Colin Kaepernick an American Hero

 It is a travesty that Colin Kaepernick’s silent protest for civil rights might prevent him from playing football ever again. Although he may never get another chance to be a leader on the football field, he is the leader of something far more important. He has led the National Football League in a movement that will force America to take the next step in her ongoing struggle for equality.

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NFL Opening Night!!!

Great match-up for opening night. Brady gets his punishment lifted for cheating in last years NFC championship game. Then an expose comes out about how much the Pats cheated from 2000-2007, evidence was destroyed, and the punishment was light considering they won 3 championships on the back of the cheating.

On the other side of the ball Big Ben has two legitimate championships under his belt, as well as two legitimate sexual assault allegations. *

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Super Bowl Preview XLIX

Before I get to the Super Bowl breakdown I would like to share the best NFL Films clip and one of the best clips of all time. It is about Deacon Jones, a former NFL defensive lineman, who was famous for using a head slap to move the blocker out of the way. Listen carefully.

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Underrated: Idiots Guide to Tony Romo

Tony Romo is the most scrutinized QB in NFL history. Love him or hate him everyone has an opinion. The problem is though, those that hate him are usually the loudest and dumbest people in the room.

The consensus on Romo was formed much like most of the nation’s political views; idiot pundits perpetually shouting out erroneous statements. Most people are too dumb to think for themselves so they usually just go along with what they believe is the consensus.

The only real negative arguments about Romo are anecdotal stories about a game where he threw an interception. For every story about how Romo choked there’s 5 stories about how he was clutch but people just focus on his failures.*

Anecdotal arguments are for the mental midgets. So let’s take a more tangible approach.

Quick Quiz: answer at the bottom **
Romo's last 5 complete seasons. Are they in order? Is he magically better this season?
Yards TD-INT

1, 3800     31-10

2. 3700     34-9

3. 4900     28-19

4. 4500     26-9

5. 4200     31-10

Quarterback Passer Rating (PR) isn’t a perfect rating system but it is the single most accurate statistic we have to judge a QB’s performance. (While I concede that stats don’t tell the whole story, they tell MUCH more of a story than No Stats). So let’s start here.

Career Passer Rating leaders.

1.	Aaron Rodgers (32)	106.0	2005-2014	gnb
2.	Tony Romo (35)	97.6	2004-2014	dal
3.	Peyton Manning (39)	97.5	1998-2014	2TM
4.	Steve Young+	96.8	1985-1999	2TM
5.	Tom Brady (38)	95.9	2000-2014	nwe
6.	Philip Rivers (34)	95.7	2004-2014	sdg
7.	Drew Brees (36)	95.4	2001-2014	2TM
8.	Ben Roethlisberger (33)	93.9	2004-2014	pit
9.	Kurt Warner	93.7	1998-2009	3TM
10.	Joe Montana+	92.3	1979-1994	2TM

As you can see. PR does a pretty good job at rating QB's.

"So what. Romo is a "talented" QB. He just sucks in crunch time."
- Romo Hater

Facts about the fourth quarter:

(Even though Romo has been great this season, none of the 4^th quarter and end of game data below includes this season. I do NOT want this to lead to the stupid argument that Romo is somehow magically better this season.**)

Since 2007:

Top 5 passer rating in 4th quarter (Minimum of 100 attempts) –

Aaron Rodgers 103.7

Tony Romo 103.2

Peyton Manning 101.9

Tom Brady 97.6

Shaun Hill 93.0

Top 5 passer rating with 5 minutes remaining (Minimum of 100 attempts) -

Aaron Rodgers 102.5

Peyton Manning 99.1

Tony Romo 92.3

Andrew Luck 90.0

Matt Cassel 89.4

Brady and Brees not on the list

Top three 4th quarter PR since 1991

                                 TD-INT

1.Rodgers    103.4        55-19

2.Romo        102.9       73-29

3.Young       97.7           9-4 (small sample size)

  

   Brady        91.7         96-41 (NOT 4th on this list. Just for comparisons sake) 

"Romo only has good stats in the 4^th quarter because he puts up great numbers in garbage time. I’ve watched a ton of close games where he blew it. He chokes when the game is on the line!"
-Romo Hater

Since 2006, most 4th-quarter comeback drives:
Tony Romo: 21

Peyton Manning: 20

Eli Manning: 19

Jay Cutler: 17

Matt Ryan: 17

Most TD passes in one-score games in the 4th-quarter since 2011

Quarterback                       TD passes            Comp.%               Rating

1. Tony Romo                    20                           64.3                        99.5

2. Tom Brady                      16                           60.2                        90.2 

(comparative inaccuracy and INT’s brings Brady’s rating down)

3. Eli Manning                    15                           57.6                        89.2

4. Matthew Stafford            15                           54.6                        81.4

5. Aaron Rodgers                12                           66.3                        116.9

 (obviously Rodgers is the best QB now and probably ever)

"If Romo is so good how come the Cowboys never win anything?"
- Romo Hater

The tail of two QB’s:

Romo became a starter in 2007 and was given a marginal coaching staff (after Parcells skipped town). A top 15 rushing attack only twice. Highest ranking was 7^th. A top 10 defense ONCE.

In that same time span Brady was given the best coach in NFL history and consistently a top rushing attack and defense. In the last eight years the Pats rushing attack finished top 15 seven times and top 10 four times. In the same eight years they were a top 10 defense seven times and top 5 three times (I’m not even counting the defenses and running attacks that brought the Pats multiple Super Bowls).

Moral of the story?

Romo has been a better QB than Brady by every metric (even the eye to be honest), except for anecdotal of course. But football is a team game. You give an equal QB a better running game, defense and the best coach you will see results. In Brady's case the only results were epic chokes and a few impressive regular season wins, well at least since the Brittney Spears and Kevin Federlines reality show, 

Romo will probably lose one of the next two road playoff games. And of course the non-thinking masses will blame him whether he has a good game or not.

