Seahawks Prepared and Hungry

Looks like a proud Papa gushing over his protégé to his former protégé.

Seahawks Survives the Refs: Beat Raiders 21-3 with heavy D and Running Game.

The Seattle Seahawks did everything they wanted to in preseason and I think they learned a lot about what kind of team they will be this season.  If you ask the coaches, they will tell you that they feel that their team is ready for the regular season, but have a lot more work to be done to get to where they want the team.  But, behind closed doors and away from the media circus, these coaches feel that they need more time to make the important decisions necessary to field the best team they possibly can.  Because of the new collective bargaining agreement, players are no longer required to practice as long or as often.  Shorter organized team activities and minicamps during the off-season and an abbreviated version of the usual training camp throughout the preseason preparation.  “Two-a-days” is a term that most if not all NFL players are happy to see go by the wayside.  Coaches like to utilize part of training camp with a morning session and afternoon session broken up with a short break.  This gave coaches a lot more chance to fluidly work with players and technique and also the chance to view practice film and work with players on things we saw on film while it’s fresh in the minds of the coaches.  Players just simply don’t enjoy being worked that hard as per the CBA requiring coaches to give players more breaks, water breaks, no two-a-days and a shorter practice day.  This all equals less conditioned and less prepared players for the season.  In other words, a relatively poor product in comparison to what it could be if the players were required to be more ready for the regular season.  However, you have to dance with the girl who brung ya’, so it’s important for them to follow the rules of the agreement.  So, what does a 4th and final preseason game look like?  Well, different than it has in past seasons.  Because of the shorter practices and less time  to evaluate players, coaches are forced to play first and 2nd line players in the 4th preseason game to finish the evaluation process and see exactly what he has on the roster and what he hasn’t.  The first cut in camp occurs after the 3rd preseason game from 90 down to 75 personnel.  The 2nd and final cut of the preseason is the Monday after the final preseason game.  At that time, 75 players becomes trimmed to just 53.  So, after tonight’s final preseason game 22 players won’t have jobs Monday morning.  This will be particularly difficult for the Seahawks because they’re loaded with talent from the top to the bottom of the roster.  Many teams are just trying to figure out if they have players who are capable of playing the game.  Pete Carroll and John Schneider, are going to have to scour the game film from practice and the 4 preseason contests to determine which 22 players doesn’t deserve to be on this 53 man roster.  For many of these players, they started when they were just kids and now they are at the elite contest, the best of the best and the prospect of never playing competitive football again in their lives.  Because Seattle is stacked with so much talent, however, there will be a large number of players that won’t make the 53, but NFL rules provide that each team is able to keep a few players on a practice squad.  Problem for the Seahawks is that of the players that don’t make the final 53, the rest will have to clear waivers.  31 other teams will peruse  a list of players that were cut by other teams and they will have the option of signing the player to a contract on their 53 man roster or passing.  If a player doesn’t get picked up by other teams, then a team like Seattle can choose to put that player or players on their practice squad in case they need to utilize that player for injuries or to continue to develop players with raw athletic ability, but without the technique or experience to start immediately.  Apparently, there were dozens of scouts from other NFL teams watching Seattle play the Raiders tonight.  Scouting these players, once they see the final cut list that coach Carroll puts out and pick up the talent that didn’t make the Seattle team.  This is actually quite a compliment to the organization, because players not good enough to make the Seattle squad might be good enough to make another teams roster, that shows Seattle the state of their program right now.  In fact, there were a couple of players who were cut to bring the list down to the 90 players that Seattle is allowed to have and the beginning of training camp, those players were picked up the next day by other NFL teams.  That’s very impressive and it is indicative of the talent level that GM John Schneider and head coach Pete Carroll have done with this team in just 2 years.
Players to watch to me are; LB Mike Morgan, TE Sean McGrath, DB Jeremy Lane, DB Juron Johnson, DB Chris Maragos, Greg Scruggs, Jaye Howard, Ricardo Lockette, Deon Butler, Kregg  Lumpkin and several others. Unfortunately, the coaching staff just didn’t have enough practice or other opportunities to make it clear and fair determination on whether some players should be kept and others not.  Some players who were invited to camp, unfortunately sustained nagging injuries that thwarted their opportunity to show what they had.  They might’ve been magnificent, but coaches can only evaluate what they see on the field and that will unfortunately mean an early demise in the NFL for several talented football players.

Tonight was another night for the officials, as well.  However, there wasn’t much good to say about the replacement officials again this week.  They’re doing their best, but unfortunately with the speed of the NFL and the very specific ruling calls that are inherent to the NFL, the best should be out there protecting the players, fairly moderating the contest and keeping it fluid and rhythmic.  I don’t get down to hardly on the officials for stuttering or losing their thought as they’re making their audible calls over the PA.  I do however believe them for completely blowing calls and seemingly not knowing the actual rulebook for the National Football League.  What is it going to take for the NFL owners to realize that what the officials do during each game is ensure that it is a fair contest and the rules are abided by it as well as interpreted as they should.  You would be surprised how to officials could read the same rulebook and interpret a rule completely different.  This is why officials attend officiating seminars and symposiums intended purely so that NFL officiating crews will be concurrent on the rule, and it’s interpretation on the field in a variety of scenarios.  Their job isn’t easy and at $100,000 per team per year, I think they are bullying and undercutting the officials from a fair wage that takes them far beyond the 17 week season of the NFL.  I don’t quite see how NFL owners that throwaway millions on sometimes lousy players don’t have the money to make sure that the officials that manage the game get paid what they deserve.  Also, these officials should be worked like full-time employees and paid as such.  During the off-season, officials should be learning and teaching what they do during a game so that the integrity of the game does not wither with replacement referees from God only knows where.  It has been said that a number of these replacement officials have worked with the lingerie football league.  That’s insulting to the game and it’s insulting to everyone involved in the contests that happen each week and and Monday night.  Pay these men and let’s get the season on its way.

