The Football Fan Spot

This is a bit old, but I felt it was a story that needed to be told.

The following is simply a statement of facts that may or may not be coincidental. I’m not trying to insinuate anything. I’ll leave it up to the reader whether or not he wants to insinuate something. But please do. It’s more fun that way.

Roughly 2 weeks before the 2011 NFL Draft I get an email from someone who will remain nameless for the sake of privacy.

“I have a question for you concerning your Mock Draft could you please give me a call at 555-555-5555 [not his actual number in case you were wondering].  Thank you.”

My initial thought was “that’s weird.” I get emails from readers all the time asking me about my mock draft, but never anyone telling me to call them. That’s sketch.

But I decided to google the man who will remain nameless. He left me his name, so I might as well google him to see who he is. My google search came up with a Bears assistant offensive coach under Mike Martz.

My next thought “oh shit, is he gonna yell at me for calling Jay Cutler a pussy?”

But then I calmed down and thought about how awesome this was. He said he wanted to talk to me about my mock draft so this is probably not about Cutler (side note, I gave Cutler a lot of criticism after not demanding to go back into the game against Green Bay in the NFC Championship and rightfully so, but he really impressed me with his play this season. It’s a shame that he had to miss the whole season with an injury Ben Roethlisberger has been playing with for weeks…er…I mean Jay Cutler isn’t a pussy).

Anyway, I was excited about the Bears reaching out to me. Maybe they want to give me some sort of inside source or something. So I gave the guy a call and he basically told me that Mike Martz was starting a new project where he would use specific mock drafts to help them predict what players would be available when, presumably to help them decide if they needed to make a trade or not. They picked a select few along with mine, Mel Kiper, Todd McShay, walterfootball, ourlads.com scouting services, etc, so pretty big deal. And he wanted me to put my mock draft in a spreadsheet and an easy to read format.

Awesome!

So I did that and I sent it over to him on draft day. I got a response.

“Thanks man this is really cool.  It will be interesting to see if we take the UNC guy [Marvin Austin, my prediction for them]. We like him but the draft is like a wildcard sometimes.”

So the top ten came and went and I had been doing really well. I had accurately picked 8 of the top 10 (My top 10 was Newton, Miller, Dareus, Green, Peterson, Jones, Amukamara, Locker, Watt, Gabbert).

And he emails me again around early 20s, after Kansas City had traded down from 21 to 27.

Him: “Ok so who do you think we take now?”

Me: “I'm sticking with my original pick.”

Him: “We need ol though”

Me: “Again, I don't think any of them fall. Seattle [24], Baltimore [26], and Kansas City [27] all need tackles. Only Sherrod and Carimi left. Of course, if either of them do fall, that would obviously be the pick.”

Him: “Good call so far.”

And then we’re at pick 25, Seattle on the board takes Alabama offensive tackle James Carpenter, a pick that really threw me off. I decided to send this to the assistant who will remain nameless after pick 25, during pick 26.

“Carpenter's certainly a surprise to Seattle though. Thought he'd go more mid round 2, after Carimi, Sherrod, Ijalana. Maybe you guys will get your tackle.”

Then I see something weird. Baltimore missed their pick so Kansas City got to jump ahead of them one. “Haha, what dumasses!” I thought. And then Kansas City took a wide receiver, Pittsburgh’s Jonathan Baldwin, so I looked like a bit of a dumass.

And Chicago got their tackle at 29, Wisconsin’s Gabe Carimi, and the first round ended and I had to wait until the next day for round 2. However, stories started trickling out about why Baltimore missed their pick. Apparently it was Chicago’s fault. Baltimore and Chicago had a deal where Chicago would move up and take a tackle and then at the last second they decided not to, for an unknown reason.

Uh oh.

They weren’t REALLY listening to me were they? They weren’t REALLY listening to me when I said they wouldn’t be able to get a tackle at 29, only to have me email during pick 26 when they were striking a deal with Baltimore to move up to get a tackle saying that now I thought they could get their tackle at 29, were they? I’m just a sports writer. Why would they listen to me? I mean I know I had been doing well and he told me I was doing a good job, but I’m just a sports writer. What the hell do I know?

