This is one man’s take on the best catches of 2009.

2009 BEST CATCHES

Every year when the NCAA tourney comes around America talks about how great it would be to have the equivalent for college football and they couldn’t be more right. I would love to see 4 weeks of the best teams playing each other for the right to play in the title game. It would end all speculation about the National Champion and create greater legacies among players and coaches.

As it sits now we have to recant stories of bowl games of which there are too many to even count. We don’t have final 4 mvp’s or coaches who take their at large bid and ride it a couple games in to create a true media sweetheat of a team. We miss on the Butlers or this year and the NC State’s of JIMMY V when i was growing up. We are left with more what if questions than anything else that leaves the biggest fans feeling unsatisfied.

I’m in BYU land and nothing would make me happier than to relive 1984 when BYU won their mythical National Title by beating a 6-5 Michigan team for the championship. It would make me happy to stick BYU in a tourney and see if they could’ve beaten the Oklahoma’s and Nebraska’s that they never played. It would either shut up the fans here about it or shut me up about it but at least it would be indisputable. I can cry about Duke’s run to the final 4 being in the easiest bracket I’ve ever seen but they still have to win the games and if they win I can’t argue history playing in a 65 team tourney. Football needs the same thing. Please.

Brady Quinn moved from one quarterback controversy to the next when he went from Cleveland to Denver a couple weeks ago. Instead of competing with Derek Anderson he’ll now be competing with Kyle Orton for the starting spot in Denver and it looks like he’ll start the season or preseason rather as the backup.

Is Quinn ever going to truly get a chance to run a team? Several analysts thought of Quinn like they thought of Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers was picked to go high in the draft but started to slip and fell all the way to later portion of the 1st round. So did Quinn. Rodgers played a few seasons on the bench backing up Brett Favre before the Packers decided to give Rodgers his chance and he’s done incredibly well with his opportunity. Quinn got some chances with Cleveland and never really took the job like he should have regardless of the horrible team he was on so is Denver the answer? I’m interested to see what happens and how many more chances the guy is going to get to prove he’s an NFL caliber quarterback.

When the Bengals went through their legal issues a few years back we all wondered what was going on there. You had a team of pro athletes getting arrested or in trouble seemingly every day and it stamped that franchise much like it did the NBA’s Portland ‘JAIL’Blazers a few years back when they had players that got them in trouble. Portland has been fixed and so has the Bengals but the Oregon Ducks of college football are just getting started.

Oregon has the advantage of being in the hometown of NIKE and has some of the nicest facilities in the country. They feature some of the best fans and have an excellent football team. Each year they are in the talks for the national title but somehow choke just when people expect them to reach the USC level. Look at last year…they lost early to Boise St and then went on a run including a pummeling of USC in Eugene and everyone thought that the table had finally turned. Then Stanford lit up Oregon and they went back to reality. There is always next season in Eugene but this year it has a different meaning.

This would’ve been the year but now it has more questions than answers as several players have been in trouble with the law. Starting QB Masoli has been suspended for the season for stealing. Star running back James was arrested for assault and the list goes on. These aren’t just two average players, but players who represent the school and are great players. The void at QB is huge because Masoli is a good player and excellent ball handler in the spread. James is only suspended one game but these things don’t tend to go away as they can have a lasting effect on the team.

I’ll only say that Oregon better right the ship and these players better stay out of the limelight, strip clubs and away from Ben Roethlisberger.

Tim Tebow is not going to be a first round selection for the NFL draft and might not even be taken in the first 100-150 picks yet when his wonderlic test score comes out it gets all the press. Why do we care so much about Tebow?

I know I’ve written on this topic a bit before but it has to be even worse for the qb’s that actually are relevant in this draft. Jimmy Clausen only got a point higher than Tebow on the test scoring a 23. The highest current qb playing is Ryan Fitzpatrick how got a 48 and Alex Smith who got a 40. Hall of Famers Terry Bradshaw and Dan Marino both scored 15 so the test can’t mean that much really unless you are Tim Tebow.

Tebow is the college version of Brett Favre in that when he sneezes someone wants to write about it and it’s driving me crazy. Let’s be more concerned about Sam Bradford, Colt McCoy and Jimmy Clausen because those guys have a chance to play in the league while Tebow is a marginal qb prospect at this point at best.

I know Derek Anderson has to do the politically correct thing for his career here but at the same time we at least got to hear his true feelings. If you missed it, Anderson said that Cleveland fans didn’t deserve a winner and that the fans there are ruthless. He commented that he will never forget when he was cheered when he was injured. Can you blame the guy?

