Deacon Jones, Pro Football Hall of Famer and leader of the Los Angeles Rams "Fearsome Foursome", coined the phrase "sack" to describe tackling a quarterback behind the line of scrimmage. "You know, like you sack a city - you devastate it."
In 1999, Jones provided an L.A. Times reporter with some detailed imagery about his forte: “You take all the offensive linemen and put them in a burlap bag, and then you take a baseball bat and beat on the bag. You’re
sacking them, you’re bagging them. And that’s what you’re doing with a
quarterback.”
Did you know Gerald Ford, the 38th President of the United States, was originally named Leslie Lynch King, Jr. when he was born? He was also the only President not to be elected by the Electoral College, having been appointed to the Vice Presidency when Spiro Agnew resigned, then becoming President upon the resignation of Richard Nixon.
Ford was also a star football player for Michigan and in 1934, against the University of Chicago, "became the only future U.S. president to tackle a future Heisman Trophy winner when he brought down running back Jay Berwanger, who would win the first Heisman the following year."
Deacon Jones was terrorizing opposing NFL quarterbacks when I first got interested in football; when I played, I tried to emulate his famous head slap when I could (get away with it). Even when his Rams played the Cowboys, my favorite team, I couldn't help but admire the ferocious way he played. (I think there's at least two sacks of Dallas QBs in the video.
Anyone who knows me or has followed this blog for any length of time knows I am a Dallas Cowboy fan. (there's a Cowboys news module in the right-hand side column) I don't post much about them because frankly, it's been hard to be a fan for the last decade or so and I don't want or need trolls coming in and blasting my favorite team. I know they've sucked for a long time, I don't need to be reminded of it.
That said, I'm still a fan, although not as much of one as I once was. As I've grown older, I've become less and less interested in football...and all sports, for that matter. I try to watch the Cowboys on TV, but if they're playing badly I have no problem changing the channel. I've done that a lot over the last 15 years. I'm no fair-weather fan, but I'm also not a glutton for punishment.
I still keep up with them, however, reading articles about them on the Dallas Cowboys website and subscribe to a few fan sites in my reader. I was glad to see this article yesterday: Cowboys Sign Long Snapper LaDouceur To Five-Year Deal. I couldn't find the exact terms of the contract, at least none that sounded correct. Most sources said it was a five-year deal for $4 million, but LaDouceur has been in the league long enough to get at least the veteran minimum wage and the math doesn't work for that number.
Doing some quick research, I found that he made $790,000 for the 2012 season. Considering that all he does is "long snap", I decided to research a little more to see how much he made per actual play he was on the field. I figure he played during 31 field goal attempts, 68 punts and 38 PAT (subtracting three 2 point tries) for a total of 137 plays....without making a bad snap. That works out to $5,766.42/play. Not bad wages, huh?
That made me wonder about other player's wages per play. I thought about figuring what certain of my favorite players made, but the task would have been daunting, trying to find out the exact number of times they were on the field, taking off their substitutions, injuries, etc. It was fairly easy to calculate the number for the team's highest profile player and quarterback, Tony Romo.
(and I don't care what other people think of him, he's a favorite of mine and a good player. I don't care if anyone disagrees with me on his worth to the team; you can point out his mistakes, but I'll point out your lack of football knowledge.)
According to the Cowboy website's statistics, Dallas ran 1,049 offensive plays in 2012. The site says the backup QB Orton attempted 10 passes, but there's no breakdown of how many times he handed off the ball. So, let's just say for the matter of simplicity that Tony Romo was on the field for 925 plays, taking off the extra point kicks, adding back the 2 point tries, taking away the punt plays and estimating however many times Orton handed off. 925 is close enough for me.
Romo's listed salary for 2012 was $9,000,000. Now, I'm not sure, what with the signing bonus and the "funny money" salary cap implications, if it was more or less than that amount, but again, for the sake of simplicity, let's go with the figure of nine million. That means he got paid $9729.73 per play.
(for all you anal-retentive stat freaks: if you have a problem with my figures for that or any of the other calculations I've done, send me an email with detailed corrections, screen captures of your calculations and verified links to your sources to: idonotgiveadamn@buzzoff.net)
That's a pretty decent wage, wouldn't you say? Especially considering that a good percentage of those plays were just handing off the ball and not getting touched. Then again, there were far too many plays like this one:
That wasn't even close to the worst hit he took this last year, but I'm sure he would have given up part of his per-play salary to have avoided that hit. Hell, I would have given it ALL back, plus another couple of play's worth. LaDouceur might make only half of what Romo does per snap, but it's a wonder Romo's neck hasn't been snapped.
