STUNNER: GIANTS UPSET PATS!

Photo by  Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images

The New York Giants shocked the world last night when they  beat the New England Patriots 17-14 in Super Bowl XLII.  Saying that the Giants played one hell of a game is an understatement.  Eli Manning played nearly flawless and controlled football. New York’s D applied the pressure to Brady and sacked him 5 times. The win was well deserved.

Now, I am not a fan of New England and I was hoping that they would have gotten beat sooner, but I have to take my hat off to them for the regular season they had.   I was actually rooting for them  for two reasons. A) I have a bias for AFC Teams B) I got into it with my on again off again over this game.

For years, I always thought  that the AFC is the toughest confrence to play and  win in and I still do. Watching those teams in that confrence is what makes the game exciting in my opinion. Even the weakest teams are tough. Tonights loss by New England does not change the way I feel about the AFC!

Sadly, I could not enjoy NE getting their big because of reason B! Now the Red Zone isnt the place for my personal shit but I will make an exception today. My on and off again is a Giants fan. I favored New England for that very reason because I’m my own woman and he couldn’t stand me with an opposing opinion. He would call me bitter, hostile, a hater when it isnt even like that! I guess he didnt get the memo that people disagree sometimes and Just because you have an opposing view regrardless of the strength of that view, it doesnt make you bitter or a ‘hater’. Yeah I talked shit! No different than what  other football fans do!

Unfortunately Brady, Moss, AD, and Rodney couldn’t bail me out! So, before I could say congrats, here he come, yapping, and yapping and yapping some more. So things got heated.  He wanted me to apoligize for running down his team.  I said I wasn’t apologizing for anything!  I dont grovel or back down!  So we went at it!

So congratulations to the Giants and all of their fans except for one!

What is Plaxico Smoking?

Yesterday, Giants WR Plaxico Burress said that New York’s receiving corps were just as good or better than the Patriots’ corp.  My take is this: It is great to go in the game with some confidence but to feed the Patriots more motivation is a bad ideal. Plaxico missed the memo that said that “New England thrives off of criticisim and use it for motivation.”

After Spygate, the Chargers dissed the Patriots. The Patriots demolished the Chargers in Week two.

Steelers’ CB Anthony Smith Guaranteed a victory of the Pats and ended up getting beat deep by Moss.  The Patriots D shut down the Steelers’, holding them to 10 points.

In the AFC Championship round, the Chargers were talking again. The Chargers lost again.

Now, Plaxico and the Giants are yapping. Osi was on Inside the NFL pretty much accusing the Patriots of being dirty. Now Plaxico is talking bout how he and the rest of the Giants are better than the Patriots in catching the ball.

While the Giants are solid at receiver, the Patriots are statistically better.

Burress ended the season with 70 catches for 1,025 yards and 12 touchdowns. Armani Toomer ended the season with 59 catches for 760 yards and three touchdowns. After those two, the numbers fell off hard and fast.

Before Shockey went down, he had 57 catches, 619 yards and three touchdowns.

On the other hand,

Moss ended his season with 98 catches, 1,493 yards and a record setting 23 touchdowns.

Wes Welker  had 112 catches, 1,175 yards and 8 touchdowns.

Dante Stallworth made catches that gained at least 30 yards in seven of New England’s games.

Jabar Gaffney chipped in with six touchdowns. One of those touchdowns was a game winner against the Ravens.

Now Plaxico, do you still think that your guys are better? You should have siaid that the Giants TE’s were better.

Patriots TE Benjamin Watson had 30 catches for 389 yards and six touchdowns. If Shockey didnt get injured, he would have had at least six touchdowns.

Like I said, it is good to have faith in your squad but don’t talk reckless like that. Just focus on the game! For Plaxico’s sake, I hope he and the rest of the Giants can back up their talk.

Damn Tiki

After the Giants clinched the NFC Championship last week, I’m pretty sure that Tiki Barber felt sick to his stomach. After Barber ran down his team, his quarterback and his coach, the Giants turned this around, played their hearts out and made Super Bowl XLII. It had to hurt Barber to know that the team did it without him.

