So, the other day on Twitter, I argued that the Packers seem boring, and that it’s a good thing. My take on it was (and is) simply that while some teams around the league are making a lot of noise in the offseason, it’s nice to cheer for a team that realizes it has most of the pieces already in place to achieve its goals. It’s refreshing to not be agonizing over starters at skills positions. Let the Bears and Lions make big splashes in free agency. We’ll see whether ‘winning’ in March is worth a darn in October.
I realize that, for a blog that's supposed to cover the other 31 teams, I've been silent on the subject of the labor negotiations, the CBA, the implications of an un-capped 2010, and the current draft projections for Jacksonville. Free Agency starts this Friday, and I haven't said a word. And you know what? You're welcome.
Frankly, you don't want to hear from me about these things. First, Aaron has a better handle on this than I ever will. Second, I'd only be spitting back what I hear from @caplannfl, @doug_farrar, @SalaryCap101, @GAtallah (even @Adam_Schefter), and that's boring. Third, I recognize that this is where folks get down to brass tacks, and where the league actually lives or dies, but I hate this time in football.
Apologies for the lag time. Work + life + inability to visit an NFL page without reading about how great Warner was against Green Bay = Holly took some time off from football.
After watching the weekend’s games, however, I’m left with a few lingering thoughts:
1. The Cowboys-Vikings game reminded me at points of each of the Packers-Vikings games. In each game against Minnesota, the Packers were down significantly at the start of the 4th quarter (28-14, 31-20 – 24-3 in 3d!), but managed to tighten the score in the face of serious pressure from Minnesota’s front four. On Sunday, Dallas was still theoretically “in the game” going into the 4th quarter. Yes, they were down 17-3, yes, Flozell Adams had left the game before halftime, and yes, Romo was getting his butt kicked. But 14 points wasn’t so much that Dallas’s offense couldn’t make something happen. The Vikings were letting them stick around.
Before anything else, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for reading, for giving me feedback, and for letting me geek out on football stats without pointing and laughing (overtly, anyway). It’s been a treat.
Everyone does it...staring out of your car window as you pass a particularly nasty accident on the highway. You hope that the drivers are OK, of course, but you also want to get an eyeful so that, when you finally get to where you're going, you can say, "You'll never guess what I saw today." Millions of people tuned in to the October 15 "Balloon Boy" incident, riveted by both the potential tragedy and the resulting spectacle of the media ploy. Despite our claims that we "try not to get sucked into the drama that surrounds a bad situation," be it a twenty-car wreck or Britney Spears' latest public meltdown, we all have those moments where we see a situation and think, "Thank God (or fate or common sense) that's not me."
When I was in Cleveland last week, my sister and I agreed that one of the best things about football is the physicality of the game. There’s just nothing quite like the sound of pads colliding, that pop that rings out as a player tries to impose his will on an opponent. No one can dispute that Atari Bigby’s punishing hits on Seattle’s receivers were highlights in the 2007 divisional playoff game. They were thrilling, and we watched them again and again. But reality sinks in when, in extolling the rush that comes with a particularly hard hit, we have to add a caveat: “so long as it’s clean and no one gets hurt.”
Welcome to Opposition Research, where I'll be taking a look at the next Packers opponent, the Detroit Lions. In contrast to Week 4's monumental and record-breaking showdown with the Vikings, this week's game is a "ho hum, it’s the Lions" kind of game. The line is 13.5 and the city of Detroit cares more about the upcoming bidding for the Silverdome than this week's game. Nevertheless, I'll see what I can do to hype up the matchup between the injury-riddled Lions and the bye-rested Packers.
It’s been a weird couple days in the NFL. Here are a few stories that are making the rounds, each of them a head-scratcher:
Rookie WR Michael Crabtree, after spending significant time away from San Francisco, finally signed a six-year contract with the 49ers. If he has two outstanding years in his first four, the contract evolves into a five-year deal. The weird part of all this? M.C. Hammer was apparently present during negotiations. Yes, really, that M.C. Hammer.
Welcome to Opposition Research, where I'll be taking a look at the next Packers opponent, the Minnesota Vikings. I could try to be dispassionate and approach this post like I did the one before it, but you know that’s not going to work here. Everyone in the national media is talking about this game - what it means to the Packers, what it means to Brett Favre, what it means to those fans that still can’t choose between the Packers and Brett Favre. You get the picture. So for this week, I’m going to do what I can to shed light on a few things you might not have heard about in the hype that’s already started.
An interesting factoid this afternoon from Tom Pelissero on Twitter - the NFC North went 4-0 on the week. With the Lions finally having won a game (their first since December 2007), I wondered just how far back you'd have to go to find the last time the North had such a good outing. Not counting bye weeks, the last time the NFC North went undefeated was Week 10 in 2005, when the Packers won their second of only four victories on the year. On that given Sunday, the Packers beat up on the Falcons, the Vikings beat the Giants, the Bears beat the 49ers, and the Lions held off the Cardinals.
Look out now -- the San Francisco 49ers have officially accused the New York Jets of tampering with their (unbelievably, as-yet-unsigned) first-round draft pick, Michael Crabtree. Back in May, Alex Marvez of Fox Sports called tampering "the NFL's dirty little secret," and warned that without harsher penalties, it'll only get worse. Well, the 49ers are saying that the Jets called up Crabtree and promised to sweeten the deal left on the table in San Francisco, if only Crabtree re-enters the 2010 draft. Rex Ryan, in true "no duh" fashion, has called the whole accusation "ridiculous." Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum isn't talking, but either everyone's after the Jets, or there's something fishy going on. Crabtree's the third receiver rumored to have been contacted illegally by the Jets, though neither the Denver Broncos (for Brandon Marshall) nor the Minnesota Vikings (for Percy Harvin) filed any formal charges.
Packers Manager of Corporate Communications Aaron Popkey confirmed to Cheesehead TV today that the Packers are exploring the possibility of adding corporate sponsorship to their practice jerseys in the form of a small patch featuring a corporate logo. (Popkey gets points taken away for his strict adherence to his PR talking points. Indeed, the quotes attributed to SVP of Marketing and Sales Laura Sankey in the Associated Press report are an identical match to what Popkey gave me over the phone. On the other hand, he offsets that and gets many points in his favor for actually calling a blogger back.)
I find it more than a little hilarious that on the same page where the Daily News runs a column extolling the virtues of non-discriminatory practices in a professional organization, the paper/website has no problem running a picture of a professional model with a caption reducing her to little more than a trophy.
It started with this Ad Age post May 1st by Rich Thomaselli stating
The disgraced one-time NFL superstar serving prison time for funding an illegal dog-fighting ring is primed to do public-service ads for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals upon his release later this month. According to three people with knowledge of the matter, the proposed endorsement is part of a comprehensive PR scheme aimed at rehabilitating the quarterback's image and gaining him readmission to the league that banned him from playing.
Then proceeded the blogging and twitter hashmark #michael vick worlds acting as though there were blood in the water.
Have to agree with Les Carpenter on this one. By signing Haynesworth and Hall to rediculous contracts, Dan Snyder has started back down the same road that he ventured down when he first bought the team - namely, throwing stupid money at name players without any kind of foundation in place underneath them.
On today's episode, Andy looks at historical trades over the past 20 years that could tell us what options Gutey has to trade up and down the draft board through the first two days of the draft.
