Deberg_1990
10-08-2007, 09:33 AM
Ill just post the 1st page or so...
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/peter_king/10/07/mmqb.week5/index.html
NEW YORK -- You've got to love text messaging. I haven't always felt that way, as a card-carrying member of Generation Square. I once had to quasi-ground my daughter Mary Beth for a 1,700-text month at college. Anyway, this quickie form of communication came in handy Sunday night, when Miami quarterback Trent Green was still in a haze from an afternoon concussion.
Green's concussion, the hit that caused it, and the issue of legal crackback blocks are going to be the lingering stories from Week 5. You probably saw the Green hit, over and over again in the Miami-Houston highlights. With rookie wideout Ted Ginn Jr. running back across the field trying to pick up blockers, Green dove at the legs of Houston defensive tackle Travis Johnson, who was in hot pursuit of Ginn. Green got the job done -- legally, I might add -- by knocking Johnson head over heels. But diving at Johnson's legs, Green had Johnson's right knee smash into the side of his helmet, and Green was knocked cold. Green weighs 217 pounds. Johnson is a 315-pound man.
As Green lay motionless, with any fan of the game flashing back to his horrific 2006 concussion, Johnson, enraged by the block because he never saw it coming, sprinted over to Green and began shouting at him. He got a 15-yard flag for taunting, and my guess is he'll get another little gift in the mail early this week from the league office -- a $5,000 fine. After the game, Johnson continued his barrage on a man whose health was still very much in question. "It was a malicious hit,'' Johnson said. "He wants to get courage while I wasn't looking ... If you want to hit me, hit me in my head, hit me in my chest, don't hit me in my knee. I'm trying to eat just like everybody else. To hit me like that showed me what type of man he was.''
The block was not a clip. It was a legal block, and certainly the only way Green could have been sure to knock Johnson off his path toward tackling Ginn. At NBC on Sunday night, the three former players in the studio took sides -- Tiki Barber calling it "a cheap shot,'' Cris Collinsworth telling me he tacitly agreed, and Jerome Bettis saying it wasn't against the rules, and all's fair in love and war. "He's got to go low,'' Bettis said. "That's the only way he can get him down.''
In the meantime, I was texting Green, who, understandably, skipped his session with the media after the game. I had no intention of using the texts until something Green wrote intrigued me. I asked him if I could use it. He said sure.
Here's the exchange:
King to Green, 5:14 p.m.: "peter king here. just texting to wish you well and to say hope you come out of this okay.''
Green to King, 9:06 p.m.: "Will b ok. Not like lst yr. TG.''
King to Green: 9:08 p.m.: "hey -- how about johnson calling your block a malicious hit? feel better. peter.''
(And this is the one I found interesting.)
Green to King, 9:12 p.m.: "He outweighs me by over 100 lbs. Where shld I blk him? TG.''
The bottom line: The only way Green knew he had a chance to get Johnson on the ground was by taking his legs out. In the last few years, defensive linemen have railed against low blocks, feeling that blocks at the knee and below endanger their careers and should be banned. The league hasn't outlawed them despite the annual protests to make them illegal. Defensive players get enraged over this. Offensive players say, in essence, that if it isn't a clip, a defensive lineman should be able to be blocked like other players on the field. And the league has never been able to muster a three-quarters majority to get the block outlawed. Maybe this block will change things, but I doubt it.
So what happens to Green now? According to the league's new head-injury code, a player cannot return to game once he has been knocked unconscious. In the week that follows, he has to pass a neuropsychological test that compares his brain activity to a previous baseline brainwave test. Green will have to pass that test this week, and also be cleared by Dolphin physicians, if he is to play when the Dolphins host Cleveland Sunday.
I spoke with Miami coach Cam Cameron an hour after the Dolphins' 22-19 loss to Houston -- and before I knew about Johnson's ridiculous comments. Cameron said he would wait until Green underwent further tests early this week before making any determination about his playing status. "I just got done talking to him,'' said Cameron. "He had a big smile on his face. By talking to him, you wouldn't know anything had happened to him. Typical Trent. He takes on a 300-pounder. Anything to help the team.''
If I'm Cameron, I'd have to have the cleanest bill of health imaginable for Green to play Sunday. Knowing Cameron, that's how he'll treat a player he's known and respects so much. "When I got to Trent on the field, I told him I loved him,'' Cameron said. Real love means -- I hope -- the Dolphins take their sweet time allowing Green to play again.
