Search and Destroy: FOOTBALL WRITING

hon. mentions:

peter king (SI.com) - not an analyst, more of an insidery gossip type. seems like a nice guy? i'm not much of a fan but he doesn't really bother me either, he doesn't seem to display pretentions towards being anything more than fluff.

gregg easterbrook aka tmq (espn.com) - hate this douche.

dr. z (SI.com) - hit or miss, but he's a good writer with legit knowledge of the game and for the most part refrains from engaging in hacky, self-righteous bullshit. the anti-rick reilly. or something.

not-sure-how-to-categorize-this-guy:

chris landry - actual scout, makes appearances on fox sports radio during the season and wrote columns for sportsnet canada last year (http://www.sportsnet.ca/bios/landry_chris/ <- archive here). writes like a scout, very dry and plain, but his actual observations are top notch. worked with belichick, ran the scouting combine in indy for a number of years, just knows his shit in general.

random stuff

post on a texans blog explaining zone-blocking, v. informative - http://www.atexansblog.com/2008/01/11/soabout-that-zone-blocking/

gregg easterbrook aka tmq (espn.com) - hate this douche.

two times.

i read the michael reiss-penned "reiss's pieces" blog on boston.com for pats stuff. sometimes informative, sometimes not but constantly updated and he's at every practice and in the locker room and notices little things that usually don't make it into sport's columns.

reiss's pieces.

yeah, a sidebar to this is i'd love to know what you guys read to keep up with your fav teams. the perspective you get from guys close to the action usually paints a much different picture than the narratives you get in the national media.

one more thing about reiss is that he live blogs all the games and gets injury updates before the tv guys does. if i'm watching the pats at home i usually am constantly refreshing his blog.

guys do. sorry, so SO fucking tired right now.

As far as my teams are concerned, I don't really have much respect for any of the beat guys for the Chargers. ESPN/CNN's coverage of the Chargers is usually more insightful, especially guys like Jeremy Green, Jim Trotter, etc.

damn I just bought the football prospectus based on some internet reading; but otoh I'm a math guy and even if the numbers aren't as useful for fb as for bb, they'll still thrill me so fuck it

BUMP

Reiss has been methodically documenting every Patriots practice since camp started on his blog. The man is a beat-reporting machine.

Damn I'm skimming through this Field Gulls stuff--I know nothing of the 'Hawks myself but his level of detail seems pretty fucking intimidating. I wonder what his thoughts on Shaun Alexander (my least-fav "good" RB of the 2000s) are.

Reiss has been methodically documenting every Patriots practice since camp started on his blog. The man is a beat-reporting machine.

yeah, he's required reading prior to setting your ff roster if you have any pats players.

the more i think about it, the more i feel i was probably too hard on footballoutsiders. there's some good writers over there who know a lot more about football than i do. i just tend to expect more from them than i do other outlets.

morgan's pretty merciless when it comes to the 2007 edition of alexander. here's his season recap for SA:

http://www.fieldgulls.com/2008/3/13/155548/559

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/04/magazine/04coach.html?pagewanted=all

lol guyz here is a football blog: http://reggieroby.blogspot.com/

currently writing for it: me, horseshoe, brownie (NB. he is not aware of this yet), some other a-holes

Nice job, a-holes!

Since we're pimpin', me and another dude started doing this a few weeks ago -- http://www.jockish.com. It "covers" all sports, tho -- the football posts (all two of them) (and they're barely about football) are filed under "White Lines". Don't hate me because my Peter King impression is some bullshit.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200810/nfl-eagles

andy reid breaking down the greatest game ever played

I think y'all are being kinda hard on easterbrook... after six years or whatever his act's worn pretty thin but he kinda jumpstarted this shit and while his hobbyhorses re blitzing and kicking are old, he's still right. Just wish he could change it up a wee bit...

even for an anti-semite easterbrook is unbearable.

That Andy Reid thing is awesome.

hi rogermexico! how are you feeling about the Bills being AMAZING this year?

love that Andy Reid article.

stinkin Rodney Harrison

I think y'all are being kinda hard on easterbrook... after six years or whatever his act's worn pretty thin but he kinda jumpstarted this shit and while his hobbyhorses re blitzing and kicking are old, he's still right. Just wish he could change it up a wee bit...

I think it's OK to be hard on a guy who has not had a novel thought about football in 5 years. It's like he thinks if he keeps writing the same three things over and over in his shitty column NFL coaches will read it one day and see the error of their ways. Unfortunately you can't easily find the football content amongst the stuff about outer space, shows on Sci-Fi, and cheerleaders.

I rss'd ESPN's divisional blogs this week--they're pretty useful for keeping up on player news and whatnot without taking up too much of my time.

The Easterbrook columns are tedious, but the NFL would be a lot better if some of the coaches took his advice about field goals and punting.

i may be alone in this, but i find that his being an ignorant, witless cunt is far more irritating than his recycling the two valid observations he ever made.

don't forget being an anti-semite, he tries to worm his way out of that in a fashion that he would take to task in his column if, you know, he wasn't the douchebag in question.

Robert Spiralli OTM

As I always say to myself when considering Easterbrook, the guy is in a goddamn think tank. Pretty sad when all of his rants against the Pats last year made no sense whatsoever. There are rocks that have displayed better reasoning skills.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d80ab938e&template=with-video&confirm=true

this practically gave me a boner

hi rogermexico! how are you feeling about the Bills being AMAZING this year?

