Good Article for those who hate football know-it-alls...

[LWC611]

You know what, I'm just gonna call this the way I see it. Vick, Young, Russell, Newton, Culpepper, McNabb, McNair, etc.. ALL had to endure constant criticism when they came out of college about how their game would never translate in the NFL. They weren't smart enough to read defenses, had poor mechanics, etc. It was always a foregone conclusion that either they learn to play the QB position the way it conforms in the NFL or they would fail. Now we get a white, religious, boy next door guy who also has terrible mechanics, horrible at reading defenses, pretty much terrible at everything besides running the ball and he's given the benefit of the doubt because he's a "winner"? It's total BS and frankly it's insulting to all the black QB's who were just as much "winners" in college, yet they are immediately handicapped as potential busts.

Bottom line, Tebow is not nearly the complete QB that Cam Newton is or any of the guys I mentioned above. All of those guys could pretty much run as well as Tebow, and ALL of them were better in their footwork and mechanics. Even Vince Young's delivery is better than that Byron Leftwich wanna be windup of Tebow's. And speaking of Leftwich, at least he threw spirals. I'm sorry but IMO the Tebow lovefest across the nation sends the message that white=presumed winner, black=potential bust.

Amen.....

[Sperm Edwards]

This is so absurd I wouldn't know where to begin. I remember Vince Young being called just as much of a guy who "just wins" when, as a rookie, Tennessee beat Philly. 3 TD's that Young had nothing to do with, and another FG where Tennessee started out in chip-shot FG territory and didn't advance the ball. And this was hailed as an example of winning. That infectious winning attitude he exudes that permeates the entire team.

And heading into the 2006 draft, Young's stock dropped like a stone, and was still dropping with each passing week, with many or most boards having him not getting taken in the top 15-20. 100% of those watching the draft were shocked he was the first QB off the board and that Tennessee took him #3 overall. Did anyone say that he only went that high because of his skin color? They reached for a guy who was a college winner and was physically talented. In terms of draft pick trade value, technically it's a bigger reach to take a #15-20 talent at #3 than a 3rd-round talent at #25. Hell, in terms of pure trade value it's a bigger reach to take the consensus #8 overall player at #3 than to take a 7th round talent at #25 overall. Yet after Young was picked, it was rationalized pretty neatly. Then he was awarded an undeserved rookie of the year and not one but TWO undeserved pro bowl appearances.

It is also revisionist fiction to suggest that everyone said Vick is going to have to change his game once he gets to the pros. It was non-stop Vick-mania up to, and through, his draft. This was the player of the future. The guy with the strongest arm who was faster than everyone. The man would would redefine a QB position that would never be the same again. The new type of QB for the new millennium. Then he cowardly murdered a bunch of dumb, defenseless animals and while in jail people still bought his football jersey in droves. If Vick was sinfully ugly, instead of being a good-looking guy with a nice smile, that would never have happened no matter how much melanin is present in his skin.

Want to know the #1 reason why Tebow is popular with many right now? He won a Heismann Trophy as a sophomore, got the most first-place votes for another one (then finished 3rd overall), won two National Championships, he's good-looking, and he's outspoken about something most football fans find totally unoffensive. People want to put handsome, good-egg athletes on their products, on their commercials, and on their TV programs.

The only obvious racist component is the way he's constantly made fun of for being religious like no athlete I've seen. Years and years ago I lost count of how many black athletes have repeatedly thanked God for this or that, as though God liked him (or his team) better than he liked the other side because they were more virtuous or prayed harder. That gets a free pass 100.00% of the time but I guess scores of the open-minded media - as well as many smarter-than-thou's here - figure only a white guy should be smart enough to not believe in such stupid things, and therefore he is to be mocked for it.

When Tebow starts losing games, and it will happen because he's just flat-out a sucky QB, no one's going to give a crap about him, his skin color, his good looks, or how religious he is (unless you're in the same congregation, I suppose) until it's time for one of those "Where are they today?" specials.

[THE ILK]

We have football know-it-alls here?

[Sperm Edwards]

We have football know-it-alls here?

I knew it.

