The National Football League for years has been making itself deliberately mediocre. There was a philosophy born under Commissioner Paul Tagliabue known as “Parity;” the primary components of which was there should be no dynasties. Rather, teams should be able to quickly build themselves into contention through free-agency and the draft. Last season, the graphic below was posted… Read More Parity: Why Every Team in the NFL Is Now Flawed
Clark Kent isn’t the only journalist who can become a superhero. Clark Judge at CBS Sports.com has the ability to drop his snap-brim hat, horn-rim glasses, and gray flannel suit faster than this speeding blog to become his cape-wearing alter-ego Captain Obvious. I’m sure Judge isn’t the only guy to write a column this week… Read More When Sports Writers Get Too Clever: Obviously, It Doesn’t Take A Superhero To Beat Tom Brady
When you are the fan of a 100-loss team, you expect your team to make changes; after all, you just lost 100 games. This is a feat which has only been dubiously achieved by 28 teams in the last 30 years, the Houston Astros becoming the latest to do so. If the Twins don’t win… Read More The Minnesota Twins: The Post-Mortem
With yet another weekend of football in the books, there are several more important lessons we should have learned both in the college ranks and in the NFL. 1) You “instant replay solves everything” people can all bite me…again. The Toledo Rockets got robbed by not just the officials, but also by the instant replay… Read More What We Learned From This Past Weekend in Football 9/25/11
Remember when you were a kid and there was that one old guy in the neighborhood who was bitter toward the whole world? The guy who cut up any Nerf footballs that landed in his yard, and consequently got a lot of flaming bags of dog crap left on his doorstep? Well, it isn’t hard… Read More Dan Pastorini: “F–k Drew Brees”
A few years ago, I would have never imagined this moment was possible; Joe Mauer was a god in catcher’s gear in Minnesota. But, when you sign a contract worth roughly the gross national product of Portugal, then bat under .250 with absolutely no power, the tables are going to turn. But now we’ve entered… Read More Great Moments in Minnesota Twins History: The Day Hating Joe Mauer Entered The Afterlife
A lot of people know Orlando Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy is not shy when it comes to offering his opinions. Since the NBA Lockout is robbing us of chances to hear from Mr. Van Gundy, we were fortunate enough to find this nugget of his wisdom, especially on a subject near and dear… Read More Stan Van Gundy Is Done Pussy-Footing Around With College Athletics
Several important football lessons were learned this weekend, both in the college ranks and in the NFL. So, without wasting time on a clever introduction, let’s just cut to the important stuff… 1) What Do Cam Newton and Notre Dame have in common? To be blunt, they are both now officially over-rated. The Irish are… Read More What We Learned From This Weekend in Football 9/18/11
A few days ago, San Francisco Giants reliever Jeremy Affeldt had his season end after he sustained a deep cut in his right hand while using a knife to separate frozen hamburger patties. The injury required surgery to repair nerve damage in the little finger of his non-throwing hand. While I’m not intending to poke fun at… Read More Great Moments in the History of Dumb Baseball Injuries
Without a bunch of fluff, it’s time to look at some things that happened last week that you won’t see again this week. In other words, let’s not go overboard on some things: 1) The Redskins are not as good as they looked, and the Giants aren’t as bad as they looked (but not by… Read More Five Things You Saw In NFL Week One That You Won’t See in Week Two
If you are my age, you remember those Reader’s Digest Condensed Books. Essentially, they were literary classics for the short American attention span. Why wade through 600 pages of a classic when you can get the jist in 50? I read a good article on the NBA lockout the other day, but it was by… Read More Condensing Bill Simmons To A Comprehensible Level To Understand the NBA Lockout
While the rest of America is looking to remember 9/11 on its tenth anniversary, a decade from now people in Indiana may be remembering 9/8; the day their football world collapsed. Yes, I understand that comparing a medical procedure on a football player to an act of war that changed the entire world is completely… Read More An Open Letter To Indianapolis Colts Fans: Like It Or Not,The Peyton Manning Era Is Over
I’ll give you the moral of this story up front. This is what happens when a die-hard Penn State fan marries into a decidedly Boilermaker family. Not only is my wife a Purdue alum, her father is a chemistry professor at Giant Drum A&M. If that weren’t enough, the wedding was being held literally within… Read More Great Moments in Joe Paterno History: The Day JoePa Made a Clandestine Appearance At My Wedding
As we find ourselves on the verge of another NFL season, it is time for the degenerate gambler in me to preview the carnage. Let’s face it, the NFL is comprised of three classes: Really Good, Mediocre, and Lousy. This means NFL predictions are pretty easy to get reasonably correct. For example, the online sports… Read More The Dubsism 2011 Pre-Season NFL Power Rankings
In my last baseball rankings, I said the All-Star break to me has always represented the “far turn” in the horse race that is the Major League Baseball season. This means Labor Day marks the beginning of the home stretch; everybody has less than thirty games to play; everybody’s made their non-waiver and waiver trade… Read More The Dubsism Baseball Power Rankings: The Labor Day Edition – The Contenders vs. The Pretenders Edition
Because we are into the greatest 12 weekends of the year, it is also time to remind some people of just who they are. In other words, we are taking the pre-season Dubsism Top 25 and reminding them that they suck. Let’s be honest, a big part of college football is trash-talking. This is exactly… Read More Trash-Talking the 2011 Top 25
For listeners of the Dan Patrick Show, today you got to hear the best college football writer in this country tell his tale about how he got a hard, unlubricated screw-job from the management at ESPN. For those of you unfamiliar with the story, Deadspin offers a very good re-cap here, complete with audio from… Read More In Honor of Bruce Feldman, Let’s Hear Your Management Horror Stories
This may just be the usual rookie hazing, but this represents something that has gone just a bit too far in this country. This is Anthony Bass of the San Diego Padres, a team that has a tradition of making the rookies wear “Star Wars” backpacks. Frankly, this is just a glimpse of a much larger… Read More Signs We Are Near The End Of Civilization: Star Wars Geekery Must Be Stopped
In 2006 during the Ohio State game, midway through the second quarter, Penn State is preparing to punt on 4th down when suddenly Joe Paterno trots into the backfield as if he’s going to take the snap. But he keeps going…in a beeline for the Penn State locker room. Stranger still, JoePa doesn’t return until after… Read More Great Moments In Joe Paterno History: JoePa Has A Run Longer Than His Offense Does
There’s two weeks until the first weekend of the NFL regular season, and I’ve already got a belly full of the quarterback controversy in Denver. From the moment the Broncos used a first-round pick to draft Tim Tebow, both he and Kyle Orton have been joined at the hip in what has to be one… Read More Are Tim Tebow and Kyle Orton Both Victims of Stupidity?
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