RANDOM NEW POST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Random new post out of the blue, just to let everyone out there that i'm still here. That and Dwayne Wade decided not to take the max extension from the Heat, so he obviously wants to get out of Miami when the extension is up.

Picks 7-12

7. Oakland Raiders

I think if A.J. Hawk was on the board here that's who the Raiders would pick. But he won't be here. And that leaves the Raiders with Vince Young. Word is that Al Davis loves Young and is looking to move up to the two spot to get him. In all likelihood Young or Leinart will be available in this spot. As a side note, I hear that Leinart's family are all huge Raiders fans, so if he pulls an Eli Manning to play in Oakland don't be surprised.

8. Buffalo Bills

This is a tough pick, I think anyone of three guys could go in this spot and fill a hole for the Bills. DT, DB, and OT are all needs that can be filled here. OT Winston Justice is moving up draft boards in the weeks before the draft, but I think this is too early for him. Its also too early to take either Jimmy Williams or Antonio Cromartie, who both have issues of their own.

That leaves DT Haloti Ngata. Has the size and strength to be another Sam Adams and clog the middle for the Bills.

9. Detroit Lions

This pick has to be on defense. If Michael Huff goes to the 49ers, the Lions might be screwed. They might look at Jimmy Williams, Winston Justice, or even Chad Greenway. I think the pick is Greenway because he's the best linebacker available, and the Lions NEED linebackers. Watch out for Santonio Holmes in this spot(just kidding Lions fan)

10. Arizona Cardinals
Kurt Warner is not the future in St. Louis, shit he's not even the present. This is the spot where the Cards take the QB of the future(who will turn into the QB they cut two seasons later). Jay Cutler gets the call here only because every team in the league has undervalued Omar Jacobs.

11. St. Louis Rams

The Rams need a TE and Vernon Davis is a physical freak. I don't think Davis will make it this far down (because I really think the 49ers will take him). But if he does, the Rams will snatch him up and make the steal of the draft. Christ the guy ran a 4.3 40 at the combine. Freak with a capital F.

12. Cleveland Browns

Ahh my Cleveland Browns (expect a full Browns draft preview later this week). This pick will most definitely be on the defensive side of the ball. The only thing to be determined is which position. Its either DT or DE. I think its going to be Broderick Bunkley, the DT out of Fla. St. I think the Browns are looking to move him to an end spot in the 3-4 and maybe move him back inside when Ted Washington retires. I think that is an excellent idea, he's got the speed to play on the end and needs time to develop some more thickness if he's going inside.

Another possibility is Kamerion Wimbley, who would probably rush off the edge for the Browns. Most people think that he can be a dynamic pass rusher like DeMarcus Ware was for the Cowboys. I'm not sold. Two months ago this kid was a third round draft pick, ESPN's Draft Guide had him rated as the 9th best DE. Lets just say I'm skeptical.

tomorrow 13-18

Mock Draft Picks 1-6

Here is the first installment of my Round 1 mock draft. The first six picks, without predicting trades. Final pick is in BOLD

1. Houston Texans
The needs this team has to fill are at offensive tackle and at defensive end. The offensive line has been one of the worst year in and year out. Maybe if they can keep Carr on his feet, they can find out if there is any talent on offense. The defense is making the switch from the 3-4 to the 4-3. That means they need quality DE's to rush the passer.

Both of the these needs suggest that the pick is either; DE Mario Williams or OT D'Brickashaw Ferguseon. HOWeva (channeling Stephen A. Smith) the pick is going to be Reggie Bush, the consensus number 1 pick in this year. You all know my feelings on Bush and his future in the NFL, but I'm not making this pick. The smart thing to do would be to trade down and take D'Brickashaw and fill a hole that should have been filled years ago.

2. New Orleans Saints
With the signing of Drew Brees the Saints don't need to fill the hole at QB, this means they could go any number of directions with this pick. This is another spot where it makes sense for the team to trade out. Only because I don't think that the Saints can make a value pick at this spot. DE isn't a need, with Charles Grant and Will Smith on the roster, but I was always told that you don't draft for need in the first round. So the pick ends up being Mario Williams, the best player on the board.

With Williams, the Saints get depth at End and a guy who compares to Julius Peppers. Whether or not Williams ends up being that guy remains to be seen.

3. Tennessee Titans
The Titans have locked the door on veteran Steve McNair, which means that oft injured Billy Volek is the starting QB for the time being. The pick that makes the most sense is Matt Leinart, especially with former USC offensive Coordinator, Norm Chow, now running the offense in Tenn. Leinart is the most polished QB out of the top three and would probably be starting by the middle of the season.

