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.

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?