July 1, 2010: Welcome to Earth

Now I know I have not done a single one of my 32 for 32 posts yet. It’s bad. There’s no excuse for it, but I’ve been busy with work...and I was in Australia... And plus I’m not excited about football right now. At all. So deal with it.

This post is about summertime. We’re hitting that time of the year, at least in Portland, where we get glimpses of good weather. Maybe it’s a few 60 degree days in a row, maybe it’s a lone 70 degree-er. Regardless, one of the common phrases around these parts is “Man, I can’t wait for summer to get here.” Well, you can count me as a member of that bandwagon. Hot weather, barbeques, swimming, lemonade, beaches, camping, LeBron James…?

The upcoming NBA offseason has been covered (just a bit), but I want to throw my two cents in. There was Gene Wojciechowski who mulled over the idea of LeBron, Bosh, and Wade settin’ up shop together . There’s every Knick fan who is praying for LeBron to New York. There’s Rick Reilly who thinks…about…nothing important. Anyway, it’s my turn:

What I think will happen:

Dwyane Wade to the Miami Heat. He’s staying. Miami wants him back. He doesn’t ACTUALLY want to leave. Sometimes he hints at the possibility of leaving if he doesn’t get help, but he’ll stay. The Heat will bring in another star to help him. Someone like…

Amare Stoudemire to the Miami Heat. There were some whispers about Amare to the Heat at the deadline, but it didn’t happen. This summer could be another story. For such a dominant post player, Amare has never seemed to want to be “the man.” Well Miami already has “the man,” so he can just quietly dunk his way through South Beach.

LeBron James to the…Cleveland Cavaliers. The one is getting weaker for me. A few weeks ago, I would’ve definitely said the Cavs, but now I’m not so sure. He was at Madison Square Garden for the Jay-Z concert on Tuesday , luckily made possible by the fact the Cavs were off at New Jersey. Would’ve been easier if he were just a Knick, right? Somehow, I still see him staying. The Cavs have a solid team (I’m still not a huge fan of their pieces), he’s at home, etc…

Chris Bosh to the New York Knicks. Bosh is done in Toronto. He wants to be relevant. New York is certainly somewhere to be relevant. They’ll max him out and he’ll go, as long as he talks to some of his free agent friends and gets somebody else to come with him so that they can win some games here and there.

Joe Johnson to the New York Knicks. Hard to believe it, but there’d be some Knick fans that would call the 2010 offseason a disappointment if the Knicks “only” ended up with Bosh and Johnson. Johnson and Bosh would be a very solid duo and could make some noise with some decent Knick pieces around them.

Carlos Boozer to the Chicago Bulls. Utah has a lot of money tied up in Paul Millsap already, so paying another power forward isn’t a great option. Boozer likes the Bulls and they’ve got some money. If they can’t get another top tier free agent, I don't think they'd mind settling for Boozer.

What I want to happen:

LeBron James to the New Jersey Nets. Let’s say the Nets win the lottery. They take John Wall. That’s two really nice pieces in Wall and Brook Lopez (plus whoever they get when they trade Devin Harris). They add LeBron to that, who gets to kick it with Hova all da time and (eventually) play in Brooklyn? Too easy, mate! I love the Nets for LeBron.

Chris Bosh to the Portland Trailblazers. Nearly impossibly unlikely. It would have to be a sign and trade since the Blazers won’t have cap room, meaning they’ll really have to woo Bosh and then work it out with the Raptors. Toronto would be interested, especially with the fear of Bosh just walking and getting nothing in return. A nice package of LaMarcus Aldridge and Rudy Fernandez may be pretty enticing to them. Aldridge is talented but overpaid while Fernandez is a good value and an exciting fan favorite. They could do worse. Would Bosh be interested? Eh. But that’s why this is under “what I want to happen.”

"Uhh, yeah... LaMarcus? I'm just gonna scoot over here so your, um, "soft" doesn't rub off on me. We cool, right? Oh, and Greg? Well, you know."

Amare and Wade to the Heat. This is where what I think will happen and what I want to happen align nicely. What a fun duo this would be to watch. Bienvenido a Miami!