Matt Flynn had a decent game tonight, the his usual self, accurate, intelligent, throwing the intermediate and short game with relative ease.  He has done literally nothing wrong in this preseason quarterback competition.  As many have described it, Flynn  didn’t lose the job, it’s just that  Russell Wilson snatched the pebbles from Flynn’s  hand, letting him know that he was ready to go.  Sorry about the little “Kung fu” reference, but it was so true.  Wilson just snatched this job right out of Flynn’s hand, even though Flynn did nothing to lose the job.  He was accurate, he threw for a nice amount of yards, he only turned over the ball once and he continued to move the chains.  This is what you hope from your quarterback, particularly if you run a pure West Coast offense that relies heavily on not turning over the football.  It also relies on rhythm and Matt Flynn very much is capable of creating a rhythm of short to intermediate passes and completing them and moving the chains getting first downs, chewing up the clock with short completed passes as well as handing the ball off and running the ball, this allows the offense to keep the ball away from the opponents offense.  If they don’t have the ball, they can’t score.  This is the major mantra of the west coast offense, really developed by legendary coach Bill Walsh of the San Francisco 49ers dynasty.  Now, he has passed and lives in relative fame and notoriety because of his innovative mind in football and his ability to judge over bad and productive players over those that don’t provide enough to win. He also did what I believe Coach Carroll  is doing right now; he is compiling all the right players for his team, not necessarily all the high profile and best players in the NFL.  The players that he has chosen and implemented complement each other in ways that other teams with perhaps more talent cannot seem to press together into an assembled jigsaw puzzle. This jigsaw puzzle is going to be a model for many teams to emulate.  The NFL has been called the copycat league, because when something works, like the 46 defense in Chicago with Buddy Ryan, or the West Coast offense introduced by Bill Walsh.  Pete Carroll might just be the next man to create a trend that works.  The Seahawks have enormous defensive backs who are athletic and versatile.  Most defensive coordinators want speedy, great cover corners and safeties they can keep up with these blazing fast wide receivers and running backs.  Pete Carroll’s philosophy is different; he wants to interrupt the play from the onset.  He doesn’t want to let teams get into a rhythm or even allow them to get into a passing route or Lane without being completely disrupted at the line of scrimmage from bump and run technique from corners the size of linebackers, but with the speed of wide receivers.  The Seahawks starting DB’s are 6’3” Richard Sherman, 6’4” Brandon Browner, 6’3” Kam Chancellor and the shrimpy 6’0” even Earl Thomas, who makes up for his lack of size with speed and closing range of a laserguided missile.  These DB’s will sometimes allow you to run through their zones, but if you happen to concentrate enough to catch a ball over the middle, they will make you pay dearly for trying.  With clean hits, but powerful results, these huge defensive backs are creating an entire league of short arm receivers.  They will be literally running through Seattle’s defensive secondary with little bitty arms, as not to hang themselves out to be physically punished for attempting to catch a football in their house.  However, from the onset, when these corners played man-to-man, they have 5 yards to hit the wide receivers before it becomes a penalty.  By the time these players have their way with the receivers for 5 yards, they’ve already disrupting the timing route or even just the normal progression into their breaks that would be late or nonexistent.  This is a way to adjust to big  defensive backs who don’t have the same kind of rocket speed as players like Ed Reed, Darrelle Revis and Nnamdi Asomugha.  So, coach Carroll has been really bucking the trends of the NFL and perhaps creating a few of his own.

