I read a comment where someone was talking about money ruining the game of football. Yet I remember uploading a vid of Bernie Casey in 1967 telling Steve Sabol he played football purely for the money. I remember another interview I recorded with the late Deacon Jones and the late Paul Hornung discussing free agency and Michael Strahan and Tim Brown were egging them on when Hornung said (and yes I have this interview recorded to upload) saying that yes if Wellington Mara approached him with a doubling of his salary he would have left the Green Bay Packers. Many tend to overromanticize the past to fit an ideal that only exists in their mind. I have recordings of Johnny Unitas, Don Maynard, Dick Night Train Lane and many players from the 50s and 60s negotiating and arguing compensation.
Some romanticize when Packers Center Jim Ringo had an agent coe to speak to Lombardi and Vince walking out. When he came back in said “Youre in the wrong city he plays in Philadelphia now.” That excites you? You dont ask for a raise or move to another company professionally to grow that pays you more?? You really think that Vince Lombardi tactic would work today? You dont think Vince would have been forced to change with the times?
You’re living in an ideal world in your imagination… Vince was a forward thinker. One who had a homosexual brother and did have homosexual players on his roster in Washington when he was with the Redskins. Started black safeties and linebackers (Willie Wood and Dave Robinson) when it was practice by the rest of the NFL not to. They weren’t smart enough remember?? …. well both went to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton and the Packers won half the decades championships also…
He would have adjusted to free agency and a changing world if he were here. Nothing stays the same. Some of you old fans need to change also to the times.
In the wake of the underhanded way the Baltimore Ravens handled the Maxx Crosby trade, he should sue them for what happened. Now his value as a player has been sunk behind a bogus “he failed the physical” which was the copout they could use. They had the ink dry on the Trey Hendrickson deal in less than 18 hours and the fallout is he has to go back to Las Vegas.
Now the market has been completely blown up for Crosby
DE Trey Hendrickson signed by Ravens $114 million
DE/Edge Bradley Chubb signed by Bills $43.5 million
DE/Edge Joseph Ossai signed Jets by $36 million
DE/Edge K’Lavon Chaisson signed by Washington $12 million
…and all this before we bring up his Raiders signed both DE/Edge rushers Kwity Paye & Malcolm Koonce anticipating replacing him. The Dallas Cowboys pulling the trigger on a trade with DE/Edge Rusher Rashan Gary with the Green Bay Packers. Now he was robbed of a year where his market was at its highest for his services and now the Ravens reneged. He is forced back to a team he had said goodbye to and looking forward to a new start in Baltimore.
Think not? The pic at the head of this article was from his Instagram page thats since been deleted. Crosby should sue for potential financial and professional loss. He now has to live with the scarlet letter of a failed physical that will follow him and bring down his value the rest of his career. He should do it to force the players association to act upon his behalf for players who will be stuck in limbo if the NFL doesn’t step in and stop franchises from doing what the Ravens have done. On purpose or inadvertantly they labeled a player from outside their organization that will cause every team to lowball him if there are contract negotiations moving forward.
After this happened, the 1st thing I went to look for is if the Raiders played the Ravens this year but they don’t.
What happened to Maxx Crosby was completely wrong and I would sue them. Just have to figure how much value he lost in this situation with his attorney and agent.
The Seattle Seahawks defense of their Super Bowl crown will undoubtedly be undermined if Kenneth Walker leaves via free agency. A spirited debate has been going on my Facebook page where fans are passionate about believing in GM Schneider’s approach.
My thoughts were to transitional franchise him so the Seahawks would be allowed 1st right of refusal to any contract he signs. The Chancellor’s thoughts are they should have signed him to keep continuity for a championship team to see they will be rewarded once they perform from a team psyche standpoint. This harms this but lets take a quick look at things.
The fact of the matter is we know he was splitting time with Zach Charbonnet. Lets take a hard look:
A lazy look at this and you’d think Charbonnet had been Marshall Faulk when in fact he came in and ran for short yardage touchdown after the heavy lifting had been done. His touchdowns were from 1, 1, 5, 1, 2, 6, 5, 5, 4, 2, 1, & 27 yds on a run in the finale. Lets not forget Chabonnet tore his ACL in the playoff win over San Francisco and didnt have surgery to repair it until February 20th. Five weeks later after the Super Bowl. Yet interestingly we had ACL injuries to Patrick Mahomes and Micah Parsons prompting this comment from Robert Griffin III passing out advice:
I’m sure RGIII has serious advice on looking back on the ACL injury he had in the 2012 NFC Divisional loss ironically to the Seattle Seahawks. But lets act like he doesn’t have history on knowing what a player should do as this injury sabotaged a promising career for him.
