Long Winter Ahead

Well, its December 28th and my sports watching prospects for January, February, and March seem extremely bleak. The Browns are 5-10, by no means an improvement of last year. The Cavs don't exist this year. And the Indians will start in April, and even that won't last long as they look to have another terrible year. I now have to watch the NFL playoffs with my only rooting interest being the team that is playing the Steelers. And look how well that work for me in 2006 and 2009. I just can't stand the NBA, the only reason I really watched it the last 7 years is because Cleveland had a good team. I like college basketball, but not enough to watch regular season games on a regular basis. OSU is doing well in b-ball, and it will be fun to see what Cleveland State can do this year; but those stories don't peak my interest too much.

So, I guess I will just have to spend the next few months finding projects to do around the house and watching regular TV shows. I quick thank you in advance to the Jersey Shore for keeping me entertained during January and February. It's T-Shirt time!!

Cavs RIP

Okay Mr. Scott, you've gotta make some changes with these guys.

LeBron came back to town and your guys just rolled over and let him do whatever he wanted. He was fouled for real what, once? Come on! Win or lose, three players should've fouled out of this game from on your team. Bosh should've been dragging LeBron off the court by the time this game was over. You're telling me you couldn't have Ryan Hollins crack LeBron in the jaw with a forearm a couple times? You couldn't send Samardo Samuels out there to do the same 6 times?

Instead, all of the Cavs players were fighting over who gets to hug LeBron first?!

WHAT THE F*CK!??!!!?

Half the game, Gibson is talking to LeBron and they're laughing it up. Supposedly this was about friendly competition but I don't care. Byron Scott should've told LeBron to get the F away from his bench.

In July, LeBron told every one of these guys, "You all suck, I can't win anything here, I'm going to team up with Dwyane Wade." And now they're all running up to him giving him hugs, stealing his headband, doing stupid shit.

Jamario Moon should've low-blowed him one of the times he was driving the lane. JJ Hickson should've thrown him to the floor with an illegal screen. Instead, they all fought each other over who was going to get to suck him off first.

Had LeBron gone to the sideline completely rattled and distraught and had some Cavs gone to the locker room having fouled out, win or lose Cleveland would've been happier.

The Cavs just got embarrassed on one of their only Nationally televised games this season. And they didn't care. Now, a few days later, and they're getting blown out by the Detroit Pistons.

They've gotta win back a lot of fans after this disaster.

I'm done with the Cavs

I'm done!

Going in to this year, I thought, "Hey, I'll enjoy the Cavs more this year because they will play hard, play like a team, and be more entertaining to watch". Frankly, I didn't like watching games when Lebron would dribble the ball 20 times before driving to the basket.

However, that EMBARRASSING performance last night on top of the disgusting way all the Cavs players sucked up to that A-Hole; makes me want to vomit. Clearly the NBA is a league where competition doesn't matter and its all just one big love fest taking place in the middle of a rap concert. I'm no longer interested.

The Cavs organization did fine yesterday. I thought they did what they should have done. But the players on that team Embarrassed the city last night. Forget them!

(To be fair, I'll eventually become a fair weather fan again like I've always been. But for the rest of this year, I'm out. Maybe even next year too.)

Go Browns...and yes, Go Tribe.

Good Cleveland Article

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=101201%2FCleveland

Cleveland Browns

I didn't see the Jacksonville game. But I'm reading the play by play now, finally. WTF are we doing? Run, Run, Pass/Sack, Punt. Three Times after the turnovers.

And guess what? When Daboll mixed it up, they didn't go three and out. Maybe it was one or two extra plays, but Run, Run, Pass doesn't work, Daboll. It never works.

If Peyton Hillis up the middle doesn't work the first four times, it's not going to work the fifth time. And it's damn well not going to work the sixth time.

When your opponent lines up 4 defensive lineman, and 7 linebackers all in the box, you can't have Peyton Hillis run up the middle over and over. The guy can only plow over one or two guys at a time. Not seven.

Mix it up, show creativity. That's how you hung in there with the Jets, and that's how you dominated the Saints and Pats. Get it together.

Apparently Colin Cowherd is saying Mangini is going to be fired yesterday. That person's sources are not reliable. Mangini will not be fired yesterday.

Tomorrow, maybe. But hopefully not. He's the right guy to get these guys in the right direction.. Obviously until our offense starts moving again, I'll second guess Daboll all season.

Off-topic: Indians owner says "Now is not the right time to spend money on free agents." Sell the Indians to an owner who actually has money to spend then? I'm not an Indians fan, but hearing that makes me mad. You own a Baseball team with a huge following, and if they were actually half decent would have an even bigger following. Remember in the 90's when you couldn't get a ticket to a game? Get some players in here (OR KEEP YOUR PLAYERS HERE) and make the team as good as they can be, asshole.

Browns vs. Jets

I'm very pleased with the way the Browns have been playing, just like everyone else. However, I don't want to get too hooked yet.
Do I think the Browns will win out, no of course not. But I don't think they'll lose out either. I just hear too much praise right now and too many people predicting another win against a very good Jets team. Certainly the Browns have a chance in this game, but the Jets now have 2 games on film to watch how the Browns beat good teams. Eventually this will start to catch up to the Browns.
I'm going to be very cautious this week when rooting for the Browns. I hope they win, but they still have to show me more consistency before I get on the board the "Browns are going to win every game the rest of the season" train.

Cavs - I'm more interested in the Cavs than I have been in the last 7 years. I will be much more willing to root for a team that plays like a team; not a group of 4 guys with LeBoob. (I'm not a huge basketball fan to begin with, and the superstar driven NBA doesn't help win be back with their typical style of play.)
I'm just glad the team started 4-3 (now 4-4). I would have been really annoying if the Cavs were 0-6 and the Heat were 6-0. At least we can live with our mediocrity for a while and we shut up the National pundits that wanted to tell us all how bad our basketball team was going to be. They may miss the playoffs, but at least they won't be the laughing stock of the league like most people thought.

Indians - forget it. it's Football season, don't talk to me until March about any of the crap the Indians want to call a team.

Browns Getting it Done?

So that's two games in a row where the Browns completely dominated their opponent. And both opponents are supposed "Superbowl Contenders" and one of them was in fact the current Superbowl Champion. But that's old news - the Browns beat the Superbowl champ every year. Can they do it again against the Jets? I say they can.

Peyton Hillis is running like a beast. He was the top RB in fantasy this week. Unfortunately, John St Clair is on his way back to the lineup.. So the Browns will be back to having a pillar at Right Tackle for anyone to just run around. That's never good. We'll just have to send Hillis to the left instead.

And you know Mangini wants to destroy the Jets. Two weeks in a row, two vendetta games. Mangini can do it. I know we're only one game in, but I'd get satisfaction knowing that Cleveland swept the AFC East.

Halfway through the season, 3rd place in the AFC North.. Room to improve.. Let's see if the Steelers can handle the Patriots the way the Browns did. I don't think they can do it. And not even because Belichick is going to be in Pissed Off, F You mode..

And the Cavs. Tied for first place in the Central. Good start in my opinion. Way too early to mean anything, but 3-3 is a lot better than the commonly predicted 0-6.

Also, how about your Cowboys, LeBron!! F you.

Harrison is a wimp

What a loser. So he gets hit with a $75,000 fine and now he is CRYING about retiring because he's not sure if he can play within the rules. What a big douche bag. So you got caught cheating and now you're going to make the situation all about you by claiming you want to retire.

You're not going to retire so just SHUT UP.

Steelers Fans are Pathetic

Well, our friend Larry's not, because he's somehow a dedicated fan.. Let's talk about the other Steelers fans. Larry's getting married, so for his bachelor party we took him to Pittsburgh on Saturday, we went to the casinos and bars then crashed at our hotel for about 4 hours, then got up to tailgate for the Browns @ Steelers game.

He had a blast, so that's great. But, again - I want to talk about the "fans" we observed. First off, every Steelers fan looks the same. The guys all have a crew cut and a goatee, and the females all look like bar skanks. All of them. And the ones that didn't? They were secretly Browns fans. Back to the ones who had the goatees. Half of them that we met were from Ohio. Steelers fans are fair-weather fans, and they're not die-hards. They just jump on the bandwagon of a winning team.

"Browns are going down!!" was the most creative insult thrown our way, even after people were starting to get hammered... Or were they starting to get hammered? I ask this because people didn't start filing into the parking lots until 11:30am!! You can't get a spot in the Muni Lot downtown after 7:15am!!! And with the exception of about 10 groups, this lot was DEAD until about 11:30 when it started to fill up!? How pathetic is that?

If Pittsburgh's record was 3-13, they'd have half the fans they have right now. But Cleveland's record can be 3-13 all it wants and we're all still here and loyal, we're just angrier.

Then, in a pleasant surprise, Colt McCoy looked pretty good. We'll keep this realistic though, considering Brady Quinn looked really good against Denver in his first game as a Browns starter.

James Harrison is also my new least favorite player in the NFL. The day Harrison goes down with a career ending injury, or gets paralyzed, or better yet, killed on the field, I'm throwing a party. And no, that's not too harsh. We should send Sam Aiken out there to step on his throat with his cleat when he's on the bottom of a pile. Maybe Billy Yates could rip out one of his eyes during a fumble pileup? There's no place in football or life for someone who says "I WANT to hurt other people."


Also, the parking lot attendants were RETARDED. These were the dumbest people alive. They blocked cars in and filled the lot to the absolute max. Fasig had to get out, find me a path through the mess of cars, and ultimately we got out with no casualties.

Harrison should be suspended

Harrison should be suspended, but the thing that makes me more upset is that there was no noticeable retaliation on behalf of the Browns.

When someone takes out two of your players with ILLEGAL hits to the head...someone's got to MAN UP and dive at his legs. Do something to send the message that the Browns are not going to let their teammates get beheaded like that.

What an A-hole!

Browns/Steelers

Another potential blow out in this fading rivalry.

Steelers aren't happy about the loss last year and they are going to try to let Ben throw the ball for 500 yds on our questionable secondary.

I'm getting a headache just thinking about how much Colt McCoy will look like a deer in the headlights on Sunday.

Our only hope...Big Ben rapes a girl during pre-game warmups and Peyton Hillis runs the ball 40 times not letting the Steelers have the ball for more than 10 minutes.

Browns vs Bengals

There we go.

