Keyshawn Johnson In a Very Uncomfortable Place
You’ve probably heard the story by now of how ESPN studio analyst — and former loudmouthed-yet-mediocre wide receiver — Keyshawn Johnson called out the Ravens‘ receiving corps, referring to them as “bums”. This happened, of course, before the Ravens offense went out and dropped 38 on the Chiefs.
Derrick Mason subsequently slapped Keyshawn down something fierce. ESPN then did what you’d expect: told some lies and tried to cover the whole thing up.
We know that the Ravens don’t have an elite group of receivers. At best they have a collection of #2 and #3 guys. But you can win with a group like that, especially (a) if they play hard and play as a team, and (b) if they have a strong quarterback. The Ravens get a check mark in both columns.
Beyond that, though, it’s off-putting when former players make remarks like this. It’s one thing for an analyst or writer to say it — that’s what they do. Anyone who’s actually been there should know better, should know the sacrifice it takes to be productive — if not elite — at the NFL level.
Alas, it’s Keyshawn we’re talking about. The dude has barely lived a day without his head firmly planted in the backseat of a Volkswagen.
Speaking of not being bums, the Orioles are up 7-5 on the Rays after going down 5-0 early. This is what you call “not mailing it in despite the record.”
They might still lose, natch, but at least the game wasn’t over before it had barely begun. Good sign.
And there goes Wieters with the three-run homer. Don’t tell that kid isn’t playing to the last. He’s now got 5 RBI tonight.
From 0-5 to 10-5, against a good (but no longer contending) team. Fill your belly with some late-season Oriole goodness.
Close it out, back in the Win Column. Ten unanswered runs and a gutsy (sorry, Andrew, but it was) performance by Berken.
Read into this, read nothing into this. Whatever. It’s a building block. Not a cornerstone or even a load-bearing wall, but a building block.
ha. In orioles extra luke scott is wearing a shirt that says “prayer warrior”. You can be a warrior of whatever you want luke, just keep hitting the ball.
ZING!
Luke would definitely not dig my Mallrats references in this post. But, hey, I fully respect the man’s faith. Luke is Luke, and we love him.
oh, no doubt neal…no disrespect meant at all to him. just love his passion for it.
Yeah, he’s kind of amazing in that way. I saw him wearing a shirt one time (also on O’s Extra) with some kind of top-10 list relating to Jesus. Not my thing but he was blazing it so hard I had to tip my cap.
He can be gutsy, so long as you don’t convince yourself that’s good.
Luke has a wardrobe full of Jesus shirts, it’s freaking great. Why not go all out, right?
I so so so want Luke Scott to be our Carlos Pena. He’s obviously got the power and talent, he just can’t find the consistency. Imagine having a 30-40HR guy that can DH as well as play 1B and LF, and be a humble dude. That would be great, no? For whatever reason though, he just can get past 20-25 HR and like 70 RBI. That won’t get it done in the AL East, so it will be interesting to see what will happen with Luke maybe not next season, but the one after.
How nice was it to see Wieters CRANK one, by the way? Pulled the crap out of that ball, and that’s encouraging. Granted, it was on a 80MPH Bradford frisbee.
@dan the man – Age. Age. Age. The 2011 season is what you’re talking about when you say “it will be interesting to see what will happen with Luke”, correct? He will be 33 years old, the traditional year of power hitter drop-off and in the final year of arbitration for him (poor guy is going to hit free agency for the first time during his decline years. That’s really too bad, although the Royals will probably give him like 15 million per for 5 years).
I think that the Orioles, especially this winter which for some reason I can’t put my finger on I consider to be somewhat pivotal, need to take a hard, honest look at their roster and say that these guys aren’t going to really be the answer for us at their positions (and I think that includes some obvious answers like Ty Wigginton and Cesar Izturis but also some not-so-obvious answers like Luke Scott and Chris Ray and maybe even Brandon Snyder) and also acknowledge that they should probably do something with their excess parts (like decide between Andino and Izturis and Pie and Reimold, because holding onto either of those pairs would be a big mistake, in my opinion).
Apparently you get $5 off tonight if you rock some farm team paraphernalia to the game. I’m already attending with ryan97ou on his season tix, but this makes me want a frickin’ Shorebirds cap all the more. Red-eyed, Silver Heron on black. Love that logo.
Please, please everyone quit your jobs and read deadspin today: it’s the fire joe morgan reunion and I’ve struggling mightily not to laugh out loud in the office. Also: it will teach you stuff.
MASN just brought up a graphic about AL Cy Young contenders featuring Sabathia, Verlander, Feldman, and so on, but did not include Zack Greinke. Further, Gary Thorne was quoted with “AL wins leader CC Sabathia’s at the top of that, I would think”.
FAILFAILFAILFAILFAILFAILFAIL
ryan97ou just totally got fan of the game!!!!!
@Boddy – How on earth did he beat the other 4 guys at the game?
I kid. That’s pretty cool. What is the prize for that, anyway?
By the way, I haven’t forgotten the whole draft season recap business, I’m working on a couple things with it. It should be a fun and interesting look at the draft class so far.
Also: Carl Crawford is going to murder Matt Wieters. Awesome!
I RULE! *CHUCKLE* http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d82/ryan97ou/th_utf-8BSU1HMDAzODUuanBn.jpg
Well, I can die happy. Tonight I heard Gary Thorne and Jim Palmer’s attempts at a “Macho Man” Randy Savage voice. DIG IIIIIT!
Yus! Saw that from behind home plate! This is why you hang for rain delays!
okay i’ll make post #18 about the actual thread.
in a league with a history of over-rated receivers keyshawn johnson EASILY makes the top five. not to mention by the end of the season derrick mason will have dwarfed him statistically.
what a jackass.
also here’s a good debate topic. what makes a #1 receiver?
it seems dumb to say that the ravens don’t have a #1 receiver when they just now have their first #1 qb in their history.
guess i’ve never understood that term necessarily. is it about their body? skillset? statistics?
who the fuck was #1 on the colts all those years? on the rams with holt and bruce? was tony gonzales the #1 on the chiefs? is hines ward a #2 and santonio holmes a number 1? but wait larry fitzgerald is surely the #1 receiver but boldin is so much bigger so maybe he isn’t the number 2 blah blah blah blah blah….
never understood this. and to go full circle derrick mason might be the most under-rated receiver of the last ten years, partly because of this confusing “#1 receiver” idea.
@Andrew – at first i didn’t think you won anything, i was just trying to get our section into it. but about 2 innings later they came over and brought me a little prize pack (foam finger, hat, magazine, stickers, etc), and my entire row won free noah’s pretzels…which was pretty cool. i gave mine to the season ticket holders who sit in front of me for putting up with my yelling all season. fun times for all