Tag Archive: nfl

Tyrann Mathieu

Turnaround the Turnaround

August 15, 2013 Adam Thomas

I am so ready for the NFL season to begin. You know why? So we can stop having insane articles like this on NFL.com:

“Tyrann Mathieu proving Arizona Cardinals right with turnaround.”

The only problem with this headline? Tyrann Mathieu has not played in a single NFL game. So how in the world is he ‘proving Arizona Cardinals right?’

They drafted a player with off the field issues who so far hasn’t been a headache and has looked good in pre-season games. You know who else looked good in pre-season games? The 2006 Oakland Raiders. They went 5-0 and looked pretty darn good.

So what happened when the season rolled around? They busted out a stellar 2-14 record.

Just remember this when you see the Mathieu sack highlight played over and over and over again. Who did he sack? Graham freaking Harrell. Let’s pump the breaks a little bit here fellas.

Will Mathieu turn into a good NFL player? Maybe. But let’s wait until he does something in the real NFL to make that decision. Right now? The Cardinals just drafted a player who is on their team. Just like all 31 other NFL teams.

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Delaware Park Parlay Card Part Deux

January 9, 2013 Adam Thomas

nick-sabanAlright, alright, alright.  After nailing last week’s DE Park Parlay card, I thought that I would try it again. But we’ll get to that later, first, I have some thoughts.

1.) Ray Lewis is a tool. And by that I mean he is perhaps the biggest tool I have ever witnessed. I genuinely despise him and all of his dancing. And how in the world can anyone take him serious when he is wearing those black ballet pants dancing to Nelly’s ‘It’s Hot in Here?’  Really?  Hot in here? That’s the song that’s gonna get you pumped up to play football? That song is for grinding awkwardly at 8th grade dances, not for the grid iron.

2.) Speaking of hall of fame middle linebackers, Rolando McClain was recently arrested for giving a false name to law enforcement after receiving a ticket for having windows that were too tinted. The name he wrote when he signed the ticket? “F*** Ya’ll”  The cops looked at the ticket and asked him to put his real name on the ticket and he answered, “That is my name.” And then he got arrested.  Surprising.  Afterwards he claimed the police were out to get him. Or maybe, MAYBE, he is just an idiot.

3.) The worst writer on the internet right now is Michael Silver.  I can’t stand that guy. He just wrote an article trolling Nick Saban basically saying, ‘Sure, you won your 3rd national championship in 4 years, but you can’t make it as an NFL coach!’ Saban’s reply was probably something along the lines of…..”Ok.”

Burned!  You’re the best at your profession but you would totally suck at this other profession, Nick!  Damn, Silver got him.

Also funny, Michael Silver is good buddies with former Raiders head coach Hue Jackson.  How good of buddies do you ask?  I just went through Silver’s last 10 articles and he mentions Jackson in 4 of them. That’s just good journalism right there. If there is a person that people want to hear from, it’s definitely the defensive backs coach for the Cincinnati Bengals!

Silver is the worst.

Alright, ranting over, now onto the picks!

I like:

Seattle +2.5 over the Falcons, then I will pick the Broncos and the Patriots straight up.

Good luck to those of you betting real money!

 

 

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NFL Myth: Teams Tank Games for Better Draft Picks

December 18, 2012 Adam Thomas

MB60T.St.81After the Raiders shutout the KC Chiefs and put on an absolute clinic about how to properly kick field goals on Sunday, I went over to Raiderfans.net to see how the Raider Nation was reacting. It was, after all, our first win in 7 weeks. And hey, even if it was a win over a terrible (and I mean tuuuuurrrrible) team, I’ll take what I can get at this point. A win is a win.

So what did I find? Fans bitching and complaining about the win!  And why is that, you may ask?  A.) It hurt our draft position and B.) Some sort of weird logic seemed to over take the board that the Chiefs team was “Tanking and just trying to secure the number one pick.”

Why oh why would any NFL team (which is comprised of 53 individual players on the active roster) tank just to get a better draft pick?  Does it make sense for the team’s GM to want the team to lose in order to secure a higher pick?  Sure, but that is assuming the GM will still be around after such a terrible year. Does it make sense for any of the 53 players to tank? Absolutely not.

