Peter King: MMQB - 6/19/17

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These are excerpts. To read the whole article click the link below. PK made it all the way to the very end of the article without mentioning his man-crush, the Patriots, but then he had a slip...keep coming back Peter.

Here is Step 1 of Obsessive Patriots Fans Anonymous:
  1. We admitted we were powerless over our insane obsession with Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, and all things Patriots – that our lives had become unmanageable.
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http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2017/06/19/peter-king-monday-morning-quarterback-nfl-randy-moss-commencement

On Randy Moss, Equality and Commencement Speeches
How the Vikings went from ‘the biggest mistake they ever made’ to now honoring their former mercurial receiver, with the help of an old friend. Plus more on NFL team leadership progress, a stunning Colin Kaepernick stat and the wise words heard at college graduation ceremonies this year
By Peter King

My last column before three Mondays off—you will love the substitutes, so come back on June 26, July 3 and July 10 for great prose and information. Today is a surprising hodgepodge, followed by my annual section of commencement speeches from campuses around the country. (Theo Epstein had a gem at Yale.) Enjoy the column.

* * *

The Greatest Thing I Saw This Week

mmqb-moss-hartman.jpg

Longtime Vikings writer Sid Hartman interviewed Randy Moss, who will be inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor this fall
Photo: Tom West/Minnesota Vikings

Look at this photo. Tom West, the longtime Vikings PR man, took it the other day in fellow PR man Bob Hagan’s office at the Vikings’ headquarters in Eden Prairie, Minn.

It’s beautiful. Hartman, 97, the longtime Minnesota columnist and radio host who is still working every week, is on the left, interviewing Moss, 40, who was in town to be told his number was being retired, and he would be enshrined in the team’s Ring of Honor.

The two have had an interesting relationship. When Moss was under fire as a Viking for playing hard when he felt like it, Hartman interviewed him, and Moss famously said, “I play when I want to play.” They clashed over that, though all Hartman was doing was quoting (and in effect excoriating) the best receiver in the game.

I talked to Moss about the photo, and asked him about the meaning of his meeting and his interview with the raspy, indefatigable Hartman.

“Respect your elders,” Moss said. “I love Sid.”

It was interesting to hear Moss talk about Hartman the day after he met him, and the day he was honored by the Vikings. If you recall, Moss was pretty ticked off when the Vikings dispatched him to Oakland after seven starry seasons in 2005. Moss had the best debut of any receiver in NFL history—he had 53 touchdown catches in his first four years.

When people thought he was a loafer in the twilight, at 30, he had the greatest season a wideout ever had, catching 23 touchdown passes at age 30 for New England in 2007. An amazing career, yet the petulance dogs him. He knows. And he’s matured about it all.

“All the flak I took, everything I dealt with coming from high school and college, and then for them to give this award, the Ring of Honor, I am speechless. I really am,” Moss told me. “It was such a great day. I am so honored. What it makes me realize is: I did something right.”

And Sid?

“When we talked, the conversation was so genuine,” Moss said. “I loved it, really. Good or bad, our relationship developed. Through everything, Sid showed me respect. To sum it up, I am speaking for a lot of the guys I played with here in Minnesota:

He earned his stripes. He earned our respect, by working, by being there. He’s done it, for so long, for so much of history. He’s seen so much. He’s old enough to be our great-grandfather.”

On Sunday morning from 9 to noon, Hartman hosted his weekly radio show on WCCO in Minneapolis. It’s been a community staple for more than 20 years. “People get out of church and turn on the radio to see what Sid’s saying,” Hagan said. “It’s been that way for years.”

Nice guest list this week: Moss, Vikings coach Mike Zimmer, Timberwolves coach Tom Thibodeau … and little old me. Hartman doesn’t hear as well as he used to, and sometimes the questions have to be re-asked to him. But he answers them. “Why,” I asked Hartman, “does someone your age who grew up in a different world than guys like Moss get along with them so well?”

“I can’t explain it,” Hartman said over the airwaves. “It’s just worked out from day one. The biggest mistake the Vikings ever made was trading Randy Moss.” Now Moss is back in the fold, sort of. Bygones have faded. And Hartman and Moss, 57 years apart, are left standing.

* * *

Unprecedented Equality in NFL Team Leadership


mmqb-lynnathony.jpg

The Chargers’ Anthony Lynn is one of eight minority head coaches in the NFL
Photo: Denis Poroy/AP

John Wooten is 80 now. The 10-year NFL guard blocked for Jim Brown in Cleveland and, as the chair of the quality-advocacy Fritz Pollard Alliance for the past 14 years, fought for equal rights for minority coaches, scouts and front-office officials. He is the quintessential NFL lifetimer, a classic devotee of the game who, at the same time, who would consider his life diminished if he didn’t leave the game more egalitarian than he found it.

