bill and tom's excellent adventure
(the only draft that matters)
((to us))
(((part twelve)))
day twelve: offensive guard
John Hannah
9 All Pro Bowls
10 All Pros
75 Anniversary Team
70's All Decade Team
80's All Decade Team
Offensive Lineman of the Year (78, 79, 80, 81 and 84)
HOF 91
Bear Bryant, "He was the greatest lineman I ever coach."
Viewed as the second greatest lineman to ever play the game of football. Right behind Anthony Munoz who is also on Team Hicks.
Roll Tide!
i knew hannah would be your pick, and i don't hate, hate the pick, but you provide us a good path back to our old school/new school debate. we've already deconstructed the munoz as g.o.a.t. thing. we'll do the same here with hannah.
i don't like arguing against a Bama guy, but let's face it. he weighed in at 265 on a good day. no matter how "fast", "agile", or "intense" dude was, there is no way he has any shot of handling a monster like ted washington. and sure, he's going to get some help from what i assume will be an also undersized center, but you are setting up your pocket to start 2-3 yards behind the line of scrimmage from the jump of every play.
my pick was always going to be bruce matthews, the best guard that i've seen play, and he was probably even a hair past his prime when i started paying close attention.
his resume of pro bowls several-ups hannah with fourteen consecutive. he has an equal number of all-pros as well. he's a member of the 90's all-decade team, which i will contend until the end of this draft meant he was doing his thing around bigger and better athletes than those of generations past. he also was an iron man that never missed a game, playing in a record 296 for an offensive lineman.
what say you?
What do I say? I am no expert, but the experts say Hannah is the 24th greatest player of all time. The same experts say Bruce Matthews is the 78th. Bruce Matthews was a great lineman. John Hannah he was not. My grade for this round: Chris A Kevin A-
yeah, i get that. and i understand where they are coming from. the only way that you can make those lists is to is to grade guys out relative to the competition they were playing against.
to me, and maybe we are approaching this in two different ways, we are doing something completely different. we are putting together two teams that will play when each guy was at the height of his respective powers, lining them up, and playing one game to end all games. if we were just drafting based on the lists that you and i are both looking at, we would just be aggregating 20 lists and picking the next guy in line.
there is no way, in my mind, that hannah was a better offensive lineman than bruce matthews. i think, from what I've read, that hannah was a great lineman, too...for his time. in the same vein, how many of bear bryant's many all-americans could even make a current nick saban team? what about bruce matthews?
John Hannah may not beat out a guard on Saban's team right now, but he would beat out Bruce Matthews. And right now, that's all that matters. I'm sticking with the greatest Guard of all time. Chris
(ed: chris had first pick, so he's supposed to get last word. after that last statement, though, it's. so. hard.)
Thursday, October 13, 2011
bill and tom's excellent adventure(the only draft that matters)
((to us))
(((part eleven)))
day 11: defensive line
as i ponder where to go with my third and final defensive lineman selection, two names jump out at me. i assume that both are coming off the board, regardless, in this round, because i feel like chris will take one or the other as well. i won't name both because i don't want to put words in his mouth nor do i want to remove the potential of team tom drafting another dud and dressing him up with numbers and accolades posted against competition that didn't wear facemasks.
i got my mountain of a man in ted washington last round. i've got my rush tackle/end in the greatest defensive lineman to ever play the game in reggie white. i need a guy on the other side of ted washington that can stop the run, primarily, but cause his own havoc in the backfield since he's going to be blocked with one guy every snap of this game.
i'm taking randy white.
from '77 to '85, randy white was the truth for the dallas cowboys. nine pro bowls and nine first team all-pros lead his resume. nicknamed the "manster" (half man, half monster), white was able to play a number of positions for his teams due to his size and freakish (for a white guy) athleticism, lining up at end and some linebacker. white found his home at d-tackle, and seeing him on my line will give system montana bad memories from their showdowns in the 80's.
Deacon Jones
"Revolutionized the DE position", "First to use the head slap, that they all use now", "Lightning Quick"
Sacks weren't recorded, but the un-official numbers give him 194.5 which would be 3rd all time.
Named #15 on the 100 Greatest Players of All Time. In comparison, Randy White was named #62.
With Deacon Jones on one side of my 4-3 and Bruce Smith on the other. I think this team is shaping up to be pretty good. I feel certain I can find a sufficient DT to go next to Mean Joe.
yep. i could've called it. i was torn with my white pick, because i know the consensus on most of the "best ever" lists have deacon above white, but, as you noted, jones was a true defensive end, and, in my 3-4 scheme, it wouldn't have made sense to have another guy coming off the end.
I don't want to down play the "Manster" because he was on my list! Both are outstanding picks. No matter where they end up on the 100 All Time Players list, they are both very high on the d-line list.
you can tell it's been too long since we logged a pick. all this kumbaya crap is going to have to end fast.
((to us))
(((part eleven)))
day 11: defensive line
as i ponder where to go with my third and final defensive lineman selection, two names jump out at me. i assume that both are coming off the board, regardless, in this round, because i feel like chris will take one or the other as well. i won't name both because i don't want to put words in his mouth nor do i want to remove the potential of team tom drafting another dud and dressing him up with numbers and accolades posted against competition that didn't wear facemasks.
i got my mountain of a man in ted washington last round. i've got my rush tackle/end in the greatest defensive lineman to ever play the game in reggie white. i need a guy on the other side of ted washington that can stop the run, primarily, but cause his own havoc in the backfield since he's going to be blocked with one guy every snap of this game.
i'm taking randy white.
from '77 to '85, randy white was the truth for the dallas cowboys. nine pro bowls and nine first team all-pros lead his resume. nicknamed the "manster" (half man, half monster), white was able to play a number of positions for his teams due to his size and freakish (for a white guy) athleticism, lining up at end and some linebacker. white found his home at d-tackle, and seeing him on my line will give system montana bad memories from their showdowns in the 80's.
Deacon Jones
8 Pro Bowls
8 All Pros
NFL 75 Anniversary Team
60's All Decade Team
2 - Defensive Player of the Year
HOF 1980
"Revolutionized the DE position", "First to use the head slap, that they all use now", "Lightning Quick"
Sacks weren't recorded, but the un-official numbers give him 194.5 which would be 3rd all time.
Named #15 on the 100 Greatest Players of All Time. In comparison, Randy White was named #62.
With Deacon Jones on one side of my 4-3 and Bruce Smith on the other. I think this team is shaping up to be pretty good. I feel certain I can find a sufficient DT to go next to Mean Joe.
yep. i could've called it. i was torn with my white pick, because i know the consensus on most of the "best ever" lists have deacon above white, but, as you noted, jones was a true defensive end, and, in my 3-4 scheme, it wouldn't have made sense to have another guy coming off the end.
it is interesting how a guy in white with 9 all-pro teams versus deacon's 8 would be so much less regarded, but, in the end, i think it goes back to the points that were made along with my ted washington pick. there isn't a lot of glamour playing on the inside of a d-line. comparing a rush end and a tackle isn't apples to apples.
I don't want to down play the "Manster" because he was on my list! Both are outstanding picks. No matter where they end up on the 100 All Time Players list, they are both very high on the d-line list.
you can tell it's been too long since we logged a pick. all this kumbaya crap is going to have to end fast.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
hannah and caroline and me
(the last one before we add another name to the list)
this blog's kind of gone off the rails the last few months, hasn't it?
for all that's been said and done about this being a love letter of sorts to my girls that will one day be handed the keys to this kingdom, there haven't been many them related updates in a while. the "bill and tom" series has taken front and center and, while fun, sports and nothing but sports has never really been what this place is all about.
sure, sports makes up, always has and always will, a large portion of HACATLKAM, because sports makes up a large portion of me. but, where have the church updates been? where have the updates on the family or something silly that has happened to one of the girls been? where are more posts about the boondocks or lost or something stupid i read on facebook that one time?
well, all of that has been kind of muddled.
i feel like, for the last few months, my life has been on shuffle. i wake every morning with no idea what song is going to be playing. am i going to be in a good mood? a bad mood? how long will it take one of the girls to say something completely innocuous that will end up setting me completely off simply due to my being primed to be pissed off in the first place?
things are happening fast. we are about to be a family of fucking five, bro. FIVE!!! i still don't have any idea what that is going to mean. we don't have cars for a family of five. we don't really have a house for a family of five. hell, we still don't even have a name for the fifth yet! what are we doing? or, moreover, what have we done?
it's silly. for nine months now, we've been skipping along not really preparing for much to change. i mean, we know, know that things are changing. sarah's belly isn't getting bigger and bigger for nothing. but our routines haven't been evolving with a focus towards us adding another baby to the family. they've just been evolving with a focus to being even more busy than we ever were.
sarah's stressed at work. i've been asked to be more proactive in the community for my store, networking and creating referral based relationships with other businesses for the first time in my life. hannah's playing (and i am coaching) soccer again this fall, committing us for two nights and one saturday morning of each of the last six weeks. caroline's doing gymnastics on monday nights at the same time humc is still rocking the green and playing softball out at trussville. i'm now running over 20 miles a week. we've eaten dinner at home as a family, like, once in the last month (i am pretty sure this is not an exaggeration). even though i am backing off and away from my many roles at the church (which feels fantastic!), sarah can't really afford to yet, because ncd still has eight years to go and the children's place (in spite of some pretty nasty behind her back scuttlebutt to the contrary) can't afford to not have her leadership. we've got fajita fridays and falcons season tickets and etc. to boot. we try and find time to let the girls be girls, but, most of the week, they are caught in their parents' current, being swept away to whatever commitment we've made for them next. trying to breathe it all in at one time feels like being congested. you can get the breath down and you're still making it all work, but it feels like it takes a lot of effort and sometimes it's really fucking uncomfortable and snotty. and so, since we have all this shit figured out, we're going to go ahead and add a fifth dimension to the o'kelley universe.
in some ways, it feels like we are idiots.
in most other ways, it just feels like this is what families do.
it's no real surprise that life skips by in the blink of an eye. we do it to ourselves. our commitment calendar in the paragraph above? that's every family. even though it sounds like i am, i am not complaining. we signed up for everything above with not one gun placed to our heads. we did it. we wanted it. and now we've got it.
so, we deal with it.
hannah and caroline are about to be big sisters, together for the first time. they've already mastered the first step, which was to move into the same bedroom. not one complaint from either, they've jumped into their literal and figurative bunk beds and they are ready for their baby sister to come. i am sure they are more ready for her than us. hannah's going to be incredible. we already know that. caroline wants to hold the baby and feed her and call her sleeping beauty, which, to be fair, is as good as anything her parents have come up with so far. the girls, if nothing else, are a daily example to just roll with the punches,man "mommy". have some "chocolate milk", go "i'm gonna color this picture" and get ready for the next "iCharlie". life comes at them fast, too. they don't bitch much. they just live it. there's a lesson there.
hannah and caroline and the little kumquat and me will change again as soon as the kumquat arrives. it always has. it always will. in many ways. i'm excited for some new subject material. i'm excited to freshen this place up again soon with new ideas and new adventures that come with being a father of three.
there will still be some more "bill and tom". there will definitely be some whining about sports. but, i hope, hope, hope that there will be even more of the other, "the other" being come what may.
(the last one before we add another name to the list)
this blog's kind of gone off the rails the last few months, hasn't it?
for all that's been said and done about this being a love letter of sorts to my girls that will one day be handed the keys to this kingdom, there haven't been many them related updates in a while. the "bill and tom" series has taken front and center and, while fun, sports and nothing but sports has never really been what this place is all about.
sure, sports makes up, always has and always will, a large portion of HACATLKAM, because sports makes up a large portion of me. but, where have the church updates been? where have the updates on the family or something silly that has happened to one of the girls been? where are more posts about the boondocks or lost or something stupid i read on facebook that one time?
well, all of that has been kind of muddled.
i feel like, for the last few months, my life has been on shuffle. i wake every morning with no idea what song is going to be playing. am i going to be in a good mood? a bad mood? how long will it take one of the girls to say something completely innocuous that will end up setting me completely off simply due to my being primed to be pissed off in the first place?
things are happening fast. we are about to be a family of fucking five, bro. FIVE!!! i still don't have any idea what that is going to mean. we don't have cars for a family of five. we don't really have a house for a family of five. hell, we still don't even have a name for the fifth yet! what are we doing? or, moreover, what have we done?
it's silly. for nine months now, we've been skipping along not really preparing for much to change. i mean, we know, know that things are changing. sarah's belly isn't getting bigger and bigger for nothing. but our routines haven't been evolving with a focus towards us adding another baby to the family. they've just been evolving with a focus to being even more busy than we ever were.
sarah's stressed at work. i've been asked to be more proactive in the community for my store, networking and creating referral based relationships with other businesses for the first time in my life. hannah's playing (and i am coaching) soccer again this fall, committing us for two nights and one saturday morning of each of the last six weeks. caroline's doing gymnastics on monday nights at the same time humc is still rocking the green and playing softball out at trussville. i'm now running over 20 miles a week. we've eaten dinner at home as a family, like, once in the last month (i am pretty sure this is not an exaggeration). even though i am backing off and away from my many roles at the church (which feels fantastic!), sarah can't really afford to yet, because ncd still has eight years to go and the children's place (in spite of some pretty nasty behind her back scuttlebutt to the contrary) can't afford to not have her leadership. we've got fajita fridays and falcons season tickets and etc. to boot. we try and find time to let the girls be girls, but, most of the week, they are caught in their parents' current, being swept away to whatever commitment we've made for them next. trying to breathe it all in at one time feels like being congested. you can get the breath down and you're still making it all work, but it feels like it takes a lot of effort and sometimes it's really fucking uncomfortable and snotty. and so, since we have all this shit figured out, we're going to go ahead and add a fifth dimension to the o'kelley universe.
in some ways, it feels like we are idiots.
in most other ways, it just feels like this is what families do.
it's no real surprise that life skips by in the blink of an eye. we do it to ourselves. our commitment calendar in the paragraph above? that's every family. even though it sounds like i am, i am not complaining. we signed up for everything above with not one gun placed to our heads. we did it. we wanted it. and now we've got it.
so, we deal with it.
hannah and caroline are about to be big sisters, together for the first time. they've already mastered the first step, which was to move into the same bedroom. not one complaint from either, they've jumped into their literal and figurative bunk beds and they are ready for their baby sister to come. i am sure they are more ready for her than us. hannah's going to be incredible. we already know that. caroline wants to hold the baby and feed her and call her sleeping beauty, which, to be fair, is as good as anything her parents have come up with so far. the girls, if nothing else, are a daily example to just roll with the punches,
hannah and caroline and the little kumquat and me will change again as soon as the kumquat arrives. it always has. it always will. in many ways. i'm excited for some new subject material. i'm excited to freshen this place up again soon with new ideas and new adventures that come with being a father of three.
there will still be some more "bill and tom". there will definitely be some whining about sports. but, i hope, hope, hope that there will be even more of the other, "the other" being come what may.
