tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22669291637825562362024-02-21T01:36:19.236-08:00Past InterferenceDeep thoughts about football and shallow thoughts about everything else.Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09800830914937489512noreply@blogger.comBlogger232125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266929163782556236.post-60966700367344865492011-11-26T21:56:00.001-08:002011-11-26T21:56:54.853-08:003-13?Of course Past Interference would post an item entitled "0-16?" just prior to a Dolphin three-game winning streak. PI must note the existence of the question mark after the "0-16), and PI also clearly wrote "the next two games versus the Chiefs and the Redskins are probably Miami's best shot at a win. If they lose to both, 0-16 going to be a strong possibility." Well, it isnt now. Reality intruded. Only one team's ever gone 0-16. It's incredibly difficult and Miami just wasn't up to the task this year. The two-week stretch against the Chiefs and the Skins were Miami's best shots at wins and unfortunately they were able to put it all together. Then getting the Bills at home while that team was in the midst of a high-speed collapse was the final nail in the coffin for a top two draft pick. Goodbye Luck and Barkley. <br />
<br />
<br />
But beyond that the shocking three-game win streak suddenly opened the door to a new hellish possibility: the retention of the Sparano/Ireland regime along with a commitment to Matt Moore as the team's quarterback of the present and future. Aaaahhhhh! How many times have we been down that road? "Our QB's good enough if we just surround him with talent." "You win with running and defense and not turning the ball over. We just need a game manager who doesn't make mistakes". No. No no no. We're done with that crap. We need a QB who excels, who makes plays. That's how you win. Matt Moore might be better than Henne. He might be playing better than anybody ever expected. He might be playing as well as what we probably would have gotten had the the team squandered dollars on Kyle Orton (waived this week I see!) in the preseason. But he's not a Pro Bowl QB. In all the praise for how well Miami was playing during their little win streak few pointed just how bad the quality of their opponents were. The Skins might be the 2d worst team in football. KC's not much better. And Buffalo's a shell of what they were two months ago. Miami had to go on the road to play a quality football team on Turkey Day and we saw what happened to the fairy tale. We got exactly what we should have expected. What we'd been accustomed to a month ago. A whole bunch of red zone possessions. Field goals instead of touchdowns. And a blown fourth quarter lead. That's what this team does unless they're playing a true bottom feeder. Not turning it over wasn't enough for Moore. The team needed TD's and he couldn't get them. He passed up a perfectly good chance to maybe run it in inside the five, throwing the ball away instead though he was nowhere close to getting sacked. He missed some open guys. He didn't do enough to win. I'm not saying he's horrible or that he can't get better or that I don't appreciate the effort or that he shouldn't be on the roster next year. What I am saying is that right now there is NO reason to believe Moore is the answer at QB and whoever the GM is in 2012 if they don't take a QB in the first round they need to be fired before the second round starts. Hopefully the loss to Dallas makes it clear to all that the Dolphins have not righted the ship and major changes must be made in the offseason.Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09800830914937489512noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266929163782556236.post-87649021293462354432011-11-06T09:04:00.001-08:002011-11-06T09:06:59.001-08:000-16?<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The 20-17 loss to the Giants might have been an entertaining game for a disinterested football fan, but for Dolphins fan it was just another one of the team's weekly car crashes. We know we're going to lose, we just need to see exactly how it happens this time. This was a fairly standard affair. A surprisingly strong early start featuring two (two!) first half touchdowns. And then the predictable second-half offensive futility followed by the late Giants comeback everybody saw coming. I suppose the best thing to be said is that whatever Sparano's flaws as a head coach (and they are legion), the tems continues to play hard. Nobody's quitting (yet). But the losses keep mounting up.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Suck for Luck bandwagon keeps gathering steam as the latest loss leaves the Dolphins and the Colts as the league's last two winless teams. SI's Peter King made the logical point that Miami was unlikely to "earn" that number one draft pick to get Andrew Luck as the Dolphins have proven to be the far more competitive team. The Colts are getting spanked every week while Miami's at least coming close. True enough. However, it must be noted Miami was competitive in a number of games in 2007. They lost 6 games by only 3 points but won only a single game that year. Repeatedly getting close doesn't mean luck will even out during the season. 4 of those 6 close losses all came during the 2007 season's first half. Sometimes losing takes on a life of its own If the losses keep mounting for this year's team, who's to say the bottom won't drop out? The 2007 team got crushed in 4 of it's last 5 games (and in the other also won their one and only game gift wrapped by the Ravens). The Colts negative point differential is way higher than the Dolphins, but so's the Rams. But the Rams are the team with a win so far, not the Dolphins. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So what's my point? Oh yeah, Miami could still lose them all. This can happen. 0-16 or 1-15 is still a strong possibility. And despite decades as a loyal fan, Past Interference is no longer upset by this possibility. The 12-year failure to find a competent replacement for Dan Marino has become intolerable. The Dolphins aren't the Browns or the Lions or the Cardinals. We've never experienced long periods of losing football. This needs to end and it will end if we can get Andrew Luck. If Miami gets him next year, is anybody going lose any sleep about the losses piled up in 2011? Of course the next two games versus the Chiefs and the Redskins are probably Miami's best shot at a win. If they lose to both, 0-16 going to be a strong possibility.</span>Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09800830914937489512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266929163782556236.post-70199308538193571492011-11-06T09:02:00.000-08:002011-11-06T09:07:45.229-08:00And the Winner is<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With the Steelers and Ben Roesthlisberger triumphing over the Patriots and Tom Brady, our eighth all-time contest between QB's with two or more Super Bowl rings is in the books. Big Ben's win means that Jim Plunkett is now the only QB of the seven involved in these games who does not and will never have a win against one of the others. He's also the only one who won't ever be inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Coincidence? </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1) November 14, 1976: Miami 3 @ Pittsburgh 14</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Griese 2, Bradshaw 2)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2) November 5, 1978: Dallas 16 @ 23 Miami </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Staubach 2, Griese 2)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3) January 21, 1979/Super Bowl XIII: Pittsburgh 35/Dallas 31 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Bradshaw 2, Staubach 2)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4) October 28, 1979: Dallas 3 @ Pittsburgh 14 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Staubach 2, Bradshaw 3)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5) December 30, 1979/Divisional Playoffs: Miami 14 @ Pittsburgh 34 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Griese 2, Bradshaw 3)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6) September 22, 1985: San Francisco 34 @ LA Raiders 10 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Montana 2, Plunkett 2)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7) November 14, 2010: New England 39 @ Pittsburgh 26</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Brady 3, Roethlisberger)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8) October 30, 2011: New England 17 @ Pittsburgh 25</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Brady 3, Roethlisberger 2) </span>Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09800830914937489512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266929163782556236.post-36693735143522371762011-10-30T08:48:00.000-07:002011-10-30T08:52:45.936-07:00Multiple Super Bowl Winning QB's Face Off Again<span style="font-family: Arial;">It's time to update <a href="http://miamimigraine.blogspot.com/2009/07/multiple-super-bowl-winning-qbs-face.html">this list</a>. After 25 years without a single matchup between quarterbacks with two or more Super Bowl rings, we are now about to witness such a matchup for the second straight year. The same two QB's are involved: Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger. If Brees, Rodgers or Eli Manning can win a second ring this year we might see such historic games on a somewhat regular basis for the next several seasons. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">1) November 14, 1976: Miami 3 @ Pittsburgh 14 </span><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<br />
(Griese 2, Bradshaw 2)<br />
<br />
2) November 5, 1978: Dallas 16 @ 23 Miami <br />
(Staubach 2, Griese 2)<br />
<br />
3) January 21, 1979/Super Bowl XIII: Pittsburgh 35/Dallas 31 <br />
(Bradshaw 2, Staubach 2)<br />
<br />
4) October 28, 1979: Dallas 3 @ Pittsburgh 14 <br />
(Staubach 2, Bradshaw 3)<br />
<br />
5) December 30, 1979/Divisional Playoffs: Miami 14 @ Pittsburgh 34 <br />
(Griese 2, Bradshaw 3)<br />
<br />
6) September 22, 1985: San Francisco 34 @ LA Raiders 10 <br />
(Montana 2, Plunkett 2)<br />
<br />
7) November 14, 2010: New England 39 @ Pittsburgh 26<br />
(Brady 3, Roethlisberger)<br />
<br />
8) October 30, 2011: New England @ Pittsburgh<br />
(Brady 3, Roethlisberger 2)Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09800830914937489512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266929163782556236.post-68451749459756474222011-10-30T08:08:00.000-07:002011-10-30T08:22:36.171-07:00Suck For LuckI knew it would happen <a href="http://miamimigraine.blogspot.com/2011/10/hail-tebow.html">(see previous post)</a>, I just didn't know exactly how. Who could? To find a way to lose a game that hadn't been done in 40 years takes something really special. For 55 minutes Tim Tebow literally could not hit the broad side of a barn and the Dolphins were doing a great job of bottling him up on the ground. But the game lasts 60 minutes and we've known for a long time this team is incapable of putting a complete 60-minute game together. Obviously Miami still would have won if they could just have recovered an onside kick, but an epic collapse takes a team effort and the special teams had to make its timely contribution to an epic loss. <br />
<br />
Once the ball slipped through Marlon Moore's hands and into Denver's possession, there was no doubt in my mind Tebow would bring Denver back to tie the game. The outcome was all but scripted. Dolphin fans have seen this before, in 2004 and (especially 2007). Once things start to go wrong on every level, everything just gets worse. There's no turning it around. The season's lost. Only a complete overhaul, a fresh start, can cure the sickness. A new coach, a new quarterback, new talent, a new philosophy. Unfortunately, the current season has to play itself out. Ross could fire Sparano right now but what would be the point? Whoever takes his place is already part of the problem. Who on this coaching staff deserves the promotion to the head job? No outside superstar coach is coming here until the season's over. Back in 2004, Wannstedt resigned during the season, with the team at 1-8. Defensive coordianator Jim Bates took the reins and the team showed a little life, going 3-4 the rest of the way. But why would Miami fans want that to happen? Winning a few more games this year isn't making the future one bit brighter. I hate to say it but yeah, it's Suck for Luck time. We all need to admit it. <br />
<br />