What did we learn in tonight’s game?  Well, I think we learn that we have a very capable backup quarterback in Matt Flynn and that Russell Wilson will make some rookie mistakes, but he just simply adjusts and doesn’t make the same mistakes over again.  I don’t have any less confidence in Wilson, but there are going to be times that he will struggle.  Peyton Manning and Tom Brady struggle sometimes, but Seattle’s swarming defense and the very capable run oriented offense will in some ways hide Wilson’s mistakes from becoming game changing mistakes.  He’s so smart and polished I just don’t believe he’s going to go out onto the field and bomb.  He’s too talented and too intelligent to allow himself to come unfolded and lose games for the Seahawks.  I think he is going to be the offensive rookie of the year and you can forget about Andrew Luck and RGIII becoming rookies of the year, RW 3 is going to get this done and it will never be a surprise to him because he expects to be great and when he’s not, there’s something wrong and he fixes it.  Wilson is by no means great yet, and he may not become great for several seasons but I think he will make constant improvements without swooning like a rookie would at key points and moments during the season or during games.  His entertaining, his inspiring and I think he’s going to be the best leader that the Seattle Seahawks offense has ever had in their history since the inception in 1976.  Matt Hasselbeck was a great person and an adequate quarterback.  He just never dazzled and he never had the physical tools to add to his mental game.  When you get the physical, unteachable attributes and combine the smarts and excellent work ethic, not to mention the intangibles of his leadership skills, I think you get something very special.  He’s a Seattle Seahawks and he’s glad to be… This kid is not driven by money solely and he has a burning desire to be better and to make the team a winner.  If he does his job the way I think you will, he won’t have to go out and get money somehow, the money will find him all by itself and he won’t have to worry about those details.  He just set himself up for life, and if he stays healthy he will sign that first veteran tender for a multi-year contract.  At that point, I don’t think his hunger and fire will go out the way it has with players like Sean Alexander, Chris Johnson and others who got their money, and the rest was just not important.  Anyway, I’m proud that Russell Wilson is wearing a Seahawks uniform.  It’s as if this is where I can’t of his character, manners and confidence belongs.  He doesn’t do touched down dances and he doesn’t try to wind the crowd up with his mouth or his physical skits and preprepared dances.  He just runs and throws for touchdowns and he makes everyone else on the team better.  I thought this about Tim Tebow last year when he was playing with the Broncos.  His presence on the team took the team to a higher calling and for some reason even the defense made a complete transformation into a dominant and stifling defense that kept the Broncos in practically every game, while Tebow would spin his magic in the 4th quarter’s of several games after being quiet for the first three quarters of the contest.  The difference?  Tim Tebow is no Russell Wilson… They might both be Christians and they might both decide that their platform is football and they will not be hushed about their belief in Christ.  But what differentiates these 2 great football players is that Russell Wilson is a bona fide quarterback with the kind of skill set that he needs to win football games and playoff games and even Superbowls with the Seattle Seahawks.  He is somewhat short in stature, but for what he gives up in inches of height, he surely makes up for it with technique, fundamentals, a belief and a sense of leadership that is an intangible off the chart.  People want to follow this kid and they want to be led by him.  He’s a rookie, but Wilson has seen this before… As he was the new kid on the block when he left North Carolina State for the big 12 team of Wisconsin, his teammates voted him their captain in just 2 weeks of practice.  He makes you believe and he inspires the players around him to be better every game, every practice, every scrimmage… Even on the airplane on their way to a road game somewhere in the country.  Be better and keep getting better and keep striving to be better.  That is the mantra of Russell Wilson and it will carry him along we here in Seattle, I believe.  His teammates believe it, also.

Capite Sequenti for Seahawks:

  Seahawks Ready for Next Chapter: QB1 Russell Wilson and Swarming D'

 Terrell Owens is out, Russell Wilson is QB1 and Matt Flynn will hold a clipboard. 

What does all of this mean for the rest of the Seahawks?  A lot… and it is going to be for the best.

Pete Carroll and John Schneider seemingly have an eye for talent in places that other GM’s and player personnel experts do not.  They have proven success in going to unorthodox places to find players who will contribute right away.  You can criticize the Seahawks for the Charlie Whitehurst failure and the losing of money to players like TJ Houshmandzadeh, or the dumping of potential talent like Lendale White, but they did the things they did because they felt it was the right thing to do, not because it was popular or because of media or fan pressure.  That’s just not the way that a Pete Carroll coached team handles player movements and starting rosters.  Carroll has been outspoken that money and draft position or even high profile players just don’t matter to him.  They don’t dictate the moves he makes with his team.  It’s all about competing for your job and losing it if you don’t.  He has a wonderful track record with Seattle in acquiring players and of course the draft.  Many people will cite James Carpenter and John Moffitt as being failures, but I think it’s a little early to call either of them failures, particularly John Moffitt who is ready to play by week 2 or so of the regular season.  He has been good while playing, he’s just been injured as has James Carpenter.  Carpenter may not even play this entire season, but injury is and why coaches are evaluated on the success of players.  Yes, I’m not so gullible to believe that her players won’t contribute to wins and losses and that definitely figures in to whether or not a coach last or if he ends up another casualty of the win loss battle, but look at where John Schneider the GM and Pete Carroll have hit home runs.  Brandon Browner was found in the Canadian football league who was hired for league.  Doug Baldwin, Seattle’s most productive wide receiver last year, was signed out of Stanford as an undrafted free agent, also costing league minimum.  Kam Chancellor, one of the 3 Seahawk defensive secondary pro bowlers was a fifth-round selection and is now one of the best free safeties in the NFL.  Richard Sherman, another Stanford player, and fifth-round selection.  The only starting defensive back on the Seattle defensive secondary that started but didn’t make the Pro bowl.  Earl Thomas, Chancellor and Browner all took a trip to Hawaii as pro-bowlers.  Carroll and Schneider found rookie standout linebacker KJ Wright who turned out to be a huge blessing and leader of a very young and athletic linebacking corps now, with newcomer and 2nd round draft pick Bobby Wagner.  Korey Toomer has also impressed at the weak side linebacker and was also drafted in the 2012 class.  And, to round out some of the great acquisitions and roster moves of the Carroll Schneider regime include JR Sweezy, also of the 2012 draft class who was a defensive end and has been converted to write offensive guard and will likely start this year.  Yes, I wrote “Start” which is almost a strange paranormal anomaly because that just doesn’t happen for a player who has never played the office in any capacity before and now he has a legitimate shot at starting with the Seattle Seahawks as a right offensive guard.   

