MORE CHIEFS TO PRO BOWL, CARSON WANTS OUT & A FEW LOOSE ENDS FROM CHAMPIONSHIP SUNDAY
Because of who is going to the Super Bowl, Troy Polamalu & James harrison of the Steelers, it opened up a couple of Pro Bowl slots for two Chiefs. LB Tamba Hali will replace Harrison & rookie safety Eric Berry will go in Polamalu's spot. Hali has revealed to Adam Teicher of The Kansas City Star he has two ailing shoulders & a foot injury that might require surgery. I know the excitement of playing in the Pro Bowl plus a trip to Hawaii is a huge deal to some players, but his injuries concern me. A healthy Tamba Hali is absolutely imperative to their improvement next season.
I've already received several requests for a mock draft. Relax, there's plenty of time before the April event. Let me plant a few seeds with Chiefs' fans, Stephen Paea, nose tackle from Oregon State & Jeremy Beal, a pass rushing outside linebacker from Oklahoma as 1st round possibilities. Please don't send anymore Aldon Smith requests, after the combine, he'll be out of the Chiefs' range. Smith will be one of the "workout warriors" but he'll have something most of these gym rats don't have, real football production. My 2nd round seeds would include WR Titus Young of Boise State & Florida center Mike Pouncey. I'll have more on the draft every week.
Carson Palmer wants out of Cincinnati but he wants to dictate where he could be traded. Palmer's production fell way off in 2010 as the Bengals plummeted from North Division champs to a paltry 4-12. Palmer is one of the most overrated QB's in the NFL, at least that's how I feel.
Pete Rozelle must be smiling somewhere in the afterlife, with Green Bay winning the NFC Championship yesterday, it marked the tenth different team to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl in the past ten years. Those ten teams did not include the Dallas Cowboys much to the chagrin of Jerry Jones. That is the epitome of Rozelle's idea of parity. But over in the AFC things aren't nearly the same, Indy, New England & the Steelers are the only teams to be the AFC's representative over the past eight years.
Ben Roethlisberger has a chance to win his third Super Bowl on February 6th. He turns 29 in March, so he could be in the discussion with other multiple Super Bowl winning quarterbacks. He will never have the kind of stats to win the regular season MVP & probably never will be compared to the likes of Unitas, Elway, Montana & Brady, but there's no doubt he can equal or surpass these greats in championships. Playing for one of the most stable & consistently competitive franchises, having a young successful coach in place for years to come & having that dreaded Steeler defense on your side certainly increases Big Ben's chances to win 4 or even 5 Super Bowls. Who would have dared to dream anyone could surpass Terry Bradshaw's four titles? Ben Roethlisberger has that opportunity playing in Pittsburgh.
The outrage from current & former players directed at Bears' QB Jay Cutler has snowballed out of control. I don't remember this much venom directed at Michael Vick for his dog fighting or Brett Favre for being, well, for being Brett Favre. He could become the most despised player by his peers ever. I sincerely wonder if his MRI doesn't show some significant injury to his knee, he just might be done in Chicago. The outrage on talk radio & the internet is almost totally against Cutler. That's tough to recover from, perception is often more powerful than reality. No one I know of in the NFL, O.K. maybe T.O. or Randy Moss, is perceived in a worse light than Cutler & that was prior to yesterday's game. Cutler has always been his own worst enemy, he didn't like Josh McDaniels so he bailed out of Denver, his leadership has always been questioned clear back to Vanderbilt. He is supremely talented as a quarterback but his intangibles stink. He is in the midst of a terrible sh*t storm that could very well get worse.
NFLPA President DeMaurice Smith told his player reps Saturday "We are at war!" He continued using words like fighting, battle & war. So much for heeding President Obama's call for civility & rejecting inflammatory rhetoric. As a veteran, I am offended by such talk, comparing bickering millionaires & billionaires to Americans fighting & dying in a real war. Smith would do himself & his union a tremendous favor by dropping such talk. Quit rabble rousing & sit down for meaningful labor talks, making headlines doesn't solve anything. The TV ratings from yesterday set all-time records by nearly 10%, the game has never been more popular, don't screw this up, stop playing chicken with the golden goose.
With the Steelers in the Super Bowl, the Ambassador to Ireland, Dan Rooney, has returned to the states for a couple of weeks. He relinquished control of the Steelers to his son Dan, but he has been very outspoken about a number of sticking points in the CBA negotiations. He sees no reason to expand the season to 18 games which I agree with wholeheartedly. Rooney has long been somewhat of a loose cannon with his fellow owners, but he, like his father Art, has the game at heart. It isn't money(God knows there's enough to go around) & he has always been in favor of stricter enforcement of performance enhancing drug penalties as well as illegal drugs. He believes in player safety above all, "the players are the game, not a bunch of old rich guys." It will be interesting to keep an ear to the ground once he arrives in Texas, he's a very intelligent man with only the best intentions for the National Football League.
