More than last night’s win to put them in the Super Bowl, when I think of the New Orleans Saints, I think of this play.
Unquestionably, it was the most emotional, if not physically scintillating football play ever televised.
You’re going to hear plenty about the Saints’ connection to the Bayou region for the next thirteen days. You are also going to hear plenty about how the region is still reeling post-Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita.
My greatest hope among the excessive banter about Super Bowl XXIV is that the team’s appearance reminds this country that there are still issues in the area that the federal government forgot four+ years ago.
It is completely understandable that the tragedy in Haiti is fresh on everyone’s minds and that there will be a concerted effort from the NFL, NBC and its advertising partners to prominently speak on relief efforts.
It is also understandable that many of you have been unable to assist for various reasons; an inability to make a donation because of financial constraints or unwillingness because of lessons learned in the weeks after Katrina made landfall.
It may seem rather unfair to bring up the post-Katrina struggles when you consider that every team represents a city, town or region that is going through some sort of travail. We may never see a sports promotion that involves giving urban homeless a chance to rejoin mainstream society. I doubt that there will be some player that brings light to unemployment or that the Super Bowl MVP would turn down the Cadillac he wins because General Motors took TARP funds. No league will dare take on alcoholism, gambling or drug use; threats to the integrity of their games in their own rights.
However, in light of the public outpouring and concerns for Haiti – a nation with inordinate amounts of economic strife before the earthquake rocked Port-Au-Prince – I wonder if anything will be done, if not at least said, from the official league and team channels encouraging people to remember the Gulf Coast.
We have just less than thirteen days of non-news and uber-analysis. That’s plenty of time for something.
Video credit to b4mvfan68
Showing posts with label New Orleans Saints. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Orleans Saints. Show all posts
Monday, January 25, 2010
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Sunset
If there is a perfect moniker for the 2008 sports calendar, it is The Year of the Retirement.
It’s not as if all the professional athletes in the world had a convention somewhere to schedule their sunsets ahead of time, but there have been a few more farewell press conferences and phone calls than normal. It’s come to the point where Sports Illustrated’s website features a slideshow of the “twenty biggest retirements” thus far; those that have already happened and those that will start after the end of their seasons.
Some athletes who called it a career are without a doubt more recognizable than others. Some were newsworthy as they left fans scratching their heads. However, there are a few announcements that, for various reasons, have gone relatively unnoticed. Instead of ranking the importance or the overall careers of these athletes, tonight’s Scribe post looks into those various reasons that go outside of “it was just time”.
Dan Morgan and David Pollack: Most of the retirements that have been announced have been related to the National Football League. Yet, the circumstances of these goodbyes differ vastly from those of more famed retirees such as Steve McNair and Brett Favre. Both Morgan (top right; six seasons with Carolina) and Pollack (second right; three in Cincinnati) came to the League with a lot of promise, but debilitating injuries jeopardized their careers early.
Morgan, a hard-hitting linebacker who first made his name like many of the league’s best defensive players of the past three decades; in Football U, also known as the University of Miami. After being drafted with the eleventh pick by the Panthers, he started 11 games in 2001, helped solidify the league’s second best defense en route to the franchise’s lone Super Bowl appearance the following year and made the Pro Bowl in 2003. Yet, he only played 66 of Carolina’s 119 games (including all seven of the playoff games) in seven seasons. A series of concussions, an ankle injury and a partially torn Achilles tendon took their toll on him as he felt that he could not contribute to what is supposed to be a revamped New Orleans Saints defense in the upcoming season.
Pollack was a stud defensive end out of Georgia, collecting several major college football awards
on his way to the NFL. In 2005, the Bengals selected him with the 17th pick in the first round and converted him to outside linebacker. He played fourteen games in his rookie season and despite just notching 28 tackles (22 solo), he picked up 4 ½ sacks for a team that found itself in the postseason for the first time in 15 years. Yet, in the first quarter of an early 2006 season game versus Cleveland, Pollack broke his sixth cervical vertebrae on a tackle. Though not paralyzed, he was unable to suit up again that year. His injury was initially considered career-threatening, but even with the improved prognosis in January 2007, he didn’t play that season either. Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said a few weeks ago that Pollack is going to retire, though the exact words have not been uttered by the player himself.