So after Washington president Bruce Allen named Doug Williams the team’s senior vice president of player personnel—the first African-American head of player acquisition in franchise history—Wooten had to be feeling some sense of pride. Not only had this franchise been the last team in pro football to integrate its roster (amazingly late, in 1962), but no minority had ever run the personnel side of the building in its 85-year history … until last week.

mmqb-wooten-john.jpg

John Wooten
Photo: David Richard/AP

This is a historic day for the league, really. It’s a bit of an invented stat, but it’s true: The 32 NFL franchises now have a total of 15 minorities either coaching the team or running the personnel side of the team. Never in league annals have at least seven head coaches and general manager/personnel czars run teams. But this year there will be a total of 15 minorities coaching or running the personnel side. (It was 10 as recently as 2013.)

“It’s so gratifying,” Wooten said from his home in Texas over the weekend. “It tells me how far we’ve come as a league. I will never forget, years ago, when [Dallas president] Tex Schramm said to me, ‘You’re trying to tell us who to hire!’ I said, ‘No, Tex. We simply want a chance to interview for these jobs.’ And now, everyone is just trying to do what they can to make equal opportunity in coaching and the front office a reality.”

• The minority coaches (eight): Ron Rivera (Carolina), Marvin Lewis (Cincinnati), Hue Jackson (Cleveland), Vance Joseph (Denver), Jim Caldwell (Detroit), Anthony Lynn (Los Angeles Chargers), Todd Bowles (New York Jets), Mike Tomlin (Pittsburgh).

• The personnel czars (seven): Ozzie Newsome (Baltimore), Sashi Brown (Cleveland), Rick Smith (Houston), Reggie McKenzie (Oakland), Chris Grier (Miami), Jerry Reese (New York Giants), Doug Williams (Washington).

Williams never thought he’d get the shot. But he grew up being told opportunities would come because of merit, not color, and that was reinforced by his coach at historically black Grambling, where Williams played quarterback. “Eddie Robinson never said, ‘You can do this because you’re black,’” said Williams. “He said, ‘If you’re ever going to get a chance, you’re going to get a chance in America.’ And here it is.”

* * *


Cool Story of the Week

broncos-census.jpg

Photo: AP Photo

Robert Klemko of The MMQB polled 51 players in the Denver Broncos locker room toward the end of the 2016 season for a team census. “What, exactly, are you trying to prove?” then-Bronco Russell Okung asked Klemko.

Nothing, and everything. We were trying to find out the demographic of one NFL team Nothing more, nothing less. Whatever the results were, they were. A few responses were eye-opening, like the voting pattern of the locker room in an election that had much at stake for the country.

Thirty-four players, a full 66.7 percent, told Klemko they had not voted in the 2016 election. That’s disturbing to me. But other points, about life and background and beliefs, made this a very interesting read. (Thanks to The MMQB’s graphics team, and to editor Gary Gramling, for their work on it.)

This also was curious: Of the 24 players on the team who received 10 or more college scholarship offers, 13 received college degrees. Of the 19 players who got five offers or fewer, 17 got their degrees. Not sure what that means … it could be coincidental—or it could be that the less privileged among the players worked harder on academics in college.

* * *


View: https://twitter.com/RapSheet/status/875772411320434688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fmmqb.si.com%2Fmmqb%2F2017%2F06%2F19%2Fpeter-king-monday-morning-quarterback-nfl-randy-moss-commencement

Floyd is due in court on June 26 after violating the terms of his house arrest, testing positive for alcohol on June 11. Floyd says his positive alcohol test was due to drinking Kombucha tea.

* * *

Things I Think I Think

1. I think as teams dispersed from practices and camps this summer, and prepare to take four or five weeks off from this demanding life, I urge all of them to take it. The game has become waaaaay too life-dominating. You need time off, folks.

2. I think these are a few quick thoughts I want to get on the record:

a. This website is losing one of our stalwart reporters, Emily Kaplan, to a new job. (She would prefer to make the announcement about her destination, and I am going to let her, at the time of her choosing.) We are sad about that, of course, because Emily is one of the best young journalists covering pro football. She’s helped us raise our game with her doggedness and her tireless reporting, and I know she’s going to have a great career.

More about Emily to come in the near future. But I’m glad to have had the chance to work with her as her career takes off. Emily’s a great example of a young person in a changing business who tried everything—video, podcasts, audio reporting, columns—and wasn’t content to simply be a classic sportswriter. She’ll be missed.

b. Congrats to both the PR staffs of the Texans and Ravens for the victories in the annual Pro Football Writers of America awards in helping football media do our jobs. Both groups are terrific. I want to point out the first female PR czar to ever win this award, senior director of communications Amy Palcic of the Texans, has come a long way by the sweat of her brow to be one of the best in the business.

