Sports Then and Now

Jack Tatum fit perfectly into the rebellious reputation of the Oakland Raiders of the 1970s.

In many ways, former NFL safety Jack Tatum, who died earlier this week, perfectly epitomized the hard-hitting NFL of the 1970s and the renegade reputation of the Oakland Raiders of that era. Known as “The Assassin”, Tatum played hard and made no apologies for his style or the repercussions.

Sadly, he is probably best known for his hit on New England Patriots receiver Darryl Stingley that left the wideout paralyzed for the remainder of his life. The hit, which occurred in a preseason game, was a legal hit, but many thought that Tatum played with a dangerous recklessness that was beyond the normal violence associated with the NFL.

Tatum fed off his reputation, a fact that some think is one reason he has received little consideration for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

His biography was called “They Call Me Assassin” and in the book he wrote that “I like to believe that my best hits border on felonious assault.”

Tatum and Stingley never reconciled, though in his 1980 autobiography Tatum wrote, “When the reality of Stingley’s injury hit me with its full impact, I was shattered. To think that my tackle broke another man’s neck and killed his future.”

In recent years Tatum endured physical hardship of his own. He suffered from diabetes and had a leg amputated. He died from a heart attack. Read the rest of this entry →

Mecklenburg is a member of the Denver Bronco's Hall of Fame

“Today a Reader…Tomorrow a Leader” ~ Margaret Fuller

I remember so vividly how my first grade teacher used to assemble the whole class in the reading circle at the back of our room at Pleasant Street School. We’d all carry our little wooden chairs to the rear of the classroom and place them in a circle underneath a big bulletin board decorated with brightly colored construction paper. These were the days before some unnerved “teaching professional” placed tennis balls on the leg of each chair, so each seat made a loud clunk, followed by a screech as it was pushed into position ’round the reading circle.

Ten or twelve of us, at a variety of different reading levels, would sit around the slightly, mis-shaped sphere and learn of the escapades of Dick and Jane, or Horton and his Who or occasionally read rhymes about Mush and Brush and Hush. To the right of our non-exclusive group sat John Higgins.

John was a couple years older than the rest of us and sat in a small rocking chair with a picture book in his hand. He rarely looked at the book, but instead looked out the window and rocked. Every few minutes he would think of something that disrupted our group. Our teacher would look over at John and bring her hands to her lips, shoosh John and encourage him to look at his picture book. Read the rest of this entry →

Tom Brady and the Patriots are in for a dogfight in the AFC East.

It looks like the Patriots will be in a dog fight this year in the AFC East, the division that New England has dominated over the last decade. The Pats have captured the AFC Crown seven of the last ten seasons, but a changing of the guard is looming on the horizon.

The Patriots are looking more like the least than the beast of the AFC East.

The New York Jets are getting better every day it seems. The team that went to the AFC Championship last year on the shoulders of rookie quarterback, Mark Sanchez is loading up their arsenal.

On the offensive side of the ball they acquired disgruntled Cleveland Browns wide out, Braylon Edwards last season. A talent for sure, but has consistency issues and a chronic case of the drops. However, he showed sparks of what he is capable of when he is focused. In 12 games with New York, Edwards caught 35 catches for 541 yards with 4 td’s.

This off season the Jets have been very busy signing former San Diego and fantasy football stud, LaDainian Tomlinson. Tomlinson replaces the productive Thomas Jones who was unsigned before landing with the KC Chiefs. A puzzling signing considering Jones was more productive than LT. Jones had 1400 yards and 14 touchdowns in comparison to Tomlinson’s 730 yards and 12 touchdowns.

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Would a salary cap in baseball give more teams like the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks a chance to compete for the World Series title?

Talking about a salary cap with a baseball player or his agent is as usually received as well as asking Tiger Woods how married life is treating him.  The Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) has a pretty simple stance on the concept of placing a ceiling on what teams can spend on wages, and that stance is “Nope!”

While purists still know that baseball is the American pastime, football is king these days in all real senses.  It is outwardly more popular, has better television ratings (mostly since there’s so much less of it), and makes lots and lots of money.  Oh, yes, it also has a salary cap.  What’s more, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wants you to know that it is one of the main reasons the NFL is as great as it is, for it’s the salary cap and revenue sharing that create the NFL’s wonderful parity.

There is a continuum in professional sports where the concept of parity is concerned. In a nutshell, it tells us that the higher a team ranks in terms of league payroll, the less they care about parity. This is irrelevant for the NFL, because they have a salary cap. Read the rest of this entry →

Courtesy of Engy’s

Favre was beaten and battered by the Saints.

The popular question following the victory by the New Orleans Saints over the Minnesota Vikings to clinch the NFC Championship and the right to play in the Super Bowl has been, “Are you happy now?” Happy is not the word I use.

Watching Sunday’s game I grimaced at every painful hit given by the Saint defense onto the Viking quarterback. Every tackle that was borderline late, I winced at. But each time the veteran QB got up off the Superdome turf and returned to the huddle. Every time but one, then he was helped off the field at the end of a possession. While watching the trainers and doctors of the Vikings checked him out and re taped his ankle, many wondered if he would answer the bell. But like a great title fighter he came back in to take his licks and fight his team one more time.

But was I happy the Vikings lost? No, I was relieved.

I was relieved that the one time QB of my favorite team, the Green Bay Packers wasn’t able to take the division rival to the Super Bowl. Throughout the year all Packer fans were expecting the “old” Favre to come back. We were waiting for Brett to begin forcing the ball, being intercepted and costing the Packers a possible victory. Green Bay fans would shrug it off as “Brett being Brett.” We felt that is what made him the QB that Packer fans fell in love with.

But the divorce wasn’t pretty and eventually Brett wanted to prove to the administration of the team that he parted ways with that he could still play. He did take Green Bay to the NFC Championship game in his last year in Wisconsin just two years ago and he knew there were still many touchdown throws left in that right arm.

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Who is the best all around qb?

This is the debate that may never be answered.

The arguments of all arguments.

Who is the best quarterback in the NFL today?

Is it Tom Brady? Peyton Manning?

Some can even make an argument for “Big Ben” Roethlisberger. However, I think Roethlisberger needs about four more years to add to his body of work before he can be held in the same breath as Brady and Manning.

So how do we make the determination of who is the best all around quarterback? What variables will be used to measure both quarterbacks?

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