The AFC-EAST LEADING Bills? I am bulletproof until 4:15 PM PST Sunday. A win on the road in Jacksonville positions them for an attainable 5-0 start.

But I'm a Bills fan, so my heart is fully anticipating 1-4 :-)

Cankles and the anatomy of a play.

Do you watch tape? (Serious question btw)

yeah, i spent most of the week breaking down the lions game - my notes on it ended up being 34 pages long (i'm not joking). my roster breakdowns were based on that and on the 3 preseason games i saw.

wtf!

Reading that Andy Reid/Atlantic article made me want to get a hold of the 1958 championship game as well as any regular season games. Jim Brown went his usual bananas that year.

Why isn't that available for purchase? or is it?

Mr. Anonymous from Reeds Spring, Mo., writes: Yes, it's too bad that Tom Brady got hurt, but he puts his pads on like all the other players do. Chiefs QB Brody Croyle was also injured, and no one has said anything about it? What's up with that?

Tim Graham: Because it doesn't matter who the Chiefs' QB is.

i just decided i like the guy who does ESPN's AFC East blog.

yeah, i spent most of the week breaking down the lions game - my notes on it ended up being 34 pages long (i'm not joking). my roster breakdowns were based on that and on the 3 preseason games i saw.

Whoa, really? That's kinda awesome.

I should do this with Chargers games now that I have a DVR.

I met Dr. Z about 3 weeks ago. He essentially told me that he can't stand Peter King whom he considers a sellout. This was in a bar adjacent to a Mexican restaraunt, and Z was lit up like a Christmas tree.

Gregg Easterbrook does royally suck. and he keeps trying to pimp his right wing book which got lukewarm reviews

I like Dr. Z a lot. his comment about Hell being an eternal ESPN broadcast of a Brett Favre game was hilarious.

I don't consider Peter King a sellout, I consider him an idiot.

aw guys justin tuck

http://www.nj.com/giants/roadtrip/index.ssf/2008/01/ny_giants_justin_tuck_has_root.html

mb he should have his own thread

This is still the place where Justin, inspired by cartoons, would run through the house screaming, "By the power of Greyskull!" or "I have the power!" He was nicknamed "He-Man" after his hero, but also because he was the biggest kid in town.

that's great alabama writing, not great football writing
I see yr point though

yeah actually afterwards i realized that this wasn't the kind of thing to highlight for its great writing, but i was kinda charmed by it nonetheless

if we ever open the Flying Dawkins, perhaps we can name the basement Justin-Skull

also he is not a football writer, just a fan, but I am loving Ta-Nehisi Coates blogging at the Atlantic

Coates is great; I didn't know he wrote about football, too!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A40965212

limey football column; better than TMQ right off the bat for having a "Douche Of The Week" section

better than TMQ because it's anything else, at all, ever.

STOP US BEFORE WE BITCH ABOUT TMQ AGAIN

bitching about TMQ is never wrong

http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2008/09/upon_further_review_defensive.html

browns beat reporter does play by play breakdown of PIT @ CLE - good stuff, these are more like how i want my notes to look imo

http://reggieroby.blogspot.com/2008/09/of-superbowls-and-sausages-love-story.html

I was so happy, because it forced me to remember the time Donovan Mcnabb asked me to suck his dick.

^^^this line is an all-time great.

How do you get that Teams/Division thing to show up at the end of your post?

there should be a "Labels for this post" thing under the compose window, you can write in your own labels or click 'show all' and pick one of the pre-existing ones.

McNabb was playing out of his mind, even without his top two weapons at wide receiver, though Reggie Brown is a weapon the way that toenail clippers count as a weapon at the airport. It counts, but no one is really sure why.

^^ pure win

From Peter King's MMQ:

"5. New England (2-0). Next to the phrase 'game-manager' in Webster's, there is a photo of Matt Cassel."

Really? After one start?

http://www.slate.com/id/2200305/

stefan fatsis on vince young

oh my god i want this:

http://kissingsuzykolber.uproxx.com/2008/09/ksk-book-klub-boys-will-be-boys-featuring-more-of-charles-haley%E2%80%99s-penis.html

haha yeah that book sounds amazing. ladies and gentlemen, Michael Irvin

Holy shit, I have to read that.

don't get me wrong, Orton is sucking a dick out there with way less vigor and way more caution than you'd like to see a dick get sucked with, but by no means do I want Rex out there. Given the choice, I'll always take 150 yards, no TDs and no INTs, over 220 yards, one TD, three fumbles, and four picks.

BEST AMERICAN SPORTSWRITING 2008

anyone read boys will be boys, the book about the cowboys?

holy shit, apparently one of the things that gets reported on in boys will be boys, according to peter king:

Pearlman writes that Michael Irvin, incensed that tackle Everett McIver, in mid-haircut, would not leave a barber chair at training camp in 1998 so Irvin could get his haircut first, stabbed McIver in the neck. McIver was rushed to the hospital and survived, but not without losing a lot of blood. Irvin's silence on the charge has been deafening. I asked a Cowboy who played on that team if the story was true. "Absolutely,'' the Cowboy said. "I'm surprised it was kept quiet over the years.''

