Showing posts with label Football.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Football.. Show all posts
Breaking Through The Myth of a 'No. 1 Receiver' - Behind the Steel Curtain
Breaking Through The Myth of a 'No. 1 Receiver' - Behind the Steel Curtain
I tried to explain this to someone the other day but didn't have the time. This is a perfect breakdown. I'll give you a piece of it then you can head on over and see the rest at the link.
No team's depth chart says "No. 1 receiver" over a player's name. It's a legitimate concept, but it's just that, a concept.
The Steelers official web site has their depth chart, and it designates the receiver positions as "WR1" and "WR2," which is a way to avoid using the old-school and not-well recognized positions of "flanker" and "split end." In reference to the Steelers, the WR1 position is the flanker, and the WR2 position is the split end.
This depth chart reflects the offensive personnel out of their base offense - one split end, one flanker, two tight ends and one running back, along with five linemen and a quarterback.
A split end typically lines up on the line and is the widest player of the formation. A flanker plays in the slot, or about four yards from the last player on the line.
Split ends and flankers do not play on the same side of the field. They don't usually run the same kinds of routes, either. To suggest one could just flip to the other is as silly as saying the left guard could just play the right guard because either way, he's lining up next to the center.
A split end runs deep routes, short slants and things associated with that. Typically, they are long, deep speed guys, the playmakers. Mike Wallace is the Steelers starting split end. He replaced Santonio Holmes last season. Plaxico Burress and Nate Washington also played this position in the past.
A flanker, or a slot receiver, is versatile. They have good hands, make tough catches across the middle, and make defenders miss tackles. Hines Ward has been the Steelers flanker for a long time, and I'm not even sure the offense was similar in the pre-Ward days. There's a reason these designations stayed in place between Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin.
Obviously, all receivers need to have all of the aforementioned characteristics, and this is where it's important to know why there isn't a defined No. 1 receiver.
One reason is split ends and flankers are not in the game solely to catch passes.
I tried to explain this to someone the other day but didn't have the time. This is a perfect breakdown. I'll give you a piece of it then you can head on over and see the rest at the link.
No team's depth chart says "No. 1 receiver" over a player's name. It's a legitimate concept, but it's just that, a concept.
The Steelers official web site has their depth chart, and it designates the receiver positions as "WR1" and "WR2," which is a way to avoid using the old-school and not-well recognized positions of "flanker" and "split end." In reference to the Steelers, the WR1 position is the flanker, and the WR2 position is the split end.
This depth chart reflects the offensive personnel out of their base offense - one split end, one flanker, two tight ends and one running back, along with five linemen and a quarterback.
A split end typically lines up on the line and is the widest player of the formation. A flanker plays in the slot, or about four yards from the last player on the line.
Split ends and flankers do not play on the same side of the field. They don't usually run the same kinds of routes, either. To suggest one could just flip to the other is as silly as saying the left guard could just play the right guard because either way, he's lining up next to the center.
A split end runs deep routes, short slants and things associated with that. Typically, they are long, deep speed guys, the playmakers. Mike Wallace is the Steelers starting split end. He replaced Santonio Holmes last season. Plaxico Burress and Nate Washington also played this position in the past.
A flanker, or a slot receiver, is versatile. They have good hands, make tough catches across the middle, and make defenders miss tackles. Hines Ward has been the Steelers flanker for a long time, and I'm not even sure the offense was similar in the pre-Ward days. There's a reason these designations stayed in place between Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin.
Obviously, all receivers need to have all of the aforementioned characteristics, and this is where it's important to know why there isn't a defined No. 1 receiver.
One reason is split ends and flankers are not in the game solely to catch passes.
Football. Is. Back. For. Real. Games that COUNT. First up.for the Steelers? The Ravens.
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| The Hair is healthy. When he is healthy...yeah... |
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| I know folks are talking about his back....If he can walk, he will play. Well. |
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| Both guys in the picture will hopefully get their share of the rock. |
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| This WHOLE UNIT. We need 'em to play well. Period. Hopefully they set the tone. |
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| Mike Wallace. I imagine him and Jimmy will be locked up with each other. @ the Ravens rookie |
Madden 12 doesn't interest you? Remember Tecmo Bowl? Yeah...clear some hard drive space....
'Cause you can get it.....With all the current teams. Probably not for long though...Here you go....
One of the receivers I hope falls to the Steelers at a place where we could pick him and it not 'kill us'...
Of course I would love it if Julio or AJ fell but now that everyone is SO IN LOVE WITH THEM ALL THE SUDDEN (media), I guess I should lower my expectations. I know we won't be taking a WR FIRST ROUND so I have to hope that in the second or third it would happen. One such person who 'may' fall for is this cat. I wouldn't mind having a guy that can go get it when we need it and not have him be 5'8 (as Randle El did SEVERAL TIMES SPECTACULARLY MIGHT I ADD...)
Forget the Combine...I wanna see quarterback run do these tricks...
I'm playing..sorta....He is UConn's back up quarterback...Funny video..Even got the kicker involved and used a basketball court.
Right trigger..left trigger...R3 forward...X...X...X..X.....R3 again...TRIANGLE @ celebration...@Marshawn_Lynch's run...(video)
So for all you 'That never happens in the game like that' cats out there complaining about the tackling on Madden......Stop it 5. As you can see, Mr. Lynch showed it could be done...Tracy Porter got TRUCKED...
Ladies..a gift from @PigsknLvngLady. She gives a review on the Pats/Jets game and a gift for you..
http://pigskinlovinglady.com/2010/12/06/jets-offense-vs-patriots-defense/
She does a lil something called Hottie of the Week..Not for me but for you...Go see it...
She does a lil something called Hottie of the Week..Not for me but for you...Go see it...
I can hear it now..."How DID HE NOT KNOW his Dad was..".....Cam Newton..He is eligible. Per the NCAA..
(Taps you on the shoulder) Mr./Mrs. Convenient Amnesia,
So when you were in school (if you went), you KNEW YOUR PARENTS EVERY MOVE? Even though you weren't HOME at the time? (Remember, Cam went and played elsewhere after transferring from Florida..) I mean this isn't an 'opinion' based situation. You have to PROVE that Cam knew that his Dad was doing it. That would be via taped conversations, texts, emails etc, etc, etc....If you can do it, you have to do what the NCAA did here...
http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/public/ncaa/resources/latest+news/2010+news+stories/december/ncaa+addresses+eligibility+of+cam+newton
Here is the IMPORTANT PART....The beginning. and YOU'RE MAD...I know. Deal with it.
