Thursday, May 3, 2012

Gridiron Chaos: Ups and Downs in Football This Week

Too many valleys, not enough peaks!
It's been a rough week off the football field for professional and amateur athletes across the country.  After last week's NFL draft in which players realized their dreams, the follow up week has been anything short of glorious.  Below I have a laundry list of the bad and good with my thoughts...

The Bad:

  • Adam Schefter reports Ravens LB Terrell Suggs tears his achilles playing basketball
    • Huge blow to the Ravens defensive corp, looks like recent draft pick Upshaw is gonna have to man up!
  • Notre Dame QB Tommy Rees is arrested because the Fighting Irish suck
    • We already knew he sucked, now we get to see some other underachieving, overhyped Irish QB take over, heck I should have put this in the Good section!
  • 10 time all-pro Junior Seau dies of possible suicide (gunshot to the head). He texted his kids "I love you" before it happened
    • He's had a bit of a rough time after retiring including a huge car accident.  Devastating news for his 3 children especially if it is deemed a suicide.  What a player though.
  • NFL hands out punishments to 4 players involved in bountygate including Jonathan Vilma's year long suspension
    • Vilma is obviously a poster child for the new zero tolerance policy.  I'm just confused how this suspension matches Donte Stallworth's suspension for killing a person.
  • Ravens HC John Harbaugh says the Patriots titles are stained and should have asterisks
    • OK, we get it. The Pats cheated.  Guess what, they are still better than your Ravens John!
  • Minnesota Vikings new stadium push is called "fiasco" by Governor
    • I hate this team but leaving this city seems like a huge loss for the city and the league and that dome succckkkks.
  • Drew Brees contract situation isn't close and who's gonna blame him at this point for not signing?
    • Did he know something was up when he signed that 1 year deal?  Genius, I'd be leaving in a second.
  • ESPN betting writer (particularly football) Sarah Phillips is fired because, well, she isn't real
    • Just Google Sarah Phillips and just chuckle at the whole saga, fascinating really.
  • More conference realignment will leave the WAC officially dead
    • Just more reasons why the BCS has ruined college football.  These ultra large mega conferences are forming just to be competitive enough to earn big bucks from bowl games.

WE SHOULD BE FOCUSING ON THE GOOD!!!

  • College teams finished up their spring games! Now we just got to wait an entire summer!
    • While the game means little to nothing, it's nice to see some football even if we are still a few months away.
  • We can analyze and dissect every draft pick for our favorite teams because it's awesome!
    • No better time to dream about what your team could look like come September in May!
  • Tampa Bay signed DT Eric LaGrand in a symbolic gesture as a spinal injury has derailed his career.  Props to his former Rutgers coach and now Bucs head coach Greg Schiano for doing this.
    • Special story here since he is paralyzed.  Football is a dangerous game and while Eric's life has changed forever, it's a neat thing to see him get signed by a pro team.
  • The conference commissioners finally woke up and realized a playoff might be a good idea as we look to a 4 team playoff in the near future.  BCS still sucks.
    • I feel like if we switched these guys with the people in Washington, DC, we wouldn't be able to tell the difference in the outcome.  Baby steps I guess are better than no steps.
  • Seems small compared to the rest but Vince Young is back trying to make the Buffalo Bills squad.  Good for him.
    • It's been a long road for the former Texas stand out. I always liked him because while unorthodox, he was a gamer and a winner.  I hope it works out.
In the meantime, thoroughly enjoy this kid and his excitement over the Memphis Grizzlies:

And my main man Chipper Jones hitting a walk off in the crazy game versus the Phillies last night!  Go to the 3:40 mark.