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Whenever Peyton Williams Manning has decided to grace us with his presence on the gridiron for the Indianapolis Colts in the National Football League, he immediately becomes must-see television. It doesn't matter if the Colts are up 21 or down 21, the effect he has on his offense AND defense, the opposing team, and the crowd is simply breathtaking and indescribable. That's the type of juice #18 has.
So when Peyton slipped into his alter-ego, Mr. Slinky Neck, the entire Colts organization was in a state of flux. A team whose guaranteed placement in prime time in the 1pm or 4pm Easter time slot was a given nationally, 2-3 appearances on Sunday Night Football was assured, and just like water is wet we were supposed to be blessed by #18's presence on October 3rd for Monday Night Football versus the upstart Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Of course we know that Mr. Slinky Neck isn't suiting up, and with the lynch pin of the Colts wearing civilian clothes we have a new reality upon us. The Indianapolis Colts the most unbearable team to watch...maybe ever.
This is random as hell, but thanks to the discussion on the New York Knicks last night on the Unsportsmanlike Conduct show, a vivid memory came to the surface. It is a memory of literally one of my five favorite basketball players who ever lived.
For people who frequent this site, they are bound to see stories on Allen Iverson, Kevin Garnett, Chris Webber, and Rasheed Wallace. The fifth player who makes up my five favorite players of all-time is mentioned in passing, but today will be the day that this post is all about him.
He’s the basketball player who not only performed exploits on the court, but he also contributed to the boom of spinning rims and helped make Dada basketball shoes legitimate. It is none other than The Great Latrell Sprewell.
There was a time when Sprewell was one of the most lethal scorers in the NBA. The man played over 40 minutes a night and did so at an absolutely frenetic pace. At one time (albeit a short time), he and Chris Webber were on the same Golden State squad. At another time, he and Tim Hardaway were together, and for anyone who is a fan of those three, they sure brought the fans some entertaining basketball.
We here at ETSF are fortunate to have an actual squad of superb individuals who contribute and participate on this sports blog platform from time to time. From the great Rev. Paul Revere and I'm So Hideous on the blog side and pinch-hitting for Ed (while he takes his talents to Washington, D.C.) on the radio show side is the one and only Eric ClapTillman aka The Till Show.
Its a jam-packed show as Ken and Till talk about debacle that was Monday Night Football between the Redskins and the Cowboys, plus are you ready for some baseball? The playoffs are here and the fellas discuss the pros of getting the long regular season out of the way. Finally some NBA lockout talk and college football discussion close out the show.
Download. Listen. Enjoy.
The Boston Red Sox and the Atlanta Braves are terrible.
I don't mean terrible in the sense that the two teams are without the talent, the resources, and the mental capacity to be a quality baseball team. I mean that they are terrible in the sense that their performances over the month of September should be saved as case studies of pipes bursting under pressure, should be put into Webster's Dictionary under the term "folded", and should be penalized by lawmakers for how felonious their actions have been in the last four weeks.
If either one of these teams happen to make the playoffs by winning tonight, it will be a damn shame. The resolve of the St. Louis Cardinals and the Tampa Bay Rays to climbing that mountain has been quite impressive, but its a damn shame that they played as terrible as they have earlier in the season. I really wish none of these teams made the playoffs, I hate them all.
Bitter? Me? Never. I'm so jaded at this point that none of this phases me.
Many moons ago, Rick Pitino stood at the podium after another Boston Celtics defeat. The team was pretty damn sorry, the media was prepared to pepper Pitino with pitiful and predicatable questions and Pitino was ready for them.
The man was frustrated. He understood why the fans were upset, why the media was coming at him, and why the pressure was so tense. At the same time, he realized there are some things that are out of everyone's control.
What came from Pitino was a jewel that has been immortalized to be an answer to fit any situation when people live in the past and carry the expectations of them that just aren't meant for a team's current situation:
Let's be perfectly clear about something right now: there will not be another Cameron Jerrell Newton for the foreseeable future. Mr. 6’6”, 250 isn’t walking through that door, college football fans. However, there was something about Cam’s season last year that was simply captivating (outside of the scandal, and being called Scam Newton which will always be funny to me.) The breath-taking runs, the long bombs, or the ballsy plays in the clutch. Cam made us pay attention to him in a way that is reminiscent of the days of Frazier, Crouch, Vick, Young, and Tebow.
