Second Chances

It’s hard to get too excited when your team’s big move is picking up a former first round pick who is just the “t” away from officially be labeled a bust.  Somebody saw something in Bobby Carpenter seven years ago.  Who knows?  Maybe it’s still in there.

  

Speaking of Second Chances…

In case there was any doubt, we now have tape on Gregg Williams exhorting his players to cap Frank Gore before the Saints-49ers playoff game.  Williams goes on to encourage his players to target Kyle Williams head (coming off a concussion) and Michael Crabtree’s ACL.  Reading the transcript of Williams’ pre-game speech it’s easy to see why Bill Belichick hates the Injury Report. 

I think most fans understand that football is a violent game – a collision sport. In the normal course of events players will get hurt.  And if you ever played the game you know that coaches exhort their players to play hard; to give everything they have in every block, every tackle. 

Naming specific body parts is too transparently cynical.  Peel off that patina of sportsmanship and let’s just get down to whatever is necessary.

So, consensus in the Google Machine is that Sean Payton is unlikely to see his one-year suspension reduced.  Seemed like something of a long shot in the first place.  There’s also some debate as to whether Gregg Williams’ indefinite suspension should become a lifetime timeout.

How can it not be?

All the talk about doing your time and second chances is fine, I suppose, but it’s really a boilerplate defense of Gregg Williams and with every new revelation I can’t help thinking…

This is different.

When I heard the three scariest letters in the NFL alphabet uttered by Williams in his pregame speech – ACL – I thought again…

This is different.

At least, I hope it is.  I want to believe it is. (Roger Goodell wants me to believe it is.) I want to believe that Gregg Williams is different; that NFL defensive coordinators do not routinely remind their charges that Tom Brady's left ACL was surgically repaired. Yeah, I suppose I am in denial.

I don’t know if the Commish will ultimately ban Gregg Williams for life but does that even matter?  If you owned an NFL franchise, would you sign off on hiring him?

Ultimately, the thing I just don’t get is the way the players have signed off on this. Didn’t they oppose an 18-game season because it would be too dangerous? Yet the players who have gone on record have told us that they’ve all heard it before, Gregg Williams is really a good guy, it’s just the way the game is played so if you want to hate, hate the game, not the player.

Maybe all that is true.  If so, the game needs to change.

It’s the Shoes…

So, Warren Sapp has filed for bankruptcy.  He is not the first nor will he be the last athlete who was paid millions of dollars to play a sport and then finds himself in the 99% after leaving the game. 

How does this happen? 

How do you spend $40,000,000?  When I make the list of all the things I would buy if I won the lottery I start to struggle after I get to Riding Lawn Mower (totally tricked out with a cab, of course).  Perhaps if I actually had the money I would buy 240 pairs of shoes.  Okay, that seems crazy. 

I might have more than three pair, though.