* Dusty Baker is still the overwhelming favorite to win the award for the decade of the 2000's -- and perhaps the entire millennium -- with his now-legendary 2006 anti-walks diatribe:
"On-base percentage is great if you can score runs and do something with that on-base percentage. Clogging up the bases isn't that great to me."
It's like the Citizen Kane of idiotic quotes.
After an alleged shoulder injury caused Jags' defensive tackle John Henderson to exit one practice and miss a second... oops, I'm sorry. It wasn't a practice. It was an OTA (Organized Team Activity). There are no practices because this is football and it's early-freakin'-June. But in the eyes of Del Rio, Henderson is apparently a complete embarrassment for his unwillingness to play... I mean, practice... I mean, participate in an OTA through the pain. Quoth Del Rio:
Miss a snap? That sounds like game action. But this was actually a snap in an OTA occurring more than THREE MONTHS before the Jag's opener. Back when Del Rio played, and even prior to that, these OTAs didn't even exist, which is probably why nobody would have missed a snap over a purportedly dislocated shoulder."John has got a shoulder that's, back when I played and even prior to that, I don't think anybody would have had to miss a snap for it. I think it's a minor bruise of sorts. I would think Vince Lombardi is probably rolling over right now. It's not something that should keep anybody out of work. But John feels like he can't go so we'll let him wait until he can. ... Yeah, it's disappointing to see him pull himself out, quite frankly. What he does, that's up to him but we have a team out here that's working hard, that's committed and I'm not going to slow down and worry about somebody that's trying to get out of a drill."
If Vince Lombardi is rolling over right now, it's over the fact that ingrate coaches like Del Rio don't appreciate the unfettered year-round access they have to their players. I'm guessing that an overwhelming majority of Lombardi's players -- especially the linemen -- didn't work out even once during the off-season, as players believed that the purpose of training camp was to get in shape. You remember training camp, right Jack? It'll start in another month. Lombardi probably got down on his hands and knees and thanked God for every lineman he had that didn't gain more than 25 pounds during the off-season.
So does Henderson have a reputation for malingering? I'd have to say no. By all accounts, he's got a great motor, and is very popular with his teammates. If he fakes injuries, he doesn't do it to forgo playing in games -- he's missed just three in his seven-year career. For comparison's sake, the great Jack Del Rio missed a total of five games over his first seven seasons. But I'm sure he participated in every single snap of every single practice. Because that's how things were, back when he played.
The situation with Henderson comes on the heels of Del Rio's banishment of team captain Mike Peterson last season. Del Rio seems to constantly try to exert his authority, and I have a feeling with each passing incident, he loses the locker room a bit more. Even if Del Rio believes Henderson is faking it, does missing some off-season drills warrant a public humiliation? Remember, Henderson did not miss a single play of a single game because of this "injury," just some meaningless OTAs. Rather than handle the issue internally, within the confines of the team, Del Rio chose to go public, and in the process made himself look petty and foolish.
Henderson is, after all, an extremely large (6-foot-7, 335-pound) 30-year-old man, and instead of calling him out as a laggard, the Jags should be taking measures to avoid excessive wear-and-tear on his body. I believe Del Rio should heed the words of a man whose words I never dreamed I'd advise someone to heed: Bears GM Jerry Angelo. Speaking about his own defensive tackle Tommie Harris, the sage Angelo said:
"We don't want to waste any mileage that players have in the off-season. The wear and tear comes during the season, not the off-season."Amen, Jerry. A-fucking-men.
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