When a school discovers an NCAA rules violation has occurred, it must declare the student-athlete ineligible and may request the student-athlete’s eligibility be reinstated. Reinstatement decisions are made by the NCAA national office staff and can include conditions such as withholding from competition and repayment of extra benefits. Newton was reinstated without any conditions.
According to facts of the case agreed upon by Auburn University and the NCAA enforcement staff, the student-athlete’s father and an owner of a scouting service worked together to actively market the student-athlete as a part of a pay-for-play scenario in return for Newton’s commitment to attend college and play football. NCAA rules (Bylaw 12.3.3) do not allow individuals or entities to represent a prospective student-athlete for compensation to a school for an athletic scholarship.
So when you were in school (if you went), you KNEW YOUR PARENTS EVERY MOVE? Even though you weren't HOME at the time? (Remember, Cam went and played elsewhere after transferring from Florida..) I mean this isn't an 'opinion' based situation. You have to PROVE that Cam knew that his Dad was doing it. That would be via taped conversations, texts, emails etc, etc, etc....If you can do it, you have to do what the NCAA did here...
http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/public/ncaa/resources/latest+news/2010+news+stories/december/ncaa+addresses+eligibility+of+cam+newton
Here is the IMPORTANT PART....The beginning. and YOU'RE MAD...I know. Deal with it.
NCAA addresses Cam Newton's eligibility
Auburn University football student-athlete Cam Newton is immediately eligible to compete, according to a decision today by the NCAA student-athlete reinstatement staff. The NCAA concluded on Monday that a violation of amateurism rules occurred, therefore Auburn University declared the student-athlete ineligible yesterday for violations of NCAA amateurism rules.When a school discovers an NCAA rules violation has occurred, it must declare the student-athlete ineligible and may request the student-athlete’s eligibility be reinstated. Reinstatement decisions are made by the NCAA national office staff and can include conditions such as withholding from competition and repayment of extra benefits. Newton was reinstated without any conditions.
According to facts of the case agreed upon by Auburn University and the NCAA enforcement staff, the student-athlete’s father and an owner of a scouting service worked together to actively market the student-athlete as a part of a pay-for-play scenario in return for Newton’s commitment to attend college and play football. NCAA rules (Bylaw 12.3.3) do not allow individuals or entities to represent a prospective student-athlete for compensation to a school for an athletic scholarship.
Charlie Batch on Dennis Dixon...Interview..
I don't wanna speculate but....umm....this is interesting.
Link
"Well I mean right now you really don't know. One thing that they're trying to do..I mean, Dennis Dixon is a great talent and I think he showed that in the game that he played last year against Baltimore on Sunday. So I think at some point they're going to try to get him ready as much as possible because he is the future. Granted, I'm not going to be play for a number of more years down the line. Byron of course, he's starting to get up there in years as well.
So Dennis is the next up and coming, and I think the way that everything has gone, they want to give Dennis as many repetitions in training camp as possible, just to see what you have. Whether that was a one-game wonder, or if he's capable of carrying the load throughout the long haul of the season. And I think watching him as he really progressed over the last couple of years, he's really going to be a talent - whether that's with Pittsburgh or some other team, you will hear Dennis Dixon's name a lot more in the future."
You tell me what you got out of that...
Come The F#$k On! - Lendale White on 'What went wrong in with the Titans last year."
This guy...
"I think what happened was in Tennessee they probably got a little too carried away with the Chris Johnson thing. The year before that we were 13-3 when I had 200 carries and we split the rock. Chris went to the Pro Bowl and we had the first-round bye, they did things different the next year and we struggled to make the playoffs. It is what it is.''
-- LenDale White, the running back traded from Tennessee to Seattle on draft weekend, appearing to blame the Titans' 2009 slump on the emphasis placed on getting Chris Johnson a 2,000-yard rushing season, on Fox Sports Radio, via sportsradiointerviews.com.
I go on vacation and all hell breaks loose. McNabb,
Didn't see the need to 'announce' that I went BEFORE I ACTUALLY DID. My life is boring in that aspect so....
Okay, so you all know that D. McNabb got shipped down the turnpike to the Washington Redskins. I ,like you, was initially VERY SHOCKED that he was sent to a rival. It baffled the shit outta me honestly. Now that I have had time to think on it, it might not be such a HORRIBLE move.
There was only so much they were going to get for him and they DID get what they asked for. Playing him twice guaranteed sounds really 'interesting' but even if they sent him to the AFC, he still could have 'came back' and beat them in some sort of scenario anyway. So even doing that didn't guarantee they would not have to face McNabb again. I also had to remember that Donovan had some control over this issue. Meaning, it wasn't a 'shocker' to him. We have since found this out to be true because last week, right around the time of McNabb's "I just want the situation resolved' statement, he spoke to Dan Snyder. It was an weirdly worded statement THEN but I had no idea it meant THIS.
As far as Kevin Kolb is concerned, I am not all that convinced he is the 'answer'. Two games is not enough for me but hey, I don't run the Eagles nor am I am fan. We are about to find out though. With the 'person that is to blame for all of the failures in Philly for the last 11 years' gone, who are the fans/critics alike going to blame now? You can sarcastically continue to blame him but HE IS NO LONGER AROUND. I hope you guys (Eagles fans) that wanted him gone are patient. (Chuckles) Then again, ya'll the same mofos who threw batteries in snowballs.....
So now, Mick Vick is a 'reasonably' paid backup. Interesting. So when he gets 'vocal' about his role, he will be called all types of wrong due to the fact that he was 'allowed' back in the League. All because he will want to do what Kevin Kolb has expressed in these interviews the past couple of days. He wants to play and start. As he should. I am hoping he becomes the pain Donovan should have become when he wasn't getting the things he needed and they HAVE TO TRADE HIM. Of course, he might not be able to afford to do that but I am sincerely hoping so.
I also feel bad for Jason Campbell. I hope that the 'Skins let him go so maybe he could see some stability in another situation. The way that Jason found out was CLASSLESS. Even if you don't like your current quarterback, you should have the nuts to call him and tell him or his agent. I don't wanna hear that 'We didn't know it would turn out and it was a last minute thing....' shit either. Even if the 'Skins didn't think they had a shot at him, just letting him know they threw their hat in the ring on some level would have avoided that. Again, when he acts an ass (if he does), don't look for me to feel some kinda way about it. I won't blame him.
Again, Donovan is not the first Pro Bowl quarterback to part ways with their 'primary' team and have had to move on (McNair, Montana, Garcia,Cunningham,etc) so that is not the REAL ISSUE for most on the outside of 'Eagle World' (Fans included) It is the way things were blamed on him to me. He was not faultless. He wasn't 'the issue' to me though. He didn't play defense. He didn't fail to draft a Fullback. Try to convert Dan Klecko to FB. Draft a bunch of damm receivers that sucked or a bunch of bust lineman on both sides of the ball. Make Mike Mamula a high draft pick. You get the picture. You ALSO KNOW WHO DID THOSE THINGS. Lets see if he gets blamed if they don't win the chip.*
*Yes, he did draft Deshean Jackson, Shady McCoy, Brian Westbrook, Brent Celeck and some others. Still doesn't mean those other wasted picks didn't happen or should have happened.
