Jolt Country

I'm going to try something different, and attempt to begin a discussion that is perhaps different from all the other ones around here, which is me getting over-excited about a team of mine and then sugar-crashing when the good times stop.

I've long wondered if there were more ways to evaluate a defensive player - especially that on the line - than just sacks, forced fumbles and tackles. It's a bit frustrating because the NFL is perfectly happy to let stats go that are easy to make mainstream.

For instance: tackles for loss. How simple is it to keep track of that? They already keep track of tackles. I would love to see that in the box score.

QB Hits: again, fairly easy to keep track of. I think there is value in bringing the QB down, even if he got his pass off.

QB Hurries: this stat is a little less important, BUT STILL.

I understand the reasoning for trading a guy who was the 4th overall pick a few years ago: the Bucs need to rebuild and by the time they are good again, Adams could very well be up for a new contract, and then GEEZ, they've got to pay him (not that they don't have the cap space). But nothing makes a football fan happier than to call another team's high pick a bust. I'm seeing it first-hand with Reggie Bush. By all accounts, before this season he was playing fine. He was scoring touchdowns, he was catching the ball out of the backfield, he was returning punts well - he was fine. Not great, but fine. He's also ridiculously hated, so people screech "bust."

Multiply this by various fanbases doing it to each others' rookies and you have bedlam. Rashard Mendenhall was being talked about as a bust for the Steelers when he's barely had a chance to play. He was dominant two weeks ago and it shouldn't have been that surprising.

Anyway, I don't think Adams was that bad. I do find it amusing that the Bears went out and got this guy so they could let Rod Marinelli, their current defensive line coach (and Lions coach for the 0-16 season), mold him or coach him up or something. That's who I want to show faith in - the WORST HEAD COACH OF ALL-TIME.

I started responding to this last night, then had a computer issue and lost it, so rest assured everything I would have said last night was far more insightful and articulate.

There comes a time in some player-team relationships where you just have to say -- "if this guy is going to improve, he's not going to do it here." For whatever reason (and I'm not going to pretend to know anything about the locker room culture on the Bucs or Bears or anyone else) it often gets to the point where it's just best to cut your losses. Here, I think of Alex Smith and the 49ers -- neither side has made many good decisions, but god, dragging on this farce is painful for anyone to watch. Smith's career has been more or less ruined and yet player and team hang on to each other like a codependent couple.

In Adams-Bucs... there's issues on both sides. Fairly or not, there's questions about Adams' effort. He hasn't been much of a presence this year. Meanwhile, as he's entering what should be his prime, there are few teams more in disarray than the Bucs -- a mixture of guys who are one step from retirement and guys who are still unproven, one of the teams that's farthest from contending. So what should they do -- hang on to him, hope he develops as he could, risk having an increasingly-disgruntled player taking up a big salary spot? Or say "hey, when we get to the point of being good again, he probably wouldn't be here anyway" and get what you can for him?

Of course, this kinda reeks of '80s-Bucs -- developing a player for a few years, then trading him away. But, I think they made the right move.

Look, I am not going to lie to you. Things don't look good for the Bucs.

Josh Freeman is said to be 265 pounds. However, I don't trust any TB news unless I hear it from you.

FURTHERMORE, the Glazers are apparently broke!!? It may be OK that they are selling the team, seeing how they have, what $60 mill left under the cap?

All I can say is, I'm glad he cut that whole act and went back to just being Garth Brooks. Did you SEE that Saturday Night Live episode when he performed as Gaines? Dreadful.

Seeing what a shitshow the Bears are, nah, he was not traded too soon. Chicago will be the worst team in the NFL in 2011, because of all the picks they've given up. BOOK IT!

Chicago Bears defensive end Gaines Adams died Sunday morning of cardiac arrest, the Greenwood, S.C., county coroner said. He was 26.

Greenwood County coroner James T. Coursey told ESPN that Adams, a Greenwood native, was taken to the emergency room at Self Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 9 a.m.

Adams, who had just completed his third season in the NFL, went into cardiac arrest at his family's home early Sunday morning, said Marcia Kelley-Clark, chief deputy coroner for Greenwood County.

The autopsy showed Adams had an enlarged heart, a condition Kelley-Clark said can often lead to a heart attack. But Adams' relatives didn't know about it.

"Nobody was aware of any kind of medical condition," Kelley-Clark said.

Well, we at least have some closure. To this thread.

ANSWER: Gaines Adams was not let go too soon by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Additionally, I was given the news through a text message by gsdgsd, while my brother and I were driving to Olean, NY to visit relatives.

I told my brother and showed him Greg's text. My brother (who posts here as Knuckles the CLown) goes, "huh," flips open his phone and texts the following to his friend Phil, a Bears fan:

"Gaines Adams died. Good trade."