Because we are a little light this week on material and because the NBA Draft is tonight and I would rather not write about such a weak draft class, I leave you with a link to Grantland.com’s (Bill Simmons’ new website) NBA Draft Preview. The contributors did a great job of being both insightful and entertaining regarding tonight’s draft (Warning: It’s long!). For a bonus, I also link to Simmon’s own trade article which I found pretty entertaining as well.
Grantland's NBA Draft Preview
Bill Simmon's Trade Machine Column
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
Terrelle Pryor: Greatest Career that is Considered a Disappointment of All-Time?
On October 25th, 2008 Terrelle Pryor was starting his first marquee college football game for Ohio State at home against undefeated and #3 ranked Penn State. Pryor had played some snaps, and played pretty well actually, in Ohio State’s loss the third game of the season at USC but he was not the starting quarterback for that game. He was inserted as the starting QB the following game and led Ohio State to five straight wins and back up to #10 in the rankings. Despite starting the previous five games, however, this game was the real beginning of what was to be one of the most anticipated and scrutinized careers in college football history and especially in Western Pennsylvania and Ohio.
I remember the date off the top of my head because it was the day of my wedding. A good buddy of mine, who was a groomsman and obviously a Penn State alumnus, wore his Nittany Lions socks under his tuxedo. My father-in-law wore a Penn State jersey under his tux and when it was time for some kind of picture during the reception we couldn’t find him because he was at the hotel bar watching the game. Needless to say, the game was an event. It was Pryor, the local kid, and his 7-1 Ohio State Buckeyes taking on the undefeated Lions and Joe Paterno, the school and coach he turned down to join the now infamous Jim Tressel in Columbus.
I had seen enough of Pryor in high school and in the games leading up to the Penn State game to know that he was not only the real deal but that he was one of the greatest athletes I had witnessed in my lifetime. Every time he stepped on a sporting field, whether it was basketball or football, nobody had the physical skills that he possessed. He also, and this is totally subjective and from third person accounts, seemed like a reasonably intelligent kid who had at least a decent enough head on his shoulders to take advantage of his tremendous physical skills. I had seen and heard enough about him to fully be on the Terrelle Pryor bandwagon. I told another friend leading up to that Penn State game, an avid Ohio State fan, that I thought the Buckeyes were going to lose and that Pryor may struggle a bit in his first game under that kind of spotlight. I followed up that statement with the prediction that the Buckeyes would not lose another game as long as Pryor was their starting quarterback; I felt he was that darn good. Half of that prediction came true as Pryor and the Buckeyes lost that night 13-6 to Penn State in large part due to two Pryor turnovers in the fourth quarter.
Today, amid the scandals, Jim Tressel’s resignation and Pryor’s subsequent departure from Ohio State and entrance into the NFL supplement draft, the second half of that prediction seems a bit crazy in hindsight. When you really think about it, however, was I really that far off? Pryor went 25-3 over the remainder of his college career (really he was 25-4 as the Buckeyes lost the 2008 Fiesta Bowl with Pryor coming off the bench) with his 4 losses coming by a combined 27 points. Pryor won two BCS Bowl games as a starter, was named the MVP of the 2010 Rose Bowl when it looked like he was becoming the quarterback everyone thought he would be, and finished high atop the Ohio State record books in many passing and rushing categories despite being there only three years.
I will save you the time of reading through the stats of all the great college quarterbacks but believe me when I tell you that both Pryor’s statistics and his win-loss record stand right in line and even surpass many of the all-time greats including Dan Marino and Joe Montana, among others. Every time I watched Pryor play I felt that there was no question who was the best player on the field at all times. It actually left you wanting more from him, and that is probably part of the legacy he is leaving Ohio State with. Despite the great achievements he accomplished, it always felt like he could do more. Maybe that is more a reflection of how we think as fans than it is on Pryor as a player but it is still the case none-the- less. Instead of remembering a fantastic college quarterback and possibly the greatest Western PA athlete of all time for what he did accomplish, we remember him for what he failed to accomplish. There was no Heisman Trophy, no National Championship, and no career that resulted in being a first round NFL Draft pick.
