Short Note: Evidence of ESPN’s Double Standard (and PFT’s Agenda)
July 21, 2009 by dwil
Check this out from Pro Football Talk:
A media source tells us that, late last night, ESPN issued a “do not report” memo to all of its outlets and reporters. The directive came without explanation. “Even some of the reporters are wondering why,” the source said, “but haven’t been told.”
The same strategy was employed last year, in response to Jay Glazer’s report regarding Brett Favre’s alleged efforts to help the Lions beat the Packers.
As we reported at the time, the memo said the following: “WE HAVE BEEN TOLD BY RELIABLE SOURCES THIS REPORT IS NOT TRUE. We did NOT report it yesterday. Today, the NFL responded to the report, saying even if Favre did this he did not break any league rules. We are NOT reporting it today, because that would mean airing the erroneous report. DO NOT REPORT IT.”
This time around, ESPN can’t claim that the report of a civil suit alleging sexual assault isn’t true. Clearly, it is; Roethlisberger has hired attorney David Cornwell, who has denied the allegations in a statement initially sent to us, and then sent to other media outlets. And we’ve seen, and reported on, the contents of the complaint.
So in the absence of a legitimate reason from ESPN, we assume that there’s some other agenda at play here.
I must admit that it is interesting that, until Mike Florio got a gig elsewhere, he had a straw that was split, with one end leading to Bristol while the other landed on Roger Goodell office chair. And his early Michael Vick reporting was as racist as it comes:
But while TBL and Deadspin acted mostly as snarky comedians replete with a cavalcade of anti-Vick jokes for their audience, Mike Florio of the football rumor center, Pro Football Talk, took every anti-Vick report from daily newspapers and splashed snippets from them on the home page of his website. With personal commentary written with the obvious goal of allying himself with the new, neo-conservative tinged Roger Goodell NFL, Florio pushed race speech on the Internet to a dangerous place.
So, since Florio has an agenda of his own, there is no way he will ever receive props here. However, since he’s putting the screws to ESPN, about oh, three years late, I’ll use his info.
This is just disgusting, blatantly disgusting. ESPN basically is acting like the world isn’t turning and as a result, countless people who receive the bulk of their sports information for ESPIN are in the dark on this matter.
I bleed Black n Gold and I’m currently trying to be as objective as possible when I state that I would find it suspisous if some one filed a civlil suit a Year Later against even Tom Metsger insted of crimminal ones.
But the bottem line is….they have a obligainton as the WWL to at least repot this story on the Bottem Line…
The willful ignoring of the story only solidifies the bias that emanates from Bristol.
It’s one thing if ESPN had a hard policy of not reporting on civil suits filed against athletes. Its news division clearly does not (see Roberto Alomar, Shannon Brown) and to claim so, as the rationale was suggested to Florio, is awfully see-through. Calling this Swiss cheese is an insult to dairies. The worst part is that this will make for bad PR down the road. Media people are going to start paying attention to this if Bristol keeps plugging its fingers in its ears and singing “LALALALALA” at the top of its lungs.
I see that USA Today and Yahoo Sports picked up the Roethlisberger story.
You KNOW I’m a Steeler fan, but if Roethlisberger was Black (and I don’t usually take this tack because I tend to believe its hard to substantiate), he’d be getting gored by the national media at every turn.
Considering that his wounds from the bike incident were self-inflicted (due to stupidity); considering his undisciplined style of play (taking so many sacks instead of throwing the ball); and this allegation — that would be enough to get someone like Vince Young cut. Now, to be fair, if Vince had 2 rings, it might not matter much at all.
Temple:
“You KNOW I’m a Steeler fan, but if Roethlisberger was Black (and I don’t usually take this tack because I tend to believe its hard to substantiate), he’d be getting gored by the national media at every turn.”
————————————————
Co-Sign to the fullest
Ahhh the life of a golden boy QB. Ain’t life just grand.
And D cosign on Florio he is one of the biggest bigots around.
O-
Good to know others see Florio for the racist – and shill – that he is.
