The Detroit Lions off-season plan: Free Agency

Posted on January 15, 2013 by Jeff

The re-signing phase will play a crucial role in whether or not the Lions target any players in free agency.  In the second part of this series, we take a look at some of these potential players.

Free Agent Targets:  I’m optimistic that if the Lions can get everyone signed around what they’re making right now, that they could use the cap room from letting Cliff Avril and Corey Williams go to pick up a free agent or two.  Realistically, since this franchise is strapped for cash, they won’t make a major splash or impact in free agency.  This year’s free agency class is deep, there’s going to be a fair amount of turnover, and I have a feeling that the good teams will just simply get better.  It’s pretty absurd how deep some of the positions are, and it will be interesting to see which players end up testing free agency.

Continue reading →

Posted in NFL | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Detroit Lions off-season plan: Re-signings

Posted on January 15, 2013 by Jeff

It’s been just over a year and yet again, I’m writing another piece on how to fix the Lions.  Unfortunately the Lions are more broken than we thought, and the only good news is that there are a lot of free agents that will be available.  The bad news?  The Lions were absolutely destroyed by the old CBA and they have a ton of money tied up in a few players; specifically Matt Stafford, Megatron and Ndamukong Suh.  They will keep working to restructure their deals and to sign them for the long-term, but it has handcuffed them so far.  They have almost half the team as free agents this year, so it will be an important and an extremely busy off-season.

This is the first part in a three part series previewing the Lions off-season needs.  Specifically who to re-sign, who could be a free agent target and who to watch at the combine as a potential Lions pick.

Continue reading →

Posted in NFL | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Final AP Poll Olympics of the Year

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Jeff

This idea started after the Week 4 poll came out September 16th.  I found a website called pollspeak.com and have been completely enamored with it ever since.  I love being able to see every single person’s poll in one place and to see how ridiculous everyone is.  Doug Lesmerises and Jon Wilner were the two that set this whole thing in motion, and it sort of escalated from there.

Here is the last one for the year, along with the final tally of “Medals” for each writer.

Continue reading →

Posted in College Football | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Thank You Denard

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Jeff

Denard Robinson has not been the best quarterback I’ve ever watched.  Not even close.  But short of Charles Woodson, Calvin Johnson, and Barry Sanders, he is the most explosive player I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching play in person.  No one like Denard Robinson will ever don the maize and blue again.  Having a player that can score anytime he touches the ball is one of the rarest things a team can have, and it should never be taken for granted.  It has literally been an honor and a pleasure to watch him play.  Even with the arm punts, and the sometimes disappointing performances, no one like him will ever enter the Big House again.

Continue reading →

Posted in College Football | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Michigan vs. South Carolina: An Outback Bowl to forget

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Jeff

It all started with the uniforms.  There were three different shades of “maize” used on the uniforms, and the numbers were nearly impossible to see on TV and even worse in person.  I get it, it’s “for the kids” and to help with recruiting.  I don’t see Alabama or USC doing it, and they seem to recruit just fine, year after year.  Is it the end of the world when Michigan does it? No, of course not.  But if you’re going to do it, at least make the uniforms look good.  It’s embarrassing when the announcers have to preface the broadcast by saying they might get numbers wrong because they can’t see them.  If you’re going to do something half-assed, don’t do it at all.

Jadeveon Clowney. Just wow.  I had been concerned with him going into the game, and watching the game didn’t alleviate any of my concern.  Clowney is simply a stud and he makes everyone around him better.  If he was draft eligible this year, he would be going #1 overall, there’s not a doubt in my mind.

Continue reading →

Posted in College Football | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The NHL Lockout is finally over but the damage is done

Posted on January 6, 2013 by Jeff

As you know by now, the NHL Lockout is over and there is a tentative CBA agreement in place between the NHL and the NHLPA.  If the NHL Lockout had gone on for the whole season I had vowed to never watch another game, and never step foot in an NHL Arena again unless it was for a College Game or a concert or something similar.  I would have stuck to it too, because this lockout was ridiculous.  And to be perfectly honest, I’m still pretty bitter about the lockout going on for this long.  The NHL led sponsors/advertisers on for a while, and made it seem like this new CBA they were going to work on would consist of nothing more than a few tweaks, this obviously was not the case.