[The Troll]

And Peyton Hillis made the cover because he was the most electric runner in the NFL? Vick got a pass because he was a larger than life star, Young because of what he did in college (similar to Bush, but neither was really praised and certainly not Young by year 2), and Culpepper was always linked to Moss. McNabb is the only guy that got a pass and he got it because he was the one QB that would bring up the race card whenever things went bad and I think the media (ESPN) didnt want to deal with it. They knew he had a rough time in Philly partially because he was black and partially because they wanted Ricky Williams and they had the firestorm with Rush Limbaugh. The Philly media killed him though for being a loser. He and Reid were pretty much vilified for years in Philly.

Peyton Hillis made the cover because the fans voted and I tend to think of that more as a joke. People made a mockery of the process and EA got what they deserved by leaving it up to a nation of smartasses. As for Vince Young, he was universally praised by most of the media for his entire run in Tennessee. Only when it become painfully obvious that he was a first class twat off the field did the adoring media stop defending him. You and I have very different recollections of Vince's second NFL season. While I remember his 9 TDs and 17 INTs, I also remember them making the playoffs and Vince getting blown by the masses as "a guy who just wins". Hell, it was more of the same sh*t in '09 when he took over for Collins. Chris Johnson starts going absolutely nuts, their defense figures out how to play again, and Vince gets all the credit because he's a "winner". Ignoring the fact that the year before the Titans went 13-3 with KERRY COLLINS. And why was Vick a larger than life star? BECAUSE THE MEDIA MADE HIM ONE!

He wasn't?

By the national media? Not at all. The heaviest criticism I've heard nationally about McNabb's Super Bowl chokejob was from his own teammates.

I don't know, dude. a lot of the hype surrounding those guys was earned. Look at their records early on: McNabb--56-23 his first six years; Vick--31-19; Young--30-17. Culpepper went 11-5 his first year starting with 33 TDs. Those guys produced, which led to the accolades. Look at the fellating that guys like Bradford, Stafford, Flacco, Sanchez and Matt Ryan get. Those dudes haven't achieved half of what McNabb or even Vick did early on.

Also--and you know I'm no McNabb fan--but he's a borderline Hall of Famer, at least statistically.

Their TEAMS produced. In the case of Young and McNabb, they were mostly just along for the ride. However, when the chips were down and crunch time came, those teams never won jack sh*t because their QBs were not good enough. And the media gave them a pass because they were black. Vick may have helped the Falcons win, but he wasn't a very good QB and was treated as if he were the 2nd coming of Christ. And, like Young and McNabb, you were winning nothing substantial with him.

BTW, Sanchez and Flacco have achieved just as much as any of those QBs had at this point in their careers, in fact MORE. Four road playoff wins each. Have McNabb, Young, and Vick COMBINED for that many road playoff wins? BUT THEY'RE WINNERS! Poor Sanchez gets routinely roasted by the talking heads. Flacco has been getting killed after Monday night's sh*t festival. Rightly so, but if he were Joe Blacko, there'd be less venom.

[JohnnyHector]

This is so absurd I wouldn't know where to begin. I remember Vince Young being called just as much of a guy who "just wins" when, as a rookie, Tennessee beat Philly. 3 TD's that Young had nothing to do with, and another FG where Tennessee started out in chip-shot FG territory and didn't advance the ball. And this was hailed as an example of winning. That infectious winning attitude he exudes that permeates the entire team.

And heading into the 2006 draft, Young's stock dropped like a stone, and was still dropping with each passing week, with many or most boards having him not getting taken in the top 15-20. 100% of those watching the draft were shocked he was the first QB off the board and that Tennessee took him #3 overall. Did anyone say that he only went that high because of his skin color? They reached for a guy who was a college winner and was physically talented. In terms of draft pick trade value, technically it's a bigger reach to take a #15-20 talent at #3 than a 3rd-round talent at #25. Hell, in terms of pure trade value it's a bigger reach to take the consensus #8 overall player at #3 than to take a 7th round talent at #25 overall. Yet after Young was picked, it was rationalized pretty neatly. Then he was awarded an undeserved rookie of the year and not one but TWO undeserved pro bowl appearances.

