WR Steve Johnson tweets "He will remember this" to God.

First I would like to apologize for it taking so long for me to write another article. I promise, you will get two articles this week starting with this one. Also please note; so  I don't violate any copyright laws, I have decided to link images and videos instead of adding them unless I already have them on file, from my personal library.  It's not advertising or links that harm your computer.

So unless you have been hiding under the proverbial NFL rock of the past two weeks you've heard about Steve Johnson's hero to goat performances. Just in case you haven't...on November 21st Steve Johnson caught not one but 3 TD passes in a 49-31 comeback win over the Bengals. The Bills were down 28-7 at one point in the 2nd quarter before going into the half with the score 31-14. As some of you may know the Bengals have the "Dynamic Duo" of Wide Receivers in Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco who are the self proclaimed Batman and Robin of football. So at this point we're thinking they are going to steal the show and pour the rain on the Bills.

Then came the onslaught...the Bills scored 35 unanswered points in the second half and Johnson was responsible for 21 of those points. So Johnson in the spirit of fun and entertainment took a Sharpie to his undershirt before the game and wrote "Why So Serious?"  which was a quote from the Joker in the Batman: Dark Knight film. Upon scoring his first 28 yard-TD and still down 10 points he lifts his jersey to show off the statement as a retort to his counterparts on the Bengal sideline and to let the world know he's the villain. Then went on to gain 137 yards score two more times!

The Not So Fun League didn't find it so funny, and fined The Joker $5,000. Johnson went on to say he got in trouble for it, and won't be doing anything like that again because as he said, "I want to keep my money". This would be his hero performance.

Now to the goat.....

Last Sunday the Bills took the Steelers into overtime, and Johnson breaks free, wide open...game tied...perfect pass....in the end zone....AND...HE DROPS IT! The Steelers go on to win the game and just like that! Johnson goes for hero to goat. But then it gets better...he goes on to tweet after the game under the handle steviejohnson13: I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!! AND THIS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!! YOU EXPECT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS??? HOW???!!! ILL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!!! THX THO..."

If you know me you know that I am a Christ follower. So my opinion and response will reflect such. So without further ado...Steve 4 things you may want to reflect on:

1) YOU didn't look the ball into tuck! That's fundamentals. It seems 90% of the NFL players have forgotten (i.e. not leading with your head, bucking chin straps, etc.). God didn't tell make you take your focus off the ball.

2) I am sure God doesn't mind you "remembering this" but I hope you don't mind Him remembering that you're a sinner saved by His grace. He loved you enough to sacrifice His only son for YOU! You will be held accountable for your sin on judgement day. So...remember it, write it down, take a picture! Here is a verse for you to think on: 1 Peter 4:17-19.

3) You're telling a lie. No one is able to praise Him 24-hrs. a day, how dare you even think you shouldn't have adversity because you praise Him. You might want to read the book of Job, in the Old Testament. Your arrogance is enough for me to think that maybe humility is the thing you are supposed to "learn from this".
1 Corinthians 2:14 and Philippians 2:3-11 might help.

4) Lastly my friend...I know it's your job. But at the end of the day you will be paid regardless, you get to hop in your nice ride, tweet your all caps rants from your iPad, and pay fines larger than any paycheck most Americans have ever received.

Thus leading me to ask....Why So Serious?

We all cry out from time to time. But...again...check out Job my favorite scriptures are Job 38-41. That should help, sets me straight every time!

Herschel Never Played Defense

Recently I had the opportunity (thanks to my friends at Original Retro Brand and my good friend Andy Hyman) to go to the Touchdown Club of Atlanta's weekly luncheon honoring the week's top football players and coaches and the event is concluded with a guest speaker. This week however, the guests were members of the University of Georgia's 1980 National Championship team. Today's blog is a recollection of my experience at this event as well as a compilation of the stories that were told about the great Junkyard Dawg defense. Enjoy!


