was his abdomen. I cant for the life of me imagine playing through that type of injury, yet he did.

I remember watching a game where the commentators where talking about Tamba’s foot problems and how they stemmed from the fact that his feet were too wide for his shoes. The cameras zoomed in on Tamba’s feet you could see how his feet awkwardly stretched over the sides of his nikes. It looked pretty bad.
In Liberia, Tamba always walked barefoot. He never even owned a pair of shoes until he came to the states as a teenager. Consequently, his feet are really flat and wide. I wouldn’t be able to walk with those shoes, let alone play football. The foot issue is legitimate problem, though a fixable one. Does anybody know if the chiefs ordered him a pair of custom cleats? It might be a bright idea since we just traded the best player on the team.

On the nickname, Tamba would probably know better than anyone that the real Liberian Nightmare is to be unfortunate enough to be living in that country. I’m sure you can rhyme something catchy with Tamba’s name without dredging up images of his bloody nation.

Now the PARADE’s support has backfired before (the mistaken Trent Green playoff return hype). But, the PARADE feels this is a little more justified. I recall some sort of nagging shoulder injury, this could be a misconception based on some Hard Knocks footage of a massive taped up and iced down Hali, but I want to say I read shoulder somewhere else. Double teams aside, playing through shoulder pain as DE has to be pretty impressive.

Second, I can’t back this up with any statistics on “hurrys” (kind of a BS stat as far as how they’re counted IMO), but I seem to recall a lot of JA’s sacks were preceded by Hali passing behind or forcing the QB from the pocket. Hali was definitely instrumental in JA’s “contract year.” That said, there are some rushers who can get back there but never seem to get to the QB. This may have to do with the left v. right distinction, but regardless, I don’t think Hali will be to blame if our D “under produces.” If our defensive production as a whole is working, then I’m confident Hali will be above average to an elite.

It, like everything else next season, ALL TURNS ON THE CHAN.

Also, for nicknames the PARADE likes “HAL-I BOMAYE, HAL-I BOMAYE,” which is what they chanted in Zaire before the Rumble in the Jungle. Of course bomaye means “kill him” so I don’t know how comfortable America is with that either.

“Also, you could just as easily argue that the extra attention Jared Allen inevitably drew last year led to fewer blockers to tend to Hali.”

I am not sure about this claim…I think whether or not Hali was double-teamed had much more to do with what the TE’s assignment was, and how sucky our DT’s were. If the Center could handle the left DT, then the guard could help the RT with Hali…if the TE didn’t run a route, he could help the tackle with Hali…Allen drawing the double or triple team should have only benefited one player, the right DT (I say should have, because even 1-on-1, our DT’s did jack squat for the most part last year)

Which is better? Which one is more likely to make you jump out of your seat during a game? While the other team can still recover the fumble, I’d say one FF equals about three sacks, wouldn’t you? Which stat is more impressive: 15 sacks or 8 FFs?

Eight FFs in two years jumps out at me. To go along with that, I keep reading that Hali has missed a sack or two because he went for the arm/FF.

Why do sacks get so many more headlines than FFs? Is it just because the word “sack” is easier and more fun to say? Are FFs considered too few or too lucky to make headlines? Kind of like blocked punts? And sorry I’m too lazy to look it up while I’m typing this, but how many FFs did Jared have in his career here? I know he had some, and I’m thinking it was three last year.

Where’s the love for the FF and the ball hawks that cause them?

Alot of people are comparing a young DE in his first two seasons to Jared Allen in his fourth season. I think thats an unfair comparison.

Lets compare both their stats in their first two years:

Jared Allen
2004 9 Sacks 24 Tackles
2005 11 Sacks 50 Tackles

Tamba Hali
2006 8 Sacks 45 Tackles
2007 7.5 Sacks 46 Tackles

Jared has played his entire career at RDE on the QBs blind side which netted him 4.5 more sacks than Hali coming from LDE in his first two years. Hali however was clearly the more consistant tackler with 17 more tackles between the two years.

How much better would Hali’s numbers have been had he been coming from the Right Side those two years? Should be good for another sack or two a year I would think. And lets not forget that although Allen was the sack leader last year with an impressive 15.5 sacks, the year before he only had 7.5.

Jared is a good DE no question. But I think it is unfair comparing a guy that has a couple years less experience and is fighting through TEs and in the middle of the QBs field of vision to a more experienced guy coming in on the blind side, usually on an island by himself with the LT.

Allen was good, but lets not fool ourselves. He was not the best DE ever. He actually was only the best DE for one season. It won’t be impossible to replace him. I think Hali can have comparable and consistant success without Allens ups and downs.