That depends upon what you call or how you define "success." Was Cromartie great? No, but he was good enough to make 4 Pro Bowl and be selected as an All Pro one time. A lot of players in the NFL bust their ass and never even make one Pro Bowl. He may not have cared about that. Obviously, he didn't love playing and didn't care about being the best. He got rich, however, and probably got more poontang than he could handle. How many kids did he father with how many different women? Maybe that was his idea of success.
50% of stardom is from the shoulders up. I doesn't matter what the other 50% is if you don't have what it takes upstairs. On the shoddy tackling: as several people above have noted Cro was an injury away from total financial disaster on every play - even after he got paid.
This ain’t exactly news! The guy who is the best athlete of all-time SHOULD be better than the guy who ain’t
Not sure why we're bashing the guy...he was mostly a great player for us. Had his issues, and sure might not have reached full potential, but it's not like he was Kyle Wilson or something. Plus he loved playing for the Jets
Back in '07 I was hired to direct a launch/investor video for a sports drink. The company had gotten a bunch of San Diego Charger players to show up and participate... Cromartie being one of them. I had no idea who he was. After getting a bunch of shots of players on the field going thru some drills, I wanted a shot of Cro back pedaling while talking to the camera and then flip around and run away. The camera guy, who I hired because he was young, fast & in shape, simply could not keep up with Cro while he back pedaled... it was ridiculous. I've never seen a big man like that move the way he could. It was like he was from another dimension. Ok... slight exaggeration.... but yeah... to say he impressed, even around the other speed players, is an understatement. When I saw him a year later during warm ups & playing in a Jets/Chargers game he stood out like a sore thumb among the players. I bumped into him a while ago and he still looked in great shape.
For a school that’s not a “football factory” it’s pretty amazing how Pitt churns out HOF players. Revis, Donald, Fitzgerald, Martin … and going back further … Marino, Dorsett, Ditka … they must put something in the water over there.
He’s probably right but Cromartie on ability alone was still a very good player all things considered Loved the Revis Cromartie pairing with Rex
i have a coworker who worked for the giants organization as a scout years ago. he has a lot of great stories and we used to do a lot of "what if.." over beers. He said, without hesitation, that if he were building a team from scratch his #1 pick, ability wise, would have been cromartie. Unearthly athlete, long, strong. He was turned up to 11 in every category. again...this was a hypothetical draft based entirely on ability... not necessarily who he thought would be the best player. (sean taylor was his #2 choice)
As good of an athlete as Cromartie was, I don’t think he ever had the quick twitch in short bursts that Revis had because he was a much longer strider.
