Sour Play of the Week No. 2: "Catch the ball with your hands!" That's what coaches endlessly tell running backs and receivers -- meaning, do not catch the ball against your body, instead hold your hands outward and catch the ball before it can strike your chest or pads and ricochet away. Specifically, receivers are coached to form their hands into a diamond shape to catch the ball away from the body. On the decisive play of the Giants-Ravens game, Ravens wide receiver Derrick Mason let the ball ricochet off his upper chest and into the hands of Aaron Ross for an interception, which was returned for a touchdown. Mason's hands were not in a diamond; he had his hands all wrong in terms of form, allowing the ball to strike his body.
Would that have been a pick to the house if Mason used the diamond? Maybe not, although Easterbrook, in typical Easterbrook fashion, makes it sound like drops/ints never occur when the diamond method is employed.
However, it is fucking ridiculous that Easterbrook, who oft criticizes others for their lack of attention to detail, apparently couldn't be bothered to watch the play, or the multiple replays from different angles, with a close enough eye to see that the ball clearly struck Mason's face mask, not his "upper chest."
Fucking hypocrite.
Not only that, but Mason *DID* attempt to catch the ball with his hands in front of his body, but the throw (or the pattern he ran) left him in an awkward position. It was bad execution by the offense, but had nothing to do with bad habits on Mason's part.
ReplyDeleteGregg Easterbrook: professional dumbass.
Of course if Mason had arms that stretched like rubber he could have used them to from the diamond behind his head to catch the ball.
ReplyDeleteNot the best pass, maybe a catchable ball... but in the end, the usual result: Greggggg Easterbrook misleads the readers... fucking again.
ReplyDeleteWhat exactly are Greggggg Easterbrook's credentials for writing a big time weekly football column?
If you check out his personal bio pic, he's like three hairs away from a world-record unibrow:
http://www.greggeasterbrook.com/bio.html
Hey...Leave the tastefully named Gregg alone. This man is an expert!!! How else do you explain that following a punt in the 3rd quarter of any given game his 2 year old writes "Game Over" on his Etch-a-Sketch?
ReplyDelete