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Football

SEC, not so tough

USA Today: “By the time Ohio State finished its takedown of No. 1 Alabama in the Sugar Bowl national semifinal game Thursday night, the top five teams in the SEC West had fallen this postseason. Alabama, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Auburn and LSU all lost to teams from supposedly inferior leagues.”

I’ve heard time and again how the SEC can’t be beat. I believed it, as did the pundits, or the SEC wouldn’t have so many teams in the Top-20.

It is time for a real tournament. Limit the regular season to 10 games. This would allow for a real tournament. A tournament of 16-teams. Four teams is a good start, but until they reach 16-teams, it’s all pretend.

One other option. Take the pre-season top 16 and schedule them to play their first four games tournament style. It would be a scheduling nightmare, but it would stir the pot right out of the gate.

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Football

Da Bears need some Rex

ESPN Chicago: “Hire Rex Ryan. I can’t claim to know anything about general manager candidates, but after reading ‘Collision Low Crossers,’ a fantastic football book about a season with the Jets, I think Ryan would be perfect fit here. Yes, he has a connection with the Bears, going back to his father’s reign as defensive coordinator. But it’s about Rex, not the Bears. He can bring the personality this team desperately needs. I don’t know if he’ll be the savior, so to speak, but it would be a fun ride.”

Since I read Ryan and Trestman were fired today I’ve been hoping the Bears would hire Rex Ryan. Hiring Ryan won’t fix their woes at Quarterback, but it would bring some crazy personalty to the team, and the guy knows how to win, even if he had a horrible time in his last few seasons with the Jets. Hey, Quarterback trouble anyone?

The first thing the Bears need to do is go out and find a Quarterback. I was hopeful Jay Cutler could be the guy, but he’s never been able to elevate to an ‘A-class’ level. I was always a fan of Kyle Orton and had high hopes for him in Chicago. I wish they had kept him.

It looks like Washington may have a couple of Quarterbacks to deal in the off season. I think the Bears would do well to pick up Kirk Cousins.

Guess we’ll see how this plays out.

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Football

BCS Rankings: How does that work?

Does anyone understand the logic behind the BCS rankings? I definitely don’t. I have one for instance that baffles me.

In week 10 #3 Auburn played #4 Ole Miss. Based on their ranking who would you expect to win? Well, if you just look at the numbers Auburn should have beat Ole Miss, and they did. Ok.

In week 11 Auburn remained at their #3 ranking, but Ole Miss fell to #11. Why? Ole Miss was ranked one position lower and lost to the better team, isn’t that what’s supposed to happen? Right. Ok, let’s just leave that there.

We’re still in week 11: #3 Auburn loses to unranked Texas A&M. Ok, Auburn should fall big based on what happened to Ole Miss the week before, right? No. Auburn falls to #9 and Ole Miss is at #10. Can someone explain that logic, please?

#3 beats #4, #4 falls to #11.
Unranked beats #3, #3 falls to #9.

I don’t get it.

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Football

2014 BCS National Championship Tournament

2014 BCS Tournament

Click the image to view it full size.

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Football Life Uncategorized

NFL: The Biggest Con

The Atlantic: “Nearly all NFL franchises are family-owned, converting public subsidies and tax favors into high living for a modern-day feudal elite.”

I love pro sports, and the NFL in particular, as much as the next person, but this is ridiculous. Of course the common folk will never attempt to stop the insanity because we love watching millionaire sports heroes take to the gridiron to play a game.

Here’s the kicker. We pay to go to the stadium, which isn’t cheap, and if you live in an area with a pro team you pay tax money to build and support luxury stadiums.

We’re sick.

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Football

Urlacher

ESPN: “Urlacher was the perfect Chicago Bear, a Grabowski not a Smith, long on toughness and short on diva.”

The blue collar, workaday, attitude of the Bears, and Brian Urlacher in particular, is part of what made me a Bears fan.

It’s tough to see one of your favorite players kicked to the curb.

Maybe the Arizona Cardinals will pick him up so he can kick the crap out of 49ers for a couple seasons, or maybe he’ll land with Minnesota or Green Bay? That would be pretty interesting.

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Football Life Sports

Tim Tebow, Football Player

Tim Tebow is one of those guys, you either love him, or hate him. At one point I couldn’t stand the guy, but that was mainly because I can’t stand the Florida Gators. I now like him. By all accounts he’s a great young man, but I digress.

Let’s talk about Tim Tebow the football player. Not Tim Tebow the quarterback, Tim Tebow the football player.

