IS PETE CARROLL A TROJAN HATER?

Posted on July 23, 2010 by Jason Anderson

I’m still getting over the fact that Pete Carroll bailed out on the greatest job in college

Pete Carroll and his Blue Steel.

sports to go coach the Seahawks.  Both the timing of the decision, and the possible motivation for doing so, have already been analyzed to death so I won’t address that here.  But for those of us who live here in sunny Southern California, and those of you who do know what I am talking about, it matters very little that the Trojans have been whacked down a few pegs for awhile.  He was the King in the land of fast cars, beautiful women, incredible weather, and lots, and lots, and lots of money.  And I guarantee you he would have been given a pass on mediocre seasons over the next four or five years while the program reboots, and I am sure he knew that.  People were falling over themselves and paying money just to eat with him, hang out with him or whatever.  Instead, he went to Seattle.  Seattle is a great town but a town entirely different than Los Angeles (which I am sure Seattle residents are very proud of).  And its the Seahawks, not the storied franchises like the Steelers, or the Cowboys or the Packers or even, gulp, the Raiders.  And he was as widely known in his prior NFL days as fellow Trojan Jack Del Rio, which ain’t dick compared to being the King of Los Angeles and Trojanland, and odds are that’s what’s in store for him again this time around. No free concert ticks and meals in Seattle.  I’m still scratching my head over his decision.  Even with the sanctions, I just don’t get it.

So, needless to say, I was as blown away as Taylor Mays when Carroll passed on him to take Longhorn Earl Thomas instead.  Unfortunate emotional reaction aside, I get why Mays was pissed.  Neither he, nor Thomas have played a single down in the NFL so could Carroll really say Thomas was so much better than Mays that it was logical to take him over a guy you just got done coaching for the last four years? A guy who happens to be a 6′ 3″ 230 4.4 running SAFETY?  Wasn’t Carroll making a statement with that decision?  My creeping doubts were quickly allayed when a major draft day trade was then made that brought former pupil Lendale White to the Seahawks.  But, as you know, White was then very publicly and embarrassingly dismissed from the team for reasons, to this day, that have not been fully explained.  Ok, he was slacking off, the attitude was off a bit, but don’t you take the time to help a former pupil out in such a situation? You completely lay him out in front of the world?  Aren’t you making another Trojan statement with this kind of public flogging?  Carroll also made another draft day trade for Leon Washington and, in the process, passed on yet another Trojan, Joe McKnight, who the Jets took immediately following that trade.  Really, a guy who snapped his leg in two and may never be able to play at the same level again instead of a fresher, nearly identical guy that you just got done coaching for four years?  Statement?

This morning, I just read that Seahawk defensive end, first round draft pick and former Carroll pupil at USC, Lawrence Jackson, has lost his starting job in favor of a 330 pound, converted defensive tackle.  Huh?  Lawrence Jackson was a flat out beast for Carroll and huge contributor to those winning teams.  And before you coach even one regular season game upon your return, you lay down yet another Trojan?

So all of this got me to wondering whether Carroll has quickly become a certifiable Trojan Hater? Maybe even a Bruin fan?  If the thinks he’s distancing himself from the sanctions by doing this, then he’s just fooling himself.  However, personally, I don’t think he’s that dumb.  That’s going to stick with him for the rest of his life as much as it will stick to Garrett and Reggie.  He knows that, and I’m pretty sure he has over five million reasons to be over it already anyway, so this constant, public whacking of former Trojans makes little sense.  Or does it?

I’m pretty sure you don’t just walk into an NFL coaching job from the college ranks and expect highly paid, all grown up, professional athletes to buy into everything you have to say.  These guys have to believe in you first.  I’m pretty sure the Jets would have had several more years of rebuilding around Sanchez before they made the playoffs if Fat Rex wasn’t so good at making his players believe in him.  The Jets did and they made the playoffs over many teams who probably have a better, more talented roster, and its almost solely because of that belief.  For all of the crap the Trojans have taken for winning national championships with an improperly gained high number of high level athletes, they still don’t win those championships unless they believed in Pete.  Just asked Jerry Jones and Dan Synder or event the late George Steinbrenner for that matter.  So my guess is that Carroll has not all of sudden become a Trojan Hater, nor do I think he thinks those Trojans he’s passed on and/or dismissed are not good, NFL football players.  Instead, I think he does not believe the Seahawks will believe in him if they think he believes in nothing but his former players.  So, in order to get the Seahawks to buy into him, he is whacking his former soldiers as a show of good faith. Call it a sacrifice to the gods.

