The folks from “Inside the NFL” (now on Showtime) sent some comments from this week’s show. Some are interesting.
Part of the discussion was on which team is the NFL’s worst. Yes, our Browns were included in the discussion.
“Why would you go to Cleveland if you were a free agent?” Warren Sapp said. “Do you go there for the weather? The Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame? We know the fine system is totally screwed up.”
The discussion turned to Eric Mangini not naming the quarterback until Wednesday.
“It takes away 50% of your power,” said Phil Simms, who might understand something about quarterbacking in the NFL. “Now it’s all just about physically delivering the goods. Because the quarterback, and I was taught this way by Bill Parcells, you’re the second most powerful person in the organization. The head coach has power, then the quarterback has the ability to influence all the other players by the way he works, the way he handles himself, the way he leads.
:And if he does that right, say he’s a hard worker just in the weight room, some free agent sees him, he works hard, maybe the free agent now runs down the kick-off team, makes the tackle and that’s the difference of winning or losing a football game.”
Sapp concurred.
“There are three people on the football team you don’t bother with: The head coach, the quarterback and the kicker,” Sapp said.
“He does have a lot of power,” Simms said. “Because to everybody it’s the position, what it means and believe me when I tell you, when things go wrong, those players in the locker room, who is the first player they’re going to blame? They’re going to blame the quarterback.”
In Cleveland, though, I think it’s pretty obvious who wields any and all power.