Kawakami Might Be the Smartest NFL Writer In America

You can file this one under "Prediction of the Decade."

Rarely to you find sportswriters who quickly, and definitively crush a new NFL coaching hire. For one, writers always want to preserve some shred of access in case the guy is good. For another, who the hell knows if a guy can do the job? (I remember distinctly the mocking of Andy Reid when he was hired by Philly. That seems to have worked out pretty well.)

Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News, authored this column on the Skins hiring of Zorn back in February of 2008. It's so dead on, it reads like he filed the column yesterday from the back seat of Dan Snyder's limo.

Wrote Kawakami....

I talked to Zorn when he was first getting into coaching on the Seahawks staff and I can tell you that, if first impressions mean anything–and they do–I walked away from that interview thinking, This guy shouldn’t be anywhere near an NFL sideline.

He was a very good QB, undoubtedly. But he was known as a non-thinking QB even when he played. Total instinct. He never was considered a coach-candidate.

He took a bunch of years away from football when he retired… then he got back with the Seahawks and apparently became buddy-buddy with Matt Hasselbeck.

But who do you think coaches the QBs, really, in Seattle? Zorn or Mike Holmgren? Come on. The Zorn I talked to was over-emotional, antsy, defensive and very short on the ability to communicate general NFL knowledge–and I was just doing a soft story on the Seahawks during the off-season, so it wasn’t like I was plumbing the depths of intricate analysis.

REACT: Good, gawd. "Over-emotional, antsy, and defensive" are dead on. The phrase "shouldn't be anywhere near a sideline" is chilling. Because he's not just near our sideline, HE'S ON IT!!!

Tebow, T-Boned!

Was it ego? Or simple machismo?

An effort to avenge the spread-covering-failure from the week before against Tennessee?

Or perhaps just a fluke hit.

Why was Tim Tebow – having flown in on a separate airplane due to his illness with several other Gators – allowed to play when the game was clearly in hand at 31-7 deep into the 3rd quarter?

I can't believe Urban Meyer wanted to run up the score, for BCS style points or simple anger.

I can't believe Meyer or Tebow felt like they needed some Heisman Trophy stat stuffing.

I know the argument that you can't play football scared. You can't just quit games because you are leading, and worried about a big injury.

But Tebow is different. Your entire offense revolves around his once-in-a-generation talent package and size. You have no ready-to-go understudy. Tebow is your team. Why take the risk?

Here's a clip of the hit. Please note the announcers saying how Tebow isn't worried about how many times he throws or runs..... just before the dump truck with “WYNDHAM” on the back liscense plate crushes him in the middle of the intersection like a dude running a stoplight.



Looks like Tebow will be ready for the LSU game in a week, which is good. I wish the guy no real malice. But if he plays like crap, or gets knocked out again, you know that Meyer and the Gators will get a whole new truckload of grief.

As one text message put it on my show on Monday:

Hey Czabe....
Tebow and Bradford both suffer major injuries playing for free in college. Mark Sanchez is a millionaire in the NFL. Stay in school kids.

Fooled..... Again

Skins fans, if you came here expecting a ranting manifesto, you will be disappointed.

Of course we suck.

We just lost to the Lions, and removed the albatross from their wretched necks.

But what is left to rant about?

We are, who we thought we were.

Chumps.

Suckers.

Fools.

Like many Skins fans, I ran at this year's football of a season with full Charlie Brown gusto. And once again, the ball has been yanked cruelly away from me at the last moment.

Why, oh why, did I think they would be marginally, hopefully, just-show-me-SOME-improvement better this season?

Because, I'm a fan. Which also stands for “sucker.”

We might just fire Jim Zorn in the next few weeks. It won't matter. Zorn is a SYMPTOM, not a cause.

They say in sports, the best players, and best teams, do more of the “little things” right than others. It is the accumulation of excellence, at the molecular level, in all things required of true winners, that separates.

Clearly, we do most little things wrong as a franchise. Dead wrong. Starting at the top, and soaking down through to the last little player on the roster.

We spend too much money on the wrong people. We keep guys on the roster for reasons bordering on nostalgia. We pamper our stars, while scolding our coach, and wonder how come he can't get them “up” for a key game. (Cincinnati last year, Detroit, this.)

A backup linebacker ripped our fans via twitter, and nothing came of it. Would have been a great week to send him packing. A fullback complains openly about getting more money. The owner obliges. Why? Who knows. Since when have you ever heard of a FULLBACK(!) bitching about his contract in the media, and actually succeeding in getting a raise?

This would be like a bullpen catcher winning in a contract holdout.

Detroit didn't just beat us. They DOMINATED us.

Kevin Smith ran with abandon on a defense that was pre-purchasing “Greatest of All Time” t-shirts this summer. Matt Stafford missed wildly at times, but seemed quite comfortable in the pocket from start to finish.

If not for a series of huge breaks, this game would have been a Lions blowout. Here, take a look ....

a. Campbell had back-to-back INT's that were dropped/missed in the 1st half.
b. Sack on 1st play - facemask penalty gives them a big gain.
c. A long pass to Megatron at the 1 was called back due to OPI. Marginal.
d. Campbell dribbles a ball on a botched snap, completes for 28 to Moss.
e. The Moss TD was pure broken coverage, nothing more.
f. Campbell dropped the ball a second time, and luckily fell on it.
g. Stafford missing wide open Bryant Johnson across the middle.
h. Carlos Rodgers gets away with a blatant arm bar, no call.

Yeah, sure. The P.I. on Horton was 50-50. The picked up flag on the Moss facemask was a robbery.

But add 'em up. We were lucky to even be in the game. Besides, only pathetic teams beg the refs for help again the Lions.

In reality, the players on this team just aren't that good. This much is becoming more evident with each game. Too many of them are also old, and at the end of their useful NFL lifecycle.

Clinton Portis is never going to be a dynamic back again.
The o-line has 3 veterans who have no more than 18 months left on them.
The 2nd round triplets are never going to amount to much.
Campbell is likely a career backup.

You can have the entire d-line, excepting Haynesworth on talent alone, not on his performance per dollar – which will never be re-couped fully by Snyder.

Daniels, Carter, Griffin, Golston, Montgomery, Wynn, Wilson....... whatever.

Take 'em all. They are just guys on a roster. And there's nobody behind them pushing for a job.

At one point, the Lions were a staggering 9-13 on 3rd down.

Try to get your head around that number!

The suspected problems with this team going into the year, are still there. Quarterback, offensive line, durability of star running back.

It's now the unknown liabilities that are cropping up too. Defense, a coach who has seemingly gotten worse, not better, and a corrosive locker-room dynamic.

We suck. And that's who we are. Time to get used to it, or go crazy trying to deny it.