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http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2017/05/29/nfl-memorial-day-notes-peter-king-richard-sherman-seahawks
An NFL Memorial Day Medley
Here’s a holiday look on what’s happening around the league, including items on the Sherman-Seahawks situation, a fledgling flag football idea featuring Michael Vick, a Texan’s triumphant return to the field and more
By Peter King
David Quessenberry, here in 2014 serving as a Texans honorary captain, returned to the field last week after a three-year battle with lymphoma
Photo: David J. Phillip/AP
• David Quessenberry’s comeback from a harrowing fight with cancer begins.Quick back story: Quessenberry was drafted by the Texans in the sixth round of the 2013 draft and missed his rookie season after he went on injured reserve with a foot injury. The next summer in June 2014, Quessenberry was diagnosed with lymphoma.
For three years, he battled the cancer. When the chemotherapy and radiation caused him to lose 50 pounds in 2015, Quessenberry barely recognized the man in the mirror. “I felt like the furthest thing from my mind was being a football player,” he said the other day, his fourth day of practice after cancer robbed him of three seasons.
“Describe what getting back on the field was like,” I asked him.
Pause. Five, seven seconds. “It’s hard to put into words,” he said, finally, quietly and with emotion. “If I could describe it, I’d say first, my prayers were answered. It was so spiritual the first day back. Getting taped up, my helmet hanging in my locker, the jersey there, trainers hollering at me, riding me, teammates hollering at me, they wanted to see my back, putting my cleats on … all of it just special, just very very special.
Because I could just feel how much everybody else on this journey with me wanted me to get back out there. My teammates never forgot me, never let me just drift away. That made this week even better.
“I woke up every day this week, and my neck was sore, fingers banged up, legs are tired and achy, I was having to drink so much water and Gatorade, sweating in the Texas sun … loving every minute of it. Really, I almost forgot how much I love this feeling, the bruises on arms, the sore shins, that sting you feel when you make a block. I missed it so much.”
Then … football. There’s no full-on contact this time of year, but when a coach told Quessenberry during one practice: “Go get some reps at right tackle,” in he went. Across from him, on either side, were two of the best defensive players in football—J.J. Watt at tackle, Jadeveon Clowney at end.
“There’s 99 [Watt] and 90 [Clowney],” Quessenberry said, reliving it. “We’re just in a jog through. But I’m thinking: I got butterflies right now! I haven’t felt this excited about a play in years. But then: ‘Okay man, this is where you’re at, you’re back. You’re not trying to maintenance chemo, you’re not just working out. You are staring across at a couple of the best players in the league. Time to play football.’”
According to a recent ESPN story, Richard Sherman hasn’t gotten over the Super Bowl 49 loss to Tom Brady and the Patriots
Photo: Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images
• The Seth Wickersham/Seahawks story. The respected Wickersham reported from a slew of sources, basically, that Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman cannot get over the game-losing interception from the Super Bowl 27 months ago, and his frustration continues to point mostly at coach Pete Carroll for enabling the play-call at the New England one-yard line, and at quarterback Russell Wilson for throwing the interception.
I’m going to re-live the key play in a moment, but I’ll just say this: Those who live in the past are condemned to repeat it. I have not spoken to Wickersham’s sources, but I do not doubt the veracity of his story.
And if Sherman continues—as he did last year, when he verbally harangued offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell on the sidelines of a game—to bring up that losing play, Seattle should trade him after the season. (I’d say now, but without significant reinforcements at the position on a contending team, losing Sherman would be a major blow to going far in the playoffs this year.)
One other point: This is, in part, Carroll’s doing. He has created a don’t-worry-be-happy atmosphere in which it’s almost okay to be insolent because it’s part of his freedom environment. It’s fine when you’re winning, not so fine when you’re not dominating. Now, I don’t think the Seahawks will trade Sherman or let him go this year, because they’re a cornerback-needy team, and premier cornerbacks like Sherman are rare.
My guess: Sherman will be on his best behavior this season (at least as it relates to this incident, and further disruptive sideline incidents) because he knows all media and team eyes will be on him because of this story. But 2018? Nothing is guaranteed.
• The Seahawks play in question. So I went back over the weekend and watched the play in question a few times on NFL Game Rewind. Actually I watched four plays from New England’s Super Bowl win over Seattle. Seattle ran four snaps on third-and-one or third-and-two in that Super Bowl. On three of those, Marshawn Lynch ran the ball—for zero, three and zero yards. (Wilson threw an incompletion on the fourth third-and-short play.)
