Misery Loves Misery...Or Something Like That

Let’s start with real life football…the Redskins, only 6 games into their schedule, are for all intents and purposes done this year. After losing on the road to the Panthers, they fell to 3-3. Maybe even more important than that was the manner that they lost…and their ever-growing body-count. I still stand by my previous statements that I like the moves they made this offseason, and I think the roster is improved even if it won’t necessarily show in terms of wins and losses this year. Having said that, if everything broke right for them this year (as it did for the most part through the 1st 4 games of the year) they could perhaps surprise people and make a push for 1 of the last playoff spots in the NFC…a big “if” though. Along with the obvious questions at quarterback, the roster still lacks depth along the offensive line and proven offensive playmakers that defenses have to account for week in and week out. Part of getting breaks is making your own breaks though. Through the 1st 4 games, Washington ran the ball fairly well, forced turnovers on D, avoided injuries for the most part, and made enough big plays at key moments to overcome mediocre quarterback play and give themselves a 3-1 record. The last 2 games showed just how little room for error this team actually has. Interceptions doomed the Skins last week against Philly. Mounting injuries during both of the last 2 games seem to be handicapping this team for the long haul though. Stud left tackle Trent Williams will probably be out at least a couple more weeks with a sprained ankle. Starting left guard Kory Lichtensteiger and running back Tim Hightower have been lost for the season with torn ACL’s. Chris Cooley was also put on Injured Reserve today. Santana Moss is out basically indefinitely with a broken hand. So, who exactly on the Redskins offense strikes fear in the heart of opposing defenses? Is there anyone there that defensive coordinators will look at and say, “Hey, we need to account for that guy at all times?” Fred Davis has promise, but isn’t consistent. Roy Helu and Ryan Torain both seem capable, but it’s hard to expect a lot out of them behind a makeshift offensive line. Jabar Gaffney? No. The quarterbacks? Oh wait…they are stopgaps for next year anyway. Yep, that pretty much should do it.

…

I have had both bad and unlucky fantasy teams in the past. I think even the best fantasy players have years where a star running back gets hurt or something…but I can’t think of a year that I have felt more scorned than this year. Last year was an embarrassment of riches for me. My team was good enough to have 2 out of my top 3 or 4 draft picks get hurt or just plain underperform, and my team was still head and shoulders above the others in our league. This year, I have had no such luck. This week, I sweated out my potential waiver wire pickups, as my 2 best players (Vick and Fred Jackson) were on bye weeks. I actually was able to claim someone who I thought might save my week, DeMarco Murray. Little did I know he would rush for the all-time single game rushing record in Cowboys history. Still, I was forced to sweat out the Monday Night Football Game between the Ravens and Jags. I went into the game down 12 with only Ravens kicker Billy Cundiff left to play (the team I was playing had no one left at that point). 12 points is a lot for a kicker, but given that the Ravens were favored to blow out the Jags it was still within the realm of possibilities. Of course, Baltimore played a stinker of a game, playing pitifully on offense, and managing only 7 points for the whole game…in case you didn’t do the math already, that would give me 1 (count ‘em, 1) point for Cundiff’s output. Making me even angrier in hindsight, the loss basically hinged on the matchup of our kickers and defenses, where he outscored me a combined 27-4 (or something like that). Now, if you look below at the snapshot of our league standings through 7 weeks, you should notice a few things…

The season is slowly slipping away.

1st, you will notice that I am 2-5, on a 2 game losing streak, and in 9th place in a 12 team league. You will also notice that in terms of total points scored, only 3 teams have more. But in terms of total points scored against my team, no one has a bigger number than me…so, week in and week out more points are scored against my team than any team in the league. I have had to scramble to pick up guys in light of bye weeks (Finley and Starks…sad that I am even relying on James Starks as a key player in my lineup anyway) and injuries (Hightower) again this week, so I could really use a week where the team I play just completely chokes and has like 60 total points…but that doesn’t seem to be the way things are going for my fantasy team this year.

Everyone Loves A Quarterback Controversy

As a Redskin fan, I am no stranger to quarterback switches and controversies. The Skins have had something ridiculous like 22 QB’s in 19 seasons. With that being said, “Rex vs. Becks” is nothing out of the ordinary for us, but still it’s enough to get my heart rate up a little bit going into this week’s game against Carolina, as Beck is a career journeyman who we know very little about. So, to have a quarterback controversy in my own house is a little much for me right now.

