What if there was a steroid era in football

August 5th, 2010 | By boadurichard

Alex Rodriguez hit his historic 600th homerun yesterday. Or was it historic? The steroids era has tainted baseball and its monumental records. People are debating whether this “great” player or that “great” player deserve to be in the Baseball Hall of Fame etc. And it got me to thinking what if football had a steroids era, what would it look like?

People say steroids were rampant in the NFL during the 60’s and them came back again in the 80’s. To be honest, I can’t tell. Steroids are supposed to make the players better and if the players are better then their stats are better. Well, the numbers in the NFL have gotten better over time while steroid use has decreased and been virtually non-existent. I’m confident when I say no one in the NFL is juicing, but what if they were? The steroids era in baseball is roughly from 1992 – 2007. What if football had rampant steroid use during this time period?

Now before I really go in, in no way shape or form am I implicating or suggesting anyone used steroids. But it’d be interesting to see what the NFL would have looked like and refreshing to know that this great sport never really had a serious rash of problems with steroids as baseball had.

Records

Brett Favre has he most consecutive starts of any quarterback at 285 for the regular season and 309 including playoffs. You could say that Favre is on steroids given his remarkable play at his age and never really being injured. Now, I’m about 150% positive that Brett Favre isn’t nor has he ever been on steroids. Look at his one year in New York, his bicep turned on him. Look at him now, he hurt his ankle seven months ago and it’s still not healed and if he was on roids, he’d be good by now. I think if he was, he wouldn’t have the record for consecutive starts that he has now because for as hard as this guy throws the ball, he would have thrown his arm out by now.

When they were in use, steroids were big amongst offensive and defensive lineman. Jose Canseco was the leader of the steroid revolution in the 90s, and most people associated with him got on the bandwagon. What if there was an influential NFL offensive lineman with Canseco’s star power to get the other four lineman on board with him. The passing game might not be where it is today, because the running game would be so dominant. Think about the Nebraska Cornhusker mid-90s option offense. If their o-line was roided up, they might have broken the Oklahoma Sooners 47 consecutive winning streak record. Who’s to say that if Barry Sanders Detroit Lion offensive line or Emmitt Smith’s o-line were on roids that they wouldn’t be chasing Walter Payton’s all-time rushing record in the same year reminiscent of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa chasing Roger Maris’ homerun record in 1998?

There have been several insanely good wideouts in football, and they’ve reached the milestones they’ve reached off hard work and God-given ability. Flipper Anderson set the single game reception yard record with 336 yards in 1989. Flipper Anderson is no Hall of Famer, good wideout that had a great game. Let’s say steroids kicked and say in 1994 an all-world receiver emerged. He’d uncover-able literally, drawing triple team coverage and even out running that. If he ever did get injured, he’d heal fast with the help of steroids. Jerry Rice’s records could be in danger.

You can easily use your imagination to think of an unblockable DE. Goodbye Derrick Thomas’s single game sack record, Bruce Smith’s all-time sack record, and Michael Strahan’s single season sack record.

I could go on and on with the records that would be tainted but you get my drift.

While I do think a few players would be monsters on the field, football is a game of leverage, change of direction, and instincts. Steroids obviously would have hurt the game more than they would have helped it. I think there’d be a rash of more injuries. Sure you’d have players that could power clean a Chevy pickup but many of them would have no hips. A lot of them would have no knee ligaments either, especially if there was a rash of steroid use mixed with the astroturf fields.

The worst thing a steroid era in football would have done would have been to the future of the game. High school athletes would have been looking up to these college and NFL athletes on roids and followed suit. Doing so would have destroyed their bodies long before they would have even been developed. The game wouldn’t be as fast as it is now. There’d be no need for the high octane spread offenses. The emergence of pure speed on the defensive side of the ball might have never taken place either. Bottom line, if football ever had a steroid era it might have done away with the game. We already have people vowing never to let their kids play football with all the concussion issues the game has, if steroids had ran wild for fifteen years as it did in baseball our great football athletes might be playing other sports now. Percy Harvin might be a baseball player, Sam Bradford may have been a star golfer, and we might not know who Tim Tebow ever was because I can’t see him playing anything other than football.