The biggest and brightest of the Schneider and Carroll regime has got to be the newest and most recent breath of fresh air named Russell Wilson.  Russell Wilson was given about zero chance of coming in to Seattle and stealing the job away from Tavaris Jackson or Matt Flynn.  Flynn was brought to Seattle to hopefully replace Jackson and give Seattle a new quarterback, accurate, with a short resume of success.  He interviewed fairly well with the Seahawks, but they weren’t completely sold on him.  In fact, after signing him to a $26 million contract, 3 years and only $10 million of that guaranteed, they did not assure him a starting position.  This is before they drafted Russell Wilson, but Flynn was told that he would be given a fair shot to come into the Seattle Seahawks training facility in Renton and compete for a starting job.  Flynn felt good enough about the franchise to take a chance and believed he would be able to come into training camp and compete and win the starting job from Tavaris Jackson.  However, then came the proverbial "fly" in Flynn’s ointment of expectation.  That fly came in the form of a 23-year-old college quarterback drafted out of the University of Wisconsin, who in his senior year threw for 33 touchdowns with only 4 interceptions and just 2 balls batted down.  Wilson is only 5’10” tall,  of course causing nearly all the national draft pundits to crucify Seattle for making such a foolish selection in the 3rd round of a draft that still had plenty of quality backup QB's that were 6’3” and taller.  However, John Schneider and Pete Carroll, after careful consideration and extensive research around the country looking at all the talent in the draft said that they would be heartbroken if they failed to come out of that draft with 2 players that they were completely impressed by; one of them was Bruce Irvin, whom they selected in the first round with the 15th pick overall and the other, QB Russell Wilson.  Wilson lasted till the 3rd round, and probably would have gone much later, but the Seahawks wanted Wilson and they wanted him bad enough that they would sacrifice a 3rd round selection for him home my daughter, God hot new that he was happy about that it is was like you're the one that was like 2 months of time I had not have an answer for you since she is a wild I carry a story like this was Abby knocks raw sure.  Not in the immediately on screen as you.  There were a few draft analysts that loved the selection, but a couple of the most noteworthy that were down on the selection were; draft gurus Mel Kiper Jr. and Todd McShay.  Of all people who defended this move vehemently was former NFL head coach John Gruden.  Gruden has held a QB camp segment on ESPN where he sits down and has a somewhat in-depth conversation with college quarterbacks who excelled and had legitimate opportunities to be drafted to a pro football team.  Andrew luck, RGIII, Kirk Cousins and Russell Wilson were a few that he chose to focus on.  He fell in love with Russell Wilson and if you watched Gruden’s ESPN QB camp, I think you would be too.  His humble, but confident.  His respectful, but a leader that deserves to be respected.  He is direct, but polite and above all… He is a fierce competitor with an intangible to work as a leader of men like no one I’ve ever seen before.  I think he has better leadership skills than John Elway, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady or Drew Brees.  Obviously, he has much to do before he can be put in the same category as any of these great players, but let me tell you, this kid has everything he needs to be spoken of with all of those men if he is given the chance and the tools around him that those men have had.  His athletic, he is instinctual and has an incredible sense of anticipation and timing which are hallmarks of extremely efficient QB’s at the college level as well as the NFL.  He reads defenses and goes through his passing progressions and while he does it, he looks nothing like a rookie.  His decision-making in real time on the field is incredible for such a young man.  He is the oldest 23-year-old player that I’ve ever watched play football.  He’s fast, but isn’t it a hurry.  His tough, but knows when to slide or step out of bounds.  He can throw from the pocket, but when the pocket breaks down, he can extend the play and give receivers more time to get open.  If there’s nothing there down field, he can tuck the ball under his arm and flat out fly around the field like chickens in the barnyard.  If Russell Wilson was 2 inches taller, he would have been the 3rd player taken in the 2012 draft right after Andrew Luck and RGIII.  He’s that good and everything that the Seahawks coaches have put in front of him, he has gobbled it up and asked for more responsibility and challenge.  He has never balked at taking more responsibility, but reportedly and also mentioned by Daryl Bevell have said he is very coachable and eager to learn and make himself better.  He’s okay with who he is, but he never stops trying to become better.  