If Peyton Played in Philly…
Posted by Johnny Goodtimes on February 8th, 2010
Indulge me for a second as I pretend that the Philadelphia Colts lost to the Saints last night. Here would be the local reaction.
Peyton Manning came up small in a big game…again. Yes, he won one Super Bowl, but that was against Rex Grossman, which hardly counts. And he really wasn’t very good in that game, or that year’s playoffs. He is now 9-9 in the playoffs for his career. If that doesn’t scream pedestrian I don’t know what does. Did you see how much freaking time he had in the pocket last night? He could launched it deep all night with that time he had, and yet he just kept playing dink and dunk. And that final interception was just the icing on the cake. It was a sign that Manning’s time here should be over. It is time to give Curtis Painter the ball and see what he can do behind such a stalwart offensive line. I mean, seriously, he can’t do any worse.
And it’s not that Manning always loses the big ones. It’s that he doesn’t seem to care about the big ones. He’s too busy doing commercials with Justin Timberlake to concentrate on football. Perhaps if he really cared about this team and about this city, he would say, “Hey Justin, sorry, but this year I’m really going to do some serious preparation for the upcoming season.” But that won’t happen.
Another question: why can’t Peyton run the plays that get sent out to the huddle, like every other quarterback in the NFL? This isn’t the 1950s, Otto Graham isn’t calling plays anymore. Peyton changes half the plays at the line. If I was the coach that would drive me nuts. I mean, these guys up in the booth spend their lives determining what plays to run against certain defenses, yet Peyton thinks he knows better after studying the defense for 3 seconds. It is insubordination, if you ask me, and I’d like to see it carried out in some other town. If “Mr. Know It All” was really such a genius at changing plays, would he be 9-9 in the playoffs, with his biggest win against Rex Grossman? I think not. Listen, I’m not a Peyton hater, but I just think that he is past his prime. I think we saw that in last night’s game. And I think it’s time to give the kid a shot.
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February 8th, 2010 at 10:47 am
Hysterical post, JGT. Really.
But there is one major difference between Donovan and Manning. Manning is white. And if you don’t think that would make a difference in the level of criticism, you are mistaken. Why does Ryan Howard get killed when he is in a slump, yet Utley gets a season long pass?
February 8th, 2010 at 10:57 am
Easy: Chase Utley is The Man. Being The Man has its privileges.
February 8th, 2010 at 11:04 am
totally true. but i do believe that manning ought to take a ton of criticism for that pick last night.
February 8th, 2010 at 11:31 am
Nah, I don’t think the race thing has as much to do with it as you think. Reggie White, Jerome Brown, Brian Dawkins, Dr. J, and Maurice Cheeks are all revered in this town, and Andy Reid and Mike Schmidt are not. I think it has a lot more to do with “Philly attitude” than race. If a player or coach doesn’t seem like they want it as bad as the fans do, the fans don’t like them. I’m sure in certain pockets of the city it’s a race thing, but not for the majority of Eagles fans.
February 8th, 2010 at 12:38 pm
Big difference: Manning is studying photos and calling his coaches while on the bench. McNabb is either laughing or staring into space. Oh and Manning can hit a guy in the numbers 10 yards away, McNabb cannot. I’m not a McNabb hater, I just think he is a good QB, not great like the media likes to portray him . . .
February 8th, 2010 at 1:58 pm
JGT, for each guy you mention (and Jerome Brown certainly was not worshipped while alive), I can give you a Randall Cunningham, Dick Allen (especially Allen, who was ostracized for standing up to an out and out racist), and, of course, AI, who despite earning some criticism, took far more because of the R issue.
I will grant you there are those who love their teams and players regardless of race, but Philly was the last major city to integrate its teams and a strain of that racism still exists here.
February 8th, 2010 at 3:13 pm
Well, a strain of racism exists in every Eastern city in the United States. And the Dick Allen thing was 45 years ago, when attitudes in the country were 20 times more racist than they are now. You think a black candidate had a shot of winning the 1964 election? Using the Dick Allen thing to portray contemporary Philadelphia as a racist city is like saying that the Phillies are chokers because of the ‘64 pennant chase. It just doesn’t work. And Allen Iverson did NOT take more heat because of the race. He took heat because he was a lightning rod. Do you honestly think Cole Hamels would get a free pass if he said, “We talkin’ ’bout practice?” and beat down a door with a gun looking for his wife?
February 8th, 2010 at 4:26 pm
Palestra,
This racism excuse is getting so old. It wasn’t racism when Dick Allen skipped a big game with the Mets because he was at the horse track. Is that him standing up for diversity? I’m tired of guys acting childish, classless or in Donovan’s case (aloof) and when they are criticized, they play the race card.
February 8th, 2010 at 4:27 pm
I was actively rooting against Manning last night because of how nauseated I’d become over the course of the past 2 weeks with the media love fest surrounding him. If Manning is the greatest quarterback of all time (the theme of the lead-up to the Super Bowl) then why is he 9-9 in the playoffs? To add to the question, in the history of the NFL has there ever been a game played where a quarterback has enjoyed as much time in the pocket as Manning did last night? That 13-year old kid in Delaware who’s verbally committed to USC could have done as well as Peyton did with the same OL protection.
Manning’s performance last night illustrated 2 things. The first is what a bunch of hyperbolic clowns the NFL-covering media are. A good example of that would be the universal prediction that this Super Bowl was of relatively little interest to the American public. As it turns out it was the most watched SB of all time.
The second thing that came out of last night’s game was proof that so many football orthodoxies are nonsense, most notably the idea that the quarterback is the end-all-be-all position in football. The offensive line is always more important than the quarterback. Always.
If Donovan McNabb or Brett Favre had capped a mediocre playoff career with a pick-6 last night like Manning did, they would have been absolutely raked over the coals. But Manning does it and there’s a merely a peep from the media.
Keep last night’s Super Bowl in mind the next time you’re convinced that McNabb isn’t the answer. Try and think outside the idiotic garbage you get from ESPN and the rest of the donkeys masquerading as experts.
By the way, McNabb was drinking the Kool Aid just like the other clowns. He told Steve Levy on Sportscenter last week that the Colts would win by 17. Morons.
February 8th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
Well, if the clearly wrong call on the onside kick wasn’t made, it likely would have been a rout for the Colts. Give the Saints credit, they made their breaks and forced the key turnover, as well as made the key challenge that decided the game. But the game was very close to being a Colts runaway, and then what would you have been saying. I think this was a 1 in 10 outcome, caused by the coaching.
And whether or not Dick Allen was a gambler and drinker has nothing to do with the virulent racism he faced long prior to that time. I am sick of those who deny racism by angrily asserting that everyone “is playing the race card.” This city has a racist streak right through the ethnic white communities that traditionally have been the bulk of the Eagles and Phillies fan base. To deny it is to deny reality.
February 9th, 2010 at 12:54 am
totally true. I’m sure in certain pockets of the city it’s a race thing, but not for the majority of Eagles fans.