From time to time, I've posted sports-themed posts on my other blogs, DiscConnected (music reviews and news) or Back In The USSR (political).

I decided to see if I could give ESPN 8 (The Ocho) a run for their money and started this blog.

I lifted the title from John DeBella's Philadelphia morning radio show back in the eighties.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

A LEGEND PASSESS... ANOTHER PASSES GAS

Sadly, this blog kicks off with the passing of a football legend.

Al Davis, the controversial and combative owner of the Oakland Raiders died yesterday at age 82.
Davis, whose feuds with the National Football League reshaped professional football over the last half century and helped spur its rise to pre-eminence in the landscape of American sports, died at his home in Oakland.
Without Davis, there would be no franchise owners like George Steinbrenner, Jerry Jones or Mark Cuban.
Al Davis, outspoken and brash, was a central figure in the merger of the upstart American Football League with the established N.F.L., and paved the way for the extravaganza known as the Super Bowl.
The Raiders’ colors, silver and black, were chosen by Mr. Davis to intimidate. So was their insignia, a shield emblazoned with the image of a pirate in a football helmet in front of crossed sabers.
Mr. Davis was a coach, general manager and owner of the Raiders for nearly 50 years. He left briefly, in 1966, to become the commissioner of the A.F.L., vowing to battle the older N.F.L. for the best players available. That attitude helped lead the N.F.L. to agree to play the A.F.L. in an annual championship game, which became the Super Bowl. In 1970, the leagues played a united schedule, creating the modern N.F.L.
Davis feuded for decades with the former N.F.L. commissioner Pete Rozelle and sued the league in the early 1980s so he could move the Raiders from Oakland to Los Angeles.
Then, 13 years later, he moved them back.
Mr. Davis became the symbol of a franchise that garnered a reputation for outlaw personalities and a kind of counterculture sensibility. The Raiders were the first franchise in the modern era to have a Latino head coach (Tom Flores), a black head coach (Art Shell) and a female chief executive (Amy Trask).
He was also one of a dwindling number of N.F.L. owners whose riches came primarily from the business of football. There were no hedge funds or shipping companies in Mr. Davis’s background. He simply ran the Raiders — the team appeared in five Super Bowls under his ownership, winning three — and his business model could, for all intents and purposes, be summed up by the phrase that became his franchise’s motto: “Just win, baby!”
R.I.P. Al Davis



Also in the media this week was future Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre.
The one-time Super Bowl champion will forever be recognized as an iron man due to his streak of consecutive starts.

Now, can he just please go away?

We had to deal with season after season of Brettie crying wolf over retirement.

Brett Favre is old news, and the only person who can't deal with that is Brett Favre.

During a recent interview, Has Been commented on the Green Bay Packers' Super Bowl win behind the arm of quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

“I’m going to be honest, I was not surprised. The biggest surprise to me would be that he didn’t do it sooner," Favre said.

Favre continued, "[Aaron] just kind of fell into a good situation. On top of that, he's a good player. I don't think there's any pressure on him now, the talent around him is even better than when I was there."

Really, Brett?

Favre's last year with the Packers was in 2007, and he ended his season with an interception.


Rodgers won the Super Bowl with the team in 2010, with less of a running game than the 2007 team, and with a starting tight end injured all season.

Said differently, the Packers offense had less talent in 2010 than it did in 2007. Except for one position, and that's quarterback.

Simply put, Aaron Rodgers is a better quarterback than Favre.

Last season, was statistically the worst of his career. Rodgers threw for just 3,922 yards, 28 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.

Over the course of his career Rodgers has a 14,048 yards, 99 touchdowns and only 34 interceptions. This has been over the course of essentially just three and a half seasons. His 100.5 quarterback rating is among the top of active quarterbacks.

Favre's career QB rating was 86.0. Over his first four seasons, it averaged a little higher, but nowhere near Rodgers.

Since winning his first Super Bowl, Favre's playoff record was 3-6 with 16 interceptions.

Favre also set the record for most interceptions in the playoffs at 30.

Favre is a media hound with a pathetic need to be in the limelight. That means every few months the rest of us have to suffer through a little more media exposure than the Wrangler commercials.

When asked if he thought Favre's shadow would ever go away, Rodgers gave the perfect response.

