Friday, June 15, 2007

Mr. Obvious says: Duh

Cnnsi.com's Bucky Brooks wrote a mind blowing article predicting the continued decline of several NFL veterans. Ok now let's state the obvious: the declining performance of veteran athletes is not usually reversible (at least with out the help of performance enhancers). This is especially true for NFL players whose bodies have taken such a beating that their productivity can take a sharp downturn, sometimes unexpectedly. This drop in productivity of course depends on age and position. A running back can peak at the age of 25 after carrying the primary load for four years, while a QB can play into his late 30's if talented and relatively healthy. A common thread though, is once a player loses it due to a decline in talent or wear and tear or both, they very rarely get it back. Basically, all Brooks had to do for this article was to take a look at older NFL players that have had declining production over the past few years and then "predict" that their performance will continue to decline. Wow, that is really going out on a limb. To be fair, here are some article ideas that Cnnsi.com editors rejected: "The Sun Will Come Up Tomorrow", "Tuesday Will Be the Day After Monday", "When I Eat My 4th Meal at Taco Bell, I Will Poo the Next Morning", etc, etc, etc. A better idea for Brooks would have been to predict which productive players are about to hit the downside of their careers, but I guess that would take extensive research and analysis, which apparently isn't something Brooks wants to do.

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