What's that? You were wondering exactly how many days until the start of the NFL season? Well, you're in luck! We here at the Triangle are set to spend the next three months providing a daily reason to get excited about pro football's return.
I'm pretty sure the video says everything, but in case you forgot, here's Adrian Peterson’s 2012, coming back from a shredded knee andwith a sports hernia: 2,097 yards, 12 rushing touchdowns, 131.1 yards per game, 6.0 yards per carry, 3.93 yards per carry after contact, 44 broken tackles, 40 runs of 15 or more yards, and the most not-surprised-by-anything-he-does season a running back has had since I’ve been alive.
What's that? You were wondering exactly how many days until the start of the NFL season? Well, you're in luck! We here at the Triangle are set to spend the next three and a half months providing a daily reason to get excited about pro football's return.
Along with being the two best wide receivers in the NFL last season, Andre Johnson and Calvin Johnson have a lot in common. They share a last name, they played their college football at schools now in the ACC, and they were taken in the top three of their respective drafts. They also, in a way, represent the end points of the Detroit Lions’ road to wide receiver redemption.
The end of that road came in 2007, when the Lions took Calvin Johnson second overall. All Megatron has done since is earn one of professional sports’ best nicknames and put together a stretch of seasons that, at 27, already have him in rare historical company.
The beginning came four years earlier, during the 2003 NFL draft. That year, there were two wide receivers considered to be top-10 talents. One was Michigan State’s Charles Rogers, a 6-foot-4 220-pounder who imposed his physicality on defensive backs and had the 4.4 speed to run by them. The other was Andre Johnson, the Miami receiver who combined a collection of excellent physical traits with a substantial feel for finding space in defenses. When it came time for the Lions to make their pick, the second overall, they went with the local kid. A series of injuries and positive drug tests led to Rogers playing only 15 games in a Lions uniform before eventually being released in 2006. Detroit compounded its receiver problem by drafting Roy Williams seventh overall in 2004 and Mike Williams 10th overall in 2005. As the Lions have struggled to find a complement to Megatron, Andre Johnson, who was taken one pick after Rogers, has spent the past decade quietly being one of the best wide receivers in football.
I bring this up not to torture Lions fans (but seriously, Andre Johnson and Calvin Johnson could very easily both be Lions right now), but also to note that for as clear as Megatron’s greatness has been, Andre’s collected efforts still somehow seem overlooked. Maybe it’s just easier to put it this way — over the past five seasons, Andre Johnson has belonged right beside Megatron in conversations about the best wide receiver in the NFL.
What's that? You were wondering exactly how many days until the start of the NFL season? Well, you're in luck! We here at the Triangle are set to spend the next three and a half months providing a daily reason to get excited about pro football's return.
Like most great things, the fat-man touchdown was born from a combination of opportunity and a desire for revenge. In his team’s 23-0 blowout of the Bears in the 1984 NFC Championship Game, 49ers coach Bill Walsh decided to use guard Guy McIntyre as a blocking back near the goal line. Mike Ditka saw this as an attempt at mockery (because of course he did), and it was there at Candlestick Park that Ditka vowed to one day have his vengeance.
What's that? You were wondering exactly how many days until the start of the NFL season? Well, you're in luck! We here at the Triangle are set to spend the next three and a half months providing a daily reason to get excited about pro football's return.
T.O.’s last down of regular-season NFL football came in 2010. Since that stint with the Bengals ended, he’s split his time between a disastrous stretch in the Indoor Football League and every celebrity sporting event ever conceived, all the while holding out hope for one more NFL shot. He had a short-lived stay with the Seahawks last summer, but that appears to be the last interest anyone’s shown. And if T.O. doesn’t catch on this year, he says, he’s calling it quits for good.
Every now and then, we will attempt to write the worst sports column on earth. Today: Let's talk about Tim Tebow and the New England Patriots and hope.
This one wasn't in the playbook, folks.
In case you forgot, the media wanted Tim Tebow to fail.
