Well, after a number of rather confusing moves from the Broncos during this past offseason, I'm looking at you Tim Tebow, the Broncos finally seem to have managed to do something right! After the "Boy King" got here, he pretty much jettisoned every single remaining Bronco that he had inherited from the Mike Shannahan years. Most notably were Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall, and Tony Sheffler, all of whom were tops at their respective positions. I guess that I wouldn't have been all the surprised to see the Broncos let their best pass rusher go as well. I mean, McD seemed hell bent on keeping people that are "his guys" not Shanny's guys.
Which is why this story made me VERY happy! The Broncos finally agreed to a new contract with Dumervil. The new deal is actually a contract extension that extends him for 5 years, for $58.332 million through the 2015 season.
Now, to be absolutely fair to Dumervil, it is pretty obvious why he managed to get paid while his former Bronco teammates were quickly shown the door. Cutler demanded a trade after it was reported that the Boy King wanted to trade for Matt Cassel, and whined and moaned after Shanny, who spoiled the living daylights out of Cutler, was fired. Marshall, well, we remember his less-than-enthusiastic practice techniques that got him suspended by his team at the beginning of last season, and then his decision to not practice because his "leg hurt" which resulted in him being benched in the last game of the year. And the same thing with Tony Sheffler, who was also benched for the last game of the season last year.
So what is the difference between Elvis and these three guys? Well, just take a look at this quote, and that should tell you everyting.
"Money is not everything, and that's the way I was brought up," said Dumervil, who grew up in the Little Haiti neighborhood of Miami. "It's nice when you get it, don't get me wrong, but I was always taught that you get what you put into it. And as long as you conduct yourself as such, good things will happen for you." DenverPost.com
What is this? A taste of humility coming from a professional athlete? The Associated Press agrees with this as well. Dumervil did exactly the opposite of what these other guys did, and that's why his services are being retained. He didn't whine and complain about things and make it clear that the team better pony up or else he's out, he just let things play out, continued to show his commitment to working for the team, and the team rewarded him. That is a lesson that all younger players should hold on to. It isn't all about the money, you still have to have respect for your team, and for your organization. This is so refreshing, especially after all the pettiness that has surrounded the Broncos of late.
It's definitely good that the Broncos re-signed him, but how well they will actually do this upcoming season is yet to be determined. Until then!
Showing posts with label Brandon Marshall. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brandon Marshall. Show all posts
Friday, July 23, 2010
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Free Agency!
Day or so late, I realize, but it's all good. It is free agency time in the NFL, with a special new twist to go along with it! There isn't going to be a salary cap to stop teams from trying to buy everybody they possibly can! This could be interesting.
Now, we have seen from a few teams, most recently the Washington Redskins, the danger in spending too much on free agency. Yeah, you get Albert Haynesworth, thought to be the most dominant DT and that he would remain this dominant for about another 8-10 years, but then he gets a smoking hot 100 million dollar contract. It's weird, but look at his production the next year, way down. Yes, injury didn't help him, but still. What is it with NFL players not putting out their best effort once they get paid?
Anywho, we'll get to see how Julius Peppers handles this now that he has landed with Da Bears! That is a great get for the Bears, though I don't anticipate that Peppers will be playing all 6 years of that contract that he got.
The Lions seem to have gone nutty over another wide receiver, but not because they drafted this one. They gave Nate Burleson, formerly of the Seattle Seahawks a 5 year, $25 Million contract, with $11 Million in guaranteed money, to a guy who had 63 catches last year. That seem excessive to anybody else? I mean, yeah, he was on the lowly Seahawks, but who's to say that the lowly Lions will get him any more catches than that?
The Ravens nailed down Anquan Boldin in an amazing trade. They got Boldin and a 5th round pick in exchange for a 3rd and 4th round draft pick this year. I bet Flacco had to change his pants after he heard that news. Now the Ravens definitely have a legit passing threat.
Questions still remaining. Where will Brandon Marshall land? What over aged player will take a pay cut to try and go to the Pats? Will the Saints really let their ball hawk Sharper get away? Will Brett Favre retire, force the Vikes to find another solution, and then try and unretire again? Who's going to decide that they can make TO a team player this time? All these questions, AND MORE, still to be decided!
Now, we have seen from a few teams, most recently the Washington Redskins, the danger in spending too much on free agency. Yeah, you get Albert Haynesworth, thought to be the most dominant DT and that he would remain this dominant for about another 8-10 years, but then he gets a smoking hot 100 million dollar contract. It's weird, but look at his production the next year, way down. Yes, injury didn't help him, but still. What is it with NFL players not putting out their best effort once they get paid?
Anywho, we'll get to see how Julius Peppers handles this now that he has landed with Da Bears! That is a great get for the Bears, though I don't anticipate that Peppers will be playing all 6 years of that contract that he got.