Rushing	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
Cowboys	13	17	21	7	16	18	31	24
Pats	12	13	6	12	9	20	7	9

Defense	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
Cowboys	20	13	20	2	31	16	24	26
Pats	2	4	8	5	8	15	9	10

Couple more fun stats:

Romo vs Brady in close games and blowouts:

Final Margin of Victory Between	0-7 Points	15+ Points
	TD-INT-PR	TD-INT-PR
Tom Brady	129-74-88.0	194-35-111
Tony Romo	113-60-93.8	73-28-100.9

Romo's stats are a little better in a blowout but so is every QB's. However, check out how much of Brady's stats come in blowouts. He has More than DOUBLE the interceptions, 65 Less TD's and 23 point lower passer rating in close games. He piles on stats once the game is meaningless. Why is Romo the one accused of not being clutch when Brady is tremendously worse in close games? Oh yeah, people are stupid.

See my blog on why Brady is so overrated. 

http://bayaniflores.blogspot.com/2011/11/overrated-tom-brady-and-giselle.html

Career Passer Rating in December

Rodgers 103.2
Manning 99.4
Brees 94.9

Romo 94.1

Brady 92.5

Please share. And if you liked this you will probably like my blog on Tom Brady.

http://bayaniflores.blogspot.com/2011/11/overrated-tom-brady-and-giselle.html

*why not tell more of the good anecdotal stories like Romo’s heroic performance versus the Redskins last year. Rallying from a 9 point deficit late in the 4th quarter with a herniated disc that would require surgery a couple days later. After 3 unsuccessful runs at the goal line Romo put the team on his back to complete a 4th and goal at the 11. Reminded me a lot like when he rallied back on the road versus the Niners a couple years ago with a broken rib and a punctured lung.

**It doesn't matter. He's obviously been the same great player for many years. So look up the answer yourself..

Stats taken from http://www.pro-football-reference.com/

Is Colin Kaepernick Regressing?

Harbaughs biggest mistake was doing such a good job that the
expectations were unrealistic. Hopefully, the Niners will luck
out and get a monster trade. John Gruden was traded for two first
round picks and two second round picks.... I'm just sayin......

It was a sad weekend for Bay Area football fans. The Niners were officially eliminated from the playoffs. After three straight NFC title games this will be the first early off season since the Alex Smith era.

Since we live in the "right now" millennium, we are not allowed to have mediocre season without panic, Time to blame the Quarterback!

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Donald Sterling

I was actually in the states for a little and sure am glad that I got to watch some American news because we really know what's important in our country. So I figure I might as well weigh in on the biggest news story of the last decade. Well, this and the missing flight. 

Thank you Supreme Court 

The Voter Rights act and Affirmative Action were put in place to prevent racism. If racism didn’t exist, these laws need not exist. When these laws were struck down by the Supreme Court, they were in essence declaring racism to be a non factor in our society. Isn’t it funny that a week after racism is over the Los Angeles Clippers owner, Donald Sterling, and Fox News and viewers Hero, Cliven Bundy, appear on tape proclaiming racism is alive and kicking while pimp slapping the Supreme Court.   

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Super Bowl Preview XLVIII, My Version

The Super Bowl is around the corner which means after Sunday we won't have much to look forward to until March Madness. There isn't a whole lot to preview so before I get to the game here’s a few of my lingering end of the season thoughts.

Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin allegedly stole one of Bob Kraft’s Super Bowl rings.

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First Gay NBA Player Jason Collins

Current NBA player Jason Collins came out of the closet on Monday. Although there's a good chance he will be former NBA player Jason Collins in the near future, I still commend him for forcing the country to confront what the next step up the ladder towards homosexual acceptance will look like. (He may never play another game in the NBA because the last couple seasons he averaged more turnovers than points or rebounds; so this is more of an assist for a more "important" player to come out).

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Overrated: Carmelo Anthony

Carmelo Anthony is playing the best basketball of his career and the Knicks are the hottest team in the NBA. That being said; This a perfect time to blog about him being overrated. Unlike most lame sports “analyst”, I’d rather not just say someone is "clutch" when they win and "can’t close" when they lose.I could have posted this when the Knicks stunk in the playoffs last year but I prefer to go after players when they have the opportunity to prove me wrong.

But this never happens. When I write about overrated players it isn’t because I want them to be. It is just an undeniable truth. 

See my previous posts:

Overrated: Derrick Rose

Overrated: Tom Brady and Giselle

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Super Bowl XLVII Preview, My Version

Welcome to my first annual Super Bowl Preview Extravaganza!

The 49ers are making their first return to the Super Bowl in almost 20 years. That might seem like a long time to you youngsters, but that's nothing for those of us that were around when the Niners first joined the NFL, ironically in 1949. That is, until an up and coming coach named Bill Walsh was joined by a young QB from Notre Dame. The rest is history.

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Overrated: Derrick Rose

In my last Overrated blog I went after Hall of Famer Tom Brady http://bayaniflores.blogspot.com/2011/11/overrated-tom-brady-and-giselle.html.

Derrick Rose is a much smaller fish but when you win MVP you have been put on a short list of the greatest players of all-time. When you don't deserve to be on that list, you are by definition Overrated.

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3 Things Not To Do When Accused Of Pedophilia

Jerry Sandusky has been accused of 40 counts of sexually abusing young boys. This is a horrible crime and there is nothing funny about molestation. However, it is my job to instruct. The way the defense has handled this case has left a blue print for what not to do when accused of sexual abuse. If you ever find yourself in this situation and you are innocent here's 3 things not to do.

Happy Holidays from Jerry

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