Watching Tebow work his magic, I felt no anger or frustration (unusually for me). Mainly, the whole thing struck me as funny. Absurd. Surreal. Outnumbered by a bunch of Tebow fans in a sports bar, I could feel something electric happening. And I went to UF. I'm a Gator, I love Tebow and I don't have it in my heart to root against him. Ever. I'm well aware of his deficiencies as a QB at this point in his career but the guy just knows how to make things happen on the field. There was exactly one player in Sun Life Stadium that everyone was interested in and he wasn't wearing aqua and orange. What Tebow did last Sunday was exactly why we love football so much. And I'm glad I got to see it. And it's alll too obvious Miami needs a quarterback everyone can get excited about in the same way. <br />
<br />
If Miami loses them all they likely would have one next year. <br />
<br />
I think this was the game that fundamentally changed things. This kind of devastating loss, after a whole series of painful losses, clarified just exactly where this team is for everybody. It's now 2007 all over again. This team is as bad as any team in the league and could well go winless. The verdict's now in on the Parcells regime: Epic Fail. Let's hope Ross makes better choices at season's end than his predecessor did in 2007.Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09800830914937489512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266929163782556236.post-87038327653944501142011-10-22T21:58:00.000-07:002011-10-22T22:02:10.770-07:00Hail Tebow<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiH0vZkweSCp0bEvlltXExqua2hWQrdq-2ZNPh7nyalcNXUq5LAk2oBbISE6oLg1F-E-LFr-bggCEPlxxeEyulrQj41oLu-lS858Jj_BcvXHKhebX2h3Sm4kwFTdyPoiVc_d7ZQmNqqP_D/s1600/tim_tebow_pictures7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiH0vZkweSCp0bEvlltXExqua2hWQrdq-2ZNPh7nyalcNXUq5LAk2oBbISE6oLg1F-E-LFr-bggCEPlxxeEyulrQj41oLu-lS858Jj_BcvXHKhebX2h3Sm4kwFTdyPoiVc_d7ZQmNqqP_D/s1600/tim_tebow_pictures7.jpg" /></a></div> Love him<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Oh boy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today we’ll witness one of the most embarrassing moments in Miami Dolphins history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And no I’m not talking about the game that I fully expect the Dolphins to lose (no doubt in some strange unpredictable way).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m talking about the fact the organization is actually taking the time honor the starting quarterback of the opposing team.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Surely this is a first in National Football League history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, technically the Dolphins are honoring not the Denver Broncos’ QB but the 2008 Florida Gators national championship team, but they picked today as Gator day because currently on the Denver Broncos roster is one Tim Tebow, the man who led the Gators to the title, and an athlete far more popular and exciting than anyone who’s worn a Miami Dolphins’ uniform in the last 12 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ok, maybe the Dolphins couldn’t have known Tebow would be named his team’s starting QB the very week of this game (proving I was right about Orton) but WTF?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>South Florida isn’t Gator Country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I went to UF and love Tebow and that 2008 Gator team but this is just a joke.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Dolphins share a stadium with the Miami Hurricanes, a program that’s won five national titles in the time since the Dolphins last won a Super Bowl.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s no reason to alienate your community and piss off your players except to sell a few extra tickets to rabid Tebow fans (a plan that worked it must be admitted).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But overall it’s just one more step on this organization’s path to becoming the NFL’s biggest laughing stock.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s one more sign that nobody in the organization has a clue as to what they are doing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s one more example that the owner, coach, and GM…ah, what’s the point?!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You want to sell more tickets?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Find a good coach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Get a real quarterback.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>WIN SOME GAMES!!! </span></div>Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09800830914937489512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266929163782556236.post-74862938774207700482011-09-10T12:46:00.000-07:002011-09-10T12:46:10.901-07:00Chad Henne TimeThe sabbatical is over! Past Interference is back and the 2011 football season is here.<br />
<br />
<br />
For a moment during the preseason it appeared quite likely that Kyle Orton would the Miami Dolphins' starting quarterback for 2011. If the crowd chanting “We Want Orton” while watching Chad Henne struggle during a training camp scrimmage was a representative sample, then the team’s ultimate decision not to trade for and sign Orton disappointed the majority of Dolphin fans. But not me. It would have been a terrible mistake. Past Interference does not have a short memory. How many times does Miami have to import other team’s jetsam before fans stop clamoring for the same mistakes to be repeated ad infinitum? Must I list them again? Fiedler, Feeley, Frerotte, Lucas, Lemon, Culpepper, Harrington, Thigpen. You want any of those guys back? I didn’t think so. So enough already. Yes, the one exception was Chad Pennington who, when healthy and playing the best ball of his career, actually proved capable of leading the Dolphins to the playoffs. However, the result of that one playoff game demonstrated precisely the limits of how far Pennington’s arm could take a team and his unfortunate fragility meant that 2008, fun as it was, was nothing more than a fluke, a one-shot deal, rather than something to build on. Orton may be an upgrade over Henne. He probably is. But he’s not taking Miami to the playoffs. He’s not good enough and, in his 7th season, it’s unlikely he’s going to get better. He is what he is. So if the Super Bowl is the goal (and it’s supposed to be) why would Miami want him? No, we sink or swim with Henne in 2011. If he doesn’t improve, if he can’t develop, then the team almost certainly pulls the plug on not just the Henne experiment, but on the whole Parcells regime. Stephen Ross will blow the whole thing up and start over in 2012. Signing Orton accomplishes nothing but maybe improving the team’s chances of winning another game or two while undermining Henne’s confidence. At least give him the chance to prove he can be better than a Kyle Orton. Odds are he won’t be but at least the potential still exists. For all the criticism of Henne, all the shots he’s taken, the most important thing people need to remember is this: he’s started exactly 30 games in his career. Two seasons, that’s it. Mark Sanchez has started 31 and Jet fans aren’t down on him are they even though his career stats to date are extremely comparable to Henne’s. People still expect Sanchez to improve. So cut Henne a little slack. Yes, he ain’t Dan Marino. He didn’t enter the league fully formed and demonstrate greatness from the get-go. But nobody else has either. We might not see anything like that ever again (I hope you appreciated it). Even some of the all-time greats struggled in the early years of their career. The Henne Haters’ homework this week should be to check out the stats for the formative years of Terry Bradshaw, Troy Aikman, or Drew Brees sometime. Then try Dan Fouts, Warren Moon, and our own Hall-of-Famer Bob Griese. And that’s just off the top of my head. <br />
<br />
However Henne’s Dolphins career turns out, the fact that the organization drafted and a commitment to him at least demonstrates a long overdue recognition that trying to find a starting QB on the cheap ain’t gonna work. It never has for this team. Free agent QB’s haven’t worked. Trading away lower round picks for QB’s hasn’t worked. You want to win, you pick the right guy and draft him. Period. Now Henne might not be the right guy. Generally (not always), you get your guy in the first round. Second round QB’s like Henne hardly ever pan out. And if this doesn’t, I fully expect Miami to take a first-round QB next year. But just think about the first round QB’s conspicuously not taken despite the team’s desperate need for young quarterback talent. Brees in 2001. Rodgers in 2005. The last two Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks. Did you see the passing duel they just put on in the NFL opener two days ago? Either one could be helming the Fins right now. Instead, this team’s whacked out priorities have seen them spending top picks on running backs instead. Two for Ricky Williams! A number two overall pick for Ronnie Brown (when Rodgers was available)! And with both of them in the backfield at the same time Miami can’t even play .500 football. <br />
<br />
Williams and Brown have now departed without having helped the team to get any closer to the promised land. Despite occasional moments of brilliance from both men it cannot be said the number one picks invested in them paid off. If you’re counting that’s three first round picks spent on running backs in the last decade, none on QB’s. The 60’s and 70’s are over and hopefully the organization finally realizes the need to stop overspending to build a running game when the key to victory in today’s NFL is an effective passing game. Now Orton would not have been that expensive, Denver supposedly wanted a 3d-round pick. But recall how Dave Wannstedt kept frittering away 2d and 3d-round picks in panicky attempts to keep his job and avoid the rebuilding process. Those picks are still valuable if the person using them knows what they’re doing on draft day. Plus, Orton wanted a long-term contract. The absolute last thing this team needs is to commit that kind of money to a stop-gap solution. If a new regime does take over in 2012, then the new boss is going to need that money to sign his quarterback of the future, whomever that may be. No, better to sink or swim with Henne in 2011. It’s all on his shoulders. If he can’t become one of the league’s better quarterbacks then so be it. The team will have to move on. But Henne’s saying all the right things. Sparano’s saying all the right things. Brandon Marshall’s saying all the right things. Henne’s looked solid in preseason. All his receivers are back. He’s got another target in Reggie Bush. The opportunity is there. Let’s see if Henne's the future.Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09800830914937489512noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266929163782556236.post-41683638416020535592011-05-08T13:08:00.000-07:002011-05-08T13:08:31.649-07:00No QB For You<div>I knew it. I knew it I knew it I knew it. The Dolphins needed to draft a top QB prospect. We all knew it. But for the 28th consecutive season, and the 12th since the retirement of Dan Marino, the organization would not pull the trigger on one. Three times in the past decade Miami chose not to use a first round pick on what would have been a franchise quarterback. Drew Brees in 2001. Aaron Rodgers in 2005. Matt Ryan in 2008. All could be Dolphins right now. (To their credit the team also passed on Brady Quinn in 2009). No matter who has had the final say in personnel matters for the franchise, the common denominator has been that none of them believe in gambling a top pick on a quarterback. All have preferred the safety of free agency. And nothing changed in 2011. Jeff Ireland had a chance to say yes to Ryan Mallet, Colin Kaepernick, or Andy Daulton in the first round. He said no. Miami went the safe route and went Mike Pouncey, a center/guard. The pre-draft consensus had Pouncey as a solid dependable player but not quite as good as his brother DeMarkice, a ? for the Pittsburgh Steelers (I saw one commenter at The Herald say "Great. We got the Frank Stallone of the draft"). Well, it's not the like the team didn't need another good lineman. But a new center or guard isn't taking this team to the Promised Land. </div><div> </div><div>Ok, maybe if a qurterback fell Miami could still get a bargain in the next round. Problem was the Fins didn't have a 2d round pick. Well, as it turned out they had a good amount of later round picks to use and they packaged them in a deal to move up into the 2d round. And Ryan Mallet was still there. Would this be the awaited quarterback move? Uh, no. Miami grabbed RB Daniel Thomas instead. Well, it's not like the team didn't need to get a new running back. But focusing on improving the ground game isn't how you win in the 21st Century NFL. Look at all the stud QB's that have won Super Bowls over the last 15 years. Favre, Elway, Warner, Brady, Roethlisberger, Peyton Manning, Brees, Rodgers. Eli Manning was a #1 pick and has been a Pro Bowl QB. The only two Super Bowl winners who might be considered below average, Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson, also happened to play for teams with all-time great defenses. It wsn't the running game that got those teams over. The Dolphins might field a fine defense in 2011 but I doubt it's going to be the kind of defense that can carry a team to a championship. </div><div> </div>There's no obvious answer in free agency and as the lockout drags on there might even be the opportunity to grab a free agent QB. So once again it all rides on Chad Henne's shoulders. Sometimes a team just needs to roll the dice and grab a potential franchise QB. Sure it can blow up in your face but you're not going to win anything unless you try. Look at the Chargers. Could that Ryan Leaf pick have turned out any worse for that team? But just a few years later they got Drew Brees. And a few years after that they spent an even higher pick on Phillip Rivers. They haven't made the Super Bowl yet but they've been a perennial contender at least for the last seven years. Seven! Because they focus on the QB position. Miami doesn't. And until they do they aren't contending for a Super Bowl. Unless Chad Henne busts out of that cocoon in 2011 of course.Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09800830914937489512noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266929163782556236.post-61783063868031796272011-05-01T21:16:00.000-07:002011-05-01T21:16:06.490-07:00BIN LADEN:DEADUSA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! <br />
