Why Tim Tebow Won’t Make It in NFL

Tim Tebow is probably the most recognizable person in college football today.  If you were to ask somebody to name one college football player, I’m willing to bet that nine times out of 10, they would say Tebow’s name. 

And I guess that makes sense.  Tebow is not only known on the field as a great player, but his actions off the field make him popular, even with the non-football fans. 

But we have all learned that a superstar in college doesn’t always become great in the NFL.  You don’t have to look very far back.

In every draft, there’s an expected superstar that turns out to be an injured backup.  From Reggie Bush to Ryan Leaf, there have always been players that succumb to the following cycle:

Play magically first few games.  Get injured.  Come back next season, figure out that you can’t play football anymore.  Lie about your nagging knee injury so the press will stop bugging you.  Rot for the next few years until nobody cares about you anymore.  Vince Young and Reggie Bush fit this description perfectly.

Some players screw up, some players take advantage of their golden opportunity.  I’m going to explain now why Tim Tebow will be a failure in the NFL.  It is not his fault, he is genetically cursed.  He was made perfect except for one flaw:

He’s a lefty.

Bye-bye, Super Bowl dreams.  So long, Pro Bowl.  Sayanora, multi-million-dollar contract.

How many lefties can you think of that have actually been decent?  I can name one:  Michael Vick.  And we all know what happened to him.  The point is lefties are cursed.

Take Matt Leinart, for example.  He was a hero back in his college days.  Now he is practically begging that they bench Kurt Warner.  Want to know why?  Because he is a lefty. 

I’m not prejudice against lefties, but it’s kind of funny when you realize a lefty has never led a team to a Super Bowl championship.  Let’s look at the last six Super Bowls:

2004: New England Patriots, Tom Brady, righty.

2005: New England Patriots, Tom Brady, righty.

2006: Pittsburgh Steelers, Ben Roethlisberger, righty.

2007: Indianapolis Colts, Peyton Manning, righty.

2008: New York Giants, Eli Manning, righty.

2009: Pittsburgh Steelers, Ben Roethlisberger, righty.

Get my feel?  Everybody right-hander has had the advantage right off the bat. 

Is it really genetics or are righties just luckier than lefties.  Obviously, there are fewer lefties.  But if they really are as good as righties, wouldn’t a lefty start for somebody?  Look around the league, do you see any good lefties?  Neither do I.

That is why Tim Tebow will not be successful in the NFL.

Read more NFL news on BleacherReport.com

Injuries and How They Impact Sports

First of all, I would like to apologize for the long absence and explain what I’ve been doing.

I am still a kid, and I have the privilege to play junior football.  No matter what I say or do on this web site, I still like playing backyard football and watching the Hawks on the tube.  A few weeks back one play changed my entire season.

We were just coming out of halftime.  I was back to receive the kickoff.  The opponents did an onside that the first line completely ignored.  I fielded it at the 35 yard-line and realized that their was a huge gap.  I ran through it and all of a sudden I was in open field.

One man to beat! I laid a move on him and kept on running.  At the 30, the 20, the 10, it looks like he is going to take it to the house! And then suddenly, CRASH! 

I fell hard on the ground at the two-yard line; I was tackled from my toes, and I fell down defenseless against the ground. 

A jolt of pain went up and down my neck and collarbone.  I knew something wasn’t right so the coach pulled me from the game.  All the players were congratulating me as I took a knee on the sideline.  I finally walked up to the coach and told him that my collarbone area was burning.

They took a look at it and told me to take off my pads and jersey.  They taped me up and I went to the ER (emergency room).  After an hour of waiting, they finally got to me. Some service!  They took X-rays and revealed that I had broken my clavicle.

In football talk: I busted a bone.

I was shocked and horrified.  I felt like I was going to cry when they told me I would be out for the season.

Then I realized how much pain professional athletes endure throughout their lives.  I used to call them “wimps” and “cry babies,” but I have a new found respect for their strength. In the course of their careers, athletes break bones, heal them, and sometimes break them again.

Most professional athletes have long term issues that affect them for the rest of their careers and lives.

A day after my injury (it happened on a Saturday), I decided to watch the Hawks’ game against the San Francisco 49ers.  It was looking OK until disaster struck,  Matt Hasselbeck went with the QB keeper and put his body on the line to score.

Unfortunately, Patrick Willis thought otherwise and busted Hasselbeck’s rib. My knee jerk response was to say, “C’mon Matt! That’s like the third time in two years!”  But I paused, looked at my collarbone, and kept my mouth shut.

I decided to do some research on broken collarbones among professional athletes.  I realized that Adrian Peterson broke his collarbone in college and that it stopped other teams from wanting to draft him. Where others saw weakness, I now saw strength. He toughened up and kept on playing.

I wondered what it was like for Adrian Peterson to watch from the sidelines.  When I watched players on the sidelines that are injured during NFL games I say, “What a bunch of fakers, these guys are getting paid millions for nothing.”

So next time you see an NFL athlete go down with an injury, think about that time you broke a bone. 

