Cyber surfing: Thursday
Good morning. Here’s what’s “out there” about the Seahawks for today, May 26:
John Clayton of ESPN.com takes a look at possible suitors for Eagles QB Kevin Kolb, and what it might take to prey him away from Philly. Clayton lists the Arizona Cardinals as the leading team to make a pitch for the promising passer, at 2-1 odds. He has the Seahawks at 10-1, offering: “Pete Carroll has said he’s interested in Kolb, but will the Seahawks offer a first-round pick to acquire him? At the very least, they can stay in the bidding and make the Cardinals pay more for Kolb.”
Playing off Clayton’s story, ESPN.com NFC West blogger Mike Sando has a poll asking how much the Cardinals or Seahawks should pay for Kolb. You can vote here.
Sando also has a quarter breakdown of when the NFC West sack leaders generated them last season. The Seahawks’ Chris Clemons led the division with 11, and five came in the third quarter.
Pat Kirwan at NFL.com ranks the league’s QBs and has Hasselbeck at No. 22, in Group E that also includes David Garrard, Chad Henne, Donovan McNabb and Matthew Stafford, offering: “He had seven touchdowns to one interception in the playoffs and still has some tread left on the tires. He’s a free agent and hopefully he stays in Seattle. His 11 postseason games, including a trip to the Super Bowl, is the kind of experience a team will need if the lockout goes deep into the summer.” Kirwan has Kolb at No. 28, in Group F.
The owners’ annual spring meeting has ended, but the lockout continues. And there are several interesting points of view on the situation available:
Commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters during his wrap-up session at the meetings that the league already is seeing the negative impact of the work stoppage – including Goodell being booed by fans at the NFL Draft last month. Said Goodell: “I think it’s clearly had an impact on our fans already. You see that in the various metrics we have, whether it’s ratings or traffic on NFL.com – we see that.”
Joe Linta, an agent who represents 45 NFL players, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he would like a copy of the owners’ latest proposal on a new CBA so he can take it to his clients. Says Linta: “These guys are driving these players right off a cliff right now. I told a father of one of my players who got drafted, it’s 50-50 this season is not going to happen. These coaches are starting to go looney-toon too.”
Dolphins linebacker Channing Crowder, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that the quality of play will be down and the risk of injury down because the players are missing offseason minicamps and OTAs. Crowder also said he thinks some players are starting to run out of money. Says Crowder: “You have the first-, second-year guys – they buy a house, they buy a $100,000 car and now they’re broke and they had just enough money to make it to this next season. And I know it. I know plenty of guys that are like that and (there are) already guys trying to take loans out.”
Andrew Brandt, a former league executive and agent, writes on ESPN.com that it’s time for the players and their representatives to adopt a new strategy. Offers Brandt, ESPN’s business analyst: “I sincerely hope for two things in the coming weeks: 1. That the NFLPA’s Plan B – if the players lose on appeal – is a willingness to move from litigation to negotiation and make a deal; 2. That the NFL – if it wins on appeal – uses the leverage of an indefinite lockout fairly and reasonably with its most important partner, the players, for a deal that will define their relationship for years to come. As the NFL has found out, no one wins with a one-sided agreement.”
Les Carpenter of YahooSports.com says the union never should have decertified. Writes Carpenter: “For all of his shouting and table pounding and proclamations that the NFL Players Association “went to the mattresses” with the NFL, here is where DeMaurice Smith has his decertified union two months into the lockout: about to argue a case it will probably not win in a labor battle his constituents will soon tire of fighting.”
The NFL Coaches Association, headed by former Seahawks assistant coach Larry Kennan, has filed a brief supporting the players’ efforts to end the lockout. According to the report from the Associated Press, “No individual coaches were identified in the brief, which said that the eight new coaches hired this year face particularly daunting odds of success if the lockout is not lifted soon.”
Here at Seahawks.com, we continue our series of articles profiling the players voted to the 35th Anniversary team. The latest is on a pair of special teams aces who became productive linebackers: Fredd Young and Rufus Porter. We’ve also got a look at the top Pro Bowl-to-seasons played performers in franchise history.
Batting 1.000
Fredd Young is one of two players in Seahawks history who went to the Pro Bowl each season he was with the team. The other is linebacker Julian Peterson.
Young made it 4 for 4 from 1984-87 by going as a special teams player his first two seasons and then as a linebacker his final two seasons. He was traded to the Indianapolis Colts for a pair of first-round draft choice in 1988.
It’s fitting that Young went twice as a linebacker because when asked once why he had a second “D” in his first name, he offered through a smile, “It stands for defense.”
Peterson went three times in three seasons, all as a linebacker.
Here are the Top 10 players in franchise history in Pro Bowls-to-seasons played:
Player Pro Bowls Seasons Pct.
Fredd Young 4 4 1.000
Julian Peterson 3 3 1.000
Cortez Kennedy 8 11 .727
Kenny Easley 5 7 .714
Walter Jones 9 13 .692
Steve Hutchinson 3 5 .600
Steve Largent 7 14 .500
Lofa Tatupu 3 6 .500
Warren Moon 1 2 .500
Curt Warner 3 7 .429
No. 50 and No. 97, where are you?
Remember the old TV sitcom “Car 54, Where Are You”? Maybe not.
It ran on NBC from 1961-63, and later in syndication from 1987-90 on Nick at Nite. It was about two Bronx cops – Gunther Toody (played by Joe E. Ross) and Francis Muldoon (Fred Gwynne, pre-Munsters) – who spent most of the show in their patrol car.
Well, we’ve spent the past few months looking for two of the players the readers of Seahawks.com voted to the 35th Anniversary team: No. 50, Fredd Young; and No. 97, Rufus Porter.
You obviously remember them, and for good reason. All they did between them is go to six Pro Bowls, lead the team in tackles three times and sacks once and generate 4,670 votes for the reader-selected team. Porter made it as an outside linebacker and the special teams player. Young was voted an inside linebacker and finished second to Porter in the special teams voting.
But we can’t find them. Despite repeated calls to a small directory of numbers. We reached disconnected numbers. Numbers that no longer are in service. Numbers that simply rang and rang, and then rang some more. Numbers where nothing happened after they were dialed.
We asked former teammates if they had contact numbers for them. We tried the sports information department at Louisiana Tech, where Porter’s son is a linebacker. We tried the Indianapolis Colts, the team Young played for after leaving the Seahawks. We contacted their alma maters – Southern University for Porter and New Mexico State for Young.
But still no connection. So, if you know the whereabouts of two of the best players in franchise history, let us know.
Regardless, enjoy the story of these two very-special players – the 16th in a series of articles featuring the players you voted to the 35th Anniversary team.
