Aaron Brooks & Some Cowards

Let me begin by saying that I am not a big Aaron Brooks fan. I did not think he was very good at UVa, and I think he has never progressed into a better than average quarterback in the NFL. He has had some flashes, like '03 when he threw for 24 TDs against only 8 picks, and almost 4,000 yards, but never in a season has he had even a 90.0 quarterback rating. So, in summary, not terrible, not the guy that can carry your franchise to the Super Bowl on his back.

With that said, I find it incredibly cowardly of the Saints, or the NFL, or whoever is actually making these decisions, that after 82 straight starts, he suddenly, with no explanation, gets benched for the remainder of the season, replaced in the starting lineup by Todd Bouman. Now it would be one thing if they had a guy like Phillip Rivers or Alex Smith that they had to get into the lineup to get him some experience and see what he could do, but Bouman is a journeyman quarterback who has been in the league for 8 seasons. He even started a couple for the Vikings back in 2001 if I recall correctly. Bottom line, Bouman is not their QB of the future and they know it.

So benching Brooks can be attributed to only one thing: that Brooks came out and bad mouthed the NFL and how they treated his team in the wake of Katrina. The NFL does not like to be critiqued by its own (imagine if David Stern were the commissioner, Brooks may have been deported by now), and they and their clubs want to hush any problems before they start. I also find it curious of the timing in which the league announced that it was giving a bonus (a.k.a., hush money) of $40,000 to each member of the Saints for having to endure the hardships associated with the Hurricane.

While I am not, and likely never will be, an Aaron Brooks supporter, I do think he got a raw deal just for being candid with his feelings on how he and his teammates were treated this season.