We interrupt the NFL coronation festivities for a word from the dark side of the league.
In an era of 32-team leagues, championship hopes are slim for almost everybody. What you really want is belief.
With only Washington and Buffalo making moves on the coaching front, Black Monday in the NFL passed far quieter than anticipated, and certainly was less eventful than last year's day-after-the-season-ends blood-letting.
The holiday season is all about giving, so this week's column gives a little hope to the fans of teams that no longer have playoff dreams dancing in their heads. Happy Holidays, everyone, and perhaps even more importantly, a happy New Year.
Musings, observations and the occasional insight from a Week 15 that was chock-full of drama, record-setting performances and thrilling comebacks and conclusions. With Christmas just around the corner, who could ask for anything more?....
PLAYER OF THE DECADE: Peyton Manning, Colts The Colts are the winningest regular-season team in the decade, and Manning's immense presence, skill, accuracy and mastery of the offense are the biggest reasons. Twenty years ago, Fran Tarkenton was the all-time leader in passing yards, with 47,003. Barring some surprise in the last month of this regular season, Manning will finish 2009 with more than 42,000 in this decade alone. He is not the leader of his offense; he is the commandant.
1. Randy Moss to the Patriots from the Raiders for a fourth-round pick; April 29, 2007 On draft weekend, the team-minded Patriots shocked the NFL by dealing for Moss, whose talent as a game-changing receiver had supposedly atrophied during his two mostly desultory seasons in Oakland. But Moss, as it turns out, was merely disinterested in losing, and his reemergence in New England coincided with the team's history-making Super Bowl season. Moss caught 98 passes for 1,493 yards and had a single-season NFL record 23 touchdowns. All in all, not bad production in exchange for a fourth-round pick that Oakland used to select little-known University of Cincinnati cornerback John Bowie.
There are, officially, six rivalries in the NFL. I realize that some people would suggest that one clueless fool with Internet access cannot make "official" proclamations... but they are wrong. We can. And we do. All the time. You can go all over the Internet and see!
Tom Cable took the podium for his Monday press conference with a new lease on life. With the Oakland Raiders surprising upset of the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, Cable slipped into the second tier of NFL Coaches Most Likely to Be Fired, dropping behind names like Washington's Jim Zorn.
The 2008 Detroit Lions set a high standard for low standards. They were the first 0-16 team in NFL history, an achievement that merited an upside-down banner and a parade down a street full of banana peels.
We interrupt the NFL coronation festivities for a word from the dark side of the league.
In an era of 32-team leagues, championship hopes are slim for almost everybody. What you really want is belief.
With only Washington and Buffalo making moves on the coaching front, Black Monday in the NFL passed far quieter than anticipated, and certainly was less eventful than last year's day-after-the-season-ends blood-letting.
The holiday season is all about giving, so this week's column gives a little hope to the fans of teams that no longer have playoff dreams dancing in their heads. Happy Holidays, everyone, and perhaps even more importantly, a happy New Year.
Musings, observations and the occasional insight from a Week 15 that was chock-full of drama, record-setting performances and thrilling comebacks and conclusions. With Christmas just around the corner, who could ask for anything more?....
PLAYER OF THE DECADE: Peyton Manning, Colts The Colts are the winningest regular-season team in the decade, and Manning's immense presence, skill, accuracy and mastery of the offense are the biggest reasons. Twenty years ago, Fran Tarkenton was the all-time leader in passing yards, with 47,003. Barring some surprise in the last month of this regular season, Manning will finish 2009 with more than 42,000 in this decade alone. He is not the leader of his offense; he is the commandant.
1. Randy Moss to the Patriots from the Raiders for a fourth-round pick; April 29, 2007 On draft weekend, the team-minded Patriots shocked the NFL by dealing for Moss, whose talent as a game-changing receiver had supposedly atrophied during his two mostly desultory seasons in Oakland. But Moss, as it turns out, was merely disinterested in losing, and his reemergence in New England coincided with the team's history-making Super Bowl season. Moss caught 98 passes for 1,493 yards and had a single-season NFL record 23 touchdowns. All in all, not bad production in exchange for a fourth-round pick that Oakland used to select little-known University of Cincinnati cornerback John Bowie.
