begin with, Yankee hitters typically either hit home runs or failed to sustain anything with runners in scoring position. The chronic inability to play small ball eventually catches up with you when the weather gets chillier and the pitchers are more from the cream of the crop as opposed to journeymen holding up the back ends of starting rotations. Face it... You can’t win titles living off 12-9 games against the Minnesota Twins. The AL East is becoming more balanced and competitive, and the Yankees need to figure out ways to keep up with the Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays without stocking the batting order with overpriced players whose home run totals match their ages.
By the way, I don’t know how you all feel, but I’m actually excited to see a World Series between the Tigers and Giants, two charter members of their respective leagues with a total of 33 pennants between them (22 for San Francisco, 11 for Detroit). When you think about it, it’s amazing these teams have never met before in the Fall Classic.
The Ravens loss of Ray Lewis hurts, but is a 17-year veteran’s loss more impactful than when he was in his prime? Lewis may be among the best middle linebackers in today’s NFL, but he’s not the game-changer he was in 2000 when the Ravens defense carried everyone on its back to a Super Bowl title. In fact, the public tributes to Lewis following news of his season-ending injury were perhaps over-the-top. Yes, I admit to being an old-school, middle-aged fuddy-duddy, but I also have a broader perspective on Lewis’ place among middle linebackers in NFL history. Is Lewis among my top-ten? No doubt about it. Do I rank him as the best of all-time? No, I don’t. In fact, it’s a close call in my mind whether Lewis makes my top five.
Hands-down, without a doubt, the best middle linebacker in NFL history is Dick Butkus, and I dare anyone to tell Mr. Butkus differently. Number two is the late Ray Nitschke, and number three is Jack Lambert. All three, including Nitschke’s ghost, sufficiently scare me, and Butkus is six weeks short of his 70th birthday. Ray Lewis is a pussycat by comparison.
But there are other middle linebackers Ray Lewis may not be superior to, such as Willie Lanier, Sam Huff, and Chuck Bednarik. Harry Carson was no slouch whether the New York Giants played a 4-3 defense or a 3-4. Neither were Nick Buoniconti, Tommy Nobis, Mike Singletary, Bill Bergey, Maxie Baughan, Lee Roy Jordan, or Joe Schmidt.
My advice to all those who need to make all-time lists while players are still active: leave the active players alone and let them play their sport. There will be plenty of time to debate their place in history after they retire and we can compare them to other retired greats.
The same argument applies to New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, who recently threw a touchdown pass for the 48th consecutive game, breaking a record that stood since 1960, 47 games by Johnny Unitas. Even in today’s pass-happy NFL, throwing a touchdown pass for 48 consecutive games, the equivalent of 3 regular seasons, is an impressive feat, but again, over-the-top accolades by NBC’s Sunday Night Football analyst Cris Collinsworth bordered on the ridiculous. Comparing the context of the feats (length of season, number of passes thrown, etc.) is one thing. Comparing the career paths of Brees and Unitas is another, and Collinsworth went overboard.
There’s simply no comparison. Brees was a second round pick by the San Diego Chargers (32nd overall) in the 2001 draft, started 58 regular season games (won-loss record 30-28) and one playoff loss in 2004, was cut after major shoulder injury at the end of the 2005 season, signed as a free agent by Saints in 2006, and has started 101 regular season games to date (won-loss record 64-37) as well as eight post-season games (won-loss record 5-3), winning a Super Bowl to cap off the 2009 season.
Johnny Unitas was a ninth round pick by Steelers (102nd overall) in 1955 draft, cut in training camp, played semi-pro ball in 1955, signed by then-Baltimore Colts in 1956, played 17 years as their quarterback (won-loss record 117-64-4), led them to NFL titles in 1958 and 1959, a Super Bowl title in 1970 and postseason appearances in 1964, 1965, 1968 and 1971, was a four-time NFL MVP (1957, 1959, 1964, 1967), three-time Player of the Year (1959, 1964, 1967) and Man of the Year (1970), and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1979. Nearly forty years after his retirement, Unitas ranks 17th in career passes thrown, 22nd in career passes completed, 14th in career passing yardage, and ninth in career passing touchdowns — not bad for a guy whose career per game averages were 24.6 pass attempts, 13.4 completions (54.6%), 190.7 yards, resulting in a touchdown pass approximately every 18 pass attempts.
In 26 fewer career starts, Brees has 566 more pass attempts, 949 more completions, 2,600 more yards, nine more touchdowns — because he plays in an era and offensive scheme allowing him to throw 36 passes per game (42.5 during the past three seasons) at a 65.7% completion rate, resulting in a touchdown pass for every 19.23 pass attempts. Maybe Brees and Unitas are statistically comparable, but Unitas’ statistics are more remarkable because of the less pass-happy offensive game plans of his era. Besides, Brees was never tossed onto any scrapheap until he had a full chance in San Diego and suffered a career-threatening injury. He was very much a known quantity. Coming to the Saints, off their 3-13 Katrina-ravaged season, was a great opportunity for mutual comebacks.
Unitas, on the other hand, was the NFL’s best-kept secret in 1955. He couldn’t make the Steelers roster after rookie camp, and they finished 5-7 in 1954 and 4-8 in 1955. The Colts took a chance on him after their own 5-6-1 season. The resurgence of Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints is a great story, but it’s far from the unheralded rags-to-riches story of Johnny Unitas. In fact, if it wasn’t for Johnny Unitas and his memorable performance in the 1958 NFL title game, we may never have the NFL of today, much less Drew Brees’ compilation of statistics.
On a smaller scale, Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News recently wrote that this current New York Giants regime, with Eli Manning at quarterback, is the best time to be a die-hard Giants fan. Well, maybe yes and maybe no... I’m sure some Giants fans who remember the 1980s when Bill Parcells coached Phil Simms, or the 1950s and 1960s when the Giants played in six NFL title games under head coaches Jim Lee Howell (and assistant coaches Tom Landry and Vince Lombardi) as well as Allie Sherman, and were quarterbacked by Charlie Connerly and Y.A. Tittle, might differ in opinion. Not to take anything away from Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning, but two Super Bowl titles (2007 and 2011) in eight years is wonderful but not as dominant as some remember approximately 25 years ago and even 50 years ago. Just saying... Today doesn’t make yesteryear chopped liver.
