A Thursday Threesome of Stooge-nificence

Couple quick bites on the quarterback situation due west of Limon, Colorado. Not sure if much of this is news, but I found it relatively jaw-dropping.

I'll not attempt to out wordsmith my Colorado colleagues with regard to the seemingly never-ending Jay Cutler situation, but there are a few scrap heaps I'll throw in. Like this one:

"'Cutler is one of those young guns out there that brings great name recognition from the get-go...But I don't think football-wise it would add that much...I believe Jay Cutler is one of the top 12 quarterbacks in the NFL, but I would not put him in the top eight. He has a lot more to prove.'

Dilfer's concern — and one area he doesn't give Cutler an edge over Sage Rosenfels or Tarvaris Jackson — is managing key downs."

I have two thoughts on this and they are these: 1) I always appreciated Trent Dilfer solely for the fact that the Baltimore Ravens won a Super Bowl with a guy like Dilfer under center. It somehow ties to the sense of fleeting hope Kansas City fans had around 2000, when the Schottenheimer regime had ended, Gunther Cunningham was coach, and the Gannon-Grbacle was still a rotten taste in the mouth. It spoke to me and said, "See? You can win without an elite quarterback." At the time, I'd managed to block out the other 417 voices screaming "Holy Fuck -- We are going to suck forever!" 2) I don't intend to question, per se, Dilfer's playing ability. I'm not a professional athlete, and I've never inhabited his body, but I will say that in his effort here to make what I consider a decent point or two, he has officially placed himself in the Duh Seat for not giving Cutler an edge over Tarvaris Jackson or Sage Rosenfels.

I don't care if we're talking third-down play or drug purchasing; I'm sure he does a better job at most anything than those two clowns.

Oh, Mark Kiszla. How do you still have a job?

"Happy trails, Jay Cutler. Have a nice life. Here are three quarterbacks who could make the Broncos a better football team when you're gone:

1) Matthew Stafford, Georgia Bulldogs

2) Brady Quinn, Cleveland Browns

3) Tony Romo, Dallas Cowboys"

Hasn't everyone been saying that this year's crop of QBs is less than impressive? Isn't Cutler already an improvement since he's got experience and knows the system? Didn't you watch that thriller (Editor's Note: Do not take the black glove out, Brandon.) of a game between the Browns and the Broncos? Didn't Cutler get the edge in that dual? Didn't Quinn wind up on the bench again later? On Rome today, there was mention of Tony Romo being more interested in being a celebrity than a winning quarterback. I won't say I agree because part of me thinks that he media wants Tony Romo to be a celebrity just because his pal Peter Goezinya has been inside Jessica Simpson's garage. His team, however, the one with an oft-impressive roster, has come up short in big situations.

And Woody Paige, you worthless vile of simmering ejaculation. I won't even honor your post with a blockquote, but way to have six exclamation points in you opening 'graph. Billy Shakespeare? Pigeon Valley? Why don't you go hang out on a couple of terrible ESPN shows for a few years, and then come crawling back to Denver. Oh, wait...


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Also! Post Reporter Complains About Fellow Employee's Pay!!

Sorry about that headline. But I noticed the following in Mike Klis' Broncos mailbag, as part of a fairly boring question and a pretty patronizing answer. I'm posting the whole question for background:

Mike - Do local sports journalists, who cover professional sports for a city paper, choose sides? It appears to me that some writers are pro-Broncos and others are anti-Broncos. One would think that Denver writers would benefit from people garnering an interest in the team, no?
-- Steve O'Reilly, Naples, Fla.

Steve - I appreciate your perspective. By working in Denver, all local sports journalists essentially "choose" to cover the Broncos. We neither root for them, nor wish them defeat. Only the Broncos win. Only the Broncos lose. Not us. All we do is cover the result.

If they win, we explain why. The game's hero will receive lavish praise. If they lose, we explain why. The game's goat will be criticized. I haven't met a human being yet who wasn't touchy to criticism. Most pro athletes think media coverage is 90 percent negative. I think it's 80 to 90 percent positive, but the 10 to 20 percent negative is 100 percent what they remember.

Win or lose, success or failure, the journalist's primary mission is to present the truth. The truth is always harsher in defeat. Some journalists are thicker skinned than others and are allowed greater latitude to express their opinions. They tend to be more skilled writers and emphatic with the truth. We call them columnists. In Woody Paige and Mark Kiszla, The Denver Post has the best sports-columnist duo in the country.

Other journalists are ordered by editors to write a straight story - present the facts and let the readers decide. These people are called reporters who complain about not making nearly as much money as Woody.

Especially considering the bit about Kiszla and Paige being the finest such pair in the nation, it's probable that he's joking. But it's fair to say there's some tension in that newsroom. Especially since it's not clear that Woody Paige is still actually working.

Image courtesy of www.freakingnews.com
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