Eight years ago, she was in essence demoted in Cleveland over an incident with tight end Kellen Winslow, and she wouldn’t stand for it. She left the Browns, ended up landing in Houston, and was promoted to this job two years ago. Good things come to those who work—and who prepare.

c. In 2015, U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) helped sponsor the Steve Gleason Act, a bill fashioned to help former Saint Steve Gleason making speech-generating devices easier to get and use for patients suffering from crushing disorders like ALS.

Scalise, from Metairie, site of the Saints’ training facility, is a huge Saints fan, often appearing at practices just to watch … he was there, in fact, in May to watch the team. That’s why the shooting of Scalise at a baseball practice last week hit the Saints’ franchise so hard, and why they sent—and continued to send—wishes, prayers and offers of owner Tom Benson’s plane to the family.

d. Kudos to the Dolphins, starting with owner Stephen Ross, in emphasizing voter registration with their players. A team spokesman said Friday that 90 percent of the players on the roster, helped by a team voter registration drive, are now registered to vote in general elections.

3. I think there’s a great lesson in Zach Strief, the Saints’ tackle, right now. Forward-thinking guy. I heard him on Albert Breer’s podcast this week. Strief on finding a post-career passion: “It’s been a series of guys, players who’ve been here who I respect highly, guys that I think the world of that are good guys—smart, intelligent, sharp—that have struggled with that transition.

It’s no different than if I came to you tomorrow and said, ‘Hey, Albert, sorry, it’s not your decision, but you can never be a reporter ever again, so figure something out.’ That’s a really tough reality for someone who has spent a long time doing one thing. It’s very difficult for guys mentally to deal with that, and I got to see that. I got to see some older players come back and say, ‘Hey, I’m struggling a little bit figuring out what I’m going to do.’

Or, ‘Hey, I’ve got some opportunities but I’m the intern, so I went from being a pro athlete to having a job that a 22-year-old with no work experience has.’ That’s tough for a 33-year-old man who’s grown accustomed to living his life a certain way. And so those realities hit home and I realized, hey, you need to be on the lookout for something.” Strief, his father-in-law and three other partners founded Port Orleans Brewing. (And no, I did not write about this just because it’s beer.)

4. I think I’m excited that we introduced a new feature at The MMQB last week. “The Exit Interview,” which will feature things learned and lessons passed on by prominent football players/coaches/front office people/media when they retire or lose their jobs. Our first episode: Bob McGinn, who, after 38 years covering the Packers, voluntarily left the beat for a new life in Michigan.

I always admired McGinn because of his work ethic, his brains, his fierce independence. He made me a better follower of football. Listen to his warning about the in-house nature of so much football writing and coverage these days: “Teams want to play the games and cover the games; they want to do both. All these team websites are just a pox on our business.

All the coverage is slanted. It’s all pro-team and the people who cover, who work for a network one way or another that is paying the league billions of dollars to broadcast games and be partners, everything they say I take with a grain of salt. It’s left all to beat writers and magazine guys apart from these teams and networks who have independence to dissect the game and look at things with an unbiased eye.” Strong words, and apt ones.

5. I think, however, there are some very good team-website features I’ve found. One is the inside-football reporting from former scout Bryan Broaddus on the Cowboys site. Check out his Wednesday practice report from minicamp. Two very interesting things:

First-round washout Jonathan Cooper spent the day on perhaps the best offensive line in football starting at left guard; that’s a eye-popper in itself. But also this from Broaddus’ practice report: “The one guy that is able to give Zack Martin trouble is Maliek Collins. It’s rare that you see Martin get knocked off balance against power, but that’s what Collins was able to do during the Team Period.” That’s good reporting.

6. I think, as an aside, this is what I think when I see that Maliek Collins is creating some havoc in drills at a Cowboys practice: I covered the Cowboys’ draft last year, and the team’s number one target as the first round went on (after the drafting of Ezekiel Elliott with the fourth overall pick) was Memphis quarterback Paxton Lynch.

Dallas was offering the 34th and 101st overall picks for a low-first-round pick. Seattle wanted Dallas’ 34th and 67th picks. Dallas balked. Seattle traded with Denver, and it’s Denver who got Lynch with the 26th pick in the first round. So if Dallas had traded 34 and 67, three things would have happened:

• The Cowboys would have picked Lynch and not Dak Prescott. Judging by Lynch’s uneven first camp and season, and the fact that he’s a slight underdog to beat out Trevor Siemian this year, it’s almost inarguable that Prescott with the 135th overall pick was a better choice than Lynch at 26.

• The Cowboys would not have picked Collins to fortify the then-weakest position group on the team—defensive line.

• The Cowboys would not have picked Jaylon Smith at 34. He’s the Notre Dame linebacker who would have been a top-five pick in the draft had he not suffered a bad knee injury in his final college game.

