Film Breakdown: Championship QB's

Cam Newton and Peyton Manning aren't completely different. They both went to school in the SEC, were drafted #1 overall and have led their teams to Super Bowl 50. Alright, thanks for playing. That ends the similarities.

Newton is the most unique athlete in the history of the NFL. He's got arguably the strongest arm in the league attached to a 6'5", 250 pound frame. He's an absolute tank, which allows him to run and take hits that no other quarterback could stand up to. In fact, he's often delivering the blows. On top of his physical elite-ness, he's developed into a highly effective pro quarterback that's learned to play from the pocket at a very high level.

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Manning is arguably the smartest quarterback the league has ever seen. Despite the fact that his arm strength has greatly diminished, he's still effective because he's seen every defense an opponent can throw at him. It's impossible to trick him. He's not as effective as he once was thanks to his accuracy falling off this season, but he's still managed to find his way to his fourth Super Bowl. It might be cliche to say he's doing this on brains and guile, but it's also completely accurate.

Below are two plays that show off the skills of the two championship signal callers in a crack at a Cooley-less film breakdown.

Manning - TD Pass to Owen Daniels

This first quarter throw ended the Broncos first drive in six points. The Patriots look to be in a basic cover 2 zone. The two outside players have hook/flat responsibilities. The two high safeties (red boxes) are playing deep. It'll be up to the middle linebacker to cover the middle of the field between the two safeties. That player is Jamie Collins, who is lined up over the inside slot receiver, Owen Daniels, who has come in motion across the formation to his pictured spot below. Manning has seen this coverage roughly three billion times in his NFL career.

Note: the previous number is completely made up. But it's probably close...ish.

The Broncos have a hitch-fade combination on the outside with Daniels working the middle of the field. This route combination completely opens the middle of the field thanks to the slot receivers pressuring outside and deep. The safeties have to account for those routes, widening the space (blue box) in the middle of the field.

Daniels works Collins on a double move, getting behind him. Collins should be dropping (orange arrow), but instead falls for the move and stumbles forward.

Manning has a massive window to throw into (blue box, now bigger!). You can see how wide the safeties have gotten thanks to the deep developing routes. Both are nearly 10 yards outside the hashes. All Manning has to do is loft the ball over Collins and let Daniels run underneath it. He does. The Broncos took the lead and never gave it up.

Newton - QB Sweep, Rush TD

The Panthers offensive staff has done an incredible job over the past two season of figuring out how to use Cam Newton's unique set of skills to create the most versatile run game in the league. Ted Ginn's first quarter reverse touchdown was set up by the mere threat of Newton's ability to run. Here, they Panthers use that ability on a QB sweep.

Newton sends Mike Tolbert in motion and at the snap, Tolbert sprints away from the play, taking the middle linebacker with him. The look for this play is perfect. The hardest block in terms of angle is #68 Andrew Norwell, who has to get around the defensive tackle to seal him off. The other three down-blocks are all on great angles, while center Ryan Kalil (#67) and right guard Trai Turner (#70) will pull to block the corner and safety. The numbers and angles are all in Carolina's favor.




Norwell hits his block, as do the other linemen allowing for Newton to get the edge with relative ease. Greg Olsen has the toughest time, but the tight end does just enough to get Newton to the edge.

It's now 2-on-2 on the outside with the pulling linemen needing to block two defensive backs. That's harder than it sounds because of the quickness of the DB's, but it's a matchup in the Panthers favor.

Right tackle Michael Remmers (#74, on the 10 yard line) does an outstanding job sustaining his block, creating an alley for Newton to run in. Norwell destroys the corner (he'll finish the pancake in the next picture) and the play scoring will come down to Kalil landing on the safety.



Kalil lands his block as Newton steamrolls towards the end zone. He probably could've walked in around the edge, but he's Cam Newton, so he flies instead. Supercam leaps over the top of Kalil and the safety for six and the Panthers continued rolling into Super Bowl 50.



The two quarterbacks will surely be the focus of the next two weeks. Can Manning ride off into the sunset like John Elway did with the Broncos, as Elway promised when he recruited him a few years ago? Can Newton solidify himself as the face of the league with a title a la his friend Steph Curry did in the NBA?

All those storylines will be dissected over the next two weeks. The answers will heavily rely on their performances against the toughest test either will face all year.

