They are three words which are often hard to put together for most of us—–“I was wrong.”
I am wrong a lot. That hurt a little… but let’s type on.
I thought Rex Grossman would be an NFL Star, thought Ray Lankford would be a future Hall of Famer and yes I thought this year’s Super Bowl would include the Niners and Patriots—ouch.
With that said–here goes—in this year’s Super Bowl I predict the sun may sneak into New Jersey and I like the Seahawks sneaking away with the Lombardi Trophy. I like them because the NFC is deeper and more talented than the AFC which is loaded with many cupcakes. The Hawks are battle tested beating an unbelievably physical and skilled Niners team twice and if the weather is cold I think that will favor the number one D in the NFL.
You know what that means?? Its gonna be a blizzard on Super Sunday and the Broncos will win going away. For the record how about Seattle 27-24….
Taking a cannonball into the prediction pool, the first of many topics on this week’s Naborhood checklist ……thanks for stopping by.
SHERMAN SAYS: For the record I don’t hate Seattle’s controversial corner Richard Sherman. In fact , I think if I knew him better we would get along great. He’s a terrific player, an often refreshing personality who never gives us a dull moment. That said–I had a real problem with his actions and then his words after sealing the deal against the Niners in the NFC Championship game.
By now his physical and subsequent verbal taunting of San Francisco receiver Michael Crabtree is more played than those Justin Beiber mugshots. I found Sherman’s postgame tirade classless and bush league but all the excuses from those defending him didn’t make the cut either.
The biggest: What did you expect sticking a microphone in a player’s face after such an emotional game? Really? Well I expected excitement but how about a little professionalism and not making it all about you? A player doesn’t have to be boring in these interviews ,which is often the case, but Sherman took it to the other extreme which in effect was extremely uncomfortable to watch and took away from his teammates. He didn’t win it by himself. To his credit, he has apologized for doing so.
Many defend him on the account he went to Stanford and isn’t dumb? I never thought he was dumb. Dumb would be those idiots who brought race into the equation and idiotically called him “a thug,” Listen I don’t care if he went to Stanford, Harvard or Miss Valley St—smart people can do stupid things and this certainly qualifies.
Finally I thought Erin Andrews could have handled the situation better too. Why not have fun in the follow up question—“Richard, you seem angry, you are going to your first Super Bowl?” Maybe that would have kept one of the few interesting sideline postgame interviews going instead of having a Fox producer in the truck ending it in an extremely awkward fashion??
People I talked to in Seattle like Richard Sherman and that includes those who cover him. His angry face on the Jumbotron during games at CenturyLink field, an image that gets the crowd going in Seattle is funny and highly entertaining. Unlike loudmouth Warren Sapp, Sherman doesn’t treat people bad, he just lost his mind for a few minutes and I think may learn from this. Heck, even Deion Sanders of all people said it was poor judgement. I love personality in sports and hate boring sound bytes—I just can’t stand taunting on and off the field—sometimes enough is enough. I also can’t stand cooling off periods for players—it takes the emotion out of the coverage but this time the emotions could and should have been tempered.
PRO BOWL’S PREDICAMENT: Listen when it comes to the NFL– change isn’t always good. I hate the Thursday games as do the players. Please don’t put a team in London and leave the playoff format alone and while we’re at it, we don’t need to get rid of extra points. If you don’t like them—than go for two??
One thing that needs amending is the Pro Bowl and gosh darn it, the NFL is trying its hardest. I, in turn tried hard–really really HARD to watch the latest concoction–the PRO Bowl Draft. But after a few minutes of watching just couldn’t buy in. It got so bad, I thought about clicking over to an NBA game, another unwatchable entity. Maybe it was the constant trash talk of Deion Sanders who was great on the field, but is lousy on TV. Maybe it was the fact that it didn’t offer us any drama or surprises. I actually felt sorry for Alex Smith getting picked last?? He wasn’t labeled Mr Irrelevant, he was deemed Mr “Not so Irrelevant”—but in the end led the game winning drive for the NFC.
Some say fixing the Pro Bowl is the old lipstick on a pig argument, but let’s face it –what made the NBA All Star Weekend so successful for years was its skills competition. How about we do the same in the NFL?? With all of these athletes you could have a fantastic QB skills battle. How bout a hands competition among the receivers, maybe a fun obstacle course challenge and even throw the kickers a bone and let them kick it out. None of the above SHOULD hurt anybody.
As for the game, let it be played AFTER the Super Bowl so the competing teams can have its Pro Bowlers compete—this thing needs to have its brightest stars in the ring. During the game, I like letting defensive guys jump on offense and vice versa—let some QB’s kick extra points–anything to shake things up a bit.
Still, I thought this year’s game made quite a nice comeback—one of the rare NFL changes I agree with.
BRADY & MANNING: Both guys are certainly among the best ever but even after the recent AFC Championship, I would still take Tom Brady over Peyton Manning—especially in crunch time. Yeah I know, get over it, Peyton got it done and Brady came up short but looking at both rosters, Tom’s wife is better known than this year’s Patriot receivers.