Notably, the one former pupil he hasn’t whacked, at least not yet, is Mike Williams.  Remember him?  I bet a lot of people don’t by now.  With all due respect to Keyshawn, Big Mike is probably the greatest receiver the Trojans have ever had.  He got sucked into that Maurice Clarett deal and got spit out a fat, incompetent football player.  It was a tragedy.  Left for dead, Carroll took him under his wing during this offseason and, if media reports are to believed, it looks like Big Mike is going to make the team and, who knows, maybe he even regains some of that old glory.  The difference here, with respect to the above, is that Williams’ association with the Trojans is tenuous at best at this point.  More importantly, he’s now better known as a washed up, former Detroit Lion who Carroll is willing to believe in because he is doing everything he can to get it together and not because he happened to play his college ball in LALA land.  Other Seahawks (and potential free agents) can respect and buy into that, but not giving a spot on the team to a guy simply because he used to play for Carroll at USC.  Trojan Hater?  No.  Wily fox?  Yes.  Fight On!!!!

Posted in College Sickness, NFL Sickness | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

FANTASY SICKNESS: STAGE 4 SLEEPER ALERT (RB EDITION)

Posted on July 5, 2010 by Jason Anderson

Do NOT write this guy off.

I think my Sickness is probably at Stage 4 right now, and I’m not sure either chemo or radiation is enough to save me.  Basketball is over with, and I just can’t get in to the Lebron sweepstakes.  It doesn’t matter where he goes or how many other superstars join him there, because Kobe is going to stomp on him yet again.  Just ask the all star team of Garnett, Pierce, Allen and Rondo.  It don’t mean a thang.  World Cup is dead to me now as well.  Ghana?  Really?  And I don’t even recognize baseball as a sport.  It’s a pastime far more suited for a country like, say, France, than the United States of America. In short, there’s nothing to distract me right now and I’m so Sick I don’t know what to do.  But, I will try to get through it nonetheless with some insanely random picks for fantasy success next year.

1.      Joe McKnight.   Yeah, I like the Trojans, so bite me.  I’m not saying draft him in the first ten rounds or expect him to be even a servicable bench/bye type guy next year.  Read above.  I said insanely random.  Here are my thoughts on this though:  1)  The Jets’ offensive line and run first offense is, well, insane.  Tom Jones is going to miss it badly this year.  One or two dings or bad performances by Greene or LT, which is not hard to imagine, and boom, McKnight gets some touches behind that well oiled machine; 2)  McKnight played college ball with Sanchez, i.e., the guy handing and/or dumping the ball off to him in New York.  In a game were milimeters and miliseconds matter, a little symbiosis can’t hurt, right?; 3) review the tape on Leon Washington; that position didn’t hurt many teams fantasy football team’s bottom lines; and, 4) pure gut feeling, but he reminds me of OJ Mayo.  For those of you who don’t follow the Trojans, Mayo played hoop there and was one of the most highly recruited players out of high school.  When he got to South Central though, he played well but not great. In my view, he didn’t even come close to the expectations and I was blown away by how high he was drafted in the NBA given his performance.  Turns out those guys in the NBA have jobs for a reason because Mayo is off to a torching start.  I’m guessing his game just translates better in the pros than it did in college which apparently everyone but me knew.  I’m feeling the same away about McKnight.  One of the most highly recruited players out of high school, he just didn’t quite nail it like everyone expected him too.  He was supposed to be the next Reggie Bush but wasn’t even close.  With that said, he is insanely fast, shifty, and he had more than one game at USC that made you stand up and say Holy Crap!!.  Maybe his game just translates better in the pros (or behind that Jet offensive line).  I’ve got my eye on Joe McKnight and so should you.

