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About half of this article is about the sportswriter Paul Zimmerman. To read the entire article click the link below.
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http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/06/26/dr-z-week-sports-illustrated-nfl-writer-tribute
Welcome to Dr. Z Week
The MMQB kicks off a week-long tribute to Paul Zimmerman, the football writing legend who’s now in an assisted-living facility in New Jersey. Plus more notes on Von Miller, Ben f---ing Affleck and a look at new NFL show
By Peter King
The loss of Tyrann Mathieu before the playoffs is one of the plot points of the new Amazon series on the Cardinals’ 2015 season.
Photo: Norm Hall/Getty Images
One heck of a video concept debuts Friday
Last season, NFL Films embedded with the Arizona Cardinals from the 2015 draft until the last day of the post-season in late January, when Arizona fell to Carolina in the NFC title game. That’s 1,000 hours of footage; 250 player and coaching wires in 18 games and 85 practices; 600 meetings captured on tape; six robotic cameras in team meeting rooms; and head coach Bruce Arians wearing a wire for all 18 games.
This produced eight episodes averaging 53 minutes per show. NFL Films calls it “All or Nothing,” and it will be available beginning Friday at Amazon for downloading. And binge-watching in the Valley of the Sun, I assume.
I watched a few segments over the weekend, and it’s as promised. Remember the poignant loss of Tyrann Mathieu in the closing meaningless minutes of a rout of the Eagles late in the season? There’s some real stuff in here about how devastating injuries are treated by the team—and how teammates react. A couple of days after the injury, and before the surgery,
Mathieu is pedaling on a stationary bike in the team’s training facility, and Carson Palmer sidles up to him on the next bike and begins to talk with him from experience, because he’s had the same injury. He looks at the calendar on his watch and estimate that Mathieu will be able to make it back for, what? “End of [2016 training] camp?” Mathieu nods.
On the sidelines at practice after the injury, teammate Patrick Peterson says: “I feel bad, man. Real bad. I can’t stop thinking about it.”
It feels real, the way teammates would respond to a mate they respect being lost.
One other cool moment: when the Cards signed pass-rusher Dwight Freeney in October to boost the only true weakness on their team. Freeney walks in to meet GM Steve Keim, and the GM says: “I’ve been lucky signing guys with the fountain of youth. Carson [Palmer], Chris Johnson, now you’re the next. You gotta get about 10 sacks. You still bring that spin move?”
“It’s part of my DNA,” Freeney says.
Holiday weekend. Jonesing for football? Not much to do? Not a bad option, especially if you like the NFL Films treatment of big projects. And this is a big project. No team ever has consented to be miked, filmed and followed from the start of the preseason till the end of the playoffs. Cool concept.
* * *
Quotes of the Week
I
“I don’t know what else to say other than my son is a druggie and he needs help. Hopefully he doesn’t die before he comes to his senses. I hate to say it, but I hope he goes to jail. I mean, that would be the best place for him.”
—Paul Manziel, father of Johnny Manziel, to Josina Anderson of ESPN.
II
“Deflategate is the ultimate bull---, f---ing outrage of sports, ever … I talked to football players, pro football players. Across the board, they think it’s bull---- … This is a conspiracy of people working inside the NFL who all come from organizations that Tom Brady whipped their ass for the last 10 or 15 years. These guys worked for the f---ing Jets, the Broncos, now going, ‘Get him, hang him!’ … It’s a f---ing ridiculous smear campaign.”
—Actor Ben Affleck, on the debut of Bill Simmons’ “Any Given Wednesday” show on HBO last week.
III
“I’m not coming back. You ain’t got to worry about that.”
—Retired Detroit wideout Calvin Johnson to Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press.
* * *
Red carpets and posed prospects: The NFL draft today is more glitz than gridiron.
Photo: Kena Krutsinger/Getty Images
Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me
Time between end of 2016 sports seasons and the draft in major sports:
• National Football League: 81 days
• National Hockey League: 12 days
• National Basketball Association: 4 days
• Major League Baseball: 0 days*
* The baseball draft is held in June, in the middle of the baseball season.
If I’m ever commissioner of the NFL, one of the first things on my agenda would be moving the draft to the first week of March. I’d be giving NFL employees their lives back, and I’d be giving every team the chance to build the right way with plenty of time in the off-season to incorporate rookies and free agents into planning for the new season.