What about Joe Johnson? No real preference, as long as he's still doing things like this. All in all, I'm excited for new faces to be in new places. And for John Wall. Get some baby.

Finally, to leave you with this. You know I love me some NBA on TNT. Well with the Oscars coming up, they wanted to make sure Chuck got some recognition for his leading roles. Who wins?

Poison Pill 2.0

At the risk of flooding the fegos with yet another Lost reference (after Dream's Lost sexplosion this will be a mere blip on the Last Naked Warrior's gaydar) I'm proud to release Poison Pill v1.5.3

It's a stir-fry concept that we can all try

Naturally, the Poison Pill has a progenitor. And no, it's not the naked warrior despite his radical claims that he is the progenitor of all mankind.

The poison pill concept was the brainchild of desperate times and desperate measures. As was well catalogued in The Many Fachays of Brad Childress, the 2006 Vikings were a team in need of change. While the obvious change was from Tice to Childress, the ownership takeover of Zygi Wilf from Red McCombs forced people to realize in the Minnesota organization that there was both a need to change and pressure to change fast. So the alchemists in Minneapolis decided to cook up a poison pill to prey on the unsuspecting.

And who more unsuspecting than the shell-shocked, referee exploited, superbowl losing OPI victims: The Seattle Seahawks. Lest we forget, while Tim Ruskell was the nominal GM at the time, a certain walrus was at the helm of most major personnel decisions for the Hawks.

At least you won with the Packers!

Too proud to accept that his team was aging, Holmgren would take an "ain't broke don't fix it" approach to his team in the 2006 offseason. After franchising a 31 year old Walter Jones, the Seahawks placed a transition tag on emerging stud guard Steve Hutchinson.

WHOOPSIE!!!!

The transition tag is just another wrinkle in the technicality-rich NFL free agency rulebook. Basically it allows for the right to match any offer if the player receives a contract offer from another team. It also simultaneously guarantees the player is among the top 10 paid at his position. Essentially it is another franchise tag with no compensation associated. The final wrinkle is that if the player under the transition tag signs a contract, the team may not use the transition tag until that player's contract is finished or terminated.

But those tricksy Vikings hobitsssissss...

The Vikings pounced on a chance to bolster their offensive line which would help support Chicken Taylor and their new run-centered gameplan. They signed Steve Hutchinson to a 7 year 49 million dollar contract with 16 mil guaranteed money. Included in the deal was some fancy language -- the poison pill of the contract. It stipulated that if Hutchinson wasn't the highest paid offensive lineman on the team, the entirety of the contract would be guaranteed. Because Walter Jones was their franchise player, the Seahawks would be unable to match the offer sheet (which actually was an option due to the transition tag) without activating the poison pill and thus destroying their salary cap for the next 7 years.

In effect, the lowly Vikings had just made the Seahawks --who were coming of an NFL rushing title by Steve Hutchinson, Walter Jones and Pork Chop Womack as well as a superbowl appearance-- their muppet bitch.

That was poison pill version 1.0. Version 1.1 would soon follow with a retaliatory poison pill against the Vikings. In a not so subtle contract offer of 49 million over seven years, the Seahawks signed then Vikings restricted free agent WR Nate Burleson. Analysis by gas chromatography of the poison pill shows several key components:

1) If Burleson played more than 5 games in the state of Minnesota in one year the entire contract would become guaranteed.

2) If his average salary per year (7 million) exceeded the total paid to the team's running backs the contract would be guaranteed.

The first component is an obvious poison pill against Minnesota, but the second component possibly ended up hurting the Seahawks more than they initially anticipated. Because the Seahawks were paying over 7 million to the ghost of Shaun Alexander alone, they didn't have to worry about this kicking in. The Vikings at the time were paying maybe 3.5 million total to a slew of wizzinators, track stars and TD Vultures of seasons past. Maybe Seattle included this condition in the trade because they feared arbitration might void the Minnesota part of the deal, but was there ulterior motive here? Was someone in the Seahawks front office trying to force a pay raise for those underappreciated Vikings runners?