As most readers know, I love sports history and trivia. I love facts and statistics, especially when sports connects recent events with those from long ago. First case in point, when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost at home last Sunday, 35-28 to the New Orleans Saints, it turns out that the Bucs (wearing those proud creamsicle uniforms, by the way) because the first team since 1998 to score at least 28 points, pile up more than 500 yards of total offense, commit zero turnovers, and lose. Okay... So why not tell folks about the rest of the story?
We take you back to Thanksgiving Day 1998, November 26th, Minnesota Vikings at the Dallas Cowboys. National television. John Madden and the post-game Turducken, and an offensive explosion as the Vikings won 46-36. The Cowboys offense was impressive, rolling up 513 yards, 32 first downs, and couldn’t keep up with a record-setting quick-strike Vikings offense that rolled up 471 yards and 21 first downs of their own. The star of the game? Then-rookie wide receiver Randy Moss (boy, have we all gotten old!), who caught a mere three passes for 163 yards and touchdowns on all three receptions — one for 51 yards, and two each at 56 yards, all from Randall Cunningham, who completed 17 of 35 passes for 359 yards, 4 touchdowns and 1 interception. Highly relevant to later in this column, notice that Cunningham completed less than 50 percent of his passes that day, a day where the Vikings rang up 46 points and scored six touchdowns, five covering fifty yards of longer.
Second case in point, consider that Indianapolis Colts rookie quarterback Andrew Luck rushed for two touchdowns in last Sunday’s 17-13 home win over the Cleveland Browns. Quarterbacks rushing for touchdowns isn’t that remarkable; even rushing for two touchdowns in a single game isn’t remarkable. Michael Vick did it. Cam Newton did too. We might find that Brett Favre, Randall Cunningham, Jim McMahon and a few other quarterbacks scored a couple of rushing touchdowns during a game too.
Ah, but this was a feat by an Indianapolis Colts quarterback, and apparently something not accomplished during the Peyton manning era. Okay... So the Associated Press reports that Luck accomplished something no other Colts quarterback has done since 1988. Yeah, and?!
That’s it... 1988. End of story. Are you kidding me?! You toss out that the Colts quarterback does something that hasn’t been done in 24 years, and leave the story like that? How is this helpful to your average sports fan and newspaper reader?
Well, as a public service, I give you the rest of the story... December 4, 1988. Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami. Colts at Dolphins. Final score: Colts, 31, Dolphins 28. The Colts quarterback who scored two rushing touchdowns? Ricky Turner, number 12 in your programs (ironically Andrew Luck’s uniform number). Interestingly, Turner wasn’t even the Colts starting quarterback. Nope... One might’ve called him Tim Tebow before there ever was a Tim Tebow (FYI: Tim Tebow was born in 1987), because the Colts starting quarterback in 1988 was Chris Chandler. Turner was briefly the Colts goal-line quarterback, rushing 4 times for 4 yards in that game against Miami. On two of those runs, one in the second quarter and one in the third, Turner scored from the one-yard line. How Turner fit into the grand scheme of things for the Colts is a mystery. He never threw a pass during the Miami game, and only threw a total of four passes in the four games he appeared in, completing three for 92 yards (37 on one completion), with zero touchdowns or interceptions. Ironically, Chandler rushed 46 times for 139 yards and 3 TDs during 13 starts for the 1988 season, compiling a 9-4 record.
So that brings us to Tim Tebow, or more specifically, the circus known as the New York Jets and their quarterback situation. I’m going to try and keep things as simple as possible for this discussion. I’ve been on the record for the past three years, saying that Tebow is not physically “constructed” to be an NFL quarterback; he’s much better suited to be a fullback, H-back or tight end. If I’ve been saying this about Tebow’s physique since 2009, why would I change my view in 2012 when he’s now at least 15 LBS heavier and bulkier? Again, he’s better suited for an offensive position other than quarterback and if the Jets expect to use him effectively this season, they need to start putting him in he backfield with Shonn Greene and either Bilal Powell or Joe McKnight, behind the correct starting quarterback, Mark Sanchez.
For all fans and members of the media begging for Tebow at quarterback, as if the Walter Mitty miracles of the 2011 Denver Broncos will absolutely happen again this year for the Jets, STOP IT! You’re trying to inspire a controversy that should never exist. The Jets need a passing attack if they expect to put serious points on the scoreboard and be more than a .500 team this year, and Tebow is not the one to drive that passing attack. Believe it or not, securely strapped into my wheelchair, I can throw a 20-yard spiral while seated. Does that mean I should be the Jets starting quarterback? No, and neither should Tebow. The Jets rolled the dice on the fifth pick of the 2009 draft and chose Sanchez. He’s now in his fourth season and it’s either the time to honor the commitment to Sanchez and let him really be a quarterback, or scrap the entire roster and start all over, because Tebow cannot lead this offense operating in a legitimate NFL scheme.
Think about it... Tebow played collegiately for the University of Florida. Since the 1960s, the Gainesville Gatos have been quarterbacked by the likes of Steve Spurrier, John Reeves, Kerwin Bell, Shane Matthews Danny Wuerffel, and Rex Grossman. Despite three Heisman trophy winners and three national titles, none of these guys turned out to be NFL material, so for those who look at Tebow as something special, he’s not as a quarterback and doesn’t even have the collegiate pedigree except for winning, and as anyone truly familiar with life in the NFL knows, one could lose more games during their rookie season in the NFL than all the combined losses in four years of college. In fact, I’ll go as far as saying that coming from a national powerhouse college program could be a disadvantage for some NFL quarterbacks. Ask Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton. He’s having a very difficult time accepting how hard it is to win in the NFL playing for a rebuilding team, and it’s painfully clear that he’s no longer playing at Auburn where he not only won the Heisman, but the national title as well.
For my money, despite his surliness and satirical personality, I’ll take Chicago Bears quarterback Jake Cutler over Tebow and the rest of the Southeast Conference trophy boys. Cutler also played in the SEC during college, but at Vanderbilt, and those Commodores were not as successful as the Motown group. Cutler played on losing teams to the tune of 11-35 during his four-year career as a starter, but he led the entire conference in passing during the 2005 season and owns several school and conference passing records. Sometimes you need to understand and appreciate losing in order to understand and appreciate winning, which Cutler does with the Bears.
Hey... You don’t suppose that for all the losing we did at Temple during the early 1980s, I might’ve been hall-of-fame material after all and not known it, do you? Stop snickering... I can wonder about these things in my advancing age!