The smell of great food, and the discussion of how good or bad different teams are is going on, and football is definitely in the air.  But this wasn’t the campus of Georgia, Auburn or Georgia Tech.  It was the Fox Sports Grill at Atlantic Station at the Touchdown Club of Atlanta weekly luncheon.  And on this day Buck Belue reminded us all of something that most Georgia fans and college football fans seem to forget…”Herschel never played defense.” The 1980 National Champions had a RB that rushed for 1,616 yards and 15 touchdowns.  Yes, they also had a pretty good QB in Belue and receivers in Amp Arnold and Lindsay Scott.  But their defense was the anchor to their undefeated season, and eventual title.  The Junkyard Dawgs never gave up more than 21 points in any game and against a high-powered Notre Dame offense in the title game, they gave up just 7 points.  The Junkyard Dawg defense was created, motivated and loved by none other than 3-time National Championship coach Erkskine “Erk” Russell.  According to 1980 Team Captain Frank Ros (pronounced Ross), as the I-Formation was becoming more popular the Split 60 defense was used to stop the Veer and Option, but Russell morphed the defense to move the Sam linebacker (strong side) to a D-tackle, and then would move back out, and the end would shift back in to stop the I-form, Iso, and Dive plays. Thus with the combination of speed, intelligence and motivation, this defense earned their nickname“Junkyard Dawgs”.  Frank Ros, Bob Kelly and Robert Miles all agreed that their defense was centered around Russell.  For instance there is a pretty famous picture of Erk that most college football fans of that era have seen with Erk’s head gushing blood, but this wasn’t from his famous head butts of defensive lineman. You see he created a tradition with his defensive lineman where in pre-game warm ups he played a game called “Bull In The Ring”. For those that don’t know, it’s when one player would stand in the middle of a circle of other players, and they would come from all over to hit the man in the middle, one at a time. Well, Erk would stand in the middle and he would butt his head into his player’s chest.  He had a player that just moved from linebacker to D-line who didn’t know this, and he dropped his head and the screws on the helmet cut Erk’s wrinkled bald cranium.  Frank Ros recalls that before going out on the field that Erk stopped him at the door, swiped his hand across his head, and wiped the blood on Frank’s jersey.  Ros told us “At that point I would have run through the wall for him”.


Russell had an uncanny ability to motivate his players by knowing their personalities and loving his players.  All the players on the panel agreed that Russell’s coaching style was to never criticize the athlete, and instead he would only critique the action.  Never saying “you screwed that up” or negative statements that would potentially put someone down, but instead he loved and respected his players enough to use positive motivations and only talk about the action.  In closing, there are two other notable points that I found worthy of mentioning.  Bob Kelly recalled that when the Dawgs lost homecoming in 1979, Coach Vince Dooley moved curfew up to the moment they returned back to the dorms. Then the next morning (Sunday morning) the trainers woke them up for practice at 7am.  At this point they still had a JV team who was going to play Clemson Sunday afternoon. After practice was over, the JV was put on the bus with a sandwich and sent to the stadium.  After that experience they didn’t want to lose another game so they just went undefeated the next year. They all also agreed that in their era, having a Junior Varsity team and everyone having to play on the Scout teams helped propel them to the Elite.  That and bloody Tuesday’s! As Buck Belue said referring to Bloody Tuesday’s, “When you have that #1 offense going against the #1 defense in practice how could anyone beat us.”


Personally, I had a great time filling in for Andy at the Touchdown club, and I honestly enjoyed hearing about Erk and his Junkyard Dawgs.  As a former high school football coach, it was nice to hear that a coach treated his players the right way, and could still win.  Now days too many coaches think they have to belittle and berate players to get them to perform, and Vince Dooley and Erk Russell remind us of how you can win and treat players as people.  Coaching means you are the teacher, and these legends were the perfect example.  In conclusion, I have to give a shout out to the Georgia High School Lineman of the Week Joe Turner, who was noted for making 11 tackles, and played offensive line in a game in 2009 with a broken wrist!  Now that’s a beast!  Thank you to Andy and Original Retro Brand for the opportunity to write this blog.

Why Cam Newton won't win the Heisman Trpohy.

To begin this article, I would like to point one thing out. I am NOT an Auburn hater. As stated in my profile, I am quite the opposite. I am an Auburn fan (when they are not playing Georgia) and my school's most beloved Head Coach and Athletic Director played at Auburn. My all time favorite athlete played at Auburn and one of my dearest friends is an Auburn grad (wud up Phil!). I felt this was a needed intro statement since early today I got hammered for a comment made in haste regarding a Tebow-esque article. So, now that we've established that we can move on.