Goat of the Week
Houston DT Travis Johnson. I don't care how angry you are. Green's block on Johnson was a legal play, according to the NFL rule book, and for Johnson to first taunt an unconscious man and then continue the tirade after the game ... that is low.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/peter_king/10/07/mmqb.week5/index.html
NEW YORK -- You've got to love text messaging. I haven't always felt that way, as a card-carrying member of Generation Square. I once had to quasi-ground my daughter Mary Beth for a 1,700-text month at college. Anyway, this quickie form of communication came in handy Sunday night, when Miami quarterback Trent Green was still in a haze from an afternoon concussion.
Green's concussion, the hit that caused it, and the issue of legal crackback blocks are going to be the lingering stories from Week 5. You probably saw the Green hit, over and over again in the Miami-Houston highlights. With rookie wideout Ted Ginn Jr. running back across the field trying to pick up blockers, Green dove at the legs of Houston defensive tackle Travis Johnson, who was in hot pursuit of Ginn. Green got the job done -- legally, I might add -- by knocking Johnson head over heels. But diving at Johnson's legs, Green had Johnson's right knee smash into the side of his helmet, and Green was knocked cold. Green weighs 217 pounds. Johnson is a 315-pound man.
As Green lay motionless, with any fan of the game flashing back to his horrific 2006 concussion, Johnson, enraged by the block because he never saw it coming, sprinted over to Green and began shouting at him. He got a 15-yard flag for taunting, and my guess is he'll get another little gift in the mail early this week from the league office -- a $5,000 fine. After the game, Johnson continued his barrage on a man whose health was still very much in question. "It was a malicious hit,'' Johnson said. "He wants to get courage while I wasn't looking ... If you want to hit me, hit me in my head, hit me in my chest, don't hit me in my knee. I'm trying to eat just like everybody else. To hit me like that showed me what type of man he was.''
The block was not a clip. It was a legal block, and certainly the only way Green could have been sure to knock Johnson off his path toward tackling Ginn. At NBC on Sunday night, the three former players in the studio took sides -- Tiki Barber calling it "a cheap shot,'' Cris Collinsworth telling me he tacitly agreed, and Jerome Bettis saying it wasn't against the rules, and all's fair in love and war. "He's got to go low,'' Bettis said. "That's the only way he can get him down.''
In the meantime, I was texting Green, who, understandably, skipped his session with the media after the game. I had no intention of using the texts until something Green wrote intrigued me. I asked him if I could use it. He said sure.
Here's the exchange:
King to Green, 5:14 p.m.: "peter king here. just texting to wish you well and to say hope you come out of this okay.''
Green to King, 9:06 p.m.: "Will b ok. Not like lst yr. TG.''
King to Green: 9:08 p.m.: "hey -- how about johnson calling your block a malicious hit? feel better. peter.''
(And this is the one I found interesting.)
Green to King, 9:12 p.m.: "He outweighs me by over 100 lbs. Where shld I blk him? TG.''
The bottom line: The only way Green knew he had a chance to get Johnson on the ground was by taking his legs out. In the last few years, defensive linemen have railed against low blocks, feeling that blocks at the knee and below endanger their careers and should be banned. The league hasn't outlawed them despite the annual protests to make them illegal. Defensive players get enraged over this. Offensive players say, in essence, that if it isn't a clip, a defensive lineman should be able to be blocked like other players on the field. And the league has never been able to muster a three-quarters majority to get the block outlawed. Maybe this block will change things, but I doubt it.
So what happens to Green now? According to the league's new head-injury code, a player cannot return to game once he has been knocked unconscious. In the week that follows, he has to pass a neuropsychological test that compares his brain activity to a previous baseline brainwave test. Green will have to pass that test this week, and also be cleared by Dolphin physicians, if he is to play when the Dolphins host Cleveland Sunday.
I spoke with Miami coach Cam Cameron an hour after the Dolphins' 22-19 loss to Houston -- and before I knew about Johnson's ridiculous comments. Cameron said he would wait until Green underwent further tests early this week before making any determination about his playing status. "I just got done talking to him,'' said Cameron. "He had a big smile on his face. By talking to him, you wouldn't know anything had happened to him. Typical Trent. He takes on a 300-pounder. Anything to help the team.''
If I'm Cameron, I'd have to have the cleanest bill of health imaginable for Green to play Sunday. Knowing Cameron, that's how he'll treat a player he's known and respects so much. "When I got to Trent on the field, I told him I loved him,'' Cameron said. Real love means -- I hope -- the Dolphins take their sweet time allowing Green to play again.
Goat of the Week
Houston DT Travis Johnson. I don't care how angry you are. Green's block on Johnson was a legal play, according to the NFL rule book, and for Johnson to first taunt an unconscious man and then continue the tirade after the game ... that is low.