Kaspers Korner

The Seattle Seahawks are already weak on offense.  Now, news has come out that they will be weaker on defense as well.

The Seahawks learned that starting defensive tackle Rocky Bernard, and nickle back Jordan Babineaux will be suspened for their opener against the Buffalo Bills.  Also, starting middle linebacker Lofa Tatupu is suffering from a minor knee injury.

The offense is not faring well either as wide receivers Mark Engram and Dieon Branch are out.   Starting quarterback Matt Hasselback has a stiff back, and starting right tackle Sean Locklear has a bad knee.

On top of that they are playing in Buffalo, which is not an easy place to play.

However, there is a silver lining for them, as Buffalo Bills starting left tackle Jason Peters is going to be a hold out till week ten.   They can easily take advatage of that with defensive end Patrick Kearny.

As the saying goes that is why they play the games.

Miami Dolphins running back Ricky Williams has been an enigma as he has considered life outside of football more important.  However, that has all changed as Williams has been rewarded with an outstanding training camp with a contract extension, and a pay raise.

ESPN’s Tim Graham was writing for the Miami Herald just before he joined ESPN.  He stated in an interview that Williams looked better than ever.

So, what is the main reason for the turn around?  The answer to that has two parts.

First, the money is to good to pass up.  Outside of football the only way that you are going to make the kind of money that you get in the National Football league is if you own your own business.

Secondly, is his leagacy, which is a surprise.  Williams is concerned with the way people will look back at him.

Williams is only 31 years old, and with running back Ronnie Brown he can easily play at a high level for four more years.  Former New York Giant running back Tiki Barber retired at age 32, and he was still in his prime when he retired.

What Williams also has going for him is that he has not played in two years.  Most running backs hit the wall just after turning 30, beacause they have taken such a pounding by that time. 

With the addition of quarterback Chad Pennington during the preseason, thanks to the stupidity of the Jets, the Dolphins could present a much tougher opponent than first thought.

For a while now it has been known that quarterback Chris Simms would be cut by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which happened today when the Bucs made their cuts to get down to the 53 man roster limit.  What the move shows is that the organization has no class.

Simms was a warrior as during the 2006 season he played a game with a ruptured spleen.  The shame in all of this is that Simms asked to be traded, or released months ago, but was not.

Surely, someone would have jumped all over Simms, but it most likely would not have been someone in their division.  For two of three of the Bucs divisional quarterbacks have established veterans, and the Falcons drafted Matt Ryan with the third pick overall in the draft, and is slated to start right away for them.

So, what was the motivation in keeping Simms around, until the final cutdown?

Most likely the answer is injuries, but that is pointless as there were two other veteran quarterbacks that were out there in free agency available, and one still is in Duante Culpepper.

Simms will latch on to another team, but will most likely be just a backup.  That is a shame, because Simms looked like he has finally fully healed, due to him throwing in camp with his old throwing technique.

In the end it shows what little, if any, class that head coach John Gruden posses.

It has been confirmed that Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson has changed his name to Chad Ocho Cinco.  However, the real story is when the hell is going to stop.

You have to admit that a lot of the touchdown dances that he has pulled off have been funny.  However, this is just plain bizzare.

Being a parent, this reminds me of one of my kids, who are three and four years old, doing something crazy to get attention.  Which, this just plainly is.

The question is now when the hell is the rest of the team going to take him out to the wood shed and teach him a lesson once and for all.

Most of the time when you watch, read, or listen to the news one what is going on in the National Football League, and most of the time it is someone getting arrested.  In thursday nite preseason game New York Giants guard David Diehl showed that there are some real men left in the game.

Diehl in thursday nites game wrote the number 57 on his tape.  The number represented the number 57 of RJ Reynolds high school sophmore Matt Gfeller, who died Sunday August 24th from a injury to his brain.

Diehl learned about the news from his agent Peter Schaffer, who is a close friend of the Gfeller family.

The death shows how violent the game is, and in an instant the game can take away everything from you.

After hearing the news I had a couple of questions that popped in my head.  Did the coaches properly check his helmet when equipment was issued?  Was the helmet to tight?  Was it really a clean hit, according to the News-Record, or was it in the chest, which for some reason people still consider a clean hit.

The one thing that they teach you in modified football, which is seventh and eighth grade, when teaching you how to tackle is head on the ball.  

Most running backs carry it on one hand with their palm on one end, and their elbow on another point holding it close to their side.

There are two reasons for this technique.  First, when the head hits the ball it forces a fumble.   Secondly, it gets players head away from the body, thus preventing spinal cord, and cranial injuries.

I know about head injuries, because I suffered a series of minor concussions playing high school football with too tight of a helmet.  I did not know that, because I skipped two years, because of a back injury.  When I came back for my senior year I forgot what is the proper tightness.

Still, I did not know about that until I suffered a concussion in practice trying to walk to Buffalo State College.  I described my previous symptoms from high school, and confirmed that I suffered a concusion in practice, and minor ones in high school.  Thus, ending my career.

The trainer described a hit like smacking your head concrete.  When wearing too tight of a helmet you are sustaining twice the impact.

In the wake of the Buffalo Bills Kevin Everett and Texans Harry Williams’ spinal cord injury there was already a hieghtend sense of paying more attention to tackling technique.  Now, with Gfeller’s death it is almost assured that there will be more time spent on tackling technique.

