Gettleman's plan isn't really a plan after all

From the minute that Dave Gettleman took over as the general manager of the New York Football Giants, he said that he had a plan.

Gettleman asked everyone to be patient; that rebuilding a team with such a historic ledger of success would take some time. But Gettleman assured us that he indeed had a plan moving forward.

So that plan included trading the best run-stopping defensive tackle in the league for a fifth round pick and shipping off a former first-round cover cornerback for a seventh rounder.

The plan obviously included trading the team’s best pass rusher for an offensive guard, allowing the team’s best safety to walk away free and clear with getting nothing in return and then, the best move of all, trading the franchise’s best player and top receiver, one of the best pass catchers to ever play the game, for a package of draft picks and a player who was already declared a bust in his former place of employment.

So trading Snacks Harrison and Eli Apple, getting rid of Olivier Vernon and Landon Collins and finally jettisoning Odell Beckham, Jr. aside, Gettleman headed into this week’s critical NFL Draft with 12 picks, the highest total of any team in the league. This was going to be a make-or-break draft for Gettleman. This was going to be the draft that would set him above everyone as an elite executive in the NFL.

So what does Gettleman do with his crucial draft, with the No. 6 pick overall? He takes a quarterback that no one had on their radar going that high.

We don’t know whether or not Daniel Jones is going to be a good signal caller in the NFL. He might be the second coming of Peyton Manning or even Eli Manning for that matter. We have no idea.

But it looks as if Gettleman has no idea either. And that’s what is scary.

Why in God’s good football-loving name would you take a quarterback at No. 6, a guy who you have declared as being a “franchise quarterback,” when you just agreed in principle to pay the heir apparent in the QB role, namely the aforementioned Eli Manning, the absurd total of $26 million to play this season for the Giants? If you were intent with taking a quarterback that high in the draft, then why give Manning the $5 million signing bonus you handed him last month? Why not just cut Manning free and turn the team over to Jones?

That is, if he’s truly the “franchise quarterback” you proclaim him to be. If he’s that good, then let Jones play right from the outset and let Eli find another job elsewhere.

The whole thing makes absolutely no sense. But then again, neither did the trades of Harrison and Apple for less than their value, neither did getting rid of Vernon when everyone knows he’s more talented than the rest of the pass rushers out there and certainly neither did getting rid of the franchise’s best player in OBJ for two draft picks and Jabrill Peppers, who you believe can actually play strong safety in the NFL, but you may be alone in those thoughts.

If Gettleman has a plan like he says he does, it would be nice to clue the rest of the world in on it. Because if he does have a plan, then why does he sign a slot receiver like Golden Tate to a ridiculously overpriced contract when you have a great slot receiver already in Sterling Shepard? And then, you make matters worse by giving Shepard an inflated contract, which means you now have two slot receivers making $10 million a year. Unless you’re bringing Mouse Davis out of retirement and installing the old “run and shoot” offense for Eli to run this season or for that matter Daniel Jones, then spending $20 mill on two slot receivers is frankly asinine.

But let’s get back to the source of this rant: Why in the world would you take a quarterback at No. 6 when you have so many other glaring needs? I mean, Josh Allen of Kentucky and Ed Oliver of Houston, two defensive studs who have graded out to be future All-Pros, were available to the Giants when they picked at No. 6. I firmly believe Oliver will be the second coming of Aaron Donald. I think Oliver is a superstar and the Buffalo Bills fleeced the rest of that league with that pick.

However, I also said that Olivier Vernon would become the second-best defensive player to ever play for the Giants and I kind of got that one wrong. Hey, I was right about LT being the best one. So give me some credit.

But I absolutely love Ed Oliver as a player and I think Josh Allen is a sure-fire stud as well. Gettleman doesn’t think so, because he took a quarterback that no one had that high on the draft board. No team was taking a quarterback in this draft. It was a weak draft for quarterbacks.

Notice that the next team to take a QB was Washington and they took Dwayne Haskins of Ohio State with the No. 15 pick. And the Redskins had a desperate need to take a quarterback because they don’t have a healthy one on their entire roster.