Okay, let’s take a brief critical look at the Jets quarterbacking situation and offensive game plan. Both are dysfunctional and the blame lies squarely on the heads of head coach Rex Ryan and offensive coordinator Tony Sparano. As we all know, Rex Ryan is the personification of hyperbole, shooting off his mouth when he’d be better served keeping it closed. For instance, before last Sunday’s 29-26 overtime loss at New England, good ol’ Rex basically said the Patriots knew the Jets were coming into their backyard to beat them. REALLY?! Wow, what a relief... If Rex hadn’t said something to the local media, I could’ve sworn the Jets were hell-bent on visiting Foxborough with full intent on losing in a rout, so it’s a good thing Rex enlightens us with bluster of the obvious.
Remember Herm Edwards when he coached the Jets? Almost ten years ago, to the date, good ol’ Herm blurted out his rallying cry of You play to win the game! Amazing! Isn’t that deeply profound?! For all these years I thought you played to get your uniform dirty. What was I thinking?! Ten years of getting my ass kicked all over fields across the nation, and it never occurred to me that winning was supposed to be my objective. Maybe if I had my priority straight, Temple University would’ve been a powerhouse 30 years ago, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers would’ve been monsters despite those silly creamsicle uniforms? I know coaches are smarter than they look, but sometimes they say stuff that makes you scratch your head.
Rex Ryan’s biggest problem is not that he’s a defensive-minded coach, or that he loves “Ground and Pound”, or that he gets the willies every time Sanchez drops back to pass... It’s that he still fails to comprehend the big picture of how a football team is supposed to function and how a game strategy is supposed to be carried out. Does it matter that Tebow only plays ten percent of the offensive snaps, or that Tebow and Sanchez are rarely on the field together, or that the Jets run too much on first down and pass too much on third down? No! It matters that Ryan and Sparano don’t have enough feel for the game to know when a first or second-down pass is the right call at the right time, or when a run play on third and long is just what’s needed. Critics within the media wonder if Ryan coached scared during the final two minutes on Sunday. Ryan took offense to it and scoffed that anyone thinking he coached scared never played the game.
Rex, news flash: You never suited up to play in an NFL training camp. I have, which gives me the apparent right to question you. You may not be coaching scared, but you’re not necessarily coaching to win, either. Why? Because you don’t coach by feel, intuition or any level of analytical thinking. You still think you’re watching game film of your dad’s 1985 Bears defense, and that defensive group is still back in 1985 Chicago, not 2012 Florham Park. Second, you don’t think about the game for a full 60 minutes, and it shows in the team’s performance. It’s very rare when the Jets play a solid and complete 60-minute game, especially on defense. When the Jets needed to stop the Patriots on their two-minute drill, they failed and a game that should’ve been won ended up going into overtime to be lost. Unlike others, I can live with these breakdowns. Team rosters are thin in terms of talent and depth, and it’s no longer easy to dominate an opponent from start to finish. I remember many games during my playing days where we weren’t even competitive after the national anthem, so I can appreciate how difficult it is for reality to match your fantasy of going 19-0, winning every game 52-0 and collecting Super Bowl trophies and rings for Bill Belichick to kiss year after year.
But what concerns me the most, Rex, is that you’re only willing to second-guess your play calls and personnel decisions in the event you lost a game. Every time the Jets win, you’re all boast and bluster, and no matter how unimpressive the final statistics might look, you’re willing to take the win and tell everyone who will listen how great the team was. That’s all fine and dandy, but your team has had its share of unimpressive wins, and quite frankly, you should be more willing to second-guess even decisions that worked. Maybe that’s the scientist in me, because I second-guess everything, whether it works or not, and if if something works, I’m more interested in figuring out how I could sabotage it, giving me a new opportunity to learn and create a successful situation. You see, if you listened to me last fall and bought and read a copy of Philosophy of “Packer” pedagogy, you’d understand what I’m talking about and take more interest in deconstructing and reconstructing your playbook every game, win or lose. Yes, we know the Jets are 35-26 so far, including postseason, during your tenure, so it’s clear you’re doing a pretty good job, but for a man who talks incessantly about Super Bowls, perhaps 35-26 might indicate that you’re not getting the best out of yourself and your coaching staff because you don’t see professional football as holistically as you should.
Folks laugh at Ryan’s mantra of “Ground and Pound” -- the NFL is a quarterback-oriented league with passing, passing and more passing — and yet, every team, with the exception of the Ravens, Bengals, Lions, Browns, Falcons (the NFL’s lone unbeaten team) and Raiders, has rushed for at least 145 yards once this season, and the Redskins, Patriots, 49ers, Chiefs Bills, Texans, Giants, Jets, Bears, Dolphins, Panthers and Cowboys have topped 200 yards rushing at least once... and the Redskins, Patriots, 49ers, Chiefs and Bills have topped 200 yards rushing twice (the 49ers even topped 300 yards once). What does this tell you? The NFL is a game of offensive balance, and teams are more committed to running the ball, thus controlling the line of scrimmage, field position and time of possession than the average fan or members of the media realize.
But no one illustrates Rex Ryan’s deficiencies as a head coach more than Mark Sanchez. Is he a classic quarterback? Not really. Is he mature enough at this stage of his career? Not really. Does he have the physical and intellectual tools necessary to be a solid, championship-caliber quarterback? Yes, he does. The key thing to keep in mind is that Sanchez is still very young and has so much more to learn and so much more growing ahead of himself.
Fans and media members have been calling for his head and begging for Tebow. STOP IT! We already know Tebow can’t physically play the position as well as Sanchez and he definitely ranks worse statistically than Sanchez, so we really need to give it a rest and let Sanchez play. If his stats suffer at times, so be it. He wouldn’t be the first quarterback to succeed with less-than-stellar statistics.
Frankly, I’m tired of people killing Sanchez over his statistics. In the Jets 35-9 week 6 win against the Colts, Sanchez completed 11 of 18 passes for 82 yards and 2 touchdowns, good enough for a 109 QB rating (FYI, the Jets are 9-2 when Sanchez’s QB rating is at least 100.0). On the other hand, in Sunday’s loss to the Patriots, he completed 28 of 41 passes for 328 yards, throwing one touchdown and one interception, and was sacked 4 times. His QB rating was 90.3; the Jets lost. Overall, he’s completing 53.2 percent of his passes with a QB rating of 74.6. Do you folks really want to bench him for Tebow?