Ill and T3-
I’ve never been a Steelers fan as I’ve always believed they have been let waaaaay off the hook over the decades with a number of very serious transgressions (from rampant PED use in the 1970s and recently to gambling conflagrations).
BUT.
Remember Kordell Stewart.
Look how quickly he was beaten down by the Steelers’ management- from Cowher on up – after taking them right to the edge of a Super Bowl.
And generally, Roethlisberger has been treated with kid gloves SB wins or not. A well-known Black athlete with Ben R.’s background gets accused of sexual assault now ————- he done. With Ben R., remember that before the bike accident there were the infamous party photos…..
As a Steeler fan, the issue with Kordell Stewart was that Cowher treated him like a son playing on a Pop Warner team and not an NFL QB. I would argue that no QB was given more by an organization by doing less than Kordell Stewart. He was on the team for seven years and was our starting QB for FIVE years and had two decent seasons. He had three dreadful seasons, was awful in the playoffs, and cried on the sidelines during that time. And Cowher kept going back to him and Rooney signed him to a huge deal. So…let’s not pretend that Kordell was jerked around by an unfair management.
I will grant you that the fans were hard on him – going so far as to question his sexuality. And there was almost certainly a racial element to that. But, I lived through the Kordell Experience and cannot say I enjoyed it.
Anyway…Ben…I don’t know. I agree that the lack of coverage on this is bizarre. And I have to agree with you that if this were Purple Jesus, it would be the lead story. I’ve never disagreed with you that there is a double-standard in reporting. I’ve disagreed with you that every single thing ESPN does is a result of a double-standard. This, I can’t defend.
Having said that, the story is really strange and the girl is going to get hammered if this goes to court. This is a civil trial, and there are no rape shield laws there.
True on all levels D. Remember that even freaking Beno Cook came out and said that it was horrible how the city and team treated Kordell.
I mean Beno was even on ESPN breaking down and crying about how racist the city was to him.
Ever since then I had nothing but respect for Beno.
And D wasn’t Kordell benched like 2 games into the the season after leading the steelers to the Conf. Championship game.
I swear this was the same season that Charlie Batch was benched in Detroit. I remember the Lions benching Batch then letting one of the Detmer brothers start.
Detmer threw like 6 ints in his first start. 2 or 3 were returned for a TD. And he still started the rest of the season.
Those incidents with Batch and Kordell began to get the ball rolling with my current hatred towards the NFL.
And yes the league has always looked the other way when it came to the Steelers and Cowboys.
Myron-
As usual, you misrepresent my critique of the Steelers treatment of Kordell Stewart using opinion rather than facts.
Kordell Stewart came to Pittsburgh from Colorado U, as does the usual Black quarterback. In college they are, especially at almost all high-profile colleges, to “make a play” if their first option is not open. And make a play means run. So, the first chore for the Steelers was to remake Stewart into a QB who was NFL ready.
When he was given the keys to the Steelers offense, Stewart was 43-27 as the Stee;ers starter from 1997-2001. He had TWO losing seasons, 1998 (7-9) and 1999 (5-6).
Before the 1998 season the Steelers lost offensive coordinator Chan Gailey and replaced him with Ray Sherman. Also, the Steelers lost Pro Bowl wideout Yancey Thigpen after the 1997 season, which also saw the Steelers go to the AFC championship game.. Additionally Pittsburgh lost three starting linemen to injury, not coincidentally, just before the Steelers lost three games in a row. Before that they were 5-3. After they lost those games, they were 5-6 and Stewart was benched.
Is it an accident that he had those losing seasons after he lost his original coordinator, three starting linemen, and his favorite wide receiver?
NO.
In 2000 Cowher had the nerve to start frigging Kent Graham!!! After a 1-3 Start, Stewart took over and led Pitt. to an 8-4 record thereafter.
In 2002, after engineering the Steelers to a 13-3 record and taking Pittsburgh to the AFC championship game where they lost to the eventual SB champ Patriots, Stewart was replaced after the THIRD GAME by Tommy Maddox. Still, if you remember it was Stewart who won key consecutive division games against the Bengals and Jaguars for the Steelers when Maddox was hurt. Stewart was 3-2 as a starter in 2002, his final season with Pittsburgh.
