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Updates from July, 2009 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

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  Seb 4:01 am on July 5, 2009 Permalink
  Tags: Houston Oilers, Steve McNair, Tennessee Oilers, Tennessee Titans   

  Remembering a Titan 

  Yesterday was a sad day for the NFL world: former Titans quarterback Steve McNair was found dead from several gunshot wounds at age 36. A 20-year old girlfriend of his, Sahel Kazemi, was also shot dead in the head. The two bodies were lying on the sofa and floor of McNair’s condo in Nashville, where he had just opened his restaurant, “Gridiron9″. His wife, Mechelle McNair, had not heard from him in a few days. While the dramatic circumstance surrounding McNair’s death are still unclear, I leave it to the police and media to shed the light on this case. I would much rather write a few words about the player and the man he was.

  Born and raised in Mississippi, McNair attended college at Alcorn State, where he quickly made a case for himself. Despite playing in a tiny Division I-AA college, his performance earned him All-American honors and the Walter Payton award as the best I-AA football player in the country, finishing third in the Heisman Trophy voting. “Air McNair” was drafted third overall by the Houston Oilers in 1995, and became their starting quarterback in 1997. Under the coaching of Jeff Fisher, McNair stood up the pressure of his 1st round Draft status and improved the Oilers/Titans’ record every year, culminating in their first ever Super Bowl appearance in 1999, a feat not even Warren Moon was able to accomplish in his illustrious career.

  

  Steve McNair, quarterback of the Tennessee Titans, during Super Bowl XXXIV

  Against Kurt Warner’s Rams, what initially began as a defensive struggle turned into a formidable offensive battle between what will end up as two of the best quarterbacks of their time, whose winner would not be determined until the very last second of the game: St. Louis had just scored a touchdown to take on a 23-16 lead and the Titans got the ball back at their 10-yard line with 1:48 left in the game. In a career-defining drive, McNair accounted for 62 yards, including a critical 1st down completion to Kevin Dyson on 3rd and 5 with 22 seconds left on the clock, while being hit by Rams DEs Kevin Carter and Jay Williams. With only :06 left, the following completion from McNair gave 9 additional yards to the Titans… but that ended up 1 yard shy of the goal line as time expired, thus giving the win to the Rams. Many – including myself – consider Super Bowl XXXIV as one of the all-time best Super Bowl games, and its last play, known as “The Tackle”, remains in every football fans’ mind.

  Beyond the loss, Steve McNair’s performance during the Super Bowl confirmed him as one of the decade’s rising stars and, as NBC’s Tom Curran puts it, “paved the way for teams to build around black QBs. It probably isn’t a coincidence that, once it became clear McNair was the real deal, quarterbacks like Donovan McNabb, Akili Smith, Michael Vick and Vince Young were suddenly top five selections.” McNair kept on improving his game. He made the Pro Bowl in 2000, 2003 and 2005. In 2003, fighting injuries, he concluded a 14-game season with 3,215 yards, 24 TDs, 7 interceptions (100.4 QB rating) and a remarkable 8.0 yard per play average that earned him Co-MVP honors with Colts QB Peyton Manning. As he matured through the years, he also played through several injuries that diminished some of his athletic abilities, but never hurt his mental game, competitiveness or toughness, leading him to become more of a field general in his final years with the Baltimore Ravens.

  While his career stats woud rank him among the 30 best quarterbacks of all time, already a huge accomplishment in itself, he should be best remembered for the type of player he was. Certainly one of the toughest quarterbacks to ever play, he was always respected by his peers and was often referred to as a true professional with a real passion for the game. Selfless on the field, he carried his generosity off the field, acting as a role model and getting involved in charitable activities for the youth in the Nashville community. McNair’s teammate and close friend Derrick Mason used to call him Smile and the “happiest and friendliest person I have known.”

  Yesterday was a sad day, and not just for the NFL world. We lost a good man, but should always remember the Titan he was.

  Seb is discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Seb 1:58 am on July 5, 2011 Permalink

    Two years since his death already… And here is a reminder of the Titan he was: http://bit.ly/kZwN8H

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  Guillaume 5:44 am on May 8, 2009 Permalink
  Tags: NFL Draft ( 3 ), Rookies ( 2 ), Salaries ( 2 )   

  #1 pick Quarterbacks and the money that goes with… 

  

  The NFL Draft is two weeks old and one statistic comes to mind immediately: for the ninth time in the past thirteen years, a Quarterback was selected #1 overall (Georgia’s Matthew Stafford to the Detroit Lions).
  Okay so we all know that QB is the “most important position on the field“, but still, how come teams are so willing to spend -every year- such crazy guaranteed money (with an increase of roughly 25% from one year to the next) to a young gun who has never attemped a single pass in the Pros.

  The reason this is crazy is -and History shows it- because about 50% of these high pick QBs will end up beeing(unforgetable) busts. The list is endless and you have to look no further than Tim Couch (1999, Browns) or even closer to us, David Carr (2002, Texans), to remind yourself of what a useless selection these players turned out to be, despite the hefty contracts… Not that they were not talented (they must have been since teams’ scouting dpts spent countless hours and all came to the conclusion that these guys were the highest rated players on the board in these particular years, and scouts can’t all be wrong can they?)…it just happened that for various reasons, it did not click.