<br />
YEAH!Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09800830914937489512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266929163782556236.post-30448088778587219872011-04-28T18:01:00.000-07:002011-04-28T18:01:45.517-07:00Miami Dolphins 2010 Wrapup, Part Three: What Do They Do Now?Not going to get too deep in the weeds on this one. It's not that complicated. Miami needs a quarterback. Not a free agent stopgap. Going down that route has never ever worked for this team. Neither has taking a QB outside the first round. Nope, Miami needs to use their 2011 first round pick on a QB. As I type these words the Dolphins are about an hour or so away from making their selection and a lot of QB's are still on the board. Will they pull the trigger on the highest available QB on their board? Given their track record and the current front office situation, I'd be surprised honestly. Whoever they take isn't going to play much, if at all this year, and when you've got a team with a GM worried about job security, you've got a team that's in trouble. Why? Because if a GM thinks he's gone if his team comes up a loser, why would that GM do what's in the team's long-term best interest? He's going to draft in the team's short-term best interest. This is what Parcells has wrought. His presence gave Ireland and Sparano job security. When he bailed early, their job security vanished. They know they need to win now so for Ireland a running back or maybe an O-Lineman make more sense to win a few more games in 2011. But this team's never a winning a Super Bowl without an upgrade at QB. We all have to know that at this point. I still think there's a shot Henne could take that step forward in 2011, but the odds are agin' it and ESPN keeps telling me this is the Year of the Quarterback. So let's take one! Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09800830914937489512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266929163782556236.post-50197399197095023492011-04-28T17:17:00.000-07:002011-04-28T17:17:04.973-07:00Miami Dolphins 2010 Wrapup, Part Two: Where Did It All Go Wrong?So what went wrong? Or, more importantly, who can I blame? Well, there’s a lot of blame to go around as usual but Past Interference is going with H. Wayne Huizenga as our Ground Zero. He’s no longer the owner but his fingerprints are all over the 2010 Miami Dolphins. I’ve written before about all Huizenga’s mistakes in installing a winning management/coaching team but it seemed like he’d learned his lesson in 2008. He cleaned house, canned both his failed GM and head coach, and turned the whole thing over to Bill Parcells to fix. A man who’d taken four different franchises to the playoffs and won two Super Bowls, Parcells appeared to be the perfect guy to fix the organization. One minor problem though—Parcells was a great football coach but he wasn’t hired to be Miami’s football coach. No, he was going to run the football side of the operation. He was going to get the Dolphins a coach, a GM and then find some guys who could play. <br />
<br />
<br />
How hilarious has it been this week watching Bill Parcells serving as a draft guru for ESPN? We know the guy can coach but his track record as a personnel guy is a mixed bag to say the least. Mike Greenberg somehow overlooked Pat White when he was going over all of Parcells’ draft “finds” in his introduction. In Parcells’ most successful tenure as coach, the Giants years, he had little to do with personnel decisions. Parcells left that gig so he could get more personnel juice somewhere else. And after a few years he would keep leaving those new jobs no matter how successful he’d been. So the while the Dolphins hoped for a successful marriage they should have known it was unlikely to be a long one. Still, Parcells had a lot to do with winning Super Bowls and Dolphin fans were getting far too accustomed to losing. How bad a move could it be? But in hiring Parcells Huizenga planted a time bomb. A Tuna time bomb. <br />
<br />
Turns out Miami wasn’t the only team interested in hiring Parcells. Atlanta wanted him and went after Parcells hard. Parcells preferred Miami but when news surfaced that Huizenga planned to sell the team, Parcells wanted nothing to do with an unstable situation and decided to sign with the Falcons. Huizenga put the full court press on Parcells and convinced him he wasn’t selling the team. With that reassurance Parcells inked with the Dolphins and Atlanta “settled” for hiring the unknown Thomas Dimitroff as GM. The Falcons have since made the playoffs the last two seasons and had the best record on the NFC last year. Meanwhile, turns out Huizenga planned to sell the Dolphins after all (surprise!) and there was only one way for the organization to keep Parcells from walking—give him the option to leave the team at any time after the sale while still collecting his full salary for the life of the contract! (Haha. It’s true). Predictably, Parcells began to turn over the key decision-making over to his handpicked GM and coach after just two years on the job and pretty much stopped having anything to do with the Dolphins partway through the 2010 season so he’d presumably have more time to count the money he was earning by doing nothing. But at least he left the team in a whole lot better shape than they were in before his arrival right? <br />
<br />
Well, back-to-back 7-9 seasons and the worst offense in the league aren’t what anybody had in mind. Remember, Miami was 7-9 in 2006, Nick Saban’s last year. Parcells clearly failed at making Miami a Super Bowl contender. The team can’t score. And the main reason they can’t score if because they don’t have a good quarterback. And the reason they don’t have a good quarterback is because none of the regimes installed since the departure of Don Shula have valued quarterbacks enough to spend a lot to get a good one. Including Parcells. Miami still has not spent a first round pick on a QB since they grabbed some guy named Marino way back in 1983. Dave Wannstedt traded two number one picks to get Ricky Williams. But he wouldn’t draft a quarterback. Nick Saban used the number two overall pick in a draft to take Ronnie Brown. But he wouldn’t spend what it took to get Drew Brees. And Bill Parcells used the number one overall draft pick in 2008 on an offensive lineman, Jake Long. The QB he passed on, Matt Ryan, fell into the lap of the aforementioned Tom Dimitroff in Atlanta. Now I’m not convinced that when their careers are over this move is going to be a clear mistake. In fact Long is the better player at the moment. But when you are desperate for a QB and you pass up on a top prospect like Ryan, you better have a good backup plan. Miami’s was to spend second-round picks on Chad Henne and Pat White. White proved to be perfectly useless and Henne appears to be on the train to Bustville (but I haven’t given up hope yet!). In two years Miami used three second-round picks on quarterbacks. John Beck and Pat White are no longer with the team and Henne may also not be long for the aqua and orange. <br />
<br />
Without the Tuna to lead the team to a championship, Miami’s stuck with his handpicked GM, Jeff Ireland, and his handpicked coach, Tony Sparano. But Steven Ross’ all-too-public flirtation with Jim Harbaugh made it all-too-obvious Ross has 0 confidence in Sparano as coach (ignore the face-saving contract extension). A losing season in 2011 surely results in Sparano’s firing and probably Ireland’s too. So once again the Dolphins are led by people in desperate need of short-term success, something that’s worked out so well before. Thanks to Parcells Miami is now just a year away from engaging in yet another search for that elusive “messiah” to overhaul and rebuild the team into the champion Miami’s been waiting for for four decades.Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09800830914937489512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266929163782556236.post-71649528375208035672011-01-19T21:02:00.000-08:002011-04-28T18:06:44.454-07:00Miami Dolphins 2010 Wrapup, Part One: Wha' Happen?Past Interference has been less than diligent in chronicling the weekly struggles of the 2010 Miami Dolphins. In my partial defense, the team’s performance was so uninspiring, so tedious and dull, that even had I felt like writing something about something, the subject would not have been the 2010 Miami Dolphins. But I do write about the team from time to time and seemingly overnight the Dolphins have ceased being tedious and dull. Well, at least ownership and management aren’t dull. They are…what’s the word? Pathetic? Inept? I mean I thought Huizenga’s mismanagement couldn’t be topped but wow, the Harbaugh/Sparano clown show Steven Ross premiered might have just raised the bar. I’m going to wait a little longer to process it though. Let me just say this. While the whole debacle was going on I was fully engaged and frantically seeking the latest Dolphins news at all hours, something I was most definitely not doing during the season. So at least you gotta give Ross some credit for creating some excitement around the team. <br />
<br />
<br />
Alright. They say you can’t know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been right? Well it’s something like that anyway. So how did the team get here? Where did it all go wrong? Let’s cast our minds back to the beginning of the season. It all began so promisingly remember? Yeah, I know. It seems like a million years ago. But Miami actually came out of the blocks 2-0. Two road wins, each against teams that made the playoffs the year before. And that turned out to be their longest winning streak of the season. Their only winning streak of the season. Two games. Two losses at home followed and after that it was a frustrating pattern where every subsequent win was followed by a loss. Every time, until the late season collapse of course. They were good enough to win 6 of 8 road games, but bad enough to notch just a single home victory. <br />
<br />
After a particularly atrocious loss, a bad beatdown by Ravens in week 8, the season’s key moment arrived. Chad Henne had played horribly in defeat. Miami was 4-4 and winless at home. So prior to the week 9 game against Tennessee Coach Sparano announced he was benching Henne. Replacing Henne would be the hero of 2007, Chad Pennington. This communicated two things to Dolphin fans: (1) After 21 starts Sparano (and presumably GM Jeff Ireland) had lost complete confidence in Henne; and (2) Sparano (and presumably GM Jeff Ireland) was now more worried about his own job security than about the team’s long-term future. So it was a panic move. Word had already gotten out that Bill Parcells (more on him soon) was no longer part of the organization in any capacity but informal advisor. And without the Tuna’s protection his protégés felt they had to win some games right now to keep their jobs. Not what you want. And of course it didn’t work anyway. Pennington predictably got hurt (though I don’t think anybody in the pool picked the second play of the game) and Henne was back in the saddle again. Before Henne too went down with a knee injury he responded with a fine performance, helping to lead the Dolphins to a comeback win. Henne’s injury wasn’t that serious but he had to miss the next game. So enter third-string QB Tyler Thigpen. <br />
<br />