2.      Steve Slaton.   It’s funny to me to hear all the experts cornholing him into the role of “third down back.”  They said the same thing about him when he was drafted, based primarly on his size, and all he did was absolutely light it up his rookie season.  People only remember Matt Forte and Chris Johnson that year now, but there was a stretch of games that season where there was no better running back in the league and he was crowned Houston’s franchise back for the next decade.  Then he got injured and now everyone says, see, he can’t carry the load, he’s not big enough.  Amazing how quickly things change and how short some people’s memories are.  First, I’m not even sure what a “third down back” is anymore in this day and age of running back by committees.  In the old days, a third down back would come in only on, well, third down and only then if it was certain yardage or a certain time in the game that warranted a dump off or pitch.  They would maybe get 8 touches a game.  Today’s third down back is usually in on every third down and some times second and first downs two, along with the “workhorse back.”  Size is an issue?  How big was Priest Holmes?  How big is Maurice Jones Drew or Ray Rice?  That’s always the weakest argument, and Slaton already disproved it by having multiple 100 plus yard games.  Yes, he got injured, but so too did many, many big, so called “workhorse backs”  How much did Michael Turner play last year?  Here’s what I see:  Houston’s offense is a juggernaut and will be that way again for sure.  Arian Foster, Ben Tate and the like are servicable, but not locks for the position by any means and if Slaton gets another opportunity to resume the path of his rookie season, and you had the stones to take a flier on him, you are going to look like a fantasy football genius.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE AT CHATTANOOGA. DUH.

Posted on June 23, 2010 by Jason Anderson

My football trivia superpowes are like this guy's spy skills.

To paraphrase Jason Bourne,  ”I can tell the guy over there has a gun in the back seat of his truck outside.  I can speak seven languages.  I can tell you that the guy at the bar is left handed, weighs 210 and can handle himself.  I can tell you that I can run flat out

for over five miles before I start to run out of breadth.  Now how do I know all these things, but I don’t even know who I am?”

Recently, some of my co-workers were discussing football trivia, and the question was raised:  What college did Terrell Owens attend?  The co-worker to whom the question was posed actually paused.  Can you effing believe it?  At any rate, without even thinking about it, I shouted out University of Tennessee at Chattanooga from my office which, incidently, was about ten offices down from where these juveniles were having their discussion.  It was literally a reflex.  I didn’t even blink.  And immediately thereafter, I had to ask myself, now how do I know that, but not know who I am?

Answer:  I’ve got the Sickness baby.

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!!

Posted in Miscellaneous Sickness | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

DID TRA THOMAS JUST CROSS A PICKET LINE?

