A law enforcement official on the condition of anonymity broke the news of an NBA officiating scandal, that’s nice. It’s exactly what the world of sports needs right now, right? I mean, a steroid-monster is about to break the most hallowed records in sports, the NBA ruined their own playoffs with suspensions, Michael Vick's fighting dogs with his bare hands, Barbaro died, and the Cubs are above .500! Nothing makes sense anymore!
But what clearly does is a referee making calls to incorporate covering the spread. The only part of this that might be considered sad is no one noticed. No one pissed and moan. Why? Well, either because they’ll get fined, or because the officiating is just so awful, that no one saw a difference. The NBA tells its employees to shut their damn mouths, and do their jobs. Corporate America’s watching. So you’ve got to wonder, if any players are sitting around right now betting on who it is, I would be. I’m sure they’ve got a memory or two of a weird call going down in a part of the game where it probably didn’t matter if there was a whistle or not.
So how does this happen? The New York Post says that the referee in question has a gambling problem (what a surprise) and has been doing this over the past two seasons now. Not only that, but supposedly the mob is involved as well. He was approached by low-level mob member through an acquaintance, and of course he accepted, and began shaving points to cover the spread.
What can we do? The officiating has always sucked, but now it’s crooked too? Is he the only one involved? What games did he affect? Was he allowed in the playoffs? How did no one know? How many weird calls does it take to get into any amount of trouble with Lamell McMorris, the head of the NBA Referees Association. Does anybody watch game tape and judge these guys? Shouldn’t they get paid according to how little they screw up so things like this can be avoided?
No, obviously not. Keep your mouth shut, mind your business, and let Commissar Stern take care of it. We don’t pay you for your opinion.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Monday, July 16, 2007
Peter King's Lost His Mind
Dear Peter,
Has something happened to you this off-season? Have you lost all of your marbles or the majority of them? Or maybe you've been hanging out with Jon Kitna a little too much, I don't really know, I don't really that kind of access.
These might be the craziest power rankings I've ever seen. Or maybe I'm just a little bitter regarding where the Cowboys were, who knows? However, we are in agreement in our power rankings a little bit, but from someone who predicted the Cowboys to go to the Super Bowl last year (you, not me) because of their aggressive 3-4 defense, putting them below the Lions is just...well, it's insane. The Lions have never done anything. They're not even close to the same level personnel wise as a lot of the teams in the league.
The justification for all of this, is...it's something else. You have Denver at #6 (in my own rankings, I had them too high as well), and don't get me wrong, I love the addition of Travis Henry, but they have a QB who has played less (and worse) than Tony Romo.
Enough of the Cowboys...
Best free-agent class...ever? You've got to be kidding me. If Donte Stallworth plays 16 games, they'll be lucky. If Randy Moss gives a crap, they'll be lucky. And if I'm ever excited about the 4th receiver on the Bengals (Kelley Washington) or Wes Welker (who's best year was last year's 67 catch, 687 yard, 1 td performance) then I must not have had anyone with two hands on the squad. What you fail to mention, is Adalius Thomas...who IS the best free-agent pickup in the league this year...bar none. What Bellichick can do with him is more than he can do with all four of those receivers.
The Bears will NOT have home field advantage. If the Lions are going to be so good (as you think, not me) then there's already less room for error this season than last. I don't foresee Devin Hester matching his performance last year, they lost their starting running back, and still only have Muhsin Muhammad and Bernard Berrian as their playmakers on offense. Oh that's right, Hester's going to learn the offense, I guess you're right. Home field advantage for the Bears...
Was St. Louis a top 10 team last year? No...no they weren't. They didn't do anything significant this off-season, did they? No, no they didn't. I like Stephen Jackson as much as the next guy, but Isaac Bruce is a year older, and Torry Holt can't be as good as he has been forever...or can he? (Ok, he probably can) But when Marc Bulger is threatening a hold-out you know things are crazy in today's NFL.
I'm not even going to bag on the Jets pick that high, because I thought they were going to be good LAST year, but just watch the progression of your power rankings switch quite a few things around...like the 49ers being THAT far down, or the Lions being that high up...(Matt Millen still runs them, you do realize?)
