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Back Page Strange but true football stories
By Bob Harris, Special to CNNSI.com As if fielding a successful entry in your Fantasy league wasn't difficult enough, I'm starting to get the feeling that the entire 2001 season is nothing more than a chapter taken from one of those old Zander Hollander “Strange But True Football Stories” anthologies I used to read as a kid. Which makes things a little difficult. After all, as a Fantasy owner, my ability to influence the outcome of a given contest is limited to making better decisions than my opponent makes. Which not only means keeping abreast of the latest news and info from around the league, but which also requires analyzing what that news and info means. And that task seems to get more difficult with each passing season. To back up my contention, I offer a few tidbits from today's top Fantasy news stories.
New Orleans' secret weapon?I'll start with New Orleans Saints wide receiver Albert Connell, who lost his spot as the team's No. 3 receiver when head coach Jim Haslett decided to replace him with journeyman Robert Wilson in St. Louis last Sunday. The coach announced early this week that Wilson would keep the job for Sunday night's game against the New York Jets. And that was just fine with Connell. "You can cost the team if you don't know what you are doing out there, and I was at that point where some plays I did not know what I was doing," the former Redskin told New Orleans Times-Picayune reporter Jeff Duncan this week. "[Haslett] is not going to let that happen. He's not going to put people out there that can hurt the team. It just makes sense." For the record, team officials expected Connell to work as the starter opposite Joe Horn when they signed him to a five-year, $14 million deal back in March. Unfortunately, a lingering hamstring injury kept Connell from getting untracked in The Big Easy, and he wound up losing his starting job to Willie Jackson in training camp. Since a three-catch, 89-yard effort in the opener at Buffalo, he has caught only six passes for 39 yards. And if Haslett hoped to light a fire under Connell, benching certainly wasn't the way to do it. "I needed that," Connell said of the demotion. "Everybody is not going to kiss your butt. I really want to be here. I feel I can help this team. But until I can get it down, Coach is not going to throw me in that fire. I'm going to be back in the rotation soon. I'm going to be the secret weapon." Kind of goes against conventional thinking. ... Or does it?
Nix the buddy system?49ers wide receiver Terrell Owens undoubtedly raised more than a few eyebrows with comments made in the wake of San Francisco's overtime loss to Chicago last Sunday. Owens not only strongly criticized the 49ers' strategy in the fourth quarter -- stating the team simply tried to run time off the clock instead of attacking the Bears -- he also suggested that head coach Steve Mariucci's longtime friendship with Chicago coach Dick Jauron might have been the reason. "Hopefully, Coach now, he'll change his mentality about us really destroying teams now," Owens said. "I think it's funny, but. ... His buddy system with all the coaches around the league, I think he tries to spare them sometimes. He doesn't want to embarrass a team. "But you've got to understand, if you're trying to win a championship, sometimes you've got to spare feelings, you know what I mean?" Uhhh. Not really. And just for the record, I'll point out that this was indeed the same Terrell Owens that lost control of the ball on the game's final play Sunday, leading to the game-winning interception return by Chicago's Mike Brown. Go figure.
Glenn's saga continuedThen there's New England wideout Terry Glenn, who was upset early this week after team officials fined him $4,000 for refusing to work out on a step exercise machine. The former first-round draft pick. He plans to contest the fine. Glenn, who has already had nearly $9 million in bonuses docked from his salary, said he was fined by coach Bill Belichick for refusing to get on the exercise machine Oct. 24 immediately after running. He said he was unable to use the machine because his leg hurt. He missed the past two games because of a hamstring problem. "I just didn't feel like I could do it," Glenn said in the locker room. Glenn is back on the team because an arbitrator overturned his team-imposed, season-long suspension. He said it's important to fight the fine. "I have to," he said. "They're only paying me a couple of thousand a game. But it's not about [Belichick] and it's not about the money. It's the way he went about doing it." Only a couple of thousand a game? Really? No. Glenn actually pulls in about $30,000 per game. But hey! It's not about the money.
Less for MooreFinally, in Thursday's Detroit News, columnist Terry Foster stated that Herman Moore watched last week's loss to Cincinnati in anguish because he believed he could have helped his teammates. Meaning? Meaning, Moore told Foster he's healthy enough to play for the Lions right now. However, the veteran wide out will miss the rest of the season because the Lions placed him on injured reserve after he suffered a hip injury during the team's Oct. 14 loss to the Vikings. "I am ready now," Moore told Foster. "I could have played against Tennessee." According to Foster, the fact that management put a guy who is ready to play two weeks after he was hurt on the shelf tells us Moore wasn't just placed on the injured reserve list; the Lions basically cut him. The only difference is Moore can work out with the team and is invited to encourage teammates on the sideline during games. Team president Matt Millen and head coach Marty Mornhinweg said a decision on Moore's future would be made at the end of the season, but Foster contends it's already been decided. Foster's prediction: The Lions fax a press release to media outlets on a Friday afternoon in January, thanking Moore for his years of service; Moore then must decide if he wants to play for another team or retire. So why am I not surprised by the Lions' handling of Moore? It probably has something to do with the fact Mornhinweg was involved. There's something about the guy that rubs me raw. It all started on the third day of training camp when the new coach pretended to become incredibly irate, ripping off his shades and threw them to the ground in disgust, ordered the Lions off the field 30 minutes into a workout and then rode away on his Harley-Davidson. You don't suppose gimmickry and grandstanding are tactics a fella might fall back on if he couldn't actually coach do you? You betcha. And that's exactly the kind of tomfoolery I'm talking about. The harder it gets for the average owner to understand what it is that motivates the guys he or she relies on to lead their Fantasy teams to success, the less likely they are to achieve that success. Bob Harris is Editor and Webmaster of the TFL Report and Senior Editor for Fantasy Sports Publications.
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