Rocktober #2: It’s All About The Cover Song
October 5, 2011While We’re Waiting… Browns O-Line Play, The Hillis Issue and B10 Family Portrait
October 6, 2011
on
Some things we know and other things we don’t. Just a few bullet points for you regarding this whole Peyton Hillis kerfuffle ***.
- Peyton Hillis missed the Browns game against the Miami Dolphins because he was really sick.
- Some fans and even (apparently) some unnamed sources “close to the Browns” wondered if Hillis’ decision not to play was somehow related to his contract situation.
- If it was a protest over his contract, why did he play the following week against the Tennessee Titans?
- Now, Hillis’ agent is saying that Hillis was too sick to play and he told him not to play and risk injury.
- Some media and fans want to pretend like this is an unreasonable statement. It seems to me that the agent is just standing up for the fact that Hillis was really ill and stood a chance to risk actual sustained injury had he played that day.
- This sentiment is supported by the fact that Hillis played the following week against the Titans.
- Somewhere in all this is a residue of that unrealistic gladiator / warrior mentality that we as a sports culture just can’t seem to shake since before Ronnie Lott amputated part of a finger.
- If Peyton Hillis wanted to hold out, he wouldn’t significantly improve his bargaining power by sitting out of a game under the guise of being sick and then playing the following week.
- It is the bye week and the Browns lost going into it, so there couldn’t be anything but negatives and drama to discuss, right? Right.
Stick to the known true facts**
- Peyton Hillis needs to prove that he deserves a new contract.
- He missed a game because he was sick and the Browns won the game without him.
- He played the next game, had a limited role and the Browns lost.
- Pat Shurmur might or might not consider Peyton Hillis an ideal style of player for his offense.
- Peyton Hillis wants a new contract.
- The Browns say they like Hillis.
- We don’t know what Hillis is asking for from the Browns.
- We don’t know what the Browns want to give Peyton Hillis.
- There is a chance that the Browns and Hillis will find common ground.
- There is a chance that the Browns and Hillis won’t find common ground.
I was so fatigued by the conversation on twitter over this topic that I didn’t even really want to discuss it. The point is that there isn’t much point to having an opinion. I like Peyton Hillis. I like the Cleveland Browns. I want both of them to be good. I just don’t see any upside in getting involved in the he said, he said, he said speculation cycle. It feels very 8th grade to me.
I don’t know what the resolution is, but I am quite certain that what has been going on the last two weeks since Hillis was sick is not what it should look like.
So, are you guys crazy with opinions over this topic, or would you prefer it not be in the headlines at all?
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*** I despise the word kerfuffle. They use it in the Wall Street Journal pretty frequently. I used it anyway.
** Redundant, I know.
13 Comments
Yawn. Slow news week, I suppose.
Hillis was sick, lost a ton of weight, and not only missed the game vs. Dolphins but seemed to slow down as the Titans game went on (leading to Hardesty getting all the carries when the game was out of hand). Which, further backs up the point that he was sick and recovering (see the splits earlier in the game).
The end.
That Ruiter article headline was ridiculous.
“Agent Says He Told Hillis to Sit”
Talk about misleading….
No kidding PGP headline/pageview grabbing stiff like that drives me nuts.
(thoughtfully strokes beard)
Very interesting, young man. Trying to keep conversations about an ultimately pointless diversion like sports empirical, controlled, reasonable, limited.
(thumbs through file)
Now – Craig, is it? – you wouldn’t be the same gentleman who last year about this time attempted to declare and enforce a unilateral discussion moratorium about the employment future of a certain local sports figure once known as “my-genus”? “Manjuy-…” uh, can’t seem to make out that name.
Let’s try something, excuse me … Darla? Can you bring in the little box the pharm rep dropped off this morning?
I am crazy with opinions about “true facts,” double asterisks aside. I hate, hate, hate (double hate) the phrase.
What’s that? This isn’t the kerfuffle to which you were referring? Someone was sick, you say?
Thank you, Craig, for a much-appreciated oasis of coherence as in the current media desert of breathless, pants-wetting, conspiracy-theorizing, ignorant bullpuckey.
^ Strike “as”.
BTW, it’s not just the media who are flogging this non-story, of course. We have plenty of fans who are all too happy to jump on the idiot wagon.
Re: Kerfuffle – it’s usually the NYT which uses it; the WSJ’s James Taranto started using it to mock them about it. 🙂 (This PSA has been brought to you by…)
Can we simplify the Hillis issue with basic conjecture?
Hillis wants what he thinks he can get on the open market, which is mid-level #1RB type money. One season does not make him Chris Johnson, but it doesn’t mean he isn’t worth something along the lines of a Benson plus a bit, who has less upside with a bit more established numbers.
The Browns however feel that it was one season; that perhaps other RBs can come in and do the same or close enough to it for a lot less money; and that in general, RBs in their offense are not going to be *that* valuable, and they would rather spend the money elsewhere.
Are you people for real? This is totally about Hillis’s Contract and money. Professional sports has athletes that play injured or hurt in many cases. Most of the time it is something that a sick player or hurt player has one of the best games of their career’s on those occasions.
Anyone who is thinking a sore throat was enough alone to keep Hillis out of a game has to be thinking with their hearts and not their minds. Hillis is a popular player who people have come to love and worship in the Cleveland Area. Unfortunately for Hillis his was naive enough to listen to his money hungry agent instead of doing what hundreds of other athletes have done over decades of athletic performances.
Face the facts professional sports players play injured and sick. That is what they do….This was all about protecting his potential money…..
#9: I certainly hope you were joking. On of the most profound statements that I have seen reigns true for this situation: “Sports talk radio and internet comment boards are the killing fields of intellectual discourse.”
I keep hearing bits and pieces of this through Twitter and overheard conversation and I was in denial that this was actually a story. There’s a difference between a sore throat and strep throat. There’s also a difference between going to work with strep and performing as a RB in the NFL. Putting that much air through your lungs with strep is a serious issue.
@9: “You people”? Seriously?
Come on, now. Despite your totally erudite, fact-filled discourse, this is no way to bring people to your “soon to be number one ranked sports social site”!
I’m getting pretty tired of this story (not so much your re-hash here but the accusations that keep floating around). And on que, there’s Tony Grossi, still beating the drum about Hillis missing Week 3’s game. The man loves controversy.