How did this happen? Well, we brought on this guy, Segu, to quarterback our coed touch football team this fall. Segu is my friend Mac’s boy from way back…the problem is that through 2 games Segu, to put it nicely, hasn’t played well. And actually, we basically pulled him in favor of my wife, Krissy, about midway through the 2nd half of that 2nd game. Now, you have to understand that putting Krissy in at quarterback is not some novelty act. I don’t think we have played against another team in 3 or 4 years that has had a full-time girl QB, but Krissy is (and I know I’m biased, but I don’t think I’m exaggerating) a great athlete. She is a former D-1 catcher (so she has a hose…I’m a good athlete, and she’s throws a football at least as far as me, and definitely prettier than me). She lettered in 3 sports in high school, including tennis (which she picked up just because she was bored during the spring basically). She was a point guard on the basketball team, and if you watch her play basketball (or any sport for that matter) she doesn’t play like a girl…she plays like a guy. I’m not denigrating female athletes, but a lot of girls who are even good basketball players don’t look like fluid athletes. They seem more rigid as the run, cut, and jump. A lot of them shoot a set shot from their waist. They do that weird move on layups and post moves where they take like a weird extra step because they can’t really jump (anyone who has watched girls’ basketball knows what I’m talking about). That’s not Krissy…she runs, jumps, and generally moves like a guy (a short guy, but a guy). So, she’s not being subbed-in as some kind of circus sideshow…she’s in the game because she can play…and she played really well.

In that 1st game, Krissy brought us back from 2 touchdowns down in the 2nd half. Our offense, which had looked stale and stagnant up until that point, looked crisp. She was decisive with where to go with the ball, spread the ball around, mixed in short, deep, and mid-range throws, and the offense moved. Really, the ball barely touched the ground. Unfortunately, we had a chance to tie or go ahead (depending on if we went for 1 or 2) on basically the last play of the game, and we failed to convert. The next week, Krissy played QB from the outset, and played really well again. This time though, we played against a much better team. Our offense probably played well enough for us to win, but our defense just couldn’t come up with enough stops. Last week, Krissy and I weren’t able to make the game, and Segu stepped back in at QB. From what I gathered, the other team wasn’t on par with the teams we played earlier in the year, but a win is still a win, and Segu played well also. So naturally, Mac posed the question to me about this week’s game: who are we starting at quarterback?

Since he asked the question, I already knew his vote was in for Segu. You have to admire his loyalty, and Segu seemed to have improved his play in last week’s win from earlier in the year. I also admit I feel bad for the kid. 1st, it’s awkward because we specifically brought him aboard to play quarterback for us…only he hasn’t played well (aside from 1 game against an inferior opponent). It’s doubly awkward because no dude who is a good athlete (which he is) and has even a little bit of pride wants to lose his role on a team to a girl…no matter how good that girl is. Mac also made the point that Segu is just getting used to playing with us, and he does have the advantage of being more mobile and having a stronger arm than Krissy. Having a girl play quarterback also eliminates “gender plays” (gender plays are plays where a girl must either throw or catch a forward pass…almost all of the teams choose to complete these plays by having a guy QB, which means only the girls on the field can go out for or defend a pass if they are on D…if you use a girl QB in those situations, everyone can go out for a pass like a normal play though), which normally can be big play opportunities because the field becomes much more opened up and less congested. So, it’s a weird situation, but the problem is that if the decision was based simply on merit, who to pick would be no contest: Krissy is the clear choice. So, I posed a question back to Mac: who has performed better to this point at point in the season?

I could tell this was a question/point that he wanted to sidestep, which is understandable because Segu’s his boy and he’s naturally going to look out for him, but he answered (probably somewhat begrudgingly) that Krissy had in fact played better to this point. The problem is that there is a counter to most of the arguments in favor of playing Segu at QB. Segu is still new and getting used to how the rest of us play, but with 3 losses already we can’t afford a huge learning curve at this point. 1 more loss and we probably will already be eliminated from the playoffs. He is more mobile than Krissy, but Krissy has mitigated that for the most part because she has become really good at not holding onto the ball. She finds who’s open and gets rid of the ball quickly and accurately. Her arm isn’t as strong, but it’s strong enough, and she seems to throw deep with more regularity and success than Segu or Phil (Phil had played quarterback for us prior to this year). That might partially be because other teams may sleep on her arm, but she also is more willing to throw up a jump ball if she sees 1 of our better guy receivers in 1-on-1 coverage, and unlike in years past where our girls were the strength of our team our athletic guys are probably our strength this year. She has done a great job of allowing us to go up and make plays on the ball while at the same time not forcing throws into coverage. The gender play issue is something that I didn’t like at 1st either, but I actually think this works out better for us this year because of the issue I just said. Overall, our girls are not our team’s strength this year. They are solid, but not spectacular. Having a full-time girl quarterback allows us to just go to whoever is open on every play. We don’t have to be bogged-down with worrying about completing passes to guys or girls. And gender plays are normally big play opportunities, but because our girls are not strong overall this year and Segu wasn’t very accurate, our gender plays mostly resulted in incomplete passes anyway…they were basically a waste. Plus, having a girl QB means we can have 5 guys go out on pass routes on every play. With a guy QB, only 4 can get out in routes because only 5 guys can be on the field at a time. This just places more stress on the defense…it’s basically the equivalent of getting 2 wide receivers, a fullback, and a tight end out in pass routes vs. having 4 speedy wide receivers go out on pass routes. This has basically replaced the old gender plays as our new source of big plays.