Apparently the Ravens weren’t too happy about the Bears taking back their offer to move up at the last second. Even though Baltimore got their guy (Colorado cornerback Jimmy Smith), Baltimore still demanded Chicago give up a future pick as compensation.

Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti had this to say “It is, in my opinion, a deviation from their [The Bears’] great legacy.”

Uh oh. Hopefully they weren’t listening to me. I’m an idiot.

It was roughly halfway through the 4th quarter of yesterday’s Bears/Broncos game. I sat there wondering, was there any possible way to spin Tebow’s performance that didn’t make him look completely awful. It’s tough to do when a quarterback is 3 of 16 and losing 10-0 at home to a Caleb Hanie and Marion Barber led Bears team that just lost at home to the Chiefs.

Some of that good be blamed on his receivers. His receivers combined to drop about 5 easy passes, and a few more that would have been tough catches, but still hit their hands. Demaryius Thomas had at least 3 drops, including an easy, long touchdown go right through his hands. You could also chalk some of it up to good defense by the Bears. The Bears’ defensive scheme was one unlike anything Tebow has ever seen. You could also chalk it up to his youth. He was in his 11th start. He was allowed to have a bad game. But there was no way to spin it positively for Tebow. He was terrible. And then Tebow reminded me why I love him. I didn’t need to spin it positively. He did that for me.

What Tebow did in the last half of the 4th quarter and overtime yesterday was beyond words. There aren’t words to describe it. It was “Tebow.” Tebow was 18 of his last 24, to finish a modest 21 of 40 for 236 yards, 1 touchdown, and a pick, but what he did late in that game was anything but a modest performance.

Tebow led a touchdown drive down 10-0 with 4:34 left in the 4th quarter, going 7 for 7 and picking up all 63 yards by himself. Through the air. But with 2:08 left on the clock and no timeouts down 10-7, a win still seemed like a long shot as the Broncos would have to go for the onside kick. That drive was fun to watch, but Tebow would eventually lose. Or so it seemed.

It seemed even more like a long shot when the Broncos didn’t recover the onside kick. The ball hung in the air for a long time and a Bronco player was able to get a hand on it, but the Bears were able to recover. And it seemed like Tebow mania was over, ending the way it started, with an onside recovery in Miami. It was fun while it lasted, but it couldn’t be kept up. Everything regresses towards the mean. Everything becomes logical again.

Best case scenario, the Tebow would get the ball back on his own 20 with less than 20 seconds left needing to drive at least 40 yards and stop the clock to even give Matt Prater a shot at a ridiculously long field goal. Even Tebow couldn’t do that. And then it happened. Marion Barber ran out of bounds! The clock stopped!!! There was hope!!! The Broncos got the 3 and out they needed and gave Tebow the ball back with 53 seconds left on the clock at his own 20, needing to drive at least 40 yards and stop the clock to set Prater up for a prayer of a field goal.  It wouldn’t be easy, but it became possible.

And that was exactly what Tebow did. He led them 39 yards on 3 of 5 passing with a scramble out of bounds for 1 to stop the clock. But it would still take a career high 59 yard field goal by Matt Prater to even send it to overtime. At this point, however, there was no doubt in my mind. I was a believer again. I don’t think there was any doubt in Tebow’s mind, in Prater’s mind, in John Fox’s mind, heck (I would say hell, but that doesn’t seem fitting in an article about Tebow) I bet the Bears even knew it was going in. That’s the power of Tebow. He makes you believe in the unbelievable. And what everyone expecting happened, Prater drained it, down the middle. He probably could have made it from 65+ plus if he needed to.

There was still overtime, but that seemed like a formality after what had just happened. The Broncos had Tebow. They would surely win the coin toss and drive all the way down field to score and win their 3rd overtime game in 8 games (3-0). But the Bears got the ball on the coin toss.

