|
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE |
Young and the restless
Posted: Thursday October 21, 1999 01:00 PM
Click here to send your NFL questions to SI's Peter King. Ye Olde Mailbag is stuffed with 49er angst and concern for one of your favorite players, Steve Young , who is being nudged toward a retirement that is very difficult to accept. The last time a big-star quarterback left the game with concussion problems was 1979, and so I called Roger Staubach the other day to talk to him about it. Staubach had to retire 20 years ago under remarkably similar circumstances to Young's, and the two of them have been playing phone tag. The 49er quarterback was calling the ex-Cowboy quarterback for advice on his future. "If what I'm reading is true about Steve," Staubach told me, "I would advise him to retire too." Staubach had eight concussions as an NFL player and 20 in his football career. A New York neurosurgeon told him after his last season, 1978, that he'd be risking permanent damage if he continued to play. "I've not regretted my decision for one day," said Staubach. "There's nothing wrong with me today that I can attribute to football -- no headaches, no memory loss. I think I'm doing fine. I'm working long hours and running a $150-million-a-year real-estate business. I had a great career, but I'm glad I got out when I did." Asked if he ever feels any effects from all these concussions, Staubach laughed and said: "Other than my wife having to feed me every day, no." Now on with the questions:
How far away are the Eagles from being a real contender? Do you agree that the Eagles are just one of those teams that will never experience a world championship, and always be in some sort of rebuilding stage? Andy Reid has made the second- or third-worst team in the league the fifth- or sixth-worst, which is progress, but this franchise has so many things to do to be good again. First, the stadium thing has to get done, because Jeff Lurie is not a bottomless money pit able to throw around huge signing bonuses to acquire and keep great players. If that stadium deal doesn't happen, I don't think the Eagles will be great in either of our lifetimes, at least not in Philadelphia. The spate of bad drafting has to stop. That's number two. When you're not going to be competitive for the best free-agents, you'd better be one of the best teams in April, and in the last 10 or 15 years, the Eagles have stunk on draft day.
Why is it that the Dallas Cowboys are so predictable on first down? And why does Chan Gailey (who everyone says is an offensive guru) call so many conservative plays? It seems to me that after Week 4 Dallas didn't attack opposing defenses down the field like it did prior to Week 5 and 6. What do you think? I've started some grumbling about the predictability of Gailey's offense, and I agree with you. I think Troy Aikman expected more fireworks out of this offense when Gailey was imported from Pittsburgh, and I think, particularly with the better team speed at the receiver position now, I'd go over the top much more if I were Gailey.
Before the season started, I asked you if it wouldn't make more sense for the Cardinals to throw Dave Brown to the wolves from the get-go, given Jake Plummer's injuries and their glaring offensive line problems. It seems everyone had to learn the hard way that the key to a successful QB is his O-line. After this year's bad decisions (release of Chris Gedney, Larry Centers, Lomas Brown, failure to get L.J. Shelton into camp, insistence on playing Plummer hurt even though he was ineffective), do you think that Vince Tobin becomes the top candidate for unemployment come January? Throw Dave Brown to the wolves? Sheesh. And you're a Cardinal fan? I love Dave, who is one of the nicest guys I've ever covered. But to think for any reason you'd rather see him play than Plummer is lunacy. And no, I don't think Tobin will be fired at the end of the year. He was dealt a bad hand with a front office that went in the tank after the local citizenry voted down the new Cardinal stadium project in the spring.
With Jeff George taking over the starting slot at QB, does this mean the Vikings will do their annual trading of one QB, re-signing the former backup QB to too much money, and then watching the stopgap measure go to hell for whatever reason? Everyone but the Vikings' management knew they traded away the wrong QB in the off-season. Please tell me they will not keep Jeff George. Please tell me they didn't really trade away Jay Fiedler. Please tell me the answer isn't Todd Bouman or Daunte Culpepper next season. You're moaning about losing Jay Fielder ? The Vikings' losing streak must have really gone to your head. I think this: Give Jeff George a chance. Forget the hype of anti-George rhetoric for a minute, and just watch him play. He's got an excellent release, a cannon for an arm, and he's tough. Randall had white-flagged his season, basically. I think George will revive this team, and Minnesota will play well.