Stewart left Pittsburgh after that season.
Was Kordell Stewart jerked around by Pittsburgh? Considering Tommy Maddox had exactly one decent season after replacing Stewart (Maddox went 6-10 in 2003), ABSOLUTELY!
How do you bench and ultimately let go of a QB that has a 43-27 record? It only happens to Black QBs – and it happened to Kordell Stewart.
Oh and EVERYBODY-
I’M WORKING ON A STORY ON JEREMY MAYFIELD FOR TOMORROW…. SO I MIGHT NOT POST ANYTHING TODAY.
You’re right. Kordell Stewart and his 55 percent completion percentage, his 77/84 TD/INT ratio, and his 6.3 ypa were good. We should have kept him around another 8 years. Because God knows they didn’t give him a chance.
He was actually pretty darn good in 2001. The problem was even in his best year he only threw 14 TDs and had 11 picks.
Trust me on this. I spent the better part of my 20s talking myself into the Kordell Experience. And there was never a moment where I thought. “All right…we are down 3 in the 4th…But Kordell has the ball in his hands….We’re ok.”
To this day, my two strongest memories of Kordell are the incredible two-point conversion he made against Cleveland in ’95. And the insane pick he threw against Denver in the ’97 AFCCG. If am I not mistaken, Shannon Sharpe yelled at him from the Denver huddle after the play, because HE was embarrassed for him.
By the way, I need Dwil’s address because I am sending him the psychiatric bill for making me relive the Kordell years. It’s like PTSD.
Exactly D…………………exactly.
I think my link won’t let me save so let me try this
From PFT’s latest:
John Gonzalez of the Philadelphia Inquirer takes a great look at the situation, including a quote from ESPN vice president and director of news Vince Doria, who confirms that there is no black-and-white rule in these matters, despite an initial (and horribly inept) effort by ESPN to sell the notion that the network was merely adhering to a clear, non-discretionary internal policy.
Doria also told the Wall Street Journal that, in the end, he made the decision to duck the story.
“Those are the things that I think are damaging to reputations, and I think you need to know more about them before you report them,” Doria said. “As it stands right now, today, we don’t think it meets our standard of reporting.”
Vince Doria should be slapped repeatedly all about the head and neck for that bull.
Myron-
You don’t get it. You actually sat down and tried to rely on statistics to explain a 43-27 WIN-LOSS record. Not TDs-INTs; not the score of a certain game, not Rushing attempts and rushing yards gained.
Wins and losses.
What’s the bottom line of Aaron Rodger’s beautiful statistical 2008 season, where he was in the top 10 in at least four of the allegedly most telling QB stats?
6-10.
And what were people and the press and the “experts” saying? To hell with the defense! if Brett Favre was here the Packers would have won 10 games!
You don’t take a quarterback who, for eight years, was taught to run like Black buck through the veldt if he couldn’t find an open receiver in .6 seconds and turn him into a statistically pretty QB until he’s around 30…. ask Steve Young.
But.
Bill Cowher hired coordinators who enabled Stewart and allowed him to win or lose games as he could – so his career path is a reverse arc for what it should be. He won when he was young and was out of the game in the years of his life where he should have been coming into his own as a quarterback…… ask Steve Young.
You see, the reason why Young was kept around the 49ers when he was acting like Vince Young or ————– Kordell Stewart every time he entered a game was because Bil Walsh and George Seifert knew three things about Young: he was a very good athlete, he had a very good arm, and he was intelligent.
Those are the same three attributes possessed by one Kordell Stewart.
What they did to Young was to make him learn the 49ers way of offense until that shit was Pavlovian. And as soon as he did they unceremoniously got rid of the man who was the best to ever play the position and inserted Steve Young.
And. Then they made sure he, like his predecessor, was surrounded with great receivers, and tight ends and running backs who could catch and run after the catch.
