Four Year Old Kid Runs 40 Miles
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/05/02/young.runner.ap/index.html
A FOUR YEAR OLD KID RAN 40 FRIGGIN' MILES!
This is definitely one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. Since it is vaguely sports related, I decided that it needs to go on this blog.
A FOUR YEAR OLD KID RAN 40 FRIGGIN' MILES!
This is definitely one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. Since it is vaguely sports related, I decided that it needs to go on this blog.
posted by AdmiralLando at 10:13 PM
2 Comments:
Welcome to the blog, "Willie"...I was wondering when you were going to show up and defend Vince Young. 'Bout time. ( :
As much as I hate to say it, I have to stand by my call on Vince. First off, notice that I didn't mention the Wonderlic nonsense. Honestly, I'm not entirely clear what Vince's eventual score was after all the dust cleared. They called him at a 6 at one point. Then I heard 16. He might have retested and scored a 40 for all I know. I don't put a lot of stock in Wonderlic scores. My SAT's and LSAT's weren't that great either, but that doesn't mean much now.
So, I agree that Wonderlic doesn't have a lot to do with success in the NFL. Intelligence, however, does. This is slightly more true at the QB position, but there's something to be said for intelligence no matter what position you play. Al Davis has an affinity for athletic ability and a tendency to overlook stupidity, and that hasn't served him very well in terms of bringing in good personnel. As a result, the Raiders are a losing team; maybe they can outrun their opponents, but the little yellow flag always brings them right back.
You compared Vince Young to three guys who I regard as three of the top 10 QB's of all time: McNair, McNabb, and Cunningham. All three spent the majority of their careers with virtually no talent around them (except Terrell Owens, but that's another story altogether). Nonetheless, all three ran extremely productive offenses, and all three would be wearing rings right now if they played on a decent team.
Bottom line -- McNabb, McNair, and Cunningham were great QB's. Regardless of what the Wonderlic may or may not have said about any of them, however, I don't think any of them were playing with the sort of mental deficiency that Vince-sanity has.
First off, Vince Young refers to himself as "Vince." "Vince don't have time for jibba jabba!" Vince pities the fool who doesn't pick him on draft day. That alone would cause me not to draft him.
As far as the comparisons...
McNabb's dumbed down college offense was designed to fully exploit the talent they had, not out of necessity. McNabb clearly could have ran any sort of offense he wanted. Having the sort of receiving talent that was available to him at the 'Cuse certainly didn't hurt, but McNabb was a guy who could truly do it all, and to some degree he still is. They ran the O they ran at Syracuse to exploit talent and compensate for weaknesses at the other positions. There's no sense in letting McNabb get hammered in the pocket when he can run.
Cunningham might have had a low Wonderlic score, but he always showed outstanding decision making skills on the field. I'm not old enough to remember Cunningham in college, so I can't really speak to that...but in the pros, he was relying on a lot more than just instinct and poise.
The comparisons to McNair are inevitable, of course, because Vince Young is apparently being groomed as the heir to McNair...but I don't think the similarities extend much further. For example, I don't think that anyone thinks for a second that Vince Young could lead an offense with the type of injuries that McNair had. Athleticism is a luxury for McNair, but he can play with the best of them without it. Vince Young needs his athleticism, even more than Vick. If he's going to take a beating the way that McNair did (and there's no reason to think otherwise), even if he does turn out to be a worthwhile QB, he won't last long.
I definitely agree that Vince has ice water running through his veins. He has definitely played at a high level and not felt the pressure. His teammates and coach from Texas speak highly of his leadership skills. However, at the end of the day, Mack Brown, for all the respect he had for Vince, didn't trust him to run a traditional offense. Once Vince grew an arm (watch tape of him prior to 2005...the kid couldn't throw a football to save his life), Texas could have benefitted from running some plays with Vince behind center. It would have bolstered a running game that was already pretty good. Mack Brown didn't trust him to do it. I don't think Jeff Fisher or Norm Chow do either. (That's part of the reason they'll both be employed elsewhere by 2007).
I think we'll have to agree to disagree on Vince. Maybe in the right place with the right people around him, someone could have designed an offense that would work for Vince and hold water in the NFL. Maybe something like what Atlanta is doing, except hopefully better. It's not happening in Tennessee.