Well, if we’re going to bench Sanchez on the basis of his stats and the Jets 3-4 record, let’s take a look at a few other NFL quarterback performances during the first half of the 2012 season:
Andrew Luck of the Colts completed less than 53 percent of his passes in three of his first six games, threw 3 interceptions in a week 1 loss to the Bears and 2 interceptions in a week 6 loss to the Jets. He’s been sacked 16 times already.
Tom Brady of the Patriots completed 26 of 42 passes for only 259 yards against the Jets in week 7. He’s already been sacked 14 times.
Michael Vick of the Eagles has already thrown 8 interceptions, committed 9 fumbles and been sacked 17 times.
Andrew Dalton of the Bengals has already thrown 10 interceptions and been sacked 17 times.
Matt Ryan of the Falcons threw 3 interceptions in a sloppy week 6 win over the Raiders.
Alex Smith of the 49ers completed 19 of 30 passes for 200 yards with 3 interceptions and 6 sacks in a week 6 loss to the Giants.
Eli Manning of the Giants threw 3 interceptions in a week 2 win over the Buccaneers and 2 more in a week 7 win over the Redskins.
Joe Flacco of the Ravens has completed less than 53 percent of his passes in three games and has been sacked 18 times.
Tony Romo of the Cowboys tossed 5 interceptions in a week 4 loss against the Bears.
Ryan Fitzpatrick tossed 4 interceptions in a week 4 loss to the Patriots, among a season total of 9.
Question #1: Should any of these quarterbacks be benched, based on their recent statistics?
Question #2: Why should Sanchez be benched for comparable statistics?
If you can honestly answer those two questions, then you understand what I’ve understood since March: Tim Tebow has no business playing quarterback for the New York Jets, it was a colossal mistake for the Jets to trade for him, the coaching staff either has no cohesive idea of what to do with him, or they refuse to make a definitive decision on his role. Worst of all, it’s become more and more apparent that Tim Tebow forced himself on the New York Jets, taking advantage of team ownership and management for reasons less than pure or legitimately football-related. But the damage has been done, so if the Jets don’t want to be the laughingstock of all time, Rex needs to figure out a way to line Tebow behind Sanchez in the backfield, keep things that way, let Sanchez play quarterback, mature and develop under offensive coaches who have a real vision of how an offense should work, and stay the hell out of the way.
Oh... And could we stop all this idiotic trash talk with every opponent leading up to games?! For a coach who poured his soul to the media after last season, claiming he finally “gets it” and realized he perpetually put a bulls-eye on the backs of players who couldn’t always cash the checks his mouth wrote, he keeps doing the same damned thing week after week, and his defensive players follow suit. Shut up, buckle up the chip straps, and give fans three straight weeks of 60 minutes, championship-quality defense... THEN you can shoot your mouths off to your hearts content.
Keep in mind, the regular season is only 7 weeks old and 17 of the league’s 32 teams have records of .500 or within one game above or below.
Despite a 16-week regular season, there’s still a lot of football season left and very few team’s seasons are in a state of major crisis, necessitating a quarterback change, and this includes the New York Jets.
Kudos to the NFL for switching to pink penalty flags this weekend in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, courtesy of a suggestion by 11-year-old Dante Cano from Marlboro, New Jersey.
And, finally, from the “it’s about damned time” department, the Jets finally get around to retiring the number 90 this Sunday, worn by Dennis Byrd, whose career ended in 1992 after he was paralyzed by a inadvertent collision with a teammate during a game against the Chiefs. Byrd, able to walk again, albeit with difficulty, and living in his native Oklahoma, is one of the Jets most inspirational players in team history, and it’s incredibly long-overdue that his jersey be formally retired. As much as I’ve loved and been loyal to my Jets since 1967, this franchise has a lousy track record of honoring former players in a timely fashion. Perhaps the 2012 version of Dennis Byrd Day will be a sign that owner Woody Johnson truly cares about this team’s legacy beyond revenue and profits.
I have something difficult to tell you, although by the end of this column you will understand why I feel compelled to tell you some harsh reality at the very start of things.
The world isn’t as you imagine or expect it to be.
There’s no Santa Claus.
There’s no Easter Bunny.
There’s no Messiah.
There’s no Utopia waiting for us across the Great Beyond.
There isn’t even a Great Beyond.
I, the ultimate party-pooper, must tell you some harsh reality so you can accept less esoteric truths:
- The New York Yankees aren’t destined to win the World Series every year.
- Sometimes your team’s opponent IS the better team and deserved to win.
- Breaking a long-standing sports record doesn’t make you greater than the previous record-holder.
- If a sports feat hasn’t happened in many years, fans may actually want to know more relevant facts than when it last occurred.
- People don’t really respect others who spread controversial stories for the sake of it.
- Even the greatest of sports stars break down after age 35.
- Your favorite team may never win a championship during your lifetime.
- The home fans don’t always love their own team or players.
- A strong running game is still necessary in order to win consistently in the NFL.
- There is no such thing as the ideal prototypical NFL quarterback.
- It will never be “Tebow Time” with the New York Jets.
- Sports fans get too carried away about things.
Over the past couple of weeks, baseball and football fans have suffered shocks to their collective systems as Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter broke an ankle during the ALCS and Baltimore Ravens middle linebacker Ray Lewis tore a triceps muscle. In both cases, the injuries were season-ending and their teams had a difficulty adjusting to losing their leader. The Yankees, already down two games to none against the Detroit Tigers, ultimately bowed out in a four-game sweep, meekly surrendering to a weaker opponent en route to the World Series. The Ravens limped into Houston, only to be blasted by the Texans, 43-13. For the Yankees, they now enter a long winter of discontent, regrets, and wound licking before starting 2013 anew in Spring Training. For the now 5-2 Ravens, they have one week to recover from a rude butt-kicking and get ready for their remaining nine regular season games and a playoff race.
