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The NBA All-Star Game is something that’s been a staple in my life since I was around nine years old. The best players would all come together during the weekend for the Stay in School Jam (whatchu know about early Saturday mornings during All-Star weekends past???) the three-point shootout, and the dunk contest. The highlight, for me anyway, has always been the game. Nearly 20 years later, that hasn’t changed a bit. The names on the backs of the jerseys are different, but as long as the front of ‘em say “East” and “West,” I’m happy and ready to see something I haven’t seen before.
Once again, it's on.
We know there's a significant amount of fans who are dreading the last game of the season, because it'll mark the end of another great year of NFL football. In the spirit of keeping things live, ETSF is bringing you our version of the top ten running backs in the NFL. Kenny, Ed, and Phil Barnett have each put together their list, which will be tabulated, and one monstrous list will be the result. You'll see some familiar names, as well as some surprises, but that's the beauty of the NFL. Things change every year, while some stay the same, and with that...let's get it crackin'.
Ohhhhhhhhhhhh how we love to debate here at Ed The Sports Fan lol...this will be fun, I promise you.
So Kenny, B-Lew, and I were talking recently about who the best wide receivers were in football, especially in seeing how much has changed from just a year ago when we did this list. See, we've done this before, and this doesn't have just my biased opinion on the best. So, we brought in a couple of consultants to give us 5 varying opinions on the best flankers, split ends, and slot receivers in the league.
Big thanks to Reeta aka The NFL Chick and Richard Boadu from 6 Magazine for helping out on this production. Oh yeah, I chimed in with my own 2 cents as well.
Get ready to be mad at us and totally disagree with our picks, thanks.
Note: I promise you ETSF will begin our coverage of the Super Bowl immediately. These aren’t apologist rants by Ed or me. There are just some things which must be said, before we fully move on.
25 carries, 122 yards, three touchdowns.
For someone who didn’t watch the game, but turns to the box score to see these numbers, they’ll be bamboozled into thinking Adrian Peterson played a great game in the NFC Championship. Furthermore, if they turn on the highlights, and only see him break a couple of runs and score his touchdowns, they’ll be hoodwinked even more. The Great Randy Galloway has said it for years, and it's a mantra I live my sports life by: watch the damn game. Sportscenter, Total Access (NFL Network), and all the other shows will never replace watching an actual game. They’re designed to give you a snapshot of what you missed, not the entire story. For folks who watched the NFC Championship, we witnessed a problem that has been existent for quite some time, and one that makes you wonder if Adrian Peterson will one day emerge as the elite back of the league, or simply a dynamic back, but one you can’t fully trust.
I'm not sure when it happened, probably after the 2nd or 3rd time Adrian Peterson thought he was dribbling and playing basketball for the Timberwolves, or seeing Brett Favre get DDT'd to the ground that something came over me like a rush.
I wanted the Vikings to win.
More importantly, I saw a man who at 40 years old was pulling a Paul Crewe (The Longest Yard, the original one...go watch it sometime you youngsters) and was seemingly trying to will his team to victory, no matter how much destruction his body took on in the process. It was in this particular moment when #4 got high-low'd by an oncoming linebacker moving like a locomotive and a defensive tackle who was roughly the size of Rhode Island that I truly realized what had happened to me.
Brett Favre had won me back.
This won't be a lengthy article, we know what time it is on Sunday. Super Bowl or bust. Jets vs. Colts, Vikings vs. Saints. One game to go to the Super Bowl in Miami, Florida.
My heart is telling me one thing, my mind tells me another. I can guarantee I will not be betting on football this weekend. No sir. Rule of thumb on betting, choosing women, and career decisions: Don't let your emotions get in the way of you being great. Just trust me on this one. Here are the picks.
Don’t look now, but when you check out Sportscenter, and highlights of the NBA come across the screen, you’re going to see some new faces, new uniforms, and some uniforms you haven’t seen in ages. They won’t be the butt of your jokes, either. You may turn on TNT on a Thursday night, and see Atlanta-Oklahoma City, and instead of taking your significant other out on that date you’ve been delaying for weeks, you decide to go ahead, and watch the game. That’s how different this year is.