Don't be surprised if the Titans go after A.J. Hawk in this spot to fill a big hole in the middle of their defense. After all Leinart may not be there at 3 and I don't know how sold the Titans are on Vince Young or Cutler.

4. N.Y. Jets
This team is on the downside and it doesn't look like its getting better anytime soon. Assuming that Leinart is off the board the pick is D'Brickashaw Ferguson. The Jets line is old and injured and Ferguson will go along way to protecting either Penington or Patrick Ramsey's backside.

5. Green Bay Packers
Lock this pick in if he's still there, A.J. Hawk. Hawk will line up outside and be a menace in the NFC North for a decade. Hawk may be the safest pick in this years draft. Solid pick for the Pack, even though they will still suck next year, (Sorry Andy)

6. San Francisco 49ers
Really a bad team with tons of holes, most of those holes can't be filled at this spot with value. I assume they don't want to give up on Alex Smith yet, so Vince Young is out. The team might lean towards an offensive weapon that would benefit Smith, like TE Vernon Davis. I personally aren't that high on him, nor do I think that the 49ers would be best served taking him here. I think the pick here is S Michael Huff . Huff can fill a hole at either safety or at CB. And would remind some in Frisco of a young Ronnie Lott (alright, that's a stretch).

that's it for now, tune in tomorrow for Picks 7-12.

No Title just words

All next week will be posts leading up to this year's NFL draft. The draft is like Christmas for me, just without Jesus. Well kind of all my Christmases are without Jesus, but whatever.

I did find out that Columbia will be filming scenes for Spiderman 3 on Euclid in front of my Apartment. Which is will hopefully lead to someone finally washing my windows. I can only imagine how bad traffic is going to be on Friday when this thing kicks off.

On a lighter note someone got stabbed on a trolley outside of my apartment two days ago. The strangest thing was watching the fire dept. Wash the blood off the sidewalk and then a few minutes later people walking over that spot without ever knowing that there was a pool of blood there. Makes you wonder what you've been stepping in.

Spider babies, AHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Shoot the J! Shoot IT!

I came across this earlier on Deadspin and not it's all over the place. But i'm going with it anyways.

Carlos Boozer is suing Prince(yes, the purple one) for unlawful detainer (unlawful detainer amounts to breach of your lease). Apparently Prince was renting Boozer's West Hollywood home for a number of months at a rate of $70,000/month. As if Booz wasn't stealing enough from the Utah Jazz.

While staying in the home Prince made some "minor" modifications to the home. These modifications included painting purple stripping on the exterior, and the Prince symbol. There was also some purple carpet added to the master bedroom. Needless to say C Booz and his wife CeCe were pissed, (actual she was probably the one who was, pissed because she's the one who makes the decisions).

This whole story is filled with lunacy, the boys over at Deadspin seem astonished by the fact that Booz would be renting his home to the Purple One. But it all makes sense when you consider some other stories floating around about Prince.

There is, of course the infamous episode of Chappelle's show where Charlie Murphy plays Prince in a game of basketball (where Prince is crossing dudes like Iverson). And then there is; An Evening with Kevin Smith, a series of talks that Smith gave at various colleges. In one of these talks Smith starts talking about his experience filming a documentary about Prince that never gets released. So Smith starts talking about how much Prince loves basketball. It's starting to come together isn't it.

Prince loves him some fucking hoops!

The only question I have is why rent the house from Boozer. There have to be other balles out there renting homes that haven't stolen from a blind man.

http://www.deadspin.com/sports/nba/do-not-paint-carlos-boozers-house-purple-161850.php
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0320063prince1.html

Slept on Album of the week

I think i'm going to start running weekly items, it just makes it easier to come up with shit to write about. So, once a week i'll throw up a post about an album that i think people don't listen to enough.

The D.O.C.- No One Can Do It Better

This album dropped in '89 and by now has gone platinum, but still no one talks about it as a classic. It is certainly unknown amongst casual hip-hop fans, and even slept on by people who consider themselves heads.

The D.O.C. is up there with Ice Cube as the most lyrical of all West Coast MC's, and all of that talent is on display on this album. In my opinion D.O.C.'s flow is flawless, along the lines of Rakim(but not quite that good). This album also has the one and only Dr. Dre on the boards. Dre turns in one of his best production efforts ever (besides the Chronic). This album is like Dre's missing link, it is that bridge between Dre's production for NWA and the groundbreaking production on the Chronic.

