Marshawn Lynch - Beast Mode

"Get off me!" he says to Tracy Porter...

The NFL Playoffs begun tonight, with a shocking win for the Seattle Seahawks over the New Orleans Saints, the defending Super Bowl champions.  It was a win that was capped off by the touchdown run below from Marshawn Lynch.  If you watch one NFL play all year, make it this one.  Staggering.

Note - I don't know how long the NFL will leave this video on Youtube - should it be taken down, it can be viewed on their site here.

Browns Make Cyber Signing

As a fan of American football, I’ve always had a lot of respect for Mike Holmgren.  He seems intelligent, and a nice man, but most of all he’s also a football brain.

Since leaving the Seattle Seahawks, Holmgren has become the President of the Cleveland Browns and while this story may have nothing to do with him directly, it is his organisation that has made a move which, to say the least.

Despite playing only 8 organised games, the Browns have signed Joel Reinders as an offensive lineman.  Will he make the roster for the season?  Probably not.  So why is his signing notable? Well, the Browns made the offer after seeing clips of him on Youtube, and nothing else.

It’s a brave move, but it’s a cheap one so I hope for Reinders’ sake that it’s more than a headline grabbing one.  Savo Milosevic (or Miss-a-lot-evic as he was dubbed) was reportedly signed after Aston Villa manager Brian Little saw a video of him in the mid-nineties, but this is a significantly cheaper move.  Nonetheless it will be worth keeping an eye on what happens Reinder in the coming weeks and months.

Bonehead Of The Week

My buddy Walshie won't like me posting this. It comes from Sunday's game between the Atlanta Falcons and his beloved San Francisco 49ers. It was a bad day for the ‘Niners fans – not only were they hammered by Matt Ryan and co. but they also had to watch cornerback Dre Bly make this idiotic mistake. Watch below as Bly intercepts a pass from Ryan, only to celebrate too soon and lose the ball when tackled by Roddy White. Stoopid.

2-27

Depending on the time of the year, my all-out favourite team varies but from September – December, NFL season, it’s generally the Kansas City Chiefs. Even this year.

The Chiefs, it’s fair to say, are a pretty poor team. We’ve lost 27 of our last 29 games, dating back to the middle of the 2007 season. Last night, we blew a 10 point lead against the Dallas Cowboys, then fought back to force overtime, and then lost regardless. It made for tough viewing, but I’m hardened to it by now. Unsurprisingly.

The worst part about it all is how management of your team screws things up, and one such instance was pointed out to all Chiefs fans by Peter King today in his excellent Monday Morning Quarterback column. It involves our former Defensive End Jared Allen, who is now with the Minnesota Vikings and is probably one of the best defensive players in the NFL this season. The Chiefs traded him at the end of the 2007 season. It was a deal I agreed with at the time – he wanted to go – but boy have the Vikings had the best part of the deal.

I’ll leave King to explain the latest bit of Chiefs related information that has me in despair.

***

I think if you're a Chiefs' fan, you might want to skip this section. Kansas City refused to give Jared Allen a top-tier defensive end contract 18 months ago, instead shipping him to Minnesota for what appeared to be fair compensation three days before the 2008 draft. Here's how the deal looks today:


What the Chiefs got:


1st round (15th overall) Branden Albert, OT -- Starting LT has a chance to be good. In-and-out work ethic.


3rd round (73) Jamaal Charles, RB -- Change-of-pace back averaging five carries a game in 21 pro games.


3rd round (82) DaJuan Morgan, S -- Sub safety who still has to prove self to new coaching staff.


6th round (182) Kevin Robinson, WR -- Cut by Chiefs in '08. Never played for them.


What the Vikings got:


Jared Allen, DE -- The league's best all-around defensive end has 21 sacks and three safeties in 22 Viking games.


6th round (187) John Sullivan, C -- First-year starting center on one of NFL's best lines.


It's not certain, but it's possible that history will show that the Vikings got a more productive player at 187 (Sullivan) than the Chiefs got at 15 (Albert). Ouch.