David Blatt Was A Victim of Good Management

Sometimes in life things happen. Sometimes you do your job to the best of your ability and you get fired. This isn't about me, it's about David Blatt, the now former head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Plus, I wasn't fired. My position was eliminated. Pay attention!

Blatt was fired last Friday, despite the fact that the Cavaliers have the best record in the eastern conference and he led them to the NBA Finals last year. That seems preposterous and many coaches around the league acted as such.

“Teams have a right to make changes," Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said this weekend, "but David Blatt is going to be a highly sought-after coach this summer if and when there are openings — if he chooses to stay. You know, after this, you just hope a guy like this is still open to coaching in the NBA…. I’m embarrassed for our league that something like this could happen like this. It’s just bizarre."

Except it's not. Carlisle is the head of the NBA's coaches association and should stand up for a coach losing his job. That's his role, however merely looking at the record is being a slave to the results instead of the process, which someone like Carlisle knows the wrong way to approach any situation.

Blatt had lost respect in the locker room, and for a team that has title aspirations and capabilities, that's unacceptable. They had the best record in the east on talent alone. The goal is not to win. The goal is to be as good as you can possibly be, and Cavs GM David Griffin knew that with David Blatt as his head coach, that wouldn't be possible with this group of players.

That's an important distinction, too. Blatt was hired to coach a group of young players who would respect him because respecting coaches is all they've done their whole life. The game changes with NBA veterans, who have seen enough to question if a guy is up to snuff. Blatt's lack of knowledge of the NBA showed early, from not knowing other teams' tendencies to not understanding how to use timeouts. That lack of basic knowledge makes it hard to coach any group of NBA veterans, nevertheless the accomplished group that Griffin had assembled, starting with LeBron James.

The decision became even easier for Griffin when he looked one seat down on the bench and saw a capable replacement in Tyronn Lue. The long-time NBA veteran was a legit head coaching candidate, and was actually the runner up to Blatt to get the job in the summer of 2014. There would be no growing pains of bringing in an outsider. It was a rare situation that benefitted Cleveland, and Griffin pulled the trigger.

“I am confident [Lue] has the pulse of our team and that he can generate the buy-in required to start to refine the habits and culture we have yet to build," the Cavs GM said Friday. "There’s just a disconnect there right now, a lack of spirit and connectedness that I couldn’t accept.”

Whether it's building a basketball team, playing a sport or operating in business, the only way to win over the long term is to play the process, not the results. Do what is right, and more times than not, you'll come out on the right side.

So while Gregg Popovich can take pot-shots about the situation and other coaches can scream about the injustice done, the reality is David Blatt was a victim of good management. He was hired before James arrived, with management not selling out for LeBron. This was smart. The competence (in general, not necessarily with this move) actually helped attract him back to Cleveland.

Once James came, he did the best he could, but showed a need for serious growth to be an elite NBA coach. Griffin gave him time, but after not seeing enough grown and seeing his locker room dissolve, he made a decision to move on. That's smart. Is it fair to Blatt? Depends on your definition of fair.

He'll get another job and he should. He's a very smart basketball coach who simply needs to learn the NBA game. Some time with Popovich or Carlisle would actually be a great idea. For now though, Lue is the better option. 

Time to see if Griffin's proper process will lead to the desired result.

Nothing Could Be Finer

ESPN's Scott Van Pelt has a phrase he's fond of using: "everybody's from somewhere." My "somewhere" has always been a bit of a joke between friends. I'm from New York, but grew up in South Carolina and since have traveled all over the country roughly two years at a time from Tennessee to Central New York to Kansas to Texas and finally Washington, D.C.

Home though is South Carolina. I spent nearly all of my childhood in Greenville. It's where I was raised. It's where my parents still live. My childhood home is an hour and a half south of Bank Of America Stadium. Growing up the Panthers were the team that brought us together.



The team was an expansion franchise in 1995, founded just a few years earlier. My family moved from Pennsylvania to Greenville in 1994. The Panthers played their first season even closer, just 45 minutes away at Memorial Stadium in Clemson.

We were there for the team's first ever win against the Jets, much to the chagrin of the rest of my family. We watched as the team's gone up and down ever since, with high's in the championship games and Super Bowl appearances, and lows leading to the highest pick in the draft a team can get.

