You Mean This Is Not How You Spent Your February?

Definition of getaway

So after enduring, so far in February alone, the SNORLY, Snowpocalypse II (Day One :: Day Two :: Day Three :: Day Four) and Snowpocalypse III (Day One :: Day Two :: Day Four :: Day Five), Clan Folsom joined Clan Wilbert Montgomery for the roughly annual families trip to Boca Grande, on Gasparilla Island in Gulf coast Florida where the most we had to worry about was a fleece in the morning. Commence intense relaxation.



Photo by me, coconuts picked by me, on the right that is a Salty Dog, Stolichnaya vodka and juice freshly squeezed from a grapefruit that was hanging on the tree moments earlier, in a salt rimmed glass.

Pro Bowl Open Thread

Means nothing, is still football

The 2010 Pro Bowl kicks off in one hour, which is different from previous years, there is a whole lot to talk about: This is the first time ever that the all-star game has been held before the championship game; and to make matters even more different, this is the first time since 1979 that the game has not been held in Honolulu Hawaii, it is being held this year in the same town as the Super Bowl, in this year's case Miami.

1. Placing the game before the Super Bowl is a bad idea and should not be repeated. Having the Pro Bowl the week before the Super Bowl detracts from the Super Bowl build up, robs us of even optional participation by players from the Super Bowl teams and as such has created ill will among teams and fans.

This is supposed to be Media Week, the week before the Super Bowl when all the players line up in their big kiosks or on big stages and field ridiculous questions from domestic and foreign journalists. Beat reporters from the big outlets write their profile pieces, we learn all about the venue, serious football fans roll their eyes and fans of the teams in the Big Game get to WALLOW, for after next week, half the fans will be in the dumps.

If there were Media Week events, they were uslurped by the Pro Bowl hype, which is bigger this year because of the new placement and some of the stories around the players. The Pro Bowl is supposed to be a lesser draw than the Super Bowl and by placing it the week before the championship the lesser hyped game has stolen the thunder of the real deal, and there must be a league employed bean counter that has this figured out.

Further, the seemingly arbitrary rules about who can play and who has to be there have rankled owners and robbed fans of even the possibility that players from the Super Bowl teams may play.

The league mandated that players from the Super Bowl teams would not participate in the game in order to ensure no injuries, and to back up that requirement, granted players from the two final teams full wage shares, so those are the lucky guys, they get somewhere north of 22 thousand dollars just for being on a Super Bowl team.

But the league also mandated that Pro Bowl selections from both teams be in Miami for media events, which has at least one owner Bob Irsay of the Colts, pissed off and wondering why if they cannot play do they have to be there, losing at least two days of preparation for the Super Bowl? And as far as fans are concerned, many Super Bowl players are nicked up and choose not to play anyway, but at least that is their choice, not the league's.

Anecdotally though the total number of starting Pro Bowl players missing the game is not hugely larger than previous years, it looks that way.


2. Putting the Pro Bowl in the same city as the Super Bowl is a silly twofer and looks like an insider deal. The Pro Bowl is a huge event economically for the city of Honolulu, and it is that city and state's logical connection to the NFL, due to the location there is zero chance a team will ever play there permanently and keeping that tradition in place keeps those fans happy and guarantees everyone that wants can see at least one NFL game a year, considering that the Pro Bowl never looks at capacity. Taking it away hurts that city's NFL pride and hurts the businesses that have had thirty years to forecast a fat week in February.

The players and media also love the experience of going to Hawaii though that means nothing to me, it is already a privilege to play in, participate in or cover the NFL. Players that already make one hundred times or more the average salary of the US worker complaining about not getting a free weeklong trip to Hawaii is a really serious public relations warning light and the league should communicate this to its players.

As far as the game being in Miami, the same city as the Super Bowl, that seems like a boondoggle or a favor to someone, who had to suck whose dick to make that happen? It concentrates the economic activity and will have the effect of squeezing out the average consumer that would be looking to make a flight, hotel or car rental reservation for the week. If I could I would put my investigative reporter's cap on and check into the team owners and find out who has the Miami franchises that are most likely to benefit from this arrangement.

Another way you know this was all about Miami and not just about trying something new, next year's Pro Bowl location has not been announced. It may be in the same city... or it may not. It may be back in Hawaii... or not. Hell it could be in Sheboygan Wisconsin, home of the Howards Grove Senior High Tigers.

If I had to guess I would say the Pro Bowl will be back in Hawaii next year though there is no reason it could not be placed in any other city.


Curly R Pro Bowl policy prescription: In the first place holding the all-star game before the championship does not make sense for all the reasons described above, and the league must realize it has cost them money.

However, if the league insists on holding the all-star game before the championship, here is how it should be done:

1. Hold the Pro Bowl in a different city than that which hosts the Super Bowl. This should be a city that conceivably could have an NFL team within twenty years. My top five would be Los Angeles California, Portland Oregon, Las Vegas Nevada, Hampton Roads Virginia and Buffalo New York.

2. Prevent players from the Super Bowl teams from coming to the Pro Bowl city by mandating those players stay in the Super Bowl city and participate fully in Media Week.

3. Emphasize Super Bowl Media Week in the city hosting the Super Bowl from the Wednesday after the conference championship games, taking Pro Bowl Sunday off, and through the week of the Super Bowl.


This a Pro Bowl gameday open thread.



2010 Pro Bowl stylized logo from here.

Championship Games Open Thread

Super Bowl on the line

Two great games on Championship Sunday, this is the last time there will be two NFL games in the same day until the start of the 2010 season, enjoy watching the two berths into the Super Bowl determined.

New York Jets at Indianapolis Colts, 3:00pm ET, CBS

Consensus line: Colts minus 8.5
Curly R spread pick: Colts
Curly R straight up pick: Colts

The kind of game football fans love, when the Colts pulled Peyton Manning and their starters with two games to go in the regular season, the Jets capitalized on it and came back to win, they have not lost since and so in a very real way the Colts are responsible for the Jets and all their confidence being here.

Still despite how the Jets have been able to win twice on the road and humble higher seeds, I see no way they can outlast the Colts. The Colts have won just about every way this season and they will find a way to win against the Jets, you simply cannot bet against Peyton Manning, he is better than any defense can be.


Minnesota Vikings at New Orleans Saints, 6:40pm ET, FOX

Consensus line: Saints minus 3.5
Curly R spread pick: Saints
Curly R straight up pick: Saints

Another really hard game for me to call. If the same Saints team from last week shows up there is no way the Vikings can run with them, the Saints can move the ball at will and have too many weapons. Even if the Vikings get the same pass rush as last week I think volume wise there will simply be too many opportunities for Drew Brees to make a play downfield. Simply cannot pick against the home team here.

And you know Brett Favre is loving being the underdog here, all he wants to do is go out and throw the ball around, which is pretty much what they did last week, it is clear that Adrian Peterson or no Adrian Peterson, the Vikings are going to live or die in these playoffs on Brett's arm. Of the two games, this was the harder for me to pick.


Both of these are excellent games and I have no dog in either fight, all would make great stories, let's see some frigging football.


This is a championship gameday open thread.



Team logos from here.

Social Event Journal: Redskins Writers Night at the Ballpark, 6/10/2009

...has been moved here.



All pictures and video by me except for the one of Joe Theismann coming off the field, that one is from the Washington Post here.

Sunday Division Playoffs Open Thread

It's a beeg juan

Update Monday 18 Jan by Ben: Man I love to see Tony Romo take a beating. And how can you not think the Colts-Jets game next week is going to be a great game?

Two more playoff games to sate your ravenous hunger for football, and in the traditional 1pm and 4pm time slots, I like the 4pm and 8pm deal for Saturdays, it would not work for me tonight as the only thing that trumps playoff football is on tonight: the two hour season eight premiere of 24.

Dallas Cowboys at Minnesota Vikings, 1:00pm ET, FOX

Consensus line: Vikings minus 2.5
Curly R spread pick: Vikings
Curly R straight up pick: Vikings

Such a narrow spread, inside the de rigeur three point home field advantage gimme, reflects linesmaker thinking that the Cowboys are the better team, and I think they are, they have shown over the past two weeks that they can hit you with too many weapons for you to keep up with, starting with three tailbacks that all could be legitimate starters on many teams. Tony Romo is looking old school in his ability to find open receivers and there was even a Roy Williams sighting last week.

