Let the Wookiee Win

You know who threw out the first pitch Tuesday night at Fenway Park? Chewbacca. Yes, a wookiee. Chewie is known for his wicked fastball, and his propensity for pulling people's arms out of their sockets when he loses. See the pic in context here.

I Aim to Misbehave

Serenity comes out tomorrow. You should see it. If you haven't seen Firefly, you can catch up by ordering the DVDs of the series here.

Pretty In Pink

You may or may not know that, in a decades long tradition, the Iowa Hawkeyes visiting locker room is pink. This color scheme was introduced by Coach Hayden Fry, who was a psychology major and said pink "had a calming and passive effect on people." Of course, some people are now complaining about this. Specifically, an adjunct law lecturer, Erin Buzuvis. I'm sure she's not a radical feminist. She called the locker room "sexist" and "homophobic" (good old liberal standbys those). She thinks it's a "sex equality" issue. I'm not sure what women feel inequal because of the locker room. Maybe they want theirs painted pink too?

Let's get one thing straight: more than any other sport, college football is about tradition. That's why people fight tooth and nail over almost any change, no matter how cosmetic. This locker room color thing was started by the most legendary coach in Hawkeye history. I've never heard opposing teams complain. This woman is a no-name lecturer looking to make a name for herself in the feminist community by taking on the football team. Let's hope Iowa doesn't give in crazy P.C.

Scoreboard!

The Spartans have been accused of running up the score against Illinois. Yes, they threw 2 TD passes at the end of the game. But they also rushed the ball quite a bit. What can you do when you're getting 10 yards a pop? Also, guys like Hoyer can definitely benefit from the work. The offense doesn't do slow down very well, and when they do they tend to lose, though that wasn't going to be a problem against Illinois. I usually am pretty merciful in situations like that, but not this time. You don't want them to score? Then stop them. End of story.

To Drew

Drew Sharp, who I have called a "butt monkey" in the past, wrote an article today about the UM vs. MSU game. I think it needs some response.

1. "And it's Michigan State that would probably take more insecure delight out of making the Wolverines 2-3 than it would in extending its own record to 5-0."

Hey, we're the Spartans, not the Boston Red Sox. Yes, we cheer at games when we see Michigan lose. But we root for them at appropriate times, like when the Big Ten has to prove its mettle against other conferences. To be defined by your rival is to let them control you. That's not the Spartans. Beating Michigan can be a bright spot in season that are otherwise bad, but it's never enough.

2. "...gimmicky spread option attack"

He thinks this offense is gimmicky? Has he ever seen Texas Tech? The Spartans run the spread. Option? Not so much. Watch some football, you might learn something.

3. "They have the state's best playmaker in quarterback Drew Stanton, but an offense that too often makes him a target for punishment. MSU's one-man show could head straight down the drain should it lose that one man."

The Spartans have been sacked 10 times in 4 games, 2.5 sacks per game. Some of those were Hoyer, presumably. Stanton hasn't been getting hammered. And if Drew had actually seen any games, he'd notice that Drew hasn't been taking the "banzai" running approach that he had last year. He's much more of a pocket passer who can move well. Is he the key to the offense? Yes. Has he been getting punished? Nope. Also, the Spartans have been getting production from everywhere. Like true freshman Javon Ringer, or two-sport star Matt Trannon. The Spartans can survive without Stanton, though they wouldn't be putting up 600 yds of offense.

4. "Lose Stanton, and Michigan State is just smoke and mirrors."

See above. Note to Drew: Watch games, then write. It'll stop you from making a fool of yourself.

Backyard Brawl

The game is early this year. Take the names off the teams, do the analysis, and I think most experts would pick MSU, maybe even by multiple touchdowns. But this is a rivalry game and the rankings don't matter, which Michigan has found out in most of its losses to MSU. Does MSU have any excuse not to win? No. This is their chance to forge a new identity for themselves, and give Drew Stanton a real shot at the Heisman to boot. But UM is going to be very dangerous. The loss of this game will have a huge affect on the team that comes up short. Michigan isn't going to give up their season without a fight. The Spartans certainly have weaknesses that the Wolverines could exploit. It'll be interesting. Scout.com's take here.

