After the weekends first round playoff matchups we have come to the inescapable conclusion that we don’t know a damn thing about any other team than the Packers. We had predicted an upset; we just fired in the wrong direction. After week 1 we are a putrid, Minnesota Viking-like 1-3. Awful... but we're gonna bet better.
DENVER/ PITTSBURGH:
Quick, everyone who predicted that Tim Tebow would lead an overtime win over Pittsburgh raise your hand. There are probably as many people jumping on the Tebow bandwagon as there are hopping aboard the Packers now. The Steelers were a beat up, banged up lot and were beaten from one end of the field to the other. Only some of the worst officiating in recent playoff history could not undo the Tebow train. With Pittsburgh trailing 20 – 6 in the 3rd quarter and barely able to sustain a drive let alone get into scoring position one legged QB Ben Roethlisberger threw from his own 19 backwards to his own 18 where a host of Denver Broncos were waiting to jar the ball loose and fall on it.
Denver ball, 1st and 10 from the Steeler 17. Game over, right?
Wrong.
Once again the refs got in the way of a good game by calling it an incomplete pass, blowing the whistle and the play in one boneheaded motion. To kick the Broncos further in the soft spot the play was unreviewable as it was called an incomplete pass rendering the play dead at the point of the whistle. Naturally the Steelers scored and then caught the Broncos, just another feat of derring-do to escape the clutches of defeat. On to OT under the new rules where the Steelers always prevail.
And Tebow stepped into a nearby phone booth and was transformed from mild mannered Tim Tebow into SuperQuarterback! Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than the Steeler pass rush! Able to score a touchdown and win the game in a single throw!
The Steelers somewhat arrogantly but correctly defied Tebow and not only challenged but dared him to beat them throwing the ball – and Tebow did just that. The worst rated passer in the NFL since the stat was kept threw for a fitting 316 yards, the obvious inference to Tebow’s devout faith (John/ 3:16). Tebow is a QB that can run like a halfback and is built like a fullback and also had 1 rushing TD and 50 yards carrying the mail. Most importantly is what Tebow does best – 0 turnovers.
Call the Broncos unconventional and their reward is now the New England Patriots. And Bill Belichick will be as warily suspicious of the Broncos attack as a money launderer is of an IRS agent.
HOUSTON/ CINCINNATI:
In the first ever meeting of rookie QB’s in a playoff game little regarded T.J. Yates bested the Bengals Andy Dalton as the Texans won their first ever playoff game. The Texans showed they are for real and can play and win. It helps that the Bengals were much greener in their return to the playoff dance. Arian Foster had a monster game against a D that came in ranked highly against the run. Foster’s ability to break tackles and get to the second level is what separates him from the other great backs in the game and Foster is now among the NFL’s very best RB’s.
But it was the Texans’ defense that carried and won the game for them. Even without DE Mario Williams the Texans had plenty of toughness. Rookie DE J.J. Watt made one of the most spectacular plays of the defense when he leapt to bat down a Dalton pass but had the presence of mind to hang on to the ball and rumble in for a TD that turned the game completely in Houston’s favor. Given Houston’s run stopping ability and Baltimore’s somewhat suspect passing game the early predictions are for a lot of collisions when Houston travels to Baltimore next week.
NEW ORLEANS/ DETROIT
To no one’s surprise the New Orleans Saints mopped the floor with the Detroit Lions. The Lions held a shocking 14 – 7 lead but once again majored in shooting themselves in the foot. Penalties, missed tackles, blown coverages and dropped picks killed whatever chance the Lions had. Don’t lay this one on Matthew Stafford or Calvin Johnson. No, it was the, Lions horrendous clutch and whiff tackling that did them in.
Yes, Drew Brees had another huge day. But look a little closer and count the number of really bad throws Brees made, balls that could have and should have been intercepted, no less than 3, 2 of which could have gone the other way for a game altering pick 6. The worst of the lot was Chris Houston’s Bill Buckner imitation when a wayward Brees toss that went right through the wickets without so much as Houston getting as finger on the ball.
While the Saints piled up the points they once again looked mighty passive against the pass, and if Brees continues to play Russian Roulette with his passes he may run out of teams that cannot catch the ball. When he runs into a team that has playmakers on defense he may not be as fortunate as he comes into every game with 3 or 4 opportunities he’ll give. The right defense could make him pay, and San Francisco, a defense-first team with a pedestrian passing game is up next. Should the Saints survive that one we know how would be next.
