"NFL Football is Back!" 2011 Season Thread

[snoopy369]

I'd note that it's 1998 not 1988, and the Cardinals did manage to turn their sorry franchise around not that much later. They did end up with some good WRs and Kurt Warner taking them to a Superbowl... but when you whiff just as badly on Leinart, what do you expect...

[Al B. Sure!]

The Cardinals got 3rd overall DE Andre Wadsworth (8 career sacks), 33rd overall DB Corey Chavous (5 INTs in 4 years with Arizona), 8th overall WR David Boston (the steroid user), and RB/WR Eric Metcalf (exclusively a return man in Arizona) and LB Patrick Sapp (27 tackles in two seasons with Arizona).

That's ****ing terrible. Only the Cardinals could put up an apparent fleecing trade and wind up with David Boston as the best they got out of it!

[Ben Kenobi]

The Chargers traded up to draft Ryan Leaf #2 overall after Peyton Manning in 1988.

I'm afraid I don't recall. I do remember Manning going number one. Everything after is just a blank.

[Al B. Sure!]

Because you didn't like the Chargers until Flutie and LT came to the team. You didn't follow the game period and you still barely follow the game. I saw your erroneous picks in fantasy putting guys on the wrong teams. You're barely a casual fan.

[Ben Kenobi]

Because you didn't like the Chargers until Flutie and LT came to the team. You didn't follow the game period and you still barely follow the game. I saw your erroneous picks in fantasy putting guys on the wrong teams. You're barely a casual fan.

Next thing you'll be tellng me is that FOrd was president.

[snoopy369]

To be fair to AZ, David Boston looked like a sure thing, and Wadsworth was pretty high upside also. Sometimes you just miss...

[Al B. Sure!]

Kerry Collins has come out of retirement to join the Colts. I can't remember the last time the Colts had an experienced backup QB. Mark Rypien, maybe?

Uh oh. Maybe Peyton's neck is a problem.

[Al B. Sure!]

To be fair to AZ, David Boston looked like a sure thing, and Wadsworth was pretty high upside also. Sometimes you just miss...

Boston had that one monstrous season but dude put on muscle so fast you knew he was juicing. He looked like a bodybuilder and ran like a 4.3 40.

I just can't believe it took so long for him to test positive for something. Dude was so obviously on steroids.



And that was 3 years before he tested positive.

[Al B. Sure!]

Yeah. Looked it up. Unless that shot is from a preseason game, the Cardinals played the Chiefs in 2001 when Boston had 7 catches for 131 yards and a TD in that game (his big year). He tested positive for steroids in 2004.

Why'd it take so long?

[snoopy369]

Steroid testing isn't very accurate? There wasn't a big push to have thorough and frequent testing until the Bonds/McGwire/etc. stuff in baseball in the mid 2000s?

[MRT144]

Juicing never seems to actually help careers. Or at least blatant juicing.

[Al B. Sure!]

Juicing never seems to actually help careers. Or at least blatant juicing.

It helped Boston to a 98 catch, 1598 yard, 8 TD season. It was in that previous offseason that Boston put on 30+ lbs. He was a 6'2" 240+lb WR and decimated defenses that year.

He got hurt the next year, went to San Diego where he quit on the struggling Chargers team, was suspended and injured again missing a full season, then saw limited action before being out of football.

Had he not gotten hurt or a few things went differently, he might have continued to be monstrous on the field because of his sheer size.

Consider, Mike Williams of Seattle is a big WR and he only weighs 235lbs on a 6'5" frame. Boston was 6'2" 240, all muscle, and still running 4.3 40's (I don't even want to know how slow Mike Williams is). Being a complete physical freak, even if it's steroid-induced, still has a lot of advantages in the pro game, I think. Boston's huge season is evidence of that.

But it does seem that steroid use comes with susceptibility to injuries... it's interesting how the two former Chargers most known for steroid use (Boston and Shawne Merriman) suffered knee ligament tears (I'm no doctor but the extra, usually rapidly gained weight, probably puts too much pressure on the ligaments)... once those injuries start piling up, the player is never the same.

[Ben Kenobi]

Merriman had knee issues prior to entering the NFL.

[Al B. Sure!]

So Facebook does a "on this day in X year" thing referring to status updates.

Mine for this day in 2009... I posted:
"Solid performance by Sanchez; I'm telling yall: Mark Sanchez > Matt Stafford"

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Other than a demonstrated ability to stay uninjured behind a great offensive line, I'm not sure that Sanchez has really shown himself to be better than Stafford yet...