Bottom of the Bird Cage 5/22
Friday is Day No. 142 on the year. It’s National Maritime Day, a celebration of the American shipping industry.
On May 22, 1809 a grand jury indicted former vice-president Aaron Burr on charges of treason. Almost one hundred years later in 1906, the Wright Brothers were granted a U.S. patent (#821,393) for their flying machine. On May 22, 1928 T. Boone Pickens was born in Holdenville, Oklahoma. Born on this day in 1942 was Theodre Kaczynski. You know him better as the Unabomber.
And on May 22, 1843, thousands of people left Independence, Missouri in a wagon train that would follow and eventually complete the Oregon Trail. Called “The Great Migration of 1843, these people made their way west out of Independence along the Missouri River. They were led by John Gantt, a former Army captain and fur trader who was paid $1 a person to lead this wagon train to Ft. Hall, Idaho.
After cutting a new trail through the Blue Mountains of Oregon, nearly all of the travelers arrived in Oregon by early October – five months later – finishing their trip by settling in the Willamette Valley. It also established a passable wagon trail from Independence to The Dalles, Oregon.
Our forefathers and mothers were one tough group of people. I wonder what people will say in 160 years about us?
From Yahoo.com: Almost a year before Donte’ Stallworth was charged for killing a pedestrian while allegedly driving drunk, the national office for Mothers Against Drunk Driving got a call from the NFL. That may help explain why top officials with MADD have withheld judgment on the case involving Stallworth, the Cleveland Browns wide receiver who since his March 14 accident has drawn neither rebuke nor sanction from the league or the team.
Michael Vick and dogfighting. The misadventures of Adam “Pacman” Jones. Plaxico Burress and a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Those are the criminal matters often cited in relation to the NFL, yet drunken driving remains the league’s biggest off-field problem, and it’s unclear how Commissioner Roger Goodell intends to address the matter.
The problem is undeniable: Tracking arrests involving NFL players since 2000, a study by the San Diego Union-Tribune published last month found that 28 percent of the incidents – by far the highest percentage – were related to drunken driving. At least 73 players on NFL rosters during the 2008 season have been arrested on charges of driving under the influence, according to a search of published reports by Yahoo! Sports.
Now Stallworth’s case has moved the issue to the forefront. Stallworth will be required to enter a plea to charges of drunken-driving manslaughter during his arraignment scheduled for Thursday. At the same time, the NFL has opened itself to greater scrutiny.
It started with a call to MADD in June 2008.
It’s good that the league has contacted MADD. It’s good that the league has made alcohol verboten on team planes and buses. Now, what Goodell must do is bring the hammer down hard on players with DUI charges. He left Jared Allen off easy a couple years ago, something that should never happen with any repeat offender. Forget the fines, what gets players attention is not being on the field. The education level has reached a point that there’s no longer any excuse for a player to be pulled over and fail a breath test.
From SI.com columnist Ross Tucker:
Laurence Maroney’s recent revelation that he attempted to play in Week 5 last season with a broken bone in his right shoulder is noteworthy in and of itself, but takes on added significance when you consider he wasn’t even on the injury report for that game. That means nobody outside of Maroney and some people within the New England Patriots organization realized the running back was far less than 100 percent when he took the field against the 49ers.
A similar thing happened last season in San Diego with Pro Bowl cornerback Antonio Cromartie. He had a subpar season because of a broken bone in his hip, an injury whose magnitude was not revealed until after the season, and his agent, Gary Wichard, says players are often put in unfair positions when the team chooses not to release the information.
“I remember the play it happened, in the very first game, and I knew about it all year long,” said Wichard of Cromartie’s injury, “but it is taboo for anyone outside the organization to discuss it, which really can serve to put that player on an island.”
Players are growing frustrated with the process and for some it has almost reached a boiling point.
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There’s only one group that’s going to stop the game playing that NFL teams are doing with their injury reports and that’s the players themselves. The league has shown it’s impotent in making any real headway in having all 32 teams be truthful with the injuries. In fact, it’s reached a point where the injury report each week is various forms of fiction. Teams do not want to provide the information because they believe it puts them at a competitive disadvantage; i.e. an opponent will direct a game plan at an injured player to take advantage of him being less than 100 percent. But that frequently hangs a player out to dry, because he’s not 100 percent, but he’s playing and when he can’t get the job done, sudden he comes under extra scrutiny from the media and fans.
From Chicago Tribune NFL columnist Dan Pompei: The joke goes when Jay Cutler showed up at Halas Hall after his trade from Denver, nobody knew who he was. See, none of us in Chicago recognizes what a real quarterback looks like. The next issue is if anyone in Chicago will know what to do with one. Other than buy him a beer, of course.
Bears coach Lovie Smith and offensive coordinator Ron Turner never have worked with a talent like Cutler, but they believe they know how to use him. The first thing you need to know is even though the Bears most talented player now is a quarterback, Smith does not intend to get off the bus passing.
The central theme of the offense remains balance and, really, that is a good thing. Balance will make Cutler a more effective quarterback because the threat of the run game will open up the passing game by allowing one-on-one opportunities for the players running pass patterns.
“We have a lot of trust and faith in what Jay will do,” said Smith. “I know he’s an all-pro quarterback and we are going through unchartered waters a little bit. But we aren’t going to change what we are. … We just expect to do what we believe in better.”
It will be fun to watch how the Bears offense transforms itself with Cutler taking the snaps. In Denver, the quarterback was the man, the guy who had to make the offense go. The vaunted Broncos run game hasn’t been so vaunted over the last few years, especially in 2008 when injuries decimated the available runners. With young Matt Forte, the Bears have a solid runner but he needs some help. Cutler is going to need some help as well. His receivers aren’t the caliber of those he had in Denver and it will be interesting to see how he deals with this fact.
Bob Gretz says:
“His receivers aren’t the caliber of those he had in Denver and it will be interesting to see how he deals with this fact.”
Should be fun to watch…yeah. I’m betting he’ll handle it the same as he did with the trade thing…by throwing a tantrum.
But then again…his little “hissy fit” got him his way, didn’t it? Just like a spoiled toddler.
I expect to see Cutler fail miserably, in the WINDY (and damn cold) City!
Regarding MADD, etc., they along with others have been ‘mad as’ for a long while now, but…as with man’s nature/propensity war, old habits are hard to break.
I could list the names several yesteryear (both non as well Chiefs) football players I personally know who played back in the 60s and had their own problems with firewater. As a result careers were affected via performance, were shortened, or even life itself indirectly, some cases more directly.
Will not name names obviously but to find out in some cases many years after the fact of what was transpiring at a time afore is indeed sobering - it reaffirms why - especially for younger fans - placing stars or limelight types be they athlete or other on pedestals, is fraught with potential disappointments of one sort or another.
You’d think people would learn from the examples others - parents the one end or peers the other. Alas, no…
The one reason we wouldn’t make Jared Allen the highest paid defensive lineman is because of the repeat offenses of DUI. And Goodell did go pretty easy on him, suspending for 4 games then dropping that to 2 games. You can’t just take a guys word for it, that there on the wagon.
Further evidence the NFL does not pay primarily for intellect. This is the arrogance of the typical NFL player writ large. Many of these guys could afford a limo to motor them and their crew around all night in style. The rest could easily foot the bill for a driver car or a cab. The need to strut in their own fine ride trumps common sense. The NFL will give lip service to this problem. The reality is the dead pedestrian was just collateral damage.