Conference Championship Weekend Picks

For the past week, ESPN has pretty much been unwatchable for me.  I haven't been watching it non-stop 24 hours a day or anything, but every single time I've turned it on, it's been a story about how the Giants just never will give up, how bad that Patriots defense really is or if Joe Flacco is good enough to "get the job done".  Things like that.  I guess as the number of teams left in play dwindles, there are less things to talk about.  So I can't blame the media.  I just choose to stay away from it.

Having said that, the conference championship week media circus is only the second worst week of the sports media year.  It pales in comparison to Super Bowl media week, when you're talking about being unwatchable.  But let's not get started down that road.

There are only so many story lines the media can come up with and drill directly into my skull.  And even though I'm a Patriots fan, so I do have a rooting interest still, I'm tired and glad the week is over.  That's probably why I've waited until the last minute to post my picks.  This isn't going to be very in-depth folks.

NFL Divisional Round Playoff Picks

Before I start this post, let me just say that it feels like a lifetime ago that I last wrote anything on here.  In an ideal world, I would be a full time blogger, and maybe even make some money from it.  But in the less-than-ideal world we live in, I've got to have a full-time, regular job so that I can pay the full-time, regular bills.  And boy does paying bills suck. 

If you can think of a worse feeling than sitting in front of the computer to pay bills, I'm all ears.  I think I'd literally rather get punched in the face than sit down and pay bills.  I mean, even if I have more than enough money to pay the bills, I hate the act of actually paying the bill.  Anyway, I'm getting way off topic here, so I need to stop.

Bear with me as I get this blog thing up and running again folks, it's been a while.  I'm in a position to start posting more on here, so be sure and check back regularly.  Right now though, I'm going to give you a NFL playoff picks post (yes, I know....a very lazy post idea) so that I can ease back into this blogging thing.  Let's get into it, shall we?

Ray Lewis Warns Us Of Impending Rise In Crime Across America

Recently, Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis sat down with ESPN's Sal Paolantonio to discuss the only thing going on with the NFL right now -- the lockout!  I love how the title of the ESPN article about this is "Ray Lewis Discusses Lockout Issues" when the real name of the article should have been "Ray Lewis Says a Bunch Of Crazy S#%t."  That would be much more fitting.  Because almost everything Ray Lewis said was nonsense.

Here's the play-by-play of what Lewis said to SalPal:  "Do this research if we don't have a season -- watch how much evil, which we call crime, watch how much crime picks up, if you take away our game," Lewis told ESPN's Sal Paolantonio.

That's because, Lewis said, the NFL lockout affects "way more than us" -- the owners and the players.  "There's too many people that live through us, people live through us," he said. "Yeah, walk in the streets, the way I walk the streets, and I'm not talking about the people you see all the time."

When asked why he thought crime would increase if the NFL doesn't play games this year, Lewis said: "There's nothing else to do Sal."

Yeah, Sal....there is NOTHING else to do!  All there is to do is "evil, *pause* which we call crime!!!"  Yes, folks, according to Ray Lewis, there are pretty much only two choices folks have when choosing what to do with their time.  Either watch football 24 hours a day or go out and commit crimes.  I'm too tired to get too deep into how ridiculous what Lewis said was, nor was I planning to.  Simply put, I think he's overstating the importance of the NFL in people's lives just a tad. 

There are lots and lots of other things going on in this country that are a little more important than the game of football or the lockout.  

[ ESPN.com ]

Friday Wrap Up: 2011 NFL Draft Edition

Last night was a weird night for me.  As soon as I got home, I turned on the Blazers-Mavs game.  But I also wanted to watch the rest of the NFL draft.  So I was flipping between the two for a bit.  

As the Blazer game progressed, the more and more depressed and angry I got.  But the craziness of the first round of the draft was off the charts.  The drama of the draft helped to take my mind off of the Blazers' season ending last night.  So I was pissed off about the game on the one hand and intrigued with what was happening at the draft on the other.  It was all very odd.

Anyway, since today there is nothing on the internet except morning-after draft day analysis (at least the first round), today's post is going to be all about the draft.

Cam Newton:  As expected, Carolina made Cam Newton the top pick of the draft.  Whatever your opinion of Cam Newton is, you can find a journalist out there that agrees with you.  Charlotte Observer columnist Tom Sorenson seems to be on the positive end of the opinion spectrum.  To put it mildly, opinions about Cam Newton's potential may vary a bit, depending on who you're asking.

