[OT]Brett Favre

[Old Fezziwig]

Paul Zimmerman is one of my favorite sports writers period. This is what he had to say about the Sapp hit. I totally agree with this. It's legal, yes, but completely uncalled for in the context of that play.

Originally posted at http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/dr_z/news/2002/11/27/drz_insider/
We used to call it, "crippling the dummy." You unload on someone who's not expecting it. Usually the action is legal, in a narrow sense, but away from the play. It's a sneak attack. Some people I played with simply wouldn't do it. Others specialized in it. One teammate in particular used to brag about it, how he'd cruise around the fringes of the action, looking for a dummy to cripple. I never much liked him. Sound like someone familiar?

They're still assessing the damage Chad Clifton suffered from the blow delivered by Warren Sapp, but it's bad, we know that. At first they called it a dislocated hip, which is an awful injury that usually affects a person, in some form or other, for the rest of his or her life. Now they're mentioning torn ligaments and a massive collection of blood in the pelvic area along with damage to the back. Clifton was in such severe pain that he couldn't fly back to Green Bay with the team. They had to keep him in the hospital for what I read was a minimum of three to five days. Such was the force of the blow.

I watched it on tape just to see how far away from Brian Kelly's interception Clifton was and how hard he was actually pursuing. I saw it once. I couldn't watch it again. The ferocity of the thing was incredible. Sapp, coming on a dead run, actually left both feet. Kelly was about 25 yards across the field and traveling fast. Clifton was moving in a slow jog, hardly what you'd call pursuit. Offensive players are told to always have the searchlights going after a turnover, never to relax, but the action was pretty far away. He never saw Sapp coming.

In the office where they set up fines for players having their shirts out or having their socks too high, the NFL studied Sapp's hit and declared it legal. Didn't cut him, didn't hit him from the back, etc. Intent, of course, is never studied. Sapp wasn't, as he later claimed, trying to protect his teammate, trying to hustle to cut off pursuit. If he were, he'd have run nearer to the action and tried to block someone who actually was chasing the play, although it would most likely have been gone by then. Sapp was just getting a free one on a guy who wasn't expecting it. He was crippling the dummy. It was a mean, nasty hit that might have ended a person's career and given him a lifelong souvenir of pain.

I always knew Sapp was a phony, but I underestimated his vicious streak. I caught a sideline shot of him and Brett Favre at the tail end of Dexter Jackson's long interception in the fourth quarter. It was that same old buddy-buddy crap that we've seen to the point of nausea. Hey, Warren, Favre was in pursuit. Why didn't you throw a block? What a joke. Throw a block? Run the risk of damaging your meal ticket? He's milked that Favre stuff for as long as we can remember ... friendly rivals and all that. Commercially, it's a valuable part of the Sapp shtick. The networks love it.

Sapp is a clever person. He's funny, a terrific quote machine, although he can be nasty to people who get on his bad side. He's also an outstanding football player. As a human being, though ... well, you can have him for Christmas and 10 points.

If the Packers and Bucs met twice a year, as they used to, then everyone would be drumming up a retribution angle for the rematch. The storyline still might exist, if the teams meet in the playoffs. The problem is that retribution doesn't exist any more. Players make too much money nowadays -- friend and foe alike, it's as if they're one big fraternity -- plus there's always the fear of the league handing out hefty fines, even suspensions, if it sniffed any kind of get-even action. Bad things often happen on the field. Nobody tries to square things, the way they used to.

In the old days before the face masks it was easy to pay someone back. After that it was tougher but not impossible.

"First you get his helmet off, then you take your shot," Lyle Alzado once told me. "There's a trick to it. If you know how to do it, it's like snapping the lid of a coke can. But you have to get the helmet off first."

So, do you think any of Clifton's buddies will be going after Sapp? I doubt it. After all it was a legal hit. I know it because the league said so.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Your serious? You completely ignore the statements made by the coach that caused the situation and only make statements based on what the player said.

Sapp said on television that he was like a heat-seeking missile, boom, boom, boom. He said that he wanted to beat the bejesus out of a man twice his age, half his weight, and nowhere near his physcial strength and ability.

How very mature of the Tampa Bay player. Personally, I think he should be fined and suspended from a few games for basically saying that he wants to assault a man (after having basically already assaulted one).

Pathetic.

 

[herald]

Sapp said on television that he was like a heat-seeking missile, boom, boom, boom. He said that he wanted to beat the bejesus out of a man twice his age, half his weight, and nowhere near his physcial strength and ability.

A man twice Sapp's age should have the wisdom, and knowledge not to cross the field and tell Sapp to f-off when Sapp extended his hand in good sportsmanship to him.

And I have to ask, has no one else been treated badly and wanted to do to take it out on someone with blows. I know I have, lucky for me that common sense had kept me from doing it.

In Florida assault charges wouldn't hold up. Sapp told him that if he was so big, why didn't he put on a jersey.

He stated later what he wanted to do to him because he was explaining to the reported what he wanted to do after the coach had insulted him on national TV. He obviously thought better of it because he didn't. And don't think for a moment that Sherman's security could have done anything about it.