It saddens me that I even have to write this story today, but it must be done. The King is one of my favorite players, and has been for quite a few years now. Rarely do I refer to him by his first name, and instead, prefer to call him The King, even though it drives some of my friends crazy. He’s the present and the future of the NBA, but that doesn’t excuse him from this latest Benedict Arnold act. When you tell the world you’re going to be in the 2010 Slam Dunk Contest, and the line-up comes out, with your name nowhere to be found, it’s irresponsible, inexcusable, and unacceptable. He bamboozled the fans, and that can’t be rationalized, not even by me, a proud card-carrying fan of The Unofficial LeBron James Fan Club.
As soon as you read the title, I would bet $100 that you nodded your head in agreement.
Watching the performance the New York Jets have put on in this postseason has been a revelation on what "true" defense can do to a football game. Defense wins championships is a moniker that every football fan can understand, but elite defense is probably the coolest thing in the world to watch about football. Don't believe me? Let me send this safety blitz to your cerebral cortex real quick.
Kurt Warner (1971-2010)
Kurt Warner, 38, passed away on January 16th, 2010. He was born on June 22nd, 1971 in Burlington, Iowa. He is the starting quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals, and is known for his miraculous story of being a looked over college quarterback at Northern Iowa, to bagging groceries, to being a Super Bowl MVP QB for the St. Louis Rams.
However, all of his past glory. One crackback block from hell ended the old man's career.
Josh Cribbs is, without a doubt, the most lethal return man in football, but don't get it twisted. He's much more than a dude who changes field position, returns kicks, and returns punts. We’ve seen him line up on offense at receiver, as well as in the running back. Hell, he led the team in RUSHING in three games this season, and probably would’ve led the team in rushing for the year, if Jerome Harrison, aka my new favorite running back in the universe, didn’t come through and obliterate the opposition towards the latter part of the season. He also set the record for the most touchdowns by a kick returner in NFL history. I say all that to set the table for what he’s done, as well as what he has the potential to become. This may be far-fetched, but that’s what we do at ETSF. Far-fetched, perhaps; out of the realm of possibility, no.
Is there a bigger pariah in college football right now than Lane Kiffin? It seems like everyone is taking their shots at the man, which I can understand. If you’re a Tennessee Volunteer fan, you may feel betrayed by what he did. Hell, if you’re a fan of “right from wrong,” then you may even be upset. To be honest though, I don’t have anything against Lane Kiffin for what he did, and I’m led to believe there are even more people who feel the same, but their voices are being drowned out by the sounds of mattresses being burned to the ground, folks making signs to curse the man into damnation, as well as anything else that shows understanding for him making this move.
If you are missing a loved one, or hated one, feel free to check out previous editions of our obituaries as we're sure it will put a smile (laugh hysterically) on your face.
Udonis Haslem (1980-2010)
Udonis Johneal Haslem, 29, passed away on January 11th, 2010. He was born on June 9th, 1980 in Miami, Florida. Haslem was an undrafted power forward from the University of Florida who signed with the Miami Heat in 2003. He was a key contributor on the 2006 Heat NBA Finals team, and is a great rebounder/tough guy for Miami.
However, his NBA career came to an abrupt end as "a light-skinned brother from Alaska" dropped a bomb on Haslem and effectively posterized and hyperized Udonis into never-neverland.
My Uncle Bill has been living in the Seattle-Tacoma area for more than 30 years and was there when the Seahawks first touched down in Seattle. The Seahawks found a way to captivate the Pacific Northwest fanbase in a way that the Mariners nor the SuperSonics could not. However in all those years he told me that there has never been a player since Steve Largent (Tulsa, Oklahoma stand up) that struck fear in opposing teams. That's why my Uncle Bill's never been really confident in the Seahawks chances to bring a Super Bowl to the Great Northwest.