The Lions seem to have gone nutty over another wide receiver, but not because they drafted this one. They gave Nate Burleson, formerly of the Seattle Seahawks a 5 year, $25 Million contract, with $11 Million in guaranteed money, to a guy who had 63 catches last year. That seem excessive to anybody else? I mean, yeah, he was on the lowly Seahawks, but who's to say that the lowly Lions will get him any more catches than that?
The Ravens nailed down Anquan Boldin in an amazing trade. They got Boldin and a 5th round pick in exchange for a 3rd and 4th round draft pick this year. I bet Flacco had to change his pants after he heard that news. Now the Ravens definitely have a legit passing threat.
Questions still remaining. Where will Brandon Marshall land? What over aged player will take a pay cut to try and go to the Pats? Will the Saints really let their ball hawk Sharper get away? Will Brett Favre retire, force the Vikes to find another solution, and then try and unretire again? Who's going to decide that they can make TO a team player this time? All these questions, AND MORE, still to be decided!
Monday, January 11, 2010
Big Mac, Pete Carroll, and some Denver teams news.
There were a lot of interesting things to talk about today that I thought were blog worthy, so here we go!
Firstly, Mark McGwire has "come clean" about his use of steroids throughout his baseball career. You can check out his full statement here, if you like (http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=Ampu8a0PnMpYMQ.4i4jwUAE5nYcB?slug=ys-mcgwirestatement011110&prov=yhoo&type=lgns-). I have a few things that I want to make out of this. First, is anybody even really that surprised? People were fairly certain of his use of steroids during his home run races with Sammy Sosa, and with all of the people who have been revealed through probes, or admitted to it to avoid the embarrassment of being caught, should this really surprise anybody? It doesn't surprise me one bit!
I also would like to address some of the things that he said is his statement. "During the mid-’90s, I went on the DL seven times and missed 228 games over five years. I experienced a lot of injuries, including a ribcage strain, a torn left heel muscle, a stress fracture of the left heel, and a torn right heel muscle. It was definitely a miserable bunch of years and I told myself that steroids could help me recover faster. I thought they would help me heal and prevent injuries, too." Okay, I can get the frustration of being injured and wanting to be able to do anything to get back on the field. It just always surprises me when these players say these reasons as to why they did steroids, and then always talk about loving the game. If you really love the game of baseball, or any sport for that matter, then there is no excuse for you to go outside of the rules to make yourself better. Using steroids shows an inherent lack of respect for the game and for your opponents. Is this the real reason? I'm sure it's part of it, but I don't know that we'll ever get him to admit the full story of it. "Baseball is really different now - it’s been cleaned up. The commissioner and the players’ association implemented testing and they cracked down, and I’m glad they did." Yeah, right. There are just actual rules now, I highly doubt that the game will ever be fully clean. People are too selfish in trying to get one step ahead of their opposition, and there will always be cheaters around. This is a very uneducated, and naive statement from Big Mac here.
Here's my favorite quote. "I was not in a position to do that five years ago in my congressional testimony, but now I feel an obligation to discuss this and to answer questions about it." You weren't in a position to come clean at your congressional testimony?!?! Excuse me? Are you serious? That's exactly what all of those testimonies were about. Now, I'll grant you that McGwire was smarter than Raphael Palmiero who came out and strongly denied ever using steroids and then tested positive and looked like a giant fool. All McGwire said was that he wasn't there to talk about the past, which is exactly what the hearings were about, talking about that past. I'm sorry, I don't buy that for one second. When Congress tells you that you are to answer questions regarding this time in your life when you allegedly did something illegal, and then tell you that if you come clean and tell the truth about the whole thing you will be given immunity from all consequences, doesn't that sound like an awfully good time, and a great position, to come clean? I'm sorry, it doesn't work for me, and it shouldn't work for anybody else either. It just makes McGwire look like an even bigger phony than he already is.
Second, Pete Carroll has agreed to coach the Seattle Seahawks, who fired Jim Mora earlier last week. This has, first of all, got to be a huge disappointment to USC and the Trojan football program. Carroll really made that group so strong that it was almost a guarantee that we would see the Trojans in, at worst, the Rose Bowl. That being said, I wouldn't worry too much about USC. This was an off year for them and they still won 9 games and their bowl game. They didn't win the Pac-10, which is always a yearly goal of a team in the elite company of USC, but they are also a program that is never really short for amazing recruits. I'm sure that, whoever their next coach ends up being, they will be back and just as competitive in the years to come. I definitely have to say that this is a huge get for the Seahawks. Carroll already has experience in the pros, so he doesn't really have to deal with that initial question of can a college guy earn respect from pro players? He's incredibly charismatic and animated. He will light a fire under the behinds of his players and get them to play to their fullest potential, something that the ailing Seahawks are in desperate need of. Ever since their much maligned loss to the Steelers in the Super Bowl, the Seahawks have just seemed anemic. Carroll will definitely help bring their intensity level up a notch, and I think they will do better because of it. I don't really see Seattle doing much next year, playoff wise, but with a coach like Pete Carroll, you never know.
