The Case Against Eli Manning and The Hall of Fame

Sunday was not a very good day for me, for obvious reasons.  Looking back on last week, I think I was just preparing myself for the worst and just waiting for it to hit me.  And hit me, it sure did.  Once the Patriots let Ahmad Bradshaw crouch into the end zone and putting the Giants ahead 21-17, I knew that it was over.  Even with Tom Brady at the helm and 56 seconds left in the game to work with, I just knew it was over.  During that final drive, I only looked up at the TV once, and that was to see Deion Branch drop a pass with nobody within ten yards of him.  

I sat there and couldn't believe that this was happening again.  And it was happening in the same exact way!  Even though there were a couple friends in the room with me, I didn't say a word to them.  I didn't want to say anything, and it was probably best that I didn't open my mouth right then.  If I would have said anything, it surely would have been R-rated and in poor taste.  To be honest, if the Patriots had to lose that Super Bowl, I would have preferred to watch the Pats lose in any other way that you can think of, instead of what actually transpired.

Yes, even watching the Patriots get blown out 55-3 would have been more tolerable for me than watching the Giants offense systematically march down the field and, at least after the big Manningham catch, knowing they were going to score one way or the other.  It's moments like this game that I wonder to myself why exactly I care so much.  Why do I care about sports this much?!?

My Completely Objective Rundown of Everything About Super Bowl XVLI

This year's Super Bowl is most likely going to be a lonely one for myself.  It hasn't been that way in years past, but it will be this time.  And that's actually the way I'd prefer it to be this year.  You see, the Patriots are my team of choice in the NFL, and when they're playing, I tend to get a little bit intense. 

So, when the Patriots are playing in the Super Bowl (or any other game of significance), I would much rather watch it by myself, thus avoiding all the noise and random BS that happens when not everyone in the room cares about the game as much as I do.  The more I think about it and write about it, it seems like a bit of a sickness.  But I digress.

I've spent the past week watching the media coverage from afar, trying to avoid getting too wrapped up in all the pre-game hype that has become as much a part of the Super Bowl experience as the actual game itself.

In fact, if the Ravens and 49ers were playing in this year's Super Bowl, there's no doubt I would be paying more attention to all the random, over-dramatic, non-story stories than to who was going to win the actual game.  Maybe a lot of people are like that.  Maybe not.

Bill Simmons And ESPN's Trade Machine: The Steve Nash Trade Speculation

My favorite website right now is Grantland.  I cannot get enough of it, and if there is an article posted on it that I remotely think I'll be interested in, I will read it.  It may be just a phase, but I really like what they have going on down there in LA.

I'm not sure, but I think that Bill Simmons may have been one of the first people I heard talk about Portland trading for Steve Nash.  And that was a couple of years ago now.  He's definitely been driving the bandwagon of the idea.  But now that Steve Nash is in the last year of his contract (a contract that is not extension-eligible), I don't think the trade rumors involving Portland and Nash are not going to quiet down any time soon.  Not with ESPN's Hollinger, Marc Stein and Simmons already bantering about it.

This morning, as Bill Simmons loves to do, he played around with the ESPN trade machine and nearly blew my mind with one of the fake trades he came up with.

Is It Time To Trade Nicolas Batum?

"I wanna play for YOU, Charlotte Bobcats."

Before we get started, a little background for you all.  If you were to go out with me to a local sports bar and sit with me while watching one of my favorite teams play, you would probably see glimpses of two distinct versions of my 'fanhood'. 

On the one hand, you would see the logical side of my fanhood, based in reason and in touch with the reality of the sports world.  This is the part of my fanhood that I call the "GM side", if you will.  On the other hand, you would see the 10 year old version of me that is not-so-based in logic and reason, and can be a bit of a poor sport too.  Because I can't think of anything better to call it, I call this side the "10 year old side".

When I was 9 years old, I cried (I'm not sure how much) after watching Magic Johnson and company come to town and beat the Blazers in game one of the 1991 Western Conference Finals.  With a simple steal and rolling of the ball down the court, Magic and the Lakers beat the Blazers and seemingly stunned "my team" so badly that they lost the series four games to two.  It crushed me.  Portland was supposed to win, in my mind.

Let's Put A Nice, Little Bow On This Chip Kelly Story, Shall We?

Duck cheerleaders >> Another Chip Kelly pic

Since the news came down that Charles Kelly was indeed staying at Oregon, and not leaving for the Tampa Bay Bucs, I've been paying close attention to the reaction of Duck fans everywhere.  The easiest way to gauge how the fan base is feeling is to listen to the fans that call into the local radio shows.  Oh how I love the local sports talk radio caller guy.

This morning on my way to work, I was listening to some local sports radio shows.  They weren't specifically talking about the whole Chip Kelly saga of the past few days, but they were taking calls on it.  People around here still want to comment on it, that's for sure, so why not? 