Posted on June 11, 2010 by Jason Anderson
There has been much discussion, and much written, about what’s going to happen in 2011 if the player’s union and the owners cannot come to a labor agreement in the very near future.  I, for one, am starting to get really nervous about what’s going to happen this year.  Seems like every day now I read about a player who is refusing to sign his one year tender and threatening to hold out throughout the season if he does not get a long term deal.  For those of you out of the loop, a “long term deal” is just another way of saying a truckload of up-front, guaranteed cash, because most of those guys doing the complaining already have contracts with several years remaining on them.  With Derek Fisher literally crying over how happy he is just to be able to contribute to his team and a certain Detroit Tigers pitcher going out of his way to console the ump who robbed him of a nearly impossible to achieve perfect game just to ease his pain, this posturing for more money is really starting to bum me out.  Actually, it is starting to give me the shakes.
Owner in most cases are refusing to meet those demands because, according to media reports, they are uncertain of what the new labor agreement will be like, if and when it gets inked.  I’m not really sure what that means.  Aren’t all employers uncertain about what is going to happen next year or the years after that?  What kinds of potentially acceptable labor terms would turn out to be bad for a team that locks in one of its most important players now anyhow?  Oh, damn, I could have paid him less money?  What the hell is that?
At any rate, this is quickly coming to a head in San Diego where A.J. Smith could not give one small crap about what the labor agreement is going to look like next year.  A.J. is just not going to have a player or agent dictate terms to him.  Period.  Ever.  And just to prove his point, he just signed up Tra Thomas.  Yeah, that’s right, Tra Thomas.  Huh?  I’m pretty sure Marcus McNeill started laughing uncontrollably when he heard that and probably still hasn’t stopped.  It actually is kind of funny, but I’m not laughin,’ dammit.  What A.J. is saying is that he doesn’t care whether the Chargers win or not.  No one is dictating terms to him.  You know who else is a lot like that?  Bud Adams, that’s who.  And the Titans have their own Tra Thomas-like version of a backfield, and so Adams is thus far telling Chris Johnson to suck it.  And Mangold isn’t showing up.  And Miles Austin and Pierre Thomas are refusing to sign their tenders.  And even Andre Johnson is saying show me the money.  And when the rhetoric starts ramping up like this, bad things are going to happen for you and me.  Mark it down.  You might as well put on the name tag that reads “Hi.  My name is Collateral Damage.”
All of which got me thinking today.  If Vincent Jackson and Marcus McNeil really do refuse to play, does that start a domino effect where more and more players start saying, you know what, I’m out too beeatch?  Is there more going on here than meets the eye?  Are the players going to go on strike now, in 2010, before they got locked out by the owners in 2011?  And finally, did Tra Thomas just become the first official NFL scab in this dispute?  I submit that we are getting scary close to not having football at all this year.
Someone wrote the other day that the fans should consider going on strike.  That would end this dispute immediately because if we don’t buy tickets and gear and we don’t watch it on t.v. where we get bombarded by advertising, then they really have nothing to talk about.  The problem is we have the Sickness and the Sickness compels us to keep feeding into these labor disputes.  All I know is that I wish they would hurry up and work this out because I am starting to get the shakes real bad.  Unless the US wins the World Cup, which would be so sweet, this Country needs football right now, more than ever.  If they bail out on us right now over something as lame as money, it could very well end the Sickness for a long, long time.
_______________________
On a side note, I feel compelled to comment on my beloved Trojans.  They got spanked today.  Hard.  Having attended SMU in the early 90s, I can attest to the devastation these types of sanctions can do to a sports program.  We were rooting hard for the diving team in those years.  It’s absolutely brutal if you’ve got the Sickness.  It appears the NCAA found that the Trojans did violate the rules.  Saying other teams do so all the time as well is a cop out and stupid.  Moreover, if there isn’t punishment for violating rules, then why have rules at all?  And, while one can take issue with those rules, how they are enforced, the conflicts of those enforcing them, or the extent and nature of the punishment doled out for violating them, it doesn’t matter.  If you don’t win within the rules, then those wins aren’t really wins at all, are they?  The swagger is gone.  The pride has vanished.  I am utterly depressed and ashamed.
____________________________
This has been a terrible day for football for me.  The only thing worse for me would be to now read that Al Davis has given it a second thougt and has decided to resign Jamarcus.
They say it is times like these that define one’s character.  I can think of only one thing to say to define mine right now: Fight on!!
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

FOUR PREDICTIONS FOR THE AFC WEST IN 2010

Posted on May 25, 2010 by Jason Anderson

"PLAYOFFS?"

1.      The Oakland Raiders will make the playoffs.     I will say up front that the Raiders are and have always been my team, so take this prediction with whatever grain of salt you feel is necessary.  However, they have tons of talent, they showed last year that they can beat good teams with only a mildly serviceable quarterback and they now have a better than serviceable quarterback (Editor’s Note: Hmmm.), they play in one of the worst divisions in the NFL, and they are due.  I repeat: they are effing due.  Every year there are a few teams who come from nowhere to make the playoffs.  Take the Jets and Bengals last year.  Very few people predicted they would make the playoffs last year, but they did.  The Raiders are going to be one of these teams next year, and Al Davis will have his revenge.