However, this team could be 4-0 right now. We've been in it each game and only had a couple breaks here and there. This game against the Bengals went our way. It's definitely good to have a division win. It's good to have a win at home. Hillis looks like Harrison did at the end of last season. He looked like a monster. He's already done more than Brady Quinn ever did.. and probably ever will do.

Our cornerbacks got torched again, but Cincinatti kept trying to run. It seems like teams can't run against the Browns. We'll find that out for sure when we play the Steelers. Also - I'm pretty sure that Palmer's second fumble could've been the tuck rule, but that's okay.

Also - TJ Ward's hit on Shipley was clean. Ward turned sideways to brace for the impact and didn't lead with his helmet in any way. Was Ward supposed to get out of the way and let Shipley catch the ball? Was Ward supposed to know that Eric Wright was going to tip the ball successfully? I don't get it. Yes, we don't want receivers getting killed out there, but what is Ward supposed to do in that situation? Duck and tackle at the waist so Shipley can catch the ball high and score? Don't get it. Good job Ward. Maybe Receivers will start thinking, "Where's TJ Ward at???" while they're about to catch the ball and they'll drop the pass.

LeBron

We're not criticizing you because you're black, we're criticizing you because you're an egomaniac, piece of shit who took the easy way out. Go Cavs.

LeBron

We're not going to boo the Miami Heat because we fear them. We're going to boo you for being an egomaniac, piece of shit who took the easy way out. Go Cavs.

Favorite Story of the week

The Dez Bryant dinner bill is my favorite story this week.

What goes around comes around young fella. Next time rookie, just carry the pads.

Transcript of the Heckert-Reid Phonecall

TOM HECKERT: Andy, we're interested in your Quarterback.

ANDY REID: Vick? No way, he's playing out of his mind right now! He looks like the guy who was drafted #1 out of Virginia Tech! No way we're going to trade you anything for him.

TOM HECKERT: Actually, we're talking about the concussed guy on your bench right now who stunk up the joint in week one. We think he's an improvement over Delhomme and Wallace.

ANDY REID: For your own sake, I'm not going to make this trade.

Misc. Football Stats

The Browns have more Touchdowns the rest of the AFC North, but are in last place with no wins. The Browns have 4 touchdowns and are 0-2. The Steelers have 2 touchdowns and are 2-0.

Phil Dawson is 0-2 so far on field goals, but made all four extra points.

The Colts are in Last Place in the AFC South.

The Chiefs are in First Place in the AFC West.

Kansas City is farther South than Indianapolis.

The Superbowl Contending Cowboys are 0-2 and have been outperformed by The Browns.

The Superbowl Contending Vikings are 0-2 and have been outperformed by The Browns.

The NFC West is on pace for everyone to finish 6-10. We could finally have a 6-10 team in the playoffs.

New England has seven touchdowns. They're in third place. Miami has three touchdowns. They're in first place.

The Browns are currently calling The Eagles about Kevin Kolb.

More Football talk

Its hard to really talk about anything else right now, so here's some more nuggets on football.

Click Here To read what everyone already figured...that the Eagles are taking phone calls for Kevin Kolb and the Browns were probably the first to call.

I guess I would take Kolb and give him a shot. I mean, he's not going to do any better than the QBs we have now because the team around them is so bad. But, maybe he is the Aaron Rodgers type that waited for a few years and now he's ready to throw for 400 yds every week.

Other than this, thinking about the Browns just makes me tired. I'm exhausted watching this stuff and trying to be optimistic for the next week, which in all likely hood will result is more of the same. But who knows, anything can happen. The Defense does look better though, I had a good feeling about Rob Ryan last year, and I think he's going to come through for us. The problem is always that the offense never gives the defense a chance, because they keep turning the ball over and the D is exhausted.

And we can sleep through the Buckeye's game again this week. E Michigan might be better off not showing up.

Browns, take 2

So we've got the Chiefs this week and Seneca Wallace is in at QB. The Chiefs looked decent against San Diego, but I don't recall them doing much of anything on Offense. Their defense looked to be giving San Diego problems. If they were giving San Diego problems, I can only imagine the Browns will be completely lost out there on offense. Our defense could continue to hold up (They really only gave up two big plays last week. One of them was with Tampa Bay starting at Cleveland's 1 Yard line.)

They've gotta keep an eye on Jaamal Charles. Dude is fast.

They've gotta let Jerome Harrison run it more. Harrison said he wants the ball 90% of the game, and I have to agree with that.

Short and sweet with the preview for this week, mainly because I have no idea what to expect. Nor does anyone.

Browns Week 1

Well, the Browns looked like the Browns of old. No, they weren't that bad, but they only played half of a football game. Hopefully this is not a true indicator of this teams perseverance and work ethic. Mangini and Holmgren are better than this, and I do believe in the next few weeks you'll see a cleaner game and a more well coached team.

A couple notes:

• Delhomme (don't call me Del - Hommi) played better than most QBs we've seen in the past. I guess we're going to have to get used to the Brett Favre mentality of "I can make that ball fit in between those three defenders". I think the coaches will coach him down off that.
• I believe the first to be true because I think Mangini will committ much more to the run game and short passing game in week 2. I don't think KC has the DLine that Tampa has, or the defense as a whole.
• Harrison will be itching to keep running, and should get the chance if Hillis fumbles again.
• But i like the combo of Hillis and Harrison if used right. I think the play calling in the 2nd half was bad and didn't capitalize on that great running combo.
• The Defense looked good. They truly only gave up 10 points...the TD after the Interception will count against them, but shouldn't. The secondary was improved, all be it against a bad QB, but improved nonetheless.
• King Kong Bernard (don't call me Marcus) will live up to his name this year.
  

Ben Roethlisberger

Ben Roethlisberger is a rapist and a black eye on the NFL. What he did is worse than taking PEDs. He raped some drunk girl in a bathroom while his bodyguards watched the door. That's worse than steroids. Now is it possible this girl was into it until she realized what was going on? Yes. Is it possible this girl was some drunk whore at the bar who throws herself at guys weekly? Yes.

Ok, now having this said, he shouldn't be suspended. He's a piece of garbage and a crappy person, but he shouldn't have his job taken away as a result. If you get in a fight at a bar (or rape someone) should you lose your job and have to find a new one? Or get suspended? No. So why is the NFL different? Because it's a very, very public image. He still shouldn't be suspended.

Here's what I propose. Each week, whoever is commentating the Steelers game, should have to remind the audience that Roethlisberger had sex with a woman in a bar restroom, and that rape is bad. No suspension, instead, for the rest of the season, the commentators refer to him as Ben Roethlisberger, accused of rape.

Example:

Cris Collinsworth: "Ben Roethlisberger, accused of rape, throws for Santon...Hines Ward, Incomplete. Maybe Roethlisberger should've worked more on his accuracy instead of raping a woman in a bar restroom."
Al Michaels: "Let me remind everyone that rape is a terrible thing and you people out there should learn from this meathead not to hold a woman down against her will, no matter what the scenario may be."

OR

Joe Buck: "Roethlisberger, rapist, throws... incomplete."

OR

Gus Johnson: "Roethlisberger, rapist, under pressure. He gets away! To THROWWWWAHAHHHHH, PICKED OFF!!!! Eric Wright, DOWN THE SIDELINE, Roethlisberger, headed for the girl in the front row. Roethisberger has his HAND ON HER BOOB! HE'S RAPING HER!! LIVE!!! HAAH HAAAAAAH!!!! ROETHLISBERGER!! PENALTY ON THE FIELD!!! ILLEGAL USE OF THE HANDS!! WHAT A GAME!!!"

Catching Up

Browns vs. Lions
Jake Delhomme continues to impress in the pre-season. The obvious statement is that if this continues to the regular season, Mike Holmgren is a genius. If Jake Delhomme is impressive this year, hopefully he starts next year, and the year after that, and it turns into a Brett Favre situation, where when we finally kick him out, Colt McCoy walks onto the field and starts throwing Touchdowns. At least until we play against the Delhomme-led Vikings, who will then be replacing Brett Favre.

Browns vs Bears
Colt McCoy gets the stage tonight. Hopefully he has more than Jake Allen and Alex Smith to work with on the receiving end. And with Montario Hardesty in there, maybe he can show us something. Colt has been unimpressive so far, but he's had no help. When your first option is Jake Allen and the second is Carlton Mitchell, what can you expect? We might get a better idea of what he can do.

Wanna see something funny?

Rank Player Comp Att % TD INT
1 Jake Delhomme 38 48 79.2 2 0
2 Tom Brady 33 42 78.6 4 0
3 Aaron Rodgers 41 53 77.4 6 0

We have the most accurate passer of the Preseason.


Jim Brown. Whatever. Mike said enough. I'll reiterate. You've been an advisor to Randy Lerner. Unless he's never listened to a word you said, I think you've done a terrible job advising him. Were you part of the Couch over McNabb decision? Gerrard Warren over Ladanian Tomlinson? Courtney Brown over anyone? Whatever. Now the kids just know you as the Sphinx guy from "Mars Attacks!"



Madden 11 officially sucks. I figured for sure that Backbreaker would at least give it a little bit of a kick in the ass, but no. Each year, all the same problems remain, all the same stupid things remain. Every year, they come up with some new marketing term. Last year it was, "If you see it on Sunday, you'll see it in Madden." This year, it's "Locomotion", and "More Time on the Field."

I don't have time for "More Time on the Field." Why? Because I don't want to set up any schemes. I want to pick my play (I know where the plays I like are, at least I did until you changed all the playbooks around) and go. I don't want to set up a section of plays I want available on third and short. I don't care. FIX IMPORTANT THINGS FIRST, then waste time on crap like this.

For the third year in a row, if a player gets hurt, you can put him on IR. BUT, in Madden, this doesn't free up a roster spot. Three years in a row, putting a player on IR does NOT free up a roster spot. Three years in a row, a measly running back can block the DT coming in at full speed with no problem. Three years in a row, the swat and tackle DB animations merge. Five years in a row, suction blocking - A defender running at full speed would NEVER do a 180 to engage in a block with a lineman who was BEHIND him. NEVER. For the third year in a row, they've changed the pre-snap controls. It now takes longer to define a hot route. It used to take one step to move your D-Line to the left, it now takes three steps. The game is pathetic. The same five tackles happen over and over, and they're the same tackles from the last three years.

