I Dislike Your Favorite Team

No one is more criticized than Rex Grossman!

Is it not obvious yet that Rex Grossman totally deserves the criticism he gets? He's just not a very good QB, and Dallas' sketchy defense drove the point home tonight. That Dallas defense isn't great, but they forced (or if you prefer, were handed) turnover after turnover.

Jay Mariotti sees all the fair criticism that Grossman is getting, and (unfair, though he doesn't acknowledge that it is unfair) criticism that McNabb has been getting as signs that maybe McNabb could end up the Bears QB in 2008.

Mariotti thinks that Philly is already done with McNabb: "Once they start booing in that town, it's time for a new address, especially with McNabb looking slow and tentative after knee surgery."

That sentence got dated pretty quickly, as McNabb and Philly in general got healthy against Detroit.

But Mariotti, despite basically opening wishing the slow and tenative McNabb to play for his home team, still got into the McNabb debate, and did so in spectacularly stupid fashion:

We're generally beyond the point in society where quarterbacks are viewed as black or white. In the most pressurized position in team sports, results are the issue, not race. Just ask Grossman. Or Eli Manning. Or even Peyton Manning, who was broiled nationally until he won a Super Bowl. Or Joey Harrington, who received death threats and had to remove family members from the stands in Detroit. Or Hall of Famer and four-time champion Terry Bradshaw, an early pariah in Pittsburgh.

Yep, racism in America is fixed. Done deal. I remember when that happened. WHA?

Ummm, Jay, how many black quarterbacks were playing when Terry Bradshaw was an early pariah in Pittsburgh? Zero? Huh. I guess, back in 1976, there were no black men who could throw a spiral. Or maybe they were too dumb to read defenses, way back in 1976. Or maybe the NFL was fucking racist, back in the 1970's (and 80's, and 90's, but not now!)

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Grossman is a bad QB, and comparing McNabb to him is an insult, and proving McNabb's point. Joey Harrington is also rather sucky. Comparing McNabb to unsuccessful white quarterbacks is borderline racist, in my book. Compare him to other QB's who have done things like this:

five Pro Bowls, a Super Bowl appearance in 2004, 106 games with passing numbers of 1941 completions (a 58% completion rate for all you haters), 22,504 yards, 153 TDs, and an additional 2,750 yards rushing with 24 TDs,

To me, that sounds like John Elway prior to Terrell Davis. There's your white quarterback comparison. Not losers like Harrington and Grossman. Does McNabb stack up against Elway? Not completely, of course, but Elway is one of the best QB's the league has ever seen. And McNabb is closer to him than he is to the assholes Mariotti compares him to.

The idea that Peyton Manning "was broiled" is laughable. There wasn't a team in the country that wouldn't have loved to have him as their QB. I've been hearing a lot about how much shit Peyton took, and I gotta say, I don't remember it. Indianapolis had a shitty defense, for years, everyone knew that, and no one blamed Peyton for not stopping opposing team's running backs. I remember the occasional article about whether Peyton could win the big game. That was it. No one has ever pushed for Jim Sorgi to start ahead of him. No one has ever argued that Peyton should be traded. Comparing McNabb to the "broiling" Peyton got is crazy stupid.

Hoping for the backlash from Philly drives McNabb to Chicago, while discounting the motivation of the backlash is borderline evil. We expect no less from you, Jay "Evil Cunt" Mariotti.