Given Henne’s prior benching and Pennington’s season-ending injury, everyone understood that week 10 was Thigpen’s audition for the starting job. And previous flashes of mobility and big play ability had some predicting success for the new QB. Those people somehow ignored the fact that Thigpen hadn’t ever been able to actually win a game in any of his previous game action. But we all hoped for the best. And we got the worst. Thigpen played about as badly as a quarterback could play. I believe “crapped the bed” would be the appropriate expression. It was Ray Lewis all over again. Except I don’t think Lewis ever presided over a shutout at home. So back to Henne in week 11 at the home of the hated Raiders. And Henne was great! He and the team played their best game of the season: a 33-17 thrashing of the Raiders. Clearly the benching lit a fire under Henne and he stepped up his game in response like a true competitor. At 6-5 and with three home games left against the Brown, Bills and Lions, a winning season seemed likely. And if Miami could steal a road win against either the Jets or Patriots, a 10-6 record and a wild card spot wasn’t out of the question. Things were looking up. <br />
<br />
Haha. Sure they were. Oh, Miami stole a win from the Jets alright, but that was no thanks to Henne. He was awful. Luckily Mark Sanchez matched Henne awful throw for awful throw and the defense pulled it out. But they couldn’t pull out wins in any of the home games. All hree winnable games, all games Miami gave away because Henne couldn’t make a play. I do not know what happened to the guy. What happened to the guy who led the Dolphins to a comeback win in that Monday Night games versus the Jets in 2009. The guy who wasn’t afraid to take a shot downfield? Now Henne just robotically proceeded through his reads and checked down time after time. He never tried to make anything happen. Even in desperation time. Both the Bills and the Lions games ended when Henne threw short checkdowns that guaranteed the clock would run out instead of passes into the end zone that at least would have given Miami a shot at a victory. <br />
<br />
Did the coaching staff screw up Henne’s development? Dan LeBatard <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/18/2020840/chad-henne-needs-miami-dolphins.html#">makes a convincing argument they did</a> they did. Maybe Henne was never going to be on the fast-track to greatness but benching your starter before he even has two full seasons under his belt is never a good idea. I've been watching football long enough now to see a number of guys need several years to develop into great QB's (Griese, Bradshaw and Brees among others). And you know what else is never a good idea? When your worthless offensive coordinator (yes, you Dan Henning) <a href="http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/sports/columnists/hyde/blog/2011/01/hyde_how_henne_and_henning_did.html">calls play-action pass after play-action pass</a> even though his QB is on record as hating play-action, and the worthless OC continues to call play-action even on the most obvious of passing downs where no defense is biting on the fake for even a second. Sparano, Henne, and QB coach David Lee have to take some blame here. I’m not saying Henne’s going to have a better career than Mark Sanchez, but LeBatard is absolutely correct to note that Henne's stats for his first two seasons are actually a little better than Sanchez and while Sparano undermined Henne’s confidence, the Jets organization was patient with Sanchez and surrounded him with playmakers. Unlike Miami, a team with no deep threat, no offensive skill players with speed, and a running game that’s just a shell of what it used to be. Henne never had a fair chance. <br />
<br />
On the other hand the team managed to construct a very good defense. Wake, Dansby, Misi, Smith. These are good players; the team’s actually not far from having a great defense if they keep making solid personnel moves (never a sure thing with this franchise). They were good enough this to win some games on their own and put the Dolphins in position to win a few others. But the incredibly weak passing game just killed this team time after time. Henne led a few comebacks in 2009, but in 2010 we stopped expecting anything out of the guy. Except turnovers and useless checkdowns. We’ve been here before, for the better part of a decade now. A good but not great defense. An offense tasked with simply not losing the game. And they proceed to do so anyway because you can’t win that way! You need to be able to throw the ball and score and you can only do that with a good quarterback. For the ninth time in the last ten years, Miami didn’t have one. <br />
<br />
The Dolphins were at least competitive in the games they lost down the stretch. Competitive until the Week 17 finale that is. The team rolled over and got rolled by the Patriots. One of the all-time franchise embarrassments. After that game team owner Steve Ross, previously inclined to stick with Sparano, suddenly changed his mind and Dolphin fans just had to wait out the coaching search to find out who the new head man was going to be. Right?Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09800830914937489512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266929163782556236.post-50982479712485701572011-01-07T21:20:00.000-08:002011-01-07T21:20:16.153-08:00The People Have SpokenWhile I continue to compose my thoughts about the ongoing Dolphins trainwreck, here's a Twitter sampling of Dolphin fans reactions to the Harbaugh fiasco:<br />
<br />
Another season of glass half-full coachspeak, and fist pumping for field goals. I'm rooting for a lockout. F*@! this team!!! <br />
<br />
<br />
More micromanaging, scare your quarterback into playing like a pussy, fist pumping field goals, saying K every 5 f-----g seconds bullshit. <br />
<br />
I know the off season is long, but I'm honestly having trouble envisioning myself watching the Dolphins on TV next year. <br />
<br />
Stephen Ross, you are now officially on my s--t list.<br />
<br />
I'd say this loud, public, futile coaching search tops Jacksonville 62, Dolphins 7 as the most embarrassing day in Dolphins history. <br />
<br />
Players from other teams are retweeting jokes about the Phins....this has reached "I s--t my pants at work" embarrassment level. <br />
<br />
How is it that the Jersey Shore cast has shown better people skills than Miami Dolphins management? <br />
<br />
I TALKED ABOUT THE F---------G ROONEY RULE ALL DAY FOR WHAT?!?! I BLAME OBAMA!!! <br />
<br />
The Fins have made me so upset, that I've been forgetting to fast forward commercials on DVR<br />
<br />
Just to be clear, The Miami Dolphins, can suck a whole bag of d---s<br />
<br />
<br />
Good times <br />
<br />
P.S. I'm pretty good about giving the proper links when I quote something but I forgot to match the tweets to their tweeters at the time I saved the comments. Sorry. Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09800830914937489512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266929163782556236.post-10456774250025690052011-01-06T20:44:00.000-08:002011-01-06T20:44:36.531-08:00Meet the New Coach, Same As the Old CoachOhmigod. You know what? Suddenly I feel motivated to write about the Dolphins again! Tune in tomorrow...Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09800830914937489512noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266929163782556236.post-17786824565119271562010-12-31T12:37:00.000-08:002010-12-31T21:13:07.587-08:00Tarzan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhusp42XCQTXyz_ncs2bb09ASEO1HANNKTJvG0eODrNuHJQP1NGn-x2PJspqqXH-92aMFkOSZkbQaNE___mkgCd8AVRXb3Vw68v1KE-26wLD51wc4paUzxqBHVHbdCuoKJ0XfmHs64noahu/s1600/BurroughsJungle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhusp42XCQTXyz_ncs2bb09ASEO1HANNKTJvG0eODrNuHJQP1NGn-x2PJspqqXH-92aMFkOSZkbQaNE___mkgCd8AVRXb3Vw68v1KE-26wLD51wc4paUzxqBHVHbdCuoKJ0XfmHs64noahu/s320/BurroughsJungle.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>One more trip down Memory Lane. While I was going through some of the stuff my mother had in storage, I came across a bunch of old Tarzan paperbacks that once belonged to my father. He left them behind after the divorce and they stayed in a closet for years afterward. Now, while my mother had many virtues as a parent, making sure her kids’ time was occupied was not one of them so consequently as a boy I often found myself bored out of my skull. And on one of those occasions I decided to take a crack at some of those Tarzan books. I can’t remember what piqued my interest about them; probably the great Frazetta covers on some of them (see above, though Frazetta later said he wasn’t even trying his best with those paintings because the publisher was so cheap and wouldn’t give him back his artwork!). <br />
<br />
I started with the very first one: Tarzan of the Apes. Unfortunately I never got to finish it because I made the mistake of bringing it to school with me and somebody ripped it off. (Who the hell steals a Tarzan paperbook? They’re cheap. You can get it for free at the library. And no junior high school punk thief reads books anyway.) So I never finished that one. Luckily I already had a comic book adaption so I knew how it ended, and I was smart enough to never again bring one of my own books to school. Lesson learned. I read the second book in the series, The Return of Tarzan, cover to cover. And I loved it. And I loved the next one, and the next one, and the one after that (Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar, probably my favorite). Let’s face it, Tarzan’s a wish-fulfillment character right in the wheelhouse of a 12 or 13-year-old boy, something I happened to be at the time. And say what you will about Edgar Rice Burroughs as a writer but those books move (no less a writer than Gore Vidal said Burroughs possessed a rare gift: he could “describe action vividly”). The books are never boring. Well, they aren’t unless you maybe try to read them all in a short period of time. I made it through the first 13 but put down number 14 halfway through and never picked it or any subsequent Tarzan book back up again. The repetition must have gotten to me. But I’ve never lost my affection for the character. <br />
<br />
For most people Tarzan’s not a character from a book though. He’s a character from movies and TV. The 1932 movie with Johnny Weismuller was such a hit that it kicked off a movie series lasting over 30 years. The series kept on going well past the time Weismuller got too old to play Tarzan anymore. No problem. They’d just get a new actor to play Tarzan. And I saw a bunch of these movies. Not at a movie theater though. On TV. In the pre-cable era old movies constituted the programming lifeblood of countless local TV stations and where I grew up one station featured a little show on the weekend called “Tarzan Theatre”, which was nothing but the opportunity to show a cheap old Tarzan movie every Saturday. (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwSK7VpBlfQ">This clip</a> isn’t of “my” Tarzan Theatre but it's close enough). <br />
<br />
At the time of my first exposure to the Tarzan movies I hadn’t yet cracked open the books but my know-it-all father had and he was kind enough to explain to me how the movie Tarzan was actually a much-bastardized version of Burrough’s fictional creation. The book Tarzan was not only clever and resourceful, he was the child of an English lord, the master of several languages including English, and was perfectly at home in either civilized London or primeval Africa. The movie Tarzan on the other hand was a simple but good-hearted man-child who couldn’t speak in complete sentences or comprehend modern civilization (though like his literary counterpart he would deal out some serious ass-kicking when necessary). And while the first couple of Weismuller Tarzan movies were well-done big-budget MGM affairs the later ones, with or without Weismuller, just kept getting worse. Stupid plots. Bad acting. The same stock footage used over and over again. Soundstages instead of location shooting. Even going to color didn’t improve things much. Until 1959. <br />
<br />
After Weismuller retired the Tarzan producers replaced him with Lex Barker (for 6 films), and then Gordon Scott (nee Werschkul). But the budgets remained low and Tarzan remained the same monosyllabic character regardless of which actor donned the loincloth. That all changed with Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure. A new producer, Sy Weintraub, took over the series and changed things for the better. Realistic dangers. Sensible plots. Location shooting. And best of all, Tarzan acted and spoke like a normal intelligent human being. With a real script for once Gordon Scott proved to be a terrific Tarzan in his fifth go-round as the character and Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure lives up to its title. The follow-up, Tarzan the Magnificent was equally good. I loved those two films. The highwater mark didn’t last though. Scott didn’t want to get typecast at Tarzan so he set off for Italy to make a bunch of movies there during the height of the “sword and sandal” craze. After that he left show business altogether and kind of disappeared. <br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSXQgke9HpyVton6Vv-MvJZy1A0HfJmOBS2kAc8vgmBI2yV68nXIAr6scacmSepB-v8Hk2i24cH3G1wjJMEZbFOok37ELwk0sRHhxcIkJxCMzXz3wn4URR88GNUUit0ymWoS5dgbwCRq0p/s1600/Tarzan-Gordon-Scott.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSXQgke9HpyVton6Vv-MvJZy1A0HfJmOBS2kAc8vgmBI2yV68nXIAr6scacmSepB-v8Hk2i24cH3G1wjJMEZbFOok37ELwk0sRHhxcIkJxCMzXz3wn4URR88GNUUit0ymWoS5dgbwCRq0p/s320/Tarzan-Gordon-Scott.jpg" width="148" /></a></div><br />
