Jeff Hart: Friday Linkfest for May 4, 2012

By: Jeff Hart | Posted: May 04, 2012

There’s been no shortage of articles written about the passing of Junior Seau this week, but here are two that I’d consider indispensible. The first is from SB Nation’s Andrew Sharp who examines Seau’s death through the lens of football as a religion. The second, from The Classical’s David Roth, grapples with the responsibility we as football fans have to the game’s players (and each other). It’s a must-read for anyone who loves football but is also deeply troubled by the continuing impact of head injuries (that should be everyone).  

In the interest of lightening things up a bit, here’s a fun interview with Wes Welker wherein the WR confirms the story of Larry Izzo getting a gameball for secretively pooping on the sideline. Shouldn’t that put to bed any discussion of The Hoodie not having a sense of humor?

Busy week for Eli Manning! The QB is hosting SNL this weekend and he doesn’t seem totally stiff and awkward during the promos (huge compliment). Manning also came out in favor of the Saints players’ bounty suspensions, a viewpoint that seems to be against the grain in the anti-Goodell warrior culture of the NFL. Eli can probably look forward to some hard hits next season which is a good thing for fans of Manning-face.

Jumping back to the draft (seems like old news, right?), the Seahawks pick of Bruce Irvin in the first round was widely regard as a Grade F reach by various shocked draft-prognosticators. However, Football Outsiders have had a chance to look at some more Irvin game tape and suggest maybe the pick wasn’t as huge a reach as everyone thought.

The Ravens sure could use a guy with Irvin’s skill set now that Terrell Suggs could be down for the year. The Big Lead tries to measure the impact of Suggs’ injury – it doesn’t look good for anyone, player or team.

This last one doesn’t have anything to do with football directly, but it’s the best piece of sports/media journalism I’ve read in awhile. Please enjoy the story of a 22 year-old con artist that scammed her way into a writing gig at ESPN. 

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