Larry Fitzgerald Deserves Better than the Arizona Cardinals

 College Football, Football, Pro-Football  Comments Off on Larry Fitzgerald Deserves Better than the Arizona Cardinals
Jan 082015
 
Larry Fitzgerald

Cardiac Hill reports that former Pitt and current Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald may part ways with the franchise this off season due to an enormous $23.6 million salary cap hit scheduled for the 2015 season.

In the current structure of the NFL with contracts not guaranteed, it’s really hard to believe that Fitzgerald (or any player with a big-time contract, for that matter) doesn’t think about the possibility of being let go.

The wide receiver is on pace to earn an incredible $23.6 million next year, to count approximately 17% against the entire team’s salary cap. For a player that’s on the decline, that’s a recipe for being cut. Interestingly enough, Pro Football Talk says that while he might be traded or restructure his deal (again – he did so this year), he won’t be released.

Fitzgerald has been with the Cardinals for 11 years. During that time span, the Cardinals have made the playoffs 3 times. They have finished the season with an above-0.500 record only 4 times. Not only that but Fitzgerald has played with the following quarterbacks not named Kurt Warner: John Navarre, Josh McCown, Shaun King, Tim Rattay, Matt Leinart, Derek Anderson, John Skelton, Max Hall, Richard Bartel, Kevin Kolb, Ryan Lindley, Brian Hoyer, Logan Thomas, Carson Palmer, and Drew Stanton. Of those not named Warner, I would say that only Palmer has been a serviceable quarterback.

From Fox Sports:

Beyond that, Fitzgerald, 31, is not happy with his role on the team, the source said. He doesn’t like playing in the slot and he’s become far less of a focal point of the offense. While Fitzgerald led the team this season with 63 receptions and was second to Michael Floyd in yardage at 784, those numbers are the lowest since his rookie year, and his two touchdowns are a career low.

Although Fitzgerald has no doubt slowed down through 11 years of the NFL grind, the idea that he still can’t be a very good wide receiver is, I think, far-fetched. Floyd’s much bally-hooed emergence and his team-leading 784 yards would rank second worst over Fitzgerald’s entire career and as listed above, Larry has played with much worse quarterbacks. I might even surmise that his college QB at Pitt, Rod Rutherford, did him better service than any other than Warner.

Larry Fitzgerald - Pitt vs VT

Take for example, 2012, one of Fitzgerald’s worst non-Warner years. He caught 71 passes for 798 yards and 4 touchdowns. According to Bleacher Report:

Fitzgerald was targeted 153 times [in 2012], with two of those targets negated by accepted penalties. On those targets he caught 73 passes, 71 officially, for a catch rate of 47 percent.

Of Fitzgerald’s 153 targets, almost unfathomably, only 88 were catchable. When you assess Fitzgerald’s receptions in relation to his catchable targets opposed to all of his targets, his ratio almost doubles [to 80 percent].

Continue reading »

My 2015 Pittsburgh and Pro-Sports Wishlist

 Baseball, Football, Hockey, Pro-Football  Comments Off on My 2015 Pittsburgh and Pro-Sports Wishlist
Dec 312014
 
Pittsburgh Sports Logo

I consider myself a lucky sports fan. At least I’m not a Cleveland sports fan. I can find hope without looking too hard. BUT! C’mon, everyone wants some of their teams to do better. So here’s a short wishlist for my pro teams and pro-sports in general in 2015 (in no particular order).

Steelers

  • Upgraded Secondary. The defensive secondary has played particularly well the past couple weeks but there’s no doubt that these guys aren’t suited to being long-term front-line players. Will Allen, William Gay, Brice McCain and Antwon Blake have played above their pay grade. It is highly, highly unlikely though perhaps not impossible that McCain and Blake could become front-line players. Still, with the withering of Ike Taylor and the failures of extending Cortez Allen and signing Mike Mitchell, the secondary needs a huge infusion of new talent.
  • Polamalu closeupA Dignified Exit for Troy Polamalu. There was significant debate on 93.7 The Fan last night as to whether Troy should even play at the expense of a roster spot for a special teams player, let alone start against Baltimore. Troy’s jersey was the first I ever bought so I don’t like the thought of the end of his career. I would give him a spot for the Baltimore game, not start him, and substitute him into certain packages. And then I hope he retires at the end of the season (mmm… hopefully after holding aloft another Vince Lombardi Trophy?).
  • The Return of Linebacker Nation. A 3-4 defense is not supposed to have an Defensive End tie or lead the team in sacks. Cam Heyward has fast become an exceptional player and the emergence of Stephon Tuitt bodes well for the future as well but this defense is predicated on getting pressure from its linebackers. Jason Worilds is almost certainly gone after the season; his price tag will be too high after recording a colossal 7.5 regular season sacks. Vince Williams and Arthur Moats are good depth guys but Ryan Shazier and Jarvis Jones absolutely must pick up the slack in seasons to come.