Now that Newton has been drafted, we'll finally get to see what he can do as a professional entertainer and icon.  Oh and don't forget "football player" too.  One thing we know for sure though, is that he got one helluva raise.  Even with a rookie salary cap in place, the million dollars (or more) that he gets as a signing bonus will make the $180,000 he got last year at Auburn look like chump change.

Oh, and now he won't have steal any laptops.  He can just buy one whenever he gets the urge to jack one.

Kevin Kolb To Seattle Makes Sense For Everyone. Sorry, Matt Hasselbeck.

Let's talk some football, shall we?  If you compared last season's results to what the expectations were for the Seahawks, you could call last season a "success". 

They were predicted to be awful.  And they ended up only being semi-awful.  They actually made the playoffs, which you could say was a pretty good season, but who are we kidding.  They finished 7-9, and if any other team in the division didn't soil themselves all season long, they surely wouldn't have been in the playoffs.

Either way you slice it, Pete Carroll and the Seahawks are still in the rebuilding phase.  They've made a lot of improvements to the roster already, but there is much improvement left to make.  Carroll has said that his biggest priority this offseason, is to get the starting QB situation figured out.  Currently, their starting QB is Matt Hasselbeck.  And no matter how much the guy is liked, he sure isn't getting any younger.

Danny O'Neil, who covers the Seahawks for the Seattle Times, thinks that the next stop for Hasselbeck and the team is for Hasselbeck to go ahead and test the free agent market.  That way, he can gain whatever leverage he may have left by finding out his market value, and then the Seahawks can either sign him or let someone else pay more for him.

Will The Sport Of Football Eventually Go Away?

Yesterday, while enduring my brutal commute home from deep in the West side to the far East side, I was listening to 1080 The Fan.  They interviewed a guy named Ben McGrath, who writes for the New Yorker magazine.  They had him on to talk about an article that he recently wrote called, "Does Football Have a Future?"

It's quite a long, but interesting article to make your way through.  But it brings up the point that there may come a time when not as many kids will be growing up playing football of any kind.

Cam Newton Declares For The NFL Draft, So That He Can Get Paid Legally

Well, he was a free agent after all, so I don't blame the guy.

[ Yahoo! Sports ]

Best NFL Players With Ties To The State Of Oregon

OregonLive has an article on all the players in the NFL that are either from Oregon or went to college in Oregon.  The big names most of you know of:  Steven Jackson, Haloti Ngata, Ndomukong Suh, Troy Polamalu, TJ Houshmandzadeh (had to look to spell this) and Chad Ochocinco.

It's a pretty good list that included several players that I had no idea had ties to Oregon, or had forgotten about.  To be honest, I had completely forgotten about Kevin Boss, the TE for the New York Giants.

Boss's story still amazes me actually.  Dude came out of tiny Philomath High School and played college ball at Western Oregon University, a division two college with even less of a significant football program than even Portland State University.  And Kevin Boss is still in the league and still starting at tight end for the Giants.  If I remember it correctly, he was even surprised to get drafted at all.  Freaking crazy stuff.

Anyway, so OregonLive says that Steven Jackson is the best player in the NFL with Oregon ties.  Not that it matters too much, but we'll go with Troy Polamalu.  Although Jackson did pretty much carry the Rams to the brink of the playoffs by himself this season.  Polamalu is a ball-hawking safety who happens to always be near the ball and making plays.  One of the two best safeties in the NFL.  (Ed Reed being the other top safety.)

[ OregonLive ]

The Crappy Seahawks Made The Playoffs Last Night, And I'm Okay With It

Everyone today seems to be up in arms about the "pesky" Seahawks making the playoffs with a 7-9 record.  They clinched the NFC West division crown with a home victory over the St. Louis Rams, who, with the loss, finished the season with a 7-9 record.

The Seahawks won by a final score of 16-6, and the game itself was pretty ugly.  The only thing that made it tolerable was that it was a win-or-go-home game for both teams.

It really doesn't bother me that much though.  I don't even know how the current Seahawks team even won that many games.  So the fact that they did, and that it actually got them into the playoffs, is admirable if you ask me. 

Listen, folks.  Don't blame the Seahawks.  Blame the system that put them in the playoffs.  Though not nearly as flawed at the infamous BCS, the NFL playoffs system appears to have a flaw.  One that Seattle happened to stumble upon.  It's not like this happens every year, and so it's really not that big of a problem.  Actually this is the very first time this has ever happened.  So there's no need to go tearing out pages of the NFL rulebook just yet.