Here’s a nugget about Saints quarterback Drew Brees that might at first glance feel like a dagger in the heart for Vikings fans.
In the current SportsCenter rotation, some guy we’ve never before seen explains on behalf of something called “Sport Science” that Brees was asked to throw ten footballs at an official Olympic archery target.
Brees hit the bull’s-eye every time. Four of the throws hit the dead center of the target.
In contrast, archers at the 2008 Olympics hit the bull’s-eye less than 50 percent of the time.
Of course, the circumstances are entirely different. The Olympic archers were competing under the pressure of, you know, the Olympics. And while the archers who qualify for the games are indeed the best in the world, the best archers from whichever country dominates the archery competition (we assume it’s England because of, you know, Robin Hood) are likely a lot better than the Kazakhstan contingent.
Brees, in contrast, was throwing the balls under zero pressure, with no pass rush and no coverages to be discerned and no targets moving at 4.4-in-the-40 speed.
Then there’s the relatively significant fact that Olympic archers (according to ESPN.com) fire their arrows from 230 feet away. (That’s 76.6 yards.) Though the guy we’ve never before seen was careful to point out the speed (52 mph) and the launch angle (six degrees) of the balls Brees threw, no mention ever was made of Drew’s distance from the target.
And the guy we’ve never before seen said nothing about the 76.6-yard firing distance for Olympic archers. So because the guy we’ve never before seen was so careful to point out the speed and launch angle of the balls but omitted reference to the concept of distance from target, most viewers probably assumed that Brees was throwing his balls from the same spot that the Olympic archers shoot their arrows.
So, basically, the comparison is pretty much useless. But since ESPN spent good money to trademark the phrase “Sport Science,” they have to use it for something.
UPDATE: As it turns out, Sport Science is a show on one of the various ESPN networks. It previously aired on FSN. The Brees experiment occurred months ago, at which time the folks at FOX were still paying the bills. Here’s the video. Brees was throwing from 20 yards; the eight-plus-minute segment fails to mention that the Olympic archers are shooting from nearly four times that distance. And video images of people shooting arrows create the false impression that Olympic archers fire from a much shorter distance than five feet longer than three-fourths of a football field.
SECOND UPDATE: Apparently, some of the commenters fall squarely within the least-common-denominator demographic that ESPN was targeting with its subtly misleading segment on Brees’ accuracy. The story was presented TODAY on ESPN, with no mention as to when Brees threw the balls at the archery target. As far as the audience knew, he did it this week.
Actually South Korea rules the archery world.
They do say in the show how far away Brees is, and the comparison is complete BS. He’s only 20 yards away. So almost 3/4′s closer then the archer would be.
http://www.theospark.net/2009/04/video-drew-brees-sport-science.html
…schism
Because of this, somewhere at ESPN, someone is preparing to proclaim Brees as the greatest QB ever.
Posted like a true Vikings fan, Florio.
while the comparison was useless, the extensive analysis that you provided takes the cake.
Guy you’ve never seen before? You’ve never seen Sports Science?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVoqA-LKGb4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVoqA-LKGb4
Video Link Above
You can find the video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVoqA-LKGb4
And North Korea rules the drab gray jumpsuit world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVoqA-LKGb4
Watch this then update your post
Obviously, you don’t watch Olympic archery. All archers are subject to a pass rush. During the 2008 Olympics, the English archer got a broken clavicle and torn labrum from a blitzing linebacker from Germany. And the exotic coverage packages by the Italian secondary are second to none.
Where have you been? That particular episode of Sports Science aired last summer.
Wtf? This old news. I thought Sports Science was a show on Fox Sports, and Brees did a segment on that show where he threw balls against an archer. Or whatever, it’s been so long since I’ve seen it. Look it up on youtube or something. I don’t recall him throwing from 76 yards, but it’s still impressive none the less.
I saw that video 6 months ago, and was blown away by his accuracy, even if I knew, that he stands much closer to the targed. Old news anyway…
Stand Drew up in front of an Olympic Champ archer, say 75 yards. Brees throws his football at the archer, the archer shoots for Brees. Who is more likely to be dead?
WTF kind of story is this?
Still crazy impressive job by Brees without the comparison to the archers.
you… do know that’s over a year old, right?
but its still really cool.
Yeah but on the field with a pass rush and moving target Brees is the most accurate QB in the history of the NFL. Good enough for me.