Other notes on your ridiculousness (is your brain still stuck on vacation?). Some soccer player in Brazil's name is Ronaldinho...you make yourself sound like an ass when you don't even call him by name. And of course Beckham won't make the MLS, no one thinks that he will, but it's called progress. It's kind of like a first round draft pick, he's not winning you the championship that year, but it's a step in the right direction...
This has actually given me headache writing to you, and I'm sure I'll never hear back, but please please please, make sense next time.
Oh, and at least your Sunday Night Football gig gets you to watch San Diego obliterate the Patriots in week 2. That'll be a nice night.
Sincerely,
Tony Thompson
No Huddle Offensive
Has something happened to you this off-season? Have you lost all of your marbles or the majority of them? Or maybe you've been hanging out with Jon Kitna a little too much, I don't really know, I don't really that kind of access.
These might be the craziest power rankings I've ever seen. Or maybe I'm just a little bitter regarding where the Cowboys were, who knows? However, we are in agreement in our power rankings a little bit, but from someone who predicted the Cowboys to go to the Super Bowl last year (you, not me) because of their aggressive 3-4 defense, putting them below the Lions is just...well, it's insane. The Lions have never done anything. They're not even close to the same level personnel wise as a lot of the teams in the league.
The justification for all of this, is...it's something else. You have Denver at #6 (in my own rankings, I had them too high as well), and don't get me wrong, I love the addition of Travis Henry, but they have a QB who has played less (and worse) than Tony Romo.
Enough of the Cowboys...
Best free-agent class...ever? You've got to be kidding me. If Donte Stallworth plays 16 games, they'll be lucky. If Randy Moss gives a crap, they'll be lucky. And if I'm ever excited about the 4th receiver on the Bengals (Kelley Washington) or Wes Welker (who's best year was last year's 67 catch, 687 yard, 1 td performance) then I must not have had anyone with two hands on the squad. What you fail to mention, is Adalius Thomas...who IS the best free-agent pickup in the league this year...bar none. What Bellichick can do with him is more than he can do with all four of those receivers.
The Bears will NOT have home field advantage. If the Lions are going to be so good (as you think, not me) then there's already less room for error this season than last. I don't foresee Devin Hester matching his performance last year, they lost their starting running back, and still only have Muhsin Muhammad and Bernard Berrian as their playmakers on offense. Oh that's right, Hester's going to learn the offense, I guess you're right. Home field advantage for the Bears...
Was St. Louis a top 10 team last year? No...no they weren't. They didn't do anything significant this off-season, did they? No, no they didn't. I like Stephen Jackson as much as the next guy, but Isaac Bruce is a year older, and Torry Holt can't be as good as he has been forever...or can he? (Ok, he probably can) But when Marc Bulger is threatening a hold-out you know things are crazy in today's NFL.
I'm not even going to bag on the Jets pick that high, because I thought they were going to be good LAST year, but just watch the progression of your power rankings switch quite a few things around...like the 49ers being THAT far down, or the Lions being that high up...(Matt Millen still runs them, you do realize?)
Other notes on your ridiculousness (is your brain still stuck on vacation?). Some soccer player in Brazil's name is Ronaldinho...you make yourself sound like an ass when you don't even call him by name. And of course Beckham won't make the MLS, no one thinks that he will, but it's called progress. It's kind of like a first round draft pick, he's not winning you the championship that year, but it's a step in the right direction...
This has actually given me headache writing to you, and I'm sure I'll never hear back, but please please please, make sense next time.
Oh, and at least your Sunday Night Football gig gets you to watch San Diego obliterate the Patriots in week 2. That'll be a nice night.
Sincerely,
Tony Thompson
No Huddle Offensive
Friday, July 13, 2007
Dwight Freeney's Getting Paid...