<br />
<br />
Finding that box with my Dad’s old Tarzan books obviously triggered a lot of memories. It also got me wondering about what ever happened to Gordon Scott, my favorite Tarzan. Luckily the internet allows such questions to be easily answered. Turns out that that Scott’s days as a celluloid hero made him a lot of fans and maybe the biggest was a guy named Roger Thomas, all of 14-years-old when Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure came out. As an older man he made it his mission to track down and meet his boyhood hero. After years of trying he finally succeeded and in 2001 he arranged for Scott to visit him in Baltimore. Scott arrived and that “visit” ended up lasting for six years. Scott just basically moved in with the Thomases. Scott was a kind of a mysterious character, a bit of a recluse really, but Thomas loved having his hero around. Can you imagine that happening to you? Your favorite childhood movie star coming to live with you years later? Becoming your close friend and eating dinner with you every night? Unfortunately, Scott developed some serious health problems, had to go into a nursing home, and died in 2007. But <a href="http://www2.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=13574#">this article about the relationship</a> between Scott and his biggest fan is really touching. <br />
<br />
As for Tarzan, without Scott the series swung on with Jock Mahoney for two films but at 42 he was already a bit long in the tooth for the part. So Weintraub had to pick a new one from over 300 applicants (including Frank Gifford!) and here I can finally connect up this post to the National Football League because the man selected to play the next Tarzan was an active professional football player, Mike Henry. From the NFL gridiron to the African Jungle. A ninth-round pick from USC, Henry played linebacker for the Steelers from 1959 to 1962 and for the Rams from 1963 to 1965. (9 career INT’s and 6 career fumble recoveries). His 1962 Post cereal football card says “During the off season, Henry works as an extra in several movie and television studios in Hollywood.” But when Hollywood opportunity struck Henry chose movie stardom over NFL obscurity, retiring from the game in order to play the Lord of the Jungle. But Henry’s Tarzan wasn’t really much of a jungle dweller at all. The moviemakers <a href="http://www.erbzine.com/mag19/1964.html">refashioned the character</a> as a globe-trotting hairy-chested James Bond type. Crazy huh? <br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicjmof_Vrr5nZJfzowJVluH83bvWWqNdFsN0rIfYaotARV1WIIt0mXQR5BKDk6JXr1YXB7rsPJhi0VGHiTasztSYA-_YFkGkzoto_QvfLty-t1a_b-1-B6iGs8MTwA5ddGXG66eHsgojtm/s1600/tzval4h5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicjmof_Vrr5nZJfzowJVluH83bvWWqNdFsN0rIfYaotARV1WIIt0mXQR5BKDk6JXr1YXB7rsPJhi0VGHiTasztSYA-_YFkGkzoto_QvfLty-t1a_b-1-B6iGs8MTwA5ddGXG66eHsgojtm/s320/tzval4h5.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Henry did three Tarzan films and there the series died. Luckily Henry didn’t die along with it. During the filming of Henry's second Tarzan movie Cheetah, played by Dinky the Chimp, used his fangs to rip open Henry’s jaw. Henry became delirious with jungle fever for several days but survived unlike Dinky the troublemaking chimp who was euthanized for his sins. Henry also suffered several injuries during filming and came down with dysentery, ear infections, and an infected liver as well (Plus a typhoon destroyed the set of his third Tarzan movie and brought with it a typhoid epidemic; bad juju). After making that third movie Henry was sick of the whole thing, called it a day and hung up the loincloth even though he had been all set to star in the TV series to immediately follow that third film. The part instead went to Ron Ely (who was good). The TV show lasted two years and several theatrical movies were cobbled together from some of the episodes but essentially the Tarzan movie series came to an end when Henry left.<br />
<br />
A decade later Tarzan finally returned to the screen in two very different films: Greystoke (a fine period piece) and Tarzan the Ape Man (to this day the worst movie I have ever seen in a theatre). Then two more movies in the late 90’s: Disney’s Tarzan (not a bad cartoon) and Tarzan and the Lost City (unseen by me but I heard it sucked). Since then nothing. But in recent years we’ve seen Zorro and Sherlock Holmes refashioned into big-budget special effects blockbusters so I don’t see why the same can’t be done for Tarzan. But I have a feeling that when that future Tarzan movie appears it's not going to bear a whole lot of similarity to the original Tarzan books I read all those years ago.Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09800830914937489512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266929163782556236.post-46484718852838565042010-12-28T09:48:00.000-08:002010-12-28T09:48:02.221-08:0030 Years Ago This MonthIn my previous post I referred to the one football game I ever attended with my mother. It turned out to be one hell of a game, one of the most exciting I’ve ever seen. The Dolphins shut down the league’s top-scoring offense for three quarters, fell behind in the fourth quarter, rallied for a late game-tying TD, and then, facing certain defeat, blocked a field goal to send the game into overtime. Where they won. Awesome. The greatest NFL game I’d ever been to up to that time. And did I mention this was a Monday Night game? The crowd was absolutely electric that night and when that winning field goal went through the uprights the Orange Bowl was shaking. Literally. What a great game and a great night. But no one was talking about it the next day. Nobody. I found out the next morning before school that while I was yelling and high-fiving and cheering on the Fins to victory, a lunatic had gunned down my hero. <br />
<br />
<br />
Right before the game’s most dramatic moment, the New England Patriots’ attempt at a walk-off game winning field goal, Howard Cosell <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6zcRPp8zVg">informed the audience of the murder of John Lennon.</a> But the 80,000 of us actually at the game didn’t have a clue. We were screaming our guts out and rocking the stadium while everyone watching on TV suddenly could care less about the blocked field goal try.<br />
<br />
For days afterward the news was filled with images of people deeply affected by Lennon’s death. People openly weeping about someone they’d never met. I didn’t have that reaction. Like I said, Lennon was my hero but I didn’t cry for him. I just felt weird. More than anything I was confused. I didn’t really know how to react. I didn’t know him and being a teenager, an introverted one at that, I wasn’t really given to openly expressing my feelings. But I knew I’d lost something.<br />
<br />
When it comes to music I’ve always somehow found myself behind the times. While the rest of my peer group was digging disco and corporate rock and “Bruce, Billy and Bob” (as one of my friends put it), I was at home listening to my mother’s old Beatles records. My mother was a bit of a hippie and she had pretty good taste in music, assembling a nice collection of what we now like to call Classic Rock. And years after the group called it a day I played those Beatles albums over and over and over again. Their music meant everything to me. They were the Alpha and Omega of rock. My mother primarily owned the later period stuff, so when I wore those grooves out I got myself all their other records too. And I loved them all. I loved them so much that the music wasn’t enough anymore. I wanted to learn about the band too. I wanted to know the legend. Who were these guys and what made them so great? I needed to know. So I picked up a little book called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=The+Beatles+Forever">The Beatles Forever</a> and I read it so many times that it eventually fell apart. I’ve read plenty of other books about the Beatles but this one’s still the best as far as I’m concerned. You get the basic history, some fine writing about the music, especially the solo careers, but the author, Nicholas Schaffner, really gets across just how important the Beatles were to the generation that grew up with them. And those were the people shedding tears in the wake of Lennon’s death. <br />
<br />
Back in 1987 I saw a show marking the 20th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper and the so-called Summer of Love and at the end each of the surviving Beatles was asked if they believed it was true that “All You Need Is Love”. George Harrison said he did. I can’t remember exactly what Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr said but in the Beatles Anthology McCartney said he did believe that was the essential message of the Beatles. Maybe that’s too simplistic a summary of the entire Beatles catalog but let’s stipulate that McCartney’s right, after all, the man wrote a lot of love songs and he’s surely more qualified than anyone else to say what the Beatles were all about. After all, the Beatle became the most loved band of all time for a reason, or reasons. And surely one of those reasons was their message. Another reason has to be the Fab Four (seemingly) lived their own message, being so close to one another and so appreciative of their fans devotion (at least in appearance). The Beatles Forever lets you see all this from the viewpoint of a fan who felt this connection to the band. And the connection didn’t stop with the band as a group. The Beatles were so famous that each member of the band had a public persona, so every fan had a favorite Beatle. And like so many mine was John Lennon.<br />
<br />
Because the Beatles had called it a day by the time I started listening to their music, I learned about them from Schaffner’s book and subsequently from various interviews, mainly Lennon’s famous Playboy interview published shortly before his death. The biting wit, the uncompromising truth-telling (as he saw it), the crazy political stunts (trying to help stop a war). And his songs seemed to come from a more personal place than McCartney’s. He was real. All this strongly appealed to my teenage self. Here was somebody I wished I could be like. Now even then I knew Lennon was hardly, as McCartney put it later, the idealized “Martin Luther Lennon” figure he became after his I murder. He was too complicated and damaged an individual for that. But that didn’t matter. I loved his music and I loved what he had to say on matters both political and personal. I certainly wasn’t alone. And then some crazy person with a gun shot him to death for absolutely no reason. All these years later it’s still horrible to think about. <br />
<br />
The day after the game I expected to be able to regale my friends with stories about the game. But that never happened. Nobody wanted to talk about it. Certainly not me, and for the last 30 years I’ve never thought about that Monday Night game without thinking about the death of John Lennon. <br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3q-8Wl1921QUvmhVtHhffjasHfnGrzIehqcZYODJhN7KXYpPddiPCNH5TslNXL0jVx3aDV7gsxnXZsRtZsK7MG2uH3CL5Ju5EabRwMFziTJsqOdAMLE1vmaMO9QhWpenKeXB-W9xfV2I6/s1600/johnlennon090210.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3q-8Wl1921QUvmhVtHhffjasHfnGrzIehqcZYODJhN7KXYpPddiPCNH5TslNXL0jVx3aDV7gsxnXZsRtZsK7MG2uH3CL5Ju5EabRwMFziTJsqOdAMLE1vmaMO9QhWpenKeXB-W9xfV2I6/s1600/johnlennon090210.jpg" /></a></div>Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09800830914937489512noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266929163782556236.post-74085891012763319242010-12-18T21:33:00.000-08:002010-12-18T21:33:47.419-08:00MomI profusely apologize to my few readers out there for the lack of posts these past couple of months. While I’ve never been the most prolific blogger, a number of recent events in my life left me with no desire to write even a single word. And the very worst of these events was the sudden death of my mother. I definitely won’t post some maudlin reminiscence of her here or, worse, an explication of our complicated relationship. <br />
<br />
<br />