Let’s not downplay how impressive it is for Brees to throw that accurately, even without full-speed game conditions and even given the invalid comparison to archers.
What I’d really like to see is how other NFL quarterbacks would compare to Brees in hitting the bulls-eye at 20 yards. I would guess Brees would still distinguish himself among other QB’s.
Regardless of the distance or the comparison to Olympic archers, Brees is pretty darn impressive.
Everything about ESPN sucks so who cares?
This is really old. I remember seeing this like a year ago. They also did one where they measured how hard Quintin Jammer hits a receiver over the middle. Apparently its the same force as a car crash.
“Skewed and slanted journalism” …and this surprises whom?!?!?
“while the comparison was useless, the extensive analysis that you provided takes the cake.”
haha
Tell Brees to bend over and see if I don’t put nine out of ten arrows up his dark spot at twenty yards. Florio, you’re welcome to participate as well.
They did one about Joey Porter sacking the QB. I think they said it was like getting run over by an elephant or something.
i think whats funnier is josh mccown is unable to hit >50% of his throws at targets with no one in his face.
Kris Jenkins did one as well, to measure the force of a d-lineman off the snap. It’s worth watching just to see the other guy get tossed around like a ragdoll.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn2svE2Aw7A
Check out this cute Pampers video of Drew Brees and his son Baylen http://www.youtube.com/pampers Go Saints!
Bad science…but good answer. Brees is pretty good. I am really excited about the game tomorrow!!!
Florio, you’ve got no ground to be talking about “least common denominator” when you’re stirring up crap and insults based on a total non-issue. More goofy crap from the mental midget.
the one with Kris Jenkins was hillarious
HAHAHAHA
Well, until we get all the exact details of when and where Brees was throwing from, I’m going to care even less about this story that I normally would have. And I normally wouldn’t have cared at all.
Also, this video has been old news for a while now. Don’t play the “As far as anyone knew he did it last week” card just because you’d never seen it. Why don’t you get back to making some fresh Seinfeld references. You’re clearly a guy with his finger on the pulse of America.
Great work, Florio.
The video is on YouTube and it is impressive. Brees isn’t throwing from where archers shoot, but what you are missing is the “muscle memory” it takes to make the same throw over and over the way Brees does. And the thing that really makes this impressive is he went 10 for 10. not 8 or 9 for 10, but 10 for 10. It my not be the Olympics, but the only quarterback I can think of that could the target as well as Brees did would be Peyton Manning.
The ESPN article fails to mention several factors, but Profootballtalk fails to mention they would be wetting all over themselves if the quarterback in question was Farve and not Brees.
“And North Korea rules the drab gray jumpsuit world.”
Well done.
So since Brees wasn’t able to launch a football 75 yards away with a crossbow, lets see the archers throw their arrows from 20 yds away and see how they do? No idea why this bugs me so much, but I think someone (Florio and crew) needs to take off his Viking helmet for the day.
NBC and ESPN…all favre all the time. Now you complain about a segment done a year ago on the “non-magical” quarterback? BTW, I think it was pretty damn impressive.
Brees could clean up at a carnival. All your teddy bears belong to him!!!
It figures that FOX was originally behind this. Surprising that they didnt splice a crowd shot into the scene.
Florio, did you prove something here? What? That Brees isn’t as good as we all thought? Is that it? Hey world, guess what? Drew Brees isn’t that accurate!
Wait.
Uhhh…didn’t he just break the record for accuracy in the NFL? Oh yeah.
Florio, isn’t there enough real football news out there for you or do you just revel in pissing in the Saints oatmeal all the time? Thank God it wasn’t Reggie Bush in the video. You’d never let it go.
Watched it .Was totally stupid. Meant nothing.
Why not let the archers shoot a few arrows at some wide receivers, like T.O., T.J., Roy Williams, to name a few. Let them shoot at Drew’s targets just to balance things out.
Why not let the archers shoot a few arrows at some wide receivers, like T.O., T.J., Roy Williams, to name a few. Let them shoot at Drew’s targets just to balance things out.
Fan_Of_ Four says:
January 23, 2010 11:54 AM
Tell Brees to bend over and see if I don’t put nine out of ten arrows up his dark spot at twenty yards. Florio, you’re welcome to participate as well.
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When was the last time you were involved in a three-way that didn’t include Favre and Childress? You’re branching out.