@DCGoldPants Posted August 15, 2002 Share Posted August 15, 2002 August 15, 2002 Beasts of the East by Tom Friend ESPN The Magazine Yes, you can come home again -- the NFC East. After a decade of being crucified, it's payback time. Last year's Dallas-Washington 0-5 Bowl (on Monday night, no less) was the low moment, but the NFC East -- the division that gave us Parcells, Gibbs, Landry and Vermeil -- is about to re-emerge. From top to bottom, only the AFC East is comparable, and that's only if Drew Bledsoe can take a hit. The fact is, no division had a better off-season than the NFC East. Washington got Steve Spurrier, Jeremiah Trotter and Jessie Armstead; Dallas got Kevin Hardy, La'Roi Glover and HBO; the Giants got Jeremy Shockey and salary cap space; Philadelphia got Super Bowl fever; and Arizona got the hell out, once and for all. When the dust settles, there could be three playoff teams in there (in order of finish: Philly, Dallas and Washington), and there's a simple reason for all of this: Have you seen everybody else? The NFC North is a mess. The Lions look to be in the LeBron James sweepstakes (you catch my drift), and the Bears are playing 16 road games, and the Packers need a healthy Terry Glenn, and the Vikings think Randy Moss can replace Cris Carter as a team leader. Good luck. The NFC South is horrible. If Tampa Bay doesn't win this division by four games, they ought to forfeit their playoff spot. The Saints fans will be wearing paper bags by November, the Falcons are two years away, and the Panthers are 10. No chance. The NFC West is unsettled. The Rams are going to get Kurt Warner killed one of these days, the 49ers may have chemistry problems, the Seahawks have already lost their quarterback, and Cardinals players are fleeing to join the army. Mediocre. The AFC North is too young. The Browns and Bengals are on the verge, but only on paper. Pittsburgh will win 10 games by default, and Baltimore will win five by accident. Check back in '04. The AFC South is iffy. I like their quarterbacks (Manning, McNair, Brunell and Carr), but I don't like their O-linemen. I bet not all four guys will finish the season. Check back in December. The AFC West is panicking. The Raiders have a window of about five months to get this done -- because Gannon, Rice and Brown will keel over soon. The Broncos have too many injuries, the Chargers have only two players who were No. 1 picks (and one's unsigned), and the Chiefs are running an artificial turf offense on natural grass. They don't have a snowball's chance (and the Raiders hate snow). The AFC East is worthy. Ricky Williams will put the Dolphins over the top or over the ledge -- one or the other. The Jets need a quarterback, Bledsoe's Bills need a defense, and the world champion Patriots need last year's luck. It ain't bad. McNabb might finally find himself playing in late January. But, all in all, I still like the NFC East, the division that made Madden and Summerall famous. Not that the teams don't have flaws. The Eagles have this year's league MVP -- their quarterback -- and that'll make up for their ordinary receivers. The Cowboys are getting a lot of hype, but they'll be relying on the old legs of Emmitt Smith, and a novice quarterback, Quincy Carter. HBO's Hard Knocks has confirmed what we always thought -- that coach Dave Campo has no charisma -- but their defense will still carry them a ways. The Redskins may not have big arms at quarterback, but their coaching staff (Spurrier on offense, Marvin Lewis on defense) is the best in the league. And they'll field the best nine players on any defense in the league (Bailey, Smoot, Armstead, Trotter, Arrington, Smith, Wynn, Gardener, Wilkinson). The Giants bring up the rear, although Jim Fassel coaches better as an underdog. Face it, this is the division that won Super Bowls in '71, '77, '82, '86, '87, '90, '91, '92, '93 and '95. No other division has more titles (the AFC West is in second place with six), and no other division is more of a spectacle. It's the division that's given you the league's greatest rivalry (Cowboys-Redskins), the league's most knuckleheaded fumble (New York's Joe Pisarcik against the Eagles); the league's most ornery hit (Philly's Chuck Bednarik on New York's Frank Gifford) and the league's most brutal run-up-of-the-score (a Charlie Gogolak field goal with 7 seconds left makes it Redskins 72, Giants 41 in 1966). Give Spurrier a few games on that last one. Tom Friend is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at tom.friend@espnmag.com. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wildbill Posted August 15, 2002 Share Posted August 15, 2002 yeah baby, yeah. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Novato Posted August 15, 2002 Share Posted August 15, 2002 A Huevo...... The NFC is like the Fenix, raising from the ashes.