While it’s sad, stunning and demoralizing to lose in such dominating fashion, everyone needs to remember that games are always won or lost, and sometimes we must play games without special leaders. Why? Just like winning and losing are a part of sports, so, unfortunately, are injuries, and the older we get, the more vulnerable we all are to injuries and breaking down. Contrary to whatever mantra Joan Rivers lives by, aging is not meant to be graceful, and even the best players’ bodies break down at age 37-38. Derek Jeter was the Yankees shortstop and captain for 17 years; a major injury at the worst possible time was bound to happen. Same thing with Ray Lewis. You can’t expect someone to play middle linebacker in a high-collision sport for 17 years without all those collisions catching up.
The Yankees were already having a bad series against the Tigers, so it’s possible Jeter staying healthy might not have prevented the inevitable. The Yankees weren’t hitting their weight and were helpless against Detroit pitchers. Surprise, surprise... As the Yankees played worse, the home fans booed them. However, this booing was going on before Jeter busted his ankle, so it’s hard to tell which really did in the Yankees: Jeter’s injury or angry words coming from the half-empty bleachers at the new stadium on 161st Street.
Here’s a novel thought: maybe Detroit was meant to win the series and American League pennant?! The Tigers certainly had more dominant pitching and were peaking coming into October, as opposed to staggering, like the Yankees. Contrary to popular theory, the World Series is no longer the Yankees birthright. Since winning their fourth of five World Series in 2000, a five-game Subway Series against the Bobby Valentine Mets, the Yankees have made the post-season 11 of 12 seasons since, winning three pennants (2001, 2003, 2009) and one World Series (2009). Granted, that’s not of Steinbrenner standards, but that’s still pretty good compared to the rival Boston Red Sox (2 pennants and 2 World Series titles, 2004 and 2007). The Tigers (2006, 2012) and Texas Rangers (2010, 2011) will each appear in two World Series, the California Angels have appeared once (winning in 2002), as did the Chicago White Sox (winning in 2005) and Tampa Bay Rays (2008).
There’s a little more “dominance” in the National League, as the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants have appeared in three World Series during this century. The Cards lost in 2004, and won in 2006 and 2011. The Giants lost in 2002 but won in 2010, and are now favored to win a second title this fall. The Philadelphia Phillies have appeared in two World Series, winning in 2008, losing in 2009. The Arizona Diamondbacks (wining in 2001), Florida Marlins (winning in 2003), Houston Astros (2005) and Colorado Rockies (2007) all appeared in one World Series.
More importantly, Yankee fans, your team, despite winning 95 regular season games, displayed a boom or bust lineup all season long. An aging team to begin with, Yankee hitters typically either hit home runs or failed to sustain anything with runners in scoring position. The chronic inability to play small ball eventually catches up with you when the weather gets chillier and the pitchers are more from the cream of the crop as opposed to journeymen holding up the back ends of starting rotations. Face it... You can’t win titles living off 12-9 games against the Minnesota Twins. The AL East is becoming more balanced and competitive, and the Yankees need to figure out ways to keep up with the Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays without stocking the batting order with overpriced players whose home run totals match their ages.
By the way, I don’t know how you all feel, but I’m actually excited to see a World Series between the Tigers and Giants, two charter members of their respective leagues with a total of 33 pennants between them (22 for San Francisco, 11 for Detroit). When you think about it, it’s amazing these teams have never met before in the Fall Classic.
The Ravens loss of Ray Lewis hurts, but is a 17-year veteran’s loss more impactful than when he was in his prime? Lewis may be among the best middle linebackers in today’s NFL, but he’s not the game-changer he was in 2000 when the Ravens defense carried everyone on its back to a Super Bowl title. In fact, the public tributes to Lewis following news of his season-ending injury were perhaps over-the-top. Yes, I admit to being an old-school, middle-aged fuddy-duddy, but I also have a broader perspective on Lewis’ place among middle linebackers in NFL history. Is Lewis among my top-ten? No doubt about it. Do I rank him as the best of all-time? No, I don’t. In fact, it’s a close call in my mind whether Lewis makes my top five.
Hands-down, without a doubt, the best middle linebacker in NFL history is Dick Butkus, and I dare anyone to tell Mr. Butkus differently. Number two is the late Ray Nitschke, and number three is Jack Lambert. All three, including Nitschke’s ghost, sufficiently scare me, and Butkus is six weeks short of his 70th birthday. Ray Lewis is a pussycat by comparison.
But there are other middle linebackers Ray Lewis may not be superior to, such as Willie Lanier, Sam Huff, and Chuck Bednarik. Harry Carson was no slouch whether the New York Giants played a 4-3 defense or a 3-4. Neither were Nick Buoniconti, Tommy Nobis, Mike Singletary, Bill Bergey, Maxie Baughan, Lee Roy Jordan, or Joe Schmidt.
My advice to all those who need to make all-time lists while players are still active: leave the active players alone and let them play their sport. There will be plenty of time to debate their place in history after they retire and we can compare them to other retired greats.
The same argument applies to New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, who recently threw a touchdown pass for the 48th consecutive game, breaking a record that stood since 1960, 47 games by Johnny Unitas. Even in today’s pass-happy NFL, throwing a touchdown pass for 48 consecutive games, the equivalent of 3 regular seasons, is an impressive feat, but again, over-the-top accolades by NBC’s Sunday Night Football analyst Cris Collinsworth bordered on the ridiculous. Comparing the context of the feats (length of season, number of passes thrown, etc.) is one thing. Comparing the career paths of Brees and Unitas is another, and Collinsworth went overboard.
There’s simply no comparison. Brees was a second round pick by the San Diego Chargers (32nd overall) in the 2001 draft, started 58 regular season games (won-loss record 30-28) and one playoff loss in 2004, was cut after major shoulder injury at the end of the 2005 season, signed as a free agent by Saints in 2006, and has started 101 regular season games to date (won-loss record 64-37) as well as eight post-season games (won-loss record 5-3), winning a Super Bowl to cap off the 2009 season.
Johnny Unitas was a ninth round pick by Steelers (102nd overall) in 1955 draft, cut in training camp, played semi-pro ball in 1955, signed by then-Baltimore Colts in 1956, played 17 years as their quarterback (won-loss record 117-64-4), led them to NFL titles in 1958 and 1959, a Super Bowl title in 1970 and postseason appearances in 1964, 1965, 1968 and 1971, was a four-time NFL MVP (1957, 1959, 1964, 1967), three-time Player of the Year (1959, 1964, 1967) and Man of the Year (1970), and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1979. Nearly forty years after his retirement, Unitas ranks 17th in career passes thrown, 22nd in career passes completed, 14th in career passing yardage, and ninth in career passing touchdowns — not bad for a guy whose career per game averages were 24.6 pass attempts, 13.4 completions (54.6%), 190.7 yards, resulting in a touchdown pass approximately every 18 pass attempts.
