VITO'S VIEWS

If you scroll down the page, you will see the headline on my recent story about Andrew Luck’s injury history: Luck’s chronic injuries could make for a shortened career.

I just didn’t expect it to be that short.

Luck startled the football world Saturday night when he announced he was retiring after just seven years.

Yet the decision made perfect sense. He’s been dealing with serious injuries for four years, constantly rehabbing all year round, and it simply has taken too much of a toll on him.

It might seem hard to believe he could walk away from the game and millions of dollars, especially since he grew up in football as the son of quarterback Oliver Luck.

Continue reading “Luck’s retirement was startling but understandable”

Just a year ago, Jimmy Garoppolo was the hope for the future for the San Francisco 49ers.

Now they’re just hoping he has a future.

Garoppolo took San Francisco by storm in 2017, when the 49ers traded for the former New England Patriots backup and he took over a 1-9 team and led the team to five consecutive victories to give the team a 6-10 record.

But then he was sidelined last September with a torn ACL, and he has looked lost in preseason this year.

First, he threw five consecutive interceptions in a practice last week.

Continue reading “49ers have reason to worry about Garoppolo”

The Ezekiel Elliott talks with the Dallas Cowboys seem stalemated, but remember one thing.

Jerry Jones caved in to the salary demands of his star running back 26 years ago.

Will he do it again?

Emmitt Smith was holding out in 1993, wanting to top Thurman Thomas as the highest-paid running back in the league, but Jones refused to budge.

That all changed when the Cowboys fell to 0-2 after a 13-10 loss to the Bills.

Continue reading “Elliott standoff with Cowboys looks to last a while”

Well, that didn’t take long.

When the owners voted to make pass interference reviewable because of the botched non-call in the New Orleans Saints-Los Angeles Rams playoff game, most critics predicted it would create more problems than it solved.

Sure enough, it happened in the Washington-Cincinnati game when what should have been a routine play turned into a controversy and delayed the game for no good reason.

What happened is that Washington’s Kelvin Harmon pushed off and the officials called it offensive pass interference.

Then Washington coach Jay Gruden challenged. It turns out the push-off was before the pass was thrown and the TV cameras didn’t show it, so the call stood because there was no way to judge the call.

Continue reading “Interference review already looks like a debacle”

Are Andrew Luck‘s chronic injuries going to hamper the rest of his career?

That is the question the Indianapolis Colts are dealing with after general manager Chris Ballard revealed this week that Luck will miss the preseason and that they’re not sure if he will be ready for the regular season.

Ballard said what they thought was a calf issue has now become a high ankle sprain issue. He said Luck is having pain in the “high anklish” area of his leg.

Depending on how serious it is, a high ankle sprain can take six weeks to three months or longer to heal.

So the Colts don’t know when Luck, who sat out the entire 2017 season with a shoulder injury, will be back, although Ballard said, “This is not 2017.”

Continue reading “Luck’s chronic injuries could make for a shortened career”

We shouldn’t make too much of a rookie quarterback having a subpar showing in his first preseason game.

Still, Drew Lock, the Denver Broncos’ second-round pick, showed in the Hall of Fame game against Atlanta on Thursday that he is nowhere near ready for prime time.

Coach Vic Fangio said after the game, “I was hoping for more but not surprised.”

“He still has a lot of work to do.”

Fangio added, “I thought his accuracy wasn’t clean all the time along with his reads, but that’s to be expected. We’ve got four more (preseason) games, and we’ve got to get him ready — more ready than he is right now.”

Continue reading “Woeful Lock already looking like another Elway QB misfire”

So why didn’t NFL commissioner Roger Goodell discipline Tyreek Hill?

Was Goodell extending an olive branch to the NFLPA when he decided not to suspend or fine Kansas City’s Hill because of the domestic abuse allegations he is facing?

I actually thought Goodell did the right thing because the prosecutors decided not to file charges, saying they couldn’t determine whether Hill or his fiancée abused their three-year-old son. Both said they used hands to spank him and belts to whip him but denied abusing him.

I think the NFL should let law enforcement decide whether to charge players. If they aren’t convicted of a crime, I don’t think the NFL should discipline the players.

Instead, they decided to have Hill undergo clinical evaluation and therapeutic intervention, which is obviously a good idea since Hill seems to have anger issues. Hill will benefit from that more than he will from being suspended and/or fined.

Continue reading “Not suspending Chiefs’ Hill was a rare correct move from Goodell”

Blog post updated Aug. 1, 2019

Imagine an elite pass rusher hitting the open market in free agency in his prime in March of 2022, weeks before his 27th birthday.

Imagine what he could command on the open market.

Since Bruce Smith, as Peter King of NBC Sports recently noted, recorded 108 sacks after the age of 30, a pass rusher just shy of his 27th birthday would be just reaching his prime.

He could probably set a new market for pass rushers.

The highest paid pass rusher currently is Khalil Mack at $23.5 million, although he is a linebacker.

Continue reading “UPDATED: Ngakoue’s long-term future with Jaguars appears up in the air”

It could be argued that the best contract in history for an NFL player was the three-year, $2.1 million deal O.J. Simpson got from the Buffalo Bills in the 1970s.

It doesn’t sound like much today but at the time, it was close to double the salary of the second highest-paid player in the league, New Orleans Saints quarterback Archie Manning.

While Simpson was making $733,000 a year, Manning was making in the $400,000 to $450,000 range.

Never again will there be that much of a difference between the two highest-paid players.

And it is likely again that no running back will ever be the highest-paid player in the league.

Continue reading “Running backs are fading fast on the NFL’s pay scale”

When will the NFL owners understand that “no means no” when they try to push the players for an 18-game schedule?

The players have rejected it numerous times, but that doesn’t stop the owners from bringing it up.

And the players are right in always rejecting it.

Not only is it a bad idea for the players in an era when player safety is a major concern, but it’s also bad for the game and bad for the fans.

The fact there are only 16 regular-season games a year makes them special. A lot is on the line in every game.

Continue reading “NFL owners need to stop pushing idea of an 18-game regular season”