Because of that, our style of play is somewhat revolutionary I think. If your guys are really strong, but your girls are weak (except for 1 girl who can throw), why not play her at QB? That way you eliminate gender plays and get more guys out in pass routes every single play. I feel like it is a good strategy, but to employ it you have to have that 1 girl who can not only throw but read defenses and make good decisions with the ball. Krissy is pretty much the only girl I know of capable of that at this level. Even then, I wonder if we will ever see any other teams use this idea. Most guys are too macho to relinquish that kind of position to a girl, no matter how deserving. That’s 1 thing that is pretty cool about the group of people we have on our team though: we seem to be able to put egos aside and just do what puts us in the best position to win, and while Mac probably wishes he could stay loyal to Segu, I think both understand that this is the right choice right now.

Grossman Seals His Own Fate

I purposely haven’t logged onto the Washington Post website to read any Redskins stories yet this morning because I know I’m only going to be echoing in this blog what all the Post columnists have already written: surprise, surprise…Rex Grossman imploded. Through the 1st quarter of the season, Sexy Rexy had caused the overly-optimistic type of Redskin fan to think this was a new and improved Grossman. Long gone were the days where Rex would complete almost as many passes to the other team than to the guys with the same colored jerseys as him. He had matured, and he knew the Shanahans’ offensive system backwards and forwards…but I think most Redskin fans who were watching the 1st 4 games closely were just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Sure, Grossman is capable of good days, like his opening game against the Giants. Even despite 2 interceptions in week 2 against Arizona, Rex also made enough good throws, including a money 4th down touchdown throw to Santana Moss, to put Washington in position to win (although you could argue that he was heavily aided by a stalwart defensive effort and a heavy dose of Hightower and Helu on the ground). For all intents and purposes, we saw Good Rex those 1st 2 weeks, but in weeks 3 and 4 we got more of a glimpse of the Bad Rex we have mentioned before. Rex’s numbers in the week 3 game against Dallas don’t look terrible at 1st glance, especially considering he was playing in a hostile environment against a solid D: 22 for 37, 250 yards, a pick, and a touchdown throw…if you actually watched the game, he was largely ineffective though. Washington’s D played well for the most part, limiting the Cowboys to only field goals and setting the offense up in great field position off of a turnover on at least 1 occasion, and yet Grossman wasn’t able to muster any consistent productions aside from 1 long drive in the 3rd quarter. The game-ender was on a sack-fumble of Grossman, which is the other type of play that has become his signature move over the years. Still, I think I wrote in a post following that game that I was willing to give Grossman a pass for the reasons stated above. Plus, while he wasn’t great in that game, he wasn’t terrible either, and I laid the majority of the blame on the Redskins’ playcalling rather than on Rex himself. The week 4 game against St. Louis was the 1st time this year that we truly saw Bad Rex rear his ugly head with 2 2nd half picks. He finished that game with a quarterback rating below 50, and only the ineptitude of the Rams and the Redskins’ defensive pressure on St. Louis QB Sam Bradford allowed Washington to escape with a win.