They drove downfield and the way the Bears drove down the field was crazy. They were supposed to be flat coming into overtime. How could they not after what had just happened? They were on the plane home enjoying a win and an end to Tebowmania, at least mentally they were, and then all of a sudden they had to play overtime.  Instead, Caleb Hanie turned a near sack into a completion for a sizeable gain off his back foot, Marion Barber (the goat from regulation) made a sensational diving catch. Even Roy Williams made a catch. It was a miracle!

They drove all the way down into field goal range with one of the league’s best kickers, Robbie Gould warming up, after nailing a 57 yarder earlier in the game. At the Broncos’ 38, a field goal would have been 55 or 56 yards. But you know the Broncos kept believing. The next play was a Marion Barber run, he got 5 yards, which would have made it a very makeable field goal for Gould and he almost broke it for more. But that didn’t happen. He fumbled. Wesley Woodyard stripped it and the Broncos had the ball.  And Tebow took that ball and he drove it, all the way down to the Chicago 33 yard line, setting up Prater for a 51 yard field goal, right down the middle. Ball game.

It was insane. That win was literally impossible. In order for it to happen, Tebow, who was 3 of 16, had to lead 3 scoring drives, his defense had to get a 3 and out, and Marion Barber had to run out of bounds, stop the clock, and fumble in overtime. The odds of all that happening had to be even less than the Red Sox missing the playoffs in September (oh…forgot about that…damnit!). But it happened. It wasn’t logical. It was Tebow.

If you think the only thing Tebow had to do with the game was the 18 of 24 he was in the last 4 minutes of the 4th and overtime, you’re an idiot. I’m sorry. You are. That doesn’t just happen. I’m not saying it was divine intervention, but that doesn’t just happen, especially not after all the crazy ways Tebow has won already this season. A quarterback who completes less than 50% of his passes doesn’t just go 7-1 with a team that was 6-22 in their last 28 under the last quarterback. Marion Barber doesn’t just run out of bounds there. The Broncos don’t just win the way they did yesterday, unless they have a leader who possesses something that I’m not even sure we have a word for. It’s that thing we just refer to as “it.” Intangibles exist.

If you disagree, try to convince me that the Broncos win that game if Kyle Orton is the quarterback. Kyle Orton was on pace to break the single season passing yards record last year on a 3-10 team. There is absolutely nothing about Kyle Orton that inspires his teammates, that makes his teammates believe in the unbelievable. Because when you really get down to it, that is Tebow’s greatest skill. He makes people believe in the unbelievable. His teammates would run through a wall for him, and I don’t just mean his Bronco teammates. He did this at Florida too.

It doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with religion, but at the end of the day, what “Tebowing” is is not going down on one knee and praying in unexpected situations, it’s about believing in the unbelievable and making everyone believe with you. And that’s something that so few people in the world can do, and even fewer in the National Football League and sports in general. That’s what Tebow is about.

"If you believe, sometimes unbelievable things can be possible." -Tim Tebow

Aside from that ability, my favorite thing about Tebow is how the Broncos put him at starting quarterback expecting him to fail. You can’t convince me otherwise. Neither John Fox nor John Elway drafted him and Fox had him as low as 4th string in training camp. They didn’t like him because he didn’t look good in practice and he didn’t look good in practice because it wasn’t the 4th quarter of a close game.

But they couldn’t just get rid of him, the fans would riot. So they let him play, but they made sure to sell his top receiver, Brandon Lloyd, for pennies on the dollar, a 5th rounder for the league’s leading receiver in 2010, even though they could have gotten probably at least a 4th rounder in the offseason as compensation had he left. And once he flopped, they would be free to draft their own guy.

It was like John Fox and John Elway were Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom in The Producers and Tebow was “Springtime for Hitler.” For those unfamiliar with the plot of that movie, Bloom is an accountant who convince Bialystock, a Broadway producer, that he can actually make more money if he produces a complete flop that lasts one night, so the two of them hire a former Nazi screenwriter to right a play called “Springtime for Hitler,” glorifying Hitler, in hopes that the show would flop and they’d make their money.