Had Cowher and the Rooneys taken a fucking second to look at Stewart in the way the Niners looked at Young, they might, just might have realized that to make Kordell Stewart into a long-lived and fruitful NFL QB, the best thing to do was to follow the 49ers treatment of Young.
But.
That never happened. Did it. And it doesn’t happen with Black quarterbacks.
But.
I want to throw some stats your way, since you want to fight on those specious grounds. Here are the career stats of a quarterback. Tell me who he is:
TD – 212 INT 210 with the following TD-INT seasons – 6-24, 13-22, 12-12, 10-15, 7-8, 17-19. Completion % – 51.9. QB rating – 70.9.
Shitty stats, huh?
Miranda-
Vince Doria is a fucking liar. His record, as detailed here at Sports On My Mind by myself and MODI, speaks for itself.
D-Wil
I will try to attempt a blood transfusion before I respond…
Its been well known and documented that the 70’s Super Steelers were juiced up. I can only argue that in those days (70’s) the use PED’s was a fairly common thing, while admitting, from what information I’ve been privy to they were known to be on the forefront of usage in those times. Society for the most part then and even now (when compared to baseball) has taken a lax stance on PED use in football, so I would just place the Steelers in that same category.
The gambling issues, I’m unaware of, which certainly doesn’t mean they don’t exsit, I just haven’t come across them yet.
On Kordell.
Being born in raised in Pittsburgh there’s one thing I know about the average Steelers fan in and around the city, they are glass half full people who never miss a chance castigate the starting QB at the moment. That goes for both main races in my devoid of diversity hometown. While there is no doubt that some of the utter hate he received at the helm of the team was racially motivated, a lot of it was based on his play and ability to throw some of the most inexplicable passes during the season. The gay rumors didn’t help at all either, baseless or not, but I can’t name a major Steeler figure from The Chin to the Bus who hasn’t been a victim of those since I’ve been alive.
I will agree with you, even as a huge Roethlisberger fan he has received very good treatment from the media. Kellen Winslow was crucified by the media for his cycling accident., Big Ben during his accident, while truly a accident, had almost no level of “he was irresponsible” to it.
And while hate to say it, I don’t think that any Black player currently on a NFL roster today who had the same civil charges leveled against him the other day would have been willfully ignored by the nations sports monolith .
So…the Kordell Stewart that I watched suck for six years was actually good.
And all those games where he was terrible…he was good.
Interesting.
Seriously, i watched every game and was in terror every time the ball left his hands.
Anyway, those were classic Cowher teams. Good defense. Good running game. Stewart brought enough with his scrambling to put together a “How did we do that” scoring drive once a game…But God help us if we ever fell behind.
I know there are other Steeler fans here? Am I actually alone i Someone help me out. Was there a Steeler fan in the universe (black, brown, white, or Martian) who watched that final drive in the Super Bowl and said, “Boy…I wish we still had Kordell!”
And I am 99.9 percent sure those are Terry Bradshaw stats. And he played in the 70s where 50 percent passing was actually acceptable.
And for the record, Steeler fans hung him in effigy and made him so crazy that he got divorced 18 times and is now medicated.
So…yea…we’re a tough crowd.
Miranda
When I first read “no black and white rule” I thought somebody was finally going to address the racial dynamic. Sadly, I was mistaken.
It’s interesting how Shannon Brown’s reputation wasn’t worth saving, but Big Ben’s was worth saving. Very interesting.
Once again, I am in complete agreement that if this were a black player, there would be an Outside the Lines special on running right now. ESPN’s killing of this story is a disgrace.
Also…put me in the camp of “Huh?” when it comes to the Steelers and gambling. I know that Webster, Kolb and company were juiced to the gills in the 70s. I am with Illaim in the “Well…everybody was probably using….” camp. But this gambling stuff is strange.
And as a native-born Pittsburgher, I can agree that the city is way way way too wrapped up in the Steelers and will eventually turn on everyone. Bill Cowher had a bad year and we created a rumor that he was nailing his secretary. I’m fairly certain he had to go public and deny that rumor to get things calmed down.