On those three Lynch runs, New England didn’t have its full package of run-stoppers in the game. On each, 335-pound Vince Wilfork and 325-pound Sealver Siliga were on the defensive front with lighter defensive linemen—and, in fact, Lynch was stopped for no gain on the first of those plays, when New England had only two down linemen (Wilfork and Siliga) on the field.
Now to the ultimate play. Second and goal from the New England four-foot line, with 26 seconds to play and Seattle with one timeout left. When Wilson came to the line, he saw this across from him, from his left to right: Wilfork, 335, on the left tackle … Siliga, 325, on the left guard … Alan Branch, 324, on the right guard … Chris Jones, 309, on the right tackle.
On the three previous short-yardage runs in the game, Seattle faced New England alignments with two defensive tackles in the game; now there were four. If Bevell wanted to call Lynch’s number here, once, no one would have faulted him.
That’s his money back, on the money play of the season. But would he have gotten in? We’ll never know, but based on the mediocrity of the offensive line and New England’s approach, I’d say it’s highly unlikely Lynch would have scored.
So let’s say he doesn’t score. Now it’s third-and-goal, with either one or two plays left. (Seattle would likely have called time after the second-down failure, and thrown on third down. An incompletion would have given Wilson a fourth-down try.) In the end, Seattle chose the element of surprise, throwing on second down, and Wilson’s throw for Ricardo Lockette was a millisecond late and Malcolm Butler made the play of his life to collide with Lockette at the same time he picked off the ball at the goal line.
The conclusion: No one can bitch if Bevell calls the running play on second down. But I feel strongly that Seattle would have had to throw it or get a fluky Wilson scramble to get the ball in the end zone to win—regardless of down.
* * *
• There might be a national touch football league coming. If a 7-on-7 touch football game featuring some big names like Mike Vick on June 27 in San Jose shows well, a New York financier named Jeff Lewis intends to start a national touch football league in 2018. Big if, obviously. But with the fear of continued head trauma in the tackle game, and the enthusiasm about touch football from NFL stars like Drew Brees, Lewis thinks it's time to try taking the game national.
“The analogy is this is a pilot for a TV show,” he said last week of the touch football trial in San Jose, which will feature some fast and quick players and magnetic flags on the hips. (When the flag gets pulled, a sensor will pinpoint the exact point forward progress stopped.)
“Because this game has never been played by athletes like this, we don't know what we’re going to see. We’re all gonna see it together for the first time June 27. If I find it’s not compelling, I won't bang my head against the wall. But I think it's got a chance to be a fast, great, beautiful game.”
Vick will play in this game, but not necessarily in 2018 if the league does fly. He’s serving as an adviser to Lewis now. For the future, Lewis would love to say half the league comprised of prospects from football and other quick-twitch sports, and half from a national tournament that would winnow teams from around the country down in tournaments. “Wouldn't it be fun to have a massive kind of U.S. Open style, with teams that rise up out of a giant scrum of a tournament?” Lewis said.
* * *
“All my years being in the league, I never received more emotional mail from people than I did about that issue. ‘If any of your players ever do that, we are never coming to another Giants game.’ It wasn’t one or two letters. It was a lot. It’s an emotional, emotional issue.”
—Giants co-owner John Mara, to Jenny Vrentas of The MMQB, in her story about how the Colin Kaepernick story lives on.
* * *
Things I Think I Think
Photo: Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images
1. I think the amazing news of Sunday was this, from Pro Football Talk, via the San Francisco Chronicle: The Oakland Raiders, the football definition of a lame-duck franchise, have sold out season tickets for the 2017 season.
The combo platter of excitement over a long-lousy team and the acquisition of local legend Marshawn Lynch melted a lot of anger in folks ticked off at the Raiders for signing an agreement to leave the city for Las Vegas in 2020.
2. I think the NFL’s decision to cut overtime from 15 to 10 minutes probably won’t result in more ties, because coaches will play more aggressively in overtime. I’m not crazy about the change, but I understand it. Alex Marvez of SiriusXM NFL Radio and the Sporting News had a great stat that plays a part too:
In the past five years, 10 teams have followed a Sunday overtime game by playing on Thursday night. Those 10 teams are 2-8 in those games. Not enough to get a rock-solid sample, of course, but an indicator that fatigue could be a factor four days after a long game.
3. I think I’ve got to give you one more story about the kind of person Cortez Kennedy was, in addition to being a Hall of Fame player. (I wrote about Saints GM Mickey Loomis’ anguish over his good friend’s death the other day.) The media relations czar of the Saints, Greg Bensel, told me one more story about the late Cortez Kennedy—who died in Florida the other day, cause unknown—that I simply have to pass on.