Unfortunately this was the last album that D.O.C. dropped. He was involved in a car accident that sent him through the windshield of the car and severed his vocal chords. D.O.C. is still hanging with Dre, some say that he even ghost writes for Dre, but who knows about that. Either way this is a slept on classic.

For real a women's hoops post

This the first time and most definitely the last time i post about women's basketball. The seedings for the women's tournament were announced on monday, and your BGSU women's baskeball team was seeded 12th in the tough Cleveland Region. (The first time that i heard that there was a regional final at the Q was on Tuesday, to say the least its underpublicized.)

The Bowling Green Falcons finished the regular season 28-2, and perfect in conference (only the third team to do it in the history of the MAC) won the regular season and conference tournament. They finished ranked number 22 in the country, and they get a 12 seed? When the final poll says that there are only 21 better teams in the country, how is it that the tourney seeding committee thinks that there are at least 44 ! better teams? That just doesn't make sense to me.

But, thats not where it ends. The Falcons were placed in the Cleveland regional, which many experts think is the toughest. In the first round the Falcons have to play 5 seed UCLA. Who finished ranked 23rd in the country, one spot BEHIND the Falcons. Fuck that shit, the Falcons are getting screwed. This would piss me off more if it wasn't women's hoops, but still.

I'll be back with more when i return from Ft. Wayne, IN on friday.

Are two "regular" footlong subs really 6 inches?

So this is the first point in about a month. What can i say? I'm a busy man, that and my computer took a huge crap. The last post on Klosterman's question was put there to elicit responses, which it didn't. Thank you readers.

In the future the blog will most likely resume its prior form of mostly sports posts with the occasional random column sprinkled in.

The merits of the CFL

Chuck Klosterman lists 23 questions that he asks everyone he meets. Here are five that i thought were interesting. If you read the questions you have to answer them.

1. Let us assume you meet a rudimentary magician. He can only do five simple tricks, pull a rabbit out of a hat, make a quarter disappear, turn the ace of spades into the joker, etc. These are the only tricks that he can do, and he can't learn anymore. However, it turns out that he is doing these tricks with real magic, it is not an illusion. He's legitimately magical, but limited in scope and influence. Would this person be more impressive than Albert Einstein?

2. Let us assume a fully grown completely healthy clydesdale horse has his hooves shackled to the ground while his head is held in place with a thick rope. He is conscious and standing upright, but completely immobile. Assume that every political prisoner on earth will be released from captivity if you can kick this horse to death in 20 min. You are allowed to wear steel toed boots. Would you attempt this?

3. Genetic engineers have developed a super gorilla. The animal cannot speak but it has a sign language vocabulary of over 12,000 words, it has an IQ of around 85 and it has a sense of self awareness. The animal (who weighs 700 lbs.) has developed a fascination with football. The gorilla aspires to play professionally and quickly develops into a rudimentary defensive end. Mel Kiper Jr. says that the gorilla is virtually unblockable and would record almost 6 sacks a game. However, the gorilla might be susceptible to draws, counters and other trick plays. The gorilla has made it clear that he would never intentionally injure his opponent. You are the commissioner of the NFL: Would you allow the gorilla to sign with the Oakland Raiders?

4. Every person you have ever slept with is invited to a banquet in your honor. No one will be in the room except you, the collection of your former lovers, and the catering staff. After the meal, you are asked to give a fifteen minute speech to the assembly. What do you talk about?

5. Your best friend is taking a nap on the floor of your living room. Suddenly you are faced with a bizarre existential problem: This friend is going to die unless you kick them as hard as you can in the ribs. If you don't kick them they will never wake up. However, you can never tell them the true reason that you kicked them because they would die from that as well. So you have to kick your sleeping friend in the ribs and you can't tell them why. Since you can't tell your friend the truth, what excuse will you fabricate to explain this attack?

Super Bowl rap up

This isn't going to be about the Super Bowl or the refs, its going to be about Steeler fans.

Here is a link to an ESPN message board thread that was started by steelers fans after the Super Bowl.
http://forums.espn.go.com/espn/thread?forumID=821&threadID=3133568&lastPostID=19274674

If the link stops working for some reason the title of the thread is "Steelers haters are ni****s"
The thread starter proceeds to rip the Seahawks and drop another n-bomb. Thread starter also started another thread with similar language.

Taken with other recent actions of Steeler fans, (the belittling of a high school student by his teacher for wearing an Elway jersey, the abuse of Tommy Maddox's children, throwing things on his lawn, etc...). I'm going out on a limb and saying that Steeler fans may be the most hateful uneducated fans in the NFL.