Still, there’s a big difference between No. 6 and No. 15, besides nine draft slots. Gettleman had to take a look at what the other teams needed and play the draft. After all, Gettleman had another first round pick at No. 17, you know, the pick they got for getting rid of OBJ. So Gettleman could have picked either Oliver or Allen with the No. 6 pick, then waited to see what happened. If he still wanted Jones, more than likely, he was going to be there at No. 17.

Then if Gettleman took Jones, even though he didn’t have a dire need for a QB, at No. 17, he could have taken the stud defensive player and a quarterback and everyone would have applauded, although it still didn’t make sense to pay Eli all that cash if you were intent on drafting his eventual replacement.

The Giants were 5-11 last season for a reason. They weren’t very good. In fact, they haven’t been very good for a long time now. So they obviously had some glaring holes to address all over the field. One of those holes wasn’t quarterback.

Because despite what some people may think, Eli Manning wasn’t the cause of the Giants’ woes last season. When he had time to step into the pocket and throw the ball, he was still like the Eli of old. He just struggled when the rush got too ferocious and the boys in front of him were not blocking like they were paid to protect.

And obviously, both Gettleman and head coach Pat Shurmur believed that Manning had a lot left in the tank, otherwise they would have sent him packing during last offseason and would have selected a quarterback with the No. 2 overall pick last year instead of taking Saquon Barkley.

Barkley turned out to be a brilliant pick, because he instantly became the best running back in the history of the Giants’ franchise, rushing for 1,307 yards and 11 touchdowns (new rookie records for the Giants), catching 91 passes for an additional 721 yards and four more TDs while winning the Offensive Rookie of the Year award.

No one is questioning Gettleman’s decision to take Barkley over a quarterback like Sam Darnold, who turned out to be a blessing for the New York Jets.

But the reason why Gettleman decided to take Barkley over a quarterback last year was because he was certain that Eli Manning was still a more than serviceable signal caller.

So if Manning was okay in his Gettleman’s last year, why is he not this year? After all, Manning had a great year last season, despite having an offensive line in front of him that was in total disarray. Manning threw for 4,299 yards and 21 touchdowns against 11 interceptions last year and posted a QB rating of 92.4, higher than his career average of 84.1. For all intents and purposes, Manning had a sensational year in 2018, one that showed a lot of promise once the Giants found out what to do with their mismanaged line.

Again, the whole “plan” that Gettleman seemed to have in rebuilding the Giants doesn’t look like much of a plan at all. It appears as if the affable Gettleman is flying by the seat of his pants and making moves at a whim.

This draft was supposed to be Dave Gettleman’s shining moment. But frankly, he’s not shining anything any time soon.

For many years, the Giants were the New York franchise that we could all count on, the most stable, the most professional. The franchise that made smart moves, like drafting Phil Simms, Lawrence Taylor and Mark Bavaro, like bringing in Bill Parcells and Tom Coughlin to run the show, just doing the right thing over and over again. We never had to worry about the Giants. They were the old reliable franchise in a Big Apple overrun with sporting buffoons.

No more. The Giants have joined the club. Move over Knicks and Mets. You need to make room for the latest tomfool of clods. Welcome, the New York Football Giants, who have returned to their status of the late 1960s and throughout the 70s, a collective mess that’s not going to clean up anytime soon. What’s the joke: You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig. Bingo, New York Football Giants. Oink, oink.

Please keep the great Granelli family in your prayers this weekend. Elizabeth Granelli, the wife of legendary St. Peter’s College women’s basketball and soccer coach Mike Granelli, passed away Friday night after a lengthy illness. Elizabeth’s five children were at her side, as was her beloved husband of more than 50 years.

The Granelli family is a great sports family. Since his days as a young coach at the Hoboken YMCA, then later Hoboken High and finally St. Peter’s, Mike Granelli has looked after thousands of kids, some of whom turned out to be excellent citizens and role models in their adulthood. It’s too hard to mention all the people Mike Granelli has touched and helped over the years. But there are plenty. And through it all, Elizabeth Granelli was right there. She was the rock of the family, much tougher than Mike ever was.

Elizabeth Granelli was a great lady, a spectacular wife, a perfect mother and grandmother. I ache today for my friend Mike, who now has to live without that rock of the family. Please think good thoughts of Elizabeth in your hearts this weekend and keep her in your prayers.

