Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Which One Doesn't Belong?*

I received an e-mail from the NFL encouraging me to vote for the 2010 Pro Bowl. The e-mail featured this picture:



In looking at the three players featured, two are MVP candidates; two are leading undefeated teams; and one is a member of a 5-5 team. One of these guys is not like the others!

Maybe I'm being unfair to poor Ray Lewis. He is tied for 8th in the NFL in tackles with 83 and has 2 sacks (tied for 96th along with Detroit's Larry Foote and Pittsburgh's Aaron Smith who has been out for several weeks), 5 passes defended and 2 forced fumbles.

I guess we should be happy that the NFL is promoting a player on a mediocre team. However, perhaps the Jets' David Harris (88 tackles; 3.5 sacks; 1 INT; 1 forced fumble) San Francisco's Patrick Willis (96 tackles; 2.5 sacks; 2 interceptions) or Kirk Morrison of the Raiders (84 tackles) weren’t exciting enough and don't yell and do silly dances prior to games. Heaven forbid the NFL should highlight Denver's Elvis Dumervil (12 sacks); Minnesota's Jared Allen (10.5 sacks) or even the 2008 Defensive MVP James Harrison (10 sacks; 4 forced fumbles) over Ray-Ray.

You can vote for Ray Lewis or anyone else at NFL.com.

* Let's call this an extension of Trivia Tuesday!

5 comments:

Johnny said...

Check out Profootballfocus.com and it will explain much more to you.

You made the mistake of judging Linebackers on pure numbers. Ray Lewis has been a top Inside Linebacker all season and if you take a look you will see how poor David Harris is playing.

You highlight the fact that the Ravens are 5-5 but than promote a Raider, a Jet, and a 49er at the same position? Have you checked their records?

You point out a Inside Linebacker having 2 sacks but than mention 3 players who have 3.5, 2.5, and 0? Maybe you failed to check that the most sacks by and ILB this season so far is 4?

Johnny said...
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Johnny said...
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Johnny said...

http://profootballfocus.com/by_position.php?tab=by_position&season=2009&pos=ILB&stype=r&runpass=&teamid=-1&numsnaps=60&numgames=1

Linebacker rankings...

Sean said...

Johnny - My point about promoting a Raider, Jet and 49er was that if the NFL wanted to highlight a player from an average or below average team, they have equal if not better options than Ray Lewis in these three players.