What is more surprising is that ESPN allows that sort of language on its message boards. Now i'm never one for limiting speech, but that type of speech has no place on a message board run by ESPN.

Last game of the season, can't hold anything back.

My pick for the Super Bowl is the Steelers. God hates me so the Steelers are a lock to win. Man, I hope that the entire city falls into either one of the three rivers.

Huge potential for this game to be a blowout, how often are Super Bowls close. Steelers 42-27.

There is no god.

All next week, non-sports posts!!!

Counting is fun!

Here's a billboard from LSU and Texas fans at Onepeat.com.

Open Season

The end of the regular season in the NFL usually brings about mass firings or resignations at the head coaching positions for teams that have underachieved in the past season. The end of this season has been exceptionally busy at the chopping block. Already, there have been ten head coaching vacancies created through firing or resignation. Time for hardcore analysis of the situation.

Buffalo Bills- Head coach Mike Mularkey resigned today only weeks after he had a sit down with Bills owner Ralph Wilson. Mularkey clearly underachieved this year after a near playoff run last year. But was it really all that unexpected. The team turned the reins over to an unproven near rookie QB, and lost Takeo Spikes early in the season. How many games do you expect to win when Kelley Holcomb and J.P. Losman are splitting time at QB? Early favorite to replace Mularkey is former Bill, and one of Ralph Wilson's favorite players, Jim Haslett.

Detroit Lions- Fired Steve Marriucci half way through the season and turned the team over to Dick Jaroun. Mooch may or may not have been effective but he clearly wasn't the biggest problem in Detroit. How Matt Millen still has a job is anyone's guess. How can you select receiver in the first round of three straight drafts? Is there a monkey running the draft board? Does Matt Millen have naked photos of William Clay Ford in a Toyota? What gives, fire the man already. The Lions seem interested in Steelers assistant coach Russ Grimm.

Green Bay Packers- Some what surprisingly fired Mike Sherman after the team was decimated by injury. Here's my feeling on Sherman and coaches like him; good enough to win more games than they lose but not good enough to win it all. Mike Sherman was never going to outcoach anyone. Still, he probably shouldn't have been fired this year. The Packers went out and hired former 49ers offensive coordinator Mike McCarthy. Whose 49er offense was ranked dead last in the league. This hiring makes less sense than firing Sherman. There is only one explanation. He's VERY close with Brett Favre.




















Houston Texans- Fired Dom Capers after a truly miserable season that is brightened by the fact that they have the number one pick in the draft. The problem with the Texans is the same problem that has existed for their entire history; they can't block anyone. If the Texans wanted to ein more games next year they would trade the number one pick and take D'Brickshaw Ferguseon. But that doesn't sell tickets and therefore won't happen.

Kansas City Chiefs- Dick Vermeil retired, again. And cried, again. They replace him with Herm Edwards, good move. But does it really matter if they can't find someone to play defense.

New York Jets- Obviously Herm Edwards leaving creates and opening. The name that keeps coming up is New England D-Coordinator Eric Mangini. He is a guy that I wanted to come with Romeo Crennel to Cleveland to become the D-Coordinator here. If the Jets get him it will be a good hire, but Mangini may not take the job because it is a horrible job. Horrible job. Bring back Pete Carroll and let him get fired again.

Minnesota Vikings- what a year for the Vikes the Whizzanator, the sex cruise, Fred Smoot and the double dong. And then they righted the ship so to speak. But they missed the playoffs and Mike Tice got canned. Tice is in the same boat as Mike Sherman, he wasn't going to out coach anyone and on some occasions was going to cost his team games. The Vikings made the right choice by firing him now, why wait. They have hired Philly O-Coordinator Brad Childress. The only thing that bugs me about Childress is he doesn't run the ball enough. They gave Brian Westbrook that fat contract and barely used him.

The New Orleans Saints- Say what you will about the year the Saints had, it was almost impossible for them to be successful. But none the less Jim Haslett got canned. It should have happened two seasons ago. This team has consistently underachieved, there is enough talent on the Saints for them to contend for a playoff spot. Their inability to even come close rests with Jim Haslett. And the fact that he is being considered for a number of other head coaching vacancies boggles the mind. Didn't they see the job he did in NO? Why do guys like him continue to get jobs? Can i have a job?, I can underachieve with that talent too. Sounds like Mo Carthon is headed to the NO, which would be great for me. The man cannot call an offensive game, horrible coodinator.