NEW YORK/ ATLANTA:
The scary team this year has to be the New York Giants, a team that is doing a masterful imitation of last year’s Packers. They have gotten hot at the right time and undressed the Falcons in whipping the Birds. The once faltering running game has reemerged as well as the Giants feared pass rush. Eli Manning had plenty of time to find his receivers and he found them wide open against an Atlanta team that vastly overestimated their ability to defend the pass and with so many high picks dealt last year for Julio Jones the draft will be tough this year.
The Giants are playing not only with a confidence but a swagger now. While the same can be said of Denver the Broncos are Mile High as it is unexpected. For the G-Men they are not surprised and will present a difficult task for Aaron Rodgers and co. This is a cold weather team that can run the ball and if their pass rush gets hot it could be the game of the weekend in Green Bay. The Giants have that scary look about them, the same look Green Bay had when they met the Bears and the Falcons last year.
But the Giants have been so inexpicably inconsistent it remains to be seen as to which team shows up. In any event Mike McCarthy knows the Packers cannot afford to be flat or come out soft. After dismissing the Falcons so easily the Giants now believe they can knock off the defending Super Bowl Champs.
THE 10 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE IN THE NFL # 6 - 10
As promised we present in the Packers off week the first installment of the 10 Most Influential People in the history of the NFL. This is a look at those that shaped and molded and affected the game of football into what it has become today. These individuals paved the way, set the standards and helped to forge the NFL into the world’s most powerful sports entity. While this is hardly an exact science we nonetheless present the views of Packers Weekly. Enjoy!
10) Al Davis
Rebel. Outsider. Scout. Pioneer. Dinosaur. Coach. Commissioner. Troublemaker. Negotiator. Owner. Iconoclast. Icon. Suspicious. Innovator. Motivator. Heretic. Ruthless. Generous. Visionary. Narrow minded. Selfish. Foolish. Shrewd. Feared. Respected. Hated. Admired.
The adjectives describing Oakland Raider owner Al Davis burst forth like a staccato burst of machine gun fire from the lips in the manner Davis would speak. Born in Brooklyn Davis became one of the NFL’s largest owners, not in size or attendance but in terms of how his presence influenced his ownership brethren.
Davis began in the rogue AFL and was instrumental in driving the price for college talent up to the levels that today’s stars now enjoy. Rather than continue to stay locked in bidding wars the mighty NFL yielded and merged Davis’s AFL into the NFL we know today.
Ever the outsider Davis was constantly at odds with the NFL and Pete Rozelle over many issues. Davis paved the way for his ownership brethren in his biggest challenge when he defied Rozelle, the NFL, and his fellow owners by moving his team from Oakland to Los Angeles and ultimately back to Oakland, essentially playing one market against the other to reap the largest gain he could for himself and his team. In the aftermath of the millions of dollars it cost to litigate other owners began to use their ownership of a team and it’s place in a city and state as bargaining chips with local and state politicos to secure sweetheart deals in bearing the cost of a franchise with such luxuries as having stadiums built on public dollars. Bob Irsay’s and Art Modell’s moves would not have been possible without Davis challenging and winning the battle over who controlled each franchise.
The new breed of owner in Bob Kraft and Jerry Jones, both hugely influential on the marketing and negotiating of contracts on behalf of the NFL, found both the market and the league more ways to make even more money in the running of their own teams. The terms ‘market share’ and ‘revenue streams’, the lifeblood of the NFL go right back to Davis. For Jones and Kraft and the other owners their path was made considerably easier after Davis plowed the road ahead of them.
9 Joe Namath
In the days of the NFL/ AFL bidding wars the AFL grabbed the prize when they secured Alabama’s Joe Namath for the New York franchise. Namath bolstered not only the credibility but the viability of the AFL. Then Commissioner of the AFL AL Davis was instrumental in a cloak and dagger hiding process, keeping the young college boys literally hidden from the NFL in hotel rooms until a deal could be struck. At $400,000/ year it was a hefty investment in Namath, and in the era of Lombardi stealing Namath away when the NFL players still had to find off season work to make ends meet began the steady spiral upwards of player salaries. Namath was the philosophical antithesis of Lombardi – arrogant, cocky, brash, rebellious, free spirited, long haired, and a true counter culture icon in the changing ‘60’s.
