=== Seahawk Monday ===

On Brock and Salk:

(1) The former NFL player was saying that the Olindo Mare firestorm was going to be no big deal at all in the locker room.  That it was being blown way out of proportion.  Calm down.

(2) The sportswriter* was spraying lighter fluid over as much of the fire as possible, including after Mora's conciliatory press conference, in which Salk suggested hopefully, "Is it too late for this to fix things?" and promised tongue-in-cheek to devote three hours to the issue Tuesday.

............

Mora blew it Sunday, but he could not have been cooler about it Monday.

Do you feel the same way today about Olindo Mare that you did Sunday?  "Am really glad you brought that up.  No, no I don't.  I respect all that Olindo has done in this league, and looking at the tape, a lot of us left plays out there on the field that could have made the difference," or words to that effect.

"I got caught up in the emotion of the game," he said, and he said it with a smiling, charming, irresistible tone.

Did you go home last night and go oh, no, I blew it!, a reporter asked, hoping to twist the knife a little.   From some other coach, say Bill Parcells or Bobby Knight, watch out.

Mora, calmly and positively, "No.  We're all accountable in this business.  We need to make those field goals.  But at the same time, we left other plays unmade too," or somesuch.

I was wow'ed.

By Huard as well as by Mora.  He sure gets a lot of these calls right.

......................

And Seahawk Monday sez:  Yes, Mare missed a game-changing field goal ... but there were several passes left two feet high, and there was a terrible fumble, and there was a terrible non-fair-catch...

Brock Huard's observation exactly.  "When Jim looks at the tapes he's going to be amazed at how many plays the Seahawks left out there on the field."

Huard and Millen are bloomin' fun-to-listen-to football analysts.  Yowch.

.

=== IR ===

Another dazzling insight by Huard:

Trauma injuries?  That's the NFL.  Hasselbeck's ribs, Locklear's ankle, those kinds of things are part of the cost of doing business in a violent sport.

But WHAT is up with all of the muscle tears?  Hill's groin just underwent surgery.  Sims' pectoral is ripped.  Guys have obliques, and hamstrings, and all kinds of stuff that was not caused by getting hit.

What's the root cause?  Very tough to say.  If it were conditioning / training, it might take you five years to track it down.  The Seahawks' "berm" (sp?) is similar to Singletary's Hill of Pain.  Most teams do the same thing.

But Dave Wyman pointed out that Hill's injury was caused by fantastically lousy footwork fundamentals.  As the carrier nears you, you take a narrow stance so you are mobile.  You don't take a wide base and then throw yourself left or right, as Hill did.

If the muscle injuries are caused by a team full of athletes who don't have great body control, then that's kinda weird.   Michael Jordan and Lawrence Taylor, to take the reductio ad absurdums, don't rip their groins stepping the wrong way.

Worth consideration,

Dr D