In the end however, Seattle would come to the realization that they ultimately wanted to keep Burleson and release Alexander. But without Alexander, their own poison pill would turn against them! You may be thinking "Hehn!?" right now, but remember that they were paying Alexander top dollar after he rushed for 28 TDs. The end result of the Burleson poison pill was certainly not anticipated by the Seahawks, but it's a perfect example of playing with fire--fire that burns you in a slow, painful, salary cap induced manner. To help douse the fire, they would have but one choice: Sign Orange Julius Jones for way too much money to bring them back over the 7 million per year.

The Orange Julius externality (read: cancer) coupled with the fact that Burleson received a 3rd round restricted free agent tender (meaning Seattle surrendered a 3rd rounder) meant that this was a truly awful acquisition which clearly was made purely in retaliation. Their additional stubborn refusual to pass on Walter Jones for the younger Hutch means this Seattle 2005 offseason was one of the worst and most poorly managed offseasons that was unaffected by Al Davis. Al Davis has certainly reserved a separate ledger for his botched offseasons.

From here on out, Seattle would struggle and struggle to get back on the horse. They thought they had a thoroughbred backfield and a stud O-line. Now Muppett-drunk and out of sorts, they found what they had was actually a big fat whale at running back, and staying on said whale would turn out to be quite slippery...
In the end, both poison pill contracts were approved by an NFL arbiter (second only to the NFL's title of "special master" in terms of nerdy job appeal) and the player movement would decidedly change the shape of the NFC North and West divisions.

So why am I bringing up the history of a topic you probably were already familiar with? Because history is about to repeat itself. Welcome to poison pill v2.0. Fresh off beta testing it's about to go live this Friday March 5 when NFL free agency begins.

Taking a look at the 2010 potential free agents, without a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) in place, a TON of players who would be unrestricted free agents (UFA) will now be restricted free agents (RFA) which involves tenders and offer sheets. And with RFA comes poison pills.

Who will poison whom? Unclear, but with Brandon Marshall, Vincente Jackson, and Miles Austin all currently RFAs, some movement at WR is certainly possible considering the UFA counterparts are the T.O. show and Derilict my own balls Mason.

The QB market isn't as volatile, but Defense might be where most of the action takes place. If 2009 was the year of the cuck in the NFL, 2010 is the year of the Ruffie-Cuck. Teams will try to swindle their rivals out of productive players using ruffie laden offer sheets and cuck them in the following season. Here are a couple of pre-free agency poison pill predictions courtesy of the Sleazer:

The Pats will make a play for Ronnie Brown. Maybe this has been hashed out by 98.5 the sports hub for hours on end, I'm not sure, but Belichick likes to sign players that he has seen up close. And he likes to take Dolphins fringe players and make them producers. Brown-pants isn't a fringe player, but Bill knows what he can do: single-handedly beat the Pats.

Oakland will cuck the Broncos in the most surprising Al Davis move of the new millennium. He will seek out a WR who runs slower than a 4.5 40. Heck, he might be slower than an O-lineman after the Raiders draft physical freak Bruce Campbell in the first round. The Broncos will pretend they don't care, and Marshall and his attitude will fade into Bolivian after he punts a few balls during practice.

Owen Daniels to the Browns. Houston showed last season they have offensive power, defensive playmakers, and a lack of consistency in all aspects of the game. In an effort to resign guys like Demeco Ryans, the Texans might let their most consistent player slip away. The Browns could definitely use the soft hands of Daniels no matter who is under center. They will be one of few teams willing to go after a guy who tore his ACL late in the season.

If nothing else comes out of poison pills, hopefully we can create some new team rivalries. Division rivalries are always great, but poison pill rivalries are fresh and go all the way to the top of an organization.

If all this has you scratching your head saying, why should I care? Fine. Go watch physical specimens show off their bodies at the combine. Or read what LeCharles Bentley (yes the former Browns and Saints Center) has to say. Because bitch... today, ain't yo day ( probably NSFW)

Brett Favre is LOST

Ed Werder recently reported that Brett Favre is "highly unlikely" to return to the Vikings next season. We've heard this swan song before, and I'm not here to harp on the validity of Mr. Marlboro's statement. Instead I want you to know what Jeffrey Lieber, J.J. Adams, and Damon Lindelof have been trying to tell us for the last 6 years; Brett Favre is going to die on the Island.

