WHY WE WILL MISS GREG HILL, BY SAN FRAM (Sept 2) Add yourself to The HERD's Official Roster (guestbook), if you think you are man enough!
The HERD's ULTIMATE link page-add your favorite here!
As a person: I liked his character (vocally saying he WANTED and EXPECTED to be considered a leader on the team), his energy (ever see the guy talk? - he's PUMPED! - this translates well to football, IMO) and the way he felt that teammates should stick up for one another.
Perhaps my favorite Greg Hill story that reflects his character was from the Colts scrimmage earlier this year:
When a Rams player and a Colts player got into a scuffle, not only did Hill rush to his teammate's side---despite the overwhelming numbers of Colts players involved at that point---but AFTERWARDS he absolutely BERATED his fellow Rams who just stood around and did nothing! I love the idea of a guy trying to fire up his teammates to come together as a team and fight for each other! This attitude is VERY important in football, obviously. Think of how the'98 Broncos, or the '84 49ers, etc., would react if one of their OWN were in a scuffle.....stand around? Hardly.
IMO, this is one of the MAJOR things the Rams needed more of this year--- a tough, take no sh*t, "don't f*ck with us" attitude.....
Add to this the enormous POTENTIAL that I saw having both Faulk AND Hill (and all of our OTHER offensive weapons) on the field at the same time! DV himself was salivating over this possibility earlier in the year. To me, the combination of Hill with all of our OTHER offensive weapons was a HUGE part of his value to the team - soooo many ways to get yardage! Hill's contribution to the overall arsenal, of course, would have primarily been his speed.
Dunno if that's worthy of an "homage," but those are some of my thoughts...
And so goodbye Greg, and good luck, you deserve your shot.