Myron Rolle- The motivation for me...is them telling me what I can not be..
One of my personal theme songs and it seems to be one of his too. I am liking this kid more and more by the minute. Mike (Tomlin), please tell me this kid is on the radar. I hear a lot of you being critical of football players calling them all stupid. This kid is not the norm but he certainly dispels that theory. I have no doubt he will make someone's team and do well.
Here is a piece of the article. Link here:
OXFORD, England -- Oxford at first light is an ode to potential. The purple sky throws shadows off churches and their saw-blade spires, bringing definition to the gap-toothed smiles of crenellated walls. The ghosts come out in the dream of early morning. Twelve saints and seven British prime ministers walked these streets. So did Bill Clinton and John Donne, Sir Thomas More and Kris Kristofferson, plus the guy who invented the World Wide Web.
Myron Rolle talks about what it means to be a Rhodes scholar.
That little list? It always happens. People construct a roster of famous yet diverse alumni when describing Oxford -- the quirky sum even more fantastic than the successful parts -- implying that greatness comes with the diploma. But a shadow lurks near those collections of names. Oxford University is full of students who will one day change the world, yes, but it is also full of those who have the gifts to change it and will fail. In the hope of morning, though, let your focus fall on Clinton and Donne, More and Kristofferson and now, as the dreamy purple light burns off, as busses chug and belch down the ancient streets and another week of reality begins, Myron Rolle.
Rolle bounds down Banbury Road, long strides chewing up sidewalk, hurrying to his next lecture. Today's topic is "Pain and the Brain." He settles into a seat in the back of the room, the only student whose biceps strain against the fabric of his shirt. Around him, fellow Rhodes scholars open laptops, notebooks or leather-bound Moleskine journals. The professor, a world-renowned researcher, begins speaking, about Pavlov and the curious case of Phineas Gage. The students take notes furiously.
Rolle takes a few notes, too, but mostly he stares at the professor. The motors and gears in his head are spinning. This is how it's always been for him. His mind rarely stops computing; when his brother McKinley is throwing all the possible routes in random order during their regular morning football workout, Rolle just knows if they missed a 2, or maybe a 7. Today, he's focused on the man standing at the front of the room. What about this doctor? Where did he start? How did he immerse himself in the brain? When, and why, did pain come to interest him? Did he watch helplessly as someone he loved struggled against a devastating mental illness? Was it a wife? A child? What drove him to this very place at this very moment?
Suddenly, his focus shifts.
What about me? How did I get here?
Myron, who doesn't fail
A lifetime of unqualified successes, that's how.
Whatever he does, he does it well and, to the immense frustration of others, with ease and grace. He's an All-American safety. He can play saxophone and sing. He was the lead in his high school's production of "Fiddler on the Roof." He graduated from Florida State as an exercise science major in less than three years with a 3.75 GPA. He shadows doctors, dreaming of medical school. He says "please" and "thank you." He researches stem cells. He starts anti-obesity programs that the U.S. Department of Interior adopts, aimed at helping Native American children make smart choices about fitness and health. He raises money for hospitals. Myron Rolle, it can safely be assumed, not only eats vegetables, he likes them. Life hangs comfortably from his shoulders like a fine suit.
Myron Rolle
AP Photo/Rob Carr
On Nov. 22, 2008, Rolle entered the Maryland game late in the first half after spending part of the day in Alabama for his Rhodes interview.
So, it's no surprise that during the 2008 football season he was named a finalist for a Rhodes scholarship, the most prestigious academic award given. Only, the deciding interview was scheduled for the day of a game at Maryland -- and the interview was in Alabama. No problem. SuperMyron would simply go to Birmingham, answer the committee's questions and still make it to the game by halftime. He might just leap a tall building while he was at it and keep right on going until he landed at midfield.
Nothing thrown at him by the interviewers shook him. He spoke with passion, threw in a joke or two and, at the end, stood there with a smile on his face. One of the judges winked at him. No need to drag out the suspense.
Another success. Rolle was chosen -- he soon would announce he was skipping his senior season to go to Oxford -- and minutes later he boarded a private jet, shadowed by reporters from both Sports Illustrated and the Chronicle of Higher Education. Halfway to Maryland, a crowd waiting to cheer his run out of the tunnel in garnet and gold, he put in his earphones and scrolled through his iPod.
What could provide the appropriate soundtrack for this kind of life?
Rolle chose two songs.
One was Ice Cube's "It was a Good Day."
But even that didn't seem to do his run of blessings justice.
The other one came closer, Frank Sinatra singing:
When I was 21
It was a very good year
TUESDAY
Tucked into a narrow alley off High Street, St. Edmund Hall breathes students in and out of the long stone tunnel that opens into the main quadrangle, as the college has done for 800 years. Young men and women mill around the lush grass of the quad, in the shadow of the sundial and the well, and at night, they drink beer and smoke in the cemetery out back. Rolle, who doesn't have time for the graveyard bull sessions, stops by to check his mail. Two unfamiliar envelopes poke out of his slot.
The first one is from Ohio. He tears into the envelope and finds a note: I read about you in The Times and I thought you might be interested in this article from the New Yorker.
It's a recent piece by Malcolm Gladwell, and it offers and backs up the theory that professional football is a lot like dogfighting and is, ultimately, a sport that cannot be played without doing serious damage to the brain. This is, obviously, a conundrum for Rolle: He wants to be a pro football player and a neurosurgeon. Don't successful careers in each of these preclude the other? Of all the obstacles facing Rolle, including the luck and work and genetic blessings required to be one of the 32 chosen to be a Rhodes scholar and one of the 32 chosen to be a first-round pick, perhaps none is greater than this: People in each world don't believe anyone could possibly be passionate about the other. He's always asked: Which do you like more? Draft gurus question his commitment. His defensive coordinator at Florida State, Mickey Andrews, told Rolle that he was spending too much time on school and not enough time on football. Even Oxford University assigned him to St. Edmund Hall, known here as the jock college.
The other letter is from a London teacher.
I heard you this morning on Radio 4. Never have I heard a young man so articulate, forward thinking and inspirational. All I could think about listening to you was: I have to get him to speak at my school. I'm a teacher in London at an inner city school where I do lots of work around raising black achievement. To hear you speak about the importance of education and hearing about your life decisions -- putting off the NFL for Oxford, wanting to be a neurosurgeon, money not being your main goal in life -- it would all mean so much to the kids at my school.
