With a new contract almost signed and miscreants such as Plaxico Burress and Jeremy Shockey long out of his life, Eli Manning is finally the true leader for the offense of the New York Football Giants. With this in mind, MLJ decided to do a pictorial on Eli’s first week at Camp. Read the rest of this entry »

Andy Reid ordering the Bacon, Egg and Cheese over Fried Steak

All this week, I have been giving you detailed reasons why the World Champion New York Football Giants will beat the Iggles. You can find that here, here and here. Today, I look at the biggest reason and by biggest I mean by importance and sheer girth. Read the rest of this entry »

This is part 2 in this week’s series on The World Champion New York Football Giants beating the Philadelphia Iggles. Here is Part 1. Today we look at the Iggles Linebackers and their true calling in life. Read the rest of this entry »

This Sunday, The World Champion New York Football Giants will take on the 6th seeded Philadelphia Eagles at Champs Stadium. I am starting to hear to rumblings that the Iggles are stealing the script for the Champs miraculous run last year and are attempting to make one of their own. I think that is the biggest load of shit I have ever heard. First off, a once in a generation happening happens once in a generation. You know who told me that. Mr. Wizard. It’s science. Secondly, the Iggles do not have the talent level that the Champs had last year. It’s not even close. Especially at the most important positions. Today, I will take a look at a very flawed aspect of the Iggles. The offensive line. Read the rest of this entry »

For the first time since Super Bowl 42, the rest of the nation is looking forward to watching a Champs game almost as much as I am. This game pits two of the NFL’s most storied Franchises against each other for one of the very few times since the Steelers were put in the AFC after the merger. The weird NFL schedule is one part of that. The other is the interesting intertwining of the Mara and Rooney families culminating in this and especially this. This game should be some good, solid, old school power football. The way Spencer would like it if it didn’t involve Pittsburgh. On Sunday afternoon, I fully expect to be in lunatic mode, which is par for the course. I am going to my friend’s house (not Monkeykong, jealous bitch?) who has a 100 inch projector television. That should be fun. The game is in High Def. Now eight Sunday’s a year I get to see my team in Real Def so this is a good secondary alternative. Right now though, in a calmer state of mind, I plan on breaking down this game for you. You know my prediction is the World Champion New York Football Giants to win, as not to confuse you with some sort of twist that won’t happen, but it will be a good game and a close game. Here’s why: Read the rest of this entry »

The NFC West…or as I like to call it, “the division I watch the least because the teams usually suck and I hate the Seahawks and their games are on late and the late AFC games are infinitely better.”  So this division has the rep of being the worst in the NFL, but is that accurate?  Historically, yes, but, at least on paper, that’s just not the case anymore as the NFC North is worse at the bottom and the NFC South isn’t as good at the top.  Of course, this is on paper, because as we all know, disappointment is this division’s middle nombre.

Of all the hours of my life I spend watching football, be it at home, at a bar, recovering from said bar, etc, I’ve watched the fewest of the teams included here in the NFC West.  Why?  Because football is not just a game, it’s an experience, and there are certain things that enhance the experience for everyone involved.  As gay as it sounds, I find it impossible to truly enjoy watching a team play in an awful dome or shitty stadium, where the lighting is just horrendous, or a team with terrible uniforms.  I like the total package, as it becomes part of that team’s aura.  It’s why I love Ohio State football on Saturdays, because when you watch their games, it’s not just the traditional uniforms and the Buckeye stickers, but the crowd and the awesome stadium, 107,000 strong creating one of the meanest, most hostile environments, bet it Youngstown State or Meeeeechigan.  I love the Browns because of the stadium on the lake, the brown and orange rust colors echoing the Dawg Pound playing in the elements where their colors create a wonderful marriage with the natural elements.

Simply put, these are football experiences…watching the Rams in some corporate-flash uniforms playing in a toilet dome just isn’t appealing to me.  I don’t like my teams looking jaundiced because it looks like they’re playing football on plastic grass inside a warehouse…it just doesn’t look good.  The Seahawks have one of the best stadiums in all of sport…yet their uniforms are so horrendous, I just can’t possibly like them, no matter how good a team they are.  What happened to the 49ers, where they once were a classic team?  Now they’ve flashed up their uniforms, despite the fact that their throwbacks are 1,000,000x better than the ones they regularly wear.  And don’t even get me started on that abortion of a team in the desert…they just don’t get ANYTHING football related.  Seriously, do these teams not understand the total package?

Just imagine the Packers away from Lambeau, actually just look at whenever they play in Detroit or Minny, they look like absolute shit because the environment they play in looks like shit.  Imagine LSU out of Baton Rouge and slapped into one of those awful ACC stadiums.  You’re lying to yourself if you don’t think this isn’t a part of the game, just as much as it is in baseball’s.

Victory lap.

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This is where the difference between the NFC and AFC starts to show, just like the NL versus the AL. The AFC has two divisions that are top heavy, and the tops of the AFC East and West are HEAVY, and two divisions that are stacked top to bottom with teams that will most likely play a factor in the playoff race. The NFC has one stacked division, two are top heavy with meh (NFC West and North) and one is a balanced division with no really good teams (NFC South…which we’ll cover today).