Of Polls

College football polls don't mean what it seems like they should mean. Do they give you the teams in order of how good they are? Well, sort of. A little. Maybe. It's all a popularity contest. This is pretty obvious because you can tell what will happen to a team in the polls based on the number in front of the name of the opponent they beat. If it actually meant something, it wouldn't be so consistent. Is Michigan the 27th best team in the land? They're probably better than that. But when you've got 2 losses after week 4 and your wins are EMU and Southen Illinois, you know what the polls will do.

Notre Dame

I'd agree that the media has went a little overboard celebrating Notre Dame; I think they love the Irish a lot more than the regular football watching public. I'd chalk it up to the easy stories that all the history around the golden dome provides. My question is: "Where were all these athletes last year?" Is Charlie Weis really the difference? I had a lot of respect for Willingham and didn't think he was the problem, but it does make you think. As far as MSU's celebration at ND's 50: I'm neutral. It's cool to watch, and it's not like they have a student section there to celebrate with. But it is somewhat disrespectful. It's probably okay at ND and maybe UM, but nowhere else.

52 s

You know how in the Patriots run of greatness you sometimes watch and say: "Man, they're good, but they're also really lucky." A great example: the Patriots received 52 extra seconds on a clock error yesterday, which might have made the difference in them beating the Steelers. Maybe the Patriots could still have pulled of the game-winning drive against the Steelers' soft coverage, but you can bet Pittsburgh would much rather have had that time off the clock.

Yee-hah!

It's a Monday, so I'm sure everyone could use some cheering up. So, I give you Whiplash, the Cowboy Monkey!


Whiplash performs at rodeos and is the spokesmonkey for Taco John's, a restaurant chain in MN, among other places.

What were they thinking?

Can anyone explain to me what the media saw in Michigan to give them a pre-season ranking of #3? I'll tell you what I saw: The defense can't handle running quarterbacks and lost the last two games of the season. Ending the year on two losses is exactly what it takes to become #3 to start the next season. What in the world kind of criteria does the media use to make their picks? Their best player on the team was drafted #4 overall. The defense gave up an average of +23 points per game. Ok, now let's recap for the pre-season rankings. Give a #3 ranking to a team who lost their best player and have a worse defense. Makes tons of sense. All I know is I hope the game on Saturday is blocked out locally because it isn't going to be pretty. Thankfully I'll be in Detroit taking a test so I won't be able to see one single snap taken. I can say this though. It's about freakin' time that for once, MSU will be favored to win, should win, has no excuse not to win, and no one will be shocked if U of M loses. In fact, it really should be taken as a "Big deal you beat Michigan" attitude. "Wow! Congratulations! By the way, Michigan sucks." We all know rankings mean jack squat. If a team can be #14 and lose to an undefeated team on the road by 3 points, it probably doesn't constitute getting kicked out of the polls. Just put them at #22 before the game starts because we know that is where they'll end up after they lose, since they have lost their first road game for the past 5 or 6 years. If they suck and now have 2 losses, they don't need to be polluting the top 25. Stick with me here and ponder this: If they do suck and you've kicked them out of the polls because they are not good, then how can you reward the previously unranked team that beat them a 9 spot jump in the polls? If Wisconsin wasn't good enough before to be in the top 25, how does beating a crapy, overrated team get you to #17 after previously being just an "Other Receiving Votes" type of team? Or, if Wisconsin is for real and is now considered to be "good" since the media chose to rank them #17, then how can a loss to a "good" team on the road by 3 points make sense to be dropped out of the polls? Isn't that basically admitting you don't know what you're talking about in college football? Was it really an upset that the badgers won? At home? Undefeated? By 3 points? Again, Michigan clearly sucks and doesn't need to be in the top 25, but let's try to get some consistency in telling us who you think is or isn't a good football team.