You are an adept risk taker. You love to go for the glory.
You do what others are scared to do, and it pays off!
You have no fear, and because of this, you're able to look at the odds rationally.
You've taken enough small risks to get ahead in life, even if every risk hasn't panned out.
Since the NFL regular season started, I was predicting the winners each week and except for last week, was doing fairly well. I've decided to discontinue it.
Why? Well, it wasn't creating much interest. I understand I don't have a lot of visitors to this blog and I'm fine w/ that, but I did hope that I'd get a few hits/comments on the posts. That's not the main reason, though.
After last night's debacle - the Dallas/Chicago game - my heart's not in it. I'll always be a Cowboys fan, but I never have enjoyed watching the games when Dallas played poorly. I turned the channel shortly after the second half started and then drifted off to sleep. I refuse to let how a football team does affect my life...and esp. my sleep.
I'm also done with frequenting the Cowboy websites and reading the comments. I'm sick of the constant criticisms from people who know little or nothing about the game. I'm tired of reading comments such as "Fire Garrett!" "Romo needs to go!" "Jerry Jones knows nothing about football!"
In the first place, Garrett is a good coach but to expect him to be mistake-free is short-sighted and an ignorant way of thinking. I like his "RKG" approach and think he needs another couple of years to put his stamp on the team. If he hasn't taken the team to the playoffs in five years at the helm, then perhaps he should be let go, but not until then. People have no patience and expect wins right away. That's not realistic.
People also show their lack of knowledge about football in blaming Romo for the losses. Last time I checked, there were ten other players on the offensive side of the ball, plus a defense that has blown some of the leads the offense and Romo had in games. Sure, he's made some egregious errors, but I bet there are a dozen NFL teams which would love to have Tony Romo as their QB.
Lastly, I get angry at Jones too, but it IS his team and with his two + decades of owning the team, he has to have soaked up some football smarts via osmosis if in no other way. In fact, I imagine he's probably forgotten more about football than most of the whiny pukes on msg. boards will ever know. JJ's worst fault is being too loyal to certain players as well as handing out overpriced contracts to under-performing athletes.
I was moving some files last night and found this little snippet I had created from the digital copy of our 8-man championship game. It was very near the first of the game and we had just thrown an interception. In the first few seconds of the video, you can see me help make the tackle on the guy who had intercepted it. (I don't know why I can't get that little bit off; I will have to plead ignorance of video editing - this was one of my first attempts)
Besides ticking me off with us losing the ball, I felt as though the momentum of the game might change if they made a big play after the turnover and I was determined to make one of my own.
Here's a screen shot with the arrow pointing towards me. (so you can make out which one I am in the old, grainy video)
As you'll be able to see, I shucked off a block, then had to take a wide angle to the ball carrier. I wasn't expecting him to be slowed up, plus I had to curve even more on my pursuit in order to dodge one of my own men. I started to hold up for an instant because I thought he was down, then saw he wasn't going to be stopped, so I laid the wood on him.
I know you're probably thinking I'm living in the past and that maybe you've seen a lot better players and both would be true, particularly the latter, but I DID make a great play and help to lift my teammate's spirits. My dad later told me the sound of the collision was like a shotgun blast and that he could "feel the hit' from where he was sitting in the stands.
Anyway, here's about eight seconds of my "glory days".
"Bumped" from July '12 . I stumbled across it while searching for something else. Nearly got sick to my stomach again, too.
I saw this on a Facebook page earlier and it reminded me of a story I had been meaning to write and post in here.
It was my senior year of high school and the football coach had discovered that, even though I played guard on the line, I could throw and run the ball fairly well. The offensive line was where I had played since starting my freshman year, though, because that's where the "larger" guys usually played. ("Larger" is relative because I never weighed more than 160 lbs. until my senior year when a growth spurt added a couple of inches and 10 lbs.)
I wasn't permanently moved from my position, but played both running back or quarterback when the starter got hurt or the coach decided he was ineffective or the game was out of reach. I did fairly well, rushing for over a hundred yards in my first game as a running back and connecting on most of my passes through the season while playing quarterback, one for a touchdown.