Pearlman also says Troy Aikman and Barry Switzer hated Deion, but fuck those dudes imo.

exactly what these 'boys are lacking. no way patrick crayton stabs a teammate over a haircut xp

Pearlman also says Troy Aikman and Barry Switzer hated Deion, but fuck those dudes imo.

I'd like to think they simply took exception to his inability to actually tackle in the open field.

i have got to read this book

oh man, i am sort of glad i completely tuned out of football during those years

http://www.wf.net/~sst97/images/ms1.jpg

http://www.slate.com/id/2200305/

stefan fatsis on vince young

― cankles, Friday, September 19, 2008 1:56 AM (4 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^^

the mention of robert smith in that article reminded me of these smith tidbits:

Smith made a cameo appearance in the TV series Mystery Science Theater 3000. He was in Season 8 Episode 3 The Mole People. He played a scantily clad, mute "hunk" given to Pearl (the series' antagonist) as a present by her minions.

2004 saw publication of Smith's book The Rest of the Iceberg: An Insider's View on the World of Sport and Celebrity. In it he discussed his background, his time at Ohio State and the NFL, and why he retired. He also analyzed the obsession placed on sports stars by the public.

Smith is one of the amateur astronomers featured in science writer Timothy Ferris's 2007 PBS program, Seeing in the Dark, based on his 2002 book of the same name.

I <3 Robert Smith.

A lot of that piece applies to Ricky Williams, too.

turns out Vic Ketchman, team writer for the jags, is pretty good:

http://www.jaguars.com/news/article.aspx?id=7285

reminds me a lot of dr z

http://www.sportsnet.ca/bios/landry_chris/

scout chris landry is writing columns on the new season, this guy's my favorite analyst out there; goes in the 'bad writer, amazing analyst' category

tho now that i'm looking at his new stuff, it's pretty threadbare in terms of actual insight.

dr z compares qbs in 1988 to qbs in 2008:

I've never been a great fan of comparing eras while we're in the midst of a season, but it took an e-mail from a British connoisseur of American football, Simon Veness, to give me some serious thoughts about the standard of quarterbacking these days. He called it the "near barrel-scraping state."

I always hear extreme views such as these, but it got me thinking. Was it really better in the old days ... at least the days of 20 years ago?

I go through this drill every now and then, comparing quarterbacks two decades apart, and usually it's pretty close, with the older vintage generally establishing an edge. So I did it again and the results were startling.

Yes, the position used to be better. A lot better. Yes, there are a lot of pretenders vying for starting positions now. Are you hearing the ravings of just another old duffer, waving his cane at the TV set and hollering for days gone by? Well, let's go through a comparison of QBs on each team in the NFL, 20 years apart. Players on expansion teams that didn't exist then will not be included, obviously.

AFC
Buffalo Bills
Jim Kelly vs. Trent Edwards

Edge: 1988. An easy one. This was a Kelly on the rise, poised to lead his team to four straight Super Bowls.

Miami Dolphins
Dan Marino vs. Chad Pennington

Edge: 1988. Another cinch. Danny was in the midst of a Hall of Fame career.

New England Patriots
Steve Grogan vs. Matt Cassel

Edge: 1988. Maybe this is unfair, since the job belongs to Tom Brady. But he's not playing, is he? And we are talking about the game as it unfolds in front of us right now. Cassel has a future, but Grogan was a great competitor, dearly loved by New England fans for many years.

New York Jets
Ken O'Brien vs. Brett Favre

Edge: 2008. It would be embarrassing to say O'Brien, a strong-armed thrower with the lowest interception rate in the NFL, was better than the Favre, who will be 39 in a couple of weeks. Let's celebrate the overall achievement. Besides, the modern era needs a win real bad at this point.

Cincinnati Bengals
Boomer Esiason vs. Carson Palmer

Edge: 1988. A tough call. Boomer was at the top of his game, as the Bengals' Super Bowl QB of '88. He threw 28 TDs that season, 14 picks. He was gutsy and exciting. Palmer's game seems to have gone south, but let's face it, he's got a much sadder cast of characters to work with than Boomer did. Maybe if we look at the overall record of production, we'd have a different call, but we're concentrating on the seasons mentioned.

Cleveland Browns
Bernie Kosar vs. Derek Anderson, with Brady Quinn on hold

Edge: 1988. Bernie called his own game, as many of them did in those days. He was smart and effective, with a goofy throwing motion, but a persistent habit of completing his passes. I don't know what's happened to Anderson. He started off with a nice new contract and tremendous upside, but it seems to have fallen apart. And he's a few interceptions away from getting benched.

Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans
Warren Moon vs. Kerry Collins

Edge: 1988. Moon was 31 early in the '88 season, at his first outpost on the way to a brilliant Hall of Fame career. Collins is a competent game manager, rushed into emergency service in relief of Vince Young.

Indianapolis Colts
Chris Chandler vs. Peyton Manning

Edge: 2008. Peyton calls his own plays and would have fit in beautifully in any time period. One of the few potential Hall of Famers of our era.

Pittsburgh Steelers
Bubby Brister vs. Ben Roethlisberger

Edge: 2008. Tremendous talent and courage, that's Ben. An easy choice, no matter what kind of shape his shoulder is in.