Props to MSU beating Notre Dame. I'm not real sure why so much love has to go to Notre Dame for their "amazing" start. Let's see, you have a new coach who was the former offensive coordinator from arguably the best dynasty of all time. Notre Dame is good? Gasp! It had to be the black coach right? The best part of the MSU-ND game had to be the slamming of the State flag in the middle of the Domers field. Was that a lack of class? I guess, but considering MSU flat out owns ND, they deserved it. If ND can't defend their home turf against MSU after 5 years, then you might as well start painting "State" in the endzones because it's obviously more their field than yours. Quit whinning about how classless it was and just beat them on your own dang field. Heck, if I was a 5th year senior and I went my whole college career beating ND, you bet your ace I'm going to celebrate at the 50-yard line. Honestly, the flagpole in the ground was the best play of the game.

Because You Demanded It

We now have ESPN's Bottomline on, well, the top of the blog. Okay, nobody demanded it, but I thought it would be cool. So, thanks to the killer html skills of The Kid, there it is. Enjoy.

Others Receiving Votes

It's not unusual for the MSU vs. UM game to be #11 against Others Receiving Votes. But it is unusual for State to be the one with the number. Michigan fell out of the Top 25 today for the first time since 1998. UM was in the rankings for 114 straight weeks and was the holder of the longest current streak, which now goes to Miami at 93 weeks. You can see the polls here.

Directional Michigan Showdown

In a game that was sure to have great meaning to some of you here, EMU beat CMU 22-20 in OT on Saturday. Ontario Sneed of the Chips ran for 122 yds, but it wasn't enough. I guess this means Haag has bragging rights over T. That would be, of course, if either of them actually followed their own team, instead of being UM fans.

Go right through for MSU

Watch the points keep growing. They certainly did on Saturday as the Spartans put up 61 against the Fighting Illini. In the process MSU set the school record for offense, 705 yds, and set a team record for TD passes (7), which also tied the Big Ten mark. Drew Stanton set the Spartan record for TD passes by throwing 5 before he sat out much of the second half. The 705 yards of offense tops the previous best of 698 vs. Purdue in 1971, State also approached this mark earlier in the season with a 685 yd effort against Kent State. MSU is averaging 594.3 yards of offense a game. Next up: Michigan, who lost the battle of the ill-tempered rodents to the Badgers Saturday night.

I have returned.

To the internet that is; I'm still in Minnesota. The cable guy, who looked like Rupert G of Late Show Fame, finally got it installed last night. For those of you who haven't been to MN, which is everyone but Andy I assume, it's a lot like Michigan, except all the roads are named Something 10 or Blank Lake Road. We had tornadoes and a nasty thunderstorm here on Wednesday, but I guess that still leaves me second to Grant and his hurricane in the bad weather department. Also, apparently the Vikings and Daunte Culpepper are now terrible since I moved here, but my departure didn't help the Lions. It's done wonders for the Spartans though. More later.

Brainsss...

Web time waster with zombies, the Urban Dead. Your brains may be eaten. You have been warned.

Mindless, shuffling monsters....so its Ann Arbor?

New kid on the block

Everyone welcome our new member, Grant. He needs no introduction, mainly because you know him already. He's also the farthest from CC, taking the title from Adam. Any way say "Hi Grant" or "you suck" or someting.

It's Andy's Birthday!

That is all.

Broken Lamps

In an event that heralds a multitude of broken lamps and bleeding siblings, Nintendo released details of the controller for their next system, code named Revolution. First, let me say before I read this I had lost almost all faith in the BIG N's ability to stay in the market. I was right, because it is totally different and could alter the way games are played compeltely. Full 3-D motion sensing. Including tilt, rotation, etc. If you can move it, it will be detected. Go to ign for more details and descriptions of its possible uses.

There are still kinks to be worked out, but I'm pumped. Some games may even use two simultaneosly. I'm sure all the baseball fans here can see the potential for baseball games, while I look for amazing sword play. Regardless, if they pull this off, it'll be cool, though roommates and end table lamps may suffer from intense gaming sessions.

For those who don't follow this stuff, Nintendo was been mum about pretty much everything, so system specs are unavailible, though it won't likely be as powerful as the Xbox360 or PS3, but that bothers me less, especially since the Rev will cost less and let you download old NES games (Tecmo forever!).