Penguins

  • bluebloodHealth. Every team suffers injuries but between career and life threatening injuries, cancer and the mumps, this team has had way too many kids called up from the Baby Penguins farm team this season.
  • Earn that Cash. Franchise players are paid the big bucks to show up in critical high-pressure situations. Management did a good job of adding toughness and grit to the team this off-season. But Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Marc-Andre Fleury cannot go another playoffs without playing to their potential in the highest pressure games. If Fleury plays well, so too must Sid & Geno. If Geno plays well, so too must Fleury and Sid. This isn’t the most stacked team the Penguins have had but they are a team that can win a Stanley Cup.
  • More Noise!! It’s been said that Penguins crowds haven’t been as animated since the move to the Consol Energy Center as they were in the old Civic/Mellon Arena. Part of that may be to do with the new building’s acoustics and part of that may be more expensive tickets pricing out the (increasingly eviscerated) proletariat. In England, the landed gentry who can afford futbol games and aren’t loud or involved are called the Prawn Sandwich Brigade. I tend to think the CEC crowds still do get pretty loud but not for as long as they might have done in the olden years. Or perhaps I’m getting old and you should stay the hillel off my lawn.

Continue reading »

Sep 182014
 
game-face

Although we would all agree that the vast, vast major of NFL players are decent people, I’m finding it harder and harder to get excited for professional football these days.

The NFL is over-exposed. There’s no off-season anymore. There’s always a new story and I find that to be draining. I want to take time away from the game, follow some other sports and actually miss the NFL. That’s almost impossible with ESPN and the other networks’ 24/7 coverage of any little, bitty, tiny story. Player misconduct is a worthy news item no matter when it happens but other than that, the NFL needs a real off-season.

The Grey HavensThese days, I honestly find the NFL product to be a bit boring. It’s roughly the same types of offenses and defenses, with little variation. Whereas there was once a slight variety of offenses – smash mouth, west coast, run & shoot, long-ball – nowadays, everyone seems to be running roughly a variation of the west coast with some spread principles. The real innovation in offenses continues to be on the college side. I have no problem turning on a random college football game but I often fall asleep watching any NFL game.

Coupled with the tone-deaf response to player misconduct (to put it lightly), it’s just not as fun as it used to be. Humans are a Fallen species and so no sports league, no institution is ever perfect. But all this shit, it wears on a fan. I can’t block it out anymore. Not sure if I should either.

Continue reading »

Jan 242014
 
Spanish-Primera-12-13

I’m not a huge fan of playoffs (unless my team does well in them).  They’re a vastly imperfect method of determining a champion. They usually only determine the team that is playing the best, that is the hottest at that end point of the season. A balanced, season-long race should be the only way that a Champion is determined.

This is the way it’s done in world Soccer (ie, Association Football). Each team plays every other team twice throughout the season. Winner gets 3 points. Loser gets 0 points. Tie gets 1 point for each team. Add up each team’s points and you have a winner. Home-and-home. No such thing as Strength of Schedule. A true league champion.

There are separate Cup Championships (elimination tournaments or playoffs, if you will) that run concurrently through the season. When an FC Barcelona fan talks about the club’s 22 titles, that number doesn’t include Cup Championships.

Spanish-Primera-12-13

This is  my definition of a true champion. I realize it will always be impossible to determine a true champion in the NFL, College Football and College Basketball.  (As well as the other college sports). There are too many teams within each league to play a round robin schedule or even one-to-one.

But the NBA, NHL and MLB could have true champions. Eliminate conferences and divisions, which are remnants of the days when travel costs weighed more heavily on teams. Have each team play the same number of games against their brethren. Everyone’s travel costs will be the same if you play each other the same number of times. 3 points for an win (or shootout win in the NHL), 0 points for a loss.

The NHL, NBA and MLB each have 30 teams. Hockey and Basketball would play a home-and-home (2 games/opponent), which gets them to 58 games. MLB would play double home-and-home (4 games/opponent), which gets them to 116 games. That’s a not-insignificant decrease in inventory so add in simultaneous elimination tournaments (Cup Championships) and you should be able to replenish the inventory sufficiently.

30-team-bracket

I know, I know. I’m tilting at windmills. Americans can’t stomach regular season champions. We crave the supposed-certainty of a playoff. We would rather be provided with certainty, with absolute rules rather than any teeny-weeny sign of ambiguity. Bollocks to that.