Tiki retired at the end of last season to go to NBC, and released a book. It didnt take no time for him to criticize his former team.  Tiki did this to prove himself to the rest of the Football Night in America crew and he ran down Tom Coughlin to sell his autobiography. 

After the dust settled, the Giants won again. While Barber is artuiculate and knowledgable, he hasn’t really generated the kind of appeal that Keyshawn has at ESPN. Meanwhile, Coach Couglin changed some of his catankerous demeneor, and now the players love him and playing thier asses off for him. Eli Manning is finally coming into his own,and playing  flawless football for the most part. Manning actually had no interceptions in the game against Green Bay.

Tiki is on the outside looking in and wondering what could have been.  Now, I respect Barber for having other interests and pursuing. However, my problem with Tiki is this:  he didnt tell the whole truth when he first retired.

At first, it was about retiring before getting all banged up. Later, he said that Tom Coughlin took the love of the game away. Why didn’t Barber say that about Tom in the beginning of retirement talks?  My other problem with Tiki is apparently, he didnt have the guts to criticize Eli Manning when the two were in the huddle.

So, not only did the Giants beat Tampa, Dallas, and Green Bay, they also beat their former running back.

LOVE AND FOOTBALL?

So, I noticed an article at MSN.Com, talking ’bout “Dating Is Like The Super Bowl” http://msn.match.com/msn/article.aspxarticleid=9223&TrackingID=516311&BannerID=544657&menuid=6&GT1=10787

I read it and to me, it was weak as hell. The analogy only gave the reader the dating game through the point of view of the Coach, GM and Owner. What about the point of view of the PLAYER? because that’s what most of us are in this game.  What about getting out there on your field of choice to play for whatever it is you want?  Some people play for  a meaningful relatioship while some people play for sex. There are those who play for that “elusive” wedding ring and bells and whistles of a wedding, while some play for self esteem or even money and revenge. The point is, everything looks good in the front office and in the luxury boxes. The field in love is just as brutal and unforgiving as the  gridiron or maybe even worse because while you may have wingmen or wingwomen if you will,  but you are a one man or one woman team at the end of the day. Honestly, I dont know where the author of this feature is coming from when she wrote what she wrote. But for me and maybe for most people, the following  is  what can and does happen in the game of love.

We get our hearts mangled and ripped apart like Theismann’s leg only to patch it up again and get out there.  We do this because, could it be that the reward is greater than the risk?  While some patch up the ‘heart’ and get out there again, some just go the sideline.  People go to the sideline for various reason. Maybe they need to study the ‘playbook’ before trying again, or they wine or give up.

The author of “Dating is Like the Super Bowl” wrote about people being ‘benchwarmers’ and ‘trade material’ now who in the hell wants to be that? People will do whatever they can to aviod being that. Who is gonna stand  on the sidelines like a damn fool and wait for the ‘Coach’ to make up his or her mind? Anyone worth their salt would get out there and find somebody else!

 I do however agree with the author’s ‘rules’ of the game. one of the stories subjects said. ”When cutting or releasing a date, you should always do it in person, especially  if that date has been a good performer and has contributed to the overall success of your ‘team.’ and “Never release your decision to the ‘press’ or your pack of friends beforehand.”

Thats is some great rules but how bout strategy? In the game of love, in my opinion, defense is key!

SUPER BOWL XLII: GIANTS VS PATS

 

 

Aight! Its finally here! The 42nd edition of the Super Bowl, and who would have thought that the matchup would be between the Giants and the Patriots?  Now, noone is shocked to see New England here. However, no one expected the G-Men to be here.

Honestly, I wasnt even expecting them to make the playoffs because while they have the talent, it was too much friction between Tom Couglin and the Players,  Tiki retiring, and Strahan contemplating retirement. New York started off the season wrong with a couple of losses.  After the ’goal line stance ‘ game against the Redskins, the Giants started to believe. They carried that belief in themselves to a wild card berth  in the playoffs. They  were on the verge of beating New England in the final game of the regular season. They carried that confidence to Tampa, Dallas,and tonight Green Bay and turned it into wins.