Getting your Irish up

MSU truly had a miserable performance Saturday, the only bright spot being the performance of the offense, which will go completely ignored by the media as they blather on about ND's coach. State's defence stopped the run early, but became porous late, and was utterly incapable of anything like pass defence, consistently playing 5+ yards off the reciever. The coaching staff continued their habit of trying to play a slow down game as soon as they got up by 14, which doesn't work when you run the spread. Three and out kills less time than passing. Fields, the punter, had the worst game of his career, shanking all but one punt when he usual booms them for ~60 yards. ND's QB will be talked about alot, and he had a good game, but his job was alot easier. ND's defence played well, Stanton's completions were very impressive, repeatedly threading the needle. The Spartans also had to deal with the fact that thier only player who wasn't holding the ball tight was returning kicks, everyone else knew from the Michigan tape that the Irish would try to strip it. State deserved to lose and got lucky with some turnovers, but some of the mistakes are easy to fix, if the coaches are willing.

Unbelievable Feat

Last night, the Owen-Gage JV girls basketball team scored 10 times the amount of points in the first quarter than they did on Tuesday night. They also amassed 2 1/2 times more points than they did in Tuesday's game. Imagine a normal boys basketball score of 50 points. 2 1/2 times more points would be 125 points in a game! Ahhh, but wait just one minute. I did say GIRLS basketball right? So how did they do it? By scoring ZERO points in the first quarter Tuesday night, which means they must have scored 10 points in the first quarter last night. (Wait, you can't multiply 10 times zero. Oh well.) Finishing Tuesday's game with a grand total of 12 points, they finished with a ballooned 30 points Thursday night. Ahhh, girls basketball. Gotta love it.

Oh, and I forgot to mention. Our Varsity played the final 5 minutes of the game with 4 or less players on the court. Which means later in the waining minutes they only had 3 players on the court, one being asthmatic. So, make her run down the court and back and you're basically playing with 2 girls against 5 with one dying because she can't breathe. Oh, and what did Kingston do during those 5 minutes? Yup, kept running the fast break. "Nice layup Molly!"

Signed,

A sore butt from watching 4 straight (boring) hours of girls basketball two times in one week on a wooden bench with no back support, and...rrrrrrrrrr.

We're #1

Folks, this is an historic moment. Do you know why? No, not because I'm moving, but that's special too. The Lions are in first place in the NFC North. It's early, you say? Well, that's true. But when was the last time the Lions were in first? Does anyone know? I don't know.

There's also a new TMQ up. I was imitating TMQ when I started writing on fantasy message boards. I don't find the column as entertaining as I used to, but it's still a good read. His breakdown of the NFL weekend is second to none.

Newsflash

Ohhhhhh, so that is the team website. It really does exist!!!

Oops

I've added EMU to the links list. I don't know how I forgot an athletic program that has the pride and history of Eastern's. My mistake.

No Dap for EMU

You have to be kidding me. I look over at the links for teams and no EMU love. The Chips? Is Bader paying you to keep that on the webpage?

Come on A.D. Bill Martin, send another (frightening) email to the students

I can only say it tongue in cheek as to how "proud" I am of the Michigan student section and how "successful" they were at trying to prove...well, that they were pissed and the officals were going to the replay (because they are allowed to) to get the call right. I completely forgot to mention that part in the previous post. The officals got the calls right. It was quite obvious to see. Hats off to the stripes for being 2-0 on replays. I also forgot to mention tongue in cheek how "good" of a job they did making the T.V. announcers shout louder so we all couldn't hear the infamous "bulls**t...bulls**t...bulls**t chant from the students. However, I've never joined in to such tomfoolery (dang, I should have used the term monkey business instead). I simply saw a loose marshmallow under my seat, bent over, picked it up, and threw it into the wind and it miraculously hit the zebra. The box score would read: 1 throw, 1 hit (1-1), 1.000.

Late for Class

I would like to thank Haag for freely admitting that Michigan fans are a bunch of shaved orangutans who can only be expected to fling their own crap when upset. The vaunted wolverine superiority, attaining new heights, striving for excellence. At this rate we will soon be able to teach them sign language and finger painting. I can only assume that Haag believes that officials should not try to make the right call so they don't upset the delicate sensibilities of smashed frat-boys.

