Category: External Sports (Page 288 of 821)
Deion Sanders, Marshall Faulk, Shannon Sharpe, Richard Dent, Chris Hanburger, Les Richter and NFL Films founder Ed Sabol were inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame for 2011.
The go-to comment whenever Sanders’ name is brought up is that he didn’t want to tackle. That’s true, but the man could cover. In fact, I still don’t think anyone could shut down an entire half of the field like he could. And back then, it wasn’t like today where guys stay away from top cornerbacks and threw to different options. Deion would lock onto Jerry Rice and it wasn’t like Joe Montana would stop throwing to his top receiver. (Unlike when Peyton Manning only threw one pass to Reggie Wayne in the playoffs this year because Darrelle Revis was covering him.)
Many people didn’t like his bravado and arrogance, but nobody can deny that “Neon” was electrifying. He was the present-day Devin Hester in that teams didn’t want to punt to him in fear of looking stupid. He was a playmaker in every sense of the word and one of the last true man-to-man corners to play the game. Outside of maybe Darrell Green (who didn’t mind tackling), nobody was better than Deion and he deserves his place in the Hall.
Sabol was well-deserving as well (the entire 2011 class was). The work he’s done with NFL Films is second to none. He developed a way for fans to have front row seats to the action on the sidelines between players and coaches. We also got to see hits and hear sounds that a regular TV broadcast couldn’t show. Every time I watch the playoffs I’m reminded of when Bill Parcells told some of his Giants players that were sitting on the bench during a game, “That’s why you lift all of those weights. That’s why you do all of that sh*t.” We’ve all scene that clip and it’s because of Sabol’s work that fans are given the chance to get that close to the action.
Congrats to the 2011 Pro Football Hall of Fame class.
The Phoenix Suns have stuck to their no-trade stance with regard to Steve Nash, Marc Stein reports.
Here’s Alvin Gentry’s take:
“The only reason you would ever even remotely consider trading Steve is if he came to you and said, ‘I think I need to move on somewhere,’ ” Gentry says. “That would be the only reason. But to us, making that decision to trade him, I don’t see why we would even think about it. You guys can keep talking about it, but we’re not going to trade him. He’s playing at such a high level. Why would we?
“How you gonna get value for him? Unless you’re gonna go get Deron Williams or Chris Paul or somebody like that, tell me how. Why do we have to bottom out to rebuild our team? I don’t see why you would want to bottom out and spend the next five years trying to get good again.”
So Gentry’s position is that you don’t trade Nash unless he gets to the point where he comes to the team and says that he wants to move on. But Nash is a throwback NBA star…
“Maybe I’m old school,” Nash said, “but I signed a contract to play here and I want to honor it. I feel like I owe it to my teammates and the city and everybody to keep battling until they tell me it’s time to go.”
…so he’s not going to ask for a trade even if deep down he’d rather play for a contender.
Gentry asks how the Suns would get value for him. A few days ago, I outlined three different trade scenarios that would help the Suns rebuild. Gentry wonders why a team has to bottom out, but what’s going to happen when Nash eventually retires? Of course you aren’t going to get a player of Nash’s caliber in return, but the point is to get a younger asset or two (and/or draft picks) that will help the team in five years, when Nash is retired.
Team president Lon Babby is of the same mind:
“I don’t see how it makes any sense for us to move him,” Babby said. “I know that people think we ought to look to the future. And we’re doing that. But if you look at the history of the teams that have sort of blown it up, as the expression goes, how successful have they been in recapturing [elite status] and how long does it take?
“I’m willing to put more faith in Grant Hill, Steve Nash and the players that we have than I am in a lottery ball,” Babby continued. “It’s easy to say blow it up, but show me the teams that have successfully done it and how long it took and how much luck was involved, because luck’s involved in everything. I don’t want to depend on fortuity. I’d rather depend on a two-time MVP.”
So because there’s luck involved in rebuilding a team shouldn’t do it? At some point, the Suns aren’t going to have any choice — Nash will retire and they’ll have to try to get good again. Isn’t that easier when you have a couple of extra good young players to build around?