Last, I want to address a couple of things that have been going on in my home town of Denver the last couple of weeks. First, Broncos, CHOKE-O-RAMA BABY! Only the third team, since the merger, to miss the playoffs after starting 6-0. Lots of things led to this. I think they got caught up in their own hype. A whole bye week for people saying how wrong they were about you and how good you actually are seemed to really sink in. It's like they came back expecting teams to take them more seriously by laying down and getting out of the way. Somebody didn't tell them that when teams take you more seriously, they tend to try and play better against you. Found that out the hard way. Second, the play calling that was seen was just atrocious. How many bubble screen passes can you run in one game for crying out loud? 2-1, run up the middle, stopped short or for a short loss. 3rd - 3, run straight up the middle again and don't go anywhere. The play calling was so frustrating, and always seemed to change when they would get to the red zone. I don't know why that happened, but it was such a huge pet peeve of mine by the end of the year. And now, McDaniels seems as if he is still trying to prove the point that he is in charge by benching 2 of his best receivers for the last game of the season with playoff hopes on the line. Marshall, Scheffler, benched. Royal was injured, and our number one guy was Jabar Gaffney for crying out loud! Marshall is a free agent (restricted) this year. With all the stuff that McD has been doing to try and prove that he is the alpha male, I think we can guarantee the departure of the Bronco's most dangerous offensive weapon. Way to go McDaniels. He'd better hope things go better for the Broncs next year, otherwise he may be canned.
Second Denver item, the Colorado Avalanche. First off, may I say that the playoff race is NUTS right now. Nobody has really separated themselves from anybody else on either side. The Sharks and the Kings are close, for the west, but everybody else is so tightly packed that you can go from 3rd to 7th in the standings in one night. Something similar has happened to the Avs. They lost a couple in a row and are now currently 6th in the western conference, and tons of people are now saying that the Avs have finally hit their free-fall. I'm not convinced of that at all, yet. The Avs still play very competitively and are in every single game. Anderson is playing great, the offense (while not getting a ton of shots) is finding ways to score, and nobody is getting more production from their young players than the Avs are. Most importantly, as we speak, the Avs are tied for 2nd in the Northwest division, and only 1 point out of first place. So why the sudden abandonment of the Avs? Not that there were many on the Avs wagon to begin the season, it just seems like everybody is now expecting the Avs to, as they did last season, drop to the basement of the Western Conference without any say so. All because they lost 2 games in a row. The Avs have not lost 3 games in a row all season long, so why are we so convinced they are done for? I'm not, they may not win their division, but they are a long way away from being that hopeless team competing for the #1 overall draft pick. Give me a break people.
Let me hear what you have to say on all these topics! Thanks for reading folks!
Firstly, Mark McGwire has "come clean" about his use of steroids throughout his baseball career. You can check out his full statement here, if you like (http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=Ampu8a0PnMpYMQ.4i4jwUAE5nYcB?slug=ys-mcgwirestatement011110&prov=yhoo&type=lgns-). I have a few things that I want to make out of this. First, is anybody even really that surprised? People were fairly certain of his use of steroids during his home run races with Sammy Sosa, and with all of the people who have been revealed through probes, or admitted to it to avoid the embarrassment of being caught, should this really surprise anybody? It doesn't surprise me one bit!
I also would like to address some of the things that he said is his statement. "During the mid-’90s, I went on the DL seven times and missed 228 games over five years. I experienced a lot of injuries, including a ribcage strain, a torn left heel muscle, a stress fracture of the left heel, and a torn right heel muscle. It was definitely a miserable bunch of years and I told myself that steroids could help me recover faster. I thought they would help me heal and prevent injuries, too." Okay, I can get the frustration of being injured and wanting to be able to do anything to get back on the field. It just always surprises me when these players say these reasons as to why they did steroids, and then always talk about loving the game. If you really love the game of baseball, or any sport for that matter, then there is no excuse for you to go outside of the rules to make yourself better. Using steroids shows an inherent lack of respect for the game and for your opponents. Is this the real reason? I'm sure it's part of it, but I don't know that we'll ever get him to admit the full story of it. "Baseball is really different now - it’s been cleaned up. The commissioner and the players’ association implemented testing and they cracked down, and I’m glad they did." Yeah, right. There are just actual rules now, I highly doubt that the game will ever be fully clean. People are too selfish in trying to get one step ahead of their opposition, and there will always be cheaters around. This is a very uneducated, and naive statement from Big Mac here.
