Ask Amile : Redskins & Raider Fan Talk PLUS...The Art of Tackling

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From the inbox

Q. Why are so many people writing off the Redskins so quickly? In my opinion their season is very unpredictable. Their defense looks very good on paper and has the potential to be great. Their offense has had reasonable upgrades at key positions, and they have great depth at tight end. As for the quarterback issue, I don't see a huge issue. Rex Grossman did lead a team to the Super Bowl and John Beck hasn't had a chance to prove anyone wrong or right, so it's wrong to write him off. Do you think that the Redskins have the potential to go .500 or have a wild card spot this year?

Robert from Leesburg, Va.

A. "Potential" is a dirty word in the NFL, and I think most of the doubt relating to the Redskins revolves around their QB situation because their run game has looked stellar thus far in the preseason. No matter who starts for the Skins, he clearly will be the least accomplished passer in a very tough division, and therein lies the problem. Although I think we know what Grossman is as a quarterback, I believe the jury is still out on Beck. I don't know how people can have such definitive opinions after four starts as a rookie for a horrendous Dolphins team. He might be terrible, or he could end up being great or something in between, but how does anyone know at this point? They don't. The Shanahans are staking their reputation on him, which means either way it will be very interesting.

Q. Do you think that tackling is a lost art in the NFL? It seems that so many players go for that "Big Hit" that there are far too many missed tackles. I'm not trying to take anything away from the RBs, WRs etc., breaking tackles, but defenders seem to look for the highlight reel hit or the "Ole!" arm-tackle."Your thoughts?

Pat from Indianapolis

A. I'm not surprised to get this email from Indy, given how poorly the Colts' defense has tackled thus far this preseason. As far as overall tackling, this is something that I hear all the time. Most people just accept it as fact, but I am not convinced. I'd love to see some sort of metrics that support the thesis that tackling is a lot worse now than it used to be. Sometimes I think it is kind of like the "when I was your age, I used to walk five miles to school uphill barefoot in the snow" thought process. There are plenty of players who are very sure tacklers. Maybe those who aren't shouldn't be on the field.

Q. As a Raider fan it is hard to become excited about this upcoming season, so is there anything that the Raider Nation and I should pay attention to in order to stay interested in our team?

Brian from Rubidoux, Calif.

A. I share your concern about the Raiders this year and am very disappointed by their offseason. The Raiders have an awesome fan base, and the league is more interesting when they are good. I fear they are going in the wrong direction this year. They won more than five games for the first time since 2002, going a respectable 8-8 last season, yet they fired their head coach and lost their best offensive player (Zach Miller), defensive player (Nnamdi Asomugha) and offensive lineman (Robert Gallery) in free agency. That's not good. Seems to me that with the exorbitant contracts that they gave to Michael Huff, Kamerion Wimbley and Stanford Routt, the Raiders paid the wrong guys. When you talk with other executives around the league, it always seems as though the Raiders are negotiating with themselves. No other team would have given contracts even close to the amount that the Raiders gave those three good but not elite players.

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Chris Johnson ......still no word?

Holdout running back Chris Johnson arrived in Nashville Tuesday after posting on this Twitter page earlier in the day that he would discuss his contract demands with Tennessee Titans general manager Mike Reinfeldt in a meeting scheduled for Wednesday.

Johnson told The (Nashville) Tennessean that he wasn't sure if the meeting would result in a new deal. Agent Joel Segal declined comment to the newspaper.

"I want to be here. We'll see," Johnson told the Tennessean.

While the Titans publicly stated they are willing to make Johnson the highest-paid running back in the NFL, those close to the player believe he should be paid as one of the NFL's top playmakers -- not just as a running back, sources familiar with the situation have told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter.

League sources have told ESPN senior NFL analyst Chris Mortensen that Johnson is seeking a deal that would pay him $39 million over the first three years, a $13 million average, which would place him in that elite status he is seeking beyond the running back market.

