The Great Buffalo Gridiron Fiasco

The Buffalo Bills are the worst NFL team.  Period.  End of story.  No discussion.  Just accept it, if you didn’t already.   I think that some college teams could beat them.  They wouldn’t be good in the Canadian Football League.   So when they recently dealt Marshawn Lynch for only a 6^th round pick and a conditional pick, they only got worse.  This is a team that can’t play offense, has no defense, and isn’t great on special teams.  Their best player is…well they really don’t have any truly good players.  Their first round draft choice C.J Spiller is explosive, but he has to stand against the test f time and durability before he can be counted as great.  There is too much about his game that to me suggests that he won’t be a 16 game player.  Lee Evans is considered to be one of their better players, but he wouldn’t be a number 1 receiver anywhere else.  When a team is that bad, there needs to be some change.  Chan Gailey should be on the hot seat, as should the G.M and other high ranking execs.  Hey, why not put owner Ralph Wilson on the hot seat.  Someone needs to go in there and do an overhaul.  New coach, new personnel, but what they really need is a new quarterback.  I will go down as saying this:  Jake Locker isn’t the answer.  Locker going into this season had scouts drooling with his versatility, and he was a Heisman favorite and a potential #1 pick in the upcoming draft.  I expect the Bills to have the worst record, therefore get the number one pick.    What the Bills shouldn’t do is go and use it on Jake Locker.  Or Andrew Luck.  Or Ryan Mallet.  I believe that they should get Cameron Hayward, defensive end from Ohio State.  A new coach (which hopefully they will get) and a new quarterback don’t usually end in success.  What the Bills need to start doing is developing an offensive line, and a defensive line (see Heyward, Cameron)   Games are on in the trenches, and right now, the Bills trenches look like a ditch, or something that a 5 year old would dig at the beach.  Build the defensive line and the offensive line.  Grab a quarterback in free agency that is respectable, and then draft someone to build as a project.  Even develop Ryan Fitzpatrick if you want.  If he got more accuracy, the current Bills quarterback wouldn’t be too shabby.  It doesn’t matter what they choose, they just need change some things.  A lot of things.

And they are heading down the stretch…

This MLB season is in it’s final stage,  and they contenders are starting to reveal themselves.  Unfortunatly,  the Red Sox are a long shot.  Looking at it,  my beloved Sox would have to win 23-25 of their last 27 games,  and have either the Rays or Yankees play sub-.500 baseball the rest of the way.  Not likely but not impossible.  In Boston,  miracles happen.  If you dont live in Boston,  HA.

These are my postseason picks:

AL:

East-Rays   I dont want the Yankees to win, plus I think Tampa is the team to beat.

Central-Twins     No, Manny is not the savior.  Sorry White Sox

West-Rangers     The surprise, but really, they have been building for a while.  It has paid off.

Wild Card-Yankees       No comment.  It hurts enough just writing it.

These 4 teams are my playoff choices, but only one can make it to the World Series.

ALCS: Rays vs. Rangers

Rangers win in 6,  Josh Hamilton gets MVP,  Cliff Lee has a ERA below 2.00 over the series.

National League:

East-Braves      Bobby Cox’s career will end with a playoff  apperence.  Nice run Bobby.  You are one of the best ever.

Central-Cubbies!!!!!…NOT.  Keep dreaming in the Windy City.  Cincy is going to take this division.  The Reds are the real deal.

West-Padres   Nobody guessed them having such a great start, but they have sustained it.

Wild Card-Phily will capture the Wild Card.  They have to good a staff to not make the playoffs

NLCS

Padres vs. Braves  Bobby Cox will end his career with a loss, but will give a fight.  Padres win in 7.  Cox is ejected in game 7,  Adrain Gonzalez will be the MVP.  Padres win in extras in game 7, the country sees a great series, baseball at its best.

World Series:

Game 1-  Rangers win 3-1 .  Cliff Lee is masterful,  Rangers up 1-0

Game 2- Padres capture a home win 6-2 to knot the series 1-1 as they head to Arlington.

Game 3-Rangers win on the back of the offense.  Vlad goes off and Hamilton and Co. works the Padres pen to squeeze out a victory 7-6 to go up 2-1

Game 4- Another home win for the Rangers, but the Padres aren’t going without a fight.  Another close win,  4-3. 

Game 5- Still in Arlington, the Rangers win the series in their first World Series appearence.  The final score is 6-3.  Neftali Feliz closes the game, but the MVP goes to Vladimier Guerreo.  The dawn of a new age in Texas, under owner Nolan Ryan.

Well,  that is that folks.  You heard it here.  I guess I just felt like being bold, but hey, someone has to be.

As long as the Yankees don’t win, I am happy.

My closing words:

1.  Boston will remain the best current sports town regardless of the outcome of the Red Sox’s season. 

2.  The definition of cliche is: what I did over the summer essays.

3.  Watch the Durantula in the men’s basketball World Championships.

4.  Maybe some justice will be served, and Roger Clemens will actually set foot in a jail.

5.  While we are talking about athletes in jail,  Plaxico Burress (remember him) will serve the entirety of his 2 year sentence.  Gasp, a celebrity actually servered their sentence.

