Ether

Jason Campbell went in on Clinton Portis in the Washington Post after Portis questioned his leadership skills on his radio show earlier in the day. I have to say that I damn near stood up and applauded after reading Campbell's response. You could tell he had probably been holding in a lot of what he said about Portis for a long time and he let it all come out tonight. If Portis is as tight with Redskins owner Dan Snyder as Campbell and several others say then Campbell probably talked his way out of town this evening. But I bet he will be thinking on his way out the door, "Damn, that was worth it!"

Informed of Portis's comments, Campbell, selected one of six team captains by teammates the last two seasons, called out Portis for putting himself above the team and, in his opinion, an overall lack of professionalism Portis has exhibited in Campbell's five seasons in Washington.

"How is he going to say I'm not a leader?" Campbell said in a lengthy telephone interview. "I mean, that's just not true. To me, that's somebody who shows that they don't know what a real leader is. A leader is not someone who leads by the wrong example. A leader is someone who is trying to do the right thing and trying to lead by example, and not just [being] about themselves. There's a reason guys get selected as captains, and there's a reason guys don't get selected as captains. Obviously, he doesn't have the respect of the locker room to be a captain. For someone to try to take a shot at me at the end of the season, after they haven't even been around, only speaks about their character anyways."

"There have been a lot of things I could have come out and said. But I never went out of my way to make those things known. I never wanted those things to leave the locker room because it's no one else's business. And for those things to be said, questioning my character and questioning my leadership, I think that's not the way to go, especially when you're supposed to be a team guy. Is that being a good teammate? If that's the case, why is no one questioning my leadership and everyone is questioning his work ethic?"

snip

"How's he [going to] question anything when for those four or five weeks before he was on IR [the season-ending injured-reserve list], he never even came around. He wasn't with us. He was never at practice. Who does he think was holding the offense together? He should go ask the coaches and the players if he wants to know. But he wasn't around to do that. He doesn't know anything about leadership."

Campbell said he was disappointed about airing private team matters in public, and especially frustrated that Portis would verbally attack him with the Redskins preparing to make a long-anticipated announcement that former Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan has been hired as their next head coach.

"You've got guys out there working their butts off, guys out there practicing and doing everything they need to do to prepare for Sundays, and you see him over there getting special treatment," Campbell said of Portis. "What does that say about him? I go out, I get beat down on Sundays, and I still have to go out and practice and get ready for games. And that's what your supposed to do."

I have to say, I could never root for the Redskins, but I am definitely a Jason Campbell fan now.

False Equivalence

Since the New York Yankees won their 27th World Series on Wednesday night, by far the most of any Major League Baseball team, there have been many many conversations about how their level of spending gives them an unfair advantage. Now to me this is an obvious truth. The fact that every single year the Yankees have the ability to look around the league and cherry pick the best guys off other teams with the enticement of big money simply can't be disputed. Now that is not a guarantee of success, but it definitely makes it a lot more likely.

I am not saying this diminishes their achievements in anyway, I am just saying that you can't over look what is staring you right in the face. If they don't have Mark Texiera or C. C. Sabathia, their two big free agent signings in the last offseason, do they win the championship this year? I highly doubt it. Still under the current rules they are working under there is nothing untoward about what they have done. It makes sense for them to put the best team together than money can buy because that is the way Major League Baseball is now set up.

But all of a sudden Yankee fans are offended by people pointing this fact out. And one of their biggest fall back arguments seems to be "Yeah well if it was that easy why aren't the Washington Redskins winning the Superbowl?" This is a patently ridiculous argument but you will actually hear sports pundits on the radio and see them on TV and in print actually repeating it. Not only are the NFL and Major League Baseball just two different animals in general, but the Redskins in particular are exactly the wrong team to use in comparison.

See with baseball you can literally run your team like you are a fantasy owner if you have enough money. Because there are only about 15 or so guys on a roster and because there is no salary cap you can literally pay to have all stars at every position on the field. When you look at what the Yankees have done over the years that is basically exactly what they have done.

In the NFL by contrast you generally can only sign but so many big name players from other teams because of the constraints of the salary cap. So of the 22 starters on offense and defense you might be able to pluck two or maybe three at the most pro bowl type players away from other teams to try to make a run at a championship.

But there is also the matter of team chemistry and this is the biggest difference in the two sports. With 53 guys on an NFL roster there are going to be challenges to keep everyone on the same page. You have to mesh a lot of different attitudes and a lot of different egos into one common mindset to try to get the job done. With much fewer players on a MLB roster you don't have have the same level of cohesiveness. Besides that when there is a problem its a lot easier to get with one guy or two guys to address it than having to police a bunch of guys on a NFL team.

A related major difference is how you deal with a free agent "bust". See for the Yankees and other MLB teams with big revenues, if they sign a guy that doesn't produce then they either trade him, cut him, and or pay another guy to replace him. In the NFL on the other hand if you sign a big time free agent and they don't work out then you are screwed for at least a few years because of the constraints of the salary cap. That means that the guy pretty much HAS to play for the first couple of years of their contract at least and it also means that if there is a personality conflict then the team just has to deal with it. That means coaches can be undermined and game plans can be hurt because of one guy who can't be cut or traded.

With the Redskins however the problem is actually that their owner Dan Snyder DOES try to run his ball club like a Major League Baseball franchise. He truly believes that any problem on a football field can be fixed if you just throw money at it. Just look at his teams over the years. The most recognizable guys generally are people that he took from another team. Best player on offense this year is probably Clinton Portis who came from where? Denver. Best player on defense this year has probably been London Fletcher, who came from where? Buffalo.

Year after year after year Snyder, instead of focusing on building his teams from the ground up through the draft and player development, just looks on the list of free agents from other teams and starts licking his chops. That is the exactly WRONG way to run an NFL franchise and its why his teams will not win a championship. In the NFL you can't have a bunch of mercenaries coming to your team every year and expect to have long term success. That is just too much turnover and too much turmoil and nobody ever gets to stay long enough to establish themselves as a leader and for the team to establish an identity.

Now I know people compare Snyder many times to Jerry Jones down in Dallas, but that is a patently ridiculous comparison when you get beyond the bluster. Look back and those Cowboys teams that won Superbowls. Where did the overwhelming majority of the talent come from?

Homegrown, that's where.

Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, Emmitt Smith, Moose Johnson, the offensive line, Tony Tolbert, Ken Norton, Larry Brown, and the list goes on and on. Yeah he brought in some guys to get them over the hump, but the heart of the team were guys they drafted and coached up to Pro Bowl status. Hell look at the Cowboys even now. Tony Romo, Marion Barber, Miles Austin, DeMarcus Ware, Jay Ratliff, Terrance Newman and again the list goes on and on.

Now try to think of a starter, not even necessarily a Pro Bowler, other than Chris Cooley that Snyder has drafted and had thrive over the last 5 years.

The point is you don't build an NFL winner in the same way that you build a MLB winner. When you look at the teams that win Superbowls year in and year out a substantial part of their team is always, and I mean ALWAYS home grown. And before anybody starts hollering about the New England Patriots let me throw some names out, Teddy Bruschi, Lawyer Milloy, Tom Brady, Troy Brown, Assante Samuel, Richard Seymour, Willie McGinest, again the list goes on and on.

That is the anti thesis of what you will find with perennial MLB World Series champs or contenders. For them its all about finding guys off other teams to bring in as center pieces for their team to help them bring home the title.

Again I am not hating on the Yankees for that, hell more power to them, I am just saying we have to be honest about it.

It is what it is.