Bretsky
10-15-2006, 08:53 AM
There's not enough white-out in all of Wisconsin to cover up this mistake
Posted: Oct. 14, 2006
Bob McGinn
Green Bay - Quarterback Rich Campbell became an albatross around the neck of Bart Starr that wouldn't go away. Tom Braatz never could live down tackle Tony Mandarich. And Mike Sherman's name will forever be linked with punter B.J. Sander.
It's bye weekend, a time for reflection among coaches, personnel people and - why not? - beat writers.
If this scribe had been held accountable for his six-month campaign to bring quarterback Drew Henson to Green Bay a few years ago, he'd have been fired, too. The same way Starr was fired in 1983, Braatz was fired in 1991 and Sherman was fired earlier this year.
Fortunately, publishers of newspapers tend to be forgiving and readers tend to be forgetful. The hare-brained ideas of sportswriters don't have nearly the shelf life as do the blunders of National Football League decision-makers, which live on forever among many fans and, yes, many sportswriters.
In the past month, readers of this column have seen me take shots at Ted Thompson for how badly the Packers' guards performed in 2005 and figured to perform in 2006, at Kurt Schottenheimer for how he coaches the secondary, at Charles Woodson for how emotionally detached he is from the organization that is paying him $10 million this year, and once again at Thompson for how he gave up on Ahmad Carroll without having suitable replacements.
Now it's time for me to face the music.
My projected savior of the franchise, Henson, is so good that Dallas coach Bill Parcells wouldn't even play him in an exhibition game this summer before putting him on the street in late August. There he remains, a bust for three years with the New York Yankees and a bust for three years with the Cowboys.
No one has thrown Henson's name at me in quite awhile. Trust me, that's of little or no comfort.
When you go out of your way, not once but in two full columns, to advocate that a football team acquire a certain player, the status of that player's career is never far removed from mind's eye.
Reviewing those asinine opinion pieces last week was about as appetizing as forcing down soggy shredded wheat.
Here's a sampling from Sept. 28, 2003:
"This would be an opportunity to secure the quarterback position for a decade to come. Based on what the Packers have done with some of their top picks in the past, it's a small price to pay.
"Despite his ideal stature, arm strength, accuracy, intelligence, decision-making and poise, Henson is far from a sure thing. Yet, Henson does have immense potential.
"As painful as it might be, the Packers' identity and future must shift to another quarterback. Drew Henson, sooner than later, makes the most sense."
These nuggets are from a column dated Feb. 19, 2004, that was written for the Journal Sentinel's Packer Insider and appeared only online:
"Henson has many fascinating qualities. For a team that is going along hoping and praying that the 34-year-old Favre doesn't get hurt and won't ever retire, the potential reward with Henson outweighs the risk.
"Ideally, the Packers would trade a second-round pick to the (Houston) Texans. . . . Trading the 25th selection for a quarterback with the potential of Henson makes more than just a little sense.
"Ron Wolf rolled the dice on Favre 13 years ago and never looked back on what might have been the greatest trade in NFL history. For a team that hasn't selected a quarterback in the first round since Rich Campbell in 1981, the price is not too high.
"The hunch is that the Packers will pass on Henson. The hunch is that they will be wrong."
Could anything in this business ever be more embarrassing than that? Perhaps, but it's hard to imagine what it might be.
A look back
Let's briefly review Henson's career.
After backing up Tom Brady at Michigan in 1998 and '99, Henson started eight games in 2000. Using the NFL system, his passer rating was 109.4 in 2000, 92.4 for his career.
He left the Wolverines a few days into spring practice before his senior season to sign a six-year, $17 million contract to play third base for the Yankees. He hit just .248 over portions of six minor-league seasons. Sensing Henson's baseball career heading south, the Texans drafted Henson in the sixth round in 2003 for the chance to hold his rights until the start of the draft in '04.
Henson walked away from a reported $12 million in guaranteed money in January 2004 to resume his football career. With David Carr, the Texans had no use for him.
The Packers talked about taking Henson in '03 but decided against it. They were all over Henson in February 2004, sending Sherman and four of his top aides to Houston for his well-attended workout.