There are, officially, six rivalries in the NFL. I realize that some people would suggest that one clueless fool with Internet access cannot make "official" proclamations... but they are wrong. We can. And we do. All the time. You can go all over the Internet and see!
Tom Cable took the podium for his Monday press conference with a new lease on life. With the Oakland Raiders surprising upset of the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, Cable slipped into the second tier of NFL Coaches Most Likely to Be Fired, dropping behind names like Washington's Jim Zorn.
The 2008 Detroit Lions set a high standard for low standards. They were the first 0-16 team in NFL history, an achievement that merited an upside-down banner and a parade down a street full of banana peels.
These were supposed to better days for the Cowboys, Browns and Raiders, with Tony Romo rising from undrafted free agent to Brett Favre clone sans Terrell Owens, Brady Quinn becoming the Robo-QB in Cleveland he was at Notre Dame and JaMarcus Russell showing improvement in Year 3.
Each week, SI.com's Richard Deitsch will report on newsmakers from the world of TV, radio and the Web.
Throughout the 2009 NFL season, SI.com's Adam Duerson will work with Jerome Bettis to get the six-time Pro Bowl running back's observations about the previous week's games. Bettis retired from the NFL in 2006 after a 13-year career.
Last Thursday afternoon, in what some may view as a sign of the apocalypse and others may deem encouraging news for the future of America's youth, more than a dozen 7, 8 and 9-year olds gathered in a living room in Aptos, Cailf., for the inaugural Aptos Amateur Fantasy Football League draft. Just like their adult counterparts, the boys wore baseball hats (and one coonskin cap), carried notebooks full of scribbled rankings (some even legible) and appeared to subsist entirely on Rice Krispie treats and beer (okay, so it was root beer). To watch them was to see a distorted reflection of the 20 million of us -- mostly adults, tending toward the obsessive -- who play fantasy sports, and, perhaps even to gain a little perspective.
I know it's roughly the same story every year, but you gotta love the ability of the NFL's Week 1 to smash some of our preseason perceptions to smithereens while simultaneously re-enforcing other premises we held fast to as the season roared to life. Such as:
The opening weekend of the NFL regular season is finally here, which means it is time for you to sit on the couch and watch football from Sunday at 1 p.m. until after the Chargers finish their dismantling of the Raiders in the late game on Monday night. Below is the first of what will be a weekly look at either a key matchup or storyline to watch in one game at each time slot. (All times Eastern)
Here in the Bay Area we have a football pantheon. Legends that have shaped the Raiders and the 49ers. You know the names well: Al Davis, Bill Walsh, Eddie DeBartolo.
One of the guarantees in life is that if you write something about the pathetic state of the Oakland Raiders, you will hear from numerous angry Raiders fans. And they will tell you all about how they went to the 2003 Super Bowl, and that they won three Super Bowls between 1976 and 1984, and that they were the most successful team of the 1980s or over some 25 year span or something. You will hear bland repetition of their now-ridiculous "Commitment to Excellence" slogan, and reminders of glorious victories and anyway how many Super Bowls has YOUR team won? Happens every time.
This season the Raiders dirty laundry was supposed to be stuffed in the hamper. Out of sight. Deodorized. This was going to be the year that the woeful Raiders finally turned it around. Instilled discipline. Got back to basics. Stopped all the nonsense and distractions and the Al Davis public displays that come complete with overhead projectors and legal action.
SI.com has dispatched writers to report on the 32 NFL training camps across the country. Here's what Jim Trotter had to say about the Raiders' camp in Napa Valley.