That’s right: free agency would start a week or so after the draft and the signing of undrafted college free agents. Teams would fill holes after the draft, not before.
* * *
Nine Things I Think I Think
1. I think the next date that matters in the NFL, as the league heads into the slumber period, is July 15. That’s a Friday. That’s the deadline for teams to sign their free agents to long-term contracts, and that’s the day we’ll find out how much the Denver Broncos truly love Von Miller. With the enmity between Miller and GM John Elway in recent weeks, it won’t surprise me if Elway stands firm on a one-year tag, causing Miller to either play for the franchise number or not play anywhere. The guess here: Deal gets done with a couple hours to spare.
2. I think it’s dangerous to predict Elway’s course of action, though. One year ago, he forced Peyton Manning, who’d thrown more touchdown passes than any quarterback in football over his three Denver seasons, to take a 20 percent pay cut. He will not pay Miller much more than the number he’s convinced Miller’s worth.
3. I think the more time passes without any games being played, the more I fall in like with the Oakland Raiders. Thinking very seriously about vastly overrating them this preseason.
4. I think it’s good to see the NFL get down to the business of finding out the veracity of the Al Jazeera report about PED use among some NFL players. USA Todayreported last week the league would interview the players named in the report, including Clay Matthews and Julius Peppers of the Packers, free agent Mike Neal, and Steelers linebacker James Harrison.
The league claims it has tried since January to interview the players involved, but has been stonewalled, in part because the players union has not cooperated. But now the league plans to interview Neal in the next month, and then the active players when they report to training camp. Good for them. As for Peyton Manning, since he’s retired, the league doesn’t plan to interview him—though for the sake of transparency and full disclosure, it would be a good idea if the league did.
5. I think, if anything, Ben Affleck deflected from the impact of his Deflategate rant by using 18 f-bombs in his answer to Bill Simmons on the debut of “Any Given Wednesday” the other night. First: I maybe get one or two curses from an intelligent person on something he’s strongly opinionated about. But Affleck always struck me as an intelligent man.
Does it help the cause of an intelligent man to use the most offensive curse word in our language 18 times in four minutes trying to make a point? Second: Think of all the media outlets that would have loved to use a soundbite from Affleck (I’m sure some did) but didn’t because of the offensiveness of his diatribe. I don’t get it.
6. I think the smartest thing I read from a player this week, as they scattered to the wind for their five-week break prior to training camp, came from Detroit quarterback Matthew Stafford, who said of the absence of Calvin Johnson in the Lions’ offense: “It’s tougher for defenses. They don’t know who we go to now.” Such a good point. Lost in the retirement of Johnson, and the worrisome take about it by so many Lions’ fans, is that Johnson—while still very good, but starting to decline physically over his last two seasons—naturally took so much of Stafford’s attention every time he dropped to pass.
It’s one thing if Johnson’s consistently healthy and consistently open. But Stafford’s job as quarterback is very simply to see the most open target and hit that target, not to enter a route with a preconceived notion or thought that he has to look hard for Calvin Johnson. It served him well, mostly, and I’m in no way trying to say the Lions won’t miss the incredible production of Johnson. But I believe the loss will allow Stafford to play a different kind of football, a more egalitarian brand with defensive honesty. Detroit will survive as long as Golden Taint, the newly signed Marvin Jones and either Andre Caldwell or one of the newbies can get open, often.
7. I think my initial reaction was Wow, after hearing the Atlanta Journal-Constitution report that Falcons fans have purchased 29,835 personal-seat licenses (used by owners to raise money to fund stadium construction and costs) worth $172.3 million so far. That’s a great contribution to the final product. But in the grand scheme of things, the PSL holders so far have paid for just 10.7 percent of the cost of the $1.5-billion stadium. And the cost could go higher.
8. I think I am thrilled beyond words for Chris Mortensen, continuing to fight Stage 4 throat cancer at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, for winning the Pro Football Writers’ Dick McCann Award for long and meritorious service covering the NFL. He’ll get his plaque in Canton in August.
9. I think June 26 is probably a tad too early for the Eagles to be thinking there’s a good chance Carson Wentz won’t be active on game days this fall, as Jimmy Kempski of PhillyVoice reported over the weekend. Think of that. You’re going to redshirt the second pick in the draft all year behind the immortal Chase Daniel? I’ll believe that when I see it, thanks.