He makes you believe in him and it has never been illustrated better than the year he transferred from North Carolina State to Wisconsin.  In 2 weeks after he arrived on campus, his teammates at a very good Wisconsin team voted him team captain. That is huge and that shows that people around him believe and want to be led.  He has brought that same tenacious and fervent desire to lead men to the Seahawks and they have responded the same way that great Wisconsin Rose Bowl team championship team did.  You’d never know that he was 23 years old.  When he’s on the field, there is no question who’s in charge, and just like a veteran quarterback, he’s pointing where the offensive lineman should line up if they’re not exactly where they should be.  This is something that paid Manny does now or Tom Brady or some of the other greats that played the position, that a 23-year-old rookie out there just trying to figure out what the heck is going on in the NFL.  He actually takes it upon himself to teach well he is stating on the turf of these NFL stadiums.  He takes practically everything in stride, including the news that he was about to take his new Seattle Seahawks offense to the Arizona Cardinals to start as the signal caller.  Carroll said that he was excited and eagerly accepted the role, but wasn’t exceedingly excited.  He expects to win and he expects to be good and he expects to make plays and that’s the kind of quarterback you want on the field.  If players like John Elway, or Tom Brady or Troy Aikman that when the game is on the line and you need a touchdown or you need a great play with very little time, these men want the ball.  These men absolutely thirst to be in that situation where greatness is expected, and more times than not, they deliver and that’s what separates them from the rest.  Again, Russell Wilson has a lot to prove, but he’s already proven one thing and that is that the Seattle Seahawks did not waste a 3rd round selection on the quarterback, number 3, from Wisconsin in the 2012 draft.  He’s never won a single regular season NFL game and who knows what he will do this year or any other opportunities that are afforded to him through his career, but he sure looks like the right man to be calling the signals at Centurylink field and on the road.  It’s unfortunate for Matt Flynn to have to meet this 5’10” buzz saw that tore his way through the playbook and also the preseason schedule.  He took what the coaching staff gave him and did the best he could with it and as it turned out, he won the job.  He WON the job.  Yes, Schneider and Carroll both had man crushes on Wilson, but that’s the way you feel after you listen to him represent himself and talk about the reasons that he does what he does.  He talks about his father passing away and what an influential person he was to Wilson throughout his life and how difficult it was, but in suffering the loss he came out the other side tougher and with more belief in his faith  and in himself. Which was the last Seattle Seahawks QB that had faith in himself?  I think bright things are ahead for an already good Seattle football team.  Another wonderful thing for Seattle’s new QB 1, is something the Colts and the Redskins new quarterbacks do not have; a good running game and devastating defense.  The running game is going to take a ton of pressure off the shoulders and arm of Wilson and the elite type of defense the Seahawks have are going to get many turnovers and they’ll also put the defense with a short field on offense, giving Wilson and the rest of the offense a short distance to go for another Seattle score.  This is going to be what I believe to be a near ideal environment for a new, dynamic QB like Wilson.  If he had more wide receiver targets to stretch the field, I’d be more comfortable, but many of the players haven’t had much opportunity during the preseason to be targeted because of Terrell Owens and Braylon Edwards.  Now, Owens is gone and it’s time to find out who has what it takes to catch the passes from Russell Wilson, without dropping a lot of them.  Dropped passes are primarily why Terrell Owens is now waiting for the phone to ring from another team.  He dropped 3 or 4 very nice passes from either Flynn or Wilson and that just wasn’t enough to convince Coach Carroll that he was worth a roster spot at 38 years old. He did not rule out the possibility for Owens to return after the cuts are made to the 53 man roster that they must trim to before game one of the regular season, but it’s unlikely at this point.  Sidney Rice and Doug Baldwin are locks to make the final roster. So, wide receivers competing still include; Kris Durham, Ricardo Lockette, Lavasier Tuinei, Jermaine Kearse, Ben Obamanu and Braylon Edwards.  This one is not going to be an easy decision, very much like the quarterback decision that Coach Carroll just made Sunday.  If nothing else, this is going to be a very intriguing and entertaining year.  I would have been ecstatic if Owens would have been able to resurrect his career as one of the best pass receivers this game has ever seen, but I guess it just wasn’t in the cards for him to excel right now or right here.