2.      This will be Norv Turner’s last year in San Diego.  Notwithstanding the fact that I love the Raiders, I also like the Chargers, which I understand is sacrilege.  In fact, I was secretly hoping that Al Davis would do the improbable and offer his nemesis, Marty Schottenheimer (I made no attempt to look up the proper spelling of his name) (Editor’s Note 2: Nailed it on the first take!  Proud of you.) the head coaching gig, and that Marty would accept it when he was canned from the Chargers.  However, with respect to the Chargers, I have this feeling they are done being a dominant team.  LT is gone.  The offensive line is suddenly shaky, and the defense can never seem to get it together for an entire season.  We are now in year three of the Norv Turner era and his draft picks, and I believe all of his head coaching deficiencies are going to show themselves again this year and the Chargers will either have The Chin or Grudes as a head coach next year. (Editor’s Note 3: This is obvious nonsense.  Everyone knows Grudes is the next Browns HC)
3.      Dwayne Bowe will rebound this year.  The guy is a huge freak of nature and an unbelievable talent.  He just wasn’t used to playing on such a crappy team, and I think he gave up a bit, especially after Tony G bailed out.  Haley kicked his ass last year though and, if media reports are to be relied upon, he seems to be responding in the correct manner.  That alone is probably enough for such a talent.  However, the Chiefs line is improving, Cassell has got a year in the offense under his belt, and the Chiefs have all kinds of whacky, Dexter Mcluster-like and Jamal Charles-like third down options, not to mention a huge Jonesyen upgrade over Larry Johnson, to make things easier for Bowe.  He will be in the Top 15, if not 10 of wide receivers next year.
4.      The Broncos are going to suck, and suck bad.  The Broncos are by far my most hated team so take this prediction with whatever medication you think is necessary.  However, I only needed to see Josh McDaniels doing the chicken dance at midfield after lucking into a win over the Patriots last year to know he is way over his skis on this head coaching gig.  I would say more than half of his wins last year were a direct result of the wide receiver he just traded.  Nolan, a defensive genius in my mind, is gone and that defense consists of either old guys or bad draft picks, excepting of course Mr. D.J. How you Like Me Now Roy Williams, Williams. (Editor’s Note 4: Elvis Dumervil and Champ Bailey will no doubt be surprised to be so informed.) They’ve got babies at the wide receiver position, their main offensive line guys sustained major injuries doing offseason things, and Knowshon will not be able to carry this team all by himself.  In fact, I predict they will have the No. 1 pick in the draft next year and I will be laughing my ass off.
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

GOODBYE, JAMARCUS

Posted on May 6, 2010 by Jason Anderson

Number Two exhibits the fundamental quarterbacking skills that got him drafted No. 1 overall in 2007.

JaMarcus Russell has been released by the Oakland Raiders. As a long time Raider fan, it seems almost surreal.  Almost like drafting him no. 1 overall never happened, although I am sure Mr. Davis’ wallet knows damn well that it happened big time.  In all honesty, I was excited when the pick was made, but I would have been excited about just about anyone the Raiders selected no. 1 overall.  However, I never really thought he would be the one player that finally ended our losing ways, which came on the moment Grudes and Gannon left us.  He’s never looked like a quarterback to me.  He’s too damn big.  And, apart from beating up a relatively average Notre Dame team in a bowl game, I cannot recall watching any of his college games and saying to myself, “this guy is going to kill it the NFL.”  That Luck kid at Stanford, however, he’s a different story.  But I digress.  So, needless to say, I was not all that surprised when, after donning the Silver & Black and taking a snap in a game, he barely twitched his thigh of an arm and effortlessly threw a tight spiral over seventy yards in the air downfield . . . and hit the cheerleader standing ten yards outside of the out of bounds line.  Isn’t that what gigantic quarterbacks do?
In Jamarcus’ defense, he came in at a tough time.  We had already endured a number of bad post-Gruden years and Al was pissed.  We had a lot of coaching turn over, including one that resulted from a very public fight with Mr. Kiffin.  Moss didn’t want to play for us any more.  Porter didn’t want to play for us anymore.  Walker may have wanted to play for us, but couldn’t for the most bizarre and unforeseen of circumstances. The O-line got old and out of synch all of a sudden.  In short, there were a lot of things going on at the time, and Russell wasn’t set up very well for success.  The pirate ship appears to be on calmer waters these days, and I actually finally do have some high hopes for the upcoming season.  However, as is true with any organization, from the Raiders to Citibank, it is nearly impossible for the same guys to stay on that ship.  It takes a special kind of person to weather such a storm and, if the media reports regarding Russell are accurate, he’s probably isn’t that kind of person (especially given his release).
This had to be a particularly difficult decision for Al.  He takes so much crap from the sports media, most of whom are probably far too young to understand or appreciate the fact that one of the primary reasons they even have a job at all is because of what Al has done for the league.  I don’t mean to suggest that they should not do their job of reporting news like the recent Hanson deal, but calling Al a freak or incompetent when it comes to football isn’t exactly reporting news. (Editors’ note: There goes my idea for that investigative piece, “The Autumn Wind is a Lunatic.”) Releasing Jamarcus can only feed into and add credibility to that garbage though.  And I suspect that, possibly even more than the huge amount of money he invested without any return, is what made the decision very painful for Al.  As a fan though, I appreciate both the move and the courage to make it.  Jamarcus wasn’t getting it done, there were not any signs he would ever get it done, and therefore he could only hurt the team by being a constant, in-your-face reminder of an employee making tons more money than those who contribute far more to the team day after day after day.  Again, that is a major problem in any organization, not just football.
I hope Campbell works out.  For now, in light of my hopes, I’m going to call him the Black Gannon.  If it doesn’t work out though, there always a little Luck in the Bay Area next year.
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

