If ever there was one rule that all GMs should abide by when dealing players it's this...
NEVER, EVER, under any circumstances deal within your division.
Why? Simple. You never want to run the risk that the player you're dealing can and will come back to haunt you. Why do you think the Packers wouldn't deal Favre to Minnesota? Still, defying conventional wisdom, Philadelphia dealt Donovan McNabb, easily their best QB since the days of Ron Jaworski in terms of getting the Iggys to the promised land or close to it Southeast as it were. To Washington, for a couple of magic beans in this and next year's Draft, work stoppage pending. As a Giants fan, I found myself running the gamut of emotions on this when news broke. First, I was utterly pissed that McNabb was not only leaving Philly, but going to Washington of all places. Then, I was kinda relieved to a point in thinking that this is the same Redskins team that ran a botched play twice in one series against the Giants.
But after hearing Shanahan run down Donovan's oft-forgotten accomplishments, I found myself rather pissed again. Then, when it was mentioned the parallels between when Donovan and Mike met compared to when Elway and Mike met (age 34 for Elway, 33 for McNabb), I returned to being concerned.
If you're Philly, the only upside to this deal is Kevin Kolb shows you that his first two games started last season was just a sampling of what's to come going forward. Then again, there's still the possible/probable payback factor for Donovan which has me greatly concerned about this deal going forward. If you're Washington, you're all smiles. You've got easily the best QB you've had or seen since the days of Doug Williams. I shit you not on that. From a sheer skills standpoint, probably the best QB since Theismann. No other QB that I can recall did more with infinitely less than McNabb did in Philadelphia. I can recall telling an ex-girlfriend of mine that once Donovan got a playmaking receiver to throw to, he'd be in the Super Bowl. Two years after I said it, he got T.O. and got to the Super Bowl. Maybe I should've accounted for the probability that he'd throw three INTs in the first half and blow that game before the halftime show put us all to sleep.
Alright, time to put the official "cap" on the NFL year since we had our Pro Bowl last week. The irony here is that this offseason, there is no Salary Cap. So get ready for Owners Gone Wild!!! I say this before I officially start, at some point in the next three seasons, I do believe we will get a Super Bowl where the host team is actually playing at home. It's inevitable people and to be real honest, I'm shocked it hasn't happened sooner. Oh, your next three Super Bowl sites you ask?
Next Year- Jerryland aka New Texas Stadium
The Year After (Provided Goodell Doesn't Strangle The Best Thing Going Right Now Into A Work Stoppage) - Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the reigning AFC Champion Indianapolis Colts
The Year After That- Louisiana Superdome home of Da Saints
It will happen at some point in the next three years, I guarantee it. Alright, so let's kick the ballistics here. I believe it was Nas who said...
So you went Platinum, yeah that's nice...
Now let me see you do the same thing twice.
So it's on this premise that I go on by saying, short of some serious defensive upgrades, I don't like the Saints' chances of repeating. I just don't. Teams that are heavily reliant upon shooting their way to back to back titles don't have much success. Look at the Greatest Show On Turf. They had just enough defense to keep Kevin Dyson inches away from the tying touchdown in Super Bowl XXXIV. Know what happened to them the year after? They were punched out in the Wild Card Round by...the New Orleans Saints. Irony's a mofo, ain't it? So let's get to it...
Who Dat? Dem Champs! (Len's Super Bowl Retrospect 1/2)
So now that 'The Game' has been seperated from 'The Truth', let's get down to it, shall we? I sat down last night, threw down on some chicken and a Roast Beef & Ham sammich while watching the entire game. From long start to incredibly quick finish and here's what me came out with...
A) Pregame's way too fucking long. Commercials are even longer. Halftime, oh, don't even get me started with the CSI Medley we got from The Who last night. I never thought I'd live long enough to see a band perform three different theme songs for three different shows all on the same network. I'm sorry, but there's not that much coincidence in the world.
A2) Was it just me, or did every commercial last night involving beer get incredibly dumber as the night progressed? Is it just me or was there something utterly oxymoronic about a beer commercial asking people to "drink responsibly", yet the actions within the commercial are anything BUT RESPONSIBLE?!