Time will tell how Terrelle Pryor is ultimately remembered. I would guess that much of that memory will be based on how his pro career turns out and I, for one, will be rooting for him. The odds are against him this time, with his back against the wall from the scandal at Ohio State and coming out as a likely 4th or 5th round selection in the supplemental draft. Maybe everything that has happened will be a wake-up call for the young man. Maybe he will fully realize his tremendous physical potential at the pro level. Either way, I will be rooting for him because I hate to see that kind of talent wasted and I would hate to see Pryor remembered for what he was not able to accomplish instead of what he was. It is funny that even as I write this post trying to highlight the positive accomplishments that Pryor had, I find myself being more negative and critical of him than is my intention.
Today, the general thought around the country is that Pryor’s career at Ohio State was a failure. Maybe 50 years from now when the scandals, the sense of entitlement and the hype that came with Pryor is no longer talked about his career will be looked back upon a bit more favorably. For now, however, Pryor will go down as a disappointment in the minds of those who expected so much when he walked on the Ohio State campus back in 2008. For me, I will remember him for having the greatest collegiate career that everyone else believed was a total disappointment. I guess it goes with the territory.
I remember the date off the top of my head because it was the day of my wedding. A good buddy of mine, who was a groomsman and obviously a Penn State alumnus, wore his Nittany Lions socks under his tuxedo. My father-in-law wore a Penn State jersey under his tux and when it was time for some kind of picture during the reception we couldn’t find him because he was at the hotel bar watching the game. Needless to say, the game was an event. It was Pryor, the local kid, and his 7-1 Ohio State Buckeyes taking on the undefeated Lions and Joe Paterno, the school and coach he turned down to join the now infamous Jim Tressel in Columbus.
I had seen enough of Pryor in high school and in the games leading up to the Penn State game to know that he was not only the real deal but that he was one of the greatest athletes I had witnessed in my lifetime. Every time he stepped on a sporting field, whether it was basketball or football, nobody had the physical skills that he possessed. He also, and this is totally subjective and from third person accounts, seemed like a reasonably intelligent kid who had at least a decent enough head on his shoulders to take advantage of his tremendous physical skills. I had seen and heard enough about him to fully be on the Terrelle Pryor bandwagon. I told another friend leading up to that Penn State game, an avid Ohio State fan, that I thought the Buckeyes were going to lose and that Pryor may struggle a bit in his first game under that kind of spotlight. I followed up that statement with the prediction that the Buckeyes would not lose another game as long as Pryor was their starting quarterback; I felt he was that darn good. Half of that prediction came true as Pryor and the Buckeyes lost that night 13-6 to Penn State in large part due to two Pryor turnovers in the fourth quarter.
Today, amid the scandals, Jim Tressel’s resignation and Pryor’s subsequent departure from Ohio State and entrance into the NFL supplement draft, the second half of that prediction seems a bit crazy in hindsight. When you really think about it, however, was I really that far off? Pryor went 25-3 over the remainder of his college career (really he was 25-4 as the Buckeyes lost the 2008 Fiesta Bowl with Pryor coming off the bench) with his 4 losses coming by a combined 27 points. Pryor won two BCS Bowl games as a starter, was named the MVP of the 2010 Rose Bowl when it looked like he was becoming the quarterback everyone thought he would be, and finished high atop the Ohio State record books in many passing and rushing categories despite being there only three years.
I will save you the time of reading through the stats of all the great college quarterbacks but believe me when I tell you that both Pryor’s statistics and his win-loss record stand right in line and even surpass many of the all-time greats including Dan Marino and Joe Montana, among others. Every time I watched Pryor play I felt that there was no question who was the best player on the field at all times. It actually left you wanting more from him, and that is probably part of the legacy he is leaving Ohio State with. Despite the great achievements he accomplished, it always felt like he could do more. Maybe that is more a reflection of how we think as fans than it is on Pryor as a player but it is still the case none-the- less. Instead of remembering a fantastic college quarterback and possibly the greatest Western PA athlete of all time for what he did accomplish, we remember him for what he failed to accomplish. There was no Heisman Trophy, no National Championship, and no career that resulted in being a first round NFL Draft pick.
