(Sorry I’ve been out of the loop lately – have to admit, I’m a huge US soccer fan as well as a golf fan so between the World Cup, US Open and lack of Packer news, my posting frequency has sucked).
Read here from jsonline this morning. Bedard essentially talks about how classy Desmond Bishop is and how he has been very professional handling a difficult situation. Thanks to Schaef for pointing this out.
The striking part of this article to me is this quote by Winston “people thought I could be a head coach for no reason at all” Moss:
“I would anticipate Bishop having to make a career decision,” said assistant head coach/inside linebackers Winston Moss. “If he feels as though he’s ready to play more and move into another system, then he needs to not sign a contract (with the Packers) and he needs to move on and sign someplace else.”
The way Moss chooses his words here indicates to me that 1) he was bothered that someone asked a question about Bishop (and playing time?) and/or 2) he just doesn’t like the guy. I can’t help but believe the latter. (I believe it was Moss who was behind the Brady Poppinga-must-start approach that clearly didn’t pan out.) Compare for a moment how unprofessionally Moss responds here to how classy Bishop remains in what must be a brutally difficult situation for a good player.
The bottom line with Bishop is that the guy is still under-appreciated. The second he escapes Green Bay, he will dominate. Hawk was a bit better than Hawk has historically been last year but still no better than average, and not better than Bishop would be. Bishop is a guy who needs to be given a shot at a starting position. While I never wish injury on anyone, if there were an injury that allowed Bishop to get in (at any of the positions except perhaps Clay Matthews position), I would guarantee we wouldn’t see a decline in overall LB performance whatsoever. In fact, I’d be pretty sure it would improve with him in there over time.
(I hope that in the next interview a reporter has with Rodgers, he/she asks Rodgers what he thinks of Bishop’s lack of playing time. They played together at Cal and it would be interesting to see Rodgers spin a diplomatic answer.)