Gryphon
Merge Ahead
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by YAKUZA
posted by Yakuza Rich at 8:37 PM
http://yakuzarich.blogspot.com/2008/06/dont-get-your-hopes-up-too-high-on.html
While the Cowboys may wind up with a steal in the end, getting Pacman Jones for roughly a 4th round pick, Cowboys fans shouldn't count on him to contribute to the team just yet. I'll get to his constant legal issues, but Jones will be coming back from a year away from the game and there's bound to be some rust and I'm sure he hasn't been lifting weights to keep in form (unfortunately, NFL'ers tend to overdo the weight lifting at times). So we could be seeing a recipe for a short term disaster as we saw with Jacques Reeves last season, sometimes you're only as good as your worst player on the field. And I have to imagine that Pacman's going to need a lot of practice to get used to catching punts. Also, in the Wade Phillips scheme he does prefer larger corners. It's not a necessity like what you may see out of a Gregg Williams scheme, but Phillips still prefers them because of their tackling and Pacman was a pretty weak tackler from 2005-2006.
I've had people ask me on my thoughts on Pacman being temporarily reinstated and I have a hard time disagreeing with the decision, even trying to put by Cowboys bias aside. Whether we like Pacman or not, the fact is that the man has never been convicted of a crime and in this country you are innocent until proven guilty. While they are vastly different scenarios, that's the key ingredient that makes Pacman no different than the Duke Lacrosse players who were railroaded by a piece of human sludge named Mike Nifong. I'm certainly no Roger Goodell fan and have been calling for his impeachment (www.impeachgoodell.com), but I'm not sure what can be done with Pacman that hasn't been done. This isn't the Spygate scandal because the Patriots were found guilty of breaking the rules. Sure, suspending Pacman for a year was fine because his actions...regardless if he had been found guilty or not...were indeed damaging the league's reputations. But after awhile you have to wonder how long can the league suspend a guy for damaging the league's reputation in the past, without every truly being found guilty of committing a crime.
Still, it's hard for me to believe that some leopards legitimately change their spots. But I do believe that the Cowboys have done things with Owens and Tank Johnson and now with Pacman to make it so the changing of the spots can happen. These players, particularly Johnson and Pacman when they signed them, knew that they were on their very last legs in the NFL. Not only that, their contracts were cheap, the team really didn't give up much in return to acquire them and they have players that the team is not afraid to use in place of them. So what happens is now the player understands that he truly is on his last legs in the NFL because while it would suck to a degree to see the player screw up again and get booted from the roster, the Cowboys can simply afford to do that and will do that if the situation arises.
That's a big reason why I'm in favor of a cap on rookie contracts, although that's not a final solution, just a step in the right direction. But you have to give Bill Parcells a lot of credit for that. He simply would not draft troubled players, but still appeased Jerry Jones' by taking in talented, but troubled players. The difference was that under Parcells they didn't give up much for the player and weren't afraid to cut him the moment he ran afoul. Before Parcells the Cowboys would give up sizeable contracts to these players and if the player screwed up they would let it go because they probably didn't have anything better to replace him.
So while Parcells had his stubborn and conservative ways and Owens flourished once he finally left, it's an invaluable lesson the hopefully Jerry Jones truly learned and will keep doing into the future.
posted by Yakuza Rich at 8:37 PM
http://yakuzarich.blogspot.com/2008/06/dont-get-your-hopes-up-too-high-on.html
While the Cowboys may wind up with a steal in the end, getting Pacman Jones for roughly a 4th round pick, Cowboys fans shouldn't count on him to contribute to the team just yet. I'll get to his constant legal issues, but Jones will be coming back from a year away from the game and there's bound to be some rust and I'm sure he hasn't been lifting weights to keep in form (unfortunately, NFL'ers tend to overdo the weight lifting at times). So we could be seeing a recipe for a short term disaster as we saw with Jacques Reeves last season, sometimes you're only as good as your worst player on the field. And I have to imagine that Pacman's going to need a lot of practice to get used to catching punts. Also, in the Wade Phillips scheme he does prefer larger corners. It's not a necessity like what you may see out of a Gregg Williams scheme, but Phillips still prefers them because of their tackling and Pacman was a pretty weak tackler from 2005-2006.
I've had people ask me on my thoughts on Pacman being temporarily reinstated and I have a hard time disagreeing with the decision, even trying to put by Cowboys bias aside. Whether we like Pacman or not, the fact is that the man has never been convicted of a crime and in this country you are innocent until proven guilty. While they are vastly different scenarios, that's the key ingredient that makes Pacman no different than the Duke Lacrosse players who were railroaded by a piece of human sludge named Mike Nifong. I'm certainly no Roger Goodell fan and have been calling for his impeachment (www.impeachgoodell.com), but I'm not sure what can be done with Pacman that hasn't been done. This isn't the Spygate scandal because the Patriots were found guilty of breaking the rules. Sure, suspending Pacman for a year was fine because his actions...regardless if he had been found guilty or not...were indeed damaging the league's reputations. But after awhile you have to wonder how long can the league suspend a guy for damaging the league's reputation in the past, without every truly being found guilty of committing a crime.
Still, it's hard for me to believe that some leopards legitimately change their spots. But I do believe that the Cowboys have done things with Owens and Tank Johnson and now with Pacman to make it so the changing of the spots can happen. These players, particularly Johnson and Pacman when they signed them, knew that they were on their very last legs in the NFL. Not only that, their contracts were cheap, the team really didn't give up much in return to acquire them and they have players that the team is not afraid to use in place of them. So what happens is now the player understands that he truly is on his last legs in the NFL because while it would suck to a degree to see the player screw up again and get booted from the roster, the Cowboys can simply afford to do that and will do that if the situation arises.
That's a big reason why I'm in favor of a cap on rookie contracts, although that's not a final solution, just a step in the right direction. But you have to give Bill Parcells a lot of credit for that. He simply would not draft troubled players, but still appeased Jerry Jones' by taking in talented, but troubled players. The difference was that under Parcells they didn't give up much for the player and weren't afraid to cut him the moment he ran afoul. Before Parcells the Cowboys would give up sizeable contracts to these players and if the player screwed up they would let it go because they probably didn't have anything better to replace him.
So while Parcells had his stubborn and conservative ways and Owens flourished once he finally left, it's an invaluable lesson the hopefully Jerry Jones truly learned and will keep doing into the future.