Jets cornerback & resident quote machine, Antonio Cromartie, was asked this morning about the labor unrest & his response was almost predictable. Cromartie said "the leaders of this union are assholes, the players reps have become assholes & the teams are assholes. It's time to sit down & make sure we have football next year." Cromartie & his 5 baby mama's depend on those NFL paychecks to feed his seven children.
I've already received several requests for a mock draft. Relax, there's plenty of time before the April event. Let me plant a few seeds with Chiefs' fans, Stephen Paea, nose tackle from Oregon State & Jeremy Beal, a pass rushing outside linebacker from Oklahoma as 1st round possibilities. Please don't send anymore Aldon Smith requests, after the combine, he'll be out of the Chiefs' range. Smith will be one of the "workout warriors" but he'll have something most of these gym rats don't have, real football production. My 2nd round seeds would include WR Titus Young of Boise State & Florida center Mike Pouncey. I'll have more on the draft every week.
Carson Palmer wants out of Cincinnati but he wants to dictate where he could be traded. Palmer's production fell way off in 2010 as the Bengals plummeted from North Division champs to a paltry 4-12. Palmer is one of the most overrated QB's in the NFL, at least that's how I feel.
Pete Rozelle must be smiling somewhere in the afterlife, with Green Bay winning the NFC Championship yesterday, it marked the tenth different team to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl in the past ten years. Those ten teams did not include the Dallas Cowboys much to the chagrin of Jerry Jones. That is the epitome of Rozelle's idea of parity. But over in the AFC things aren't nearly the same, Indy, New England & the Steelers are the only teams to be the AFC's representative over the past eight years.
Ben Roethlisberger has a chance to win his third Super Bowl on February 6th. He turns 29 in March, so he could be in the discussion with other multiple Super Bowl winning quarterbacks. He will never have the kind of stats to win the regular season MVP & probably never will be compared to the likes of Unitas, Elway, Montana & Brady, but there's no doubt he can equal or surpass these greats in championships. Playing for one of the most stable & consistently competitive franchises, having a young successful coach in place for years to come & having that dreaded Steeler defense on your side certainly increases Big Ben's chances to win 4 or even 5 Super Bowls. Who would have dared to dream anyone could surpass Terry Bradshaw's four titles? Ben Roethlisberger has that opportunity playing in Pittsburgh.
The outrage from current & former players directed at Bears' QB Jay Cutler has snowballed out of control. I don't remember this much venom directed at Michael Vick for his dog fighting or Brett Favre for being, well, for being Brett Favre. He could become the most despised player by his peers ever. I sincerely wonder if his MRI doesn't show some significant injury to his knee, he just might be done in Chicago. The outrage on talk radio & the internet is almost totally against Cutler. That's tough to recover from, perception is often more powerful than reality. No one I know of in the NFL, O.K. maybe T.O. or Randy Moss, is perceived in a worse light than Cutler & that was prior to yesterday's game. Cutler has always been his own worst enemy, he didn't like Josh McDaniels so he bailed out of Denver, his leadership has always been questioned clear back to Vanderbilt. He is supremely talented as a quarterback but his intangibles stink. He is in the midst of a terrible sh*t storm that could very well get worse.
NFLPA President DeMaurice Smith told his player reps Saturday "We are at war!" He continued using words like fighting, battle & war. So much for heeding President Obama's call for civility & rejecting inflammatory rhetoric. As a veteran, I am offended by such talk, comparing bickering millionaires & billionaires to Americans fighting & dying in a real war. Smith would do himself & his union a tremendous favor by dropping such talk. Quit rabble rousing & sit down for meaningful labor talks, making headlines doesn't solve anything. The TV ratings from yesterday set all-time records by nearly 10%, the game has never been more popular, don't screw this up, stop playing chicken with the golden goose.
With the Steelers in the Super Bowl, the Ambassador to Ireland, Dan Rooney, has returned to the states for a couple of weeks. He relinquished control of the Steelers to his son Dan, but he has been very outspoken about a number of sticking points in the CBA negotiations. He sees no reason to expand the season to 18 games which I agree with wholeheartedly. Rooney has long been somewhat of a loose cannon with his fellow owners, but he, like his father Art, has the game at heart. It isn't money(God knows there's enough to go around) & he has always been in favor of stricter enforcement of performance enhancing drug penalties as well as illegal drugs. He believes in player safety above all, "the players are the game, not a bunch of old rich guys." It will be interesting to keep an ear to the ground once he arrives in Texas, he's a very intelligent man with only the best intentions for the National Football League.
Jets cornerback & resident quote machine, Antonio Cromartie, was asked this morning about the labor unrest & his response was almost predictable. Cromartie said "the leaders of this union are assholes, the players reps have become assholes & the teams are assholes. It's time to sit down & make sure we have football next year." Cromartie & his 5 baby mama's depend on those NFL paychecks to feed his seven children.
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