Posted on 12/24/2006 9:00:38 AM PST by Chi-townChief
Atlanta Falcons left tackle Wayne Gandy is about to finish his 13th season, continuing one of the most consistent and dependable careers in the league. Although 35, Gandy is still planning to play two or three more seasons. He's played well enough this season that the goal seems within reach.
But the most intriguing fact about Gandy is not that he has only missed one start in his career because of injury. That impressive mark, which has survived through a shoulder injury that forced Gandy to sleep in a chair for three months, is trumped by his impressive perspective of the game.
In particular, Gandy has a pretty interesting take on why black quarterbacks such as current teammate Michael Vick undergo so much public scrutiny. Gandy has watched teammates – Vick, Aaron Brooks in New Orleans, Kordell Stewart in Pittsburgh, Tony Banks in St. Louis and Dameyune Craig at Auburn – operate under a different set of standards.
Gandy, who could have a post-football future in anything from broadcast to working as a team executive, has seen the same situation play out from team to team.
"When fans and coaches see a black quarterback, it's automatic that they expect to see a guy who is more athletic," Gandy said. "So what happens when you get around the goal line or you get in those situations where most quarterbacks are taught to throw it away or get rid of the ball for a short gain if the play breaks down? The black quarterback is told, 'Do something, make a big play.'
"That's where you see a lot of Michael's sacks come from. He's supposed to make something happen in a situation where it's probably not going to work. You see where the coaches and fans are expecting that, but it's not really teaching him the right way to play.
"It's all about the tutelage they get from the time they're in college on. I saw that with Dameyune Craig. He was told, 'If your first read isn't there, take off and run.' Do you think that anyone ever told Peyton Manning or Tom Brady to do that? Again, it's about the tutelage they get."
Over the years, Vick, Brooks and Daunte Culpepper have consistently been sacked more than the likes of Manning and Brady. Vick has been sacked 39 times this season – one more combined than Brady (24) and Manning (14) – which is just under three per game. That's an odd number for someone who's seemingly hard to catch.
Furthermore, mobile quarterbacks such as Vick, Brooks and Culpepper have consistently had worse interception rates than Manning and Brady.
To Vick's credit, he is showing some progress this season. He has 19 touchdown passes, putting him one short of his first 20-touchdown season of his six-year career. Also, Vick's TD-interception ratio of 19-11 is the second best of his career to the 16-8 mark he had in his second season, which was also his first as a starter.
Vick has done that while also setting an NFL record for rushing yards (990) by a quarterback. He is a virtual lock to surpass 1,000 yards rushing and is currently averaging a stunning 8.5 yards per carry, meaning that Vick also appears to be picking the optimal times to take off.
Is that progress enough for a player of Vick's caliber? No, but the problem may be that he's being asked to do too much. Unlike Manning, for instance, Vick has played in an offense that has constantly changed. He began his career under Dan Reeves. Now, under coach Jim Mora, the offense has morphed from allowing Vick to be a runner to trying to rein him in as a passer to again being a more freelance offense.
Manning, by comparison, has played in only one offense with the same offensive coordinator (Tom Moore) his entire career. Moreover, Manning has played while surrounded by great skill players the entire time. The Falcons have struggled to find consistent receivers, although a significant share of the burden falls on Vick.
"The offense here has been different over the years," said Gandy, who was acquired by the Falcons via trade in the offseason. "Sometimes they've tried to make Michael work with a certain offense and sometimes they've tried to make the offense work to his skills. I think we've gotten back to making it work around his skills this year and he's made progress."
Gandy said one of the biggest problems the Falcons have had in running a conventional offense is that the timing is always off because Vick sets up so quickly. In most offenses, by the time the quarterback sets up on a standard three-step drop, the wide receiver is coming out of his break, ready to get open. With Vick, the receivers are still in their patterns. The problem impacts the entire timing of the offense, leading to further problems. On top of that, the Falcons wide receivers have had way too many drops this season.
"I see why people get on Michael, but there have been stretches where our receivers haven't made the catches. We had a lot of drops and the receivers have to help him out," Gandy said.
Does Steve Nash have athleticism?
Lowered expectations time.
It would help if Vick had receivers who could actually catch the ball. One thing that hurt Vick is that in 2002 or so he lost fullback Bob Christian (suffered a career ending neck injury) who was a very effective blocker as well as runner. Falcons have never really had an effective running back who could also pick up that rushing LB or DE to block him before he gets to Vick.
I agree. What difference does color make? Just throw the ball, dang it!
Maybe Vince Young has a take on this.
All I know is that with Drew Brees as the Saint's starting QB no one misses Aaron Brooks.
I have to admit that most of the black quarterbacks who come to my mind ARE scramblers, or else option guys in college.
Notre Dame is getting two frosh qbs -- Demetrius Jones and Jimmy Clawson. Guess which one's the athletic one?
And then Tony Rice and Kevin McDougal were both option guys too, but Rick Mirer and Ron Powlus (ugh) were not.
Warren Moon of the Oilers comes to mind as an exception, and of course Brett Favre is a white guy who won't hesitate to run, although it's not pretty when he does.
I don't know, maybe we need a movie about this -- White Men Can't Scramble?
The guy I had in mind was Tarkenton; he had the same rap on him, some of it deserved, that he would take off too fast rather than wait for an open receiver. Then, when he got old and tired, they started praising him for learning how to stay in the pocket.
Well, in Michael Vick's case, he gets so much scrutiny because he has sex with random women and gives them a fake name. A really cheesy fake name.
Could be. His take is certainly, shall we say, interesting.
The problem I see with any team where their q-b is their main rusher is that they have no running game. With no running game the pressure on the q-b leads to sacks... black or white.
You definitely need the threat posed by a mobile q-b. Witness the Washington Redskins with Brunnel vs Campbell. But you don't want him running around in the backfield looking for a receiver and then taking off to risk life and limb..IMO.
Oh, wait a minute, Campbell is black.
Oh well, there goes that theory.
Course our O-line sucks.
You will see a couple of white QBs scrambling around tomorrow when the Eagles play Dallas ...
You hit the nail on the head: they are trying to put a racial spin on a pure sports story, which is so typical for leftist MSM outlets like Yahoo. In case you haven't been following it, the sports media has just as much of a political agenda as the news media and is dominated just as much by a left mindset. In fact, even the owners and executives of professional sports teams are predominantly left-leberal, perhaps more so as a group than their employee coaches and players.
Paging Rush Limbaugh!
/sarc.
Leni
heh...yeah...and his offensive line knows that too so they know where the q-b is "likely" to be and they can protect him. When he off running and scrambling around, he's on his own. The only white guy I knew that was a great scrambler was Tarkenton..and he never won "The Big One".
Roger Stauback wasn't bad but he had all the other skills to go with it.
Lame, race-based excuses for quarterbacks who make BAD decisions and who rely on their feet, not their arms and brains. Successful, championship caliber teams have a good quarterback and a good runningback, not a good-running quarterback.
"...You will see a couple of white QBs scrambling around tomorrow when the Eagles play Dallas ..."
One will be running for his life and the other will be running to keep the defense honest and off balance.
GO COWBOYS!!!!!
I always thought Kent Graham was lightskinned! /sarcasm
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