Dwight Freeney just got a hefty pay-raise. Managed to finaigle a 6 year $72 Million dollar extension with a $30 Million dollar signing bonus that will keep him in Indianoplis until he's...well, until he's too old to perform to the same levels that allowed him to net this ridiculous deal. Don't get me wrong, while he only had 5.5 sacks last year, in his first five with the Colts he accumulated 56 1/2 sacks and forced 27 fumbles in his first five years in Indy. Damn. But the problem is simple: He's going to be 33 when this deal runs out.
Obviously somebody would have paid him this much money if the Colts didn't, and he'd probably hold out if they slapped the franchise tag on him again, so they finally did what they had to do and just locked him. I mean, what else can you do on a defense that's already lost several key starters from last year's Super Bowl defense? This kind of signing has the potential to destroy a dynasty, which I'm sure the Colts plan on becoming...signing players to deals they might not be able to fulfill catches up with you.
Obviously somebody would have paid him this much money if the Colts didn't, and he'd probably hold out if they slapped the franchise tag on him again, so they finally did what they had to do and just locked him. I mean, what else can you do on a defense that's already lost several key starters from last year's Super Bowl defense? This kind of signing has the potential to destroy a dynasty, which I'm sure the Colts plan on becoming...signing players to deals they might not be able to fulfill catches up with you.
T-New!
This idea isn't original. At all. As a matter of fact, 98% of the 20 people who read this will probably hate it. However, figuring out who "Mr. Indispensable" is (while completely arbitrary, pointless, stupid even) was sparked by Mick Spagnola over at www.dallascowboys.com and carried into the night between my brother and I...and once again, the other half of the Brothers Cowboy is wrong.
(Note: My brother and I have a problem. We like to argue about why the Cowboys are going to be good, and we never really agree on the why...we just belittle each other until we feel like the point was driven home.)
I immediately narrowed it down to the three players that the Cowboys have got to have on the field week in and week out: Terrence Newman, Demarcus Ware, and Tony Romo.
Rule out Ware. With Ellis back and healthy, and Anthony Spencer coming in the form of a first round pick expected to contribute sometime this season...I guess we COULD afford to not have him (KNOCK ON WOOD), but the defense would suffer from losing the defense's only pass rush from last season.
So the real argument becomes Tony Romo vs. Terrence Newman. My elder, sillier brother, chooses Tony Romo while I'm in Terrence Newman's camp. Don't get me wrong, I think Romo is going to be good, maybe great, but we have so many play-makers on offense that I don't feel losing him counts us out from any game. Yeah yeah, Brad Johnson throws like an old man (wait...he IS an old man), but he can still probably hand the ball off to J.J. and M.B.III 30 times a game and manage to get the ball 10-20 yards down field to T.O. and T.G. (I like abbreviations today, back off) He could "manage the game" (which is really just a churched up version of not screwing everything up) while our defense shuts them down. Unless...
We don't have Terrence Newman. Keep in mind the Dallas Cowboys defense was actually pretty good up until the last four games of the regular season...really, they were, I'm not being ridiculous. They ended up giving up over 40% of their total yards for the season down that final stretch, maybe due to fatigue, maybe this, maybe that, but we'll just say it's because their pass defense was weak sauce. So let's eliminate T-New from the equation for a second. Enter Aaron Glenn, a 35-year-old CB who plays only in the nickel formation and hasn't played full time since joining the Cowboys. "That's not THAT bad" you might be saying...and you'd be wrong too.
Offenses love moving their WRs around, especially the best ones, trying to create mismatches with the defense, trying to get lined up against the slot cornerback in passing situations, all sorts of things. What Terrence Newman does, is well, everything. Sure, he doesn't have fancy Pro-Bowl consideration each year (but Larry Allen's fat ass was able to get voted in year after year even when he could barely move his fork to his mouth) but he is right behind Champ Bailey (with others like Asante Samuel) as a great shutdown cornerback. They don't throw to his side of the field, period. It doesn't happen. He's given up one, count it, one, touchdown over the past two seasons...
Really?
