While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com.
Really interesting piece on injuries in the NFL- “The worst injury I’ve ever had on the field — for my wife and kids, at least, and my mom and dad — was an injury I got against the 49ers,” says Matt Hasselbeck. “Patrick Willis hit me as I was diving for the goal line. He hit me, and twenty minutes later I’m in an ambulance on my way to Stanford Medical. I’d broken a rib on the left and I’d broken a rib on the right. The rib on the right was right next to my aorta, and it was really dangerous for my health. I couldn’t breathe. It was like there was a weight on top of me. It’s a scary thing, because it feels like you’re drowning. I couldn’t breathe at all, and I got up off the field because it was a two-minute situation — I didn’t want the team to have to take a time-out. I tried to run off the field, and when the trainers met me they saw I was, like, purple in the face. And they immediately put me on the ground. Sometimes they’ll put you on the ground to evaluate you and sometimes to give the backup quarterback a chance to get loose. They put me on the ground because I was purple.” [Junod/Esquire]
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Reliving Skinner’s decision to hold Lofton- “Here’s what Francona said: “To be really honest about this, being a third-base coach in Boston is probably the most unfair job in the world, because you’re making a split-second decision, and you’re the only one in the ballpark who can’t see the whole field. Because you get that blind spot down the left-field line, and the ball caroms off the wall like it did in that instance. I think what you have to hope for is you have to make that split-second decision and what we used to tell our runners was keep your head up, like on a swivel, so you can be your own coach. Because that happens more often than people realize… If the runner keeps his head up, then he can score on his own and you don’t run into that problem, because the third-base coach is in a real bind there.”
Maybe, when you think of it in that light, this was one of those moments in which the notion of home-field advantage is rather real. Maybe the Indians, as a whole, should have been better prepared for such a scenario. Maybe we ought to consider the possibility that Lofton could have/should have acted on his own and ran right through the stop sign (it’s not the boldest suggestion in the world, given that Lofton played 63 regular-season games at Fenway in his career and was, therefore, well-versed in its quirks… to say nothing of Manny’s quirks). And maybe we shouldn’t forget that Blake grounded into the ensuing double play on the first freaking pitch (not that Indians fans ever had much trouble picking on Blake over the years).” [Castrovince/MLB.com]
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A classic from the Uni Watch archive on the Brownie the Elf- “The story begins long before the Cleveland Browns adopted the little creature as their logo — long before the team even existed, in fact. “Brownies” date back to folklore, where they were elf-like creatures who helped out with household chores as long as you left them little goodies to eat (further background is available here, here, and here, and the cover illustration from a children’s tale entitled “Brownie and the Cook” can be seen here). Palmer Cox was one of the first artists to illustrate Brownie on a consistent basis in his cartoons. Here’s an example from an 1896 comic he produced for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Cox is also credited with being one of the first to realize the Brownies’ immense commercial appeal. He began drawing and using the elves in advertising work that he produced for different companies, including Kodak, Luden’s, and Brownie soda. All of which brings us, finally, to the Cleveland Browns.” [Grzegorek/UniWatch]
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“At this point, the team’s front office structure as it comes to football comes down to Lombardi and CEO Joe Banner making personnel decisions along with coach Rob Chudzinski. Chudzinski’s wishes will be heard, of course, and the team will certainly try to build a roster to fit his system, but he’s never been a head coach and never been involved in personnel. Which means the personnel side will be driven by a business-guy-turned-football-guy and a Player Personnel guy who has not worked in Player Personnel since he volunteered in Denver five years ago, a guy who has had two front office job interviews the past five years, one with the Browns.” [McManamon/FSO]
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Finally, Jeremy Pargo really wants to compete in the Slam Dunk Contest. [LetPargoDunk.com]
