I read a quote the other day from an NFL analyst that was interesting, and telling, to say the least.
He said, “Philip Rivers is the best quarterback who has never won anything.”
Hmmm.
The best quarterback who has never won anything?
That’s like saying about a politician, “He’s the best candidate who has never won an election.”
Or, “She’s the prettiest contestant who has never won a beauty contest.”
Or, “He’s the best TV news anchor whose newscast has never won in the ratings in its time slot.”
It’s all about winning. There are no awards given for finishing second, third and fourth.
A quarterback’s job is not necessarily to throw for 350 yards and four touchdowns. Rather, it is to win games. Nothing else matters. Ask any winning quarterback if he would trade his victories for individual accomplishments, and he will respond with a resounding, “No!”
So saying that Rivers, whose San Diego Chargers lost to the Browns on Christmas Eve to give Cleveland its lone victory of the season, is “the best quarterback who has never won anything,” doesn’t make any sense. It is a hollow honor.
We say all this in regards to the fact that Browns head coach Hue Jackson addressed that topic specifically in the team’s season-ending press conference on Monday.
What he said is part of the best quote of the entire press conference. If you don’t remember anything else from the presser, remember that.
A media member phrased his question to Jackson referencing a comment by the coach stating it is his job to find the team’s franchise quarterback.
Jackson replied, “Absolutely, I am going to do it. We are 1-15 so we are on our way, and we have work to do. I said it and I will not back down from that. We are going to find a quarterback that is going to come here and play winning, championship football, but I think it is too early to talk about, ‘Do you have him yet?’ ‘Do you not have him yet?’
“Here comes the draft. Here come other opportunities to add more players to our team. My job and our job is to make sure we have them here. I know you guys keep asking, ‘Do you have him (the quarterback) here yet?’ Obviously, we are 1-15. Everything would (indicate that) maybe we don’t, but I think you also have to put it all into the pot. There are a lot of things that go into that – having the right offensive line, having the right everything in order to support that quarterback to be the best he can be. It is still a work in progress.
“I want to truly evaluate the players that we have here. I want to work through the draft with these men (front-office people such as Executive Vice President of Football Operations Sashi Brown) and work through free agency and see if there is something better, and if there is the right quarterback somewhere else who we can put on our football team to help us be where we want to be. I just think it is still a work in progress right now.”
Jackson said he is “going to find a quarterback that is going to come here and play winning, championship football.”
Nowhere in there did he say he was going to find a quarterback who is going to come here and throw for 350 yards and four touchdowns.
He doesn’t need to find a quarterback who is like Philip Rivers. That will get him fired, just as Rivers’ head coach the last four seasons, Mike McCoy, was fired the other day. Instead, Jackson wants a quarterback who win will games and championships, because that is what he was hired to do a year ago. And if he doesn’t do that, then Jackson will be fired. There are no awards for being the coach of a quarterback with nice personal stats.
Incidentally, Rivers finished fifth in the NFL in passing yards this season. Tom Brady was 20th. Enough said.