At about the same time, Sherman telephoned Wolf and asked him if he would evaluate tapes of Henson's final collegiate season. Wolf hunkered down at his Annapolis, Md., home, studied every game and then gave Sherman the thumbs-down.
"He was like a yo-yo," Wolf recalled last week. "He finished with a flourish against Ohio State and Auburn in a bowl game. I (concluded) that he wasn't very good. But I had to reserve that because I didn't know anything about his arm or his athleticism. I always felt the most important thing at that position was to see a guy play live."
The Packers decided Henson was a player they could live without. It turned out to be one of Sherman's best personnel moves ever.
Dallas owner Jerry Jones did fall in love with Henson and traded a third-round pick to Houston on March 12. Henson was given an eight-year contract with lucrative guarantees based on minimal playing time. He still counts $2.678 million against the Cowboys' salary cap.
That August, Wolf spent a week in the Cowboys' training camp as a guest of his pal, Parcells. Wolf said Parcells never asked him about Henson before the deal went down. However, a mutual acquaintance said Wolf tried to tell Parcells not to do it.
"He's out there in 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 and some (coach) is telling him where to go with the ball and he looks outstanding," Wolf said. "I'm thinking to myself, 'Boy, I really missed this guy. It's terrible how bad I missed him.' "
Wolf visited Dallas in November, put on the exhibition tape and saw the same player that he didn't like at Michigan. His evaluation of Henson crystalized further on his week-long summer sojourns to camp in 2005 and '06.
"He's just not very good, and he got progressively worse," said Wolf. "They brought a kid (Matt Baker) in from North Carolina this year who definitely was better than Drew Henson. He is what he is. He can't play."
Henson fizzles
This summer, Parcells compared Henson to one of his former players who couldn't relax and would hyperventilate in the huddle. In 2004, Henson played the fourth quarter of one game, then started four days later on Thanksgiving and was benched at halftime. He never played again, surpassed in '05 by Burlington's Tony Romo as No. 2.
In two exhibition seasons, Henson had a passer rating of 51.5. In NFL Europe this spring, Henson started fast but fizzled down the stretch.
Henson had tryouts with Carolina, Indianapolis and Miami last month before being signed to the practice squad by Minnesota on Sept. 27. The Vikings released him Tuesday.
Henson, trim and fit at 6 feet 4 inches and 240 pounds, has a powerful arm and can make all the throws, according to coaches and scouts who have seen him work recently. Highly intelligent, Henson comes across to some as a bit arrogant and a tad resistant to hard coaching.
Although Henson can run fast in a straight line, he showed almost no scrambling ability in Dallas. "He's got baseball-player feet," said one scout, and that isn't a good thing.
During their two-week look at Henson, the Vikings came to regard him as a poor fit for their West Coast offense. They didn't like his long, deliberate release and weren't overly impressed with his accuracy.
"He just doesn't make quick decisions," former Cowboys personnel chief Gil Brandt said last year. "Rudy Bukich of the Bears was the same way. Great arm but a slow decision-maker."
Skills have diminished
While Henson was off trying to master baseball for three years, it now stands to reason that his quarterbacking skills went to seed. Brady, now of the New England Patriots, doesn't have nearly the physical gifts that Henson possesses, but he does have the poise, awareness and burning desire that Henson seems to lack.
Henson remains a 26-year-old project. Another team will sign him. Maybe he'll hook on and play for a year or two. Worse quarterbacks dot NFL depth charts.
But if a quarterbacking savant such as Wolf says Henson can't play, that's more than enough for me. There no longer is any hope of saving any face.
The lessons to be learned from this painful episode are plentiful.
First, don't try to play Joe Scout. Sportswriters can gather information and report.
They're not trained to scout.
Two, it hurts to be wrong. Personnel men have incredible resources, multimillion dollar budgets and are hired to make more right than wrong calls, but it's human to err. They suffer, too. So often it comes down to picking one evenly rated player over another. It's more difficult than the average fan thinks it is.
Three, scouting isn't an exact science. Just about every scout in the business knows 100 times more football than outsiders, but no matter how hard they try mistakes will happen when you're dealing with the human element.
