Memorex Morons

Former star NY Giant wide reciever Armani Tumor was a great player, and is now starting a new carreer as an analyst on Sirius/XM NFL Radio.

Recently, when answering the question about which quarterback he would choose if building a franchise from scratch, this favorite target of Eli Manning pointed out that statisticly, Tony Romo would be a good candidate.

He then backed it up, as well as any lawyer could, with records and statistics.  This guy had to know that the majority of Dallas fans would call him an idiot, that scaffolds with ropes would be built in New York with his name on them, and that Eli would feel hurt.  But he said it anyway.

I respect the hell out of that!  It's rare that any guy in that profession will tell the truth as he sees it, and damn the torpedos.

HOWEVER, like Rich Gannon when he started as an analyst (and to this day to a lesser degree), Armani is lazy.

Any idiot can focus on the best teams from the previous season.  They're the ones being talked about by everybody.  We have in our reptilian brains the instinct to chase winners, which is why some frontrunners grew up in Cleveland and became Steeler fans because that's who won the first Superbowl they watched.

It's a mindless instnct, which fortunately most of us override as our cerebral cortex gets more involved and we start actually thinking.

Armani doesn't know about any of the teams that won fewer than six or so games last season (unless they have a star quarterback, of course).  Maybe he thinks it's just too boring to do any research on them whatsoever, or too early to force himself into that agonizing task.  I mean, there are 32 whole teams, man!  What is the guy supposed to do, read about all of them, or something?

Jim Miller, Armani's broadcast partner, asked Armani what he thought of the Browns' trading their '13 second round pick to draft Josh Gordon in the supplemental draft.

Armani started this "I don't know--" stuff, and rambling into how the Browns don't have anybody who could scare a defense into keeping a safety back.

Miller is sharp, and threw Armani a rope.  He sort of restated the question, but mentioned Weeden, and then started providing Armani with names like Little, Cribbs, Massequoi.  Miller paused here to say that Massequoi was beat up last season, and he didn't know if he was more than a possession reciever---

Armani siezed on this to escape, saying that recievers all really hated to be called "possession" guys.  He was on his way to getting away from the conversation entirely, but Miller persisted.

Armani repeated the no deep threat stuff, and said that defenses would use man coverage on them a lot, which as a reciever you want, but, but, but, but........

Miller mentioned Weeden for a reason.  Weeden can and will stab deeper than McCoy did.  He mentioned Gordon in the first place because Gordon is a deep threat.  He didn't get around to Norwood or Benjamin, but they are deep threats. I doubt Miller pays much attention to Mitchell, but there's another deep threat.

Armani kept digging.  He pointed out that normally when you build a team the wide recievers come last, and are sort of the icing on the cake.  You get the offensive line (check) first, then the running backs (check), then the tight ends (check), and then..."I just don't know if these recievers are going to do anything anytime soon", and I'm wondering why he said all that stuff.

Not really.  When you now nothing about something, you change the subject, and get general, and say as little as possible, using as many words as possible.

And no, Armani never said anything at all about Josh Gordon, because he knew absolutely nothing about him, too.

When Jim Brown said he thought Trent Richardson was "ordinary", I thought it was insane, but was sure that JB wouldn't say such a thing unless he'd watched him on tape.  That's cool.  But Armani just sort of brushed the Cleveland Browns off without a trial.

Armani, next time just say "The dog ate my homework", ok?

But it went on!  Now Miller and Tumor are trying to name ten potential breakout recievers, and Gregg Little was never mentioned.  (Well, Miller did mention him.  They mentioned another reciever who had had some drops, and Miller asked Tumor if the dropsies couldn't be fixed--mentioning Little in this context).

Armani said yes absolutely, just extra time on the jugs machine.  I was thinking that now that Little's name had come up, he couldn't be overlooked, but I was wrong.

Now listen:  Armani had said that the Browns' recievers would see a lot of man coverage, without safety support.  Miller had mentioned Brandon Weeden.  Last season with a weak running game and McCoy at quarterback, and as a raw rookie, Little caught one fewer pass than AJ Green, and ranked high in total yardage.

This season defenses will have to face Trent Richardson, Little has lost eleven pounds, Weeden can put the ball anywhere, and Armani himself had said that dropped passes can be fixed.

It seems rediculous not to include Gregg Little near the TOP of any list of potential breakout wide recievers.

I think that if Jim Miller read this, he'd say "wow--good points!", and might well decide to list him.  I think if Armani read this, he'd say "I don't know.  It's just that--it's like-----"

Well, I don't hate these guys at all.  Rich Gannon always catches up to the bad teams by preseason, and I hope Armani will too.

But the Little thing--now that's just plain ignorant.