Football is a very high-risk, high-reward sport. It may have the country in a daze for twenty weekends a year, but for many of its players, it can cause a lifetime of pain. Morgan (29) and Pollack (26) would have been at both ends of an NFLer’s prime, but no matter how much their hearts wanted to get on the field, their bodies were unable to match that desire. Their retirements serve as another reminder for those of us who believe that it’s always about the Almighty Dollar in pro sports; no matter how much we are aware of the fortune and fame that come with success, the physical body doesn’t know how much money you make.
Maurice Greene: There seem to be more controversies than track and field competitions, if you are like me and rarely keep up with the sport outside of the Olympics. It’s as if every athlete is connected to some performance-enhancing drug ring and check fraud (notice the and, not or). What makes Greene stick out above names as Trevor Graham, Justin Gatlin, Marion Jones or Tim Montgomery? It’s that until he officially retired in February, he avoided any questions of his professional integrity due to PEDs. Then in a New York Times article published in April, Greene responded to claims made by a former drug adviser that he used PEDs.
Greene had a longer career in track than many of the sport’s elite could manage. He notched two gold medals in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, along with a silver and bronze in 2004 (Athens). He held the world 100-meter record at 9.79 seconds back in 1999, a race he had dominated for two years going back to the 1997 World Championships. With the clouds hanging over the sport, his name may be more aligned with a $10,000 check that he wrote to this former adviser than his former records and medals.
When someone retires with a record of excellence, ideally, (s)he is not supposed to leave much doubt about the contributions made throughout her or his career. Yet, in the case of Greene – who has never failed a drug test, even if that leaves you skeptical – he left more questions than answers. With the Beijing Olympics on the horizon, this story may pick up some steam as the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) is seeking an explanation for his actions.
So why did he retire? His reason could be as legit as they come: in training for Beijing, he could not physically keep up due to injuries over the years. He wants to make room for new stars, he said in his farewell. For some, however, this recent news makes it hard to believe that Greene walked away for purely altruistic reasons.
Larry Allen: Another NFL retirement, this time with a player who set a high standard in his position in the way that many of the heralded quarterbacks and running backs did for many of the league’s current stars. Allen – considered by football people as the strongest player in the league’s 88-year history – retired after fourteen years in the league; having spent twelve with the Dallas Cowboys and his final two with San Francisco.
When kids growing up in the 1990s debated if Emmitt Smith or Barry Sanders was the better running back, the difference always lied with the superior offensive line Dallas possessed for nearly the entire decade. Allen’s brute strength and deceptive quickness blasted holes in the defensive line for Smith to run through. He made eleven (yeah, that’s right, eleven) Pro Bowls at three different offensive line positions: left guard, right guard and left tackle. He blocked for Hall-of-Famers and Pro Bowlers: running backs Smith and Frank Gore along with quarterbacks Troy Aikman and Drew Bledsoe. He won his lone Super Bowl ring in his second season with the ‘Boys and remained with the organization for twelve years.
Likely, he will join the other ten Cowboys who are enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Since offensive linemen are typically low-key and still unsung, Allen didn’t get a pomp-and-circumstance press conference or video package on the sports channels. It was certainly the case for the perennial Oiler/Titan Bruce Matthews until he joined the Hall last year. The same will go for other all-time greats such as Jonathan Ogden and Orlando Pace.
Until Canton…
It’s not as if all the professional athletes in the world had a convention somewhere to schedule their sunsets ahead of time, but there have been a few more farewell press conferences and phone calls than normal. It’s come to the point where Sports Illustrated’s website features a slideshow of the “twenty biggest retirements” thus far; those that have already happened and those that will start after the end of their seasons.
Some athletes who called it a career are without a doubt more recognizable than others. Some were newsworthy as they left fans scratching their heads. However, there are a few announcements that, for various reasons, have gone relatively unnoticed. Instead of ranking the importance or the overall careers of these athletes, tonight’s Scribe post looks into those various reasons that go outside of “it was just time”.