My freshmen year of college, Earnest and I were the only two guys in our dorm intrigued by the plane-wrecked previews for a new show called LOST. We assumed that it would be a one year soiree that essentially posed as an extended version of Castaway with chicks replacing the infallibility of Wilson. We made a weekly ritual of bowing to the smoke monster and discussing the potential secrets that lay deep within Locke's nemesis, the hatch. The hopeful season finale had a handful of the survivors setting off on a luxury homemade raft and ended with a rogue ship of Others "taking the boy." The lack of closure forced Earnest and me back into a piddling life of calzones, Halo, and late night viewings of And1 mixtapes. To boot, the RIAA decided to throw the kitchen sink at college pirates that summer and nabbed seven perpetrators at Tufts. Well before the Oceanic 6, I had been infamously tagged on campus as one of the Subpoenaed 7. A summer of "grueling" labor on the golf course stymied any snowballing interest I would have concentrated on the LOST mysteries, and come season 2 I was out.

Two days before Texas and Alabama met in the national championship game this year I saw a preview for the sixth and final season of LOST that featured the re-edification of the plane from Oceanic flight 815. The feebly crackling embers of LOST pontification that still swirled in my soul were suddenly struck with a donkey punch of wind and kindling. I grabbed my housemate's copy of season 2 and vowed to plow through the missing four seasons with the vigor of Makhtar spanking it to a 100 hour long montage of Aurora Snow's greatest gulps. Once the hatch opened, my mind was instantly illuminated with that omnipresent white light. My life became Requiem for an Island, and I was an ass2ass scene short of shit getting freaky. I'd wake up in the middle of the night to Jacob's whispers, Hurley flooded my dreams asking for putting advice, and I constantly kept a box of tissues nearby anticipating the oncoming deluge of nosebleeds. By the time Juliet was surviving 200 foot freefalls and knocking out nukes I was immersed in a LOST trance similar to the conscience duality Desmond faced in his early stages on Widmore's ship. I did what any Farraday follower would and opened my notebook to find this little ditty scribed there: Brett Favre is my constant. Finally it all made sense.

There's a well-documented history on this blog of my feelings towards Favre and his return, but unfortunately the Island delivers no reparations for past misdeeds. Favre's role in my LOST quest is more apparent now than ever. Brett Favre is Charlie Pace. Let's look beyond their identical perma-scruff and gina tingling accents (or just the opposite) and focus on what defines their twin identities, fate.

This is no time for smiles dude

It takes no stretch of imagination to see that both of our characters' journeys to the Island revolve around addiction and hardship. Charlie, an indie rockstar, was abandoned by his bandmate brother only after his brother had hooked Charlie on heroin and pawned away his beloved piano. As his brother Liam recovered in Australia, Charlie decided to visit with a plea to reform the band. He was swiftly dismissed and forced to purchase a ticket on the doomed Oceanic flight. Favre battled his own vicodin addiction during his early MVP years and came very close to abandoning his wife and young daughter at the time. Instead he became reinvigorated by his wife and daughter's love and began to imbue the country with his kid-like passion, stealing away John Wayne's crown as America's preeminent gunslinger. After all of their adulation from the super bowl ring, the media served as Favre's conduit to the Island, thrusting him onto a pedestal unaffected by criticism. He truly stood alone.

There's no logical explanation for why the Island affects people the way that it does (until season 6 I hope) but there is empirical evidence that supports the theory that the Island isn't pure evil. Both Favre and Charlie were bearers of good fortune through the reversed plights of their loved ones. Charlie's crush, Claire, beat the odds of maternal death when she successfully delivered her baby boy Aaron. Likewise, Favre's wife won a bout with breast cancer, eventually becoming a figurehead for cancer research. All of these parallel circumstances still don't characterize our two players' destinies; they came to the Island to die.