***

Ouch indeed.

Rush Not Wanted

I see that Rush Limbaugh is part of a group that is currently in talks to buy the NFL's St. Louis Rams.

For those of you unaware of Rush...I envy you.  At best he's a conservative talk radio host who is viewed by some as the voice of the Republican Party while to some he's an eveil right-wing rascist who uses said radio show to spout ills and evils to a worryingly large audience.  I'll let you decide which is most correct.

One thing that Rush has been accused of is being a rascist, particularly after one incident during his short but unforgettable tenure as an analyst on ESPN's NFL Countdown show in 2003.  I can't find a video of the incident but here is what he said of Philadelphia Eagles Quarterback, Donovan McNabb.

"Sorry to say this, I don't think he's been that good from the get-go. I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn't deserve. The defense carried this team."

He promptly resigned three days later, and rightly so.  McNabb isn't one of the game's greats but at that point he had led the Eagles to an NFC Championship Game and was one of the gane's better signal callers.


I don't know for sure whether the NFL has a fit-and-proper test for perspective owners but it wouldn't surprise me if they do.  I know, for example, that the Premier League does.  If they do, then I hope that these comments are levied at him and used to keep him out of the League.  American football is a fine sport and the NFL is the best spors league on the planet.  Neither needs Limbaugh or his ilk.

Quick NFL Hit

Up until this Sunday, the Detroit Lions endured a really, really long losing streak.  They last won in December 2007, and last season they became the first team in the NFL's history to lose all of their games in a 16 game season.

That ended this weekend with a 19-14 win over the hapless Washington Redskins.  It merited the floowing headline, recently tweeted by Adam Schefter (I belive it initially came from the Washington Post).

Washington Bails out Detroit Again

NFL, Oh How We Missed Thee

Apologies for the recent silence. I’ve been on holidays. It was lovely.

So, the NFL is back. How we missed it. It’s been a summer where the world of American football has rarely been a quiet one. Between the comebacks of Brady, Vick and Favre and the indiscretions of Stallworth and Burress, the League has flexed it’s muscles as America’s premier sport – it’s creating headlines when it really shouldn’t.

However, now, on Week 1, all of that hardly matters as we’re now back in front of televisions, computers and mobile phones, watching one of the finest sports in the world.

For the record, I think this could be a vintage year in the NFL. Favre is spearheading a Vikings team that could be tough to beat – his games against the Packers will be a treat to watch. Tom Brady is making his return from the best part of a year out. He picked up a serious knee injury against my own Chiefs, meaning that he’s only played about one half of football since his New England Patriots lost in Super Bowl 42, and lost a potential perfect season.

We also have other interesting teams to watch. Can the Steelers repeat after their battling win over Tennessee in the season opener on Thursday? What about LaDainian Tomlinson and the Chargers? Is he still a force to be reckoned with in the backfield? Is Jay Cutler the answer at Quarterback in Chicago? Can Joe Flacco (Ravens) and Matt Ryan (Falcons) build on their impressive debut seasons or will they suffer from the sophomore slump? Who among this year’s Draft class will follow them as first-year sensations? There are so many questions and they’ll all be answered in the coming weeks.

For the record, I think it will be New England’s year. Over in the NFC, there’s no clear winner right now but Green Bay will be hard to beat, though I wonder about their schedule. Don’t underestimate San Diego, or the Jets or Seattle. It’s set to be an intriguing year, no doubt about it.

Yet all is not rosy in the NFL world. Labour strife beckons. The NFL must negotiate a new deal with the Players’ Union, and in a time where both sides are looking for bigger slices of a shrinking pie, this set of negotiations looks set to be long and difficult. Next year is all but certain to be the first uncapped year since 1993, while 2011 may be impacted by a strike. Such a stoppage is seen as more likely than not by many, far more informed people than I. While Favre, Vick and co. made headlines this summer, that’ll be nothing like what will happen should there be no football on the second weekend of September in 2011.

