A good movie...

Just finished watching the movie "Crash" with Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle and other fairly well-known thespians. I thought it was very well done, especially in the context of social commentary. I thought the movie was a very good example for the Butterfly Effect working at its best. I intend to purchase this movie to add to my collection. I have been doing some inward thinking lately and I really want to become the person I want to be. I know who I am and now I feel it is time to become who I want to be. I want to be less overly emotional about things. I want to be much more pleasant and receptive when speaking with people. I want to reduce my anxiety about my job and whether I am going to be fired each and every single day. I need to relax and just do what I can do and not get worked up about things I can't do. I need to have more faith in God. I need to continue to believe that my daughter is ok. I need to stop being so angry with the world and everyone in it. It is not a beginning nor an end, just another step in my journey to be all that I can be.

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Football musings...

Could we be nearing the end of the $40 million dollar rookie quarterback? Not hardly. But I do think we are at the point where, if a quarterback is not drafted in the top five, he isn't drafted at all. Why should a team draft a player that they will have to pay a lot of money just to sit on the bench and, if things go right, not play? I draw this observation from this past weeks signing of Casey Printers by the Kansas City Chiefs. He has been playing in the Canadien Football League and now, with some seasoning is being hired to be Trent Green's backup. In the NFL of today, you can almost bet with 100% accuracy that a backup will see playing time during the season. I find it amazing that we can send 17 year olds to war but they can't earn a living playing football? Why can Tony Parker, point guard for the San Antonio Spurs play professionaly in France at 15, but can't here? I understand the injury aspect, but whether it is high school or NFL Europe, the danger is there. Why are we wasting valuable scholarship money on players that will never finish college when they could bypass that and go to a developmental league, get some seasoning and then jump to the pro's? It would even the playing field somewhat in the college ranks, as it has in college basketball and keep players that have no business in college out of college. I have digressed from the original topic, developing a quarterback. Teams will always take a chance on the next "franchise" quarterback. And thats why we will still see some Ryan Leaf mistakes (I am sure he had loads of talent, just not the mental aspect to be a top quarterback) along with the surefire pick such as Troy Aikmen (Hall of Fame candidate). But there has to be many more Tom Brady's out there, diamonds in the rough just waiting for the chance to play. 96. That is the number of NFL quarterbacks, if each team keeps three on their roster. With championship caliber signal-callers so hard to come by, saturating the development with as many as can be found seems like a good way to find another one. Colleges don't play to develop a pro quarterback, the play to win at their game. We have seen so many times that a great college quarterback does not always make (really, rarely makes) a great pro quarterback (look at Texas Tech). In the win-now mentality of pro sports, we need a place to slowly bring along a quarterback, so that when he is ready, he can step in. The learning curve is too sharp to be throwing rookies into the fire, it takes too long to develop the skills, all the while the rest of the team grows old. I use my beloved Dallas Cowboys as my example. Who is going to take Drew Bledsoe's place in a couple of years? The defense is becoming top-notch, Zimmer will be ready to take over as head coach, the running game is looking good, but the offensive line and quarterback situation is goine to be the achilles heal. By the time a new quarterback is groomed, all the above mentioned parts will be past their prime, or gone via free agency because they will see that without a developed quarterback, they will not win here and will have moved on. Is Jerry Jones going to continue to bring in hired hands to do the quarterbacking? That just won't work. Look at the best teams, they found a young quarterback, built around him, and the team grew up together. Only then, at the end of the growing, did they add a free agent to put them over the top. I use Charles Haley as one very good example. When the team was ready to breakout, he was brought in as the final piece to the puzzle. I cannot stand Terrell Owens, he is so arrogant and his ego is so large he makes me puke, but he did the same for Philadelphia, put them over the top last year. Timing is so important.

Musings and other observations....

I have come to the conclusion that my Dallas Cowboys will not win another Super Bowl as long as Jerry Jones is running the team. I am watching the beginning of the Steelers/Bengals game and I am amazed at the patience shown by the Rooney family. Bill Cowher is still their head coach after, what, 15 years or so? and it just shows that one or even two bad seasons is not a reason to just blow everything up. He has shown time and time again that he knows how to build a winning team. Has he won a Super Bowl? No. He has taken them there once, been oh so close several times and yet the owners understand that it takes so much more than just a coach to win it all. Jerry Jones is so impatient to win another Super Bowl that he is working for the short term instead of the long term. Bill Parcells has a proven track record and has assembled the beginnings of a really good team, mostly on defense and at running back. But what concerns me is the lack of development at quarterback and wide receiver. Even in today's win-now mentality it takes a young quarterback a couple of years to get comfortable and in that vein of thought he needs to work with the same group of receivers to develop a comfort zone. Drew Bledsoe and the current group of receivers, with the exception of Patrick Crayton, are going to be here in a few years. So, is this young defense going to become old and stale by the time we have the offense ready? I am concerned that this will be the case. I know Jerry Jones wants to win now, but if the powers that be were to identify and get their quarterback and receivers this off-season so that they may grow along with this defense, they will be ready in three years to contend for a title. And also find Bill's replacement at coach. Sean Payton it is not, Mike Zimmer it should be. The Cowboys are going to lose Zimmer, if not this year, then by next year unless they make it understood, he will take over very soon for Bill Parcells. This is what I was alluding to at the beginning of this comment: Pittsburg has stayed a steady course with Cowher at the helm, and more years than not they are in the playoffs. Once again, he is set at quarterback for a decade, has a good young defense and running back. The Cowboys came close this year to having a really good year so the expectations will be very high heading into next year. But what happens if they don't make it? Bring in another hired hand at quarterback and wide receiver? Philip Rivers has been wasting away on the San Diego bench for two years. That means more years it will take for him to develop. Let's bring in our quarterback, receiving corps and head coach of the future and let them grow with the young defense and running backs we have now.