As for others? What about the 2000 Baltimore Ravens that bullied their way to the Super Bowl XXXV championship behind one of history’s best defenses and a superior running game. Remember? Rookie Jamal Lewis who ran for 1,351 yards and the final TD in the title game. He tore his ACL in training camp and the Ravens struggled to muster a running game in 2001 before being clobbered in the AFC Divisional Round in a 21-10 loss to the Steelers.
Their best rushers in his absence? They signed journeyman Terry Allen (658 yds) and rookie Jason Brookins (who? 551 yds) and they came up woefully short in defending their title.
Eventually Lewis came back after knee reconstruction and ran for 2,053 yards in 2003 which was 2 years after his injury not 9 months. Charbonnet is not the physical menace that Lewis was. So he’d be back to handle 30% of the load and run for maybe 800 yards 2 seasons from now. No he isn’t prime Adrian Peterson who came back and ran for 2,097 yards after his either and all were chronicled here in 2012 on Taylor Blitz Times.
How about the 1999 Denver Broncos coming off back to back Super Bowls winning XXXII & XXXIII? Terrell Davis had just run for 2,008 yards but in ’99 he tore his ACL and was never the same. As for the Broncos, they finished 6-10 with Olandis Gary as the leading rusher with only 1,159 yards. The 855 yd fewer runs translated to the 6-10 record where they missed the playoffs entirely… we could go further into it but you get the point.
Folks think this is an isolated incident when we have seen Super Bowl teams fail miserably after losing their best running back. Remember Super Bowl XXIX when the 49ers lost Rickey Watters after a record 3 TD performance in the big game? He was an often injured starter who came on during the ’94 playoffs. Without him they were anemic all year and their unproven runners Derek Loville & Adam Walker (1 lost fumble) doomed them in their ’95 27-17 NFC playoff loss that ended their season.
Yet tell me the blind loyalty to GM John Schneider as though he has won the last 7 Super Bowls or something. To think the defending champion Seahawks are $60 million under the cap, one side of the football cheering public think Walker III shouldn’t receive a raise based on the idiotic notion not to pay the bellcow runner. As though Saquon Barkley didn’t just run for 2,005 yards on the Super Bowl LIX champion Eagles. As though the Baltimore Ravens didn’t have Derek Henry bludgeoning opponents for 1,921 yards and 16 rushing TDs and should have faced the Eagles in LIX but they were undone by a bad 2 point conversion.
Seattle could begin the season with 2 different running backs now that Charbonnet could be out until late in the ’26 season or even miss football until ’27. If he is back is he going to be the bellcow for the team after an ACL tear??
Hopefully GM Schneider is just playing hard ball to bring Walker III in later. Even with a discount he allows the Seahawks a legitimate chance at defending their Super Bowl LX title. Without it they stand no chance.
Never has a quarterback been paid so much to deliver so little. Two measly playoff appearances in 14 years for a quarterback to be paid $331 million? You’d have thought I was talking Joe Montana type performance when you see scratch like that. His last playoff appearance was facing off against then Giant QB Daniel Jones and lost at home 31-24 in the ’22 NFC Wildcard. Seriously??
That Giant team has imploded with Head Coach Daboll disgraced & fired by New York. He jettisoned QB Daniel Jones and drafted another QB while Saquon Barkley went on to a 2,000 yard season and a Super Bowl LIX championship in Philadelphia. Cousins hasn’t even returned to the playoffs or even played at a Pro Bowl level. Yet he secured a guaranteed $100 million from the Atlanta Falcons & gave 2 8-9 seasons and Coach Raheem Morris fired.
Everyone wants to talk about the disastrous contract of DeShaun Watson and rightfully so but Kirk Cousins never showed promise to reach a Super Bowl as Watson did early on. See 2019 playoffs..
No one has stolen this much money since Sam Bradford. Sam is the poster boy for the capped rookie deals we see now for 1st round QBs. Owners scoffed at having to spend $50 million (in 2010} for a rookie who didn’t deliver, injury or otherwise.
In the next bargaining agreement between the NFL & players Kirk Cousins will stand as the poster boy for what they will want to avoid as contracts have escalated out of control for “C” level journeymen quarterbacks.
A decade or so back I had completed a journey to find the greatest single season defense in NFL history and had a childhood friend Gerald “Honeybun”Johnson claim “Hey you have to redo that study and include the 2015 Broncos.” To which I said they were a great defense but they weren’t good enough. Now everyone has their criteria but I know my method had been pretty fool proof. Take every Super Bowl champion, every #1 defense, every record setting defense, every trend setting defense. Now lets see how they fared against Pro Bowl QBs and Top Ten offenses and held opponents to 10 points or less in their season of dominance to knock out all biases.
