NFL Jockocracy
There’s no getting around the fact that the most qualified people to analyze and breakdown NFL teams, players and games are former players. They’ve lived it, so naturally they’ve got a point of view that somebody who has never played the game at the professional could ever dream of having.
Hiring these former NFL players isn’t without some drawbacks. For example, some of the more recent analysts seem utterly incapable of detaching themselves from the teams they played for. ESPN’s Michael Irvin rarely has a disparaging word for the Cowboys, and his colleague Tom Jackson has an Elway in his pocket for the Broncos. The most egregious example of this built-in bias exists in the NFL Network’s newest analyst, Marshall Faulk. In case you didn’t know, Faulk is on the St. Louis Rams’ “physically unable to perform” list. This means he’s still drawing a paycheck from an NFL team. How can he possibly remain objective when discussing them?
Some players are capable of separating themselves. The best two analysts in the business, Chris Collinsworth (NBC/HBO) and Troy Aikman (FOX), rarely pull punches when discussing their former teams. This isn’t to say that deep down they’re pulling for their former clubs, but they understand what their current job is, and strive to do an excellent job. Unfortunately, not all analysts have figured that out.
Perhaps the problem lies in the short amount of time a guy goes from suiting up on Sunday, to wearing a suit on Sunday. I’ve already mentioned Marshall Faulk, but can we reasonably expect a guy like Jerome Bettis to criticize the Pittsburgh Steelers 1-4 start this year, after he helped them win the Super Bowl less than a year ago?
I’d never suggest that these guys shouldn’t be on television, I’d just to remind people that you need to take what the guys who just left the league (or in Faulk’s case, are technically still in the league) with a grain or two of salt. They haven’t fully adjusted to life after football, and until they do, their analysis will be tainted.
Adam Schefter’s Fantasy World
After reading Adam Schefter’s October 11th column, it became clear to me that Schefter lives in a fantasy world.
During the salary cap age, mid-season trades are extremely rare. So why would Schefter even waste five minutes writing down a few trades that he thinks make sense for the teams involved?
He suggests that Oakland should sent Randy Moss to the Patriots for a 1st round pick, and Jerry Porter to the Vikings for a conditional 3rd round pick. Why? Because New England and Minnesota could use some wide receiving help and have additional draft picks in those rounds? So that automatically means that the Raiders should absorb the salary cap hit and go through the NFL season without a decent wide receiver on their roster? That’ll really help improve Andrew Walter’s 38.6 QB rating. Not to mention that trading your best two wide receivers, even if one of them has been inactive all season, sends up a white flag that the rest of the NFL, and your fans, can see from miles away. The Raiders may not be going anywhere, but there are ticket sales and stadium revenue to think about. Closing up shop in early mid-October is not a good way to run an NFL team, even if it makes sense to Schefter.
According to Schefter, Seattle should send their best wide receiver to the Kansas City Chiefs for a 2nd round pick. He’s right, though. The future of the Seahawks receiving corps will be based around Deion Branch and Nate Burleson, but last time I checked, the Seahawks are 3-1 and play the Chiefs twelve days after the trade deadline. That’s probably not the wisest time to send your most productive wide receiver packing.
San Diego trades back-up running back Michael Turner to the Philadelphia Eagles for a 2nd round pick. Again, why would either team do this? Philadelphia has Brian Westbrook, who may not be the bruising runner that Turner is, but those screen passes that Andy Reid always calls function as an extension of the running game. Meanwhile, Turner is the Chargers kick returner, and is a perfect compliment to LaDainian Tomlinson. In fact, his emergence as a solid runner is probably going to keep LT, the game’s best running back, healthy for the entire Chargers season, which is likely going to extend deep into January.
Green Bay sends Brett Favre to the Packers for Tony Romo and a 3rd round pick? Dallas already has a QB with an approaching expiration date, so why would they trade a legitimate prospect for another QB with limited life left remaining in his battery?
Nice try, Adam (who is normally very good), but this isn’t Madden 07 or Biff’s Fantasy Football league. Trades are rare in the NFL for a reason. Every team’s system is different, which is why teams prefer to wait until the off-season to make dramatic personnel changes.
How I’d Fix the NFL Sunday Ticket
For NFL fans, this is the best invention the NFL has seen since the forward pass. Still, there are some features/aspects that need to be re-thought.
Player Tracker – On the surface, this is a solid idea. What this does is allows the user to enter up to nine players on his/her fantasy football team, and the system will display an alert whenever your players do something worth noting.
I’m not a fantasy geek, so I haven’t used it. The only reason it irks me is that whenever you turn to an NFL Sunday Ticket channel, a menu bar pops up, blocking the bottom third of the screen. Usually, this bar interferes with a graphic on the broadcast, and quite frankly, it annoys the hell out of me. The worst part is there doesn’t appear to be any way to disable this feature.
Blacked Out Channels – I know that there are contractual obligations behind this, but I do not understand why I’m forced to watch games that are being broadcasted locally on my local channels.
The NFL Sunday Ticket neatly arranges games on channels 704-718, but if that game is being shown locally, the Sunday Ticket channel gets blacked out. This is another nuisance, especially when you want to watch a 4pm on your local channel, but the 1pm goes long. Sometimes, the Sunday Ticket channel keeps the 4pm game blacked out, causing you to miss a portion of the game you’ve been waiting all day to watch.
So here’s my suggestion for DirecTV:
- Figure out a way to disable the Player Tracker feature. If a person is that obsessive about their fantasy team, they can watch the watch the games their players are involved in.
- Keep all Sunday Ticket channels active at all times.
Wick’s Picks
I loved reading this today. From Seth Wickersham’s ESPN blog (ESPN Insider required):
“Rams 33, Seahawks 20: If you could hire a Harvard grad who has just spent six years with your chief division rival, you'd sign him, right? The Rams did. Smartly. LB Isaiah Kacyvenski helps the Rams to a big win.”
If only it were that simple, Seth. Obviously, Kacyvenski’s time with the Seahawks will help the Rams, but let’s not get carried away here. Players switch teams all the time and it doesn’t necessarily translate into wins over the former team. Seattle signed former Ram Grant Wistrom after the 2003 season, and if I’m not mistaken, the Rams still beat the Seahawks three times in 2004.
It’s worth noting that Kacyvenski, a Harvard grad, fell victim to the Seahawks annual “Free Turkey Giveaway” not once, but twice. The prank involves rookies receiving coupons for a free turkey at a local grocery store. The player shows up, presents the coupon expecting a free turkey, and the oblivious store clerk explains to them that no such promotion exists. The whole thing is videotaped and the players have a good-natured laugh at the rookie’s expense. “Kaz” feel for this prank two years in a row.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Isaiah Kacyvenski, and still wish he was a Seahawk, but I don’t think his intimate knowledge of the Seahawks is going to be much of a factor in Sunday’s game.
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