The NBA Finals began last night, so there's plenty of news to discuss. Football is still three months away, and there's no good reason to celebrate the art of punt returns today. But Thursday morning Bill Barnwell passed along this video of Clarence Anderson's punt return for Poland's Warsaw Eagles:
It's fun for several reasons.
• They play football in Poland!
• Yo, that punt went like 80 yards. Punters in Poland are serious.
• Clarence breaks a full seven tackles on his way to the end zone.
• This guy's name is Clarence (he lives at home with two real good parents).
What's that? You were wondering exactly how many days until the start of the NFL season? Well, you're in luck! We here at the Triangle are set to spend the next three and a half months providing a daily reason to get excited about pro football's return.
I don’t want to get all self-congratulatory here, but there’s really no way around it. We’ve made it through 15 Warning posts, and not once have I mentioned J.J. Watt. Seriously, go check. This is something for which I should be rewarded. I’m not saying I deserve a trophy, but a commemorative plaque feels appropriate.
It is rare that an athlete is so good at his job that he inspires an entirely new quantitative measure, but this was the case with David “Deacon” Jones, who died of natural causes yesterday at the age of 74. Jones was a 6-foot-5, 270-pound behemoth, a flamboyant man who spoke plainly about his own ferocity (occasionally to odd effect). He was not shy about his abilities, or about his place in history; he once said that the only regret he had about his career was that he wished he’d taken the time to “kill more quarterbacks.” He perfected a barbaric (and long-outlawed) technique known as the head slap, a nyuk-nyuk Moe Howard move that was exactly what it sounds like, and had the effect you might imagine it would have when you are a very large man ricocheting your palm onto an offensive lineman’s helmet.
May and June are just about the only months when there's nothing to talk about regarding the NFL. Mays is doing the heavy lifting with his Warning series, but we wanted to make sure you were fully aware of some of the truly stupid NFL news stories floating around this week.
So let's take a look at some of the headlines from the past week or so that have made life more fun.
The NFLPA Goes to War With Jay-Z
This is so, so stupid. From NFL.com: "The union is planning to send a letter of inquiry to Roc Nation Sports agent Kim Miale to gather more information about Jay-Z's involvement in courting [Geno] Smith. The recently instituted 'runner rule' prohibits agents from having colleagues or friends who aren't NFLPA certified agents present for recruiting meetings."
It's the second time this year the players association has investigated Jay's involvement in recruiting a player. And … Jay-Z was at that meeting. You know he was. Everyone knows he was. Geno Smith's adviser said he was (before backtracking), and Geno Smith posted a picture of himself on Instagram. With Jay-Z. At that meeting.
But here's the thing: Jay-Z is not really a "runner," is he? He's a business, mannnnn. (Literally; he owns part of the agency.) So, maybe there's a point to this investigation that I'm missing, but it sure seems like this is a way for the NFLPA to harp on technicalities and appease rival agents who are upset that Jay-Z is suddenly a threat to steal their clients. In that case, there are two responses. First of all, having Jay-Z looming as a threat only ensures that agents will take better care of their stars for fear of losing them, so the NFLPA's doing everyone a disservice by trying to chase him out of football. Second and more importantly, the NFLPA needs to see the forest for the trees in all this.
What's that? You were wondering exactly how many days until the start of the NFL season? Well, you're in luck! We here at the Triangle are set to spend the next three and a half months providing a daily reason to get excited about pro football's return.
The panic button seems to be armed a little early this year at Valley Ranch. I mean, sure, when the Cowboys went 8-8 a year ago, someone had to go (that someone turned out to be defensive coordinator Rob Ryan), but at least the blame was handed down after Dallas missed the playoffs for the third straight year. Hell, even Wade Phillips got until November back in 2010. This year, it’s not even June, and it seems like people are already trying to find out who’s at fault for the 2013 Cowboys. And as long as they are, we might as well take a look at the candidates.