After playing about a week of Madden, I went back to Backbreaker, and WOW, I appreciate this game even more now. The multiple person tackles, all unique, never the same tackle twice. The giant pile of bodies at the line of scrimmage, not just players sucked into blocking animations. When something negative happens in Backbreaker, I feel like it's because I made a mistake, not because the computer cheated me out of a play. I'll post some video comparisons so more people can see how completely superior Backbreaker is in terms of gameplay.

Alright, back to work.

Really Jim Brown?...Really?

I have all the respect in the world for what Jim Brown did on the football field. And admittedly I don't know him off the field, but that letter he wrote to the Browns today was just purely immature.

I can't believe you have such a stick up your butt about being fired from a job where you didn't do a whole lot. If your job was to advise Randy Lerner, you failed. And since you didn't do anything at that job, and had no contract, Mike Holmgren offered to pay you a lot of money to do nothing again. You chose not to report to him, so that's your fault. A lot of people would take $100,000 to do nothing for a pro football team; i guess you're too good for that.

That letter is very immature. Don't you realize that the event is NOT FOR YOU. Its for the fans dummy. Not everything revolves around Jim Brown.

Again, I respect the man for what he did for the team in the 50s and 60s and even beyond as the face of the team. But some of his off the field activities sure don't paint a pretty picture of your true character. This letter capped it off for me.

Monday thoughts about sports...and more

• Given all the turnovers, I'm not thrilled with the Browns performance on Saturday vs. the Rams. But, if you write a few of those off to the weather, the Browns did pretty well.
• The Browns did however make Jay Feely look like Dan Marino.
• Maurice Clarett is trying to get permission from a judge to go tryout for the new UFL team in Omaha. A few months ago I read that he enrolled in classes at OSU. You have to pick a new lifestyle Maurice...clearly football isn't working for you, let it go.
• Repo Man was better than expected...and had a neat twist at the end. (we don't pay for movies much, so my reviews are mostly based on DVDs we get from the library)
• Speaking of the Library, I realized I should be doing a lot more there. Because my taxes pay for the darn thing, so I should be trying to get everything i can out of there. Movies, Music, and those things that have writing in them.....
• The Indians........oh forget it. Its not worth my time to write about them anymore, or your time to read about them.
• more Browns stuff in a few days.
  

Browns vs Packers

Yeah.. I'm going to say the Browns looked awesome. Jake Delhomme passed like a freaking genius against a Super Bowl-Ready team. With what looked like no effort at all, our first team marched right down the throats of the Packers and Harrison capped it off with a rushing TD.

Then.... Aaron Rodgers passed like a freaking genius against our.. mediocre at best team. With no effort at all, he marched right down our throats and scored TDs.

So yeah, we're definitely in the right direction now, but work is needed. Thank god we have Phil to get us out of jams. Colt didn't look great, but that's ok. He's learning. He's not playing this year, or maybe next year, so there's no rush for him to be great. Hopefully Delhomme continues looking like this and McCoy can become OUR Aaron Rodgers..

Seneca Wallace also looked good, but he only had four completions yet two of them were the TDs, so we need to see more of him in Game 2.

The receivers looked great - Brian Robiskie. Dude's ready. Massaquoi was catching everything.. Moore looks good. Cribbs didn't do anything as a reciever and didn't return anything, but we can assume he'll still be an OK receiver and the best kick returner in the league. Harrison looked fine, Hillis looked awesome. Vickers crushed AJ Hawk on that first Harrison TD run. Davis was fine. Chris Jennings.... He's the odd man out this season. Practice squad? CFL?

And its great to see the Browns win the first game of the football year. I can't remember the last time that happened.

First Browns Pre-Season Game

Things I'm looking for tomorrow. (although i'll have to DVR the game)

• Solid QB play. Nothing flashy, just don't screw up so bad that we have to hear about it for another week.
• Explosive plays. I don't care who they come from, but we missed that with the exception of Cribbs last year.
• 100 yds rushing for the team. 225 yds receiving/passing for the team
• less than 2 turnovers...but i won't cry over 2
• Points! I don't care if we lose, but don't score points in the 4th qtr only.
  

Indians

So let me get this straight. We traded away more players.. and they were all for "players to be named" and or cash. Now, I have no idea what goes on in baseball, but to an average fan, or someone who just checks the scores and knows some of the players on the team, and is happy when they hear that they won, etc.. Jesus Christ. It seems like the management or owners of the Indians are.. jackasses. I get that "prospects" are about the equivalent of "nfl draft picks" but.. my god. Is this not the equivalent of say... The Boston Celtics losing 10 games in a row, and their reaction is to trade KG, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, (but they would keep Rondo) and all they got back are draft picks?

How can the Indians expect anyone to care about the team? This makes no sense to me. We're clearly NOT TRYING TO WIN. Yes? If we trade away a player the second he shows a sign of life, how do they stand a chance? Someone explain this to me because I must be an idiot.

Cavs / Browns

Is Ramon Sessions any good? If so, he's our new point guard and Mo Williams is playing Shooting Guard. Delonte's gone, which is a shame, but only because I was looking forward to some "Gloria! Gloria!" chants from the crowd. Apparently Sessions and Williams played together on the Bucks and became friends, so that's always good.

We also sent Sebastian Telfair to the Timberwolves and got back some really really tall guy. But I think he's just really tall - no clue if he's any good.

So as of this second, we're going into the season with this lineup:

Sessions/Gibson
Williams/Eyenga/Green
Nobody/Eyenga/Moon
Hickson/Jamison
Varejao/Tall Guy From TWolves

I really hope Eyenga is good. He has some killer highlight reels out there, and wasn't bad in the Summer League. Enough about the Cavs, let's get some simple Browns news going.

We signed Hardesty.. Four years. I don't think I've ever seen this guy in a game before, but he should have no problem impressing us as a Browns RB.

We've got McCoy for Four years. Is he our guy of the future? Can't wait to find out. He absolutely kicked ass in Texas and has the best name ever for a QB. Sounds like an action hero. "Colt McCoy" Yes? Well either way, hopefully he sits for a year or two, learns from January Jake, and comes in like Aaron Rodgers.

Jerome Harrison. Hopefully he picks right up where he left off.

Josh Cribbs and Seneca Wallace split in the backfield, no QB. There's a confusing as hell formation waiting to happen.

Massaquoi, Cribbs, Robiskie, Engram, Stucky at WR.. That'll work. No one needs to be double-covered though.. Could be trouble. But if January Jake is on, they'll be fine.

Watson at tight end - I still remember him saving a Pick Six by sprinting downfield and taking out that Cornerback at about the 2 yard line. Watson is a good player like that.

Same O-Line, Same Fullback.. To be honest I'm looking forward to this season. 7-8 wins sounds about right to me.

Lay off the Browns WRs

Stop telling me the Wide Receivers are the weakest part of the Browns team. I'm tired of hearing it. I'm not suggesting their good, I'm suggesting they're a completely overrated part of a football team.

Sure, every team wants the WRs that have freakish physical abilities; but those players also come with freakish attitudes. More importantly, the team the wins the Super Bowl every single year, does not always have the best WRs in the game. In fact, its almost always the complete opposite.

Look at past Super Bowl winning teams. The New England Patriots had absolute nobodies as their WRs, and won three times! The Saints had good ones, not great ones. Who did the Ravens have in 2000?? The Steelers have had good (not great; although Ward borders on great) WRs, the Giants had 1 good (not great) WR and a couple average ones. Sure, the Colts had great WRs and so did the Rams. But come one, it really is the exception more than the rule.

My point is, we can win 8 games this year with me as a WR if the rest of the team is improved. WRs are very dependent on the QB anyways, so the real focus here should be the QBs or more probably the defense. Defense has proven to win championships far more than the prima donnas known as Wide Receivers.

Changes to MLB

Since the Indians are on a 4 game winning streak...I'll post some thoughts on Major League Baseball.

If I were commissioner of the league, here are some immediate changes I would make:

1. Change the All-Star game back to a true exhibition game. The fact that it determines the home field in the World Series is the worst idea in sports. Home field in the WS is determined by best regular season record...period!
2. Get rid of Interleague play. At least on the general level. I could be okay with 1 to 2 series and that's it. Play the geographic rivals (Mets v Yankees/Indians v Red/Cubs v White Sox). Those are interesting to fans...nothing else is. Get the schedule evened out again.
3. Add instant replay to calls on the bases. It doesn't take too long to look at a monitor and figure that out. But add one challenge per team so it doesn't get out of control. Keep balls and strikes called by the ump.
   
4. Fix the divisions. Why does the American League have 15 teams and the National League has 17 teams?? So here's how i'd do it.

• Move the Houston Astros to the AL West, making that 5 teams and creating a nice rivalry with the Texas Rangers. That evens the leagues, but I'd still make the next change just to keep things interesting for rivalry aspects.
• Move the Kansas City Royals into the NL Central to compete with some teams closer to home. This might hurt because they'd lose the DH, but it hasn't worked for them so see if this can change things at all.
  
• Move the Pittsburgh Pirates into the AL Central and give them a DH so they can try to turn their franchise around

I'd also start considering evening out the leagues again by either getting rid of the DH all together, or adding it to the NL. Then we can start discussing the salary cap. It's a necessary evil in baseball. I didn't include the salary in the above numbers because this will be the hardest thing to get past the owner.

The next commissioner needs to be a 'non-owner'. Bud Selig was a former owner and he is just too invested in the owners of baseball and not the fans. The fans pay the bills in the long run, make them happy.

LeBron: Go F Yourself

I know this is so last week, but here's my take on LeBron.

"I feel like we saw a different person from the playoffs on, and a really different person this past week." -My dad. And he's exactly right. It's now painfully obvious that LeBron quit in the playoffs. And I think I was the only one who stuck up for him, saying things like, "His elbow has to be destroyed," or "It's probably killing him to lift his arm up and now he's trying to run things from the court." It's now crystal clear that he didn't want to be there and was done with the Cavs. His mind was somewhere else. It could very well have been on the thought of teaming with Wade and Bosh in Miami, since Bosh let it slip a couple days ago that they've been talking about this "for months" then later in the interview switched it to "for days."

