PODCAST: Former TE Howard Cross Talks NY Giants & Alabama Crimson Tide

Used with permission from "The Sports Piece"

We were fortunate to talk to former Tight End for the Alabama Crimson Tide and the New York Giants about a slew of topics. Below are the bullet points of the podcast. The end of it got pretty raucous as Howard joked about Jay Cutler and Tiger Woods!

• We started the conversation by talking about his upcoming induction into the Alabama Hall of Fame along with Robert Horry. He was very honored to be alongside many of the athletes already inducted there.
• He praised Mark Ingram for being the first Heisman Trophy winner for the University of Alabama.
• When asked about the Tide's season he pointed out that when he was there he was told that they have one goal...BEAT AUBURN and since they did that, he's satisfied with the season.
• Howard went on to tout the SEC as an NFL factory and cited the weather as being the primary reason they are able to continually recruit NFL caliber talent.
• We then talked about Florida's rise to dominance and how they have become an Alabama rival along with Tennessee and Auburn.
• When we talked about how Alabama matches up with Texas, Howard gave props to Colt McCoy as a great player but said he's going to have to make the offense more diverse in order to compete against Bama's defense. Then expounded further on why the Alabama defense is so tough.
• He explained how he felt that the Utah and Florida losses from last year were fuel to get them to go undefeated this year and that it will carry them to a win in the National Championship Game.
• When asked his thoughts on a college playoff system, Howard Cross said he was in favor for it but they'd have to figure out how how to manage the money to get winning teams paid as much as they do right now under the BCS system, otherwise they wouldn't give up the money.
  
• He compared the college playoff theory with how the NFL handles profit sharing and explained that it's not well liked in the NFL and college would be worse.
• Then we changed subjects to the NFL since Howard Cross played 13 years for the New York Giants and they recently got eliminated from the playoffs we asked him his opinion of the Giants year.
  
• He explained that he had said all year long that they weren't as good as people thought and that they possibly mismanaged which players they decided to keep on the team.
• Howard explained that he felt that they were weak at defensive tackle because in the past they would get a big push up the middle which would force the quarterback to roll out towards the defensive ends thereby creating a lot of sacks.
• He likes Eli Manning and said that it took him a while to get on that bandwagon, but now respects the way he handles himself while playing the game, especially his calm demeanor.
  
• When asked to compare Eli's style and demeanor to Jay Cutler's he immediately made it known that Jay Cutler is not the same caliber player as Eli Manning.
  
• He capped his opinion of Jay Cutler by saying, "That dude gets people FIRED!"
• When co-host Steve Foster, a graduate of Princeton, tried to take up for Jay Cutler, Howard told him abruptly that he wasn't using his education wisely. Then shared how he respects Tiger Woods as a golfer but won't be sending any of his kids to Stanford!

We appreciate Howard Cross coming on the show to talk about the BCS Championship Game and the New York Giants. You can download the podcast by right-clicking and selecting "Save As..."

or Click HERE to Listen