Namath ultimately proved to be more than worth the investment. Pete Rozelle realized that the bidding wars with the AFL would be disastrous to his league and began lobbying his side to merge. Namath became not only the most visible player on the field in the AFL with his iconic white shoes (WHITE shoes??? Who the hell does this guy think he is????) and long hair flapping from under his helmet at a time when crew cuts were the norm, he became the first player of the modern era to achieve rock star status off the field. His highly publicized forays into Manhattan’s night life and celebrated bachelorhood earned him as much notoriety as his lightning strikes to Don Maynard. When Namath appeared in a pantyhose commercial he forever altered how players not only were viewed, but viewed and marketed themselves. There has been an endless parade of “Hey Look At Me” players since but Namath was the first to do it without even trying.
His off field exploits would have been largely forgotten but for two indelible moments. Winning Super Bowl III over the heavily favored Baltimore Colts and also guaranteeing the win one week earlier puts Super Joe, as he came to be known, in the history books right next to David, who felled and equally heavy favorite named Goliath. The guarantee was more a brash statement but it perfectly displayed Namath’s confidence in himself and his team. The Colts played a horrendous game and Namath secured his place in history. The game was representative of the changing climate of the NFL. By Super Bowl III the AFL and NFL had struck a truce and agreed to pit their champions against the others. Lombardi’s Packers manhandled the Chiefs and Raiders, but Namath’s cockiness and swagger disposed of the mighty Colts. The win gave the AFL and Namath immediate credibility and a full merger would be complete within 2 years for the rival teams.
After Namath player’s salaries skyrocketed, hairstyles became longer, everyone sported white shoes, players began to be seen more as individuals and the era of over the top showboating was launched. Broadway Joe – Modern Day Father of the Rebel Player Era.
8 David “Deacon” Jones –
Reggie White and Bruce Smith lead the official NFL stat books in sacks and are regarded by some as the best at getting to the quarterback and wreaking havoc. Long before Reggie and Bruce an even more menacing beast was striking fear into the hearts and heads of his opponents. David “Deacon” Jones was the template for the modern day pass rushers. Incredibly quick and strong for his size Jones was the most feared of the Los Angeles Rams Fearsome Foursome that included Rosie Grier, Merlin Olsen, Lamar Lundy and Jones in the 60’s – 70’s era. Prior to Jones there were precious few big name defensive players, especially lineman. The Fearsome Foursome was the first nickname to be hung on a line and it spawned an immediate cottage industry behind it with the Purple People Eaters (Minnesota), the Doomsday Defense (Dallas), The Steel Curtain (Pittsburgh), and the No Name Defense (Miami). Jones played with a white hot fury and inflicted pain in any way he could. Jones can be considered the father of the modern day pass rusher.
His famous bell ringing head slap was outlawed; Jones would literally slap the side of a lineman’s helmet at the earhole stunning his opponent to get to the QB. Jones says he can’t even recall how many helmets he had broken in his career. As the NFL moved to limit his injury strewn wake Jones proved he could adapt by developing the ‘swim’ technique in combination with his bull rushes, moves that have been perfected over the years.
Jones was the first player to truly glamorize the down and dirty trench players and pushed the need for teams to draft pass rush specialists. Joe Greene became a first overall of the Steelers in 1970 and followed the path Jones had blazed. Others that followed including White and Smith and Lawrence taylor and Michael Strahan and Mario Williams know who the Big Daddy was – Deacon Jones. Time hasn’t cooled the fire in Deacon’s belly either. He has long maintained that the sack stat is his alone. The NFL never bothered to keep sack stats until the mid 70’s.
And Jones forever changed how defense was played and how Defensive Ends would be used and valued in the NFL.
7 Howard Cosell –
If ever an ego or bombastic voice was needed Howard Cosell was the perfect candidate. A former lawyer turned broadcaster, Cosell’s nasally New York intonations and verbose pontifications became the signature of a bold, new initiative when the NFL launched its expansion outside of Sundays when Monday Night Football debuted in 1970. Seated between Keith Jackson and Don Meredith, the recently retired star of the Dallas Cowboys, Cosell had no athletic credentials of which he could speak. He had never played the game; the era of the jock turned sportscaster had just begun with Tom Brookshier and Meredith and then Frank Gifford. The highly intelligent and highly educated Cosell did not view the athletes in the booth as equals; he saw them as shills, opportunists and he, and he alone, was the last bastion of truth, and vowed to his dying day to “Tell it like it is”.
Cosell’s voice cut thru the airwaves like a foghorn on a blustery sea. Never at a loss for words Cosell’s bluster and the banter between himself, Gifford (who joined MNF in season 2 in 1971), and especially Don Meredith became the first of “must see” NFL games, which was more “must hear” than see. At a time when sports announcers were little more than shills and sycophants for the home team Cosell’s style and brash rants became daily fodder at the water cooler. To this day ESPN’s Chris Berman still employs a poor man’s imitation of the bellicose Cosell in his NFL Blitz highlight show.