My 2014 Pittsburgh and Pro-Sports Wishlist

 Baseball, Football, Hockey, Pro-Football  Comments Off on My 2014 Pittsburgh and Pro-Sports Wishlist
Jan 042014
 
Pittsburgh Sports Logo

I consider myself a lucky sports fan. At least I’m not a Cleveland sports fan. I can find hope without looking too hard. BUT! C’mon, everyone wants some of their teams to do better. So here’s a short wishlist for my pro teams and pro-sports in general in 2014 (in no particular order).

Pittsburgh Sports Logo

Steelers

  • By SteelCityHobbies (MRR_0030.JPG) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia CommonsA healthy offensive line. I think the o-line improved a bit towards the end of the season. You could see it in the way that Le’Veon Bell started running. Part of that is on Bell. The light seems to be coming on for him. He seemed more decisive. Add back a healthy Maurkice Pouncey and a continually developing David DeCastro and that’s a foundation. Regardless of who’s lining up, the offensive line needs time and health to develop chemistry.
  • More no-huddle. I think I heard on 93.7 The Fan that the No-Huddle will be the Steelers’ default offense next year? Well, if it makes Ben happy and more productive, I’m ok with that. Frankly, I think quarterbacks don’t have enough play-calling responsibility anymore and I think they can handle the weight. Terry Bradshaw called his own plays; you think Ben can’t do the same consistently? Continue reading »
Sep 232013
 

A modest and hopefully uncontroversial proposal, if  I may, concerning the coaching staffs which make the UPMC Sports Complex their home.

Fire Steelers offensive coordinator Todd Haley. Ok, so that’s probably not so controversial among Steelers fans. Next, transfer Haley’s play-calling and strategy duties to Pitt head coach, Paul Chryst, a man known for productive offenses and the ability to effectively utilize the talents of existing players rather than trying to shoehorn them into one particular system. Chryst will continue to advise offensive coordinator Joe Rudolph but Rudolph will take on added responsibilities, something that should benefit his career immensely.

Paul Chryst

Pitt HC & soon-to-be Steelers OC Paul Chryst

Chryst will still remain the head coach at Pitt. However, since he isn’t exactly comfortable in front of the media (though getting better), Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin will take over Chryst’s media duties. (That groan you hear is from Pittsburgh sportswriters being forced to deal with Tomlin on two fronts). Chryst may also need to grow a beard.

Continue reading »

Aug 202013
 
RGIII, Redskins icon?

I’ve talked before about how college football (and basketball) programs are either institution-defined or coach-defined. The bluebloods are institution-defined – think Michigan, USC, Ohio State etc. Those just below that threshold are largely newcomers who haven’t (yet) proven they can rise above their iconic coach or who never did prove it – think Virginia Tech under Beamer or Arizona State after Frank Kush.

RGIII, Redskins icon?

RGIII, Redskins icon?

An interesting parallel is the idea of a coach or player defining the image of a professional sports franchise. In an article yesterday on Behind the Steel Curtain, Anthony Defeo contended that some franchises are more iconically identified with a certain coach or player than others.

In the 60s, Vince Lombardi was the face of the Packers franchise, so much so, in fact, even today, it’s hard not to talk about those championship teams without saying “Lombardi’s Packers,” with his fiery presence on the sidelines of Lambeau Field being the first image that pops into your head. Lombardi was such a larger than life figure, the Super Bowl trophy is named after him.

Continue reading »

Jul 252013
 

As a rabid Steelers fan, I know it’s blasphemy but I have seldom been less excited about the coming of the NFL season. It’s not about the team itself. I’m confident that if Ben Roethlisberger stays healthy, the Steelers will once again be elite contenders in the NFL.

Over the past few years, I’ve become less and less intrigued by the NFL as a whole. If not for the Steelers, I wouldn’t be an NFL fan. The game is boring. Every team plays roughly the same type of offense… some variant of the West Coast offense with sprinklings of running or passing spread plays. There’s no innovation on either side of the ball.

Continue reading »

Jun 022013
 

One of the things I love about sports is comparing teams across disciplines. Who are the Dallas Cowboys of the NBA, the the Pittsburgh Pirates of the NHL, the Boston Red Stockings of the MLS. MLS? Oh wait, nevermind that.

Let’s do a comparison of notable English futbol clubs to American sports teams.

Liverpool -> Los Angeles Dodgers. Recent ownership troubles. Massive commercial potential only recently being tapped. Beloved in their communities. Long history of success but not exactly recently. Continue reading »

Jan 292013
 

Every time the Penguins play the Islanders, as they’re doing tonight, I can’t help but remember David Volek. Oh the name conjures memories of infamy, it does. It was Volek’s slapshot in Game 7 of the 1993 NHL playoff series between the Pens and Islanders that denied Mario Lemieux and company the chance at a three-peat.

It pains us, it does. It burnsss. It freezessss. Volek’s goal places him among the top sports villains of my life.

David Volek Continue reading »