Said Bensel: “Tez was the greatest human. I once rolled over in my bed at a road hotel ... to the sound of a large black man snoring in my bed. It was Tez. He had a key to my room and wanted to come watch a movie. I told him, ‘You have 10 minutes and the TV goes off and you MUST leave my room; and do not have any part of your body touch mine.’ He laughed and sipped his Courvoisier and said, ‘Why the hate, Bensel?’”
4. I think Aaron Donald will have a new contract with the Rams by opening day. They’re going to pay their best player.
5. I think players should attend off-season organized team workouts, but when they don’t, I’d remind people that they’re voluntary. And yes, they’re good for chemistry and for things like getting quarterbacks and wideouts on the same page.
But I’ve never heard one losing coach in December or January stand in front of the press and say: “If we only had John Doe at those workouts in shorts in May, we’d have made more plays today.” Odell Beckham is a different guy, and there’s probably a story there. But if/when he catches six for 126 in the opener at Dallas, not a soul will care about the May weirdness.
6. I think Victor Cruz has always been a class guy, grateful for his life in football and a very good teammate. I was stunned to hear the ridiculousness of him implying last week that Eli Manning purposely passed up throwing to Cruz when he was open because the Giants didn’t want him on the team anymore.
There are absurd things to think about, and then there is the thought that coach Ben McAdoo put Cruz out on the field and instructed Manning to not throw him the ball. Ten versus 11. Yeah, that’s the way to win football games.
7. I think I love the fact that Ty Montgomery, atop the Packers’ depth chart at running back, will keep the number 88. I’m a cool-numbers guy: Jim Otto 00, Devin Gardner (at Michigan) 98. I’d love to see the NFL mix it up.
8. I think I have had enough conversations with Chip Kelly to have a good feeling about him being a TV guy. He signed Friday with ESPN to be a college football analyst. The thing I always appreciated about Kelly, when you actually had long conversations in which he could go deep on a bunch of subjects, was how imaginative he was about football, and how excited he’d get talking about getting receivers open, or inventing new ways for quarterbacks to make plays. I hope that’s the guy we see on TV.
9. I think it’s amazing how fast Darrelle Revis fell off the face of the earth.
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http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2017/05/29/nfl-memorial-day-notes-peter-king-richard-sherman-seahawks
An NFL Memorial Day Medley
Here’s a holiday look on what’s happening around the league, including items on the Sherman-Seahawks situation, a fledgling flag football idea featuring Michael Vick, a Texan’s triumphant return to the field and more
By Peter King
David Quessenberry, here in 2014 serving as a Texans honorary captain, returned to the field last week after a three-year battle with lymphoma
Photo: David J. Phillip/AP
• David Quessenberry’s comeback from a harrowing fight with cancer begins.Quick back story: Quessenberry was drafted by the Texans in the sixth round of the 2013 draft and missed his rookie season after he went on injured reserve with a foot injury. The next summer in June 2014, Quessenberry was diagnosed with lymphoma.
For three years, he battled the cancer. When the chemotherapy and radiation caused him to lose 50 pounds in 2015, Quessenberry barely recognized the man in the mirror. “I felt like the furthest thing from my mind was being a football player,” he said the other day, his fourth day of practice after cancer robbed him of three seasons.
“Describe what getting back on the field was like,” I asked him.
Pause. Five, seven seconds. “It’s hard to put into words,” he said, finally, quietly and with emotion. “If I could describe it, I’d say first, my prayers were answered. It was so spiritual the first day back. Getting taped up, my helmet hanging in my locker, the jersey there, trainers hollering at me, riding me, teammates hollering at me, they wanted to see my back, putting my cleats on … all of it just special, just very very special.
Because I could just feel how much everybody else on this journey with me wanted me to get back out there. My teammates never forgot me, never let me just drift away. That made this week even better.
“I woke up every day this week, and my neck was sore, fingers banged up, legs are tired and achy, I was having to drink so much water and Gatorade, sweating in the Texas sun … loving every minute of it. Really, I almost forgot how much I love this feeling, the bruises on arms, the sore shins, that sting you feel when you make a block. I missed it so much.”
Then … football. There’s no full-on contact this time of year, but when a coach told Quessenberry during one practice: “Go get some reps at right tackle,” in he went. Across from him, on either side, were two of the best defensive players in football—J.J. Watt at tackle, Jadeveon Clowney at end.