To answer Babby’s question, the Magic were 21-61 when the won the lottery and drafted Dwight Howard. They were a 50-win team four seasons later. The Seattle Supersonics were 31-51 the year before they drafted Kevin Durant, and they were a 50-win team three years later. The Cavs were 17-65 the season before they landed LeBron James and they were a 50-win team three seasons later. Sure, those teams were fortunate to get those players in the draft, but it’s a lot easier to find a superstar at the top of the draft than it is at the bottom of the lottery.
The bottom line is that the Suns are going to be mediocre as long as Nash is playing, because he’s that good. But by taking this “no-trade” stance, they’re only delaying the inevitable. They’re going to bottom out eventually, and by holding onto Nash they won’t have the young assets to rebuild quickly and efficiently. By trading him now they’d give him an opportunity to play for a contender and by getting a few good young pieces they would increase the chances that the rebuilding process won’t be a long and painful one.
Trading away the face of the franchise is a tough thing to do, but Nash deserves to play for a contender, and the Suns lost that status when Amare Stoudemire signed with the Knicks last summer.
At last year’s Super Bowl, Yardbarker asked athletes and celebrities to spell “Roethlisberger” and many failed miserably. Believe it or not, many athletes and celebs struggled more this year with the name “Polamalu.”
Yikes. Check out the video below.
Phil Simms admitted on Saturday that he had a heated exchange with ESPN college football analyst Desmond Howard at the NFL Experience exhibit in Dallas. Apparently the altercation stemmed from a comment Howard made prior to the Tennessee-LSU game on October 2 when he said, “You will see three of the worst quarterbacks in the SEC in that game.”
Why the comment struck a nerve with Simms is because his son Matt was one of those three quarterbacks. He just finished his junior year at Tennessee and apparently ol’ dad didn’t appreciate what Howard had to say.
USA Today has the rest of the details:
On Saturday, Phil Simms confronted Howard about the comments.
“Desmond and I were having a private conversation that became heated,” Simms said in a statement released by CBS. “But at no time was there ever a chance of any physical confrontation, or that I felt the police officer assigned to me by the event planners for my appearance needed to separate the two of us.”
Howard, who was the MVP of Super Bowl XXXI with the Green Bay Packers, said on his Twitter account that Simms threatened to throw a punch.
At NFL-Xperience and Phil Simms just threatened 2 hit me b/c I said his son was 1 of the worse QBs in the SEC. I told him “LET’S GO!”
I am DEAD serious about the Phil Simms thing. We all thought he was joking, but he kept going and said he wanted 2 take a swing at me!!
It ended w/police stepping in between so I could continue my appearance w/fans.
Later Saturday, Howard issued a statement of his own through ESPN.
“I was at a public signing for a sponsor when Phil approached me to express anger over on-air analysis I made months ago about his son, Tennessee QB Matt Simms. During the conversation, Phil made a reference to hitting me and security and sponsor representatives soon stepped in. It was an unfortunate incident and I’m moving on.”
I’ve had the opportunity to interview Phil Simms twice here at The Scores Report and he was a pleasure to speak with both times. He’s honest, funny, positive and he knows the game of football.
He also knows that it’s other media members’ jobs to share their opinion when they’re in front of the camera or behind the computer. Others may have found a more delicate way to say what Howard did, but in the end he was just sharing his opinion. That’s what he’s paid to do and Simms can’t take it personal. He knows better than anyone that the media doesn’t always have kind words to share about players and quite frankly, that they’re not always right either. (In fact, we’re/they’re wrong way more times than we’re right.)
Simms is fortunate to have a couple of sons that were/are good enough to play at the college and/or pro level and everybody (including Phil himself) needs to roll with the punches (no pun intended). And hey listen, I get it – he’s a parent first. It can’t be easy to listen to someone criticize your child. But in the end, criticism is just part of the business – a business that Simms knows very well.
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