So you're telling me that Nate Jones or Jacque Reeves could come right in and step into the slot to match up with, oh let's say, Santana Moss...or maybe Plaxico...or hell, Mike Furrey. No, the point is this: Without Terrence Newman we will not be able to blitz...at all. We can leave him out on an island all day, with anybody, and he'll probably out play them. He held Steve Smith to six catches for 55 yards and no touchdowns...and keep in mind one of those catches was for 22 yards so his other five catches were for six yards a pop.
He probably won't have 10 interceptions this year (he could, but probably not) but they won't be throwing it his way either. Really, they won't. Spend your time watching how many times they challenge T-New this season. You'll be surprised.
I guess it's easy for people like my brother to forget how important the things are that aren't in the field of view on Sundays (cameras don't zoom out far enough to see what the defensive backs are actually doing, unless they screw up) and I guess he's still so swept up in Romo-mentum (not going to lie, I am too) that it's just hard to see how valuable Newman really is. Hope we never find out how hard it is to replace him.
(Note: My brother and I have a problem. We like to argue about why the Cowboys are going to be good, and we never really agree on the why...we just belittle each other until we feel like the point was driven home.)
I immediately narrowed it down to the three players that the Cowboys have got to have on the field week in and week out: Terrence Newman, Demarcus Ware, and Tony Romo.
Rule out Ware. With Ellis back and healthy, and Anthony Spencer coming in the form of a first round pick expected to contribute sometime this season...I guess we COULD afford to not have him (KNOCK ON WOOD), but the defense would suffer from losing the defense's only pass rush from last season.
So the real argument becomes Tony Romo vs. Terrence Newman. My elder, sillier brother, chooses Tony Romo while I'm in Terrence Newman's camp. Don't get me wrong, I think Romo is going to be good, maybe great, but we have so many play-makers on offense that I don't feel losing him counts us out from any game. Yeah yeah, Brad Johnson throws like an old man (wait...he IS an old man), but he can still probably hand the ball off to J.J. and M.B.III 30 times a game and manage to get the ball 10-20 yards down field to T.O. and T.G. (I like abbreviations today, back off) He could "manage the game" (which is really just a churched up version of not screwing everything up) while our defense shuts them down. Unless...
We don't have Terrence Newman. Keep in mind the Dallas Cowboys defense was actually pretty good up until the last four games of the regular season...really, they were, I'm not being ridiculous. They ended up giving up over 40% of their total yards for the season down that final stretch, maybe due to fatigue, maybe this, maybe that, but we'll just say it's because their pass defense was weak sauce. So let's eliminate T-New from the equation for a second. Enter Aaron Glenn, a 35-year-old CB who plays only in the nickel formation and hasn't played full time since joining the Cowboys. "That's not THAT bad" you might be saying...and you'd be wrong too.
Offenses love moving their WRs around, especially the best ones, trying to create mismatches with the defense, trying to get lined up against the slot cornerback in passing situations, all sorts of things. What Terrence Newman does, is well, everything. Sure, he doesn't have fancy Pro-Bowl consideration each year (but Larry Allen's fat ass was able to get voted in year after year even when he could barely move his fork to his mouth) but he is right behind Champ Bailey (with others like Asante Samuel) as a great shutdown cornerback. They don't throw to his side of the field, period. It doesn't happen. He's given up one, count it, one, touchdown over the past two seasons...
Really?
So you're telling me that Nate Jones or Jacque Reeves could come right in and step into the slot to match up with, oh let's say, Santana Moss...or maybe Plaxico...or hell, Mike Furrey. No, the point is this: Without Terrence Newman we will not be able to blitz...at all. We can leave him out on an island all day, with anybody, and he'll probably out play them. He held Steve Smith to six catches for 55 yards and no touchdowns...and keep in mind one of those catches was for 22 yards so his other five catches were for six yards a pop.
He probably won't have 10 interceptions this year (he could, but probably not) but they won't be throwing it his way either. Really, they won't. Spend your time watching how many times they challenge T-New this season. You'll be surprised.
I guess it's easy for people like my brother to forget how important the things are that aren't in the field of view on Sundays (cameras don't zoom out far enough to see what the defensive backs are actually doing, unless they screw up) and I guess he's still so swept up in Romo-mentum (not going to lie, I am too) that it's just hard to see how valuable Newman really is. Hope we never find out how hard it is to replace him.