A few of the callers were concerned about the potential negative effect this whole thing will have on recruiting, both this year and in the future.  Another caller mentioned how annoyed he was at Kelly for putting the program through a distraction like this. 

One caller said something about how once he found out the Kelly had changed his mind and decided to stay at Oregon, he felt relieved and was excited to have Kelly around for four or five more years.  I admired the guy's optimism and all, but I'm afraid he sounds like he still needs a dose of reality or two.

After The Dust Settles, Chip Kelly Is Still The Coach Of The Oregon Ducks. But How Long Will He Stay in Eugene?

So last night was pretty fun, right?  It was pretty crazy, that's for sure.  For a while there, I was certain that ol' Chippie was gone.  Done deal.  Signed, sealed and delivered.  Right?  Well, no.  Crisis adverted.  Duck fans could stop freaking out, like you know they were.

Like only Charles Kelly can, he ball-faked the sh!t out of all of us, and left us looking foolish like every poor defensive end that has played against Oregon.

But when I woke up this morning, and heard that Charles Kelly had decided to stay at Oregon, I wasn't surprised in the least.  I saw the news scrolling across the bottom line as I was watching SportsCenter this morning and all I could say was "Nice one, Chip.  Nice one."

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.

Would Chip Kelly Be A Good Fit With The Indianapolis Colts?



Yesterday, Isaac and Suke brought up an article written by NFL Network's Michael Lombardi.  It was this article and it's Lombardi pretty much making the case that the Colts should sit down and take a long, hard look at Oregon's Chip Kelly to fill their current coaching void.

After Isaac and Suke got done talking about it, I headed over to NFL.com and read through it myself.  The first thing that jumped out at me was one of the comments at the end of the article.  Someone called Leajones99 wrote that basically, Lombardi's article was nonsense and in regards to Coach Kelly, "we like him here in Eugene, and there's no way he would move out of paradise for Indianapolis."

Excuse me?  Paradise?  Real quick, this isn't going to morph into a "crazy, delusional Duck fan" post (I promise!), but let me say a couple of things.

Ducks QB Darron Thomas Declares For The NFL Draft. Sweet, man. Wait, what?

Those tattoos are NFL ready.

Yesterday, Oregon QB Darron Thomas announced that he would skip his final year of eligibility and make himself available for the upcoming NFL draft.  I was at a 3 year old's birthday party yesterday (which I consider a mild form of torture in most cases) afternoon and had no reception where the party was at, so I didn't see anything about the announcement until after I got reception back and checked my Twitter feed.

To be completely honest, the first tweet that I saw only mentioned Thomas by his last name.  So when I read "Oregon's Thomas to declare for the NFL draft" or whatever the headline was, I thought the Thomas being referred to was receiver DeAnthony Thomas.  And then I was like 'wait, he hasn't been in college long enough to leave for the NFL, right?'  Took me a minute or so to figure out that it was Darron Thomas who was the one making the jump to the NFL.

When I first heard this news, I thought 'what's Thomas thinking by doing this?'  It was just confusing to me I guess.  Don't get me wrong, Thomas is a good football player and a good quarterback too.  And although he's a very effective QB in Chip Kelly's offense, he's never been hailed for his accuracy, arm strength or throwing mechanics.  These traits are usually the traits that transfer over to the NFL game most often for quarterbacks.

I don't think that Darron Thomas will even get drafted, unfortunately.  The offense that he ran in college, which he excelled at, does not exist anywhere in the NFL.  Ty Duffy over at Big Lead Sports doesn't think he'll get drafted.  Neither does the Oregonian's John Canzano.  I'm not rooting for the guy to fail in the least.  It's just the harsh reality that, at least right now, Thomas doesn't do any of the things well that are high priorities on what NFL scouts are looking for.

Gerald Wallace or Nicolas Batum? Blazers Probably Can't Keep Both

Isn't It a Thing Of Beauty?

The current NBA season for your Portland Trailblazers has been quite the pleasant surprise.  I thought that losing Brandon Roy was going to hurt the team more than it has so far.  And although I think I gave up on the idea of Greg Oden ever suiting up for the Blazers again after last season's setback, it still really sucks that we're not going to be seeing him on the court yet again this year.

But the Blazers also made some moves this offseason that seem to be working out pretty well so far this season. To me, trading Andre Miller for Raymond Felton was more or less a lateral move (except that Miller was not getting any younger).  Adding Kurt Thomas as that veteran backup role player that every team needs was very smart and a couple years overdue.  And coaxing Jamal Crawford to sign here with Portland instead of Sacramento (Really, Jamal?  Sacramento was one of your final two choices??) may not have made a splash across the league, but was practically a steal at 2 years and $10 million (although he will probably opt out after this season, and the Blazers will only have to pay him $5 million for the one year).