Monday, September 26, 2011
bill and tom's excellent adventure
(the only draft that matters)
((to us))
(((part ten)))
day ten: defensive line
chris: I will take "Mean" Joe Greene as my next Defensive Lineman. Revered as the greatest defensive tackle to ever play the game he will go perfectly on my team. Accolades are as follows:
(the only draft that matters)
((to us))
(((part ten)))
day ten: defensive line
chris: I will take "Mean" Joe Greene as my next Defensive Lineman. Revered as the greatest defensive tackle to ever play the game he will go perfectly on my team. Accolades are as follows:
NFL.com - 13th greatest player in NFL History
10 Pro Bowls
8 - first or second team All Pro
75 Anniversary Team
all 70's team
Defensive Player of the year in 72 and 74
Defensive MVP in 1972
HOF - 1987
He was the anchor of the greatest defensive line of all time. Need I say more!
good pick.
in my 3-4 scheme, I've been torn, because, truly, how many all-timers jump to mind when you are talking about nose tackles? not many, right?
if joe greene was available here, i was going to take him and ask him to be my over the center guy, but you selecting him made my mind up for me. if i am going to play a true 3-4, i am going to need a true nose tackle. a space-eater. a mountain among men. a guy that will require triple attention from your center and two guards because he's just that big.
i am taking ted washington.
in my 3-4 scheme, I've been torn, because, truly, how many all-timers jump to mind when you are talking about nose tackles? not many, right?
if joe greene was available here, i was going to take him and ask him to be my over the center guy, but you selecting him made my mind up for me. if i am going to play a true 3-4, i am going to need a true nose tackle. a space-eater. a mountain among men. a guy that will require triple attention from your center and two guards because he's just that big.
i am taking ted washington.
the sporting news once called ted washington "the prototypical nose tackle of his era". in his prime (which, admittedly, was a small window. whatareyougonnado, though??? He was 6'5" and over 350 pounds. his body wasn't built to be elite for long), he was dominant. in a five year stretch between 1997 and 2001, washington made 4 pro bowls and as many all-pro teams. i remember seeing videos and highlights of him completely obliterating the insides of nfl offensive lines. when healthy, running up the middle wasn't an option and between the tackles was a risk. ted washington will free space for reggie white, derrick thomas and lawrence taylor to do their thing. you can only double-team so many guys.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
bill and tom's excellent adventure
(the only draft that matters)
((to us))
(((part nine)))
day nine: running back
this one should be fun. will it be another lesson in "old school" versus "new school" or something else entirely? the history of the nfl has given this position, maybe, more "greats" than any other. four will be picked in this draft. many others will have had deserving cases and careers.
chris is up first.
chris: I have thought about this one a lot. I am going to go with my heart and my wife's heart and take the Bear. I will select Walter Payton as my #1 Running Back. Like Jerry Rice for you, where do I even start with the stats and the awards.
NFL.com - #5 player of all time
9 pro bowls
6 first team all pros
3 second team all pros
1977 NFL MVP
1985 NFC Player of the Year
75th NFL Anniversary Team
1977 Pro Bowl MVP
HOF - 1993
Rushing:
16,726 yds
110 TDs
Receiving:
4,538 yds
15 TDs
All time leading rusher until Emmit Smith broke record in 2002
All time leader in yards from scrimmage until Jerry Rice broke record in 1998
For many years, Walter Payton was all the Bears had with regards to talent. And even with all of the talent around him in 1985, he still excelled. He was the leader of that team and the leader of that offense. I am proud to have him on my team!
this is the first position where i was legitimately worried you were going to take my number one off the board before i picked. thankfully, that didn't happen.
"while other people are stuck with joints, he seems to have ball bearings in his legs that give him a mechanical advantage." -si's paul zimmerman
what an excellent quote, right? i can't think of more eloquent way of describing the freakish nature with which my number one running back, barry sanders, played his position relative to his contemporaries.
there are many special running backs that have played in the national football league. walter payton makes that list, no doubt.
remember when i brought up the the "evolutionary" vs. "revolutionary" point with my lt pick? barry would slot in as the third (with lt and vick) revolutionary guy on my team. things he did on the field during his hall of fame and too short career were breathtaking.
in my opinion, barry's the greatest. he made the pro-bowl and first or second (6 first teams) all-pro's in all of his ten seasons. he rushed for over 2,000 (hitting the mark in his 14th game) in 1997 and shared the mvp of the league with brett favre.
obviously, i'm a big style guy, and i have never watched a football team with as much anticipation as i did a lions game during sanders' career. every touch carried with it the potential of seeing something obscene, something historic, something you may never see again. always lauded by john madden types for his spectacularly low center of gravity, more impressive was his athleticism. standing only 5'8", it's been reported that sanders could dunk flat-footed.
the nfl is a league of athletic outliers. barry sanders, though, was something altogether different, in the same pantheon of creation as his draft class peer, deion sanders, and a signal-caller that would follow in his highlighted footsteps, my quarterback, michael vick.
chris?
chris: i think i have the greatest running back ever. i think you have the 3rd greatest running back ever. i am certain mark will call it a draw.
(ed: we shall see)
(the only draft that matters)
((to us))
(((part nine)))
day nine: running back
this one should be fun. will it be another lesson in "old school" versus "new school" or something else entirely? the history of the nfl has given this position, maybe, more "greats" than any other. four will be picked in this draft. many others will have had deserving cases and careers.
chris is up first.
chris: I have thought about this one a lot. I am going to go with my heart and my wife's heart and take the Bear. I will select Walter Payton as my #1 Running Back. Like Jerry Rice for you, where do I even start with the stats and the awards.
NFL.com - #5 player of all time
9 pro bowls
6 first team all pros
3 second team all pros
1977 NFL MVP
1985 NFC Player of the Year
75th NFL Anniversary Team
1977 Pro Bowl MVP
HOF - 1993
Rushing:
16,726 yds
110 TDs
Receiving:
4,538 yds
15 TDs
All time leading rusher until Emmit Smith broke record in 2002
All time leader in yards from scrimmage until Jerry Rice broke record in 1998
For many years, Walter Payton was all the Bears had with regards to talent. And even with all of the talent around him in 1985, he still excelled. He was the leader of that team and the leader of that offense. I am proud to have him on my team!
this is the first position where i was legitimately worried you were going to take my number one off the board before i picked. thankfully, that didn't happen.
"while other people are stuck with joints, he seems to have ball bearings in his legs that give him a mechanical advantage." -si's paul zimmerman
what an excellent quote, right? i can't think of more eloquent way of describing the freakish nature with which my number one running back, barry sanders, played his position relative to his contemporaries.
there are many special running backs that have played in the national football league. walter payton makes that list, no doubt.
remember when i brought up the the "evolutionary" vs. "revolutionary" point with my lt pick? barry would slot in as the third (with lt and vick) revolutionary guy on my team. things he did on the field during his hall of fame and too short career were breathtaking.
in my opinion, barry's the greatest. he made the pro-bowl and first or second (6 first teams) all-pro's in all of his ten seasons. he rushed for over 2,000 (hitting the mark in his 14th game) in 1997 and shared the mvp of the league with brett favre.
obviously, i'm a big style guy, and i have never watched a football team with as much anticipation as i did a lions game during sanders' career. every touch carried with it the potential of seeing something obscene, something historic, something you may never see again. always lauded by john madden types for his spectacularly low center of gravity, more impressive was his athleticism. standing only 5'8", it's been reported that sanders could dunk flat-footed.
the nfl is a league of athletic outliers. barry sanders, though, was something altogether different, in the same pantheon of creation as his draft class peer, deion sanders, and a signal-caller that would follow in his highlighted footsteps, my quarterback, michael vick.
chris?
chris: i think i have the greatest running back ever. i think you have the 3rd greatest running back ever. i am certain mark will call it a draw.
(ed: we shall see)
Thursday, September 15, 2011
bill and tom's excellent adventure
(the only draft that matters)
((to us))
(((part eight)))
day eight: linebacker #2
as we reach the second week of the "only draft that matters to us", our teams will start to feel very bill-ish and very tom-ish, respectively. no better place to start with that than quarterback, and my and chris' philosophical differences will become more and more transparent as we move forward, i am sure.
today, we both take our second linebacker.
in my 3-4, scheme, i want explosion off both ends, because the goal will be to get after system montana on EVERY play, not just passing downs. i don't know that i can think of a better word than "explosive" when my memory serves up pictures to me of the guy that will serve as a bookend to lawrence taylor, the late, great derrick thomas.
widely considered one of the best pass rushers of all-time, thomas' first step is one of legend. if taylor signaled to teams that an athletic left-tackle would be fundamental to the future of the national football league, thomas tested the new world order. there was no secret that dt was coming off the edge and he was coming fast. on the most prolific single day of his career, thomas sacked seattle quarterback dave krieg seven times!
over the course of his hall of fame career, dt, was selected to 9 first or second all-pro teams, as many pro bowls and was named to the 90's all decade team.
chris: With my second linebacker, I am taking the great Jack Ham from the Pittsburgh Steelers. He fits perfectly into my 4-3 scheme and will be my weak side outside linebacker. Often revered as one of the best outside linebackers to play the game, he was a ferocious hitter with great speed, quickness and smarts. Chuck Noll said he was the fastest guy he had ever seen for the first 10 yards. And that was on a team with Lynn Swann and John Stallworth. Many of the players on that Steelers dynasty defense have said that Jack Ham was the leader of that unit, including Jack Lambert and Joe Greene. Joe Paterno who gave the induction speech for Ham at Canton in 1988 said, he was the best player he ever coached! The best linebacker to ever come out of linebacker U is pretty good, but the best player that Joe Pa has ever coached.....that's a guy I want on my team.
it's almost too easy to come back at this pick with a "really??? TWO white linebackers???", but i'll admit that your case is a good one.
i've watched too many nfl films documentaries about ham's steelers teams to not know he was a good and tough player. I don't know that speed, per se, ever jumped off the screen when I saw him play, but he was always in the mix at the end of the plays I have in my head right now. all that i really hope for you is that paterno was more aware of his surroundings and his players when ham played for him than he is now. At this point, I would be terribly surprised if jeopa could name ten players on his current squad.
i like where we are getting in the draft, getting to second guys at respective positions. this one's a good example of where we aren't really drafting dt vs. ham, because we are drafting for two different schemes.
i'm glad i got dt. my guess is that you're happy with your pick.
(the only draft that matters)
((to us))
(((part eight)))
day eight: linebacker #2
as we reach the second week of the "only draft that matters to us", our teams will start to feel very bill-ish and very tom-ish, respectively. no better place to start with that than quarterback, and my and chris' philosophical differences will become more and more transparent as we move forward, i am sure.
today, we both take our second linebacker.
in my 3-4, scheme, i want explosion off both ends, because the goal will be to get after system montana on EVERY play, not just passing downs. i don't know that i can think of a better word than "explosive" when my memory serves up pictures to me of the guy that will serve as a bookend to lawrence taylor, the late, great derrick thomas.
widely considered one of the best pass rushers of all-time, thomas' first step is one of legend. if taylor signaled to teams that an athletic left-tackle would be fundamental to the future of the national football league, thomas tested the new world order. there was no secret that dt was coming off the edge and he was coming fast. on the most prolific single day of his career, thomas sacked seattle quarterback dave krieg seven times!
over the course of his hall of fame career, dt, was selected to 9 first or second all-pro teams, as many pro bowls and was named to the 90's all decade team.
chris: With my second linebacker, I am taking the great Jack Ham from the Pittsburgh Steelers. He fits perfectly into my 4-3 scheme and will be my weak side outside linebacker. Often revered as one of the best outside linebackers to play the game, he was a ferocious hitter with great speed, quickness and smarts. Chuck Noll said he was the fastest guy he had ever seen for the first 10 yards. And that was on a team with Lynn Swann and John Stallworth. Many of the players on that Steelers dynasty defense have said that Jack Ham was the leader of that unit, including Jack Lambert and Joe Greene. Joe Paterno who gave the induction speech for Ham at Canton in 1988 said, he was the best player he ever coached! The best linebacker to ever come out of linebacker U is pretty good, but the best player that Joe Pa has ever coached.....that's a guy I want on my team.
8 pro bowls
8 all pro's
all 70's team
75 Anniversary team
HOF - 1988
it's almost too easy to come back at this pick with a "really??? TWO white linebackers???", but i'll admit that your case is a good one.
i've watched too many nfl films documentaries about ham's steelers teams to not know he was a good and tough player. I don't know that speed, per se, ever jumped off the screen when I saw him play, but he was always in the mix at the end of the plays I have in my head right now. all that i really hope for you is that paterno was more aware of his surroundings and his players when ham played for him than he is now. At this point, I would be terribly surprised if jeopa could name ten players on his current squad.
i like where we are getting in the draft, getting to second guys at respective positions. this one's a good example of where we aren't really drafting dt vs. ham, because we are drafting for two different schemes.
i'm glad i got dt. my guess is that you're happy with your pick.
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
bill and tom's excellent adventure
(the only draft that matters)
((to us))
(((part seven)))
day seven: quarterback
the head of the snake.
it what seems like appropriate timing, we end our first week of picks by drafting our starting quarterbacks. knowing chris for as long as i have and knowing his undying love of the san francisco 49ers, if he picked first, chris was always going to take one guy. in contrast to other positions where the luck of a coin flip determined who got the consensus best player at a respective position, i would never have taken chris' quarterback. not that i would dodge him out of respect to team tom, but i am putting together a team for one game, a game where we will assume all of our draft picks will be playing at their highest level of potential. to that end, chris' "old school" and my "new school" philosophies were always destined to diverge most glaringly with this singular pick.
chris is up first.
Without further ado.........I will go ahead and take Joe Montana as my quarterback. He is without a doubt in MY mind the greatest quarterback to ever play the game. He did not have the numbers that Marino, Favre or Peyton when he is done will have, but he was the consummate general. It is often thought that if he didn't have the players around him that he did, we wouldn't be considered the same player. I disagree and so do those players. Jerry Rice has said that without Joe Montana the 49ers of the 80's were a good team. Not a great team. He elevated everyone around him and will always be considered a winner, because that is what he did best....found a way to win. And he did it on the greatest stage of all. Stats are as follows:
1989 and 1990 NFL MVP
1990 Sportsman of the Year
8 Pro Bowls
4 Super Bowl wins
3 Super Bowl MVPs
3 1st team All Pros
1980's team of the decade
75 Anniversary Team
Named by ESPN as the 25th greatest athlete of the 20th century
i'll take this guy (see video below)...
(ed: cue chris' head exploding)
there were three guys on my list that i was considering taking as my quarterback. peyton manning was one. his statistical numbers will end up as the best of all-time. while peyton's career has not been one that suffers from a dearth of talent on offense, his defenses have been consistently poor to downright bad, putting even more pressure on himself and his skill guys to perform at their highest levels. john elway, i've heard described as the best athlete ever to play quarterback, which is the most ridiculous statement ever, but i understand the sentiment. in an era where plodding pocket passers (montana, simms, theismann) were the norm that teams would build around and hope to find in a draft, elway was cut from a different mold. he was an all-everything athlete at stanford, his arm was a thing of legend, and, by the end of his career, his accomplishments stacked up nicely to his early potential.
the greatest athlete to ever play quarterback, though, is mike vick. bar none. end of discussion. vick took the skill-set displayed by guys like doug williams and randall cunningham and raised (and continues to raise) them to the 3rd or 4th power. from the time he stepped foot in atlanta, he was reality's equivalent to "tecmo bo". faster than everyone on the field. strongest arm in the league. literally unstoppable when he found his groove.
his numbers, admittedly, pale when placed next to a guy like montana or manning or elway. i get that. he's made four pro bowls. he's finished in the top 3 of the nfl mvp vote twice. he will eventually eclipse the aforementioned cunningham as the most prolific rushing quarterback in the history of the league. he's had a 1,000 yard rushing season from the quarterback position for god's sake! all of that, and he's becoming more efficient. the eagles' version of the west coast offense last season was as explosive as it has ever been under andy reid and only figures to become more dangerous.
as a pure playmaker, mike vick has no equal. in a one game and off scenario, there isn't a more difficult player to gameplan against. he's my guy.
This is a f-ing (ed: chris means "fucking") joke! Thanks for making the greatest draft ever a f-ing (ed: chris means "fucking" again) joke!
Vick is a great athlete......this is not being argued. But if you believe that Michael Vick could lead a team to victory (even in a one game scenario at his prime) against a team led by Joe Montana.......you are crazy (ed: call me crazy). Vick will be known one day as the greatest running quarterback. Congrats. The position takes more than just running; it takes sound decision making and leadership. Oh did I mention that I agree Michael Vick has a rocket arm. To that point....he hasn't done DICK with it! When Michael Vick has four super bowl rings, a couple of MVP's and is considered THE BEST at his position of all time.....call me. In fact, take away the requirement of Super Bowls and MVPS and show me a list the day he retires that puts him in the Top 5 NFL quarterbacks of all time.....I will be waiting (ed: can i end the suspense and tell you he'll end up on mine???). The fact that you want to even argue this bothers me. The credibility of your team just got chewed up like a puppy in a dog fight.....of course you are the one that drafted Michael Vick as "YOUR GUY"! Good luck.
