A Stay At Home Dad

Seeing as I wrote about it, it’s only fair to point out this article with several quotes from Moss and Belichick.

From Belichick:

There was never any incident or discipline problem with Randy, there never has been one with me in four years. It certainly wasn’t about contract and money, I think Randy showed and proved from the first year he was here what that was all about. He [re-did] his contract and made the whole [trade from Oakland] work. I think you can eliminate those two things.

And this from Moss:

I’ve been traded before. I was more hurt when I left [Minnesota the first time]. I think when I got traded from New England I feel it was more of an understanding. I’ve said time and time again. This is not football, man. It’s a job; it’s a business. When the fans of the game understand the business of the game I think it’ll be better for everyone.

And this from Tom Brady:

Randy really knows how I feel about him. I love him, as a guy, as a person, as a player. He did a lot of great things for this team. At the same time I think coach Belichick feels that’s what he thinks he needs to do for the team.

We as players, we deal with it and we move on. I think I’ve been around long enough to realize nothing really surprises me and the best thing that I can do is be the best quarterback that I can be for the team.

Doesn’t exactly sound like Moss was a pain in the buttocks, now does it? The only one who comes within a country-mile of painting a problematic picture is Wes Welker. Even then, it’s not exactly an indictment of Moss.

Seeing as my preference is to take players at their word (they are NOT lawyers with a scholars view of language and how to deploy it, so the ridiculous parsing that goes on by sports writers is completely silly), I think I’ve got to move the needle back a little here. Still, how to square this with the “stories” about Moss ignoring coaches, or yelling at them and the like? I guess unless a reporter is willing to publish the name of his source, I should just start assuming they made it up because they needed to file something by a deadline.

Anyway, it’s not like Moss particularly cares what I think or anything. But if I’m going to disparage him on one hand, I ought to be willing to retract it on the other if circumstances dictate. And I think they do.

As far as demonstrating how to handle the media well, the whole back-and-forth between Roy Williams and teammate Dez Bryant has been pretty much a clinic I think. I’ve been paying some attention to the “drama” and it sure seemed like the press were doing their damnedest to stir something up between them.

First their was a training camp “incident” where Bryant refused to carry Williams’ pads back to the locker room. It’s a rookie thing, apparently by Bryant never got the memo. The media made tried the “Rookie Disses Veteran He Supposed to Replace”. Now, Bryant gets to pay an outrageous dinner bill at a steakhouse, and the media is figuring it’s revenge- “Veteran Gets Even for Being Dissed in Training Camp.”

The only problem, for the media anyway, is that Wiliams has stated all along that there’s no animosity between the two. Ditto for Bryant. Williams has even called the media out to a degree, telling them essentially “I know what you’re doing and it won’t work, there’s no ‘there’ there.” For his part, Bryant has played the same tune, even after the dinner. In fact, he was upset that veterans felt a need to apologize because of media coverage over the whole thing.

Really sounds like someone trying to rip up the locker room, huh?

The fact is, they are right. There haven’t been any misinterpreted quotes or anything the media could fan-the-flames with. I think this means that we have to take these two guys at their word. They don’t hate each other and they aren’t looking to start locker room problems.

Now let’s see if the media is capable of dropping a faux story or not.

I’ll start by stating I’ve always liked Randy Moss. Ever since I first starting hearing about him when he was at Marshall, in fact. He had a troubled background, but on the football field he was peerless. It seemed like he’d made the most of the opportunities football brought his way. He made Chad Pennington. Pennington would throw the ball as far as he could, and Moss would go get it and do the rest. When he transitioned to the NFL, he was the same way- he made Dante Culpepper. Early in his career, Favre may have been the one QB who could over throw him.

So when all the little things started accruing, I tended to blame the media and it’s penchant for digging in on star players who didn’t walk the straight and narrow. When he started getting a reputation as a locker room drag, I felt it was undeserved. Last year, when fans and the press started calling him a quitter, I figured something else was going on. Then it turns out he played with an injury through the last half of the season, I claimed vindication.

