NFL Week 8: The Week Of The Young Quarterback

Week 8 of the NFL season is the week before the official midpoint in the season. Yeah I know that there are 16 games in a season but there are 17 weeks in the NFL season because of the bye week. I had more than my share of football so far this season and it has been better than I ever expected.

I know I am guilty sometimes of blogging about the top tiered teams a lot in this league, but I respect what some of the surprise teams are doing so far this season. Although my Cowboys are out of the picture, the surprise teams out there just keep gaining momentum.

You have to love what teams like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are doing. They aren’t winning any one particular way, they do it with defense one week, offense the next, and some weeks their special teams dominate. They aren’t filling up the statistical columns with useless statistics; they are just filling up the win column with wins. Not to mention young quarterback Josh Freeman is holding up his end of leading the offense as he continues to impress.

Who would have ever thought that the Rams and the Raiders would have .500 records at 4 – 4 this late in the season? The surprises this season keep getting better and better. The silver and black are playing well and the Rams have found a way to win more games this year than they have the past two combined. It doesn't hurt that they appeared to have struck gold with rookie quarterback Sam Bradford.

Let’s not forget about the 5 – 2 Chiefs who are just good enough to find ways to win over the teams they play regardless of the talent level. The Chiefs haven’t changed personnel much this year but they did make two big changes to their offense and defense. They got smart and hired Romeo Crennel and Charlie Weiss. They didn’t fare to well apart but they have won a ton of games when they work together. Some people are born to be together. Weiss has lifted young Matt Cassell into relevance once again.

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Maybe Some Of The So Called Experts Aren't Really Experts

Who does these football surveys? Last week Sports Illustrated dubbed Terrell Owens (who in my opinion is the number 2 or 3 receiver all time depending upon who you ask) the most overrated player in the NFL. They even had quarterback Tony Romo the 5^th or 6^th best quarterback in the league today rated as second behind Owens. This survey was supposed to be conducted by the players and I have a hard time believing that is the case.

Well this week Jerry Sullivan stated that Bills linebacker Aaron Maybin who was drafted number 11 overall last year out of Penn State is the worst player in the NFL. Maybin was the 11th pick of the 2009 draft. He's already been moved from defensive end to linebacker, but hasn't found his role in the Bills' new 4-3 scheme. Coaches won't put him on special teams and undrafted rookies are getting more playing time than him.

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Evan Turner and Baron Davis Decide To Be Different

Evan Turner, the second overall draft pick of the 2010 NBA Draft, has signed an endorsement contract with Chinese athletic apparel label Li-Ning. It’s been quite a year for Li-Ning; it signed Baron Davis as an endorsee, opened its first retail store on American soil, and changed its brand logo over the course of a few months – and now it is adding Evan Turner, one of the top talents of this year’s NBA Draft Class, to its arsenal. Turner will be immediately appear in the brand’s marketing campaigns and will likely be the face of the basketball division of the company.

Evan Turner’s decision could be considered a surprising move; he was recently seen in the Nike Hyperfuse during the 2010 NBA Rookie Photo Shoot and his agent is David Falk, who is also Michael Jordan’s agent; one could have assumed Turner would join the Nike or possibly the Jordan Brand camp.

I like the bold move by Li-Ning to make an effort to get younger talent. The Chinese sneaker market has taken a jump but usually most of the endorsers of these Asian brands are older veterans (Jason Kidd, Shaq, Shane Battier) who can no longer find a place with the larger brands.

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The Game That Changed The Way I View Sports

Everyone who knows me knows that I was a diehard Oklahoma Sooners fan as I was growing up. That wishbone option was every running backs dream growing up in the 80’s. Then one day my family decided to take a recruiting trip to the dirty south and as a young man I was able to witness Florida football at its finest. I made a trip to Florida State. When I arrived at Doak Walker Stadium I came with the intent of watching the Seminoles as my friends were trying to influence my fandom and to convert me to a tomahawk chopping, face painting, Seminole fan.

The year was 1987 and I was an impressionable high school sophomore but I will never forget what I witnessed. I was able to attend the Miami versus Florida State football game that season. Miami was ranked #3 in the nation and Florida State was ranked #4 in the nation and they both had a slew of talent. But for some reason I kept finding myself in awe of the opponent. It was something about the U that kept me staring at their team and watching their every move.

This game was loaded with talent and high drama, but also an astounding 56 players who would go on to play in the NFL. Miami scored first with a second quarter field goal, but Florida State, fielding a team many consider to be the best in school history, took control of the game after that. A 67-yard run by Florida State running back Sammie Smith was followed by a 1-yard touchdown run from Dayne Williams, giving FSU a 7-3 lead. A 36-yard field goal from Derek Schmidt pushed the Seminoles' lead to 10-3 at the half.

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Marcus Dupree: Possibly the Best There Never Was

For those blog readers who have a sense of history and the Civil Rights movement, you know that Philadelphia, Mississippi was the site of one of the most notorious acts of terrorism during the Civil Rights Era in the 1960s. Many people remember the murders of three young men helping to register black voters who had come to Philadelphia in 1964 to investigate the burning of a church that supported civil-rights activities.

Those who had to endure being a part of the first class of African Americans to go to integrated public schools during this era really felt the hostility that came along with being a part of a minority in the south at this time. As a historian and educator, I myself have walked the streets of Mississippi trying to reengage myself with what could have possibly went down during this time. Because I didn’t live during this era it is almost impossible for me to make the connections without interviews from the people who experienced it.

As I was writing my masters thesis in 2000 I was concentrating on how athletics helped transcend the integration of schools throughout the south and the one name that kept coming up was Marcus Dupree. Marcus was born a month before the killings in Philadelphia, Mississippi and eventually would join the first class to go through integrated public schools in the state. When Marcus was establishing himself as the best high school running back in the nation, Philadelphians white and black took pride in him, and in the fully integrated team that he led. He was the town’s first shared joy. 

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