If the Raiders' goal is to see JaMarcus Russell become an elite quarterback, they have a funny way of showing it.
The recent revelation by Raiders coach Tom Cable that wide receiver Javon Walker had surgery and did not let the Raiders know about it until last weekend's mandatory mini-camp shines a bright light on a distinct issue in the NFL: the propensity of players to consult with medical personnel outside of their organization.
Oakland Raiders fans have undergone an interesting evolution since last weekend's draft, by which I do not mean to imply that they've only just begun walking upright.
Giving a draft grade for each team the day after the draft is a fruitless exercise. It takes a minimum of three years before a draft can be revisited and evaluated to determine how productive a team was with its selections. With that caveat, here's my reaction to every team's picks, grouped in categories as opposed to the standard letter grade.
Nnamdi Asomugha and the Oakland Raiders agreed to terms on a six-year contract that will bring the All-Pro cornerback $28.5 million guaranteed over the next two years, a source familiar with the negotiations said today.
PHILADELPHIA -- Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we watch the total demolition of the Dallas Cowboys play out before an absolutely delirious throng of Eagles fans at Lincoln Financial Field ...
Every Monday, SI.com's Ross Tucker will hand out letter grades to deserving NFL parties...
The Raiders' surprising decision to release two-time Pro Bowl cornerback DeAngelo Hall after only eight games is another example of a free agent not being an ideal "fit" for a team's scheme. Hall, the eighth overall pick in the 2004 draft, was acquired in the offseason to join Nnamdi Asomugha in forming one of the league's top cornerback duos. But Hall didn't play up to his all-star status in the man-to-man scheme, losing his job in midweek but reportedly signing on with the Redskins at week's end.
Halfway through this NFL season, I can't get over the staggering decline and fall of the West. There are few givens in 2008, but one of them is that nobody plays worse football collectively than the eight teams in the NFC and AFC West divisions.
Musings, observations and the occasional insight from Week 9 as we await a Patriots-Colts showdown that features much more "down'' than we're used to in recent years.....
Every Monday, SI.com's Ross Tucker will hand out letter grades to deserving NFL parties...
Every Monday, SI.com's Ross Tucker will hand out letter grades to deserving NFL parties...
Lane Kiffin's long-anticipated firing this week instantly bestowed him membership in the ever-growing ranks of ex-Raiders head coaches, and there's certainly no shame in that.
I only took in the proceedings on TV, but the atmosphere in the room at the Al Davis press conference in Oakland on Tuesday afternoon must have been extraordinary.
Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we take in a Week 4 that turned into a veritable points-palooza in so many NFL locales (six of Sunday's early eight games saw the winner score 30 points or more) ...
No matter how long you stare at them, the AFC standings after three weeks just look a bit off kilter, don't they? Not upside down per se, but refreshingly out of order, and jumbled to the point where our customary quick glance can't take it all in.
The Saints, looking to solidify their backup QB positions, have signed Joey Harrington. From WDSU.com:
I see that look and I know what you're thinking. It's ridiculously early to tackle the topic of NFL coaches on the hot seat. We're only staring down Week 3 for crying out loud. Could we at least manage to put September behind us before we start speculating how many casualties there will be this season among the ranks of the headset crowd?
Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we behold maybe the grittiest, guttiest Colts comeback victory in the entire 11-year points-apalooza that has been the Peyton Manning era, that 18-15 slugging match with the shellshocked Vikings....
OK, let me get this straight now. How many enemies did I make this week with my Power Rankings? Cardinals fans hate me for ranking them lower than Miami. Steelers fans hate me for placing them two notches below the Patriots, who, if you haven't heard, are having QB identity problems. Giant fans hate me on general principles (how about normal sized fans?).
Thankfully, much of the country probably missed the season opener between the Raiders and Broncos on Monday night because of its late start (7:15 Pacific). The game was over almost as quickly as it started, with Denver dominating its way to leads of 7-0 after one quarter, 17-0 at the half, and 27-0 entering the fourth quarter before settling for a 41-14 victory.