Rolle considers his mail. Two letters, two totally different problems; if other people's myopia is an obstacle, then the exact opposite is, too. He is trying to stay on course in a vast sea of possibilities, and everywhere he goes, he is confronted by people lining up to tell him what he means and what he could be and, most confining of all, what he should be.
He is a vessel for other people's dreams.
Myron, who knows what others expect
Q: What do you struggle with most?
A: I have not had tragic incidences in my life that have rocked my personal being. The thing that really has been my biggest enemy in this world has been pressure. And people. People who I love. People who look at me differently. The pressure is tough, man. I'm not gonna lie. It's the hardest part. Easily.
Myron, whose dreams keep growing
Here are the three things to know about Rolle as he reads that second letter:
1. The Monday after he won the Rhodes scholarship, his cell phone rang. Jesse Jackson. At first, Rolle thought it was a joke. But no, it was actually Jesse Jackson, and he wanted to tell Rolle this: "If Dr. King were alive today, he'd be proud of you."
Myron Rolle
Chris Floyd for ESPN The Magazine
Myron Rolle skipped his senior season at Florida State to attend Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship.
2. While Rolle was in D.C. for the inauguration, Princeton professor and African-American leader Cornel West spotted him on the street and bowed. Literally bowed down and said this: "You are the future of black America."
Everywhere he's been, for as long as he can remember, he's been singled out for future greatness, by strangers and family alike. When he was in high school, riding on the New Jersey Turnpike with his dad, he asked one day, "What would it be like to be normal?" He's thought about that a lot.
And this, too: What is enough for those who see so much in him? He opens his e-mail and there's a recruiting pitch from the Harvard Business School. His dad wants him to make a perfect score on the Wonderlic given at the NFL combine. Jesse Jackson wants him to be a leader for an entire generation. Florida State told him on his recruiting visit that he could be a Rhodes scholar … and now he is. Mickey Andrews wants him to react, and his professors want him to think. He deals, on a daily basis, with the crushing weight of having this much potential. He worries about losing himself. He never stops thinking about what other people want for him, and how it's easy to become a mosaic of their expectations instead of staying true to his own. "The danger is that you lose a sense of identity," he says, "you lose a sense of who you are. If you continue to try to navigate through constructs that are set up by other people, by other people's thoughts of who you are and who you should be, you will never be personally at peace."
So he understands he shouldn't spend his life pleasing other people. But what does he want?
This brings us to …
3. A year ago, Rolle spoke at the College of the Bahamas. His family comes from the nation, and he alone among his five brothers was born in the United States (his mom traveled to Houston so he could be an American citizen). He was chosen before birth.
One of his many dreams is to open a medical clinic in his hometown of Exuma, and so, after the speech, the Bahamian politicians crowded around him. Be the prodigal son, they told him. Come back and be president one day. Be prime minister. When he returned to Tallahassee, he was online one night in his room and saw a photo tagged on Facebook of himself and the current president of the Bahamas. A lot of things ran through his head: People want me to come back and save their country? I don't know if that's in my plan. I never thought of politics. This isn't me.
Sitting there in the dark, he finally began to understand: There is no enough.
All he can do is stay focused on his dreams: NFL, medical school, then a life as a groundbreaking neurosurgeon and head of a foundation that brings medical care to those without.
You know, simple stuff.
Myron, who has set the bar high
Q: Has anyone ever said to you: "Myron, if you want to go to the NFL and have a long career and retire and live off investments, that's OK … it's your life"?
A: No.
He explains: "It's always, 'What's next?' I think people align themselves with my way of thinking when they're talking to me. They try to create new avenues for me to pursue, so if you want to be a doctor and you have interest in human rights and philanthropy and social equality of medicine and disease, why don't you think about being surgeon general? Then you could have a political impact, with a stronger influence and a bigger platform. I'm that person. 'What's next? What's next?'"
WEDNESDAY
There are mornings when none of it seems strange. The Iffley Road Sports Complex opens early, and a crowd of scholars who are also athletes wait outside. The sweatshirts and gym shorts place the toned men and women: rowers from Harvard, swimmers from Oxford, lacrosse players from Navy and, soon, one safety from Florida State University. Why does a man have to choose? Roger Bannister, who ran the first sub-4-minute mile on a track some 20 or so yards from this crowd, was also a doctor. Bill Bradley was a senator and is in the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Myron Rolle
Chris Floyd for ESPN The Magazine
Myron and McKinley, right, have a regular morning football workout.
The Rolle brothers park their car -- a Peugeot, a tiny European subcompact -- and, instead of joining the crowd, they head to the rugby pitch and the tiny dungeon of a gym beneath it. Most days, they work out here, alone. When they do use the bigger facilities, the other students gawk at the weight and the reps -- especially the female student-athletes. Rolle and his brother have a code for noticing a young thing sneaking a peek; one will say, with a sly grin: "Mama, there go that man."
This morning, McKinley opens up the binder containing speed guru Tom Shaw's workout and starts counting the reps, converting pounds into kilos. Rolle does leg presses, McKinley a step ahead preparing the next station, the small room echoing with the iPod mix. Except, in place of celebratory anthems, songs about how great today, or this year or his entire life has been, there's a steady stream of rap songs about people being doubted. Rolle sings along -- except when the rappers curse. He skips those words.
Claustrophobic cinderblock walls crowd them. A small window, the spires and castles of the town insignificant through the glass, lets in the only natural light. Rolle comes into focus when he's grinding in the weight room. Outside, the sun is fully up. A song called "Watch Dis" blares through the small speaker. He could lose a step this year, lose some ineffable part of his game that he'll never get back. He knows he risked something coming over here. Knows he still needs to convince people how much football means, and they can't come here, to this room, and see. Rolle lies down on a mat, his feet on a big green medicine ball, his brother taking notes from a nearby weight bench, the Rolle boys, a long, long way from home, counting out crunches in a dungeon, chasing something like that first purple light.
Outside, the chill has come, and, when lifting is finished, Rolle walks onto the wet field under changing leaves, the rugby pitch lined at both ends by a row of tall evergreen trees. They're working on increasing the fluidity of his hips, just one of the many questions about his game. Was he overrated out of high school? Is he too stiff? Does he think too much? Why just one interception in three years? Can he just react and make plays?
McKinley says they got the official e-mail today from the NFL: Myron is invited and will attend the combine. "It was nice to get that confirmation," McKinley says. "He's stronger. Faster. He'll open some eyes."
He urges on his brother through the final rep of the final drill. "Last one," he says. "Last one. Finish strong. First round, baby."
