Jadeveon Clowney wins an ESPY for the hit that won't go away
http://www.aikenstandard.com/article/20130717/AIK0301/130719506/clowney…
This article mentions that it probably wasn't even his best play of the season because he was unblocked. It also marvels a bit at how it follows Clowney around now.
I don't think it was the best play of the year, but hey, it's the ESPYs. And it looked big. At least Vincent could laugh it off (and shake it off without injury) afterwards.
No, no you couldn't.
I'm not just saying this because Vincent Smith has an account and knows this blog, but I'm pretty sure he would blow your entire body back as far as his helmet went.
To be fair to Vincent Smith, easily pound for pound the toughest guy on the team last year, I'm pretty sure you'd hit him and he'd still be standing upright, while you fell to ground feeling like you just ran into a brick wall.
Sure, Clowney was full-speed ahead unblocked, but the man is a freak of nature.
How many times do see a player make a move on an unblocked defender and leave him in his dust? Often times an unblocked defender gets juked out of his jock and left lying on the ground. Even in times that they don't, the opponent has time to try and attempt a move so that when they are hit, it's a glancing blow and they don't end up with their helmet getting blown 20 yeard downfield.
What was more amazing to me than simply the fact that he made the tackle or that how hard the tackle ended up being, were two things: 1) the speed at which he got to the ball carrier. He almost beat the handoff to Smith and he literally had no time to move once he received the ball. 2) that he not only forced the fumble, but rather than stand around posturing after a big hit (like so many players will do) he had the presence of mind to recover the fumble as well.
Honestly, I don't know if I have ever seen a more athletic play by a DL in my life. To try and pretend it was not impressive only shows your bias IMHE.
just give the Espy to physics.
that fucker wins everything these days
"I've been hit harder."
In all fairness it was a big moment and the play 'looked' spectacular! However, as a Michigan fan it sucks to have our team be Posterized. Hopefully, the boys that do the heavy lifting and skillz building use it as motivation for 'thier' team to be the ones doin the posterizing!?
The sensationalists in the media failed to realize Smith immediately got up right after.
If the stupid refs would have just made the correct spot on the fake punt then we would have never been in that situation.
/s
ESPN is stupid. Therefore, the ESPYs are stupid. Science.
But ESPN's 2014 football recruiting rankings and team rankings aren't stupid. ESPN is science.
The ESPYs might be the most unimportant and stupid.
LBJ beats out Cabrera, Manziel beats out Burke, Michigan vs Kansas isn't even remotely close to being mentioned as best game, the Trey isn't nominated for best play or moment, the Heat win multiple awards, Megatron gets beat out... Rough night with few bright spots except for the Hoyts and Robin Roberts which were very awesome moments.
And IMO Kenny Bell's hit was ten times better.
I agree, but he got flagged for it so I doubt it's award-worthy, even though the penalty was an awful call.
In this day and age, it's now an automatic ejection which is more stupid
I prolly watched that 100 times when it happened, that sound...oh so fantastic. Listen to the call too, ya gotta love Gus after a call like that
Not Gus...
Not sure if serious or just stupid. It's Gus, not Tirico.
The problem is, you corrected a person replying to Hokemaniac's post regarding the Kenny Bell hit in a video from the Big Ten Championship game which was done by Gus Johnson.
Don't hold your breath
I forgot about that play. That's right up there with the Trey block in the final as far as shitty reactionary calls go, even though this game wasn't as close or important.
How Lebron could beat the first triple crown winner in however many years is just ridiculous.
There was a triple crown winner last year? I don't follow horse racing very closely, and Lebron didn't mention it in any of his tweets.
p.s. Miggy got screwed.
And I forgot about the greatness of this block. Thank you sir.
People really need to stop coming up with every complaint they can about it.
The Dundies have more credibility than the ESPYs.
Geez. It was a phenomenal play by Clowney. Why is that so hard to understand?
Because it wasn't a phenomenal play. An unblocked big guy hit a nearly stationary little guy. Obviously it's going to look impressive. What do you think was so great about it?
Because his helmet came off. It's waaaaaaay cool when the guy's helmet comes off. That's all we fans care about . . . his helmet came off. Had his helmet stayed on, the ESPY's would have kept looking for another play where a helmet comes off.
Want to win an ESPY? Slip a $100 to one of your old High School buddies that plays running back on the other team, and ask him to wear his helmet strap real loose. Then when you make an ordinary tackle on him, his helmet will pop off and everyone will OOH and AAH.
Instant ESPY.
But they didn't. That's how it is with every single great play of all time. If Steph Curry had been tossed the ball by Chris Bosh during game 6 of the NBA finals, could he have knocked down the same shot Ray Allen did? Could most of the better perimeter shooters have done that? Sure. But Ray Allen was the one that took the shot, so he gets the credit.
The play gets publicity because he was given an opening and took perfect advantage. I just don't understand the need to downplay it when if it was Brandon Graham that did this we wouldn't shut up about it for ten years.
Clowney (ANY DE for that matter) has the athleticism, the training and the responsibility to make that hit the way he did. His biggest accomplishment was not screwing it up. If anything it's an insult to Clowney because he's made plays that are way tougher (if not in that game) that just didn't look as pretty, but that's how layman fandom goes. I'd imagine it'd be like an artist working for thousands of hours on a set of painstakingly crafted paintings, only to see the turd-smeared-on-a-canvas he made in a drunken fit fetch the highest price at auction. You'll take it, but with the resignation that most people are too stupid to understand what happened.
And your example is entirely inappropriate. This is more like a 7'3" center making a putback dunk after everyone else in the paint falls down in a one-point game. Sure the stakes are high, but he'd better make the play.
So you're telling us that if a Michigan player had done the hitting instead of being the one blown up, we might react differently? Get outta here.
Man, you guys are so right. That Clowney hit was overrated. Just throw it in the junk pile along with garbage hits like these
Still can't believe Braxton held onto that ball after that hit. I was sure when Frank had just hit him that I'd be seeing the ball on the ground a half second after it
Now that's what I call a bold prediction!
It was a great play by Clowney, no doubt about that. I don't think it was the best play of the year, though. That high school buzzer beater shot was a literal one-in-a-million type of moment, and I think that should of won.
But hey, its the ESPYs. What're you going to do?
Pssssst! The "E" in ESPN stands for Entertainment.
The "E" in ESPY probably does too.
Up-voted because for fuck's sake knock it off already with the knee-jerk moderation.
Honestly, you guys make a political forum look good by comparison. I don't agree with the above post but who the hell was so offended by this that they decided the world was better off if it didn't exist??
You wouldn't guess this blog is based in a free-speech country the way people behave around here.
It's very clear you not only don't understand free speech, but are unable to modify your own user settings to prevent negged comments from getting hidden. If you're going to whine about the community using a rather innocuous tool available to us and blame others for your own shortcomings, then leave. You won't be missed.
I turned off the ESPY's The moment Hamm made that unoriginal joke about Detroit. It's not like the ESPY's even matter.