WEDNESDAY

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Those who read this blog each week have come to expect my take on the current events that are happening in the world of sports (along with some bold predictions which, more often than not, turn out to be accurate). To provide you this rousing entertainment I not only keep up with the sports news, but I am also constantly coming up with ideas that I feel will make an interesting blog topic. Once I get one of these ideas, it is documented and cataloged accordingly. When nothing interesting happens during the week, I then retrieve said topics from the aforementioned catalog and begin to write the week’s entry. For instance, the recent blog entries entitled “The Anti-All-Star Team” and   “No Respect!” both came from the catalog. Coming into this week I knew a couple of interesting things could happen, but I was also prepared to go to the stacks and pull one of the more interesting topics out for my blog entry. I had that topic picked out and had actually started constructing a mental rough draft. That was Tuesday. Then the calendar turned to Wednesday, March 21^st. suddenly, the week got extremely interesting.

On Tuesday, March 20^th Peyton Manning chose to take his talents to the Rocky Mountains. He chose Denver over San Francisco and Tennessee. This wasn’t a huge surprise because most of the reports about his potential landing spot mentioned that his heart was in Denver. (Thus, this event alone would not have made a very interesting blog topic.) Peyton really didn’t want to play in the NFC, and he wanted to play with an organization that would throw out their offensive playbook and let him bring his own. Those preferences were strong indicators that Denver would be his landing spot. For about 24 hours the fact that Manning chose the Broncos was the hottest topic of discussion in the sports world. When I heard the announcement my first question was, “Where are they sending Tim Tebow?”

Anyone who knows anything about Peyton Manning knows that he is not a big fan of distractions. He is a creature of habit that needs things to be a certain way in order for him to function. His life is all about football, and he really has little use for anything else. In Denver, that “anything else” would come in the form of crazed Tim Tebow fanatics. Tim Tebow fans love him for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with football. That being said, there would be a faction of them that would be there to heckle Manning and call for Tebow at home games. They would also be stupid enough to call into Denver talk radio and state idiotic reasons why Tim Tebow is better than Peyton Manning. Then there will be the billboards and websites calling for the benching of arguably the best quarterback to ever play in the NFL in favor of a bad passer who still can’t read a Cover 2 Defense. Needless to say, Manning wasn’t going for that. Therefore, I wouldn’t be surprised if the following conversation happened between Manning and Vice President of Football Operations, John Elway:

Manning: I’d love to come here John, but there is no way that I’m dealing with those crazed followers of the Church of Tebow.

Elway: Go ahead and hop on a plane, he’ll be gone by the time you get here.

Manning: On my way.

Elway: Yes! (heard in the background talking to his assistant) Get Tim’s agent on the phone.

Conventional wisdom said that Tebow would be traded to the Jacksonville Jaguars. They have a terrible quarterback in Blaine Gabbert (he’s not rookie-qb bad, he’s can’t play in the NFL bad), and a stadium that they have given up trying to sell out. However, conventional wisdom was wrong in this situation. As we all now know, Tebow won’t be heading to his hometown to fill the stadium with people desperate to see him set the quarterback position back 40 years. Instead, he is going to the New York Jets to make Mark Sanchez’s already miserable existence even worse. Nothing says, "we don’t have any faith in the abilities of our quarterback" like bringing in Tim Tebow and saying that you will be developing a package of plays to get him on the field. This trade proves that Mark Sanchez’s new “contract extension” is in reality about as valuable as the paper it was written on. Anyone who follows the NFL knows that the contracts are never as valuable as reported, and this one proves that the Jets were only publicly supporting Sanchez for the sake of his confidence, not making a real commitment to him for the future.

As regular readers of this blog know, I think that Tim Tebow is the worst quarterback to ever take a snap in the NFL (yes, I am old enough to remember Akili Smith, Cade McNown, and Joey Harrington). However, I will say (I can’t believe I’m about to say this) that I would rather have him over Mark Sanchez.  After watching the Broncos-Jets game last season, I came away convinced of two things. I had just witnessed the worst display of offensive football to take place in my lifetime, and that Tim Tebow is a better football player than Mark Sanchez. Although I would NEVER want either of them on my team, if I HAD to choose, I would rather have the quarterback that will play terribly for 3-1/2 quarters and then make one big play late in the fourth to win the game (if my defense can keep it close), than have a quarterback that will just play horribly for four quarters and never give me a chance to win.

Mark Sanchez’s days with the Jets are numbered. He will enter the season as the starter, but once he has his first three interception game the “We Want Tebow” chants will start, and Jets fans will start Tebowing in the crowd. This pressure will definitely make such a weak-minded individual fold.  This will lead to him playing even worse, and eventually he will be benched. This situation is similar to the one that the Eagles had when they traded Donovan McNabb. Publicly the team stated that Kevin Kolb would be the starting quarterback, but privately, they were just waiting for Kolb to give them a reason to replace him with Michael Vick.

To the executives at HBO, I will gladly pay double for my HBO service if you do a second installment of Hard Knocks from the Jets training camp. If this happens we will get to witness Tim Tebow’s ears bleeding every time Rex Ryan speaks, Santonio Holmes having an emotional breakdown because neither quarterback on the roster can complete a pass to him, and members of the Jets defense constantly complaining because they know that giving up more than 10 points in a game will certainly lead to a loss. The official title should be, Hard Knocks: The Jets Training Camp part 2 – The Season is Over Before it Begins. (Note to HBO: please write the check to Straight Cash Homey if you use that title.) Although distractions and controversy will ensure that the Jets have a horrible season this year, they will still be entertaining as hell to watch.