Enjoy this season football fans.  While you can.

Bye Bye Tyree

It wasn't a surprise, but I still felt that I had to note the news today that the New York Giants have decided to release David Tyree.  Never a remarkable receiver (in a statistical sense) Tyree will nonetheless be remembered by all fans for THAT play in their Super Bowl XLII.  Don't forget that Tyree caught a crucial Touchdown earlier on in the Giants' win over the Patriots (his first of the season) but how Tyree caught this long heave from Eli Manning...  I guess that's something only the football Gods will ever know.  I give you a play so memorable that it has it's own Wikipedia article, Manning to Tyree.

Brett = Barney

Watching the first half here of the Chiefs - Vikings game. It's turgid stuff but I am a K.C. fan. Tonight also marks the comeback of Brett Favre and it was interesting to see him get a standing ovation from the Minnesota crowd.

His stats line's pretty poor (so far: typing at the end of the first half). Brett is 1 of 4 for 4 yards. Hey, at least he's got no interceptions or fumbles.

God he's old. If he wanted to see a purple dinosaur I'd have checked out this guy:

Brett's Back

Brett Favre is coming back to the NFL, and to the Minnesota Vikings. 21 days into his second retirement.

I couldn't be more annoyed at the man if I tried. For a man who's decisive in the pocket, even if he's not always made the right decisions, these off-the-field antics ruin everything. I blogged about Favre three weeks ago, when he retired, so this is a topic of which I've already spoken. Brett's second comeback makes him cringeworthy, laughable and pathetic.

"I didn't feel like physically I could play at a level that was acceptable" said Favre three weeks ago, speaking about his own decision to quit the sport. And now this. I'm glad that the only Vikings I support are of the University of Limerick variety.

***

Nabbed from our contributor Danny, here's a July 30th tweet from Stephen Colbert.

brett favre has announced he will finally retire from the nfl for good. can't wait to see him on the field this season

Brett Says Bye

The annual ‘will-he-or-won’t-he’ Brett Favre soap opera is no more. Allah Be Praised.

There’s been little more annoying for fans of American Football to see the sport’s headlines dominated by the retirement saga of Number Four. We want to read about off-season trades, the repercussions of the NFL Draft, the all-too-regular misdeeds of the players. We don’t want to read speculation and conjecture about the future of a man who unfortunately out-stayed his welcome.



In an alternative universe, Brett Favre hung up his helmet in the wake of the NFC Championship Game loss against the New York Giants. It would have been an ignominious retirement, but one that would have came with honour. Brett would have led the Packers to their finest season in many years, and would have walked away as the battle-hardened hero he always was. Most of all, despite his final play interception, we’d have all had respect for the gunslinger.

However, in this universe, Brett is a figure of mockery. He’s more annoying than amazing, and the respect held for him by American football fans, and possibly even more importantly, the love held for him by the Packers’ fans, has all but evaporated. The man who led the Packers to their first Lombardi Trophies since Vince himself is no longer beloved by the Cheeseheads. Yesterday’s decision to retire before an unpleasant return to Lambeau in a Vikings’ uniform perhaps saves the semblance of respect they have for him, but his intention to move down the road to Minnesota in the first place has most definitely left a sour taste in the mouths of some.

The ironic thing, for Favre, is that after all of his previous humming-and-hawing, there are a lot of people who don’t believe his announcement that he has given up the sport forever. Today, on NFL Total Access, pundits openly speculated that they almost expect him to line-out again while over on Sports Illustrated Peter King is of a similar opinion. I, for one, do believe that this is indeed it for Favre, but like The Boy Who Called Wolf, we’ll have to wait-and-see if this, indeed, is it.

***

Favre’s announcement overshadowed another bit of NFL-related news that emerged last night. A true football hero, Eagles’ assistant Jim Johnson lost his valiant battle against cancer. One of the best defensive minds of all-time, Johnson’s long-term influence within the Eagles’ organisation led to the increased influence of co-ordinators across the League. I hope that, within the League, Favre’s announcement does not stop people from remembering Johnson as the great he was.