There will be a lot more to write about this football team.  There are so many subtexts and sideline stories surrounding this team, and the best part of it all is that none of it is shrouded in controversy and bad attitudes.  Instead, it’s about competition and great stories, making even better stories by making the team in performing and becoming great teammates for a team that doesn’t seem to have one real controversy over relationship going on inside the team.  I think one of the reasons Seattle never became a hard knocks subject is that there just isn’t any provocative entertainment value in the locker room.  It’s all going to happen on the field and in the form of great defense, some good swagger or swag, and a sound running game with a quarterback that just might turn out to be dynamite in a 5’10” package.

CHEAT TO WIN: LANCE ARMSTRONG

 

IS LANCE ARMSTRONG STILL A HERO OR ZERO?

 Whatever it takes to win…

What do you think?  Lance Armstrong has just given up on his fight against allegations that he used performance-enhancing drugs and other illegal methods to compete in pro cycling.  He claims this is not an admission of guilt, but it’s difficult to look at this as anything but a liar getting tired of lying.  He claims that he wants to spend more time with his family, but any cyclist who has achieved what he has in his life would never give in, no matter what.  If it is done without cheating, Armstrong never would have given up.  Even the thought of giving up if he’s innocent would go against everything he ever tells anyone who suffers from cancer.  Armstrong has been a champion for cancer sufferers since he was diagnosed.  If he had the tenacious personality of a true champion cyclist, you don’t give in.  Especially if you have done everything legal and morally, ethically sound.  I am in the camp of people who believe Lance Armstrong is a fraud and a cheater.  He is now in the list with; Barry  Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, José Canseco, Roger Clemens in baseball and Ben Johnson of track and field and every other player of sports that used illegal or banned substances to gain an advantage over other athletes that are clean.  It’s a slap in the face to every man that ever rode a bicycle in the Tour de France or any other cycling event.  Those who choose to do nothing but eat right, practice and training until they are absolutely broken to the brink, you are the real heroes of sports.  Forget the records and forget the milestones of players who did it with an illegal advantage.  Many people are still standing tough with Armstrong because of his work with cancer.  Armstrong never took an interest in cancer until he was a cancer sufferer.  Now, he has a cancer survivor and understands how delicate life is and how you can lose it at any moment.  Celebrities and pro sports athletes have come out in strong support of Armstrong because of what he has done for cancer sufferers and how he has held hands with survivors.  This is a man who cheated his own body and lied about it, and to this day even though he chooses not to fight allegations anymore, he still claims that he has never used any performance enhancing drugs or procedures to gain an advantage in his cycling career.  This is a complete and utter tragedy of the truth.  Armstrong claims that “every man has his limits and he has reached his.” And yet he still lies  about is career long use  of drugs to gain an advantage.  I’m not saying that he hasn’t done anything with his life, that would be absurd and untrue, but he also has used his false success to gain access to influential people that gave him the power to touch all these people and he only started doing it after he experienced a look at his mortality because of cancer.  Many people are going to say that it doesn’t erase the fact that many people have benefited from his foundation, but I say that it has affected them.  Millions of children and other fans believed that Armstrong was a hero who beat all odds on his bicycle and with his body.  It’s all fake and has all been acquired through deception and cheating.  He stood on the Tour de France platform seven times and knew  all along that it was done illegally and cheating.  How could he stand on that platform smiling as if he were the conqueror of man, when really the real heroes finished behind him, with clean blood and healthy bodies.  The men that  had to sit back and watch Armstrong placed the trophy must feel like vomiting right now.  Every morning, every day and every evening those men worked as hard as they could without cheating to become the best they could possibly be without using artificial means of gaining an advantage over the competition.  If you look at it, Lance Armstrong took shortcuts long the tour while everyone else traversed the entire course as the rules pertain.  He might as well have cut across every stretch of road and every corner and mountain to gain an advantage over everyone else who did it the way it was designed.  They went all the way and Armstrong cut corners and stood hoisting a trophy with this wife and children standing proud beside the great cyclist Lance Armstrong.  He will probably never come clean and he will probably always have faithful live strong people in his corner, but it’s all a charade, it’s a masquerade and he is a wizard behind the curtain, sticking needles into his body, swallowing pills and performing illegal transfusions while everyone thinks he just worked hard and earned it.  The banking firm of Smith Barney had a great quote several years ago on television; they said “Smith Barney makes money the old-fashioned way, they earn it.”  Well, if the old-fashioned way is earning it, I want nothing to do with the newfangled way of not earning it, but cheating and fooling almost everyone.  The saddest part is not that he was caught or that he deceived so many people who trusted in him and believed in him as an American athletic hero.  It’s the fact that all along HE knew what he was doing and that he had to carry this all this we and it must be a very heavy weight to carry and for so long.

So, Lance Armstrong has raised probably millions of dollars for cancer research under his product catch phrase “Livestrong”.  Does it even matter to anyone but all of this privilege and opportunity came from a man who lied and cheated his way to the top?  Do you believe Bernie Madoff is an okay guy because he gave a certain percentage of his fortune to charity before he got busted for his world-famous “Ponzi scheme” leaving thousands of people penniless because they trusted him.  He left a lot of people who work hard to get the money they had for retirement and to live out their lives after working for the nest egg they had, thinking all the time that they were making wise investments with hard earned money until they found out that Madoff scammed everyone so he could become filthy rich and pampered his family with the opulence that billions of dollars can provide.  Now, Madoff has a dead son over it, whom committed suicide four the sins of his father.  No one in his family now can walk the streets without cameras and reporters in their faces, following them wherever they go and making it practically impossible for them to go on in life after their father, husband or boss swindled money from innocent people who thought they were being cared for by a legitimate investment counselor.  Lance Armstrong is the same kind of man, only his lies and cheating robbed many people from believing that hard work can bring you the kind of things that Lance Armstrong received.  It is possible, but it’s only possible for those who do it the right way and don’t cut corners to deceive the world.  Someday, I hope all Pro sports have comprehensive, random drug testing of all illegal substances that create an advantage to an athlete, in a sense… Creating a disadvantage for those who choose to follow the rules and laws.  Now, I think the name Armstrong will always remind me of a cheater and a swindler of hearts.  Armstrong won many hearts by his work ethic and his tenacious, never give up and never give in attitude about challenging yourself to the absolute limit of your ability.  His work with cancer sufferers is tainted to me now.  I think it should be tainted to anyone who believed in him because of his accomplishments.  All of his accomplishments are phony, counterfeit and stolen because he didn’t go all the way.  I don’t know what his new catchphrase is going to be, but I vote for; I cut corners to be a hero.  Now I’m a zero.  Don’t cheat your body and don’t cheat the people who see you perhaps as a mentor or inspiration.  It’s just not fair… Life is rarely all that fair, but people can be fair.  It’s a choice… If anybody knows life just isn’t always fair, it would be me.  I broke my neck at age 15, severing my spinal cord leaving me paralyzed from my neck down and forever dependent on the machine to breathe.  It doesn’t matter how many people I talk to about being strong and fighting the constant feeling of giving up if I am a fraud about the rest of my life.  Lance has been stripped of all of his international cycling that the Tour de France, but he should also lose the acclaimed of being male athlete of the year and Sports Illustrated man of the year.  He is a fraud and doesn’t deserve the accolades or the trophies bestowed on him for superior athletic achievement.  It was done with a black cloud over it all the time… It was all an illusion.

