Maddux Sports Blog

It hasn’t been easy to watch the Steelers this year – they are just a shadow of their former selves this year, and are going to have to work hard to make the playoffs, never mind to defend their Super Bowl title. Things certainly didn’t get any better on that front today – the team has had to put DE Aaron Smith on the IR for the year because of a torn rotator cuff. Smith isn’t one of the bigger defensive names in the league, but he really should be – he’s a run blocking machine as good as almost anyone in the NFL. In Smith’s absence, the job is going to be filled by committee – by a bunch of guys who aren’t good enough or ready enough to be starters right now. That’s a significant downgrade for a team that was already struggling defensively compared to what we have become used to from the top defensive team in the league the last two years. The Steelers are all but assured to get seven wins – the three they already have, plus Kansas City, Oakland, and Cleveland twice. That means they need to win four of their remaining seven to comfortably assure themselves a playoff spot. That’s far from impossible, but three of the seven are leading their division, Baltimore falls twice, and there are no soft spots. This team needs to be sharp. Really sharp. Given their early play I think I’d actually bet against a playoff spot.

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1. Brett Favre has had a personality transplant. For the second straight game he played reasonably selfless team football, and it is working for him. He didn’t take any of the stupid risks that we have gotten used to, he settled for smaller plays that would have once driven him crazy, and he was stunningly efficient. If he can keep this up and not trip over his ego then he could really do something this year. I’m not betting on it, though – he can’t keep things under control for that long.

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I tend to be an emotional football fan. It doesn’t take much for a guy to get on my bad side, and once he does it can be very hard for him to get off of it – I can really hold a grudge. Here are five guys who don’t fit my definition of the ideal NFL player, coach, or owner:

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1. JaMarcus Russell – The guy is a freaking first overall pick, but he has shown precious little that makes us think that he deserves it. Sure, there are excuses there – his team is run by morons and lacks talent, and so on. Even when you take that into consideration, though, you have real questions. He showed signs of a little bit of progress at the end of last year, but up to that point he was making the same boneheaded mistakes well into season two that he was making in season one. He’s freakishly athletic and he’s massive, but nothing about his game seems to be instinctive or natural, and it certainly isn’t pretty to watch. What is most lacking in watching him, though, is the killer instinct that makes the great quarterbacks great. You can overcome a huge deficiency in natural ability if you want it more than anyone else, and Russell has done nothing to convince me that he wants it at all.

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