We are a quarter of the way through the NFL season, and there are lots of wacky things happening. The Chiefs are 3-0 and the only undefeated team. That’s a far cry from last year, when the Colts and Saints were unbeaten almost all the way to the end of the 2009 campaign. There are also some interesting candidates emerging for MVP consideration, as well as for Coach of the Year and Rookie of the Year. And like last year, we’ll start to analyze them in power rankings fashion. For this week and maybe the next few, we’ll put this in one post and give three names for each category. Around the halfway point of the season, more candidates will emerge so we will separate things out. Sound good? Right. Let’s go……..
MVP Power Rankings
1. Michael Vick, Philadelphia Eagles—Do we even have to spell this out? He steps in for Kevin Kolb in Week 1 and almost leads the Eagles to victory against the Packers. Then he wins against Detroit and Jacksonville before having his ribs crushed on a meaningless play vs. Washington last Sunday, knocking him out of the game early. Kolb comes back in, and the Eagles lose. Vick is averaging 200 yards passing per game, has 6 TDs and no interceptions, and is also averaging 7.2 yards per rush on 26 carries and one TD on the ground. He has a QB rating of 108.8 while Kolb’s is 71.1. Simply put, this team is dangerous with Vick, and not scaring anyone without him. That’s the very definition of MVP.
- FIVE TOOL TOOL lists 10 teams that are possible landing spots for Terrell Owens.
- EPIC CARNIVAL has video of Tonya Harding bitching about Barack Obama referencing her in a campaign speech. (In case you were wondering, she still has hillbilly hair.)
- Via SPORTSBYBROOKS, Tony Mandarich describes how he cheated on his steroid piss tests. To think, the Packers drafted this guy ahead of Barry Sanders. Brilliant!
- I completely agree with DEADSPIN’s assessment of a Wisconsin high school cracking down on “negative cheering.” Life is tough and kids need to be ready for it. (Besides, I am nothing without my “On you, on you, douche bag!” cheer when someone commits a foul.)
- Uncoached.com compiled 10 awesome Michael Jordan commercials that are, well, awesome.
- The Love of Sports plays the “What If?” game and wonders what if Barry Sanders didn’t call it quits in 1998.
- SPORTSbyBROOKS.com has the story of the community college basketball coach who stole money from the school and also submitted fraudulent admission applications for his out-of-state students. Well done, coach.
ESPN.com did a cool feature recently when they asked SportsNation to select an all-time player for each NFL team. Some players were obvious choices for teams, including Brett Favre for the Packers and Barry Sanders for the Lions, but there were some question picks, as well.
The site added links to video of each player, as well as a chance to debate each choice.
As a colleague pointed out, it’s hard to argue with any of these picks because they were chosen by fans. But Matt Stover over Ray Lewis? Bobby Hebert over Archie Manning?
Lewis has been the face of Baltimore’s franchise for almost a decade and Stover is a kicker (albeit a very good kicker) for Jonathan Ogden’s sake. And I know Hebert was a fan favorite that led the team to the playoffs in 1988, but if Manning had a better team around him, he might have led the Saints to their first ever Super Bowl. I thought Pat Swilling would have gotten more love, too. (Swilling only got 2.4% of votes.)