Or maybe it was about Delonte and Gloria? Someone I know ran into a certain Cavs player's bodyguard and asked straight up if the Delonte - LeBron's mom thing was true. The bodyguard said "It is absolutely true." This was back in May. When LeBron was standing around, doing nothing in the Boston series, was he too busy keeping an eye on his mom and making sure Delonte was still on the bench? LeBron probably went to the Cavs, said "Get this guy out of here," and they probably said no. "No, we're trying to win a championship."

I guess its obvious LeBron never cared about this city, and I don't think he has a clue about what he just did. In his mind, I think he just switched teams. He's clearly never heard about "The Drive" or "The Fumble".. So he goes and calls his show, "The Decision." But I don't think that's worthy to add to our list. This was manufactured. The others were just bad luck. Hopefully there's some sort of karma here, where manufacturing our latest heartbreak breaks the curse and this follows you to Miami.

LeBron, I'd rather see Boston and LA win the next 10 titles than to see you win one after this. You took the easy way out and I hope it backfires in every possible way. I hope your elbow is f*cked. I hope you go down in history as another Scottie Pippen. LePippen. Nothing against Pippen when I say this, but LeBron, you're now the guy who couldn't get it done. You had to go run to your friends and form a super group. I'll give you credit that this clearly isn't about the money for you. You left a lot of Cavs' money on the table to do this. So I know this IS all about winning a championship for you. But in the process, you've also just killed your legacy. You could've been a legend here, and that would've translated to a legend world-wide. You could've done an incredible thing for this city. You could've broken our curse. How long did it take your idol Jordan to win his championships? Seven years. That's exactly how long you stayed with the Cavs. So what, you were a year off. Well, maybe we finally had a team around you that could get it done. BUT, they couldn't get it done without you. Maybe that six year, max deal with the Cavs, and a bit more work with the roster would've given you your six championships? We'll never know, because you turned out to be the least classy person in the NBA. I hate you more than Boozer. I hate you more than Rasheed Wallace. More than Paul Pierce, More than Ray Allen, More than Rondo. I hope your little experiment fails and you three ass clowns become the laughing stock of the NBA for creating a freak show. Have fun knowing that you went from future legend to sidekick, and in the process you stabbed an entire city in the back.

How simple would it have been to quietly let the Cavs know you were leaving them, thanking the fans for all their support, letting us know we meant so much to you. Instead, you go with "The Decision." One hour, prime time, on ESPN. I was holding out hope that this whole production was so that everyone in Cleveland could hear something along the lines of, "I messed up last season, my mind was in other places, my elbow was hurting, and I'm sorry I let you all down. I will be back next season, and for several seasons after that and we will get it done."

Instead, we get a heartless, soulless interview, ending with "I'm going to the Miami Heat."

F*ck You, you out of touch, immature, piece of sh*t. I hope you take this curse with you, you arrogant asshole. You know who's always going to have more rings than you, and thus will go down in history as being better than you? Dwyane Wade. You alright with going down in history as being second best to Dwyane Wade? But I honestly hope that you go your entire NBA career without a single championship and you go down in history as the guy who tried to take the easy way out. And now I hope the Cavs get the job done without you. Now the championship will be even sweeter. And we have a half decent team right now without you. We've got a good core. We keep the right people, trade the right people, and we'll still be competitive.

I've got nothing left to say about LeBron, it's all right here. So I'll close this with my overall feelings on the matter: Go F*ck Yourself, way to steal Mario Chalmers' number, you c*cksucker.

The big announcement on Thursday night...

The Cleveland Browns signed veteran WR Bobby Engram!!!

Here we go Brownies, here we go. Woof Woof

Super Bowl here we come!!

LeBron's leaving

I'm of the belief that where there's smoke, there's fire. I can't see the special that airs tonight on ESPN being anything other than a failed attempt at LeBron apologizing to Cleveland.

He's making the Cleveland fans look like fools, and bringing unwanted attention and embarrassment to them. No matter what the outcome of the show is tonight, this was the wrong approach to handle the situation. Nobody is bigger than the game, please respect the game enough to just have a press conference to announce your decision.

I don't care that he wants to go to Miami. Just go, don't drag Cleveland's face through the mud on your way out the door. That's uncalled for. You can have all the one hour TV shows you want in Miami, don't put this on National TV.

I've never gotten too sucked in to Lebron and his antics. Maybe its because I was never a huge basketball fan. But I'll be okay no matter what. I don't need your apology on ESPN tonight. I'm not a 6 yr old, you don't have to console me after you give me bad news.

The sun will come up tomorrow in Cleveland, and life will go on without you. Please just sign your contract and leave us alone from now on. Its been real, its been great; but it hasn't been really great.

Jim Brown's lawsuit

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5359701

Ha ha. This is funny. Does Jim Brown really think he's got a shot at winning this? As long as your name isn't on a jersey in the game, you can't win this fight. He must be broke, I can't imagine why he waited 15 years or so to finally sue EA sports over his likeness. He's been in every game since they started creating historical teams.

Madden 011 Ratings

The Player Ratings for the teams have been released for Madden 011.. And I must say, through no fault of the Cleveland Browns, this is the least excited I've been for a football game since I started playing Madden. Backbreaker is why. The next game I'm looking forward to is Backbreaker 2, or whatever it will be called. I just hope it has support.

Anyways. The Madden 011 ratings:

Ben Watson is our best receiver at 78. Cribbs is tied with him. Cribbs does have a 90some Swagger rating, which means god knows what. I'll assume something about deodorant. Perhaps part of the training regime we'll have to come up with involves using Old Spice? Our rookie, Carlton Mitchell is not in the game.

Backs: Vickers is an 88. Harrison is an 83. Hardesty is a 74. That's fine.

Quarterbacks: Delhomme is a 74, Wallace is a 73, McCoy is a 71. These are the exact same set of numbers Frye, Anderson, and Quinn got back in 2007.

Guards: Joe Thomas is a 95, Steinbach is a 91. Mack is an 87.

Linebackers: D'qwell is an 85, Everyone else is in the 70s, and the Hawaiians are in the 60s.

Linemen: Rogers is a 93, everyone else is in the 70s.

Corners: Brown and Wright are in the upper 80s, Haden's in the upper 70s.

The player on our team with the most Swagger is Josh Cribbs. Something tells me that this rating is going to be important, and that's retarded. The first time I see a player score a touchdown, and then put on deodorant in the endzone, I will immediately return this game and wish hell upon the developers.

Maybe Swagger means how much they're able to avoid suction blocking on the field?

Absurdities in Sports

So Madden 011 comes out in two months. One of the new features is a player statistic called "Old Spice Swagger." Now, advertising in games is fine, as long as it doesn't go too far. Put advertisements up in the digital stadium - that's fine. That's realistic. Have them change each month, that's even better.

But.

What Madden 010 did, was they put a little pop up window on the bottom left corner of the screen, actually covering the game clock at times, and it was the same advertisement for an entire game. So before every offensive snap, we had to see an advertisement for tires.. or McDonalds.. Absurd. And to think, on top of having to see advertisements, I also paid $60 for this game.

Now, in Madden 011, I can only assume the pop-up will be back, but now there's also a stat called "Old Spice Swagger." Wonderful.

Backbreaker may be lacking a lot of features that are standard in the Madden games, but at least Backbreaker isn't shoving ads down our throats.

http://kotaku.com/5574934/maddens-newest-stat-swagger-is-sponsored


My second piece, completely unrelated, is about the UFL.

The UFL cannot do basic math. And this isn't just a typo, this is someone who cannot do basic math.

If you saw 1+1 = 2, 2+2 = 4, 3+3 = 5, 4+4 = 8.. you could assume that "3+3 = 5" was a typo. On the UFL's website? Not so much...

http://www.ufl-football.com/

Just scroll down a bit to the 2009 season standings. I've copied them here:

Team W L T Pct PF PA

Tuskers 6 0 0 .857 200 112
Locomotives 4 2 0 .714 187 117
Redwoods 2 4 0 .333 105 134
Sentinels 0 6 0 .000 56 185

The Tuskers went 6-0, with a winning percentage of .857
The Locomotives went 4-2, with a winning percentage of .714
The Redwoods went 2-4, with a winning percentage of .333 (correct)
The Sentinals sucked and went 0-6, with a winning percentage of (surprisingly) .000

I may not be the smartest guy in the world, but isn't 6-0, 1.000...? And you can't say that these scores were not updated at the end of the season, because I can only assume the Tuskers couldn't have gone from 4-1 to 6-0..

So we've got the Locomotives.. they're at .714, they should be at .666.

The bottom two are correct, which leads me to believe the person doing these stats was high.

Cavs

An NBA Proof:

FOX News says that Tom Izzo made the right decision.

Therefore Tom Izzo made the wrong decision.

Boring Sports

I really don't hate any sports, I just like to make fun of soccer. I can find entertainment in most things, but soccer is like watching 15 football "three and outs" in a row for 90 minutes. It is entertaining to me though, that no soccer fan needs to ever take a breath from exhaling. The constant sound of the vevezula (sp?) is both hilarious and irritating at the same time.

There is also a vevezula iPhone app, sadly it's not loud enough to be of any use.

I also hate NASCAR, and I regularly rip on it when Reverend or whoever is watching it. Like soccer, the only excitement in NASCAR is about once an event. And in NASCAR, that excitement is a possible life ending car crash. So, yeah NASCAR is about 100x worse than soccer.

Then again, Soccer causes riots and murders amongst the insane fans. For each 8 year old that piledrives his cousin and the WWE has to figure out a way to reword their "don't try this at home" disclaimer, does soccer have to do anything when shit like this happens? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_hooliganism No. I don't recall anyone trying to murder fans of a rival NASCAR team.. Or any Browns fans trying to murder any Steelers fans. But I can recall hearing stories about soccer causing Riots. And yes, therefore it's fun to make fun of something that so many people take seriously.


A tangent - Curling is another boring as hell sport, and the only excitement in that sport is finding out if the people who play it got a DUI on their way home from the ice rink or whatever the hell it is they play on. You might be able to argue that there's also no excitement in watching someone play pool, but I actually like pool so I'll watch it. There is zero excitement in watching someone play cards. All things that can be found on ESPN.

So maybe Mike is right and we should just shut up and leave it alone..? Leave the game to those who enjoy it and the rest of us should shut up about it and wait for football season to start? And hey, this thing is only once every four years. Although it is intrusive. I want to watch Sportscenter on my lunchbreak and my only choices are College Baseball or the World Cup. And the World Cup wins, because there's more things moving on the screen. Oh well.