Denver Broncos
John Elway vs. Jay Cutler

Edge: 1988. Still another Hall of Famer, with more to come. Elway was in his sixth year, still wild, a little out of control, too many picks, etc., but he had a knack for fourth-quarter comebacks. Cutler is having a Pro Bowl year. It's a show horse against a wild stallion.

Kansas City Chiefs
Steve DeBerg vs. Damon Huard

Edge: 1988. The Chiefs were terrible then, terrible now, but at least DeBerg, 35 and originally trained by Bill Walsh, knew how to work a game. Huard will be better than the guy he relieved, Tyler Thigpen, which is really damning by faint praise.

Oakland Raiders
Jay Schroeder/ Steve Beuerlein vs. JaMarcus Russell

Edge: 2008. This is a strange comparison. Schroeder and Russell... two big throwers, not blessed by great accuracy. Beuerlein was a rookie who started half the games. I'm trying to be fair here, and reward Russell on potential.

Schroeder came to the Raiders when they were in L.A., the result of a trade with Washington that cost the team a future all-pro, tackle Jim Lachey, and a bunch of draft choices. And he bombed. He was awful in 1988 , his five-year stint later relieved by one fine season (1990). He had had one Pro Bowl year for the Redskins, and he is famous for being benched before the '88 Super Bowl for Doug Williams, who became the MVP. But he had enough 300-plus yardage games to keep people interested. Beuerlein looked like the careful QB's you see today.

San Diego Chargers
Mark Malone vs. Philip Rivers

Edge: 2008. The season prior marked the end of Dan Fouts' 15-year run. It would be four more years before the Chargers would have a winning season. Rivers is one of today's brighter young prospects.

AFC CONSENSUS: 8-5 in favor of 1988.

Dallas Cowboys
Steve Pelluer vs. Tony Romo

Edge: 2008. No contest. Interim QB vs. super star.

New York Giants
Phil Simms vs. Eli Manning

Edge: 1988. Simms was 33 and between Super Bowl seasons. More accurate than Eli, who can get wild in spots, sharper on his reads, although slowly but surely, Eli is learning how to play in the NFL.

Philadelphia Eagles
Randall Cunningham vs. Donovan McNabb

Edge: 2008. McNabb is back in his seat near the top of the league. Tremendous courage and accurate when he has time. Cunningham was an exciting, long striding galloper in the Vince Young mold.

Washington Redskins
Doug Williams/Mark Rypien vs. Jason Campbell

Edge: EVEN. Williams was a great long ball thrower who had accuracy problems. Rypien was in his rookie season of a highly productive career. The jury's still out on Campbell, so call it even.

Chicago Bears
Jim McMahon vs. Kyle Orton

Edge: 1988. McMahon was one of the stars of the game, also one of its leading personalities. You hear that, men of the 2008 era? Personality! Yes, they had it then. And they called their plays, too.

Detroit Lions
Rusty Hilger vs. Jon Kitna

Edge: 2008. Is everyone aware of what a fair shake I'm trying to give to the moderns? Hilger was just OK, Kitna at least is a battler.

Green Bay Packers
Don Majkowski vs. Aaron Rodgers

Edge: 1988. The Majik Man got hurt a few years later and the Brett Favre era was born. Majik could do a lot of things, though. Made it exciting, a good active guy, and people forget how good he was. Rodgers will be good, I feel, but he's not there yet.

Minnesota Vikings
Wade Wilson vs. Gus Frerotte

Edge: 1988. Wilson was accurate and smart. Very good, running the show. Frerotte came in to alleviate the Tarvaris Jackson disaster. Wilson was 29, Frerotte is 37.

Atlanta Falcons
Chris Miller vs. Matt Ryan

Edge: 1988. Miller had talent but his career was cut short by head injuries. This was his second year, Ryan's first.

New Orleans Saints
Bobby Hebert vs. Drew Brees

Edge: 2008. Hebert, the Saints' Cajun kid, brought them into the playoffs for the first time, but on sheer talent, he wasn't in Brees' class.

Tampa Bay Bucs
Vinny Testaverde vs. Brian Griese

Edge: 1988. This was Vinny's third year of a career that has washed up onto the very shores of today... well, at least last year, but I have a feeling that we have not seen the last of him. Griese is another early-season switcheroo, this time for Jeff Garcia.

Arizona Cardinals
Neil Lomax vs. Kurt Warner

Edge: 1988. Can you remember what promise Lomax showed, only to have to retire at 29 with an arthritic hip? He had a brilliant nine-year run, with two Pro Bowls. If this were the Warner of the Greatest Show days in St. Louis, I'd pick him in a minute, but many things, most notably the hand injury, have toned down his game.

L.A./St. Louis Rams
Jim Everett vs. Trent Green

Edge: 1988. Everett could fling it. He had many big-number afternoons. And oh my, are the Rams ever asking for it, putting 38-year old Green, with his history of concussions, behind that line. I felt sorry for Marc Bulger, a guy who showed real talent at one time, getting benched. Now, maybe he's better off.