In 26 fewer career starts, Brees has 566 more pass attempts, 949 more completions, 2,600 more yards, nine more touchdowns — because he plays in an era and offensive scheme allowing him to throw 36 passes per game (42.5 during the past three seasons) at a 65.7% completion rate, resulting in a touchdown pass for every 19.23 pass attempts. Maybe Brees and Unitas are statistically comparable, but Unitas’ statistics are more remarkable because of the less pass-happy offensive game plans of his era. Besides, Brees was never tossed onto any scrapheap until he had a full chance in San Diego and suffered a career-threatening injury. He was very much a known quantity. Coming to the Saints, off their 3-13 Katrina-ravaged season, was a great opportunity for mutual comebacks.
Unitas, on the other hand, was the NFL’s best-kept secret in 1955. He couldn’t make the Steelers roster after rookie camp, and they finished 5-7 in 1954 and 4-8 in 1955. The Colts took a chance on him after their own 5-6-1 season. The resurgence of Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints is a great story, but it’s far from the unheralded rags-to-riches story of Johnny Unitas. In fact, if it wasn’t for Johnny Unitas and his memorable performance in the 1958 NFL title game, we may never have the NFL of today, much less Drew Brees’ compilation of statistics.
On a smaller scale, Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News recently wrote that this current New York Giants regime, with Eli Manning at quarterback, is the best time to be a die-hard Giants fan. Well, maybe yes and maybe no... I’m sure some Giants fans who remember the 1980s when Bill Parcells coached Phil Simms, or the 1950s and 1960s when the Giants played in six NFL title games under head coaches Jim Lee Howell (and assistant coaches Tom Landry and Vince Lombardi) as well as Allie Sherman, and were quarterbacked by Charlie Connerly and Y.A. Tittle, might differ in opinion. Not to take anything away from Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning, but two Super Bowl titles (2007 and 2011) in eight years is wonderful but not as dominant as some remember approximately 25 years ago and even 50 years ago. Just saying... Today doesn’t make yesteryear chopped liver.
As most readers know, I love sports history and trivia. I love facts and statistics, especially when sports connects recent events with those from long ago. First case in point, when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost at home last Sunday, 35-28 to the New Orleans Saints, it turns out that the Bucs (wearing those proud creamsicle uniforms, by the way) because the first team since 1998 to score at least 28 points, pile up more than 500 yards of total offense, commit zero turnovers, and lose. Okay... So why not tell folks about the rest of the story?
We take you back to Thanksgiving Day 1998, November 26th, Minnesota Vikings at the Dallas Cowboys. National television. John Madden and the post-game Turducken, and an offensive explosion as the Vikings won 46-36. The Cowboys offense was impressive, rolling up 513 yards, 32 first downs, and couldn’t keep up with a record-setting quick-strike Vikings offense that rolled up 471 yards and 21 first downs of their own. The star of the game? Then-rookie wide receiver Randy Moss (boy, have we all gotten old!), who caught a mere three passes for 163 yards and touchdowns on all three receptions — one for 51 yards, and two each at 56 yards, all from Randall Cunningham, who completed 17 of 35 passes for 359 yards, 4 touchdowns and 1 interception. Highly relevant to later in this column, notice that Cunningham completed less than 50 percent of his passes that day, a day where the Vikings rang up 46 points and scored six touchdowns, five covering fifty yards of longer.
Second case in point, consider that Indianapolis Colts rookie quarterback Andrew Luck rushed for two touchdowns in last Sunday’s 17-13 home win over the Cleveland Browns. Quarterbacks rushing for touchdowns isn’t that remarkable; even rushing for two touchdowns in a single game isn’t remarkable. Michael Vick did it. Cam Newton did too. We might find that Brett Favre, Randall Cunningham, Jim McMahon and a few other quarterbacks scored a couple of rushing touchdowns during a game too.
Ah, but this was a feat by an Indianapolis Colts quarterback, and apparently something not accomplished during the Peyton manning era. Okay... So the Associated Press reports that Luck accomplished something no other Colts quarterback has done since 1988. Yeah, and?!
That’s it... 1988. End of story. Are you kidding me?! You toss out that the Colts quarterback does something that hasn’t been done in 24 years, and leave the story like that? How is this helpful to your average sports fan and newspaper reader?
Well, as a public service, I give you the rest of the story... December 4, 1988. Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami. Colts at Dolphins. Final score: Colts, 31, Dolphins 28. The Colts quarterback who scored two rushing touchdowns? Ricky Turner, number 12 in your programs (ironically Andrew Luck’s uniform number). Interestingly, Turner wasn’t even the Colts starting quarterback. Nope... One might’ve called him Tim Tebow before there ever was a Tim Tebow (FYI: Tim Tebow was born in 1987), because the Colts starting quarterback in 1988 was Chris Chandler. Turner was briefly the Colts goal-line quarterback, rushing 4 times for 4 yards in that game against Miami. On two of those runs, one in the second quarter and one in the third, Turner scored from the one-yard line. How Turner fit into the grand scheme of things for the Colts is a mystery. He never threw a pass during the Miami game, and only threw a total of four passes in the four games he appeared in, completing three for 92 yards (37 on one completion), with zero touchdowns or interceptions. Ironically, Chandler rushed 46 times for 139 yards and 3 TDs during 13 starts for the 1988 season, compiling a 9-4 record.
So that brings us to Tim Tebow, or more specifically, the circus known as the New York Jets and their quarterback situation. I’m going to try and keep things as simple as possible for this discussion. I’ve been on the record for the past three years, saying that Tebow is not physically “constructed” to be an NFL quarterback; he’s much better suited to be a fullback, H-back or tight end. If I’ve been saying this about Tebow’s physique since 2009, why would I change my view in 2012 when he’s now at least 15 LBS heavier and bulkier? Again, he’s better suited for an offensive position other than quarterback and if the Jets expect to use him effectively this season, they need to start putting him in he backfield with Shonn Greene and either Bilal Powell or Joe McKnight, behind the correct starting quarterback, Mark Sanchez.