You can read more of my work at www.hudsonreporter.com and www.theobserver.com and follow me on Twitter @ogsmar

Westbrook and George: Just bad news against sportswriters

There’s no doubting the basketball talents of Russell Westbrook and Paul George. They are without question among the top 10 players in the NBA, with Westbrook among the top five and easily the league’s best point guard.

Westbrook and George are teammates with the Oklahoma City Thunder, who are on the verge of being eliminated from the NBA Western Conference playoffs by the Portland Trailblazers. The Thunder trails the Blazers, 3-1. The season is almost over.

For the last four years, Westbrook has endured a cantankerous relationship with Oklahoman sports columnist Berry Tramel. No one knows exactly when the relationship soured between Tramel and Westbrook, but the two don’t get along at all.

To Tramel’s credit, he continues to try to do his job. So Sunday, after the Thunder dropped a 111-98 decision to the Blazers to go down 3-1 in the series, Tramel asked both players legitimate questions.

And the response from both Westbrook and George were the same as they were all season.

“Next question,” is all that Westbrook and George had to say to Tramel, just like the response has been for the last four years, even before George got there. That’s all the players had to say. Next question. Over and over again.

It’s not like Tramel is asking personal questions. Every single time, Tramel is restricted to ask basketball related and themed questions. But the answers are always the same. Next question.

Frankly, it’s downright rude, extremely arrogant and egotistical and it’s wrong. Tramel, one of the best sports columnists in the Midwest for 40 years, deserves to have the questions answered like civilized adults instead of spoiled rotten children.

And the “next question” approach is now annoying. There are some sports outlets, like radio and television shows and internet spots that are finding Westbrook’s answers are hysterical.

But as a sportswriter, I am so totally angered by Westbrook and George.

Just answer the questions. Fans want to know what their stars are thinking, especially when their beloved team is on the brink of elimination.

Russell Westbrook and Paul George should be forced to answer the questions. The NBA should levy serious fines against the players if they continue to sit in the post-game press conferences and answer the questions from Tramel the same way. Like serious fines, not just a slap of the wrist. If the NBA Commissioner Adam Silver slapped Westbrook with a $200,000 fine, you can be guaranteed that the “next question” crap would become a slice of history.

I mean, the NBA’s assistant commissioner Kiki Vandeweghe, a former NBA All-Star, slapped Brooklyn Nets general manager Sean Marks $25,000 for entering the official’s locker room after Game 4 of the Nets-Sixers series to complain about calls. And Marks isn’t making the kind of cash that Westbrook makes.

If Silver stepped in and hit Westbrook with a major fine for being a nuisance, you can be rest assured that this circus would become history.

It has to stop. It’s setting a bad precedence that could permeate throughout the entire league, or better yet, professional sports on a whole. If an athlete doesn’t like a reporter, the answers might be the same. Next question. And sportswriters would never be able to get their jobs done.

It’s bad enough that newspapers are drying up and folding left and right. Now, we’re getting prima donna  athletes deciding to sit at post-game pressers and act like total jackasses. Next question.

I keep getting asked whether the football Giants made a good trade with the Cleveland Browns, whether they got enough in return for the incredibly talented Odell Beckham, Jr.

I remember vividly seeing OBJ at the first rookie training camp, running crisp routes, jumping high for passes and more incredibly catching passes with one hand and telling anyone who wanted to listen that the Giants got the steal of the draft, that they had acquired what I called “the second coming of Jerry Rice.”

I sincerely thought that OBJ was clearly the best receiver I’d ever seen live and that he was destined to become a Hall of Famer – all in one day’s workout.

And I believed that OBJ was destined for greatness.

But then, all of the other crap started, like making like a dog after scoring a touchdown and simulating peeing in the end zone in Philly or proposing marriage to the kicking net to to saying what teams he wanted to get traded to.

The Giants had enough faith in Beckham that they gave him the max contract, the $95 million bonanza last summer. It was a contract filled with incentive clauses and signing bonuses. OBJ became a very rich man courtesy of John Mara and the Giants organization.