Since you are the king of throwing stats in peoples faces, I thought it would be fun to compare these two statistically. First I wanted to see where Michael Vick ranked on the NFL's Top 100 Players of all time.........and I was shocked he didn't make the list. I am sure you are just as bewildered. BTW....Joe was number 2. So then I thought, well that isn't really fair because Michael Vick is still playing and he did miss a few seasons (see note later). At this point, I decided to see where he ranked in the Top 100 Players of Today's NFL. Vick came in at number 20. He was the 5th Quarterback on the list behind Brady, Manning, Brees and Rodgers. I wonder if such a list had been completed in 1987.....(Joe Montana's 9th season) where he would fall. Of course, at that point he already had two Super Bowl MVP's so I'm pretty sure he would be pretty high. I guess we will never know.
I kept coming back to the fact that maybe I am just being unfair to Vick. So I went and did a little study on how his 2010 season (a great season for a quarterback) ranked in EAGLES quarterback history. He lead the other folks (McNabb, Cunningham, Jaws, Van Brocklin) in two categories: Rushing TD's with 9 and Fewest Picks with 6. Of course, Cunningham who was closest on the rushing TD's stat with 5 did have 9 more TD's passing and 400 more yards passing. And as you probably presumed, I found that while McNabb had two more picks in 2004 he did throw from 800 more yards and 10 more TD's. BTW...McNabb did get to the Super Bowl that year as well. I just thought that was an interesting side note.
You know I mentioned earlier that Vick has only played 8 years......yeah, I knew you were going to remember. I realize that I need to compare their stats based on their first 8 seasons. 8 of course because Michael missed 2 seasons due to the fact that he was doing hard time for being a complete waste to society....another topic for another day. Here is how he and Joe Montana stack up next to each other after their 1st 8 seasons in the league. It is important to remember that Joe went 13/23 for 1TD in his rookie year (1979) and that 1986 (his 8th season) was a season shortened by the strike and only had 8 games. Oh...you know what....that fact really isn't that important.
Vick
Passing - 55.3%, 14,609 yards, 93 TDs, 58 INTs and a rating of 80.2
Rushing - 4,630 yards, 32 TDs and 23 Fumbles
Awards:
4 Pro Bowls
2003 ESPY Best NFL Player
2009 Eagles Courage Award
2010 NFL Comeback Player of the Year
Montana
Passing - 62.4%, 21,498 yards, 141 TDs, 76 INTs and a rating of 89.3
Rushing - 905 yards, 10 TDs and 0 Fumbles
Awards:
2 Super Bowls
2 Super Bowl MVPS
4 Pro Bowls
3 - 2nd Team All Pro
1986 NFL Comeback Player of the Year
I repeat how I started my rebuttal.....this is a f-ing j (ed: you know what he means) joke.
so, it took a full week for you to wake up, huh? well, at least you're awake now.
first of all, i am not sure if you are truly offended, or if you dropping fuck-bombs all over the place is some sort of premeditated strategy. for the first six days of our draft, you've been downright pleasant about having your ass handed to you, even to the point of conceding on several days. but here, on the day we select our quarterback, you lose your shit at the mere thought of me taking someone outside of the conventional box of every all-time quarterback list and acting like it isn't worth having a conversation about. even after i've provided you with video evidence of what has been called quite possibly the best all-around quarterback performance of all-time. methinks thou doth protest too much. let me explain.
first, let's compare two very short and very simple lists.
49er's joe montana had the pleasure of playing with
dwight clark
randy cross
wendell tyler
roger craig
freddie solomon
fred quillen
keith fahnhorst
jerry rice
john taylor
tom rathman
falcons michael vick had the pleasure of playing with
warrick dunn
t.j. duckett
peerless price
bob whitfield
dez white
alge crumpler
michael jenkins
roddy white
brian finneran (ed: white guy skill player)
ashley lelie
from these two lists of ten, what do you see?
me? on one list, i see tens on top of ten pro-bowlers and all-pros. the other? a trash heap of has-beens and never will be's (one exception in roddy white, who played with vick only two seasons).
now, when i first read your fuck-bomb infused takedown of vick, i thought i'd respond with a similar takedown of system montana. but, really, what's the point? i won't argue your pick.
what i will argue (ed: i present the above lists as exibit a, your honor), though, is that your joe was put into a system and situation and surrounded with a cast of characters that gave him a higher than average chance of succeeding. vick, on the other hand, was taken by a falcons franchise that had tasted true success only once and their organization had no idea how to take the "dirty birds" and build them into the future, a future that was desolate and beneath decline when vick came to atlanta.
joe montana was allowed to develop underneath one of the more brilliant offensive football minds ever in bill walsh. mike vick? his "coach" was jim fucking mora, jr. excellent.
now, let's take a quick look at your numbers from the two quarterbacks. actually, let's just take a look at two. total yards. total touchdowns.
in montana's first 8 seasons (120-ish games, taking away the strike shortened games and not accounting for the games he missed due to ijnury), he led his team to 186 yards per game and 1.25 touchdowns per game.
in vicks first 8 seasons (128-ish games, also not taking away games he missed due to injury), he lead his falcons and eagles to 150 yards per game and .98 touchdowns per game.
hmm...the "greatest quarterback in the history of the game" was good for all of three first downs more and about a quarter-touchdown a game more than the guy that i chose and you claimed made this draft out to be a "fucking joke".
i am sure montana's pro-bowl teammates had nothing to do with those minor statistical differences either. i am sure they can all be accounted for because joe was such the fucking "general' on the field, right?
give me a fucking break, tom. if you don't like vick, fine. i am glad you slighted him so i could pick him to match up against your defense that was really good "for their time". you're telling me that white dick butkus would ever, and i mean FUCKING EVER stand a shot at tackling vick in the open field? really? how many times? 1 out of 50, when mike tripped over a divot??? please.
what this really is, your "this is a fucking joke" takedown of vick, is nothing more than the old baseball writer that votes the best player on the the best team mvp because it's easy and no one can really argue against it.
again, i am not arguing against montana. he's fine. we aren't building franchises, though. we are building collections of talent that we think could outplay the other's collection of talent. it looks like, according to your own numbers, i've spotted you about a 1.5 points.
you've still got some ground to make up.
chris:Let me respond with....you are right on one front....I have been pleasant and have conceded some picks. This pick makes the draft a fucking joke. That's right...a fucking joke. Vick had a great season last year. Slice it all you want, BILL, he is not worthy of this list. When he finds himself in the top 5 QBs of all time when he retires.....we can have this argument again. He won't....if he stays out of prison long enough to retire! Until then, my 2nd QB will out shine him. I have nothing else to say on this subject except fuck you and your BS strategy and fuck Michael Vick! Tom-out!
now i am starting to feel like i'm on foxnews and some pundit keeps saying the same line over and over again in the hopes that people start to believe it.
the ground rules of our little exercise did not include the mandate of having to choose players from every old nfl writer's best nfl players of all-time lists.
we've established that the great system Montana was worth about 1.5 points more to his team than michael vick over the course of their first eight seasons. we've also established that the cast of players and organizations around system and around vick were not even in the same ballpark. as bill walsh asked system to do what he was capable of doing (throwing 8 yard slants and almost over-throwing his tight-end in the end zone), we've established that michael vick's own coach often had no idea how to use vick.
is it coincidence, then, that the first year vick started and played with a capable coach and with capable players in a capable organization that he ran less, threw more and finished second in the mvp voting? this guy thinks not.
vick is the most dangerous weapon this league has ever seen.
you've already granted he's the best running quarterback in the history of the league. by the time i finish my backfield, we may never have to throw the ball anyway.
chris: (ed: rests his case)
(the only draft that matters)
((to us))
(((part seven)))
day seven: quarterback
the head of the snake.
it what seems like appropriate timing, we end our first week of picks by drafting our starting quarterbacks. knowing chris for as long as i have and knowing his undying love of the san francisco 49ers, if he picked first, chris was always going to take one guy. in contrast to other positions where the luck of a coin flip determined who got the consensus best player at a respective position, i would never have taken chris' quarterback. not that i would dodge him out of respect to team tom, but i am putting together a team for one game, a game where we will assume all of our draft picks will be playing at their highest level of potential. to that end, chris' "old school" and my "new school" philosophies were always destined to diverge most glaringly with this singular pick.
chris is up first.
Without further ado.........I will go ahead and take Joe Montana as my quarterback. He is without a doubt in MY mind the greatest quarterback to ever play the game. He did not have the numbers that Marino, Favre or Peyton when he is done will have, but he was the consummate general. It is often thought that if he didn't have the players around him that he did, we wouldn't be considered the same player. I disagree and so do those players. Jerry Rice has said that without Joe Montana the 49ers of the 80's were a good team. Not a great team. He elevated everyone around him and will always be considered a winner, because that is what he did best....found a way to win. And he did it on the greatest stage of all. Stats are as follows:
1989 and 1990 NFL MVP
1990 Sportsman of the Year
8 Pro Bowls
4 Super Bowl wins
3 Super Bowl MVPs
3 1st team All Pros
1980's team of the decade
75 Anniversary Team
Named by ESPN as the 25th greatest athlete of the 20th century
i'll take this guy (see video below)...
(ed: cue chris' head exploding)
there were three guys on my list that i was considering taking as my quarterback. peyton manning was one. his statistical numbers will end up as the best of all-time. while peyton's career has not been one that suffers from a dearth of talent on offense, his defenses have been consistently poor to downright bad, putting even more pressure on himself and his skill guys to perform at their highest levels. john elway, i've heard described as the best athlete ever to play quarterback, which is the most ridiculous statement ever, but i understand the sentiment. in an era where plodding pocket passers (montana, simms, theismann) were the norm that teams would build around and hope to find in a draft, elway was cut from a different mold. he was an all-everything athlete at stanford, his arm was a thing of legend, and, by the end of his career, his accomplishments stacked up nicely to his early potential.
the greatest athlete to ever play quarterback, though, is mike vick. bar none. end of discussion. vick took the skill-set displayed by guys like doug williams and randall cunningham and raised (and continues to raise) them to the 3rd or 4th power. from the time he stepped foot in atlanta, he was reality's equivalent to "tecmo bo". faster than everyone on the field. strongest arm in the league. literally unstoppable when he found his groove.
his numbers, admittedly, pale when placed next to a guy like montana or manning or elway. i get that. he's made four pro bowls. he's finished in the top 3 of the nfl mvp vote twice. he will eventually eclipse the aforementioned cunningham as the most prolific rushing quarterback in the history of the league. he's had a 1,000 yard rushing season from the quarterback position for god's sake! all of that, and he's becoming more efficient. the eagles' version of the west coast offense last season was as explosive as it has ever been under andy reid and only figures to become more dangerous.
as a pure playmaker, mike vick has no equal. in a one game and off scenario, there isn't a more difficult player to gameplan against. he's my guy.
This is a f-ing (ed: chris means "fucking") joke! Thanks for making the greatest draft ever a f-ing (ed: chris means "fucking" again) joke!
Vick is a great athlete......this is not being argued. But if you believe that Michael Vick could lead a team to victory (even in a one game scenario at his prime) against a team led by Joe Montana.......you are crazy (ed: call me crazy). Vick will be known one day as the greatest running quarterback. Congrats. The position takes more than just running; it takes sound decision making and leadership. Oh did I mention that I agree Michael Vick has a rocket arm. To that point....he hasn't done DICK with it! When Michael Vick has four super bowl rings, a couple of MVP's and is considered THE BEST at his position of all time.....call me. In fact, take away the requirement of Super Bowls and MVPS and show me a list the day he retires that puts him in the Top 5 NFL quarterbacks of all time.....I will be waiting (ed: can i end the suspense and tell you he'll end up on mine???). The fact that you want to even argue this bothers me. The credibility of your team just got chewed up like a puppy in a dog fight.....of course you are the one that drafted Michael Vick as "YOUR GUY"! Good luck.
Since you are the king of throwing stats in peoples faces, I thought it would be fun to compare these two statistically. First I wanted to see where Michael Vick ranked on the NFL's Top 100 Players of all time.........and I was shocked he didn't make the list. I am sure you are just as bewildered. BTW....Joe was number 2. So then I thought, well that isn't really fair because Michael Vick is still playing and he did miss a few seasons (see note later). At this point, I decided to see where he ranked in the Top 100 Players of Today's NFL. Vick came in at number 20. He was the 5th Quarterback on the list behind Brady, Manning, Brees and Rodgers. I wonder if such a list had been completed in 1987.....(Joe Montana's 9th season) where he would fall. Of course, at that point he already had two Super Bowl MVP's so I'm pretty sure he would be pretty high. I guess we will never know.
I kept coming back to the fact that maybe I am just being unfair to Vick. So I went and did a little study on how his 2010 season (a great season for a quarterback) ranked in EAGLES quarterback history. He lead the other folks (McNabb, Cunningham, Jaws, Van Brocklin) in two categories: Rushing TD's with 9 and Fewest Picks with 6. Of course, Cunningham who was closest on the rushing TD's stat with 5 did have 9 more TD's passing and 400 more yards passing. And as you probably presumed, I found that while McNabb had two more picks in 2004 he did throw from 800 more yards and 10 more TD's. BTW...McNabb did get to the Super Bowl that year as well. I just thought that was an interesting side note.
You know I mentioned earlier that Vick has only played 8 years......yeah, I knew you were going to remember. I realize that I need to compare their stats based on their first 8 seasons. 8 of course because Michael missed 2 seasons due to the fact that he was doing hard time for being a complete waste to society....another topic for another day. Here is how he and Joe Montana stack up next to each other after their 1st 8 seasons in the league. It is important to remember that Joe went 13/23 for 1TD in his rookie year (1979) and that 1986 (his 8th season) was a season shortened by the strike and only had 8 games. Oh...you know what....that fact really isn't that important.
Vick
Passing - 55.3%, 14,609 yards, 93 TDs, 58 INTs and a rating of 80.2
Rushing - 4,630 yards, 32 TDs and 23 Fumbles
Awards:
4 Pro Bowls
2003 ESPY Best NFL Player
2009 Eagles Courage Award
2010 NFL Comeback Player of the Year
Montana
Passing - 62.4%, 21,498 yards, 141 TDs, 76 INTs and a rating of 89.3
Rushing - 905 yards, 10 TDs and 0 Fumbles
Awards:
2 Super Bowls
2 Super Bowl MVPS
4 Pro Bowls
3 - 2nd Team All Pro
1986 NFL Comeback Player of the Year
I repeat how I started my rebuttal.....this is a f-ing j (ed: you know what he means) joke.
so, it took a full week for you to wake up, huh? well, at least you're awake now.
first of all, i am not sure if you are truly offended, or if you dropping fuck-bombs all over the place is some sort of premeditated strategy. for the first six days of our draft, you've been downright pleasant about having your ass handed to you, even to the point of conceding on several days. but here, on the day we select our quarterback, you lose your shit at the mere thought of me taking someone outside of the conventional box of every all-time quarterback list and acting like it isn't worth having a conversation about. even after i've provided you with video evidence of what has been called quite possibly the best all-around quarterback performance of all-time. methinks thou doth protest too much. let me explain.
first, let's compare two very short and very simple lists.