So now with today’s trade, we have all these familiar sounding rumblings. And finally, I think I have to concede that Moss is a trouble maker. Despite what I’d like to believe, I guess it’s finally time to face up to the evidence. I’m not saying he’s a bad guy. But he clearly has a ‘me-first’ attitude, and he plays a lot of games for monetary reasons that are distracting to his teammates.

I’ll still root for him. As a football talent, I continue to believe he’s the best at what he does. I hope he sets records. I’d even like to see him win a Super Bowl. But when the rumblings start up, I’ll only be able to shake my head- knowing that he’s at it again.

DONOVAN MCNABB RETURNED TO PHILAPELPHIA YESTERDAY!!!

STOP THE PRESSES!!! HOLY CRAP!!! MCNABB!!! IN PHILADELPHIA!!!

SOMEBODY ALERT THE PRESS!!!

Ahem… Sorry.

More impressive, he scored a touchdown. But then he ran out of bounds at the end of the game on a 3rd-down scramble rather than sliding to keep the clock moving. Typical McNabb. Let’s call it a ‘push’ for his overall game grade.

I say we just coronate the Jets today. They’re awesome. Really.

More seriously, is it just me or does the NFC in general seem to be weak this year? Look at it this way, if you were to compile a list of the top 10 teams in the league at this point, would there be more than 2 teams from the NFC on that list? And really, the Saints would be there only because they’re the defending champs. Green Bay is the only other team that might get a mention. Weird. It seems like the competitiveness of the NFC at large tracks with the competitiveness of the NFC East.

The AFC, by contrast, is loaded from top to bottom. The Jets and Patriots, the Steelers and Titans, the Chargers, the Colts are all solid contender teams, though there’s a pretty clear pecking order there as well. Still, I don’t have to stretch to make a case for those teams. Then there are teams like the Ravens, Dolphins, Jaguars and Chiefs that fans can make a case that they’re good.

By the way, that’s 10 from the AFC alone.

Luckily for the NFC, it’s only Week 4. There’s still time for teams to start to come together.

But the clock is ticking.

Apparently, there is finally a formal proposal to expand the NFL season to 18 games. Here are some of my thoughts on what it will mean(try to read past the first couple, which I admit fall into the “Duh” category):

1. Assuming a strike doesn’t happen, it will mean more money for the owners. Of course, even with the strike it will eventually mean more money for the owners, it’ll just take longer to get there.

2. It will also mean more money per season for the players. Expect a lot of contract renegotiations when the transition occurs.

3. I’d expect more late season injuries- especially to older players where bodies basically breakdown. Along the same lines, I’d expect more injuries during the playoffs.

4. Careers will get shorter. I don’t think the average person understands the physical toll taken on an NFL player. I think the affect of 2 more games of wear on a player is greater than just 2 games. Players are already beatup mentally and physically at the end of the current season. Many will be downright primed for breakdowns with 2 more games.

5. Expect team turnover to increase. A successful team has about 6-8 years as a unit, depending on talent, because of the extra playoff games. Happened to the Cowboys in the 90’s, it happened to the Patriots in the 00’s. So a good team with Super Bowl aspirations will have fewer years in which to win one, and fewer years that they remain competitive before their talent pool is used up. Probably more in line with 5-6 years. No more “Team of the Decade” titles. It’ll probably shift to “the best team of the past 5 years.” The 4 Super Bowl mark of greatness for a team goes away.

6. The possibility of an undefeated season disappears I think. I know the undefeated record is something like 23 games, but that’s spans from the middle of one season to the middle of the next and includes playoff wins. Two extra games makes the odds of running the table (what, 21 games from the season opener to the Super Bowl) astronomical to the point of impossible.

7. I expect the first 4 weeks of the season to be much more chaotic. Timing and game conditioning won’t be the same. I know part of the current justification rests on shortening the preseason. But those games are used to gradually ramp players up to speed. Look at Favre this year, or Darrelle Revis who both missed training camp and both were not ready for their respective openers. Now imagine that on a league wide basis.

