HuskerfaninOkieland
Heisman Trophy Winner
Into the Grind
Damn good read!!!!
At the appointed time tonight - likely when the Detroit Lions are on the proverbial clock - the sounds of “Suuuuuuh!” will echo through Radio City Music Hall in New York.
It’ll mark the true end of Ndamukong Suh’s career at Nebraska.
And the true beginning of a far more daunting mission in the NFL. Believe it.
We told you, right after the Heisman Trophy ceremony, there would be a backlash against the best defensive player in recent college football history. And there was.
We told you how it would happen - through NFL Draft “experts” peddling “news” through a variety of “sources” that use these experts as tools to drive down the proverbial “price” on some draft picks . And it did.
And we told you why it happened - because Suh signed with a hardball agent, Eugene Parker; because the NFL wasn’t interested in the top pick potentially holding out and screwing up the slotting system; because the poor, sad St. Louis Rams, with feckless owners wanting to sell the franchise, are easily bullied by other NFL owners and not prepared for a contract fight; because Suh doesn’t fit the mold of the overweight tub plug who plays two downs, then heads to the sidelines.
Now we tell you this: No. 93, his own fierce, independent man, is about to enter a league designed to crush individuality and unique talents into fine dust. The players and teams that rise above the groupthink reset the standard and win championships. The ones who don’t get frustrated and trapped inside schemes and set beliefs passed down by portly men who spend 70 hours a week holed up in an office.
Suh has all the physical skills. What he’ll need now is mental toughness. Gumption. Guts. Savvy. The wisdom to know when to adapt his game, and the wisdom when to trust it.
Because the NFL, much as I love it, is about as ideologically flexible as your least favorite political party.
That’s how Suh, after sitting atop every major NFL Draft board for months in 2009, suddenly found himself in a neck-and-neck battle with Oklahoma’s Gerald McCoy for the best defensive tackle. Never mind McCoy’s stats. Never mind McCoy’s paltry bench press effort at the NFL Combine. Some scouts remain convinced McCoy is the superior player.
And McCoy is superior to Suh in one facet the NFL values quite a bit: McCoy will march to whatever beat his team sets for him. He’ll be a perfectly nice, one-dimensional defensive tackle who gets good push and occasionally lands a sack.
At Nebraska, Suh did so much more than that. He deflected passes. He picked off three, scored twice, forced fumbles and put Missouri’s offense out of commission for a month with that sack-and-strip of Blaine Gabbert. By my own personal count last year - it may be more - he saved five first downs by peeling back to make tackles downfield.
McCoy can’t do half of these things. But the NFL has rarely bothered to explore the kind of statistical analysis that now dominates baseball and basketball, so there isn’t even a theoretical quantitative appreciation for Suh’s overall talents beyond the basic statistics. He’s viewed as a cog in a wheel, when in fact he’s capable of impacting a game much like Pittsburgh’s Troy Polamalu does.
And even still - Suh’s sack numbers dwarfed McCoy’s tally.
Most NFL coaches, smart as they are, hold their philosophical ground, results be damned. When the Miami Dolphins used a Wildcat offense to go from 1-15 to 11-5 in the following season, a good chunk of NFL coaches and pundits couldn’t get behind it. Called it a gimmick.
That’s how the Rams likely end up drafting a “franchise quarterback” - because that’s what the book says - even though Sam Bradford, a great kid, is about to get his Sooner rear end thumped up and down the football field, to become the next David Carr or Alex Smith - guys who played behind awful offensive lines and finally had all the talent knocked out of them.
Maybe St. Louis spits the bit and drafts Suh. Perhaps the Rams are truly daring, deliberately passing on the first pick so it falls to the Lions. It’s a stunt, a gimmick, and the media would lambaste the Rams for doing it - but it’d be a clever gambit.
But many pro teams would prefer to lose the “right” way than win the “wrong” way.
The NFL’s genius - and it is genius - is to cultivate mediocrity that looks like progress. Only the NFL could seriously threaten a 2011 lockout of America’s pastime and get away with it.
As complex as the league appears to be, it’s surprisingly uniform. Here’s a game that actually allows a forward pass, with relative freedom of movement and a gigantic end zone, and most NFL teams still settle the same formations, the same two standard defensive alignments, this slavish devotion to running the ball between the hash marks, a space about as wide as your bathroom.
If you don’t think Suh is caught, to some extent, in that whirlwind of issues: Think again. Here’s the most impressive package of player and person in some time and that makes him a threat, to some extent. One’s inclination would be to build a defense around his talents, as Pittsburgh did Polamalu. But, even at Detroit - which has nothing to lose but more games - Suh will most likely be asked to dial down his prodigious talent and perfect a small range of skills.
That’s where the mental toughness comes in. He’ll have to fight the urge of anger and frustration. If contract negotiations drag - and I suspect they might - followed by a so-so season, position coaches may use that performance as leverage. And the job description gets narrower.
Maybe the Lions are just desperate enough to do it right. You hope. So much of success in the NFL is dependent on a coach daring to exploit his player’s strengths instead of fixating on weaknesses as a given scheme might define it.
In a sport like the NFL, the word “prototype” should anathema, especially when a guy like Suh shatters expectations of what a prototype can be. But the strongman of college football has a new weight to shoulder. He has break the mold - and yet function within it as the same time.