Rolle's face is a portrait of focus. He digs into the field, his cleats kicking up tiny sparks of mud.
Myron, who feels the doubt
The car is cranked, exhaust rising behind them. McKinley is at the wheel, Rolle in the passenger seat. They are ready to go, but Rolle tells his brother not to put it in drive. Not yet. They need the soundtrack first. He punches a button on the CD player, moving through the new Jay-Z album. There's one song he needs to hear right now, three months until February's NFL combine. It's not about good anythings.
"Don't move until we get that track," he says.
"No. 14?" McKinley asks.
"There you go," Rolle says.
As the bass fires up, McKinley pulls back on Iffley Road, headed toward town. The hook comes and Rolle sings along:
"The motivation for me … is them telling me what I could not be.
"Oh, well.
"I'm so ambitious."
Here is a piece of the article. Link here:
OXFORD, England -- Oxford at first light is an ode to potential. The purple sky throws shadows off churches and their saw-blade spires, bringing definition to the gap-toothed smiles of crenellated walls. The ghosts come out in the dream of early morning. Twelve saints and seven British prime ministers walked these streets. So did Bill Clinton and John Donne, Sir Thomas More and Kris Kristofferson, plus the guy who invented the World Wide Web.
Myron Rolle talks about what it means to be a Rhodes scholar.
That little list? It always happens. People construct a roster of famous yet diverse alumni when describing Oxford -- the quirky sum even more fantastic than the successful parts -- implying that greatness comes with the diploma. But a shadow lurks near those collections of names. Oxford University is full of students who will one day change the world, yes, but it is also full of those who have the gifts to change it and will fail. In the hope of morning, though, let your focus fall on Clinton and Donne, More and Kristofferson and now, as the dreamy purple light burns off, as busses chug and belch down the ancient streets and another week of reality begins, Myron Rolle.
Rolle bounds down Banbury Road, long strides chewing up sidewalk, hurrying to his next lecture. Today's topic is "Pain and the Brain." He settles into a seat in the back of the room, the only student whose biceps strain against the fabric of his shirt. Around him, fellow Rhodes scholars open laptops, notebooks or leather-bound Moleskine journals. The professor, a world-renowned researcher, begins speaking, about Pavlov and the curious case of Phineas Gage. The students take notes furiously.
Rolle takes a few notes, too, but mostly he stares at the professor. The motors and gears in his head are spinning. This is how it's always been for him. His mind rarely stops computing; when his brother McKinley is throwing all the possible routes in random order during their regular morning football workout, Rolle just knows if they missed a 2, or maybe a 7. Today, he's focused on the man standing at the front of the room. What about this doctor? Where did he start? How did he immerse himself in the brain? When, and why, did pain come to interest him? Did he watch helplessly as someone he loved struggled against a devastating mental illness? Was it a wife? A child? What drove him to this very place at this very moment?
Suddenly, his focus shifts.
What about me? How did I get here?
Myron, who doesn't fail
A lifetime of unqualified successes, that's how.
Whatever he does, he does it well and, to the immense frustration of others, with ease and grace. He's an All-American safety. He can play saxophone and sing. He was the lead in his high school's production of "Fiddler on the Roof." He graduated from Florida State as an exercise science major in less than three years with a 3.75 GPA. He shadows doctors, dreaming of medical school. He says "please" and "thank you." He researches stem cells. He starts anti-obesity programs that the U.S. Department of Interior adopts, aimed at helping Native American children make smart choices about fitness and health. He raises money for hospitals. Myron Rolle, it can safely be assumed, not only eats vegetables, he likes them. Life hangs comfortably from his shoulders like a fine suit.
Myron Rolle
AP Photo/Rob Carr
On Nov. 22, 2008, Rolle entered the Maryland game late in the first half after spending part of the day in Alabama for his Rhodes interview.
So, it's no surprise that during the 2008 football season he was named a finalist for a Rhodes scholarship, the most prestigious academic award given. Only, the deciding interview was scheduled for the day of a game at Maryland -- and the interview was in Alabama. No problem. SuperMyron would simply go to Birmingham, answer the committee's questions and still make it to the game by halftime. He might just leap a tall building while he was at it and keep right on going until he landed at midfield.
Nothing thrown at him by the interviewers shook him. He spoke with passion, threw in a joke or two and, at the end, stood there with a smile on his face. One of the judges winked at him. No need to drag out the suspense.
Another success. Rolle was chosen -- he soon would announce he was skipping his senior season to go to Oxford -- and minutes later he boarded a private jet, shadowed by reporters from both Sports Illustrated and the Chronicle of Higher Education. Halfway to Maryland, a crowd waiting to cheer his run out of the tunnel in garnet and gold, he put in his earphones and scrolled through his iPod.
What could provide the appropriate soundtrack for this kind of life?
Rolle chose two songs.
One was Ice Cube's "It was a Good Day."
But even that didn't seem to do his run of blessings justice.
The other one came closer, Frank Sinatra singing:
When I was 21
It was a very good year
TUESDAY
Tucked into a narrow alley off High Street, St. Edmund Hall breathes students in and out of the long stone tunnel that opens into the main quadrangle, as the college has done for 800 years. Young men and women mill around the lush grass of the quad, in the shadow of the sundial and the well, and at night, they drink beer and smoke in the cemetery out back. Rolle, who doesn't have time for the graveyard bull sessions, stops by to check his mail. Two unfamiliar envelopes poke out of his slot.
The first one is from Ohio. He tears into the envelope and finds a note: I read about you in The Times and I thought you might be interested in this article from the New Yorker.
It's a recent piece by Malcolm Gladwell, and it offers and backs up the theory that professional football is a lot like dogfighting and is, ultimately, a sport that cannot be played without doing serious damage to the brain. This is, obviously, a conundrum for Rolle: He wants to be a pro football player and a neurosurgeon. Don't successful careers in each of these preclude the other? Of all the obstacles facing Rolle, including the luck and work and genetic blessings required to be one of the 32 chosen to be a Rhodes scholar and one of the 32 chosen to be a first-round pick, perhaps none is greater than this: People in each world don't believe anyone could possibly be passionate about the other. He's always asked: Which do you like more? Draft gurus question his commitment. His defensive coordinator at Florida State, Mickey Andrews, told Rolle that he was spending too much time on school and not enough time on football. Even Oxford University assigned him to St. Edmund Hall, known here as the jock college.
The other letter is from a London teacher.
I heard you this morning on Radio 4. Never have I heard a young man so articulate, forward thinking and inspirational. All I could think about listening to you was: I have to get him to speak at my school. I'm a teacher in London at an inner city school where I do lots of work around raising black achievement. To hear you speak about the importance of education and hearing about your life decisions -- putting off the NFL for Oxford, wanting to be a neurosurgeon, money not being your main goal in life -- it would all mean so much to the kids at my school.