8. I think all season records should be reset to 0. The new benchmark for season rushing yards becomes 1500, with a great season becoming 2000 yards. The record will be 2500 or so. I think 6000 yards passing is now doable, with 4500 yards becoming the new benchmark.

9. Expect more late season playoff runs. The extra games will likely throw-off precision teams, such as the Colts, early. But once they hit their stride, they’ve got a couple extra games to make up for a slow start. The effect won’t be huge, but it will be there.

10. The transition for rookies will be brutal. They will have two fewer weeks to learn offensive and defensive systems. They’re body and minds will have the shock of switching from a season that starts in late August and ends in November to a season that starts in mid-August and ends at the end of December. I’d say rookies will be used more sparingly early in the year in the hopes of having them capable of meaningfully contribute at the end of the year.

11. Youth becomes king. Veteran teams will not be able to keep pace with younger teams because they just won’t have the energy at the end of the year to make their experience matter.

12. Good defenses become downright stifling by the end of the year. Defensive coordinators will have 2 more games to figure out what makes offenses tick. They’ll put it too good use.

On a pure speculation note, I think the raison-d’etre for this move is television. Specifically, no one watches the pre-season and the networks are none to pleased with that state of affairs. I’m a Cowboys fan and I can’t tell you anything about how they looked in the pre-season. I know I’m not the only one. Only the fantasy guys and diehards who think they can coach care about the pre-season- and even there it’s only because they haven’t figured out that the pre-season is a predictor of absolutely squat. So the owners figure that making the games “count” will increase the viewing season. They’re probably right.

Looking at the above, I’m struck by how easy it is to come up with net-negatives for the longer season. I suppose the main plus for fans is the longer viewing season and probably all the season record setting. Largely, the move seems to be a net negative for players. Sure they’ll have higher paying seasons; but there’s a good chance it’s offset by shorter careers.

I’ll be curious to see justifications beyond “more games that count.” I’m sure they exist; but I can’t think of them, which makes me dubious of their convincing power.

A few observations, in no particular order:

• The Cowboys and Vikings win, which I guess means we can pencil them in as shoe-ins for the NFC Championship. I mean jeez- right up until Sunday everyone was getting their “Jerry Jones is about to clean-house” story into draft form. Ditto for the “Maybe Favre should have retired afterall” stories. Now, their 1-2 and everything is just fine. Sheesh.

• OK- Michael Vick played well again. So what. I mean, I guess if you’ve got to go to jail to finally figure out that you need to do a little more than show up on Sunday, so be it. As far as him actually being better than he was before, this one is going to take time.

  First, let’s see if he’s still playing in December. He just got the starting job, he has yet to play the Cowboys, Texans, Colts and Titans to name a few. Let’s see if he still has triple-digit passer rating in December. A player just doesn’t, in an instant, become the best quarterback in the league. He earns it one week at a time. Vick doesn’t get an exemption, even if he has straightened out his act.

• Pittsburgh will not got undefeated. Anyone thinking that right now needs to put their terrible towel down and take a chill pill. New England couldn’t do it, and that team was better than this Pittsburgh team. I’ll predict right now that they lose Roethlisberger’s return game.

• Kansas City is not for real. Yet. They beat the Chargers , which isn’t looking like all that big a deal right now. Other than that, they beat Cleveland and San Francisco. This proves KC’s viability how exactly?

• I’m starting to really dislike the Jets. I mean, actually want to see them get beat and badly at that. This is a bad thing because typically, that means the team is very good. I used to feel like this about the Chicago Bulls and New England Patriots. It’s early, but in this case I’m going to begrudgingly agree with the consensus that this could be their year.

  I’m glad to see LT playing well. He looks a lot like he did about 4 years ago when he was everybody’s fantasy league hero. When gambles like that pay dividends for teams, it’s a sign. Think Patriots and Corey Dillon, or Cowboys and Charles Haley.

• The Giants suck. Love it.

• The Pats are looking tired. They need a major infusion of youth. I think the Colts are in the same boat. It’s a long season and pride will only get them so far.

Mainly, the season is long, this is week 3.

Have patience.

The answers are coming.