Dan Morgan and David Pollack: Most of the retirements that have been announced have been related to the National Football League. Yet, the circumstances of these goodbyes differ vastly from those of more famed retirees such as Steve McNair and Brett Favre. Both Morgan (top right; six seasons with Carolina) and Pollack (second right; three in Cincinnati) came to the League with a lot of promise, but debilitating injuries jeopardized their careers early.
Morgan, a hard-hitting linebacker who first made his name like many of the league’s best defensive players of the past three decades; in Football U, also known as the University of Miami. After being drafted with the eleventh pick by the Panthers, he started 11 games in 2001, helped solidify the league’s second best defense en route to the franchise’s lone Super Bowl appearance the following year and made the Pro Bowl in 2003. Yet, he only played 66 of Carolina’s 119 games (including all seven of the playoff games) in seven seasons. A series of concussions, an ankle injury and a partially torn Achilles tendon took their toll on him as he felt that he could not contribute to what is supposed to be a revamped New Orleans Saints defense in the upcoming season.
Pollack was a stud defensive end out of Georgia, collecting several major college football awards
on his way to the NFL. In 2005, the Bengals selected him with the 17th pick in the first round and converted him to outside linebacker. He played fourteen games in his rookie season and despite just notching 28 tackles (22 solo), he picked up 4 ½ sacks for a team that found itself in the postseason for the first time in 15 years. Yet, in the first quarter of an early 2006 season game versus Cleveland, Pollack broke his sixth cervical vertebrae on a tackle. Though not paralyzed, he was unable to suit up again that year. His injury was initially considered career-threatening, but even with the improved prognosis in January 2007, he didn’t play that season either. Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said a few weeks ago that Pollack is going to retire, though the exact words have not been uttered by the player himself.Football is a very high-risk, high-reward sport. It may have the country in a daze for twenty weekends a year, but for many of its players, it can cause a lifetime of pain. Morgan (29) and Pollack (26) would have been at both ends of an NFLer’s prime, but no matter how much their hearts wanted to get on the field, their bodies were unable to match that desire. Their retirements serve as another reminder for those of us who believe that it’s always about the Almighty Dollar in pro sports; no matter how much we are aware of the fortune and fame that come with success, the physical body doesn’t know how much money you make.
Maurice Greene: There seem to be more controversies than track and field competitions, if you are like me and rarely keep up with the sport outside of the Olympics. It’s as if every athlete is connected to some performance-enhancing drug ring and check fraud (notice the and, not or). What makes Greene stick out above names as Trevor Graham, Justin Gatlin, Marion Jones or Tim Montgomery? It’s that until he officially retired in February, he avoided any questions of his professional integrity due to PEDs. Then in a New York Times article published in April, Greene responded to claims made by a former drug adviser that he used PEDs.
Greene had a longer career in track than many of the sport’s elite could manage. He notched two gold medals in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, along with a silver and bronze in 2004 (Athens). He held the world 100-meter record at 9.79 seconds back in 1999, a race he had dominated for two years going back to the 1997 World Championships. With the clouds hanging over the sport, his name may be more aligned with a $10,000 check that he wrote to this former adviser than his former records and medals.
When someone retires with a record of excellence, ideally, (s)he is not supposed to leave much doubt about the contributions made throughout her or his career. Yet, in the case of Greene – who has never failed a drug test, even if that leaves you skeptical – he left more questions than answers. With the Beijing Olympics on the horizon, this story may pick up some steam as the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) is seeking an explanation for his actions.
So why did he retire? His reason could be as legit as they come: in training for Beijing, he could not physically keep up due to injuries over the years. He wants to make room for new stars, he said in his farewell. For some, however, this recent news makes it hard to believe that Greene walked away for purely altruistic reasons.
Larry Allen: Another NFL retirement, this time with a player who set a high standard in his position in the way that many of the heralded quarterbacks and running backs did for many of the league’s current stars. Allen – considered by football people as the strongest player in the league’s 88-year history – retired after fourteen years in the league; having spent twelve with the Dallas Cowboys and his final two with San Francisco.