Friday, July 6, 2007
Jason Witten's Mother
Jason Witten's (the Cowboys Pro-Bowl tight end) mom got arrested for stealing money from another woman's bank account. Ms. Witten claims the information got mailed to her incorrectly...
Why was she using it? Isn't her son rich? I know he's a good country boy who takes care of mama, right? Weird, these people...
On a sidenote...
Matt Mosley at ESPN.com's hashmarks is crazy. He has the Jets at 8th in chances of winning the Super Bowl...your Cowboys not even in the top 10! He covers them! Maybe I should be worried...
Adios
Why was she using it? Isn't her son rich? I know he's a good country boy who takes care of mama, right? Weird, these people...
On a sidenote...
Matt Mosley at ESPN.com's hashmarks is crazy. He has the Jets at 8th in chances of winning the Super Bowl...your Cowboys not even in the top 10! He covers them! Maybe I should be worried...
Adios
Suns Request...
I wanted to write my Indians article, but then they got their...well, their asses handed to them by the Tigers the other night, and haven't been doing too well since. Anyway, I heard I have to update because of all of the Suns shenanigans...so here goes.
The draft was a waste of time. Again. Why? Because we trade our highest pick and James Jones for $3 million and let Tiago Splitter (who we should've taken) go to San Antonio instead. Couldn't we have traded all of our picks for the next five years for Oden, Durant, KG, or Kobe? We're not going to use them anyway, and since we refuse to make something happen via trade like getting KG for some sort of Shawn Marion combo platter; and Robert Sarver's not willing to pay more luxury taxes to sign anybody else, all we're going to do is slowly dismantle our bench and play with like a 7 man rotation.
Wait...what?
We're getting Grant Hill? Isn't that a little reminiscent of signing Penny Hardaway way back when? I'm all for it if he can play like 70 regular season games and every single game in the playoffs, but what are the odds of that?
I'm worried. I've been so confident the last couple years that "this was the year" but something's always in the way. Joe Johnson's orbital, Amare's knee, Nash's bloodied nose, the suspensions, Tim Duncan, whatever...it's never enough with these guys. And instead of making something happen, we sign guys like Marcus Banks. We re-sign players like Piatkowski and Marks. Guys who don't play.
So here's hoping that I've become a ranting lunatic. That Mike D'Antoni knows EXACTLY what he's doing. That STAT and the Matrix can co-exist. That Barbosa is really as good as he appears to be from time to time. And most importantly, that Steve Nash stays healthy.
Oh, and that we get rid of Marcus Banks.
The draft was a waste of time. Again. Why? Because we trade our highest pick and James Jones for $3 million and let Tiago Splitter (who we should've taken) go to San Antonio instead. Couldn't we have traded all of our picks for the next five years for Oden, Durant, KG, or Kobe? We're not going to use them anyway, and since we refuse to make something happen via trade like getting KG for some sort of Shawn Marion combo platter; and Robert Sarver's not willing to pay more luxury taxes to sign anybody else, all we're going to do is slowly dismantle our bench and play with like a 7 man rotation.
Wait...what?
We're getting Grant Hill? Isn't that a little reminiscent of signing Penny Hardaway way back when? I'm all for it if he can play like 70 regular season games and every single game in the playoffs, but what are the odds of that?
I'm worried. I've been so confident the last couple years that "this was the year" but something's always in the way. Joe Johnson's orbital, Amare's knee, Nash's bloodied nose, the suspensions, Tim Duncan, whatever...it's never enough with these guys. And instead of making something happen, we sign guys like Marcus Banks. We re-sign players like Piatkowski and Marks. Guys who don't play.
So here's hoping that I've become a ranting lunatic. That Mike D'Antoni knows EXACTLY what he's doing. That STAT and the Matrix can co-exist. That Barbosa is really as good as he appears to be from time to time. And most importantly, that Steve Nash stays healthy.
Oh, and that we get rid of Marcus Banks.
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