Still, as the Skins headed into their bye week at 3-1 and the deepest they gone into any season alone atop the NFC East in about 10 years it was hard to feel too terrible about Grossman’s limitations. You have to understand, long-suffering Redskin fans were not expecting to go 12-4 this year. We have been whining for years about ridiculous offseason moves that perpetuated a constant “win now” mentality, while in reality all of Washington’s high-priced acquisitions over the years did nothing but make the team old, expensive, and incohesive…not to mention that fact that the constant giving away of high draft picks for veteran players sapped the organization of any depth at all (or ignored some positions, such as the offensive line, all together). So, while we weren’t necessarily hoping that the Skins would suck bad enough to go 1-15 this year, I think most true fans understand that this organization is in the midst of a rebuilding process and would be willing to sit through another 6-10 season (like last year) as long as it appeared the team was building towards something. As a fan, I don’t want a team to be built for one year of success…I want something long-standing (see New England, Philadelphia, Baltimore, etc.). Prior to the season I think I even wrote that the Redskins could be much improved this year and finish with same or even a worse record than last season, and I also would have been fine with that. But realistically, I was thinking this team could probably go 7-9 or 8-8. I understood that the Skins might have had the worst looking quarterback situation in the entire league when training camp opened up. Curiously, John Beck, a relative unknown, seemed like he won the favor of the coaching staff in the preseason, but almost equally as strange, Grossman was named the opening day starter for the regular season. (In fairness, they both acquitted themselves just about equally during their preseason opportunities.) However, I think most knowledgeable Redskin fans felt the same way about the QB situation that I did…neither guy is good, but that’s ok for now because they are probably (aside from a miraculous transformation of either one) just 1 year stopgaps anyway. I think most Redskin fans understood this and realized from the get-go that regardless of who was named the starter at the beginning of the year, most likely both Beck and Grossman would take turns passing the starting duties back and forth to each other. I personally think Grossman and Back will trade 1st string status, either because of performance or injury, 2 or 3 more times before the year’s end…and you know what, that’s fine for now too.

Fast forward back to this Sunday, when the full transformation back to Bad Rex had been completed. I must confess that I missed the 1st pick, but from what I can gather it was a throw into traffic down by Philly’s goal line as Washington was driving for the opening score of the game. The 2nd pickle was a woefully underthrown ball off of a flea-flicker to a streaking Jabar Gaffney, who had gotten a good 2 steps behind the deepest defender in the Eagles’ secondary. If thrown out in front of Gaffney, it would have been a touchdown. The 3rd pick was basically a game-killer. After an interception of Michael Vick set the Skins’ offense up in Eagle territory, Grossman forced a ball into double coverage that was easily intercepted by a Philly defensive back. A touchdown drive would have pulled the Redskins to within 7 with plenty of time still left in the 2nd half. The defense had seemed to regain some of its footing after a rocky start, and the Vick interception caused a shift of momentum in the Skins favor. That 3rd pick gave the momentum right back to the Eagles. If the 3rd pick was the game-killer, the 4th pick was the Grossman-killer, as he basically just threw a pass up for grabs down the left sideline. It was bad enough that it all but forced Mike Shanahan’s hand…cameras panned to the sideline immediately showing Beck getting loose. Rex’s numbers for the game: 9 for 22 for 143 yards, no TD’s, and 4 (count ‘em, 4) interceptions…transformation complete. While I had argued before that Grossman hadn’t played that bad through the 1st 4 games (2 of his interceptions were tipped/dropped by his own receivers), his overall numbers for the season speak for themselves: only completing 55% of his passes, a rating of 66.5, 6 TD’s, 9 INT’s, and 2 lost fumbles…so basically, he averaged about 1 touchdown and 2 turnovers per game through the 1st 5 weeks, which on a team with room for little error is not going to fly.

Umm, Rex...this isn't considered "open."

Amazingly, after a Beck-led touchdown drive the Skins were only down 20-13. If their defense could force a 3-and-out, the Redskin offense would have one last gasp at forcing the game into overtime at least. However, Washington’s D, which had been gashed by the run all day long, allowed Philly to pick up a couple 1st downs and subsequently run out the clock. How it was still even a game at that point is beyond me. Between the turnovers and their inability to run the ball, Washington barely had the ball at all in the 1st half, and the Eagles seemed to be running up and down the field at will. Despite their early season struggles, they displayed a lot of the offensive firepower that allowed them to put up 59 against the Skins in the same building last season. (For the record, while Washington’s defense is leaps and bounds better than last year, they still match up poorly with Philly’s offense…actually, Philly’s team speed makes them a tough matchup against most D’s, but the Skins simply don’t possess the speed at cornerback or inside linebacker to combat Vick, McCoy, Jackson, and Maclin.) And yet, after falling behind 20-0 their bend-but-don’t-break defense was able to keep them in the game the entire 2nd half. On Philly’s last drive, they just didn’t seem to have enough gas left in the tank to make 1 last stop though, and the beginning of the “John Beck era” was just too little, too late…