49er's joe montana had the pleasure of playing with
dwight clark
randy cross
wendell tyler
roger craig
freddie solomon
fred quillen
keith fahnhorst
jerry rice
john taylor
tom rathman
falcons michael vick had the pleasure of playing with
warrick dunn
t.j. duckett
peerless price
bob whitfield
dez white
alge crumpler
michael jenkins
roddy white
brian finneran (ed: white guy skill player)
ashley lelie
from these two lists of ten, what do you see?
me? on one list, i see tens on top of ten pro-bowlers and all-pros. the other? a trash heap of has-beens and never will be's (one exception in roddy white, who played with vick only two seasons).
now, when i first read your fuck-bomb infused takedown of vick, i thought i'd respond with a similar takedown of system montana. but, really, what's the point? i won't argue your pick.
what i will argue (ed: i present the above lists as exibit a, your honor), though, is that your joe was put into a system and situation and surrounded with a cast of characters that gave him a higher than average chance of succeeding. vick, on the other hand, was taken by a falcons franchise that had tasted true success only once and their organization had no idea how to take the "dirty birds" and build them into the future, a future that was desolate and beneath decline when vick came to atlanta.
joe montana was allowed to develop underneath one of the more brilliant offensive football minds ever in bill walsh. mike vick? his "coach" was jim fucking mora, jr. excellent.
now, let's take a quick look at your numbers from the two quarterbacks. actually, let's just take a look at two. total yards. total touchdowns.
in montana's first 8 seasons (120-ish games, taking away the strike shortened games and not accounting for the games he missed due to ijnury), he led his team to 186 yards per game and 1.25 touchdowns per game.
in vicks first 8 seasons (128-ish games, also not taking away games he missed due to injury), he lead his falcons and eagles to 150 yards per game and .98 touchdowns per game.
hmm...the "greatest quarterback in the history of the game" was good for all of three first downs more and about a quarter-touchdown a game more than the guy that i chose and you claimed made this draft out to be a "fucking joke".
i am sure montana's pro-bowl teammates had nothing to do with those minor statistical differences either. i am sure they can all be accounted for because joe was such the fucking "general' on the field, right?
give me a fucking break, tom. if you don't like vick, fine. i am glad you slighted him so i could pick him to match up against your defense that was really good "for their time". you're telling me that white dick butkus would ever, and i mean FUCKING EVER stand a shot at tackling vick in the open field? really? how many times? 1 out of 50, when mike tripped over a divot??? please.
what this really is, your "this is a fucking joke" takedown of vick, is nothing more than the old baseball writer that votes the best player on the the best team mvp because it's easy and no one can really argue against it.
again, i am not arguing against montana. he's fine. we aren't building franchises, though. we are building collections of talent that we think could outplay the other's collection of talent. it looks like, according to your own numbers, i've spotted you about a 1.5 points.
you've still got some ground to make up.
chris:Let me respond with....you are right on one front....I have been pleasant and have conceded some picks. This pick makes the draft a fucking joke. That's right...a fucking joke. Vick had a great season last year. Slice it all you want, BILL, he is not worthy of this list. When he finds himself in the top 5 QBs of all time when he retires.....we can have this argument again. He won't....if he stays out of prison long enough to retire! Until then, my 2nd QB will out shine him. I have nothing else to say on this subject except fuck you and your BS strategy and fuck Michael Vick! Tom-out!
now i am starting to feel like i'm on foxnews and some pundit keeps saying the same line over and over again in the hopes that people start to believe it.
the ground rules of our little exercise did not include the mandate of having to choose players from every old nfl writer's best nfl players of all-time lists.
we've established that the great system Montana was worth about 1.5 points more to his team than michael vick over the course of their first eight seasons. we've also established that the cast of players and organizations around system and around vick were not even in the same ballpark. as bill walsh asked system to do what he was capable of doing (throwing 8 yard slants and almost over-throwing his tight-end in the end zone), we've established that michael vick's own coach often had no idea how to use vick.
is it coincidence, then, that the first year vick started and played with a capable coach and with capable players in a capable organization that he ran less, threw more and finished second in the mvp voting? this guy thinks not.
vick is the most dangerous weapon this league has ever seen.
you've already granted he's the best running quarterback in the history of the league. by the time i finish my backfield, we may never have to throw the ball anyway.
chris: (ed: rests his case)
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
bill and tom's excellent adventure
(the only draft that matters)
((to us))
(((part six)))
day six: safety
adrian wilson. ed reed. troy polamalu. today's great nfl safeties don't owe anything, necessarily, to ronnie lott. if aping a previous player's style and/or swag was a commodity worth paying royalties on, though, some financial recompense may, in fact, be in order.
ronnie lott came into the league as a corner, but his massive skill-set was worth more when given the keys to terrorhawk from the 49ers centerfield and strike fear into wide-receivers league wide. lott was an incredibly cerebral player and much like polamalu, these days, always seems to be around the end result of any play, lott set the precedent for that type of behavior coming from the safety position.
in addition to his awareness rating being a figurative "99", lott's other calling card was his toughness, with no greater example being that of asking a san francisco trainer to shave the top half of a pinky off so that he could re-enter a football game after smashing the digit into oblivion between two helmets.
his vital stats ring every bit as impressive.
10 pro bowls
8 first team all-pros
4 super bowls
80's and 90's all decade teams
lott may have not only been the spiritual grandfather to the golden age of safeties we are currently living in, but he may be the the greatest defensive back to ever live (ed: eat that, primetime). period.
chris: Since you got the best FS ever, I will take the best SS ever. Ken Houston who played for Washington and Houston, spending most of his time with the Redskins.
12 Pro Bowls
2 All Pro Selections
1986 HOF
1970's all decade team
75th Anniversary Team
Before Lott, Ken Houston was the safety. At 6'3 200 pounds, he would be an avg if not small safety now. However in his day this was considered big and he like Lott was regarded for his big hits.
i'm just gonna have to take your word for it.
as I was looking around, ken houston's name popped up on every list of all-time safeties that i found, but he was one of the few guys at any position that i have ZERO recollection of ever seeing a highlight from or reading about. of course, after having that thought, I said to myself, "chris is going to pick ken houston."
i'm not against picking guys from previous generations. i'm not so naive to believe that there weren't really good football players relative to their competition in the 60's and 70's. that being said, you aren't going to see many, if any, of those guys on team bill. so, congrats on the ken houston pick. maybe you can introduce me to him before the big game.
chris: meet ken houston (ed: see below)
i'll commend the pick if for no other reason than the fantastic sideburns.
anything else or are we moving forward to you drafting joe montana?
(the only draft that matters)
((to us))
(((part six)))
day six: safety
adrian wilson. ed reed. troy polamalu. today's great nfl safeties don't owe anything, necessarily, to ronnie lott. if aping a previous player's style and/or swag was a commodity worth paying royalties on, though, some financial recompense may, in fact, be in order.
ronnie lott came into the league as a corner, but his massive skill-set was worth more when given the keys to terrorhawk from the 49ers centerfield and strike fear into wide-receivers league wide. lott was an incredibly cerebral player and much like polamalu, these days, always seems to be around the end result of any play, lott set the precedent for that type of behavior coming from the safety position.
in addition to his awareness rating being a figurative "99", lott's other calling card was his toughness, with no greater example being that of asking a san francisco trainer to shave the top half of a pinky off so that he could re-enter a football game after smashing the digit into oblivion between two helmets.
his vital stats ring every bit as impressive.
10 pro bowls
8 first team all-pros
4 super bowls
80's and 90's all decade teams
lott may have not only been the spiritual grandfather to the golden age of safeties we are currently living in, but he may be the the greatest defensive back to ever live (ed: eat that, primetime). period.
chris: Since you got the best FS ever, I will take the best SS ever. Ken Houston who played for Washington and Houston, spending most of his time with the Redskins.
12 Pro Bowls
2 All Pro Selections
1986 HOF
1970's all decade team
75th Anniversary Team
Before Lott, Ken Houston was the safety. At 6'3 200 pounds, he would be an avg if not small safety now. However in his day this was considered big and he like Lott was regarded for his big hits.
i'm just gonna have to take your word for it.
as I was looking around, ken houston's name popped up on every list of all-time safeties that i found, but he was one of the few guys at any position that i have ZERO recollection of ever seeing a highlight from or reading about. of course, after having that thought, I said to myself, "chris is going to pick ken houston."
i'm not against picking guys from previous generations. i'm not so naive to believe that there weren't really good football players relative to their competition in the 60's and 70's. that being said, you aren't going to see many, if any, of those guys on team bill. so, congrats on the ken houston pick. maybe you can introduce me to him before the big game.
chris: meet ken houston (ed: see below)
i'll commend the pick if for no other reason than the fantastic sideburns.
anything else or are we moving forward to you drafting joe montana?
Sunday, August 28, 2011
ladies and gentlemen, your rookie of the year
(part two)
the actual facts of the matter:
preseason game 2: 2 catches, 31 yards
preseason game 3: 5 catches, 59 yards, one very memorable "almost"
"game two" of julio's rookie of the year campaign was predictably different than his debut. his debut was in front of the home crowd, the same home crowd that had been anticipating his arrival since draft night. how did the falcons organization and coaches reward their fans? with an incredible sense of awareness. the first two plays of his first offensive series were aimed at him. in fact, in the three possessions he was on the field, you could argue that he was the focal point of the offense.
meanwhile, roddy white played the role of mentor and cheerleader. there wasn't even a hint of displeasure in white's body language. after all, even the most ardent julio fans knew that preseason, game one was not indicative of things to come (at least in the short term). roddy white was the all-pro. julio was the new toy underneath the christmas tree.
"game two", then, would be another experiment, this time showcasing the feature back, michael turner. julio and roddy white both ran routes, but they weren't terribly involved in what the coaches had in mind.
if the stubbornness towards the run was obvious in miami, the polar opposite was on display in pittsburgh last night. matt ryan threw the ball FORTY-TWO times in the first half, and roddy white collected 100 yards and a touchdown along the way. oh yeah! he's really good too! neither road trip was purposed towards balance. both trips were meant to kick the tires on the new offense in the hopes that the falcons could inventory what, exactly, is under the hood on this flashy new sports car of an offense.
"game four" will feel like none of the above. the starters will play a series or two in front of the home crowd and waive good-bye to them for a couple weeks before starship 7 comes back to the dome on sept. 18th.
the highlight of last night and the last two weeks and this julio preseason was recorded as an incompletion, but, if you've seen sportscenter, you know the play i am speaking of. the color guy on the falcons broadcast, charles davis, went nuts as julio blew past a corner and safety on a 50 yard deep route that bounced off his hands in the end zone.
"every defensive coach the falcons will play just saw that play!", exclaimed davis.
for as good as roddy white is, he's never materialized as a deep threat for the falcons. after three preseason games, julio has already established "run fast, go deep" hangs from his utility belt.
charles davis also made an incredible observation that i wish i had made first while commenting on how he sees julio fitting into the falcons plans. "he's going to be reggie wayne to roddy's marvin harrison." god. yes. yes, he is. when wayne came to the colts, he was already more talented than one of the greatest receivers of the last 20 years, but he didn't diva up or expect anything. he played his role. he excelled at what the colts asked of him. he caught tons of passes, and now he's been the primary target for peyton manning for the last five years. if julio can mirror that career path, he would have done himself proud.
it's just the preseason, and the preseason is all about getting ready for the real season, but julio's impact is already on the rise.
impact: 7
(part two)
the actual facts of the matter:
preseason game 2: 2 catches, 31 yards
preseason game 3: 5 catches, 59 yards, one very memorable "almost"
"game two" of julio's rookie of the year campaign was predictably different than his debut. his debut was in front of the home crowd, the same home crowd that had been anticipating his arrival since draft night. how did the falcons organization and coaches reward their fans? with an incredible sense of awareness. the first two plays of his first offensive series were aimed at him. in fact, in the three possessions he was on the field, you could argue that he was the focal point of the offense.
meanwhile, roddy white played the role of mentor and cheerleader. there wasn't even a hint of displeasure in white's body language. after all, even the most ardent julio fans knew that preseason, game one was not indicative of things to come (at least in the short term). roddy white was the all-pro. julio was the new toy underneath the christmas tree.
"game two", then, would be another experiment, this time showcasing the feature back, michael turner. julio and roddy white both ran routes, but they weren't terribly involved in what the coaches had in mind.
if the stubbornness towards the run was obvious in miami, the polar opposite was on display in pittsburgh last night. matt ryan threw the ball FORTY-TWO times in the first half, and roddy white collected 100 yards and a touchdown along the way. oh yeah! he's really good too! neither road trip was purposed towards balance. both trips were meant to kick the tires on the new offense in the hopes that the falcons could inventory what, exactly, is under the hood on this flashy new sports car of an offense.
"game four" will feel like none of the above. the starters will play a series or two in front of the home crowd and waive good-bye to them for a couple weeks before starship 7 comes back to the dome on sept. 18th.
the highlight of last night and the last two weeks and this julio preseason was recorded as an incompletion, but, if you've seen sportscenter, you know the play i am speaking of. the color guy on the falcons broadcast, charles davis, went nuts as julio blew past a corner and safety on a 50 yard deep route that bounced off his hands in the end zone.
"every defensive coach the falcons will play just saw that play!", exclaimed davis.
for as good as roddy white is, he's never materialized as a deep threat for the falcons. after three preseason games, julio has already established "run fast, go deep" hangs from his utility belt.
charles davis also made an incredible observation that i wish i had made first while commenting on how he sees julio fitting into the falcons plans. "he's going to be reggie wayne to roddy's marvin harrison." god. yes. yes, he is. when wayne came to the colts, he was already more talented than one of the greatest receivers of the last 20 years, but he didn't diva up or expect anything. he played his role. he excelled at what the colts asked of him. he caught tons of passes, and now he's been the primary target for peyton manning for the last five years. if julio can mirror that career path, he would have done himself proud.
it's just the preseason, and the preseason is all about getting ready for the real season, but julio's impact is already on the rise.
impact: 7
Saturday, August 27, 2011
bill and tom's excellent adventure
(the only draft that matters)
((to us))
(((part five)))
day five: left tackle
chris: It comes as no surprise that I am taking Anthony Munoz as my left tackle. Considered the greatest offensive lineman to ever play them game, I like my chances of him holding off Reggie White. Pretty sure Anthony wasn't afraid of the dreaded "head slap".
11 time Pro Bowl selection
Offensive Lineman of the Year 1981, 1987 and 1988
Ranked 12 on the NFL's top 100 greatest players of all time (#1 lineman)
Hall of Fame 1998
1980's all decade team
NFL's 75 Anniversary team
7 rec for 4 touchdowns on the "Eligible Tack Play"..........You know how Tom likes the trick plays!
when in doubt, go contemporary. taking nothing away from anthony munoz, i would argue that players at every position this generation are bigger, stronger and faster than those of previous generations. munoz dominated his position in such a way in his twelve years in the league that it's hard to argue that he wasn't the greatest of all time. after all, no other left tackle in the 80's was worthy of challenging his throne.
but, what if two left tackles came along and played at the same time, challenging each other for first team all-pro every year of their career? what would munoz's stats and resume have looked like if he played in the league at the same time as walter jones and my left tackle selection, jonathan ogden?
things, likely, would have been different. both jones and ogden were dominant. every bit as dominant as anthony munoz. both mountains of men, ogden was something different altogether. standing 6-9, ogden weighed in at 345. he equaled munoz's 11 pro bowl selections and made first or second team all-pro 9 times. he made the 2000's all decade team and was the cornerstone of the line that allowed jamal lewis (ed: read that again...jamal freaking lewis) to rush for over 2,000 yards in 2003.
ozzie newsome, himself a hall of famer, is quoted as saying, "there's not a player i've seen in my 30 years in the league play his position better than ogden played his."
another note, newsome's browns played in the same division as anthony munoz's bengals.
chris?
chris: ...
(ed: we move on.)
(the only draft that matters)
((to us))
(((part five)))
day five: left tackle
chris: It comes as no surprise that I am taking Anthony Munoz as my left tackle. Considered the greatest offensive lineman to ever play them game, I like my chances of him holding off Reggie White. Pretty sure Anthony wasn't afraid of the dreaded "head slap".