Take the Raiders for example. Half of the guys on their team this year were not on the team last year. That means there are around 27 players who played for the Raiders last year and are now on another team or out of the league altogether.

So, if the Raiders were in contention for the number one pick last year and the team tanked towards the end of the season in order to get the number one pick, only half of the players would reap the benefits of said tanking. The other half would be out on the street, looking for work and having to explain to their future employers why they gave up on the season the year before.

In the NBA, I can understand a bad team tanking because the players have much better contracts and know that they will probably be back on the same team the next season.

In the NFL, players have terrible contracts and no incentive what so ever to mail in a performance and put out a bad roll of “TAPE” for the 30 other GM’s of the league and Jerry Jones.

So everyone claiming that a team like the Chiefs or the Jags are tanking and their players don’t care about winning or losing, there are probably around 55 guys who will be unemployed next offseason who would like a minute of your time.

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First Fantasy Football Draft of the Season: A Review

August 30, 2012 Adam Thomas

My first fantasy football draft of the season came and went last night, and a lot of knowledge was gleaned from the event. Most importantly is this: Don’t schedule a draft for 6:45 East Coast time when you have players participating on the west coast. Out of 12 teams, only 5 showed up, and one of those was in about round 12 when he had already drafted most of his team.

With that said, I am going to do a round by round review (up until round 10 when it’s more or less a crapshoot), showing you both my pick and the pick that I think was the best pick.  Without further ado, let’s get to it:

Round One

My Pick: Matthew Stafford (12th overall)

Best Pick: Aaron Rodgers (4th overall)

First of all, how in the world does the commish of a league end up with the 12th pick?  That should be illegal. My strategy going in was if I had a high pick, go with Rodgers, Brees or McCoy or Rice and if I had a low pick, just to go with the best QB available.  So when it came my time to pick, I had to go with Stafford or Cam Newton.  It was a tough call, but in the end, I went with Stafford.

Beenusbangsyou drafted Rodgers at 4th overall, which is fantastic since I think that he is the number one pick this year.

Round Two

My Pick: Jimmy Graham (1st pick of the round)

Best Pick: Jimmy Graham

Such hubris.  But I gotta say, looking at the players who were drafted after Graham, I’m glad I made the pick. I definitely would not want Larry Fitzgerald, Jordy Nelson, Marshawn Lynch, Jamaal Charles, MJD, Victor Cruz or DeMarco Murray instead. The only picks that I liked that round were A.J. Green, Julio Jones and Cam Newton.

Since I already had a QB, I went with the best TE available. By the way, how sad is it that it’s round 2 and people are already drafting the likes of DeMarco Murray.  Yeeesh.

Round Three

My Pick: Steve Smith (12th pick of the round)

Best Pick: Steven Jackson (11th pick of the round)

Since I wanted to draft Jackson, I have to list him.  You have no idea how pissed I was when he was AUTO DRAFTED right from under my nose. Not cool.  Luckily, Stefanie made me a nice bean and rice burrito and some cornbread around this time, so my anger quickly passed.

Round Four

My Pick: Greg Jennings (1st pick of the round)

Best Pick: Michael Turner (7th pick of the round)

I really like Michael Turner in the 4th round.  By the way, Wolfman picked him up and that gave him McFadden, Peterson and Turner. If that ain’t a fancy stable of running backs, I don’t know what is.

I picked Jennings after Smith just because I’ve had him for the past 2 years in a row so it’s kind of tradition that I get him on my team.

Round Five

My Pick: Tony Romo (12th overall)

Best Pick: Brandon Lloyd (5th overall)

I picked up Romo here as trade bait, so hopefully I will be able to unload him before the season starts. If not, Stafford is kind of injury prone so it doesn’t hurt to have him as insurance.

Brandon Lloyd is going to have a great year, so that was a great pickup by my buddy Bob.

Round Six

My Pick: Vernon Davis (1st pick of the round)

Best Pick: Peyton Manning (7th pick of the round)

I was strongly considering grabbing Manning and just hoarding all of the QBs to later trade to all those who auto picked, but then I thought that I could do the same with TE’s. Also, the league has a flex position so if I can’t trade Davis, it never hurts to have him on the roster.