Charlie first encounters Desmond back in Scotland when he's playing Wonderwall outside of Widmore's office, but since this occurs in the past Charlie has yet to actually meet Desmond and their interaction is trivial. This deja vu power follows Desmond back to the Island and enables him to sporadically go Miss Cleo on fools. It's this clairvoyance that ultimately leads to Desmond saving Charlie from lightning, preventing him from drowning, and getting a tribal arrow to the gullet. Charlie becomes aware of his fate, and finally decides to accept it knowing that it will facilitate the rescuing of other people. He's sent on a mission to an underwater aquastation to disable a jammer that is blocking radio transmission signals from leaving the Island. With the help of the Beach Boy's Good Vibrations he's successful in dismantling the jammer and basically sacrifices himself but not before delivering the message to Desmond "Not Penny's Boat."

Now here's the fucking creepy part, Favre's story is the same thing. He first meets an NFL general manager when he's taken 33rd overall by the Atlanta Falcons, but almost every single casual fan doesn't remember this because it's pre-Island Brett. If Favre's sojourn to the Island begins after the fame from his super bowl win then it's pretty clear that Favre's fate was to build expectations then crush his fans with painstaking losses. All these losses came attached to symbolic last throw interceptions that mirrored Charlie's forecasted deaths. It's incredible that the final throw Favre made for his last three franchises has been an interception in a game with huge implications (super bowl birth, playoff birth, super bowl birth). Similar to Charlie, Favre has been protected, his Desmond coming in the form of desperate NFL GMs. Unfortunately, it can't be said whether or not Favre has had his "aquastation moment" yet, but predicting that his final message will read "No Super Bowl" is just too easy.

Yea, we get it Brett

Favre's dismemberment of three fanbases is definitely more sadistic than any late night crib robberies committed by Charlie. Just listen to this clip and PONDER if you ever heard the same passion from Claire, Sawyer, Kate, or even Jack at any point in the show. Every time Favre thinks he's getting off the Island he is pulled right back into the jungle either by his own undying passion, the suggestion of his 10 year old daughter Breleigh, or because the major networks still love rubbing one out to him. The question has to be what will it take for Favre to finally be released from teh Island's fetters? A Ricky Williams like kumbaya tour of North Africa? An admission that he's been using PEDs these last three years? A 10 million dollar donation to the pink ribbon cause? The true answer is that we don't know and we can't know because that's how the Island works. There's no logical explanation for why any of this happens, well, at least until the season 6 finale.

Teurlings Catholic High School: Delhomme makes the All-State team as a DB

Delhomme attends the University of Southwestern Louisiana

Throw Momma from the Train

Editors Note: Contininuing our guest section of 32 for 32 on Fegonomics is new contributor Peaceful Mountain. Give him a break, he's Asian.


Disclaimer: This post is based entirely on conjecture and should be read and interpreted as such and nothing else.

Drew Brees’ mother, Mina Brees, died in an apparent suicide on August 7, 2009 a month before Brees’ ninth NFL season was about to begin.  Prior to her death she had been under investigation for extortion for sending letters to some restaurants claiming that their rights to their names had been bought by another company, Chicksports, and that if they wanted the naming rights back they would need to send her $25,000.  These letters of coursed failed to mention that Brees herself was the owner of Chicksports.


In 2006 Mina Brees came under fire from Brees himself, when she decided to use images of him as a Charger in campaign ads that she was running in a race for a spot in the Texas appeals court.  Brees had asked that his image not be used, and it was only when his lawyer threatened legal action that Mina Brees acquiesced to his demands.  At the time Brees described his relationship with his mother as “nonexistent”.  The riff supposedly began in 2001, when Brees refused to hire his mother as his agent before the NFL draft. 


One can only begin to imagine what kind of psychological damage his relationship with his mother has caused him over the years.  And judging from the string of strange, bizarre and frankly crazy shit that has happened between them over the last 9 years, it is highly unlikely that Brees ever had anything close to what one would describe as a “normal” relationship with his mother. 

With that being said perhaps Brees’ resilience came in part from his lack of motherly nurturing.  As any young child knows, there are few places more comforting than at your mother’s side.  This is something that has been hard wired into each of us as it is a key to our survival as a species.  To have this bond taken away can be immensely damaging, and in Brees’ case, it seems apparent that this relationship has been irrevocably broken for some time now.