"Class" certainly was in session

For anyone who didn't see trash coming on the field before they uttered the word "replay" has either been naive about drunk college students or has never watched Michigan on T.V. at home. The fact the play was in the middle of the student section was enough to know what was going to happen...both times. Classless, yup. Expected, absolutely! Remember, this is coming from a guy who once hit a sideline judge (standing on the goal line) in the back with a marshmallow against MSU on Oct. 14, 2000. Memo to Big Ten officials: Do not call for a reply when in the corner of the student section at the Big "Quiet" House. I mean come on, you can't get into the student section without a bag of marshmallows errr a student I.D.

Class

Yesterday, two examples of not having class really stood out. First, a large number of Michigan fans at the Big House. Your team chokes every time it gets in the red zone and fails to score. What's your response? Throw garbage onto the field. Waaah! That'll show those refs for going to replay and making the right call.

The second is Reagan Mauia of Hawaii. With nine minutes left in the game, he drills his helmet into Drew Stanton's thigh for a late hit, obviously trying to injure him. He then gets up and celebrates with his teammates, tapping heads with them, after the flag has been thrown. He also runs around the field and antagonizes the crowd, flapping his arms. June Jones doesn't take him out of the game. On the next play he gets flagged for a personal foul for ripping of Spartan guard Kyle Cook's helmet. He finally gets sat down. That's the kind of team Hawaii is. MSU should cancel their 2007 date with them, and no one else should play Hawaii if it can be avoided.

Good Prediction

You know, it's nearly impossible to predict the exact score of a football game. The New York Times tried it for a couple of years, and I'm pretty sure they didn't a score exactly right once. So how'd I do in my first try?


Predicted Score: 31-20 Patriots
Actual Score: 30-20 Patriots
Predicted Stats: Moss 1 TD, Dillon 2 TDs
Actual Stats: Moss 5 rec, 130 yds, 1 TD; Dillon 23 car, 63 yds, 2 TDs

One blocked PAT away from having every prediction right! Now you see why it's so hard. Maybe I'll make more predictions later.

Chinese Bamboo Tree

In the Lions '05 Preview, writer Nicholas J. Cotsonika relates the follwing story told my Coach Steve Mariucci at the Lions' kickoff luncheon:

It went something like this: A man planted a seed for a Chinese bamboo tree, and he watered and fertilized it every day. After a year, he had nothing. Undaunted, he kept watering and fertilizing. After two years, he still had nothing. Three years passed. Four years passed. Still nothing.

But the fifth year, he was rewarded with a Chinese bamboo tree, 90 feet tall.

"That's a story about us," Mariucci said. "We are like a Chinese bamboo tree. The Chinese bamboo tree is going to grow 90 feet, and it's going to grow this year."

It's a great sentiment. But is it realistic? The NFC North shouldn't be a tough division this year: the Vikings will likely be very good, but the Packers are a team on its way down, and the Bears are starting a rookie QB and are weak on offense. It shouldn't be that difficult to secure 2nd place in the division. After that, who knows? Anyone with a little knowledge of football can see that the Lions have all the pieces they need to make a playoff run if they come together, or be a failure if they don't. So, take your pick: optimism or pessimism.

The Detroit News also has their preview up. It's a similar mix of "Gosh, the team seems like they should be good, and it's about time, but..." They also have a cool depth chart picture, reproduced here:


Only Sunday will provide the answers.

Thursday Night Prediction

Tonight the Patriots and Raiders kick-off the 2005 NFL season. The game starts at 9pm, don't be fooled by ABC telling you 8 for all that celebration crap. I mean, go ahead and watch Kanye West if you really want, but I'm ready for some football. For analysis of the game you can check out John Clayton's take or you can see what John Madden has to say (Boom, maybe?). My analysis: the Raiders have a great offense on paper, and likely will struggle on defense. The Pats can really score when they want, but their defense has some question marks starting the season. However, Belichick has had lots of time to scheme against the Raiders. Moss gets a TD, but Dillon gets two.

FINAL SCORE: Patriots 31, Raiders 20

For some reason I keep trying to type "Patritos". Maybe I should call the Pats that all season?

In other NFL news (sort of), ESPN has a poll on its front page about who will win Super Bowl XL. The choices: Panthers, Colts, Eagles, Patritos, and Other. At the time I'm writing this, Other is leading with 35.8% of 21,370 votes. I find that surprising, as those choices encompass almost every pick I've seen for Super Bowl champ.

