Dear NFL: Enough Is Enough

 Two refs standing directly over the play, one signaling Touchback, one signaling Touchdown. What. The. Fuck.

(Before anything else i want to link to THIS Charles P. Pierce article at Grantland.com about the Ravens-Patriots Sunday night game and the replacement refs. Great read.)

I actually had a completely different NFL article about 40% done, but its gone now. Deleted, scrapped, never to see the light of day. There is no way I can analyze, and by extension acknowledge any type of legitimacy for the NFL after the officiating travesties that occurred this past weekend, culminating with the clusterfuck in Seattle. 

Wrapping up Week 1 in the NFL

The way this is going to work (for now, I reserve the right to change the format if it turns out this blows): Instead of recapping each game, I’m just going to spotlight one player from each game, for good or bad, whose performance interested me in some way.

New York Jets 48, Buffalo 28

CJ Spiller, RB, Buffalo: Well, can’t say I saw this one coming. I was anti-spiller from the second he was drafted. I thought he was too small, too fragile and wholly undeserving of a high 1^st round pick.  And for most of his first 2 years, I thought I was being proven right, especially since if a RB is going to be good he’s usually pretty good right away. Well, apparently I missed the last 3 games of 2011 where he accrued 405 total yards, 4 touchdowns, and averaged 6.39 yards per carry. Then he goes off for 169 yards on Sunday on only 14 carries, while incumbent starter Fred Jackson is out at least 3 weeks. This wouldn’t be my first time eating crow, but it would definitely be one of my least expected meals.

Hail to the Villain: Reggie Miller, Hall of Famer

 

I want you to look at the picture at the top of this post.  Don’t focus on the guy taking the shot. Focus on the fans in the background. Look at their faces. The ball is still in the shooters hands, and everyone in the crowd is horrified. Some are even pre-emptively pulling their hair out.  They have no idea whether the shot will be made or not, yet they clearly do. They’ve seen this movie before and it does not contain a happy ending for the home-team. This one player has tortured this fan base for so long that the mere sight of him with the ball in his hands is enough to reduce grown men to a group of terrified children. The game is not over, yet they know they’ve already lost.

And you’re going to try and tell me that Reggie Miller isn’t a Hall of Famer?

9.6.12 Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow:

Opening Credits: Jay-Z ft. Memphis Bleek - Hand it Down (Intro) 

(Music starts at 1:16)

Dallas, Indiana, & San Antonio: Putting the Team Back in Super-Team

 

These are the guys currently beating up on Lebron James and Blake Griffin. Seriously.

It was supposed to be a foregone conclusion. When Lebron James took his talents to south beach in July of 2010, it was supposed to usher in the era of the super team. According to the script, James teaming up with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami was supposed to start an arms race among a handful of NBA teams to put together the best 3-man team possible.  The Knicks were frantically doing whatever they could to bring in Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul to team up with Amare Stoudemire.  The Lakers were trying to see if they could upgrade Kobe Bryant’s sidekicks from Pau Gasol & Andrew Bynum to Dwight Howard & Chris Paul. The Bulls were rumored to be after every star player known to man to pair with Derek Rose.  The New Jersey Nets were furiously trying to come as close to a big 3 as they could for their move to Brooklyn.  The big market teams were supposed to get richer and the rest of the league was supposed to serve as a sort of minor league, developing the next generation of stars for the big markets to pluck in free agency or when the player inevitably demanded a trade to a “contender”.  “Competitive Balance” was to be thrown out the window.

Now, ask fans of these super teams how things are working out for them?