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kizer Jose Posted August 15, 2002 Share Posted August 15, 2002 Hell yeah! Wait... Dallas ahead of the Skins? In what, pants-crapping? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Potato Sack Posted August 15, 2002 Share Posted August 15, 2002 and Arizona got the hell out, once and for all. And good riddance! WUSSIES! PAYBACK TIME EVERYONE! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thito_da_skins_fan Posted August 15, 2002 Share Posted August 15, 2002 great article... Tom Friend has to be the best writer for ESPN, period... plus, he's been a Skins fan since childhood... i don't know why he put Dallas AHEAD of Washington, but i'm sure he had to look "neutral" in some ways... that last 2 paragraphs were sweet, but the last line was classic... i also was amused by his Arizona comment... :laugh: nice article... :thumbsup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@DCGoldPants Posted August 15, 2002 Author Share Posted August 15, 2002 Phoenix? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
codeorama Posted August 15, 2002 Share Posted August 15, 2002 Originally posted by Kizer Jose Hell yeah! Wait... Dallas ahead of the Skins? In what, pants-crapping? TURD ALERT! TURD ALERT!! I have no idea where all this Dallas talk comes from. Seriously, can someone fill me in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art Posted August 15, 2002 Share Posted August 15, 2002 Dallas does have a big advantage over us. Largely they've had very little roster turnover. That they are changing the offensive system completely and turning up the defensive side to create more plays might limit some of the being together part of things, but it can't be ignored that Dallas has been together and grown together. We are learning to play together and if we take too long to do this, all of the great advantages we have in talent terms will go to waste for at least a year. I don't think Dallas is going to make a big run at things, but, that is something that they have over us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy-the-Greek Posted August 15, 2002 Share Posted August 15, 2002 This guy must have read my 6-0 post from a few days ago.......:laugh: :laugh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BCS:BraveCaringSoul Posted August 15, 2002 Share Posted August 15, 2002 Wow!!! Great articcle. My favorite part was: The Redskins may not have big arms at quarterback, but their coaching staff (Spurrier on offense, Marvin Lewis on defense) is the best in the league. And they'll field the best nine players on any defense in the league (Bailey, Smoot, Armstead, Trotter, Arrington, Smith, Wynn, Gardener, Wilkinson). The Giants bring up the rear, although Jim Fassel coaches better as an underdog. Excluding the indirect dissing of soon to be league MVP, Steely Dan Wuerfel, truer words were never spoken. Thgis is gonna be a great year!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NavyDave Posted August 15, 2002 Share Posted August 15, 2002 I was gonna predict the NFC Beast of the East for 2k3 but hey you never know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@DCGoldPants Posted August 15, 2002 Author Share Posted August 15, 2002 This Division used to be SOOOO tough. Imagine if it becomes that again. DAMN! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bulldog Posted August 15, 2002 Share Posted August 15, 2002 the depth hasn't been there top to bottom recently, but let's remember the Giants were the NFC rep in the SB in 2000 and the Eagles were in the Championship Game in 2001. so it is not like the East has had all of its teams out on the first playoff weekend and what about the Central? The Bucs and Vikings were supposed to be so awesome yet except for that 41-0 blow in 2000 by Minnesota neither one has been in a really big game the last few years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@DCGoldPants Posted August 15, 2002 Author Share Posted August 15, 2002 I thought the Giants tapped the signals that Vikes were using on their headsets to help their team cheat in that game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bulldog Posted August 15, 2002 Share Posted August 15, 2002 hey, watching Amani Toomer run unescorted through the Vikings secondary can't be blamed on telegraphing plays the Vikes had one of the worst defensive backfields in recent history that year and paid for it in the playoffs. remember they were down to using Robert Tate, a converted wide receiver at corner mid-way through the season? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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