Super Bowl Thoughts

A few thoughts on the Super Bowl:

-I'm not sure which annoys me more, Marshawn Lynch or his defenders. The job of an NFL player entails more than just playing football on Sunday. Lynch doesn't like talking to the media? Cool. I hate giving presentations, but when my boss tells me I need to give a presentation I do it because it's part of my job and I'm a professional. Lynch needs to grow up instead of being a petulant child.

-I've yet to see anyone who complains that players shouldn't have to talk to the media provide a coherent explanation of exactly how that would work.

-I also can't help but roll my eyes at the hypocrisy of the people whining about the media and the NFL while voraciously consuming every bit of news about the game. Get over yourselves.

-No strong feelings about who will win this one. If I had to pick I'd probably go with the Seahawks but I could easily see it going the other way. Either outcome is going to make for ridiculous commentary on Monday so I'm basically rooting for casualties.

ODB

Check out the video of ODB and Brees setting the record for one-handed catches.

More importantly, near the end of the video they show a different view of the mountains in the background. I (hope) believe that is Camelback Mountain or Piestewa Peak (formally known as Squaw Peak). I climbed both of those last summer.

Melissa Stark

Again, half listening to "Mike and Mike" this morning, they were talking about the NFL Network set to have a 10 hour Super Bowl pre-game show. Greeny proceeded to say something along the lines of "Melissa Stark better get well hydrated."

Just hearing Melissa Stark took me back to some fun memories in high school and college.

Tecmo Super Bowl Tournament

When researching David Fulcher, I found a wiki page for him. The picture they used had a captain that read: "David Fulcher at the 2008 Midwest Tecmo Super Bowl Tournament."

What?!?! So I did some more digging and found these websites:

Midwest Tecmo Super Bowl Tourament...in Detroit LAST weekend! What are the odds of that?

The Rules  Can't bring your own controller. Dang. But you can change your playbook.

http://knobbe.org/

http://www.tecmomadison.com/

Have to admit...I'm interested in going to a tourney, even though I haven't played in about 5 years.

Tecmo Super Bowl Reference

It wasn't actually a TSB reference, but this morning on "Mike and Mike," Golic was talking about some guys in the secondary from the Seahawks and made a comparison to an opponent, David Fulcher, that he played against. He said Fulcher was pretty big for a Safety.

When I heard David Fulcher, millions of Bengals moments flooded me and all our Tecmo tournaments and our Thursday lunch time battles. And yes, when he was "Excellent" on the game, he didn't tackle, he just ran people over.

Took me back 15-20 years.

I HAD THE JETS!

As predicted...

Deflate-Gate

This story has to be the opening sketch for this week's SNL, right? There at least has to be a Vegas prop bet for how many times they will say something like "Brady likes to shrink his balls" or "Belichick wants Brady to shrink his balls." I agree with Mark Brunell that "there's not an equipment manager in the NFL, on his own initiative, that would deflate a ball without the starting QB's approval." No starting QB would let an equipment manager play with his balls. See SNL, it's that simple. You can't screw this up.

I can't believe ESPN/NFL doesn't just bring in the equipment mangers and question them...and then they can plead ignorance.

When Tom Brady gets his shrine in Canton, I want a deflated ball next to him.

I hope Brady and the Pats bury the Seachickens.

Super Bets

This is a great story. Chris Pratt (Star-Lord) and Chris Evans (Captain America) have placed a bet on the Super Bowl. The loser appears in costume at a children's hospital in the opposite city. There's nothing not to like about it.

Instant Awesome

Can you imagine this? You run the steps only to find Rocky waiting at the top saying "You're making me look bad!"

Awesome.

?

After seeing the news that Max Scherzer is leaving the Tigers for the Nationals I had a thought: From the perspective of a GM, is there a more difficult position to manage in all of sports than a starting pitcher in major league baseball? Quarterback would seem to be close, but quarterback seem to be more consistent once you have a good one. Outside of the rare example (Matt Schaub), you don't see good quarterbacks go from being good to average or bad from one season to the next. You expect that once you have a good quarterback he'll be good for eight years or so. The MLB pitcher who is good for eight years seems to be exceedingly rare. I would think that would drive a GM crazy.

Football Thoughts

College:
 -The Buckeyes winning the national title should have been impossible. I couldn't really root for them, but you have to appreciate what it took to pull off such an improbable season.

-If the story of Cardale Jones was unfolding on a movie screen instead of real life I'd probably walk out of the theater. It's completely ridiculous.

-Does the B1G benefit from OSU's win? I think you have to say yes. The conventional wisdom was a team from the Big Ten couldn't compete at the highest level. MSU started to prove that wrong last year, followed it up again this year, and OSU blew it up completely. I think some, maybe most, of the Power 5 might be better from top to bottom but at least the B1G isn't a laughingstock now.

-I do feel a little bad for Mariota.

-I wasn't a huge fan of the idea of a playoff, but I have to admit it did deliver.

NFL:
-I'm having a hard time maintaining interest in the NFL playoffs. I can't bring myself to root for any of the remaining teams. The only player I like is Russell Wilson, but I can't stand Richard Sherman, so the Seahawks are out.

-Does any quarterback who hasn't won a Super Bowl get more of the benefit of the doubt than Neckbeard? I get that the guy is good, but some of the commentary gets a little ridiculous.

-As the season winds down I was reflecting that I'm going to miss NFL commentary once it ends. Favorite analysts: Trent Dilfer, Mark Schlereth, Brian Billick.

Age of Ultron

DD

Ant-Man