For all fans and members of the media begging for Tebow at quarterback, as if the Walter Mitty miracles of the 2011 Denver Broncos will absolutely happen again this year for the Jets, STOP IT! You’re trying to inspire a controversy that should never exist. The Jets need a passing attack if they expect to put serious points on the scoreboard and be more than a .500 team this year, and Tebow is not the one to drive that passing attack. Believe it or not, securely strapped into my wheelchair, I can throw a 20-yard spiral while seated. Does that mean I should be the Jets starting quarterback? No, and neither should Tebow. The Jets rolled the dice on the fifth pick of the 2009 draft and chose Sanchez. He’s now in his fourth season and it’s either the time to honor the commitment to Sanchez and let him really be a quarterback, or scrap the entire roster and start all over, because Tebow cannot lead this offense operating in a legitimate NFL scheme.
Think about it... Tebow played collegiately for the University of Florida. Since the 1960s, the Gainesville Gatos have been quarterbacked by the likes of Steve Spurrier, John Reeves, Kerwin Bell, Shane Matthews Danny Wuerffel, and Rex Grossman. Despite three Heisman trophy winners and three national titles, none of these guys turned out to be NFL material, so for those who look at Tebow as something special, he’s not as a quarterback and doesn’t even have the collegiate pedigree except for winning, and as anyone truly familiar with life in the NFL knows, one could lose more games during their rookie season in the NFL than all the combined losses in four years of college. In fact, I’ll go as far as saying that coming from a national powerhouse college program could be a disadvantage for some NFL quarterbacks. Ask Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton. He’s having a very difficult time accepting how hard it is to win in the NFL playing for a rebuilding team, and it’s painfully clear that he’s no longer playing at Auburn where he not only won the Heisman, but the national title as well.
For my money, despite his surliness and satirical personality, I’ll take Chicago Bears quarterback Jake Cutler over Tebow and the rest of the Southeast Conference trophy boys. Cutler also played in the SEC during college, but at Vanderbilt, and those Commodores were not as successful as the Motown group. Cutler played on losing teams to the tune of 11-35 during his four-year career as a starter, but he led the entire conference in passing during the 2005 season and owns several school and conference passing records. Sometimes you need to understand and appreciate losing in order to understand and appreciate winning, which Cutler does with the Bears.
Hey... You don’t suppose that for all the losing we did at Temple during the early 1980s, I might’ve been hall-of-fame material after all and not known it, do you? Stop snickering... I can wonder about these things in my advancing age!
Okay, let’s take a brief critical look at the Jets quarterbacking situation and offensive game plan. Both are dysfunctional and the blame lies squarely on the heads of head coach Rex Ryan and offensive coordinator Tony Sparano. As we all know, Rex Ryan is the personification of hyperbole, shooting off his mouth when he’d be better served keeping it closed. For instance, before last Sunday’s 29-26 overtime loss at New England, good ol’ Rex basically said the Patriots knew the Jets were coming into their backyard to beat them. REALLY?! Wow, what a relief... If Rex hadn’t said something to the local media, I could’ve sworn the Jets were hell-bent on visiting Foxborough with full intent on losing in a rout, so it’s a good thing Rex enlightens us with bluster of the obvious.
Remember Herm Edwards when he coached the Jets? Almost ten years ago, to the date, good ol’ Herm blurted out his rallying cry of You play to win the game! Amazing! Isn’t that deeply profound?! For all these years I thought you played to get your uniform dirty. What was I thinking?! Ten years of getting my ass kicked all over fields across the nation, and it never occurred to me that winning was supposed to be my objective. Maybe if I had my priority straight, Temple University would’ve been a powerhouse 30 years ago, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers would’ve been monsters despite those silly creamsicle uniforms? I know coaches are smarter than they look, but sometimes they say stuff that makes you scratch your head.
Rex Ryan’s biggest problem is not that he’s a defensive-minded coach, or that he loves “Ground and Pound”, or that he gets the willies every time Sanchez drops back to pass... It’s that he still fails to comprehend the big picture of how a football team is supposed to function and how a game strategy is supposed to be carried out. Does it matter that Tebow only plays ten percent of the offensive snaps, or that Tebow and Sanchez are rarely on the field together, or that the Jets run too much on first down and pass too much on third down? No! It matters that Ryan and Sparano don’t have enough feel for the game to know when a first or second-down pass is the right call at the right time, or when a run play on third and long is just what’s needed. Critics within the media wonder if Ryan coached scared during the final two minutes on Sunday. Ryan took offense to it and scoffed that anyone thinking he coached scared never played the game.
Rex, news flash: You never suited up to play in an NFL training camp. I have, which gives me the apparent right to question you. You may not be coaching scared, but you’re not necessarily coaching to win, either. Why? Because you don’t coach by feel, intuition or any level of analytical thinking. You still think you’re watching game film of your dad’s 1985 Bears defense, and that defensive group is still back in 1985 Chicago, not 2012 Florham Park. Second, you don’t think about the game for a full 60 minutes, and it shows in the team’s performance. It’s very rare when the Jets play a solid and complete 60-minute game, especially on defense. When the Jets needed to stop the Patriots on their two-minute drill, they failed and a game that should’ve been won ended up going into overtime to be lost. Unlike others, I can live with these breakdowns. Team rosters are thin in terms of talent and depth, and it’s no longer easy to dominate an opponent from start to finish. I remember many games during my playing days where we weren’t even competitive after the national anthem, so I can appreciate how difficult it is for reality to match your fantasy of going 19-0, winning every game 52-0 and collecting Super Bowl trophies and rings for Bill Belichick to kiss year after year.
But what concerns me the most, Rex, is that you’re only willing to second-guess your play calls and personnel decisions in the event you lost a game. Every time the Jets win, you’re all boast and bluster, and no matter how unimpressive the final statistics might look, you’re willing to take the win and tell everyone who will listen how great the team was. That’s all fine and dandy, but your team has had its share of unimpressive wins, and quite frankly, you should be more willing to second-guess even decisions that worked. Maybe that’s the scientist in me, because I second-guess everything, whether it works or not, and if if something works, I’m more interested in figuring out how I could sabotage it, giving me a new opportunity to learn and create a successful situation. You see, if you listened to me last fall and bought and read a copy of Philosophy of “Packer” pedagogy, you’d understand what I’m talking about and take more interest in deconstructing and reconstructing your playbook every game, win or lose. Yes, we know the Jets are 35-26 so far, including postseason, during your tenure, so it’s clear you’re doing a pretty good job, but for a man who talks incessantly about Super Bowls, perhaps 35-26 might indicate that you’re not getting the best out of yourself and your coaching staff because you don’t see professional football as holistically as you should.
