Thread: Ponder lets his arm do the talking

Originally Posted by Reignman

Apparently we don't need Doc Fargo because now we have Doc Marrdro xD.

That pretty much sums up the sentiment I have. I don't hate Ponder and I want him to succeed just as much as anyone else around here. I'll happily eat my crow if he pans out too, but I just don't see it. I was happy when we drafted him thinking maybe we finally found our very own franchise guy, and I was pulling for him early and often, but after 26 starts, that happiness has slowly turned into disappointment.

And whether I'm a keyboard warrior or not is irrelevant because I'm comparing Ponder to his peers. I've seen guys suck it up and play through much worse injuries in big games. All I expected was for him to give it a go. If he had come out early nobody would be questioning his toughness right now. That's the only point I was trying to make. Now we just have one more concern.

Maybe he was too injured to play and maybe that first drive would have been ugly, but just imagine if he had played and won with that injury, that my friends is how legends are made. But we'll never know because he never even tried.

Exactly!

All I want is this team to put a consistent team on the field year in and year out. I'm not expecting to have horseshoes up our a$$es like the cheesedicks and get back to back HOFer QBs (even though it sure would be nice). But get a solid guy that sticks around for 6, 7 years and does some special things. Hell, maybe Ponder will be that guy, but from what I've seen I don't have too much faith that he is. PLEASE, Ponder make me eat crow within the next couple years, it would be a serving I'd gladly take!

Yes, quarterbacks have had worse injuries than Ponder and have played. However, the location of the injury matters.

Rivers played on a torn ACL in the playoffs, and was respectable. He showed a lot of guts in a losing effort.

However, he doesn't throw the football with his knee.

If a quarterback can barely bend his throwing arm, he's a massive liability. Ponder needed help getting dressed, that's how limited his arm's mobility was. I cannot understand why people don't get this.

Brett played with a broken bone in his throwing hand

Originally Posted by Purple Floyd

Brett played with a broken bone in his throwing hand

It takes a lot of toughness to play with a broken bone in your throwing hand. Which bone was it?

It'd still be easier to play with a fractured metacarpal than to play with an arm you can't bend.

Originally Posted by VKG4LFE

My problem is that the top quarterbacks in this league past and present play with that injury. Are you going to try and tell me that Gayrod, Brees, Brady, either Manning, Favre, Elway, etc etc etc miss making that start? You would have to cut their arm off to not play in that game. It doesn't really matter too much now. We are stuck with him next year, hopefully he can keep improving and we get some downfield weapons for him and he can actually make the throws. I hope he proves me wrong and I have to eat crow, I'm sorry I just don't have a whole lot of faith in him.

It isn't that he couldn't play with an injury, its that he had an injury that prevented him from playing. What is so hard to understand about the little fact that he couldn't even bend his arm and it had nothing to do with pain.

Heres an article I found interesting...

VikesCentric: You're questioning Ponder's toughness? | StarTribune.com

o measure up to the Great Favre? (Oh, and not for nothing, but Favre did suffer a similar injury in 2008 with the Jets. He "sucked it up" and played through it, and the Jets lost four of their last five games as Favre threw two touchdown passes and nine interceptions in that stretch. Just sayin'.)

4. They could have shot him up with pain-killers and sent him out there. No, they couldn't have. I'm not sure why this point wasn't made more clearly in the postgame breakdowns, but the issue was never Ponder's pain tolerance. It was all about what his body was capable of doing on Saturday afternoon and evening. All the injections in the world wouldn't have reduced the swelling in his arm, which hampered his range of motion and prevented him from getting any power behind his throws. You can't fire an 18-yard sideline route to Jarius Wright when you can't raise your arm above your chin.

5. I would have gone to work with a bruised elbow. This one's my personal favorite. Yes, Internet Tough Guy (or Gal), I'm sure you would have shown up for your job at the law firm or factory or McDonald's with a similar injury. I would have too. Because most of us can figure out a way to do our jobs without having to raise our right arm above our shoulder. An NFL quarterback doesn't have that luxury. It's right there on the NFL quarterback application for employment: 1. Can you raise your throwing arm above your shoulder? If the answer to that question is "no," then you can't be an NFL quarterback. Even if you have a physically taxing job, you can probably make accommodations for a similar injury and still perform your duties at a slower pace. It should go without saying that the same does not apply for an NFL quarterback.
In the end, I'm guessing most of the Ponder-based angst stems from fans who are upset that the Vikings laid an egg in the playoffs and wanted somebody to be mad at. They needed to lash out because the thought of spending a week (or an entire offseason) alongside smug Packers fans after that loss is really hard to stomach. Maybe they were in the "play Joe Webb" camp all season and were embarrassed to be proven so wrong. Or they were upset with the Vikings' brain trust for having no legitimate backup quarterback to turn to when Ponder went down. So they found themselves a convenient scapegoat – the pretty-boy No. 1 draft pick who earns millions of dollars, married the blonde bombshell sideline reporter, and showed just barely enough improvement in his second season (in the last four games of his second season, actually) to tease the Vikings into running him out there again in 2013.
But I can say this with complete confidence: if Ponder had "sucked it up" and tried to play through the injury, only to heave a dying quail on the first possession that Charles Woodson picked off and returned for a touchdown, these same Internet tough guys would have been screaming at Ponder for being selfish, for putting himself ahead of his team, for desperately trying to hang onto his job when everybody knows that Joe Webb gives the Vikings the best chance to win.

Number five is on the money.

Originally Posted by Ranger

Number five is on the money.

I liked the reality bitch slap on the Noodles last for games playing hurt as well.

Originally Posted by Marrdro

It isn't that he couldn't play with an injury, its that he had an injury that prevented him from playing. What is so hard to understand about the little fact that he couldn't even bend his arm and it had nothing to do with pain.

Heres an article I found interesting...

VikesCentric: You're questioning Ponder's toughness? | StarTribune.com

You can't fire an 18-yard sideline route to Jarius Wright when you can't raise your arm above your chin.

Can he make this throw when he can raise his arm above his chin???

Originally Posted by VKG4LFE

You can't fire an 18-yard sideline route to Jarius Wright when you can't raise your arm above your chin.

Can he make this throw when he can raise his arm above his chin???

lol. Occasionally, although I wouldn't exactly call it "firing" the ball. More like "rainbowing" it...

Originally Posted by NodakPaul

Originally Posted by VKG4LFE

You can't fire an 18-yard sideline route to Jarius Wright when you can't raise your arm above your chin.

Can he make this throw when he can raise his arm above his chin???

lol. Occasionally, although I wouldn't exactly call it "firing" the ball. More like "rainbowing" it...

Haha yeah "rainbowing" seems like the appropriate term for an 18 yard ponder pass. We don' have our qb "tebowing" we have him "rainbowing"."