Steve McNair: 1973-2009

I got a text message on Saturday evening from a friend in the US wishing me a happy 4^th of July, and at the bottom it read “did you hear about Steve McNair?”. I called him right away. At first I didn’t know if he was joking, or if someone had fooled him into believing it.

“Dude, I didn’t believe it either, but they’re reporting it on CNN. I think he was shot”.

I was stunned. It had been a crazy week and a half. With the passing of Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson and Ed McMahon, people were ready to believe anything. I fell for the Jeff Goldblum is dead story. Apparently there were rumours of Miley Cyrus and Britney Spears too. I didn’t want to believe the McNair story.

As soon as I got home I logged onto Sports Illustrated and there it was – “Steve McNair: 1973-2009".

As a fan of the NFL for about decade now, there haven’t been many better players than Steve McNair. The first season that I really got into the NFL, he lead his Tennessee Titans team to the Superbowl, and came within one yard of winning it all. Four years later, he was named the league’s most valuable player, along with Peyton Manning. He was a leader, he was athletic, he was one of the first prominent black quarterbacks. He could run, pass, do it all as a QB.

But for all the post-season success, and MVPs, and other accolades he collected, he will be remembered for one thing above all others. Toughness. For me, Steve McNair defined toughness in the NFL. It was a miracle that he played as long as he did, given his bruising style of play.

Said former Miami Pro Bowl defensive tackle Tim Bowens: “Hitting him was like trying to tackle a defensive tackle. … He wasn’t one of the toughest quarterbacks in the league, he was one of the toughest players in the league.”

Of his ability to play with pain, McNair says: "It goes back to high school, when my coach told me that when you're in pain, you tend to stay more focused on what you have to do. I took that to heart, and I think that's how I play now. I can just concentrate better when I'm playing in pain."

He did not take the traditional route to stardom. Growing up in smalltown Mount Olive in Mississppi, a town of less than a thousand people, he was an all-around athlete. He starred in football, baseball, basketball and track. He was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the 1991 Major League Baseball draft, but opted to play college football at historically black Division 1-AA university, Alcorn State. There, he garnered national attention, when in his senior season, he set more than a dozen records on his way to finishing third in the Heisman Trophy - something unheard of for a player at a 1-AA school. It was enough for Sports Illustrated to put him on the cover with the headline "Hand Him the Heisman"

He was drafted No. 3 overall by the Houston Oilers (who later became the Tennessee Titans) in 1995, the highest ever for a player from a Division 1-AA school, and the highest ever for a black quarterback (Donovan McNabb, Michel Vick and JaMarcus Russell have since been taken higher). He may have been the Oliers/Titans best ever draft selection, and they’ve made some great picks, including Earl Campbell, Bruce Matthews and Eddie George.

Watching him over the years, I got the feeling that he was the type of player that you would absolutely love playing with, and hate playing against, because you knew he was going to give 100% on every single play.

He was oldschool. Earl Campbell with a cannon of an arm, the face of a franchise, a warrior. He was Steve "Air" McNair. Rest in peace.

YouTube - Steve McNair Tribute

There's Hope For Me Yet!

If this woman can get a job then surely even I can too!!




What a gaffe. God bless Youtube!

Yours,
Gavin Grace....your potential employee!

Pollard Didn't Go Gillooly

I'm a Kansas City Chiefs fan. For my sins. Don't get me wrong, I love the red and gold. Love. There's a long story behind that, but feel free to ask some time.

We're set for a bad year. In fact, our high point may have been on Sunday when we lost to the New England Patriots. We will not get the same level of coverage again me thinks.

For those of you who don't know, Tom Brady is out for the season after a hit from our safety Brandon Pollard. It wasn't malicious. It just happened. It's a contact sport. I'm being neutral here. Honest. Check the hit out on nfl.com for proof. It did remind me of something though. The song below was written last year when the Patriots were invincible. It's very apt.



Explanation of title is here