MVN - Most Valuable Network

The San Francisco connection… and ESPN, are you kidding me?

For any Carolina fan, the name ‘Chris Weinke’ probably elicits giggles, not just from the last name, but from the distant thoughts of the former Heisman winner who many thought could be the next franchise quarterback for the Panthers.  At long last, Carolina cut Weinke after the 2006 season.  For a vast, vast majority of this season, Weinke was waiting for quarterbacks to go down.  He tried out for Buffalo after J.P. Losman went down.  But he finally found a contract with the 49ers.  And guess what — he’s going to start for ‘em this Sunday!

So what is the last memory many people have of Weinke?  Well, when Jake Delhomme was out for a couple games last season, Weinke stepped in with mixed results.  By the Christmas Eve game at Atlanta, however, just about everyone had given up on him.  To put this into perspective, teams were so unafraid of Carolina’s passing game with Weinke under center that run-happy Dan Henning just starting calling direct-snaps to DeAngelo Williams.  It actually worked fairly well.  Weinke only threw seven passes, and Carolina won 10-3.  The San Francisco-Cleveland contest might be interesting just to watch him play (if you have access to the game).

For the news story on his start, here’s where ESPN revealed that it must allow a drinking and writing:
“The start will be the first for Weinke since Christmas Eve 2006, when he led the Carolina Panthers to a 10-3 victory over the Atlanta Falcons in a game in which he threw only seven passes.”

Led?  LED?  LED?  LED?  Carolina’s defense LED the Panthers to victory by holding the Falcons to three points.  I understand how a quarterback is a leader of a team, but this is one of those clearcut cases when the quarterback doesn’t lead jack — he just doesn’t lose the game.  The guy threw seven passes, completing four.  ‘Well did he run?’ you might ask.  Once.  For no yards.  Oh, and he fumbled once, thankfully not turning it over.

I don’t care if you don’t keep track of a team or an account about which you’re writing.  A guy who does nothing but throw seven passes — again, completing only four — does not lead a team.

All that said, it was sad to see Weinke pinball so much between showing potential and showing what not to do.  I really do hope he can find a nice nook with some team in the NFL.  Hell, with the way David Carr played this season, it might have been nice to have him back instead of Carr.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 28th, 2007 at 6:58 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.