San Francisco 49ers
Joe Montana vs. J.T. O'Sullivan

Edge: 1988. Montana was backed up by Steve Young, don't forget. Two Hall of Famers, and if you want to see what an accurate QB really looks like, find some footage of the Niners in that era. They'd snap the ball off in 1.5 seconds, and it looked as if it were attached to the receiver by a wire. No hesitation on the pattern, no adjustment. It was zzzzip! And a quick slant to Jerry Rice would break for 50.

Seattle Seahawks
Dave Krieg vs. Matt Hasselbeck

Edge: 1988. Very sorry, but I'm a Krieg man. The way he worked a game, that meticulous style of his, the accuracy ... people forget how accurate he was. I don't forget. I don't forget anything, actually.

NFC CONSENSUS: 10-4-1 in favor of 1988.

OVERALL CONSENSUS: 18-9-1 for 1988.

ha. i watched the Bills highlight reel from 1990 today and i thought, we will not see jim kelly's like again.

that article by Dr. Z is exactly why I love football outsiders, they would never put up some ridiculous shit like that. "Before the invention of the Cover 2, QBs were all BRILLIANT."

FO consistently puts up even dumber bullshit (esp. anything barnwell writes), at least Z admits he's just a crazy old man stuck in the 60s.

barnwell might be -22.5% dpar but tanier/schatz/farrar are all great. YOU FOOL.

king's weekly quotes column vs. FO's weekly quotes column GO

dont get it twisted my dude i LOVE farrar and tanier (schatz doesnt bother me), tanier's really been killin it this year - every one of his walkthrough pieces are golden. it's just all the barnwell stuffed in the margins really gets to me.

I've hated barnwell since I started reading last year and he was acting like a cubs fan about the NYG, and he kept doing it even after they won the super bowl. "my team that I root for had no business winning anything this year wtf"

tanier is a fuckin' eagles fan and he's less of a baby about it

Re: Greg Blache: "Stats Are For Losers"
by B :: Thu, 10/02/2008 - 3:44pm

numbers ball pit? Anything like this?
http://xkcd.com/150/
reply

Re: Greg Blache: "Stats Are For Losers"
by Bill Barnwell :: Thu, 10/02/2008 - 4:09pm

That is actually my favorite xkcd.
reply

BOOOOOOOOOO

I kinda hate the whole "state of the QB" shit that keeps getting flung about because it wasn't too uncommon for teams to go through three QBs a year in the 80s either........not to mention the obvious argument, that back before the salary cap/free agency era, you didn't rush young QBs onto the field, because you didn't have to.

Now you throw them out anytime after their second year, and you're "waiting too long".

ha. i watched the Bills highlight reel from 1990 today and i thought, we will not see jim kelly's like again.

oh god it's like fetish porn... Kelly, Thomas, Reed, Lofton, Beebe...

but what we really won't see the like of again though is that LINE, which was the first casualty of the free agent era. Plus TE McKeller, who put the K in K-Gun.

that LINE, which was the first casualty of the free agent era

this may be true, but it'll float back the other way. looking at the number of D ends and tackles getting free agent/draft $$$, it already is. football moves. 4 years on, michael lewis' CW is becoming old hat.

Mike Tanier: "I call this play the "Clemenza," because Orlavsky leaves the gun to take the cannoli"
http://www.marsbonfire.com/Walkthrough_Cannoli.jpg

that made me laugh. mike tanier is ok by me.

lmbo that's great

btw this is AMAZING: http://www.postgameheroes.com/?p=3501

http://deadspin.com/5063380/break-out-your-fashionable-drinking-pants

THEY BE STEALIN OUR IMAGE MEMES

http://baileyzimmerman.blogspot.com/

dr z's old lady has a photoblog!

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hGtr5JWyxV4/SJZAMOEz_oI/AAAAAAAAC5w/znr0TKj69CY/s1600/8_3s.jpg

sort of interesting...

http://views.washingtonpost.com/theleague/smarterstats/2008/10/the-curse-of-370.html

for those of you that follow baseball, some folks into biomechanics say that once a pitcher gets beyond a certain amount of pitches in a game (120, maybe?), each repetition of his motion becames more harmful than the last. this makes a similar argument for amount of carries a rb makes.

http://deadspin.com/index.php?refId=5066461

you edit a sports website and you do not remember the randy moss mask and instead think this thing is an actual human being wearing blackface on his actual face = you should be fired immediately.

deadspin how the hell do you even write "boston is for racists" articles wrong?!?!?!

because it's a sports blog and it's DEADSPIN

ps: now man of the people COLIN COWHERD is blaming blogs by proxy for leaking the Mike Nolan firing (which of course lead to MN finding out he got canned via ESPN) and says that men can't keep secrets any more because of blogs turning them into gossipy little bitches or some such -- I had to get out of the car and eat my lunch so I didn't hear the QED portion of his proof but I'm sure it was some airtight Easterbrookian think-tanky stuff

oh my god amazing i am v. interested in this blogs-are-emasculating-our-virile-sports-citizens theory, actually.

yeah I personally cannot wait until color commentators are all replaced by a robot reading random sentences from a twitter page fed by livebloggers watching the game in bars

SHUT THE FUCK UP TONY POSTED FROM MY IPHONE.
SHUT THE FUCK UP TONY POSTED FROM MY IPHONE.
WOW CASSELL SUUUUUUCKS FROM WEB.
SHUT THE FUCK UP TONY POSTED FROM MY IPHONE.
SHUT THE FUCK UP TONY POSTED FROM MY IPHONE.

that hits a little close to home, Tom! :(

during the first quarter of the Chargers-Bills game, when there were technical difficulties, a dude at the bar started calling the game for us based on the espn.com update on his cell phone. it was kind of great.