11 time Pro Bowl selection
Offensive Lineman of the Year 1981, 1987 and 1988
Ranked 12 on the NFL's top 100 greatest players of all time (#1 lineman)
Hall of Fame 1998
1980's all decade team
NFL's 75 Anniversary team
7 rec for 4 touchdowns on the "Eligible Tack Play"..........You know how Tom likes the trick plays!
when in doubt, go contemporary. taking nothing away from anthony munoz, i would argue that players at every position this generation are bigger, stronger and faster than those of previous generations. munoz dominated his position in such a way in his twelve years in the league that it's hard to argue that he wasn't the greatest of all time. after all, no other left tackle in the 80's was worthy of challenging his throne.
but, what if two left tackles came along and played at the same time, challenging each other for first team all-pro every year of their career? what would munoz's stats and resume have looked like if he played in the league at the same time as walter jones and my left tackle selection, jonathan ogden?
things, likely, would have been different. both jones and ogden were dominant. every bit as dominant as anthony munoz. both mountains of men, ogden was something different altogether. standing 6-9, ogden weighed in at 345. he equaled munoz's 11 pro bowl selections and made first or second team all-pro 9 times. he made the 2000's all decade team and was the cornerstone of the line that allowed jamal lewis (ed: read that again...jamal freaking lewis) to rush for over 2,000 yards in 2003.
ozzie newsome, himself a hall of famer, is quoted as saying, "there's not a player i've seen in my 30 years in the league play his position better than ogden played his."
another note, newsome's browns played in the same division as anthony munoz's bengals.
chris?
chris: ...
(ed: we move on.)
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
bill and tom's excellent adventure
(the only draft that matters)
((to us))
(((part four)))
day four: defensive line
i don't want to say that i'm giddy over my first three selections, but let me say this. after three rounds, team bill has taken arguably the best offensive player ever and arguably the best defensive player ever off the board in rice and lt. team tom, on the other hand, has taken a guy that can't tackle and a white guy. granted, these are rather superficial observations, but i'm afraid i currently have the upper hand, no?
today, we stay on the defensive side of the ball and get deep into the trenches with our first defensive lineman selection.
given how much publicity my church gets on the blog, it makes total sense that i should have a "minister of defense" on my squad.
i'll take reggie white.
"country strong". i am not sure i had ever heard that term before i heard it directed toward white. what a great term. ndamukong suh, in the present nfl, is the only guy that currently comes close to doing to offensive lineman what i remember seeing white do to offensive linemen. white had this "club" move that he'd use on guys where he'd position himself in a way to get his right arm under a guard or tackle's left shoulder and he'd just throw him, literally toss aside another 300 lb. human being, away from the proceedings on his way into the backfield. it was unreal.
on his way to the hall of fame, white made 13 pro bowl teams and 10 first-team all pro teams. he won 2 defensive player of the year awards from the d-line. and he was named to the all-80's and all-90's all-decade teams. he was also rated the #7 player of all time by nfl.com.
whaddya think, tom?
chris: I am going to leave the "white guy" comment alone. My team will speak for itself when this is all said and done. As my first Defensive Lineman, I will select Bruce Smith. See stats below:
112 Tackles for Loss
200 Sacks - 2 more than Reggie
46 Forced Fumbles
15 Fumble Recoveries
2XNFL Def Player of the Year
4XAFC Def Player of the Year
11 Pro Bowls
12x All Pro
1987 Pro Bowl MVP
1980's All Decade Team
1990's All Decade Team
sorry. i meant to say "white guy that doesn't play quarterback or offensive line".
solid pick. in the 4-3, i don't know if i can discredit this selection without my tongue firmly planted in my cheek.
two things, though, that i will say since these two guys are standing next to each other on our draft podium. to your stat of his 200 sacks being 2 more than reggie, let's also acknowledge that those 2 sacks came in forty-seven more games played. it's probably unfair to compare them in that way, since white was more of a tackle and bruce smith a more traditional rush end, but it was bruce smith's primary job to rush the passer, and, per game, reggie still did it better than he did.
also, you could run at bruce smith. in fact, teams purposefully ran at bruce smith because his tendency was to fire upfield leaving massive running lanes on his side of the line. on the other hand, teams ran away from reggie white. his ability to swat linemen away at will was too disruptive to consistently run in his direction.
bruce smith was a great defensive end, a hall of famer for sure. reggie white was a freak.
another note. i sold reggie white short in my first blurb. he actually won three defensive players of the year, one more than bruce.
chris: Jesus Christ.......I never said Reggie wasn't good. You got the first pick, I took the second best pass rusher out there.
(ed: that sounds like another concession. i'll take it.)
(the only draft that matters)
((to us))
(((part four)))
day four: defensive line
i don't want to say that i'm giddy over my first three selections, but let me say this. after three rounds, team bill has taken arguably the best offensive player ever and arguably the best defensive player ever off the board in rice and lt. team tom, on the other hand, has taken a guy that can't tackle and a white guy. granted, these are rather superficial observations, but i'm afraid i currently have the upper hand, no?
today, we stay on the defensive side of the ball and get deep into the trenches with our first defensive lineman selection.
given how much publicity my church gets on the blog, it makes total sense that i should have a "minister of defense" on my squad.
i'll take reggie white.
"country strong". i am not sure i had ever heard that term before i heard it directed toward white. what a great term. ndamukong suh, in the present nfl, is the only guy that currently comes close to doing to offensive lineman what i remember seeing white do to offensive linemen. white had this "club" move that he'd use on guys where he'd position himself in a way to get his right arm under a guard or tackle's left shoulder and he'd just throw him, literally toss aside another 300 lb. human being, away from the proceedings on his way into the backfield. it was unreal.
on his way to the hall of fame, white made 13 pro bowl teams and 10 first-team all pro teams. he won 2 defensive player of the year awards from the d-line. and he was named to the all-80's and all-90's all-decade teams. he was also rated the #7 player of all time by nfl.com.
whaddya think, tom?
chris: I am going to leave the "white guy" comment alone. My team will speak for itself when this is all said and done. As my first Defensive Lineman, I will select Bruce Smith. See stats below:
112 Tackles for Loss
200 Sacks - 2 more than Reggie
46 Forced Fumbles
15 Fumble Recoveries
2XNFL Def Player of the Year
4XAFC Def Player of the Year
11 Pro Bowls
12x All Pro
1987 Pro Bowl MVP
1980's All Decade Team
1990's All Decade Team
sorry. i meant to say "white guy that doesn't play quarterback or offensive line".
solid pick. in the 4-3, i don't know if i can discredit this selection without my tongue firmly planted in my cheek.
two things, though, that i will say since these two guys are standing next to each other on our draft podium. to your stat of his 200 sacks being 2 more than reggie, let's also acknowledge that those 2 sacks came in forty-seven more games played. it's probably unfair to compare them in that way, since white was more of a tackle and bruce smith a more traditional rush end, but it was bruce smith's primary job to rush the passer, and, per game, reggie still did it better than he did.
also, you could run at bruce smith. in fact, teams purposefully ran at bruce smith because his tendency was to fire upfield leaving massive running lanes on his side of the line. on the other hand, teams ran away from reggie white. his ability to swat linemen away at will was too disruptive to consistently run in his direction.
bruce smith was a great defensive end, a hall of famer for sure. reggie white was a freak.
another note. i sold reggie white short in my first blurb. he actually won three defensive players of the year, one more than bruce.
chris: Jesus Christ.......I never said Reggie wasn't good. You got the first pick, I took the second best pass rusher out there.
(ed: that sounds like another concession. i'll take it.)
bill and tom's excellent adventure
(the only draft that matters)
((to us))
(((part three)))
day three: linebacker
after getting two cornerstones of our teams out of the way on the first two days, we'll get into the nuts and bolts of what will make these two teams tick moving forward on defense. along with the first (of 3 or 4, depending on the scheme each side chooses) linebacker selection for each squad, we'll give you a brief look into what type of defense these two all-time teams will line up against.
chris, you're up.
4-3 scheme is what I have chosen for my team. And my first pick is Dick Butkus. 6 time (first team) all-pro, 8 time (second team) all-pro, 8 time pro-bowler, 2 time Defensive Player of the Year (69 and 70), 75th Anniversary Team, 60's Team of the Decade, 70's Team of the Decade. There were a few great MLBs before Dick, he took the position to a level that folks like Mike Singletary and Ray Lewis later played it. Everyone that has ever played the position after him has said, he was the bench mark!
it comes as no surprise that chris and i are going with different defensive schemes. our styles often conflicted with each other when we were picking our teams for our many bill and tom tournaments. chris liked to think of his teams as "tough" or "rugged" or "manly" because that is what nfl films told us real football players should look like and play like. jack lambert with no teeth. jack youngblood playing with a broken leg. ronnie lott ripping off a finger to go back in and finish the game. me? i couldn't give a shit about any of that. i mean sure, that nfl films footage was awesome. don't get me wrong, but i wanted fast teams. pretty teams. finesse teams. strategy teams. "greatest show on turf" teams. my style will come across loud and clear as this draft forges onward.
chris, i'll be playing a 3-4 against you, and in our imaginary game, my ass will be efforting to penetrate your backfield (ed: that's what she said) every stinkin' play. the quarterback on team tom is not going to have to bother reading cover 2 or cover 3 or any of that bullshit. we'll be manning you up, and my linebackers are coming to get you.
i was listening to a podcast yesterday and shannon sharpe was being asked about guys in the hall of fame. he talked about some guys being "evolutionary" and some guys being "revolutionary". i loved that delineation.
without a doubt, my first linebacker would fall into the "revolutionary" category. i'm taking lawrence taylor.
10 pro bowls in his first 10 years in the league
10 all-pro teams in his first ten years in the league
3 defensive players of the year
2 super bowls
"lawrence taylor, defensively, has had as big an impact as any player i've ever seen. he changed the way defense is played, the way pass-rushing is played, the way linebackers play and the way offenses block linebackers." - john madden
yep.
chris, got anything to add to our first lineback pick???
chris: yeah...i better get a damn good left tackle! that is all! (ed: fair enough)
(the only draft that matters)
((to us))
(((part three)))
day three: linebacker
after getting two cornerstones of our teams out of the way on the first two days, we'll get into the nuts and bolts of what will make these two teams tick moving forward on defense. along with the first (of 3 or 4, depending on the scheme each side chooses) linebacker selection for each squad, we'll give you a brief look into what type of defense these two all-time teams will line up against.
chris, you're up.
4-3 scheme is what I have chosen for my team. And my first pick is Dick Butkus. 6 time (first team) all-pro, 8 time (second team) all-pro, 8 time pro-bowler, 2 time Defensive Player of the Year (69 and 70), 75th Anniversary Team, 60's Team of the Decade, 70's Team of the Decade. There were a few great MLBs before Dick, he took the position to a level that folks like Mike Singletary and Ray Lewis later played it. Everyone that has ever played the position after him has said, he was the bench mark!
it comes as no surprise that chris and i are going with different defensive schemes. our styles often conflicted with each other when we were picking our teams for our many bill and tom tournaments. chris liked to think of his teams as "tough" or "rugged" or "manly" because that is what nfl films told us real football players should look like and play like. jack lambert with no teeth. jack youngblood playing with a broken leg. ronnie lott ripping off a finger to go back in and finish the game. me? i couldn't give a shit about any of that. i mean sure, that nfl films footage was awesome. don't get me wrong, but i wanted fast teams. pretty teams. finesse teams. strategy teams. "greatest show on turf" teams. my style will come across loud and clear as this draft forges onward.
chris, i'll be playing a 3-4 against you, and in our imaginary game, my ass will be efforting to penetrate your backfield (ed: that's what she said) every stinkin' play. the quarterback on team tom is not going to have to bother reading cover 2 or cover 3 or any of that bullshit. we'll be manning you up, and my linebackers are coming to get you.
i was listening to a podcast yesterday and shannon sharpe was being asked about guys in the hall of fame. he talked about some guys being "evolutionary" and some guys being "revolutionary". i loved that delineation.
without a doubt, my first linebacker would fall into the "revolutionary" category. i'm taking lawrence taylor.
10 pro bowls in his first 10 years in the league
10 all-pro teams in his first ten years in the league
3 defensive players of the year
2 super bowls
"lawrence taylor, defensively, has had as big an impact as any player i've ever seen. he changed the way defense is played, the way pass-rushing is played, the way linebackers play and the way offenses block linebackers." - john madden
yep.
chris, got anything to add to our first lineback pick???
chris: yeah...i better get a damn good left tackle! that is all! (ed: fair enough)
Sunday, August 21, 2011
bill and tom's excellent adventure
(the only draft that matters)
((to us))
(((part two)))
day two: wide receiver
the pick: jerry rice
my turn to go first. this may be the least contentious of any post we have in this series, because it's the one pick i can, without a doubt, predict that chris would have made himself. the stats that chris poo-pooed on day one are essential to this conversation, though, because athletically, "the greatest wide receiver that ever lived" doesn't wow you with any one thing he did. his numbers, though, and his measurable successes are unparalleled and they are as follows:
1549 receptions - first all time (447 ahead of second place)
22895 receiving yards - first all time (almost 8,000 yards ahead of second place)
197 receiving touchdowns - first all time (45 ahead of second place)
13 pro bowls
12 all pros
also, i found this to be fairly significant to the overall goal of this series of posts (for my team to beat chris' team)...from 1989 to 1996 jerry rice faced off with deion sanders' teams 10 times. rice had 60 catches for 1,051 yards and eleven touchdowns in those games. not too shabby. we have already established that if rice caught the ball with deion on the cover, there would be little to no chance that sanders could tackle him after the catch, which i am sure accounts for some of these inflated numbers against perhaps "the greatest athlete to ever put on a professional uniform."
who you taking, tom?
chris: there is no comparison. jerry rice is the greatest. it took me a long time to decide who i would take as my first wideout as i knew jerry would be off the table. i figured that i would try my best at having an overall receiving corps that could beat yours.
my first wideout taken would be cris carter.
receiving touchdowns: 131 (8th all time)
receptions: 1,101 (3rd all time)
only player to record 120+ receptions in a season twice, 1994 and 1995
most touchdown receptions on thursday games (9)
most 12+ reception games in a single season (4) in 1995
one of 3 players (clarke gaines and jerry rice) to record 12+ receptions in back to back games
most consecutive games with at least 3 receptions (58)
most 1 yard touchdown receptions in nfl history (9)
most touchdown receptions 2 yards or less in nfl history (16) - tied with jerry rice
most touchdown receptions 4 yards or less in nfl history (28)
most touchdown receptions 5 yards or less in nfl history (36) - tied with jerry rice
most touchdown receptions 6 yards or less in nfl history (44)
most touchdown receptions 7 yards or less in nfl history (48)
most consecutive games with 2 touchdown receptions (4)
most consecutive seasons with 5+ touchdowns (11) - terrell owens, jerry rice, marvin harrison, don hutson, cris carter, tim brown
most consecutive seasons with 5+ touchdown receptions (11) - terrell owens, jerry rice, marvin harrison, don hutson, cris carter, tim brown
first player to record a 150 yard receiving game in 3 different decades (jerry rice is the only other player to do so)
jesus h. after giving me shit about using numbers in the woodson/prime debate, you just went and had a stats-gasm all over my blog. shame on you. if luke had been this easy to pull over to the dark side, the rebels never would have had a chance.
that being said, his 2 all-pros to jerry's 12 is the only stat that matters on this day. carter was really good. from everything you read, he may have had the best hands of his generation, maybe any generation. if you have a chance at having a better wideout tandem than team bill, though, your second option is going to have to be pretty damn strong.
chris: whatev! it is impossible to compete with jerry rice. i'm not gonna get caught up in the numbers for that reason. i went with my gut. cc was a great receiver for teams that had (for the most part) nothing around him. he will go down as one of the best ever. i stand by the decision. are you ready for my mlb?
well, i suppose i can't ask for much more than a concession, so we'll move on. i do hope your "for the most part" caveat had in mind a teammate that i have ranked higher than carter on my board. you may be hearing from him later.