I'll never forget that first game; the coach told me at halftime he was going to substitute me for the starter. We were playing Turpin, Oklahoma, the eventual state champions that year and were getting beaten rather handily. (We never did beat them while I played, but we did tie them my junior year 40-40, at the time one of the highest-scoring tie games in Texas h.s. football history)
As an offensive lineman and linebacker/safety, I wore larger shoulder pads and a helmet with a full face guard. The pads were cumbersome but didn't bother me nearly as much when I played quarterback as did the face guard. My lineman's mask had more bars on the lower part and one right in the middle, from top to bottom. It never bothered me when I was playing on the line, but as a quarterback it would almost make my eyes cross when I looked down the field for open receivers.
As we took the field for the second half of my quarterback debut, I turned to a friend, an underclassman who rarely played and who had a running back's face guard, with fewer bars that blocked vision. "Lemme use your helmet." I told him. We swapped head gear and after getting the team trainer to adjust my helmet*, I took the field.
*Our helmets were the type with glycerin-filled pads for cushion, as well as inflatable air cells. If not adjusted for the shape of one's head, they would eventually give the wearer a horrible headache. They were pumped up with a miniature version of the same sort of pump use to air up footballs.
I called the play in the huddle and walked to the line, looking over the defense as best as I could. (I was and still am extremely near-sighted) Just as I crouched behind center to call the signals and take the snap, I realized I didn't have my mouthpiece in.
It was dangling from my face guard; when I first started playing, the mouth protectors didn't have the little strap molded on to attach to the helmet and we kept them in our socks when not in use. It was a penalty for not wearing your mouthpiece and having the strap and the guard dangling from the face mask was a good reminder to wear it during a play. When you got a new one, you put it in some boiling water for a short while, took it out, let it cool just for few seconds so it wouldn't burn, then stuck it in your mouth while still warm and pliable so it would form to your teeth and shape of your gums.
I stuck the guard in my mouth and it didn't take but a second to realize it wasn't mine. When my teammate and I had swapped helmets, we hadn't switched the mouth pieces! That wasn't so bad, but my friend also constantly dipped snuff and the thing tasted just like the Copenhagen he always had in his mouth.
I don't remember much about the play, but I do remember holding back the vomit until the play was over and I could run over to the sidelines and swap out the mouth guards. Thank goodness he hadn't stuck mine in his mouth and got the tobacco taste on it as well.
I'm glad this post is over; I felt like throwing up just writing it.
Oh, and I've done the pen thing, too. It cured me of chewing on pens.
I've been to the Moscow in Kansas and I never want to go back. We played a football game there when I was a junior in h.s. and there was freezing drizzle all through the game. We had them down 20-0 at the half. Kansas football had a rule that if there was bad weather or one team was handily beating the other and both teams agreed, the game could be stopped at halftime. When our coach came into the locker room after talking with the Moscow coach and told us we had to keep playing, I quickly changed my soggy socks for my dry "street" socks. They became soaked in a matter of seconds and I went home with no socks, chilled to the bone and shivering on our old, cold ancient bus. I've been miserable since then, but that's in the top five of all-time misery.
Here's one of the best Beatles songs, IMHO. The best one with the song and footage of the group in Russia had the embed code disabled.
I've got a good online friend from England - her nickname is "Minnie". She's a devoted fan of the Chelsea soccer (footie) team. A long time ago when we were chatting on IM, she asked if I followed soccer and if so, what team did I like. I allowed as I really didn't like soccer all that much, but if I did, I might follow Arsenal because that was such a cool name for a team.
Oops, wrong answer. I knew soccer fans were...well, "fanatical" about their teams, but I didn't know about the hatred they could have for other teams. (I like American football, but have grown less and less interested in all sports as I've grown older. I do follow the Dallas Cowboys and have been a fan since I was a young boy, but I don't watch them if they're playing badly. Why would I want to suffer through that? Personally, I don't "hate" other NFL teams, but will admit to disliking Philadelphia mostly because of their obnoxious fans)
It wasn't very long until I got a pkg. in the mail from my British friend; in it were two Chelsea jerseys, one white and one blue. My allegiance to a particular footie team had been decided for me!