And to this day, we will throw things at Mark Malone if we see him.
For whatever reason, Ben is the only QB literally in my lifetime that we have not tortured. And the only one we seem to feel any guilt over is Jefferson Street Joe.
Here is my favorite story involving how evil we are to QBs. The Pittsburgh Maulers were our USFL team. They drew about 2000 a game. They had one sell out in their history. It was agains, I believe, Birmingham, who were quarterbacked by Cliff Stoudt – former disastrous QB. 56,000 Steeler fans bought tickets to a lousy game for the sole purpose of booing Cliff Stoudt.
We may need a hobby.
<>
And yet, A Source Close To Trevor Ariza (re: LBJ) meets their “standard of reporting”???
I wonder, more than I ever have, whether this is going to be the blow to the WWL’s credibility and integrity that will at least make them take a hard look at themselves and what they’ve become, if not force outright change.
As for the anti-Kordell fan … damn, did you catch him breaking into your house or something? He wasn’t a Hall of Famer, but he wasn’t an undeniably complete POS, either. You really can’t complain but so much about 43-27 and (at least) an AFC championship game trip. Unless you’re trying really, really hard, way harder than you would for any other QB, if you know what I mean, and I think you do. Disliking someone is one thing, but get a grip.
LAprGuy-
PERFECT!
Myron and all you Steelers fans-
The gambling allegations go back decades with the Rooneys. Read the book, “Interference” it’ll give you a good start.
And Myron, I see you skirted the stats I gave you to chew on – which is smart. BUT. I’m not going to forget. And I also see you failed to address the comparative treatment of Stewart and Steve Young and how Young was brought along.
Smart moves both. Because they blow up any argument you might have.
You can talk that shit about your perceptions about Stewart all you want but you cannot argue with a 43-27 record.
The is the bottom line in sports is WINS and LOSSES – period.
Oh, and those shitty stats belong to 4-time SB winner, Terry Bradshaw.
I guessed the stats. Every Steeler fan knows those stats. Again, it was the 70s. The only QB who put up numbers similar to modern QBs was Kenny Anderson.
Steve Young was brought along well. The Steelers have never exactly excelled at developing QBs. So, maybe it’s not entirely Kordell’s fault that he stunk.
(Seriously, it’s 2009 and I am arguing about Kordell Stewart? What the hell? I feel like I should be listening to Cumbawamba right now).
And I do like the fact that you are stealing arguments from Joe Morgan: All that matter are wins and losses. Fine. If you want to be simplistic about it; I’m cool with that. The problem is Kordell was death in the playoffs. Just death.
(Expects a “Ben stunk in Super Bowl XL” argument in 3….2….1….)
Steelers fan here!
Kordell was not that bad, Myron! Maybe it’s because I have never lived there and have to listen to other people talk about how bad he was every day, that I actually think he was a guy who drew a very bad hand.
Stewart had more offensive coordinators than anyone should have to suffer through. This was partially due to the success that he had in running the offense. Chan Gailey left to go to the Cowboys, and Mike Mularkey to the Bills. They were called offensive geniuses when they were with Pittsburgh and had Stewart. When they left, they were anything but.
Stewart lost any benefit of having a good number one receiver when Yancey Thigpen left in free agency in 1997. Charles Johnson was a good number two, but put him as a number one, and he was disastrous as Philly fans can attest. The Steelers had to wait a couple of years for Hines Ward to develop into the great receiver that he is now. Those teams in ’98 and ’99 were mediocre without great wide receivers for Stewart to throw to as evidenced by 7-9 and 6-10 records.
This led to 2000, where Kent “what was Cowher thinking!” Graham starting the first 3 games. Pittsburgh started 0-3. Enter Stewart. The team finishes 9-7. Incidently, I will always remember this season because the Ravens won the Super Bowl. The last team to beat them that year before they went on an 11 game winning streak? The Steelers. The starting qb, Kordell Stewart. Granted it was a battle of field goals, but with two great defenses playing, it came down to who could get their team into position, and not turn the ball over.
