Friday, August 14, 2009

Vickadelphia and the racial undertones




Vick is in Philly. Duh! We all know by know Mike Vick is back in the league. I am probably the happiest person in the world being that I am one of his biggest fans.

You can go to other sites to get the status of when Vick will play, how he will help, how he will hurt them etc.

I'm going to chop it up about the racial undertones that are really, really bothering me. Vick is not the Wildcat quarterback ambassador. Why is now that any athletic black quarterback is immediately the wildcat specialist. I love what Donovan McNabb said yesterday in response to a reporters question regarding the Vick and the Wildcat formation.

He said, and I paraphrase, "I think people look at the Wildcat as a cop out. He's not a utility guy, he's not a wide receiver, he is a quarterback. He was brought in to be a quarterback. Yes, the Wildcat formation works in college, and a few times adopted it last year in the NFL, but it won't last long in the NFL. Michael Vick is first and foremost a quarterback. People focus too much on numbers instead of his (Vick) wins and losses."

To hear this being said from the starting quarterback shows how confident the organization is in McNabb, and how confident McNabb is in himself. I was amazed by McNabb's confidence and even more amazed that he lobbied for Vick to be an Eagle.

Jamie Dukes of the NFL network said something that no one else seems to be saying. He said that Michael Vick despite his numbers was a very good quarterback in NFL. His completion percentage is not great but his win loss record is 38-28-1. Most importantly when he was quarterback, he lead the Falcons to a road playoff win against Brett Favre and the Packers, and also took the Falcons to the NFC Championship game. He made it known that Vick really didn't have people around him. Imagine if Roddy White played the way he does know with Matt Ryan. Not saying White sabotaged Vick in anyway, only that he was a young reciever. Vick never had that stellar goto wide reciever. One thing he did have was a lot of dropped balls. In fact at one point the Falcons were 8th in the league in terms of dropped passes in 2006.

I find it funny how people are not open to change. Before this wildcat craze no one said it would work. But now everyone is a proponent of it? If Vick was winning, although not a high rate, what is the big deal with his style of winning? I mean Kerry Collins did not exactly win pretty in Tennessee last year as many people want to say he did. Vick was not the greatest quarterback in terms of passing, but what he lacked passing he made up for running. Why isn't Vick allowed the same growth pattern that was allowed to Steve Young?

Either way, he is back. I've always been a Vick fan, and I'll be rooting for him and Eagles harder than ever before. Welcome to Philadelphia, home of the black quarterback, Randall Cunningham, Donovan McNabb and now Mike Vick.

It's funny how Dan Marino and Jim Kelly are regarded as two of the greatest QBs of our time even though they didn't win a Super Bowl. Terry Bradshaw won 4 Super Bowls, while having a 212/210 TD/Int ratio and a 70.9 QB rating(Vick's 75.5). For Vick to even be considered in the same breath he has to not only play with what the "masses" deam the appropriate way to play quarterback, he also has to win. To understand my frustrations, listen to the last video of this post by Chris Rock. Thanks.


That's all I got,


Ricky Writer

Vick introduced as the newest Philadelphia Eagle






Donovan Embraces Vick




Chris Rock on HBO Black List Vol. #1


Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Ed The Sports Fan drops some knowledge




Ed the Sports Fan does. And he does it well everyday on his website, Edthesportsfan.com. His site was the voted as the Best Black Sports blog in 2008. He's nominated again this year as well. Check him out at, http://vote.blackweblogawards.com/pick, he's number 24. Mr. Ed has blessed us with a very interesting article as well. Let me get out of his way and let the man do his thing.


The Five Greatest College QBs in the last 25 years.

by Ed the Sports Fan



This debate started on twitter, had some vile conversations with Cephas from WTFMoments.org, and had some Blackberry Messenger debates with Kenny.

So this list will be highly inconclusive, inspiring, inaccurate, mind-blowing, hateful, and truly awesome all at the same time. This "greatest" list will be qualified as the most dynamic, do-it-all, big-game winning QB in my generation. Please note that no professional success will be factored into this, so just like Christian Laettener was lame in the NBA, he was awesome in college. Same rules apply here.