Don’t apologize Anderson because you don’t have to. You got your money and your big contract because of your time in Cleveland. You got your signing bonus and your pro bowl season in Cleveland. Because of Cleveland you will cling to a career that was made because of Cleveland but don’t apologize while leaving. In fact, apologize for the horrible play of the team and for being embarrassingly bad for the past 2 seasons. Don’t get mad for being booed as one of the worst qb’s in the league. Walk away having said what you said and move on, but don’t tell me you are sorry for the comments. Cleveland fans couldn’t care less if they are called ruthless and they shouldn’t. Fans pay hard earned money for the right to boo or cheer and it comes with the territory and Derek Anderson got paid very well for it, in fact too well. If we all performed as poorly as he did doing his job then we would all expect to be fired and take accountability for it, not whine and blame on the way out.

Ben Roethlisberger has some issues. I know that players and people get falsely accused all the time BELIEVE ME, i know that to be true. I’m not going to comment on any supposed facts of any of the cases pending against BIG BEN but I am going to say some things that all of us are thinking.

STAY AWAY FROM STRIP CLUBS: What good happens at these places when it comes to athletes? If I’m accused by someone and then put myself in the same spot a short while later then I’m just showing that I’m flat out dumb. Ben is one of the highest paid players in the league and is a 2 time super bowl winner but that doesn’t mean he can do whatever he wants and I still think he thinks it. When Michael Vick went to prison it really set him back. He was the face of the Falcons and one of the most talented athletes in sports. He got his wake up call and we haven’t really heard of any issues with Mike since then and I honestly don’t think we will. But with Ben, he got his wake up call last year when he was hit with this alleged assault and it wasn’t enough to shake him. He still put himself in the position again and I’m not saying he is guilty at all, but he shouldn’t have been there.

What happens in these cases can either really help or hurt the individual. Ben gets away with this and learns he’s untouchable and then something bad happens again or he realizes that he makes 25 million a season to play football and that it could be over tomorrow with one dumb mistake and changes his life. Don’t go the clubs guys because nothing good happens there. Sure you get some pleasure in something while your there but most football related issues start with strip clubs and it’s time something got fixed.

Oh the free agency market is open and some strange stuff has already happened. The Jets have traded for Antonio Cromartie and his 7 kids. The Lions have signed Kyle Vandenbosch and Nate Burleson in their attempt to make Detroit a winner. Gary Brackett resigned with INDY and the Bears are going after Julius Peppers.

The Bears, as you’ll recall, traded for Jay Cutler and in doing so gave up their 1st round selection in the coming draft. They chose to spend the money on a veteran instead of a rookie and I kind of see the point. Why would they want to spend a ton of guaranteed money on a kid when they can spend it on a vet? Sure other successful teams build through the draft but the Bears don’t have that luxury this season so free agency is the way they will have to go.

I would love the Bears to get Peppers because the league needs the Bears to be relevant again and he helps them a ton. This would give the Bears a feared defensive line with Tommy Harris, Alex Brown and Peppers. Follow that up with a healthy Urlacher and Lance Briggs and you have the makings of a solid defense in a conference that is getting better.

I can also see the Bears trading Greg Olsen for possible draft picks since the Bears just signed a tight end to a 5 year deal and the offensive coordinator doesn’t throw to his tight end much. We’ll see, but free agency got off to a better start than i expected.

Why does watching the draft combine turn into another episode in the life of Tim Tebow? I’m sorry, but focus on the CJ Spiller and the other guys who should be the real stories. Is Toby Gerhart fast or just a bruising back? That was answered when he ran in the 4.5’s apparently but did well in everything else. How fast is Golden Tate? He ran a 4.2 and answered a lot of critics. Is Rejus’ Benn going to be taken in the 1st round? He caught everything, ran in the 4.4’s and jumped 37 inches. Yes, he’ll be taken in the 1st round. Instead we got to see everythign Tebow sneezed at and I don’t care.

So much focus is on this guy and he’s going to struggle to be a top 100 draft pick. Some team may stretch and take him and that’s great but why is so much pro attention focused on the kid?

I know that kids train for the combine and it will get some kids drafted higher than they would normally. I know that the workout warrior does really well in this setting and you can’t blame those kids for trying to maximize their chances of getting taken. I can seriously question how any pro executive will look at the combine without looking at other factors like if the kid can play the game or not. Years ago Arkansas had a qb named Matt Jones who could run. He trained like crazy for the combine and ran faster than most expected and it wowed scouts. Jones went from an average college qb to a first round wide receiver while never having had played the position. Jones is out of football today and it is choices like that that cripple franchises. Look at Oakland.