Category: NFL (Page 342 of 1282)

Tom Brady not happy that Patriots fans left game early

September 15, 2010 / Anthony Stalter

FOXBORO, MA - SEPTEMBER 12: Quarterbacks Tom Brady of the New England Patriots throws a pass during a the NFL season opener against the Cincinnati Bengals at Gillette Stadium on September 12, 2010 in Foxboro, Massachusetts. (Photo by Jim Rogash/Getty Images)

When asked on Wednesday about the challenges of playing against the Jets on the road, Patriots’ QB Tom Brady took the opportunity to voice his displeasure with his own team’s home crowd.

From ESPN Boston:

“It’s a tough place to play. The Meadowlands is always a tough place to play,” Brady replied. “The road environment is very different than our friendly home crowd, who, when I looked up, half the stadium was gone when we were up 21 points in the early fourth quarter, which I wasn’t so happy about. But I don’t think the Jets fans leave early.

Hey, it’s a free country so people should be able to come and go to a football game as they please – especially when they pay for the tickets.

But Brady’s right.

Apparently three Super Bowls and a 16-0 season have made the fan base in New England rather content. Even diehard Patriot fans will admit that the crowds at Gillette Stadium are quiet on a whole and for the life of me, I don’t get why someone would pay hundreds of dollars just to leave a game early.

That said, and not to get into a social or economical discussion here, but the majority of people that can afford ticket prices these days are professionals who also have better things to do than watch an entire football game. They’re not your typical diehard fan, so when the opportunity presents itself to head out early in order to beat traffic, people take it.

But again, Brady is right – especially about Jet fans. You wouldn’t see them leaving a game halfway through the fourth quarter.

External Sports, NFL

Tom Brady

Reggie Bush to forfeit Heisman, as he should

September 15, 2010 / Anthony Stalter

USC Trojans Reggie Bush is seen with coach Todd McNair during the 92nd Rose Bowl game in Pasadena, California, in this January 4, 2006 file photo. Bush said on Tuesday he will forfeit the Heisman Trophy he won in 2005 while representing the University of Southern California (USC). USC was slapped with severe penalties by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in June after reports that Bush had accepted money and other benefits from marketing agents while playing for the school. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith/Files (UNITED STATES - Tags: SPORT FOOTBALL)

Reggie Bush is giving back his 2005 Heisman Trophy award.

Good – he should.

Not to sound preachy, but when you mess up in life, there are usually consequences that you eventually have to face. Granted, those consequences may come later down the road, but eventually karma catches up with people.

Bush did something wrong at USC. An argument that often gets brought up in relation to this topic is whether or not you or another athlete would have done the same thing (i.e. accept gifts from an agent, booster or what have you). But that’s irrelevant. The point is that he screwed up and until now, he didn’t have to pay for his actions.

But USC certainly did, now didn’t they? They had to forfeit all of their wins during Bush’s tenure with the program and also had to cough up scholarships for future recruiting. Considering Bush broke rules under their watch, they should have been punished and they were. It’s not fair to the current players that they were punished because of what Bush did, but unfortunately they’re the only true victims here.

Some are going to claim that Bush shouldn’t have to give back the award because it was earned for what he did on the field. I buy that and I certainly don’t disagree. But he can’ t keep his Heisman, his Super Bowl ring and his millions of dollars from the NFL while USC is stuck footing the bill for mistakes that he made.

Life doesn’t work like that – what goes around comes around, which is a notion that Bush was just reminded of.

College Football, External Sports, NFL

Anthony Stalter Reggie Bush Reggie Bush Heisman

Defensive Team By Waiver Wire (DTBWW): Week 2

September 15, 2010 / John Paulsen

The strategy behind DTBWW is that each week you pick up a defense that is playing against a bad offense (preferably at home). And each week you get pretty good numbers out of your DT position.

Last season, my top pick averaged 9.8 fantasy points per game. My second pick averaged 9.1 and my third pick averaged 7.3. On the whole, DTBWW averaged 9.3 fantasy points per game, which equate to DT5 numbers — all for the price of a few waiver wire pickups. In 2008, my top two picks averaged DT6-type numbers. (Note: To calculate fantasy points, I use this scoring system.)

Unlike Defensive Team By Committee (DTBC), which is for those owners who prefer low maintenance teams, DTBWW strategy allows fantasy owners to virtually ignore DTs on draft day and focus on picking up an extra RB/WR flier instead.

To be eligible, defenses have to be available on the waiver wire in at least 40% of ESPN fantasy leagues.

Let’s see how my Week 1 picks fared:

External Sports, Fantasy Football, NFL

DTBWW fantasy football strategy

A case against an 18-game season

September 15, 2010 / Anthony Stalter

NEW ORLEANS - SEPTEMBER 09: Quarterback Brett Favre of the Minnesota Vikings grabs his torso as he lies on the turf after taking a hard hit from Roman Harper of the New Orleans Saints at Louisiana Superdome on September 9, 2010 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

If an 18-game regular season schedule facilitates the crap football we saw last weekend in the NFL, then as a fan I want nothing to do with an 18-game schedule.

It all started last Thursday night when Brett Favre (who shockingly wasn’t on the same page with Percy Harvin after skipping all of training camp) used the Vikings’ opener with the Saints as a personal practice. Outside of the touchdown drive right before halftime, Brett used virtually the entire game to shake off the rust that had been accumulating since January.

The Saints defense is good, but they’re not as good as what Favre made them out to be last week.

I understand that offenses aren’t going to be firing on all cylinders in the first week of the season. But what we saw last week out of teams like the Vikings, Cowboys, Jets, Falcons, 49ers, Chargers and even the Saints for that matter was akin to watching two drunken fathers try to assemble a kid’s tricycle in the dark. And we’re talking about teams that are supposed to be contenders this year.

If the league subtracted two preseason games and added two regular season games, then coaches would probably limit starters’ playing time to only a couple of series during the first preseason game in effort to avoid injuries. That means the offenses would spend the first two or three regular season games trying to get in sync and therefore, produce the same lackluster football we saw in Week 1 this year.

If the players are going to put themselves even more at risk for injury by adding two regular season games and the first couple of weeks are going to be garbage hour, then I’ll pass. Keep the four preseason games and hopefully by Week 2 the action will be more crisp and exciting. As much as I would love to see another two weeks of football that counts in the win-loss column, I couldn’t stand watching any game where Favre skips passes to receivers for four quarters – especially in what should have been a thrilling opener to start the season.

External Sports, NFL

Anthony Stalter Brett Favre