When the newspaper asked Johnson what would occur if the Titans wouldn't agree to his salary demands, he said he would reserve comment until after Wednesday's meeting.

"I have no answers today. I'll answer that tomorrow," he told the newspaper.

Johnson's holdout started when he didn't report to training camp with the rest of the Titans on July 29. Reinfeldt told The Associated Press on Aug. 11 that they were willing to make Johnson the highest-paid running back in league history.

Johnson, who is due to earn more than $1 million in 2011 in the fourth year of his five-year contract, tweeted "god is good" to Larry Fitzgerald on Saturday night after news broke about the Arizona receiver's deal worth up to $120 million (with nearly $50 million in guaranteed money).

Johnson and Segal probably shouldn't be counting on Bud Adams to speed up the process. The Titans' owner said Sunday that with two years left on the running back's contract, he backs Reinfeldt.

I'm Just Saying...

Chris Johnson wants to be paid more than what a top running back gets paid, but last season he didn't rank in the top three in any major individual rushing category.

Chris Johnson Rushing, Last Season

	Total	NFL Rank
Yards	1,364	4th
Rushes	316	6th
TD	11	T-6th
YPG	85.3	7th
Yds per rush	4.3	19th

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"I'm not gonna make any offer with the way he's acting. Life's too short," Adams told TitanInsider.

Tennessee rolled up 198 yards rushing in a 17-16 loss at St. Louis on Saturday night without Johnson. Rookie Jamie Harper started in place of Johnson's backup, Javon Ringer, and the fourth-round pick from Clemson ran 11 times for 83 yards and a touchdown.

Stafon Johnson added 68 yards rushing and the Titans outgained the Rams 198-44 on the ground.

Coach Mike Munchak said the Titans aren't going to entertain trade offers for Johnson, a three-time Pro Bowl running back who has the most yards rushing of any NFL back the past three seasons. The coach also doesn't agree that the Titans picked up negotiating leverage with how well they ran the ball through some big holes without Johnson.

"I could easily stand here and say CJ would've scored on three of those," Munchak said. "I don't know if he would have, but with his speed coming through there ... We're lucky we had guys who stepped up."

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Alleged Kobe Bryant incident probed ....why am I not surprised

San Diego police have confirmed to ESPN that they are investigating an incident involvingLos Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant.

No charges have been filed.

According to multiple reports, Bryant was attending a service at a church in Carmel Valley, Calif., on Sunday when he thought someone was taking pictures of him with a cell phone. Bryant allegedly took the phone from the man, but when he didn't see any pictures on it, he left the church.

The man said he had to go to a hospital for treatment after his wrist was injured in the incident.

"Something occurred," a San Diego police department spokesman told ESPN, "and [Bryant] was involved. The investigation is ongoing. We're following up on the allegations and trying to sort it out."

Why does this not surprise me?? Im not saying this because I am a huge LAKER HATER, but lets be honest here: Didnt anyone seen this coming? *Kanye Shrug*

Leonard Pope's heroics ....thanks to the NFL lockout

Jamie Squire/Getty ImagesWere it not for the NFL lockout, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Leonard Pope might not have been where he was needed most on June 11.

You might have not liked the NFL lockout, but Anne Moore did. The lockout saved her little boy's life.

On the afternoon of June 11, 6-year-old Bryson Moore wandered too far into the deep end of a pool at his cousin's birthday party in Americus, Ga. Soon he was sinking, face down.

Anne began to scream, "Get him! Get him! He's drowning!" But she didn't know how to swim. Neither did anybody else standing around the pool. All they could do was watch Bryson go under.

Inside, though, 6-foot-7 Kansas City Chiefs tight end Leonard "Champ" Pope heard the screaming and ran out.

A father of two girls himself, he was bent on doing something, but he couldn't see anything. Finally, he saw two little hands barely above the water. He dove in -- cellphone, wallet, keys, everything.

Pope went deep, brought Bryson up by his waist and handed him to his mother.

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C.H.A.M.P. Foundation/Nadine PopeBryson Moore with his favorite football player, TE Leonard Pope of the Kansas City Chiefs.

