Quick Slants - Reality Football

Here are my quick thoughts on the real world of pro and college football:

The last five minutes of Monday Night Football was excruciating to watch. The Cardinals and Niners game dragged on and on like the last 15 seconds of an NBA game. The penalties were unbelievable. At one point, I thought the Cardinals were trying to lose. Their mishaps paled in comparison to the clock management of Coach Singletary, Mike Martz, and company. The Niners wasted at least 25 seconds and two plays. Here is my advice to Coach Singletary. Do not trust Mike Martz. Martz will do anything to be a head coach again. Singletary should make Martz call the plays from upstairs in the coaches’ booth. Get him off the sidelines. Secondly, Coach Singletary get out of San Francisco. Do not take the head coaching job. You will get an opportunity somewhere else. The Niners are being run by 27 year-old Jed York. He kind of looked like the kid that gets stuffed into a locker after gym class. He is making the football decisions? Insert your own expletive. Singletary needs to do his best in the next seven games and get out of town at the end of the year. Maybe, go coach the Vols.

At this moment, Kurt Warner is not a Hall of Famer. He is a very good player and a great person, but he did not have a long enough sustained period of excellence. The statistics cited on Monday Night Football are impressive, but how many of those 300 yard passing games were racked up in losses? Warner is an MVP candidate this year. If he wins the MVP this year and comes back with another winning season next year, he has a legitimate argument for the Hall of Fame. Remember the Hall of Fame is for great, not very good, players.

The NFL illegal forward pass rule is terrible. The line of scrimmage should be enforced just like the goal line. If the ball is across the line of scrimmage, the offense cannot make a forward pass. The rule as applied in the NY Giants versus the Philadelphia Eagles game makes no sense. That play should have been a penalty for Eli Manning and the Giants. Give credit to Manning, Kevin Gilbride, and Coach Tom Coughlin for knowing the rule.

Matthew Stafford should declare himself eligible for the NFL. The economics alone should be reason enough. The 2009 draft might be the last time rookies can demand the huge guaranteed money in signing bonuses. The NFL should and will adopt a rookie salary scale like the NBA. Top draft picks will have salary slots and maybe a two year guaranteed contract. Staying in school might cost Stafford anywhere from 20-30 million dollars over three years. That number is staggering. Okay, forget the money; there are a ton of other reasons. The immediate success of Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco paves the way. Stafford is as physically talented as either of these guys. If he tests well on the personality and intelligence tests, he is a top 10 pick in 2009. He is one of the few quarterbacks eligible for the draft that plays in a pro style offense. Georgia is not going to be better next year. I have a list of about 10 more reasons why he should turn pro; the really difficult job is to come up with any reasons for him to stay for his senior year at Georgia.

The apologists speaking for Georgia Bulldog nation have to stop. In August, Georgia fans were not even talking about Alabama as a legitimate opponent. The Black Out was a bust. The Dawgs lost to Florida 49-10 and the game was not even that close. The fact is the team has not lived up to anyone’s expectations. Accept it and move on. In the real world of college football, Georgia is a regional power. Georgia is not an elite program yet. I am a huge Mark Richt fan. He is the right man for this job, but Coach Richt has to make some changes. There is a lack of discipline off the field and a lack of toughness on the field. The really scary thing for Georgia fans is the unknown of what is going to happen at Tennessee. What if they hire a coach that gets Tennessee back to a national championship contender? Think about these names—Mike Shanahan, Butch Davis, Bill Cowher, Steve Spurrier, Jon Gruden, Brian VanGorder. For the sake of Bulldog fans, I hope Tennessee’s athletic director thinks small.

Shouldn’t Charlie Weiss have been calling the offensive plays for the past three years? He is supposed to be an offensive guru. Notre Dame giving Weiss a ten year contract extension after one year is turning out to be one of the dumbest moves in college football history. I could not be more tired of Coach Weiss. In a sound byte today, he asked where is the program going to go. In college football, teams are either getting better or getting worse. The Irish are getting worse. They are 27-19 with Weiss as the head coach. Ouch. And they are not even playing a very tough schedule. After his first two years, the Irish went to BCS games and proceeded to get blown out. Supposedly, Coach Weiss has between a 14 and 21 million dollar buy out. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish booster club parties are already miserable affairs and now they are going to have to pass the offering plate. I mean they should have lost to San Diego State in week 1.