Signing on as a back-up quarterback in the NFL means being ready for anything.
Or, perhaps, nothing at all.
Some back-ups spend an entire season on the sidelines, never taking a meaningful snap.
Others inherit the weight of a franchise’s hopes.
Back-ups who play and do well, like Matt Hasselbeck of the Indianapolis Colts, are feted as saviours.
Back-ups who play and fail, like Brandon Weeden of the Dallas Cowboys, may find themselves quickly out of work.
Heading into the final month, much of this NFL season has been about those second-stringers who never knew what to expect.
“You have to embrace the craziness of it,” Matt Cassel of the Cowboys told the Associated Press.
The “craziness” unfolded in a big way this fall when four of the league’s elite quarterbacks – Andrew Luck, Tony Romo, Peyton Manning and Ben Roethlisberger – were injured.
Those bad breaks have turned out well, so far, for Luck’s Colts and Manning’s Denver Broncos.
Romo’s injury has been awful for the Dallas Cowboys.
As for Roethlisberger’s Pittsburgh Steelers, it is hard to tell just yet.
The Steelers went 2-3 with Michael Vick and Landry Jones starting in Big Ben’s place.
Pittsburgh now stand on the cusp of play-off contention at 6-5 with Roethlisberger ready to play today against the 6-5 Colts, who will have Hasselbeck still running the show in Luck’s place.
For the 40-year-old Hasselbeck, a veteran of four NFL teams, it has been a heroic effort. Luck has been in and out of service, winning just two of seven games as the starter.
Hasselbeck is 4-0 as the starter, which he told Triblive.com has been a pleasant surprise.
“Probably, people thought that would be unlikely, myself included,” said Hasselbeck, who in his younger days led the Seattle Seahawks to a Super Bowl.
“You have to prove you can still do things, and play well and play a young man’s game.”
Hasselbeck has completed 65 per cent of his passes with seven touchdowns and two interceptions.
“Obviously, at his age, being 4-0 as a back-up quarterback, it’s great for us,” Colts coach Chuck Pagano said. “We’re very, very fortunate and I just hope he keeps it going.”
Denver played most their season behind an obviously hobbled Manning.
Understudy Brock Osweiler, in his fourth year and totally untested in a serious situation, took over two weeks ago and won on the road against the Chicago Bears and then at home against New England, ending the Patriots unbeaten season.
At this point, there is no rush to get Manning back in the huddle.
Dallas had the opposite experience, starting 2-0 but losing Romo to a broken collarbone.
Back-up Weeden went 0-3.
Cassel, who began the year as the Buffalo Bills back-up, was acquired in a trade after Romo was injured.
After three weeks watching Weeden fall short, Cassel took over and went 0-4 before Romo returned – only to re-fracture his collarbone.
Weeden, meanwhile, had been released.
Cassel will run the attack for the 3-8 Cowboys the rest of the way, for what it’s worth.
Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said he was hopeful Cassel was warming to the job, after a tough introduction.
“There’s so many nuances and details of playing that position, and understanding the system and understanding the guys you are playing with,” Garrett said regarding the demands on a fill-in quarterback.
Ready or not, the world will find out if you are soon enough.
WHEN IS A CATCH NOT A CATCH? EVEN VIDEO REPLAY CANNOT SAY AT TIMES
The more the NFL has employed replay video to help officials determine whether a catch was really a catch, the more this became apparent: Sometimes, you really just cannot tell.
Anyone who thinks he or she can explain what a legal catch is in the NFL could also teach string theory in a graduate physics class.
When did the receiver have firm possession of the ball?
When did he establish himself as a runner?
Did he get two feet in bounds at the precise moment he had control of the ball?
Did he control the ball all the way through his tumble to the ground? Did the receiver have the ball securely in his hands when it touched the ground?
Did he use the ground to secure the ball?
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has appointed an informal committee of former football executives and players to come up with a firmer definition of a legal catch, and advise the league’s formal Competition Committee.
The idea is to create specific parameters that replay officials can apply while watching super slow-motion video of a caught (or not caught) pass.
“We all realise officials are going to make mistakes,” said Goodell, who, understandably, wants technology to right all wrongs.
New standardised parameters may help, to a degree.
In the end, it will be human eyeballs watching those replays, and making subjective judgments about what they see.
One man’s catch may still be another man’s incompletion.
New standards?
Great, but expect the same old arguments.
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