Sunday, January 29, 2012

Kyrie Irving

Kyrie Irving just tied LeBron James' All-Time game winning shots record.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

PIPA/SOPA

The Scout Team.net does not support PIPA/SOPA.

However, since this is just a google blog, we can't figure out how to take it down for today.

The two people responsible for these two bills have no idea how the internet works, and what they have written is going to have many unintended consequences. I can only assume they're sitting back going, "No, this is fine. We don't need all that technical mumbo-jumbo in there."

Seriously, here's the most insulting piece of the SOPA bill, paraphrased: "A domestic site is a site defined as having a commonly used extension, such as .com, .net, .org, etc. And a foreign site is a site defined as not being a domestic site." Now, what's funny about this is there's one popular pirating site called thepiratebay.org. Which is an overseas, protected from the US website DEDICATED to illegally hosting media. But according to SOPA, that's a domestic site.

Huh!?

This would be like (and please believe me, this is just a stupid example) say we made it illegal for black people to say.. shop on Amazon.com. Our bill defined white people as people with light skin complexion. And Black people as "Not White People."

Therefore, an Asian person is Black. How stupid is that?? THAT is exactly how this bill is written, but in regards to websites.

And here's the goal: So that Hollywood studios can directly shut down sites like YouTube/Facebook/etc when they notice that someone has posted a funny movie clip without their permission. Or so that the music industry can have YouTube shut down if they notice someone put a Lady Gaga song in the background of their stupid birthday party video.

It's ridiculous. It's absolutely ridiculous.

The people who drafted this bill want to see an internet where you can't post comments, have forums, share videos, or input any sort of content whatsoever; because it MIGHT be copyright infringement.

With these bills, the NFL could go after Mike and I for talking about a Browns game.

Imagine if our physical world operated like the internet once this bill is in place: Say you're walking out of a movie theater and you say to your friend, "That movie really sucked." And he says, "Yeah, why on Earth did we go see the Rock'em Sock'em Robots movie??" Immediately after that a cop ran up and shot you because you just talked about the movie, and it was in a negative way.

These bills would allow a Hollywood studio to tell The Government to shut down a website because they spoke badly about an upcoming film.

Would they ever do that? I think that would be suicide to have that kind of press. Oh, but then they could just have the news sites be shut down as well, because the bill doesn't have anything in it to prevent abuse.

If you want to stop piracy, how about this novel idea: GO AFTER THE FUCKING PEOPLE WHO ARE DOING IT!!! Not the very essence of the internet!!! Put pressure on whatever country hosts the god damn piratebay to get it shut down! Keep fining the shit out of people who bring cameras into the theaters! But don't block facebook because someone put up a link to the piratebay on it!



Anyways.... OK back to sports.

If the Browns take RG3 they're stupid. That's not a knock on RG3 at all. The Browns need to stick with Colt McCoy and get him a fantastic Wide Receiver. Colt + Justin Blackmon + Cribbs is 100% better than RG3 + Cribbs + Massaquoi. End of discussion.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Mike

Mike, what is your new email address? I've been emailing the Case address like an idiot for the past week and you have not been answering. (Which I now understand.) Here are the two most recent things I've sent you. Yesterday I sent this:

"i hate knowing that part of what we pay for for espn insider is mel kiper."

Then today I sent you this:

"So after that, there's going to be a college football playoff, right?

Like, there's no way they can still justify this system, yes?

LSU is 13-1, Alabama is 12-1, Oklahoma State is 12-1. Boise State is 12-1 but they don't count.

LSU beats Alabama in a crappy game back in November.

LSU vs Alabama picked to be the national championship game? They just played. LSU already won.




Seriously, how retarded is this:

2016 NFL Season:

Green Bay 14-2
Atlanta 14-2
Philadelphia 13-3
San Francisco 12-4
Detroit 10-6 (at large)
New Orleans 10-6 (at large)

Indianapolis 16-0
Cincinatti 15-1
New England 11-5
Cleveland 10-6 (at large)
Pittsburgh 9-7 (has tie breaker over Baltimore, voted by the coaches) (at large)
Denver 6-10 (won division... Tebow, man.)