Also, since I like to know things about all sports, regardless of.. anything really, someone explain to me "injury time" in soccer, because: "time added to the end of the game at the referee's discretion." I read as, "If the ref has $1000 on team A, he can add an additional few minutes to see if they cover."

USA in the World Cup Finals

So, in dramatic fashion, the US went from being eliminated in the group stage again, to winning their group. Donovan's goal in the 91st minute of the game changed the fortunes of soccer in America for the next 4 years. Now, we don't have to wait another 4 years to hope America can prove they at least belong in the discussion of top 15 or 20 teams in the world.

And because the US played so well in the group, they are rewarded by avoiding any 'major' team until at least the Semi-Finals. The US plays Ghana on Saturday at 2:30pm(EST). Ghana is a good team. Their solid, but their beatable. They are not Germany, England, Brazil, Spain, Portugal or Argentina. In fact, we will avoid these teams even if we win another game.

The winner of Saturday's game will play the winner of Uruguay and South Korea. Two more good teams, but not great teams. Both beatable. The US could shock the work and be playing Brazil in the Semi-Finals. That would be amazing.

I know need to go buy a Landon Donovan jersey. I like how he plays, and he wears my number from high school...#10.

And if you didn't know...in soccer, its tradition that the best player on the team wears #10...the second best often wears #9. So when you're watching the games...identify number 10, that's the opponents best player.

Enjoy the World Cup. It only comes every 4 years. And with the scoring being so limited, the excitement when a shot is taken is incredible. If you try to appreciate it, you can really get excited. But at least root for the USA. Its your home country. (unless its not your home country)

Soccer haters

If you don't like soccer...just shut up.

One thing I can't understand. Why people who don't like soccer feel so strongly against it that they Must speak up at every opportunity. There are plenty of things I don't like; but I don't try to rain on someone's parade just for the sake of it.

I don't particularly like NASCAR. But I don't go around and write on Facebook posts about how boring it is. I just let it go. I let the people who like it, enjoy it.

I have to believe the reason is that they are terrified that soccer will actually start gaining popularity in America. Otherwise, why would they care so much that they need to shoot it down all the time.

USA's possibilities in the World Cup

We haven't talked at all about the World Cup yet, and I suppose I can do a recap later, but for now here's the USA's scenarios for advancing out of the group stage. They play Wednesday at 10am against Algeria.

US loses to Algeria - eliminated
US ties Algeria AND England beats Slovenia - eliminated
US ties Algeria AND Slovenia beats England - advance as 2nd place in group
US ties Algeria AND England ties Slovenia - needs to win goal differential against England
US wins - they advance no matter what...place in the group depends on the England/Slovenia match

Vocab - Goal Differential = Goals Scored minus Goals Allowed
If you care, the second tie break is Total Goals Scored in group play.

So its pretty simple, Win and your in. The US should win, but that scenario hasn't held true very often in this World Cup. Some good teams are drawing or losing to lesser teams. I guess the quality of soccer/futbol around the world is evening out.

If the US advances, they play either Saturday at 230pm or Sunday at 10am.

WWE vs UFC

The most promising talent the WWE has had fall into their hands in the past five years, Bryan Danielson (on screen, Daniel Bryan) was fired. He was fired because during a scene where his group goes crazy and attacks John Cena, his opponent, and everyone at ringside, he choked out the timekeeper with his own tie. Not for real, it was just part of the scene. But I guess he adlibbed it to make the moment more crazy.

One week later, 85 year old Bret Hart is put in the back of a limousine, and the driver repeatedly slams the back of the limo into various other cars in the parking lot, intentionally.

So what the WWE is telling me is - it's not okay to choke someone for five seconds with their own necktie, but it is okay to throw someone in the back of a limo, and back it into things at high speeds.

This may sound cruel, but I hope that some kid takes their parent's (single parent) car and starts crashing into things, and tells the judge that he saw it on WWE programming, so that we can just put this piece of sh*t company out of its misery, because this is pathetic.

The WWE's top guys are John Cena, who is like the kid-friendly version of Steve Austin. Randy Orton, who has no character. Jack Swagger, who is the crappy version of Kurt Angle. The Big Show, who overall has probably been the worst pro-wrestler of the past 20 years (but a hilarious character and actor). Sheamus, an Irish stereotype. The Miz (from Parma) who's character is to be annoying. Then there are the immortal ones; Undertaker, Edge, Rey Mysterio, Kane. And I've lost track of who hates who, because the next big event is designed around two championship matches, and each match features four guys all fighting each other. Whatever. Then there are the WWE guys who show promise - The Harts, Evan Bourne, Bryan Danie... wait, scratch that last one. He choked someone with a necktie and got fired.

I guess there's some unwritten rule in the WWE that you dont find out about until you're fired: Since Chris Benoit did the diving headbutt for 15 years and while suffering from concussions and while taking repeated chairshots to the head went crazy one day and killed his whole family, you're not allowed to choke someone for five seconds with their own necktie. It's okay to put them in the back of a limo though and slam into other cars.

MEANWHILE, over in the UFC. I actually bought my first UFC show since about ufc43, because we didn't want to go to the bar for 5 hours. Chuck Liddell and Rich Franklin. I think Liddell's in the UFC hall of fame, and Franklin will be there one day. Liddell and Franklin were in the main event, and they had a furious one round fight that ended with Liddell getting knocked out cold by a Franklin uppercut. Liddell just dropped, then Franklin landed a few shots while Liddell was on his way down. What's insane is that about 30 seconds into the round, Liddell threw some vicious kicks that Franklin blocked, and while blocking he broke his left arm. So this crazy bastard did another four minutes, thirty seconds (Liddell was literally knocked out with about 3 seconds left in the round) with a broken arm. That's wild. The build up to this was Liddell coming back, training harder, getting in the best shape of his career, and wanting to prove that he could still go. While Franklin, coming off a loss, wants to get back into the UFC Title hunt, because he wants to prove he's the best.

Mirko Cro Cop, age 76 took on the much younger Pat Berry, who is apparently the biggest Cro Cop fan in the world and the fight was a dream for him. Had Berry not shown a ridiculous amount of respect for Cro Cop in the first round, he may have won, but that was not the case. Berry won the first round, but then that woke up Cro Cop who came back and had an awesome fight. One of the year's best so far. Cro Cop landed about 10 punches in a row, dropped Berry, then landed another 643 punches on the ground, but none were putting Berry out. Cro Cop then just switched positions and choked Berry out. Awesome fight. The build up here was Pat Berry ("I don't hit hard, I hit scary.") wanting to fight someone he looked up to his whole career, and take his place in the Heavyweight division. While Cro Cop wasn't looking to go anywhere, and certainly wasn't looking to go down to a younger Berry.

So.. WWE? Sh*tty characters, crappy wrestlers, boring storylines with no payoff. UFC? Real characters, talented fighters, simple, real storylines with a payoff. No wonder the WWE is getting CRUSHED right now by the UFC.

And a lot of WWE fans think the UFC fans are all new haircut, affliction-wearing douchebags. A lot of them are, yes. But remember, most WWE fans are just.. stupid.

Indians

http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/index.ssf/2010/06/justin_masterson_xx-hits_red_s.html

So apparently Masterson threw a complete game and we destroyed the Red Sox.

But for me, what's notable is that Boston brought in a Pitcher named BOOF BONSER in the eigth and immediately the pain began for Boston. This is notable for two reasons - 1, the overly ridiculous name; and 2, at the beginning of the season I tried to sneak this player onto Mike's fantasy baseball team on the grounds of the overly ridiculous name. However, his roster was already full.

And apparently this Strasburg kid is pretty good.

This may have been my most pointless post yet.

Strasburg vs. Indians

Coming up on Sunday, Stephen Strasburg will most likely pitch against the Indians. He struck out 14 in 7 innings against the Pirates last night. The Indians do not have any better of a lineup than Pittsburgh did. Pittsburgh managed 2 runs off him, but every member of their batting order struck out at some point. Strasburg struck out 7 in a row before being pulled from the game because of his pitch count.

Hasn't our year been bad enough, we had a perfect game thrown (or blown) against us in Detroit; and now we have to face a kid who did that in his first major league game! I'm getting sick just thinking about how bad the Indians will look on Sunday.

If the US wins against England on Saturday in the World Cup match, i'll be much happier. Possible World Cup post to come later in the week.

Fantasy Football Rankings

So, for a real quick post, just to get my name back on the blog, a quick comment about the Browns and fantasy football.

Matthew Berry posted his top 150 players for Fantasy Football 2010. Obviously its early, but interesting to read nonetheless.

The Browns had 4 players in the top 150, don't get too excited.
Jerome Harrison is the 26th overall RB. - he hasn't truly proven himself, but I bet he's about 15th or so by the end of the year.
Montario Hardesty is the 50th overall RB - could be a TD machine if used right with Harrison.
M. Massaquoi (?) - I think 44th overall WR - not bad, but not good if he's supposed to be our no. 1 receiver.
Josh Cribbs was like 130th overall, period. I think just a token spot for a good returner, even though most leagues don't count return points.

The Browns are going to need more than this; and especially need a QB to be on this list, if they are going to have success.

Backbreaker

No blog posts lately because this game has eaten all of my time. Can't comment on where Mike's been.. but here's another good video, showing why this is a better football game than Madden:



Note how the Linebacker doesn't attach to the Offensive Lineman. In Madden, the Linebacker would get sucked into that Offensive Lineman's animation and the Running Back would be able to get right around him. And based on early trailers, this STILL HAS NOT BEEN FIXED in now 6 years of XBox 360 Madden.

Madden vs Backbreaker

Well, Madden just figured out how to save itself this year. It looks like Backbreaker is going to be the far superior game, and Madden's methods to remain in the game have nothing to do with gameplay. It has to do with their selection of a commentator.

Gus Johnson.

Yes, I am going to buy Madden this year because it will have commentary by Gus Johnson.

Indians Trades...did they work

I haven't done the research...and may not. But here is a list of some recent Indians Trades and whether or not they worked.

2002ish - Bartolo Colon sent to Montreal for Grady Sizemore, Cliff Lee, Brandon Phillips, Tim Laker?? YES...clearly this one worked. And it will go down as the Greatest of Shapiro's lifetime. It will also never happen again because Montreal was contracting and just shipping off players.