With all that being said, here's the best of the rest. QB's that didn't make the top 5.

Eric Crouch, Nebraska - Probably was #6 on the list of QBs, was the dream-killer of Oklahoma in the early '00's. Crouch is the all-time record holder for total offense in the Big 12 with 7,915. He is the 13th player in NCAA Division 1-A history to run and throw for more than 1,000 yards in a season.

Josh Heupel, Oklahoma - QB of the 2000 National Champion Oklahoma Sooners. Made every big throw for the Sooners and got big time wins against Nebraska, Texas, and Florida State.

Tee Martin, Tennessee - Peyton Manning might've been the better overall QB, but Tee Martin made every big play to get Tennessee a national championship.

Carson Palmer, Southern California - Carson owns seven Pac-10 career records and such USC player records as: total offense (a Pac 10 record 11,621), plays (a Pac-10 record 1,824), passing yardage (a Pac-10 record 11, 818), passing touchdowns (72, third on the Pac-10 ladder), completions (a Pac-10 record 927), attempts (a Pac-10 record 1,569). Palmer finished his USC season with a win at the 2003 Orange Bowl where he was selected bowl MVP.

Troy Smith, Ohio State - During Smith's senior year campaign, he threw for a school-record thirty (30) touchdowns while securing a spot for his Buckeyes in the BCS National Championship Game. Following his senior season, he was also awarded the Walter Camp Award, Davey O'Brien Award, AP Player of the Year, Sporting News Player of the Year, and Big Ten Offensive Player of the year.

NOW FOR THE TOP 5...

#5. Matt Leinart, Southern California - Matt is just the third quarterback in more than thirty years to lead his team to back-to-back national championships. In the process he led USC to three championship appearances and made every big throw the Trojans needed. The prototypical pocket passer to come out of the '05 draft, he was loaded with stars (Mike Williams, Dewayne Jarrett, LenDale White, Reggie Bush) however he was the lynchpin. Will go down as maybe the greatest USC QB of all-time.

#4. Vince Young, Texas - VY10 put together maybe the single-greatest game performance in the history of college football. The 38-35 Texas victory over USC in the Rose Bowl was truly magical. After the game, former USC and NFL safety Ronnie Lott said "Vince Young is the greatest quarterback to ever play college football." That gets you in the pantheon by itself. In his career he finished with a 30-2 record, and finished #7 on UT's rushing list with 3,127 yards. In his final year Young finished the season with 3,036 yards passing and 1,050 yards rushing earning him the Davey O'Brien Award.

#3. Charlie Ward, Florida State - Ward won the 1993 Heisman Trophy and Davey O'Brien Award as a quarterback for FSU, and subsequently led the Seminoles to their first-ever National Championship when FSU defeated Nebraska 18–16 in the 1993 Orange Bowl. Charlie was a phenomenal athlete, and was the anchor on a phenomenal Seminole team that was loaded with stars like Warrick Dunn and Derrick Brooks. The simple fact that Ward never played pro football almost adds to his mystique, and his senior year he finished with a 70% completion percentage while throwing for over 3,000 yards with 27 TDs and just 4 interceptions.

#2. Tim Tebow, Florida - God's 2nd favorite quarterback (behind Kurt Warner) is truly a talent from the heavens. Heisman trophy winner, 2-time Maxwell Award Winner, 2-time All-American, and more importantly 2-time national champion winner. #15 is the first Quarterback I've seen who was much more fullback/linebacker than the tall, lean or stiff, QBs that you usually see. Trust me, there is a huge chance that if I ever do this list again, he will be #1. If he wins another title this year, or wins a 2nd Heisman...I gotta put him #1.

#1. Tommie Frazier, Nebraska - Tommie Frazier is widely regarded as the greatest option quarterback in college football history. Frazier led the Cornhuskers to the Sunshine State Triumvirate aka 3 consecutive national championship games ('93-'95) against Florida, Miami, and Florida State. Frazier quarterbacked the Big Red Machine to back-to-back national championship in '94-95, the last team to do such a feat. Frazier was maybe the best big-game QB of our generation as he is the only player ever to win MVP of three national championship games. He finished with a career 33-3 record, and maybe pulled off one of the most back-breaking plays of all-time against the Gators...