“There’s 99 [Watt] and 90 [Clowney],” Quessenberry said, reliving it. “We’re just in a jog through. But I’m thinking: I got butterflies right now! I haven’t felt this excited about a play in years. But then: ‘Okay man, this is where you’re at, you’re back. You’re not trying to maintenance chemo, you’re not just working out. You are staring across at a couple of the best players in the league. Time to play football.’”
According to a recent ESPN story, Richard Sherman hasn’t gotten over the Super Bowl 49 loss to Tom Brady and the Patriots
Photo: Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images
• The Seth Wickersham/Seahawks story. The respected Wickersham reported from a slew of sources, basically, that Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman cannot get over the game-losing interception from the Super Bowl 27 months ago, and his frustration continues to point mostly at coach Pete Carroll for enabling the play-call at the New England one-yard line, and at quarterback Russell Wilson for throwing the interception.
I’m going to re-live the key play in a moment, but I’ll just say this: Those who live in the past are condemned to repeat it. I have not spoken to Wickersham’s sources, but I do not doubt the veracity of his story.
And if Sherman continues—as he did last year, when he verbally harangued offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell on the sidelines of a game—to bring up that losing play, Seattle should trade him after the season. (I’d say now, but without significant reinforcements at the position on a contending team, losing Sherman would be a major blow to going far in the playoffs this year.)
One other point: This is, in part, Carroll’s doing. He has created a don’t-worry-be-happy atmosphere in which it’s almost okay to be insolent because it’s part of his freedom environment. It’s fine when you’re winning, not so fine when you’re not dominating. Now, I don’t think the Seahawks will trade Sherman or let him go this year, because they’re a cornerback-needy team, and premier cornerbacks like Sherman are rare.
My guess: Sherman will be on his best behavior this season (at least as it relates to this incident, and further disruptive sideline incidents) because he knows all media and team eyes will be on him because of this story. But 2018? Nothing is guaranteed.
• The Seahawks play in question. So I went back over the weekend and watched the play in question a few times on NFL Game Rewind. Actually I watched four plays from New England’s Super Bowl win over Seattle. Seattle ran four snaps on third-and-one or third-and-two in that Super Bowl. On three of those, Marshawn Lynch ran the ball—for zero, three and zero yards. (Wilson threw an incompletion on the fourth third-and-short play.)
On those three Lynch runs, New England didn’t have its full package of run-stoppers in the game. On each, 335-pound Vince Wilfork and 325-pound Sealver Siliga were on the defensive front with lighter defensive linemen—and, in fact, Lynch was stopped for no gain on the first of those plays, when New England had only two down linemen (Wilfork and Siliga) on the field.
Now to the ultimate play. Second and goal from the New England four-foot line, with 26 seconds to play and Seattle with one timeout left. When Wilson came to the line, he saw this across from him, from his left to right: Wilfork, 335, on the left tackle … Siliga, 325, on the left guard … Alan Branch, 324, on the right guard … Chris Jones, 309, on the right tackle.
On the three previous short-yardage runs in the game, Seattle faced New England alignments with two defensive tackles in the game; now there were four. If Bevell wanted to call Lynch’s number here, once, no one would have faulted him.
That’s his money back, on the money play of the season. But would he have gotten in? We’ll never know, but based on the mediocrity of the offensive line and New England’s approach, I’d say it’s highly unlikely Lynch would have scored.
So let’s say he doesn’t score. Now it’s third-and-goal, with either one or two plays left. (Seattle would likely have called time after the second-down failure, and thrown on third down. An incompletion would have given Wilson a fourth-down try.) In the end, Seattle chose the element of surprise, throwing on second down, and Wilson’s throw for Ricardo Lockette was a millisecond late and Malcolm Butler made the play of his life to collide with Lockette at the same time he picked off the ball at the goal line.
The conclusion: No one can bitch if Bevell calls the running play on second down. But I feel strongly that Seattle would have had to throw it or get a fluky Wilson scramble to get the ball in the end zone to win—regardless of down.
* * *
• There might be a national touch football league coming. If a 7-on-7 touch football game featuring some big names like Mike Vick on June 27 in San Jose shows well, a New York financier named Jeff Lewis intends to start a national touch football league in 2018. Big if, obviously. But with the fear of continued head trauma in the tackle game, and the enthusiasm about touch football from NFL stars like Drew Brees, Lewis thinks it's time to try taking the game national.
“The analogy is this is a pilot for a TV show,” he said last week of the touch football trial in San Jose, which will feature some fast and quick players and magnetic flags on the hips. (When the flag gets pulled, a sensor will pinpoint the exact point forward progress stopped.)