Now excuse me. I have a couple of old columns to burn.
Posted: Oct. 14, 2006
Bob McGinn
Green Bay - Quarterback Rich Campbell became an albatross around the neck of Bart Starr that wouldn't go away. Tom Braatz never could live down tackle Tony Mandarich. And Mike Sherman's name will forever be linked with punter B.J. Sander.
It's bye weekend, a time for reflection among coaches, personnel people and - why not? - beat writers.
If this scribe had been held accountable for his six-month campaign to bring quarterback Drew Henson to Green Bay a few years ago, he'd have been fired, too. The same way Starr was fired in 1983, Braatz was fired in 1991 and Sherman was fired earlier this year.
Fortunately, publishers of newspapers tend to be forgiving and readers tend to be forgetful. The hare-brained ideas of sportswriters don't have nearly the shelf life as do the blunders of National Football League decision-makers, which live on forever among many fans and, yes, many sportswriters.
In the past month, readers of this column have seen me take shots at Ted Thompson for how badly the Packers' guards performed in 2005 and figured to perform in 2006, at Kurt Schottenheimer for how he coaches the secondary, at Charles Woodson for how emotionally detached he is from the organization that is paying him $10 million this year, and once again at Thompson for how he gave up on Ahmad Carroll without having suitable replacements.
Now it's time for me to face the music.
My projected savior of the franchise, Henson, is so good that Dallas coach Bill Parcells wouldn't even play him in an exhibition game this summer before putting him on the street in late August. There he remains, a bust for three years with the New York Yankees and a bust for three years with the Cowboys.
No one has thrown Henson's name at me in quite awhile. Trust me, that's of little or no comfort.
When you go out of your way, not once but in two full columns, to advocate that a football team acquire a certain player, the status of that player's career is never far removed from mind's eye.
Reviewing those asinine opinion pieces last week was about as appetizing as forcing down soggy shredded wheat.
Here's a sampling from Sept. 28, 2003:
"This would be an opportunity to secure the quarterback position for a decade to come. Based on what the Packers have done with some of their top picks in the past, it's a small price to pay.
"Despite his ideal stature, arm strength, accuracy, intelligence, decision-making and poise, Henson is far from a sure thing. Yet, Henson does have immense potential.
"As painful as it might be, the Packers' identity and future must shift to another quarterback. Drew Henson, sooner than later, makes the most sense."
These nuggets are from a column dated Feb. 19, 2004, that was written for the Journal Sentinel's Packer Insider and appeared only online:
"Henson has many fascinating qualities. For a team that is going along hoping and praying that the 34-year-old Favre doesn't get hurt and won't ever retire, the potential reward with Henson outweighs the risk.
"Ideally, the Packers would trade a second-round pick to the (Houston) Texans. . . . Trading the 25th selection for a quarterback with the potential of Henson makes more than just a little sense.
"Ron Wolf rolled the dice on Favre 13 years ago and never looked back on what might have been the greatest trade in NFL history. For a team that hasn't selected a quarterback in the first round since Rich Campbell in 1981, the price is not too high.
"The hunch is that the Packers will pass on Henson. The hunch is that they will be wrong."
Could anything in this business ever be more embarrassing than that? Perhaps, but it's hard to imagine what it might be.
A look back
Let's briefly review Henson's career.
After backing up Tom Brady at Michigan in 1998 and '99, Henson started eight games in 2000. Using the NFL system, his passer rating was 109.4 in 2000, 92.4 for his career.
He left the Wolverines a few days into spring practice before his senior season to sign a six-year, $17 million contract to play third base for the Yankees. He hit just .248 over portions of six minor-league seasons. Sensing Henson's baseball career heading south, the Texans drafted Henson in the sixth round in 2003 for the chance to hold his rights until the start of the draft in '04.
Henson walked away from a reported $12 million in guaranteed money in January 2004 to resume his football career. With David Carr, the Texans had no use for him.
The Packers talked about taking Henson in '03 but decided against it. They were all over Henson in February 2004, sending Sherman and four of his top aides to Houston for his well-attended workout.
