NFL - Are You Ready For Some Football?! - Off Season

[ColdWizard]

Free fertilizer. You haul it away.

[Lord Avalon]

RIP

Dolphin and Michigan alum Jim Mandich died of cancer at 62.

[Al B. Sure!]

Hey, MING!!!!

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/commentary/news/story?page=hruby/110426

OK, pop quiz. The conclusion of online fan voting to select the cover athlete for the latest installment of the Madden football video game franchise will produce:

A. A bright, shining endorsement of cruelty to animals, not to mention felonious criminal behavior;

B. Fame, fortune and glory for an athlete who is benefiting from his skin pigmentation and arguably isn't even the best NFL player at his position within his own team's division;

C. A totally undeserving winner;

D. All of the above, plus a single, salty tear, running down the Statue of Liberty's copper cheek.

A pairing that has touched off a heated, spirited debate over race, morality, corporate responsibility and other thorny issues that largely miss the crucial point.

On to Hillis. The argument against the bruising Browns runner is bipartite. One, he isn't statistically good enough to grace the game's cover, traditionally reserved for stat-sheet-stuffers such as Daunte Culpepper (circa 2000) and Drew Brees. Two, the only reason the largely unknown Hillis has made it this far in the voting is that he's pro football's answer to both Sasquatch and/or an underexposed Kardashian sister.

In other words, a white starting running back.

As for the source of Hillis' popularity? Maybe the fact that he's a light-skinned positional anomaly has something to do with it.

Here's another article discussing it:
http://www.avclub.com/twincities/articles/is-race-going-to-decide-the-madden-12-cover-vote,54920/

Two-thirds of football players are black. Among RBs, Hillis is the only active white halfback. (You could count ’tweeners John Kuhn or Brian Leonard of the Packers and Bengals, respectively.) The last white RB to notch 1,000 yards rushing in a season was Craig James in 1985. Point is, it’s rare. What you find in those players—sans Leonard, who’s wholly inept—is a folk hero worship that doesn’t exist in black RBs. Kuhn had a measly 378 total yards and six TDs on a certifiably awful 3.3 yards per carry last year. Yet you’d think the 2010 season was a breakout one for the converted fullback. Slobber pieces like this one overstated his production and gleefully pointed out Lambeau’s collective erection when he touched the ball, as evidenced by the trademark “Kuuuuuuuhn” cry. (It’s worth noting that Green Bay is over 80 percent white.) The misplaced worship of John Kuhn serves as a microcosm. Hillis had a good year and became a folk hero; Kuhn was overrated at best and still won hearts and minds. Perhaps most stunning is Patriots RB Danny Woodhead’s performance in the cover vote tourney. Woodhead—who was cast into a similar universally beloved role—was a spot player who managed just 926 total yards and six TDs; he advanced to the third round over two vastly superior black WRs.

Race politics, not racism
Last season, Washington Redskins RB Clinton Portis praised Peyton Hillis for overcoming the same stigma that black QBs endure. Hillis himself pointed out the on-field jabs at his pigmentation, trash-talk that actually motivated him. If race wasn’t out of the question to talk about last season, why is the topic so hush-hush in the coverage of the Madden cover tourney? This is about the only semi-credible outlet that touched on it, saying, “Hillis’ campaign is undoubtedly propped up by white fans who love seeing a white player succeed at a traditionally black position.”

Take a quick scan of the 4,600-plus Facebook group “Vote Peyton Hillis for Madden 12 Cover.” The dialogue on the group’s wall is benign; these aren’t hateful or racist people. And that’s the greater point: Whites who vote Hillis probably don’t take issue with black players; they simply see themselves in a role that was once off-limits. A similar glean of that Facebook wall will elicit almost exclusively white faces smiling back via the thumbnails. Whites in the down-on-its-luck city of Cleveland are actually the minority, representing just 43 percent of the population. But you don’t see much Dawg Pound-centered rooting for the city on the Hillis’ Facebook page; you see a lot of white faces championing Peyton Hillis the man—a man who looks like they do. Statistically, Peyton Hillis does not deserve to be on the Madden 12 cover. And as a society—whether race is a factor in this contest or not—we don’t deserve a collective consciousness that ignores the big, white, touchdown-scoring elephant in the room.

And straight from Peyton Hillis... video starts right where Peyton Hillis says it:




Peyton Hillis' race DOES matter to people, including Peyton Hillis himself! A white runningback is like a white heavyweight fighter.

You're just old, Ming. Things like a white RB or a white heavyweight fighter or a white track star or whatever else were common in your day but now, they're just ancient myths that people my age have only heard tell of.

SUCK IT, MING.

[Al B. Sure!]

Football, boxing... same difference.

This move is 15 years old and it was already reflecting the attitude.

[ColdWizard]

Yup, all race and nothing to do with a back deemed to be of less worth than Brady Quinn having a good season.

[Al B. Sure!]

Yup, all race and nothing to do with a back deemed to be of less worth than Brady Quinn having a good season.