So to have the career that Brees has had in spite of all the doubts, injuries, and slaps in the face that he has had to endure is quite remarkable.  Here’s a quick hit list of what he has faced:


1979 – Born with a huge hairy mole on his face that has been described as a “small woolly-bear caterpillar”, his parents decide to leave it on there.
1996 – Leads Westlake High to a state title in Texas but is not recruited by a single Division I college in Texas.
2001 – Finishes third in Heisman voting, named Big Ten Offensive MVP, receives Maxwell Award as the nation’s most outstanding player, and still does not get drafted in the first round.
2003 – Gets benched in favor of a 42 year old Doug Flutie.

2004 – Chargers draft Eli Manning, then trade for Philip Rivers.  Clearly signaling they no longer believe Brees has a future in San Diego. 
2005 – On the eve of becoming a free agent, and posting a career high in passing yards, Brees gets injured in his last game of the season against the Denver Broncos on a cheap hit by John Lynch. 
2006 - The Chargers, wary of his shoulder, send him a low ball offer telling him essentially to leave.  Then to add insult to injury the Miami Dolphins choose Daunte Culpepper, fresh off a ride on a sex boat, to be their starting QB over him.

By the time Brees signed with the New Orleans Saints in the spring of 2006, no one was quite sure where he or that team was headed.  New Orleans was still in shock from Hurricane Katrina, and the Saints did not play a single game of the 2005 season at the Superdome, as it had become a makeshift refugee camp. 

The team itself was in shambles, they underachieved in 2003 and 2004, and finished the 2005 season 3-13.  Their starting quarterback, Aaron Brooks, had literally devolved over the course of 5 seasons, and had with each game found seemingly unconscionable ways to turn the ball over (Fegonomics staff edit:.If anyone has video evidence of the Brooks backwards pass please post link in comments section ASAP).  Jim Haslett, their coach for the last 6 seasons was fired and the Saints were in full rebuilding mode.  Typical Saints.


But with the signing of Brees, things seemed to turn around.  Reggie Bush (then considered a sure thing) miraculously slipped to them at the #2 spot in the draft.  Then in what was a surprise to most, the Saints announced that they will play all 8 games at home in the Superdome for the upcoming season.  All of a sudden the Saints were not only relevant, but considered exciting again. 

"I wanna kiss you" 

4 seasons, 3 Pro Bowls, 18,298 yards passing, and a 122 TD to 57 INT ratio later it has become apparent that the quarterback and the city that were both left for dead have come back with a vengeance.  Brees hasestablished himself as one of the premier quarterbacks in the league and has put himself in the conversationwith Mssr. Brady and Manning as a perennial MVP candidate.

After winning their first thirteen games this season the Saints ended the season on a three game losing streak.  Since embarrassing a shell of a Patriots team in Week 12, the team has looked vulnerable and critics have questioned whether this is a team that should be considered a true contender.  Brees has been spotty at best in his last two starts, throwing only 1 TD.  The Saints vaunted offense has been anemic as they were held below 20 points in each of the last three games, their lowest three point totals of the season.  The doubt has begun to creep in.  How will Brees respond this time?

Intermission

Gentleman,

This man has scored 158 touchdowns. Now, he reveals the secrets behind it all.

Lord Byron

Editor's Note:
The following is another guest spot for our 32 for 32 feature. This post is by our own Mr. "Real Life of Alex Mack" Liquid Dinho.


O Byron, Lord Byron






Byron Leftwich was born on January 14th 1980 in Washington DC. Lord Byron was born on January 22nd 1788 in London. Byron Leftwich is a professional football quarterback. Lord Byron was an English Romantic poet. A google search for Byron Leftwich returns 204,000 hits. A google search for Lord Byron returns 3,600,000 hits. Byron Leftwich has a baby face and looks like Gary Coleman. Lord Byron is a true baller and doesn’t give a fuck who he looks like cause other people look like him not the other way around.

So what are the similarities? One, they both have the same first name. Two, straight players. That’s right both Byron’s are straight players. Lord Byron tapped everything that came his way. His conquests include the wife the Prime Minister of England, Mary Shelley’s sister and other English nobility. But don’t fret, Lord Byron doesn’t discriminate based on sex or family relations. He poked his cousin, half-sister, men, boys… Like I said, Lord Byron doesn’t give a fuck. Byron Leftwich on the other hand, well, he probably Mike Leached some sorority chica. (To Mike Leach is to undertake any action in a locked equipment room.) So maybe Baby Face can’t compete with the Lord in the game of Games, but Baby Face’s got the edge on the Gridiron.