It is also revisionist fiction to suggest that everyone said Vick is going to have to change his game once he gets to the pros. It was non-stop Vick-mania up to, and through, his draft. This was the player of the future. The guy with the strongest arm who was faster than everyone. The man would would redefine a QB position that would never be the same again. The new type of QB for the new millennium. Then he cowardly murdered a bunch of dumb, defenseless animals and while in jail people still bought his football jersey in droves. If Vick was sinfully ugly, instead of being a good-looking guy with a nice smile, that would never have happened no matter how much melanin is present in his skin.

Want to know the #1 reason why Tebow is popular with many right now? He won a Heismann Trophy as a sophomore, got the most first-place votes for another one (then finished 3rd overall), won two National Championships, he's good-looking, and he's outspoken about something most football fans find totally unoffensive. People want to put handsome, good-egg athletes on their products, on their commercials, and on their TV programs.

The only obvious racist component is the way he's constantly made fun of for being religious like no athlete I've seen. Years and years ago I lost count of how many black athletes have repeatedly thanked God for this or that, as though God liked him (or his team) better than he liked the other side because they were more virtuous or prayed harder. That gets a free pass 100.00% of the time but I guess scores of the open-minded media - as well as many smarter-than-thou's here - figure only a white guy should be smart enough to not believe in such stupid things, and therefore he is to be mocked for it.

When Tebow starts losing games, and it will happen because he's just flat-out a sucky QB, no one's going to give a crap about him, his skin color, his good looks, or how religious he is (unless you're in the same congregation, I suppose) until it's time for one of those "Where are they today?" specials.

The main thing I took from this post is that you find both Michael Vick and Tim Tebow to be good-looking.

You certainly have eclectic taste in men... it's a shame that most of the mods are fat, white guys.

[Jetscode1]

NFL 2011

Tim Tebow is the football establishment’s worst nightmare.

From: Nate Jackson|Posted Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011, at 3:16 PM ET

To: Tommy Craggs and Stefan Fatsis

This NFL roundtable is a seasonlong partnership between Slate and Deadspin. Check back here each week as a rotating cast of football watchers discusses the weekend's key plays, coaching decisions, and traumatic brain injuries. And click here to play the latest episode of Slate’s sports podcast Hang Up and Listen.

Denver's Tim Tebow passes during Sunday's game against the Miami Dolphins.

Tommy, I'm going to spare everyone my X's and O's esoterica. And frankly, X's and O's are boring. I spent too many years zoning out on coaches, and, believe me, things would get more confusing, not less, if I started in on the chalkboard. I will say simply that Tim Tebow looked strikingly different from the quarterbacks we have grown accustomed to watching on television. He lacks those quarterback things that we love, or that we're conditioned to love by analysts such as Jon Gruden: tight footwork, efficient throwing motion, precision craftsmanship, pocket presence, predictability. Tebow is a study in the opposites: bad mechanics, slow delivery, happy feet, poor defensive-recognition abilities, wobbly balls.

Tebow is not a Jon Gruden kind of player. Sure, he might trumpet Tebow's competitiveness and his will to win and all those intangibles, but I'd bet that a large part of him is rooting for Tebow to fail. After all, a quarterback like Tebow is a living affront to that secret knowledge, possessed primarily by a fraternity of former coaches and players who now talk on TV for a living, of what it takes to succeed in the NFL. A successful Tebow is a quarterback who craps all over the conventional football wisdom, and this has the football world very afraid.

Once upon a time, fans were free to watch football games with their own eyes. They drew their own conclusions based on what they saw. (Remember this experiment?) They found their own heroes, and when they didn't—when the heroes came pre-made, via NFL Films—they at least saw the game from the players' vantage point. Now we are told by analysts what to look for and what we just saw. We are told why a team won and why a team lost. We are told who is in trouble and who is in the clear. And we are guided through the dark labyrinth of football chaos by voices we have learned to trust because of their football vocabulary and their service to the sport. They teach us a great deal, but they also teach us to think like coaches. They pretend to have answers for everything, and here they fail us.

Because when we run back the tape of any play, we can see the coverage and we can say: "Tim Tebow needs to see that blitzing Will linebacker and audible out of this play. Look at all of this room he has over here to work with. That's something that he's got to see if he's going to be a successful quarterback in this league." And there it is. This is what he has to do to be successful in this league. There is no way around it. This is what football must look like.