New England , on the other hand was a juggernaut from begining to end.  They survived the spygate mess and went on to 16-0 in the regular season. At times, these guys looked beatable. Philly, Baltimore, Indianapolis, and the Giants were points away from beating these guys.  However, yesterday, New England was a hot mess. Brady threw 3 interceptions and Moss was pretty much invisible during the game.  The Chargers did not capatialze on the Pats’ mistakes and they paid for it with their ticket to Arizona. The Chargers were in the red zone three times and only mustered up field. You dont beat New England that way.

Now we have a rematch of week 17. Hopefully, this would be interesting.

Stay tuned for keys of the game.

Giants Win, Romo Chokes!

I’m just gonna say what needs to be said here. The Dallas Cowboys deserved to lose yesterday’s game plain and simple. There were senseless penalities, dropped passes, and piss poor special teams play on the part of the Cowboys. The Giants’ D brought the pressure and Dallas’ offense failed to make adjustments.

Romo once again caved in to the Playoff pressure and it was his own dumb ass fault. Instead of galavanting with Jessica Simpson and Jason Witten in Mexico, he should have spent more time with his playbook. Before anyone come here and say “Well, Romo wasnt the only one not studying the book or film.” “Brady didnt spend his bye week studying. He was in New York.” “Others have done worse on their bye week.” Let me say this:  Tom Brady was pretty much flawless vs Jacksonville. In New York, surely he spent some time studying the book or I don’t know, maybe he went to practice too. In Green Bay, Favre, Grant and the rest of the Pack prepared, went out and kicked Seattle’s ass. What I’m saying is this: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A BYE WEEK!

Jerry Jones had $67 millon reasons to advance to the NFC Championship but he ended up wasting his money. Jones watched his investment take two sacks outside of the box without throwing the ball away.  Jones also watched Romo throw that pick in the end zone.

Hey Cowboy fans, I heard that the NY Post planted a Simpson lookalike at the game. Tell me, that it had nothing to do with the outcome? Romo can’t be that dense can he? If Tony is indeed distracted by a “clone” of his ‘girlfriend’, his ass should be on the sidelines making a little bit above the league minimum and rockin the latest in officially licensed gear!

The bottom line is this:  After signing a huge contract like Romo did, there are no more excusses. No more faux passes!  Do whatever you do outside of the stadium. But on the field , just do your damn job- make the throws, make the adjustments and manage a game.

The receivers and defese should go back to some fundamentals and get some disipline.

As for for TO, I have somethin on that in the next entry.

Playoff Forecast: The NFC

Cowboys

Packers

 Seahawks

Bucs

 Giants

Redskins

Wild Card

Redskins vs Seahawks

Giants vs Bucs

While Dallas and Green Bay looks good on paper, and should meet for the championship, The NFC field is not as clear cut as you may think. While it is not as tough as the AFC, there should be some great match ups here.  Seattle, Tampa, and the Giants all boast impressive defenses. The Giants and the Bucs are two sack happy defenses. New York lead the league in sacks this year while Tampa isn’t that far behind. Seattle thrives on the ability to blitz. Physical defenses and the ability to create different packages will confuse Dallas. While Romo’s been great for most of the year, he was losing focus in the second half. I actually look for that trend to continue.

The Cowboys are also vulnerable on defense. Being blitz happy will not be enough for a team like Washington. Clinton Portis is very good at picking up blitzes.  This gives Todd Collins extra time in the pocket where hes propelled the ‘Skins to four straight wins. For the Redskins, I would like for them to get Betts more involved in the offense and to use the attributes that made Randel-El so dangerous in Pittsburgh. Washington will need their offence to compensate for the defense.

I’m concerned about Green Bay because they are one dimensional. The burden of the Packers’ success once again falls on Brett Favre’s arm. He is expected to thow and throw often. The cast of characters, must continue to step up if Green Bay have any shot at the NFC championship.