At about the same time, Sherman telephoned Wolf and asked him if he would evaluate tapes of Henson's final collegiate season. Wolf hunkered down at his Annapolis, Md., home, studied every game and then gave Sherman the thumbs-down.
"He was like a yo-yo," Wolf recalled last week. "He finished with a flourish against Ohio State and Auburn in a bowl game. I (concluded) that he wasn't very good. But I had to reserve that because I didn't know anything about his arm or his athleticism. I always felt the most important thing at that position was to see a guy play live."
The Packers decided Henson was a player they could live without. It turned out to be one of Sherman's best personnel moves ever.
Dallas owner Jerry Jones did fall in love with Henson and traded a third-round pick to Houston on March 12. Henson was given an eight-year contract with lucrative guarantees based on minimal playing time. He still counts $2.678 million against the Cowboys' salary cap.
That August, Wolf spent a week in the Cowboys' training camp as a guest of his pal, Parcells. Wolf said Parcells never asked him about Henson before the deal went down. However, a mutual acquaintance said Wolf tried to tell Parcells not to do it.
"He's out there in 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 and some (coach) is telling him where to go with the ball and he looks outstanding," Wolf said. "I'm thinking to myself, 'Boy, I really missed this guy. It's terrible how bad I missed him.' "
Wolf visited Dallas in November, put on the exhibition tape and saw the same player that he didn't like at Michigan. His evaluation of Henson crystalized further on his week-long summer sojourns to camp in 2005 and '06.
"He's just not very good, and he got progressively worse," said Wolf. "They brought a kid (Matt Baker) in from North Carolina this year who definitely was better than Drew Henson. He is what he is. He can't play."
Henson fizzles
This summer, Parcells compared Henson to one of his former players who couldn't relax and would hyperventilate in the huddle. In 2004, Henson played the fourth quarter of one game, then started four days later on Thanksgiving and was benched at halftime. He never played again, surpassed in '05 by Burlington's Tony Romo as No. 2.
In two exhibition seasons, Henson had a passer rating of 51.5. In NFL Europe this spring, Henson started fast but fizzled down the stretch.
Henson had tryouts with Carolina, Indianapolis and Miami last month before being signed to the practice squad by Minnesota on Sept. 27. The Vikings released him Tuesday.
Henson, trim and fit at 6 feet 4 inches and 240 pounds, has a powerful arm and can make all the throws, according to coaches and scouts who have seen him work recently. Highly intelligent, Henson comes across to some as a bit arrogant and a tad resistant to hard coaching.
Although Henson can run fast in a straight line, he showed almost no scrambling ability in Dallas. "He's got baseball-player feet," said one scout, and that isn't a good thing.
During their two-week look at Henson, the Vikings came to regard him as a poor fit for their West Coast offense. They didn't like his long, deliberate release and weren't overly impressed with his accuracy.
"He just doesn't make quick decisions," former Cowboys personnel chief Gil Brandt said last year. "Rudy Bukich of the Bears was the same way. Great arm but a slow decision-maker."
Skills have diminished
While Henson was off trying to master baseball for three years, it now stands to reason that his quarterbacking skills went to seed. Brady, now of the New England Patriots, doesn't have nearly the physical gifts that Henson possesses, but he does have the poise, awareness and burning desire that Henson seems to lack.
Henson remains a 26-year-old project. Another team will sign him. Maybe he'll hook on and play for a year or two. Worse quarterbacks dot NFL depth charts.
But if a quarterbacking savant such as Wolf says Henson can't play, that's more than enough for me. There no longer is any hope of saving any face.
The lessons to be learned from this painful episode are plentiful.
First, don't try to play Joe Scout. Sportswriters can gather information and report.
They're not trained to scout.
Two, it hurts to be wrong. Personnel men have incredible resources, multimillion dollar budgets and are hired to make more right than wrong calls, but it's human to err. They suffer, too. So often it comes down to picking one evenly rated player over another. It's more difficult than the average fan thinks it is.
Three, scouting isn't an exact science. Just about every scout in the business knows 100 times more football than outsiders, but no matter how hard they try mistakes will happen when you're dealing with the human element.
Now excuse me. I have a couple of old columns to burn.