I have to say your column on the St. Louis curse was brilliant. I should know -- I've written several crappy ones. I'd really like to know -- and so far no one at CNN/SI has replied -- what does Toronto have to do to get an NFL franchise? I doubt the league would award a new team to our city considering they've reached the ideal 32, but surely Toronto is a greater market than say, Cincinnati (whose woeful Bengals we really don't mind having)? If the NFL would be willing to slap its logo on West Ohio Elementary's program, we'd bite. Our city is closing in on securing the 2008 Olympics -- surely we're good enough for football. You can have a team. I hate to sound like Abbie Hoffman , but you need to go out and steal one. Didn't he write "Steal This Book," or was it somebody else? That's the only way a town in the next 10 years is going to get a team, by stealing someone else's. And no, the NFL has nothing against Toronto, now that the league has a business agreement with the CFL. Could you please stop with the doom and gloom over the 49ers? Remember 1991? Joe Montana was out with the elbow injury all year, and it was Steve Young's first year as starter. They went 10-6 and missed the playoffs. You know what I read back then? "This is the end for the 49ers." Three years later, they whupped the Bolts in Super Bowl XXIX. I wish all dynasties could end so gracefully ... Despite his uneven showing Sunday, Jeff Garcia still reminds me of a young Steve Young, allowing for the righthanded gene, anyway. In particular, he reminds me of the Young of 1991. That Young didn't have a running game to speak of, either (I mean, Dexter Carter? Come on.), and the defense was suspect.
In short, this is not "the end" of the 49ers. Changing of the guard, yes. A rebuilding year, most likely. Not up to their standard, absolutely. Will they make the playoffs this year? Only if the Rams collapse ("This team is cursed"). But if you think they're going to go the way of the Bears or the Traitors or the Bills, then it's probably better to rethink the matter. One difference between '91 and '99: Salary Cap. The first thing Bill Walsh had to do this off-season is cut $27 million from the payroll, forcing him to dump decent players like Irv Smith , Ty Detmer , Roy Bark and Marc Edwards . In 1991, Eddie DeBartolo could throw money at the players on his team to keep them; now the 49ers have to throw a bunch of the good players overboard just to field a team. The other difference: This is the first time in two decades the 49ers face the future without a great quarterback on the roster. In the NFL, no quarterback usually means abject mediocrity. I'm not trying to dump on the 49ers. I'm just trying to tell you the truth. Sorry they're one in the same.
Now that it looks like the season's officially over for the Jets, will Bill Parcells come back for 2000 and load up for one more final run, the one that was supposed to happen this year? What's their cap situation and where can they improve, aside from the painfully obvious backup quarterback position? I wish I knew if Bill Parcells was going to return in 2000. I don't know. My guess is he'll be back, because he hates the thought of having to go out this way. Whoever coaches the Jets next season will have a horrible cap situation to deal with. The Jets have an old team that was basically built to win in 1999. If they have to retool to contend in 2000 -- you know they'll need help on the line, at tight end and (I think) at corner and safety -- they'll have to do a bunch of contract-restructuring that will further impact this franchise over the next four or five years. The other long-term problem is there's no quarterback of the future on the roster.
I know you get all kinds of grief for your top ten rankings, but I'm just looking for some clarification on this week's rankings. If, when doing the rankings, you try to imagine the two teams playing on a neutral field, how is it that Indianapolis is ahead of Miami? If the Colts have already lost at home to the Dolphins, doesn't it stand to reason that they would lose somewhere where they don't have home field advantage? On Monday morning, I asked myself this question: If Indianapolis played Miami today on a neutral field, who would win the game? That's Indy, with Peyton Manning . And Miami, with Damon Huard . I do care who won the previous week, and where the game was played, but Huard still has some proving to do. I ask you Dolfans out there: If you had a hundred bucks, and I gave you sodium pentathol, and Huard's facing off against the Colts tomorrow in Wichita, Kan., on who, would you put the money?
During the Mike Holmgren years the Packers executed very well. They seldom had stupid penalties, missed blocks, etc. So far under Ray Rhodes they have had very poor execution. Was this a problem for Rhodes' teams in the past? I know the Packers have had a great deal of personnel turnover, but they aren't executing as well as my son's peewee football team. As a Packer fan and a football fan, this concerns me a great deal. What are your thoughts on this? What is happening in Green Bay is happening to Denver, Minnesota, Dallas and San Francisco to differing degrees. The league is designed to pull the bad teams up and the good teams down. Green Bay is in trouble if Earl Dotson is out for the year, which I hear is probable, and they don't play cleaner on offense, particularly in hostile environments. You will be able to make a good judgment on the Ray Rhodes-discipline issue Sunday in San Diego, because that crowd will be jacked to beat the great Brett Favre .
Send a question to Peter King, and check back Thursdays for his latest NFL Mailbag.
| |||||||||||||||||||||
