We've scoured the message boards to find out what everyone is talking about in the sports world. Is there any validity to some of the hottest sports opinion being discussed...or is it all just hot air? We break it down in "Truth or Trolling" with columnist Tully Corcoran.
Truth or Trolling: Tony Romo is not the solution for the Cowboys. He's the problem. I'm sorry, but you're just not going to win a Super Bowl with somebody that careless. How many times do we have to see him have a game like that before we collectively figure this out? This is a guy with two five-interception games to his name.
First of all, Brett Favre won a Super Bowl, so let's not act like "gunslinger" types will never succeed. Secondly, who else would you like to have, Cowboys fans? You can't have Tom Brady. You can't have Drew Brees. You can't have Aaron Rodgers. You can't even have Cam Newton, Robert Griffin III or Andrew Luck. Other teams have those guys, and they're probably keeping them.
You know who you can have? Well, let's see. The backup quarterback is Kyle Orton. You can have him. You could probably get Matt Cassel from the Chiefs this offseason. Vince Young is available. Matt Leinart's contract with the Raiders is up after this year. Or you can draft one and hope for the best.
See my point?
Tony Romo is the best quarterback the Cowboys have, and he's probably the best quarterback they could possibly get between now and a year from now. Is he good enough to win the Super Bowl? Probably, but maybe not. That's beside the point.
The problem with the Cowboys isn't Tony Romo, it's an organizational discombobulation that begins with Jerry Jones, who should definitely not be the general manager, and trickles down to Dez Bryant, who is actually a worse player now than he was the day he was drafted.
Verdict: Trolling.
Truth or Trolling: NFL coaches are the least progressive, most insecure coaches at any level of football, and we know this because it took like 30 years – and Cam Newton and Robert Griffin III – to make them realize it was OK to use the quarterback run as a regular part of your offense.
You just watch the Carolina Panthers and Washington Redskins on offense. They're doing things we've been watching high school and college offenses do for 10-15 years already. They're taking quarterbacks who are good passers and great runners, and – you're never going to believe this – using them to do both.
Somewhere along the way, it became an institutional truth in the NFL that this was just not the right way to play. The option game would never work in the NFL, we were told, because NFL defenses are too fast. Besides, you're paying all this money to a quarterback, so you don't want him taking any hits.
Ok, fine. That doesn't sound crazy.
Well, actually it sort of does. Speed, you see, is relative. Yes, NFL defensive players are overall faster than college defensive players. But so are NFL offensive players. And guess what? Michael Vick was always the fastest guy on the field no matter what. So instead of using a zone blocking scheme – a scheme, by the way, that has been common in the NFL since the late 90s – to seamlessly incorporate the read option with a fast quarterback (such as Vick) NFL teams would not only run traditional drop-back offenses, they would actively encourage these guys to stay in the pocket even when there were running lanes available.
Because they were afraid. Afraid of being different, afraid of getting blamed for an injury to the quarterback, afraid of looking like their offensive scheme was unsophisticated.
As a result, a lot of really excellent college quarterbacks never even got a chance in the NFL.
This started to change a few years ago, when the Wildcat Offense proved you could successfully run against an NFL defense even while telling it what the play was going to be. And last year Newton proved that you could operate a scheme like that even more effectively if your best runner also happened to be your best passer.
Too bad NFL teams didn't figure this out in time to use Vince Young because, man, that guy was awesome.
Verdict: Truth.
Truth or Trolling: You can't say Tim Tebow is not a good enough passer to be the Jets' starting quarterback when the starting quarterback is Mark Sanchez.
There are two starting quarterbacks with worse passer ratings this season than Sanchez (69.6). They are Ryan Tannehill and Brandon Weeden, both of whom are rookies on bad teams.
This does not mean Tebow is the answer. It does not mean Tebow would turn things around. It does not mean Sanchez should be benched. But it does mean that the "Tebow can't throw" argument doesn't hold water in this particular context.
Because Sanchez can't, either. You aren't making a choice between Excellent Pocket Passer and Dual-Threat Guy. You're making a choice between two crummy passers, one of which is a better runner, the other of which is a (somewhat) more accurate passer.
Career passer ratings: Tebow 75.2, Sanchez 72.9.
Verdict: Truth.