FIRST BUZZ

Posted on April 29, 2010 by Jason Anderson
A good friend of mine recently started a website about football, which he called FootballSickness.  I can honestly say that the NFL is about the only thing that keeps me sane.  Some people like to make and spend tons of money.  Some people travel the world.  Others like to climb mountains and jump off buildings and bridges with nothing but a small hankie to break their falls.  I get why people do these things.  For me, its football.  It is an escape but, for some strange reason, it also grounds me in reality.  But, when my good friend asked me to do a blog for his new website about football, I was actually a bit reluctant.  I’ve never posted anything on the Internet before.  I’m one of those guys who is absolutely certain that Big Brother is watching and that the Internet will be the death of our God given freedom some day very soon.  Indeed, I’ve used stuff that people have put on the Internet to get hundred million dollar lawsuits dismissed, and I’m just a guy, not Big Brother.  Nonetheless, because I am an admitted addict, and because I’ve never been able to help myself, I agreed to do so.  I wrote and submitted this bit about how I thought Gruden and Steve Young were going to kick the crap out of each during the airing of the draft, which I thought was pretty funny.  Just thinking of Gruden’s face when he was staring Young down makes me crack up even now.  Well, I was just informed that my very first blog submission, which I had reservations about doing in the first place, has been rejected because it contains too much profanity.  The irony is stifling and depressing.  Big Brother can !*@#! my a@&%$!! and this website should be renamed FootballTummyAche because Sickness may just be a little too provacative.  More to follow.  Go Raiders!!!  The Fly.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Standard Raider fan myopia.  Ok, I’m persuaded/I changed my mind.  Here is the Fly’s original piece.  The Fly must be allowed to speak his mind.  He’s right- it’s funny.  Trust me, it will be worth our time.  Moshtly.)
Is it just me, or did Gruden and Steve Young almost throw down on national television during the first round of the draft?  I realize there is probably some acting going on here, but I swear Gruden really wanted to hit him square in the face.  Absent an actual brawl, however, I think they should dispense with the talking head crap.  You don’t need to keep talking to keep my attention during this time.  Really, you had me at the words “NFL Draft.”  Instead, they should have Darth Vader do voice overs on endless clips of college game tape until the next team is ready to make its pick.  Also, stop showing the guy on the phone with a boner in his pants just before he gets picked. Reminds me of the time my buddy told me everyone is already dead just before I paid money to see the Sixth Sense.  Anyway, I’ve now got the shakes because I have been mocking my balls off for the last three months and don’t know what to do with myself.  Thanks a lot Bin Laden.
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment