Thank you Coach Sloan

I was shocked and saddened when news broke that Jerry Sloan had resigned as head coach of the Utah Jazz. Sloan was the franchise. Losing an icon like him felt like I was losing a family member. For any Jazz fan born in the 80's, he's the only coach we've ever known.

I do not want to get into the semantics of why he left. That will all come out with time. I just want to thank him for 23 great years of team-first basketball, that came with no excuses or apologies. In the words of Frank Sinatra, Jerry did it his way.

I highly doubt that we will ever see another major professional coach last 23 years as the man in charge. It's a different world now, one where instant success is demanded. When it's not met, the coach is shown the door.

So thank you Coach Sloan. Your legacy will last a lot longer than your coaching career in Utah, and that's saying a lot.

Super Sunday Prediction

Honestly, I can't stand either team. Never really liked the Packers, and I've despised the Steelers since they beat Denver at home in the AFC Championship game in 2005.


If Pittsburgh wins, Big Ben Rape-a-burger will have three Super Bowl titles. I don't think I want to live in a world where Big Ben has more super bowl rings then the G.O.A.T. (Greatest Of All Time) John Elway.




But on the other hand, I'm not really ready for A-Fraud, a.k.a. Aaron Rodgers to be called a Super Bowl champion. So conflicted.


I guess, gun to the head, I'll go with the Green Bay Packers because I do like Charles Woodson, and he's definitely put in the work to be called a champion.

Final Score - Green Bay 31 Pittsburgh 27

This Wednesday is a very big day for college football. It's not a game, and it's got nothing to do with the BCS or conference re-alignment. No, Wednesday February 2 is National Signing Day.


It's when thousands of high school seniors make a decision on what college they will play at for the next four years and while on the surface it may sound dull, it is anything but.

A good recruiting class can be the foundation for success. A bad recruiting class can set a program back for a few years or even get coaches fired.

So far the University of Utah has a solid class put together. At the moment, Rivals.com has the Utes ranked as the 39th best class in the nation, headlined by Bingham high's Harvey Langi. Langi is a powerful running back who should play immidiately because of the graduations of Matt Asiata and Eddie Wide.





Junior college transfer Keith McGill is the other jewel of this recruitng class. The 4-star ranked McGill is a six-foot-four safety who racked up interceptions by the bunch.

If the Utes can pull a couple of surpirse signing on signing day itself, Utah could be looking at a Top-30 class when all is said and done.

Can't Wait

It's Championship Sunday eve. Jets-Steelers. Bears-Packers. Someone will turn into a hero for their respective fan base. Someone will inevitably turn out to be a goat for one reason or another.

This is also the last Sunday where we red-blooded, football loving Americans will get to watch more than one game in a day. Because after Sunday, we will be down to just two teams vying for the Lombardi Trophy down in Dallas.

Cherish this Sunday's games, because with the looming labor squabbles that are on the horizon this Spring, it could be a long time before pro football is in our lives again. But lets leave the apocalyptic talk alone until after the Super Bowl.

My predictions for tomorrow's games:

The Jets will expose the numerous injuries along the Steelers offensive line, and will shock Pittsburgh on the road 27-17 to be the AFC's representative in Dallas.




In the NFC, I like the Bears to stymie the Packers offense. Look for Julius Peppers and Brian Urlacher to make some big plays on defense for Chicago. I also think the Green Bay offense will struggle in the outdoors and the frozen turf at Soldier Field. Bears win 21-10.

Check back here Monday for my recap and an early Super Bowl preview.

Vick in Philly

Mike Vick is back!




I don’t care if you like him or not, Vick and Donovan McNabb together in a backfield together is going to be insane. Plus having Vick with the Philly fans is going to be even crazier.

This could go either way with the Philly fans, these are people who booed Santa Clause, and threw snowballs packed with batteries in them at refs and opposing coaches and players, so expect anything with them from lavish adoration, to mean spirited rated R language.