So what makes us think that by hiring USC's field general Pete Carroll and his goons coaching staff from L.A. is going to make this task any different?
34-14. 33-14.
If someone gave you those two scores before Saturday night, and told you they would be the finals of the Eagles-Cowboys, and the Ravens-Patriots, how many people would have said the traditional powers, the ones who dominated their respective conferences for the past decade, would be the winner? That’s the thing about life, though. Everyone’s time comes to an end. The Pistons passed the torch to the Bulls, Avon Barksdale passed the torch to Marlo Stanfield, and after this weekend, the two teams who flexed their muscles from 2000 to 2009 have to go back to the drawing board.
As I sat there watching this monstrosity of a game last night between Texas and Alabama, and I saw what happened to Colt McCoy...all I could think of was what happened to Sam Bradford when they played Texas in the Red River Rivalry. Its a damn shame what happened to Colt, and its not fair to college football fans.
I'm not going to sit here and think that Alabama would have won or lost if Colt McCoy played in that game. Alabama threw out an extremely conservative gameplan against Texas after #12 went out the game, and Garrett Gilbert was wide-eyed and completely unprepared to face a defense in Alabama that Colt would've struggled with.
Somehow, Kenny and I have come down to a disagreement on who will win tonight's BCS National Championship. This should be easy right? We're both Oklahoma Sooners fans, and we both hate Texas. Where is the problem in this situation?
I'll tell you the problem, Kenny's been rubbing noses with those Longhorns fans and he's got his mind in a bunch, because the man truly believes without a shadow of a doubt that Texas will not only win, but give it to Alabama tonight. Maybe I've been hitting the bottle early, or maybe I'm just plum dumb...which its not all that impossible for me to just be dumb, however I just can't see Alabama losing to Texas after their tougher and much more competitive season. What is the reality? Well, we won't know until 3 hours after kickoff.
With that being said, here's our picks to who will in the 2010 BCS National Championship.
Texas is gonna Molly-Whop Alabama (Kenny Masenda)
“We didn’t shock the world at all.”
These were the words grumbled to me by a TCU fan, once we got back to our hotel in The Desert, late Monday night. We just witnessed Boise State pull off what some people describe as a shocker, by beating the Horned Frogs 17-10. Marcia Masenda, my sister, former TCU cheerleader and loyal Horned Frog alum, wasn’t in the mood to laugh or joke at all after the game, but even she couldn’t do anything but laugh, when she heard the old lady make her remark to me. That night, I decided to rock one of the ETSF Shock the World t-shirts, and while her comment was similar to one in my direction hours earlier, it was in a much different context. A significant number of TCU faithful put the loss in perspective, and made sure to let the players know how great of a season they had, even with the game turning out the way it did.
Please CLICK HERE if you missed Part 1 of the NFL Playoffs Power Rankings. Now clearly, If you have been paying attention there are 6 teams remaining. 4 from the NFC, 2 from the AFC, and all 6 teams seem to either be losing or gaining steam. Honestly, if you said that any of the 6 teams listed below would win the Super Bowl, it wouldn't be a shock, versus the previous 6 listed would be a complete shock. I guess that's the difference of the power structure in the NFL. Let's get back rolling.
6. New Orleans Saints, NFC South Champion (13-3)
After seeing teams throw it in the bag for the last two weeks and see some teams lay some mighty large eggs, its good to know that the playoffs and the chance to win Super Bowl 44 are now officially on the line beginning this Saturday.
However, in this season of all seasons...I can truly say that I have no idea who's going to either play in the Super Bowl or even win it. I truly believe that all 12 teams all have a legitimate shot, all 12 teams have exceptional strengths, and all 12 teams are significantly flawed. Sounds like I need to break down all 12 of these teams and figure this thing out. POWER RANKINGS TIME!
12. New York Jets, AFC Wild Card #5 Seed (9-7)