In closing, I am sorry for anyone who has suffered from any variety of cancer.  Whether or not you are a sufferer or if you have beaten cancer, it’s important to have heroes who are worthy.  Inspiration is hard to come by for many people, but how can any of these people who put all their belief and trust in Lance ever believe in another so-called champion for the cause? … The air must have been depleted from their sails as they learn that Armstrong is really just a phony who stood as an American hero, while cutting corners and robbing the second man across the tape as a Tour de France champion who didn't cheat… They did it all the way… And didn’t cut corners… Armstrong because of his goodness really continue to believe in any person for inspiration?  Armstrong has robbed as many people as he has helped, maybe more, because his lies and cheating will echo for decades if not longer.  When someone suffers, yet finds inspiration in another, it's even more devastating to find out it was all a fantasy and makes it even more difficult to find another source of inspiration.  I believe we all need to be inspired, particularly when we are down and suffering from something. I don't know how long the distrust will last, It seems like sports fans often have short memories, for some reason. All of baseball player needs to do is hit grand slam and the fans cheer.  A quarterback just needs to throw a few touchdowns, and the fans cheer.  The basketball player needs to hit it last minute three-pointer and the hockey player needs to hit a couple of slapshot scores and all is forgiven.  Lance Armstrong will not have this option to make his fans forget.  He has been given a lifetime ban from international cycling and all of his seven Tour de France trophies will be collected back from him.  I wish Armstrong better in his future and I hope he continues to champion the cause for a cure for cancer.  At least he would be using his ill-gotten gain for good, rather than evil, though every time he walks back to his mansion and Maserati, they were collected under false pretenses.  Sad story for a lot of people who believed in this man and his cause.  Just sad…

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Written by Brad Hobbs

Russell Wilson QB Rising

 

Seattle Seahawks Possibly Elevating the Shortest QB Into the Starting Job:

The Seattle Seahawks fly down to Kansas City to play the Chiefs tomorrow night and with a new quarterback starting. Russell Wilson will be Seattle’s starter for the first time and Matt Flynn will relieve him in the second half. Head coach Pete Carroll has been talking about the competition between three quarterbacks this off-season, but now the competition has come down to two players, one of which Seattle never figured to have a chance of starting ahead of free-agent acquisition Matt Flynn, whom Seattle brought in to perhaps become their franchise quarterback. Tavaris Jackson just wasn’t getting the job done and it was obvious he wasn’t the answer to Seattle’s back to back 7-9 seasons. As Matt Flynn dazzled the NFL with his two games as the starting quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, breaking Packer passing records and helping Green Bay win home-field advantage by winning one of the two games he started in place of Aaron Rodgers who was healing from any injury. Seattle was no different than the rest of the 31 teams that would feel bad if Flynn became a player on their roster. Only, Seattle wanted to bring him and to replace their starter and become the face of the franchise one day. This was the plan until general manager John Schneider and head coach Pete Carroll chose to draft 5’10” quarterback out of the University of Wisconsin, Russell Wilson in the third round. Wilson was an unlikely choice to be chosen before the fifth or perhaps sixth round of the 2012 draft, but Seattle’s brain trust saw something in the senior and like what they saw. He had tremendous leadership skills, a very strong and long arm, big hands, and a knack for leading people into Saturday afternoon battles week after week. Carroll and Schneider felt strongly that this talented young man could take that on to the NFL, leading a new group of men into Sunday battles each week. In the preseason, Wilson showed flashes of brilliant quarterbacking against the Tennessee Titans. He also impressed the next week against the Denver Broncos. The country turned on the Seahawks and Broncos game on the NFL network primarily to see new Broncos player Peyton Manning in his web round the Seattle defensive secondary like he did the rest of the NFL while he was in Indianapolis with the Colts. It didn’t quite work out as he would have liked, Peyton that is. The Seahawks secondary picked off two of his passes and kept him looking mighty so-so. Instead, the most impressive and most dazzling player on the field took to the mile high grass quickly. Russell Wilson played the entire second half of the game and while he was playing against second, third and even fourth string players, he was playing with second, third and even fourth string players on Seattle’s team. This meant that he didn’t really have much time or protection in the pocket to throw and the receivers he was throwing to weren’t all that adept at creating space between themselves and the Broncos defensive backfield. Regardless of who he was playing with or against, Wilson was dynamic in his play and his leadership. He led Seattle to a 30-10 victory after taking over at the half, Seattle was trailing after the first half 10-9. Wilson impressed his teammates, his coaches, and the Broncos players as well, leading Seattle with his arm and his legs. Play after play he extended plays after being flushed out of the pocket several times a lady did get pocket protection, he threw lasers to Seattle wide receivers, converting third downs and leading Seattle to scoring drives. How many scores and how many third-down conversions were not really all that important, but the way that he commands the office and the way he carries himself on and off the field, is impressive especially for a rookie quarterback. Matt Flynn wasn’t playing badly in the first half, and I would actually contend that he was playing quite well. He had several miscues as it was obvious he was forcing the ball to Terrell Owens who also got the start last Saturday night in Denver. There were a couple of misdirection passes that most likely Owens was to blame, but what really hurt Flynn’s second preseason start was a 54 yard pass down the middle of the field that was targeting Owens in the end zone. The ball was thrown beautifully to Owens, spiraling and arcing as perfect as a deep pass could possibly be. Right in the bread basket for Owens, a pass that landed right in the hands of the bumptious and obstreperous wide receiver that proceeded to blow it completely leaving Flynn with his hands on his helmet, holding in every bit of disappointment he could. Owens didn’t show any initial reaction from his conspicuous foul up, but after the game he did show regret and contrition. Terrell Owens hasn’t had but two weeks to work with the Seahawks offense and he also missed an entire season in the NFL while he wasn’t marketable to any of the 32 teams in the league. The question is for me, which is more humiliating? Dropping a picture perfect pass in the end zone as you try to make your comeback into the NFL? Or Not getting any takers after a much publicized personal workout for any team in the NFL to come see him after he had rehabbed from his knee surgery? I would hope it would be the drop, but knowing TO like I do from his past, he would probably say his workout rejection. Either way, the man called T.O. has skills and a long history of producing on the field. Yes, he’s 38 years old, but he also ran a 4.49 sec. 44 the Seahawks when they tried him out. Pete Carroll and John Schneider saw something in Owens that led them to believe he could contribute to the passing game of the Seahawks. Seattle’s not exactly oozing with talent at the wide receiver position. Sidney Rice, arguably their most talented wide receiver, is rehabbing double reconstructive shoulder surgery and hasn’t had any full contact practices until two days ago, and missing most of the 2011 season with two concussions. He is now reported to be healthy and ready for contact and he will start tomorrow night against Kansas City in the third preseason game of the year. Russell Wilson will have several targets in the first half of this game, something that Matt Flynn didn’t have the luxury of. In addition to Sidney Rice, wide receivers; Ricardo Lockette, Braylon Edwards, and Kellen Winslow will be playing tomorrow as well. Doug Baldwin is unlikely to play after having a minor procedure performed on his hamstring to remove some blood in the tissue that was causing him some discomfort. Coach Carroll said he could play tomorrow night, but will likely be held out for cautionary reasons. Carroll also indicated Baldwin would be ready for the regular season for sure, trying to stress that this is not something to worry about. Wilson and Flynn will also have all of their tightend options on the field in Kansas City. Zach Miller will be back in action after suffering a concussion. Kellen Winslow, Cameron Morrah and Matt McCoy will be will also be on the field tomorrow night.