What's made this franchise fun to watch is that they never stay down for long. In 2002, they had the second pick in the draft following a miserable 2001 season (they would have been #1 if not for the expansion Houston Texans) and took Julius Peppers, who might just be the best player in franchise history. In 2003, they made the Super Bowl.

The same story is now being told as the team's most recent high pick has led them to the promised land. Panthers play-by-play voice Mick Mixon told me this story back in November:

The day came that Andrew Luck had decided to come back to Stanford for his last year and study architecture instead of becoming the first pick for the Carolina Panthers in the 2011 draft. And my buddy -- I don't want to say his name but his initials are Steven Drummond -- we were talking and I said 'Bo, relax.'  

He said, "Why?! This is a terrible day. The Panthers were gonna take Andrew..." 

I said, "I know, but there's a guy at Auburn named Cameron Jerrell Newton and he will change all of our lives. The intersection of our lives and his life will be a fascinating place where all of our football dreams could come true."

Here the full story and more:


Now he's on the verge, the sure league MVP and quickly becoming the face of the league. For as good as Newton is, Luke Keuchley is every bit his equal as a player on defense. The middle linebacker plays at a speed, both mentally and physically, matched by few in football.

The results have been spectacular and as a fan, it's been fun to watch. In a way, not being tied to another team as a reporter was incredibly fun yesterday. I could be a fan again, even if for a day. We don't get to do that much in this profession.

In the Carolinas, college sports rule. In North Carolina it's Duke and North Carolina basketball. In South Carolina it's Clemson and South Carolina football. As far as pro teams go, the Hornets moved when I was 12 before returning after I left, and the NHL's Hurricanes exist in Raleigh. That's it. That's all.

As a family with no ties to the area previously, moving in with the Panthers was our way in. Somewhere along the way we bought season tickets, and when we weren't at the stadium we were watching on television.

As surprising as it may be considering my passion for sports and my profession, no one else in my family is a die hard sports fan. The Panthers were the exception. We always watched. It always brought us together.

Last night I heard from my mom, dad and sister as the game came to a close. It's a reminder of what sports can be, and there's no better person to guide that premise than Newton, who seems to have more fun playing than any other athlete in sports.

London's Calling...Don't Pick Up

A report from the BBC News says that the NFL still has an eye on London for a permanent franchise. I don't understand why.

Well, I do understand why. The NFL wants to make money and, in theory, could do so by expanding internationally to a new market.

However, there is a point, even in making money, of diminishing returns. Eventually, you have to remember that these aren't pieces you're moving around a game board to make money. There are people involved. A company with the resources of the NFL should surely be able to treat them as such.

It takes a lot to run a football team. There are players, coaches, trainers, video guys, marketing people, a public relations staff, executives of all of those things and so much more. Do you think any of those people want to live in London?

There's nothing wrong with London other than it's really far away. It's that simple. Most of us value some level of accessibility to our families, and even if we live across the country, it's not across an ocean.

Forgetting everyone but the basic football people, the thought that a London franchise could be consistently competitive is laughable. They would never get a top flight coach. Any coach with options would have to be grotesquely overpaid to pick leaving everything they know in the states to head to Britain.

The same would be true for top flight free agents, or even lower level ones. Any players with options would not live in London if given the choice. That holds true for draft picks as well. Even if the London franchise hit on absurd level of picks, they'd have to build up so much loyalty while the players were on their rookie contracts that they wouldn't want to leave the instant they got the chance.

Drafted players are mostly 21-23 year old kids, many of whom have never left the country in their lives. You are absolutely insane if you don't think some flat out wouldn't sign, even if drafted. Would most? Probably. Having to sit out a year isn't fun, but there are absolutely players who would refuse.

This is all before you get to the scheduling and travel logistics. Could you really ask players to travel back and forth across the pond for eight road games? Getting across the ocean takes long enough, but what about that first Londoners game in LA? That's another six hours in the air for enormously large men who barely fit in an airplane seat to begin with. Then you want them to perform athletically at a high level, turn around and go back without time to recover? Good luck with that.

You could just split the schedule. They could host 8 games, have a bye, and then travel the states like nomads for the final 8 games of the regular season. I'm sure the folks in London will love that. "Hey guys, is our team coming back?"

The NFL owns the American sporting landscape and apparently that's not enough. I fully understand the desire to expand because who doesn't want to make more money, but there are limits to all things. I could make more money if fraud, theft and tax evasion weren't illegal. Just because there's a way, doesn't mean it's a good idea bereft of consequences.

