Bradshaw: Peyton Has to Be Honest About His Injury

FOX NFL SUNDAY NOTES – 9/11/11

Bradshaw: If I Had Been Truthful About Injury with Steelers, They Would Have Drafted Marino:

Peyton Has to Be Honest About His Injury

Glazer Reports on Peyton Manning’s Surgery and Recovery Timeline

Strahan: Vick Not Worth Mega Deal with the Eagles

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Co-host Terry Bradshaw on Peyton Manning injury and what it means to the Colts: “He has to be brutally honest with this organization and I think he will be.  This will change their organization forever.  They’ll have to flip it totally upside down. If he can’t play, he’ll have to tell them the truth.  When I hurt my elbow and had to have Tommy John surgery and build the muscles up around it, I thought I could fool everybody and come back.  I knew I could not play.  Had I been truthful with the Steelers, you know what? They would have drafted Dan Marino.  Can you imagine Marino in Pittsburgh right after me?  Pretty amazing.”

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FOX Sports NFL Insider Jay Glazer reported the surgery that Peyton Manning underwent this week and his prognosis for returning this season: “Because Peyton Manning is going to try and play this year, he actually opted for a very rare surgery.  Something that was done in the past, they don’t do much anymore because the recovery is so incredibly painful.  But it’s faster than the conventional procedure. Doctors went in and they cut into a piece of bone in his hip and took that bone and put it up in his neck. Recovery from that is about six to eight weeks.  Most doctors I’ve talked to have said they don’t do that procedure anymore because the recovery is so painful, plus 20 percent of the people who have it deal with hip pain for the rest of their life.  But it is a faster recovery process.  Peyton is clearly trying to get out there this year.  If he had the conventional surgery, the team surgeons I talked to said it’s six months before you do anything.  With the procedure he had, they’d let him throw in about six to eight weeks, but wouldn’t let him take a hit earlier than four months.”

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Analyst Jimmy Johnson on whether the Eagles’ off-season acquisitions make them the team to beat in the NFC: “Let’s not get carried away with nine Pro Bowlers.  A year ago, the Cowboys went into the season with 10 Pro Bowlers.  What did that get them? Well six wins and they fired their head coach.  Now you look at the Philadelphia Eagles – offensive line, three new starters, really shaky plus a very young group of linebackers.  And then on top of that they’ve got an offensive line coach now calling the defense that’s never called a defense in the NFL.  Having said all that, I like their moves and I like Andy Reid.”

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Co-Host Terry Bradshaw on Cam Newton’s chances of success in the NFL: “I’m not a Newton fan.  I didn’t like him in college.  He’s technically as a quarterback, as far as I’m concerned, he’s behind Michael Vick coming out of college.  Just because you need a quarterback doesn’t mean you go out and draft one.  I actually like Jake Locker at Tennessee, Christian Ponder up at Minnesota and Blaine Gabbert down in Jacksonville. These young kids are far ahead of Newton as far as being an NFL quarterback.  He’ll make big plays because he can run and move around.  But I think for an NFL quarterback, I would not have drafted him that high.”

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During FOX NFL SUNDAY new segment DOUBLE COVERAGE, analysts Jimmy Johnson, Michael Strahan and Howie Long weigh-in on whether Michael Vick was worth the mega contract he signed with the Eagles this season:

Johnson:  “Absolutely yes.  He’s the most exciting player in the entire NFL and with Vick, you’ve got a shot in every single ballgame.  You just ask any franchise that doesn’t have an outstanding quarterback and they’ll pay whatever it takes to get Vick.”

Strahan:  “I don’t think so.  I played against Michael Vick when he was in Atlanta.  One thing, when you hit a guy like Brady, McNabb or Roethlisberger, you absorb some of the hit because they’re bigger guys.  Vick’s not a bigger guy.  Hitting Michael Vick, you feel like Drago in Rocky, “I must break you.” He scrambles and everybody loves it, but he sets himself up for hits.”

Long:  “He had his best year in a contract year.  By his own admission he hadn’t committed to being a student of the football game.  Philadelphia feels that he’s going to make a big jump this year from last year.  He makes a big jump from last year to this year, Philadelphia Eagles are in the Super Bowl.”

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Co-host Terry Bradshaw on the perception that Jay Cutler isn’t a resilient and tough player: “On television, his head’s down, his helmet sits a little low, doesn’t smile, he looks kind of arrogant.  You know what, who cares?  The fact is this guy can play.  I don’t think anybody should judge a guy through a television camera and go, oh he has no heart.  That’s the worst thing you could possibly hear. You don’t think he’s tough? Ask the players on the Chicago Bears offensive line and they’ll all tell you he is one tough guy.  I believe in Jay Cutler.  I don’t find a problem with him at all.”

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Transcript of analyst Howie Long’s segment on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks: Ten years ago we witnessed unimaginable horror, and then were left awestruck by acts of American heroism. Too often we apply that word — heroism — to sports. On 9/11, we learned true heroes run into harm’s way, despite the very real chance they won’t return. On that day, not one of us was left untouched by a morning of terror or the courage that it sparked. Our country united in a way my generation had never seen. We’re reminded today that our game provides an opportunity to set aside the troubles of the larger world, if only for a time. The 9/11 attacks made me appreciate the poetry of our national anthem and understand the wisdom of the framers of our Declaration of Independence. Today, like never before, I know that the freedom they promised us, the freedom earned by our Armed Forces, the freedom sacrificed by those we lost on 9/11, will always be stronger than an enemy’s ability to harm us. So today we look back, remembering those we have lost and the true heroes of that day. And we look forward to doing what we’ve done longer than the 31 years I’ve been associated with the NFL — we will play a game. And in that uniquely American way and we will remember. God bless.