By Robert Mays at
Ronald C. Modra/Sports Imagery/ Getty Images
Everyone remembers that feeling on the first day of school. Rolling up in that brand-new collared shirt and the impossibly clean shoes. Not thinking, but knowing that, yeah, this is going to be my year. There was something reassuring about seeing everyone back together again. This isn’t new. I’ve been here before. I’ve got this. In those first couple days, the possibilities seemed endless.
For NFL players, that’s OTAs. After a few months away, everyone’s finally back in the same place, and the prospect of starting anew, well ... it tends to get people a little overexcited. This is the time of year reserved for baseless, outrageous predictions by groups of pathologically competitive men drunk on football and hope. With that in mind, we present the 2013 NFL season, based on nothing but those baseless, outrageous predictions.
Week 1
It’s a clear and crisp 55-degree day in Cleveland, and as the first half comes to a close, the only thing that’s been more perfect than the weather is Ryan Tannehill. The Dolphins quarterback got himself a fresh buzz cut this week, and in those new Fins unis, damn, does he look immaculate. That chin is what comes to mind when you think Franchise Quarterback.
If nothing else, that Donovan McNabb wants to retire as an Eagle should serve as definitive proof that “rivalries” in the NFL are a complete crock. McNabb’s retirement doesn’t represent some kind of cathartic grant of forgiveness on either side. Coming back to the Eagles cap in hand after playing for the “bitter rival” Redskins puts you in the rarefied territory of James Thrash and Jeremiah Trotter.
This reunion needs to happen because both parties truly deserve each other. The same things that made McNabb a liability as a quarterback — a cavalier approach to his job, a passive-aggressive relationship with his coworkers, and an utter inability to seize the moment — will make him a tremendous Eagles fan. I mean the self-loathing, the victimhood. Silver Linings Playbook didn’t teach us anything so much as confirm what we already knew: Teaching in a Philadelphia school is a great way for a certifiably insane person to hide in plain sight, and there’s more actual hostility in the parking lot of Lincoln Financial Field than on the gridiron.
With all that in mind, here are McNabb’s realest quotes as an Eagles diehard in training.
OK, so I know what you’re thinking: If you’re going to start a countdown this far in advance (which is admittedly crazy), why not just wait to start on a round number? I’ll tell you why — because Simmons is the boss, and he wasn’t going to go another day without a reason to get excited about football season:
It's time.
I want the countdown to the NFL season. EVERY DAY.
That was an e-mail from earlier this week. It was not a request.
The 2012 college football season was something else, right? Remember all those killer pancake blocks from Eric Fisher? Ryan Nassib leading Syracuse to glory in a series of fearless two-minute drills? Cordarrelle Patterson making an impossible leap to secure a touchdown during a thrilling Tennessee comeback?
See, this is what happens when college football spends more time being viewed as an NFL feeder program than its own glorious ecosystem — you tend to forget that week after week, countless players warm our hearts by piling up untenable, system-abetted statistics, taking advantage of the tactical breakdowns made by 20-year-olds whose physical development far outstrips their mental one, and simply being in the right place at the right time. What became of Matt McGloin? God, remember Sam McGuffie?
The Philadelphia Eagles' selection of USC quarterback Matt Barkley in the fourth round of this year’s draft appears, by any logical measure, to be a great value pick. At one time, Barkley was talked about as a high first-round pick, and there's no doubting his precise footwork or his accuracy on short and intermediate passes. That’s saying nothing of his personality and whiteboard smarts, which coaches and scouts have raved about since he started as a true freshman at powerhouse Mater Dei High School.
Barkley steadied USC through the loss of Pete Carroll to the NFL, NCAA sanctions that limited scholarships and depleted the Trojans roster, and the often bizarre antics of his coach, Lane Kiffin. Barkley’s final season at USC, one in which the Trojans began the season ranked no. 1 in the country before finishing 7-6, was one to forget. His play was inconsistent, and he finished the year on the sideline after suffering a shoulder injury against UCLA. But for Chip Kelly and the Eagles, grabbing such an accomplished player in the fourth round should qualify as the quintessential "value" pick.