Other news and notes from yesterday in the NFL…

- Sad news coming out of Oakland, where it’s being reported Jason Campbell is out for the season with a broken collarbone. Campbell was having a breakout year in his 2nd season in Oakland, leading the Raiders to a 4-2 record. We had flipped to the Red Zone channel during a break in the Redskin game yesterday, and when the Raiders came on I even mentioned to Krissy that I wish Shanahan would have held on to him after coming aboard. Hindsight’s always 20-20, but looking back would you rather have Campbell for the last couple years or some combination of McNabb, Grossman, and Beck? Yea, I thought so. Still, the circus atmosphere surrounding the Redskins and their constant changes in coaching probably ruined him from being a good player here, and he needed a change of scenery. I was rooting for him to have a strong bounce-back year, but such is the nature of a violent sport like football I guess.

- Quite a funny dust-up between Niners coach Jim Harbaugh and Lions coach Jim Schwartz after San Fran’s win yesterday. I know Harbaugh is a fiery guy who has a history of ruffling opposing coaches’ feathers, but he is a little over the top for me. Still, I couldn’t help but laugh at the way he untucked his shirt like he was in a “girls gone wild” video, chest bumped one of his offensive lineman, and then oddly shook Schwartz’ hand at midfield. Schwartz clearly took exception, but he looked like such a wheenie chasing after Harbaugh as he headed to the locker room. From here on out, I’m going to start referring to Schwartz as “Jeff Van Gundy-Lite.” I love Van Gundy as an announcer, but the image of him hanging onto Alonzo Mourning’s leg during a Knicks-Heat brawl will forever be burned into my brain. Emotion and passion aside, I couldn’t help but think Harbaugh’s “over-exuberance” might have been somewhat staged and aimed directly at Schwartz, who in Detroit’s recent resurgence has been known to fist pump, chest bump, scream at officials, and generally behave like a maniac on the sidelines himself. It’s not hard to imagine Schwartz doing the same exact thing if the roles had been reversed. I will withhold judgment until I hear my boy Mac’s thoughts on the subject though, as he’s a diehard Lion fan.

I think I just sharted.

- On a day when the Redskins gagged and the Giants won to pull ahead of the Skins all alone in 1st place in the NFC East, I could at least take solace in the fact that the Cowboys continue to find ways to lose games. On the road against the mighty Patriots, Dallas somehow (mostly through the play of their own stingy D) carried a lead deep into the 4th quarter; however, the offense wasn’t able to score or run off enough clock to prevent Tom Brady and company from driving for a late game-winning touchdown…the Skins may stink, but another Cowboy collapse let me sleep a little bit easier last night.

Dance Dance Revolution

Over the past couple of years, I've developed somewhat of an obsession with dancing, specifically different forms of the hip hop genre of dance. I think Krissy is mostly responsible with the manifestation of this obsession, as she introduced me to corny movies like Step Up and Take the Lead, which led into my regular viewership of shows like So You Think You Can Dance...I'm not sure why I like dance-related stuff that much, given that I can dance just about as well as William Hung can sing, but every once in a while I will sift through dance clips on YouTube, and sometimes I will find a gem or 2. I really am a sucker for this stuff...

The 1st video is by a dance crew of kids that is apparently called "The Art of Teknique." I have a tough time estimating how old the kids actually are (7 or 8 maybe?), but whatever age they are these kids are better dancers than I was at anything when I was their age...maybe sneaking sodas and chocolate chip cookies in my grandparents' basement, but that's about it. As good as they are, the best part of the video for me comes at the very end (right around the 2:42 mark) when the song basically ends, and the kids kind of fall over each other, much in the way that any goofy 8 year old boys will do...superhuman as they look, they are still kids after all.

The next 2 videos are both danced in a style that I have just come across called "dubstep." According to my extensive research on Wikipedia, dubstep is a form of electronic music characterized by "tightly coiled productions with overwhelming bass lines and reverberant drum patterns, clipped samples, and occasional vocals." To your average Joe, dancing to dubstep resembles someone doing "the robot" on HGH. The 1st dubstep video is of a dude that calls himself "Swody." At 1st glance, Swody looks like your run of the mill, white, emo-looking kid...until the beat drops, that is. The video starts off kind of slow. He shows off some robot-eque moves, but at about the 1:10 mark the beat speeds up, and this guy starts going insane. His hand movements, leg movements, and popping (yes, I know some dance lingo...thanks, So You Think You Can Dance) are scary-good. My only complaint is that the kid needs to close his bedroom shades because the glare is kind of distracting (especially in the 2nd song when he's wearing a white shirt, which makes some of his hand movements almost impossible to see).

