Ted Ginn. AFC Special Teams Player Of The Week back in the month of November. Part of the reason Ginn received this award was his blazing speed.
Chris Johnson. Self-proclaimed fastest man in the NFL. He made the Pro-Bowl last year in part because he is so fast.
You look at these two names, and wonder how they are even in the same conversation. Johnson is brash and cocky, while Ginn is more soft-spoken, and quiet. Johnson embraces the attention, Ginn shys away from it.
So again, we pose the question. How in the world are these two players linked besides their teams playing each other this week?
It seems that Ginn and Johnson were both at a pool party in the offseason. In fact, this party was one of those VIP parties that we all wish we would be a part of.
Chad OchoCinco was there. Joey Porter, and Vince Young were there. Can you imagine who else was present at this party?
Johnson and Ginn were about to be the main event at this party too, you know, provide some entertainment.
We all know Johnson and Ginn are both blazing fast. So have any of you ever thought of who would win in a race? Well neither Ginn nor Johnson thought of this first, but in fact some of Ginn’s teammates thought that Ginn would be the faster of the two.
We discussed Johnson’s cockiness above, so who is he to turn down a challenge. The race was set in stone. Johnson’s 4.24 40 yard dash time, and Ginn’s 4.37 time coming off of a ankle injury.
“It was real,” Johnson said Wednesday during a conference call with South Florida reporters. “We were at a pool party and [Ginn] was talking. I said, ‘Let’s go.’ We were going to race down Ocean Drive there in Miami.”
So if the race was just about ready to happen what came up to prevent it?
“[Ginn] never showed up,” Johnson said.
That is the Ted Ginn we all know and love, afraid of confrontation. I’m not saying he is a coward, you have to be somewhat tough to even practice with the NFL players. The bottomline is that this is what needs to change about Ginn. Someone or something needs to light a fire under this kid to give him some sort of excitement to want to carry himself with a sort of swagger.
Look at all of the playmakers in the league. They all have some type of confidence about them that makes them the player that they truly are.
DeSean Jackson is the player he is because of his speed and mostly because of his cockiness. That is something that Ginn lacks, and even though he has the speed, lienbacker Channing Crowder once said on his radio show that Ginn is afraid of contact.
So how can we the fans expect Ginn to go over the middle and make a key catch in the game?
Sure, he can make a catch near the sidelines, heck, we all know Ginn knows how to work a sideline better than anyone else in the league, but the fans want Ginn to show us something, and show us the courage to make a clutch catch over the middle.We all know the potential that Ginn has, but the bottomline is that he does not have the mental toughness nor the confidence to go over the middle, and go for the ball.
Ginn has the talent, he just needs to get some confidence in himself as a football player.
“The best man may win,” Ginn said. ” That’s all up to the man upstairs. I know he’s pretty fast. And just as well I’m fast. And it’s just [up to] us to go out and run one day. But until that day happens, I don’t think this week is the week to g into details about it.”
So it sounds to me like Ginn does have some confidence in himself somewhere, but it just does not transfer over to football.
Ginn mentions that this week is not the time for a race. Well what if Ginn would win. That would be the type of swagger that Ginn needs to finally light the fire under his feet again. We all saw what good ol’ Teddy can do when he gets that confidence in him. After all, it only took one kickoff return for a touchdown for Ginn to inspire himself for the rest of the game.
Now if only we could get Ginn to think like this all of the time!
So how about that race Chris?