You are here for a history making moment—-my inaugural Naborhood 9 Blog. I’m not a very conventional person, so who needs a top 10 list when I can save your precious time with a top 9. I cover the entire Southeastern conference along with an NFL team (the Saints for the past 6 years) along with several of the top events around the country so I hope to pass on many interesting tidbits from my travels! Welcome to my Naborhood, you’re always welcome–even if you disagree!
(9) DONOVAN “MAD”-NESS—Billy Donovan isn’t happy with his basketball team right now. Covering his first back to back loss in two seasons against Tennessee, Donovan told me along with my media brethren that basically his team is soft. On at least 5 occasions Billy said his guys “need to be hardened.” Translation—-his team isn’t battle tested and haven’t paid their dues. On top of that—Donovan isn’t happy with the team’s practices of late. Last week, he kicked his guys out twice in one practice session. He compares this year’s bunch to the team’s led by a young Chandler Parsons and Joakim Noah when they were learning to win. Those guys figured it out–time will tell if these Gators do?
(8) ENOUGH ALREADY! Its tough to say goodbye to another football season, but I can’t wait to say goodbye to this Jim Irsay/Peyton Manning he said, he said nonsense? I don’t know if Peyton can play or not but these two were the only lowlight in a Super week in Indy. Can you please end the suspense, all the Irsay twittering and make a move. All of this talk is getting old. Bring in Andrew Luck and hopefully Peyton goes to the Redskins where we will be treated to “at least” two Manning bowls a year?!
(7) GIVE ME MORE! Something that never gets old is watching Mickelson and Tiger Woods paired in a final round of a PGA event. The only thing that is more enjoyable than watching golf’s version of the Yanks and Red Sox is Bill Murray shake up those uppity country club types by wearing a camouflage outfit and roll around in a Pebble Beach sand trap. Please Tiger and Phil—give us a sequel in Augusta—I don’t care who wins, its always must see TV!
(6) SUPER SCHIANO: For the record, I love the Greg Schiano hiring. I don’t care about the track record of college coaches to the NFL. I don’t care that he never won a title at Rutgers–can we all remember it’s Rutgers for crying out loud. This guy has the respect of Bill Belichick and will command it in the youngest locker room in the NFL. Many say he hasn’t won anything but have all those “hot” coordinator candidates won who have been scooped up all around the league? Absolutely nothing—unllike those guys Schiano has head coaching experience and has turned down the likes of Penn St, Miami and Michigan. He didn’t turn down the Bucs, something the pewter nation will be happy about down the road.
(5) GET OFF GRONK : I’m happy this story is finally died down and still can’t believe it lasted as long as it did. The Rob Gronkowski post Super Bowl party foolishness. Sure it was “a bit” over the top but the season was over and he wasn’t hurting anybody except his chances for Dancing with the Stars down the road.. If they had camera phones back in the day–I’m guessing more than a few other NFL players would have been caught drinking while dancing as well.
(4) LINN > TEBOW –OK I loved the Tim Tebow story this season but let’s stop the comparisons with in my opinion an even better story in Knicks guard Jeremy Linn. Tebow won the Heisman, was considered arguably the best player in college football history and oh by the way was a 1st round pick. Linn wasn’t drafted and played at Harvard for crying out loud! C’mon this comparison is way off the mark but is further proof how pro scouting continues to be an inexact science.
(3) SAYONARA SIGNING DAY!! Speaking of Scouting—I am so glad National Signing Day has come and gone. Is their a more overrated event in sports?! At least the NFL Draft busts proved themselves in college. I’m still trying to figure out the difference between a four and a five star recruit. Give me the two and three stars, it seems like they are the ones who end up being the stars of the NFL Draft.
(2) TRAVEL TIP—-If you want to take the kids to Disney, I always have been told the best day is New Year’s Day but possibly a close second is Super Bowl Sunday. Recently took the fam to the land of Mickey for my daughter Morgan’s 10th birthday party. We enjoyed a stress free day at the park, chock full of plenty of elbow room and still got back to the hotel in time to watch Eli beat the Patriots. The next day Morgan was on my shoulders and took a picture of Eli parading down Main Street—great weekend, I highly recommend it!
(1) LADY MADONNA—Sure Eli Manning will profit from his 2nd Super Bowl but after watching Madonna put on a show at halftime–be honest—how many of you downloaded some Madonna tunes this week? Tell the truth!
UNTIL NEXT BLOG
Mike.
Jake Locker is an athlete and a leader. Pure and simple. He made a great run in 2009 and put up great numbers, but the players around him last season were less than spectacular which is why he struggled. Jake has great size, great agility for a QB and toughness is definitely not something an NFL team needs to worry about. If Jake can get picked up by a team where he can learn behind an established QB on their way out like McNabb, Kerry Collins or Chad Pennington then he will be a very effective NFL QB. If Jake gets thrown into the league as a Rookie with expectations that mirror the success of Mark Sanchez, Matt Ryan and Sam Bradford, than Jake Locker will be destined to fail. (David Carr, Ryan Leaf)Jake Locker has all of the tools and can make all of the throws that an NFL QB needs to be able to make, it is just a matter of having the patience to work with him for longer than 1 training camp before making him the 1st string QB.