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The Boldin Sh*t Storm....
ESPN Posted an article about the "Blame Game" surrounding the Anquan Boldin hit, during the AZ and NYJ game. They are saying that in a game that lopsided, players of Boldin's caliber should not have been playing. There are a few things that bother me about this: - If they benched Boldin, then they should have benched the ENTIRE 1st string, you can't ONLY bench Boldin because he's a better player than everyone else, this is a team sport.
- Let's say you do bench just Boldin, you throw in his back up, he runs the same exact route and he takes that hit. That makes no sense and is unfair. Granted no one knew the hit was coming but it's the principal of the entire thing. Basically they are saying "We'll if Boldin wasn't playing he wouldn't have gotten hurt, but if his backup was in and got hurt, no biggie."
- Just the idea of benching your higher caliber players is absurd. Yea there was only 26 seconds left in a very high scoring game, but if you sit players because you are losing that bad, that shows you have no heart and it's bad sportsmanship.
On a separate side note, I don't think, Smith, the player that committed the helmet-to-helmet hit should have been fined and suspended, I think the defender who deliberately threw his shoulder into Boldin's back should have been punished. If you watch the highlight of the hit, the defender who made the hit behind Boldin, made the dirty play, causing Boldin's head to fall forward, in turn causing Smith to hit helmet-to-helmet.
This whole thing ticks me off!
Here is an excerpt from the article I didn't post the whole thing:
Quote:
The blame game began before the football game ended.
Anquan Boldin lay awkwardly on the field, surrounded by Arizona Cardinals teammates and medical personnel. Quarterback Kurt Warner led players from the Cardinals and New York Jets in prayer.
Twenty-seven seconds remained in a game the Jets were leading by 21 points.
The league would fine and suspend Jets safety Eric Smith for leading with his helmet against a defenseless receiver. But there was enough blame to go around. The sequence raised questions about player safety and, ultimately, coaching tactics during lopsided games.
Both head coaches -- Eric Mangini of the Jets and Ken Whisenhunt of the Cardinals -- were going all out even though the outcome wasn't in question.
Mangini ordered a 2-point conversion after Brett Favre's sixth touchdown pass extended the Jets' lead to 19 points with 2 minutes remaining.
Whisenhunt ordered his first-team offense back onto the field with instructions to push for more points.
Jets safety Kerry Rhodes hit Boldin from behind on the play in question, sending the receiver's head more directly into the path of Smith's helmet.
And then Smith blasted Boldin. The hit made a distinct and sickening sound that witnesses said they wouldn't forget. Both players were injured, and for what?
"I think the biggest disappointment was that there was no need to throw the ball into that space in the first place," ESPN.com user Illianthar wrote.
"It was completely irresponsible for Ken Whisenhunt to be attempting to score with under 35 seconds left and his team down three touchdowns," Kyle from St. Louis wrote. "Even worse, he kept going for it after Boldin was injured. He should be embarrassed."
"Just thinking of that play and how unnecessary it was makes me sick to my stomach," KGsGreenTeam wrote. "Boldin is a great young receiver and to see him go down in such a way, on a meaningless play, is gut wrenching."
"It's football, things like that happen," wrote seank12283. "Whisenhunt and Warner should just have run the clock out. There was no way they would have surpassed 21 points in that short of time."
"I blame Mangini for running up the score and Warner for trying to make a miracle cheesecake comeback happen with sour ingredients," AntLynn72 wrote.
"AntLynn72, you can't be serious," Takl321 wrote. "How can you blame Warner? The only decisions he makes are who to throw to or to call an audible. Are you going to pull your starters out of the game and show them you're giving up? Did Warner know what was going to happen before he threw that pass?
"And how can you blame Mangini? Your team is up against one of the most potent offenses in the league [that] can score in a heartbeat. ... Have you never seen a comeback of over 20 points to win a game? Wake up."
On it went.
For the record, Whisenhunt kept pushing for points as part of a broader effort to encourage his team to finish strong no matter the circumstances -- particularly after trailing 34-0 at halftime.
"The thing you look at is, we did respond in the second half," Whisenhunt told the team's Web site. "We scored 35 points on five consecutive drives and probably would have scored a sixth had we not had the injury to Anquan.
"We never quit fighting. As tough as things went for us and you say, 'Well, you are scraping, you are reaching for positives,' that to me is a positive that we played hard."
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Dr. Peter Venkman: Alice, I'm going to ask you a couple of standard questions, okay? Have you or any of your family been diagnosed schizophrenic? Mentally incompetant?
Librarian Alice: My uncle thought he was Saint Jerome.
Dr. Peter Venkman: I'd call that a big yes.
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