REAR ENTRIES: A Four-Fer

October 15, 2009 at 10:34am by Scott   •  2 Comments »

FLORIO IS DUMB: Mike Florio, who is growing closer to Fennelly-levels of annoyance every day, makes the argument that the Bucs should trade Josh Johnson to avoid a quarterback controversy.

But even if he’s not the starter in 2010, Johnson is showing enough to make him a viable Plan B if Freeman struggles next year. And Freeman will be more likely to overthink and/or hesitate if he realizes that bad performances could give Johnson another shot.

So the solution is to have a backup quarterback who is completely incompetent in order to make the starter feel more secure? I was going to dignify this even more with a lengthier response, but Florio also made this suggestion to Oakland:

Arguably the best cover corner in the game … Asomugha should have a chance to display his skills for a contending team.

Even if he plays for another decade in Oakland, it’s hard to imagine ever seeing Asomugha display his skills on a platform greater than D-level Sunday afternoon games.

Nnamdi Asomugha is almost literally Oakland’s only really good player. And Florio thinks the Raiders should peddle him to whomever because they feel sorry for him that he’s on such a shitty team? “We know we suck, so fly! Be free!” He says the same thing about Steven Jackson in St. Louis because at 26, he thinks Jackson is about washed up. See, the trick is to trade away players who can’t contribute or who are on the downslide or who don’t fit into your plans for some reason; not good players who are improving or in their prime. I think he’s just encouraging trades so he has something more interesting to write about than camp contact violations and the legalese of the CBA.

WHITE RUNNING BACKS: Bleacher Report is running a story on who the last great white running back was as a lead-in to talk about Peyton Hillis. One of their suggestions was Mike Alstott, kind of.

Alstott, a fullback during Tampa Bay’s heyday, didn’t feel like a definitive answer. Sure he was a spectacular runner in his day and came up big on a regular basis, but was he great?

Alstott never accumulated 1,000 yards in a season and only once did he rack up 10 touchdowns. In fact, halfback Warrick Dunn was a bigger star for the Buccaneers. So if Mike Alstott couldn’t be considered great, then who?

Oh, fuck you. Alstott got over 1,000 yards in 1999 if you include the playoffs and he is far and away the all-time franchise leader in touchdowns. He’s never going to get in the Hall of Fame because of attitudes like this, but for those of us who watched him every week, we know he defined “great” for a good number of years.

In fact, the conversation led us all the way back to John Riggins, Larry Czonka, and Franco Harris.

On what planet is Franco Harris white?

ERRICT RHETT IS PRETTY NICE: I know some Buccaneer fans still have a bad taste in their mouth about Errict Rhett because of the whole Drew Rosenhaus/holdout thing, but it’s time to let the past be the past and realize that he’s really a good guy.

Rhett, I mean. Not Rosenhaus. Fuck that guy.

The owner of a construction company, he builds homes for those in need, something he takes great pride in.

“We give people custom houses in the city and it is unreal,” he beamed. “We don’t just put down a down payment, we do everything.”

That’s pretty cool. He’s giving away houses. I can’t help but think the “we don’t just down a down payment” line is a dig at Warrick Dunn, which would be pretty lame, but I could be wrong. Either way, though, he’s one of the guys who has maintained his charitable foundation long after his retirement from football. It’s a good article if you can get past all the Gator-slobbing.

OUCH: The title of this article kind of stings.

Firing Offensive Coordinators. How Did That Work Out?

Yep, that’s a burn. The article has absolutely no information, and I’m pretty sure that retaining Jeff Jagodzinski wouldn’t have resulted in any wins to this point, but you can’t deny the fact that the three teams that let their offensive coordinators go right before the season are a combined 1-14. But one thing you can deny? The moon landing. WHAT ARE YOU HIDING, BUZZ ALDRIN?