COLUMN: Tebow, Manning and the Saints have big changes coming
I don’t know if you’ve been dipping your feelers in the sports pool in the past week, but one story among the industry is gripping enough to be featured in People magazine. It doesn’t involve famous marriages or divorces, a stunning movie release or even anything rehab, but it sure fits the entertainment mold.
The NFL is getting a facelift, and quite the facelift at that.
The Denver Broncos got an arm transplant, the New York Jets now have an option to replace their legs, the Indianapolis Colts officially completed an entire facial reconstruction and even the New Orleans Saints got some play after transplanting their coach in recovery from what, for now, we’ll call an “incident.”
All in all, the National Football League has been through the wringer this week, causing a myriad of stirring storylines pinned up to drive any viewer, outside of Bill Belichick, stir crazy.
As a result of our soap opera-themed sports week, we now have three – honestly four – football organizations that are strikingly different than they were just days before. The only question now is where each of these teams goes from here. Let’s find out.
Denver Broncos – Some teams go from good to better when they pick up a new quarterback. The Broncos went from entertaining to good when they signed Peyton Manning. Manning is known to have the ability to jumpstart any offense he touches. I mean, he’s Manning the Magician – the Mangician if you will – who has mastered the trade of the audible better than a set of Bose speakers.
He is in many cases the ultimate football cannon that just needs the proper targets to give aim. Had he signed with the San Francisco 49ers he would have had the targets to get him to the Super Bowl. With Denver? No offense, and no pun intended, but I can’t quite say comfortably that Demaryius Thomas and Eric Decker are enough of weapons to jettison the Broncos past an always-competitive AFC.
I’ll sleep well with saying they’ll win the AFC West, win a playoff game or two and keeps butts in the seats until we invent flying longboards. That’s not to say they won’t be Super Bowl-bound in a few years, it’s just not feasible now.
New Orleans Saints – Ouch. That’s about all I can say at this point.
Look, yearlong suspensions aren’t rare. They get tossed on players frequently enough that there isn’t much sting to fans, But to a coach? To Sean Payton? Call me a sap for sappiness’ sake, but it gets difficult to stomach that a coach who won a title in an infamously lousy football franchise and, with such, revitalized a broken city, and is now forced to take a step back because he likes seeing his boys tackle.
I would have given him five in the box, but the men who actually work in this field gave him a year on the couch. I really feel the Saints will suffer. I’m thinking three wins next season, a weakened defense and a bump in the road that will be harder to overcome than we know.
New York Jets – I honestly see the Jets thrusting themselves back into contention. And why is that? Because they won’t be playing Tim Tebow if they can help it. The Jets got exactly what they asked for in this trade: a solid locker room teammate who will keep himself out of trouble in the world’s most popular city and cause enough publicity to possibly keep Rex Ryan from saying way too much – as opposed to simply just saying too much.
Call me crazy but I like the look of the Jets, and I feel they can withstand the hype this time. I’m not sure Ryan will get his wish of finally getting the Green Machine to a championship, but I’m certainly not leaving it out.
Indianapolis Colts – You know what? What the heck, they’re going to win the Super Bowl. Jim Irsay will prove us all wrong for ousting him because he turned his back on our generation’s most storied quarterback, and we’ll all go on with our lives never knowing what comes next. I’ll even say they’ll beat the 49ers, so Andrew Luck can take down his old coach foe, the Lombardi Trophy, just because I like a good story.
Nonetheless, expect one doozy of an NFL season. You have 164 days to prepare. Get at it.
– Steve Schwartzman is a junior studying communication studies. He has had just about every job in sports writing, including blogs, analysis, statistics and fantasy football tips, but especially loves making bold picks. Think you can out-pick Steve? Let him know: steve.schwartzman@aggiemail.usu.edu.