Dallas 8-8 (automatic qualifier to any NFL post-season, Jerry Jones splits them from the NFC East)
Baltimore 9-7 (at large)



So the NFL post season would look like this:

NFL Championship, The Allstate Super Bowl: Green Bay vs Indy (but what about Cinci and Atlanta?)
Cream Cheese Bowl: Phily vs Cinci (the prestigious, traditional NFC East v AFC North game)
Bad Newz Kennelz Bowl: Atlanta vs New England
Alcatraz Bowl: San Francisco vs Denver
Blue Collar Bowl: Detroit vs Pittsburgh
Art Modell Bowl: Cleveland vs Baltimore (Loser leaves the NFL)
Jerry Jones Bowl: Dallas vs New Orleans"



And now I wonder why this wasn't just an elaborate blog post in the first place.

Ok, thanks. Let me know about that email address.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Cleveland Browns Off-Season

If I was in charge, here's what I would do:

Offensive Coordinator. This is tricky, because if someone is available, there's a reason they're available - they suck. So I would like to see a college Head Coach become our Offensive Coordinator. I feel like we won't be able to lure in an OC from another team...so we'd have to promote one up from being a WR Coach or a QB Coach. Can we get New Orleans' WR Coach to be our OC? What about Green Bay's QB Coach? If you can't bring in an awesome guy like that, then what's the difference between grabbing some other Coordinator who's been on 32 different NFL teams or grabbing a Head Coach from the NCAA? I don't know, I feel like my logic is falling apart and I'll admit it. That's more than the Browns do. One way or another, we need an OC.

I would make offers to the following free agent WRs:
Marques Colston, Vincent Jackson, Dwayne Bowe, Reggie Wayne, Wes Welker, Mario Manningham and Robert Meachum. All of which are long-shots to ever come to Cleveland, but if we don't make the offers we're stupid.

I would make offers to the following free agent Offensive Linemen:
Ben Grubbs, Carl Nicks. Again, both long-shots.

I would try to bring back Peyton Hillis and accept that he gets hurt a lot and that we'll need a second option. I would make offers to the following RBs:
Ryan Grant, Arian Foster, and Michael Bush. Long-shots, as usual.

Defensively, there's not much of note we can do in Free Agency. No one is really an upgrade, or they're old and a waste of time. Sheldon Brown needs to be replaced.

The draft is impossible to predict, because no one knows anything about players 100 to 250. We have pick 4, and pick 22. With pick 4, They need Justin Blackmon. There's no one else. RG3 will have all the same problems that Colt McCoy has with this team. Colt + Justin Blackmon + Josh Cribbs is probably better than RG3 + Josh Cribbs + Mohammad Massaquoi.

The pick later on...who knows who is available. If there's another Wide Receiver, maybe we even do that. Look at the Steelers: their offensive line has historically been terrible, but Roethlisberger can just toss a ball up and his receivers get open and make the catch. If there's a good RG or RT, we could do that. I don't know how highly the scouts think of LaMichael James, but if he's a first round pick, I'd say do it. Clearly the 5'5" RB WORKS in the NFL. MJD, Sproles, Woodhead.. All better RBs than Montario Hardesty and Brandon Jacobs. Probably better than Peyton Hillis. You know what the answer is? Draft LaMichael James, put him back there with Hardesty.. Move Hillis back to Fullback.. Cut Owen Marecic who is the worst player on our team. That's a win for everyone. Except Marecic. He can go be on someone's practice squad.

...I digress. I don't know what the hell they do.

At least The Steelers are out.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Do the Browns really need a Franchise QB

Let's look at teams with a Franchise QB in 2011 versus those that don't.  Based on records and minor amateur analysis.