Fight the Flood

I've seen lots of ways to donate money for hurricane relief efforts, but this might be the most notable: Bungie has made a t-shirt, the design of which you can see below, and all profits will be donated. It's cool to see the gaming community jump in to help, but a little strange to see the Master Chief involved.

ESPN Power Rankings

ESPN has released their Week 1 NFL Power Rankings. These are always fun, especially to check out at about week 10 or so and compare. You can also see their offseason rankings here. The Week 1 rankings look like this:

1. Patriots


2. Colts


3. Eagles


4. Vikings


5. Steelers


6. Falcons


7. Chargers


8. Ravens


9. Jets


10. Panthers


11. Broncos


12. Rams


13. Chiefs


14. Bills


15. Seahawks


16. Jaguars


17. Packers


18. Bengals


19. Cowboys


20. Saints


21. Cardinals


22. Texans


23. Raiders


24. Lions


25. Giants


26. Redskins


27. Titans


28. Buccaneers


29. Bears


30. Dolphins


31. Browns


32. 49ers

More Predictions

More NFL 2005 predictions, this time from Don Banks of SI. I'll skip to the good part:

• MVP: Daunte Culpepper, Minnesota, quarterback.
• Offensive player of the year: LaDainian Tomlinson, San Diego, running back.
• Defense player of the year: Julius Peppers, Carolina, defensive end.
• Offensive rookie of the year: Matt Jones, Jacksonville, receiver.
• Defensive rookie of the year: Demarcus Ware, Dallas, defensive end.
• Coach of the year: John Fox, Carolina.
• Comeback player of the year: Steve Smith, Carolina, receiver.

Crystal Ball Time

ESPN has unveiled its expert picks for the 2005 NFL season. This is notable mostly for being able to point at them in January and say: "Boy, those guys are idiots." The Super Bowl favorites seem to be the Patriots, Colts, and Eagles. No love for the Lions in the NFC North; the Vikings are the unanimous pick to win the division. Just for kicks, I'll throw out my own fearless predictions, guaranteed or your money back:

AFC East: Patriots
AFC North: Ravens (The Steelers won't be good this year.)
AFC South: Colts
AFC West: Chiefs
AFC Wild Cards: Chargers, Jaguars

NFC East: Eagles
NFC North: Vikings (Sorry.)
NFC South: Panthers
NFC West: Seahawks (Better not burn me again.)
NFC Wild Cards: Rams, Lions (Heck, gotta have some optimism.)

AFC Champ: Colts
NFC Champ: Panthers

Super Bowl Champ: Colts (That's right, 2nd straight year.)

Coach: T. Dungy
MVP: P. Manning (If the Colts win, he has to be.)
Def. POY: J. Peppers (Curse you for taking him Haag!)
Off. POY: P. Manning (See above.)
Def. rookie: D. Ware
Off. rookie: C. Williams
Comeback POY: S. Smith

There you have it. Sure to be fun to look back and laugh at. UPDATE: Added Comeback Player of the Year, changed NFC Champion pick (backpedaling already!).

Links!

There are now links in the sidebar. It took some poking around in Blogger help, but they had all the info I needed. I've divided the links up into categories; hopefully they will be useful. If you have any suggestions for new categories or links, let me know.

Shooting The Moon

I am experimenting with a strategy that is, to my knowledge, unprecedented in fantasy football. Instead of spreading my bye weeks out so I would only have one or two players out in a week, I lined up the byes of the majority of my starters. By sacrificing one week, I have my best players in every other week. The off week happens to be in week 8, so Adam gets an easy win as I get clobbered. Obviously the success/failure of this season is still dependent largely on individual player performance, which is nigh impossible to predict. Should be an interesting season regardless. If it works though, I will declare myself ruler of all fantasy football. You are warned.

And yes, Bader does still and always will suck.

Lions News

See that guy in the picture? That's Kevin Johnson, Lions WR. That's also Kevin Johnson, Lions 3rd-string QB. Apparently, the Lions have decided to forego signing a QB while Garcia is out. As much as some fans malign Harrington, if he goes out, the Lions are finished. But there is some good news, Jeff Garcia's broken leg won't require surgery. That doesn't mean it will necessarily heal much faster, though.