Thank God there are no steroids in football. None, that we know of at least. While we watch our favorite players and teams bring the wood this fall let’s take out a minute to knock on wood as well that cheating in the form of steroids doesn’t taint the CURRENT American pastime as it did to the FORMER American pastime.

That’s all I got,

Ricky Writer

Jimmy vs. Sammy

April 1st, 2010 | By boadurichard

There’s no denying that the man under center is either going to make or break your team. The top two quarterbacks going into this month’s draft are Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford and Notre Dame’s Jimmy Clausen. Who would you take if you had to pick one?

Sam Bradford

Sam Bradford won the Heisman trophy in 2008 and led his Sooners to the National Championship game that same year. In his career, he tossed 88 tds with only 16 picks, completing 65% of his passes and throwing for 8,327 yards.
Vitals: 6′4″ 236 lbs.
Accuracy: On point
Arm Strength: Strong Enough
Leadership: Leads by example
Mobility: Can avoid the rush and keep plays alive
Winner: I’m a believer

Pros: Big, tall and above average athleticism. Pinpoint accuracy. Performed well against top flight competition under lots of pressure. He makes quick decisions with the ball. Bradford went 23-5 in his time as the Sooners starting QB.

Cons: Ran a spread offense and rarely took snaps under center. Although he’s put on weight he’s seen as injury prone.

Overall: It will take Bradford some time to adjust league like it does all NFL rookies. Hopefully he lands in the right situation, which is not the Rams. If he lands with the Redskins and Mike Shanahan he’s good to go. I really worry that he could become the next Todd Blackledge and not the next Carson Palmer because of the spread offense he ran in college.

Jimmy Clausen

Clausen comes from a quarterback family with both of his older brothers playing in college. He was all world coming out of high school. I didn’t give him any love his first two years and thought he was overrated. I took another look at the tape and just realized he was pretty good and just didn’t have the supporting cast on offense or defense. Clausen flourished in his last year with the Fighting Irish throwing for 3,722 yards, a 69% completion rating, tossing 28 tds and only 4 picks.

Vitals: 6′2″ 222 lbs.
Accuracy: Uber
Arm Strength: Strong Enough
Leadership: Questionable, he’s a cocky sun of a gun though and I like it!
Mobility: Mobile enough
Winner: Not sold, but the kid has moxie

Pros: Clausen played in a pro style offense under a pro style coach/offensive coordinator for three years. He’s NFL ready. He lead his team with no defensive help and a non existent running game. His deep ball looks gorgeous!

Cons: Word on the street is that he’s a rich punk. He’s not a leader in the huddle. Too many off the field distractions.

Overall: I like Clausen, a lot! The cons don’t bother me, he’s 22 years old, what do you really expect. The fact that he’s NFL ready and been trained by Charlie Weis in invaluable.

Who am I picking?!?!?!

Clausen. Yes, I said it. I’m Sooner born and Sooner bred. I’m a huge Bradford fan. I was a Clausen doubter for his first two years. He won me over this year after I took a step back and looked at his predicament. He’s NFL ready, he threw 28 tds and only 4 picks in a pro style offense often times playing from behind. Now, I know Notre Dame’s competition was not on the Big 12 level of Bradford’s, but the pro-style offense of Charlie Weis is what I’m banking on with Clausen.

That’s all I got,

Ricky Writer

Wednesday Football Wonderings….

November 18th, 2009 | By boadurichard

Yo what’s good. I’m going to run down a list of things that are still on my mind two days after the last week of football was played. Don’t worry next article will be about upcoming games this weekend.