Will there be someone of that ilk in 2011? Someone that breaks into the scene with such a gangsta lean that we have no choice but to pay attention? I got a couple of folks in mind...a passer, a runner, a leader, a prototype, and a phenom.
With the announcement that the NBA and the NBPA are still at a stalemate, thus forcing the cancellation of training camps and preseason camps, my mind immediately went back to 1998. Truthfully, I like to act as if the 1998-99 season never happened. It was some of the ugliest basketball I'd ever seen. Players who normally were in peak condition were now sluggish, and those players who normally were sluggish were now god awful. Plus, the NBA All-Star game was cancelled, which delayed the crowning of the greatest dunk contest champion of all-time in Vince Carter, and there were virtually no trades that took place. Attendance was down, the crime rate was up in Portland, and for the first time since 1984 we were without the savior of basketball...Black Jesus, Money, Air, or more commonly known as Michael Jeffery Jordan (pre-horrible fashion sense Mike) was gone from the basketball landscape.
The saving grace of that season was the one team that I was supposed to hate. You see in my youth, I rode with the Indiana Pacers. Of course, that meant I was not a fan of those dastardly New York Knickerbockers. I hated them to no end.
What we didn't realize was that the 1998-99 Knicks would be the last time the Knicks would be worth a damn, provide a creation of The Theory, the passing of a torch, and a Cinderella run that has yet to be matched by any team before or after.
I am a product of my environment.
Being raised as a military kid in the confines of an area of the country called "Texoma", I grew up understanding what this Oklahoma versus Texas thing was all about at an early age. When I was about six years old, we'd cross the border over to Wichita Falls, Texas when I was younger to hit up the Texas "tax-free" shopping weekend at Sikes Center Mall. I remember I had on an Oklahoma State Cowboys Barry Sanders t-shirt, clad in my orange and black...and I remember grown folks snarling at me, kids trying to eye me down, and they tried to make my family pick up our food in the back of the restaurant. (Okay, I made that last one up.)
Why? Because folks from Texas, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech wanted no parts of Barry Sanders. They immediately drew the line and said "we ain't having it" and basically told me "don't start no sh*t won't be no sh*t." This was in the days of the Big 8 Conference and the Southwest Conference, and until 1995 we were separated by church and state. The Red River literally separated us, but in 1996 the fusion began and the formative years of my college sports fanhood began.
I don't know about you, but all of this talk of teams switching conferences and folks being left high and dry is officially for the birds. Let these fools get rid of my Big 12 Conference...anyway, the fellas got another jam-packed show on deck for you tonight as Mike Felder from In The Bleachers joins us to talk about the ACC, the latest in college football, and the aftermath of Oklahoma vs. Florida State.
Plus, I think Kenny and B-Lew were hacked....they were on here openly praising the Washington Redskins? Did that really happen? Unbelievable.
Download. Listen. Enjoy.
I can't believe its already been ten years.
On the weekend following the terrorist attacks, NFL games were canceled. When play resumed on Sept. 23, 2001, the Patriots lost 10-3 to the New York Jets, falling to 0-2 for the season. Bill Belicheck's record as New England's coach fell to 5-13. Few fans were impressed by Belicheck's considerable IQ. Yet late in that dreary loss to the Jets, in front of a Foxboro Stadium crowd still numbed by the enormous national tragedy 12 days earlier, Jets linebacker Mo Lewis clobbered New England quarterback Drew Bledsoe. -- David Pevear, Lowell Sun
Who knew that the 199th player selected in the 2000 NFL draft, a man who took over to little to no fanfare, would begin ascending the mountaintop like nothing we'd seen before?
What has transpired over the next ten years is as fascinating as watching a rose that grew from concrete. We witnessed the beginning of a coaching legend, a dynasty, and a man who put himself on the Mt. Rushmore of winning the game of life. That man is Thomas Edward Patrick Brady, Jr.
There are few things more intense than watching a duel between two elite pitchers in the MLB playoffs. Every pitch matters, the tension is heavy, and you wait with baited breath to see what will happen next. Since I've been a little boy watching baseball on my grandfather's knee, I've know that great pitching can overcome great hitting. From those pitchers that are great, there are an elite few that you knew when they stepped on the mound that the game was already over.
