Tribal Warfare
08-06-2009, 12:41 AM
To Collinsworth, Cassel is an intriguing unknown (http://www.kansascity.com/sports/chiefs/story/1367316.html)
It’s not often you stump Cris Collinsworth with a question. But I did on Wednesday.
During an NBC Sports teleconference, I asked Collinsworth — who will replace John Madden on Sunday night football telecasts — his opinion on how he expects new Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel to perform this season.
“I really don’t know, which is the most honest answer I can give you,” said Collinsworth, who accurately predicted in this space last January that Todd Haley would be the head coach of the Chiefs after the Super Bowl.
“You look at what he did last year — and I called one of (New England’s) games for the NFL Network last year. I think it was amazing what he did in New England.
“The idea you can not play in college, not play in the NFL, have your last start be in high school and come in and lead any NFL team to 11 wins is a remarkable story, by any standards. I don’t care which team you played on, even if it was a team that went undefeated the season before.
“They were five games less successful than they were a season ago. He did not throw the deep ball the way Tom Brady did or does. But not many people do, either.
“Are there still some questions? Yeah, there are. Now he’s going to a team that is going to try to run the same style of offense and not have the same weapons to run that offense around him. It’s a great case study.
“We’re going to learn a lot this season, not only about Matt Cassel and (Denver coach) Josh McDaniels, all the guys that were there in New England, but we’re going to learn a lot about the New England Patriots, too, and how significant Tom Brady is to this organization.
“It’s a story I’m going to follow closely. The players have been split up now, and we’ll see who ultimately has success, who the real contributors were to that season ago.”
Just can’t resist
The last thing I thought I’d ever want to use this space for is product promotion, unless of course the product was something I produced. Every day, I get press releases heralding sports-related merchandise, and I can’t delete them fast enough.
Today, I got one of those releases for something Royals fans might actually want: Zack Greinke Fatheads. The best part is that the image of Zack is him in a powder blue jersey.
Myself, I’m still saving my pennies for the Darth Vader Fathead that my wife will never let me put on a wall in our home.
It’s not often you stump Cris Collinsworth with a question. But I did on Wednesday.
During an NBC Sports teleconference, I asked Collinsworth — who will replace John Madden on Sunday night football telecasts — his opinion on how he expects new Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel to perform this season.
“I really don’t know, which is the most honest answer I can give you,” said Collinsworth, who accurately predicted in this space last January that Todd Haley would be the head coach of the Chiefs after the Super Bowl.
“You look at what he did last year — and I called one of (New England’s) games for the NFL Network last year. I think it was amazing what he did in New England.
“The idea you can not play in college, not play in the NFL, have your last start be in high school and come in and lead any NFL team to 11 wins is a remarkable story, by any standards. I don’t care which team you played on, even if it was a team that went undefeated the season before.
“They were five games less successful than they were a season ago. He did not throw the deep ball the way Tom Brady did or does. But not many people do, either.
“Are there still some questions? Yeah, there are. Now he’s going to a team that is going to try to run the same style of offense and not have the same weapons to run that offense around him. It’s a great case study.
“We’re going to learn a lot this season, not only about Matt Cassel and (Denver coach) Josh McDaniels, all the guys that were there in New England, but we’re going to learn a lot about the New England Patriots, too, and how significant Tom Brady is to this organization.
“It’s a story I’m going to follow closely. The players have been split up now, and we’ll see who ultimately has success, who the real contributors were to that season ago.”
Just can’t resist
The last thing I thought I’d ever want to use this space for is product promotion, unless of course the product was something I produced. Every day, I get press releases heralding sports-related merchandise, and I can’t delete them fast enough.
Today, I got one of those releases for something Royals fans might actually want: Zack Greinke Fatheads. The best part is that the image of Zack is him in a powder blue jersey.
Myself, I’m still saving my pennies for the Darth Vader Fathead that my wife will never let me put on a wall in our home.