The man had blood clots in his legs, and never got to showcase what he could do in pro football, and as much as I hate to crown a Cornhusker...he's #1 on this list.

WOW...AGAIN AS ALWAYS PLEASE LEAVE YOUR HATEFUL COMMENTS, LET THE DEBATE BEGIN!

-Ed.
www.edthesportsfan.com

**Please show your support of ETSF by voting for us as the Best Sports Blog on the net! CLICK HERE to vote for Ed The Sports Fan (selection #24) today! The revolution will not be televised, but its sho' gon' be live**

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Posted By Ed The Sports Fan to Ed The Sports Fan at 8/11/2009 08:55:00 AM

Monday, August 10, 2009

My First Football Game in 5 Months





I couldn't believe what I saw. Was it true? Was it 200+ lb. men flying around and hurling their bodies into one another and break neck speeds(literally)? It couldn't be could it? Yes, Jesus and the Football gods have ended their dispute of whether or not to make football a year round sport. As usual, Jesus won the argument, but he has allowed the Football gods to continue doing what they do best, orchestrating football matches from early August to early February. Oh ya, that's REAL football they are orchestrating by the way, and I'll go in a back alley with any soccer fan to prove my point of American football, being THE real football.

The Hall of Fame game was played this past weekend. It wasn't the greatest game in the world, but the game of football was on and my eyes were glued to the TV. I realized a few things that I am going to share with you. Terrell Owens has to have some fountain of youth and is not letting anyone else have any. How can this man continue you to play with the consistency he does at his age. He did start his career with the 49ers as did Jerry Rice who played 19 years in the league. Sidenote: Yo, Michael Crabtree, you might want to sign that contract with the 49ers if you know what's good for you homie. I'm not saying, I'm just saying. Chris Johnson is fas(not a typo he just ran across the computer screen and stole the "t" off the screen and you just didn't see him.)
The biggest Vince Young highlight wasn't his TD pass, but he threw an INT and bounced back from it just to throw a TD pass later in the game.

The actual Hall of Fame presentation the previous day was cool also. As I get older, I recognize more of the players that are inducted into the Hall. I remeber Randy McDaniel always having a high rating on Madden so I'd always trade for him and have a dynasty that would win five straight Super Bowls until the computer cheated in the 6th Super Bowl. Didn't know much about Ralph Wilson to be honest other than he owned the Bills and was one of the AFL founders, did I need to know more? I knew Bruce Smith was the 2nd best DE to ever live. I knew Derrick Thomas was either 1a or 1b when it came to outside linebackers to ever play this game. I know Bob Hayes might not ever be duplicated again, unless Usain Bolt wants to play football at a Hall of Fame level, if he's even capable. I also knew that Rod Woodson was one of the greatest cornerbacks of all-time, and know that I am in denial when I say Deion Sanders was a better cornerback than Woodson was.

Ralph Wilson's speech was cool and it was good to see him accept his recognition being that he is 90 years old even though he doesn't act his age. There were two posthumous recognitions recognized at the Hall of Fame this year, being Bob Hayes and Derrick Thomas who were presented/accepted by Roger Staubauch and Carl Peterson respectively.

Randy McDaniel had a good speech as it also was the deepest voice speech as well.

Bruce Smith had the funniest acceptance speech of anyone with one single quote, saying that he was responsible for stealing, former Bills RB, Thurman Thomas' helmet in the Super Bowl.

Rod Woodson's speech was the most inspirational as he spoke about the struggles of bi-racial individuals in the US.

No one's speech was "memorable" ala Michael Irvin or Darrell Green of recent years but their in the Hall of Fame and I'm not so take that, take that 6Magazine.

My one issue with this past weekend's festivites is this, why do those elected into the Hall need to be presented? To be honest, I don't want a hear a childhood friend, former coach, wife, son, etc anyone present a player. Let the player be presented by his play. A great video highlight reel from high school to professional is more than enough, then skip the "presenter" and let the player get up and accept his enshrinment.

That's all I got,


Ricky Writer