Today I've brought in three of the homies from the bullpen to answer a simple question...if you had to pick one pitcher to win a game with your life on the line, who would you choose?
September 18, 2011
7:43 P.M.
To the fans of the Dallas Cowboys,
Cowboys fans, we’re two games into the season, but some things that have transpired trouble me deeply. For the record, this is not to question your love for the team. If there’s one thing that’s truly evident over the years, it’s that we all have our way of showing that we love the Dallas Cowboys. Our relationship with the team is unique and it is one that only teams with a championship pedigree can understand.
If a team has never experienced championship success, then it is not totally fair to expect them to understand why we expect so much from our team. Sure, we haven’t won a Super Bowl in over 15 years, but I can say that pretty much all of the Cowboys fans I know that were fans back then have also been fans of the team during the down years since.
With that said, there are some fans who have to understand where we’re at as an organization, and there are some who just have to stop being ungrateful. To take it a step further, I’ll go on record and say that the Dallas Cowboys fan base is the most ungrateful fan base in all of football. Two things have taken place for me to come to the point to where this letter has to be written: the on-again, off-again love-fest with Smiles Austin, and the continuous mistreatment of Tony Romo.
Victor Ortiz, 24, passed away late last night after being battered with a two-piece from Floyd Joy Mayweather, Jr. Victor was born in Garden City, Kansas on January 31st, 1987. Ortiz was previously the WBC Welterweight Champion of the world, and with a crowd-pleasing, aggressive style, two-fisted power and boyish charm, was thought of being the future of boxing. Ortiz also held the extraordinary distinction of having knocked down every opponent he has faced...until he fought Floyd Joy Mayweather Jr. last night.
Although things ultimately came to an end as of the September 17th bout in Las Vegas for the WBC Welterweight Championship, Victor Ortiz's demise really came four months ago when he stated that he aspired to be like a soft-spoken and feathery rapper that we all know...Drake.
"You gave him an opportunity of showing greatness of character and he did not seize it. He will never forgive you for that." – Friedrich Nietzsche
There comes a time in a person’s life where you’ve got to stand up and perform or sit down and let someone else do it. Either you are about that life or you aren’t. For some, it can be a tragic set of circumstances for someone who has built their entire livelihood to thrive in a particular moment, only not to really be built for the job at hand. For others, the opportunity to overcome that type of adversity can be huge, and be the turning point in a storied career. I'm talking to you Peyton Manning.
Can you teach seizing the moment? Or is it something that's God given?
This is supposed to be a bad time for the NBA, for fans, and for anyone who has a vested interest in the League. People are supposed to be panicking.
Fans are supposed to be cursing out players for being greedy, owners for over-estimating their importance, and doing other things to display their frustrations with the lockout. Players are supposed to be on the front lines, owners are supposed to be visible in their stance, and David Stern is supposed to be putting fires out.
That is what’s supposed to be happening…but it’s not. It’s not happening, because even though we may not have the NBA, we still have basketball.
Let’s get something straight right now. The NBA is the premier basketball league, but at the essence of it all is the game of basketball, and if this lockout has shown you anything, it’s shown you that basketball can be played anywhere.
On this edition of The Unsportsmanlike Conduct Show, Kenny calls in the righty from the bullpen as Ed is out for the night. The big homie Johnathan Tillman steps in and does work as NFL season is finally underway. Brady slangs that pigskin around for 500, Cam slangs that pigskin around for 400, and fantasy football teams go bonkers.
Download, listen, and enjoy.
I promise you, no matter how excited or sad you may be, nobody cares.
I know this might sound egregious coming from me, the same man who wrote not one but TWO fantasy football draft manifestos, detailing precise ways to win your fantasy football league. This might even sound egregious coming from Ken, the same man who I had to drag into playing into fantasy football in the first place, is now the man who will write witty pieces (basically snapping on me) on his victory or defeat in fantasy football clashes between the two of us.
However, I owe you the unbridled, uninhibited, and unrestrained truth. If you’re dealing with someone who is not actually in your fantasy league, nobody cares, b. Not your friends, not your coworkers, not your woman, not even your mama. Nobody cares.
