From the Press Box: Preseason Week 3

Another preseason week, another edition of The Press Box as Andrew Garda talks bad decisions, bad excuses and birds (not that kind).

Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le'Veon Bell by Bill Streicher—USA TODAY Sports.

Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le'Veon Bell by Bill Streicher—USA TODAY Sports.

We're going to have some fun today because the news around the NFL is somewhat hilarious.

Just a little longer and we'll have actual football to talk about but for now, we've got some things you shouldn't say to a cop who pulled you over, what happens when you try to use two quarterbacks and an easy way to lose $12k.

 

Le’Veon Bell to cops: “I smoked two hours ago. I’m not high anymore”

Some headlines write themselves, so I can imagine Pro Football Talk's Darrin Gantt was giddy when he saw the WPXI report about what Le'Veon Bell told cops when he was pulled over on Wednesday along with LeGarrette Blount and another passenger with a bag of pot.

Here's the whole quote per Gantt and please, take this as a cautionary tale:

“I didn’t know you could get a DUI for being high. I smoked two hours ago. I'm not high anymore. I’m perfectly fine. Why would I be getting high if I had to make it to my game?”

A few things. First, if you find yourself explaining to a cop how you had smoked a few hours ago and couldn't be high—you're wrong. You are definitely high.

You may also be stupid, but I'll give a pass on that because you were high. And probably hungry because you were high and had the munchies, which led to you driving around at night while high, looking for a White Castle or all night Wendy's if you were desperate.

Next to the "ah, nah bro that weed ain't mine" defense everyone in the car used (it's magic teleporting weed yo!) Bell's response to the cop is special.

Thank's Mr. Bell for giving us some entertainment on this Friday.

 

Two Quarterbacks = No Quarterbacks?

Have we seen a sub-package with a backup quarterback coming in to replace the starter for one play or series or anything at all ever work?

I believe the answer is no, in which case we need to let Cleveland Browns head coach Mike Pettine know. Which he should, since he bore witness to the Tebow debacle (Tebacle?) in 2012 when he was the defensive coordinator for the New York Jets.

Frankly, every time Mark Sanchez was yanked for Tim Tebow, it threw what little rhythm the offense had. Ditto in preceding years when the Jets would pull Sanchez for guys like Brad Smith (again, something Pettine should be familiar with as he was with the team). It was rarely effective and always seemed to mess up any momentum that had been built up.

This is a bad idea and one I just don't get, unless.......maybe we just call it what it is: the beginning of owner pressure to get Manziel in the game and sell tickets.

I have no inside information on this, but if this is really being considered I'd imagine it is because the franchise wants its first round pick to show up in games because they think that's what the fans want. Hoyer is an OK quarterback but he isn't nearly as sexy as Johnny Manziel and won't sell tickets. Sure, winning sells tickets but the Browns can't be sure that's going to happen a lot this season, and the next best thing to winning when it comes to selling tickets is hype. Manziel is that hype.

Maybe I just have my tinfoil hat too tight, but it seems to me that this is only the beginning. I have long felt that Brian Hoyer's leash was going to be super-short and that we'll have Johnny Cleveland under center by the middle of the season.

The old saying is, if you have two quarterbacks you have none. That oversimplifies a little but by the same point, pick your guy and back him. If Pettine thinks Manziel isn't ready and Hoyer should be the guy, management should back him. If they aren't there's an issue. And if they aren't pressuring him, Pettine shouldn't diddle around with special Manziel packages—just back Hoyer and focus on him.

Pick a lane guys, and stick to it.

Speaking of Johnny Clipboard......

Bird is the Word

Oh Johnny Manziel. I have no idea how your career will go but damn it if you don't make for compelling news.

No wonder ESPN loves you so.

In case you missed it, Johnny Manziel flipped off the Washington bench and has now been fined $12,000. According to Spotrac.com, Manziel's base is $420,000. So he was fined less than 3 percent of his base salary. Or just over 1 percent of his $1,079,745 signing bonus.

So, yeah brutal fine there folks.

I wonder sometimes if the amounts are set so that players aren't up in arms about being fined for stupid crap but the totals seem big for us normal folk for whom $12k would be a huge chunk of change.

If you want someone to stop doing something, you hit them hard. This is a love tap.

Which is fine. I think it was a classless move on Manziel's part but I don't know it's worth a big fine. I also think the celebration fines and clothing fines are silly as well. One thing the USFL got right was allowing players to have a some personality.

While I think that flipping people off should be punished, there are a lot of NFL rules which I'd like to see done away with when it comes to celebration.

I know not everyone agrees but I like a little fun in my football.

 

That's it for today. We've got a full slate of NFL preseason games this weekend and I will have some announcements over the next week or so about some new places to find my writing in addition to here at CHTV.

Until then, have a great weekend.

 

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Comments (2)

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MadJam's picture

August 22, 2014 at 05:03 pm

This fluff is why we need the season to begin.

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egbertsouse's picture

August 23, 2014 at 01:18 pm

The new Cheech and Chong.

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