In Seattle, there is the talk of Hasselbeckwinning games with his arm. Honestly, I dont see that happening. First off, Hasselbeck can’t seem to stay off the ground. He was sacked 33 times this season. His touchdown to interception ratio don’t do it for me either. Seattle’s leading receiver, Bobby Engram is a man alone because no one else at wideout can catch. If he wants the team to go far,   Mike Holmgren should establish a running attack with Shaun Alexander to provide some sort of balance to the offense.

While the Giants defense is solid, I still have my reservations about the offense. Eli Manning should great poise against the Patriots until he got too eager and threw the game changing interceptions late in the game. If he could play with the same poise and focus against Tampa, they should not have any problems moving on to the divisional round. The key for the Giants is the connection between Manning  and Jermey Shockey’s backup, Kevin Boss. 

My only concern about the Giants’ defense is the line. Jeff Garcia has been pretty successful agaisnt the defense. So far, Garcia boast a 4-1 record against  New York.  The defence must make adjustments to Gruden’s variation of the West Coast Offence.  In Chucky’s version, Garcia can ad lib his adjustments whenever and connect quickly with the wide outs. However, I believe that New York will make those adjustments.

For the wild card round, I pick  the ‘Skins over the Seahawks and the Giants over the Bucs.

When the Roar Of the Crowd Fade!

  

  

Seventy-eight!

This is the precentage of players that are either divorced, permanately injurjed, or bankrupt after their football career.

One-third!

This is the fraction of retiring players who are college graduates.

Few and far between!

This is the number of active players who are college graduates.

For many NFL players, football is their identity and their sense of pupose. For the majority, the game is all they know. However, there comes a time when it is time to hang up the cleats for good. After the the applause, after the last press confrence, and after the cheering stops, the player is forced to deal with the “real world” Looking at the numbers, most of these guys are not making a successful transisition after the game.

For the college players, I think that it is wise to take your classes and your major seriously. The average NFL career last any where from 3-5 years. If you make it to 10+  years, you are blessed and extremely fortunate! For the future, I think it is wise for the player to make contacts with folks in their field of interest. In the offseason, it is a good idea for the player to have an appreticeship or even an intership. For example, Miami Dolphins RB Samkon Gado wants to be a doctor after football. During his time in Green Bay, Gado was working in a hospital under doctors.  Gado, receieved a bachelor’s degree in health promotions and studied pre med courses at Liberty University. During the offseason, Gado took the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). 

Giants CB, R.W. McQuarters own a construction company in Tulsa, Ok where he also works along with his employees.

There are quite a few ex players who made a smooth transistion after the game. Tiki Barber and Keyshawn Johnson are turning out to be solid analysts.  Keyshawn holds a degree from USC in communications and provided an array of soundbites thoughout the years as a player. Going into the booth was a natural fit for this guy.

Barber holds a degree from the University of Virginia in Management Information Systems, but caught the media fever as a player. His elequence caught the eye Fox and later NBC. Now he is on the network’s ‘Football Night In America’.

After an illustrious career with the Seattle Seahawks, hall of famer Steve Largent found his way into politics. In 1994, Largent became a member of the House of Representatives from Oklahoma’s first district. He would hold that position until 2002.  After an unsuccessful run for Oklahoma govenor, Largent is now the President and CEO of the CTIA-The Wireless Association.

Hall Of Fame Quarterback Steve Young made sure he would not have to struggle after the NFL. During the prime of his career, Young earned his Juris Doctor from BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School. In addition to that, he is now in the private equity field. If that wasn’t enough, he is broadcasting for ESPN and still getting his yearly annuinity from the USFL.

Players can do it. They can be successful and carve a productive identity after football. The blueprint is there.