Bombastic, arrogant, abrasive, but never contrite Cosell forged a strong bond with the Packers Vince Lombardi, and his encyclopedic knowledge of the Packers initially bought him some room. But with his affiliation with Cassius Clay, who became Muhammad Ali and strong civil rights position and opinionated tirades Cosell became more seen as a curious oddity in a broadcast booth. Part of the popularity of MNF was the dialogue between himself and Meredith, a man for whom Cosell held little regard intellectually. What first began as playful banter became more pointed, especially as MNF moved from the late 70’s into the 80’s and games became blowouts and Meredith would amuse himself after losing interest in games of little consequence. Cosell’s insistence that MNF viewers tuned in because of him was partially true; a 1978 TV Guide poll named him both the MOST liked and LEAST liked broadcaster in sports.
The modern NFL broadcaster owes a tip of the hat to Howard Cosell for paving the way for announcers to become stars in their own right. Cosell was far from universally beloved; Roone Arledge, the sports visionary at ABC who hired Howard once said “We (MNF) have as many people watching us who hate Howard as the ones who love him… maybe more.” The modern day sportscaster in the NFL has a direct line to Cosell. The beginning of the end for Cosell began when he referring to the Redskins WR Alvin Garrett he said “That little monkey gets loose, doesn’t he?” Cosell, a staunch civil rights activist refused to apologize insisting he meant nothing derogatory about Garrett, who happened to be black. He resigned from MNF two months later.
Love him or hate him, Howard Cosell was the voice of NFL and helped to spawn the blown dry perfect dulcet tones seen and heard today. Monday Night Football garnered numerous Emmy Awards and has since become the longest running continuous show in television history, a history that began with an announcer, an ex- jock, and an egotistical windbag that kept ’em coming back for more every week until MNF became ingrained into the fabric of our television lives. Cosell is gone now, but somewhere, in the wilderness, chomping a cigar, is a vain, arrogant little man who has forgotten more than they’ll ever know still “Telling it like it is”.
6 Bill Walsh –
Bill Walsh is the architect and father of today’s modern NFL game. While Don Coryell was a master at the vertical downfield heaves of Dan Fouts, Walsh saw the entire field as a chess master sees a board and began to utilize east – west throws to set up a running game and open up the north – south passing lanes. Bright, innovative, he was years ahead of his time in his knowledge of offense and how to move the ball down the field. As a former assistant coach under Paul Brown’s Bengals, Walsh found himself kept out of coaching opportunities and after implementing a new style of football he took his skills to San Diego.
In spite of Brown’s petty efforts to keep him from becoming a head coach, Walsh was hired by the 49ers in 1979 and found himself in over his head when the Niners won but 2 games in his first year. An excellent evaluator of talent he drafted Joe Montana in the 3rd round his first year and named Montana the starter in his second. After improving to 6 wins San Francisco advanced to and won their first of 3 Super Bowls under Walsh (with one more under Walsh assistant George Seifert) in 1981. But Walsh’s greatest impact was his “West Coast Offense” he developed years earlier and refined in San Francisco. While in Cincinnati the Bengals had a quick, athletic, but weak armed Virgil Carter at QB. Out of necessity Walsh designed a series of plays designed to stretch the filed laterally to take advantage of Carter’s legs and mask his weaknesses in a vertical passing game. When Ken Anderson took over Walsh returned to a more familiar offense that was successful throughout the 70’s.
But when Walsh was passed over after Brown retired from coaching, Walsh resigned and went to San Diego for 1 season and Stanford for 2 perfecting and developing the nuances of his new system. It wasn’t until Joe Montana became a starter that the West Coast Offense was seen in full bloom.
Like Carter, Montana was athletic but lacked a traditional big arm coveted in a QB. In Montana Walsh found the perfect student for his system and Montana executed it to perfection. Instead of pounding the ball futilely into a line for small gains the 49ers chewed up yardage in 5, 6, and 7 yards chunks with what are referred to now as ‘dink and dunk’ passes. Montana’s throws sometimes went 25 – 30 yards through the air that would result in an 8 – 12 yard net gain. Rather than challenge CB’s and Safeties deep Montana began to isolate WR’s and modernized the back shoulder throw and placing the ball where only his receiver could catch it. The running back become as much of a threat out of the backfield to catch the ball as the receiver split wide across the field.
