Oh, Ye, Of Little Faith

The team was 4-4. There had been some poor performances of late. A loss to the Tampa Bay Bucs, 38-28. Two crushing ego losses to Brett Favre and the Vikings.

Doubt was all around.

I remember riding up to Lambeau Field in the fabulous tailgate cruiseliner of Pat and Michael Lynch and the boys at the Lynch Superstore in Burlington, WI. I was reading the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. It too, had normally sensible sports writers who cover the NFL, and who cover the Packers, making panicked and apocalyptic hints at how everything might just fly apart at the seams if the team does not win that game that day against the Cowboys.

I laughed, and began reading some of the passages out loud to my native Wisconsin Packer fans.

I said, in no mincing words: "Are you guys fucking crazy?"

I was the lone voice of reason that day before the game, assuring them that they had a good quarterback, a solid coach, a smart franchise, and that all of this talk about a "pivotal game" was pure bunk. I told them point blank: I would love to be in your shoes, as a Redskin fan, forever hostage to dysfunction and incompetence.

That same day, our pal Dewey who is a crackerjack photoshopper, brought with him this sign for me to hold aloft on the steps of Lambeau.

Today, Packer fans, is your day. And all the days following, until you die. This championship can be cherished, relived, retold, and remembered.

I am happy for you. Just remember to have some faith next time the sledding gets tough.

Holy Crap, They Found The Holy Grail!

Call off the search!

The most coveted moving images in NFL history are alive and well.

The actual broadcast tape of Super Bowl I has been found.

Repeat: THIS IS NOT A DRILL! This is real....

Wall Street Journal  - In a bizarre confluence of events, neither network preserved a tape. All that survived of this broadcast is sideline footage shot by NFL Films and roughly 30 seconds of footage CBS included in a pre-game show for Super Bowl XXV. Somehow, an historic football game that was seen by 26.8 million people had, for all intents and purposes, vanished.

The long search may finally be over. The Paley Center for Media in New York, which had searched for the game footage for some time, has restored what it believes to be a genuine copy of the CBS broadcast. The 94-minute tape, which has never been shown to the public, was donated to the center by its owner in return for having it restored. It was originally recorded on bulky two-inch video and had been stored in an attic in Pennsylvania for nearly 38 years, the Paley Center says.

You can read the entire Wall Street Journal piece right here, as well as watch some actual footage that has been restored. In fact, you should. No, you must. To think that on Super Bowl morning, 2011, with the Packers ready to play the Steelers, you can see the famous Max McGee touchdown in fast motion - not the stylized NFL Films treatment which is all we had to use for years - is simply amazing.


Of course, if you watch the video piece, you will find one very predictable element of this story. As soon as the owner of this tape came forward, the NFL claims they own the rights to it. To which, I suppose in a legal sense, may be technically true.


But since the NFL didn't see fit to keep at least ONE clean copy for themselves, somewhere, somehow, I defer to the non-legal premise of "screw you, you had your chance!"

I hope the owners make a mint off of this sucker. Well done, sirs!

King Of All Things, Just Not Accuracy

People by now, know my stance on Peter King.

He may be a swell fellow, but I think he's a horseshit writer and even worse journalist.

This opinion is sometimes met with the obligatory “you're just jealous” or “why do you have to make it personal” argument from people who are either King fans, or at least “King Neutral.”

Well, to answer those charges: a) I certainly AM jealous and b) this can't be personal, because I don't even know him personally.

Neither of which, have anything to do with the actual MERITS of my stance against his WORK.

I am jealous of King's multi-platform, quasi-NFL-celebrity success. He's built a monster brand. Kudos to that. I need to take notes. And like I said on the personal side, I don't know him, and even hear he's a guy who can take full brunt criticism head on.

What I do hate, however, is the fact that too many people overlook his serious journalistic flaws and take what he reports seriously. King still PURPORTS to be a journalist. As such, I try to grade on that scale.

This week, King made major headlines early at the Super Bowl with a bombshell about Roger Goodell's decision to suspend Big Ben based – at least partly – on the fact that some “two dozen” players interviewed by the Commish, failed to come to his defense as a decent guy.