Rolle considers his mail. Two letters, two totally different problems; if other people's myopia is an obstacle, then the exact opposite is, too. He is trying to stay on course in a vast sea of possibilities, and everywhere he goes, he is confronted by people lining up to tell him what he means and what he could be and, most confining of all, what he should be.
He is a vessel for other people's dreams.
Myron, who knows what others expect
Q: What do you struggle with most?
A: I have not had tragic incidences in my life that have rocked my personal being. The thing that really has been my biggest enemy in this world has been pressure. And people. People who I love. People who look at me differently. The pressure is tough, man. I'm not gonna lie. It's the hardest part. Easily.
Myron, whose dreams keep growing
Here are the three things to know about Rolle as he reads that second letter:
1. The Monday after he won the Rhodes scholarship, his cell phone rang. Jesse Jackson. At first, Rolle thought it was a joke. But no, it was actually Jesse Jackson, and he wanted to tell Rolle this: "If Dr. King were alive today, he'd be proud of you."
Myron Rolle
Chris Floyd for ESPN The Magazine
Myron Rolle skipped his senior season at Florida State to attend Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship.
2. While Rolle was in D.C. for the inauguration, Princeton professor and African-American leader Cornel West spotted him on the street and bowed. Literally bowed down and said this: "You are the future of black America."
Everywhere he's been, for as long as he can remember, he's been singled out for future greatness, by strangers and family alike. When he was in high school, riding on the New Jersey Turnpike with his dad, he asked one day, "What would it be like to be normal?" He's thought about that a lot.
And this, too: What is enough for those who see so much in him? He opens his e-mail and there's a recruiting pitch from the Harvard Business School. His dad wants him to make a perfect score on the Wonderlic given at the NFL combine. Jesse Jackson wants him to be a leader for an entire generation. Florida State told him on his recruiting visit that he could be a Rhodes scholar … and now he is. Mickey Andrews wants him to react, and his professors want him to think. He deals, on a daily basis, with the crushing weight of having this much potential. He worries about losing himself. He never stops thinking about what other people want for him, and how it's easy to become a mosaic of their expectations instead of staying true to his own. "The danger is that you lose a sense of identity," he says, "you lose a sense of who you are. If you continue to try to navigate through constructs that are set up by other people, by other people's thoughts of who you are and who you should be, you will never be personally at peace."
So he understands he shouldn't spend his life pleasing other people. But what does he want?
This brings us to …
3. A year ago, Rolle spoke at the College of the Bahamas. His family comes from the nation, and he alone among his five brothers was born in the United States (his mom traveled to Houston so he could be an American citizen). He was chosen before birth.
One of his many dreams is to open a medical clinic in his hometown of Exuma, and so, after the speech, the Bahamian politicians crowded around him. Be the prodigal son, they told him. Come back and be president one day. Be prime minister. When he returned to Tallahassee, he was online one night in his room and saw a photo tagged on Facebook of himself and the current president of the Bahamas. A lot of things ran through his head: People want me to come back and save their country? I don't know if that's in my plan. I never thought of politics. This isn't me.
Sitting there in the dark, he finally began to understand: There is no enough.
All he can do is stay focused on his dreams: NFL, medical school, then a life as a groundbreaking neurosurgeon and head of a foundation that brings medical care to those without.
You know, simple stuff.
Myron, who has set the bar high
Q: Has anyone ever said to you: "Myron, if you want to go to the NFL and have a long career and retire and live off investments, that's OK … it's your life"?
A: No.
He explains: "It's always, 'What's next?' I think people align themselves with my way of thinking when they're talking to me. They try to create new avenues for me to pursue, so if you want to be a doctor and you have interest in human rights and philanthropy and social equality of medicine and disease, why don't you think about being surgeon general? Then you could have a political impact, with a stronger influence and a bigger platform. I'm that person. 'What's next? What's next?'"
WEDNESDAY
There are mornings when none of it seems strange. The Iffley Road Sports Complex opens early, and a crowd of scholars who are also athletes wait outside. The sweatshirts and gym shorts place the toned men and women: rowers from Harvard, swimmers from Oxford, lacrosse players from Navy and, soon, one safety from Florida State University. Why does a man have to choose? Roger Bannister, who ran the first sub-4-minute mile on a track some 20 or so yards from this crowd, was also a doctor. Bill Bradley was a senator and is in the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Myron Rolle
Chris Floyd for ESPN The Magazine
Myron and McKinley, right, have a regular morning football workout.
The Rolle brothers park their car -- a Peugeot, a tiny European subcompact -- and, instead of joining the crowd, they head to the rugby pitch and the tiny dungeon of a gym beneath it. Most days, they work out here, alone. When they do use the bigger facilities, the other students gawk at the weight and the reps -- especially the female student-athletes. Rolle and his brother have a code for noticing a young thing sneaking a peek; one will say, with a sly grin: "Mama, there go that man."
This morning, McKinley opens up the binder containing speed guru Tom Shaw's workout and starts counting the reps, converting pounds into kilos. Rolle does leg presses, McKinley a step ahead preparing the next station, the small room echoing with the iPod mix. Except, in place of celebratory anthems, songs about how great today, or this year or his entire life has been, there's a steady stream of rap songs about people being doubted. Rolle sings along -- except when the rappers curse. He skips those words.
Claustrophobic cinderblock walls crowd them. A small window, the spires and castles of the town insignificant through the glass, lets in the only natural light. Rolle comes into focus when he's grinding in the weight room. Outside, the sun is fully up. A song called "Watch Dis" blares through the small speaker. He could lose a step this year, lose some ineffable part of his game that he'll never get back. He knows he risked something coming over here. Knows he still needs to convince people how much football means, and they can't come here, to this room, and see. Rolle lies down on a mat, his feet on a big green medicine ball, his brother taking notes from a nearby weight bench, the Rolle boys, a long, long way from home, counting out crunches in a dungeon, chasing something like that first purple light.
Outside, the chill has come, and, when lifting is finished, Rolle walks onto the wet field under changing leaves, the rugby pitch lined at both ends by a row of tall evergreen trees. They're working on increasing the fluidity of his hips, just one of the many questions about his game. Was he overrated out of high school? Is he too stiff? Does he think too much? Why just one interception in three years? Can he just react and make plays?
McKinley says they got the official e-mail today from the NFL: Myron is invited and will attend the combine. "It was nice to get that confirmation," McKinley says. "He's stronger. Faster. He'll open some eyes."