The NFC South has a few intriguing teams, all with the potential to be pretty decent squads, yet are chock full of questions and not a whole lot of depth, and one team that’s been so destroyed by years of bad drafting and off-field incidents that they probably won’t contend until at least 2010. There are some top-end players here, unfortunately, there are also some massive holes on said teams which will require these premier players to really rise to the occasion or else these teams will flounder.

Believe it or not, I’m actually planning on focusing on this division during the year with a lot of interest because it truly is up for grabs amongst the top three teams, so you know it’s going to be a tight race. Plus, there are some pretty decent coaches in this division, so there will be some decent play…unfortunately, this division is also home to three of the most awful aesthetic NFL experiences in Carolina, Atlanta and New Orleans, so while the play might be decent, the product on our televisions will be pretty hard to watch.

JAMBALAYA!!!

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Let me set a few rules right off the bat here starting with the fact that HE won’t be named. Got it? Good. I think we’ve all had our fair share of that pill-popping, drama queen for one summer so lets just move the fuck on.

Number two: Adrian Peterson, despite his flash, was NOT the Offensive Rookie of the Year, ok? He missed a few games. He had a few games where he did squadoosh. Two scintillating games does not a season make, regardless of how limitless his ceiling is as an NFL RB. Joe Thomas was the best player at his position, regardless of tenure, in the NFL last year as a rookie FOR THE ENTIRE SEASON, and that carries far more weight, but because an offensive lineman doesn’t have gaudy stats and highlights to fall back on, well, he got the shaft. I don’t care if you agree or not, and I don’t care if you spend 15,000 words trying to convince me otherwise, my opinion is set in stone.

Three: this division is both intriguing and painful. The cream has Super Bowl aspirations. The dregs will be contenders for the first pick in the draft. I don’t think this is up for debate either.

I hope you don’t mind if I just move on to the previews…and I hope they’re not too BIASED for some members of our fine little internet community we have here, because God forbid anyone take these things seriously after I predicted 3 members of the same division go winless.

Let’s flip this omelet… Read the rest of this entry »

I love big-market fanbases, I really do.  They think just because a lot of people follow that particular team, that, no matter what, that team should be awesome.  And because there’s a shit-ton of them, and they tend to be vociferous, media types are not too inclined to insulting said teams in their outlets out of fear that the fanbase will fill their Inboxes with hate mail.  This sums up the NFC East to a tee…there’s one great team, one decent team, and two teams who are so loaded with question marks, it’d be hard to consider them anything special.

The NFC East, of course, is home to the fiercest rivals in all the NFL.  Despite the fact I think these teams are perennially overrated, they all truly hate each other’s guts, and that’s endearing.  And they have all been pretty competent teams in the recent past, so it’s not like they’re all garbage, but going into 2008 I just don’t see how this division matches up with the AFC South in terms of how ”the best division” argument is stacked.

Hey, I appreciate the NFC East, well, I appreciate every team in the NFC East except for the Eagles, whom I loathe like few other organizations.  And it’s not even the team or players, it’s the organization…the Eagles are a bunch of cold motherfuckers, and what they did to TO, a guy who signed a waiver saying the team wasn’t responsible for any further injury the guy could suffer after coming back from a BROKEN LEG to play in the Super Bowl, and not only play, but arguably be the best player on the field…was bullshit (disclaimer: I’m a huge TO fan and was on his side all throughout the Eagles debacle).  Fuck the Eagles, I hope they never win a Super Bowl…not only does the organization not deserve it, the fans don’t deserve it by being a bunch of whiny bitches. 

How the fuck could anyone not take TO’s side on that?  Jesus Christ.

Let’s do this…

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In the NFL, personnel decisions are extremely important and can make or break a team’s future for half a decade or longer, and in no other division is this any clearer than in the AFC West.  The AFC West was once a powerhouse…the Raiders, Chiefs, Broncos and Chargers all having impressive looking teams all at once.  The bad blood ran deep as each team hated each other with a passion unmatched by other arbitrarily thrown together divisions like the NFC West and AFC South.

However, a series of fuckups by each team over the last 5 years has wrecked three of the teams while one boasts, arguably, the strogest roster in the NFL.  Lets take a look at the well-known individuals calling the shots…

• AJ Smith (SD) – an egomaniacal asshole who fired a coach 2 months after he just went 14-2…and it worked.  He, Polian and Pioli may be douchebags, but they know their football players.
• Mike Shanahan (Denver) – when it comes to football strategy, he’s in the top 3 in terms of NFL coaches.  Sadly, his personnel management is fuckign horrendous…seriously, MAURICE CLARETT IN ROUND 3?
• Carl Peterson (KC) – legendary reputation and iron-clad job security, his mismanagement and reliance on overrated vets has left both his offensive lines and WR corps dangerously AWFUL all the while striking out on defensive prospect after defensive prospect.
• Al Davis (Oakland) – senile.  What was once the best mind in football is now tapioca.

Sometimes the guy buying the groceries is responsible for a shitty meal.

Anyways…onto the previews.

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