“Because this game has never been played by athletes like this, we don't know what we’re going to see. We’re all gonna see it together for the first time June 27. If I find it’s not compelling, I won't bang my head against the wall. But I think it's got a chance to be a fast, great, beautiful game.”
Vick will play in this game, but not necessarily in 2018 if the league does fly. He’s serving as an adviser to Lewis now. For the future, Lewis would love to say half the league comprised of prospects from football and other quick-twitch sports, and half from a national tournament that would winnow teams from around the country down in tournaments. “Wouldn't it be fun to have a massive kind of U.S. Open style, with teams that rise up out of a giant scrum of a tournament?” Lewis said.
* * *
“All my years being in the league, I never received more emotional mail from people than I did about that issue. ‘If any of your players ever do that, we are never coming to another Giants game.’ It wasn’t one or two letters. It was a lot. It’s an emotional, emotional issue.”
—Giants co-owner John Mara, to Jenny Vrentas of The MMQB, in her story about how the Colin Kaepernick story lives on.
* * *
Things I Think I Think
Photo: Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images
1. I think the amazing news of Sunday was this, from Pro Football Talk, via the San Francisco Chronicle: The Oakland Raiders, the football definition of a lame-duck franchise, have sold out season tickets for the 2017 season.
The combo platter of excitement over a long-lousy team and the acquisition of local legend Marshawn Lynch melted a lot of anger in folks ticked off at the Raiders for signing an agreement to leave the city for Las Vegas in 2020.
2. I think the NFL’s decision to cut overtime from 15 to 10 minutes probably won’t result in more ties, because coaches will play more aggressively in overtime. I’m not crazy about the change, but I understand it. Alex Marvez of SiriusXM NFL Radio and the Sporting News had a great stat that plays a part too:
In the past five years, 10 teams have followed a Sunday overtime game by playing on Thursday night. Those 10 teams are 2-8 in those games. Not enough to get a rock-solid sample, of course, but an indicator that fatigue could be a factor four days after a long game.
3. I think I’ve got to give you one more story about the kind of person Cortez Kennedy was, in addition to being a Hall of Fame player. (I wrote about Saints GM Mickey Loomis’ anguish over his good friend’s death the other day.) The media relations czar of the Saints, Greg Bensel, told me one more story about the late Cortez Kennedy—who died in Florida the other day, cause unknown—that I simply have to pass on.
Said Bensel: “Tez was the greatest human. I once rolled over in my bed at a road hotel ... to the sound of a large black man snoring in my bed. It was Tez. He had a key to my room and wanted to come watch a movie. I told him, ‘You have 10 minutes and the TV goes off and you MUST leave my room; and do not have any part of your body touch mine.’ He laughed and sipped his Courvoisier and said, ‘Why the hate, Bensel?’”
4. I think Aaron Donald will have a new contract with the Rams by opening day. They’re going to pay their best player.
5. I think players should attend off-season organized team workouts, but when they don’t, I’d remind people that they’re voluntary. And yes, they’re good for chemistry and for things like getting quarterbacks and wideouts on the same page.
But I’ve never heard one losing coach in December or January stand in front of the press and say: “If we only had John Doe at those workouts in shorts in May, we’d have made more plays today.” Odell Beckham is a different guy, and there’s probably a story there. But if/when he catches six for 126 in the opener at Dallas, not a soul will care about the May weirdness.
6. I think Victor Cruz has always been a class guy, grateful for his life in football and a very good teammate. I was stunned to hear the ridiculousness of him implying last week that Eli Manning purposely passed up throwing to Cruz when he was open because the Giants didn’t want him on the team anymore.
There are absurd things to think about, and then there is the thought that coach Ben McAdoo put Cruz out on the field and instructed Manning to not throw him the ball. Ten versus 11. Yeah, that’s the way to win football games.
7. I think I love the fact that Ty Montgomery, atop the Packers’ depth chart at running back, will keep the number 88. I’m a cool-numbers guy: Jim Otto 00, Devin Gardner (at Michigan) 98. I’d love to see the NFL mix it up.
8. I think I have had enough conversations with Chip Kelly to have a good feeling about him being a TV guy. He signed Friday with ESPN to be a college football analyst. The thing I always appreciated about Kelly, when you actually had long conversations in which he could go deep on a bunch of subjects, was how imaginative he was about football, and how excited he’d get talking about getting receivers open, or inventing new ways for quarterbacks to make plays. I hope that’s the guy we see on TV.
9. I think it’s amazing how fast Darrelle Revis fell off the face of the earth.