2006 - Coco Crisp and David Riske sent to Boston for Andy Marte, Kelly Shoppach, Guillermo Mota. Yes...kind of. Marte could still deliver something. Shoppach was a nice backup and we traded him for Mitch Talbot who looks good. Mota sucked. But Crisp and Riske really never gave Boston anything too great. Although Crisp did get a ring with them.

2006 - Traded Eduardo Perez for Asdrubal Cabrera who was with Seattle. Perez was announcing games later that year and Cabrera looks like an All Star short stop. YES..it worked.

2006 - Ben Broussard sent to Seattle for Shin-Soo Choo and Shawn Nottingham. YES...Choo is a true 5 tool player and will get paid big time this year for how good he is.

2008 - CC Sabathia sent to Milwaukee for Michael Brantly, Matt LaPorta, Zach Jackson, someone else. Kind off...we're still in a wait and see on this one. CC is still amazing, and we have not seen Brantly and Laporta's best. Those two will make this whole thing work if they become really good.

2008 - Casey Blake sent to the Dodgers for Carlos Santana. Hopefully...Santana is tearing up the AAA pitching...but the Tribe won't move him even though Marcon is hitting sub-200 because they don't want to give Santana an extra year of eligibility so he can get arbitration early. Blake is still the every day third baseman on a really good team. Seems like a win-win, but only if Santana is an every day catcher for the next few years.

2009 - Franklin Gutierrez sent to Seattle and received Valbuena and Joe Smith. Part of a three team deal with the Mets. Gutierrez looks pretty good, Valbuena did, but is now falling. Smith is in the minors. Didn't really work. Could have gotten Texeira in a half year rent in 2007 for the playoff push by trading Gutierrez. We may have a World Series title had we pulled the trigger on that. I believe the same goes for Adam Miller, over hyped pitcher who is probably never going to pitch again because he had 3 surgeries on his middle finger.

2009 - Mark DeRosa sent to Cardinals for Chris Perez and Jess Todd. Perez looks good so this one probably worked. DeRosa was nice to have too though. Kind of an even swap.

2009 - Cliff Lee and Ben Francisco sent to Phillies for Jason Knapp, Jason Donald, Lou Marcon, Carlos Carrasco. Not yet...kind of too soon. But Marcon looks horrible, he has two RBI this year. Jason Donald is too young, but moved through the minors fast. Jason Knapp has Tommy John surgery. Carlos is doing well in AAA, but we'll see if he can transition to the Majors this year. Lee still looks dominant...so another Cy young winner traded and nothing to show for it yet..

2009 - Victor Martinez sent to Boston for Justin Masterson, Nick Hagadone, Bryan Price. NO...Victor is still good and we have no catcher. Masterson sucks.

2009 - Carl Pavano sent to Minnesota for player to be named later (Yohan Pino). No, Don't know who Pino is...and Pavano is still doing well.

2009 - Ryan Garko and Rafael Betancourt are traded for nobodies. Betancourt is still good, Garko is in the minors. Didn't really work.

2009 - (after season) Kelly Shoppach sent to TB for Mitch Talbot (was a player to be named). Yes, Talbot is flourishing in his brief time with the majors. Shoppach proved he's a career back up.

That's enough for now. You can make up your mind on how all these moves helped or hurt the team. If I think of more I'll create another post. Enjoy.

Thanks to baseball-reference.com for much of this information.

Brown Fired....Horrible line in ESPN Article

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=5213917

Coach Brown got fired. Great...we all knew it was coming. But what upsets me most in this article is how arrogant the writer is about LeBron leaving Cleveland. Read the quote below.

"Cleveland's next move will be an interesting one. Because of James' uncertain future, it's possible the Cavs would want his input into their next coaching hire, assuming the two-time MVP is still considering re-signing with Cleveland when free agency opens after midnight on July 1. The Cavs will have to search for a new coach not knowing if James will be back and would have to go into the draft and free agency without a coach."

WHY THE HELL is there even a question that LeBron is 'considering' returning to the city that can pay him MORE than any other city. This is ridiculous. More National Media shoving it down our throat that LeBron MIGHT leave.

Its absolutely outrageous that this writer puts a line like that in the article. I'm not saying I'm confident LeBron will return...but 99% of free agents leave for the city with the most money. The most money for LeBron is CLEVELAND. So to say 'assuming he's still considering staying' is an absolute joke.

Just Give me a Break already.

Backbreaker Football

Ok, I've played the Demo for 15 minutes. I spent about five minutes doing the tutorials, which went by really fast. Great tutorials, showing you how to play the game and how to get the Madden controls out of your system. No absurd loading times in between each tutorial, it all went by fast.

Backbreaker is the new football game by 505 Games, and if the demo is any indication, they NAILED IT on their first time out. Madden and EA Sports had a 5 year head start on the Xbox 360 / PS3, and their game immediately feels old, outdated, ancient, etc. Backbreaker uses the Euphoria physics engine and a company called Natural Motion has been working on this for four years now (or perfecting it for four years now) and it's finally ready. This is the first game I've played that was truly worth the wait. I've been watching this thing go through development for about two years now through YouTube and IGN Interviews and June 1st is when it finally is released. The Demo is available now for XBox Live Gold users, and in another day or two for the rest of the XBox Live users.

No, there are no NFL teams in this game, and this will be this game's only downfall. The actual football gameplay is incredible. Everything is physics based. In Madden, everything is animation based. So if two players get near each other in Madden, they have to lock up. In this game, they act as if they would really act on a football field.

This is tough to explain without videos, but imagine you're running straight ahead with the ball. There's a defender at your 12:00 running straight for you. There's a defender at your 3:00 with no chance at all of tackling you. But he's the guy who your fullback is supposed to block. The fullback will go out of his way to block the guy, leaving you wide open to get crushed by the defender running straight at you. This was one of the first things I tested in Backbreaker. Simple runs up the middle. Not once did the fullback do anything stupid. My Offensive Lineman double teamed the defensive lineman. None of the guards ran around in circles while a blitzing linebacker ran right by them and sacked me. Everything felt like it made sense.

After a couple four and outs from my offense (passing was a little different than what I was used to, and really, who Punts in a game demo?) I felt like I had the hang of the passing game. In this one, you have to select your receiver by moving the right stick, then flick the stick up for a bullet pass, or pull back, then flick the stick for a lob. This took some getting used to, but like I said, after a few tries I had it down.

People are saying "Arcade Football games are doomed to fail." They are. This one is NOT an Arcade Football game. This is NOT NFL Blitz all over again. This is as close to a simulation as you can get. This is what Madden wishes it was. The only thing that can possibly make this game fail is the lack of NFL players and teams (which can easily be created manually, and hopefully downloaded.) because after only a lunchbreak with the game, it plays phenomenally.



Here's another guy praising it. This guy has been criticizing football games, dying for an honest game that's true to the real game of football. 505 Games is definitely onto something here, and hopefully the NFL sees this and ends their exclusive deal with EA Sports. This demo is probably the only thing I'll play on my Xbox now until the full game comes out.

Peralta can go now....please?!?

Ok, have we had enough of Jhonny Peralta already? He shows flashes of good offense, but generally when its too late to matter. He's an average AT BEST defender. And now, he takes out the best player the Indians have!!!

Come on already. Hasn't he caused us enough pain. Now he's inflicting pain on his own teammates. No matter what the press wants to call the play last night, Peralta caused the injury because he's too much of a whale to go diving after a ball Cabrera clearly had.

Annoying, just annoying. UUUGGGGHHHHH.

RAW

Bret Hart won the US Title last night on RAW. It's 2010, and Bret Hart is the US Champion.

I'm going to repeat this.

It's the year 2010. Two thousand and ten. And Bret Hart is a WWE Champion.

That's pretty much it, I have no joke for this, I think I've said enough.

NBA Free Agent Analysis

The NBA Salary Cap and contracts are really complicated, so this information may not be 100% accurate. From my understanding, the salary cap is around $60 million. You can go over the cap to resign someone who has been on your team for at least three uninterrupted years, and he could be offered a max contract. You can sign one free agent for about a $5 million deal or less at some point in the season. So all of these teams below can sign one free agent, but his total deal has to be less than $5 million.

Atlanta Hawks - Joe Johnson becomes free agent. Hawks can resign him at max. It would put them over the cap. They could only get another free agent at that mid level exception.

Boston Celtics - Nate Robinson and Ray Allen become free agents. Celtics can resign Ray at max. They can't resign Nate, unless its for the mid level exception. Pierce may or may not leave, if he does, they can resign him at max.

Charlotte Bobcats - Tyson Chandler may or may not leave, Charlotte cannot resign him for max, they are over the cap. Unless they move some players, they cannot sign a free agent for big money.

Chicago Bulls - Rose, Noah and Deng are locked up. They are $20 million under the cap. They can sign a big money free agent, then bring back their players they've had for 3 years. (Big possible LeBron or Wade destination)

Cleveland Cavs - We're over the cap, we lose Shaq and would not be able to resign him for anything more than the mid level exception. We lose Z and LeBron, and everyone else is set for another year or so. We can sign LeBron for more than any other team can offer. I think Dan Gilbert can say, what's the highest offer you have from anyone else and the Cavs can add $20 million to it if we want.

Dallas Mavericks - Way, way over the cap. Dirk may or may not go, if he does go they're still WAY over the cap. They can resign Dirk at max. They cannot sign a player other than for the MLE. They lose Brendan Haywood and cannot resign him at max.

Denver Nuggets - Another team way over the cap. They're going to lose Antonio McDyess and cannot resign him other than for the MLE. (which would be stupid) They cannot sign a big money guy.

Detroit Pistons - Detroit has locked up their current crappy team for several years now. They're JUST under the cap and probably can't bring in a big money guy. They're going to lose Ben Wallace and Michael Jordan's Kwame Brown. Neither guy can resign for other than the MLE.

Golden State Warriors - Under the cap, not going to lose any of their bigger players. Unless they make some moves, they cannot sign a big money guy.

Houston Rockets - Over the cap, Yao Ming may or may not stay. If he doesn't, they're under the cap and have the space to replace him. Or they can resign him for max.

Indiana Pacers - They're over the cap, and TJ Ford may or may not stay. It doesn't look like he can be resigned at max, since he's only been there two years.

LA Clippers - The Clippers have five players coming back and PLENTY of space to sign a big money guy. Then they may be able to resign their 3 year players at max. They're about $30 million under the cap. They could bring in two big money guys.