Think of what you could do with Vick and McNabb in Madden 10, (once they update the rosters to have Vick in the game) especially since Madden has installed the Wildcat offense into the game this year. They could be the most used team in Madden this year.

Plus, the Eagles have a great foundation to help Vick. Since 2001, they have been one of the best teams in the NFL year in and year out.

McNabb is one of the best players in the league on and off the field, their head coach Andy Reid is Mormon, and is very dedicated to helping young men overcome struggles in their lives. Couple that with the advice he is getting from another deeply religious man in Tony Dungy and a firm foundation for Vick to succeed is definitely in place in Philadelphia.

So Vick landed on his feet, and luckily it isn’t in a place like St. Louis or Detroit, where he would not have much of an impact on a downtrodden team. Philly will be there at the end of the season, like they are every year, and with Vick, they add another weapon to an already dangerous offense.

Check out the playmakers Philly has now around McNabb; Brian Westbrook and rookie LeSean McCoy will be the running backs, along with Vick more than likely. Their wide outs Desean Jackson and another rookie Jeremy Maclin, are quick as a whip and have the chance to be a special combo together, and their tight end Brent Celek is a good receiver.

So what does this all mean for Mike Vick’s future? Well he signed a two year deal, but in all actuality it will be a one year deal.

Vick signed up for the first year at $1.6 million. He has an option for a second year at $5.2 million with the Eagles, but unless something bad happens to McNabb, and Vick shows that he is fully back to what he was, Philly will more than likely cut him after this season and either let him go, or re-work another contract.

Vick needs money worse than a 16 year old kid who wants to party, but only has a 20 dollar allowance a week, so Mike will be on his best behavior, and hopefully at his peak performance.

If he can show flashes of his old self, then he should be able to earn a nice paycheck next season, and hopefully compete for a starting spot somewhere else.

His conditioning and reflexes are going to be tested right away, and who knows if he still has them after 19 months in a federal penitentiary. But at least he has a chance to test those skills, and we the fans will get to see something special this season.



It could be a train wreck, or it could be spectacular, regardless we will all be watching.

A Open Letter

Dear Bucs and Broncos fans,

I am writing this letter to you on August 7th, 2009. You don’t know it yet, but your respective teams are going to be harder to watch this season than Paul Bearer in a speedo on Siesta Key.



Let’s start with the Broncos.

What can I say; the damage already speaks for itself. In a span of 6 months, Denver went from having one of the most promising offensive football teams, to a squad that has Kyle Orton and Chris Simms as its quarterbacks.

Which is more depressing? Having Orton and Simms as your QB’s or the state of our Economy? If you are a Broncos fan, it’s easily the former.

Head Turd, err I mean Coach, Josh McDaniels and owner Pat Bowlen are squarely to blame.

Bowlen fired Mike Shanahan at the end of last season, mainly because of a late season collapse that saw Denver blow a three game lead, with three games to play.

This was hardly Shanahan’s fault, as the Broncos were on their 6th string Running Back (Tatum Bell, who had been out of the league because he stole a teammates bag of belongings in Detroit, was signed to be the starter; if that doesn’t scream desperation, I don’t know what would), and had numerous injuries up and down the defense.

They even had player, Spencer Larsen, who started at both Linebacker and Fullback in the same game, which isn’t a big deal if it’s Pop Warner, but is when it’s the NFL.

So Shanahan gets the axe, and they bring in Josh McDaniels, who had been New England’s offensive coordinator for the past three seasons.

McDaniels comes in and immediately looks to try to trade for Matt Cassel, who he coached in New England. The Chiefs wound up acquiring Cassel, and eventually word leaked out, that McDaniels tried to get Cassel.

This set-off a chain of events that ultimately saw Jay Cutler, one of the top young quarterbacks, to be traded to the Bears for a 2009 First round pick, a 2010 First round Pick, a 2009 Third Round Pick and quarterback Kyle Orton.

I’d rather have Randy Orton, than Kyle F. Orton on the Broncos. At least Orton could RKO McDaniels for being an idiot.