B) This Spring is going to kick ass from a movie standpoint. From the remake of A Nightmare On Elm Street to the long awaited (or not) Wall Street sequel to next month's Alice In Wonderland... I can't recall being this excited about movies in a very long while.
Alright, filler time's up. On with my analysis of the game and ramifications thereof.
Separating "Game" From The Truth (Super Bowl Edition)
Before Americana gets immersed in minute long commercials and four hour long pregame shows, I felt the need to write something Super Bowl related. Not on the game mind you, but just some things that I feel the need to expound on before we crown a successor to the throne that the Steelers left vacated back in December. What with all the "hell" they unleashed, that turned out to be foreshadowing laying down for the Browns in Cleveland. To quote The Notorious B.I.G. to a point, gotta separate "The Game" from The Truth...
Better Early Than Later, Right? (Super Bowl Prediction)
So the Jets and Vikes went down. The Jets ran into the perfect storm that was Peyton Manning, the Vikes unfortunately were done in by a Favre INT late in the game and never got another shot. So for the first time in well, ever, I'm writing a Super Bowl column 11 days before the actual game itself. Why?
A) For once, I'd like to be early with something.
B) I think that for every soul that's saying/praying it's a high scoring affair, this will be San Fran/Denver SB XXIV turrible. Indy's playing the role of San Fran, in case folks are unclear.
C) I want to devote some time towards the NBA and by putting this next to last NFL piece out of the way, I can do so with zero lingering distractions.
The Grand Finale Before The Miami One. (Conference Title Preview)
Bloody procrastinitis struck again, but mercifully, Divisional Weekend turned into Three Blowouts And A Funeral Procession In San Diego. So given the storylines for this Conference Championship Weekend, I felt compelled to come out days in advance looking at each one and why each team should feel they're going to win...topped off by my telling you who will win and why.
AFC Championship Game
#1 Indianapolis Colts vs. #5 New York Jets
Indy's Storyline: We Were Right In Not Killing Them When We Had The Chance, Weren't We?
- Regardless of whether they win or lose, the answer to this question is NO. They weren't. Week 15, the Colts were sitting on a lead in the 3rd quarter when coach Jim Caldwell pulled his starters. All of them. Curtis Painter's first snap from scrimmage was a fumble that turned into 6 points for the Jets. The rest as they say, was history. Colts end the year 14-2, the Jets are now back on their doorstep like Benny Blanco from Carlito's Way ready to pop em' one time for the great time.
Still, why shouldn't the Colts be confident? The last AFC Championship game they hosted was against an AFC East team and they won then, they assume they'd have won Week 15 and ended the Jets' season. So what's to go against it? They've got Peyton Manning, the game's MVP for a 4th time and his motley crew of receivers that nobody heard of until Anthony Gonzalez went down with an injury for the year and Marvin Harrison's services were no longer required. Their defense is better than most thought or presumed and well...they're the Colts. Did I mention they've got Peyton? Alright, great.
Lenstradamus Predicts The Playoffs And A Personal Super Bowl (2 of 2)
Okay, it's time for the rubber to meet the road. Time for the money to talk and all BS to run the marathon. Wild Card Weekend starts late Saturday afternoon with the Jets and Bengals in a weekend I'm subtitling...
Regular Season Redux
As every Wild Card game is a rematch from the regular season. Since yours truly is a full service blogger, I will give you the prediction on this weekend and what we'll end up seeing in Miami next month after the Pro Bowl. Wow, the last part of that sentence reads funny with the "after the Pro Bowl" part and all. Rather interesting that there were more Browns picked for the AFC than Bengals. But I digress on that, as it's time.
Vertically Challenged Teams & Other NFL S**t (1 of 2)
First blog of the New Year, may as well be on the NFL year that was, right? I'll go personal first with my thoughts on the Jets and Giants. Giants...first.
Midgets.
- Yup, I think that about sums up the second half that was for New York. After roaring to a 5-0 start, they went down to the Saints, Cards, Eagles and Bolts in succession. Of them all, the Philly loss was probably most disturbing. There was a trend there that I didn't catch until it was too late, both on the start and what followed. Only one win during that winning tear came against a playoff team. The four losses that followed were ALL to playoff bound teams. So the bye week comes and NY's reeling, yet still breathing.
