Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Begrudgingly Hesitant

I love that T.O. is a Buffalo Bill! I feel like I just need to say that before I continue with the rest of this article.

However, as Lord Acton said, "absolute power corrupts absolutely." T.O. will literally be given the keys to the city of Buffalo this week. This week he was also a guest sports commentator on the local news.

There are a couple of things that make me nervous about the situation in Buffalo right now. First, I don't like the amount of hyping of T.O.'s eventual explosion coming from ESPN. I can only hope that this makes T.O. mad enough to prove them wrong. Second, I don't like that before he can even catch a pass T.O. is being treated as virtual royalty in Buffalo. It would be nice if he felt like he had something to prove. It would be nice if he felt like he had to prove to analysts that he hasn't lost a step. Is there anything that he could do wrong at this point? Say he does stink, certainly a narcissist of his level would never man up and take any blame.

My scariest moment of the T.O. show was his comments on leadership. He said that he would be a leader if asked to be. The scary part was that he said that there are clips of him barking at people on the sidelines, but that was just his leadership style. I'm not against tough love, but I am against yelling people on the sidelines as a leadership style. Is that really the most effective way to achieve your goal?

I would like nothing more then to look back on this post next February and say all of that worry was totally unnecessary. I would love it if T.O. proves all the haters wrong. I would love T.O. to earn his first ring this year with the Bills.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Put your money where your mouth is!

During the course of the past couple of seasons, I have lost some respect for Jason Taylor. Between "Dancing with the Stars", leaving the Dolphins because Parcells wasn't "respecting him", and a mediocre season with the Redskins (3.5 sacks) he dropped a couple of levels in my book.

However, he has regained all of my respect this off season. Jason has presented himself as a family man for the past couple of seasons. He has talked about taking off some time to be with his family and watch his kids grow up. I think that it is enormously respectable for an athlete to make public such a commitment to family. That being said, I think some people say this and then make decisions that seem completely contradictory to this commitment. Not Jason Taylor.

Apparently, Jason made an offer to the Miami front office that said what's a number that makes me coming back to the Dolphins financially sound for you. He put his pride and issues with Parcells aside and made being in the Miami area (for his family) a priority. The number that the Dolphins came back to Jason with was $1.5 million. This is quite possibly the best discount that anyone will get on a product in the whole country for the next five years (sorry bargain shoppers, you lose). Granted, Jason Taylor is 34, but he is still in good shape and will be able to contribute to a young Dolphins defense that will be switching between a 3-4 and 4-3 schemes as the year progresses. What are other DE's in the league making next year? Aaron Schobel (Bills), who is a little younger, and perhaps slightly less talented than Taylor will be looking at around $6 million for next year. As another point of reference, when Taylor left the Dolphins to go to the Redskins, he walked away from $7.5 million from the Dolphins. That's a six million dollar discount (almost all of T.O.'s salary for next year with the Bills)!!!

Hopefully, Jason's stats will improve next year along with the respect earned from putting his family first and returning to his home team in Miami.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Brett Favre

Dear America,

You love Brett Favre! I know that during the course of the past couple of seasons you keep saying that you wish Favre would stop with this flip-flopping on retirement. Let me tell you something though, you don’t wish that. You don’t wish that Brett would remain retired. You know that the first traces of a Minnesota deal made you salivate, if only a little bit.

Regardless of whether you have always hated Favre (Bears fans) or have always loved him, you are excited to see him play. If you hate him, you’re game to watch him get crushed as he loses another step of mobility. If you love him, you’re going to love watching the gun-slinger put together a couple more fourth quarter game-winning drives.

There are those out there that think one should retire with dignity. Those of you who think that, you didn’t win 3 NFL MVP awards. Favre has earned the right to do whatever the heck he wants. Not only has he earned this right; it’s an exciting process to watch as fans.

Right now NFL fans are desperately awaiting the beginning of mini-camps and pre-season football. The most exciting news story today (besides Favre) is: that the owners need to mend the fences with their quarterbacks who were snubbed either in free agency or during the draft (i.e. Campbell and McCown). Hearing about Favre coming back and how much of a difference that would potentially make to the Vikings is 100 times more exciting than hearing about a quarterback’s hurt feelings.

Then there is the excitement of thinking about all of the past games that Favre has been a part of! Knowing that next year, just as he did this past year with the Jets, there will be more of these exciting gun-slinger moments does make me want to watch football this very second!

America, stop hating on Brett for taking his time to decide on whether or not to stay retired. Don’t hate on him because he is changing his mind. In the end you know that you love it; you should admit that you love it and move on. You should be excited that there is even the chance that he might come back and that is part of the excitement that makes us love sports. Saying that you want this to stop is almost like saying that you want fourth quarter game-winning drives to stop as well.

Best regards,
Tim Deckman