There’s still no guarantee he’ll be a good NFL player, but he’s an intriguing prospect who, if he makes it, could be the Cowboys’ post-Sean Lee defensive team leader. So … overall, sometimes the best decisions are the ones you don’t make.

7. I think there are two long-gone players, above all those who have been on the ballot for years, who I would like to see elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame: wide receiver Cliff Branch of the Raiders and defensive lineman Joe Klecko of the Jets.

8. I think it was interesting to see that Pete Prisco of CBS Sports asked some Falcons the other day how they felt about the Patriots having 283 tiny diamonds on their Super Bowl rings this year. The meaning: 283, as in coming back from a 28-3 deficit to win Super Bowl 51. Prisco said he could tell the Falcons players didn’t like it. I say so what.

If I’m the Patriots, 283 is a tremendous point of pride, noting the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history. When I heard the Patriots had 283 diamonds on each ring, I didn’t take it in any way as a slap in the face to the Falcons. I took it only as a “look what we did” memento. If the Falcons are upset about it, maybe they should be. Maybe they should be reminded that blowing a 28-3 lead in the third quarter of a Super Bowl just doesn’t get swept under the rug. It’s real.

9. I think this is what’s it’s come to for Josh Freeman, the former first-round pick of the Bucs who blew out his career by being a laissez-faire practice player and poor off-season preparer: He had a tryout for Montreal of the Canadian Football League the other day.

He’s not good enough to be in camp with a CFL team—he’s got to try out for a spot in training camp. I’m not trying to jump on Freeman, but he knows now he blew his best chance to be a starting NFL quarterback by not working hard enough when he had the chance.
 

Merlin

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Effin King man. "Oh Patriots... Oh Tom Brady... Came back from 28-3 oh ohhh oooohhhhh!!!" FAPFAPFAP.
 

DaveFan'51

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Effin King man. "Oh Patriots... Oh Tom Brady... Came back from 28-3 oh ohhh oooohhhhh!!!" FAPFAPFAP.
IF EVER I WANTED TO SEE A PLAYER TAKEN OFF THE FIELD INJURED IT'S TOM BRADY! And when it happens ( Hopefully this year!) The whiner will retire!
 

Rambitious1

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Effin King man. "Oh Patriots... Oh Tom Brady... Came back from 28-3 oh ohhh oooohhhhh!!!" FAPFAPFAP.

Ya......
That was more a collapse by the Falcons than a come back from the Perpetrators.
 

LACHAMP46

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Never heard of John Wooten b4.....It's funny, Randy Moss was one of the first guy that I'd heard about with "off field" issues....Smoking buds....and he was just....it's why I like h/w/s guys at wideout....he and Terrell Owens...but he's a first ballot HOF'er...in my opinion.

Hey man.....King has a right to praise the Patriots....dude, they've dominated the league for over 15 years...I've never seen that done...not even the steelers or 9'ers were THIS dominant.
 

Prime Time

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  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #6
Hey man.....King has a right to praise the Patriots....dude, they've dominated the league for over 15 years...I've never seen that done...not even the steelers or 9'ers were THIS dominant.

An NFL reporter should report equally on all the teams, not show favoritism towards one, no matter how successful they are. PK is a fan boy who belongs on a Patriots forum.

Even those who used to comment at MMQB gave him a hard time over that. I say "used to" because their comments section has been shut down, lol, and now they use email-only to better control it.

Btw I like MMQB and go over there every day. Sometimes they come up with great articles. The PK obsession with the Patriots even amuses me in a sick kind of way. :)
 

DaveFan'51

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Never heard of John Wooten b4.....It's funny, Randy Moss was one of the first guy that I'd heard about with "off field" issues....Smoking buds....and he was just....it's why I like h/w/s guys at wideout....he and Terrell Owens...but he's a first ballot HOF'er...in my opinion.

Hey man.....King has a right to praise the Patriots....dude, they've dominated the league for over 15 years...I've never seen that done...not even the steelers or 9'ers were THIS dominant.
The Rams are going to be! I just hope I'm around another 15 years to see it!!(y);):D
 

den-the-coach

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Effin King man. "Oh Patriots... Oh Tom Brady... Came back from 28-3 oh ohhh oooohhhhh!!!" FAPFAPFAP.

It sucks, but they keep winning and it won't stop until they do.
 

Rambitious1

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Hey man.....King has a right to praise the Patriots....dude, they've dominated the league for over 15 years...I've never seen that done...not even the steelers or 9'ers were THIS dominant.

But I don't recall either of them cheating like the NE Perps' either. :sneaky:
 

LACHAMP46

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But I don't recall either of them cheating like the NE Perps' either. :sneaky:
It's only cheating

If you get caught...

I'll always wonder, what were those Steeler linemen drinking? I mean...they just seemed so....enhanced....physically.

Not to say our Rams weren't monsters too....lolololol