Time will tell how Terrelle Pryor is ultimately remembered. I would guess that much of that memory will be based on how his pro career turns out and I, for one, will be rooting for him. The odds are against him this time, with his back against the wall from the scandal at Ohio State and coming out as a likely 4th or 5th round selection in the supplemental draft. Maybe everything that has happened will be a wake-up call for the young man. Maybe he will fully realize his tremendous physical potential at the pro level. Either way, I will be rooting for him because I hate to see that kind of talent wasted and I would hate to see Pryor remembered for what he was not able to accomplish instead of what he was. It is funny that even as I write this post trying to highlight the positive accomplishments that Pryor had, I find myself being more negative and critical of him than is my intention.
Today, the general thought around the country is that Pryor’s career at Ohio State was a failure. Maybe 50 years from now when the scandals, the sense of entitlement and the hype that came with Pryor is no longer talked about his career will be looked back upon a bit more favorably. For now, however, Pryor will go down as a disappointment in the minds of those who expected so much when he walked on the Ohio State campus back in 2008. For me, I will remember him for having the greatest collegiate career that everyone else believed was a total disappointment. I guess it goes with the territory.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Welcome Back Smorgasbord - King James, Terrelle Pryor and More!
The blog, much like LeBron James during the fourth quarters of the NBA Finals, has been on hiatus for a few weeks but we are back now to our regularly scheduled program. I will be back with columns every Wednesday and Friday with shorter posts sprinkled in here and there when thoughts and/or events come up. Since I have not commented on anything in a couple weeks here, what better way to jump back in than with an extended smorgasbord! Here we go…
- Where else can we start other than King James? Just when we thought he had fully arrived after the Boston and Chicago series he follows it up with a complete mental breakdown on the biggest stage of his career. (I must say that I had originally planned to do a column after the Chicago series saying how LeBron had finally arrived and was playing the way we all had envisioned him playing for so long…I’m glad that I didn’t have the time to write that post with how silly it would look just two weeks later!) Make no mistake - that was no choke job by LeBron. He wasn’t bricking foul shots or missing layups. He wasn’t throwing terrible passes or missing rebounds. He simply did not show up mentally following the game two loss for reasons that none of us can understand. Why did he stop attacking the basket? Why did his suffocating defense disappear? What in the world was going through his mind? Whatever it was, it was probably the same “thing” that pushed James into teaming up with Dwayne Wade in Miami in the first place. Whether it is a lack of a killer instinct, an unusual level of self-doubt that we typically do not see with players of his magnitude, or something else that none of us can put our fingers on, it is obvious that eight years into the NBA LeBron still does not have that “it” factor. Will he get there? I don’t know. My guess is that his talent alone will lead him to at least 2 or 3 championships and we will forget about many of these indiscretions. (It will be much the same way that we forget how badly Michael Jordan was criticized, called a gunner and how he couldn’t win the big one before he won his first title. That just sounds silly knowing what we know now.) At this point, however, I think we are close to realizing that he will never reach the absolute peak that his physical abilities call for because of something missing inside.
- Can somebody please explain to me what Cam Newton has that Terrelle Pryor doesn’t? Even if you consider Newton the better prospect, it cannot be the difference between the 1st overall pick in the draft and a 4th or 5th rounder as the reports are saying Pryor will go in the supplemental draft. Personally, I think both have a long way to go to be even a reasonably decent starting quarterback in the NFL and there is a good chance that neither amounts to much at that position. Both, however, have the same incredible upside with their tremendous physical abilities. Heck, I would even guess that as an athlete Pryor will grade out better than Newton. Just weird to me that some teams would value Newton’s upside to be that much more than Pryor’s despite the fact that it was Pryor who was a 3-year starter playing in a pro-style offense and not Newton. I will have much more on Pryor in Friday’s post.
- Game seven of the Stanley Cup Finals is tonight and what a crazy series it has been. Vancouver has squeaked out three 1-goal wins at home while losing the three games in Boston by a combined score of 17-3. Roberto Luongo, Vancouver’s goalie, has looked like two different players at home and on the road while Boston has reached this point on the back of its own net minder, Tim Thomas. I like the Canucks to win a close one tonight. You win games like these on the backs of your superstars (hey Penguins fans, Max Talbot is THE SUPERSTAR right?) and the Canucks have more of those players than the Bruins. Either way, I am sure looking forward to the game tonight. Nothing in sports is better than a game seven, and maybe no game sevens match the intensity and excitement of those in hockey.