At ETSF, we’re all about the fan, which has been evident since day one. Ed and I aren’t experts on anything except for being fans of the game and respecting the culture of fandom. Being a fan is great, but there are some things that should be done accordingly.
We're one week into the NFL season and from what's been seen so far, there are some folks who don't understand the culture of fandom. There are also some who can use a refresher. With that said, these are my particulars; the things that, no matter what someone tries to raise to the contrary, will never change for me.
There are plenty more as well, but for the sake of time, this is a condensed version of the official Ed the Sports Fan Handbook. The official release of the handbook will be coming…someday.
I guess it just comes with the territory.
As the football gods have blessed us with football consuming our weekends again, we all became witnesses to two football games that made us put our hands on our faces in a way that would make Macaulay Culkin proud. On Saturday, Notre Dame went into battle against Michigan in the first game under the lights at the Big House and proceeded to squander a 17-point lead in the fourth quarter, get the lead back, and give up the ghost again to Shoelace and Michigan 35-31. Similarly on Sunday, the Dallas Cowboys touched down in the Big Apple to face the New York Jets. As the pageantry and flashing lights set the atmosphere for a city remembering its past from a decade prior, the Cowboys remembered how to crumble under the pressure and melt down. A 14-point lead in the fourth quarter dissipated before our very eyes and the Jets went home with a 27-24 victory.
Two teams who represent the elite in their respective arenas have continually put football fans in a position of discontent. They don’t win. They don’t uphold the standards that they have set upon themselves. No one can take them seriously. Is this fair and justified? Of course it is, it’s their own fault and they wouldn't have it any other way.
The Summer of Ed.
You know when The Jordan went off for 63 points against the Boston Celtics back in 1986, I imagine that the hoop probably looked like a big swimming pool. Or when Reggie Jackson went off for three homeruns versus the Dodgers in the 1977 World Series, I bet the baseball looked like a beach ball coming across the plate. That's how my summer was this year. You could ask some of my partners in crime for the specifics, but if they tell you they make have to take you out back and put you out of your misery.
The point of me telling you this is that this summer really helped me put things in perspective. In three years time of writing this blog, this team that has been assembled under the ETSF banner has been as gratifying of a project than anything else I've done in my life. It took this summer for me to realize the magnitude of what we've done. There's nothing like shaking hands with your heroes, people like John Chaney, Stephen A. Smith, and Joe Frazier. There's nothing like calling someone your "peer" like a Bomani Jones or a Jemele Hill. There's nothing like finally meeting folks who I call, my friends, in a Michael Tillery or The Rev. Forging relationships and having memorable experiences is what life is about, and I can honestly say ETSF has helped me do that. I think its safe to say that Ken, B-Lew, Syreeta, Phillip, The Rev, and anyone else who has roots to this thing called ETSF would agree with this.
The Summer of Ed was unreal, shoutout to Chuck Chillout for driving me nuts with the catchphrase. When life throws you an alley-oop, sometimes you gotta go on ahead and dunk it.
Oh, and I decided to do a Simmons-esque mailbag with my own personal touch. As always these are kinda real emails from real readers.
Tonight is the night that the NFL is officially back and playing regular season football. Syreeta, Joslin, and the crew are going to have their kickoff party in D.C. I imagine Ed, Jeremy Smith, Charles Davis, and the other homies will all be somewhere posted up.
Shoot, I’m putting off my gym time tomorrow after work, so I can be back home in time for kickoff. However, it will be bittersweet because it will be a kickoff, A.F. (After Favre.)
Watching Lorenzo Favre on the field was cinematic, HD, 3D, pay-per-view, standing room only, and whatever type of euphemism you could think of. We got every genre of film when watching Lorenzo Favre. No other quarterback gives me that feeling; not one.
Watching Lorenzo Favre succeed was the ultimate high; watching him fail was the ultimate gut-wrenching ending to a film. Some people laughed at him; some people felt the pain along with him. The thing is this: you always felt something. Always.
On tonight's edition of The Unsportsmanlike Conduct Show, its officially time to usher in the 2011 NFL football season. Ken and Ed relive their preparations and rituals to prepare for watching football on Sundays, plus we get into the beginning of the college football season (and those hideous Maryland uniforms) and wonder if certain schools are truly destined for greatness.