Here's where we pick up on a King retraction/backtrack/apology. Take it away, Pete...

•Why did I assume Goodell was talking about the Steelers when I inserted "Steelers'' incorrectly in the quote?

Great journalism lesson here, and it illustrates what a mistake I made. My question on the transcribed interview before Goodell's answer referred to the "many people I know in Pittsburgh'' who wanted Roethlisberger "on the Steelers.'' In Goodell's answer, I assumed he was referring to the Steelers when he referred to the players he spoke with before sanctioning Roethlisberger. You know what they say about assumptions. I should have asked him if he meant the Steelers.

I've spoken to Roethlisberger's agent, Ryan Tollner, relaying my regrets. And Tuesday afternoon, I spoke with Steelers co-owner Art Rooney II, head coach Mike Tomlin and Roethlisberger to clarify my remarks.

I take errors seriously. This story is a good cautionary tale about making assumptions, and I'll redouble my efforts to not do so in the future.

REACT: Okay, let me jump in here.

Either one of two things happened. Either..

a) King committed a huge error by failing to pin down exactly who Goodell spoke to, and why. To me, that was THE ESSENCE of the story, and something so shocking, and stupid, that I would have focused in on that revalation like a lazer beam.

Or

b) King WAS correct in the first place, but having touched off a minor storm in the NFL offices, was coerced into falling on his sword and claiming he made a mistake.

Let's deal with “B” for a moment first.

Why would the NFL get their pants in a wad about this revelation? Well, duh. If true, then reporters here in Dallas would suddenly have a chance to play a game of “who didn't back Big Ben” when the commish called? It would have been a huge distraction for the Steelers this week, as the two dozen Steeler “rats” were hunted for in media session after session.

Writers could get denial after denial, crossing every Steeler off their list.

If so, then why would King, agree to be the fall guy for the league and admit to a mistake he did not make?

Because King wants and needs ACCESS more than anything, so to him, a small “oopsie” correction would be nothing. While he's not quite the NFL's “mouthpiece” per se, he is a guy friendly enough to the league that he GETS the kind of Commissioner Level access to provide him a chance for these one on one sit downs.

But let's not assume B, lets assume A. It's a mistake. And yeah, a BIG one.

When King sorta pats himself on the back for taking his medicine, it's bullshit. “I take mistakes seriously” and “I will redouble my efforts in the future.”

No you don't and no you won't.

This is what King does. He makes mistakes, all the time, and big ones.

He fundamentally fails to understand the nature of the NFL, and what is realistic. It's why he says with full enthusiasm that Danny Wuerrful in 2002 would throw for 4,000 yards under Steve Spurrier. No, he did not. He threw for 619 yards, starting just 7 games. He was knocked around like the undersized NFL rag-doll he was, and got yanked in and out of the starters job – just like Steve Spurrier has always done with his QB's.

He is easily duped by guy he thinks are “sources” that can be trusted. Brett Favre when it comes to his retirement psycho-drama. Nick Saban when he was already on the way out of Miami to take the Alabama job, convincing King that he was actually staying with the Dolphins.

All of that does not make for a good journalist to me. That's makes for a guy who has become a celebrity NFL blogger, with about 16 different jobs.

In fact, the comedy of his column about “redoubling” his efforts to be more accurate in his reporting was followed by this:

Tweetup information: I'll be at The Common Table, 2917 Fairmount, in Uptown Dallas on Thursday night from 7:30-9 central time. Stay tuned to @SI_PeterKing for more information. I hope to bring along at least one NFL player and a couple of scribes, but follow me on Twitter in the next day or so, and I'll let you know who will be there with me.

REACT: Yeah. A fucking “Tweet Up.” It's a wonder this guy gets anything right, chasing all of this nonsense.

One final note on the actual nugget (King, LOVES nuggets!) of Goodell's suspension “evidence.” OMFG, kids. If that's how this commissioner is gonna roll, then every single player in the league should be worried. In court, you are indeed tried by a jury of your “peers” but at least then you get the benefit of lawyers, evidence and a judge.

In the Court of Goodell, you just get judged by a jury of anonymous peers, who get called out of the blue for a quick opinion on whether they like you or not.