*********************************************************************************************
http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/06/26/dr-z-week-sports-illustrated-nfl-writer-tribute
Welcome to Dr. Z Week
The MMQB kicks off a week-long tribute to Paul Zimmerman, the football writing legend who’s now in an assisted-living facility in New Jersey. Plus more notes on Von Miller, Ben f---ing Affleck and a look at new NFL show
By Peter King
The loss of Tyrann Mathieu before the playoffs is one of the plot points of the new Amazon series on the Cardinals’ 2015 season.
Photo: Norm Hall/Getty Images
One heck of a video concept debuts Friday
Last season, NFL Films embedded with the Arizona Cardinals from the 2015 draft until the last day of the post-season in late January, when Arizona fell to Carolina in the NFC title game. That’s 1,000 hours of footage; 250 player and coaching wires in 18 games and 85 practices; 600 meetings captured on tape; six robotic cameras in team meeting rooms; and head coach Bruce Arians wearing a wire for all 18 games.
This produced eight episodes averaging 53 minutes per show. NFL Films calls it “All or Nothing,” and it will be available beginning Friday at Amazon for downloading. And binge-watching in the Valley of the Sun, I assume.
I watched a few segments over the weekend, and it’s as promised. Remember the poignant loss of Tyrann Mathieu in the closing meaningless minutes of a rout of the Eagles late in the season? There’s some real stuff in here about how devastating injuries are treated by the team—and how teammates react. A couple of days after the injury, and before the surgery,
Mathieu is pedaling on a stationary bike in the team’s training facility, and Carson Palmer sidles up to him on the next bike and begins to talk with him from experience, because he’s had the same injury. He looks at the calendar on his watch and estimate that Mathieu will be able to make it back for, what? “End of [2016 training] camp?” Mathieu nods.
On the sidelines at practice after the injury, teammate Patrick Peterson says: “I feel bad, man. Real bad. I can’t stop thinking about it.”
It feels real, the way teammates would respond to a mate they respect being lost.
One other cool moment: when the Cards signed pass-rusher Dwight Freeney in October to boost the only true weakness on their team. Freeney walks in to meet GM Steve Keim, and the GM says: “I’ve been lucky signing guys with the fountain of youth. Carson [Palmer], Chris Johnson, now you’re the next. You gotta get about 10 sacks. You still bring that spin move?”
“It’s part of my DNA,” Freeney says.
Holiday weekend. Jonesing for football? Not much to do? Not a bad option, especially if you like the NFL Films treatment of big projects. And this is a big project. No team ever has consented to be miked, filmed and followed from the start of the preseason till the end of the playoffs. Cool concept.
* * *
Quotes of the Week
I
“I don’t know what else to say other than my son is a druggie and he needs help. Hopefully he doesn’t die before he comes to his senses. I hate to say it, but I hope he goes to jail. I mean, that would be the best place for him.”
—Paul Manziel, father of Johnny Manziel, to Josina Anderson of ESPN.
II
“Deflategate is the ultimate bull---, f---ing outrage of sports, ever … I talked to football players, pro football players. Across the board, they think it’s bull---- … This is a conspiracy of people working inside the NFL who all come from organizations that Tom Brady whipped their ass for the last 10 or 15 years. These guys worked for the f---ing Jets, the Broncos, now going, ‘Get him, hang him!’ … It’s a f---ing ridiculous smear campaign.”
—Actor Ben Affleck, on the debut of Bill Simmons’ “Any Given Wednesday” show on HBO last week.
III
“I’m not coming back. You ain’t got to worry about that.”
—Retired Detroit wideout Calvin Johnson to Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press.
* * *
Red carpets and posed prospects: The NFL draft today is more glitz than gridiron.
Photo: Kena Krutsinger/Getty Images
Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me
Time between end of 2016 sports seasons and the draft in major sports:
• National Football League: 81 days
• National Hockey League: 12 days
• National Basketball Association: 4 days
• Major League Baseball: 0 days*
* The baseball draft is held in June, in the middle of the baseball season.
If I’m ever commissioner of the NFL, one of the first things on my agenda would be moving the draft to the first week of March. I’d be giving NFL employees their lives back, and I’d be giving every team the chance to build the right way with plenty of time in the off-season to incorporate rookies and free agents into planning for the new season.