But like Tebow, “Springtime for Hitler” didn’t flop. And I love Elway and Fox’s reactions after every single one of Tebow’s wins. It’s complete shock followed, by acceptance, a face of “I don’t know how this is working and I never expected it would work, but it’s working and I’ll take it.” I love it.

It appears the Buccaneers have given up on 2007 4th overall pick Gaines Adams as they have traded him to the Bears for a 2010 2nd round pick. Adams led all rookies in sacks in 6 in 2007 and had 12.5 sacks over the past two years and looked like one of the premier young defensive ends in the league.

However, when Jon Gruden was fired and longtime defensive coach Monte Kiffin left for Tennessee, the Bucs hired defensive back coach Raheem Morris as head coach. The 32-year-old Morris spent the entire offseason getting rid off everyone that was older than him, with the exception and 34-year-old Ronde Barber, as well as everyone who only fit the old Tampa 2 defense and did not fit the new defensive scheme that Morris wanted to implement. The only problem was that he didn’t replace any of these guys and the Buccaneers are now 0-5 this season. The Bucs are 30th in the league in points allowed per game, dead last in yards per passing attempt allowed, and 24th in yards per carries allowed on the ground.

Gaines Adams, who only has 1 sack this year, and clearly does not fit in the bigger, more physical scheme that Morris wanted to implement. He appears to be the latest causality in Raheem Morris’ rebuilding project. Now the only player remaining in the Bucs front 7 that was starting for them at this point last year is talented young middle linebacker Barrett Ruud. However much the Bucs were struggling stopping people before this trade, is going to be even worse now.

As for the Bears, this trade is perfect for them, despite the fact that they now are without a pick in the first 2 rounds of the 2010 NFL Draft. Gaines Adams appeared to be one of the premier young defensive ends playing in a cover 2 defense the last two years. The Bears play a cover 2 defense and Gaines Adams will fit as a perfect fit in this defense. For the price they got him, a 2nd round pick for a 2007 4th overall pick, he’s a great value with great upside. 

Bucks sell Richard Jefferson to the Spurs 

Ok, well the Bucks actually did get three players, Kurt Thomas, Fabricio Oberto, and Bruce Bowen. However, all three are under contract for only a year so the Bucks are essentially just trying to get rid of Jefferson's salary. Considering they gave up a promising young player for him last offseason, Yi Jianlian, and got nothing in return for him, this move doesn't make a whole lot of sense. They get 3 million for this offseason, which may or may not help them resign Charlie Villanueva, and they get 15 million for next offseason, but it won't matter because Milwaukee is going to have a tough time attracting free agents to their small market. The Bucks don't get players like Jefferson very often and they gave him away for some cap space. 

As for the Spurs, they will be killed by the luxury tax for the near future, but this year is really their last real shot to win in the Tim Duncan era. With Duncan, Parker, Ginobili, and now Jefferson who is a tough player who can rebound, play defense, and score, if they need him to, in a variety of wars, the Spurs are in a position to make another run at the title and before this trade, they were not. 

Celtics trade Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo to Detroit for Tayshaun Prince and Rodney Stuckey 

Eh, what? Luckily, the Pistons flat out rejected this deal. It wasn't even offered by Danny Ainge, reportedly, although I wouldn't be surprised if it actually was. This has to be one of the most ridiculous trade offers ever, for both sides. The Celtics break up their big 3. They lose fan favorite Rajon Rondo. The Pistons get Ray Allen who is almost the exact same player as Richard Hamilton, who they already have, and in the process lose Prince, the one good front court player they have under contract for next year. 

Brandon Marshall to the Bears 

Once again, only rumors, but Jay Cutler has said that he would love if the Bears could acquire Brandon Marshall. Marshall is having a contract dispute with the Broncos, who don't want to pay him because he's a criminal. Marshall and Cutler had a great year together last year, and really for the last 2 years, when they were teammates in Denver and Cutler's current #1 receiver is Devin Hester. The asking price for Marshall is not yet known because the Broncos are not officially shopping their top receiver, though they may have to listen to offers soon if he continues to hold out. The Bears have to hope the asking price is not too high, as they don't have a 1st round pick next year.