As far as his failures in big games? Nobody calls out Peyton Manning for flaming out in big games. He won a Super Bowl!? Yep, thanks to a killer running game, and a defense that stepped up, and finally stopped the Patriots from bitch slapping them. And if you check Manning’s stats from that year in the playoffs, it’s amazing that the defense played that well to bail him out. He threw 3 touchdowns and 7 interceptions in those playoffs. Him getting the Super Bowl MVP that year (Joseph Addai should have won it), was almost as ridiculous as his brother getting it the next year.
Another Steelers fan here. To me, Stewart was a B- quarterback. You can argue about who was to blame, but it was clear to me by his third season as a starter that he wasn’t the answer at QB. I say this as someone who spent years trying to put a positive spin on every Kordell performance, trying to see the silver lining every game.
And kos, everyone slammed Peyton for his inability to win the big game until he finally won the Super Bowl. Hell, even his kicker slammed him for it.
Manning’s reputation was that of a choker going back to UT. I remember the joke.
What is Tennessee’s favorite beer? Budweiser
What is Tennessee’s favorite wine? Why can’t we beat Florida.
What he had going for him was the awe-inspiring numbers he put up in the regular season.
Dwhite, I was that guy too. I remember making several brilliant “combined-yardage” arguments about how he was really a productive QB.
The issue with Kordell was that he would always flash enough talent to reel you back in. In 2001, we kept winning and winning and winning and actually came to believe that he had found his calling as “a game manager.” Then we crapped out in the playoffs at home….again.
Those were insanely frustrating years because that team had the defense and ground game to beat anyone but everything was always so tenuous because one bad break could end it, because the offense could never score in a hurry.
DWhite and Myron-
You basically repeated exactly what I wrote in my first long comment about Stewart.
I cannot believe anyone – MYRON (and no you didn’t know those were Bradshaw’s numbers or you would have let me know for sure) – would shit on the guy. How many NFC chip games did D-Mac go to before tossing cookies in the clutch in the SB? …. and like you said, those coordinators were geniuses when they had Kordell Stewart and abject failures without him.
You give a guy with a background as a read and run QB in high school and college one receiver for two years and multiple offensive coordinators in the NFL, and then not slowly build his understanding of the game from the technical and mental aspects and you want to call HIM a failure, or call him a B- quarterback? When he compiled a 43-27 record as a starter??? Are you serious?!
Then what the fuck is the measure of success?!
I will go so far to say that anyone who cannot properly contextualize Stewart’s years in Pittsburgh as someone who does not want to face the failures of beloved Bill Cowher and the Rooneys to perform their duties as head coach and management properly. If you cannot properly evaluate the team from top to bottom of course you stand a great chance of assessing blame to the wrong person, or people.
And you can attempt to say Peyton Manning was getting slammed all the time but, unlike Stewart, he got chance after chance after chance to succeed (and endorsement after endorsement after endorsement). And Manning was “failing” with superior talent around him, unlike Kordell Stewart.
DWil-
Thank you for bringing up Cowher’s failures! I think T3 and I were discussing this after the Steelers won the Super Bowl. In just two years, I think that Tomlin has proved that he’s a better coach than Cowher ever was. Cowher was a good regular season coach, but he panicked way too often in the playoffs and big games and decided to play it too conservative. Anyone who doesn’t include Cowher’s failure to call a better game as being a factor in Kordell having bad playoff games is kidding themselves! I think Cowher always gets a pass because he is from nearby Pittsburgh. I feel bad for Tomlin if he has a bad season. He won’t get that kind of pass.
I think B- is perfectly fair. He was a little bit above average as a QB. How can you possibly rate him higher? Not based on his stats. Not based on his record. I put him in the same class as Drew Bledsoe and Jake Plummer and Neil O’Donnel, the guy he replaced in Pittsburgh. Even you seem to be saying that he wasn’t a great QB, based on your argument that he wasn’t developed correctly by coach Cowher. If B- isn’t the right grade for Kordell, what grade does he deserve?