However, I think I saved the best for last. The other dubstep dance video features (according to YouTube) a guy named Marquese Scott. One of the 1st things you notice is that the song is "Pumped Up Kicks," which even if it is mixed to dubstep is kind of slow and melodic, so you wonder how is this guy going to dance to it? After watching it, you realize the slow parts were some of the best sections. He is moving so slowly at times that you would swear he put some type of super slow-motion effect on the video. With that being said, the fast hard-hitting parts are as equally nasty. His legs, arms, and neck seem to move completely independently of each other when he wants to...sections of it really don't look real. The "whoa" moment of the video starts at about the 4:10 mark, where the guy does a move that I have never seen before. He pitches his body forward on one leg, while keeping the rest rest of his weight behind it, and comes to a complete stop almost like someone popping a wheelie on the front tire on a bike. When I 1st watched the video, I was with my brother-in-law Nick, and we must have rewinded that part a half dozen times before finishing the rest of the video. In short, he's a sick dude.

The Rise and Fall of the NBA

Early this summer when the Dirk Nowitzki and company beat the Big 3 in the NBA Finals, it capped off probably the most celebrated season in basketball history. I’m only 26, so I missed the battles of the Showtime Lakers, Bad Boy Pistons, Sixers, and Celtics of the 80’s. I missed the careers of Wilt, Jerry West, Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell, and Kareem. But from the start of the 1st Jordan 3-peat on, I am pretty well-versed in NBA folklore. The 2010-11 NBA season had more hype going into it than any other season ever, and it delivered with some of the best storylines you could dream up, including up-and-coming teams (the Thunder and Bulls) and superstars (Durant and Rose), aging teams trying to make 1 last run with their current cores (the Celtics and Lakers), big time trades (especially Carmelo to the Knicks), young studs putting the league on notice that they are the real deal (Blake and Wall), a team that embodied the idea of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts (the Mavs), and a hated villain (the Heat). If more or all of this upcoming season ends up being cancelled, which is very likely after the 1st 2 weeks of the regular season were nixed by commissioner David Stern earlier this week, all that momentum is gone. This isn’t rocket science or some brand spankin’ new point of view, but in this case it’s probably worth stating the obvious. It wasn’t that long ago, after Jordan’s 2nd retirement and the last NBA work stoppage, that the NBA wasn’t all that popular of a product. Professional athletes are almost always universally thought of as greedy spoiled brats, but the climate of the NBA in the late 90’s and early 00’s represents much of what puts people off about professional basketball players to this day. Around the time of the lockout, Patrick Ewing will always be remembered (probably unfairly) for saying that the reason NBA players needed to be paid so much money was because they spent a lot of money too…simple supply and demand, right? People will remember those years for overpaid/underperforming stars like Antoine Walker and Latrell Sprewell, the Shaq-Kobe feud, Tim Donaghy’s accusations of corrupt officiating, and the ugly brawls such as the “Malice in the Palace.”

You can’t fault the man for that sweet flat-top fade though.

If Stern thinks those aren’t fond memories, just wait to see what fans’ perceptions of the league are if there is no resolution to this current labor dispute. To piggyback off Mike Wilbon’s point on the matter, the people of this country and its struggling economy are not going to take kindly to a lost NBA season because a group of millionaires and a smaller group of billionaires can’t come up with a way to divvy up the pie. People who are struggling to pay their mortgage and their rent are not going to want to hear it, and fans are going to turn on this league in a way not seen in sports since the baseball strike in 1994…probably worse.

Fair or unfair, these upcoming months will serve as Stern’s legacy.

That’s not to say that all fans will turn their backs on the NBA and that the league won’t ever again regain it’s popularity. It’s a star driven league, and if the stars come back to play so will the hardcore fans…just ask anyone who packed a gymnasium across the country this past summer to watch a local pick-up league all-star game.

Coming to a local midmajor college arena near you: your NBA All-Stars!

Maybe the most troubling thing about this labor dispute is that it’s hard to place the blame of it solely at the feet of the players. Sure, everyone agrees that the players make too much, but somebody had to pay them, right? To steal something I heard Tony Kornheiser say, you could argue that the top 10-20 players in the league are actually underpaid. It’s the Rashard Lewis’, Gilbert Arenas’, and Marvin Williams’ of the world that have thrown everything out of wack…overblown mistake-ridden deals for sure, but no one put a gun to these owners’ heads to sign these players. As Rashard Lewis basically said when asked about his salary recently, “What did you want me to do, ask for less money?” In essence, this dispute is about protecting the owners from their own stupidity…so if you are on the players’ side of the negotiating table, why would you come to an agreement with the owners (aside from saving your sport)? It’s a mess that the owners themselves created.