And this goes back to practice. Voices like Gruden's—I use Gruden as an example because I think of him as the gold standard of modern football punditry, and based on his contract extension, ESPN evidently agrees—were developed and refined at practice. Coaches believe that there is only one way to win in the NFL: execution. This word is beaten into the brains of NFLers over and over again. The quarterback must be the executor-in-chief. His job is to act out the dreams of his coach. He's the vessel; his coach jumps inside and operate from within. This is what gives coaches confidence going into a game. The more accurately their vision is enacted, the better they'll sleep at night in the run-up to games. So they script every play in every practice. Every scripted offensive practice play has a corresponding scripted defensive play that is designed to give the quarterback a look that he may see in the game. The goal of the coaching staff during game week is to script out every possible scenario versus every possible offensive play, so nothing comes as a surprise on game day.

But after all this obsessive preparation comes the chaos of Sunday. Surprises are bursting from every angle. The coach is helpless on the sideline. His head has split open, and bats are flying out. He is bleeding from the eyes. The game will unfold despite him, and after it is over, the coaches will race to their offices to watch it on film, confused by what has just taken place. They truly have no idea what happened until they view the tape. Then after the film viewing, everything makes sense again. They can figure out what went wrong and why. They will compile thorough notes to pass out to the players when they come back to work, and the players will be graded on their execution. The weekly cycle begins anew. It's a damned drag.

I am hoping and waiting for a brave coach to put in some plays called "Get Open" and "Throw to Whomever the Fvck You Want." Those plays will work. I'm sure of it. When things are right, there's a telekinesis on the football field that supersedes everything. I've felt it. And I've felt the triumph of flawless execution. I'll take the magic over the execution any day. The magic is Tim Tebow's milieu. The flawless execution is not.

Monday night's game between the Ravens and Jags was a perfect example of the limits of an execution-based offensive system. The Ravens, like every other NFL team, are full of dynamic athletes, but their offense looked like garbage against Jacksonville. Coach John Harbaugh rightly said after the game that it was the worst offensive performance he had ever seen. "It was a lack of execution," he said. But I watched the game. They were executing. They did exactly as coached: They ran the plays that were called, and they were hamstrung by the rigidity of their offense. When a play is called, the receiver runs it, even if the route plays into the defense's coverage. There is no flexibility within these systems. All any of those receivers had to do was break rank and run by one of those squatting corners and he would have been alone in the end zone. The Ravens needed to allow for a little magic.

Which leads me back around to Solomon Wilcots' comments and his praise for the ineffable virtues of Tebow. That's the thing, Craggs. We're all too smart for God these days, and to believe in Tim Tebow is to believe in God in a world that tells us God is an impossibility, and that Tim Tebow is a bad quarterback because a bunch of guys on television said so. Well, screw that. We need some new heroes.

So Stefan, who are your heroes? Tebow? Janikowski? Alfred M. Butts?

link: http://www.slate.com..._nightmare.html

The bolded reminds me of another type of BS we see most weeks excluding this one.

On the Tebow story itself...I'm not an expert but he fails the eyeball test. The Dolphin game was ugly and if they were playing almost anyone else they would have been down over 30 points and they could not have won and the narrative would be a little different. Can he improve using the great intangibles he has? Sure, but by season's end I just don't see it. In fact, I suspect Elway and Fox put him out there to fail so they can convince the fans its time to move on from the mistakes of the previous regime. For a contrary opinion check out this profile.

http://www.thehuddlereport.com/Free/archive/Player.Profiles/2010.Profiles/Tim.Tebow.htm

[JetsFanInDenver]

I read some comment on Tebow not being compared to Elway.

In Denver comparing Elway to anyone would be sacrilege. Even if GOD himself came to earth to QB the Broncos!

[SenorGato]

Huh? You meant the first overall pick. lol

Okay. Wow.

All remember was that he wasnt accurate and had a bad attitude. Otherwise, why would he go 1st overall.

This thread is really sad.

Alright alright.

[Jets62]

If Obama was white he wouldnt be President. We could go on&on about Tebow, my God this sounds like a Democratic fund raiser thread.

[T0mShane]

IBTL!! IBTL!!!!!!!!!!

[Larz]

If Obama was white he wouldnt be President. We could go on&on about Tebow, my God this sounds like a Democratic fund raiser thread.

he is as white as he is black

but you knew that