Here's my favorite quote. "I was not in a position to do that five years ago in my congressional testimony, but now I feel an obligation to discuss this and to answer questions about it." You weren't in a position to come clean at your congressional testimony?!?! Excuse me? Are you serious? That's exactly what all of those testimonies were about. Now, I'll grant you that McGwire was smarter than Raphael Palmiero who came out and strongly denied ever using steroids and then tested positive and looked like a giant fool. All McGwire said was that he wasn't there to talk about the past, which is exactly what the hearings were about, talking about that past. I'm sorry, I don't buy that for one second. When Congress tells you that you are to answer questions regarding this time in your life when you allegedly did something illegal, and then tell you that if you come clean and tell the truth about the whole thing you will be given immunity from all consequences, doesn't that sound like an awfully good time, and a great position, to come clean? I'm sorry, it doesn't work for me, and it shouldn't work for anybody else either. It just makes McGwire look like an even bigger phony than he already is.
Second, Pete Carroll has agreed to coach the Seattle Seahawks, who fired Jim Mora earlier last week. This has, first of all, got to be a huge disappointment to USC and the Trojan football program. Carroll really made that group so strong that it was almost a guarantee that we would see the Trojans in, at worst, the Rose Bowl. That being said, I wouldn't worry too much about USC. This was an off year for them and they still won 9 games and their bowl game. They didn't win the Pac-10, which is always a yearly goal of a team in the elite company of USC, but they are also a program that is never really short for amazing recruits. I'm sure that, whoever their next coach ends up being, they will be back and just as competitive in the years to come. I definitely have to say that this is a huge get for the Seahawks. Carroll already has experience in the pros, so he doesn't really have to deal with that initial question of can a college guy earn respect from pro players? He's incredibly charismatic and animated. He will light a fire under the behinds of his players and get them to play to their fullest potential, something that the ailing Seahawks are in desperate need of. Ever since their much maligned loss to the Steelers in the Super Bowl, the Seahawks have just seemed anemic. Carroll will definitely help bring their intensity level up a notch, and I think they will do better because of it. I don't really see Seattle doing much next year, playoff wise, but with a coach like Pete Carroll, you never know.
Last, I want to address a couple of things that have been going on in my home town of Denver the last couple of weeks. First, Broncos, CHOKE-O-RAMA BABY! Only the third team, since the merger, to miss the playoffs after starting 6-0. Lots of things led to this. I think they got caught up in their own hype. A whole bye week for people saying how wrong they were about you and how good you actually are seemed to really sink in. It's like they came back expecting teams to take them more seriously by laying down and getting out of the way. Somebody didn't tell them that when teams take you more seriously, they tend to try and play better against you. Found that out the hard way. Second, the play calling that was seen was just atrocious. How many bubble screen passes can you run in one game for crying out loud? 2-1, run up the middle, stopped short or for a short loss. 3rd - 3, run straight up the middle again and don't go anywhere. The play calling was so frustrating, and always seemed to change when they would get to the red zone. I don't know why that happened, but it was such a huge pet peeve of mine by the end of the year. And now, McDaniels seems as if he is still trying to prove the point that he is in charge by benching 2 of his best receivers for the last game of the season with playoff hopes on the line. Marshall, Scheffler, benched. Royal was injured, and our number one guy was Jabar Gaffney for crying out loud! Marshall is a free agent (restricted) this year. With all the stuff that McD has been doing to try and prove that he is the alpha male, I think we can guarantee the departure of the Bronco's most dangerous offensive weapon. Way to go McDaniels. He'd better hope things go better for the Broncs next year, otherwise he may be canned.
Second Denver item, the Colorado Avalanche. First off, may I say that the playoff race is NUTS right now. Nobody has really separated themselves from anybody else on either side. The Sharks and the Kings are close, for the west, but everybody else is so tightly packed that you can go from 3rd to 7th in the standings in one night. Something similar has happened to the Avs. They lost a couple in a row and are now currently 6th in the western conference, and tons of people are now saying that the Avs have finally hit their free-fall. I'm not convinced of that at all, yet. The Avs still play very competitively and are in every single game. Anderson is playing great, the offense (while not getting a ton of shots) is finding ways to score, and nobody is getting more production from their young players than the Avs are. Most importantly, as we speak, the Avs are tied for 2nd in the Northwest division, and only 1 point out of first place. So why the sudden abandonment of the Avs? Not that there were many on the Avs wagon to begin the season, it just seems like everybody is now expecting the Avs to, as they did last season, drop to the basement of the Western Conference without any say so. All because they lost 2 games in a row. The Avs have not lost 3 games in a row all season long, so why are we so convinced they are done for? I'm not, they may not win their division, but they are a long way away from being that hopeless team competing for the #1 overall draft pick. Give me a break people.
Let me hear what you have to say on all these topics! Thanks for reading folks!
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