First things is this, please get off of Bill Belichick’s back. He made the call point blank, bottom line. This man has three Super Bowl rings and should have had a fourth. He’s made countless risks before that have worked out just fine. In reality, he got a really bad spot. The only two bad decisions he made was calling a timeout before deciding to go for it on 4th and 2 giving the Colts a chance to get prepared for the play. The second mistake was not blitzing Peyton Manning after they didn’t get the didn’t get the conversion. I’d rather him blitz Manning and get burned early for the TD so they’ll have time to score rather than later with virtually no time left on the clock.

Maurice Jones-Drew’s coach influenced decision to not score the touchdown at the end of the game was a bad decision. They were down. Please stop saying it was a smart decision like Brian Westbrook made a few weeks ago. It was not, the Eagles were winning that game, the Jaguars were not winning. It is too big of a risk. The only reason Belichick gets a pass because he’s won three out of four Super Bowls in one decade.

Bob Stoops to Notre Dame? I don’t see it happening. I really don’t. He’s damn near a legend in Oklahoma. Granted, he’s not being fully appreciated as he once was, but he’s been in this position before in 2005 when they went 8-4. He’ll bounce back, I mean hell, look at all the injuries he’s had to deal with this season.

Now, these Mike Shanahan to the Chicago Bears rumors sound legit. They signed Jay Cutler to way too much money and gave up too much to get him last Summer, so Cutler is not going anywhere. Someone will be punished for all these loses the Bears are suffering. If it’s not the GM then it’s going to be head coach, Lovie Smith. Shanahan makes sense. Cutler played his best football for Shanahan in Denver last season throwing for over 4,500 yards and 25 TDs.

Why does this college football season suck so much? I knew something was up when highly touted true freshman Andre DeBose wasn’t going to play this year for Florida because of a hamstring injury, that was my omen. There are no clear cut stars. Jahvid Best was on his way, but his offensive line stopped blocking for him. Colt McCoy’s thrown too many interceptions. Jevan Snead is not who we thought he was. Tim Tebow has no one to throw the ball too. Jimmy Clausen plays for a Notre Dame team that has no defense, and Sam Bradford was done the first game. Cincinnati is undefeated and Mardy Gilyard is playing his ass off, why is he not getting any love. Yes C.J. Spiller is playing on a mediocre Clemson team, but he is by far the best player in the country and he should get some Heisman love as well. If only TCU or Boise State had a star, or Cincinnati marketing Mardy Gilyard.

LaGarrette Blount was reinstated to Oregon last week. Although he didn’t play, it was nice for his coach Chip Kelly to reinstate Blount. Now my confusion is this, Lane Kiffin boots Michael Edwards and Nu’Keese Richardson off the team for their role in an alleged attempted robbery with a pellet gun. It is similar to the Maurice Clarrett situation a few years back. Kelly didn’t ban Blount from the program and kick him off the team, he rehabilitated him. I wonder how Clarrett would have turned out if he had been given the opportunity to be rehabilitated and not left virtually naked in Columbus by Ohio State. I’m not condoning Clarrett’s actions, but you wonder how he would have turned out to be honest. I wonder what will happen with Richardson and Edwards. Both are only true freshman. Someone in the country will pick these two kids up. Kiffin’s reasons were that it would be hard for him to go into homes on recruiting trips and tell parents that their sons would be safe at Tennessee when he has players on the team robbing people. It is a very true statement from Kiffin, but I wonder what the coach that signs these two kids will say when he visits potential recruits. Do these kids get any slack for it only being a pellet gun? I’m not saying give them any, I’m just wondering because I am not a lawyer. Anyway, I’d love to hear your thoughts on what you think.

Last thing on my mind is the BCS rankings. Are they even necessary. BCS comes out in Week 7. I think we should push it back to Week 9, and start letting the AP and Coaches start voting at week 6. It usually takes about six weeks for a team’s true character to show. We can’t do away with the BCS anytime soon, so why not control the most important thing which is the rankings. Where a team starts in the preseason rankings is the most vital component of the BCS rankings if you ask me. Let’s be honest, say TCU didn’t start out #17 in the preseason polls, and they were not going to be ranked until week 6, I am positive that some voter would rank TCU better than Florida right now. Honestly, the BCS doesn’t screw teams, (please don’t say Texas got screwed by the BCS, Texas got screwed by its own conference three way division tie breaker rules) the voters and polls screw teams. So we might as well do away with the polls until mid-season. Sound good? Great. Thanks for listening.