Also, Bob Wojnowski at the Detroit News writes today about the possibility of Mariucci being in hot water if the Lions aren't successful this season. While I think a poor year from the Lions would have a lot to do with Mooch if it happens, would they really fire him? Who would they hire? The latest college flavor of the month coach? Maybe call up Marty Mornhinweg, see if he wants his old job back? Ooh, I'll bet you could convince Bobby Williams to leave Saban at Miami and come coach the Lions (shudder)!

Why Rebuild?

Andy and I have been talking about whether it is a good idea to rebuild New Orleans after all the damage that was done last week. Today, an article in the Washington Post by Klaus Jacob ask the same thing: "But should we rebuild New Orleans, 10 feet below sea level, just so it can be wiped out again?" Jacobs explores this question and some possible answers. Interesting reading.

Fantasy Draft Analysis

Well, the CCM 2005 Fantasy Football Draft has been completed. After a night to sleep on it, how do you feel about your team? My overall impression: everyone has got a pretty good team. I don't know that there is a clear cut favorite yet, the teams are balanced well. Having at least 7 out of 8 owners present made a big difference, and those that missed some picks had the autopick choose well for them. Some more thoughts:

Best Pick: Kevin got it started by denying Fritz a back-to-back Manning playoff run. If he's as good as he was last year, this might be the best pick. But, really, no pick stands out to me as being especially great. My favorite pick of my own? Lamont Jordan in round 10. If he performs well, he's a steal that late, if not, I've got good depth at the RB position.

Worst Pick: Excluding all the defensive players that are inactive or nobodies, I'd have to say Schott's pick of Hanson in round 5. The next kicker didn't come off the board until round 8. Definitely should have waited.

Surprises: The number of QBs that came off the board in rounds 3 & 4. That people didn't draft many kick and punt returning WRs, besides me. That Andy was somehow looking over my shoulder at my defensive player cheat sheet. Barrigar picking Vick in round 6 after selecting Bulger in round 4. That there are no clearly bad or really good teams.

Well, what do you guys think?

Greatest Of All-Time

Jerry Rice retired yesterday, ending a 20 year career that leaves him a sure-fire first ballot Hall of Famer and possibly the greatest receiver to ever play in the NFL. He was also one of the few Tecmo Super Bowl players still active in the NFL. Rice decided to retire after Broncos coach Mike Shanahan informed him that he would not be the team's 3rd WR, relegating him to the bench or even special teams duty. Rice didn't want to play a 21st season on the bench. The 42-year-old Rice was a 1st round draft pick in 1985 from Mississippi Valley State. To quote the AP, Rice "leaves the field with 38 NFL records, including the most career receptions (1,549), yards receiving (22,895) and touchdowns receiving (197)." Sportscenter's "Did You Know" said yesterday that only 24 WRs have stats that match or are greater than the gap between Rice and second place. Rice has 3 Super Bowl rings and played in 13 Pro Bowls. You can read analysis from NFL.com, Gene Wojciechowski, and John Clayton at their respective links. Good luck to Rice in his future endeavours.

101-0

That's how much Cass City has outscored its opponents in the opening two games, according to the Huron Daily Tribune (if memory serves, the scores aren't online and the Tribune doesn't put much on its website). That's a pretty impressive start.

In other CC news, did you Cass City has a website? It even has what is apparently the town logo:



There's also an entry for Cass City in Wikipedia. Who knew?

Winning Big

Michigan State won big in their home opener, topping the Kent State Golden Flashes 49-14. The Spartans racked up 685 yards of total offense, the 2nd most in school history behind a 698-yard against Purdue in 1971. Drew 'Banzai' Stanton went 22 of 29 for 297 yards and 1 INT, he also rushed for 60 yards on 10 carries. He sat out the 4th quarter to protect himself from injury. Jehuu Caulcrick had 140 yards on 14 carries with 3 TDs. The Spartans rushed for 354 yards overall. Terry Love had 4 catches for 100 yards. It was MSU's first game in the newly renovated Spartan Stadium.