I'm not joking I'm totally serious

but how would they know to twitter "shut the fuck up tony" if kornheiser has been replaced by a robot yelling "shut the fuck up tony" worlds are colliding

to be fair Cassel didn't really suuuuuuck on Monday, I mean dude held onto the ball too long & took like 6 sacks in the first half but AFAIK was.. what 18-24, 3 TD? it worked

you guys have demolished my proposal and forced me out of business

he took the sacks because their o-line is all 500 year old men who couldn't stop anything. i don't understand how kornheiser could keep standing there yelling about how much matt cassel sucked and held the ball too long when at least 4 of those sacks came straight out of the snap. brady would've been sacked in those situations too (ask the ny giants).

i mean, yes, i can understand how kornheiser does that, because he spends 37% of his time thinking about slobbering brady's knob, but that doesn't make it right.

i mean lets be honest here, the pats are all 500 year old men, a high school qb, and randy moss at this point -- we should be proud they even manage to take the field, much less have a decent record.

yeah a lot of guys came through totally unblocked, cassel couldn't do a thing about it..

far as the team getting old.. yeah.. hoping the championship window is not closed on the pats for the foreseeable future. though i'm sure some of youse guys would enjoy watching brady play for a 4-12 team in the 2010 season.

that's not any fun. As we all know from experience the best kind of team to watch Tom Brady play on is an 18-1 team.

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~richlandwi/Sextonville/Sextonville-D-R17-2-04.JPG

lol like tom brady is coming back to play football

HI HATERS

HATE THE PLAYER LOVE THE GAME

i'm just sayin i mean has the bro even had contact with the hateful patriots since his "injury" i ask you. faker -- just wants to go live in tribeca and eat some bagels.

Hell peeps can't leave the Patsies alone and just enjoy their team's strong opening against a weak-ass schedule that will correct itself shortly.

haha what?

Cassel named AFC Offensive Player of the Week

LenDale White can't get any love?

titans are going to be the "no name offense" this year

cassel is getting brady's sloppy seconds from the sportswriters

that is some rough shit on lendale white. holy smokes.

Reilly is basically terrible nowadays but this seems important
http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?section=magazine&id=3653401

LenDale White can't get any love?

no fatteys allowed

Mike Tanier should basically get a free ticket for this thread, or a thread of his own:

I am Hypno-Coach. Look into my bulging eyes and obey.

You thought I was just a great linebacker, Samurai Mike and all that, but I am much more. I learned the secrets of mesmerism from Mike Ditka, who learned them from George Halas, whose grandpa learned them from Franz Mesmer himself. You are falling deeper, deeper into a trance with my every word.

The 49ers are a successful franchise. They are fun to watch. They will win the Super Bowl.
OBEY.

You believe it. You can feel it. You have no desire to resist my dominance. You will become my pawn, my minion. Just ask my so-called "boss," Jed York:

Jed York: I serve only Hypno-Coach. I will spend money to sign great defenders so he can rebuild the 1985 Bears. I will no longer allow the team to draft quarterbacks with small hands. I will not move the franchise to Los Angeles, San Jose, Anaheim, Azusa, or Cucamonga.

Like York, you will become a marionette, bound to my will. You will say nice things about the Niners. You will buy Patrick Willis jerseys. Even the strongest-willed people have bent like reeds before my awesome power. Just ask my offensive coordinator.

Mike Martz: I will run the ball 25 times per game. I will use fullbacks and tight ends in pass protection packages. I will control the clock. I ... must ... fight ... Greatest show on turf! Four wide receivers! Bomb to Isaac Bruce!

No, no: Look into my eyes. Get lost in my stare. I am the cobra. You are the gerbil.

Mike Martz: I serve Hypno-Coach and only Hypno-Coach. Frank Gore will run off tackle on second-and-8.

You know about the running game of Chris Johnson (Milli) and LenDale White (Vanilli, after eating Terence Trent D'Arby).

Mike Tanier should basically get a free ticket for this thread, or a thread of his own:

Mike Tanier: OTM

I guess that's what happens when your board is really only active for 1/4th of the year.

magical wish-granting!

tom i have been tempted on multiple occasions to just quote entire tanier articles in this thread, esp this week's - fried gold, all of it

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/04/magazine/04coach.html

reading about his receiver training methodology and realizing he coached wes welker explains a little bit about wes welker, to me

I kinda wonder why texas tech under him hasn't become like a pro receiver factory, frankly

hey this is fantastic. i never watch college football except happened to be home sick saturday night & saw completely awesome texas/texas tech game

Last year, after a loss to Texas A.&M. in overtime, Leach hauled the team into the conference room on Sunday morning and delivered a three-hour lecture on the history of pirates.