The usual reaction that even a serious football fan has when the name Byron Leftwich is mentioned is of a fat, slow QB, with a big arm who never panned out in the NFL. In other words a bust. However these conclusions are somewhat unfair. To see why let’s review Leftwich’s career starting with his days at Marshall.

Not heavily recruited coming out of high school, Leftwich decides to attend the MAC powerhouse Marshall, whose potent passing game had been established by Chad Pennington and Randy Moss. Byron’s big frame 6’5 250, and big arm lit up the MAC with impressive passing numbers. Over three years he passed for 11,903 yards with 89 touchdowns and 28 interceptions.
His college career is highlighted by Marshalls 64-61 victory over ECU in the 2001 GMAC Bowl, in which he faced future teammate David Garrard. Leftwich threw for 576 yards and 4 TDs as Marshall rallied from a 38-8 deficit at half time to win in double OT. Check out some of the highlights from this game, its ridiculous. Check out the looks of the coaches at 13:22,14:15 and at 17:19. Priceless.

Leftwich also gained national fame for being carried downfield by his offensive linemen after completing a long pass with a broken shin. Check it out:



An accurate QB, with a cannon for an arm and leadership abilities is pretty enticing to NFL general managers. In one of the strangest draft day episodes in which the Vikings missed their pick, the Jaguars jumped at the opportunity for a franchise QB and drafted Byron 7th overall in the 2003 draft. The situation looked great for a young QB to mature. The Jags had a veteran starter in Mark Brunell, A solid defense and talented skill players such as Fred Taylor and Jimmy Smith. However the Jags’ plans hit a snag four weeks into Byron’s rookie year when Brunell went down with an injury, and Leftwich was thrust into the starting role.

Over the next 4 seasons Leftwich started 44 games before having season ending ankle surgery after week 5 in 2005 and week 11 in 2006. Leftwich lead the Jaguars to a 24-20 record during this span with 51 TDs and 36 INTs. Hardly bad numbers for the young QB, especially when you consider that this period also contained the retirement of Jimmy Smith, the leaving of Fred Taylor and was prior to the arrival of MJD.

The problem for Leftwich is that David Garrard came in and went 13-6 as a starter when Byron was injured and then proceeded to win the starting job over Leftwich during the 2007 preseason. Leftwich was released by Jacksonville and spent the 2007 season as a backup in Atlanta. He spent the 2008 season as the backup in Pittsburgh and won a ring on the shoulders of Big Ben. After signing with Tampa Bay to be the starter for 2009, he was replaced as the 1st string QB by Josh Johnson in week 4 and ended the season on IR.

Leftwich is due a $3.5 million roster bonus in March so you can bet he’ll be released this offseason. Leftwich is almost certainly going to look for a starting opportunity, however its unclear if he’ll get one. After getting dumped by Jacksonville he’s been with three different teams in as many years, hardly the right environment to excel as a quarterback. If no team is willing to give him the chance to start, I’d expect him to return as the backup in Pittsburgh. Charlie Batch is old and Dennis Dixon is not ready to be an NFL QB. Given Big Ben’s concussion issues the Steelers need a veteran QB who’s familiar with the offense. Byron Leftwich fits the bill.

It’s pretty clear that Byron Leftwich will never be a franchise quarterback. When you’re drafted 7th overall that level of achievement is certainly expected, so it’s easy to dismiss Leftwich as a bust. However look at what he did in Jacksonville. He wasn’t tearing up the league, but he certainly wasn’t bad enough to be run out of town. Since then he’s bounced around with mixed results. It’s likely that he will be given another starting shot in his career. If he can win some games, maybe lead a team to the postseason then he may leave a different legacy. As Lord Byron once said, “Men are the sport of circumstances when it seems circumstances are the sport of men.” I’m not sure what that means, but Leftwich is a man and he plays a sport so it should apply.