Alshon Jeffery: American Hero
Jeffery played 2017 with a torn rotator cuff. Just a few weeks after he and the Philadelphia Eagles won Super Bowl 52, it was announced that Jeffery underwent surgery for the injury that has all-but guaranteed he’ll miss the entirety of Philly’s off-season program and has put the start of the 2018 regular season in jeopardy.
A few questions:
- Did the team know? If they did, how can this not get publicly reported all season? Was Jeffery never even PROBABLE with a rotator cuff tear? He was just 100%, good-to-go? If you have a torn rotator cuff, that injury is not one that can’t be hampered more severely in-game.
- Why did Jeffery play? Cash. The league made it very clear to Jeffery’s team they did not believe he could either (a) stay healthy or (b) play through pain? This season he proved he (a) can’t stay healthy and (b) can play through pain. But what will the long-term ramifications be of his playing hurt to get a lucrative extension? We’ll know more in September and beyond.
- There’s been a lot of talk about Jeffery leaving Chicago because the Bears would not pay him. That talk is incorrect. I urge people to go back and read some actual reporting in this space that detailed what Jeffery was offered and how things turned out.
NFL Loves High School Coaches Now
A nice new twist the NFL is doing this year for players accepting an invite to the draft: Bringing the player’s high school coach with them, all expenses paid.
— Gil Brandt (@Gil_Brandt) February 22, 2018
Here’s an idea for Roger Goodell. FIX THE DAMN LEAGUE! STOP WORRYING ABOUT THE DAMN DRAFT AND FIX THE SPORT WHICH YOU COMMISSION.
Doug Pederson MIC’D UP!
Pederson caught a lot of shit this year, primarily from Mike “Can’t Hold Down a Job For Any Employer But Bills Belichick & Simmons” Lombardi. But he’s proven to be a damn good coach and this was a fun look back one of the finest Super Bowl coaching displays in league history.
Personnel Men on the Rookie QBs
I’m not bothering to explain who my friends are. They are these guys. Here’s what they told me on the incoming quarterbacks.
AFC Personnel Man: “There’s not a star in the bunch.”
NFC Personnel Man: “The best QB in this class will be the fifth or sixth guy taken. Watch.” (I followed up on this text and got an “LOL”. So fuck him.)
Links!
- Not sure there’s been a weirder story than Jonathan Martin vaguely-threatening bully revenge on social media with photos of guns & ammo…a week after a school shooting. Richie Incognito took the brunt of the media’s force but many believed Martin was the unstable one in the Dolphins locker room. He’s starting to prove it.
- Did kneeling for the national anthem play a role in the Chiefs dealing Marcus Peters? For the sake their fans, I hope not.
- A CBS piece from October worth revisiting: “As the NFL and its players pledge to work together in turning protests into community service, one team has announced a donation of $500,000 toward the banning of bump stocks and other features of automatic weapons.” Read the entirety of the piece HERE.
- Charles Tillman is an FBI agent now.
- From The Big Lead, on what Fox airing the draft on network TV means for the NFL’s relationship with ESPN: “Monday Night Football has been a major component of why ESPN has been able to command affiliate fees from cable operators leaps and bounds ahead of anyone else. But, MNF is not the platform it once was. It is undeniable that this package gets worse games from the NFL than the broadcast nets Fox, CBS, and NBC do. Yes, the Draft is comparatively on the periphery in relation to the games, but airing it on Fox certainly has the byproduct of even further atrophying ESPN’s relationship with the League as they will lose market share on a spectacle that they essentially created from thin air in the 1980’s.”
A Good Piece of Classical Musical
From Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet. Saw this at New York City Ballet a few back and it was sensational. This piece of music has stayed with me. And now I’m giving it to you, despite the fact that 99% of you don’t want it.