When kids growing up in the 1990s debated if Emmitt Smith or Barry Sanders was the better running back, the difference always lied with the superior offensive line Dallas possessed for nearly the entire decade. Allen’s brute strength and deceptive quickness blasted holes in the defensive line for Smith to run through. He made eleven (yeah, that’s right, eleven) Pro Bowls at three different offensive line positions: left guard, right guard and left tackle. He blocked for Hall-of-Famers and Pro Bowlers: running backs Smith and Frank Gore along with quarterbacks Troy Aikman and Drew Bledsoe. He won his lone Super Bowl ring in his second season with the ‘Boys and remained with the organization for twelve years.
Likely, he will join the other ten Cowboys who are enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Since offensive linemen are typically low-key and still unsung, Allen didn’t get a pomp-and-circumstance press conference or video package on the sports channels. It was certainly the case for the perennial Oiler/Titan Bruce Matthews until he joined the Hall last year. The same will go for other all-time greats such as Jonathan Ogden and Orlando Pace.
Until Canton…
Friday, December 14, 2007
Hindsight
So… you hate your quarterback.
You don’t know why the team didn’t draft a running back two years ago.
You’re still ticked off that the team passed up on a franchise player in order to sign a career backup.
Yep. You have to love the NFL.
Sports are the world’s greatest unifiers. And dividers. Despite being able to congregate around a television or attend a live game, we may have a bigger love affair with debating. Who should have been traded, who should have ended up here or there, what if Michael Jordan didn’t make Craig Ehlo his personal yo-yo years ago? Those are the questions that keep sports the most consistently strong and entertaining artform out there. There are millions of questions that we have – because of those questions, sports media has exploded – and even more opinions and rationales to try to answer them. The questions that never seem to have answers are those pondered in hindsight.
It used to be that our reflections would grow over a longer period of time than in the current day. With the increased media and availability of games at our disposal, careers come and go much quickly than they used to. That includes careers that have just gotten underway.
Case in point, deciding between Mario Williams or Reggie Bush as the number one pick in the 2006 Draft.
After recording 3 ½ sacks last night against a usually strong Denver Broncos offensive line,
Williams may have cinched his first Pro Bowl appearance of what could be a very productive career. Could be. The defensive end from NC State seemed quite overwhelmed much of last season, despite burst of excellence that had been expected of him after being chosen over Bush. In college, Williams made his name as a three-year starting defensive end, notching 25.5 sacks and 175 tackles. Because the Houston Texans’ defensive line hadn’t found success in pressuring quarterbacks, Williams was rather high on the draft board, though there were two college superstars available for the taking. When the Texans secured the top pick in 2006, there was increased noise from fans and media as they practically begged former GM Charley Casserly to select either Bush or Houston native and Texas QB Vince Young. With Young’s great performance over Bush’s USC Trojans in the Rose Bowl, the city wanted someone to latch onto as their own in the aftermath of the Oilers’ move to Tennessee and the drama of the David Carr era. They also dreamed of having Bush, an electric playmaker from the backfield, a player touted as an once-in-a-lifetime talent.
Chronicling Bush’s career on Scribe could be pointless if you didn’t hear about him amidst the tremendous hype generated coming out of college (see this instead). Reggie Bush has the blend of receiving and rushing skills, the talented offense to work with and an early edge on playoff experience. He is also the subject for a potentially great discussion in any marketing class in college. He adopted the post-Katrina New Orleans and has appeared in numerous charitable campaigns since kick-returning himself into the NFL scene last season. He is also embroiled in a controversy involving alleged broken promises to a would-be marketing agent and improper gifts for his parents while in Southern California. When the Texans passed on drafting him because of apparent signability issues, it was looked upon as one of the dumbest moves in sports history. The Saints’ success with the combination of Bush, Deuce McAlister, fellow rookie Marques Colston and MVP contender Drew Brees exasperated the talk. Bush was the future of the league, even though Colston’s Rookie of the Year performance as a seventh round choice deserved a little spotlight. This season, however, New Orleans has been an inconsistent team (albeit, heavily affected by injuries) with a 6-7 record and scant chances at making the playoffs. Between questionable playcalling, the fading story of reviving the city’s spirit and the increase in workload with McAlister’s season-ending injury, Bush did not have the chance to build upon the strong momentum of last season. Now, between Thursday’s career game for Williams and Bush’s season-ending injury recently, ESPN and others have asked which player would be drafted number one right now.