NFC                 W-L  QB  (Franchise?)
*Green Bay        15-1  Aaron Rodgers (YES!)
*New Orleans     13-3  Drew Brees  (YES!)
*San Francisco   13-3  Alex Smith (Eh? leaning toward no)
*NY Giants       10-6  Eli Manning (Yes)
*Atlanta              10-6  Matt Ryan  (Yes)
*Detroit               10-6  Matt Stafford  (Yes)
Arizona              8-8   Kevin Kolb (No/not yet)
Chicago              8-8   Jay Cutler  (Yes)
Philadelphia        8-8   Michael Vick (Eh? I guess)
Dallas                8-8   Tony Romo  (Yes, but fading)
Seattle               7-9   Tavaris Jackson (NO)
Carolina             6-10  Cam Newton (Maybe...i'm sorry but its too early to say yes, I don't care how well he played this year)
Washington       5-11   Grossman/Beck (NO)
Tampa Bay        4-12   Josh Freeman  (probably not, but maybe)
Minnesota          3-13   Christian Ponder (maybe, too early to tell but not as good as Newton)
St. Louis            2-14   Sam Bradford  (Yes)

AFC
*New England      13-3  Tom Brady (YES!)
*Baltimore           12-4  Joe Flacco (Eh...sorry, I'm not buying it)
*Pittsburgh           12-4  Big Ben (Yes...reluctantly)
*Houston             10-6  Matt Schaub (Yes)
*Cincinnati           9-7   Andy Dalton (Too early to tell, but looks promising)
Tennessee         9-7   Hasselbeck/Locker  (good so far, but we don't know about Locker yet)
*Denver                8-8  Tim Tebow (No)
NY Jets              8-8  Mark Sanchez (i'm not buying it)
San Diego          8-8  Phillip Rivers  (Yes)
Oakland             8-8  Carson Palmer (yes, for the next 4 years or so)
Kansas City        7-9  Matt Cassel (eh?)
Miami                6-10  Chad Henne (no)
Buffalo               6-10  Ryan Fitzpatrick (impressive start, but no)
Jacksonville       5-11   Blaine Gabbert (too early to tell, but not a great start)
Cleveland            4-12  Colt McCoy (unfortunately its not looking good)
Indianapolis         2-14  Peyton Manning (if healthy, yes of course)

* denotes playoff team.

So on a quick look, less than half the teams in the league have their 'franchise' Quarterback.  So I guess my first impression of those results is that it's not as easy to get your 'franchise' QB as it might seem.  But, 12 of the 14 were first round picks, so you probably do have to draft your guy in the first round.  Sure, there are good QBs who were not first rounders, but the evidence is that your best chance for success to do it that way.

The Browns are 1-1 on drafting a QB in the first round.  I say that Couch was a success because he was good and I believe would have been good on a better team if he wasn't getting his brain beaten in every sunday.  Brady Quinn was clearly a failed pick.  But we've only done it twice since 1999, so maybe it is time for another 1st round quarterback.  The problem is, I'm nervous about RG3.  His style could be the next Cam Newton, but it could also be the next Vince Young.

Again, I would rather go another year with Colt and draft talent around him.  This way you have a good team established when you can pluck a 1st round pick and drop them in a good situations.  On the contrary, there are a lot of QBs in this year's draft that have 1st round talent, and maybe its worth a look at one of them since I can't think of one QB who is going to come out next year.  (oh yea, Matt Barkley, but he'll be the first pick overall and we better not be in that position next year)

Enough for now.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

San Francisco Browns

OK, let's try to figure out what the 49ers did, and how the Cleveland Browns can do EXACTLY THAT to improve. Last year, the 49ers were 6-10. The Browns were 5-11. Very comparable. The 49ers have had over 6 years of QB instability. Very comparable. The 49ers have had a bunch of coaches who at times have showed flashes of possible greatness, but overall sucked. Very comparable.

Let's see what they did:

They got rid of Brian Westbrook, who was just backing up Gore. Troy Smith left. David Carr was cut. Nate Clements was cut. They brought in Donte Whitner and Braylon Edwards. Edwards battled injury and shittiness throughout the season and was cut half way through. They brought back Alex Smith, which was a real head scratcher. This would be like the Browns sticking with Charlie Frye or something. They fired Mike Singletary and hired a new coach.

