Kyle Orton: The Great White Hype
It is a very unpredictable and uncertain time; a time when stocks are fluctuating like crazy, a time when the Middle-East is in turmoil, and a time when there’s always plenty of Schadenfreude to go around?
These are troubled times indeed, my friend, and only one man can bring it back to the way it once was…
Fuck if I know who it is, but the following is a story of Kyle Orton:
Through six games, The Bearded Hero has completed 61.6 percent of his throws, passed for 1,386 yards — ironically, only one yard less than Rex Grossman had at this point in ’06 — and has eight touchdowns and 4 interceptions. All that lends itself to a very impressive 87.6 quarterback rating. Of course, impressive is skewed by the long-standing Bears quarterback curve.
What makes Orton’s story so improbable, so remarkable, is that nobody ever took him seriously. If you did, you’re either a fool or a liar, or the rare fairly common foolish lying asshole. C’mon! Orton was/is a Jack and Coke lovin’, phenomenally blessed grower of facial hair, womanizing, fun time, all-around party guy. To put it bluntly, he is money. But now he’s money with the football prowess to back it up.
Watching him lead the Bears to victory a touchdown in the final seconds of Sunday’s loss to Atlanta was beautiful. Not only in the sense that it was executed to perfection, but also for the reverie I felt caught up in. A wishful thought where shitty quarterbacks of Bears past were no longer.
Orton has, at least momentarily, arrived. He isn’t simply a game manager any longer. Kid can play.
I always took Orton seriously and now that he is decent nobody believes that I was on the Orton bandwagon since he was a Rookie. Back then everyone just called him a game manager whose sole purpose was not to turn the ball over. He did ok at that but they never gave him a chance to play out of the shotgun, which is where he had success in college. I am proud to say that I’ve been on the Orton wagon from the beginning and I’ve NEVER been a Grossman supporter, even during his best games in ’06
Well, you can’t win a game by yourself… no matter how good you are. I just bite my nails and wait for next week…