That is Larry Grantham. He state behind me on the bus on the way over from the hotel. I think he had just finish with a cancer treatment a year ago or so. He was talking with my dad about it. Remember, he was one of the original Titians.
I had no idea his arm was as strong as it is. The Ravens and Steelers will be going at it for years if they both stay healthy. This Sundays game between the two could be better than the Superbowl.
I already knew he had the arm. Some of us were even comparing him to a young Vinnie Testaverde at the time. But I didn't know he had the smarts and maturity and leadership qualities. The kid is beyond his years. They interviewed him after the last game and he was cool as a cucumber... focused, humble, ready for the next level, etc. DAMN......
One day we will get our guy. At some point ownership is going to have to accept the fact that they have to get a Qb and build a team around him that can compete and win for years.
We fucked around with Pennington too long. That was our undoing and it really cost us, IMO. And you could see it coming, that's what pissed me off the most. "Open" competition in TC between Clemens and Pennington, while you just knew Penny didn't have the arm and was going to win by default. So we pass up another great QB and head into camp with Penny and Clemens and then suddenly pull the trigger on Favre, putting Clemens on the bench again (and not getting experience) and sending Penny packing with nothing in return. All of which didn't accomplish squat toward getting us the true, long-term QB we needed 18 months ago and here we are... in no better shape than we were then. Unbelievable....
When I saw the photo and him wearing the cap, it crossed my mind that maybe he did have cancer and had treatment for it. He was always kind of a different looking dude even in his playing days though- he had that mouth that looked kind of toothless. Solid player though.
In fairness, I think they were hoping Clemens would be that guy, they did draft him with a high #2 pick, it's not like they didn't address the position. If Clemens didn't hold up his end and the Jets felt they had a better shot with Pennington, which they did, you can't fault them for trying to win games. Same goes for getting Favre, if Clemens had stepped up to show he's the guy he'd be the guy by now. You can fault them for drafting the wrong guy, but you can't say they did nothing. You can't just draft a new guy every year, you pick a guy, work with him and hope he's the guy, sometimes he isn't.
Oh, I won't disagree with that. And I'm not saying they did nothing. But you could see the Pennington problem after his 2nd injury and they obviously knew we needed a QB, otherwise why go after Clemens? But I do think they should have done more homework on Clemens. He came out of a relatively unknown school and his credentials were less than stellar, so our mistake in drafting him initially was that we probably should have gone with Cutler. So yeah, I'm saying they drafted the wrong guy. Now, having realized by last spring that we had done that (and lets be honest, Clemens showed us he didn't have it... really), that we'd perhaps made a mistake, they still want to go with Penny and plan on this mock "open competition" in August. Nevermind that you've got an opportunity to make things right now, mind you, to fix it by going after Flacco and then we've really got a stable of QBs from which to choose and the whole Favre Mania thing would never have occurred, but oh no. I know hindsight is 20/20... don't want to sound like that. But nor is this QB situation something we didn't freakin' see coming... it's been brewing for years. And all I'm saying is, we're still 18 months away from another QB who might be the one. 18 months minimum!
I don't think anyone knew Flacco would be this good and who knows what he'll be over the long haul? He's from a small college and wasn't touted by too many people, I remember one guy on here had the sig "Draft Joe Flacco". Aside from him or trading up for another rookie, there weren't too many better options out there other than to let the guys we had compete and play the better guy. As soon as an option presented itself in Favre they went for it. So I don't know that they didn't see it coming, but there's not that many options out there. If Flacco were a known quantity he'd have gone top five. If QBs weren't a complete crapshoot there would never be Akili Smith, Ryan Leaf type of draft burnouts. You just never know, same with Clemens.
Thank the lord I missed the first nine years. Probably won't make it another 40 so I hope the get their shit together soon.
I heard a rumour that the Jets' attempts to move back into the first round were originally targeting Flacco and that the Ravens got wind of this, prompting their move to get in there first. Did anyone else hear this or read it somewhere? It would be interesting to know for sure if the Jets were after Flacco after all.
Interesting. I hadn't heard that, but we do know the Jets were interested in Flacco. Maybe some day we'll know the answer. It wouldn't surprise me.
Thanks somewhere in my house I have a pix of the entire 68 team which was taken in 68. I also have a tape of the actual broadcast of SB3 by NBC with all the commericals aired during that game as well as the pre game show. I also have a audio tape with sound bites of all the 68 games + the Oak PO game & SB3as broadcasted over the NYJ radio network
At the rate we're going, there will only be skeletons hoisting up that ancient Lombardi trophy. Perhaps they'll buy some "Fatheads" of the old guys and blue screen the trophy being held.