That’s All I got,

Richard Boadu

Big games this weekend and other thoughts

September 30th, 2009 | By boadurichard

College

Oklahoma Sooners vs. Miami Hurricanes

Welcome back to the 80’s. I wonder if Barry and Jimmy will be on the sidelines for this one. These two had so many memorable battles in the past that all of the former warriors come out when these two hook up. They should have got together in the 2000 National Championship game, but the BCS reared it’s stupid head and got in the way. They last met in 2007, OU put a tornado of a whipping to the Canes 51-13 in Norman.

Things are different this time around. Is Bradford going to play or not? How mad are the Canes from being embarrassed in Blacksburg last weekend? The Canes looked be to be “back” to their old ways until VA Tech and the rain calmed the Hurricanes.

The game will come down to what it does in most cases, the trenches. Can Miami’s offensive line stop the Sooners great defensive line? Can the Sooners young offensive line stop Marcus Fortson, Sean Spence and Colin McCarthy all three of which have been playing outstanding.

Jacory Harris will find holes in the Sooners zone as did BYU. I don’t expect Javarris James and Graig Cooper to do much against OU’s front seven. The Canes defense has been a bit inconsistent, outside of their linebackers. They got lit up against Florida State, but came out with a win and Georgia Tech was able to put up 17 points against them. VA Tech’s offense only had 24 points.

OU’ defense is coming off of two straight shut out games. Although they were to Idaho State and Tulsa. Tulsa isn’t too shabby, they averaged 45.7 points going into their game against the Sooners. This will definitely be the most athletic team the Sooners will face this year other than Texas, and Miami’s receivers and tight ends are tall and explosive.

Oklahoma’s offense is looking good, but once again it’s coming against sub par competition, and I quite personally think this defense will be faster than the Texas defense they will face later in the year. Landry Jones has looked good when he gets a millisecond to throw the ball and makes a quick decision. Vigrinia Tech showed the Miami is leaving a lot of running lanes open and their secondary showed that they don’t like to tackle.

The X factor will be whether or not Demarco Muarry and Chris Brown can make a big play and whether or not Miami’s offensive line will give Jacory enough time to sustain 3rd down conversions. I give the advantage to Demarco and Chris.

If Sam plays, it’s a two touchdown win. Yes, after being out three weeks and having a less than 100% shoulder, Sam Bradford makes that much of a difference. But if Landry plays as I am expecting I give the advantage to the Sooners because of their defense, 31-28 in a close one.

USC vs. California

Both teams are still good, but they caught looking ahead of the schedule this past weekend. As USC didn’t win as impressively as they should have against Washington State and well you know Oregon throttled Cal last weekend.

USC is going to have to cope with losing their emotional leader, Stafon Johnson, this past Monday in a freak weightlifting incident. Let’s face it, this is not the most dominating USC team we’ve seen in recent years and they struggled with a Washington Husky team that is not as bad as advertised. I’m not sure if Taylor Mays is going to play or not, but he will make a big difference impacting the 8-man boxes that the Trojans will give the Bears on Saturday.

For Cal it’s simple. Their defense is not bad, and just happened to get Oregon as they hit their stride offensively. I do worry about their struggle with Minnesota a few weeks ago. Kevin Riley has to step up and make big plays, that’s the bottom line. The box will be stacked and the game will be on him. He didn’t show he can win a game last week, maybe this one will be different.

I don’t trust Coach Tedford in big games or in the middle of a season where his teams always fold. I’m taking USC 35-24 in this one. Jahvid Best will go off though even if the Men of Troy stack 8 and 9 men in the box.

PS – Watch out for the match up between Damien Williams and Syd’Quan Thompson. I can’t call who is going to have the better night, but it will be fun to watch.

