A Sidebar to the NFL, If I Might

So, a little background before I get going here...

My wife graduated from the University of Oregon in June of 2001. Therefore, she's a big stinkin' Joey Harrington fan (surprise). I mean, pictures, stories, jerseys, obsession...yeah. Fun for me. Of course, I had the (mis)fortune of meeting her just a week or two short of the Fiesta Bowl encounter between the Oregon Ducks and - yup - our CU Buffaloes. That game came on the heels of our victorious encounter with the Texas Longhorns in the Big XII Championship...and we freakin' choked on the heels of Onterrio Smith and Joey Harrington, who, in tandem, picked us apart like vultures feasting on the remains of some half-decomposed roadkill sitting on I-70 somewhere near the Kansas border in June. I talked SERIOUS TRASH about that game...and ended up eating what the vulture left behind for dinner.

Anyway...closer to the point...so the football season ended with Oregon at #2 and CU with their tails between their legs. Harrington goes on to become the supposed savior to the PATHETIC Lions (sorry, I'm a Vikes fan - no love for the "Fire Millen" crowd) that sucked horribly before AND after he arrived. My wife and I got engaged and married...and spent the next 4 seasons hearing about how Harrington was the death of Detroit (as if it wasn't dead after Barry Sanders left town) until he jumped ship when Marinelli rolled into town and headed to the Dolphins to be the backup to Daunte Culpepper...

...who then realized that jumping ship from my Vikings when Brad Childress rolled into town for a 2nd-round draft pick did not magically heal his 3 busted knee ligaments. Enter Joey Harrington (again), who started 1-3 but ended up, I believe 5-5 on the season. End of the season rolls around and we start the "Nick Saban Show", starring the line "I am committed to the Dolphins organization and have no plans to coach for the University of Alabama"...

...who the bolted, against his word to his team and to Dolphins' owner Wayne Huizenga to coach for the Crimson Tide and will face CU in the Hardee's Taco Bell KFC Ford PetroSun Independence Bowl at the end of this month. The Dolphins hire Cam Cameron...

...meanwhile, a month or so prior to the end of the season, Atlanta Falcons Head Coach Jim Mora, Jr., stuck his foot in his mouth on a Seattle radio show - hosted by his old roommate - when he mentioned that he'd like Ty Willingham's job at the U of Washington if it were to become available. Arthur Blank and the Atlanta media had a tough time with that, showing him the door at the end of the year...

Enter Bobby Petrino of the U of Louisville. Mr. Petrino was about 2 years into a 10-year extension that he signed with the school and decided that he was too good for his contract and bolted for Atlanta to coach Michael Vick...uh, oops...Joey Harrington (my wife is on her third team jersey with "Harrington" on the back - I'm about to buy her an Oregon jersey instead). Having traded away Matt Schaub for some good draft picks, the team was left in a lurch when Vick went to the big house for messin' with the dawgs. Add in some O-line injuries and the team was doomed from the start...

...now, another sidebar. I might be in the minority here, but I don't think Joey Harrington is that bad of a QB. He's also no Brett Favre, but he gets a bad rap in the media. He's played for the Lions from 2002-2005, the Dolphins in 2006, and the Falcons in 2007. All teams were utter crap. None had a winning record with him starting...or without him starting. They were just bad teams. Period. With, in some cases, really bad coaching (see: Steve Mariucci) that tried to pin the blame on him. Sorry, but Jeff Garcia, Daunte Culpepper, and Byron Leftwich couldn't save these teams. It's important to keep that in mind. That aside, Harrington is of very average NFL QB talent. He'll always have a rating in the 85-95 range without about an equal number of TDs and INTs. As a passer this year, he beat the Vince Young of 2007 and Michael Vick of 2006 and 2005...

...back to Petrino. Despite the above paragraph and having some *decent* talent on the Falcons and some latitude to build a squad his way, Bobby decided that he was going to pack up his balls and go home because he couldn't coach the King of the Canines. He couldn't even finish out the season at Atlanta to get up to Arkansas and pick up the pieces after Houston Nutt "left" Arkansas. Now, he gets to compete in the SEC with the likes of...Nick Saban, Steve Spurrier, Urban Meyer, and Houston Nutt...and he has just proven himself to be of less class than Gary Barnett speaking the to media during the Katie Hnida debacle, and of less reliability than Rick Neuheisel's special teams coach in punt-return formation on 4th-and-12. Who on EARTH is going to sign with this guy after he essentially tells the national sports media that, since he can't coach the fastest QB in the NFL (with a low passer rating), he doesn't want the job anymore because it would just be too difficult. Was he expecting his trip to Atlanta to be easy? Michael Vick, despite his legs, didn't exactly rip it up last year and this year wasn't looking a ton better BEFORE Petrino took the job. The point is that very few people get a chance to coach in the Big Show and this guy treated it like a spoiled child attending his first football practice, finding out he actually had to WORK if he wanted to play in the big game. Friggin' whiner.

...which brings me to my final point. From the time I began attending CU in late 1996 until the time that Hawkins took the reins last season, the athletic program in general went through some serious issues (real or perceived). Whether the direct result of coaching mistakes (Neuheisel with the recruiting violations) or misbehavior (Barnett funding some player fun), the problem necessitated some changes. The CU football (and athletic) program was getting pounded nationally, causing some serious headaches for the university. Despite the past problems, CU Athletics has moved on and appears to be headed in the right direction. It is nice to see that we appear headed in the right direction and that integrity, honesty, and hard work are in style again...on our campus. Thanks, Hawk 'n' Crew.