This game though is all about Brett Favre. If he has a Brett Favre kind of game then the Vikings are just as loaded with weapons as the Cowboys. If Brett is out there loose and tossing the ball around like he did in the first seven or so weeks of the season, there is no way the Cowboys can win this on the road. The Cowboys have to hope that we see the old and frustrated Brett, DeMarcus Ware will have a lot to say about that. All that said I think the Vikings will win this game, but that is my heart talking more than my head, I am very invested in seeing Dallas end its Super bowl run right here and now.


New York Jets at San Diego Chargers, 4:40pm ET, CBS

Consensus line: Chargers minus 8.5
Curly R spread pick: Jets
Curly R straight up pick: Chargers

The Jets and rookie head coach Rex Ryan have a bravado I love, coach Ryan published his team's postseason schedule and it included the Super Bowl and a Canyon of Heroes parade through lower Manhattan, he said before the Jets beat the Bengals that New York was the better team and should have been favored and after that game said there was no reason the Jets should not be the favorite all the way on out. Their defensive performance and statistics may bear this out, if it is true that defense wins championships.

The Chargers though have something about them that I cannot put my finger on. Phillip Rivers has the quickest release in the game right now, but it looks incredibly awkward, like a shot put and it does not seem like the ball should go so far so quickly and so accurately. The Chargers and Norval Turner are rolling on an eleven game win streak, rock on Norval.


This is a playoff gameday open thread.



Team logos from here.

This Is So Crazy There Is No Way It Can Be True

Right?

This morning I got an anonymous comment on a thread from last week:

Redskin QB rumor in Philly. Schanahan [sic] wants his old QB Jay Cutler. Philly trades McNabb back to his old hometown in Chicago, Chicago sends Cutler to Redskins. Philly gets draft picks in 3 way deal.

I went on to the intertubes and was unable to find any substantiation, not even a recitation of the rumor. So I have no idea where that comes from.

Still, conceptually there are four reasons this is not a crazy idea:

1. We know the Redskins were interested in Jay Cutler in the 2009 offseason. Ultimately they could not pull it off. In the aftermath of that story there was at least one rumor that the Redskins had made it known to Jay Cutler, way back in April of 2009, that the team was looking at Mike Shanahan as its next coach. Were Mike Shanahan and Jay Cutler just taking a year off from each other?


2. Mike Shanahan would be happy to reunite with Jay Cutler. As the 2009 season wound down and coach Shanahan's name entered the coaching sweepstakes around the league, the Chicago Bears surfaced as potentially a good fit, principally because of coach Shanahan's quote comfort level unquote with Jay.


3. Chicago did not warm up to Jay Cutler. In his first season with the Bears, after turning the league on its ear with demands to be traded away from Denver and new coach Josh McDaniels, Jay set a career high for interceptions. The team and the fans are clearly frustrated and it would not surprise me if Jerry Angelo and the Bears front office was spitballing ways to get one of those first round picks back, or get another proven quarterback with some tread left.


4. Donovan McNabb is the subject of many trade rumors around the league. Despite Eagles coach Andy Reid's assertion that Donovan is his starter for 2010, there is a head of steam among the Eagles faithful that it is time to part ways with Donovan while he still has some trade value. Personally I think that is crazy, the guy has done everything in the world for that franchise and they should be announcing publicly that Dono will be there until he decides to leave football. Nonetheless, coach Reid waffled on his options for 2010 and the fanbase wants him gone. Donovan McNabb is originally from Chicago.


So in this trade scenario the Bears get Donovan McNabb, the Redskins get Jay Cutler and the Eagles get what they always want, more draft picks.

Notwithstanding my serious manlove for Jason Campbell, Jay Cutler would be a good fit with Mike Shanahan in Washington for all the reverse reasons Jim Zorn would not be a good fit with Jay in Chicago.

Stay tuned.



Jay Cutler: Uncredited image from here.

What Are You Doing to Support NFL Playoffs?

Whatever it is, it is not as much we're doing

A glorious playoff Sunday, fifty degrees Fahrenheit, still and no chance of rain, this is our playoffs configuration on Swarthmore, two propane patio heaters, a fire pit and Shed TV^TM, that is neighbor Bill on the left and neighbor Scott on the right. As I write this we have already added two more, neighbor Paul and neighbor Michael, Tony Almeida cannot be far behind.

Enjoy the game, this first one looks like a barn burner in the making.



Photo by me.