Vikings Message Board.Com

GBFavreFan wrote: I take exception to this statement as it implies that our evaluation of Christian Ponder is somehow based on personal feelings and ignoring his football ability. As if we will just hate anything Ponder does because he is Ponder. I'm pretty sure everyone else who hates Ponder can agree with me on this, our dislike of this man is based 100% purely ON his ability to play football. It's not like how some hate Percy because of contract stuff, or hate Michael Vick because of the dogfighting or hate Jay Cutler because of his face that makes you want to punch it, I think most people are completely indifferent to Ponder off the field, or believe him to be a nice guy and a good teammate. I'd go so far as to say most of know little to nothing of his personal life or his personality off the field.

I don't think anyone has a personal beef with Ponder at all, and everyone was quite hopeful of him the first half of his career, but his inability to play QB at a NFL level is what infuriated all of us, and why we hate him with a passion, because we want him nowhere near the field of play in a Vikings jersey because he makes us a weaker team whenever he touches the ball.

GBFavreFan wrote: I take exception to this statement as it implies that our evaluation of Christian Ponder is somehow based on personal feelings and ignoring his football ability. As if we will just hate anything Ponder does because he is Ponder. I'm pretty sure everyone else who hates Ponder can agree with me on this, our dislike of this man is based 100% purely ON his ability to play football. It's not like how some hate Percy because of contract stuff, or hate Michael Vick because of the dogfighting or hate Jay Cutler because of his face that makes you want to punch it, I think most people are completely indifferent to Ponder off the field, or believe him to be a nice guy and a good teammate. I'd go so far as to say most of know little to nothing of his personal life or his personality off the field.

I don't think anyone has a personal beef with Ponder at all, and everyone was quite hopeful of him the first half of his career, but his inability to play QB at a NFL level is what infuriated all of us, and why we hate him with a passion, because we want him nowhere near the field of play in a Vikings jersey because he makes us a weaker team whenever he touches the ball.

Mothman wrote: I'm well aware that the vicious comments made about Ponder are a response to how people feel about him as a football player, not how they feel about him after getting to know him personally. If I'm not mistaken, nobody here knows him at all. My point was that the degree of animosity directed toward him gets so excessive that it seems irrational (hence the PTSD remark) and I think you've pretty much reinforced that in your post. When people hate someone they've never met "with a passion", refer to him as a "cancer", a "turd", a worm, etc., that's getting pretty personal, especially when their only reason for feeling that way is that they don't like the way he plays a game.

Let me add that I really don't want to debate about it further. I responded to clarify my point.

Delaqure wrote: Well said Jim. I don't like Ponder as a QB at all. But have never called him a third or cancer etc. We can have a debate about him as a QB but when it gets to personal attacks like that it diminishes one's argument. I think Ponder is a poor QB but from what I have seen and read he seems like a great person who has tried really hard, but just doesn't have the ability to be a starter in the NFL. That's it.

maembe wrote: Indeed. There was another thread about this. It's like people can't fathom the idea that someone is just not good enough and so they have to come up with reasons why it didn't work out; he didn't work hard enough, isn't a good enough leader, etc. The reality is, there are like 15 starting-caliber QBs in the entire world. For 99.99+% of the population, it doesn't matter how hard you work, how great of a leader you are, or how smart you are, you will never be good enough to start at QB in the NFL. Ponder is in the majority unfortunately. He seems like a great guy and I bet he works really hard, he's obviously really smart, but he likely just doesn't have the talent.

GBFavreFan wrote: I think you're confusing "personal" attacks, from having a problem with a guy because of "personal" issues. You're mixing up words. I don't use those types of words because its not my style, but if someone wants to hurl "personal" insults at a player because of how they play, I have no problem with that at all. I only have issues with people clouding their assessment of a player's ability based on non-football reasons, which makes the criticism invalid. Like saying Chris Kluwe is a crap punter because someone doesn't like that he supports gays. From what I gather no one's criticism or anger at Ponder is based on anything other than what he does on the field.

maembe wrote:
Indeed. There was another thread about this. It's like people can't fathom the idea that someone is just not good enough and so they have to come up with reasons why it didn't work out; he didn't work hard enough, isn't a good enough leader, etc. The reality is, there are like 15 starting-caliber QBs in the entire world. For 99.99+% of the population, it doesn't matter how hard you work, how great of a leader you are, or how smart you are, you will never be good enough to start at QB in the NFL. Ponder is in the majority unfortunately. He seems like a great guy and I bet he works really hard, he's obviously really smart, but he likely just doesn't have the talent.

Delaqure wrote: I don't think he is. When you call someone a "turd" you're going beyond your dislike for his work performance. I don't know what you do for a living, but if someone continued to hurl personal insults at you because they don't like how you do your job, that personal. Maybe you can handle that and it doesn't bother you, but just cause you can doesn't mean the attacks are still not personal. In my opinion you can talk about Ponder's inability to read defenses or his tendency to panic and break from the pocket too soon etc and that's fine to criticize his football skills. But when one starts calling him a "turd" or "cancer" it's gone beyond the criticism of his skills and into the criticism of the personal nature that is unwarranted.

DKSweets wrote:I'm not sure if this has been discussed yet, but if you had to compare Teddy Bridgewater to a former player, who does he remind you of?

DKSweets wrote:I'm not sure if this has been discussed yet, but if you had to compare Teddy Bridgewater to a former player, who does he remind you of?

DKSweets wrote:I'm not sure if this has been discussed yet, but if you had to compare Teddy Bridgewater to a former player, who does he remind you of?