Gene Upshaw came into the NFL through a scam, and the guy scammed later became one of the most respected personnel men in the league. But in 1967 Ron Wolf was just a hard-working, 27-year-old super scout for Al Davis and the Oakland Raiders, and as the draft approached he knew he was going to have a war on his hands.
Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we arrive at the midway point of the NFL's fake-game schedule, putting us (thankfully) just 17 days away from when they start keeping score for real. ...
SI.com has dispatched 10 writers to report on the 32 NFL training camps across the country. For the complete schedule of postcards, click here.
Beginning Sunday we will have live, professional football games on TV for the next 25 straight weekends. How good does that sound?
The Raiders will have all their players present Thursday when they open training camp in Napa, Calif.
Let's be honest; the NFL offseason borders on interminable. It's nearly six months long, and you can make it seven for those luckless teams that missed the playoffs. All that down time allows for a near-endless cycle of debate about the issues, questions and challenges facing each and every one of the 32 franchises that make up Roger Goodell's fiefdom. (A related note: That debate keeps me gainfully employed).
Spending eight years in the Oakland Raiders organization was a real education -- in every area. You learned what to do and what not to do. Both lessons are vital as you craft your football knowledge. One of the most valuable things I learned was the art of game management. Game management is a term used to describe the effect each play call -- both offensively and defensively -- has on the eventual outcome of the game. It's not as basic as deciding whether to go for it on fourth down or the right time to go for a two-point conversion; it's much deeper and much more analytical. Let me offer a few examples, both positive and negative.
Back in the early 1990s, while working for the Cleveland Browns, I took a side trip with head coach Bill Belichick to spend an afternoon at Indiana with legendary basketball coach Bob Knight, before continuing on to the NFL Combine.
The Raiders don't have to worry about their top draft choice being absent from training camp this year.
Michael Lombardi is a 22-year veteran of NFL personnel departments, spending eight years with the Raiders and nine years with the Browns, in addition to brief stints with the Broncos, Eagles and 49ers. This is his second column for SI.com. You can read his debut here.
The Raiders continued to run into roadblocks in their quest to finalize a trade for Falcons cornerback DeAngelo Hall.
Cornerback DeAngelo Hall's impending trade from the Falcons to the Raiders can only mean one thing for the Silver and Black:
Before we review the first full week of the NFL's free-agency period, a few quick points: We're going to avoid the hackneyed "winners and losers'' headings because there are no final results posted in March, at the very beginning of personnel acquisition season. We'll give a thumbs up or a thumbs down to teams, based on whether we can make sense of their offseason moves and if they strike us as reasonable and well-thought out decisions, or not. We either get it, or we don't.
Glenn Dorsey, DT, LSU 6' 2", 316 No interior defensive lineman was as dominant last season as Dorsey, winner of the Outland, Lombardi and Nagurski awards and SEC defensive player of the year. He excelled despite facing constant double teams and sustaining a sprained knee midway through the season. One NFL team doctor reportedly red-flagged him at the combine because of a 2006 leg injury, but other clubs expressed less concern. He'll work out for teams at his March 26 pro day. Where he'll land Miami (which has the No. 1 pick) or Atlanta (3). If the Dolphins take Ryan, the Falcons figure to select Dorsey, even though Virginia defensive end Chris Long might still be on the board. Dorsey would fill a huge void on the Atlanta interior line and give p.r.-conscious owner Arthur Blank a player with excellent name recognition among the Falcons' fan base.
INDIANAPOLIS -- Finally, something went right for the Falcons. Atlanta GM Thomas Dimitroff, pitted against the Oakland Raiders for the third pick in the draft, called tails in a Westin Hotel conference room when a league official flipped a coin Friday morning, and it came up tails. That broke the logjam for the third pick in the draft between Atlanta, Oakland and Kansas City. The order at the top is now official:
Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we count down to the start of the annual meat market that is the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis ...