- Major League baseball is over 40% of the way through its season and the lack of storylines continues to be a trend. Derek Jeter is now on the DL postponing his 3,000 hits bid, which was inevitable anyways. Almost every team in baseball is still alive for the postseason. There are a few players, Jose Bautista and Curtis Granderson come to mind, having fantastic seasons but nobody who is doing something that approaches historical. Scoring continues to be down and there are more pitchers having good years but again, none are doing anything historic. The teams we thought would be good, the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, Braves, Rangers, etc. are good and outside of the Twins and Indians, the season has gone pretty much as expected. Really, the biggest story in baseball is the hometown Buccos and their quest to end the streak of 18 consecutive losing seasons. As we sit today, the Pirates are 33-33 and only 4 games out of the division lead. If the Pirates can continue to play at or around .500 I suspect the story will continue to pick up steam nationally.
- Speaking of the Pirates, it will be interesting to see what management does as the trade deadline approaches if they continue to hover around .500 and stay somewhat in contention. From a team building prospective, they should still be in “sell” mode but a run at .500 in August and September, especially if there is no football going on, would be a tremendous financial opportunity for the club and that is part of management’s job as well. I will have a lot more on this next week and my thoughts on what I think the Pirates should do if they continue to play good baseball into mid July.
- Pitt and Penn State have agreed to renew their rivalry on the football field starting in 2016. I know this is a big deal for the alumni bases but sorry, I can’t get excited over a football game five years from now. It is ridiculous that this game has not been played in over ten years and even when it resumes, it will lack the tradition and history the rivalry should have.
- College football is covered in scandal. The NFL is in danger of missing a portion or all of its upcoming season due to labor negotiations. The NBA and NHL have never been more popular. Is this the beginning of the end for football as America’s favorite sport? Probably not, and I suspect that the NFL and the Player’s Association will work something out in time because there is too much money to be lost but with a game that violent and that popular I think it is only a matter of time before the popularity decline begins.
- From my standpoint, the labor negotiations have been this year’s version of the Brett Favre comeback story as the most heavily covered story by the media that the general population doesn’t really care about. Most people could care less about how the two sides split up the $10 billion pie (despite the posturing by the player’s association and the owners blaming the other one) and really only care about whether there will be a season or not. I have kept an eye on the negotiations and court rulings from a general business interest but boy do I get annoyed when I have to listen to the daily updates on Sportscenter or on Mike and Mike when they are talking labor negotiations in mid-May. Despite being force-fed coverage of the lockout for the past four months, it will only be in the next couple of months when the pressure to get a deal done really picks up as fans start to become worried about a season actually being missed and players and owners alike realize that there may not be checks coming in the very near future.
- Where else can we start other than King James? Just when we thought he had fully arrived after the Boston and Chicago series he follows it up with a complete mental breakdown on the biggest stage of his career. (I must say that I had originally planned to do a column after the Chicago series saying how LeBron had finally arrived and was playing the way we all had envisioned him playing for so long…I’m glad that I didn’t have the time to write that post with how silly it would look just two weeks later!) Make no mistake - that was no choke job by LeBron. He wasn’t bricking foul shots or missing layups. He wasn’t throwing terrible passes or missing rebounds. He simply did not show up mentally following the game two loss for reasons that none of us can understand. Why did he stop attacking the basket? Why did his suffocating defense disappear? What in the world was going through his mind? Whatever it was, it was probably the same “thing” that pushed James into teaming up with Dwayne Wade in Miami in the first place. Whether it is a lack of a killer instinct, an unusual level of self-doubt that we typically do not see with players of his magnitude, or something else that none of us can put our fingers on, it is obvious that eight years into the NBA LeBron still does not have that “it” factor. Will he get there? I don’t know. My guess is that his talent alone will lead him to at least 2 or 3 championships and we will forget about many of these indiscretions. (It will be much the same way that we forget how badly Michael Jordan was criticized, called a gunner and how he couldn’t win the big one before he won his first title. That just sounds silly knowing what we know now.) At this point, however, I think we are close to realizing that he will never reach the absolute peak that his physical abilities call for because of something missing inside.