Oakland Raiders- Fired Norv Turner, should have never hired him. He's another guy who shouldn't have got another job. The Raiders quit on Norv in the middle of the season, he's not a good coach. It's Al Davis running the show, so who knows what direction they will go. James Lofton's name has been mentioned.

St. Louis Rams- Finally they fired Mike Martz, only after he nearly died. Here's a case like Norv Turner, good Offensive Coordinator bad head coach. I think Martz was overwhelmed by the situation most of the time. He clearly was a poor at making adjustments and game management, but dame could he chuck it around the field.

So that is everyone who got canned this year. I don't expect many more firing this season but you never know. Someone may pop loose. Maybe a Jeff Fisher in Tennessee(who the Browns should have made a run at). Surprisingly there are hardly any college names being mentioned as replacements, Kirk Ferentz said he's going back Iowa. So the names being thrown around are all the names of the guys who got fired, go figure.

An explanation of sorts

The post Rose Bowl entry came off a bit vitriolic, so i think it deserves an explanation of my distaste for all things USC. To be honest a lot of it is hyperbole, but most of it is a reaction to the hype machine that is ESPN and the national media. I'm a bit of a contrarian so if an argument is one sided i'll take the other side to explore the possibilities, nothing is ever as simple as black and white.

ESPN has been running the hype machine at full force for this USC team since last year's Orange Bowl was over. It seems these days that ESPN is always looking for something to be the greatest of all time, just so we can hype it as much. Is this the greatest team?, is he the greatest player?, was that the greatest game?

Did ESPN really run a weak long piece on whether this USC team was the greatest of all time, and they came out third. Does that mean that they have to do that all over again with Texas. This is more of a beef with ESPN, but they have no sense of history prior to their existence. Most of those 11 teams were from the last 15 years. College football has a long history that predates ESPN.

The style of football that USC plays bugs the hell out of me as well. Play some damned defense. This is the same reason i couldn't stand the Rams team that was the greatest show on turf. There's enough talent in California to find some players who can play defense. And they play in the Pac 10 which has no idea on how to play defense.

My opinions on Reggie Bush are in part a reaction to the media's anointing of him as the savior and my opinion of him as RB at the next level. People talk like Reggie Bush has a place in Canton all set aside for himself, when he hasn't proven a thing on sunday. KiJanna Carter and Desmond Howard were both excellent college players but neither has a bust in Canton.
On the other hand i'm not sure that Reggie Bush can be an everydown back on the next level. There was a reason that Pete Carroll decided to give the ball to LenDale White on 4th and 2, he knows that Bush isn't big enough or strong enough to pound that ball into to the middle of the line. Imagine what it will be like at the next level when the D-Line is bigger and stronger.

don't get me wrong, there are alot of good NFL running backs that don't pound the ball. But there aren't a lot of GREAT ones that didn't pound.

So that's it, my distaste for USC. Partially overblown because of the media's neverending hype, but mostly genuine distaste. And do i need a better reason than Nick Lachey roots for them?

Hey Sean Salisbury do you like apples?

The time is 12:26 EST. and USC still sucks.

The National Title game was probably the second best college football game i have ever seen. I will say that the performance that Vince Young put on tonight is in the top 3 performances in a college football game of all time. He was without a doubt the best player on the field tonight. In fact if he enters the draft, and why wouldn't he, he should be the first player taken. Further explanation of that at a later post.

So, if Vince Young was the best player on the field Reggie Bush must have been the second best right? I, mean he's got a bust in Canton already. Matter of factly Reggie Bush was at best the fourth best player on the field, behind Young, LenDale White, and Leinhart.

They say great players show up big in big games. This was a big game, where was Reggie Bush? White and Leinhart showed up. Bush showed me nothing to change my opinion that he will be a quality return man in the NFL. He's not even Marshall Faulk let alone Gale Sayers. If LenDale White can get himself in shape, he can be a better back in the NFL. Wasn't it odd that when USC needed yards to salt away the clock that White was in the game and not Bush?

Memo to ESPN, maybe you should wait till USC wins the national title before you run the "Is USC 2005 the greatest team of all time?" segments. You know what is worse, that all the talking heads at ESPN thought this team was the greatest of all time. Shit, Mark May had them beating Miami's 02 team. That Miami team had more talent on it than the Houston Texans and would have pounded this USC team. You wanna know why this USC team wouldn't have been in the top 15 teams of all time even if they had one, they play no defense. Not a lick. Texas had one weapon all night and USC had no answer. Horrible defense.

Pete Carroll's decision to go for it on 4th and 1 shows why he got fired twice in the NFL.

Hey Sean, how you like them apples?