It’s no secret the New York Jets made a mistake acquiring him in the off season. It seems the decision was made in the corporate office and Rex Ryan was told “Make a spot for this kid.” Obviously Rex didn’t have a place for Tim Tebow.

This morning ESPN’s Adam Schefter shared a quote from an unnamed NFL General Manager:

“I think his career is over without playing another position.”

That’s a very bold statement, but probably has some validity.

Trading Places

Do you remember Pat White? If I’m not mistaken, and I could be, Pat White was encouraged to change positions once he reached the NFL if he wanted to have a career. He decided not to take that advice and insisted on remaining a quarterback. He lasted one season as a backup with the Miami Dolphins and was cut the following season. He hasn’t played in the NFL since.

How about Michael Robinson? Do you know who he is? He’s the fullback for the Seattle Seahawks, and a darned good athlete. Here’s the deal. He was a quarterback out of college and was encouraged to change positions. He was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in 2006, he listened to his coaches, became a running back, worked hard, and the rest is history. He’s still playing in the NFL.

Here’s another great example and a name you probably won’t recognize. Jim Jensen. Jim Jensen earned a roster spot on a Miami Dolphin’s team each year he played by being a football player. He was a quarterback by trade, but how can you play that position when you’re on a team with Dan Marino? You can’t. You have to play other positions. Over his career Jim Jensen was known as a great special teams player but played quarterback, wide receiver, and running back. The man kept two pair of shoulder pads on the sidelines in case he was needed at quarterback. He wasn’t a star, he was a player. He is a guy that wanted to play the game so badly he’d do anything. That man is the definition of football player.

Be A Player

Yeah, yeah, I’m an armchair analyst. What NFL loving person isn’t? I think Tim Tebow should think about becoming a fullback or possibly a tight end. He’s a big kid: 6’3″ tall and 236lbs. There is no doubt he’s a winner and he works very hard. I find it curious General Managers are writing him off after seeing what he did in Denver. Really? How can you not believe he’s a football player? That’s right, a football player, not a quarterback, just a player.

We’ll see if he lands with a team in 2013. As a fan I certainly hope he does.

Pssst, can you imagine what Bill Belichick could do with him? That’s a scary thought.

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Saturday Morning Coffee, Afternoon Edition

My brother, Jay, or rather Jerry as you know him, usually has a piece on his weblog called “Saturday Morning Coffee.” It’s something I look forward to reading. There’s always something I find interesting. It looks like we’re not going to get a post today, so I thought I’d run one.

Let’s get started. Here’s how Jay starts his post:

“So much happens each and every week that it’s hard to keep up sometimes. Here are some of the tabs that are open in my browser this morning along with some random thoughts….”

Rob's Coffee MugOh, he also includes a picture of the coffee mug he’s using. Here’s mine. Unlike Jay I only have one I use regularly. Not that we’re lacking in the coffee mug department, we have quite a few, but this one is mine. It’s a hand crafted masterpiece I purchased at our local Farmers Market.

Super Bowl

Unless you’re one of those folks that don’t like football you know tomorrow is Super Bowl XLVII, in beautiful New Orleans, LA. The Baltimore Ravens will face the San Francisco 49ers. I’m pulling for the Ravens. I’ve had a hate-hate relationship with the Niners since “The Catch.” I was a Cowboys fan at the time and even though I’ve moved on to the Bears the hate for the Niners remains. Let’s hope Baltimore can pull a rabbit out of the hat.

Speaking of Baltimore. It looks like Ray Lewis has caused a bit of a crap storm over his quick recovery from a torn triceps early in the season. PEDs, or performance enhancing drugs, are not new to pro sports. This is just another in a long line of pro athletes being called out. I’d wager to bet he did use something to help him recover, so did Lance Armstrong, and Barry Bonds. Hey, it’s a part of pro sports. I’m probably in the minority here but I say let them use PEDs under the care of a licensed physician as long as they’re aware of the problems associated with them. They’re adults, let them make the decision.

Hey, how about this for goofy move. CBS has banned SodaStream’s Super Bowl commercial. Really weird. From a Forbes report:

“CBS banned SodaStream’s Super Bowl spot because, apparently, it was too much of a direct hit to two of its biggest sponsors, Coke and Pepsi.

Please pause and read that sentence again.”

That says a lot about how fragile Coke and Pepsi have become as a business. It looks like it’s time for those companies to rethink what they do if they’re scared of SodaStream. Things change. Roll with the punches guys. Good luck SodaStream.

