pakowitz

What might have been

May 19, 2008 9:01 PM


Posted by ESPN.com's Pat Yasinskas.

Just about every story you read about the retirement of Dan Morgan will tell you what the linebacker did not do.

That's understandable, but not totally fair. If you're really going to look at Morgan's star-crossed career, you need to remember what he did do. When he was on the field and fully healthy, there was not a better linebacker around.

Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of games I can point to in support of that statement because Morgan never played a full season for the Carolina Panthers after they drafted him in the first round of 2001.

But there's one game you can look at that shows how great Morgan could have been if he hadn't had a ridiculous amount of injury problems. That's Super Bowl XXXVIII. It's kind of forgotten because the Patriots defeated the Panthers, but Morgan had one of the best games ever by any player at any position.

That night in Houston, he was the true sideline-to-sideline linebacker the Panthers were sure would be a superstar when he came out of the University of Miami. Against Tom Brady and New England's offense, Morgan made 25 tackles.

That's what a healthy Morgan could have been like every game and that's why the Saints were willing to give him a shot after the Panthers finally gave up on him. He could have been a Hall of Famer. Some may look back and consider Morgan a bust. He never was anything close to that.

He was a phenomenal player and a classy guy - with incredibly bad luck.

I Live In Beastmode!

saintsfan1976

I'm gonna go ahead and say we get one of the two starting LB's from USC next year. - Cushing or Maualauga.

BooBirdSaint

Does he retire as a Saint having never played a down? I'm assuming he does since he's undercontract.

CantonLegend

yep

Papa Voodoo

Just to clear it up, Parkinson's is not caused by head trauma. It's a genetic cindition that Ali, and M.J. Fox for that matter, had and the condition expresses itself after the "mating age."

LordOfEntropy

Well, I predicted in another thread long ago that Morgan would be lost by the 2nd or 3rd game to injuries. So I guess I was only off by 2 games.

Damn that hurts though.

D_it_up

Looks like another year of Shanle.

LordOfEntropy

Damn, there's got to be a better WLB out there somewhere.

Tobias-Reiper

... it is also an oxymoron

I felt he wasn't going to last 3 games into the season.