LA Lakers - WAY WAY WAY over the cap, but they have all of their important players locked up for the next five years. Look for more finals appearances and more titles to come for these assh*les. They cannot bring in any big money players, and the only guy they're losing is Derek Fisher, who can be resigned at max.

Memphis Grizzles - Under the cap, could bring in one big money guy. Rudy Gay may or may not leave, he can be resigned at max.

Miami Heat - They have five guys coming back, one of them is Dwyane Wade who can be resigned at max, then they have plenty of room left over to bring in another big money guy. They lose Jermaine O'Neal and cannot resign him unless its the MLE.

Milwaukee Bucks - Just under the cap, they may or may not lose Michael Redd. They can resign him at max.

Minnesota Timberwolves - Way under the cap, they could bring in two big money guys. They have all of their important guys coming back, and DARKO MILICIC'S CONTRACT IS FINALLY EXPIRED.

New Jersey Nets - WAY under the cap, two big money guys possible. They lose Bobby Simmons, Rafer Alston, Tony Battie, but thank god they keep the chairman of the NBA, Yi Jianlian. This team should get a big makeover.

New Orleans Hornets - Way over the cap, but they dont lose anybody. Cannot sign a big money player.

New York Knicks - Most cap space available of any team. I think they could actually bring in three big money guys. This could be LeBron, Wade, and Bosh. Jesus Christ. They're at $17 million. The cap is around $60 million. They're going to lose T-Mac and can't resign him. They can resign David Lee and Eddy Curry at max, after signing their big money free agents.

OKC Thunder - They are under the cap and are not losing anyone important. They have room to bring in about one big money guy.

Orlando Magic - Orlando is another team that has their guys locked up for the next few years. They wont lose anybody important and are way over the cap. No big money free agents joining the Magic any time soon.

Philadelphia 76ers - Over the cap, not losing anybody but Allen Iverson. They cannot resign him, and I think he retired for good anyways. They cannot bring in anyone expensive.

Phoenix Suns - Over the cap, and they may or may not lose Amare Stoudemire, Grant Hill and Channing Frye. They can resign Stoudemire and Hill for max, not Frye. They have no room for anyone else expensive.

Portland Trailblazers - They will lose Brandon Roye and can resign him for max. They're just under the cap, but resigning him would put them over.

Sacramento Kings - Under the cap, they could bring in a big money guy. They are not losing anyone important. Nor do they currently have anyone important on their team.

San Antonio Spurs - They're over the cap and have their important guys locked up. Can't bring in any more big names.

Toronto Raptors - They're over the cap, but if they lose Bosh that will give them some room. They can resign Bosh for max, but if he goes, they may or may not be able to replace him with a big money guy. They might not have quite enough cap room.

Utah Jazz - They're just under the cap. They're losing Carlos Boozer, but everyone else is locked up. They can resign Boozer at max, or maybe Boozer will tell them he's resigning with them, and then they'll find out later that day he's in Miami, actually signing a piece of paper.

Washington Wizards - Way under the cap. They have room to bring in two big money guys. They keep Gilbert Arenas and his guns, the Wizards have the option to keep Josh Howard. They're about $30 million under the cap.

So the teams that can bring in some big money free agents are:

Chicago, LA Clippers, Memphis, Miami, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, OKC, Sacramento, and Washington.

Any other team can't really do anything except resign the big money guy that's already been on their team for three years, or they would have to make some trades for draft picks to teams with cap space.

Chicago looks like they could be a beast next year. Rose, Deng, and Noah are on board, and they have room to add a superstar. But they also need a coach. Miami could be a serious contender again if Wade stays and they get him some help. And New York could be completely different. They can bring in several new players. Should be interesting to see what happens.

Another LeBron Article..

http://kotorimagazine.com/index.php?news=4264

..which may or may not have any truth to it. Time will tell.

Good article about Lebron

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-lebroncavs051210

Sums up a lot of how many people feel right now. Lebron needs to focus on being good at basketball before worrying about how he'll be perceived in the 'financial minds' of America.

Shape up Lebron, or you won't win in ANY city you play in.

Cavs vs Celtics V

They had no plan. They all looked tired, they couldn't figure out what to do once the Celtics applied a bit of pressure. They look done. They look like LeBron played his last game at the Q as a Cavalier and just wants out. They look like the Celtics looked for the 2nd half of the season. Now the Celtics look like the best team in the history of the NBA.

Ray Allen has to be shooting around 80-90%. KG has to be shooting about that also. LeBron seemed like maybe he was the answer for Rondo, but with the other guys making every shot they take, who cares who guards Rondo?

I dont even know where the blame is. Is it Mike Brown who continues to pick bizarre rotations? (JJ Hickson coming in to foul, playing Delonte for about 3 minutes total, playing Leon Powe at all). Is it LeBron who missed all of his shots? Is it a lack of caring? Who knows, but I think the blame is on those two. When LeBron plays like crap, there's no one to help him. When he's in his rhythm, the rest of the team is unstoppable.

Then, the really depressing part is, even if through some miracle we beat the Celtics two in a row, then we've got Orlando.... and then if through some really big miracle we beat Orlando, then we've got The Lakers or Suns. F*ck. Actually - the sad part is going to be watching Boston get crushed by Orlando, then watching Orlando get crushed by The Lakers or Suns.. showing that we really had no chance at all.

It's win or go home, Cavs..

Cavs vs Celtics IV

Rondo is too good. We need to put LeBron on him. Shaq needs to deliver some hard fouls to him, sending him crashing to the floor. No one else can seem to guard Rondo. Let LeBron try it.

Other than that, it was a competitive game, we just missed a couple too many shots. The series is now a best of three.. We can't seem to win two games in a row, but we also don't seem to lose two games in a row... They should have a plan to bounce back on Tuesday night. Hopefully.

UFC 113 Thoughts

Overall a good show. Patrick Cote made a return after a long injury recovery process, and got choked out by Alan Belcher. This choke out came after the first piledriver/pedegree move I've seen in a long time. Belcher calls out Anderson Silva afterwords and says he's the man who can beat him. I dont think anyone can beat Anderson Silva right now, but I'd love to see his first competitive fight so.. Silva fights Chael Sonnen next, which could be it.

Matt Mitrione, former NFL player, absolutely dominated Kimbo Slice (released from the UFC after the fight) and won by stoppage in the 2nd. Kimbo may have a broken leg and a broken arm after the fight, which was stopped, he never submitted. Mitrione just kept throwing punches and Kimbo didn't know what to do after his two bodyslams didn't work at the beginning.

Jeremy Stephens and Sam Stout had a crazy shootout, each just throwing punch after punch. It went all the way to the judges, they called it for Stephens in a split decision.

Josh Koscheck dominated Paul Daley for all three rounds, and after the third round was over, Paul Daley threw a sucker punch when 99% of the fighters handshake or hug afterwords. The referee immediate threw Daley off and had him pinned up against the cage and was yelling. Daley was released from the UFC almost immediately after. Dana White said something along the lines of "I dont care how good he is anywhere, he's never fighting in the UFC again."

And in about a minute and a half, Shogun knocked Machida out cold and F'd up his eye to become the new UFC Light Heavyweight Champion. These two had a five round fight last year and everyone thought Shogun would take the decision, but then Machida won the decision. Everyone immediately said Instant Rematch, and the two fighters promised it wouldn't go to the judges this time. They were absolutely right. Shogun just exploded and got him on the ground and started throwing fists.

Final Tallys:

Good Fights - 4
Bad Fights - 0
Mediocre Fights - 2
Accidental Nut Shots - 2
Piledrivers - 1
UFC Firings - 2

Cavs vs Celtics III

Well, now that's more like it. So if they just play like that every night, no team in the league can stop them. Boston never even stood a chance in this game. I don't even have anything to write about - they just kicked ass in every possible way.

Hamilton jinxing the Indians

Tom Hamilton is one of the best radio announcers in sports. But, sometimes he decides that we need to talk about game too much. Baseball is a very superstitious sport, and when someone is red hot, you don't talk about it.

Chris Perez was mowing down the Blue Jays starting in the 8th inning. Then, Tom Hamilton used every cliche in the book to describe how the game was just about over, and Perez was one out away from his 5th save. The next 3 batters: double, error on shortstop (run scored), 2R Home run for the Jays to take the lead. COME ON!!!!

SHUT UP ALREADY. Maybe next time you'll talk about the no-hitter someone is throwing with two outs in the 9th inning.

::head hits desk::

Cavs vs Celtics II

Well, wtf happened there? Quite the step back.. However - it really was just a lot of missed shots. Shaq has to figure out how to hit the 3 footer. I don't understand how some nights he can hit it every time and how some nights he's not even close? Antawn stopped taking his crazy shots and LeBron was looking for the pass too many times when the teammate was expecting him to take the shot himself. If LeBron's elbow is killing him, he's gotta give some of his minutes to Hickson or someone. Mo, Delonte, Hickson, Jamison, and Shaq should be able to get them through some minutes if his elbow has him limited to the point where all he can do is dribble and pass to the nearest guy. Then if the rest of the team is playing lazy and not stepping up, we're screwed. We've got the best player in the league and his elbow is killing him at the worst possible time. Cavs - step up, help him out.

Another thing to note - the referees were NOT calling reach in fouls all game. Celtics realized this early and caused countless turnovers. If you smack the guy's forearm and the ball comes loose, that's a reach in foul. Not in game 2, and it took the Cavs into the fourth quarter to realize this. Maybe Dick Bavetta is just OLD AS F*CK and can't see what's going on anymore. I got excited when LeBron smacked Pierce's arm and knocked the ball loose in the fourth quarter and got a fast break... but it was too late since Boston had been doing that all game.

Also - even funnier...

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/11341/tim-donaghys-tale-of-dick-bavetta

Tim Donaghy, Referee/Gambler, tells the story of how Dick Bavetta changes how he calls a game as to not allow many blowouts...... Oh, so that's what happened last night. Got it. How is this not painfully obvious to anyone in the NBA? You've got Donaghy blowing the whistle on the shitty officiating, and the shitty officiating CONTINUES, EVEN AFTER HE POINTS IT OUT???? Anyways, whatever. Game 3. Hopefully LeBron can keep resting the elbow and the rest of the team can step up. We need everybody. If Shaq's missing his shots stop giving him the ball, let him just clear a lane.. If Mo can't handle the ball, let Delonte do it.. If LeBron can't play, give Hickson more minutes.. Let Antawn take more shots.. Something.. Anything.