I keep thinking that says "pilates"

chris landry's been plagiarising michael lombardi, according to PFT. florio's a turd but i dont have much trouble buying it. either way, this shit is fascinating to me:

http://www.profootballtalk.com/2008/12/02/a-stunning-case-of-internet-nfl-plagiarism/
http://www.profootballtalk.com/2008/12/03/smoking-gun-emerges-in-landry-situation/
http://www.profootballtalk.com/2008/12/05/landry-denies-plagiarism/
http://www.profootballtalk.com/2008/12/05/landry-on-duemig-live-blog/

http://620wdae.com/cc-common/podcast.html

landry's written content this year was a lot sloppier and hackier than what i was used to, so as i said before i find this pretty easy to believe.

http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/2008/12/sportsnetca-apologizes/
http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/2008/12/statement-on-chris-landry/

for all of you easterbrook haters - i'm sure you've seen this, but just in case:
TMQ parody

That was hard to read, by virtue of being like a TMQ column.

that was awesome

Oh Ye Mortals, Trifle Not With The (Clearly Christian) Football Gods: Pittsburg of Kansas ran up the score again! TMQ is fucking pissed! Football is for learning! The coach of Pittsburg is clearly a point-grubbing Jew.

This week's New Yorker piece by Gladwell comparing college QB scouting to finding quality grade school teachers was pretty compelling:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/12/15/081215fa_fact_gladwell

I read that and at usual at first I'm like "this is interesting" and then I finished and thought about it and was kind of really mad I had wasted any time on it at all. Anybody who follows football doesn't need his Big Bird explanation of drafting QBs and the college defense vs. pro defense problem, and frankly he kinda gives you the same sesame street version of the teaching issues. Then he has nowhere to go with it, because one situation would be solved easily if you threw a little more money and time into it, while the other situation is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT IN EVERY WAY, so he writes "then he threw an interception" ET FIN. it's not good football writing, it's not even good writing any way you look at it. it's a fucking freshman year essay assignment. "pick two professions!"

Yeah, I don't agree. It seemed like pretty standard Gladwell peering into a tube and writing about what he sees exercise; most of his pieces come off that way. I thought the implied suggestion that NFL teams should lobby to draft fifteen unproven youngsters at QB and see who sticks was kind of an interesting one.

yeah, there's also the problem of players at 22 not at all ready for the big leagues, but eight years later they're Mr. Monday Night starting for the Steelers and blowing up quarterbacks on the regular

I thought the implied suggestion that NFL teams should lobby to draft fifteen unproven youngsters at QB and see who sticks was kind of an interesting one.

Teams often don't even give their third-team guy a real shot of competing for the QB 1 position, and you can't judge a QB by his performance against the third-team, or worse, and there are only so many reps to go around. Ideally you would bring in a bunch of guys and give them all the same amount of consideration, but that just isn't realistic. And second, quarterback is not so important that it would be better to draft 15 qb's instead of loading up across the board. Gruden is an example of a guy who brings in a bunch of quarterbacks, but now it seems obvious that his best option was the guy at the top of the depth chart, who made the most money. Is it better to take reps away from Garcia and give them to 10 undrafted rookie/arena QBs just in case one of them is a diamond in the rough? The fact that a guy like Tom Brady is so noteworthy is because his success is so unusual. Here's a list of many of this season's best QBs:

Warner: undrafted
Brees: 2nd round, 32rd pick overall
Pennington: 1st round
Cutler: 1st round
Manning: 1st round
Ryan: 1st round
Campbell: 1st round
Rivers: 1st round
Cassell: undrafted
Garrard: 4th round
E Manning: 1st round
Collins: 1st round
Favre: 2st round, 33rd overall

In other words, three unlikely stars, and a lot of guys who were supposed to be good. You can stretch to include Delhomme, Garcia, etc., but the bottom line is that lower-round guys pan out less often that upper-round people, partly because of opportunity, but also because of innate lack of talent.

has gladwell always been like that or have his recent essays been particularly bad?

He has his whole archive of NYer stories up in his homepage site, you can judge for yourself- personally I think he's really gone downhill since he took off to write the latest book

I think he's gone downhill, but I never thought he was especially astute. His gift has always been storytelling rather than analysis.

Hm. without being challopy, i saw it he other way round.

I basically agreed with 95% of what Kakutani wrote (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/books/18kaku.html), although I still think Gladwell is good fun.

tom otm, tho I found it interesting just cuz the teaching side of it was new to me (lol @ teacher WARP), and that shit is fascinating to me on a multitude of personal levels - that said, his take on the football stuff was really disingenuous, most notably because the quarterback 'problem' he builds his thesis around doesn't actually exist. there's plenty of legitimate reasons why mcnabb succeeded where akili smith failed, and he doesn't bother to explore any of them. that's not to say there isn't an element of luck in finding an NFL QB, and it is certainly the most difficult position to project, but he makes a lot of assertions that aren't earned by the words preceeding them.

btw, this was my favorite player writeup in PFP 08 (Tashard Choice)

"I'm a Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech, and a hell of an Engineer
A Helluva, Helluva, Helluva, Helluva, Helluva Engineer
Like all the jolly good punishing backs, I make my intentions clear.
I'm a Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech and a hell of an Engineer.

"If I'm behind Marion Barber, sir, resplendent in blue and gray,
And that violent running style of his makes the ambulance take him away.
If Jerry Jones had drafted me, sir, I'll tell you what he'd say --
'Get that Tashard kid out there!' as I blow the defenders away!

