Just John

Huh, Biden was here, and I didn't hear a thing about it? I would've thought there'd be flyers all over campus for a VP nominee appearance. I wish I could've heard his "offensive" remarks in person.

The Cheifs actually have a pretty good defense, even after losing Jared Allen. The QB situation still sucks big time for them, but they're in no way worse than the Bengals, Lions, or Raiders right now.

Yeah, I don't understand voting twice, since it will give away which teams get the most votes. Just use random.org to seed us 1-16 and let's start the tourney.

Hillary on Obama's ticket would've been death for his campaign. The Democrats would've been hammered with footage from just months ago of their VP candidate openly berating and deriding their presidential candidate, and the Dems would have no way to respond. If Hillary does a 180 on her position, she gets the John Kerry "flip flopper" label of death in addition to all the 3 a.m. references and whatnot. And while we're focusing on the large number of pro-Hillary voters in the wake of McCain's rise in polls, let's not forget about the strong anti-Hillary contigent as well, which would've likely cost the Dems key independent voters.

1. Man, one game and everyone forgets how much the Bears were supposed to suck this year. The Panthers have been the most hard-luck team of the decade, seemingly suffering major injuries every year except 2003. They made it through Week 1 ok, and if they stay healthy, they're as dangerous as anyone in the NFC and are being criminally overlooked here. Carolina shut down LT last week, so I'm sure they can handle Matt "The Next Walter Payton" Forte just fine. Chicago's defense should be more of a challenge for Carolina, but I like the chances of the Panthers offense making plays against Chicago's D more than the other way around. Carolina ftw here. 2. Michael Turner is the real deal, but I'm not sold on Atlanta as a team just yet. I think they'll exceed most expecations for this year (considering many had them pegged for about 3 wins), but I'm not sure they can take a solid team like Tampa on the road. That said, I don't expect a blowout either. 3. While the loss of Tom Brady will certainly be felt, the Patriots cannot afford to get caught up in the gloom/doom/apocalypse talk from the media. It's not like the team was Tom Brady and a bunch of scrubs. They have strong defense (I mean, they just casually picked up a corner of Deltha O'Neal quality a couple weeks ago, and no one seemed to notice), a pretty solid group of RB's, and two elite WR's, so the team's not hopeless by any means. Cassell won't put up Brady numbers, but if he can just put up Trent Dilfer numbers, the team will still be a contender. I think Belichick will do a good job keeping his team focused for a solid run, including a win over the Jets this week. 4. We can only hope 5. I hope not. I don't think they will either. The Steelers have manhandled the Browns for most of the Roethlisberger era, and based on each team's respective showings last week, I don't see that changing now.

Probably the most important thing the Chiefs do all season.

I think the Chiefs got 5 downs on their final goal line series. Of course, they still couldn't put it in. Pats could survive without Brady today, but they might want him back before they face a team with an NFL-level offense. Steelers looked real good today. The O-line didn't appear to have many problems against a solid D-line, and that was my biggest concern for the game. I think the Texans will be better than they showed today, but I still feel like Pittsburgh has been overlooked. They're still gonna be a strong team.

The best part of Chad Johnson's new name will be hearing the announcers have to refer to him as "Chad Ocho Cinco" in complete seriousness. I know I'm getting the Central Missouri TV formula (Chiefs/Rams/#1 National game). At least the Chiefs play the Patriots this week. Dallas/Cleveland could be a fun shootout.

I guess VX's point is that if we're all voting on the seeding, then what's the point of a voting tournament? The results would be a foregone conclusion unless a bunch of people had changes of heart between the two voting processes. Would anyone support 16-team tourney with a "bad luck" draw where two random teams have to compete for one spot? Another idea I had which may or may not be good is doing composite scores for all the games. Like when everyone votes (this would have to be via PM), you pick the winner and give a score. The scores are then averaged to produce a final score for each game. Of course, this would require everyone to be mature and not give any 110-0 type scores.

I guess if you wanted to incorporate blue, it would be hard to not look like the Magic, but you could still do black/silver without looking like the Spurs. Just go for a more "Raiders" look and downplay the white. And if you make sure the font's different, and there wouldn't even be any confusion for the white home jerseys. I'm of the mindset that a team's logo and/or colors should somehow reflect their name and/or city. OKC has failed in every possible way here.