It’s not fair. But the great ones overcome it.
Damn good read!!!!
At the appointed time tonight - likely when the Detroit Lions are on the proverbial clock - the sounds of “Suuuuuuh!” will echo through Radio City Music Hall in New York.
It’ll mark the true end of Ndamukong Suh’s career at Nebraska.
And the true beginning of a far more daunting mission in the NFL. Believe it.
We told you, right after the Heisman Trophy ceremony, there would be a backlash against the best defensive player in recent college football history. And there was.
We told you how it would happen - through NFL Draft “experts” peddling “news” through a variety of “sources” that use these experts as tools to drive down the proverbial “price” on some draft picks . And it did.
And we told you why it happened - because Suh signed with a hardball agent, Eugene Parker; because the NFL wasn’t interested in the top pick potentially holding out and screwing up the slotting system; because the poor, sad St. Louis Rams, with feckless owners wanting to sell the franchise, are easily bullied by other NFL owners and not prepared for a contract fight; because Suh doesn’t fit the mold of the overweight tub plug who plays two downs, then heads to the sidelines.
Now we tell you this: No. 93, his own fierce, independent man, is about to enter a league designed to crush individuality and unique talents into fine dust. The players and teams that rise above the groupthink reset the standard and win championships. The ones who don’t get frustrated and trapped inside schemes and set beliefs passed down by portly men who spend 70 hours a week holed up in an office.
Suh has all the physical skills. What he’ll need now is mental toughness. Gumption. Guts. Savvy. The wisdom to know when to adapt his game, and the wisdom when to trust it.
Because the NFL, much as I love it, is about as ideologically flexible as your least favorite political party.
That’s how Suh, after sitting atop every major NFL Draft board for months in 2009, suddenly found himself in a neck-and-neck battle with Oklahoma’s Gerald McCoy for the best defensive tackle. Never mind McCoy’s stats. Never mind McCoy’s paltry bench press effort at the NFL Combine. Some scouts remain convinced McCoy is the superior player.
And McCoy is superior to Suh in one facet the NFL values quite a bit: McCoy will march to whatever beat his team sets for him. He’ll be a perfectly nice, one-dimensional defensive tackle who gets good push and occasionally lands a sack.
At Nebraska, Suh did so much more than that. He deflected passes. He picked off three, scored twice, forced fumbles and put Missouri’s offense out of commission for a month with that sack-and-strip of Blaine Gabbert. By my own personal count last year - it may be more - he saved five first downs by peeling back to make tackles downfield.
McCoy can’t do half of these things. But the NFL has rarely bothered to explore the kind of statistical analysis that now dominates baseball and basketball, so there isn’t even a theoretical quantitative appreciation for Suh’s overall talents beyond the basic statistics. He’s viewed as a cog in a wheel, when in fact he’s capable of impacting a game much like Pittsburgh’s Troy Polamalu does.
And even still - Suh’s sack numbers dwarfed McCoy’s tally.
Most NFL coaches, smart as they are, hold their philosophical ground, results be damned. When the Miami Dolphins used a Wildcat offense to go from 1-15 to 11-5 in the following season, a good chunk of NFL coaches and pundits couldn’t get behind it. Called it a gimmick.
That’s how the Rams likely end up drafting a “franchise quarterback” - because that’s what the book says - even though Sam Bradford, a great kid, is about to get his Sooner rear end thumped up and down the football field, to become the next David Carr or Alex Smith - guys who played behind awful offensive lines and finally had all the talent knocked out of them.
Maybe St. Louis spits the bit and drafts Suh. Perhaps the Rams are truly daring, deliberately passing on the first pick so it falls to the Lions. It’s a stunt, a gimmick, and the media would lambaste the Rams for doing it - but it’d be a clever gambit.
But many pro teams would prefer to lose the “right” way than win the “wrong” way.
The NFL’s genius - and it is genius - is to cultivate mediocrity that looks like progress. Only the NFL could seriously threaten a 2011 lockout of America’s pastime and get away with it.
As complex as the league appears to be, it’s surprisingly uniform. Here’s a game that actually allows a forward pass, with relative freedom of movement and a gigantic end zone, and most NFL teams still settle the same formations, the same two standard defensive alignments, this slavish devotion to running the ball between the hash marks, a space about as wide as your bathroom.
If you don’t think Suh is caught, to some extent, in that whirlwind of issues: Think again. Here’s the most impressive package of player and person in some time and that makes him a threat, to some extent. One’s inclination would be to build a defense around his talents, as Pittsburgh did Polamalu. But, even at Detroit - which has nothing to lose but more games - Suh will most likely be asked to dial down his prodigious talent and perfect a small range of skills.
That’s where the mental toughness comes in. He’ll have to fight the urge of anger and frustration. If contract negotiations drag - and I suspect they might - followed by a so-so season, position coaches may use that performance as leverage. And the job description gets narrower.
Maybe the Lions are just desperate enough to do it right. You hope. So much of success in the NFL is dependent on a coach daring to exploit his player’s strengths instead of fixating on weaknesses as a given scheme might define it.
In a sport like the NFL, the word “prototype” should anathema, especially when a guy like Suh shatters expectations of what a prototype can be. But the strongman of college football has a new weight to shoulder. He has break the mold - and yet function within it as the same time.
It’s not fair. But the great ones overcome it.