That’s right: free agency would start a week or so after the draft and the signing of undrafted college free agents. Teams would fill holes after the draft, not before.
* * *
Nine Things I Think I Think
1. I think the next date that matters in the NFL, as the league heads into the slumber period, is July 15. That’s a Friday. That’s the deadline for teams to sign their free agents to long-term contracts, and that’s the day we’ll find out how much the Denver Broncos truly love Von Miller. With the enmity between Miller and GM John Elway in recent weeks, it won’t surprise me if Elway stands firm on a one-year tag, causing Miller to either play for the franchise number or not play anywhere. The guess here: Deal gets done with a couple hours to spare.
2. I think it’s dangerous to predict Elway’s course of action, though. One year ago, he forced Peyton Manning, who’d thrown more touchdown passes than any quarterback in football over his three Denver seasons, to take a 20 percent pay cut. He will not pay Miller much more than the number he’s convinced Miller’s worth.
3. I think the more time passes without any games being played, the more I fall in like with the Oakland Raiders. Thinking very seriously about vastly overrating them this preseason.
4. I think it’s good to see the NFL get down to the business of finding out the veracity of the Al Jazeera report about PED use among some NFL players. USA Todayreported last week the league would interview the players named in the report, including Clay Matthews and Julius Peppers of the Packers, free agent Mike Neal, and Steelers linebacker James Harrison.
The league claims it has tried since January to interview the players involved, but has been stonewalled, in part because the players union has not cooperated. But now the league plans to interview Neal in the next month, and then the active players when they report to training camp. Good for them. As for Peyton Manning, since he’s retired, the league doesn’t plan to interview him—though for the sake of transparency and full disclosure, it would be a good idea if the league did.
5. I think, if anything, Ben Affleck deflected from the impact of his Deflategate rant by using 18 f-bombs in his answer to Bill Simmons on the debut of “Any Given Wednesday” the other night. First: I maybe get one or two curses from an intelligent person on something he’s strongly opinionated about. But Affleck always struck me as an intelligent man.
Does it help the cause of an intelligent man to use the most offensive curse word in our language 18 times in four minutes trying to make a point? Second: Think of all the media outlets that would have loved to use a soundbite from Affleck (I’m sure some did) but didn’t because of the offensiveness of his diatribe. I don’t get it.
6. I think the smartest thing I read from a player this week, as they scattered to the wind for their five-week break prior to training camp, came from Detroit quarterback Matthew Stafford, who said of the absence of Calvin Johnson in the Lions’ offense: “It’s tougher for defenses. They don’t know who we go to now.” Such a good point. Lost in the retirement of Johnson, and the worrisome take about it by so many Lions’ fans, is that Johnson—while still very good, but starting to decline physically over his last two seasons—naturally took so much of Stafford’s attention every time he dropped to pass.
It’s one thing if Johnson’s consistently healthy and consistently open. But Stafford’s job as quarterback is very simply to see the most open target and hit that target, not to enter a route with a preconceived notion or thought that he has to look hard for Calvin Johnson. It served him well, mostly, and I’m in no way trying to say the Lions won’t miss the incredible production of Johnson. But I believe the loss will allow Stafford to play a different kind of football, a more egalitarian brand with defensive honesty. Detroit will survive as long as Golden Taint, the newly signed Marvin Jones and either Andre Caldwell or one of the newbies can get open, often.
7. I think my initial reaction was Wow, after hearing the Atlanta Journal-Constitution report that Falcons fans have purchased 29,835 personal-seat licenses (used by owners to raise money to fund stadium construction and costs) worth $172.3 million so far. That’s a great contribution to the final product. But in the grand scheme of things, the PSL holders so far have paid for just 10.7 percent of the cost of the $1.5-billion stadium. And the cost could go higher.
8. I think I am thrilled beyond words for Chris Mortensen, continuing to fight Stage 4 throat cancer at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, for winning the Pro Football Writers’ Dick McCann Award for long and meritorious service covering the NFL. He’ll get his plaque in Canton in August.
9. I think June 26 is probably a tad too early for the Eagles to be thinking there’s a good chance Carson Wentz won’t be active on game days this fall, as Jimmy Kempski of PhillyVoice reported over the weekend. Think of that. You’re going to redshirt the second pick in the draft all year behind the immortal Chase Daniel? I’ll believe that when I see it, thanks.