One thing I said that I will take back, however, is that he might never start a game. No way that's happening. Vince will get his shot...and for all the problems that I see with him, he definitely is a winner, and that counts for something. Maybe he'll find a way...but I'm not holding my breath, and I certainly wouldn't have used a top 3 pick to find out.
The other point that needs to be addressed is the comparison of Leinart to Ken Dorsey. Come on. Dorsey was undersized, had a weak arm, and although he always won at Miami, that was never really his team. Dorsey does not have Leinart's poise, does not have his killer instinct, does not have his physical capabilities, and does not have a chance to succeed in the NFL, regardless of the talent you put around him or the system you place him in. You admit that Leinart is going to look pretty good with the Cards and all of their young talent at WR...do you think Ken Dorsey would look that good? I think he'd look a lot like Josh McCown, except worse.
I don't think of Leinart as a "cerebral" QB...he is certainly bright enough to grasp a complex offensive scheme and make good decisions, but he's far from a genius. He might be "cerebral" relative to a Vince Young, but no more than a guy like Favre (who is far from a rocket scientist), and not nearly as much as a Peyton Manning, or even a Phillip Rivers.
Leinart isn't going to be holding a clipboard for long. He may be the only QB in this year's college class with more swagger and charisma than Vince Young...but, unlike Vince, Hollywood Matt is going to have a relatively seamless transition from college to pro ball. He'll need to adjust to better quality defenses (though, in the NFC West, not that much better), and he'll make a mistake here and there (he may have to learn the hard way to put more zip on the 10 yard out route), but he is one of the few people who could make me think that the Arizona Cardinals could be a contender in a few years. Not with Young, not with Cutler, and certainly not with Kurt Warner...but with Matt Leinart.
Ultimately, I agree that it doesn't take a genius to be a successful NFL QB. One need only mention Terry Bradshaw to make that point. However, there is a certain threshold of intelligence necessary, and I don't think Vince is there. He is going to have to reinvent himself to make an impact on the NFL level, and I just don't see it. Sorry Vince. No soup commercial for you.
Yeah, we'll see about Vince. Honestly, I hope he proves me wrong, and I know that he's probably facing criticism that he most likely wouldn't have to deal with were he not Texan and black (and probably more the latter than the former)...but I feel like, in this case, the criticism is warranted, regardless of how unwarranted it may have been with respect to some guys in the past.
My basis for comment on his intellect is partially on his speech (but not "diction"...note that I listed Peyton Manning as a "cerebral" QB, even though he talks like a hillbilly), partially on the fact that he wasn't allowed to operate out of a real offense in college (I don't buy that this was to exploit his talent...despite popular belief, Vince Young was not the only talented member of that Texas offense, and the front line would have protected him well enough to make plays with his legs from pocket or roll-out pass plays), and partially based on the general theory that where there's smoke, there's fire (though I recognize that reports of "Vince is stupid" are probably exaggerated based on various biases, most of which are both untrue and unfair, the fact that some may reach a conclusion through flawed reasoning doesn't necessarily make the conclusion incorrect, nor does it make the opposite conclusion correct).
Also, note that most of your defense of Vince has not consisted of "Vince isn't stupid." It has consisted of "Vince doesn't have to be smart to be a good QB." So, the way I see it, the difference of opinion is really not about Vince's intelligence, but whether or not that intelligence matters. I think it does.
Part of my problem with Vince actually was my memory of the 04-05 Rose Bowl. What I saw was an extremely athletic kid compensating for his inability to make good decisions throwing the ball (not to mention his inability to throw the ball particularly well) with his outstanding athleticism. The arm got a lot better by 05-06, but he was still getting by with his ability to run away from trouble. I think trouble's going to catch him at the next level.
I largely agree with what you said about Bush, except with the caveat that his shot at being Faulk is about 2%, and his shot at being Metcalf is about 98%. Given the recent acquisition of Drew Brees, Reggie Bush will give the Saints a second option on offense: (1) Hand the ball to Deuce; (2) Hand the ball to Reggie.
LenDale White, on the other hand, has a bright future in the NFL...so long as he doesn't go out and attain the HIV virus. ( :
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