(the only draft that matters)
((to us))
(((part two)))
day two: wide receiver
the pick: jerry rice
my turn to go first. this may be the least contentious of any post we have in this series, because it's the one pick i can, without a doubt, predict that chris would have made himself. the stats that chris poo-pooed on day one are essential to this conversation, though, because athletically, "the greatest wide receiver that ever lived" doesn't wow you with any one thing he did. his numbers, though, and his measurable successes are unparalleled and they are as follows:
1549 receptions - first all time (447 ahead of second place)
22895 receiving yards - first all time (almost 8,000 yards ahead of second place)
197 receiving touchdowns - first all time (45 ahead of second place)
13 pro bowls
12 all pros
also, i found this to be fairly significant to the overall goal of this series of posts (for my team to beat chris' team)...from 1989 to 1996 jerry rice faced off with deion sanders' teams 10 times. rice had 60 catches for 1,051 yards and eleven touchdowns in those games. not too shabby. we have already established that if rice caught the ball with deion on the cover, there would be little to no chance that sanders could tackle him after the catch, which i am sure accounts for some of these inflated numbers against perhaps "the greatest athlete to ever put on a professional uniform."
who you taking, tom?
chris: there is no comparison. jerry rice is the greatest. it took me a long time to decide who i would take as my first wideout as i knew jerry would be off the table. i figured that i would try my best at having an overall receiving corps that could beat yours.
my first wideout taken would be cris carter.
receiving touchdowns: 131 (8th all time)
receptions: 1,101 (3rd all time)
only player to record 120+ receptions in a season twice, 1994 and 1995
most touchdown receptions on thursday games (9)
most 12+ reception games in a single season (4) in 1995
one of 3 players (clarke gaines and jerry rice) to record 12+ receptions in back to back games
most consecutive games with at least 3 receptions (58)
most 1 yard touchdown receptions in nfl history (9)
most touchdown receptions 2 yards or less in nfl history (16) - tied with jerry rice
most touchdown receptions 4 yards or less in nfl history (28)
most touchdown receptions 5 yards or less in nfl history (36) - tied with jerry rice
most touchdown receptions 6 yards or less in nfl history (44)
most touchdown receptions 7 yards or less in nfl history (48)
most consecutive games with 2 touchdown receptions (4)
most consecutive seasons with 5+ touchdowns (11) - terrell owens, jerry rice, marvin harrison, don hutson, cris carter, tim brown
most consecutive seasons with 5+ touchdown receptions (11) - terrell owens, jerry rice, marvin harrison, don hutson, cris carter, tim brown
first player to record a 150 yard receiving game in 3 different decades (jerry rice is the only other player to do so)
jesus h. after giving me shit about using numbers in the woodson/prime debate, you just went and had a stats-gasm all over my blog. shame on you. if luke had been this easy to pull over to the dark side, the rebels never would have had a chance.
that being said, his 2 all-pros to jerry's 12 is the only stat that matters on this day. carter was really good. from everything you read, he may have had the best hands of his generation, maybe any generation. if you have a chance at having a better wideout tandem than team bill, though, your second option is going to have to be pretty damn strong.
chris: whatev! it is impossible to compete with jerry rice. i'm not gonna get caught up in the numbers for that reason. i went with my gut. cc was a great receiver for teams that had (for the most part) nothing around him. he will go down as one of the best ever. i stand by the decision. are you ready for my mlb?
well, i suppose i can't ask for much more than a concession, so we'll move on. i do hope your "for the most part" caveat had in mind a teammate that i have ranked higher than carter on my board. you may be hearing from him later.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
bill and tom's excellent adventure
(an origin story)
from chris hicks:
The Bill and Tom reference stems from a decision we made in spring 1996 to take on commentator personas when we were playing sega\playstation. At first it was funny, but then we just embraced it. However it wasn't fully embraced until the June 1996 NBA Action Finals between the Knicks and the Rockets where "Mad Max" Vernon Maxwell and the Rockets beat out the Knicks in a 7th game thriller! As we did it more we got nerdier about it. We went from just commentating on the games to pre-game interviews with the coaches (Chris Hicks and Kevin O'Kelley) as well as post game interviews! Not really sure where we got the names Bill and Tom from, but they seemed to stick.
(ed: - nerdy is just the most perfect word for what bill and tom became for us, for me. i mean, jesus, look at the date chris mentions...1996. we were 19 year's old for christ sake! this wasn't something brainstormed and played out by 2 12 year-olds that weren't into dungeons and dragons. it was two, bordering on grown men playing out fantasies of calling nfl (and nba) and college games in our respective rooms/apartments/houses. at some point during this series, i'll try and articulate what bill and tom (and by "bill and tom" i mean chris) meant to me as a foundational element of my maturity. looking back, bill and tom were nothing less than a bridge from my childhood to the adult that i would end up becoming. bill and tom and the countless hours of our lives we wasted playing video game football??? man, i wouldn't trade that shit for the world. and every year i get older, the more i miss having that kind of time and those opportunities to be a kid at heart with chris. until i get around to that post, proper, i'll keep kicking his ass in this draft.)
(an origin story)
from chris hicks:
The Bill and Tom reference stems from a decision we made in spring 1996 to take on commentator personas when we were playing sega\playstation. At first it was funny, but then we just embraced it. However it wasn't fully embraced until the June 1996 NBA Action Finals between the Knicks and the Rockets where "Mad Max" Vernon Maxwell and the Rockets beat out the Knicks in a 7th game thriller! As we did it more we got nerdier about it. We went from just commentating on the games to pre-game interviews with the coaches (Chris Hicks and Kevin O'Kelley) as well as post game interviews! Not really sure where we got the names Bill and Tom from, but they seemed to stick.
(ed: - nerdy is just the most perfect word for what bill and tom became for us, for me. i mean, jesus, look at the date chris mentions...1996. we were 19 year's old for christ sake! this wasn't something brainstormed and played out by 2 12 year-olds that weren't into dungeons and dragons. it was two, bordering on grown men playing out fantasies of calling nfl (and nba) and college games in our respective rooms/apartments/houses. at some point during this series, i'll try and articulate what bill and tom (and by "bill and tom" i mean chris) meant to me as a foundational element of my maturity. looking back, bill and tom were nothing less than a bridge from my childhood to the adult that i would end up becoming. bill and tom and the countless hours of our lives we wasted playing video game football??? man, i wouldn't trade that shit for the world. and every year i get older, the more i miss having that kind of time and those opportunities to be a kid at heart with chris. until i get around to that post, proper, i'll keep kicking his ass in this draft.)
Friday, August 19, 2011
bill and tom's excellent adventure
(the only draft that matters)
((to us))
(((part one)))
at some point in the next 25 or so posts in this series, i am going to ask chris hicks to give you a detailed origin story behind the characters known almost exclusively to us as "bill" and "tom". i could give you a very surface level re-telling, but one thing that my oldest friend has always had on me was a knack for remembering things the outside world would consider useless. one of the many ways we bonded, however, was that much of that "useless" knowledge had to do with the sports and the sports history that we loved. more specifically, we both loved football history and incorporated that history into almost every "water cooler" conversation we ever had in his duster, at my house, at his house, or wherever we happened to have a gaming station set up to play video-game football.
what is relevant to this particular series of post, though, is this. my oldest friend, whom you all know as chris hicks, and i both think we know more about football than the other. this series of posts will serve mostly to entertain each other, since, deep down, we are still very capable of being the kids that would talk endless trash whilst creating brackets on top of brackets of video-game football tournaments.
what this series of posts will finally settle is, left to our own devices and based on rules that we've both agreed to, which human, kevin o'kelley or chris hicks, could create the best football team made up of the best players (in OUR estimation) to have ever played the game.
the rules are these:
- the entire universe of current and former players are available to be drafted.
- we will draft one position per post and provide intelligent (sometimes) rationale for our pick
- we will be able to deconstruct each other's picks and call each other funny names to poke fun of each other's picks without ever acknowledging that our competitor may have gotten the best of us on a given day
- at the end of the series, we will ask you, the three or so people that frequent this blog when i am not talking about humc, to judge the worth of our respective teams and crown a champion, once and for all.
we will strongly encourage feedback from whomever would like to join in the fun. tell us how ignorant we both are. tell us who you saw with your own eyes back in the 60's that could eat ray lewis for lunch. the more commentary, the more fun we'll have with it. we'll even call you pet names, too. what could be better, right???
so, there's the gist. we'll give you more as the series rolls along, but i will close this introduction with the fact that both of us are so excited at the prospect of this draft, that each day's draft choices may end up being 5,000 word head-to-heads and we might run everyone off by the end of day three. we'll see. it's not likely that we'll care. this is, after all, the only draft that matters to us.
-----------------------------------------
to the picks!
day one: corner
chris won the coin flip to get us started. his choice and his (ed: fairly weak) reasoning:
deion sanders: very simply...the greatest shutdown corner ever. perhaps ...the greatest athlete ever to put on a professional uniform. as a side note: he would also return punts for this team.
my choice:
rod woodson: i will tip my hat to chris' first pick and admit that deion would have been my second corner taken had he been on the board. operative word, my second pick. he was a brilliant, mind-numbing, freak of an athlete, and his reputation scared coordinators from throwing in his direction. he was exciting on special teams, also true. his failing, and my victory on day one of this draft comes from prime's inability to perform one of the most fundamental elements of defensive footballing, that is to say he couldn't tackle. scratch that, he was afraid to tackle. i have no room for fear on my team, so i thank chris for saving me from myself and taking prime first.
to woodson. in a word, he was a prototype. big size, big speed, covered the other team's number one. later in his career, he reinvented himself as a missile of a safety in the mold of ronnie lott, blitzing every time dick labeau would allow him. let's look at his numbers compared to mr. sanders. career interceptions: woodson - 71 prime - 53. interception return yards: woodson - 1,483 prime - 1,331 fumble recoveries: woodson - 32 prime 15 tackles: woodson - 1050 prime - i'm not sure he ever recorded one.
woodson also tallied 11 pro bowls, a 1993 defensive player of the year and a super bowl ring.
prime was elite, no doubt. every player picked will be. he wasn't as good as woodson, though. that's just a fact.
mr. hicks?
chris: my rebuttal to your comments? the masses will agree that deion sanders is the best. the fancy internet search for stats impresses one person...you. primetime was the best. it was a simple decision. round 1 - Tom Next???
yes, yes, tom. what a ridiculous idea for me to cloud our debate with actual, measurable data. if you are not a fan of stats, this is going to be a loooong draft for you. there will be plenty of room for highlights, romance and revisionist history when it comes to drafting our teams. i get that. i will, no doubt, throw around any number of "he was the best i've ever seen"s as well, but, when it comes to separating the best from the best, stats are bill's best friend. i won't spend too much time on the tackling thing, but, seriously, how can you be the best at any position on a football field when your idea of full-contact is two hand touch? woodson, for the win!
last word?
chris: regarding deion and his tackling...ask any of the receivers that he played against (ed: i'm not sure how i can do that), and they will tell you he was a physical corner. ask those same receivers who was the best corner they ever faced (ed: i'm still not sure how i can do that), they will say deion. by the way...those same receivers faced woodson. if hall of fame receivers who went against him say he was the best, i can't disagree. however, if you have ever lined up and beaten him on a skinny post, maybe you can (ed: i have not.). i would venture to say you are in the same boat as me. was he a great tackler? no. did he need to be? no. he took away one side of the field (ed: so did woodson) in the passing game. he did his job better than any corner in the history of this game. that is my final word.
(the only draft that matters)
((to us))
(((part one)))
at some point in the next 25 or so posts in this series, i am going to ask chris hicks to give you a detailed origin story behind the characters known almost exclusively to us as "bill" and "tom". i could give you a very surface level re-telling, but one thing that my oldest friend has always had on me was a knack for remembering things the outside world would consider useless. one of the many ways we bonded, however, was that much of that "useless" knowledge had to do with the sports and the sports history that we loved. more specifically, we both loved football history and incorporated that history into almost every "water cooler" conversation we ever had in his duster, at my house, at his house, or wherever we happened to have a gaming station set up to play video-game football.
what is relevant to this particular series of post, though, is this. my oldest friend, whom you all know as chris hicks, and i both think we know more about football than the other. this series of posts will serve mostly to entertain each other, since, deep down, we are still very capable of being the kids that would talk endless trash whilst creating brackets on top of brackets of video-game football tournaments.
what this series of posts will finally settle is, left to our own devices and based on rules that we've both agreed to, which human, kevin o'kelley or chris hicks, could create the best football team made up of the best players (in OUR estimation) to have ever played the game.
the rules are these:
- the entire universe of current and former players are available to be drafted.
- we will draft one position per post and provide intelligent (sometimes) rationale for our pick
- we will be able to deconstruct each other's picks and call each other funny names to poke fun of each other's picks without ever acknowledging that our competitor may have gotten the best of us on a given day
- at the end of the series, we will ask you, the three or so people that frequent this blog when i am not talking about humc, to judge the worth of our respective teams and crown a champion, once and for all.
we will strongly encourage feedback from whomever would like to join in the fun. tell us how ignorant we both are. tell us who you saw with your own eyes back in the 60's that could eat ray lewis for lunch. the more commentary, the more fun we'll have with it. we'll even call you pet names, too. what could be better, right???
so, there's the gist. we'll give you more as the series rolls along, but i will close this introduction with the fact that both of us are so excited at the prospect of this draft, that each day's draft choices may end up being 5,000 word head-to-heads and we might run everyone off by the end of day three. we'll see. it's not likely that we'll care. this is, after all, the only draft that matters to us.
-----------------------------------------
to the picks!
day one: corner
chris won the coin flip to get us started. his choice and his (ed: fairly weak) reasoning:
deion sanders: very simply...the greatest shutdown corner ever. perhaps ...the greatest athlete ever to put on a professional uniform. as a side note: he would also return punts for this team.
my choice:
rod woodson: i will tip my hat to chris' first pick and admit that deion would have been my second corner taken had he been on the board. operative word, my second pick. he was a brilliant, mind-numbing, freak of an athlete, and his reputation scared coordinators from throwing in his direction. he was exciting on special teams, also true. his failing, and my victory on day one of this draft comes from prime's inability to perform one of the most fundamental elements of defensive footballing, that is to say he couldn't tackle. scratch that, he was afraid to tackle. i have no room for fear on my team, so i thank chris for saving me from myself and taking prime first.
to woodson. in a word, he was a prototype. big size, big speed, covered the other team's number one. later in his career, he reinvented himself as a missile of a safety in the mold of ronnie lott, blitzing every time dick labeau would allow him. let's look at his numbers compared to mr. sanders. career interceptions: woodson - 71 prime - 53. interception return yards: woodson - 1,483 prime - 1,331 fumble recoveries: woodson - 32 prime 15 tackles: woodson - 1050 prime - i'm not sure he ever recorded one.
woodson also tallied 11 pro bowls, a 1993 defensive player of the year and a super bowl ring.
prime was elite, no doubt. every player picked will be. he wasn't as good as woodson, though. that's just a fact.
mr. hicks?
chris: my rebuttal to your comments? the masses will agree that deion sanders is the best. the fancy internet search for stats impresses one person...you. primetime was the best. it was a simple decision. round 1 - Tom Next???
yes, yes, tom. what a ridiculous idea for me to cloud our debate with actual, measurable data. if you are not a fan of stats, this is going to be a loooong draft for you. there will be plenty of room for highlights, romance and revisionist history when it comes to drafting our teams. i get that. i will, no doubt, throw around any number of "he was the best i've ever seen"s as well, but, when it comes to separating the best from the best, stats are bill's best friend. i won't spend too much time on the tackling thing, but, seriously, how can you be the best at any position on a football field when your idea of full-contact is two hand touch? woodson, for the win!
last word?
chris: regarding deion and his tackling...ask any of the receivers that he played against (ed: i'm not sure how i can do that), and they will tell you he was a physical corner. ask those same receivers who was the best corner they ever faced (ed: i'm still not sure how i can do that), they will say deion. by the way...those same receivers faced woodson. if hall of fame receivers who went against him say he was the best, i can't disagree. however, if you have ever lined up and beaten him on a skinny post, maybe you can (ed: i have not.). i would venture to say you are in the same boat as me. was he a great tackler? no. did he need to be? no. he took away one side of the field (ed: so did woodson) in the passing game. he did his job better than any corner in the history of this game. that is my final word.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
ladies and gentlemen, your rookie of the year
(part one)
the actual facts of the matter:
3 series played
5 targets (including the first two offensive plays for the falcons)
2 receptions, 43 yards
1 rush, 12 yards
items of interest that i haven't been able to determine yet:
just how many julio jones, number 11 jerseys were in the georgia dome stands friday night?
