FAST EDDIE EXPRESSES HIMSELF (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!
'I received a few emails from people who read one of my latest sets of practice notes when I blasted Frank Gansz for being an idiot and never shutting up in practice. Mostly these were from camp goers who were entertained by Frank Sr's song and dance out at Rams Park.
Well I'm not alone folks...
They asked Howard Balzer this morning on KFNS if he thought the Rams might try to bring in a free agent punter since Jim Thomas reported that Rick Tuten has been inconsistent in practice. Here is what Balzer had to say...
"The problem with that is you bring in someone new and then they have to put up with Frank Gansz and it will send his head straight to Mars."
Balzer went on to describe the preposterous situation I described of Gansz sitting back there shouting silly cliches at the defense throughout practice. He said someone within the Rams organization told him yesterday that Gansz is like an annoying parrot. "And no-one listens to a parrot."
"Gansz messes with these guys heads and at least the guys on defense can laugh at him and blow him off, but he does that to Rick Tuten and gets him so messed up that he kicks 35 yarders in the game."
Get rid of this moron!
2. * ON SPORTS REPORTERS
I think Balzer is ok at times but he usually doesn't go too deep. I'd take Jim Thomas for his understanding of the game and the team over Balzer anyday. Balzer doesn't write for any local publication, but he has that radio call in gig with KFNS and writes NFL articles for a couple of national publications I think.
He's worth quoting because he's at Rams Park talking to these people everyday, but one thing I've learned from attending practices on multiple occasions and standing side by side with Balzer, Claiborne, Miklasz etc. and then reading what they wrote about it... is that I no longer put any special value on their opinions because very few of them have an understanding of the game that cuts very deep. I'm not saying I do. I'm just saying I'd trust my own eyes before I'd trust theirs for the most part and I'd urge any serious football fan to do likewise because I have not seen it to be the case that theirs are trained any better than mine in terms of knowing what to look for or what they are watching.
I think this is a common mistake that a lot of people make. They think these guys are experts on the game somehow when they read them in the papers and hear them on the radio and the fact is that most of them are not at all, they are just average schmoes who have some writing skills and a public medium from which to express themselves to a wide audience.
3. * ON GREG HILL
As for his demeanor. He had a toughness and a leadership quality that this team has sorely needed. Ike Bruce and Marshall Faulk are good guys, but they are not vocal leaders, they are lead by example type guys. Hill if nothing else was vocal. I don't buy Vermeil's spin in the papers about despondent practices. I've seen him practice SINCE Faulk has signed and the guy is loud and he's electric. That's baloney by DV trying to spin an unpopular move.
Secondly, the cap... there are all sorts of ways to get cap money. There are 53 guys whose salaries count. Guaranteeing someone's contract this year would have done it and it would hardly have dented the long term stability of the cap. Vermeil himself says it had nothing to do with the cap. That probably factored into it, but it does not explain giving a good running back away for chump change.
Finally, as for Hill's value throughout the league... some say other teams aren't familiar with the sort of player Hill is. Well if that is the case and WE are the only one's that recognize what sort of player he can be, how explosive he can be... then WHY TRADE HIM? If his trade value does not equal his real value, then that would seem to be the last guy you'd trade.
I can't spin it. I think it was dumb move, a horrible trade by the Rams. What's more... they KNEW IT WHEN THEY DID IT... Balzer says when Armey announced the deal to the press he was ready for the dogs. He was spinning his wheels and that's exactly the Charley Armey I heard on the radio yesterday. Alot of BS.
But...
I've expressed my opinion now as most everyone else has and we're mostly just butting heads, so I think the argument has outlived its usefulness. Of course I think everyone should discuss the subject to their heart's content, but personally I'm just about done...
A lot of people, fans and writers alike, seem to think that this deal looks like a stupid trade from the Rams perspective right now. I agree 100% with that. And all I have left is a prediction...
As the season goes on, this trade is going to look progressively worse. Greg Hill is going to see to that all by himself in Detroit.
Just pray that Marshall Faulk doesn't miss any significant time due to injury this year... or it will get real ugly.
Done crying over spilt milk... for now:)
4. * MOVING ON
Kurt Warner come on down!
It's a new dawn:)