These guys are giving every ounce of energy to help the team, and bad things can happen. Nobody is injury-prone; injuries just happen. It’s as simple as mistakes happening.

Nobody can stop them from happening, they can happen to anybody.  An injury that you see on TV or the computer may be just mean a six week absence of your quarterback to you; but to them, it’s six weeks of living in pain and wanting to play. 

Now, I too have experienced that first hand. 

Thanks for reading. 

Read more NFL news on BleacherReport.com

Injuries and How They Impact Sports

First of all, I would like to apologize for the long absence and explain what I’ve been doing.

I am still a kid, and I have the privilege to play junior football.  No matter what I say or do on this web site, I still like playing backyard football and watching the Hawks on the tube.  A few weeks back one play changed my entire season.

We were just coming out of halftime.  I was back to receive the kickoff.  The opponents did an onside that the first line completely ignored.  I fielded it at the 35 yard-line and realized that their was a huge gap.  I ran through it and all of a sudden I was in open field.

One man to beat! I laid a move on him and kept on running.  At the 30, the 20, the 10, it looks like he is going to take it to the house! And then suddenly, CRASH! 

I fell hard on the ground at the two-yard line; I was tackled from my toes, and I fell down defenseless against the ground. 

A jolt of pain went up and down my neck and collarbone.  I knew something wasn’t right so the coach pulled me from the game.  All the players were congratulating me as I took a knee on the sideline.  I finally walked up to the coach and told him that my collarbone area was burning.

They took a look at it and told me to take off my pads and jersey.  They taped me up and I went to the ER (emergency room).  After an hour of waiting, they finally got to me. Some service!  They took X-rays and revealed that I had broken my clavicle.

In football talk: I busted a bone.

I was shocked and horrified.  I felt like I was going to cry when they told me I would be out for the season.

Then I realized how much pain professional athletes endure throughout their lives.  I used to call them “wimps” and “cry babies,” but I have a new found respect for their strength. In the course of their careers, athletes break bones, heal them, and sometimes break them again.

Most professional athletes have long term issues that affect them for the rest of their careers and lives.

A day after my injury (it happened on a Saturday), I decided to watch the Hawks’ game against the San Francisco 49ers.  It was looking OK until disaster struck,  Matt Hasselbeck went with the QB keeper and put his body on the line to score.

Unfortunately, Patrick Willis thought otherwise and busted Hasselbeck’s rib. My knee jerk response was to say, “C’mon Matt! That’s like the third time in two years!”  But I paused, looked at my collarbone, and kept my mouth shut.

I decided to do some research on broken collarbones among professional athletes.  I realized that Adrian Peterson broke his collarbone in college and that it stopped other teams from wanting to draft him. Where others saw weakness, I now saw strength. He toughened up and kept on playing.

I wondered what it was like for Adrian Peterson to watch from the sidelines.  When I watched players on the sidelines that are injured during NFL games I say, “What a bunch of fakers, these guys are getting paid millions for nothing.”

So next time you see an NFL athlete go down with an injury, think about that time you broke a bone. 

These guys are giving every ounce of energy to help the team, and bad things can happen. Nobody is injury-prone; injuries just happen. It’s as simple as mistakes happening.

Nobody can stop them from happening, they can happen to anybody.  An injury that you see on TV or the computer may be just mean a six week absence of your quarterback to you; but to them, it’s six weeks of living in pain and wanting to play. 

Now, I too have experienced that first hand. 

Thanks for reading. 

Read more NFL news on BleacherReport.com

What’s in Store for the 2009 Detroit Lions?

Hey, you can’t win them all, can you? On the other hand, you could lose them all if you’re the Detroit Lions. 

The 2008 Detroit Lions will forever be mentioned as one of the worst teams of all-time. But hey, there’s light at the end of every tunnel, and you can look at some of the other lackluster NFL teams and how they have come back.

Take the Atlanta Falcons, for example. Many predicted the Falcons would go 2-14 and be the worst team in the NFL. But it’s funny how winning 11 games can put you in a totally different position. They are now known as the class of the AFC South and one of the NFL’s elite teams. Okay, maybe I’m being a little too generous.

However, you don’t even have to look at the present to see some great turnarounds. The St. Louis Rams went from a 4-12 team to a 13-3 Super Bowl champion back in 1999. Then the New England Patriots went 11-5 and won the Super Bowl just one year after going 5-11.

If you look at these great NFL teams that have made turnarounds, you realize something.  Each one had a great quarterback. The Pats had Tom Brady, the Indianapolis Colts had Peyton Manning and the Rams had Kurt Warner.

The lions have…?

Well, everybody can dream, can’t they?

The only team that had ever gone winless in an entire season was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They had an excuse. They were an expansion team and they only had 14 games instead of 16.

The Lions, I guess don’t have an excuse. They have made the playoffs just once in 50 years. That is just pathetic, you have to try to be that bad.