He urges on his brother through the final rep of the final drill. "Last one," he says. "Last one. Finish strong. First round, baby."
Rolle's face is a portrait of focus. He digs into the field, his cleats kicking up tiny sparks of mud.
Myron, who feels the doubt
The car is cranked, exhaust rising behind them. McKinley is at the wheel, Rolle in the passenger seat. They are ready to go, but Rolle tells his brother not to put it in drive. Not yet. They need the soundtrack first. He punches a button on the CD player, moving through the new Jay-Z album. There's one song he needs to hear right now, three months until February's NFL combine. It's not about good anythings.
"Don't move until we get that track," he says.
"No. 14?" McKinley asks.
"There you go," Rolle says.
As the bass fires up, McKinley pulls back on Iffley Road, headed toward town. The hook comes and Rolle sings along:
"The motivation for me … is them telling me what I could not be.
"Oh, well.
"I'm so ambitious."
David Sills....I thought he looked a lil familiar..
I mean, obviously I am based in DE so I might have heard of him but that wasn't where. It was in Sports Illustrated when he was 11. I didn't think he was FROM DE. He is from Pasadena, Cali and moved here. Actually, that doesn't REALLY matter to me but for some that might be important. Anyhow, THIS is where I saw him at. We are giving Lane a hard time about something that actually has been done before. By him even but others as well. He wanted to offer the CURRENT USC quarterback a scholarship when he was 13 or so.
Link to article below...
David Sills is being hailed as one of the greatest quarterback prospects ever.
If you haven't heard of him yet, it's understandable. He just turned 11.
"I know he's young but there's always an exception. He's the exception," says Steve Clarkson, who runs the Air 7 Quarterback University, a national camp for quarterbacks. "By no means would I recommend this for ten-year olds, but he's a special case."
Sills isn't hard to spot on a crowded football field, filled with top high school prospects.
"He's the little one slinging passes to guys twice his size," says a family friend sitting in the bleachers, pointing at the pint-sized quarterback.
While Sills may be shortest and youngest player on the field, he isn't intimidated by the players around him. He licks his fingers and barks out instructions at the line of scrimmage before lofting a perfectly placed pass in the corner of the end zone.
"This kid is on his way to being the greatest high school recruited quarterback ever," says Clarkson, who has been training Sills for the past two years. "He is really going to be something special."
Clarkson should know. He has been tutoring quarterbacks for over 20 years and his private roster of clients include Matt Leinart, Ben Roethlisberger, J.P. Losman and Jimmy Clausen, who entered Notre Dame this fall as one of the most hyped quarterback prospects in recent memory.
"Physically, you can't even compare him with anyone else his age," says Clarkson. "Mentally, he's probably right in the middle of where a high school kid is. A lot of times when we're in our big group lessons, he's leading the exercise. He's giving guys direction."
Sills, who is in the fifth grade, showed off his football acumen during one of Clarkson's camps in Pittsburgh this summer when he got up in front of a room of 300 and began diagramming plays.
"It was an amazing sight to see," says Clarkson. "I'm sure some people were like, 'That smart Alec kid,' but there's no place where he's gone where he wasn't the talk of the camp."
Clarkson will usually fly from his home in Pasadena to tutor Sills at his home in Wilmington, Delaware about twice a month and Sills will travel to Clarkson whenever he is holding a camp. He has attended seven this year alone in cities ranging from Pittsburgh, Chicago and Seattle to Piscataway, Danbury and San Marino.
"They treat me the same," says Sills of his high school teammates at the camp. "They treat me just like I'm a regular kid playing football. They don't really talk about [my age] that much."
David Sills IV, the quarterback's father, won't say how much he has spends on his son's football education only saying, "It's fair to say that with the traveling back and forth, it's expensive." Clarkson generally tutors about a half dozen clients at a time, charging around $3,000 plus expenses to be flown in for one evaluation. After agreeing to coach the prospective student, he charges an additional $1,000 per four-hour lesson. Quarterbacks that attend the Air 7 camps pay $1,400 for four days of training.
"I'm not really a money-driven person," says Sills IV, a commercial developer and contractor. "It's not like I want to keep it and hoard it. If I can help [my children] achieve their goals, then why not? What else am I going to do with it? This is part of his growing up experience. Hopefully I won't have to pay for college someday."
Initially Clarkson, 45, didn't want to take on Sills. While working with Leinart prior to the NFL Draft two years ago, Clarkson continued to get phone calls from Sills IV before he finally called him back and said he would take a look at his son after he was done with Leinart's program.
"I was still very leery because I had not worked with a kid at this age before," says Clarkson, who was coached by Jack Elway, John Elway's father, and Dennis Erickson while he was a quarterback at San Jose State. "He had just turned 10, so he was really nine going on 10. I thought I could use this as sort of an experiment for myself to find out just how much information I can throw at a kid this young and how much he will retain."
Clarkson, who has coached about 25 Division I-A starting quarterbacks, was shocked with how much information Sills was able to retain and how many plays he was able to carry out on the field and agreed to take him on as a student. "He's studying far beyond his years at what he'll ever see at his level. Basically, it's like taking trig when you're in basic math," says Clarkson. "For him to be able to define the concepts and apply them is truly remarkable."
While Sills has received advice from the like of Norm Chow and Joe Montana during his training and has been lauded by coaches who have come to see him in action, he hasn't let the newfound attention get to his head. If he ever does he has his mother, Denise, and his two older sisters, Emma, 15, and Abby, 12, to put him in check.
As Sills prepares to leave the football field after practice, his sisters tell him to hurry up so they can leave after he finishes the first photo shoot of his young career. As puts his cleats in his bag his mother comes up to him and says, "Now, remember David. You're no different than anyone else."
"I know mom," he says as he slings his gym bag over his shoulder. "I know." "
Link to article below...
David Sills is being hailed as one of the greatest quarterback prospects ever.
If you haven't heard of him yet, it's understandable. He just turned 11.
"I know he's young but there's always an exception. He's the exception," says Steve Clarkson, who runs the Air 7 Quarterback University, a national camp for quarterbacks. "By no means would I recommend this for ten-year olds, but he's a special case."
Sills isn't hard to spot on a crowded football field, filled with top high school prospects.
"He's the little one slinging passes to guys twice his size," says a family friend sitting in the bleachers, pointing at the pint-sized quarterback.
While Sills may be shortest and youngest player on the field, he isn't intimidated by the players around him. He licks his fingers and barks out instructions at the line of scrimmage before lofting a perfectly placed pass in the corner of the end zone.
"This kid is on his way to being the greatest high school recruited quarterback ever," says Clarkson, who has been training Sills for the past two years. "He is really going to be something special."