"Oh, I wish I had a football in hand, and a depth chart that wasn't so packed
Behind these Jones and Barber guys, they might never see how I attack.
Over 3,000 collegiate yards, and now I'm supposed to say,
'I'm a Ramblin', Gamblin', HELL OF AN ENGI ... Special teams? Well, OK...'"

when did football writers (sportswriters in general) start saying "win out" and "lose out" in reference to a team's record in the last few games of the season? is this new?

http://www.advancednflstats.com/2008/07/drunkards-light-posts-and-myth-of-370.html

debunking FO's crappy statistical methodology

from the comments on this week's QUICK READS - http://footballoutsiders.com/fo-espn-quick-reads/2008/2008-quick-reads-week-15

Re: 2008 Quick Reads: Week 15
by Love is like a bottle of gin (not verified) :: Mon, 12/15/2008 - 10:24pm

Why would you reinforce flawed statistical thinking by talking about the vaunted curse of 370 and acting like Turner might be fine if he can only manage to finish with 368 carries?

Surely if the hypothesized explanatory/causal mechanism is additional wear, then approaching 370 is only minutely worse than hitting 370 and it gets progressively worse the further you go. Sports is already way way too benchmark focused, don't give into temptation/sloth and perpetuate this (This comment has as much to do with the FO's overall comments and attitude towards "370" as it does this article).
reply

Re: 2008 Quick Reads: Week 15
by DeltaWhiskey :: Tue, 12/16/2008 - 6:28am

http://www.advancednflstats.com/2008/07/drunkards-light-posts-and-myth-o...
reply

Re: 2008 Quick Reads: Week 15
by Bowl Game Anomaly :: Tue, 12/16/2008 - 9:10am

The thing that frustrates me about FO is that, for a professional statistician, Aaron doesn't seem to know much about statistics. I have a feeling that if I asked him about a T-test or an ANOVA he'd go, "what's that?" He doesn't do X-square tests on his correlations either. Statistical significance matters.

(Formerly "The McNabb Bowl Game Anomaly")
reply

lol

time to add to the list of essentialz

michael lombardi's been doing some of the best analysis on the net for the National Football Post (other dudes on that site are worth reading as well)
http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/author/mike-lombardi/

totaltitans is very good even if you don't care about the titans, special mention goes to Tom Gower's posts
http://mvn.com/totaltitans/

tom's personal football blog is here - http://residualprolixity.blogspot.com/ - mostly he just links to interesting shit, some of which i will now highlight

advancednflstats comes from an angle similar to FO - ~*~*~TOMBOT~*~*~ you will love this, http://www.advancednflstats.com/2009/01/single-point-failure-model-of-passing.html - at least, i loved it, cuz it's a p. crucial piece of the puzzle that is often overlooked

smartfootball also ownes and is in a similar analytical-ass vein, here's a great post on the Colts' concepts in the passing game:
http://smartfootball.blogspot.com/2009/01/peytons-favorite-pass-play-levels.html

SF and ANS tend to make a point of differentiating themselves from FO by way of *putting down* FO and it tends to come off as bitterness, but all three sites have plenty to contribute to the discussion

pro-football-reference's blog is consistently p. interesting, usually coming at shit from an analytical pov:
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/blog/

florio's a turd but i generally keep up with PFT:
http://www.profootballtalk.com/category/rumor-mill/

travis doesnt update enough, but quirkyresearch has some interesting stuff interspersed throughout:
http://quirkyresearch.blogspot.com/

greg cosell of nfl films fame is THE SHIT:
http://www.sportingnews.com/experts/greg-cosell/archive.html

PFW is pretty good, i like the Scouts Eye and Audibles sections best:
http://www.profootballweekly.com/PFW/default.htm
http://www.profootballweekly.com/PFW/Features/Scouts+Eye/default.htm
http://www.profootballweekly.com/PFW/The+Way+We+Hear+It/Audibles/default.htm

finally, the espn transactions page
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/transactions

btw, where's Raposa been? havent seen that dude around for a while~

also, does anyone own this? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671453947/ref=cm_cr_dp_orig_subj

i'm thinking i need a copy

edsbs the best college futbol blog in tha land
http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/

doc saturday also good
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday

delicious, succulent breakdowns of the GT flexbone offense (football porn):

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/Smoke-mirrors-and-other-lies-Deconstructing-Ge?urn=ncaaf,125409
http://smartfootball.blogspot.com/2008/12/paul-johnsons-flexbone-meets-run-and.html

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200901/football-television/

For millions of football fans watching at home every Sunday, it seems as though NFL games make a seamless transition from the gridiron to the television screen. But spend a weekend with a network production crew, and you’ll discover what it really takes to turn the on-field action into televised entertainment..

florio @ pro football talk got started by writing a novel...
QUARTERBACK OF THE FUTURE

ahahha i just saw that and was gonna post about it... in the proud tradition of this jason elam has authored two spy novels called 'MONDAY NIGHT JIHAD' and 'BLOWN COVERAGE'

not entirely football related, but the SI article on bankrupt pro athletes had some shocking stats.... 78% of ex-NFL players are either bankrupt or under financial stress two years after retirement.
http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1153364/index.htm
One assumes the other 22 percent are kickers or Mannings?