While it is still fairly early to condemn or praise guys who just started their careers about twenty months ago, it seems as if both Houston and New Orleans are pleased thus far with their signature players. The Texans didn’t have a ton of issues running the ball so much as it was protecting Carr. They also were not having enough impact from the defense. The losing attitude seemingly consumed Carr, despite flashes of skill, and it seemed that management, coaches and fans just wanted a new start with the best offensive player available. Even if Williams turned out to be one of the premier defensive players in the game, he would have been compared to a player of a completely different position and circumstance. What Williams has brought to the Texans is not only a strong pass rush, but overlooked skills in stopping opposing running backs. Unfortunately for him, defense is only recognized when it’s extremely porous or extremely suffocating.
The Saints had similar personnel problems and were hoping to essentially replace QB Aaron Brooks with a player that could help the team shutter its helter-skelter play over the years. Despite already having a running game, Bush fell into their lap unexpectedly and it was hard to not only pass up the talent, but the increased boost in sponsorships and ticket sales while returning from a season in San Antonio. What could be pondered is who would have been selected if Houston did select the former Trojan. Having signed Brees as a free agent six weeks before the Draft, New Orleans may have looked at upgrading the defense with Williams, despite his lack of hype in NC State or even A.J. Hawk, the middle linebacker from Ohio State that was selected by Green Bay with the fifth pick. Houston would have been lambasted still, but not for a while as Bush would have taken just as many hits as Carr or incumbent running back Dominick Davis (now Williams).
Sports are about more than numbers and highlights, no matter how much we throw them in the air. The games are about movement, timing and cohesion; all necessary to make those stats and video clips possible for our enjoyment. New Orleans was given a clean slate when they came back to the Superdome with new leadership (head coach Sean Payton along with Brees) and new impetus on winning for their home city. Now that it has been just about two seasons in the post-Katrina era, the question that may linger for the team is not if they can return to contention, but if Bush is as advertised on and off the field. As Houston builds their team around QB Matt Schaub and WR Andre Johnson, Williams may look to not only become the team’s first true defensive star, but to prove to everyone – even the home crowd – that he was worth the drama.
Say What?!?!: There is still time for these players to make their impact - for better or worse – yet, it seems after four years and one combined playoff victory, the verdict is essentially out on 2004 draft picks Eli Manning and Phillip Rivers. That delectable treat is for tomorrow.
Note: For those who use other non-Blogger handles, take a look before making comments. It's good news!
You don’t know why the team didn’t draft a running back two years ago.
You’re still ticked off that the team passed up on a franchise player in order to sign a career backup.
Yep. You have to love the NFL.
Sports are the world’s greatest unifiers. And dividers. Despite being able to congregate around a television or attend a live game, we may have a bigger love affair with debating. Who should have been traded, who should have ended up here or there, what if Michael Jordan didn’t make Craig Ehlo his personal yo-yo years ago? Those are the questions that keep sports the most consistently strong and entertaining artform out there. There are millions of questions that we have – because of those questions, sports media has exploded – and even more opinions and rationales to try to answer them. The questions that never seem to have answers are those pondered in hindsight.
It used to be that our reflections would grow over a longer period of time than in the current day. With the increased media and availability of games at our disposal, careers come and go much quickly than they used to. That includes careers that have just gotten underway.
Case in point, deciding between Mario Williams or Reggie Bush as the number one pick in the 2006 Draft.
After recording 3 ½ sacks last night against a usually strong Denver Broncos offensive line,
Williams may have cinched his first Pro Bowl appearance of what could be a very productive career. Could be. The defensive end from NC State seemed quite overwhelmed much of last season, despite burst of excellence that had been expected of him after being chosen over Bush. In college, Williams made his name as a three-year starting defensive end, notching 25.5 sacks and 175 tackles. Because the Houston Texans’ defensive line hadn’t found success in pressuring quarterbacks, Williams was rather high on the draft board, though there were two college superstars available for the taking. When the Texans secured the top pick in 2006, there was increased noise from fans and media as they practically begged former GM Charley Casserly to select either Bush or Houston native and Texas QB Vince Young. With Young’s great performance over Bush’s USC Trojans in the Rose Bowl, the city wanted someone to latch onto as their own in the aftermath of the Oilers’ move to Tennessee and the drama of the David Carr era. They also dreamed of having Bush, an electric playmaker from the backfield, a player touted as an once-in-a-lifetime talent.
