Pigskin Pontifications

To show that I'm a good sport about pro football (and the sport in general) after the way that the public was manipulated up to the last minute in collective bargaining negotiations, here are some (sometimes) disconnected comments...

--In my old high school during the early 1970's, going out for the football team was almost regarded by a lot of the boys as a rite of passage into manhood. Now if you were a little kid, it was generally understood, though, if you didn't try out. But when one these small-framers went out for football conditioning in the 9th grade, he became an instant celebrity/hero for several weeks. Funny though, he kind of "faded" away from the sports scene quickly after that experience...

--In the 10th grade, my history teacher stunned our class when he went off on a long rant against football one day. He correctly noted the very high injury rate in the sport and how it isn't rare for some injuries to plague people for the remainder of their lives. And some injuries paralyze, even kill...

--Toward the end of my track team season in the 11th grade (early spring 1973), we were outside at our track doing our track "stuff". At the same time, the next year's varsity football team was undergoing conditioning training. The coach was a complete hard-ass (and a few other things that are unprintable) who insisted on very tough discipline and even tougher, aggressive, heavy-hitting workouts. I would be in the locker room after practice when some of these players would come in and be so worked up after conditioning that they would go around trying to pick fights with anyone they saw. Later that fall, this "tough" team went 0-9-1 with a large percentage of the starters out due to season-ending injuries. That genius coach didn't return the following year...

--I still have issues with Tim Tebow on the sideline at the end of Florida's SEC championship game against Alabama, crying his head off because they were losing (badly) to the eventual national champions for that season. To me this was and is poor sportsmanship. When you lose, you man up and congratulate the winner with your head held high...

--I was reading today's sports section in my local paper where an article rated and analyzed some of the college quarterbacks in the state of Florida this season. Among them was the University of Florida's John Brantley, who as the article pointed out, needed to stop locking his gaze on the receiver he planned to throw to. When a passer does this, he is telling the opposing defense whom to cover and also frees players covering other receivers to go after the quarterback. I see quarterbacks doing this in pro ball as well, and I can't for the life of me figure out why they never made the effort to overcome this glaring handicap in their game. Let's see if John has what it takes...

--The Miami Dolphins acquired running back Reggie Bush from New Orleans to try to revamp their hurting running game. Now they need to find a good quarterback to add to that mix, someone like Denver's Kyle Orton, for example...

--Speaking of Orton, he is currently being mentioned as a trading possibility. That the Broncos refer to him as the "incumbent starter" sounds like a very weak endorsement of his status. But he is a very smart passer and would be a tremendous asset to the Dolphins or any team he ends up with. I personally can't believe that Denver would trade him away when their backup quarterbacks Tim Tebow and Brady Quinn have yet to show their versatility in the position that the game demands over a season at this level of competition. Tebow does have that short-yardage running angle to his game, but his playing experience as a starter last year happened when the season was for all practical purposes over, with the Broncos deep in last place and the pressure off Tebow. When the pressure's on, what will happen? Pro football can be a pretty unforgiving business, and past successes are quickly forgotten. It's "what have you done lately", taken to extremes...