Clarkson should know. He has been tutoring quarterbacks for over 20 years and his private roster of clients include Matt Leinart, Ben Roethlisberger, J.P. Losman and Jimmy Clausen, who entered Notre Dame this fall as one of the most hyped quarterback prospects in recent memory.
"Physically, you can't even compare him with anyone else his age," says Clarkson. "Mentally, he's probably right in the middle of where a high school kid is. A lot of times when we're in our big group lessons, he's leading the exercise. He's giving guys direction."
Sills, who is in the fifth grade, showed off his football acumen during one of Clarkson's camps in Pittsburgh this summer when he got up in front of a room of 300 and began diagramming plays.
"It was an amazing sight to see," says Clarkson. "I'm sure some people were like, 'That smart Alec kid,' but there's no place where he's gone where he wasn't the talk of the camp."
Clarkson will usually fly from his home in Pasadena to tutor Sills at his home in Wilmington, Delaware about twice a month and Sills will travel to Clarkson whenever he is holding a camp. He has attended seven this year alone in cities ranging from Pittsburgh, Chicago and Seattle to Piscataway, Danbury and San Marino.
"They treat me the same," says Sills of his high school teammates at the camp. "They treat me just like I'm a regular kid playing football. They don't really talk about [my age] that much."
David Sills IV, the quarterback's father, won't say how much he has spends on his son's football education only saying, "It's fair to say that with the traveling back and forth, it's expensive." Clarkson generally tutors about a half dozen clients at a time, charging around $3,000 plus expenses to be flown in for one evaluation. After agreeing to coach the prospective student, he charges an additional $1,000 per four-hour lesson. Quarterbacks that attend the Air 7 camps pay $1,400 for four days of training.
"I'm not really a money-driven person," says Sills IV, a commercial developer and contractor. "It's not like I want to keep it and hoard it. If I can help [my children] achieve their goals, then why not? What else am I going to do with it? This is part of his growing up experience. Hopefully I won't have to pay for college someday."
Initially Clarkson, 45, didn't want to take on Sills. While working with Leinart prior to the NFL Draft two years ago, Clarkson continued to get phone calls from Sills IV before he finally called him back and said he would take a look at his son after he was done with Leinart's program.
"I was still very leery because I had not worked with a kid at this age before," says Clarkson, who was coached by Jack Elway, John Elway's father, and Dennis Erickson while he was a quarterback at San Jose State. "He had just turned 10, so he was really nine going on 10. I thought I could use this as sort of an experiment for myself to find out just how much information I can throw at a kid this young and how much he will retain."
Clarkson, who has coached about 25 Division I-A starting quarterbacks, was shocked with how much information Sills was able to retain and how many plays he was able to carry out on the field and agreed to take him on as a student. "He's studying far beyond his years at what he'll ever see at his level. Basically, it's like taking trig when you're in basic math," says Clarkson. "For him to be able to define the concepts and apply them is truly remarkable."
While Sills has received advice from the like of Norm Chow and Joe Montana during his training and has been lauded by coaches who have come to see him in action, he hasn't let the newfound attention get to his head. If he ever does he has his mother, Denise, and his two older sisters, Emma, 15, and Abby, 12, to put him in check.
As Sills prepares to leave the football field after practice, his sisters tell him to hurry up so they can leave after he finishes the first photo shoot of his young career. As puts his cleats in his bag his mother comes up to him and says, "Now, remember David. You're no different than anyone else."
"I know mom," he says as he slings his gym bag over his shoulder. "I know." "
Dear Limas Sweed:
You got me. I watched you sky over defenders at Texas thinking, "Yeah this young man might be something." One handed catches in the back of the end zone and shit. Circus grabs. Good speed. Seem to always be open. Maybe not a sure fire thing for a professional player but a pretty decent prospect. Then we drafted you. I am thinking, 'Yup, there's the replacement for Plax. He has size, will go up to meet the ball AND COME DOWN WITH IT, and he is physical..." Well you are STILL PHYSICAL. I will give you that. But where did all of this go?? I mean HERE, you look like your ass can catch to me! These are beautiful catches. CONTESTED in most cases. What happened to THIS GUY HERE? You leave him in Texas?
....and how the hell did we get HERE???? I mean, everyone else seems to catch Ben's passes, what gives? I hear in practice, you are ON FIRE. You catch colds for other people. Game time though? Crickets. You made a HELLUVA BLOCK on ole boy in the Championship run. Big time block! But you gotta catch the ball fam. Look man, Hines will be retiring SOONER THAN LATER. I would hate to see all of that potential you showed up top wasted 'cause come game time, you tense up. Pretend it is Vince throwing you ball, pretend you are back in Texas, DO SOMETHING to get over whatever it is that has got you dropping SURE TOUCHDOWNS. Otherwise, you ass is gonna Earnest Wilford. Yes, you will still be a paid mofo. Yes, you will have played in the NFL. But you could be better. WAY BETTER. Get your shit together fam. The rookie has made his bid (Mike Wallace) and for now, HE IS GETTING THE REPS YOU SHOULD HAVE ALREADY SECURED. I am willing to bet you that the plan was to get Hines and Santonio some rest and have you and Mike on the field TOGETHER in some formations. They can't do that if you keep dropping the damm ball.
Wake up Limas...
....and how the hell did we get HERE???? I mean, everyone else seems to catch Ben's passes, what gives? I hear in practice, you are ON FIRE. You catch colds for other people. Game time though? Crickets. You made a HELLUVA BLOCK on ole boy in the Championship run. Big time block! But you gotta catch the ball fam. Look man, Hines will be retiring SOONER THAN LATER. I would hate to see all of that potential you showed up top wasted 'cause come game time, you tense up. Pretend it is Vince throwing you ball, pretend you are back in Texas, DO SOMETHING to get over whatever it is that has got you dropping SURE TOUCHDOWNS. Otherwise, you ass is gonna Earnest Wilford. Yes, you will still be a paid mofo. Yes, you will have played in the NFL. But you could be better. WAY BETTER. Get your shit together fam. The rookie has made his bid (Mike Wallace) and for now, HE IS GETTING THE REPS YOU SHOULD HAVE ALREADY SECURED. I am willing to bet you that the plan was to get Hines and Santonio some rest and have you and Mike on the field TOGETHER in some formations. They can't do that if you keep dropping the damm ball.
Wake up Limas...
What is Shawne Merriman THINKING?
I love a dude with the guts to play through injuries. I REALLY DO. But starting off the season with torn ligaments in your knee CANNOT BE GOOD. It just can't. I could see some punk ass lineman (not all linemen are punks but every position has it's punks. Sorry..) taking one for the team with the game on the line and cut blocking the bs outta Shawne's knee.
