From the Opposite Corner: Dolphins vs. Chargers, 27 Sep 2009

Apologies, but this is going to be all bullet points. Between my football teams and real life I have had a rough weekend; haven’t slept since Friday and my brain is too fried to form a narrative, much as I’d like to.

• I keep marveling at this kid, but with good reason; is there anything on the Dolphins more automatic than Davone Bess for the 1st down? Or the key catch? Or just the sheer beauty of seeing a young man come out of the obscurity of being undrafted to being such a key component of this team by making the most of every opportunity thrown his way.

• What a catch by Ronnie Brown late in the 4th on the sideline! And the body control to stay in bounds—nothing short of astounding.

• THAT, my orange and aqua friends, is CLUTCH—that is a clutch player doing what a clutch player does.

• I honestly believe now that Ted Ginn really would be much better off in the long run to sit for a while. By the 4th quarter when Quentin Jammer jumped his route and nearly intercepted Henne, Ginn was just folding on even the most incidental contact; watch that play again to see what I mean. And two more drops today on balls he had already gone to the ground to catch…unacceptable.

• I’m just saying that he would probably benefit from a break, because between last week’s four drops and today, he is starting to show signs of the “Sammie Smith Syndrome.” He’s getting beaten down and you can see it in his demeanor; but you can really see it in his route-running, which had improved this season but today was sloppy and tentative.

• You know it has gotten bad when I’M starting to feel bad for the kid. By all accounts he’s a good person and it’s too bad he was picked so high in that draft, setting him up with expectations which wrote a check that he can’t cash. But the cold fact is that the NFL belongs to those who can meet its challenges head-on and overcome them. Ginn never grabs that particular bull by the horns in my opinion.

• And to Ginn’s “protectors” —as if he needed to be shielded from message-board criticism—who say that we should get past where he was drafted, I say this: I never heard anything about Ginn refusing the contract due him for his draft position. He signed it, and he’s currently cashing the checks. So WE—the team’s fans—are entitled to expect top-ten performance for top-ten pay. He’s tying up his share of the cap, he’s getting paid, and he needs to step up; and when he fails, we are at the very least entitled to criticize him accordingly.

• @10;30/4th, Will Allen was called for pass interference against Vincent Jackson, when it was Jackson who was elbowing Allen in the face, at the very least faceguarding and at worst aggressively interfering.

• Officials in both the Hurricanes’ game Saturday and this game today made some seriously bull**** PI calls, most of them against the Miami teams.

• Someday penalties will be reviewable, along with probably every other aspect of the game, and we’ll look back and wonder why it wasn’t always so…as we do at present with reviewable plays.

• Mark Sanchez…how heady is this kid? He stands in when he has to, runs when he needs to, knows exactly where he is at all times on the field, already sells the play-action better than all but maybe the top five QBs in the league…and this guy is a rookie!

• Am I jealous? You bet….not often you can say that regarding a player on the Jets. They’re 2 for 3 in the 1st round the last 3 years with Sanchez this draft and Revis in ’07; only Vernon Gholston keeps them from having turned their drafting 180 degrees from their dismal past.

• Sanchez joins Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco as Rookie QBs who play right away with success just in the last couple years.

• Nice to see you don’t ALWAYS have to wait years for a guy to develop only to have him turn out to be John Beck.

• And I’m sorry, but Chad Henne hasn’t improved one bit since 2008’s training camp and preseason, and it even seems that he has regressed under the pressure of natural expectations inherent to the position, compounded by being a high draft pick.

• From reading Defenses to recognizing traps, to standing in when he needs to and throwing it away when necessary, to making the same bonehead decisions he was making in and right out of college, Henne does NOT look ONE BIT the part of a starter.

• Two whole offseasons’ worth of mini-camps, training camps and preseason games, and he STILL doesn’t know that he isn’t allowed to throw a pass from three yards past the line of scrimmage?

• I present you: the Quarterbacks in the 2010 draft.

• What a great kid Larry Fitzgerald is; and could that superlative character come to rest in a more talented body? He’s a treasure.