With Cutler being traded, the Broncos top wide out, Brandon Marshall has now become disgruntled, asked to be traded, and is making up injuries, so he doesn’t have to work out with the team in training camp.

Compounding matters is Denver’s schedule. The Broncos have home games against San Diego, Dallas, New England, the New York Giants and Pittsburgh.

On the road they have San Diego again as well as games against Baltimore, Washington, Philadelphia, and Indianapolis.

Expect a 6-10 season from Denver at the best and a 3-13 at the worst.

On to the Bucs.

They are not in as bad of shape as Denver is long term, but 2009 looks really tough.

I think this story about the Bucs off-season pursuit of then free agent, defensive tackle, Albert Haynesworth will sum up everything you need to know about the Bucs in 2009.

The Bucs were the leaders in the clubhouse to sign Haynesworth, and offered him more money than the team that eventually signed him, The Redskins did.

So why did Big Al go to D.C. instead of the Bay Area? Simple, new Bucs head coach Raheem Morris said the ugliest word a proven, veteran football player can hear… The R word…. REBUILDING.

As soon as that word left the lips of Morris, Haynesworth was all but a goner, and he took the 2009 season with him.

Tampa Bay would then go on to release the face of the franchise, Mr. Derrick Brooks, even though he pleaded with them not to, and offered to take a pay cut to stay around for one more season.

The Bucs also let go of Warrick Dunn, Joey Galloway, Ike Hilliard, Jeff Garcia, and Cato June. Granted, these players are older, but are their replacements any better?

Byron Leftwich? That dude is slower than the kids on the Short Bus.

Derrick Ward? He has never been THE MAN, at any point of his NFL career, and two years ago, was rated in the low 70’s in Madden 08. Highly doubtful that he will be the answer in the Bucs oft-injured backfield.

Besides the trade for Kellen “The Soldier” Winslow (this never gets old http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I82BPA5QAaQ ) what else do Bucs fans have to look forward to this season?

These Hideous Things?



A rookie quarterback that no one had ever seen play a game in college? Ask Vikings fans what they thing of Tarvares Jackson, because that’s pretty much what Josh Freeman is.

And, just like the the Broncos, The Bucs also have a killer schedule looming in front of them.

Their whole home schedule against Carolina, Atlanta, New Orleans, Dallas, The Giants, New England, Green Bay, and The Jets, are all going to be tough. I can see maybe two to three wins tops against those teams.

Couple those with their away games at Carolina, Atlanta, New Orleans, Buffalo, Washington, Philadelphia, Miami, and Seattle and I forecast a 5-11 season for the Bucs.

So good luck watching these two teams compete for the higher draft pick come next April. Because that is the only thing to look forward to.

Signed,
Disappointed.

UFC Overview

With MMA and more specifically UFC exploding like Artie Lange on Joe Buck Live, it’s time to look at the effects it is having on the mainstream media, fans, and other sports.

UFC just held their 100th pay-per-view and had the highest gate revenue for a UFC event, with a 5.1 million dollar haul. The event was sold-out before the tickets were even made available to the general public.

They also had 1.5 million pay-per-view buys around the world, which at 45 bucks a pop is a huge amount of scratch.

Look, the UFC is hotter than Hansel right now, when your girlfriend or mom knows who the fighters are, you know that sport has gone mainstream.

Hell, even the world’s most beloved child molester was a fan of the sport. Yes Michael Jackson attended a UFC event a couple years ago with a mask over his face, sitting in a wheelchair near the cage, which may be the most normal thing about his last couple of years on Earth.

(Isn’t it funny that you could pretty much make up any kind of story about Wacko Jacko, and most people would believe it; Like hey did you know Michael Jackson turned himself into a hermaphrodite at age 33… I would definitely believe that.)

We now have people walking around from coast to coast wearing Tapout gear and Affliction shirts, just dropping cash on anything that can make them seem tougher, because nothing screams badass like a fat guy in an Affliction shirt.