No, this is a football blog so indulge me as I remember my mom in relation to football. Basically, she had no understanding of the game whatsoever. None. Simply put, my mom embodied the cliché of the woman who just doesn’t get football at all. She loved the excitement though; she really seemed to be having a good time at the one game I remember us attending. And she certainly enjoyed being around when her boys were home watching a game together and cheering on the Fins. But she couldn’t really follow a game so her questions about, oh, anything having to do with the game (“Are the Dolphins playing today?” “No mom, it’s Saturday) were always good for some laughs. And the introduction of fantasy football just ratcheted up the unintentional comedy. “The Dolphins won. Does that help your team?” “No mom. As nice as that result was we only care about stats in fantasy football.” She never could grasp that. She didn’t comprehend NFL blackout rules either. On those rare occasions the Dolphins didn’t sell out my mother was invariably puzzled to find out I got to watch the Miami game that she, a South Florida resident, had to miss. Of course when the game was televised she never knew what channel it was on anyway and, since she also didn’t quite get the concept of local television markets, she didn’t understand why I couldn’t give her an answer. <br />
<br />
We never once had a normal football-related conversation. She didn’t know any of the players outside of Dan Marino. She didn’t know strategy. She didn’t know the rules. But whenever she did ask me something about football there was a real good chance the question was going to put a smile on my face. <br />
<br />
Thanks for the laughs mom.Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09800830914937489512noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266929163782556236.post-4645302771286133162010-11-06T21:03:00.000-07:002010-11-06T21:03:51.986-07:00George Blanda<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_Cm0aJmu-ck35R0MnoBu2CJ2rF2vGOoTzaQJVtZjGR-gK-4y1eiJh4-rkbrI7LK9xbPBL5OUeL95npNmkzpS3Ot0GFridwaH-l-VJUcYhYKHWx5vjeS8HCeY44647EkaB0WT3gljV1-vM/s1600/blanda.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_Cm0aJmu-ck35R0MnoBu2CJ2rF2vGOoTzaQJVtZjGR-gK-4y1eiJh4-rkbrI7LK9xbPBL5OUeL95npNmkzpS3Ot0GFridwaH-l-VJUcYhYKHWx5vjeS8HCeY44647EkaB0WT3gljV1-vM/s320/blanda.jpg" width="245" /></a></div><br />
<br />
<br />
Alright, I haven't been inspired to write anything lately but if I don't I'm going to forget how so let me dig deep into my past and try to come up with something and see where it goes. <br />
<br />
Past Interference was most definitely remiss in not paying homage to the late great George Blanda last month. The shape of that man's NFL career is so strange, impressive and unique that absolutely nothing like it could ever happen again. A failed starting QB stint with the Chicago Bears. Washed out of the NFL at 32. Rejuvenated as the first star QB of the new American Football League. Leading the Houston Oilers to two championships. And the coda: a final 9 seasons of action as the over-40 kicker for the Oakland Raiders. I missed almost all of that. When I was a kid Blanda to me was just that really old guy who kicked for Raiders. Of course 48 seems a lot younger to me now then it did then. <br />
<br />
As you may know Blanda's shining moment as a player came in 1970 where he passed and kicked the Raiders to a win or tie in five consecutive contests. This would be pretty impressive for any player but Blanda being 43-years-old and all at the time made what he did instantly legendary. I didn't know about any of this when it happened though. Too young. I've been watching NFL games for as long as I can remember but a game is always in the present. So as a kid the NFL's past was a complete mystery to me. Blanda, Jim Brown, Johnny U, Lombardi, Bronko Nagurski. All of it. Or at least it remained a mystery until I started reading whatever I could get my hands on. Any book or magazine with a piece of NFL history would do. And one of my favorites was a (literally) little publication called Football Digest. <br />
<br />
Man did I love that magazine. The pieces I still remember the most ran under the column title, "The Game I'll Never Forget". One was by a guy named Bert Rechichar who recounted an interesting game he played on September 27, 1953. Rechichar, a defensive back for the Baltimore Colts, picked off a pass in that game and returned it for a TD, helping his team win the day 13-9. But what made that game truly memorable for Rechichar were the other points he scored in the game. He kicked a field goal at the end of the first half, and that field goal was 56 yards long. A pretty impressive kick today but a mind-blowing one in 1953 as that boot set an NFL record that lasted for 17 more years.<br />
<br />
Another Game I'll Never Forget column that I've never forgotten concerned a game that has probably never been forgotten by anybody who was there. It was the 1970 Lions-Bears game where Chuck Hughes died. The only on-field death of an NFL player. Fanhouse <a href="http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2010/10/22/one-of-nfls-hardest-hits-and-no-one-put-a-hand-on-him/">had a good piece about it</a> recently. Unfortunately, I was too young at the time I read the Football Digest column to be able to grasp the essential tragedy of what had happened on that sad day.<br />
<br />
But I was old enough to appreciate the Football Digest article that excitingly laid out exactly what happened in each of George Blanda's five clutch performances in 1970 (I wish I had a link to that article but I don't; here's <a href="http://www.profootballhof.com/story/2010/9/27/Blanda-s-memorable-run-in-1970.aspx/">the NFL Hall of Fame's summary</a>). Amazing hardly begins to describe how brilliantly Blanda played through those games. Oakland's quarterback, Darryl Lamonica, suffered several injuries during that stretch giving Blanda the opportunity to both pinch hit at the QB position and make critical kicks, something he did again and again and again (and again and again). Through nothing but the power of the written word Football Digest brought Blanda's heroics to life for me years after the dust had settled on the playing fields. I never saw those games but thanks to that Digest article I knew Blanda had done something unforgettable. I did get that. <br />
<br />
But I've only now come to understand what George Blanda's 1970 season must have meant for America as it happened. Very few athletes have ever done something so transcendent at such a relatively advanced age. Nolan Ryan. Jack Nicklaus. And George Blanda in 1970. With millions of men in their 30's and 40's watching and cheering him on. Men many years removed from their own athletic prime, watching a guy, a contemporary, the oldest guy on the field, the oldest player in the game, still playing at the highest level and finding a way to win. Beating players over two decades younger. There's something about that must have resonated with football fans like nothing else could have. I think it's why despite the complete circus his career has now become so many are still rooting for Brett Favre. Thanks to Blanda the 1970 Raiders made a playoff run, ultimately falling 10 points short of the Super Bowl. But today the 1970 Oakland Raiders are barely remembered. It's George Blanda we remember. He accomplished something far rarer than winning a Super Bowl. He became an icon.Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09800830914937489512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266929163782556236.post-12204269109143858882010-10-12T21:05:00.000-07:002010-10-12T21:05:23.403-07:00What If: Super Bowl V<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOYS_lX4njM3sjXhOEIzKAot5IkP-JITMocyt9RgXWna1FQDbhRCnLOjbTxxMcqmPgsI6OEfNeQypSsNKOGjdRJQ_kkRKILiMcrTYXK0FoJGVY4MN-nlP_fWeDBrypyQJgtxNSCWaRe8WS/s1600/landry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOYS_lX4njM3sjXhOEIzKAot5IkP-JITMocyt9RgXWna1FQDbhRCnLOjbTxxMcqmPgsI6OEfNeQypSsNKOGjdRJQ_kkRKILiMcrTYXK0FoJGVY4MN-nlP_fWeDBrypyQJgtxNSCWaRe8WS/s320/landry.jpg" width="207" /></a></div><br />
One more Earl Morrall-related post for the time being. Let’s revisit the scene of his greatest triumph, Super Bowl V. While Morrall may not have led his team to any actual points that day, he didn’t do anything to cost his team the game either. He entered the game with his team trailing and left the field as a Super Bowl winning quarterback. But it almost didn’t happen. Obviously the dramatic play of the game was the game-winning field goal with five seconds left. But in my opinion the single-biggest play came much earlier in the game. <br />
<br />
<br />
With two minutes and 48 seconds left in the first half, the Baltimore Colts trailed the Dallas Cowboys 13-6. Dallas had completely shut the Colts down to that point. The Colts had failed to gain a single first down and their only score had come on a 75-yard twice-deflected TD pass caught by John Mackey (the Colts missed the extra point). Johnny Unitas subsequently threw an interception and the hit he took on the play broke some of his ribs. When the Baltimore Colts got the ball back at their own 48-yard line, it was Earl Morrall now taking the snaps from center. And Morrall proceeded to do something Unitas could not do: throw for a first down. Morrall did it twice, moving the ball to the Dallas two-yard line. Three straight runs netted zero yards and with less than 30 seconds left in the half the Colts faced a big decision. Take the easy FG or gamble and take a shot at tying the game? The Colts chose the gamble and lost when Morrall overthrew Michell in the end zone. 13-6 Dallas at the half.<br />
<br />
More disaster ensued on the opening kickoff; the Colts fumbled it and Dallas recover at the BAL 31. Five plays took it down to the Baltimore two-yard-line leaving the ‘Boys on the verge of delivering the knockout punch. Then, on THE play of the game, Duane Thomas fumbled it back to the Colts. Or maybe it really wasn’t a fumble. The Cowboys Tight End, a guy named Mike Ditka, later <a href="http://geociti.es/Colosseum/loge/1654/">remembered it this way</a>:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>We had a talented team that year and lost a game to Baltimore that we really shouldn't have lost, on a very controversial play. An official called a fumble on Thomas, but it wasn't a fumble. If I'm going to remember one play in a Super Bowl, that's the play I'm going to remember because it was a terrible call....I was on the ground, right beside the guy who picked up the ball. The guy who picked up the ball was our center, Dave Manders. The guy who fumbled it evidently was Thomas, but actually Duane really let the ball go when he heard the whistle blow. We felt there was no fumble on the play, and if we had scored then, it wouldn't have mattered what would happened later because the game would have been over.</blockquote>Regardless of what actually happened, the officials ruled Thomas had fumbled. The Colts remained unable to put points on the scoreboard, but their defense shut Dallas down the rest of the game and two Craig Morton interceptions, setting up a short TD run and an easy FG, gave the Colts exactly what they needed to win. But if Dallas had gone up 20-6 then it’s hard to see how they could have lost. A 14-point lead is all-but-insurmountable in Super Bowl history. And given the ineptitude of the Baltimore offense, it’s hard to envision a scenario where they scored two offensive touchdown. Even if the Colts still score that short TD off of a 4th quarter interception return they’d never get a second INT because Dallas would be protecting a lead. And with a late 4th quarter lead I’m sure Tom Landry could have sussed out that preventing Craig Morton from throwing another pass would have been the best way to ensure victory. <br />
<br />
I submit to you then that Thomas’ fumble (or “fumble”), almost surely decided the outcome of Super Bowl V. If Dallas scores on that drive they go on to win that Super Bowl. So in my opinion that fumble is the single biggest fumble in NFL history. The most famous fumble in NFL history is of course “The Fumble”, i.e. Ernest Byner’s fumble in the 1987 AFC Championship Game. But Byner’s fumble only cost the Browns a chance at forcing overtime and a shot at the Super Bowl. Duane Thomas’ fumble (or “fumble”) cost Dallas an actual Super Bowl victory. <br />
<br />
So what if Thomas doesn’t fumble? Well Dallas almost surely wins that game. And by winning Super Bowl V as well as Super Bowl VI we’d now be about that Cowboy team as one of the great teams in NFL history. And I think the reputations of two men in particular would have been affected in the most positive way by victory in Super Bowl V. <br />
<br />