"I don't think so. And I think on some level, you need to embrace the fact that you're mentioned with a future Hall of Famer in the same sentence -- a lot."

It would appear that Rodgers outclasses Favre on and off the field.

4 comments:

Stephen T. McCarthy said...

DR. DISCDUDE ~
So, you've started a new blog with a sports theme. Well, that's good; I like it. And I am this blog's first "Follower" and "Commenter" - I like THAT, too.

Unfortunately, this blog's supermarket grand opening features two of the folks I most dislike in the NFL: Al Davis and Brettboy Favregirl.

My first favorite NFL team (and my current favorite NFL team) be the Dolphins. But for a period in the late '70s through the early '90s, I switched to the Raiders. I owned and proudly wore a black "Los Angeles Raiders" T-shirt even before the team had officially moved from Oakland to L.A. (The move had been rumored, and the T-shirt was a novelty item.)

I was in attendance (with my friend Ken) at the last professional football game played by Bo Jackson: The 1990 playoff game against the Bengals at the L.A. Coliseum.

I still remember him lying on the field after his career-ending injury. That mental image of him lying on the turf, the one of him carrying Brian Bosworth into the end zone on Monday Night Football, and (along with my Dad) seeing him pushing a shopping cart in the parking lot of a grocery store in Marina Del Rey one day, are my most vivid recollections of Bo Jackson, one of my all-time favorite athletes.

One thing you neglected to mention is that after moving the Raiders from Oakland to L.A. and then moving them back to Oakland about a decade later, Al Davis eventually decided he wanted to move the team back to L.A. AGAIN!

I know we're not supposed to say negative things about the recently deceased, so... just read my mind.

As for Al Davis' famous slogan, “Just win, baby!”... that seems to have been taken right out of the Democrat Party's playbook. But what about fair play, honesty, sportsmanship and the like? Nah. Not important. "Just win, baby!"

As for Brettboy Favregirl - what can I say that I haven't said before?

And now you have a third blog - one with a sports theme. But seeing as how you've only recently started learning about baseball, and have no real interest in basketball and hockey, what are you going to write about between Super Bowl Sunday and the start of the NFL preseason in August?

Three blogs and still no ALL-PURPOSE site where you can ask readers what they think about writers carrying on another writer's character in literature after the death of the initial author, and no place to participate in the "Which Cartoon Character R U?" Blogfest, etc.

It looks to me like you're still a blog short - one titled "THE AL PORPOISE BLOG", or perhaps even "DiscConnected STUFFS".

Oh well, I'll leave you to figure it out. Meanwhile, I've been writing about Bo Jackson at the same time I was listening to Karen Carpenter sing. Yeah, I'm multi-faceted that way; I'm where the sports fan and the sentimental sissy meet.
[:o)}

Have A Nice Blog!

~ D-FensDogg
'Loyal American Underground'

DiscConnected said...

McDogg-

I don't like the idea of an all-purpose blog. I need it to have a theme.

And there's too many blogs by writers, anyway. I'd just make it worse.

Not sure how much I'll have to say on this one, but we'll see.

Not a big fan of Al Davis, either, but he did have a huge impact on the sport.

And my affection for Brettie has been well-documented.

Jacques

Arlee Bird said...

Good luck with the new blog. I've just started another new one in addition to the new A to Z blog. My latest blog is partially to promote my daughter's artwork. If you are interested its at:

A Faraway View

I plan to start 2 additional blogs in the next week or so. Why? I'm approved for adsense and I want to have space for ads. Also I want to experiment.

Sports? I'm not a fan. I kind of like basketball but I'd be happy if the season tanked and everyone took a big financial hit. They're all a bunch of overpaid crybabies. I wish football had gone on strike cause I cannot stand football.

Sorry guys, but I must be truthful. Raiders? Hate the Raiders. Makes me think of gang members. I get my fill of Raiders around here.
I'll be following, and checking posts, but they'll probably go right through me like strong coffee in the morning. I won't get a lot of what you're talking about.

Anyhow that's all I have to say for now. Now I'm ready for the backlash.


Lee
Tossing It Out

DiscConnected said...

Lee-

You may actually like this one because I'll probably be poking fun at the American insitution behind the sports on the fields.

The internet doesn't need another blog talking about Tom Brady...but we can never get enough of dissing Brett Favre!

Jacques