how many season tickets were sold in 2011 versus 2010?
if the total number is greater in 2011, how many of those tickets are absolutely and directly related to julio playing three hours away from the university of alabama (we know of 4, to be sure!)?
has the atlanta falcons fanbase been this excited about any player since michael vick?
when all is said and done, who will have made the bigger impact on the field for the falcons, julio jones or michael vick?
will julio jones win offensive rookie of the year?
will the falcons win the super bowl?
these questions, and more, we'll track over the course of the newest series here on HACATLKAM.
i wasn't sure that julio would grace this site as much after his career at alabama was complete, but, if i wasn't sure before friday night, i am now.
julio is here to stay.
this much was true friday night, because you could feel it. people in atlanta are really freaking excited about julio.
atlanta falcons fans are a lazy bunch. hell, atlanta fans of anything are a lazy bunch, borderline apathetic. you can go to a braves game, any braves game (even playoff games) and the crowd doesn't start really paying close attention 'til the 7th inning. sure, they'll clap a little more loudly when chipper comes up to bat, but i can't imagine coming to the ted strikes fear in the heart of any visiting team. why would it? the level of heckling the other team is embarrassingly low. the crowd doesn't rise for anything other than the wave. the braves can't sell out a game that doesn't include the red sox or the cubs to save their life. it wouldn't surprise me if the general reaction of teams looking at their schedule to see their next stop is atlanta don't think to themselves, "i should call mom, get her to make this trip with us. they'll be really nice to us there. no swearing or fear-mongering or anything. and feed us chick-fil-a." going to see a braves game is family friendly, and that's not a bad thing. it just means that it's not a bad thing for the braves' opponents either. falcons games that i've attended are no different. and i've been to falcons games when michael vick was the starting quarterback. the dome would explode when he was introduced, raise to their feet anytime he left the pocket, yell and scream when he turned into "starship 7", but, for the rest of the game, you felt like you were watching the game on a super clear television with excellent surround sound. everyone sat in their seats. the fans didn't make any noise to help out the defense. again, the southern crowd was downright cordial, annoyingly so. the atmosphere was and is so different from, say, an alabama home game that it's unsettling.
last year, from what i saw on television, things changed for the better. expectations were raised. many in the sports media picked the falcons to compete with the saints for the division. compete, they did. win the division, they did. host a playoff game against the packers, they did. the process to all of those accomplishments led to a better product in the stands, which in turn had to have helped the product on the field. there was no real shame for the falcons to lose to the eventual super bowl champions. aaron rodgers was unstoppable. the falcons lacked the explosiveness in their offensive personnel and scheme to go toe-to-toe with green bay, and they bowed out of the 2010/11 campaign with their heads held high.
enter julio jones.
the story's been told and dissected and pundit-ized a million times since april. the falcons trade a boatload of picks to move up 21 spots in the draft to get julio.
enter explosiveness.
julio impresses every teammate that lays eyes upon him during off-season team-called workouts. "he's big." "he's fast." "he's got really soft hands." "he's a solid kid." "he's gonna make a great teammate."
enter hyperbole.
future hall of famer and current falcons tight end tweets that julio is the best incoming wide-receiver he's ever seen.
enter pressure.
preseason, game one. the falcons target julio on their first two plays of the their first offensive possession. the first play was a little stutter-go, where julio took off the line, danced in front of the corner to get the defender flat-footed and blew past him. julio was three yards behind the corner when matt ryan delivered the ball out of bounds. bad throw. the crowd went nuts. whether they were going nuts to say thank you to the falcons for last year or to say thank you to the team for going out and getting a new toy or to say thank you to julio for breathing new life into an already solid offense can't be known for sure, but you could feel the energy in the dome. something was new. something was different.
of course it was.
julio is special.
i've been on record many times with this sentiment, but i'll repeat myself to begin this series as well. julio is going to tear apart this league. for three years at alabama, he was THE guy other defenses schemed against. mark ingram won his heisman because of the threat julio posed. don't believe me? we'll see how trent fares this year without julio on the field to draw attention away from the running game. safeties constantly rolled their coverage to julio's side of the field. the patrick peterson's of the sec all were tasked with locking him down week after week after week. face it folks, corners aren't built much bigger and faster in the nfl than sec corners. julio's been there. he's done that.
now? now, julio has a pro bowl wide receiver on his team. with him. meaning what? meaning this. you can't double both julio and roddy white, and they aren't going to double the rookie.
julio is going to tear apart this league. and he is going to win the offensive rookie of the year.
the statistics that i listed at the top of this post tell nothing of the story that i'll write about julio this year. all those stats were an introduction. a way of saying "hey. how ya doing? you seem cool." to the guy that might be the missing piece in a championship puzzle.
each week, i'll track julio's stats, but, more importantly, i'll track his impact, something altogether different.
i'll end each submission with my own subjective ranking of that impact, 10 being "indestructible force of nature" (think randy moss catching deep balls from dante culpepper in his prime) to 1 being "decoy that isn't interested in being a decoy" (think randy moss as a raider).
it's just the preseason, and the preseason is all about getting ready for the real season, so don't read too much into the low first number. but, i think it's important to note that the 3 biggest cheers of the falcons' friday night game were cheered towards a lowly rookie wide receiver from the university of alabama.
impact: 6
(part one)
the actual facts of the matter:
3 series played
5 targets (including the first two offensive plays for the falcons)
2 receptions, 43 yards
1 rush, 12 yards
items of interest that i haven't been able to determine yet:
just how many julio jones, number 11 jerseys were in the georgia dome stands friday night?
how many season tickets were sold in 2011 versus 2010?
if the total number is greater in 2011, how many of those tickets are absolutely and directly related to julio playing three hours away from the university of alabama (we know of 4, to be sure!)?
has the atlanta falcons fanbase been this excited about any player since michael vick?
when all is said and done, who will have made the bigger impact on the field for the falcons, julio jones or michael vick?
will julio jones win offensive rookie of the year?
will the falcons win the super bowl?
these questions, and more, we'll track over the course of the newest series here on HACATLKAM.
i wasn't sure that julio would grace this site as much after his career at alabama was complete, but, if i wasn't sure before friday night, i am now.
julio is here to stay.
this much was true friday night, because you could feel it. people in atlanta are really freaking excited about julio.
atlanta falcons fans are a lazy bunch. hell, atlanta fans of anything are a lazy bunch, borderline apathetic. you can go to a braves game, any braves game (even playoff games) and the crowd doesn't start really paying close attention 'til the 7th inning. sure, they'll clap a little more loudly when chipper comes up to bat, but i can't imagine coming to the ted strikes fear in the heart of any visiting team. why would it? the level of heckling the other team is embarrassingly low. the crowd doesn't rise for anything other than the wave. the braves can't sell out a game that doesn't include the red sox or the cubs to save their life. it wouldn't surprise me if the general reaction of teams looking at their schedule to see their next stop is atlanta don't think to themselves, "i should call mom, get her to make this trip with us. they'll be really nice to us there. no swearing or fear-mongering or anything. and feed us chick-fil-a." going to see a braves game is family friendly, and that's not a bad thing. it just means that it's not a bad thing for the braves' opponents either. falcons games that i've attended are no different. and i've been to falcons games when michael vick was the starting quarterback. the dome would explode when he was introduced, raise to their feet anytime he left the pocket, yell and scream when he turned into "starship 7", but, for the rest of the game, you felt like you were watching the game on a super clear television with excellent surround sound. everyone sat in their seats. the fans didn't make any noise to help out the defense. again, the southern crowd was downright cordial, annoyingly so. the atmosphere was and is so different from, say, an alabama home game that it's unsettling.
last year, from what i saw on television, things changed for the better. expectations were raised. many in the sports media picked the falcons to compete with the saints for the division. compete, they did. win the division, they did. host a playoff game against the packers, they did. the process to all of those accomplishments led to a better product in the stands, which in turn had to have helped the product on the field. there was no real shame for the falcons to lose to the eventual super bowl champions. aaron rodgers was unstoppable. the falcons lacked the explosiveness in their offensive personnel and scheme to go toe-to-toe with green bay, and they bowed out of the 2010/11 campaign with their heads held high.
enter julio jones.
the story's been told and dissected and pundit-ized a million times since april. the falcons trade a boatload of picks to move up 21 spots in the draft to get julio.
enter explosiveness.
julio impresses every teammate that lays eyes upon him during off-season team-called workouts. "he's big." "he's fast." "he's got really soft hands." "he's a solid kid." "he's gonna make a great teammate."
enter hyperbole.
future hall of famer and current falcons tight end tweets that julio is the best incoming wide-receiver he's ever seen.
enter pressure.
preseason, game one. the falcons target julio on their first two plays of the their first offensive possession. the first play was a little stutter-go, where julio took off the line, danced in front of the corner to get the defender flat-footed and blew past him. julio was three yards behind the corner when matt ryan delivered the ball out of bounds. bad throw. the crowd went nuts. whether they were going nuts to say thank you to the falcons for last year or to say thank you to the team for going out and getting a new toy or to say thank you to julio for breathing new life into an already solid offense can't be known for sure, but you could feel the energy in the dome. something was new. something was different.
of course it was.
julio is special.
i've been on record many times with this sentiment, but i'll repeat myself to begin this series as well. julio is going to tear apart this league. for three years at alabama, he was THE guy other defenses schemed against. mark ingram won his heisman because of the threat julio posed. don't believe me? we'll see how trent fares this year without julio on the field to draw attention away from the running game. safeties constantly rolled their coverage to julio's side of the field. the patrick peterson's of the sec all were tasked with locking him down week after week after week. face it folks, corners aren't built much bigger and faster in the nfl than sec corners. julio's been there. he's done that.
now? now, julio has a pro bowl wide receiver on his team. with him. meaning what? meaning this. you can't double both julio and roddy white, and they aren't going to double the rookie.
julio is going to tear apart this league. and he is going to win the offensive rookie of the year.
the statistics that i listed at the top of this post tell nothing of the story that i'll write about julio this year. all those stats were an introduction. a way of saying "hey. how ya doing? you seem cool." to the guy that might be the missing piece in a championship puzzle.
each week, i'll track julio's stats, but, more importantly, i'll track his impact, something altogether different.
i'll end each submission with my own subjective ranking of that impact, 10 being "indestructible force of nature" (think randy moss catching deep balls from dante culpepper in his prime) to 1 being "decoy that isn't interested in being a decoy" (think randy moss as a raider).
it's just the preseason, and the preseason is all about getting ready for the real season, so don't read too much into the low first number. but, i think it's important to note that the 3 biggest cheers of the falcons' friday night game were cheered towards a lowly rookie wide receiver from the university of alabama.
impact: 6
Tuesday, August 09, 2011
where have you gone, jordan schafer?
sports, man. *sigh
every so many years, a player comes along (i am looking at you, tim hudson, lebron, mike vick, ichiro, julio jones,jason heyward) that completely captures my imagination.
it's not prerequisite for said player to play on one of my favorite teams. obviously, it helps that i am connected with and to the braves and alabama football on a more intimate level than most other squads, but, as you can see from my list above, percentages are just as good that my man-interest will come from other places.
jordan schafer was different than most on my list, because he wasn't nearly as recognizable (if recognizable at all) to the casual fan of his sport. i caught wind of schafer about four years ago after baseball prospectus named him as the top prospect in the braves organization. so, for sure, he wasn't a diamond in the rough, but he was, at the very least, a diamond in the minor leagues, and no one has time to care about minor league baseball.
i tracked schafer over the course of 2008 at random intervals, just making sure he was progressing through the system as he was projected. sure enough, he was. he performed well enough in 2008 to get an invite to the braves spring training camp in march of 2009. the trip to camp was meant as nothing more as an introduction to "the show", expectations being that schafer would get 25-50 at-bats and they'd then send him down to triple-a to start the season. of course, a funny thing happened.
jordan schafer set the grapefruit league on fire. for the better part of the month long exhibition season, his batting average hovered just under .400. his obp was close to an unthinkable .500. after two weeks, he was playing on the "a" team of the split squads so the braves brass could see how he would perform against better pitchers. his average didn't dip. he kept getting two hits a game. every game. stole a base every other day. stories started circulating that he might be the defensive heir apparent to andruw jones (arguably the best defensive center fielder of the last 25 years). he had speed to burn. a massive arm. judged the ball well off bats and got great jumps.
as the spring neared conclusion, bobby cox had no choice. consensus was that schafer was not only the best centerfielder in spring, but put on the best display of tools and talent of any player on the team (remember, the team then and now includes two future hall of famers in chipper and mccann). with a week left, jordan schafer was named the opening day starter for the atlanta braves in centerfield. it was incredible.
i was ecstatic. baseball is littered with stories of can't miss prospects that miss. baseball is just so hard. too many things are required of an every day player to master to even make it into the big leagues, much less stay there, much less thrive there, much less be an all-star, much less be an all-timer. you can have all the tools in the world and just not get it. you can get nailed in the head with 90 mph fastball and never have the mental strength to get back in the box. you can get stuck behind a guy in your own system and waste prime years in places like birmingham or durham or pawtucket (glorious, right?). get nicked up and lose part of your timing that came natural for the first 20 years of your life and the player is never the same. so many things that can and do go wrong. obviously, the same logic can be applied to any of the professional sports leagues in this country, but the sport of baseball, especially hitting a baseball, is so much muscle memory and repetition and strategy and experience that i don't know if it's not the toughest nut to crack to become a star.
make no mistake, jordan was no star. not yet. but he had made it through the minors and into the majors with a quickness.
what happened next is documented aplenty here. first major league at-bat? home run. team wins. kevin o'kelley loses his mind. four games in, schafer hurts his wrist. bobby cox loses his mind. rather than letting his young gun heal, he keeps trotting him out there. schafer strikes out. a fucking ton. kevin o'kelley gets cancer. schafer gets sent down. the cosmos connects kevin o'kelley's and jordan schafer's redemption and recovery stories together with a string i created in my own imagination.
yada, yada, yada, (two years later) schafer gets flipping traded for a light-hitting centerfielder who steals bases (like schafer), who bats left-handed (like schafer), who covers a lot of ground in center (like schafer), who has a cannon for a right arm (WAIT A SECOND, no he doesn't. he doesn't have near the arm schafer has). the light-hitting centerfielder is considered an "upgrade" from schafer even though advanced metrics that i've seen only value the new guy worth one, MAYBE two wins above the schafer he's replacing.
schafer is sent to die in houston. given up on by the organization that once was breeding him to be a star.
other than the cancer/redemption thing, i don't know, really, why i hitched my wagon to jordan schafer the way that i did. i loved watching him play. i lived and died with every one of his at-bats. truth be told, i think it's more fun to watch sports when you are especially invested in one particular player, a "sun" for your fandom to orbit. such was the case with julio and alabama. i love alabama football, but this year has a totally different feel for me. i know that i'll root for alabama to win every game, but i also know that i don't have "that guy" that i've been tracking since he was a junior in high school who is now "my guy" that i'll root hardest for as he takes the field this fall. "that guy" who was going to be "my guy" ripped up his knee before practice officially started. i haven't recovered yet (rip, dee hart. you're likely never to be the same). jordan was my braves "sun". i tried making the heyward/julio thing work, but it turns out that heyward kind of sucks. he may still be great one day, but my fairweather fandom has turned away from him. i am okay with him not being in the line-up if it gives the braves a better chance to win. i never felt that way about schafer.
schafer being in houston now won't make me an astros fan. it'll just make me sad. i can't watch the astros every day unless i pay for the extra innings package. i am not going to pay for the extra innings package.
what it does is presses the reset button on my love for the braves in a way that'll take a couple years and a few young prospects that i can make into something bigger than they are to get back.
in the meantime, i'll keep being really mean towards derek lowe on twitter in the hopes that i can #reversejinx him into being a relevant pitcher again. i'll keep putting chipper in my fantasy line-up and cutting myself with tiny razors every time it's the wrong move. i'll keep telling everyone that will listen that jv and "billy" kimbrel are the best back-end in baseball. even though i jumped off his boat two months ago, i'll keep pointing back to my prediction that uggla was going to be an all-star, which means i totally "believed" in him all along. i'll keep hoping the phillies lose every game even though they never lose any games, because that's what a braves fan does. wish injuries and ill-will upon the phillies.