Walsh’s offense depended on receivers running tight, precise routes and a QB who could place the ball in an exact spot. Timing and execution and finesse began to overtake the smashmouth world of the NFL, giving Walsh and the Niners a somewhat undeserved tag of ‘soft’ or ‘a finesse team’. Walsh’s drafting of Ronnie Lott gave the 49ers a toughness and identity, and when little known Jerry Rice was drafted Walsh saw the team on the field he had conceived while languishing helplessly under the autocratic Brown.
In the most sincere form of flattery almost every team in the NFL, from the Packers to the Colts to the Patriots to the Jets run some hybrid version of a West Coast Offense. Walsh never forgot the slights and professional maliciousness of Paul Brown as a Head Coach. The true genius and contribution to today’s game of Bill Walsh is measured in the coaching tree, the number of assistants developed under Walsh who went onto careers as Head Coaches and the coaches they developed. The Packers Mike Holmgren was hired from Walsh’s staff and developed his own significant branch from Walsh’s coaching tree.
5) Ed Sabol –
Ed Sabol isn’t a name the readily comes to mind when discussing the most influential people in the NFL. You may not have heard his name – but you have seen his work. In large part the NFL owes its very image and mystique to Ed Sabol. Ed Sabol is the founder and creator of NFL Films, the man whose vision captured and displayed the game of Pro Football in iconic highlight films that were more movies than mere replays of the games that were played. Sabol’s visionary and groundbreaking techniques set the bar ridiculously high for his network television counterparts but became a style to be copied by ESPN, Fox, and any other cable giant looking to break new ground.
In the ‘60’s an unknown Ed Sabol bid on and secured the rights to the NFL Championship Game in 1962. NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle delayed approving Sabol, whose offer was double the amount of the previous film company, until Pete could run a background check on the unknown Philadelphia filmmaker. Within 3 years Sabol proposed to the NFL they have their own film company, and immediately NFL Films was launched, and the mass sale and marketing of the NFL began in earnest.
Sabol’s innovations included the use of slow motion on every shot, the camera zeroing in on the tight spiral of a football as it left the quarterback’s hand until it found its way into the hands of a receiver, the close ups of the hands and feet only of the players as the turf was gouged from under them, the blood-soaked, sweaty faces of the men behind the masks. It was Sabol’s NFL Films that captured the Immaculate Reception in Pittsburgh as well as the image of the Raiders Willie Brown running back a pick for a TD in the Super Bowl focused only on his face, soaked in sweat, helmet bouncing on his head as he focused only on the end zone. While Brown was focused on the end zone, Sabol was focused on Brown and he captured the eyes of Brown, and the imagination of the public with shots like these.
To enhance his visuals Sabol hired conductor Sam Spence to score the music exclusively for his films. The epic sweeping, brass laden sound became definitive and lives today in the EA Sports version of Madden ® Football, introducing today’s youth to them soundtrack of NFL history. The complete picture of NFL Films is the unmistakable voice of the late John Facenda, whose deep, lush baritone described the “… brutal battles found by hardened men on the frozen tundra of Lahm- beaaaauuu Field in bone-chilling temperatures…”, a signature to be imitated but never replicated by any of today’s talking heads.
As the interest in the weekly NFL Films shows grew so grew the popularity of the NFL. Ever image conscious the NFL and Rozelle were vehemently opposed to a Sabol film titled “Football Follies”, a film of the miscues, blunders, slips, trips, falls, fumbles, bumbles, stumbles and mistakes of the game. The NFL marketing people feared that such a film would denigrate their product, but in the end, the visionary stuck to his guns and the Follies stand as one of the most widely watched films of all times. To this day it is still as popular as it was when it was released in 1968.
Every shot, every scene, every camera angle or use of music in today’s NFL traces its roots back to Ed Sabol. Anyone who is a football fan has seen a Sabol piece of work somewhere at some time. Enshrined and rightfully so into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011, Ed Sabol brought the NFL into our living rooms and made it a better game to watch after the contest was done.
NEXT:
The Top 5 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE IN THE NFL
The story of the end of the Green Bay Packers magnificent season can be told in these three words – block, catch, tackle. In the end the Packers lost less to the Giants than to themselves. A victim of their own inability to execute the most basic of football requirements, the fundamentals. The other half of the story is the numbers; 8, 3, and 1. That’s 8 dropped passes, 3 fumbles, and 1 interception. All along the strong sentiment was the only team capable of beating the Packers was the Packers themselves, and on Sunday against the Giants Green Bay did just that.