I like Peyton here because he could put up monster numbers and if he doesn’t, the next picks were Jermichael Finley, BenHarvus Green-Ellis, Vincent Jackson, Michael Bush and Fred Davis so it’s not like your missing out on anything special by drafting him.

Round Seven

My Pick: Rashad Jennings (12th pick of the round)

Best Pick: Phillip Rivers (2nd pick of the round)

I like Jennings because of MJD’s holdout. It means that he is going to be the man for at least the first two weeks and he catches a good amount of passes. The Rivers pick is the best of the round because he could actually turn out to be better than the QB Randy took in the 3rd round (Eli Manning). It also lets him relive the 2004 NFL Draft each week of the season.

Round Eight

My Pick: Reggie Wayne (1st pick of the round)

Best Pick: Jason Witten (7th pick of the round)

Reggie Wayne is a like a house on Property Brothers. It looks crappy now, but just wait until those magicians and Andrew Luck get their hands on it and turn it into real estate (and fantasy) GOLD!

Wolfman again! Witten could be the 3rd best TE this year, so to get him in the 8th round is good stuff. Maybe some dumbass who took Vernon Davis 2 rounds earlier should’ve considered this, eh?

Round Nine

My Pick: Cedric Benson (12th pick of the round)

Best Pick: Kenny Britt (2nd pick of the round)

Britt will be suspended for at least a game, but once you get past that week, he is going to light it up. Mark my words: Titans all the way.

I had to get a running back here, and now my back field looks BEAUTIFUL!  Just kidding, I have Rashad Jennings and Cedric Benson for crying out loud!

Round Ten

My Pick: Toby Gerhart (1st pick of the round)

Best Pick: Toby Gerhart

Considering everyone else took kickers and defense, I have to give this one to myself.

Looking back, I took 5 RBs in the next 6 rounds.  I am just hoping that one of them hits. My team definitely needs to improve but hey, I like my QB, WR and TEs so of course the RB position is going to be weak. Sometimes, you just gotta compromise.

That’s it for me.  Good luck with your drafts!

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Pitbull, Draft and Girls

April 27, 2012 Adam Thomas

1.) My favorite commercial on TV right now has to be the Bud Light commercial with Pitbull where he takes a Bud Light from the waitress says, “Daddy!” Or something like that and then strolls through a room filled with people 8 feet taller than him. He looks so damn tiny in that commercial, and while he is trying to look tough, it seems like he would need a step stool to look over the bar.

2.) That show “Girls” on HBO is incredibly, mind-blowingly awful. I watched it because it is produced my Judd Apatow and it got really great reviews, but man alive, it sucks. I can’t even remember a single character’s name, and the main girl is annoying as all get out. The show reminds me of a Radiohead album. Before it comes out, it already gets 4 stars from the critics no matter how average it is.

Just because a show is set in New York and is on HBO doesn’t mean that it’s automatically good. Don’t waste your 30 minutes on that show.

3.) Instead, waste it on the excellent third season of Eastbound and Down. Holy crap, I just watched the fourth episode and it featured perhaps the funniest moment in television. I don’t want to spoil it for everyone (like I did in a text to Randy yesterday), but it is a breakout episode for Stevie, and (mini-spoiler!) the hilarious moment in question features Candlebox. Enough said.

4.) The NFL Draft started last night, and because megalomaniac Hue Jackson decided to go “all in” with Carson Palmer (which never works), the Raiders were left without a first round pick. Which sucks, cause the draft is AWESOME! And boy oh boy were there trades galore yesterday.

My favorite pick? Morris Claiborne to the Dallas Cowboys!  You know why?  Cause Claiborne only got 4 questions correct on the Wonderlic test,  and here is his rationale via Profootballtalk via Sirius via USA Today: “That test don’t tell me who I am and what [type] of guy I am and what kind of ability I have,” Claiborne told SiriusXM NFL Radio, via USA Today.  “That test can’t drop me. They say it’s an IQ test,” Claiborne added.  “I came to the Combine for football.  I looked at the test, and wasn’t any questions about football.  I didn’t see no point in the test.  I’m not in school anymore.  I didn’t complete it.  I only finished 15 or 18 questions.”