They had a ton of draft picks, they used them to add ten players. Their first round pick was Rookie of the Month in October and he set a 49ers record for Most Sacks in a Season by a Rookie. Their second pick was a QB, possibly Alex Smith's backup or third string. They got a CB who didn't do much but played in all games. They got Kendal Hunter, backing up Frank Gore. They got a Guard from Appalachian State, he only played in one game. They got Ronald Johnson from USC, but he was released in September. They got a Saftey who did nothing of note. They got a Fullback who started half the games this season. They got a tackle who didn't play. They got a CB who went on IR before the season started.

So, it looks like they clearly didn't do it with the draft. They picked up a good DE with their first pick and then there's not much of note after that. They clearly didn't do it with Free Agency.. They KEPT their shitty QB who now looks great.

What the hell did they do?

They brought in an former NFL QB and offensive minded college coach. That's all they did. There's absolutely nothing else of note.

**************

The Cleveland Browns, on the other hand.. Do not know who Jim Harbaugh is. We went with the Offensive Coordinator from a 7-9 team to be our Head Coach. We brought him in mainly because of his experience with a young QB.

Jim Harbaugh didn't have enough experience coaching young QBs.

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If you didn't think that last joke was funny, Jim Harbaugh was an NFL QB for a long time, and he coached Andrew Luck, the QB projected to be the most NFL-ready QB in history.

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Lerner should sell the team to Los Angeles. Someone else can try again here in four years. As usual, I give up. There is probably no hope for this team and I just don't get why. But I want them to stick with this idiot for a while, because consistency is probably important to a coaching staff (unless you're the 2011-12 49ers, or the 2011-12 Eagles). I just don't get it, how one organization can be so consistently bad and it just never changes. We still fumble snaps, handoffs, make stupid decisions during the 2 minute offense. Draft QBs who can't see the field, WRs who can't get open..

Honestly, the moment this franchise went wrong? When that f'ing idiot Butch Davis let all those players go in the 2003 off season. Had we brought all those idiot-savant players back from our one playoff year, with Kelly Holcomb as the starter, how different would things be? We should've traded Couch right there on the spot, went with Holcomb, and brought back all five of those WRs, William Green, Terrell Smith, Chris Gardocki, and everyone else we let go that Off-Season. You know how many times Jim Donovan would be yelling "Run William Run!" We never would've had the Jeff Garcia fiasco, we wouldn't have wasted a draft pick on Charlie Frye.. Maybe Brady Quinn is brought in to be his backup haha, and we don't have to trade a first round pick to get him. You could easily re-write an entire history based on that particular off-season.

Hindsight and all, obviously. But imagine if after the 2005 season ended, we offered Drew Brees a monster contract to come up here? You KNOW that someone said to Phil Savage: "Hey, why don't we make Drew Brees an offer?" and Phil Savage said: "We're set with Charlie Frye, Ken Dorsey and Derek Anderson. We'll be alright." Phil Savage is a fucking idiot. A Fucking Idiot.

I digress. Anyways, yeah I don't know what the hell they do. Maybe with a true off-season they'll go 8-8 next year. And then 10-6 next next year under Shurmur, who knows. But man, it does NOT look promising....

End of Season thoughts vol. 1

The pain is over.  The Browns have officially put us out of our misery and ended a dreadful 2012 season. A 4-12 season that the best thing you can say about it is that we were 'competitive' in some games.  I honestly don't know where to go from here.

The only good thing people will talk about is the Defense. Yes, the defense was okay and there are some pieces to work with, but there is still plenty of room for improvement on the 30th rushing defense in the league. The only reason the pass defense looked good is because teams simply ran the ball against us (and we played some really crappy QBs along the way).

This team needs a real shot in the arm on Offense.  They have 6 picks in the first 4 rounds in this year's draft. (2 in the first round and 2 in the fourth)  The Browns need to get 2 dynamic playmakers in the first 3 picks and one Offensive Lineman.  I would love to see this...Blackmon, WR OkSt. then a stud Oline and then with the high 2nd round pick see if you wait long enough to grab LeMichel James from Oregon.

The management team needs to get all their ducks in a row.  This is the make or break season for them.  The 3rd year is very important (just ask Steve Spagnola from STL that just got canned).  6-10 is not an acceptable improvement in the 3rd year.  Time to step up to the plate Shurmer, you're rookie season is over and fans will be thirsty for blood if you have a slow start next year.