Bryson's mom didn't get a chance to thank Pope. She was too busy rushing Bryson to the hospital, where he would check out fine. By the time she got back, Pope was gone. She was so overcome that she stayed up all night staring at Bryson while he slept and thanking God for sending a man like Leonard Pope.

"If I'd had a million dollars," she later told Pope on the phone, "I'd have given it to you right there and then."

But here's the thing: Without the lockout, Pope wouldn't have been at the birthday party for his fiancée's 3-year-old cousin. He'd have been in Kansas City at a minicamp.

Thank you, greedy NFL owners everywhere.

Here's the other thing: According to a study conducted by the USA Swimming Foundation in 2009, nearly 70 percent of African-American kids and nearly 60 percent of Hispanic-American kids have "low or no ability" to swim, as opposed to 42 percent of white children. It doesn't get much better among African-American adults, either.

"It's amazing how many people have come up to me since this all happened and admitted they can't swim, either," says Pope, who learned at 9. "Fully grown people! It's crazy. There have been two drownings here in Kansas City since it happened."

What Pope didn't know when he dove in is that another Kansas City Chief never learned to swim and it cost him his life.

On June 29, 1983, Chiefs star running back Joe Delaney heard the screams of three young boys sinking fast in a Monroe, La., pond. Delaney couldn't swim, but he dove in anyway. He was able to save one of the boys, but not himself. Delaney died that day with the other two boys.

Pope is very much like Delaney was. Delaney would cut the lawns of old people in his neighborhood just because he knew they couldn't do it. Pope is like that. He checks in on old people he knows, just to make sure they're OK. When the hospital in Americus was smashed by a tornado, Pope jumped in head-first and helped raise $35,000 to fix it.

Pope didn't know Delaney's story, but he did know about Cullen Jones, only the third African-American to make an Olympic swimming team. Jones, who won gold in the 4x100m relay in the 2008 Beijing Games, didn't take up swimming until after he nearly drowned at a water park at 5 years old and had to be resuscitated by lifeguards. His mom made him take lessons the next week.

And young Bryson?

"No, he hasn't wanted to go back near the water since," Pope says. "But he'll learn to swim, once he gets over the shock."

His mom says Bryson gets panicky when she even drives in the direction of that swimming pool. But so many people have come up to her and said, "Because of you, I'm taking my child for swimming lessons" that she has decided to offer Bryson a deal. "If you take lessons, I'll take them with you," she told him.

Maybe that's why Pope is now giving free swimming lessons to kids through his foundation -- C.H.A.M.P. Jones is doing the same, as part of USA Swimming's "Make a Splash" program.

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US PresswireChiefs' RB Joe Delaney died in 1983 while trying to save three young boys from drowning in a pond.

After his dive, Pope became a hero in this country, only he didn't know it. His phone was ruined, and he didn't get a new one for a week.

"I was having to borrow people's phones at the airport," he says. "Perfect strangers. I finally called my girl, and she said, 'Where have you been! Call your agent! Call your auntie! Everybody wants to talk to you!'"

Funny about Chiefs players. Remember three summers ago, in Huntington Beach, Calif., when another Chiefs tight end -- Tony Gonzalez -- saved a man who was choking to death on a piece of steak by applying the Heimlich maneuver?

"[His girlfriend] was screaming, 'He can't breathe, he can't breathe!'" Gonzalez, now on the Atlanta Falcons, said at the time. "The whole restaurant was quiet. Nobody was doing anything. Then I saw he was turning blue. Everybody in the restaurant was just kind of sitting there wide-eyed."

Say what you want about pro athletes, but if you're in trouble, they're very handy to have around. Not only are they genetic superhumans but they've been trained to react in an instant, to jump in where others fear to go and to execute flawlessly in chaos, whether it's a double-reverse handoff or a mother screaming for her drowning child.

Anne Moore knows it. She says Leonard Pope was born to be a hero.

After all, she says, "his name is Champ."