Chelsea played Barcelona yesterday; I wasn't for sure what was at stake, but I did some research and found out it was an important match (the Champions League Semifinal) and that the team from Spain was the World Cup Champs. (was? were? The British form of singular/plural confuses me a little. Where Americans would say "Chelsea is a great team.", the Brits would say "Chelsea are a great team." I guess it's something to do with the former thinking of a team as a singular unit while the latter thinks of a team being individual players. Just always found that odd. It's almost like the USA being considered a union of individual states pre-Civil War - "The United States ARE..." and afterwards being thought of as a single entity "The United States IS....")
Anyway....I watched a little bit of the match, but was confused a little bit by the Barcelona squad being able to keep the ball near the Chelsea goal as much as they were. I then found out that John Terry, a Chelsea star player, had been given a "red card" - being ejected from the match for a flagrant foul on a Barcelona player, Sanchez. Here's a video of the infraction:
Good Grief, that wasn't much more than a love tap. Sanchez deserved an Oscar for that acting performance. Terry could have shot him with a pistol and he wouldn't have gone down that fast.
As said, Terry was ejected from the match. I didn't know that a team would have to play short-handed the rest of the game. That doesn't seem right. Chelsea went on to play great defense and eventually knotted the score at 2-2. I know next to nothing about the game and even less about how that can be considered a win, but that's what happened and Chelsea moves on into the playoffs.
(I also don't understand how the various leagues work - my friend Min tried to explain it to me once but I was more confused after the explanation than I was before. I remember thinking at the time it would be like trying to explain the game of baseball to one of those remote Amazonian tribes. I did catch on that the worst teams have to "drop down" into another league and that sounds like a good deal to me and wish they'd try it in the NFL.)
The Terry "foul" reminded me of another foul committed by Albert Haynesworth, then of the Tennessee Titans, against Andre Gurode of the Dallas Cowboys from a few years ago.
What Terry did paled in comparison, wouldn't you say?
Note: Doing a little dab of research on this post has made me much more knowledgeable about soccer. I still don't know much, but I know more than I did yesterday. Now I need to find out what the fans sing during soccer matches. I watched a bit of a Liverpool match (scousers!) a couple of years ago and heard them singing "You'll Never Walk Alone". Odd.
I haven't asked her, but I bet my British friend Min might think Liverpool should sing the chorus of "Hair Of The Dog".
The other day I was listening to an online radio sports talk show and they announced "This just in! Marion Barber retiring!"
Being a fan of the Cowboys and always enjoying watching Barber run the ball (his nickname was "Barbarian") when he played for Dallas, I did a quick search to see how well he had done after he had left the Cowboys. Quite a few results came up, most from football websites like NFL.com, ESPN, various fan sites and the official Cowboys site.
I also noticed news articles on Barber's announcement and most had "fifteen minutes ago" as the time the article was posted, which was about the same amount of time since I had heard the news on the online show. Also in the results was Barber's Wikipedia entry. I clicked on it and saw that it had already been updated with his retirement.
That wasn't surprising, though. It's been something I've been doing after hearing news of note - checking Wiki to see how fast it's updated. I've noticed that with other news stories, one recent one being the death of Whitney Houston. The Wiki entry for the last Super Bowl was changed to reflect the final score within moments of the game being over.
Now, you might think it's pretty sad or a sign of having too much time on my hands for me to check Wiki for updates when breaking news is announced. You would be correct, but what does it say about those who rush to the site to update the entry before anyone else?
Update to add: Another example would be that of the NBC show Celebrity Apprentice. It's just now ending as I type this, but the results/who won the challenge/who was fired has already been posted. I realize there are different satellite feeds, one earlier on the east coast, so that accounts for the quick update, but it would be a spoiler for anyone who read the Wiki entry before the show airs in their time zone.
A disclaimer: I've never watched Celebrity Apprentice much before this season and I haven't seen all the shows this year. I watched a few of the shows last year because Meat Loaf and Gary Busey were contestants and they had a huge fight during one competition. (either one could be/should be the poster child for "Just Say No") I don't care much for Donald Trump and, for the most part, don't care much about celebrities. The thing I like the most about the show is watching the celebrities stab each other in the back in order to be kept on the show for the next week.
I'm not a gambler, not unless you count buying lottery tickets when the jackpot is huge or the occasional scratch ticket if I have a spare dollar or two, but I've always been fascinated by proposition bets (AKA "prop bets") They're specific bets on certain things happening in the game, such as heads/tails on the coin flip and who wins the toss, who scores first and whether it be by pass or run.
