I’m going to do something different; I’m actually going to stay with a fan the first two, three weeks of the season. So that should be fun until I get myself acclimated, I learn my way around and actually just find a place…. I’ll just pick somebody. I’m not sure how it’s going to work. They’ll have to have internet and they have to have Xbox and that’s about it.
Dammit. Why couldn’t this man have been a Jet? I’d have bought an XBox…
Darnell Dockett riding a Segway:
There’s more at SB Nation Pro Football. Via Andrew Bucholtz.
A couple of people asked me if the amazing Tom Brady waterslide photo from yesterday might lead to an Embarrassing Things about Tom Brady sidebar on this site, since, as we know, he is the face of man-UGGs and worse yet, he almost had to sell insurance. And the good folks at Sports Pickle have even put together an embarrassing photos of Tom Brady photo gallery, which I found through SNY Why Guys today and why you should check out.
But there will be no Embarrassing Things about Tom Brady sidebar here because it would cheapen the Embarrassing Things about Cole Hamels. It’s all for you Cole:
If the owners continue to push a lockout that has now been ruled illegal and harmful in U.S. District Court, they could end up being sued for damages. If the lockout is lifted by court order and the owners impose rules that restrict player movement and free agency, they could end up being sued for damages. Continuing to fight legal battles they appear unlikely to win could cost the owners considerably more than continuing the old collective bargaining agreement would have cost them.
It does not sound as if they realize this yet. They had this big conference call Monday night to plot strategy and came out of it saying they were still united. If these guys are smart, that will have to be nothing more than brave talk. Right now, the owners should be looking for the quickest and cheapest way out of this mess, and continuing to fight in court is not that way.
Good stuff from Graziano on Judge Susan Nelson’s decision to grant an injunction lifting the NFL lockout.
Baseball season has distracted me from the NFL’s labor dispute of late, but I’m happy the judge seems to be siding with the players. People dismiss the negotiations as “billionaires versus millionaires,” but fail to consider that a) there are many, many NFL players who are decidedly not millionaires and b) even the ones that are millionaires are undertaking a remarkably dangerous job that will provide only five years of healthcare coverage after retirement and a pension that kicks in at 55 even though their average life expectancy is 52. And when you’ve got the type of long-term health issues NFL players often face, paying your own medical expenses is a pretty solid way to burn through your coffers, no matter how large.
Of course, I’m not sure how much this injunction does to assuage those concerns. With 51st street currently lousy with pre-draft hubbub, though, I will say that it’s sort of shocking the NFL didn’t come up with a way to televise and monetize the judge’s ruling. Doritos NFL Injunction Special 2K11, featuring four dudes in shiny suits and hair gel barking about legal proceedings.
I didn’t watch the show because it was about Tom Brady, who’s obviously a big stupid jerk, but apparently ESPN managed to interview five of the six quarterbacks drafted ahead of Brady on the miserable day that forced him to consider life as an insurance salesman.
The lone holdout? You guessed it: Former Hofstra standout Giovanni Carmazzi. The explanation is odd enough on its own, but it’s ESPN’s stock footage of goats that elevates the whole thing to surrealism:
Too silly not to share. Huge hat tip to James K. Skip to the 1:15 part:
I scoured the Internet for something awesome that you haven’t yet seen, but I settled on something you probably have. Who cares? This is the best the Internet will ever provide us, and perhaps the pinnacle of human civilization:
Mark Sanchez is in the running to be on the cover of the next Madden game, and while I’m all for it, Brian Bassett is a bit concerned about the “Madden Curse.”
You, me and Bassett all know that curses don’t really exist, but it struck me that maybe the curse in question has nothing to do with the video game and everything to do with the rigors of life in the NFL.
So, following Brian’s lead, I went back and checked on all the recent Associated Press NFL MVPs to see if they fell victim to a similar curse. For the purposes of this list, I started with 1998 because it’s an arbitrary endpoint perfectly suited to prove my point.
Here we go. The year listed is the season for which the player was given the MVP award. The description that follows is what happened to him the following season:
Note that the only player to win the award and appear on the cover of Madden for the same season is Alexander. So is the AP NFL MVP award also cursed? Is Peyton Manning, perhaps thanks to some Louisiana mojo, the only player immune?
Perhaps, but I doubt it. I’m sticking with my guns here: Playing in the NFL is really, really hard on the body. It is among the reasons the life expectancy of NFL players is 52, and why it is an utter travesty that the league only provides health insurance to players for five years after they retire.
Manning is a massive outlier in terms of durability, style of play and, probably, luck. The rest of these guys all fell victim to the exact same curse that haunts Madden cover boys: The “Playing in the NFL Curse.”
This. Good read from Graz.
Please read Roth’s write-up of the NFL labor negotiations.
Tedquarters 