Author: John Paulsen (Page 137 of 937)

LeBron finally takes some blame for “The Decision”…sort of

July 08, 2010 - Greenwich, CONNECTICUT, United States - epa02241974 Handout photo from ESPN showing LaBron James (L), NBA's reigning two-time MVP, as he ends months of speculation and announces 08 July 2010 on ESPN 'The Decision' in Greenwich, Connecticut, USA, that he will go to the Miami Heat where he will play basketball next 2010-11 season. James said his decision was based on the fact that he wanted to play with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

LeBron James and his camp have long held the ‘no regrets’ stance with regard to “The Decision,” which raised $3 million for charity but was a disaster for LeBron’s image around the country. But finally, LeBron has admitted that there was room for improvement, per ESPN…

“If I had to go back on it, I probably would do it a little bit different,” James said. “But I’m happy with the decision I made. There’s always going to be a misunderstanding. I don’t know what I would [have done], but I definitely would have changed it.”

Well, it’s not the mea culpa that so many of us are looking for, but it’s something. It would go a long way to repair his relationship if he’d just release a statement along these lines:

I want to apologize to all my fans in Cleveland for the way that I announced my decision this summer. I got caught up in the moment and thought it was a good idea to capitalize on all the attention surrounding my decision by producing a special and raising a lot of money for charity. But I now realize that it was a mistake to make such a public spectacle out of my situation and that it made my decision that much more painful for my fans in Cleveland.

Wouldn’t that repair most of the damage that he’s done to his image?

Fantasy Fallout, Week 8: Where Calvin Johnson welcomes Matthew Stafford back with open arms

DETROIT - OCTOBER 31: Calvin Johnson  of the Detroit Lions scores a second quarter touchdown as DeAngelo Hall  and Lorenzo Alexander  of the Washington Redskins attempt tp make the stop at Ford Field on October 31, 2010 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images)

As I’m sitting here attempting to start my fallout column, there’s a little two-and-a-half year old firefighter pestering me to go trick-or-treating, so don’t be surprised if this week’s version is abbreviated. I’m only going to focus on the truly surprising fantasy lines of the day.

EARLY GAMES

In my Waiver Wire Watch, I’ve been pushing Matthew Stafford (212 yards, 4 TDs) for the last couple of weeks and he delivered in a great matchup this week thanks to Calvin Johnson‘s (9-103-3) outstanding performance. The split in the backfield between Jahvid Best (17 touches, 79 yards) and Kevin Smith (14 touches, 67 yards) is a little worrisome, however. Smith has looked good in recent weeks in limited duty and we’ll have to wait and see if the Lions were limiting Best for any particular reason. Ryan Torain (12 touches, 29 yards, TD) left the game with a hamstring injury, and Keiland Williams (9 touches, 53 yards, TD) took his place. Williams may be a hot waiver wire pickup this week.

David Garrard (260 yards, 4 TD, rush TD) was a common pickup for a lot of Tony Romo owners who were scrambling for QB help this week, and boy, did he deliver. Mike Sims-Walker (8-153-1) exploded with a big game as well. Garrard has his bye next week and then has two good matchups in Weeks 10 (HOU) and 11 (CLE), so he’s a good play, at least in the short-term. And don’t read too much into Jon Kitna‘s so-so week (379 yards, TD, 4 INT). With the way that the Dallas DT is playing (poorly), the Cowboys are going to be in a lot of shootouts this season and that should mean some nice fantasy lines from Kitna. Felix Jones‘s struggles (11 touches, 36 yards) are very troublesome — I’d probably bench him until he can get it going.

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Fox pregame show leads the league in laughing

Think that Howie, Terry and Jimmy spend an inordinate amount of time laughing at and with each other? They do, if you think 11% is too much.

Per the Wall Street Journal

…an analysis of the CBS and Fox pregame shows before Week 5 shows that the hosts do spend a lengthy amount of time laughing—sometimes at nothing, sometimes at their own jokes and, occasionally, at things that are funny.

The amount of time they laugh, though, is what sets them apart. The five hosts on Fox’s show—Curt Menefee, Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, Michael Strahan and Jimmy Johnson—had a combined laughing time of two minutes, 22 seconds. That’s about 11.6% of the 20 minutes, 27 seconds they were shown on set together. Mr. Bradshaw was easily the laughing leader, going for about 92.4 seconds—including 2.5 seconds at the start of the show before anyone said anything.

I don’t watch the Fox pregame show that much anymore. I’m usually watching the ESPN fantasy football pregame, listening for any late-breaking fantasy news while trying to avoid making any last-minute decisions based on Matthew Berry’s advice. Part of what turns me off about the Fox pregame show is its size (there are too many commentators) and how they’re always fake-laughing at each other. Now we have numbers to prove it.

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