Girod Street End Zone

James T. Leeson, Jr., 1930-2010

As my friend Thom Jurkovich noted, it probably is too hard to really explain Leeson, you either get it or you don’t, so I’ll leave it to the deeper talents of guys like Alex Heard and Charlie Euchner who have so eloquently eulogized him and analyzed his legacy, and just contribute to the broader historical Leeson database three particular image-stories that come to mind. 

For those many of you who don’t understand these references, just know that last week a great man named Jim Leeson took his leave of us, at least until we catch up in our own due time.  In addition to his many generous acts of mentorship and kindness, he left me with one specific parting gift:  the chance to point to an obituary (with picture, mind you) in the national edition of the New York Times and say, “Man, him and me, we sure used to have a good time pounding cocktails together.”  For those of you interested in the details of record, click here: 

 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/08/us/08leeson.html?ref=obituaries

Of course, if you want the real story, there’s a much better one here, since it was written by someone who knew Jim so well:

http://www.nashvillescene.com/pitw/archives/2010/05/06/a-man-in-full-jim-leeson-1930-2010

Now, for the stories.

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Claude Coupee
Lead Correspondent

Yes, many of us were somewhere between puzzled and devastated when we all heard the name “Patrick Robinson” a few nights ago during the first round of the NFL draft.  It wasn’t quite like when that guy came into your office to tell you the Challenger exploded, or OJ was acquitted, but still.

And it may well be, as rumored, that we would love to have taken TCU’s Jerry Hughes, a fine pass-rushing prospect, the one thing this defense lacked last year — a true pass-rush threat off the edge that other teams would have to account for.

But by way of perspective, up in Philadelphia Eagles country, their fans were puzzled when a team that had just traded away arguably its best all-around veteran cornerback for a couple of mid-round picks and some magic beans took a bunch of young pass rushers (three in the first six picks) but no corners worth discussing.   Their largely successful coach was heard to say that a great pass rush makes up for all that corner stuff pretty well, you know.

And I like Andy Reid, but I just got to thinking…..O RLY?  Is that true?  Or is this one of those “offense sells tickets, defense wins ballgames” or “baseball is 90% pitching” or “they don’t play defense in the NBA like they do in college” loads of bullshit that people have just repeated for years without thinking?

You know us.  We had to find out.

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