Now I am back home sweet home and you, the reader, get your daily dose of the Hat Trick back. I hope that is a good thing.
There have been so many occurrences in the world of sports over the past 10 days or so, that I could not pick one topic to feature for the first day back in publication, so I thought I would just pitch in my two cents on some issues that jumped to the center of my NFL dashboard in the last week.
Peyton Manning
What is going on in Indianapolis? Nobody is perfect and even the most elite athletes have slumps, but Peyton Manning has not struggled as badly as he has in recent weeks since his rookie season in 1998. Consider the following quote from Peyton Manning’s coach:
“Well, I'll start off by saying this: do not blame that game on the defense, OK? I don't care who you play, whether it's a high school team, a junior college team, a college team, much less an NFL team; when you turn the ball over five times -- four interceptions, one for a touchdown, three others in field position to set up touchdowns -- you ain't going to beat anybody I just talked about. Anybody. All right? And that was a disgraceful performance, in my opinion. We threw that game. We gave it away by doing that. We gave 'em the friggin' game. In my opinion, that sucked. Ah. You know? You can't turn the ball over five times like that. Holy crap! I don't know who the hell we think we are when we do something like that! Unbelievable...five turnovers. One of them for -- We've thrown four interceptions for touchdowns this year. That might be an NFL record! And we've still got six games left, so there's no telling how many we'll have. That's pitiful! I mean, it's absolutely pitiful to perform like that. Pitiful!” 1
If you are like me and live, breathe, and sleep sports, you probably know exactly where I am going with this and had a slight chuckle, unless you live in Indianapolis. If you are a causal fan (or under the age of 20), it seems like something Colts Head Coach Jim Caldwell could say, given the mediocrity of his team and his quarterback. Here is the rest of the quote:
“What's that? Ah -- Playoffs? Don't talk about -- playoffs?! You kidding me?! Playoffs?! I just hope we can win a game! Another game!” 2
Unless you go out of your way to avoid every commercial during NFL games, you know that those were the words of Peyton Manning’s and the Colts’ former coach (and one of my favorite all-time NFL personalities), Jim Mora, Sr. Those words were spoken in the midst of a Colts tailspin in 2001, the last time the Colts had a losing record and the last time they missed the playoffs.
That would also be Mora’s last year as an NFL head coach. At the moment, history appears to be dangerously close to repeating itself in Indianapolis. Jim Caldwell may follow Mora’s footsteps if he runs the ship of the defending AFC champs into the ground much further. Manning is turning the ball over at an alarming rate that would cause Brett Favre to raise an eyebrow.
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| 2001 - "PLAYOFFS?!?" 6 |
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| DeLorean with Flux Capacitor 7 |
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| 2010 - "Hey, y'all. Watch this!" 8 |
Just what is wrong with Manning? I have had friends make clever suggestions about sibling rivalry pressure and one suggestion (from a chick) that maybe Peyton and wife Ashley Manning, er, um, have not been practicing the motions to make a little Manning. At that point, I thought I had heard everything.
It is true that Manning is missing many of his weapons: Dallas Clark, Austin Collie, Joseph Addai (or anything resembling a competent running game), and a defense that leaves him much room for error. But, as University of Texas coaching legend Darrell Royal once said, when you throw the ball, three things can happen, and two of them are bad. Manning, in the opinion of many, may be the greatest quarterback (if not greatest player) ever to play the game. If so, he needs to do a better job of taking care of the football.
Josh McDaniels
Good riddance to bad rubbish! Being a blogger and not a journalist, I am not bound by the journalistic pillar of being unbiased and therefore am free to voice my personal opinion on newsworthy people. I cannot think of a head coach that I have liked less in the past 10 years than Josh McDaniels. Those who know me personally know the depth of loathing that I have for Bill Belichick and his era of Patriots, but the man has won three Super Bowls. If Sean Payton, coach of my New Orleans Saints, decided to suddenly retire and The Hoodie were hired as the next coach, I would welcome him with open arms. McDaniels is a horse (or a Bronco) of another color, though.
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| "You've got a lot to learn, son." 5 |
It requires a truly special brand of stupidity and sophomoric hubris to ruin a franchise that, until this season, was considered a legitimate threat to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl almost every season. It requires a rare lack of people skills, a lack which dwarfs the lack possessed by computer geeks and Dungeons & Dragons players, to run off your franchise quarterback before your first draft by losing his trust because you were not forthright with him about your attempt to use him as trade bait for greener grass. It takes an unprecedented failure to prepare in order to allow an Oakland Raiders franchise – bankrupt of an identity in its offensive backfield – to come into your stadium, historically one of the roughest places for visitors in the history of the NFL, and bitch-slap you by hanging 59 points on you. And it takes a complete failure to grasp concepts instilled into most of us as children, such as, “Do as I say and not as I do,” to watch your mentor, Belichick, and your team have their reputations tarnished and their pockets lightened by the Spygate controversy, then do the same stupid (and unethical) thing when your coaching future is already on rocky ground and give the media the gift of the label, “Spygate II”
It sickens me to see any professional sports franchise drug down by stupidity. Arrogance dragging down a team (a team I do not like)…amusing. Stupidity? Annoying...! GOOD RIDDANCE!
Albert Haynesworth
Hey hey hey! No more Fat Albert! Who did not see this coming? It only cost the Redskins $40 million and what feels like a lost season! Albert Haynesworth displayed a level of professionalism that could cause Randy Moss to give him a tongue lashing. Based on reports I have read and heard on sports radio, Haynesworth, apparently, refused to speak to Redskins Head Coach Mike Shanahan at team headquarters, asking the General Manager, Bruce Allen, to relay the message. Hey Albert: eighth grade called and it wants its conflict resolution methods back! REALLY, Albert? REALLY? “Tell Coach I’m not speaking to him.,”??? What is next? He takes his ball and goes home?
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| Hey hey hey! Can you tell the difference? 3 |
The Redskins took care of that for Fat Albert, suspending him for the remaining four games of the regular season and signaling that his offseason release is all but immanent. There are bad free agent moves and free agent busts in the NFL every year, whether caused by injury, system incompatibility, decreased motivation, aging, or otherwise. Daniel Snyder may be the KING of throwing away money on the wrong free agents. The stench of the Albert Haynesworth signing stinks so badly that those in the State of Denmark during the time of Shakespeare’s Hamlet would faint.
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| "Peeee-youuuuu" 4 |
1, 2) Source: Wikipedia
3) Image from grudge-match.com
4) Image from sportsfanlive.com
5) Image from ozelink.com.au
6) Image from starvalleyindependent.com
7) Image from gadzooki.com
8) Image from coltzilla.com
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