where were you when you heard about jordan schafer being traded? the answer to that question will stick with me every bit as much as "where were you when you heard about the first plane hitting the tower?" (draw your own conclusions on what you think that says about how worthless a human being i am). in an ironic kick to my crooked teeth, i was in the sanctuary during sunday morning worship, a place i had told myself couldn't get any worse. burn. (i kid because i love!) two friends texted me that twitter was blowing up with the news. when i saw it was all true, i shared it with my pew. they frowned to mirror my frown. they tried to pick me up. "new guy" will be great, they said.
aw, shucks. maybe he will.
but he won't be jordan schafer. when the cosmos connected our narratives (in my head) in the summer of 2009, i never imagined that my letting go of my daily fear of dying would also mean i would have to give up my jordan. the universe has a cruel, cruel sense of closure. i wish i saw it coming. maybe it wouldn't have hurt so badly.
to jordan schafer, thanks for being there. i made you out to be more than a ballplayer.
you were never more than a ballplayer.
sports, man. *sigh
every so many years, a player comes along (i am looking at you, tim hudson, lebron, mike vick, ichiro, julio jones,
it's not prerequisite for said player to play on one of my favorite teams. obviously, it helps that i am connected with and to the braves and alabama football on a more intimate level than most other squads, but, as you can see from my list above, percentages are just as good that my man-interest will come from other places.
jordan schafer was different than most on my list, because he wasn't nearly as recognizable (if recognizable at all) to the casual fan of his sport. i caught wind of schafer about four years ago after baseball prospectus named him as the top prospect in the braves organization. so, for sure, he wasn't a diamond in the rough, but he was, at the very least, a diamond in the minor leagues, and no one has time to care about minor league baseball.
i tracked schafer over the course of 2008 at random intervals, just making sure he was progressing through the system as he was projected. sure enough, he was. he performed well enough in 2008 to get an invite to the braves spring training camp in march of 2009. the trip to camp was meant as nothing more as an introduction to "the show", expectations being that schafer would get 25-50 at-bats and they'd then send him down to triple-a to start the season. of course, a funny thing happened.
jordan schafer set the grapefruit league on fire. for the better part of the month long exhibition season, his batting average hovered just under .400. his obp was close to an unthinkable .500. after two weeks, he was playing on the "a" team of the split squads so the braves brass could see how he would perform against better pitchers. his average didn't dip. he kept getting two hits a game. every game. stole a base every other day. stories started circulating that he might be the defensive heir apparent to andruw jones (arguably the best defensive center fielder of the last 25 years). he had speed to burn. a massive arm. judged the ball well off bats and got great jumps.
as the spring neared conclusion, bobby cox had no choice. consensus was that schafer was not only the best centerfielder in spring, but put on the best display of tools and talent of any player on the team (remember, the team then and now includes two future hall of famers in chipper and mccann). with a week left, jordan schafer was named the opening day starter for the atlanta braves in centerfield. it was incredible.
i was ecstatic. baseball is littered with stories of can't miss prospects that miss. baseball is just so hard. too many things are required of an every day player to master to even make it into the big leagues, much less stay there, much less thrive there, much less be an all-star, much less be an all-timer. you can have all the tools in the world and just not get it. you can get nailed in the head with 90 mph fastball and never have the mental strength to get back in the box. you can get stuck behind a guy in your own system and waste prime years in places like birmingham or durham or pawtucket (glorious, right?). get nicked up and lose part of your timing that came natural for the first 20 years of your life and the player is never the same. so many things that can and do go wrong. obviously, the same logic can be applied to any of the professional sports leagues in this country, but the sport of baseball, especially hitting a baseball, is so much muscle memory and repetition and strategy and experience that i don't know if it's not the toughest nut to crack to become a star.
make no mistake, jordan was no star. not yet. but he had made it through the minors and into the majors with a quickness.
what happened next is documented aplenty here. first major league at-bat? home run. team wins. kevin o'kelley loses his mind. four games in, schafer hurts his wrist. bobby cox loses his mind. rather than letting his young gun heal, he keeps trotting him out there. schafer strikes out. a fucking ton. kevin o'kelley gets cancer. schafer gets sent down. the cosmos connects kevin o'kelley's and jordan schafer's redemption and recovery stories together with a string i created in my own imagination.
yada, yada, yada, (two years later) schafer gets flipping traded for a light-hitting centerfielder who steals bases (like schafer), who bats left-handed (like schafer), who covers a lot of ground in center (like schafer), who has a cannon for a right arm (WAIT A SECOND, no he doesn't. he doesn't have near the arm schafer has). the light-hitting centerfielder is considered an "upgrade" from schafer even though advanced metrics that i've seen only value the new guy worth one, MAYBE two wins above the schafer he's replacing.
schafer is sent to die in houston. given up on by the organization that once was breeding him to be a star.
other than the cancer/redemption thing, i don't know, really, why i hitched my wagon to jordan schafer the way that i did. i loved watching him play. i lived and died with every one of his at-bats. truth be told, i think it's more fun to watch sports when you are especially invested in one particular player, a "sun" for your fandom to orbit. such was the case with julio and alabama. i love alabama football, but this year has a totally different feel for me. i know that i'll root for alabama to win every game, but i also know that i don't have "that guy" that i've been tracking since he was a junior in high school who is now "my guy" that i'll root hardest for as he takes the field this fall. "that guy" who was going to be "my guy" ripped up his knee before practice officially started. i haven't recovered yet (rip, dee hart. you're likely never to be the same). jordan was my braves "sun". i tried making the heyward/julio thing work, but it turns out that heyward kind of sucks. he may still be great one day, but my fairweather fandom has turned away from him. i am okay with him not being in the line-up if it gives the braves a better chance to win. i never felt that way about schafer.
schafer being in houston now won't make me an astros fan. it'll just make me sad. i can't watch the astros every day unless i pay for the extra innings package. i am not going to pay for the extra innings package.
what it does is presses the reset button on my love for the braves in a way that'll take a couple years and a few young prospects that i can make into something bigger than they are to get back.
in the meantime, i'll keep being really mean towards derek lowe on twitter in the hopes that i can #reversejinx him into being a relevant pitcher again. i'll keep putting chipper in my fantasy line-up and cutting myself with tiny razors every time it's the wrong move. i'll keep telling everyone that will listen that jv and "billy" kimbrel are the best back-end in baseball. even though i jumped off his boat two months ago, i'll keep pointing back to my prediction that uggla was going to be an all-star, which means i totally "believed" in him all along. i'll keep hoping the phillies lose every game even though they never lose any games, because that's what a braves fan does. wish injuries and ill-will upon the phillies.
where were you when you heard about jordan schafer being traded? the answer to that question will stick with me every bit as much as "where were you when you heard about the first plane hitting the tower?" (draw your own conclusions on what you think that says about how worthless a human being i am). in an ironic kick to my crooked teeth, i was in the sanctuary during sunday morning worship, a place i had told myself couldn't get any worse. burn. (i kid because i love!) two friends texted me that twitter was blowing up with the news. when i saw it was all true, i shared it with my pew. they frowned to mirror my frown. they tried to pick me up. "new guy" will be great, they said.
aw, shucks. maybe he will.
but he won't be jordan schafer. when the cosmos connected our narratives (in my head) in the summer of 2009, i never imagined that my letting go of my daily fear of dying would also mean i would have to give up my jordan. the universe has a cruel, cruel sense of closure. i wish i saw it coming. maybe it wouldn't have hurt so badly.
to jordan schafer, thanks for being there. i made you out to be more than a ballplayer.
you were never more than a ballplayer.
Tuesday, August 02, 2011
when condescending turns to caricature
"growing up means...
watching my heroes turn human in front of me...
the songs we wrote at eighteen were shortsighted and naive...
so when the weather breaks, i'll pull my hoodie up over my face...
i won't run away...
as fucked as this place got, it made me me" -the wonder years
if i've been asked once, i've been asked fifty times, "why do you stay at huffman?"
i've had all sorts of different answers to the question. it always depends on what mood i am in, what's happened so far with my day, what day of the week it is, what the braves current record is, whether or not clay travis has put up a new picture of an alabama football star in what looks to be a compromising (if not shady as hell) situation. there are a lot of factors that go into answering any question ever, but some questions are more loaded than others.
"why do you stay at huffman?"
is the person asking the question genuinely concerned for my well-being? more importantly, might the person asking the question be genuinely concerned for my family's well-being, especially on emotional or spiritual levels? this person is asking because they just don't get it. they don't get how i can blog time after time about what i perceive huffman umc is lacking, time after time about being disappointed in something new or, more than likely, something old that continues to perpetuate itself into our future. they don't get why i haven't graduated to that next level, that level that tells every single one of us that the grass has got to be greener on the other side at some other church with much less familiarity and much less baggage and many more kids and cheesy contemporary worship and all that other stuff that makes church feel like a club and not a conviction. but they care. and that's all that matters. their question is loaded, sure, but it comes out of concern.
"why do you stay at huffman (with an understood, "goddammitt!!!" at the end)?"
is the person asking the question peeved with something i've done or said? does the person disagree with one of the opinions i've shared here on HACATLKAM? they ask it with a tone that implies they've figured out the answer to the questions i've been posing. they've figured out that i would rather be unhappy than happy. they've figured out i'd rather be unsatisfied than satisfied. they've concluded "you don't have to go home, but you've got to get the heck up outta here!" would be my best plan of action.
"why do you stay at huffman?"
this person doesn't go to huffman. all they've seen or heard of the place is from this blog, a blog that doesn't often paint us as a puzzle that has located all of her pieces (we're actively looking under couch cushions). this person maybe doesn't go to church at all, and doesn't plan on it. this person may be indirectly related to huffman through softball or basketball or bunko, but they don't care to get any closer than that, because they really like to sleep in on sunday mornings. this person doesn't really care about the answer as much as they are interested in where the conversation may go after we move on to baseball or politics or something less infuriating than church.
"why do you stay at huffman?"
this time, i am asking the question, but i am asking it to myfriends wife "minions". i ask because i need honest answers and i need to know why we are so stubbornly masochistic. i ask because they share a history with huffman umc, but they don't share my history, and they all have their own respective and equally fascinating reasons why they call huffman their home. some of them answer the question with answers you might predict. most of them are not so predictable. when i ask the question, i don't ask for reassurance. i don't need any reassuring. i do need help, though, to see the forest from atop different trees. changes in perspective can oftentimes lead to a change in strategy. changes in strategy can oftentimes change the game. indeed.
"why do you stay at huffman?"
i didn't. i left years ago. i have really fond memories that i will always carry with me and i will always wish the "left behind" my best and for their best.
"why do you stay at huffman?"
i didn't. i left years ago. "the youth group wasn't big enough anymore." "do we even have a children's ministry?" "seriously? a black preacher? what was the bishop thinking?" "seriously? a hispanic congregation? what was the senior pastor thinking?" "why don't they ever do liturgical dance?" "that one guy looked at me funny once?" "that lady leaves the service early." "all the old people remind me of death." "the new pastor is constantly reminding me of death." "that little boy cusses." "he's poison." "that other church has a petting zoo." "this one has a starbucks." "y'all do realize indoor plumbing has evolved in the last 140 years, right?" "what the fuck is limbo anyway?" "do you have exercise groups? they do." "do you have young married people? they do." "do you have rich people? they do." "wait, this is huffman, right? where are the black people?" "i have a passion for starting new churches." "new churches smell better." "new churches have flat screens." "mmmm...contemporary worship." "that church won't allow cell phones in worship, because god told them it was unacceptable. it's in the bible. retweet that, bitch." "i don't honestly remember why i came here in the first place."
"why do you stay at huffman?"
i didn't. i left years ago. they ruined me on the idea of church. i will always wish the "left behind" stay left behind. good riddance.
why do you stay at huffman?
it's a loaded question for sure. a different answer for every different day for every different person in our church. no right or wrong, which is the hardest pill for some to swallow. no black or white. no good or bad.
why do you stay at huffman?
or don't you?
"growing up means...
watching my heroes turn human in front of me...
the songs we wrote at eighteen were shortsighted and naive...
so when the weather breaks, i'll pull my hoodie up over my face...
i won't run away...
as fucked as this place got, it made me me" -the wonder years
if i've been asked once, i've been asked fifty times, "why do you stay at huffman?"
i've had all sorts of different answers to the question. it always depends on what mood i am in, what's happened so far with my day, what day of the week it is, what the braves current record is, whether or not clay travis has put up a new picture of an alabama football star in what looks to be a compromising (if not shady as hell) situation. there are a lot of factors that go into answering any question ever, but some questions are more loaded than others.
"why do you stay at huffman?"
is the person asking the question genuinely concerned for my well-being? more importantly, might the person asking the question be genuinely concerned for my family's well-being, especially on emotional or spiritual levels? this person is asking because they just don't get it. they don't get how i can blog time after time about what i perceive huffman umc is lacking, time after time about being disappointed in something new or, more than likely, something old that continues to perpetuate itself into our future. they don't get why i haven't graduated to that next level, that level that tells every single one of us that the grass has got to be greener on the other side at some other church with much less familiarity and much less baggage and many more kids and cheesy contemporary worship and all that other stuff that makes church feel like a club and not a conviction. but they care. and that's all that matters. their question is loaded, sure, but it comes out of concern.
"why do you stay at huffman (with an understood, "goddammitt!!!" at the end)?"
is the person asking the question peeved with something i've done or said? does the person disagree with one of the opinions i've shared here on HACATLKAM? they ask it with a tone that implies they've figured out the answer to the questions i've been posing. they've figured out that i would rather be unhappy than happy. they've figured out i'd rather be unsatisfied than satisfied. they've concluded "you don't have to go home, but you've got to get the heck up outta here!" would be my best plan of action.
"why do you stay at huffman?"
this person doesn't go to huffman. all they've seen or heard of the place is from this blog, a blog that doesn't often paint us as a puzzle that has located all of her pieces (we're actively looking under couch cushions). this person maybe doesn't go to church at all, and doesn't plan on it. this person may be indirectly related to huffman through softball or basketball or bunko, but they don't care to get any closer than that, because they really like to sleep in on sunday mornings. this person doesn't really care about the answer as much as they are interested in where the conversation may go after we move on to baseball or politics or something less infuriating than church.
"why do you stay at huffman?"
this time, i am asking the question, but i am asking it to my
"why do you stay at huffman?"
i didn't. i left years ago. i have really fond memories that i will always carry with me and i will always wish the "left behind" my best and for their best.
"why do you stay at huffman?"
i didn't. i left years ago. "the youth group wasn't big enough anymore." "do we even have a children's ministry?" "seriously? a black preacher? what was the bishop thinking?" "seriously? a hispanic congregation? what was the senior pastor thinking?" "why don't they ever do liturgical dance?" "that one guy looked at me funny once?" "that lady leaves the service early." "all the old people remind me of death." "the new pastor is constantly reminding me of death." "that little boy cusses." "he's poison." "that other church has a petting zoo." "this one has a starbucks." "y'all do realize indoor plumbing has evolved in the last 140 years, right?" "what the fuck is limbo anyway?" "do you have exercise groups? they do." "do you have young married people? they do." "do you have rich people? they do." "wait, this is huffman, right? where are the black people?" "i have a passion for starting new churches." "new churches smell better." "new churches have flat screens." "mmmm...contemporary worship." "that church won't allow cell phones in worship, because god told them it was unacceptable. it's in the bible. retweet that, bitch." "i don't honestly remember why i came here in the first place."
"why do you stay at huffman?"
i didn't. i left years ago. they ruined me on the idea of church. i will always wish the "left behind" stay left behind. good riddance.
why do you stay at huffman?
it's a loaded question for sure. a different answer for every different day for every different person in our church. no right or wrong, which is the hardest pill for some to swallow. no black or white. no good or bad.
why do you stay at huffman?
or don't you?
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