And when OBJ said a few weeks ago that there were two teams that he wanted to get traded to – the Browns and the 49ers – Mara had heard enough and told Gettleman to get rid of OBJ.

So the Giants got a middle of the round 1^st round pick (17^th overall), a third rounder and a former first rounder in New Jersey native Jabrill Peppers, who has been less than stellar in his tenure with the Browns.

Is that fair trade value for a guy who I once thought was going to be the best receiver in the history of the game? There’s no way. The Giants did not get fair value for OBJ. But they did get two serviceable picks and a player who the Giants organization feels will be a solid strong safety, replacing the All-Pro in Landon Collins who they didn’t re-sign and let walk free to the Redskins.

So I don’t think the Giants got fair value for OBJ. I think the Browns made out in the trade. But the Giants didn’t exactly get fleeced.

And as for the draft, I don’t think the Giants are taking a quarterback. I think the Giants are going to take a defensive playmaker, like an edge rusher.

And as for the Jets, I think they will also go defensive and take someone like Josh Allen from Kentucky. But I think the best defensive player in the draft is Ed Oliver of Houston, who is the second coming of Aaron Donald of the Rams. Oliver has the same kind of motor and has the same explosive ability to get off the ball. If either the Jets or the Giants are able to take Oliver, they should. He’s that good.

In all my years, I’ve never seen a team get devastated with injuries like the way the Yankees have been ravaged this year.

With the injury to Aaron Judge, an oblique injury that may keep Judge out of action for the better part of the next two months, the Yankees have 14 players on the injured list. That’s a correct number – 14. It’s absurd.

Are the injuries enough to send the Bronx Bombers reeling for the rest of 2019? Sure, it’s early yet, but it’s surely possible that the Yankees could be in serious trouble. Did anyone catch the lineup they fielded Sunday against a bad Kansas City team? There were a bunch of nobodies in pinstripes on the field masquerading as Yankees.

Mike Ford, Tyler Wade, Mike Tauchman and Gio Urshela. Are they the New Kids on the Block? Or the New York Yankees? “Tyler, Mikey, Gio and Mike, if I like the girl, who cares who you like? You got to cool it down, now. You’re gonna lose control.” Sounds like a 90s tune.

You can read more of my work at www.hudsonreporter.com and www.theobserver.com

The baseball gods gained another soul

For the longest time, they were rivals coaching baseball at the two premier universities in New Jersey, namely Rutgers and Seton Hall.

Fred Hill, Sr. and Mike Sheppard, Sr. were institutions at their respective schools -- Hill at Rutgers and Sheppard at Seton Hall. They were identified with their schools. If you thought of Rutgers, your first thought was of the guy they called Moose. If you thought of Seton Hall, you immediately pictured Shep.

They were living legends, guys that personified class, grace and dignity. They were baseball royalty, not just in New Jersey, but throughout the country. In their baseball coaching careers, Hill and Sheppard won almost 2,000 games between them. Think about that for a second. Two thousand wins in a sport that doesn't play 162 times like they do in the big leagues. There are a lot of times that a college baseball game gets rained out (imagine that in northern New Jersey in April and May?) and never gets rescheduled.

If you went to a high school baseball game and either Moose or Shep was in attendance, then you knew it was a place of importance. There must have been a player or two that they were interested in recruiting, so if you spotted them, you knew that it was the place to be, no matter how cold and damp the day was.

I was very fortunate and blessed to have been able to call both men friends of mine.

And now, after hearing word this morning that Shep had passed away, I realized that both coaching titans were now gone. We lost both in the matter of weeks.

How brutally ironic is that? They were coaching rivals, but they were also friends, basically because they were cut from the same cloth, from the same area. They both were born and raised in Essex County, cut their baseball teeth on the fields of Newark, learned their craft right around the same time in the same circles.

Their respective families all had ties with each other and both had excellent athletic families. The Moose gave the world a son, Fred, Jr., who got into coaching and was the head basketball coach at Rutgers and then served as an assistant at Seton Hall. Fred's brother, Brian, was a long-time respected coach who later became a head coach in the NBA with the Orlando Magic.