Russell Wilson is an impressive athlete, but more than that, he is a special type of young man. He has an infectious type of positive attitude and leadership and the team has a respect for him like I haven’t seen in Seattle ever before. The Seahawks offense respected Tavaris Jackson last year, he was a warrior the way he played injured and without complaining and to a relatively high level considering he had an injury to his pectoral muscle on his throwing side. Every player in the locker room appreciated his toughness and unwillingness to give in to an injury when Seattle needed him so much. Unfortunately, this is one of the uglier parts of football. There has to be a starter and there has to be a backup and sometimes there has to be a player that is dropped because he doesn’t fit in with the system. Jackson doesn’t fit into Coach Carroll’s offense and that was pretty clear as soon as training camp began. Carroll was true to his word, however, starting Jackson with the number one offense in rotation with Matt Flynn and Russell Wilson. Apparently, the coaches saw something in training camp as well as the OTA’s before that that led them to believe that Flynn and Wilson fit into the program and give Seattle the best chance to win this season. What will happen to Jackson is unknown right now. ESPN’s SportsCenter and the NFL network have hinted that the Seahawks are shopping Jackson around the league, but no one has actually shown interest as of yet. Teams said to be interested are; the Green Bay Packers, the Arizona Cardinals and the Miami Dolphins. It’s unlikely Seattle would trade Jackson to the Arizona Cardinals with them being in the same NFC West division. However, looking around the league, it’s difficult to sign a player like Jackson because of his contract being so high. He has one more year remaining on his three-year contract with Seattle at nearly $4 million per year. A backup quarterback doesn’t typically make that much money, however Jackson has been heard to say that he’s willing to take a pay cut if the right trade was presented. Whether or not Jackson has a no trade clause is not clear.

Regardless of what happens around the league, one thing is for certain and that is that the Seahawks will get a super opportunity to see Russell Wilson play with the number ones tomorrow night and public perception is that if Wilson has a good night, the competition will be over and Wilson will be crowned as the first ring quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks to go into the 2012 regular-season. Pete Carroll is enamored with Russell Wilson and ever since Seattle chose him in the draft, and trying to figure out reasons that he should sit on the bench and learn the game at a slower pace because he is a rookie, after all. However, Wilson has impressed Carroll, Schneider and the rest of his teammates so much, it might be impossible to keep this kid off the field this year. Everything he does, he seems to learn and adapt and improve from it. He's a very smart young man, bright, personable and a dynamite leader and these are the intangibles that might just make everyone else in the NFL forget that he is the shortest quarterback in the league. If he starts, he will make New Orleans Saints cornerback Drew Brees the second shortest starting quarterback in the National Football League by ½ inch.