Last week, news broke of the Oakland Raiders possibly dismissing Lane Kiffin. The media reaction ranged from shock to humor. But such a move would hardly be surprising to those who have experienced life as a Raider. We understand that loyalty is not only expected, but also demanded from owner Al Davis.
Exhibiting the usual combination of the surreal and the bizarre that has become the Raiders' trademark, the latest saga in Oakland will likely result in Lane Kiffin's tenure as head coach ending after just one season -- by either termination or resignation.
Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we ponder what Bill Parcells thinks of his one-win Dolphins about now ...
Building a team is like putting together a puzzle, with each piece complementing the other to form one collective unit.
It's three weeks into the regular season, and already we hold these truths to be self-evident:
MORE GAME PLANS: Dolphins-Jets | Browns-Raiders | Rams-Bucs | Vikings-Chiefs | Colts-Texans | Cardinals-Ravens | Lions-Eagles | Bills-Patriots | 49ers-Steelers | Bengals-Seahawks | Jags-Broncos | Panthers-Falcons | Giants-Redskins | Cowboys-Bears | Titans-Saints
This story was originally published in the Jan. 17, 1977 issue of Sports Illustrated.
With training camps starting to open, I'm laying out one fantasy question for each team heading into the season. Here are the AFC questions. Click here for the NFC questions.
Nothing gets chewed over more every NFL offseason than quarterback questions. Only Indianapolis and New England seem immune to the constant pattern of change, speculation and potential controversies at this position.
Mapquest tells us it's 1,036 miles from Brett Favre's offseason home in Hattiesburg, Miss., to his in-season place, Green Bay. It might as well be a million miles. Because the one thing we learned from his failure to woo Randy Moss over the last couple of months is this: he may be one of the true legends in NFL history, but he is nothing more than an employee in the eyes of the Packers front office.
Joe Dailey left his New Jersey home for the Heartland four years ago in search of gridiron glory. Two schools, four head coaches and five offensive systems later, his only enduring legacy is likely to be that of a trivia answer to the question: Who was the quarterback when Nebraska's streak of 35 straight bowl appearances ended in 2004?
Musings, observations and the occasional insight as the NFL's offseason enters its May minicamp stage ...
Of the eight teams still playing, the Warriors are the most frightening. Not because of the abundant ink blotches that crawl up the arms and neck of forward Matt Barnes like a fungus, or because their gold-T-shirted fans in full throat are as intimidating as an Oakland Raiders crowd from the early 1980s, or because thespian wild man Woody Harrelson, a close friend of coach Don Nelson, has become one of Golden State's WE BELIEVE faithful.
In so many ways, the New England Patriots are the NFL's model franchise, perhaps the finest organization in all of professional sports. They have the 21st Century's highest winning percentage (.690), three Lombardi Trophies and a creative management philosophy geared toward short-term and sustained success.
You have flooded my email box with Randy Moss thoughts, from every angle. Even one of my fellow Hall of Fame voters, Frank Cooney, who lives in the Bay Area and runs a draft and scouting site called NFLDraftScout.com, had some good thoughts, which I'll share later.
Ten final thoughts on the doings around the league on draft weekend:
"I've got to be the Godfather today," Lions president Matt Millen said last Saturday morning, sitting in the living room of his town house in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn. He sounded full of hope and anticipation. In an hour Millen, a man who badly needed a good day, expected to be fielding calls from three or four clubs and hoped -- in a role reversal for Don Corleone -- that someone would make him an offer he couldn't refuse in exchange for the No. 2 pick in the NFL draft.
Another wild draft has come and gone, and now the big questions become, which of these players are worth taking in fantasy drafts and where should they go? There doesn't seem to be as many hotshot quarterbacks with the potential for a starting job right away, or top running backs with the opportunity to break through. However, there could be a few more receivers with the chance to be decent contributors early.