The deal that has been tentatively done is pretty much a deal they could have made in July or August, had they wanted too.  The Owners during the last lockout got every last thing they wanted in the CBA, it was literally their creation and the players were essentially forced to sign it or they would be locked out forever.  This time, the Owners tried to do almost the exact same thing, except this time the players were prepared to fight back.  There were about 11 teams or so that were driving the lockout, trying to get the best deal possible so that they would stop losing money.  But now to make a deal frustrates me because there is nothing intrinsically unique or difficult about this deal.  And yet, 32 games, the All-Star Game and the Winter Classic were all cancelled.

Continue reading →

Posted in NHL | Leave a comment

Outback Bowl Preview: Michigan takes on South Carolina in Tampa

Posted on December 31, 2012 by Jeff

This is the first inaugural bowl preview, and I must say, I’m a bit salty that it isn’t for a more meaningful game than just the Outback Bowl.  I’ll break down both team’s offenses and defenses, then provide you with a score prediction.  South Carolina is a good squad and they will provide Michigan with a tough matchup; just be happy that Marcus Lattimore isn’t healthy, otherwise it might have been a route.

Continue reading →

Posted in College Football | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

God Bless Calvin Johnson: The Road to 2,000

Posted on December 23, 2012 by Jeff

108 more yards.  Seems simple enough.

I fell in love with this guy when he was plying at Georgia Tech.  Specifically on this play:

He was only true freshman when this happened in 2004, and you knew he was poised for greatness.  His legend at Georgia Tech only continued to grow, and when he declared and the Lions had the #2 pick, I was praying they were going to pick him.  Megatron showed up to the combine, not planning to run the 40-yard-dash, but saw everyone else do it and immediately wanted to do it.  He borrowed another players cleats, and ran a 4.35.  Simply incredible.

Continue reading →

Posted in NFL | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Better Late Than Never I Guess: Michigan vs. Ohio State, Nice Job Al Borges

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Jeff

Ugh.  I’ve been waiting to write this for a long time now.  It’s long overdue, but I just couldn’t bear to re-live this game.  I was going to just combine this with the Bowl Game preview, but obviously decided not too.

This game.  Man, where to start.  If you had told me that Michigan would have been winning at halftime and then they would be getting the ball to start the second half, I would have told you that we would have been in stellar shape.  The issue here was not with the team.  Nope, this loss, like the Nebraska game was on the coaching staff.

The defense played absolutely great…again.  I mean, I don’t know how many more times I can keep saying the same thing.  Everyone should thank God that Greg Mattison’s daughter lives in Ann Arbor, and begged him to take the job so that his grandson could see his grandpa.  The sheer and utter fortune that was given to Michigan is unbelievable.  Was this karma reparations for dealing with Rich Rodriguez?  I’m not sure.

Continue reading →

Posted in College Football | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The 1st Annual Coaches Poll Olympics

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Jeff

Let me preface this post by saying that I do not think something like this is more of an atrocity or more of a problem than the types of issues this world faces on a daily basis.  Or more of a problem than what happened today in Connecticut, which was flat out horrific.  This is just a good way to take my mind, and perhaps your mind off, stuff like that and give myself a solid break from the real problems in the world.  Yes, these polls are bad, but there are worse things in life than bad things happening in sports.

I wish I could do this throughout the year, but the Coaches Poll isn’t made public until the final week of the regular season.  So here it goes, if you want to see all of the coaches ballots they’re on pollspeak.com.  You can tell that looking through these polls that these coaches just check boxscores, and that they have hidden agendas.  There is no way that these coaches can all honestly think that these teams are ranked this way.  They know that their vote counts in the BCS poll and it looks as though some coaches were helping Northern Illinois get into the Top 15.  It’s just sad, it’s like there is no integrity anymore, everyone has their own agenda.  I can’t guarantee that I wouldn’t do the same thing, but I’d keep it pretty damn honest.

Continue reading →

Posted in College Football | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment