Sure, the Lions and their fans are hurting this year. So too are Bengals, Chiefs and Rams fans and players. But no, this is about individual disappointment. Perhaps someone was given a dose of bad news, perhaps suggesting they aren’t as good as they thought. Maybe someone was dealt an unlucky card. These five guys are right to be bummed out by this season.
5. LaDanian Tomlinson: LT has long been regarded as the top running back in the league, and his gaudy statistics back up those assertions. He’s a one man wrecking machine! Well, maybe not. With Michael Turner and Shawne Merriman out of the picture, the Chargers may be out of the playoff picture. Apparently LT can’t do it alone. Perhaps he could use a back larger than a Keebler elf to lighten his load, because his numbers are way off this year.
4. Brian Billick: Billick was the coach of the Ravens for eight long years. Over that time, he won the Super Bowl with Trent Dilfer. As an offensive minded coach, he built a Super Bowl winning team on TRENT DILFER. Why Dilfer? Because Billick never had anyone better. For whatever reason, that was his fault, and now he’s been fired. Turns out, the year after he’s cut loose, some rookie coach lucks into Joe Flacco. He wasn’t even the planned starter, Flacco, but new coach John Harbaugh saw Kyle Boller and Troy Smith go down early, then the unflappable Flacco steps in, and the Ravens are in the playoffs. Imagine what an offensive genius like Billick could do with a guy like Flacco.
3. Tom Brady: Everyone has been lauding Tom Brady as among the greatest quarterbacks of all time. Why not? Three rings. Great. At the beginning of the year, he went down to a catastrophic knee injury and everyone thought the Pats were done. Matt Cassel, who hadn’t started a game since high school stepped in and, well, has lead the team to a 10-5 record. Not bad. It only took a little while to get acclimated to the offense, but now Cassel is putting up 47 points in the snow. Without a running game. Maybe it wasn’t Brady after all.
2. Mike Nolan: Ever since Nolan got fired this season, in October, he now gets to watch a legitimately crazy Mike Singletary lead the 49ers. How are they doing? A respectable 4-4. Singletary will probably be back next season.
1. Vince Young: Young was supposed to be the premier quarterback for the Titans this year and for years to come. Then he got hurt and Kerry Collins was thrown into the starters role. The Titans then played a ridiculously easy schedule, right up until the Jets game, which they lost. Make no mistake, this was a defense/running game based team. Kerry Collins was just lucky enough to be the quarterback, and is now being lauded as resurgent. If it had been Young leading this team, then people would be saying he was living up to his potential. When he comes back, it will be against a more difficult schedule, and the Titans collapse will be blamed on him too.
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