QB's glare patches

[cmhatter]

I haven't said anything about the glare patches but it got me thinking about criticizing a college athlete.

I'm 21. Is it appropriate for me to criticize a 19 year old? This is not being sarcastic I am looking for a serious response.

My brother is the starting QB at a local high school. He deals with criticism on a daily basis from parents, fans, coaches, and his peers. IMO he is better for it.

If you think about it... We have all been receiving feedback and criticism on a daily basis from early childhood. For example(I could go on and on with examples), you get grades regarding your performance with comments at an early age. This continues and the comments get more negative. By the time you are old enough to have a job you are critiqued and criticized by your peers, colleagues, managers etc... By the time you are BJDs age you are getting it from everywhere. Friends, family, professors, coaches, bosses, and the list goes on.

All BJD really has to say to anyone is... okay well out of the 40+ thousand students at USF I am the best QB right now. If someone like me criticizes him or his play all he has to say is "Okay, well, why don't you walk on and take my position..."

If any of these players have aspirations of playing in the league they should be ASKING for more criticism, not less.

[Brad]

Criticism over the message they inscribe on their anti-glare strips?

[Triple B]

For those that think we are reading too much into this please consider the following. When a coach has to pull his *** over on the sideline and tell him what a crappy mistake he just made on the field was, what do you think is running through bj daniels head? "Only GOD.." or "Ya you are right coach I should try to throw the ball out of bounds"

It's my opinion that he is using it as a defense mechanism and as a device to some how diminish the reality of the game in front of him. ONLY GOD has the the ultimate control of this game.

That is some of the wackiest stuff I have ever read on this message board.

I must admit that this is one of the most frighteningly hilarious threads that's come through here in quite a while. Losses are like the full moon...

[cmhatter]

Criticism over the message they inscribe on their anti-glare strips?

I meant it in a more general manner. I don't care what people put on their eye black. I think it is all equally ridiculous.

Correct me if I am wrong because I haven't read every single response but I think the original poster was looking for an explanation of what it really meant to him rather than to criticize him for it.

[Brad]

There's been a lot more posted here than that of the original poster, look up a few posts.

[Triple B]

Criticism over the message they inscribe on their anti-glare strips?

Correct me if I am wrong because I haven't read every single response but I think the original poster was looking for an explanation of what it really meant to him rather than to criticize him for it.

Just read the first 3 posts in the thread and you'll see that the OP wasn't really looking for an explanation but just an opening for him to regale us with his psychoanalysis of BJ. Some people read Tarot cards, some read tea leaves, some even read palms but it appears that glare patches are the true window to one's inner soul...

[Who'sYourData?]

I haven't said anything about the glare patches but it got me thinking about criticizing a college athlete.

I'm 21. Is it appropriate for me to criticize a 19 year old? This is not being sarcastic I am looking for a serious response.

My brother is the starting QB at a local high school. He deals with criticism on a daily basis from parents, fans, coaches, and his peers. IMO he is better for it.

Well, that explains a few things, and I don't mean that in a negative way.  Criticism is one thing, and if you look through my posts you'll find me point out some things that Daniels (and others) need to improve upon. 

But there is constructive criticism, and then there is crap like "BJ is obviously arrogant because he is a Christian and doesn't care what anyone else but God thinks".  I mean, seriously, how do you get that from words on his eye black?  That is a rather serious accusation to level at a kid that the poster has never even spoken to once, much less know him at all.

[Kizarvexis]

I must admit that this is one of the most frighteningly hilarious threads that's come through here in quite a while. Losses are like the full moon...

So true...

[79 Bull]

Okay, I have to post a rational thought here.  I don't really care what the message is, but it makes zero sense to have any letters/numbers on the patch.  The purpose is to stop glare, that is why the patches are a dull black.  Why would you put white text on them which will reflect the glare?  I think these messages are only defeating the purpose of the patch?  What am I missing here?

[Who'sYourData?]

More generally, I could fill a thread all by myself on this topic.  Let me provide an example or two that may clarify some of the many thoughts that ramble around in my brain.  My daughter has been olaying soccer for years.  She made varsity as a freshman on an above average team.  She has been criticized and yelled at, by player coaches and parents(including me).  She expects it, and it doesn't bother her.  I always believe there are essentially two criteria under which criticism is  appropriate.  1)  The player should know better.  2) The player was not following coaches orders.

I can't tell you how many times I got on her case for something during or after the game, and her response was something like "I wanted to move up, but the coach told me to stay back."  Kind of shoots down my criticism rather quickly.  Maybe the coach had a reason I didn't understand (like he didn't want to leave the player next to her on an island because she couldn't handle it).  Or maybe the coach just didn't know what he was doing.  Either way, she was doing to the right thing.  There was information that I was not privy to, therefore the criticism was unwarranted.  Let me also say the reverse was true.  I've seen the coach get upset with her, and I was ready to give the coach a piece of my mind.  Only to later find out that she had specific instruction do something and she had done the opposite (intentionally or not).  I've also thought certain players were dogging it on the field, only to find out after that they were sick or injured.  The lesson is that we generally know a lot less than what we think we do about what is going on out on the field.

I'd like to share on other example that is about coaching, but I think it relates to the idea I'm going after - not sure how well it will translate.  Within the last year, my daughter was on a team which included a skilled player with slow foot speed.  While this player could be useful, the coach decided this player should play outside defender.  The equivalent to putting your slowest linebacker on the outside where they have to cover receivers and tight ends from time to time.  It just won't work well against good teams with speed.  For a while, the opponents were weak enough (ie slow enough) that this worked out fairly well.  Then we played one of the big, bad (read fast) teams.  As I expected, they blew past our defender pretty much every trip down the field.  The coach (who put her in a position to fail) gets so upset that he forces her to stand on the sideline on the field of play for several minutes while play continues, yelling at her the whole time.  Things like "That's all you've been doing, standing around!"  She wasn't really standing around, she physically was incapable of running back fast enough to get there.  She could not have done any better.  For her efforts, she was humiliated in front of friends and family.  That certainly did not help her become a better player.  

Finally, I've found that players and employees perform better when given proper instruction and guidance than they do when constantly criticized.  Even the strongest of personalities gets beaten down over time with a constant barrage of criticism.  

That's going over the line an, IMO.  What I perceive on these boards is a lot of criticism that is over the line.  "Good thing Grothe got hurt, he sucked".  Yeah, that was classy.  And it worked out just as those posters thought, didn't it?