Fantasy Frustrations“Welcome, new comers. The tradition of Festivus begins with the airing of grievances. I got a lot of problems with you people! And now you're gonna hear about it!”
To Arian Foster: I despise you.
To the Carolina Panthers: You have two premier running backs on your team, and Matt Moore might be worse than Jake Delhomme; if that’s even possible. Here is a free tip: run the ball!
To Mike Sims-Walker: Were you even on the field?
To Kruger: My son tells me your company stinks!
The Rest of Us
Of the 14 games contested on Thursday and Sunday, 11 home teams came out victorious in comparison to just 3 road teams. Once again confirming that home field really is an advantage in the NFL.
To start the week, Brett Favre showed everybody that sitting on your hump in Mississippi is not exactly the same as being in training camp as he looked old, slow and just dreadful for most of the game. If it wasn’t for the Minnesota defence that game would have been ugly.
On Sunday, a number of much hyped up preseason teams fell flat on their face; these teams include Cincinnati, San Francisco, and the always over-hyped Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys have won ONE playoff game since 1997, yet every year they are the team to beat in the NFC; what gives?
Seeing Donovan McNabb in a Redskin jersey was supremely strange. I still do not understand how the Eagles traded away their franchise quarterback to a division rival. It’s like the Flames trading Iginla to the Canucks. It makes me want to vomit.
Quote of the day had to be this: “Bengals super bowl bandwagon stalled in my garage. Looking for jumper cables...”- Around the Horn’s Tim Cowlishaw
And now as Festivus rolls on, we come to the feats of strength. This week, the honour goes to a Mr. Kramer. Unfortunately, Mr. Kramer had to work the double shift at H&H Bagels, so we give the award to a Mr. Vick.
He finally looked like the Vick of the pre-dog fighting days and inserted life into the Eagles listless offence. He almost completed the unthinkable comeback until two poor decisions cost the Eagles the game. Why he tried to thread the needle to DeSean Jackson instead of running the TD in is beyond me. Also, that 4th and 1 call by Andy Reid was so typical of the Eagles. For some unfathomable reason Reid called a QB draw up the middle when clearly the play was to the outside where Vick could beat anyone on the Packer defence in a footrace.
If ‘Corn on the Kolb’ is healthy for next week’s game, you can cue up yet another quarterback hullabaloo in Philadelphia.
Hey Rook!
The rookies took the ice in Calgary this weekend before heading off to the Okanagan for the Canucks prospect tournament. Mikael Backlund should be able to assert his dominance in this tournament since he is what some might call a “seasoned prospect,” after playing over 20 games for the Flames last season. Hopefully this pre-camp gives him the added confidence he needs to impress the Flames Coaching staff once the real training camp begins.
One can hope that when the season begins in October, he is centering Iginla and Tanguay, right?
October Baseball = Real Baseball
The American League playoff teams are, for all intensive purposes, set. Texas will win the West, Minnesota will win the Central, and either Tampa Bay or New York will win the East with the other claiming the Wild Card.
As for National League, it isn’t so cut and dry. Back in August the Atlanta Braves held a 3 game lead over the Philadelphia Phillies. Now the Phillies are out in front by a game for the NL East crown.
Out west, San Diego has been limping down the stretch and now sit tied with the Giants with roughly 20 games remaining.
The Cincinnati Reds, the oldest franchise in baseball, will make the playoffs and win the Central division for the first time since 1995. “Another Festivus miracle!”
So that means San Diego, San Francisco, Atlanta, Philadelphia and the red hot Colorado Rockies are all battling for a spot in the post season. There are two division crowns and one wild card position to be claimed.
Fun Fact: Two streaks for longest post-season appearances are going to end this year with Boston and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim most likely missing the playoffs. Assuming that the Phillies squeak into October baseball, they would hold the record alone for longest current playoff streaks in the majors with four straight seasons. Showing how difficult it is to make the playoffs year after year in a league that really separates the good from the bad, more so than any other league.
We Are the Champions
Continuing on that parity idea, here is some food for thought when talking about parity within sports:
In the 2000’s there were two teams to win the World Series twice, that being the Red Sox in 04’ and 07’ and the Yankees in 2000 and 2009.
Compare that to football where the Super Bowl was won 3 times by the Patriots and twice by the Steelers.
Hockey had Detroit and New Jersey both win twice in the decade. Since the 04-05 lock-out though, the same team has not won the cup more than once.
Basketball had the Lakers win five times and the Spurs win three times during the last 10 years.
Dynasties do occur, but are they going to the way of the dinosaur in leagues that use a hard salary cap.
Is that a good thing? I tend to think so.
Tiger-less Tour Championship
Tiger will not play in the Tour Championship after finishing T-15th in the third stage of the FedEx Cup playoffs yesterday placing him outside of the top 30 on the points list. This will only be the 2nd time Tiger has missed the Tour Championship when healthy; he missed in 2008 due to knee surgery. He only had two top ten’s in 12 starts this year; both in majors. Assuming he does not play any more tour events, which he is not slated to, he will not win a tournament this season for the first time in his professional career.
In other news, Dustin Johnson won the BMW Championship. I am sure that makes up for losing the PGA Championship...
Sudo-NFL
The Stamps are 9-1; Kings of the CFL. With the NFL season underway, my interest in the CFL dwindles somewhat. However, I did almost think I was watching a Riders-Eskimos game when the Eagles came out in those retro jerseys. But I soon realized that couldn’t be the case because the Eskimos could never actually stop anybody.
“It’s Festivus...for the rest of us!”
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2 comments:
I guess Tiger will find his game next week...er...year. I've heard he's so close to being back! (For the past 35 weeks)
I can hope, right? It did look like him and Phil are new best friends. Maybe things are changing...are Tiger showed Phil what an IHOP waitress can really do for him. A little more than bringing him the odd pancake!
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