Links! 07/11/08

Inevitably this will bury a couple of posts from yesterday, but check out Sam's Breakdown of Denver's linebackers and special teams (or just keep scrolling down after this post). There are also two In His Own Words featuring Marlon McCree and Jamie Winborn down there somewhere.

Came across this little ditty, highlights from Superbowl XII (Denver vs. Dallas), fun to watch, it's just under ten minutes. Elway really had a horrible game (kidding youngins, that's Roger Staubach's former backup Craig Morton). Take some time and see the Orange Crush, Staubach, Tony Dorsett, oh and some Dallas defenders too. Look at those three point stances for the receivers (good times)!:

Onto the links:

Mike Shanahan comes to Brandon Marshall's aide:

"I can't go into great detail, for obvious reasons, but Brandon has a good upside and he's a real good kid," said Shanahan. "I feel very good where Brandon's at. I think he'll be fine."

"He's had problems with one person over and over again, and hopefully he's smart enough to stay away from her," Shanahan said.

Jay Cutler calls him out for the second time publicly this off-season:

"Once or twice — you could live with that," Cutler says. "You say people make mistakes, but I mean it's been three, four, five times. I don't know how many times he's at right now, so I don't know what's gonna happen. I don't know if Mike's going to do anything. I don't know if the league's going to do anything. I just hope he gets his act together, cause it'd be a shame for him to waste all that talent."

Then Shanahan comments on Cutler and himself:

"I think every quarterback has that pressure going into his third year. You feel comfortable with the offense, the system, the players," he said. "The pressure on any quarterback or head coach that third year is you have to perform, you have to play well."

• The Denver Post gets back to reporting Broncos news even if they did have to jack the KUSA feed.
  
• Kyle at BroncoTalk reviewed Stefan Fatsis' book "A Few Seconds of Panic." I'm diving deep into this one starting tomorrow.
• BroncoTalk also gave Peyton Hillis the once over.
• Speaking of BroncoTalk, they beat us out for Best Broncos News Blog. Like Susan Lucci says, it's just a pleasure to be nominated.
• The Sporting News' Albert Breer says Nnamdi Asomugha may go the Asante Samuel route this season. He also said that Asomugha may have passed Champ Bailey as the best corner in the league. I almost forgave him, because he goes on to say that Philip Rivers' wobbly knee might give him a similar season to Carson Palmer's in 2007.
• DenverBroncos.com offers information on how you can get tickets to Gary Zimmerman's Hall of Fame enshrinement.
• For those in or around Denver (Colorado Springs, Ft. Collins, Cheyenne), don't stress about not being able to get the NFL Network, because KWGN (Channel 2) will broadcast the November 6th game vs. the Cleveland Browns. That's one that I'm really looking forward to.
• ProFootballWeekly announces that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will be keeping an eye on Brandon Marshall's September 16th DUI trial. Some bloggers are calling for as many as a four-game suspension for Marshall, I think the suspension will be one or two.
• Nick at Thin Air (on MVN) says remember Brandon Browner when considering Josh Barrett.
  

Camp Fodder

Hope that you had the time to read Sam's latest post this morning. If not just keep reading it's below this one, you probably don't know this, but Sam's currently sitting impatiently on the Broncos Denver Broncos P.U.P. list. I can't wait to get to Training Camp and see what he can really do...

Speaking of Sam, he brought up an interesting point during a recent e-mail exchange. Sam brought up the dis respectfulness of a term thrown around by journalists, fans and message board enthusiasts alike. That term being "(training) camp fodder", seriously think about it, but that group of words into context. Then think about your favorite Broncos, then take a look in the mirror, you're filthy. I can think of a couple players who were camp fodder at one point: Rod Smith, he's one of them, Karl Mecklenburg, he's another, Terrell Davis,.. Can you name the teams Ed McCaffrey or Bill Romanowski played for before Denver? Remember a guy named Craig Morton? He led us to our first Superbowl, you know who he used to backup? A guy his team choked to in the Superbowl, Roger Staubach, sorry that was a bad point, KARL MECKLENBURG! There, I cleansed your pallets.

Camp fodder, high school students have died during two-a-days attempting to be camp fodder, boys and young men train their entire lives to be camp fodder. The reason they all push so hard is because they know, in that locker room the only difference between them and anyone who sits above them on the depth chart is one perfectly timed play; a block, a tackle, a step, a hand, instinct, training or natural ability and they are in and once they're in, they'll show everyone, they should have always been there.

It's the reason John Lynch isn't, "getting old," why Champ Bailey's a first ballot Hall of Famer, why Rod Smith's still out there, unrecoverable hip injury, helping out where he can, Tom Nalen could have retired, no one would have blamed him, the same could be said for Mike Shanahan, really what does he have to prove? He's got his place amongst Bill Walsh, Vince Lombardi, Don Shula, Tom Landry and Chuck Knox... Literally a living breathing legend and has fans scream for his head. See these men, they are great men, gladiators, people who put their lives on the line, literally for what amounts at the end of the day as entertainment to us. And we as fans put just as much back into it, wives, sons, husbands, mothers, fathers and daughters take hours, days, weeks, months and years out of their lives to dedicate to something that may or may not be greater than them. Football.

Is it Sunday yet?