“I like everything about the proposed contract, sir…except I would like to be paid half what you’re offering.”

As it seems the 2 sides get farther and farther apart every day, the idea of the season being cancelled all together seems like a more distinct possibility all the time…what a waste of a million good storylines going into this season. LeBron and the Heat finally gelled after a season of ups and downs to make it all the way to the Finals only to collapse at the very end. If it were a script, you couldn’t write Act I any better than that. How they play in their 2nd season together may be even more scrutinized than the 1st. Would teams like the Bulls and the Thunder make another leap this year? Do the Lakers, Celtics, Spurs, and Mavs have enough in the tank to make another deep playoff run? A cancelled season would only mean the aging cores of those teams would make them another year older with nothing to show for it. Would we see a repeat of the Carmelo-trade drama from last year with Dwight Howard and Chris Paul? Also, if the season were to be cancelled, it would be 3 years since Blake Griffin came into the league, and we would have been robbed of 2 of those potential seasons (1 by injury). If the league and its players don’t figure this out, say goodbye to all of that…

…and who knows if the NBA will ever regain this momentum again.

Probably for the Best

I’ve heard someone say before that money doesn’t buy happiness, but it sure helps. Krissy and I often wonder how much money we would have saved if we could have hypothetically lived with our parents until our mid to late 20’s like her 2 older brothers. Well, after some consideration I feel that I might have saved some money, but for the most part I think I would have just blown most of it. On what? Well, for starters my car…I am 100% happy with my ’11 Tacoma, but I am actually happy that I don’t have enough disposable income to accessorize the hell out of it.

My semi-blank canvas.

To start with, I would probably add a lot a couple of things that the Tacoma TX-Pro has: the tube steps or running boards or whatever you want to call them and the black 16” beadlock wheels. (The stupid side graphics you can keep, Toyota.) Outside of those things, the TX-Pro is basically the same truck as my TRD…same BF Goodrich rugged trail tires, same TRD off-road tuned suspension, same everything. Still, someone in the neighborhood next to me must have gotten one recently, and I have to admit it’s pretty sharp.

Apparently "extreme" means rims and running boards.

Next would probably be a little suspension lift, a roll bar, a light bar, a skid plate…this ’07 monster doesn’t have all of those, but it definitely was a source of inspiration.

Whoa...

Pretty soon, my pickup would actually start to look like an entry into a Baja race…and I would have poured approximately a billion dollars into the accessories of this truck.

Would this even be street-legal?

Toyota is actually coming up with a “Baja” edition of the Tacoma due out in 2012. From what I can tell it basically looks like the current TRDs with maybe slightly beefier tires, and the hood and siding look trimmed to more reflect an actual Baja truck. Anyway, along with all the obvious reasons it’s probably for the best that I am married and have responsibilities and yada yada yada…if not, I would almost definitely be even more broke than I am now!

Weekend (of Football) in Review

In a weekend dominated by football, this post will begin and end with that. Unfortunately, most of it’s not good news for me. To start off, on Saturday we lost our co-ed touch football game down in Baltimore. We are now 0-2, and have lost by an excruciating extra point in both games in almost the exact same manner. In both games we scored touchdowns with basically no time left on the clock, and both times we weren’t able to convert the following extra point to tie or go ahead (in the 1st game we were down 2, and had to go for 2 to tie…and in the 2nd game we were down 1, and decided to go for 2 and the win…there’s no overtime in the regular season in our league). The one moral victory from this past Saturday is that Krissy took over at quarterback for us in the 2nd half, and she helped us rally from 2 touchdowns down to nearly win the game. It was a proud moment for me as she played great (and not just “for a girl”…for anyone really), but our furious comeback still came up just a tad short.

The 2nd football aspect of the weekend was my college pick ‘em pool, which I’m still doing what I would consider to be between mediocre and just better than mediocre. After week 2 or 3 I was in 2nd or 3rd place in the pool, but I slipped to 6th last week with a pretty crummy series of picks. To be fair, there wasn’t much separation between the guy in 2nd place and the guy in 7th place, but it was still disheartening. My picks on Saturday were mediocre again in my estimation, but they were at least good enough for me to move from 6th to 5th place and to gain 2 points on the overall leader, so that’s something. I likely need a couple of stellar weeks of picks in row to creep back into contention though, so we’ll see what happens.