In recent years you’ve had people inventing their own unofficial stats to make a team seem better than they were. Official defensive rankings have always gone by yardage per game, not points allowed. Now looking at points allowed after yardage, then add in yardage rankings passing, rushing, sacks, and interceptions, then you have methodology to begin a study. My study had over 200 defenses and included all 48 and now 60 Super Bowl champion defenses. So no one can flippantly say “They won the Super Bowl” when every one of them are here.
My online arguments with “Honeybun” (childhoood nickname sincehe always ate ’em lol) had long since ended and then former Bronco Aqib Talib revived it on The Arena Gridiron’s Podcast. Both argued the ’15 Broncos were better than the Legion of Boom from 2013:
Time for The chancellor of Football to break this down and the Seahawks wound up #3 all time on my list
2013 Seahawks – Super Bowl XLVIII champions /2015 Broncos – Super Bowl 50 champions
Keep in mind in ’15 it was the 2nd ranked Seahawks (291.5 ypg) who actually led the league in fewest points allowed with 277 in the Broncos dominant season. The Broncos were ranked #1 by giving up 138 yds less for the season than #2 ranked Seattle (4,668 to 4,530) but in Seattle’s 2013 season?? *sucks teeth* A much wider chasm between #1 Seattle and #2 Carolina Panthers (4,378 yds to 4,820 yds)
This group was #1 overall (273.6 ypg. v #2 301.25 ypg) while finishing #1 against the pass allowing 172 yards per game. Those stats were 28 and 22 ypg. better than the Panthers ranked 2nd.
Now that the games are big for everyone, Seattle can apply pressure to opponents.
The Legion of Boom held 7 regular season opponents to 10 points or fewer where The No Fly Zone had 3. The Broncos were 3-1 v top ten offenses which includes the Panthers in the Super Bowl where Seattle only beat 2.
The ’13 Seahawks were 4-1 v Pro Bowl QBs where DC Wade Phillip’s Broncos were 3-2. In those 2 losses they allowed Andrew Luck’s Colts 27 points and Big Ben’s Steelers 34 points and these weren’t top ten offenses in 2015. Yet the Broncos were stronger against the run in ’15 ranking 3rd where Seattle was only 8th in their season. Sooooo Seattle wins this but…
What makes the Broncos so memerable is their front 7 had more flash and substance with Super Bowl 50 MVP LB Von Miller (11 sacks) and PFHof DeMarcus Ware (7.5 sacks) crashing the pocket. We see his sacks on Cam Newton all the time but folks forget his 3 sacks and an interception of Tom Bardy in the AFC Championship to get them there:
Miller, Aqib Talib, Chris Harris Jr, TJ Ward and DeMarcus Ware all made the Pro Bowl back when it meant something. Teh No Fly Zone was #1 against the pass and # 3 against the run with DEs Malik Jackson (45 tack/5.5 sacks) Derek Wolfe (49 tack/ 5.5 sacks) & NT Sylvester Williams bearing the brunt up front. Then think about this…. Shaq Barrett who would be Taylor Blitz Times Defensive Player of the Year in 2019 (in Tampa Bay) was a backup linebacker on this squad where he had 5.5 sacks in relief of Ware. Yes the same Barrett that chased Patrick Mahomes out of the stadium in Super Bowl LV. he tied Miller in ’15 for the team lead with 4 forced fumbles.
Danny Trevathan (109 tackles/ 6 pbu / 2 ints 1TD) & Brandon Marshall (102 tackles/4 pbu/ 2ff) were rangier than most Inside Linebackers and cleaned up everything between the hashmarks under 15 yards.
The strength of The No Fly Zone was blanket coverage where as a unit they had 83 pass break ups over the season. Talib led the unit with 3 Ints returning 2 for touchdowns and Harris and Stewart finished with 1 each. Against other statistical defenses the lack of interceptions (14) hurt in comparison. Even against The Legion of Boom with 28 in their 2013 year. Yet they were in man to man knocking down passes rather than being in a zone and breaking on throws.
Like many in this group the Broncos incredible defensive run in ’15 came while dragging an anemic offense to a title. Did you know the Broncos had the lowest ranked offense in the Super Bowl era to win it all?? They were ranked 19th beating out the 2000 Ravens where Trent Dilfer led the 16th best offense. Yet you had the feeling had they played Super Bowl 50 another 10 quarters the Panthers weren’t going to score.
Seriously in this day and age Peyton Manning (9TDs/ 17 ints) & Brock Osweiler (10TDs/6 ints) threw for less than 4,000 yards and completed just 60.7% of their passes. This ranks as low as the ’71 Colts with 2 aging QBs and the ’91 Eagles who had 5 QBs on the season. Their 6.55 yards per attempt might be the worst of any champion as well.