  Even more recent, Alex Smith (2005, 49ers) is on a very short leash entering his fifth year and having not played in two seasons because of injuries. No one ever questionned Smith’s talent and commitment coming out of Utah..but a new offensive coordinator every year, an absolutely atrocious offensive line which could not protect anyone and zero weapons to throw to, coupled with severe elbow injuries have slowed his development and put a big question mark on his career. Five years later, and despite the fact that Alex Smith is only turning 25 next week, a lot of people already consider him a major bust. not fair, but NFL stands for “Not For Long” and if you don’t get the job done real quick, you’re out of it.

  This is the price to pay when you are awarded such stupid money from the get go. In the case of Smith, he received a then record $24M in guaranteed money at the unbelievably young age of 20 years old. Five year later, the exponential increase in money guaranteed to the top pick has propelled new Lion Matthew Stafford to receive $41,7M.

  For the record, this was the 17th time in the last 40 years that a QB was taken with the first pick: Stafford could be the next Troy Aikman (1989, Cowboys), or the next Jeff George (1990, Colts), or, even worse, the next Michael Vick (2001, Falcons).
  In the 73 prior drafts, only three guys selected first went on to Rookie of the Year honors, none of them QBs. 12 overall number-ones earned Hall of Fame busts in Canton – Terry Bradshaw (1970), John Elway (1983), and Aikman, the three QBs to achieve the honor.

  And whilst it makes perfect sense that bad teams such as the Lions start off their entire rebuilding process with a “franchise QB” as the first piece to the puzzle, the financial commitment is so disproportionated with what the player will effectively give back to the team in terms of playing time & results that something is very wrong here. Last year, Matt Ryan, the rookie phenom from Atlanta who was the #3 pick out of Boston College, was the first to recognise “my rookie money is crazy…but what can I do about it? this is how things are done”.

  Now is about time that the NFL decides and settles on rookie salaries so that agents get out of the way using all the leverage power they currently have forcing teams to sign insane rookie contracts and thus taking away big chunks of salary cap money for teams to spend on the other 52 players that make a roster. Because in the end, you can have the most talented rookie QB in the world on your roster…if you have no money left to spend on a great supporting cast, than you actually have nothing, really, and your “investment/project” franchise QB will go south in a hurry. This is what happened to Carr: despite the obvious talent and all the physical tools, the other players around him were not very good and he failed at his mission whilst beeing the most sacked QB in the NFL three years in a row (and setting a league record for this…) ; This shows that one individual cannot win by himself  in this league, even if that one individual is a hotshot QB.

  Selecting a QB #1 overall is, I believe, the right thing to do (unless another player at another position is the next Jerry Rice or the next Ray Lewis or the next John Hannah). If not, than they are not worthy of such lofty status (and the money that goes with it). This money is absolutely insane and makes no sense, nowadays, in this day and age where players are free to leave after their initial contract or when teams give up on them after just three years. There needs to be a regulation of some sort, propelled by the commissioner and the NFLPA’s director, to make rookie salaries the way they should be.

  Then, and maybe just then, will teams allow themselves more time to groom and develop their #1 pick quarterbacks and give them the necessary time they need to become the franchise saviours everyone expects them to be. And if so, maybe the ratio (boom/bust) for #1 overall pick quarterbacks will go down from 50% to 25-30%, which would surely please the teams holding the #1 selection in next years’ drafts.
   
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  Guillaume 3:45 am on May 8, 2009 Permalink
  Tags: Hall of Fame ( 4 ), San Francisco 49ers ( 7 ), Steve Young ( 3 )   

  Time to unveil my favourite player… 

  I will make it short here, my all-time favourite player is Hall of Famer Steve Young.
  And you will hear about him on this blog. My bros and I argue on lots of topics but this is one of the few where both of us agree. I think I can speak on behalf of Seb to say that he is a fan as well.

  Among Steve Young’s main honors/achievement:

  • 2-time NFL MVP (1992-1994)
  • Super Bowl XXIX MVP
  • 7 Pro Bowl selections
  • Highest Passer Rating, Career – 96.9
  • Most Rushing Touchdowns by a QB, Career – 43
  • Most Passing Titles, Career – 6 (tied w/Sammy Baugh)
  • Most Consecutive Passing Titles – 4 (1991-94)
  • Most Seasons With a Passer Rating Over 100, Career – 6 (1991-94, 1997-98)
  • Most Consecutive Games w/300+ Yards Passing – 6 (Young was the first QB to do this in 1998; Kurt Warner (2000) and Rich Gannon (2002) have since tied the mark)
  • One of only 4 QB’s to lead the league in touchdown passes 4 times (tied w/Johnny Unitas, Brett Favre, and Len Dawson)
  • Most Passes Attempted, Playoff Game – 65 vs. Green Bay, 1995
  • Most TD Passes, Playoff Game – 6 (tied w/Daryle Lamonica)
  • Most TD Passes in one Super Bowl – 6