The Matt Millen era is finally over after eight merciful seasons. The Lions went 31-97 in that span. He keeps on saying that things can get worse. Actually, Matt, they really can’t.

But look on the bright side. The Miami Dolphins went from 1-15 to 11-5. It looked impossible at first, but the Dolphins managed to pull out a miracle and beat out the Patriots to make the playoffs.

Then there is another good part of not being able to do any worse. In any sports town that makes the economy look strong, because there is absolutely nowhere to go but up. Maybe that’s why former Tennessee Titans defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz was so antsy to get the job way back in January. Even if you go 1-15, your season is considered a success.

Here come the Lions marching along. They look like they are in the same position as the Miami Dolphins were, just with one win less. Even after the 2009 Miami miracle, the Lions look like an even longer shot to repeat.

In fact, a titanic leap to 1-15 would be so huge, it couldn’t even be measured in percentage.

At least Atlanta and Miami had some nice tools to work with. Atlanta had Matt Ryan, Michael Turner, Roddy White and a relatively decent defense. The Dolphins had Chad Pennington, Ronnie Brown and Joey Porter. The Lions don’t have a proven quarterback, the defense has definitely seen better days and pretty much everything else doesn’t reveal any hint they can contend in 2009.

There is one exception here. Calvin Johnson  is one of the best receivers in the game right now. But when you have an unproven rookie quarterback (Matthew Stafford) and a veteran past his prime (Daunte Culpepper), you have to wonder if either quarterback can actually get him the ball.

If anybody is still a Lions fan in Detroit, then I give him/her a round of applause. Unless people are all of a sudden willing to pay for overpriced tickets in the worst economy in the world, to watch an 0-16 team, then the money you’re making looks pretty slim.

Fewer fans means less merchandise sales, less team support, less TV coverage, less media attention and most importantly, less money.

If all this is true, then there will likely be more games blacked out, which means a decrease in player salaries. That basically means you can’t play players and your team is just going to get worse. Should the front office resort to (gasp!), lower prices?

The 2009 Detroit Lions have a brand new logo, a brand new franchise quarterback and a brand new head coach. But ultimately the front office is just polishing a turd. 

But where’s the fun in watching the team struggle? Everybody get on Lions’ bandwagon!  There are plenty of seats still available!  

Seattle Seahawks Official 2009 NFL Preview

OFFENSE:

The offense was absolutely dreadful in 2008 and it can no longer be called the team’s strength. The overall offense ranked just 28th in the NFL in 2008 and it ranked just 29th in the passing game

Quarterback Matt Hasselbeckd is no longer a top 10 quarterback. He is approaching his upper 30’s and he is always at risk for an injury. A bulged shoulder disk is nothing to laugh about. He will probably go for about 3000 yards and about 20 touchdowns but the declining years have officially started. And with no proven backup, the team will be in major trouble if Matt Hasselbeck goes down again.

The Seahawks made another greedy effort to strengthen their receiving corp by giving TJ Houshmandzadeh a mega deal that will cost the Seahawks 40 million over the next five years. TJ brings consistency to the table and great hands. He is in his mid 30’s also.

The Seahawks offensive line has too many 30 somethings. With Mike Wahle retiring, they have lost that much more depth to the O-line. Second round pick Max Unger will step in at the guard position. Left tackle Walter Jones is a future Hall of Famer and one of the best tackles in the game. Even when he is playing at 90 percent he is better than 90 percent of the tackles in the NFL.

John Carlson is the future Jason Witten of the NFL and became the first rookie tight end in Seahawk history to led the team in receptions

OVERALL:

The Seahawks made a bold effort to shore up this shaky offense but with all the 30 year olds in this lineup, the team isn’t set for the future. Expect enough out of this unit to make a playoff run at the most. B-

DEFENSE:

This defense is now officially the strength of the team even though they didn’t show it last year. The addition of Aaron Curry makes this defense even younger and even better than before.

The linebacker crew is one that will strike fear into running backs. All 3 of their starters are under 25 and play a smash mouth style of football. Lofa Tatupu is a top 10 linebacker and is the captain of this defense.

The defensive line made major upgrades in the power department. They brought in 330 pound Colin Cole and 295 pound Cory Redding. This will insure that the defensive line won’t get pushed around as much as last year.

Patrick Kerney was injured last year but he is still one of the best defensive ends in the league. He will make more sacks under a bigger defensive line.

The defensive back group should make improvements over last year’s lackluster campaign in which they allowed the most passing yards of any team in the NFL.

Pro bowler Marcus Trufant is the captain of this unit and is a Pro Bowler. He continues to deliver consistent performances. This unit is undersized as they got beat by bigger, stronger receivers. Josh Wilson at 5-9 and Kelly Jennings at 5-11 are at the top of your depth chart which is not a good sign. Kelly Jennings looks to be one of the biggest busts in Seahawks draft history. Josh Wilson is the immediate starter.

DEFENSE:

This defense is still the strength of the team even with last year’s performance. Injury’s tore this unit to pieces but their back and hungry for some payback. B

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