Chronicling Bush’s career on Scribe could be pointless if you didn’t hear about him amidst the tremendous hype generated coming out of college (see this instead). Reggie Bush has the blend of receiving and rushing skills, the talented offense to work with and an early edge on playoff experience. He is also the subject for a potentially great discussion in any marketing class in college. He adopted the post-Katrina New Orleans and has appeared in numerous charitable campaigns since kick-returning himself into the NFL scene last season. He is also embroiled in a controversy involving alleged broken promises to a would-be marketing agent and improper gifts for his parents while in Southern California. When the Texans passed on drafting him because of apparent signability issues, it was looked upon as one of the dumbest moves in sports history. The Saints’ success with the combination of Bush, Deuce McAlister, fellow rookie Marques Colston and MVP contender Drew Brees exasperated the talk. Bush was the future of the league, even though Colston’s Rookie of the Year performance as a seventh round choice deserved a little spotlight. This season, however, New Orleans has been an inconsistent team (albeit, heavily affected by injuries) with a 6-7 record and scant chances at making the playoffs. Between questionable playcalling, the fading story of reviving the city’s spirit and the increase in workload with McAlister’s season-ending injury, Bush did not have the chance to build upon the strong momentum of last season. Now, between Thursday’s career game for Williams and Bush’s season-ending injury recently, ESPN and others have asked which player would be drafted number one right now.While it is still fairly early to condemn or praise guys who just started their careers about twenty months ago, it seems as if both Houston and New Orleans are pleased thus far with their signature players. The Texans didn’t have a ton of issues running the ball so much as it was protecting Carr. They also were not having enough impact from the defense. The losing attitude seemingly consumed Carr, despite flashes of skill, and it seemed that management, coaches and fans just wanted a new start with the best offensive player available. Even if Williams turned out to be one of the premier defensive players in the game, he would have been compared to a player of a completely different position and circumstance. What Williams has brought to the Texans is not only a strong pass rush, but overlooked skills in stopping opposing running backs. Unfortunately for him, defense is only recognized when it’s extremely porous or extremely suffocating.
The Saints had similar personnel problems and were hoping to essentially replace QB Aaron Brooks with a player that could help the team shutter its helter-skelter play over the years. Despite already having a running game, Bush fell into their lap unexpectedly and it was hard to not only pass up the talent, but the increased boost in sponsorships and ticket sales while returning from a season in San Antonio. What could be pondered is who would have been selected if Houston did select the former Trojan. Having signed Brees as a free agent six weeks before the Draft, New Orleans may have looked at upgrading the defense with Williams, despite his lack of hype in NC State or even A.J. Hawk, the middle linebacker from Ohio State that was selected by Green Bay with the fifth pick. Houston would have been lambasted still, but not for a while as Bush would have taken just as many hits as Carr or incumbent running back Dominick Davis (now Williams).
Sports are about more than numbers and highlights, no matter how much we throw them in the air. The games are about movement, timing and cohesion; all necessary to make those stats and video clips possible for our enjoyment. New Orleans was given a clean slate when they came back to the Superdome with new leadership (head coach Sean Payton along with Brees) and new impetus on winning for their home city. Now that it has been just about two seasons in the post-Katrina era, the question that may linger for the team is not if they can return to contention, but if Bush is as advertised on and off the field. As Houston builds their team around QB Matt Schaub and WR Andre Johnson, Williams may look to not only become the team’s first true defensive star, but to prove to everyone – even the home crowd – that he was worth the drama.
Say What?!?!: There is still time for these players to make their impact - for better or worse – yet, it seems after four years and one combined playoff victory, the verdict is essentially out on 2004 draft picks Eli Manning and Phillip Rivers. That delectable treat is for tomorrow.
Note: For those who use other non-Blogger handles, take a look before making comments. It's good news!
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