As for the Sheppard family, well, we could go on for hours. His three sons all went on to follow in their father's footsteps and became highly respected baseball coaches-- Mike, Jr. has been the head coach at Seton Hall Prep for three decades. Rob Sheppard immediately replaced his father after an illness and became the head baseball coach at Seton Hall University. And John has been the head coach at Morristown-Beard for the last 20 years, earning his own place of prominence in the coaching circles.

The Sheppard family ties in coaching go further than just the immediate circle. Shep's brother-in-law is my good friend Ted Fiore, who I had the absolute pleasure of working with for six years at St. Peter's College. His nephews are Tim and Vin Byron, who have been involved with coaching high school and college baseball for almost 30 years. His son-in-law is Ed Blankmeyer, who worked with Shep at Seton Hall before becoming the head coach at St. John's University, carving his own niche as one of the best collegiate baseball coaches in the nation.

So coaching is a major part of both the Hill and Sheppard families. It's beyond a bloodline or a lifeline. It's called tradition.

I cannot fathom the idea that both legends are gone in the matter of weeks.

I will always treasure the hearty handshakes, great smiles and laughs I shared with Shep over the years. He was a good friend, a loyal friend, someone who always looked out for me and vice versa. I know that there are thousands of other people who feel the same way that I do this morning, the feeling of absolute loss and sorrow that Shep is gone.

I know that his health was failing over the last few months, so maybe his passing is a blessing that his suffering is now over. Phyllis and her family can get on with their lives now and not have that immense burden of worrying about and caring for Shep the way the family did over the last few months. That had to be such a tough chore for all of them, considering how incredibly close the family was.

Maybe there's a baseball field in the great beyond, a field that has pristine green grass with no dandelions and weeds. Maybe that field has two incredibly fierce rivals that are playing in bright sunshine and warm summer breezes and wooden bats and clean white baseballs.

And maybe, just maybe, the two are together again, coaching against each other like always, putting their genius masterminds together to outsmart the other.

The state of New Jersey baseball will never see two characters like Fred Hill and Mike Sheppard ever again. Shep and the Moose, two legends who are now unfortunately gone. It's the bottom of the ninth and there's no one coming in from the bullpen.

Maybe the state of New Jersey can do something to honor these two titans together for perpetuity, build a new baseball park somewhere in Essex County and name it the Fred Hill-Mike Sheppard Baseball Complex. We need something to forever remember Shep and the Moose.

I know I will definitely remember them both fondly and forever. They were both major parts of my athletic life and I know they were so incredibly influential to everyone who got the chance to know them.

It's really a sad day in New Jersey sports circles. Shep has joined Moose on that diamond in the sky. Play ball.
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Now, as for the ending of the Virginia-Auburn game Saturday in the Final Four, there's no way no how that the call should have been made.

I know that rules are rules and it was a foul, that there was contact on the play and all that. I understand that as well as anyone.

But an official should NEVER decide the outcome of a game on his own, whether it's a Biddy game or the NCAA National Semifinals. And yes, that official, James Breeding, decided the game by calling the foul on Samir Doughty that gave Kyle Guy the three free throws that enabled Virginia to win the game 63-62.

I've seen the replay about 35 times. The foul takes place after Guy released the ball. The foul did not impede Guy's ability to take the shot. The foul occurred when Guy was trying to land after taking the shot.

Yes, by the law of the land, it's a foul. Rules state that a player has the right to land and Doughty did not give Guy the chance to land after taking the shot. So in that respect, it was indeed a foul.

But in that case, you have to swallow the whistle. It would have been a fine no-call and no one would have complained. Guy had the opportunity to take the shot. He missed the shot. Game over. Auburn wins.
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But James Breeding will be forever remembered as the guy who decided the outcome of the Auburn-Virginia game. Not the players. The official decided it. And that's just wrong.

I know this is a discussion that will go on and on for months, maybe years. Who knows when Auburn will ever get another chance like that? They might have won a national title. We will never know.

I just know that I feel bad for Auburn's players because they were denied the chance to play for the national title. I can't say that they were cheated out of a chance to win. But James Breeding decided the game, not the players. And that's just way wrong in my eyes. Way wrong.
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You can read more of my work at www.hudsonreporter.com and www.theobserver.com