And how in the world can you argue that Kordell didn’t have superior talent around him? During his entire career in Pittsburgh, he had Jerome Bettis in his prime in the backfield, a great offensive line blocking for him, and a superior defense on the other side of the ball. He didn’t have great receivers, but they were serviceable (Eli Manning won the SB with less).
And kos, I agree with you on Cowher’s failures, and I don’t think it’s a question that Tomlin is a better coach than Cowher. But that doesn’t change my opinion that Kordell wasn’t the answer at QB.
Dwil,
Go to my post at 12:51.
What did I say?
Oh yea…. I said:
“And I am 99.9 percent sure those are Terry Bradshaw stats. And he played in the 70s where 50 percent passing was actually acceptable.”
Booya!
I’m not going to claim that Cowher was some coaching genius. He got a lot out of the teams he had, but – God – could the man coach with his hands wrapped around his throat at times. He went to the Marty Schottenheimer school of “We are going to lose with what got us here.” I love Tomlin and would marry him if I could convince him to move to Massachusetts.
Having said that part of his stubborness was with the Quarterback position. He stuck with Kordell when all logic and reason said, “This marriage cannot be saved.” He brought in Kent Graham. He somehow squeezed a decent season out of Mike Tomczak. He decided that Tommy Maddox was the future. And let the record show that he did not want to draft Roethlisberger, and in a perfect world, he would have had Ben be thrid-string his rookie year.
So, there’s that.
I would say Kordell at his peak was a B QB. During the regular season of 1997 and 2001, he wasn’t going to hurt your team, and he might make one or two big plays a game.
Most of the time, he was a D+/C- minus kind of cat. I would overall give him a C+.
One quick point. When Mike Mularkey got hired, there was not one Steeler fan who said, “Oh no…whatever shall we do?” Mularkey was average as an OC. I was stunned that he became a head coach. The only thing really memorable about his time with the Steelers was the crazy-ass 2 point conversion plays we would run. “We are going to do a double reverse throwback with Fred McAfee lined up at tight end.”
Sure, Mike, whatever you say.
D I agree with everything you said man.
In other news looks like the media is trying to bring up this Lebron book (about him smoking weed in high school) and leaking the video of Lebron getting dunked on. In order to put this Big Ben stuff on the back burners.
By Friday everyone will have forgotten about Big ben………..it will all be about Lebron and the dunk/weed for the next 3 weeks.
Or until good ole boy goodell makes his decision on on the runaway slave vick.
yron-
I missed that comment and that you obviously got some extreme pleasure out of that is patently weak….
See, what I notice is that you attempt to cherry pick from every comment I leave and when you do try to address their totality you use opinions rather than facts – and yes, that was my first observation about all of this ridiculous disdain you have for Stewart. It’s also obvious that it is in vogue in Pittsburgh circles to abjectly dislike a player without making any serious effort to take into account the situation in which the player exists.
Trying to explain Stewart’s situation to you is fruitless because most of the time you make my explanation for me, but don’t even realize it.
So, I’ll end by asking you to find me a White quarterback with a 43-27 record who had as many offensive coordinators as Stewart had to deal with and had but one decent receiver for all the time he played – and that receiver played with him for only two years – yet was run out of town and deemed to be a D+/C- quarterback.
You find the QB who fits that criteria.
I just like being right.
tt’s fun.
I would argue that the most jerked-around QB in NFL history is Jeff Garcia. His record is 58-58, as a starter….but I think the record for a “Starter” in the NFL is maybe the dumbest stat of all time in any sport. I mean, it’s a dumb stat for a starting pitcher in baseball.
Anyway, the guy is a lifetime 61 percent passer, has a 2:1 TD/INT ratio, and for some reason, the only place he can find work is Oakland.
Rex Grossman led the Bears to the Super Bowl with a lot less to work with than what Kordell had, and he’s a laughingstock amongst NFL fans. Jake Plummer led his team to the AFC championship game, then was 7-4 the next season and on top of his division when he was replaced by a rookie.
The Bears went to the super bowl in spite of Rex Grossman, anybody who followed any part of that season knows that to be true.