Bro, I'm not calling him a Gunslinger, I'm just talking about the stats. lol
First of all, how is "gunslinger" being defined anyway? Is it someone who throws lots of passes? Someone who throws lots of yards? Touchdowns maybe? If player A throws 2400 yards and Player B throws 2100 yards, is Player A more of a gunslinger than Player B? What if, yardage remaining the same, Player A throws 14 touchdowns but Player B throws 17? Who is the better gunslinger then? Is the real gunslinger the quarterback who is more “clutch”, which is intangible and arbitrary?
Gunslinger, a label most commonly applied to Brett Favre to convey the wild, cowboy-like abandon with which he was throwing up the ball for grabs in his later years with Green Bay, is something I would consider a meaningless title; however, it conveys the sense that QBs with said title throw constantly and possibly with power and/or accuracy, so I would somewhat consider it a positive to be described as such. On the other hand, QBs considered “game managers”, like Trent Dilfer was for the 2000 Ravens, generally suck and are counted on only to not fuck up too badly so as not to drag down the other, actual talented players on the team, so that’s by and large a negative distinction. So a QB has to be a “game manager” when he is not good enough to be a “gunslinger” . Basically, rather than arguing if Player A is a “gunslinger” or “game manager”, is Player A a “good” or “bad” quarterback?
But, defining a gunslinger as someone who throws a lot and piles up stats and can be counted on to win the game in the clutch (i.e. a good to great quarterback, as opposed to a game manager, a quarterback of average or poor talent), Orton is absolutely not a gunslinger. His first four years can at best be categorized as mediocre, with decidedly un-gunslinger stats. Even judging him on the first six games of the 2009 season, a sample size too small to make any real judgements, what has he done that’s been all that “gunslingy?” (A shitty pass into blanket coverage that was miraculously knocked over to another Bronco that ran in for the 87-yard game-winning touchdown basically at the gun? Gunslinger! Win over Oakland? Gunslinger!)
And no, I do not consider him a good quarterback, although looking over the stats I've upgraded him from terrible to mediocre-average. Like Dilfer, thus far in 2009 he has been solid and the opposition has been weak enough where he has not cost them the game and the rest of the team has played well enough (and gotten enough breaks) so that they are 6-0. So yes, he is a "game manager", by which I mean he is mediocre-average.
And it’s a bit disingenuous to post stats (poorly chosen, somewhat misleading stats) to imply something, then cop out by saying you didn’t actually “say” it.
So far in the 2009 NHL season, Mikael Samuelsson (5) has more goals than Sidney Crosby (4) or Evgeni Malkin (4). I’m not calling Mikael Samuelsson a Gamer, I’m just talking about the stats.
