At 12:01, I had a lot of respect for Trent Green
Oct 8, 2007 Fatty Starbucks, God hates ugly, Injury bug, National Media, Travis Johnson
Some follow-up notes on “The Travis Johnson Incident.”
- I’ve received a couple emails from people saying that they don’t entire agree with me. That’s to be expected and it’s one of the things I like about feedback. One of the main points that emails have mentioned, though, is that I am way off-base when I say Green should have hit Johnson high. If Johnson were running right at Green, that would be true.
However, the point remains that, regardless of where Green hit Travis, the hit was almost certainly going to be blind. Now, while it would be suicidal for Green to try to go numbers-to-numbers with Johnson, hitting him in the shoulder when he doesn’t see it coming (more on that in a second) would have been completely effective and safe for both players. My bigger point, though, is that Green could have basically hit Johnson anywhere between Johnson’s earhole and his thigh pad and both players would have been fine. - As to Johnson getting blindsided, if one wants to fault him for anything on that play, not seeing looking for a block would probably be it. “Head on a swivel” is the phrase that special teamers and pass-catching TEs and the like use frequently. Well, a DT running free in space makes a pretty large target and would do well to heed that advice. Of course, the flip side to that is that asking someone to watch out for a cheap shot to his knees as he is trying to track the ball-carrier is asking a little much. Still, if you are looking to make Johnson guilty of something in the play, that would be it.
- A lot of people have mentioned the KSK discussion of the hit. My favorite line is “Johnson’s only crime was being excited that Green’s pisspoor blocking skill didn’t end his career.” Pretty much.
- McClain offers up a pretty fair take that discusses the scenario from both sides. He also mentions that Johnson has a “clicking” in his knee and will undergo an MRI. Great. Fantastic. That’s what we need. How dare he get angry at Green for that hit?
- Regardless of what you think of Johnson’s “taunting,” (and I use quotes because I don’t think it was really taunting in anything but the purely technical sense) you have to admit that Green getting knocked cold was Green’s fault and no one else’s. So, yeah, if you want to feel sorry for the guy because he got yelled at when he couldn’t hear it, go ahead; but Green doesn’t deserve much (or any) sympathy for actually getting hit.
- Over at Fanhouse, Stephanie’s take is straight-forward and even-handed, which is exactly what you would expect. I mean that in a nice way. Michael Smith’s take, on the other hand, is trite drivel devoid of anything interesting or compelling, which is also exactly what you would expect. I wish someone would knee him in the head.
- Final thought. If you look at all the ways Green and Johnson could collide in a game setting, nearly every one either results in no penalty or a penalty on Johnson. Clean sack? No penalty. Green dives into Johnson’s knees from the blindside, possibly injuring him? No penalty. Sack where Johnson hits Green in the head? Flag. Sack where Johnson hits Green too low? Likely flag. Johnson trips and rolls into Green after the ball is released? Flag. Johnson sees Green trailing the play and lights him up before Green can block him? Flag. This is fair how?
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October 8th, 2007 at 6:05 pm
I’m with #99. Fuck Trent Green
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October 8th, 2007 at 6:46 pm
How awesome was it that he messed up the Wizard of Oz reference by calling Green the Scarecrow instead of the Lion? I don’t know why, but that cracked me up as much as “Fuck Trent Green.”
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October 8th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
that was pretty damn hillarious. They mentioned that on Mike and Mike. Greeny was like I was cool with everything he said up until he screwed up the wizard of Oz reference.
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October 8th, 2007 at 7:58 pm
Yup, straight-forward and even-handed in a world that likes making heroes and villains. I just think that we are all imperfect, the world has lots of greys, though I will say that some people are more imperfect than others:
http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/category/nfl/2006/09/03/things-nfl-fans-shouldnt-view-while-eating-breakfast/
Okay, maybe not always even-handed.
Two major thoughts I would like to add to your omnibus Trav post:
1. Travis Johnson is actually a very personable nice guy. That is one of the reasons why John McClain tried to be pretty fair to him in his post because he isn’t just someone to be dismissed out of hand as a punk and loser.
2. The biggest problem I had with this story is that reporters who are supposed to have less of a bias than I do (as a unrepentant and proud Texan fan), wrote the story in a way to make it more provocative than it was. Using words that did not factually explain what happened–which is why the video was important to see.
Not just the slow mo version, but the real time version.
Here’s some quotes from stories:
“Travis Johnson stood over his unconscious body while taunting him” http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/seahawks/2003932813_nflnotes08.html
“He was injured when defensive tackle Travis Johnson hit him in the head with his knee. After the play, Johnson stood over Green and taunted him, drawing a 15-yard penalty.”
http://sports.aol.com/nfl-game/Houston-Texans-vs-Miami-Dolphins/20071007034/recap/2007/REGULAR/5
This is an illustration of why you actually have to watch the games instead of depend on some reporter’s recap. If you look at the tape in real time, he doesn’t “stand over” Green “taunting” him. To read Travis Johnson hit Green with his knee sounds like it is Johnson’s fault that Green concussed himself.
Factually, Travis Johnson gets dumped ass over teakettle, whatever the hell that means, but you can visualize it. Lands on his head. Gets up. Walks back toward the bench and yells something at Green. He doesn’t stand over Green. And we don’t know what he said.
“Taunting” is a penalty that was called, a judgment call. But to suggest that Johnson was taunting Green in a your mama sense is more than what you can tell just by looking at stuff, and is an inaccurate way of describing it.
Also, when reporters describe it without discussing the violence of the collision to TJ, like the way Olberman did it, it takes away the context of why he was so mad. (IIRC, they showed it in slo mo, which makes the collision look less intense but the yelling look worse). That is, dude got a helmet smashed into his knee, did a cartwheel in the air, and landed on his head. If you don’t know that, you have a hard time seeing why he got up mad.
Looking at today’s presser, Kubiak is handling it the way the Texans handle a bunch of stuff. Handle it in house and move on. But defend your guy to the league.
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October 9th, 2007 at 5:52 am
I agree 100% with all of that. It was the phrasing of the media types that pissed me off enough to write about this thing in the first place. I watched the NFLN replay of the game last night and at no point does Johnson stop and stand over Green. He walks past him the entire time, while pointing and yelling.
I also thought it was telling that there were at least five Dolphins in position to see the play and the ensuing yelling and not one of them got in Johnson’s face for it. I’m not saying that is dispositive, but in this league, it’s rare to see.
Who was the person off-camera in the locker room trying to get Johnson to stop saying things?
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October 9th, 2007 at 6:52 am
I don’t know the name, but I heard it was a PR Manager trying to intervene in the post-game interview.
Stupid Scarecrow.
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October 9th, 2007 at 11:42 am
The “clicking” in his knee most likely means a torn meniscus … definitely not good news for Texans fans