Remember a few weeks ago when we took offense to ESPN and Jeremy Green's moronic article on how the Colts were hit hardest in free agent defections this offseason? Remember how we used this absurdly comical article to underscore the fact that ESPN and Scouts, Inc. are mindless numb-skulls who know nothing about NFL football?
Well, it appears that Mike Florio of ProFootballWeekly has caught on as well, and is taking Jeremy and Scouts, Inc. to task. Lots of people read Florio's site, and his beat down of Jeremy actually prompted a response from ESPN! Read Florio's blog roll for all the details. He does not provide direct links to his posts (for whatever reason).
We wish we could say Jeremy Green, Scouts, Inc., and ESPN were the only idiot pundits that write about football. Sadly, Phil Barber of The Sporting News also falls into the bottomless pit of sport pundit idiocy. In his June 8 column, Phil ranks his NFL team "best offseasons." If you read over Phil's rankings, he gives teams like Miami and Detroit an A while the Colts are given a grade of D. Why did schoolmaster Phil give the Colts such a dissmal score:
Apparently, Phil's "offseason rankings" are greatly affected by how the teams deal with free agency. Forget those pesky, annoying little events like THE NFL DRAFT. Even though it's been proven that great teams often build through the draft, Phil seems to only think that a team had a good offseason if they aggressively signed good free agents.
We at Stampede Blue point a big finger at Phil, and call him "moron." Yes, the loss of Edgerrin was significant, and an offseason grade of A is not expected. However, to call David Thornton (5th on the team in tackles) and Larry Tripplett (back-up DT) "significant" is a stretch. Phil also forgets to mention the Colts re-signed Reggie Wayne, Gary Brackett, and Raheem Brock. Also, there was this thing called THE NFL DRAFT that probably should have affected Phil's ranking system.
Sadly, it didn't. So, like Jeremy Green, we salute Phil Barber: another idiot sports writer who knows not of what he writes about.
Now, I don't want folks to think that I hate ALL mainstream press articles on the Colts. Grizz at BTB a very good offseason ranking article at the Dallas Morning News. My feeling is if you are going to write about football, you should at least KNOW what you are talking about. Having an offseason ranking and not taking the draft into your ranking considerations is just silly. I expect better coverage and more insightful analysis. That's all.