Don’t call me RIM

It looks like BlackBerry is not the official name of the company formerly known as RIM. Does anyone else remember the “RIM Jobs” website. Good one. Anyway, BlackBerry announced the new BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 phones this week. The Z10 is a touch based device while the Q10 holds true to a traditional BlackBerry device and has a physical QWERTY keyboard. At first glance I thought the Z10 looked a lot like an iPhone 4, and tweeted as much, but later I realized it’s not as similar as I thought. At first glance the back of the device looked like the all glass iPhone 4 back, it’s not.

I think the Z10 looks pretty nice and the Q10 is a great choice for the keyboard loving BlackBerry loyalists. Will they succeed? Only time will tell.

Twitter Hacked

It looks like hackers were able to gain access to 250,000 user accounts. Whoops. I find the choice of headlines in the weblog post announcing the hack disingenuous. The headline read “Keeping our users secure” then goes on to explain:

“This week, we detected unusual access patterns that led to us identifying unauthorized access attempts to Twitter user data. We discovered one live attack and were able to shut it down in process moments later. However, our investigation has thus far indicated that the attackers may have had access to limited user information – usernames, email addresses, session tokens and encrypted/salted versions of passwords – for approximately 250,000 users.”

Come on guys. Quit spinning bad news like it’s a good thing. You should’ve said something like “We’ve been hacked. We’re sorry.”

Weekend Box Office

It looks like Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters is number one at the box office. We haven’t seen a movie since The Hobit and have missed a bunch of great films that have released since the fall. I think my wife and I need to get out a bit more often. Maybe we can catch Hansel and Gretel soon.

The Twilight Zone, A.K.A. The Stock Market

As Jay pointed out last weekend, Apple took a hit on the stock market. They reported record revenue. The largest revenue of any corporation, ever. From an Extreme Tech article:

“Yet again, Apple has broken its own record and posted revenues of $54.5 billion — the greatest quarter of any company ever — driven entirely by sales of the iPhone and iPad.”

Of course the stock tanked.

On the flip side we have Amazon. A great company? Absolutely. They did however report a $39 loss million for the year. Their quarterly report wasn’t great either:

“Net income fell 45% to $97 million, or 21 cents a share, down from $177 million, or 38 cents a share, a year ago. Street consensus was for EPS of 27 cents. Sales were up 22% to $21.27 billion, from $17.43 billion a year ago. That, too, missed Street views of $22.26 billion.”

The stock was up, of course.

The market is a fickle thing.

The End

Have a great weekend and make sure to visit Jerry’s site next weekend for the real deal, not this wannabe version of Saturday Morning Coffee.

Categories
Football

The BCS, still sucks after all these years

ESPN: “This is the first time since the BCS expanded to five games that a team outside of the conferences with automatic qualifying bids failed to make a BCS game. No one-loss non-automatic qualifier has ever been selected for a BCS game, either.”

Ahhhh, some dissent, finally. It’s time for the NCAA to create a real playoff system. Yes, it can be done, they just don’t want to do it. I’ve personally done bracket after bracket after bracket. It could work. Top 16 are in.

I think it’s time to put together a new bracket.

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Football

Mel Kiper Jr, crack head

ESPN: “Do they want to shell out a huge bonus that ostensibly keeps Manning around for a while? Do they keep him, but draft Andrew Luck and deal with the drama of a perpetual quarterback debate? Do they deal the rights to Luck and recoup a ton of draft picks even though they know, as much as any organization does, the value of sustained great quarterback play?”

Sorry Mel, the title of this post is harsh, but what are you thinking? I know you’re supposed to be an expert on the game of professional football, but why are you even writing this nonsense? Slow news day? Don’t have any NCAA draft picks to talk about? Seriously, this is Peyton Manning we’re talking about. The best Quarterback in the NFL. Yes, that’s right, the best. What other team in the NFL depends on their team more than Indianapolis? I think their 0-11 record tells the story. Hey, when Tom Brady went down in the 2008 season New England went 11-5 with Matt Cassel at the helm. Without Brady New England goes 11-5, without Manning the Colts are currently 0-11 after having a 10-6 season with him.

Please, for the love of Lambeau, stop this nonsense. Peyton Manning belongs in Indianapolis for as long as he can play the game. It would be a shame to let one of the greatest Quarterbacks to ever play the game walk out the door for a kid that’s never played a snap in the NFL? Ever heard of first round pick by the name of JaMarcus Russell? I know, I know, that’s a pretty extreme take on the situation, but how do you know how the kid will play in the NFL, until he’s actually on the field?

Do I believe Luck will be a bust. No, of course not. What’s wrong with the kid backing up a future Hall of Famer? There’s a guy in Green Bay that’s doing amazing stuff after a few years backing up another future Hall of Famer, right? Right.

Stop. Just stop the foolish talk, ok?