Some weekly thoughts on football and some other things, since I’m essentially a football layman. I’d generally prefer to do this early in the week, but I was particularly busy.
I had some people ask me why I didn’t post anything here about 9/11 before it happened, but honestly, what more could have I have said that wasn’t already said?
As I explained last week, I’ve expanded my weekly football thoughts to include some non-football stuff, primarily since I don’t have an enormous breadth of knowledge about the sport and don’t always get to watch games. That won’t stop me from offering up some picks, but if you place bets based on them, I’d be forced to characterize you as foolhardy.
I’ve made no secret of the fact that football doesn’t rank particularly high on my sports hierarchy, placing behind pretty much every other major sport besides hockey, which I never got into. That said? It’s good to have football back, primarily because it’s woven into what I believe to be the best time of year.
The past couple years, I’ve done a weekly post with some NFL thoughts and observations, mostly about the experience of watching such an Americana-driven sport. However, I’m not really a football guy, and I’ve found that I often simply don’t have a whole lot to say about the sport itself, especially on weeks when I don’t get to watch many games. As such, I’d still like to give this a go this year, but I’m going to expand it to whatever’s on my mind. Expect it anywhere between Monday and Wednesday.
Before the hurricane hit the New York area on Saturday, I hauled out to Long Island on Friday night for the annual draft of my main fantasy football league. It’s pretty hardcore: 14 teams, an archaic and esoteric scoring system, two keepers, and it started 16 years ago when the majority of the league owners were in high school together. (I’ve participated for 10.)
I probably would have driven through the hurricane itself to get there since for the first time since I joined my co-owner in the league, we won the whole thing, resulting in an $1,100 payday. We were powered by a well-balanced team and the shrewd first-week waiver-wire pickup of Michael Vick, which I commemorated by wearing his jersey to the draft, to the chagrin of everyone.
I had the pleasure the other day of attending a talk given at the New York Law School by NFL Players Association Executive Director of External Affairs George Atallah, who was joined by Jets fullback and player rep Tony Richardson to discuss the recent developments regarding the NFL lockout.
I enjoyed the talk, though there really wasn’t very much of a substantive nature to say while they wait for everything to sort itself out after Judge Nelson’s bizarre ruling. It’s interesting to see the underlying weirdness of the two sides still being very far from each other, and yet having to go through the motions at NFL facilities to satisfy a judge’s ruling that has a pretty decent chance of being overturned.
I thought Atallah and Richardson seemed bemused by the idea that public opinion is probably mostly in their favor. After all, the players didn’t ask for anything more than what they already had, and then Roger Goodell had that weird op-ed piece with all the fear tactics. They also seemed amused that they could potentially mess with the Draft, though there’s obviously no way they’d do that and screw with their positive standing in the court of public opinion.
A couple of videos after the jump:
I got a call today from Sig, a longtime friend of SportsAngle, who offered up his NFL mock draft services for the site. I wasn’t planning to run a mock draft here since I don’t really watch a whole lot of college football — and there are always so many trades and such, I think it’s impossible — but I saw no downside to using Sig’s first-round mock. Conversely, the upside is he gets a decent amount of these right and it looks like we know what we’re doing here.
What qualifies Sig to be SportsAngle’s version of Mel Kiper? Well, he watches a ton of both college football and the NFL. That’s basically the equivalent of the qualifications I consider myself to have in order to do NBA mock drafts, so that’s good enough for me.
Plus, he gave my beloved Dolphins another guy named Mark Ingram, and they did pretty well with the first one. I’ll be honest, I don’t know a whole lot of the guys he listed down there, but provided Miami doesn’t draft Pat White again, I think I’m okay with whatever they do.
Note: We didn’t have time to put together any commentary on the picks, but I’ll keep tabs on how he does, and I’ll try to get his opinions on things after the draft. And let this serve as a reminder that I gladly take guest submissions on SportsAngle, especially when it’s about something I have little to no knowledge about.
Sig’s picks after the jump:
I had to pick up a friend in Jersey City before the Super Bowl, so I was a little late getting to the restaurant at which my friends were watching the game. I actually missed the first quarter, which is fine with me as I wasn’t a fan of either participant in the game, and three quarters was plenty of buildup for last night’s Glee episode.
As I drove past numerous food and liquor establishments, I looked in windows and saw the game in every single one. I also saw it through the curtains of houses while listening to it on the radio. There are certain times you know pretty much everyone in America is doing the same thing, and the Super Bowl is probably the foremost among those times.
If I understood the ratings correctly, over 70 percent of American televisions were tuned to the game. It’s the whole package — the advertisements, the food, the halftime nonsense, an excuse to throw a party, the need to fit in. If you like football, obviously the game itself is a draw, but if you don’t, you still need to know who wins for the sake of history and pop culture. It’s sort of like a Presidential election.
And I got to thinking…
What happens if it all disappears?
I’d say that rooting for Mike Vick became a heck of a lot easier when I figured out he had the ability to help me fund a vacation to Cozumel in March.
Here are my usual layman’s thoughts on football. As always, I’ll offer the disclaimer that I’m hardly an authority on the sport.
I went with some friends to a New York City barbecue joint on Sunday to watch the Dolphins-Jets game. When the final seconds ticked off the clock, I high-fived and celebrated with two fellow Dolphins fans, because even though the game was one of the worst in recorded history and our team’s probably not going anywhere, you’d still rather see your team win than lose.
And, frankly, none of us have any love lost for the Jets, though don’t get me wrong, that head coach of theirs is a real peach.
At that moment, some young socialite resplendent in a pink button-down shirt got up with his family to leave the restaurant. As he walked by us, he turned and spat out, “Well, they’re not going to make the playoffs, anyway.†Obviously, he was a scorned Jets fan.
We got a good laugh out of this – I mean, a pink button-down shirt? – but a little later, I started to wonder: When exactly do we lose our ability to forget the big picture and simply love our teams?
After a brief reprieve, Nick Benvenuto and The Weekly are back with a vengeance. Considering the nothing I know about college football, I’m glad to have him back.
Thanks to a pair of unexpected weekend scenarios, The Weekly took a bit of a hiatus. As I’ve said in the past: no article is better than a half-assed article. But don’t worry, we’re back for the stretch run.
It’s amazing how things can change in two weeks, but the college football landscape isn’t the same as we left it. Boise State’s improbable run to a National Championship has been derailed by two shanked chip shot field goals.
Top ranked Auburn’s Heisman-leading quarterback Cam Newton was declared ineligible. The notoriously slow moving NCAA miraculously found a way to overturn the Newton decision in just one day, furthering the idea that the NCAA does not want TCU to play in the National Championship game.
Speaking of the Horned Frogs, they were a member of the Mountain West Conference when we left you, now they’re the newest member of the Big East. There’s a new twist every week in this sport, and we don’t think Championship Week will be any different. On to the picks…
As per usual, my weekly thoughts on football. I’ll offer my standard disclaimer that I don’t claim to have any substantive knowledge about the sport itself.
When I was in high school in the early-to-mid 90’s, NFL hierarchy was far more readily defined. You had the Cowboys, the 49ers and Packers in the NFC, and the Bills leading a pack of AFC also-rans that also included the Chiefs and Steelers. It was sort of comforting to always be able to easily differentiate between the haves and the have-nots.