Well, thanks to the Giants, the NFC playoff picture is set with its six teams. Thanks to some guy I never heard of catching a TD pass in last night's game, we now know that should the Saints win once, the road to Miami will logically stop through New Orleans. What isn't known, is what Plan B might be for some team's itinerary if New Orleans stubs its toe in Divisional Weekend. Well, that's why I'm here. It's ironic to think that two of the games we see this weekend, we might just see again one week from now in Wild Card Weekend. Arizona hosts Green Bay and Dallas will host Philly in the most important game in the short history of "The House That Jerry Built".
While I temper my enthuisasm about stopping my 2 game skid in Fantasy Football heading towards the playoffs, let me speak on this...
The BCS Goes "Classic"
- Thanks to Texas taking care of the pesky Black Shirts and Alabama shutting down (and exposing on a much larger, yet not as discussed scale) Tebow and the New Ball Coach... we've got a National Championship game between two traditional powers that we haven't seen occupy the same stage since I was...2? Wow. I'm old. :P Texas/Alabama should be very interesting and as much as I'd like to say the BCS got it "wrong", how could they? We all but conceded the SEC Champion would get one slot, Texas if it won would get the other. That's what happened. So we've now got...
This is quite possibly the funniest viral video clip I've seen in ages. Thanks for all the comedy, Bud Adams. You're the most entertaining 800-year-old AFL founder ever.
The best part of this whole thing? Bud Adams spent most of the game sitting next to Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner. Think maybe Bud was sending him a message in the fourth-quarter after Roger had left the luxury box? Or maybe this is some long-standing feud with 91-year-old Ralph Wilson, owner of the Buffalo/Toronto Bills. I kind of like that idea. I'd love to see a sitcom with Bud Adams and Ralph Wilson redoing Grumpy Old Men, except with millions of dollars to throw around and NFL franchises.
Alright, I'm going to start this off with a rant and then go on into the rest of this here thingy. The Giants. Yes, I picked them to win the NFC East. Yeah, I had them all but set to win the NFC just ONE MONTH AGO. But then, the Saints marched all over them in New Orleans. Okay, one loss, had to happen eventually. Then, came the Cards doing their thing in Jersey. 5-2. Still in first but the margin for error's getting slim. No matter, Eagles coming to town and they got theirs coming. Yeah, Philly did. 40-17. No, I'm not sure if that can of ass whippin' came complete with a Philly Cheese Steak. So last night, I sit down in the basement watching the end of the Chargers/Giants game and well...I about lost it. All of a sudden, I felt like 2006 all over again and I just wanted Coughlin gone. I'm sitting here watching Phillip Rivers have all the time in the world to find receivers, then watching moments later as Shawne Merriman comes rushing off the edge like he was heading for Tila Tequila. Then I ask...
At The Not Quite Turkey Day Mark (NFL Breakdown 1 of 2)
Well, here we are. Just hours away from the battle in Denver, with the Super Bowl Champion Steelers travelling to the Broncos. Before this, I'm more or less inclined to seperate the "game from the truth". Basically let you in on the teams you need to watch and those teams which well, are gonna be running hellafied game from now until the end of next month. But before I go there, let me check on my picks and see how each are doing respectively...
See? Not even 48 hours after I talk about it and Troy goes down for 4 to 6 weeks with an MCL injury. The Madden Jinx is real, people. Arizona folks, good luck. Anyway, as I stated in Thursday’s preview, I said I’d give you your Super Bowl picks. Before I do so, allow me to recap by conference, sleepers included.
Division Champions: The Patriot Conglomerate, The Not Yet Super Chargers, That Other Texas Team, The Steel Conglomerate
Wild Cards: Purple Reign & Remember Kerry & The Titans
Sleeper Team: The On Papers Jail Bengals (“On Papers” be the slang for ‘on probation’, in case anyone was wondering.)
Alright, time for a team by team breakdown of each team…
Sports fans with an attitude, SportsBastards is a humorous take on the life-or-death struggle that is sports. It doesn't matter who wins or loses, but if they cover the spread.
