ESPN The Magazine's Seth Wickersham has done it - driven me to tap my bottle of Bullet whiskey at 9:35 EST on a Sunday night. There's no earth-shattering news in his three-plus page story on David Carr in the recent issue of ESPN the Magazine (a periodical which I have repeatedly tried to cancel, but I stubbornly cling to as it is apparently impossible to The Magazine and not cancel an Insider subscription), but there is a tidbit wherein, according to Wickersham, Carr is an "overthinker" at QB and is trying to shed that label this offseason in Charlotte.
I have spent hours, if not weeks, criticizing David Carr over the past two to three years. Initially, I admired his toughness, grit, class and athleticism. Eventually, I determined that he was a great athlete who lacked the work ethic and/or intelligence to be a winning NFL QB. Anecdotes from local media types in Houston echoed my sentiment, and trust me, they were not advocating the position that Carr spent too many brain cells on the field. His reputation was that of a guy who was the last one to practice and first one to leave, who hated to watch tape and who was not even in the top ten of leaders on offense for his team.
I wish David Carr the best. Hopefully he faces off with Matt Schaub in The Big Game next February (and gets annihilated by Mario Williams on the first play from scrimmage). If Carr is to actually establish himself as a quality NFL QB, it will not be as a result of his failing to use his brain as much between the hashmarks. That would be like telling Rosie O'Donnell to stop being so parsimonious with her criticism of the Bush administration. Carr's got "not thinking" down to an art form. Apparently, Seth Wickersham has "lack of research" down just as well.