• A real battle of the titans in the Arizona-Indianapolis game between Peyton Manning and Kurt Warner.

• Not that Warner’s Curriculum Vitae can hold a candle to Manning’s, but Warner is playing lights-out right now and it makes for an interesting matchup.

• From the ESPN crawler: “ Tim Tebow released from the hospital where he was held overnight for a concussion he suffered.”

• Said Coach Urban Meyer: “Tim is feeling quite well today.”

• Translation: “My sphincter has now unclenched enough for me to be able to ingest solid food again.”

• I hope that Joan Jett is raking in FAT royalties from her song being played as the opening for Sunday Night Football the last three years. Joan is a genuine talent who never really got her due after getting lost in the post-post-punk backlash against early MTV acts. Good for her (and Desmond Child) that one of her great tunes has been given new life, albeit by a country artist.

• Okay, a HOT country artist.

• But Pink did it better.

• Eric Estrada and Carrot Top in the same commercial is gonna be the end of me. If they add Shatner to the next one, the universe could fold in on itself from the sheer awesome of it.

• Esss-trrra-daaah.

• Speaking of commercials; just before the half the number of ads was abusive, plain and simple. I was watching in real time up to that point, but I walked away at the half and watched the rest on DVR about 35 minutes behind. I understand the need to pay the bills, but that was excessive.

• Bush league of the stadium staff at Qualcomm Stadium to play dolphin sounds over the PA system seconds after the game ended, as players and coaches shook hands. Just to mock a team that was already beaten.

I despise this hateful, anything-goes attitude that permeates sports today and strips from them what is supposed to, first and foremost, build character and promote sportsmanship in an age when we could use more—not less—of those qualities.

Even in as decent a place as our little home-away-from-home here, I see posts all the time even by people I like and respect that indicate they don’t understand what’s wrong with having a laugh at the expense of someone else’s feelings—even their real, heartfelt humiliation.

Fans’ reaction to Erin Andrews’ recent issues with the peeping tom, and with Rey Maualuga before that, brought this to light.

At least in high school sports—for the most part—coaches are fighting to keep teaching the inherent decency of sportsmanship.

For the most part.

There was an account this week of a high school team beating an opponent 95-0; still throwing in the 3rd quarter to get the Quarterback some record or another.

In my opinion that that team’s Coach and QB should have been forced to sit in their opponent’s locker room after the game; just sit there and endure their humiliation—right there with them until every player finished dressing and left.

Back in San Diego; when the stadium staff of an NFL team is permitted to taunt a thoroughly beaten opponent during that pinnacle of sportsmanship—the postgame handshakes—it perpetuates the seemingly prevalent notion that it’s OK to be a dickless, passive-aggressive little creep even while the very team that you labor for is doing the right thing with their opponent—on the field, face-to-face.

I’ll be very disappointed in the NFL if this is not addressed, one way or another.

But the fact is that I fully expect to be disappointed once again by Roger Goodell’s NFL.

After all, there’s no money in sportsmanship.

Hey, look: a narrative after all!

 

Thank you, Seth. If I could only SLEEP...

 

I'm telling you, man...I saw the beginnings of something ugly today in Ginn.

He seems defeated; just like Sammie did way back then.

As to the topic: I'd like to keep this respectful, like a conversation in semi-polite company.

To that end, please realize that when I criticize Ted Ginn, I am NOT personally insulting you, nor taking food from your family's table, nor hitting on your wife.

Although I may have hit on your wife at some point, at a time in which I felt vulnerable and alone and in need of valida...never mind.

Just keep the topic ON TOPIC.

And by the way, I wrote a whole ****load of other stuff too.

 

This is the kind of ignorant **** that stirs the pot in the wrong direction.

I want to get you thinking, not sniping.

Maybe add something to the conversation besides baiting?

 

No.

The topic here is NEVER other posters.

The topic at hand is the article; the attention seems to be going to Ginn again, which is fine.

Which makes Ginn the topic. We can talk about anything regarding him, but once you make another poster the topic, we all lose.