Hopefully NFL head coaches will learn this lesson as it seems many of them are becoming a bunch of panty wastes.  The biggest examply of this was thursday night as many teams in their preseason finale kept out their starting defenses and offenses.

Three years ago the New Orleans Saints were displaced by Hurricane Katrina, because the Super Dome was used as a shelter.  It could happen agains as Tropical Storm Gustav is expected to stregthen to a hurricane, and hit the American Gulf coast anywhere from Florida to Texas.

The Saints are expected to be a playoff contender this year, due to the additions they made this offseason.  However, that will all change if Gustav barrels down on New Orleans.

That year the Saints finished the 2005 season with a 3-13 record.  Obviusly, that was due mostly to the distraction caused by Hurrican Katrina.

However, the big issue is the future of the Saints in New Orleans long term.  In the aftermat of Hurricane Katrina there was rampant rumours that owner Tom Benson would move the team out of town.   

Who could blame Benson if another hurricane hits New Orleans.  Hurrican Katrina damaged the Superdome when it hit New Orleans. 

When Katrina made landfall it was a category three hurricane, which is also predicted for Gustav.

The fact of the matter is that if another category three hurricane hits New Orleans, and forces the levees to break again, it could be the end of the city all together.  Which, would mean the Saints moving to Los Angeles.

The only real way to save New Orleans would be a major project to lower the Mississippi river, which is higher than New Orleans itself. 

The Jacksonville Jaguars finally ended a lengthy holdout with defensive end Derrick Harvey.  Now, the question is how long will it take to get him to speed with the rest of the team.

Fortunately, the defensive end is not a position with a lot of thinking to it.  It is more of a position of physical strength.

The only thing mentally that Harvey needs to do is to get down his terminology of his playbook.  So, that way he knows what to do on each play.

What Harvey will need to improve on is his strength.  A lot of players do not know what really is the right way to take care of your body.  For most rookies it takes a full year to get into the right habits. 

If Harvey settled his contract before training camp, then he could of gotten off to a good start at the beginning of the season.  However, it is more likely that Harvey will struggle to start off the season.

The only person to blame for that is Harvey himself.

The San Diego Chargers doctors are advising Shawn Merriman that he could play with his injured knee, even though several doctors have advised him that he needs knee surgery.  The advice of the Chargers is one that is clearly stupid.

Every single doctor tht Merriman has seen has said the same thing.  That being he needs to have the curgery, or risk a career ending injury.

Even with the news the Chargers have not put him on injured reserve.  To leave Merriman to decide on what to do is foolish.  Players have huge egos, and will always decide to play no matter how injured they are.

Coaches jobs each year are always on the line, and they are never going to push for a player to have season ending surgery.

What the Chargers are doing is foolish, and will kill their future chances at a Superbowl if Merriman suffers a career ending injury.

Simply, the coaching staff needs to push Merriman to have the surgery.

Chicago Bears general manager Jerry Angelo took tackle Chris Williams in the first round of this past years draft.  He did it knowing full well that Williams had a herniated disc in his neck, thus looking like an idiot.

A herniated disc is a more serious form of a disc bulge.  Both are the petruding of matter out of its normal position within a disc, which thus affects nerves.  These discs are located in between vertabrates along the spinal column.  

A herniated disc or a bulge can still shift around, and cause even more problems if not treated. 

The reason being is that the disc can rupture even more.  Also, the matter that is currently out of position can shift to affect nerves even more.

Now, the question that needs to be asked is who did the Bears consult when going over Williams medical records?

Who ever the Bears consulted should be fired, along with Williams former college team’s medical staff.

This is a serious matter to the point that Williams is lucky to be walking.  If the disc ruptured completely the vertabrate could have slipped, and damaged the spinal cord.  Thus, leaving him paralyzed, or even dead.

Do not be surprised if National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell looks into the matter further in the near future.

The Buffalo Bills came away with a victory in their preseason game against the Indianapolis Colts.  However, the reality is that the Bills lost.

Bills fans were left hanging on the edge of their seats as Langston Walker was hurt in the second quarter, which turned out to be only a bruise.  The injury shows why the Bills are losers.

No, matter what you think about the contract situation between the Bills and Peters there is one thing that you cannot deny.  The Bills are one serious injury away to Langston Walker for their season to get flushed down the tubes.

The Bills will most likely have to use a tight end and a running back to chip the defensive end that current starting right tackle Kirk Chambers will be blocking.

Lets face it though the Bills are in a tough division, and two of the Bills AFC East rivals are defensive minded head coaches, which are the New York Jets Eric Mangini and New England Patriots Bill Belichick.   Which means that they will draw up ways to exploit Chambers being the starting right tackle.

Both starting units for the Bills look to be coming together, and appear to be solid right now.  However, everything could be undone, because of one stubborn owner.

A stubborn owner that cost us one of the best general managers in the league in Bill Polian, and possibly our franchise left tackle that Bills fans have been dreaming of, since Will Wolford left in the early 1990s.

Do not doubt it Bills fans, and I will call it first.   If the Bills do not start negotiating with Peters right now, and suspend him under team conduct detrimental to the team, he will ask for a trade out of town.

If that happens you only have one person to blame for that, and that is uncle Ralph.