Assault (as far as Florida goes) is when you make a clear threat to another persons safety. "Put on a jersey" doesn't cut it.

But assault charges are pointless when you are discussing sports. No one arrests Football player, Baseball Players, Hockey Player or any other team sport as far as I know for minor flareups like this.

Sport radio in this area has been putting on other team's player's comments on the radio, as far as they are concerned, it's all in a day's work.

 

[Leopold]

A man twice Sapp's age should have the wisdom, and knowledge not to cross the field and tell Sapp to f-off when Sapp extended his hand in good sportsmanship to him.

And I have to ask, has no one else been treated badly and wanted to do to take it out on someone with blows. I know I have, lucky for me that common sense had kept me from doing it.
.

which is what warren "thuglife" sapp lacks utterly. I agree fully with the statements that all the packers coaching staff have said. Warren sapp deserves everything coming to him from every angle and from every player in the game who saw what a rotten arrogant POS he is.

Sapp=sportsmanlike? HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! That's like callng mike tyson a saint! Obviously you don't follow his many rants, antics, and off field displays of arrogance and stupidity. Come to tampa and talk listen to him talk to the fans, the people, and others in the game. Your seeing the man play, I see the man live. Trust me, he's a horrible human being and the sooner football is rid of him the better off the game is..

His time has come and this lil pissant rivalry with him and favre is over. Time to get on to some good ole fashioned grudgematch footaball. Packers and bears play now, that's sure to be an upstanding game...

 

[Leopold]

Your serious? You completely ignore the statements made by the coach that caused the situation and only make statements based on what the player said.

all legal in the context of the game..blocking is allowed..read the rules..assaulting a player/coach/offical is NOT legal nor sportsmanlike..

 

[JacktheRabbit]

I am sure direct profanity between people from two teams like that (Especially on national TV) is not allowed.

all legal in the context of the game..blocking is allowed..read the rules..assaulting a player/coach/offical is NOT legal nor sportsmanlike..

 

[herald]

Sapp=sportsmanlike? HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! That's like callng mike tyson a saint! Obviously you don't follow his many rants, antics, and off field displays of arrogance and stupidity. Come to tampa and talk listen to him talk to the fans, the people, and others in the game. Your seeing the man play, I see the man live. Trust me, he's a horrible human being and the sooner football is rid of him the better off the game is..

Leopold,
I have lived in Tampa Bay all my life. I know Sapp's faults, and I also know what he has done in Tampa to make life easier for some people. I also know about the charity work. Don't even try and make it out like Tampa Bay hates him, it's not true. So just stop the personal attacks and stop the lies.

When some one walks up to you and holds out thier hand an says good game, it's a sign of good sportsmanship. I saw what he did on tape, when Sherman walked across the field, and called on Sapp, Sapp extended his hand and said "Good game."

Sherman brushed his had away and told him to f-off.

I'm going to dismiss what you say about assault because Sherman made the first comment. So no court in the land would convict him. ESPECAILLY in Hillsboro county. The judges would laugh you out of court.

 

[Shiv]

Regarding the rules and profanity exchanged between people on the field or on the sidelines at an NFL game. Take a look at the lips on close-ups of people getting into it after a little push-and-shove. Those aren't "gol-darn-its" and "jeepers" being exchanged.

DocMoriarty. No, I am not ignoring Sherman's comments. I was making a point. Any wrongdoing you point out on Sherman's side, you can point out on Sapp's. Both acted inappropriately. Both were in the wrong, each in his own way.

Reguarding assault. Sapp most assuredly threatened Sherman. The taunting of "put a jersey on" was easily a thinly-veiled calling out. He was trying to provoke Sherman. If Sherman had made any move toward him, aggressive or not, Sapp would've pounced. Don't kid yourself. Either that, or it was a lot of blustery, bull-.... talk. Beat your chest and make yourself feel right. Either way, a very classless and ignorant thing to do.

I don't fully approve of what Sherman did. Although, I do understand why he did it. I don't at all understand what possessed Sapp to blindside a man for no particular reason other than that the rules said he could. Or why he celebrated while a man lay motionless on the field. Or why he felt he needed to continue to talk it up regarding Sherman after the fact.

Sherman screwed up. His actions were ill-conceived and ill-timed. But his actions didn't land anyone in the hospital. Sapp is a loudmouth thug. And if anyone comes gunning for him down the road, I've only one thing to say.

He brought it on himself.

(edit)

Oh, and as for Sapp's good sportsmanship? Please. The man is a blowhard. Offering your hand to the coach of the man you just laid out and sent to the hospital? Sounds like a bit of a smirking "f-you" to me. Especially from Sapp, who has shown time and time again that he loves to talk trash and shove things in other people's faces.

Case in point: the aforementioned sideline celebration while Clifton lay unmoving.

 

[Welverin]

Hey how about we complain about someone who deserves bad mouthing: Randy Moss. God, I hate him. What an embarrassment to football and sports in general.