Are they a best ever defense?? They’re the 2nd best of the decade and 3rd best defense dating back to 2000. The short answer for The Chancellor of Football is yes, they were phenomenal. They would definitely be in the honorable mention category of this list. Remember every Super Bowl champion and every #1 ranked defense for over 60 years is included. See for yourself. Don’t just look at the names…the total arguments are in each article. Ohhh… and by the way “It was a different era” is an agument that doesn’t fly here. I love Talib’s takes on The Arena and I wouldnt watch it without him on there but here is where I brought conjecture and complete historical data to support.
In the long history of the NFL there have been players who defined their positions because of their physicality. Men like Dick Butkus, Dick “Night Train” Lane, and Lawrence Taylor were freaks at their position. They were bigger than what other teams were geared to deal with normally. Yet there are those that stand out as hitters first although their size would suggest something different. Enter Pat Fischer.
Standing only 5’9, and 170 lbs (that can’t be right) Smith played in an era where the NFL was a running league. Unlike today’s game where he could play out in space chasing an X, Z, or slot receiver, Fischer had to come up and tackle in an era where everyone was emulating Green Bay’s power sweep. He had to take on pulling guards, some fullbacks along with his coverage responsibilities. Yet he only missed 10 games in his first 16 years.
His physical play belied his diminutive size as he played as a pint sized intimidator. Lionel “Train” James loves to say “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” Never was this more true than of Pat Fisher. Even in the Super Bowl VII highlight, NFL Films had John Facenda narrate how much a nemesis he was against the run and the pass. Let’s face it, a cornerback his size now is primarily a special team guy who is platooned only against multiple receiver sets. They rarely tackle players other than small slot receivers. Take a look at how Fisher played…
In the NFL of the 1960’s there was a concentration of talent that stayed with the same teams and systems for many years. Fischer was caught in this vice where Hall of Fame cornerbacks Dick “Night Train” Lane, Herb Adderley, Jimmy Johnson, and Lem Barney were playing. He was an overlooked player for awhile and some of it could have been other players not leaving behind on-field animosity when voting for fellow players.
There has to be some truth to it or Fischer wouldn’t have had one of his 3 Pro Bowl seasons in 1969 when he had just 2 interceptions. Now his first, in 1964, where he picked off 10 returning them for 164 yards and 2 touchdowns couldn’t be ignored. That was 1 TD short of the all time record. Yet other years he was overshadowed by these other players.
Pat Fischer played well into the 70’s and here he is going against Mel Gray in the mid ’70s.
One could also make the argument Fischer’s 1969 Pro Bowl and All Pro season came because of the higher visibility Vince Lombardi brought to the team in his only year coaching there.
Whatever the reason, Fischer played from 1961-1977 and retired having played in more games at cornerback in NFL history. If you think about that time frame, he came in 9 years before the AFL / NFL merger and played through the 12th Super Bowl. This is before the modern athlete could have arthroscopic surgery between seasons to prolong their careers.
The question is does he belong in the Hall of Fame with former Cardinal teammate Larry Wilson??
I read a comment where someone was talking about money ruining the game of football. Yet I remember uploading a vid of Bernie Casey in 1967 telling Steve Sabol he played football purely for the money. I remember another interview I recorded with the late Deacon Jones and the late Paul Hornung discussing free agency and Michael Strahan and Tim Brown were egging them on when Hornung said (and yes I have this interview recorded to upload) saying that yes if Wellington Mara approached him with a doubling of his salary he would have left the Green Bay Packers. Many tend to overromanticize the past to fit an ideal that only exists in their mind. I have recordings of Johnny Unitas, Don Maynard, Dick Night Train Lane and many players from the 50s and 60s negotiating and arguing compensation.
In the wake of the underhanded way the Baltimore Ravens handled the Maxx Crosby trade, he should sue them for what happened. Now his value as a player has been sunk behind a bogus “he failed the physical” which was the copout they could use. They had the ink dry on the Trey Hendrickson deal in less than 18 hours and the fallout is he has to go back to Las Vegas.
The Seattle Seahawks defense of their Super Bowl crown will undoubtedly be undermined if Kenneth Walker leaves via free agency. A spirited debate has been going on my Facebook page where fans are passionate about believing in GM Schneider’s approach.
His physical play belied his diminutive size as he played as a pint sized intimidator. Lionel “Train” James loves to say “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” Never was this more true than of Pat Fisher. Even in the Super Bowl VII highlight, NFL Films had John Facenda narrate how much a nemesis he was against the run and the pass. Let’s face it, a cornerback his size now is primarily a special team guy who is platooned only against multiple receiver sets. They rarely tackle players other than small slot receivers. Take a look at how Fisher played…
You must be logged in to post a comment.