Cavs vs Celtics

Now those are the Celtics I know... In a crunch moment, NOT fouling Shaq.. allowing Mo Williams to DUNK.. Not fouling while down by about 7 with 40 some seconds to go.. The Celtics quit on this game, or Doc Rivers is the worst coach in the NBA.

How do you not foul?!? How do you not send the worst free throw shooting team to the foul line in the last few seconds? Even if we make the free throws, Ray Allen can still hit the 3s to counter? Boston could've easily won that game, but instead they quit.

Those are the Celtics I know from this past season.

Hopefully Shaq keeps providing a brick wall for Rondo to crash and burn into and LeBron's elbow stays fixed... It's the Celtics, so I dont even have a prediction on this series because stupid things always happen with Boston involved...but if this game is any indication, Celtics will quit for good around game three.

Indians most hated team...and ignored

Thanks James for the intro to the topic. I was going to post the link this morning, then I saw your post.

The deal is, the Indians are in a tough spot. The fans are passionate, but are becoming very disenfranchised with the ownership. Since the Dolan's took over there is a perception that they won't spend the money to keep the good players. So, its been 9 years ( i believe) since the Jacobs' sold the team; and the fans have really only had one year to be excited about.

I hate the argument that the Dolans did actually carry a high payroll in their tenure. That is true, in 2002 they had a big payroll; but that was only because it was left over from the Jacobs tenure. As soon as they could, the Dolan's let the talent go and rebuilt. Rebuilding is an okay part of the game, but at some point you have to spend money again to build a competitive team.

The Indians sign young players to long contracts (Grady, Carmona) so as to avoid arbitration and a few years of free agency. Not a bad plan, but you have to keep spending to get veterans with those young guys. Young guys alone are too inconsistent to win titles; you need a mix. Plus, you miss with some signings, like Jhonny Peralta.

Did Indians fans get spoiled in the 90s? Yes, but too bad ownership. You can't undo what happened, so pony up and put some talent on the field. Its the only way fans will come back to the ballpark. (no Paul Dolan, its not the other way around. We come to buy tickets when you spend first. I'm not spending money in the hopes that you will use it on players later. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.)

Indians Most Hated??

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471204575210384180269378.html

I'll let Mike talk about this if he wants...but here's the post.

Is this a shocker?

Cavs vs Celtics

Cavs in 7.

Too much stupid crap happens when the Celtics are involved. For the months leading to the playoffs, the Celtics phoned it in. 14-11 in the two months before the playoffs. Looking completely like they just wanted their season to be over.

Celtics beat Miami in five, each game by 9, 29, 2, and 10. 50 points total.

Cleveland beat Chicago in five, each game by 13, 10, 23, and 2. 48 points total.

That's about as close of a series as we could have gotten, yes?

But.. when Boston lost, it was by 9. When Cleveland lost, it was by 2.

So if we factor that in.. Boston won by 41 points.. Cleveland won by 46 points.

This has accomplished nothing other than finding out a new way of saying Boston sucks and Cleveland is awesome.


Also LeBron says he isn't worried about his elbow. That's good news, right?


Right?

Draft Day 2/3 and Madden 010

Too many picks to look up, so I grabbed some notables:

TJ Ward, FS to Cleveland.. 70 Rating.
Taylor Mays, FS.. 95 Rating.
Toby Gerhart, RB.. (out of league)
Terrence Cody, Obese DT.. 85 Rating.
Ben Tate, RB.. 74 Rating.
Mont Hardesty, RB to Cleveland.. Out of League.
Brandon Spikes, LB.. 95 Rating.
Jimmy Clausen, QB.. 65 Rating.
Colt McCoy, QB to Cleveland.. 78 Rating.
Shawn Lauvao, OT to Cleveland.. Out of League.
Larry Asante, SS to Cleveland.. 90 Rating. (hell yeah)
Carlton Mitchell, Slow WR to Cleveland.. 75 Rating.
Anthony McCoy, TE.. 85 Rating.
Clifton Geathers, DE to Cleveland.. Out of League.

Draft Day 2...mocks

Good news: every mock draft out there today has the Browns taking McCoy in the 2nd round. I was unsure he would last that long until Clausen started to fall out of the first round. Now, I feel confident he'll be a Brown.

But I'm not sure why nobody has Minnesota picking Jimmy Clausen. Isn't that why they traded with Detroit? They saw Clausen was going to fall out of the first round because Indy and New Orleans were not going to pick a QB, and STL had Bradford. So Minnesota saw that they could move back, pick up another pick late, and still get Clausen. Don't they have to draft a QB? Favre is only a filler for one more year, then Claussen could fill right in on a good team and be successful. Minnesota can then trade away Sage Rosenfels and/or Jackson. All this makes perfect sense to me...but I guess I'm not an 'expert'.

Today should be a good day for the draft. I bet there's a lot of trades early because there are still some big time players on the board. I would love to see the Browns trade back into the 2nd round to grab either Taylor Mays, Golden Tate, or Toby Gerhart supposing none of them are taken after the Browns 38th pick. Gerhart's got a chip on his shoulder and I want to see him unleash it on the AFC North.

Draft Day 1 and Madden 010

Draft is over, Cleveland didn't trade away their entire draft for Bradford.. Roethlisberger went no where. All is right in the world.

Now, what this list is is a chart showing the player drafted, and their projected Madden 010 rating in 2016. So these are players that were exported from NCAA Football 010 and drafted into Madden. In order they were drafted:

Team - Player - Position - 2016 Madden Rating

RAMS - Bradford, Sam QB 91
LIONS - Suh, Ndamukong DT 97
BUCS - McCoy, Gerald DT 82
REDSKINS - Williams, Trent OT 65
CHIEFS - Berry, Eric SS 70
SEAHAWKS - Okung, Russell OT 91
BROWNS - Haden, Joe CB 86
RAIDERS - McClain, Rolando LB 89
BILLS - Spiller, C.J. RB 74
JAGUARS - Alualu, Tyson DE (out of league)
49ERS - Davis, Anthony OT 87
CHARGERS - Mathews, Ryan RB (out of league)
EAGLES - Graham, Brandon DE (out of league)
SEAHAWKS - Thomas, Earl SS 82
GIANTS - Pierre-Paul, Jason DE (out of league)
TITANS - Morgan, Derrick DE 78
49ERS - Iupati, Mike OG (out of league)
STEELERS - Pouncey, Maurkice C 97
FALCONS - Weatherspoon, Sean LB 89
TEXANS - Jackson, Kareem CB 80
BENGALS - Gresham, Jermaine TE 90
BRONCOS - Thomas, Demaryius WR (out of league)
PACKERS - Bulaga, Bryan OT (out of league)
COWBOYS - Bryant, Dez WR 95
BRONCOS - Tebow, Tim QB (Mel Kiper is RETARDED) 89
CARDINALS - Williams, Dan DT 72
PATS - McCourty, Devin CB (out of league)
DOLPHINS - Odrick, Jared DT 86
JETS - Wilson, Kyle CB 67
LIONS - Best, Jahvid RB 88
COLTS - Hughes, Jerry DE (out of league)
SAINTS - Robinson, Patrick CB 85


Yes, OBVIOUSLY THIS IS A VIDEO GAME, but still, it's kind of interesting to look at. So worst player STILL in my Madden Franchise is Trent Williams (Pick 4) at 65, and the best player is either Ndamukong Suh (Pick 2) or Maurkice Pouncey (Pick 18), both at 97. Figures.

To compare, Peyton Manning, Jared Allen, Chris Johnson, Andre Johnson are all 99s in 2016. Jamarcus Russell is a 61.

So according to my Madden Franchise, the teams that absolutely BLEW the first round are: The Jaguars, The Chargers, The Eagles, The Giants, The Packers, The Pats, and The Colts. The teams that DOMINATED the first round are: The Lions, The Seahawks, and the f'ing Steelers.

I'll do this again for round two and maybe round three, mostly because I forgot to look up Jimmy Clausen's rating. I'm curious if it's above 60.

Draft and Roethlisberger

So latest rumors are that the Browns will trade their pick to some team NOT in the top 10, who wants Ben Rapistberger.


..

Who could possibly want Ben Rapistberger?

The Eagles have Vick and Kolb.. Maybe. Who do they give up? DeSean Jackson? A Shitload of picks?

The Raiders are already in the Top 10, but Al Davis has done dumber things. Maybe. Who do they give up? Kamerion Wimbley? Richard Seymour? A bunch of picks?

The Vikings? After Favre they'll be left with Tavarious Jackson. Maybe? Who do they give up? Berrian? Percy Harvin? Sidney Rice? A Williams? Who would be worth that 7th pick, and why on Earth would they get rid of that player to have Ben Roethlisberger?

The Cardinals? They've got DA and Leinart.. If there's a surprise trade it would be this. But what would the Cardinals give up? Their first round pick and what else for our 7th overall pick? Beanie Wells? Steve Breaston? Adrian Wilson? Maybe half of their 2010 Draft picks?


Who would want Roethlisberger? I'm going to make a point I've been making for about three years now: Roethlisberger Sucks. He's a terrible QB. He scrambles around like a retard, then throws up a ball. He has good enough receivers that one of them can usually intercept it. Watch half of his throws: in the dirt or to Mike Tomlin. Ben is slightly better than Derek Anderson.

His famous goal line play to Santonio Holmes last year? That was a pass to a WIDE OPEN Heath Miller in the corner of the end zone. Roethlisberger threw such a shitty pass to Miller that Holmes was able to grab it at the goal line. And if Roethlisberger really DID throw it to Holmes, then he's AN IDIOT for not throwing it to a WIDE OPEN HEATH MILLER!!

Watch how Roethlisberger's receivers have to twist and contort their bodies to catch his passes. Watch how Roethlisberger has no clue what to do in the pocket when there's pressure. He's like the bigger Charlie Frye.

(Also note that the reason Pittsburgh Receivers are always wide open is because Hines Ward did one of the following: Illegal Pick, Holding beyond Five Yards, Offensive Pass Interference, Holding, or Clipping. Why do you think that F*cker is always smiling after each play?)

What team on Earth would be dumb enough to give up ANYTHING for Roethlisberger?