LSU vs. Georgia

I’ll take LSU. I just don’t think Georgia has the firepower to overcome the LSU defense. Not saying LSU is going to light up the scoreboard, but look for Richard Jefferson to have a solid night and Brandon Lafell to go off in this low scoring affair. Heck, I could be wrong and this could turn into an air war like the UGA and South Carolina game a few weeks back.

Auburn vs. Tennessee

I don’t care who wins.  I just want to watch Onterrio McCalebb, next season’s most exciting player(Andre Debose might have something to say about that though) run all over the Vols. If you have not seen this kid run, go to your nearest YouTube address, grab a seat, butterless popcorn, and a profanity sensor!

NFL

There is only one game you need to worry about.

Packers vs. Vikings

Brett faces his old team and excels. Aaron Rodgers presses and nutts up. Adrian Peterson plays like Adrian Peterson.

The Pack will not be able to stop Peterson which will open up Favre’s game.I don’t think the Vikings will be able to stop Rodger though either, who has been balling lately. Antoine Winfield and Charles Woodson will both show their asses (meaning play very well). Look for a shootout between predecessor and successor. Bright lights and big stages are normally kind to Brett Favre and I don’t see this one being any different.

High School

Byrnes (S.C.) vs. St. Thomas Aquinas (Ft. Lauderdale, FL)

I don’t know too much about high school football other than 3+ star recruits and the ESPN top 50 teams. I do know that Aquinas is #1 in the country and Byrnes is #2 so this should be a great game. For more info, I called on the powers that be, ESPN/Scout Inc for more info.

By JC Shurburtt
Scouts Inc.
Archive

St. Thomas Aquinas

[+] Enlarge

Tom Hauck for ESPN.comIt would be an upset if Lamarcus Joyner doesn’t end up at FSU.

Lamarcus Joyner, CB: Florida State, Ohio State and Florida are Joyner’s top three — and the three schools with a shot at him. The Seminoles are the heavy favorite and have been the team to beat for some time. Unless there is a serious collapse in Tallahassee, expect him to end up there. The Buckeyes would be right behind the Noles, however. And you can never count out the Gators.

Cody Riggs, CB: Riggs is expected to end up at either Florida or Georgia. The Gators have the inside track on the ESPNU 150 prospect, but the Bulldogs have done an excellent job, as well.

Keion Payne, CB: Look out for Miami in the race for Payne’s services. The Hurricanes always sign their share of prospects out of Broward. If they land Payne, he’s just another talented player to add to Randy Shannon’s program.

Brandon Linder, OL: Miami also is the team to beat for Linder, who is sort of under-the-radar given his talented skill-position teammates. The Hurricanes have had the inside track for some time.

Giovanni Bernard, RB: If I had to guess the school that has the best shot at landing Bernard, it would have to be Florida State, just looking at the running back recruiting boards of all the schools. But the reality is, Bernard could end up anywhere. His brother played at Oregon State.

St. Thomas Aquinas’ committed players: Kicker Michael Palardy (Tennessee)

Byrnes

Marcus Lattimore, RB: South Carolina has a great shot here, but Auburn, Florida State, Georgia, North Carolina, Oregon and Penn State also are in the mix. Lattimore has had great things to say about every school he has shown interest in.

Nick Jones, WR: The in-state Gamecocks and Michigan have made offers to the speedy Jones. Penn State, Auburn and North Carolina all have shown interest. Chances are Jones will stay in-state when all is said and done.

Torian Richardson, WR: Richardson holds scholarship offers from Mississippi State, Syracuse, Tulane, East Carolina, Kansas State, Rutgers and Louisville. Right now, the Bulldogs, who signed Rico Sanders out of Byrnes last year, and the Scarlet Knights, who have quarterback Chas Dodd committed, seem to make the most sense.

Jazz King, WR: King claims offers from Ole Miss, Kansas and Central Florida. Of the three, the Rebels make the most sense in terms of his fitting into their scheme and using his speed to make plays in that system.

Byrnes’ committed players: ESPNU 150 prospects DE Corey Miller and DT Brandon Willis (both Tennessee).