And now on to the New Orleans Saints (you knew it was coming)….

The Tebow trade wasn’t the only big news from Wednesday. There was also the announcement of the punishment of the New Orleans Saints for their bounty program.

One second, before I finish writing this I am going to send a tweet to Commissioner Goodell (@nflcommish) to see how his hand is holding up after he PIMPED SLAPPED the New Orleans Saints. My tweet to him reads:

@nflcommish after pimp-slapping the #saints organization, how’s the hand holding up? I hope you used lots of ice.

I will let you know if he actually responds in my next blog post.

You know they say, “There are only two things guaranteed in life, death and taxes.”  Well, I’d like to add a third thing to that list. Lying to Roger Goodell will have severe consequences. If you don’t believe me, ask Michael Vick. On the surface, It appears that Goodell came down on the Saints awfully hard for their illegal bounty program. The penalties include:

- A one year suspension for Head Coach Sean Payton

- An indefinite suspension for former Defensive Coordinator Gregg Williams

- An 8-game suspension and $500,000 fine for General Manager Mickey Loomis

- A $500,000 fine for the organization

- The loss of their 2^nd round draft picks in the 2012 & 2013 draft.

In actuality, the biggest crime that the Saints committed was not the bounty program itself, but lying about it. Prior to the investigation that lead to this penalty, the NFL told the Saints that they had heard allegations of a bounty program. They also told the Saints that if the allegations were true, the team should end the program immediately. The NFL also let them know that they would be investigating the issue. At that point, most normal people would end the program. Apparently the Saints felt as though they could continue the practice and cover it up so that the league would not find out about it. Needless to say, they were incorrect. Thus they had to feel the backside of the Commissioner’s right hand.

As I stated in a previous entry, I am not naive enough to believe that the Saints were the only team to have bounties on opposing players. However, the Saints were the only team stupid enough to continue the program while being investigated by the league. Football is an extremely dangerous sport. It isn’t a contact sport, it’s a collision sport. Due to the amount of violence in the game, each player should thank the diety that they pray to after every play, simply for surviving. The game is dangerous enough when being played within the rules, but Gregg Williams decided to make the game even more dangerous by giving his players incentives to intentionally hurt opposing players by any means necessary. The highest level that Williams reached as a football player was Division II Northeast Missouri State University (we all know that all multi-direction state universities suck at sports). Needless to say, Williams never played in the NFL, which is why I am not surprised that he has such disrespect for the integrity of the game. He has never felt the violence of an NFL game first hand. If he had, I doubt he would be providing incentives to intentionally hurt opposing players. Also worth noting is the fact that Sean Payton, who let this happen on his watch, was a replacement player during the 1987 NFL player strike. In short, he never had the talent to play in the NFL, but jumped at the chance to play in the place of the players that he was not good enough to compete with. This shows that he, along with Williams never had the proper respect for the health and safety of the elite athlete’s that neither of them were good enough to be.

While listening to NFL radio this week, one thing was extremely clear. Saints fans HATE Roger Goodell for what “he did to their team.” I am in no way a Goodell supporter, as a matter of fact, I like him about as much as I like those clowns that run the NCAA. That being said, Saints fans have it wrong on this one. Gregg Williams, Sean Payton, and Mickey Loomis did this to the Saints, not Goodell. The commissioner even gave them an opportunity to clean up their act. They chose not to, so he chose to put the smack down. Saints fans must realize that this decision was not about football. As one of my friends and loyal reader of this blog mentioned to me this week, “Everything Goodell is currently doing is to set up the league’s defense to the huge lawsuits that are coming from former players.” He is correct (I love having smart friends). This punishment was not about the Saints, it was about public perception and the financial future of the NFL. Someone had to be the example, and the people that run the New Orleans Saints practically raised their hands and volunteered.

To add insult to injury, next year’s Super Bowl will be played in New Orleans. Thanks to the penalties brought forth by the bounty program. I am virtually certain that the Saints will not be the first team to play in the Super Bowl in their home stadium. This punishment of the Saints is basically the same as a kid being on punishment for his 7^th birthday, but his parents decide to still have the party, which the kid isn’t able to attend. While the party is going on, he is up in his room listening to his friends enjoy his cake and his presents. A party will be going on in New Orleans next February, it’s just too bad the Saints won’t be invited.

Although the organization has been hit hard, we must keep in mind that they players involved in the bounty program have not been punished, yet. I expect the punishment to be severe. Apparently the Saints do as well. This weekend they signed middle-linebacker Curtis Lofton (formerly of the Falcons). Your initial thought may be that this was a bad signing because the Saints already have Jonathan Vilma (who was the primary player linked to the bounties). I have a feeling that after the player discipline is announced, we will be saying the Saints HAD Jonathan Vilma.

And now for my Baller & Scrub of the Week….

BALLER – Jeff Teague: In a battle between my hometown NBA team (Hawks) and my favorite NBA team (Celtics), Jeff Teague decided to POSTERIZE Jesus Shuttlesworth (a.k.a. Ray Allen). Dunks like this, especially from a point guard, earns you Baller of the Week status (please see video below). Later in that same game, with the Hawks down three and only seven seconds to play, Teague put up an air ball on the potentially game winning shot. The Hawks lost the game, but that doesn’t take away from Teague’s dunk. Although this may be a bittersweet honor for Teague, it’s still an honor.

SCRUB – Mark Sanchez: Relax Mark, you didn’t do anything to earn Scrub of the Week honors this week. I am just practicing for the season. I have a feeling your name will be in this spot a lot this season.


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