You will notice the generally low level of the grades for the 2007 draft. This does not reflect, I believe, the teams' drafting skill, just the overall level of talent. At one time you could find three or four genuinely exciting players on a team's list. Now there are many one-player drafts, and a few of those "one's" aren't even that scintillating.
NEW YORK -- Musings, observations and the occasional insights from the two-day pick-fest still taking place in Radio City Music Hall:
NEW YORK -- Here's my quick-snap read on the just-completed Randy Moss trade to New England: They're not messing around in Foxboro these days. The Patriots are serious about loading up for another Super Bowl run. They're so single-minded that they were willing to take character-challenged University of Miami safety Brandon Meriweather in Saturday's first round, and follow it up by dealing on Sunday for one of the league's leading enigmas, Moss.
JaMarcus Russell is making it rain.
NEW YORK -- It makes for great television -- in that watching the agony of defeat sort of way -- but it doesn't necessarily dictate what kind of quarterbacking career you're going to have in the NFL.
DETROIT -- All those rumors about Brady Quinn (FILM ROOM) being close to a deal with the Oakland Raiders, or having already agreed to one? Forget them. Totally false.
DETROIT -- Jimmy Johnson, that old draftmaster, has some advice for his friend Al Davis.
Random thoughts, musings, and the occasional insight as the pick-fest known as the NFL Draft looms less than 24 hours nigh ...
Commissioner Roger Goodell will officially announce the Oakland Raiders are on the clock in just two days, but draft stocks are still shifting. Here's the latest on player movement as well as the most recent draft notes.
It's paralysis by analysis time in trying to discern exactly what's coming in this weekend's NFL Draft. But there are some things that simply make too much sense not to happen. Here are 10 moves that not only could happen, but we think should:
There may not be a better off-campus house in America than the one that Wisconsin senior tackle Joe Thomas shares with five teammates in Madison. Miller Lite tap in the kitchen, poker room in the basement, John Belushi poster on the TV room wall and -- everyone's favorite -- padded red bra hanging from the antlers of a six-point trophy buck. "I was just doing laundry one day, and it snuck its way into my clothes," Badgers defensive back Ben Strickland says mischievously while watching Pardon the Interruption from the depths of a recliner. In Thomas's room upstairs, his laptop rests on homemade legs: four rolls of toilet paper. In the backyard there's a hot tub, a hammock and a couch. The best in late-night college carryout is within stumbling distance on Madison's busy streets.
Living in Boston, where Drew Bledsoe made his NFL name, I shouldn't have been surprised to hear the notion tossed out there almost reflexively, even before the news of the former Patriots quarterback's retirement had sunk in.
Though we lived in virtually the same neighborhood for more than a decade, Al Davis and I aren't what you'd call homies. The public sparring, that uncomplimentary feature story in Sports Illustrated, the repeated banishments from the team's facility -- well, let's just say there was very little temptation to carpool to the Oakland Coliseum on Sundays.
The stars have come out today. Two friends in the business check in with observations I thought I'd pass along -- the first from NFL Network host Rich Eisen about the frustration of some readers not being able to get the network on their cable systems. And Rick Gosselin, the draft maven who writes about the league so well for the Dallas Morning News. I'll let them start, and then move on with your e-mails:
The month-long run of marathon meetings at 49ers headquarters had gotten more tedious than The English Patient, and the team's top executives craved a little spice. Then, as if a gift from the football gods, it arrived -- the videotape that turned a trio of rational men into smitten reality-show judges.
All draft talk, all the time. That's what I heard at the league meetings last week, that's what I get asked about on most every talk show I'm on, that's the subject of the story (featuring Wisconsin tackle Joe Thomas) I'm working on for SI right now and that's what I'm prepping for this week. Fitting that your e-mails are heavy, heavy, heavy on the draft. So on with your draft topics, and a few others.
Editor's Note: The NFL officially announced the cancellation of its preseason game in China on Monday.
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