First, Tom Landry. Landry’s obviously one of the NFL’s all-time greatest coaches but you never see anybody consider him the greatest coach. Generally either Vince Lombardi or Paul Brown top the lists (see <a href="http://bleacherreport.com/articles/110888-the-ten-greatest-nfl-coaches-of-all-time">here</a> and <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=list/bestnflcoaches">here</a>). Lombardi’s got the 5 titles and the all-time best winning percentage while Brown’s got three NFL titles (and three AAFC ones) and his reputation as perhaps professional football’s most important innovator. Brown and Lombardi made their mark in the pre-merger NFL of course. Two more recent candidates I’ve seen others make cases for are Bill Walsh who won 3 Super Bowls and changed the shape of the game with the introduction of the West Coast Offense, and Joe Gibbs who won three titles of his own but with a different QB each time. (With three of his own Belichick of course might prove to be a popular candidate when he finally retires). And of course Don Shula’s another strong candidate, with all that winning more games than anybody else business, coaching in more Super Bowls than anybody else, and, oh yeah, the perfect season. Shula coached against Lombardi and kept on winning games after Walsh and Gibbs retired. (Super old school fans might go with George Halas or Curly Lambeau but I’m leaving them out of this.) <br />
<br />
But Tom Landry never seems to make it into the conversation despite an incredible resume. Essentially, you look at three things when evaluating coaches: Wins, Influence on the Game, and Championships. When it comes to victories, Landry chalked up more wins than anybody but Shula and Halas. As for influence, Landry’s right up there with Brown and Walsh as one of the game’s great innovators. The flex defense, the shotgun, the use of computers, hiring a quality control coach, etc. And a few of Landry’s disciples went on to pretty good coaching careers, Dan Reeves, Mike Ditka and Gene Stallings. So no doubt what’s keeping Landry out of consideration from the top spot is the fact he “only” won two championships. Halas, Brown, and Lombardi won more in the pre-Super Bowl era. Walsh and Gibbs won three in the Super Bowl era. Like Landry, Shula won but two as well but he won 77 more games than Landry and his winning percentage is a lot higher. <br />
<br />
But what if Landry notched that third Super Bowl title? Then he’s got as many NFL championships as Brown, Walsh and Gibbs, and one more than Shula. Only Noll would have more Super Bowls but Landry’s got 61 more wins and a higher winning percentage than Noll and Noll only won with the same corps of superstar players while Landry would have won titles with two different QB’s. As for Walsh and Gibbs, Landry coached more seasons than those two men combined. Here's something else. In their 1971 championship season, Dallas gave up only 18 points in their three playoff games. In 1970, they allowed only 26 points. That's pretty amazing. Just 44 points allowed in 6 playoff games combined. If Dallas goes up 20-6 in Super Bowl V giving that dominant defense a cushion to work with, and with the offense no doubt taking the air out of the ball to eliminate the chance of an INT, it's likely they don't give up anymore points the rest of the way. So now the Cowboys win back-to-back titles while giving up only 34 points total in the postseason. Would be talking about the greatest defense ever? They’d certainly be in the conversation. And the hands-on coach of that all-time great defense? Tom Landry. Now, I’m not saying only bad luck cost Landry that Super Bowl. The TD that could have been was set up by a fumbled kickoff return and Dallas’ only touchdown of the game was set up by an INT. Landry was the one who picked Craig Morton to start Super Bowl V for him even though a clearly superior QB in the person of Roger Staubach was sitting on the bench. But the Cowboys were this close to winning that game. <br />
<br />
Landry’s third on the all-time wins list. He posted 18 straight winning seasons at one point. He was an innovator on both offense and defense. In addition to those titles he did win, he had four near misses going up against maybe the two greatest dynasties ever, the 60’s Packers and the 70’s Steelers. With three titles to his credit, including two back-to-back crowns, I really think a lot of people would be naming Landry as the greatest coach ever, not just one of the greatest. <br />
<br />
The other guy hurt badly by the Super Bowl loss: the game’s MVP, outside linebacker Chuck Howley. Howley had such a great game that day he earned the MVP award despite being on the losing team. I don’t think I’m going out on a limb in saying that will never happen again. He also had another great Super Bowl the following season when his team won. So had his team won both, Howley would be the key defensive player for a dominant defensive back-to-back Super Bowl winning team. And Howley didn’t just rise to the occasion in the postseason, he made six All-Pro teams. Yet he can’t get a sniff of the Hall of Fame. He’s ever even been a semifinalist! He should be in anyway but if he’d been the MVP of the winning team he’d probably be a lot closer than he is now. <br />
<br />
One final thought. It’s a lot more hypothetical but I can’t help but think the Cowboys win Super Bowl V in as convincing a fashion as they won it the next year if Landry had gone with Staubach. And if that had happened, then we might also be talking about Staubach as a strong contender for the title of greatest QB of all-time.Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09800830914937489512noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266929163782556236.post-27954562445729690452010-10-12T19:47:00.000-07:002010-10-12T19:47:43.940-07:00Two Random Observations From Week 51) When the Kansas City Chiefs lost to the Indianapolis Colts Sunday, they left the league without a single undefeated team. Not one NFL team could even make it to 4-0 in 2010. Weird huh? I saw that this was the earliest the NFL’s lacked an undefeated team since 1970. And you know what that means right? You don’t? Well, it means it’s also the earliest the 1972 Miami Dolphins have ever gotten to celebrate the fact that they remain for another season the only perfect team in NFL history. Congrats fellas. No angst this year. <br />
<br />
<br />
2) When Brett Favre hooked up with Randy Moss for an undeniably exciting TD bomb on Monday night, we saw something very unusual. ESPN’s broadcast stayed with a shot of Favre running down the field towards the end zone so he could celebrate the TD with Moss. No, it wasn’t unusual for ESPN cameras to focus on Favre. I’m aware of that network’s man-love for The Ol’ Dongslinger. What was unusual was the sheer length of time the cameras stayed on Favre’s post-TD antics. Normally what we see any time a TD’s scored are a dizzying series of jump cuts, each one lasting maybe two seconds. The guy who scored. The QB. The coach. Fans in the stands. The cheerleaders. The opposing coach. On and on until it’s time for the replays. Now I’m glad we get such nice state-of-the-art camerawork these days, especially in the nationally broadcast games. And I’m glad for the inventive camera angles. But sometimes, it’s not such a bad idea to just stay with the guy who actually scored or the guy who threw it to him. In their haste to add some human interest the game producers are now actually depriving the viewing public of some good stuff. Case in point: the Dallas-Tennessee game this past weekend. After Jason Witten scored a critical TD, one camera caught offensive lineman Marco Colombo rushing over to him and Witten gave him the ball. And then...the camera cut away for more various and sundry reaction shots. And in the process, they missed the TD celebration that ended when Colombo hit the ground, something that by rule apparently constitutes an unlawful celebration penalty. When this finally dawned on the announcers they explained what happened. But they had to do so without visual aids because all those stupid camera shots apparently meant they missed getting a good shot of the unlawful celebration. You reap what you sow NFL boradcasters. Stop overproducing the games!Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09800830914937489512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266929163782556236.post-4276362561854242832010-09-25T21:13:00.001-07:002010-09-25T21:13:33.594-07:00Your 2010 Miami Dolphins: Week TwoWow. A truly stellar defensive effort by the Miami Dolphins. Shutting down the Vikings in Minnesota, forcing four turnovers, and knocking Bret Favre into next week and possibly an early retirement (we'll see). It's been a few years since Jason Taylor, Zach Thomas and Sam Madison were playing together for Miami and now we're starting to at least see the possibility that the Dolphins may be able to once again field a defense with a number of true stud defenders. Dansby, Vontae Davis, Koa Misi. They all played tremendous football. And look who joined them: Jason Allen. We might finally be able to remove the "Perennial Disappointment" tag from his name. Sometimes you can take a player perceived as a disappointment, surround him with other quality players, give him some good coaching and direction, and lo and behold it turns out the guy's a pretty good player after all. Maybe it was the organization all along. <br />
<br />
<br />
The offense struggled again unfortunately. They started off promisingly with the bomb to Marshall and the TD to Hartline, but they just couldn't get into a consistent rhythm after that. I'm sure some of it was a conscious decision to go conservative after taking the early lead. But it would be nice to see the passing game start to click a little. In Henne's defense he hasn't thrown a pick yet and his completion percentage is still over 60%. He's not doing anything to put the Dolphins in position to lose games at least unlike a certain two running backs who almost gave away a big win. <br />
<br />
Alright, 2-0 is 2-0 and 2-0 on the road is even better. Henne showed what he was capable of last year in primetime against the New York Jets. I'm expecting more of the same Sunday Night.Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09800830914937489512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266929163782556236.post-59351582701980406492010-09-25T20:44:00.000-07:002010-09-25T20:49:25.656-07:00Earl Morrall Revisited<span family="SANSSERIF" lang="0" ptsize="10"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A while back Past Interference devoted </span><a href="http://miamimigraine.blogspot.com/2007/09/curious-career-of-earl-morrall-part-one.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">a lengthy series of posts</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> to the career of former NFL quarterback Earl Morrall. And it's very possible those writings will turn out to be the most important pieces ever posted to this blog, simply because very little has been written about Earl Morrall, a singular figure in NFL history. A 21-year career. Started games in 18 different seasons. Quarterbacked two of the greatest teams in NFL history, the 1968 Colts and the 1972 Dolphins. A Super Bowl-winning quarterback for the 1971 Colts. Won an MVP award with one franchise and was NFL Comeback Player of the Year with another. Yet, as I said, very little attention has been paid to his career. And that little attention paid has mainly concerned Morrall's unfortunate performance in Super Bowl III. He may not be one of the all-time greats but the rest of Morrall's long and unique career deserves some attention! <br />
<br />
When this blog chose to pay some attention to that career what I wrote was not as complete as it could have been and in the interests of historical accuracy I'm going to correct that right now. Three years ago I did not know Morrall's career record as a starter. But now, thanks to the invaluable website </span> <a href="http://www.pro-football-reference.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pro-Football-Reference.com</span></a></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, I do. It's a very good 63-37-3. A winning percentage of 0.626. Obviously Morrall didn't win 63 games by himself. In fact he played for some excellent teams with some stellar teammates and someone might well argue Morrall's success as a starter was due mainly to the quality of his teams. So how much credit should he get?</span></span><br />
<span family="SANSSERIF" lang="0" ptsize="10"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">What I had done in my earlier posts was take the won-loss records for Morrall's teams in those seasons where he was the primary starting quarterback, add them up, and then compare that won-loss mark to the cumulative records of his teams the year before he became their primary starter (he was never a starter for back-to-back seasons). No need for such crude methods now. Now, I can simply compare that 63-37-3 mark to his teams' cumulative won-loss records in the games where Morrall didn't start. He started at least one game in 18 different seasons. His teams' cumulative record in those 18 seasons was 145-87-10. Subtracting the games Morrall started leaves a non-Morrall record of 82-50-7, a winning percentage of 0.615. So Morrall clearly played on above-average teams, but those teams slightly improved with Morrall as the starting QB. <br />
<br />