Proof? I've provided two articles published in reputable sources as well as the words of Peyton Hillis himself. When asked why he deserves to be on the cover, Peyton Hillis himself said "White guy! White Runningback on the cover!"

Where's your proof?


See this is the Apolyton dumbness. I've ****ing provided SIGNIFICANT evidence, straight from the horse's mouth. Where you at?

[Ming]

From Bloomberg (a reputable source)

Hillis, the No. 10 seed in his half, advanced with a series of upsets. The Browns’ running back topped Ray Rice of the Baltimore Ravens, Matt Ryan of the Atlanta Falcons, Jamaal Charles of the Kansas City Chiefs and top-seeded Aaron Rodgers, quarterback of the Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers. The Browns have a link to the Madden vote on their website.

“Hillis is the ultimate underdog story and has the entire city of Cleveland treating this as though this is their Super Bowl,” Anthony Stevenson, a senior product manager for EA Sports, said. “They’re saying, ‘We lost LeBron (James) and the Indians haven’t won the World Series in (62) years. We have control here and we’re not letting go.’”

And as far as what Peyton Hillis says... WTF else is he supposed to say.
There are many different opinions on why he is has gotten as far as he has. You are welcome to your opinion... but that don't make it right dumbass.

When an entire city has nothing to root for except the cover of Madden, it's no surprise that they are stuffing the ballot box. I find it interesting that the two remaining candidates both had their teams providing a link to the voting on their own official web sites. Maybe that had a lot to do with the number of votes.

[Ming]

From NFL.com (a reputable source)

Fan voting propelled 10th-seeded Hillis over top-seeded Rodgers by a decisive 61 percent-to-39 percent margin. More than 548,000 people voted.

"It's no surprise to me that he ended up pulling ahead, and I'd attribute that a lot to our Browns Backers across the country," said Kelly Carroll, manager of the team's official fan club, Browns Backers.

Carroll praised Browns fans nationwide for a social-media-driven grassroots campaign that led to the upset.

"Fortunately for the Browns, our Backers take it on themselves to spark excitement," Carroll said. "I don't know the numbers, but just looking at Facebook pages and sites around the web, you can see the enthusiasm."

Again... the Browns have been promoting this from the very beginning... they were just stuffing the ballot box.

[Ming]

From Yahoo (a reputable source)

In regards to the "curse"

Packer fans are trying to balance their Super Bowl aspirations with Rodgers's ambition of being on the Madden cover. Hillis essentially had nothing to lose by winning the competition because the Browns will be hard pressed to be Super Bowl challengers by 2011. The running-back position is much more saturated than quarterback, which makes potential injuries less meaningful as Hillis would be much easier to replace.

Sorry, Rodgers. I voted for you, but it appears that you're just going to have to accept that Packer enthusiasts aren't going to allow you on the Madden cover for the foreseeable future. It might be unfair and foolish, but understand that others are voting against you in good faith.

So while Browns fans are going all out to elect their representative, some Packer fans were voting against Rogers to avoid the curse...

Yep... many reasons why Rogers lost.

[flash9286]

Are the Panthers seriously considering taking Newton with the first pick, crazy. Why take that big of a risk when there is probably going to be a rookie salary cap next year and next year's qb class is much deeper.

[-Jrabbit]

Great question.

My guess is that Rivera wants to make a splash. But after I saw the Gruden piece on Newton (NFL Network), it seems pretty clear that he will be a multi-year project. He's got the leadership skills and the intelligence, but his total lack of experience in calling an NFL-style offense portends a rocky road early in his NFL career.

Worst case scenario: drafting Cam Newton and trading Steve Smith, which is being heavily rumored right now (and reportedly has been requested by Smith).

Carolina has a ton of needs, and should IMHO spend the #1 overall on a sure thing. My suggestion: If you're going to trade Steve Smith, use that #1 on a replacement like AJ Green. Give Clausen the reins, suffer through a horrible 2011, then draft Andrew Luck with the #1 overall next year.

[SlowwHand]

If they take Newton they deserve to lose.

[ColdWizard]

The Carolina Panthers have narrowed their choices for the No. 1 overall pick in Thursday's draft to quarterback Cam Newton, defensive tackle Marcell Dareus, cornerback Patrick Peterson and wide receiver A.J. Green, team sources told ESPN's Sal Paolantonio on Wednesday.

Panthers general manager Marty Hurney said at Tuesday's pre-draft news conference that the team is keeping all of its options open.

"We talk about different scenarios all the time," Hurney said. "Ron and I have talked so much, we've talked more to each other than our wives about stuff."

Link

[Ben Kenobi]

Oh and on top of that, Ben.... There was someone whom I told you wouldn't get 1000 yards and you said he would get at least that...

Did you specify rushing yards?

He had 1282 yards from scrimmage.

Suck it. I won that bet, as well.

Unless you specified rushing yards, I made a bold prediction and won.

[Ben Kenobi]

Not going to get 1000 yards, you said? I win.

By a catch. I admit that Brandon Marshall didn't quite suck as much as I predicted.