Also, the big homie Cuffs The Legend joins the fellas and also disagrees with Kenny about Jay Ratliff and disagrees with Ed about Lawrence Taylor vs. Bo Jackson being be the best Tecmo Bowl player earlier.
Download and enjoy.
**From now until the end of the year, we will pay homage and respect to our past sports heroes as only we can here on ETSF. 25 years ago was a magical time. Not only was the sports landscape on fire, but the culture around our people was beginning to change. The music was changing. The people were changing. The world was changing. Today begins our journey back in the time machine and relive the times of 1986. Enjoy.**
I really don't care what the record books say.
As much as I revere the greatness of Barry Bonds, I will never think of him as the home run king. That honor belongs to Hank Aaron. As much as I appreciate the cats that ran for 2,000 yards in a single season, I'll never hold Jamal Lewis, Chris Johnson, and Terrell Davis in the same light as O.J. Simpson rushing for 2,003 yards in 14 games. In a similar fashion, as much as I revere the greatness of Michael Strahan and Mark Gastineau, I'll never think of those two as the king of sacks. That honor belongs to Lawrence Julius Taylor.
There is something about the coverage of Floyd Mayweather that has bothered me for a long time. It’s easy to get caught up in the flashy things, the antics, the showmanship from Floyd, and that is well before he gets in the ring.
However, there is something else we should all know about Floyd; well, it’s something we all know about Floyd and, when it’s all said and done, it’s really the most important thing when the conversation is about sports.
41 wins…zero losses. On top of that, it’s extremely rare that you seem him in trouble in the ring, let alone about to take an L.
Today is the final day of The Show and Prove Series presented by ETSF. We started off the week in Norman, traveled to Tallahassee, moved up to Blacksburg (courtesy of Mark Trible), and west to Eugene. On the final day, we end up in The Funk, aka Fort Worth, to show some love for the Horned Frogs of TCU. - Kenny
Some people may see this title and balk, but if they really examine the body of work of the last few years, the case can be made that TCU is, at the very least, worthy of being in the discussion as the best team in Texas. The only other team really is Texas, but after their disastrous (and joyous, for me) demise last season, the honor goes to none other than the team from Fort Worth.
TCU has been on the rise for the past decade, and for the people who have paid attention to the Horned Frogs, then it comes as no surprise what they’ve accomplished. They’ve had tremendous team success, seen players get drafted to the NFL, and have been courted from the doldrums of college football conferences to BCS glory. Sure, for purely selfish reasons, I wish they wouldn’t go to the Big East, but it’s understandable why they are making the move.
The Frogs have been able to do work behind-the-scenes for years, and even when people were paying attention to them, this season will be decidedly different. For one, they are coming off of a Rose Bowl victory. Two, their four-year starter, The Great Andrew Dalton, has taken his talents to reinvigorate and reignite a porous and disparaged Cincinnati Bengals franchise (God bless that young man.)
Three, this will be the last season in the Mountain West Conference. They want to make sure they go out with a bang and also let the Big East know that when they get there next year, it’ll be on like King Kong.
**In part four of the five-part series "Show and Prove" on ETSF, it is officially time to put the Oregon Ducks on the clock. Be sure to check out the previous posts by Ken and special guest Mark Trible as well.**
Do you remember the time when the "new girl" moved to your town and enrolled at your school? I do. I remember her name was Aimee, this fine Puerto Rican woman had come to Lawton to do a two-year stint with the Army in Oklahoma. I remember thinking she was a mysterious type, didn't say much at first. I remember thinking her style was different and that she came from the west coast. Once I got to know her though, I realized that she was awesome, had a different way of looking at things, and was the first woman I can remember wearing lip gloss all the time. Your boy Ed was hooked.
The Oregon Ducks remind me a ton of Aimee. Since 1996, they've done things their way, and for good reason. Before 1996, the Oregon Ducks quite possibly could've been the worst BCS conference college football program ever. They had no program to speak of. Then, the big homie Phil Knight decided to step in.
"How can we make teenagers who are good at football want to come to the University of Oregon?" - Phil Knight