Folks laugh at Ryan’s mantra of “Ground and Pound” -- the NFL is a quarterback-oriented league with passing, passing and more passing — and yet, every team, with the exception of the Ravens, Bengals, Lions, Browns, Falcons (the NFL’s lone unbeaten team) and Raiders, has rushed for at least 145 yards once this season, and the Redskins, Patriots, 49ers, Chiefs Bills, Texans, Giants, Jets, Bears, Dolphins, Panthers and Cowboys have topped 200 yards rushing at least once... and the Redskins, Patriots, 49ers, Chiefs and Bills have topped 200 yards rushing twice (the 49ers even topped 300 yards once). What does this tell you? The NFL is a game of offensive balance, and teams are more committed to running the ball, thus controlling the line of scrimmage, field position and time of possession than the average fan or members of the media realize.
But no one illustrates Rex Ryan’s deficiencies as a head coach more than Mark Sanchez. Is he a classic quarterback? Not really. Is he mature enough at this stage of his career? Not really. Does he have the physical and intellectual tools necessary to be a solid, championship-caliber quarterback? Yes, he does. The key thing to keep in mind is that Sanchez is still very young and has so much more to learn and so much more growing ahead of himself.
Fans and media members have been calling for his head and begging for Tebow. STOP IT! We already know Tebow can’t physically play the position as well as Sanchez and he definitely ranks worse statistically than Sanchez, so we really need to give it a rest and let Sanchez play. If his stats suffer at times, so be it. He wouldn’t be the first quarterback to succeed with less-than-stellar statistics.
Frankly, I’m tired of people killing Sanchez over his statistics. In the Jets 35-9 week 6 win against the Colts, Sanchez completed 11 of 18 passes for 82 yards and 2 touchdowns, good enough for a 109 QB rating (FYI, the Jets are 9-2 when Sanchez’s QB rating is at least 100.0). On the other hand, in Sunday’s loss to the Patriots, he completed 28 of 41 passes for 328 yards, throwing one touchdown and one interception, and was sacked 4 times. His QB rating was 90.3; the Jets lost. Overall, he’s completing 53.2 percent of his passes with a QB rating of 74.6. Do you folks really want to bench him for Tebow?
Well, if we’re going to bench Sanchez on the basis of his stats and the Jets 3-4 record, let’s take a look at a few other NFL quarterback performances during the first half of the 2012 season:
Andrew Luck of the Colts completed less than 53 percent of his passes in three of his first six games, threw 3 interceptions in a week 1 loss to the Bears and 2 interceptions in a week 6 loss to the Jets. He’s been sacked 16 times already.
Tom Brady of the Patriots completed 26 of 42 passes for only 259 yards against the Jets in week 7. He’s already been sacked 14 times.
Michael Vick of the Eagles has already thrown 8 interceptions, committed 9 fumbles and been sacked 17 times.
Andrew Dalton of the Bengals has already thrown 10 interceptions and been sacked 17 times.
Matt Ryan of the Falcons threw 3 interceptions in a sloppy week 6 win over the Raiders.
Alex Smith of the 49ers completed 19 of 30 passes for 200 yards with 3 interceptions and 6 sacks in a week 6 loss to the Giants.
Eli Manning of the Giants threw 3 interceptions in a week 2 win over the Buccaneers and 2 more in a week 7 win over the Redskins.
Joe Flacco of the Ravens has completed less than 53 percent of his passes in three games and has been sacked 18 times.
Tony Romo of the Cowboys tossed 5 interceptions in a week 4 loss against the Bears.
Ryan Fitzpatrick tossed 4 interceptions in a week 4 loss to the Patriots, among a season total of 9.
Question #1: Should any of these quarterbacks be benched, based on their recent statistics?
Question #2: Why should Sanchez be benched for comparable statistics?
If you can honestly answer those two questions, then you understand what I’ve understood since March: Tim Tebow has no business playing quarterback for the New York Jets, it was a colossal mistake for the Jets to trade for him, the coaching staff either has no cohesive idea of what to do with him, or they refuse to make a definitive decision on his role. Worst of all, it’s become more and more apparent that Tim Tebow forced himself on the New York Jets, taking advantage of team ownership and management for reasons less than pure or legitimately football-related. But the damage has been done, so if the Jets don’t want to be the laughingstock of all time, Rex needs to figure out a way to line Tebow behind Sanchez in the backfield, keep things that way, let Sanchez play quarterback, mature and develop under offensive coaches who have a real vision of how an offense should work, and stay the hell out of the way.
Oh... And could we stop all this idiotic trash talk with every opponent leading up to games?! For a coach who poured his soul to the media after last season, claiming he finally “gets it” and realized he perpetually put a bulls-eye on the backs of players who couldn’t always cash the checks his mouth wrote, he keeps doing the same damned thing week after week, and his defensive players follow suit. Shut up, buckle up the chip straps, and give fans three straight weeks of 60 minutes, championship-quality defense... THEN you can shoot your mouths off to your hearts content.
Keep in mind, the regular season is only 7 weeks old and 17 of the league’s 32 teams have records of .500 or within one game above or below.
Despite a 16-week regular season, there’s still a lot of football season left and very few team’s seasons are in a state of major crisis, necessitating a quarterback change, and this includes the New York Jets.
Kudos to the NFL for switching to pink penalty flags this weekend in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, courtesy of a suggestion by 11-year-old Dante Cano from Marlboro, New Jersey.
And, finally, from the “it’s about damned time” department, the Jets finally get around to retiring the number 90 this Sunday, worn by Dennis Byrd, whose career ended in 1992 after he was paralyzed by a inadvertent collision with a teammate during a game against the Chiefs. Byrd, able to walk again, albeit with difficulty, and living in his native Oklahoma, is one of the Jets most inspirational players in team history, and it’s incredibly long-overdue that his jersey be formally retired. As much as I’ve loved and been loyal to my Jets since 1967, this franchise has a lousy track record of honoring former players in a timely fashion. Perhaps the 2012 version of Dennis Byrd Day will be a sign that owner Woody Johnson truly cares about this team’s legacy beyond revenue and profits.
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