Category: Sports

NFL Moves to Flexible Schedule Format

The NFL is finally seeing the light regarding their rigid scheduling. If all goes well, we’ll finally get to see some top-notch prime time showdowns during the final 8 weeks of the season. The fixed schedule of previous years always seemed to hurt Monday Night Football later in the season. Since the schedule for MNF used to be based on which teams performed the best during the previous season, there always seemed to be one or two teams who were unable to perform up to the same level the following year.

This new “flexible format” should eliminate the humdrum games everyone dreads. It’s much more fun and exciting to see games that have playoff implications played in front of a national audience. I’m glad the NFL is thinking progressively in this area. Now if they’d only get their heads out of their asses in other areas.

Tags:

Hulk Hogan: US Ski Team Inspiration Coach

Did anyone else notice that the US Ski Team hired Hulk Hogan to be their start gate yeller? Each team seems to have one coach dedicated to hollering at their skiers right before they take off down the mountain. I swear the US mens ski team had the Hulkster on top of Sestriere. I kept waiting “Hogan” to spout off something about the 24-inch pythons, or all the little Hulkamaniacs out there whenever Bode Miller or Daron Rahlves would start a race. It’s sad when listening to the “Inspiration” Coach was more entertaining than watching any of the US men ski. They all sucked a big, hard one.

I wish I could find an audio snippet to post here. I’ll look around and see what comes up.

Tags: , , , , ,

This is still the Tour de FRANCE, right?

It looks like the 2007 Tour de France is going to start in London. This just seems to rub me the wrong way. I know the route currently meanders into some of the other countries adjacent to France. I can see where that’s allowable since I always think of countries in Europe in relation to other states here in the US. I think the organizers of the Tour are going a bit far in allowing the race to start all the way across the English Channel.

Maybe US cycling fans can rally up enough money and support to have the 2008 Tour start in New York City. I hear the organizers can be bought. We could probably get them to rename the race from the Tour de France to the Tour de Monde if we can get enough worldwide support.

Tags: , ,

Pro Bowl Favoritism

Well, it looks like the annual Pro Bowl teams have been announced. I never really expected the Titans to get more than one player selected this year. Unfortunately, it seems the Titans most deserving player, Kyle Vanden Bosch, was snubbed by both the players and coaches. The fans, on the other hand, actually cared enough to take a look at his stats and performance this season. They didn’t just blindly pick the same names that are always in the Pro Bowl year in and year out.

Keith Bulluck remained very polite and congratulatory during his interviews yesterday. Keith more than likely wanted to call “bullshit” on the whole process, but he thought better of it since I’m sure he would like to go back to Hawaii one day.

“Those guys that went, I’m sure they deserved to go because of how they’ve been playing and the fact that their teams are winning.”

Yeah Keith, I’m sure Jason Taylor deserves to go to his umpteenth Pro Bowl since the Dolphins are so stellar this year. The Pro Bowl voting is such crap. Every year it’s the same guys. It’s sort of like the local elections—the coaches and players keep voting for the same names no matter what. It’s a great system.

Tags: ,

Quick Hits from the Sports World

Titans Dominate Hapless Texans
Wow, just when I thought the Titans were scraping the bottom of the barrel, along come the Texans. They are really awful. I feel sorry for David Carr. It has to suck to be the NFL’s tackling dummy. Defensive lineman have to licking their chops when they are scheduled to play the Texans.

As for the Titans, they looked very good on the opening drive, and then the Offense shut down again for the rest of the first half. After half-time, there was a bit of renewed energy, but you have to take that success with a grain of salt. It was the Texans who they were playing.

It was also nice to see a positive overall performance by Pacman Jones this week. He played strong defensively all afternoon, and his nice kickoff return sure helped to seal the Texans fate. After his initial growing pains, I think he’ll be a solid player. The fans here in Tennessee will just take awhile to warm up to him.

Astros Win Games 4 and 5 All in the Same Day
I can’t believe the Astros and Braves game went 18 innings. I’m sure the Bravos are just sick after losing that one. They all but had the game locked up when Tim Hudson was taken out. The bullpen proceeded to go to all kinds hell and let the Astros back in the ball game. At least Braves fans got to see two games worth of play on Sunday. They shouldn’t be disappointed in that sense.

Fantasy Football Sadness Report
Well, this week sure was a doozy. My WR corps took some big hits this week due to injury. Darrell Jackson (Sea) is out for four weeks with a knee injury. Joe Horn (NO) sat out again this week with a hamstring strain. I promoted Kevin Curtis (StL) to the starting WR mix for the week in place of Jackson, but I didn’t know Horn wasn’t going to play. I also picked up Andre Johnson (Hou) off of waivers to fill in my WR/TE slot. Both of those decisions probably ruined my chance at winning this week.

I also had to start Aaron Brooks (NO) this week in pace of Kerry Collins (Oak) who was on a bye. Needless to say Brooks single handedly screwed my team at the most inopportune time. All I wanted out of him was at least 200 yards and a TD, but he played like absolute dog shit. It was pitiful.

I have to see if there is some sort of trade I can work out to get my WR situation under control. In retrospect, I probably should’ve held on to Larry Fitzgerald (Ari) instead of trading him a couple of weeks ago. I figured his production would drop since Kurt Warner (Ari) is out with an injury. I still have a strong RB group, Shaun Alexander (Sea), Domanick Davis (Hou) and Thomas Jones (Chi), and I’ll also get my regular QB back this week. Those things should help me right the ship.

Technorati Tags: , , ,

AFL Grand Final

I don’t know how may people here in the States got to watch the Grand Final live, but in Nashville we weren’t able to see it because of Hurricane Rita. I think the feed for all of the Eastern States goes through Houston, and there wasn’t anyone at the control desk to turn on the feed since they’ve all been evacuated prior to Rita making landfall.

I know people on the West Coast (L.A.) were able to see it. I talked to one of my Aussie buddies who just moved out there after the game to confirm it. They were able to see the whole game live and in color. It kind of made me sad. We hooked up someone’s laptop to the HDTV our bar had to see if we could get a feed off of the Internets. The best we could do is getting someone in Oz to point their web cam at the TV to transmit a screen capture of the Television every 3 seconds or so. Combine that with the live audio feed in the Net, and we were in hog heaven.

I asked some of the Australians in attendance at our bar if they ever thought they’d be watching and listening to the Grand Final over the Internet with a delayed web cam feed. They all responded with a definite, “Fuck No!”. I can’t believe Fox didn’t realize this might be a problem. Why couldn’t they reroute the whole country’s feed to another location. That would seem to make more sense.

Technorati Tags: , ,

Glad I Dumped Halladay When I Had the Chance!

Roy Halladay suffers setback in recovery from broken leg

Whew, am I glad that I was able to drop him from my fantasy team when this first happened! I had a feeling he would be out longer than expected. I got an excellent pitcher in return, John Patterson of the Nationals, who’s been pitching great for the past month. I had to give up the Orioles Miguel Tejada, but I received Michael Young of the Rangers in return

All in all I think I’ve come out on top so far.

Update: Halladay is now out for the season. Boy am I glad I made this trade. Now all I have to do is sneak into the playoffs.

Technorati Tags: | | |

Funny How Free Agency Works

Peter Boulware to work out for Ravens

I bet the Ravens are going to be laughing all the way to the bank if they re-sign Boulware. His cap number should be much more manageable now they he’s “tested” the waters. Plus, he won’t have to learn a new system.

It’s probably win/win for both parties. Boulware will get a one-year deal and a chance to prove to all of those haters out there what he’s really worth. I’m still shocked that he’s on the market.

Technorati Tags: | | | |