On Sunday, I took some solace in the fact that the Redskins hung on to win (Krissy’s Giants escaped with a win as well to set up a 1st place tie atop the NFC East between the Skins and Big Blue). There isn’t really any way to sugarcoat the fact that it was truly an ugly win. In short, Sexy Rexy gave his best “bad Rex” impression, barely completing half of his passes for about 150 yards, a TD, and 2 picks. 1 was a pass to Santana Moss that should have been caught, so he gets a pass on that one, but the 2nd interception was an ugly, classic Grossman play where he threw the ball directly to a Ram linebacker dropping back into pass coverage. Fortunately, the Skins’ D and the Rams’ offensive ineptitude bailed Washington out, and they held on to win 17-10. Judging from reading the Washington Post, most people are treating yesterday’s win basically like a loss. Yes, the Rams are enough of a mess that a good team should walk into St. Louis and pound the Rams into submission (ala the Baltimore Ravens the week before). The Redskins aren’t quite there yet, so I’m not going to get to high or too low over this 1 game. The Skins had chances to blow the game wide open in the 2nd half, and Rex’s turnovers prevented them from delivering that knockout blow. I was happy enough to walk out of St. Louis with a win, a 3-1 record, and a share of 1st place in the division heading into the bye week. Despite Grossman’s poor play, the running game (more on that in a minute) and the revamped D seem to be progressing nicely.

Can we revive this and change the color scheme to burgandy and gold?

A good team would have blown the doors off the Rams. For the Redskins, who I think have made vast improvements but are still a middle-of-the-road team this year at best, winning on the road by a touchdown against any opponent is something of an achievement. Even with their fast start, I still think this team will wind up somewhere around 8-8 by year’s end. The running attack and defense will keep them in games all year, but it’s going to be tough to truly be good when you have to really rely on Grossman (or John Beck, who will probably get a chance as well before this season is over) to a win a game for you. If the Shanahans really think their system is good enough that even Rex Grossman can man the controls, they are probably fooling themselves…I think they know he’s just a stopgap no matter how arrogant they seem or what kind of coach-speak they use. Through 4 games, I think Sexy Rexy has shown what kind of quarterback he’s been perceived as his whole career. In week 1, Grossman played very well even counting his signature move (the sack-fumble), and the Skins won handily. In weeks 2 and 3, he was his normal inconsistent self, sprinkling in great plays and awful ones at about the same rate, and Washington split those games. In week 4, “bad Rex” reared his ugly head, but the Redskins won anyway because their defense played great, the running game was working, and the quality of the opponent was pretty weak. Those 4 weeks are about par for the course for Rex and the Skins in my opinion. If the defense continues to play well and they get a couple of breaks along the way, they could potentially work their way to 10 wins and a potential playoff berth. If not, this team will be what I expected anyway…an improved, although not-quite-there-yet, team that is at least moving in the right direction with some continuity in their system and an influx of young talent. As they head into the bye week, this isn’t the worst situation to be in though.

Now, back to that Redskin running game…Ryan Torain, who hadn't played a snap all season as far as I can tell, got the bulk of the carries yesterday afternoon. This doesn’t bode well for my fantasy team in general, as if the Shanahans truly do go with a “whoever’s hot” approach to their 3-headed monster in the backfield going forward it pretty much makes Hightower unplayable. Now, Torain has a penchant for getting injured and fumbling, so it probably wouldn’t make sense to just dump Hightower outright, but it’s certainly not a good sign. Anyway, while it’s not good for my fantasy team in general, it definitely didn’t do me any favors this week. I inserted Hightower in my starting lineup to the tune of 2 points. Had I had a magic 8 ball that told me to pickup and start Torain, who rushed 19 times for 135 yards and a TD out of the blue, I would have gotten 24 points…ouch. Adding insult to injury, Green Bay put up 49 points on the hapless Broncos, and Jermichael Finley and James Starks combined to give me a mere 11 points…how does that happen? So, even though I got the monster day from Vick that I needed (35 points), I somehow still came up short. That leaves me 1-3 on the year with a fantasy team that I am still convinced is not all that bad, and yet week 4 in the NFL left me reeling…oh, and the last little tidbit from the weekend in football: came up a little bit short in our NFL pick ‘em pool with 4 losses (Krissy had 5 losses I believe). It looks like the winner will have at worst 3 losses after Monday Night Football. At least we had the Skins and G-Men, or else Krissy and I would have been 0-for-the-weekend in terms of football…but if we had to pick I think those would be the wins we would want the most.

So glad that I started Hightower this week...wait, what?