- Can somebody please explain to me what Cam Newton has that Terrelle Pryor doesn’t? Even if you consider Newton the better prospect, it cannot be the difference between the 1st overall pick in the draft and a 4th or 5th rounder as the reports are saying Pryor will go in the supplemental draft. Personally, I think both have a long way to go to be even a reasonably decent starting quarterback in the NFL and there is a good chance that neither amounts to much at that position. Both, however, have the same incredible upside with their tremendous physical abilities. Heck, I would even guess that as an athlete Pryor will grade out better than Newton. Just weird to me that some teams would value Newton’s upside to be that much more than Pryor’s despite the fact that it was Pryor who was a 3-year starter playing in a pro-style offense and not Newton. I will have much more on Pryor in Friday’s post.
- Game seven of the Stanley Cup Finals is tonight and what a crazy series it has been. Vancouver has squeaked out three 1-goal wins at home while losing the three games in Boston by a combined score of 17-3. Roberto Luongo, Vancouver’s goalie, has looked like two different players at home and on the road while Boston has reached this point on the back of its own net minder, Tim Thomas. I like the Canucks to win a close one tonight. You win games like these on the backs of your superstars (hey Penguins fans, Max Talbot is THE SUPERSTAR right?) and the Canucks have more of those players than the Bruins. Either way, I am sure looking forward to the game tonight. Nothing in sports is better than a game seven, and maybe no game sevens match the intensity and excitement of those in hockey.
- Major League baseball is over 40% of the way through its season and the lack of storylines continues to be a trend. Derek Jeter is now on the DL postponing his 3,000 hits bid, which was inevitable anyways. Almost every team in baseball is still alive for the postseason. There are a few players, Jose Bautista and Curtis Granderson come to mind, having fantastic seasons but nobody who is doing something that approaches historical. Scoring continues to be down and there are more pitchers having good years but again, none are doing anything historic. The teams we thought would be good, the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, Braves, Rangers, etc. are good and outside of the Twins and Indians, the season has gone pretty much as expected. Really, the biggest story in baseball is the hometown Buccos and their quest to end the streak of 18 consecutive losing seasons. As we sit today, the Pirates are 33-33 and only 4 games out of the division lead. If the Pirates can continue to play at or around .500 I suspect the story will continue to pick up steam nationally.
- Speaking of the Pirates, it will be interesting to see what management does as the trade deadline approaches if they continue to hover around .500 and stay somewhat in contention. From a team building prospective, they should still be in “sell” mode but a run at .500 in August and September, especially if there is no football going on, would be a tremendous financial opportunity for the club and that is part of management’s job as well. I will have a lot more on this next week and my thoughts on what I think the Pirates should do if they continue to play good baseball into mid July.
- Pitt and Penn State have agreed to renew their rivalry on the football field starting in 2016. I know this is a big deal for the alumni bases but sorry, I can’t get excited over a football game five years from now. It is ridiculous that this game has not been played in over ten years and even when it resumes, it will lack the tradition and history the rivalry should have.
- College football is covered in scandal. The NFL is in danger of missing a portion or all of its upcoming season due to labor negotiations. The NBA and NHL have never been more popular. Is this the beginning of the end for football as America’s favorite sport? Probably not, and I suspect that the NFL and the Player’s Association will work something out in time because there is too much money to be lost but with a game that violent and that popular I think it is only a matter of time before the popularity decline begins.
- From my standpoint, the labor negotiations have been this year’s version of the Brett Favre comeback story as the most heavily covered story by the media that the general population doesn’t really care about. Most people could care less about how the two sides split up the $10 billion pie (despite the posturing by the player’s association and the owners blaming the other one) and really only care about whether there will be a season or not. I have kept an eye on the negotiations and court rulings from a general business interest but boy do I get annoyed when I have to listen to the daily updates on Sportscenter or on Mike and Mike when they are talking labor negotiations in mid-May. Despite being force-fed coverage of the lockout for the past four months, it will only be in the next couple of months when the pressure to get a deal done really picks up as fans start to become worried about a season actually being missed and players and owners alike realize that there may not be checks coming in the very near future.
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