And they say athletes don’t care about their education!  I would be really interested to see what classes Claiborne took whilst at LSU. “Basic Shapes” and “The Number After 2” sounds about right.

5.) The worst pick?  Let’s just go with Bruce Irvin to the Seahawks.

Oh no, wait, let’s go with the Browns selecting a Quarterback who has never played in the NFL and is already older than Aaron Rodgers. That’s why the Browns will always be the Browns.

I also love the ESPN draft analysis. This morning on Sportscenter, here is what Jon Gruden said about Quarterback Ryan Tannehill: “You know what I love about this kid? It’s that he can throw the football.”  Well, I would HOPE that he can throw the ball. That is just a tiny requirement made of all quarterbacks. Gruden just made $100,000 dollars for saying that.

6.) Ron Artest should be banned for life from the NBA. What a moron. I know that when I’m celebrating, my first instinct is to elbow the crap out of the player closest to me.

7.) Remember that song, “If you’re friends with P then you’re friends with me. If you’re down with P then you’re down with me.”  I don’t have anything to add other than, do you remember it?

8.) I’ve gotta say Phillies fans, being only 3 games back from Atlanta for the wildcard when the Phils are playing arguably their worst baseball in the past 4 years is not a bad thing. Be worried NL East, be very worried…

That’s all for me, until next time!

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Wildcard Bitches!

January 5, 2012 Adam Thomas

Alrighty then!  The NFL was fun while it lasted but now it’s time to get down to business. No more slogging through terrible Jets games or being stuck watching the Browns and the Bills.  Now it’s only the big boys so let’s get the picks, shall we?

Denver +8.5 over the Steelers.  As a matter of fact, I am going to go out a limb and say that Denver just flat out BEATS the Steelers.

Look, I watched the Steelers play the Browns last week and they looked turrible!  I know the Donkeys did too, but still, I just have a weird gut feeling about this one. Plus, Michael Lombardi picked the Steelers to go to the Superbowl on the BS Report and that guy is never right. On a side note, it was really awkward having Bill Simmons introduce Lombardi as the new GM of one of the teams that needs a GM right now because you know Lombardi ain’t getting any calls. But hey, on the plus side, he is a Sixers fan so I can’t be too hard on the guy.  Anyway, Broncos are winning.

Detroit +10.5 over the Saints.  The Saints win this one, but the Lions cover.

Giants -3 over Atlanta.  Why is everyone so hot for the Giants all of a sudden?  It really wouldn’t surprise me to see Atlanta win, but I’m still going with the Giants victory.

Cincy +3 at Houston.  I think the Bengals take it down. This pick has been made solely for Big B.

By the way, did you know that The Strokes put out an album last year?  Neither did I!  But I listened to it on Itunes and I really like that “Under Cover of Darkness” song.  The only thing that pisses me off–and I’m sure it pisses off all the other Strokes members–is that the singer sounds like he REALLY doesn’t want to be singing. I mean, I know that his style was always slackery/I’m too cool to care, but man, it sounds like he’d rather be anywhere but singing for the Strokes. I read that the rest of the band recorded the music and then sent him the tracks to lay the vocals over.  That sounds like a cohesive band.

So I started watching the Flyers/Rangers 24/7 show on HBO, and I gotta say, I’m starting to get the appeal of hockey. The Winter Classic was high drama, and it made me really hate the Rangers. The strangest guy ever has to be the Flyers goalie Ilya Bryzgalov. During one interview, he said something like, “I have a million different faces. The face you see is not the face my wife sees which is not the face my teammates see and that is not the face my dog sees.” That sounds like something the Son of Sam would say.  What a weirdo.

I don’t know much about hockey, but it looks to me like the Rangers are just better than the Flyers and they wanted to win the Winer Classic more than Philly did. Also, the Philly D looks pretty darn weak.

Anyway, that’s all I got.  Happy New Year!

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