I would like to start this blog by wishing everyone a happy first BS week! Oh wait! (My apologies I left out the "C" on accident.) Let's try this again...happy first BCS week! Now that we are getting a clearer picture of college football's National Championship race, we are also getting a clear picture of who the real Heisman Trophy candidates are. Jake Locker, Denard Robinson, Terrelle Pryor have all stayed on the short list with losses. While Kellen Moore, LaMichael James and Cameron Newton have become the Big Three in the conversation. With their teams being undefeated and with James and Newton playing big time schedules I am going to go ahead and rule out Kellen Moore. Even though the rankings don't prove Boise State a fraud the people who vote Heisman should see right through them and that is why Moore won't take the trophy.

So now we've narrowed the Heisman down to two.

James is blowing up Pac-10 defenses, with 848 yards rushing, 87 yards receiving and 10 touchdowns. Newton is exploding onto the SEC scene with 1,278 yards passing, 13 passing touchdowns, five interceptions, 860 yards rushing with 12 touchdowns. To summarize, Newton has 2,138 total yards and is responsible for 25 touchdowns! Moore is the only one kind of close to this number with 1,555 total yards and 16 touchdowns.

Currently, you would say Newton is the only dog in the fight. He is a beast! The next best player has nine touchdowns less and 583 less total yards! He alone has more yards running than the only Running Back on the list! This being the only season you will see Cam Newton playing college football, you could easily say this is a done deal...but in the words of the famous Lee Corso "Not so fast my friend!" What would keep Newton from college football's most coveted individual award?

Let's flash back to the end of the summer (September 14th, 2010). The temperature here in Atlanta was still hovering around 90 degrees and Georgia fans were talking about Marcus Lattimore's ridiculous beat down of the Georgia defense. When the news came down that Reggie Bush would forfeit his Heisman Trophy for allegedly taking money and gifts from agents valued at over $200,000 while still playing at the University of Southern California, Reggie respectfully gave the trophy back after being ruled ineligible as well as not honoring the "integrity" qualification of the Heisman. Why is this important to the 2010 race?

Because there is the possibility that Newton's past mistakes may come back to haunt him now. You see, the 6-6, 245lb. Quarterback did not start his football career at Auburn and work his way to starter. He actually started out his college career at Florida as a redshirt backup Quarterback to Tim Tebow. During his time at Florida Newton went six of 12 for 54 yards and no touchdowns in his two seasons with the Gators. He also was arrested for allegedly stealing a laptop and then throwing it out the dorm room window while being questioned by police. The charges were eventually dropped since Newton was a first-time offender and his punishment was a pre-trial intervention program. Now the story goes that Newton did not steal the laptop but was simply a victim in the deal. He states that he bought the laptop from another student, at a “Tom Stimus” super cheap price, and that he should have known better. Newton has been open and honest about the incident calling it a mistake, and his responsibility to know better. So, why should this keep him from winning the trophy?

There are two reasons why the best player in college football won't win the Heisman trophy this year. The first is because even though Newton has said the right things and served his punishment, there is still the fact that he threw the laptop out the window. Why would a guy who didn't know the machine was stolen -- throw it out the window after being questioned by police? I think this question leads to the second reason, which is the Heisman Trust is already feeling like they have a tarnished image from the Bush scandal. So, do they want to take a chance on a questionable situation? I really don't think they do. My opinion is that they would rather give the award to a squeaky clean character guy than to someone who has a "past" because they don't want the controversy in 2010. Since Newton won't be coming back to Auburn in 2011, he won't take the stiff-arm trophy.

However, I could be completely wrong. Now, that ESPN basically owns the rights to the award, the Ego Sports Programming Network doesn't like to be wrong. The entire Heisman talk has revolved around Newton and I honestly think they could flex their muscles and get their way. Both situations would be completely unfortunate. Television companies should not be able to lobby for candidates just as the Trust shouldn't be able to lobby against them. Are they? That is my latest conspiracy theory. I have to say, I would be a liar if I told you I was sold on Newton's on-field character; the fact is Newton is by far the best player in the country and  deserves the trophy --should he be a finalist.

Not sure I am doing this right because it's been a LONG time since I have cited articles. But here are my sources.


Heisman Trophy
ESPN: Heisman Race
Heisman Mission Statement
ESPN: Newton's Stats
Newton's Arrest
Newton Addressing His Arrest
Reggie Bush "Cash & Carry"

Tom Stimus