Brady loses Welker, Gronkowski, Aaron Hernandez not to mention Danny Woodhead to the Chargers and Brandon Lloyd who was released and still got his team to the doorstep of another Super Bowl–could Manning have done that? I’m not so sure. Sure Julian Edelman was a legit target with over 1,000 yard receiving yards but how many can name Brady’s other receivers???? Danny Amendola, Shane Vereen, Aaron Dobson and Kenbrell Thompkins–hardly household names.
Sure Brady has had Gronk and a decent past his prime Randy Moss but never won a Super Bowl, but won his three Super Bowls without those two—he did it with no names like Deion Branch and David Patten. While Manning has had future Hall of Fame Wide Receivers in Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne back in his Indy days and this season he’s had Welker along with two other targets with over a thousand yards in Demaryius Thomas and Eric Decker. Manning is great but in terms of the whole body of work I will take Brady who like Dan Marino never had a lot of talent around him but still won. No Brady is our generation’s Joe Montana but with far fewer weapons…..
BITTER BELICHICK: While Brady gets a thumbs up, will his coach please shut up? The guy who never says ANYTHING chooses to rip on his old WR Wes Welker for a pick play when he finally opens his mouth. FIrst off the Patriots run plenty of pick plays and the play was so bad even the “fine hungry” NFL chose to leave this one alone. Hey Bill, wash your hoodie, enjoy the offseason and next time you choose to say something—make it something meaningful?? Oh and when you call somebody out—at least say his name—lame!
SUPER ONESIES: Never say I wasn’t there for you folks. Looking to buy the football fan in your home something to wear at your Super Bowl party or really any football gathering—how about this….
What says you’re number one more than— well a football onesie. Now this will give you an excuse not to leave the couch all day. If you are interested check out the inventory from my friends at ZOOOP iT UP! luxury adult onesies. This product is the new unisex ZOOOPLESS Onesie in Football just in time for Super Bowl. This hooded, footless ZOOOP is made of soft, lightweight 100% cotton, and looks amazing on both men and women. The game day equivalent of ‘turkey pants,’ your ZOOOP will keep you comfortable no matter how many wings you eat.Sizes XXS – XXL available for $219 at ZOOOPitUP.com.
ANCHORMAN REVIEW: Finally got around to seeing Anchorman 2, the Legend continues. Oh Ronny Burgandy and his posse didn’t disappoint. After his stellar debut, the bar was set pretty high. This one, I thought came out of the gates real slow but picked up once Burgandy and company started doing 24 hour news.
Really funny scenes, but like the original, this one had the feel as if they were making it up as they went along, which isn’t always a bad thing. I wish they would have done more scenes on set as the ones they did were outstanding. Some real funny scenes with the new addition–Ron’s general manager Linda Jackson. Some real inappropriate and extremely politically incorrect scenes but it worked.
Its hard to make the sequel good but they pull it off. Unbelievable cameos from quite an All-Star cast at the end in a scene which ran a little long but this one pulled out all the stops. So many recent comedies had me wanting to walk out of the theatre but this one came through—I would recommend it.
CARL ERSKINE: He was my Dad’s favorite baseball player growing up and recently I have become a big fan as well. Carl Erskine was an All-Star pitcher, won over 100 games, pitched two no hitters and was one of the standout starters for the Brooklyn Dodgers. One of the main contributors to their only World Series championship team in 1955.
Looking to find a different Christmas present for my Dad this year, I set out to find Erskine who now resides in Anderson, Indiana where he is very active in the community and has a Rehab Center in his name. I left a message there for him and he not only got back to me—he called and emailed me a few times and at the end of the day sent my Dad two autographed pieces which I had framed for him.
My Dad who turns 74 this year got Erskine’s autograph at Spring Training in Tampa when he was a mere teenager—good to see all of these years later, this ole Brooklyn Dodger (his current picture above) hasn’t lost his fastball with his biggest fan.
NOBODY ASKED ME BUT: My dog Sammy is a good looking golden retriever, but for most of his life has been a goofy golden. He’s not alone— I heard it takes a good three to four years to break these good family dogs in—well it seems our man may finally have hit his stride. I’ve never been around an animal that needs more attention, likes to tackle you when you come home as often and eats food faster than my man Sammy.
He’s been a handful but this week was his watershed moment—I saw him actually asleep on the kitchen floor the other night–without any supervision. It was the same feeling I had teaching my girls how to ride a bike—finally we can take off the training wheels and let my only son go. Good job Sammy, you were on thin ice for years, but I think you may be a keeper….
EXTRA POINT: Another shrewd business move for Warren Buffett. He will be teaming up with Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert to give someone one billion dollars–IF–they can nail EVERY winner in this year’s NCAA Tournament bracket. How hard is that?? The odds are 1 in 9.2 quintillion! YOU would have better odds of being the number one pick in this year’s NBA Draft?? The only bummer if you win—you have to spread the winnings out for the next 4o years—that would add up to 25 million a year….I think most could swallow that.
UNTIL NEXT BLOG,
Mike Nabors @mikenabors
PHOTO CREDITS: usatoday.com, yahoo.com ,aceshowbiz.com, anderson.edu & vinskullyismyhomeboy.com