PS – This is super random. But Chad Johnson and Larry Fitzgerald are two of my favorite receivers but I cant stand their face masks. I just cant.

That’s All I got,

Ricky Writer, out signing.

Monday Morning Cornerback: Week 1

September 21st, 2009 | By boadurichard

Well, the good thing is that football nuts like me can crawl into our caves, homes, sports bars, arenas, etc and not run a muck causing chaos within society. NFL gets under way next week, but college football, which in my mind is way better got under way this week.

Biggest news/Biggest shocker: #3 Oklahoma loses to #20 BYU

Sam Bradford sprained his shoulder and was hurt at the end of the second quarter. The score was only 7-7 at the time of Bradford’s departure. The Sooners struggled all day long to move the ball. The offensive line with four new starters sucks right now, and hopefully they get better for Bradford’s sake. They had 7 holding and false start penalties. The Sooners’ defense was okay. They held BYU’s high powered offense to only 14 points, but allowed too many yards in the passing game especially late in the game.

The case can be made that if Bradford was in the game, the Sooners’ would have pulled it out, which is probably so, but line play needs to be fixed as soon as possible. I understand the coaching staff’s reservations with the o-line, but they never turned Bradford loose. They played as if he was a true freshman and not a Heisman trophy winner. It’s typical of Sooner coaches to nutt up, but we normally see it in big games and not this early in the season. The Sooners have got to get it together if they want to get back to a national championship game.

Best Game: Miami vs. #18 FSU

This game doesn’t have the same flair that it once had but the ghosts of Hurricanes and Seminoles past were exorcised for this game. The last game of a great football weekend was easily the best. Two young and uber athletic teams put up 72 points combined with five lead changes. The score seems like the defenses took the night off, but both defenses played well causing two turnovers a piece, it’s just that the offenses out performed everyone’s expectations.
Both young quarterbacks looked great. FSU’s Christian Ponder should have been the hero leading his team down the field at the end of the game. Ponder was one pass away from being a South Florida heartbreaker had it not been for a dropped pass in the endzone. Jacory Harris’ veins look like a snake’s belly that just swallowed a rat. There are huge chunks of crushed ice in Harris’ veins. He came up big at the end of the game, and threw for a Canes record 386 yards on 34 attempts for 21 completions and 2 td strikes.

The road does not get any easier for these two teams. Miami will not be able to breathe until they play Florida A & M on October 10th. Before then, they will play 14th Georgia Tech at home, travel to Blacksburg to play #13th VA Tech, and come back home to face #12 Oklahoma. I love the guts of Coach Shannon for scheduling such a tough schedule, but I also question his sanity. FSU has to worry about #7 BYU in two weeks.

Either way, we know Florida is putting work, and it looks like the old 90s will be back as the top three Florida schools rise to prominence once again.

Quick Cuts and Jukes

- I think several members of the Boise State football team are cowards for letting Byron Hout get knocked out and not doing anything about it.

- OU’s offensive line needs a lot of help and the coaches need to relax and let loose.

- The Bama/VA Tech games wasn’t as much of a defensive bore as I thought it would be. Did anyone notice Tay Cody’s pure dominance?

- OSU almost lost to Navy. Nope not Oregon State. No, Oklahoma State played Georgia this week. I mean the Ohio State Buckeyes almost lost to the Naval Academy, 27 – 31.

- I have no clue how Josh Cox can throw a ball too high for A.J. Green.

- The LSU vs. Washington game was a really good game. I wonder if Jake Locker played for Florida how good he’d be. Jordan Jefferson is going to be nice and LSU’s wideouts remind of Ike Hilliard an Riedel Anthony. Chris Polk looks icey in her jersey and even colder on the field.

- Jevan Snead didn’t look like the 1st team All-American QB I selected at the start of the season. I hope he gets it together for both of our sakes.

- I applaud teams with the guts to play top tier competition in week 1 given that college football has no preseason to work out kinks in their game.

That’s all I got,

Ricky Writer