And you know what? It’s all good.

What’s better than getting together with a bunch of friends, busting out your favorite cold beverage and watching two guys duke it out in a cage? Nothing that’s what.




UFC has managed to tap into the uber-important 18-35 year old male demographic. This is a group that has the most available dispensary income, mainly because they usually do not have kids, or house payments, or other bills, so they spend their money on things like pay-per-views and t-shirts because they can afford to.

So in the words of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, the UFC has “this thing, and its EFFIN golden”.

Right now, the future of UFC looks great. They have a ton of matchups to tap into, starting with the next pay-per-view, UFC 101. The main event is Forrest Griffin going up against Anderson "The Spider" Silva.

Griffin is the working man’s hero, coming all the way from the Ultimate Fighter (The UFC’s reality show, in which 10 guys battle for a UFC contract) and has held the lightweight title.

Silva is the more skilled athlete who also held the lightweight title, and is generally thought of as one of the fastest and quickest fighters in the game right now.

It should be a great matchup, and if you are a fan of UFC, you will spend money to see this fight.

The UFC literally has 20 matchups like this that they can make which means the company should stay strong for at least two more years, if not longer.

But let’s take a trip down memory lane to about 10 years ago.

In 1999, pro wrestling was crazy popular. The now defunct WCW had the n.W.o., Sting and Goldberg, and the WWF had D-X, The Rock, Stone Cold and tons of other memorable wrestlers and moments.



The TV ratings were off the charts, pay-per-view buys were as strong as UFC’s are now, and you could walk down the street and see a grown man wearing a n.W.o, or Austin 3:16 t-shirt with stunning regularity.

But what happened?

Wrestlers got old and retired (Macho Man, Scott Hall, Lex Luger), got sick of the business and left it (The Rock, Goldberg, Stone Cold) or worse, started dying young (Eddie Guerrero, Big Bossman, Bam Bam Bigelow, British Bulldog, and about 20 other guys) because of steroids and/or pain killers.



We also saw pretty much every matchup you could think of and the kid’s of that generation grew up and stopped caring about it as much, if not all together.

I know as soon as I hit high school, I stopped watching wrestling, and did not come back to it until I had a DVR, because no one is making time to watch wrestling live anymore.

Even now with a DVR, I find it hard to watch wrestling after watching a UFC or MMA event. It’s just too fake, and boring compared to the UFC, and I’m saying that as a fan of pro wrestling.

So what can the UFC learn from Pro Wrestling’s mistakes?

Well for one, that fame and popularity is fleeting. Do not assume that you are infallible. Because the other shoe will drop at some point, it always does.

Luckily the UFC and MMA as a whole, has one of the strictest drug testing policy in all of pro sports. The federal government is in charge of administering and checking the tests, unlike the WWE, who doesn’t care, and probably encourages their athletes to use steroids and pain killers.

They also have to keep the 18-35 year old male demographic spending money on their pay-per-view shows and merchandise. Without that, you lose sponsors, which in turn, means less money for marketing as well as for the fighters and promoters.

And lastly, they have to keep churning out fighters that the public will want to see, and stay current with.

Look at the WWE right now (or don’t, it’s a trainwreck). Their roster is littered with boring, cookie-cutter guys, who bring nothing to the show, and mostly suck at keeping anyone’s attention over the age of 12.


The only guys I will get excited to watch in wrestling are Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker, Chris Jericho, Triple H, and Edge. As luck would have it, three of those guys are out with injuries, which turns a two hour wrestling show into me watching fifteen actual minutes, thanks to my DVR.

The UFC has a ton of potential matchups to still promote, and they have the luxury of having these guys only fight two to three times a year, which keeps the bouts fresh.




Plus they have guys like me who are willing to have 5 or 6 friends over to throw down on a fight every month.

We make it an event that includes, drinking, grilled food, more drinking, more grilled food, and of course more beer drinking.

And like I said earlier, what’s better than that.