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

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

This is pretty funny:

Shooting from the Hip

Here's just a bunch of things I've thought about lately:

1. The Lions are 10-4, yet who have they beat? Seriously, how many of us Lions fans would be optimistic if the Lions had to play at New Orleans in the first round of the playoffs? I don't care what their record is, I don't want any part of Drew Brees, especially at home in the playoffs.

2. Speaking of the Lions, I believe Matt Stafford is the best QB the Lions have had in 30+ years, if not their entire franchise. I believe you can make an argument for Stafford being a Top 10 QB in the league. However, I feel he is a MILE from being in the Top 5.

My Top 5 QB Rankings:
a. Brady
b. Manning
c. Rodgers
d. Luck
e. Brees

The 2nd tier (6-10) gets a little muddy. In no particular order
Roethlisberger (Jewerly)
Russell Wilson (he just wins games, dang it)
Eli Manning (not necessarily based on this year)
Matt Ryan (Not so much lately)
Matt Stafford

3rd Tier (11-15)
Romo (Basically another Stafford with huge weapons and high expectations)
Rivers
Flacco (Most road playoff victories of All-Time I believe. "PLAYOFFS?!")
Alex Smith (he wins games)
Kaepernick (2 straight NFC Conference Title games)

Here's the thing: Stafford's status seems to be pretty fluid. He easily fits into either a 2nd or 3rd Tier QB.

3. The Yankees just signed 3B Chase Headley for $52 million. Don't they already have a slightly expensive 3B in A-Rod?  Seems like something is going to change at the "hot corner."

UPDATE: As I'm writing this looking for correct information, A-Rod is now a full-time DH. That explains a lot.

4. I don't think the Spartan Nation will travel for their bowl game like they did last year for the Rose Bowl. Texas isn't Pasadena. Also, the fans didn't know if it might be another 25+ years before the next Rose Bowl, so they decided they better make the trip.

5. Mike and Mike had a great rant yesterday morning if "Die Hard" was a Christmas movie. Greeny was all for it, if not the greatest Christmas movie of all time. Golic was completely against the outrageous idea and basically said the movie was released in July, so "How can that be a Christmas movie?" He also said the movie "It's a Wonderful Life" was released January 7. Greeny responded, "January 7th? That's 360 days away from Christmas! That's about as far away from Christmas as you can get! That's not a Christmas movie!"

6. Les Miles. Can we stop talking about him. Do you realize he's 61 years old? Let's say he actually does commit to UM. He'll turn 62 during next season. How long do you think he's going to coach? What, he'll be the next Joe Pa and keep coaching till he literally dies? What do you think opposing recruiters are going to say to 5 Star recruits about Les Miles? "He'll be retiring soon. He won't be there when you graduate." How many successful D-1 coaches are still going at it at age 70 (I could see Saban still winning 'Ships at 70). Get over Les Miles.

7. Does the longer UM waits to name a coach a good thing or bad? I get all the worry about losing recruits. I think I like the patience. Wisconsin on the other hand practically had their next coach before their last one landed in Oregon. Speaking of Les Miles, he signed at LSU in January. So, they obviously didn't suffer the loss of many recruits hiring someone in January, probably because Saban already had them lined up. (I know, I know, LSU is a lot warmer than UM.)

8. Dave Wright is the man. He knows he way around house projects and has a sweet DeWalt Miter Saw. And yes, I have all of my fingers still.

Losing

Ryen Russillo made (approximately) this point the other day on the show: The 76ers, a team trying to lose, are 2-20. The Pistons, a team trying to win, are 4-19. That's kind of depressing if you're a Pistons fan.

?

How would an EMU alum who roots for Michigan feel about the Eagles upsetting the Wolverines at home last night? Conflicted?

It's not Harbaugh.

With the firing of Brady Hoke I thought my schadenfreude at the misfortunes of Michigan football would be done for the season, but the delusional Michigan fans who think they're going to get Jim Harbaugh to coach the team are really stretching it out. Thank you.

Reverse the Curse

I've been thinking about this for at least a year or two, but has it dawned on anyone else that the teams we visited for our Baseball Trips found out-of-the-ordinary success soon after our ballpark tours? If not, I did a little research and with the exception of a few teams, the Baseball Trip should be given more credit for teams' successes and...probably deserve some recognition or reward.

I may have my 2004 and 2005 teams out of sequence, but here are the 11 teams and their results from the Cass City Monkey effect as well as what life was like before the birth of the Baseball Trip:

2000 - Chicago Cubs: Playoffs 2003, 2007, 2008
          (1998 and 1989 was previous appearances)
2001 - Boston Red Sox: Playoffs 2003, World Series Champs 2004, 2007, 2013
          The Curse. Enough said. (1999, 1998, 1995, 1990 was previous post-season appearances)
2002 - St. Louis Cardinals: World Series appearance 2004, 2006, 2011, 2013
          (2001, 2000, 1996, 1989 was previous PS appearances)
2003 - Cleveland Indians: Playoffs 2007 & 2013
          (2001 and late 90's was previous PS appearances
2003 - Pittsburgh Pirates: Playoffs 2013 & 2014
          (Early 90's was last PS appearance)
*2004 - Atlanta Braves: Playoffs 2004, 2005, 2010, 2012, 2013
          (They are the exception...we jinxed them. They owned the playoffs in the 90's)
*2004 - Cincinnati Reds: Playoffs 2010, 2012, 2013
          (1995 and 1990 was previous PS appearance)
*2005 - Chicago White Sox: World Series Champs 2005, Playoffs 2008
          (2000, 1993 and 1983 was last PS appearances)
*2005 - Milwaukee Brewers: Playoffs 2008 & 2011
          (1982. And that's it. No other PS appearance)
2006 - Minnesota Twins: Playoffs 2006, 2009, 2010
          (The other exception. They were already successful before we came along)
2007 - Kansas City Royals: World Series appearance 2014
          (Talk about a PS drought...1985 was last appearance)

*=Those years might be backwards

We have seen every team from the AL and NL Central Divisions.


One could call it just a coincidence that eventually a given number of 11 teams will accidentally run into some luck over a 15 year window. I'd like to think we played a hand in some way, more than just pure luck. We're talking about Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Milwaukee, Minnesota, and KC. Did I mention Kansas City? AND Kansas freakin' City!

So, maybe we were just what a team needed to get over the proverbial hump to taste the post-season. Or, the missing piece to the elusive World Series.

You're welcome.