Glad I'm not the only one not digging the OKC team's look. I mean, if you're going to do "Thunder," shouldn't the logo/uni's be black/grey/white with silver alternates or something? At least do blue/grey/black and rip off the old WCW Thunder logo. >>>>

Then there would be 18 teams, which doesn't make for a good tourney. 16 is a perfect a number, but 17 is no big deal. Just do the lowest seed play-in. It's the simplest, most logical solution.

Do a play-in for the last spot like March Madness. I sent in my write up earlier... Wound up being a lot longer than I intended.

Rockets get a trade exception worth like 5 mil or something, plus they had a logjam at PF anyway (Scola, Landry, Dorsey).

I think there are some other sims out there like fantasy front office or something, but you have to pay to DL them. I doubt anyone's interested in doing that.

As if the Warriors season wasn't dead already.

I think the Steelers will have a solid 10-win season and make the playoffs. The defense is still among the league's best, and there are plenty of weapons on the offense. The biggest concern is the O-line with Faneca gone, which hasn't looked the best in preseason. Still, with Big Ben, Parker, Hines, Holmes, and Miller on the field, you can't sell the offense too short. Under most circumstances, I'd have the Steelers pegged to win more games, but the schedule this year is brutal (8 playoff teams, 11 total games against teams .500 or better last year). However, it now appears they'll get a slight reprieve with the Giants and Chargers games looking a little easier, and I'm not sold on the Browns being as good as last year (when the Steelers owned 'em anyway).

Ha, I was wondering if the "Grave Digger" would get picked up in this thing. I was a little turned off by the fact he has no real numbers to speak of, but as far as fatass D-lineman who can take up space and deter running up the middle go, Big Gil's top of the line.

Ok, let's wrap this up with: Adam Timmerman - RG 1x Pro Bowl 1x All Pro 2x Super Bowl Champ The final piece to my O-Line and my team. Along with Orlando Pace, Adam Timmerman was a staple on the turn-of-the-millenium Rams O-Line that made the "greatest show on turf" possible. Also a part of the successful mid-90's Packer line.

While I'm sure whatifsports will find a happy medium based on raw numbers, I think it's too difficult to really imagine these teams facing each other with everyone playing relative to their own time. Yeah, thinking of modern D-lines matching up with 40's O-lines is one thing, but then throw in 90's receivers being guarded by 70's corners with linebackers spanning 40 years all playing out of 60's coach's playbook. Everything in football is so interdependent on other positions and matchups, there isn't really a perfect way to compare these teams to one another.

I like the results. I always thought Olajuwan (even for all the credit he gets) was underrated as an all-time great center. The only thing that holds him back is he played in era where 7-footers or near 7-footers were more prevalant, so he couldn't rack up some of the impressive individual totals of Chamberlain or Russell (not to diminish anything those two accomplished mind you).

Thank god Stram got picked up. He was one I was worried about not making it. Too bad Bill Cowher gets left out now, though. As far as Vick goes... Hey, in an offense where you don't plan on passing, that's a great choice. And with Tsar having a 210 pound center playing next to an out-of-position DT trying to play guard, he'll need a QB that can scramble. I don't think there's any question he still has the worst offense here by a lot, but Vick/Dorsett/Coates should be able to put a few points on the board, even with every defense putting 9-10 in the box against him.

Damn, why are the Hornets trying to look like the Nuggets? And the multi-colored pinstripes? Woof. At least the fleur-de-lis/hornet thing is kinda neat.

Jimmy Johnson - Coach 2x Super Bowl Champ 1x NCAA champ One of only two coaches to win championships in college and the pros 89-68 pro record This was a tough pick, because there were a couple other coaches I liked (at least one will probably get snubbed in this thing), but "The Wave" is the best fit for my team. My offense is similar to his 90's Cowboys team he built from the ground up... Deadly accurate pocket QB, massive O-line (with two of his own guys here) for power running, dynamic TE, combo of big physical and smaller speedy receivers... It's a pretty damn good fit, plus the defense is a 4-3, with Zach Thomas in the middle who Johnson picked up during his stint in Miami. Personnel wise and stylistically, there isn't a much better choice for my team.

I don't need a punter anymore. I took Chris Gardocki two rounds ago.