notahomer wrote:Loved the Bill Walsh quote "Champions behave like champions before they are champions"
Exactly. Along the same lines as "try to behave as though you've done this before." Far too uncommon in pro sports these days....
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An interesting analysis of NFL running-back longevity:
They peak at 27, and are already on the downhill side of the curve at 28. The graph in this article is interesting in that it shows a different trend for wide receivers. All makes sense, I guess, in that the workhorse RBs get pounded 18-20 times a game, far more frequently than WRs.
http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/ ... ter-age-27
And here's another article on the same topic and arriving at about the same conclusion:
http://www.footballperspective.com/a-cl ... -patterns/
Marshawn Lynch (AKA Beast Mode) is now 28. There's talk of a reduced workload, and the Seahawks have a couple of excellent RBs to take up the slack in Robert Turbin and Christine Michael. The latter (a second-round draft pick out of Texas A & M) looks really intriguing, and is likely the next man up when Lynch begins his inevitable decline.
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Picking up on sj-roc's observation in another thread in the CFL part of the forum (noting that O-linemen score the highest), I found this article (actually slide show) detailing NFL players' Wonderlic scores by position. Just in case you're not aware of the Wonderlic, let me give a very brief description. The full name of the test is the
Wonderlic Personnel Test. It has been around for 70+ years in one form or another and is easily the most widely-used measure of general intelligence--or general cognitive ability--used in industry. Millions of job applicants have taken one form or another of the test. Personnel psychologists consider the Wonderlic a relatively-good test of what they refer to as "crystallized intelligence." This is the kind of general intelligence that is developed through acculturating influences like education. It comes close to indexing an individual's general working intelligence. The NFL has administered the Wonderlic for about 30 years now at its yearly combine.
Just to give you some idea of what the various Wonderlic score levels mean, let me add the following. The test has 50 items and is taken in speeded conditions with a time-limit of 12 minutes. The general-population (US) average on the Wonderlic is about 22. The average of 4-year college and university graduates is about 30. PhD and MD graduates would average something like 38+. Some of the reported NFL-player Wonderlic scores over the years have been interesting to say the least, even hilarious. Vince Young's score of 6 was the lowest that I'd heard of until I found the second of the links below, giving the 10 worst Wonderlic scores in NFL history (although the report was written in 2011, so there may be some newer entrants to this bottom-10% group) . Interestingly, two of the 10 played in the CFL (Michael Bishop and Chris Leak). Generally speaking, a score of 6 on this test would put the examinee in about the bottom 2-3% of the general population in terms of what the test measures. To clinical and school psychologists, this stratum is close to what is associated with the term "mentally-challenged," a kinder and gentler term for the older "retarded." Whether or not there were extenuating circumstances surrounding Vince Young's test administration, I don't know (there could be, so I wouldn't draw any hard conclusions about him from the score), but a Wonderlic of 6 is almost unheard-of (well, more precisely, it will be encountered about one time in 50 members of the general population).
Who'd guess that O tackles, as a group, score the highest? Followed by centers. Quarterbacks are only the 3rd most-intelligent group (particularly surprising to me was Dan Marino's score of 16)! Here's the whole story in slide-show format:
Wonderlic scores by position int he NFL: https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/photos/aver ... slideshow/
10 Worst Wonderlic Scores in NFL Combine History: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/6098 ... ry/page/11
And, as an afterthought, just to balance things out, here are
top-scoring active QBs (along with the population averages for folks in 8 ordinary jobs):
http://www.bestmastersdegrees.com/smartest-players/
). I'm a big Seahawks fan too. It USED to be Seahawks with my heart, Raiders with my brain. IOW, the Seahawks SUCKED (now its the Raiders). 
I'm not going to bother. I cheer the Seahawks on and hope they win many more Superbowls but lining up for autographs etc... No thanks, I'll do that with my favourite football team but one team is enough, IMO......