I also found out something else new from Pro Football Reference. I had thought Morrall started the majority of his teams' games in five different seasons3 (1957 Steelers, 1963 Lions, 1965 Giants, 1968 Colts, 1972 Dolphins). But it was actually six. Johnny Unitas threw more passes than Morrall for the 1971 Baltimore Colts, but Morrall started more games, 9 (he went 7-2). So if we add up the games he won and lost as a starter for those six seasons, it totals 46-21-1, a fantastic 0.684 winning percentage. In the games he didn't start in those six seasons, his teams went 9-5, 0.643. So again we see Morrall improved his team's record. <br />
<br />
Almost three quarters of Morrall's career wins came in those six seasons and interestingly he was just a perfectly average QB in the rest of his career starts: 17-16-2. Clearly Morrall's game benefitted when he got to start on a regular basis. <br />
<br />
And since I now know about Morrall's starts in 1971, I might as well more accurately revisit what I did before and compare the records of his teams when he was their starter with how they performed in the year prior to his arrival. Again, 46-21-1, 0.684 for Morrall. The cumulative year before (minus Morrall's one start for the 1970 Colts): 49-26-6, 0.642. So whatever method you choose, you'd have to say Morrall's teams were at least a little better with him then without him. And overall those teams performed quite well.</span> </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span>Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09800830914937489512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266929163782556236.post-18802304848887838682010-09-18T20:23:00.000-07:002010-09-18T20:23:32.179-07:00Your 2010 Miami Dolphins: Week OneWin number one is in the books and while Miami probably should have whipped the Bills by more than 5 points, let's remember that Miami got their butts handed to them the last time they travelled to Buffalo. The defense played especially well. Dansby was a force. Koa Misi looked. And so did Jared Odrick before his unfortunate injury. The front seven harrassed Trent Edwards all game and, as we saw, he is most definitely not a guy who handles pressure well. It would have been nice if Miami could have stopped that 4th-and-11 and avoided the need for a final defensive stand but for the most part they throttled the Bills. <br />
<br />
<br />
The offense was more of a mixed bag. The running game was fairly effective but the passing game was very inconsistent. Henne avoided the big mistake at least but the team had no real success with the long pass though Marshall was probably more responsible than Henne on the drop of that sure thing underthrown 50-yard bomb. The toss to Fasano to set up the Ronnie Brown TD was perfect but then Miami settled for FG tries way too many times when they had chances to take control of the game. But watching Edwards crumble under pressure followed by Mark Sanchez' pathetic effort the following day has to make any Dolphin fan feel better about our QB situation. <br />
<br />
This week's game in Minnesota's going to be a lot tougher. If Miami can take it then we might really have something going with this team.Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09800830914937489512noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266929163782556236.post-72697432126061666242010-09-11T20:22:00.000-07:002010-09-11T20:32:08.936-07:00The 2010 Season Is Here!Finally, the NFL is back and the Miami Dolphins will soon be taking the field. Should be Dolphin fans be optimistic? Sure, why not? Parcells and Sparano have methodically jettisoned the mistakes of the Wannstadt/Speilman/Mueller/Saban/Cameron eras and slowly replaced the players from the earlier regimes with better ones (for the most part). The team lacked star players though and recognizing this, the organization traded for Brandon Marshall and signed Karlos Dansby in free agency (and I’m kind of liking the Clifton Smith pickup; he’ll be a better returner than Ginn). Of course not every personnel move made by the Parcells/Ireland/Sparano trio has paid off. Witness the recent waiving of last year’s second-round pick QB Pat White and third-round pick WR Patrick Turner. And Peter King went a little over the top calling Miami’s 2009 draft “disastrous”. Ok, two picks busted but first-rounder Vontae Davis fourth-rounder Brian Hartline are starters and second-rounder Sean Smith will still see the field a lot even if he’s lost his starting gig for now. (You want a disastrous Dolphins draft? <a href="http://miamimigraine.blogspot.com/2008/05/history-of-miami-dolphins-drafts-part.html">Try 1984 or 1987</a> or how about <a href="http://miamimigraine.blogspot.com/2008/05/history-of-miami-dolphins-drafts-part_26.html">every draft from 2000 to 2004?</a><br />
<br />
Nobody hits every pick. Not Bill Walsh. Not Bill Polian. Nobody. But you have to like how Parcells/Ireland/Sparano have logically addressed the teams needs over the past two years after taking over a team with a hollowed-out talent base. And not everyone would have approached things the same way. Witness the Denver Broncos shedding quality players from their roster while passing up can’t-miss prospects in the draft to take “character” guys instead. Or how about the Redskins, forever mortgaging their future, trading away draft picks, and year after year riding that veteran free agent train to nowhere. Miami fans have been down that track and we never want to go back. <br />
<br />
So I’m not going to lie to you, I’m excited about the Dolphins this year. Mainly it’s going to come down to Chad Henne. I liked what I saw him do last year, the way he approached the game. He rarely did stupid things, he never panicked and he throws a nice deep ball. He looks like a guy who's very confident in his ability. Hopefully he builds on all that and takes the team to the next level. Having Brandon Marshall around should make that a lot easier. Let’s say 9 wins and a wild card. <br />
<br />
I love this time of year. Everybody’s still got a chance. Miami could be the surprise of the league. And all my fantasy football teams can still win it all. I can’t wait for kickoff.<br />
<br />
PI does want to note here the departure of one of my favorite Dolphins of the last few years, Greg Camarillo. After unwisely trading away Wes Welker, the Dolphins needed some receiving help in 2007 and picked up Camerillo off of waivers. He only caught 8 balls that year but one of them became one of the great plays in Miami Dolphins’ history, his 64-yard game-winning TD in overtime that saved Miami from going 0-16 season. 2007 was such an awful, awful season and Camarillo’s play gave us the one and only highlight that I never ever get tired of watching. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVWYVfcys5Y&feature=related">Watch it for yourself</a> <br />
<br />
<br />
It’s got me in the mood for some NFL football! Go Miami.Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09800830914937489512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266929163782556236.post-45577219835709349652010-09-05T07:47:00.000-07:002010-09-11T20:29:06.128-07:00Don't Hate The Raider Hate the Blame: Part ThreeWell, Past Interference took a more-than-fair look at each of the Raiders prime Hall of Fame candidates and we’ve come to the only conclusion possible: Raider fans have nothing to complain about. Not one of the 9 candidates has anything like an overwhelming case for the Hall of Fame. No bias. However, I can see how you might cry about exactly two of the players on the list: Tim Brown and Ray Guy. <br />
<br />
There’s no definition of a Hall of Famer, no specific list of statistical accomplishments or awards won that automatically open the Hall’s doors to a player. A player just needs to have the kind of career resume that convinces enough voters that he’s one of the best ever at his position. Funnily enough, Guy and Brown kind of have resumes that are the polar opposite of each other. In Guy’s case it’s all about the awards. He was the consensus All-Pro punter six times and he’s the punter on the NFL’s 75th anniversary team. No other punter’s ever come close to the kind of recognition Guy received for his punting career. Now, as I’ve already noted, no statistical measure supports the belief that Guy’s the greatest punter ever. But I can see how a fan of Guy could legitimately think the man’s been robbed for years now. <br />
<br />
Unlike Guy, Tim Brown’s all about the numbers. Over 1000 catches. 101 TD’s. Almost 15,000 yards receiving. Oh, and <a href="http://miamimigraine.blogspot.com/2010/08/dont-hate-raider-hate-blame-part-one.html">commenter JA Morris notes</a> that all of Brown’s punt returns can't be forgotten either (326 punt returns to be exact). And while Brown never made an All-Pro team it’s not like he went unrecognized all those years. He made 9 Pro Bowl squads and got selected as a second team wide receiver on the 1990’s NFL Team of Decade. So while Past Interference’s own opinion may be that as a player Brown’s a cut below Chris Carter, Michael Irvin, Sterling Sharpe, and Mark Clayton, a Tim Brown fan can certainly ask what more was the guy supposed to do to be a Hall of Famer?<br />
<br />
Here’s how PI ranks them in Hall of Fame worthiness:<br />
<br />
1) Cliff Branch<br />
Tim Brown (Tie)<br />
<br />
I’m having a hard time figuring out which of these receivers deserves the honor more. In my heart of hearts I feel that Branch at his best was better than Brown at his best. But it’s hard to ignore Brown caught over twice as many passes as Branch. However, Branch has got those three Super Bowl rings and was the superior postseason performer. On the other hand, Brown made 9 Pro Bowl teams to Branch’s 4. But, Branch made All-Pro three times to Brown’s none. I don’t know. I lean to Branch but both have solid cases for the Hall. <br />
<br />
3) Ken Stabler<br />
4) Lester Hayes<br />
5) Todd Christensen<br />
6) Tom Flores<br />
7) Jim Plunkett<br />
8) Ray Guy<br />
9) Jack Tatum<br />
<br />
And here’s PI ranks them all in order of their chances for election: <br />
<br />
1) Tim Brown<br />
2) Ray Guy: He’s been a finalist 7 times and a semi-finalist 5 times. At some point the voters are going to get sick of hearing about him and they’ll vote him in just to shut everybody up. Like what happened to Art Monk. <br />
<br />
3) Ken Stabler: PI’s as surprised as anyone that Stabler’s not already in. As soon as he became eligible he was a Hall of Fame finalist for two straight years, then dropped off the Hall of Fame map altogether for over a decade. A finalist once again in 2003, Stabler then hit another wall; he’s only made it to the semifinal stage every year since. <br />
<br />
He was one of the most famous players of his time. He certainly had a flair for the dramatic (“The Sea of Hands”, “Ghost to the Post”, the last-second 1976 playoff win over the Patriots, the (ugh) “Holy Roller”). He won two MVP awards. He won a championship. And he won period. 96 games to be exact, still 14th-most all-time by a QB and his winning percentage is higher than all but three (Manning, Montana, Brady) of the guys ahead of him. In fact, of the top 50 winningest QB’s of all-time only five guys have posted winning percentages than Stabler (the above three guys plus Staubach and Jim McMahon). On the flipside he turned the ball over too much, he was immobile, and he went 1-4 and AFC Championship Games but still, it seems like he did more than enough to make the Hall. But he’s not in. Why? <br />
<br />
In comments sptfrn writes <a href="http://miamimigraine.blogspot.com/2010/08/dont-hate-raider-hate-blame-part-two.html">In comments sptfrn writes</a> that sportswriters have focused too much on Stabler’s off-the-field activities. And I completely agree this focus had helped keep Stabler out of the Hall to date. But I’m not sure the off-the-field stuff is completely irrelevant. If, as legend has it, Stabler studied his playbook by “the light of the jukebox” then can’t we say his off-the-field activities interfere with his on-the-field play? Stabler played with an extremely talented bunch of teammates and a brilliant coach, yet kept coming up short in conference title games. Maybe a certain lack of dedication to football was in fact to blame. I don’t know. It’s possible. <br />
<br />
But Stabler probably won enough on the field to justify his induction. Winning and playing in just the one Super Bowl is probably what’s kept him out so far just like it’s what kept John Madden waiting for so many years. Seems like if Madden’s in now though that the QB who won all those games for him ought to be in too. Stabler’s a senior citizen now and if the voters do plan on getting him in someday they really ought to do it while he’s alive. I think he’ll get in soon. <br />
<br />
4) Lester Hayes: Might benefit from the concerted effort voters are making to get more defensive players in<br />
5) Cliff Branch<br />
6) Todd Christensen: Doubt he ever makes it<br />
7) Tom Flores: Never<br />
8) Jim Plunkett: Never<br />
9) Jack Tatum: NeverRobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09800830914937489512noreply@blogger.com2