These guys have played football their whole lives........they have million dollar careers riding on their performance and they still aren't smart enough to stay away from the ball on a punt. Santonio Holmes lets the ball go through his legs yesterday and even tried to reach down and touch it...........and now today the guys from the Packers are crowding around the shanked punt of Philly and sure enough they get thrown into it and turn it over. Is it pure stupidity? How the hell do these coaches keep from strangling these idiots when they do something so dumb? Perhaps only outdone by the moron standing over a stationary ball at the 1 yard line on punt coverage with his hands out telling everyone to stay away as if he doesn't want anyone downing the ball for some reason.
Nerves, tunnel vision, and the desire to make it happen on every play makes for a dangerous mix on every single play in the NFL. Players get wild eyed to make a play.
yeah a lot of cases of guys messing around for sure. downed ball i know some sp teams units give out points and guys like to compete to have the most on the team. (down balls, tackles, blocks, K.O's, TO's etc.) only other thing i can think of is letting the clock run on a downed ball and making the reff blow the play dead???????????????????
Way less then these guys and even I know enough to stay away from the ball. Classic moron at the end of the Philly/GB game. The dude picks Vick to seal the win and he's so friggin dumb that he gets up and tries to run it out of the endzone........he does the ONLY thing possible that could cost his team the game. Are these guys really THAT dumb? Do they honestly not know the rules of the game they have played their whole lives (Mcnabb) or do they just not care and can't control themselves from trying to make it on Sportscenter?
guss i would chaulk it up as guys doing a combo of things..... reaction/not knowing/excitment/mistakes i'd venture to say the majority are mistakes, but thats the beauty of a team sport like football. you can mess up and your buddy could do it right and things can still go either way. sure is a blast to watch!!!!!!!
In defense of the Packers player situation, he was engaged with blocking and probably didn't know where the ball was. However, someone should of be yelling at him to get out of there. It is easy to say this stuff from the couch. At the same time, there are a lot of head scratchers.
I think the Intelligence In some of the athlete's of today Is terrible. Look at all of the foolish penalties going on now. Maybe this all falls on the coaches too. Viking QB Daunte Cullpepper was about as dumb as a QB could be when he was still playing. He had lots of talent but lacked brains. Randy Moss made him look pretty good.
It is a very good question. Not sure there is a definite answer. Some stuff you see really makes you scratch your head. I would have to rule out NOT knowing (for the most part). They've been doing it all their lives they have to know what they "should" do. What you should do and what you do is a different story. What makes what you do in a situation happen? Not really sure. Laps of concentration? Pressure? Trying to go against what you should do and make a play? Just a bonehead? Tough to say. For some reason there is a mental laps with these athletes that is ..... I guess... unexplainable. Anybody see that kid in college hoops the other day? I briefly caught it on SC so I don't reallly know the exact details. But I think they were tied and there was 10 seconds or so left. He got the rebound on his end of the courst and immediately heaved a 3/4 court shot lol. Just lost track of what was going on. The other team actually got another opportunity to win it in regulation because of that.
Here is the deal. Players are put on the field to make plays. They are not put on the field to be passive spectators. In a game like football where you have 22 guys flying all over the field at one time, things are bound to happen. If players were constantly worried about every little thing that might happen, then they would freeze. And players that freeze up like that are the ones getting their butts handed to them,and are out of the league in relative short order. Making plays on a football field is kind of like the great MMA athletes. You ever notice the best MMA fighters are the one's who have losses on their records? They let it all hang out and sometimes the "smart" fans just sit there and shake their heads when that great MMA fighter "makes a mistake" and loses a fight. There is a real fine line between being average and being great. The great athletes constantly push the limits and sometimes they get burned.
Brett: Most times I agree with what you just said. But, in the case of a punt return where the ball's on the ground and defenders are around you......what's going through a player's mind who's within 2 arms lengths of the ball? I won't speculate.
Not sure what you mean............you think Holmes was trying to "make a play" when he swatted at the ball as it rolled BETWEEN HIS LEGS?? If he was trying to "make a play" then why did the coaches immediately yank him from return duty?? Because he is a moron that they realized could not be trusted to make even basic decisions out there. How was the GB corner trying to "make a play" when he got up and ran out of the endzone with 30 seconds on the clock and the game decided?? The ONLY way his team could lose was if he started running around and fumbled the ball. They didn't need better field position and they didn't need any more points. All they needed was for him to stay on the ground.........THAT was the play they needed him to make.
Exactly. That's what I was referring to. I have no problems with a hustle or reaction mistake when the game is going 110 mph. Example ... an interception at a key time and everyone is pleading the DB just go down! Yet he tries to get every yard he can and fumbles back to the offensive team (happened yesterday). I get that. Just an athlete caught up in trying to make more of a play than he did. Bad mistake yeah, but I can understand the reason for it. But when there's half a dozen defenders around you and you're letting the ball bounce around your legs?" You have time to ask yourself..... should I be doing this? And you tell yourself yes (for some reason)The cons outweigh the pros. There's a whole lot of bad that can happen by you being there and not that much good. Stuff like that I just don't understand.
Watch it again....he thought he was down by contact. You can tell by the way he "ran it out of the endzone." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5NhnGy4WkY
I hear you Atlas, I was just giving you a different perspective. I will give you an example of what I am talking about in a real situation. My fourth year in college our football team travelled to Northern Iowa to play a semi-final game (IAA). We got down 28-0 by halftime and despair set in bigtime. We had several players on our team that went on to play in the NFL, get into NFL training camps, and one that might be a hall of famer one day. Everyone started to let it all hang out in the second half and we stormed back to make it 28-28 with about 3-4 minutes to go. Well we stopped NI and they punted us the ball with 3-4 minutes left in the game. The best punt returner (maybe best all time in 1AA) and defensive back in all of IAA (maybe best of all time in 1AA) and maybe one of the better DB's in the entire country lined up for us to return the ball. "All" he had to do was field the ball and give our offense a chance to score. Our offense had scored like four possessions in a row. Well the bigtime player charged the ball after it was punted. He felt a need to make a play, he felt something inside that told him it was time to break the other teams back when they were least expecting it. The ball hit him right between the numbers right as he charged at that ball.....it bounced off his chest and NI recovered. We lost 31-28. "All" he had to do was fair catch that ball. Those type of plays happen all the time in the NFL with the quality of athletes that are all over the field.
How you ask???? Most of these folks aren't the brightest apples in the tree you realize. They get all wrapped up in their physical abilities but just don't have it upstairs when it comes to thinking. LOl Have you ever listened to them trying to carry on a conversation or in an interview. DUhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