Well,  I really have to go now.

From the real world of sports,

Shane

College Football

B.C.S stands for:Basically it’s a Corrupt  System.  As we saw last year,  teams from small conferences(Boise State) were not given the same opportunity to earn a place in the title game as say, a team from the Big Ten.  I am not saying that the two best teams in the country didn’t play for the national  title, but Boise should have been given a chance to earn their way into the title game.  I am not much of a college football guy myself,  seeing as my college loyalties are to Boston University, who don’t have a football program.  Still, I will give you my insight to college football.

My To Do List for the FBS, BCS whatever it is called:

1. Teach the Big Ten how to count.  Last time I checked,  they have 11 teams.  Then again, I can’t count either.

2. Don’t give any value to the polls that make up the standing right now.  Fine, rank the teams using these but don’t let them decide the National Championship game teams.  instead…

3. ADD A PLAYOFF ALREADY! Look at college basketball.  Their format works just fine.  Instead of 65, take the best 14 teams.  Give the top 2 seeds a bye,  then make a bracket, and BOOM…now you look like geniuses for riding the country of the old, corrupt system.

4.  Dont worry,  you can keep your precious bowls.  Every year, schedule games to be played at the bowl stadiums.  This will keep tradition going, and so on so forth.

5. Restrict agents. Period.  Mandate that they can’t be present at practices. This should help stop some of the problems that have been having.  With coaches committing violations though,  you may need to do more than that.  This whole USC fiasco and all these schools are under investigation, and you look like the FBI investigating  a murder.  The current system of recruiting is being misused,  and right now you can’t stop it from happening.

It seems that college football has an awful lot of problems,  but it is still a great thing.  In college,  players have so much more passion and so much more hustle,  it is the way football should be played.

Really quick I will run through my top 5 teams

5. TCU Yes I picked a Mountain West team for my top five, but I love the underdogs.  2009 MWC offensive player of the Andy Dalton is back and will lead the Horned Frogs to a MWC championship, and  top 5 finish.  Plus,  who doesn’t like a horned frog? 

4.Pittsburgh They have Dion Lewis back at running back, reigning Big East Rookie Offensive Player of the Year, and a solid defense led by DT Greg Romeus, the Panthers should have a shot at a great year.

3. Ohio State. Tyrelle Pryor is primed for a Heisman run, if he can build off his Rose Bowl performance from last season.   They have a defense that ranked 5th in the nation in points last year,  and will come close to repeating that this year.

2. Boise State The Broncos are returning 22 starters this year.   Last time I checked, 22 is an entire offense and defense.  They could have made the championship last year, and I don’t expect anything to change.  Watch out for the Broncos this year.

1.  You are the best until proven otherwise.  Alabama was the national champ,  and they return many of their key players, including reigning  Heisman winner Mark Ingram.  Nick Saban and the Tide will roll on going into the season.

Remember, the best part of college football is the mascots.  But that may be for another post.

-Shane

Houston, We have a Problem

The Rocket has issues.  Big issues.  He is past crashing,  and his ship is in the spontaneous combustion stage.  That’s what happens when you cheat in baseball, then lie about cheating to Congress.  You know that you have reached rock bottom when you are going to jail for both lying and cheating.  We have moved past talking about morals, cause we know that he has issues there,  and we are talking about him going to jail.  Clemens has stood by what he originally said and that he “has never taken steroids or HGH”.  Oh yeah, it probably just was vitamin C that Brian McNamee was giving you.  Just a little immune system boost.  Get real bud.  You look like a bigger fool now then when you appeared in the Mitchell report.

These were Roger’s options:

A- Admit to using steroids or whatever substance that you took,  take it like a man,  admit to cheating,  and salvage some dignity for coming clean.  Maybe when you appear on the Hall of Fame ballot,  some voters will take pity on a guy who made mistakes… a lot of mistakes,  and who took the punishment, and accepted it.  He still has won the most Cy Young’s in league history, and was an elite pitcher.  You may sneak into Cooperstown(I still don’t think he should be) and your legacy may be looked at for your career achievements,  not the drugs.

B- Deny all allegations,  then beg for a plea to stay out of the slammer.  You will look pathetic,  sound like a loser,  but you will be a pathetic loser who is not in jail.  Don’t even speak of the Hall of Fame.  Don’t even visit it,  you don’t deserve to even be in the presence of the games greats.

C-Deny, deny, deny.  This should effectively ruin any chance of being liked by any fan of the game,  and you will look at the judge, deny more, and end up in jail.  The only luck you may get is the celebrity jail time,  which seems to mean that celebs get one tenth of their deserved jail time.

So Roger, what is it going to be.  Just tell me which name you like: cheating scum,  or lying dirtbag.  Actually, I think I will use both. 

I am saddened by the fact that this guy was a Red Sox,  and I take pity with my fellow Boston faithful that this guy wore the uniform of our beloved Sox.  Lets try to remember the 20 k’s in a game, not the 20 lies in court.

I’ll  wrap things up before I really get mad at you Clemens.  I turn off the T.V I hear you defend yourself you pathetic liar.  Make sure to pack some skirts to jail you little girl.

Yours truly,

Shane