A Giant Proposal

  

http://www.kxan.com/global/video/popup/pop_player.asp?ClipID1=2023539&h1=NBC%20Captures%20Aaron%20Ross%27%20Proposal%20To%20Sanya%20Richards&vt1=v&at1=News&d1=17767&LaunchPageAdTag=News&activePane=info&playerVersion=1&hostPageUrl=http%3A//www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp%3FS%3D7508013&rnd=45420116

During the Giants’ game against the Redskins, CB Aaron Ross proposed to his longtime girlfriend, Olympic gold medalist sprinter Sanya Richards.

They met each other as athletes at The University of Texas, and they have been dating since 2003. Ross was the 2006 Jim Thorpe Award winner and defensive MVP of the Alamo Bowl. Currently, Ross is second on the Giants’ depth chart.

In addition to her three gold medals, Richards is currently the world’s top-ranked female 400m sprinter. 

Judging from this Espn.com article (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/draft07/news/story?id=2822133), they pair seem like they are made for each other. They workout together and support each other on and off the field.

Let’s wish the happy pair the best!

Divorce NFL Style Part 1

 

DISCLAIMER: Look, I know this may be trifling and in bad taste. However, I promised that no stone will be left unturned on this blog. Just like the Urlacher paternity issue, Blockbuster divorces in the league is just another part of the seedier side of the game! I hope that the following entries can promote some interesting dialouge to the age old debate about athletes and marriage!

The following appeared in the December 5th editon of the San Francisco Chronicle and their website the SF Gate (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/05/BAUJTO8FM.DTL) :

“Divorce court: Looks like 49ers great Jerry Rice may be about to jump from TV’s “Dancing With the Stars” to “The Bachelor.”

Records on file in San Mateo County family court show that the ex-wide receiver’s wife, Jacqueline Rice, filed for dissolution of the couple’s marriage back in June, and they are due back in court in mid-January. Meanwhile, their Atherton estate is listed for sale for a reported $22 million.

Jacqueline Rice’s attorney, Lindy Barocchi, told us only that “when the parties are ready to talk about it, they will. They have three children, and they would like the media to be mindful of the fact this is very private matter.”

Jerry Rice’s attorney, Stephen Montalvo, did not return calls seeking comment. “

Aight! Now inquiring minds want to know, what happened, while some emotional minds believe that Mrs. Rice had enough.  The cynical mind may say that she’s been talking to Shaunie O’Neal and Juanita Jordan, and want to break Jean Strahan’s record of $15 million dollars.

Folks can think whatever they like but the bottom line is this: 23 years together, and nearly 20 years of marriage is shot for reasons that they only know and what we can only speculate. Real talk, there is alot of speculation in the air.  There are a couple of gossip sites claiming that Jerry’s been “out there” while married, and he’s been out there for years.

Well if this is the case, the questions are: 1. Why did she stay? 2. Why did he get married in the first place?  I’m not even going to talk about the first question because it is not as simple as we may think. However the second question have been on my mind ever since Michael Jordan’s divorce. If you are an athlete and you know you cannot resist temptation, why in hell would you get married in the first place knowing that you may lose half of what you earned and own in the event of divorce?

The Rices and the Strahans are the latest in a growing list of NFL divorces over the past five years or so. Ahman Green is divorced after a domestic violence incident (2005) (http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/2005-04-28-ahman-green-divorce_x.htm), Coach Bill Parcells divorced his wife of 40 years (2002) (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/print?id=1319895&type=news), Keyshawn Johnson divorced his wife in 2002 as well.

According to a USA TODAY article titled “Life After the NFL Typically A  Stuggle”   (http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/super/2006-01-28-retirement-perils_x.htm), 78% of NFL players are divorced, bankrupt, or unemployed two years after retiring.

As everyone know by now, California is a community property state. Do the math! We are looking at  nearly 20 years together, three children (2 of them are minors), and 11 million if the house sells, Mrs. Rice is looking at a hefty settlement. Now watch folks ask “How many touchdowns did Jackie score?” just like  the questions of ” How many sacks did Jean Strahan make?”. Watch the outcries of she don’t deserve all of that money or she don’t deserve anything.

I have something for that in the next entry!