The first score was on a safety and that paid 50-1. Would've been nice to have a thousand dollars on that prop bet...but who in their right mind would have risked that much money? I guess someone who wasn't in their right mind and/or had a lot of money to risk. Not me. (I don't have that kind of money, but many say I'm not in my right mind. The odds on that are pretty much even)
Other bets were more esoteric, such as would Kelly Clarkson's bare belly be showing when she sings the national anthem? Will she forget any words to the song? How long will it last? (on the last - Odds: Over 1 Minute 35 Seconds (-115), Under 1 Minute 35 Seconds (-115) )
You could even place a bet on who the MVP will thank first. (Odds: God (+125), Teammates (+200), Does not thank anyone (+250), Coaches/Owner (+400), Family (+500) I think it was a pretty safe wager that he'd say "I'm going to Disney World!"
There were over/under bets on who many times Tom Brady's wife appeared on TV and if they'd show his son AND if he would be wearing a Brady jersey. (I didn't look those or a few others up, sorry. If you're really interested, I'm sure you could find that information. I'm just hittin' the highlights.)
What color will the Gatorade be that is dumped in the winning head coach? Odds: Clear (Even), Yellow (+200), Orange (+250), Lime Green (+550), Red (+800), Blue (+1000). I haven't had any Gatorade in years and years, not since my own football days. I once drank too much of it after a practice and promptly threw it all back up. It was orange colored, btw.
The prop bets don't end with the game's end, either; you could also place a bet on where the Dow Jones Average will be on the day after the game.
Speaking of the Dow Jones: I've always thought the stock market was the most extreme form of gambling....well, that, and cheating on your spouse. Wonder what the odds would be on who would shoot you first? Your spouse or the spouse of the person you cheated with?
1. Any large, overpowering, destructive force. 2. Something, such as a belief or institution, that elicits blind and destructive devotion. 3. An idol of Krishna, at Puri in Orissa, India, annually drawn on an enormous cart under whose wheels devotees are said to have thrown themselves to be crushed.
Seems like I've known this word forever, being as how I've always liked Sci-Fi: "The alien war cruiser tore through the galaxy like a juggernaut." (for example)
I was shown the first definition in the autumn/h.s. football season of 1969; I was a 14 yr. old, 155 lb. freshman trying to block 19 yr. old 200 lb. Oklahoma hillbillies, the operative word being "trying".
An Amarillo radio station has been playing some ads of Thomas' "Zach's Club 54" gym, saying they're re-opening after a million dollar overhaul. I hope he makes a ton of money and wish him nothing but the best.
The end of a Texas icon will come Sunday morning at 7:00 a.m. CST. View the webcam of the Texas Stadium Implosion. Read what former players and coaches have to say: Long Good-bye
I've been to two Cowboy games in the stadium, both in the late 70's and both games were with the (then) St. Louis Cardinals; I don't remember the scores or which year was which, but Dallas won one of the games.
Listening to talk radio, I heard one talking head say there were no bad seats in the house, but I would have to disagree. I didn't care for where I was seated - about four/five rows above field level, but in the corner of the end zone. Each time the action made its way to me, the quarter ended and the teams changed ends of the field, putting them far away.
I do remember my g/f (soon to be wife, now my ex-wife) asking me to drive home from the second game we attended. She had experience driving in the metroplex traffic while I was a small town hick driver, but I gamely got behind the wheel and started to fight the traffic back to Denton (n. of Dallas).
It took about an hour to get out of the parking lot and on the freeway; I almost panicked as I was immediately surrounded by six lanes of traffic, all driving well above the speed limit. I kept my cool and thought that as long as I was heading north, I would wind up in the general vicinity of Denton...or even Oklahoma, but at least I would be on the right track.
Somehow I managed to make it to DFW Airport, a shortcut from Denton we always used to go to the football and baseball games, as well as the times we went to Six Flags. I paid the toll at the entrance to the airport and kept driving. I drove for about 30 minutes, thinking that the route looked familar, but in an odd way. Long story short, it wasn't long until I glanced over from the freeway and saw Texas Stadium again! I had made a huge circle and come back through the airport, only from the wrong direction!
Being a long-time Cowboy fan, I have many memories of games played at the stadium, some good, some bad, but this is one of my favorites.
George Teague lights up T.O. for disrespecting the star
