|
Behind The Scoreboard
By Claude Vinson Quarterbacks While
the ladies of the WNBA were trying to navigate their way through the
first rounds of their playoffs, and Tiger Woods was reeling from his
breakup settlement and stumbling through the Barclays, the big boys in
the NFL had their hands full while trying to select the right signal
callers, their backups and trim their rosters before the regular season
starts in about two weeks. As usual, teams were
using the last games of the exhibition season to decide how many
recruits would be around when it was over. Depth charts carry a lot of
weight but the oddsmakers seemed to be interested mainly in the
newly-drafted quarterbacks. The two most often mentioned are Sam
Bradford and Tim Tebow. The former was getting plenty of work running
the offense of the St. Louis Rams while the veteran was nursing a minor
injury. The latter was waiting in the wings and hoping to get his hands
on the pigskin on Sunday when the Denver Broncos faced the Pittsburgh
Steelers. Pittsburgh was also exhibiting a pair
of backups in Dennis Dixon and Byron Leftwich. Dixon is the newcomer.
Head coach Mike Tomlin had stated earlier that all of his quarterbacks
would get in the game. He made good on his promise. Big Ben
Roethlisberger led things off for the first quarter, however, the
Broncos picked up the early lead. Denver was 0-2 for the pre-season and
the Steelers were 2-0. I believe the Broncos prevailed. There
were some other QBs making the news before the pre-season. Of course,
for the last three or four years, Mississippi’s favorite son has always
been the topic of conversation. Favre watchers have probably already
heard that the almost 40-year-old will be back at the Vikings. The
Vikes obviously believe Favre can get them back to the Super Bowl.
There have been other aging, or shall we say really experienced
quarterbacks, calling signals but not having the success that Brett has
had. George Blanda is listed as the oldest player in the annals; he was
still active at 48. Warren Moon, Vinny Testaverde and Len Dawson were
the others going past the 40 mark. There is
always at least one oddity to start the season and this year it has to
do with quarterbacks. The Raiders had hired JaMarcus Russell in the
first year of Lane Kiffin (who stated that he didn’t agree with the
selection), who was fired four months into the season. But the Raiders
brought in Jason Campbell from Washington, who was unhappy being a
Redskin. Campbell was replaced by Donovan McNabb. Now Russell is out of
a job and in trouble with the law, and Jason Campbell injured. Don’t
ask me who keeps records on this last tidbit because I don’t have clue.
Whose jersey is the number one seller to start this season? Does it
belong to the champion Drew Brees of the Saints? No, it is the number
15 worn by Tim Tebow of the Broncos. Wonder if the odds gurus could have seen that coming.
|