The problem isn't about some xenophobia or even American exceptionalism that we're not willing to share our game. It's simply the constraints of space and time. Scheduling would be a disaster and London's a long ways away.

Don't overthink this one NFL. Unless you've got a teleportation machine you're hiding. In which case can I borrow it? I hear there's a lot of snow coming.

Here We Go Again

In an effort to not bury the lede, my position was eliminated today with ESPN980 and I am no longer with the station. It was made clear to me that this was a business decision that had nothing to do with my performance. That is the lede. That is over.

Now, woah.

The outpouring of support today has been somewhat overwhelming. Fortunately, it's been the only part that's been overwhelming. That is to say, I'm actually okay. For those that don't know, I've been through this before. I was sent packing in Lawrence, KS after a similarly short time on the job in an eerily similar circumstance to here, where the person who hired me left the company and I was gone shortly thereafter.

I had moved my life across the country and started to really settle in to a new place when my world was turned upside down. I survived. I moved on and wound up moving up. There's a lot farther up to go when you're in Lawrence, KS (as a radio market...I absolutely loved the town) than there is in Washington, DC but if I'm able to move on and stay at the same level I was here, I'll be perfectly happy.

And I know I can do it, which brings me back to the woah.

The support today came from all over. It came from colleagues. It came from friends. It came from "competitors" who were always kind no matter what. It came from people I worked along side day in and day out on the beat. It came from people who consumed what we did and apparently quite enjoyed it.

Redskins fans are by far the most passionate fans I've worked with, and that's no small feat considering where I've been. It's a passionate, intimate fandom spread literally around the world. I got emails from Europe and South America from people listening. I was blown away by the passion from the moment it was announced I was coming, and while many were skeptical as I made my way up from Dallas, apparently I did alright.

Of the hundreds of twitter replies I got today, there was one that was negative and it had to do with me coming from Dallas and it literally made me laugh out loud. What really got to me though is how many of you not just took time to reach out and say "hey, I'm sorry" but instead "hey, I really enjoyed what you did." That means the world. I don't know how else to say it.

Everyone works to achieve a goal. In the media business, our goal is to produce a product that the consumer enjoys. Apparently I was able to do that on a level I wasn't quite sure about until today.

This note is already longer than I wanted it to be, but I'd be remiss if I didn't thank everyone at 980 who made the last 5 months an amazing experience, in particular Sheehan and Cooley. Kevin was always available to make sure I was good and to answer any question I had. That's a hell of a resource for a kid trying to figure out this market on the fly. If you liked what I did, thank Kevin. Seriously, he deserves it.

As for Chris, let me put this bluntly. The work I got to do with Cooley will literally shape my life from here on out. How I look at sports is different because of him. He probably won't read this. That's okay. I told him. I sincerely hope everyone realizes how lucky they are to have him. Other markets don't have guys like that. I'm privileged to have worked with the dude and count him as a friend as I move forward.

My family and girlfriend have been amazing in their support and I know they will continue to be. It's part of the reason I know I'm gonna be okay. I'll be employed again, hopefully soon and life will go on. I sincerely hope the passionate Skins fans who have loved what we've done continue to have an outlet that produces the content you crave and deserve. Because make no mistake about it, you deserve it.

All updates on what I'm doing will be here. I'll also probably start writing here and we'll see if we can dust off the "Funemployment Podcast" for old time's sake.

In the meantime, thanks again for everything. Off to the next one.

Work Samples

Below are some samples of my work. For resume and references, please contact me here. For a full archive of my ESPN980.com blog, click here. Please also check out my new website: HoffmanShow.com.

Interview (In Studio):



Talk Show (Solo, Un-Scoped Hour):



Want more of me on TV? Click here or here! Plus, Follow @craighoffman


Talk Show (Co-Host):



Talk Show (As Reporter):


Interview (Phone):


A Conversation With a Coach On a Couch:

Archive of coach conversations: http://www.espn980.com/?s=conversation+with+a+coach+on+a+couch&submit=Search

Reporter Montage:


Talk Show (Game Sample - Headline Jukebox):


Essay (On Rape in College Athletics, from 4/19/14)


Original Imaging Montage (Rejoins, Opens, Bits, etc):


Original Voiced Bit:


Sportscenter Update:


Event-centered Special: