It's been 25 years since John Madden wrote his first book Hey, wait a minute, I wrote a book and entitled a chapter, "Wide receivers are like artists". This might be the most sympathetic/insightful thing I've read about WRs since:Five Things We Learned From The Ravens 24-17 win
by Kevin Van Valkenburg
Let's remember that, in order to play wide receiver in the NFL, you need a little diva in you. You have to believe you're open every play, because if you lose that edge, it's really hard to get it back. It takes a certain level of minor insanity and tremendous courage to run really fast, get open for a half second, catch a pass and then let your body get hammered by a defender who could potentially seriously injure you on every play. So when we talk about Derrick Mason, let's respect that. His self-confidence is the reason he has been as good as he is for as long as he has.
But it's obvious he's frustrated. It's clear he doesn't like getting three passes a game thrown his way. We don't need to hear him talk to understand it.
Monday, September 27, 2010
The best thing I've read (recently) about wide receivers
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Blech...
ReplyDeleteDiva-ism is fine if you're not hurting your team. Chad Eightfive can be a diva in the end zone and get fined $15k every game and that works out nicely. When it almost costs your team, though?
We all need to remember that Mason's penalty came on the drive where the Ravens went up 24-17, the one right after Cleveland had just scored to go up 17-14. They were almost in FG range if not already in it. And they made the first down by maybe a foot. More critically, Mason was friggin' lucky he didn't get called for unsportsmanlike which would have been 15, not 5 yards.
Mason's divaism is hurting the team. That's not okay. Certainly shouldn't be excusable.