MFer

Instant replay's coming on Thursday. It's only gonna be used for HR calls though.

Not sure if they're the biggest snubs, but Troy Aikman and Jim Kelly are probably the biggest names that weren't picked. I think Alex Karras is definitely up there. Drew Pearson wasn't picked and he was on the 1970's All-Decade Team. A ton of notable coaches were snubbed as well. EDIT: To add on, Ken Stabler and Jim Bakken (kicker who was also on the 60's team) were on the 1970's team. Frank Minnifield and John Anderson were on the 1980's team. The rest of the 1980's snubs and the only 1990's snub were on there as return men (John Taylor, Mike Nelms, Rick Upchurch, and Michael Bates).

Honestly, I think the Patriots will win 12 games minimum. This speculation all offseason about the "demise of the Patriots" has been greatly exaggerated IMO. They have the easiest (on paper) schedule in the league and they still have a very dynamic offense. The O-line was great for most of last year; they'll regroup from that Super Bowl performance and be fine. Using the run game more will help. The Bills and Jets aren't ready to overtake the Pats in the AFC East. Even the Chargers and Colts (presumably the other main contenders as well as two opponents on this year's schedule) have their injury issues to deal with as well so I don't really believe all that talk about New England being on their way down.

The Lions have greatly improved in some areas. The pass blocking appears to be way better than the previous couple years where 50 sacks were the norm. The secondary has been revamped with Leigh Bodden, Brian Kelly, and Dwight Smith as new starters. The passing game could be very formidable with a healthy Calvin Johnson (who's primed to become a breakout star this season), a more consistent Jon Kitna, and more balanced play-calling. The Lions could start as many as 3 rookies (Kevin Smith, Jerome Felton, and Gosder Cherilus) and have 4 others seeing time in the playing rotation (Jordan Dizon, who eventually may start later this season, Andre Fluellen, Cliff Avril, and maybe Landon Cohen). The main negatives on the Lions are running the ball and stopping the run. The run blocking has been horrid this preseason with that new zone blocking scheme. The RB's other than Smith are iffy at best. The D-line is very light with no players at or above 300 pounds. The LB's other than Ernie Sims (who should make the Pro Bowl this year) are suspect. They're also fairly small as a unit. Detroit doesn't have a return man that can be a game breaker. The pass rush is still a work in progress. With a pretty tough schedule and some talent issues, I'd say that at least matching last year's win total (7) would be a successful year. They should be much better at competing in every game as well (the Lions lost an obscene 4 games by 30 or more points last season). If they get out to a fast start again, they could challenge for a playoff spot with some luck. Right now, I'm gonna be optimistic and say that the Lions finish 8-8 behind the Packers and Vikings and ahead of the Bears.

Don't forget the old Orlando Magic pinstripes either.

freecreditreport.com commercials Yay or nay?

I just now found this thread? To be honest, I was already looking into a new username. Maybe I'll wait 'til my birthday.

Matt Ryan is the Falcons' starting QB.

Yeah...looks like I'm pretty much done.

Bernie Kosar doing that Browns-Lions preseason game last year while (I'm guessing) completely blasted was a treasure trove of drops for sports radio stations. "Onside kick for the happy ending and we all go home happyhappyhappy." "He forgot to bring Touchdown Jeeeeeeeeeeeesus." I see what you mean...

#1 movie when I was born...Fatal Attraction.

What's the status on Drew Stanton? Right now he's 3rd behind Kitna and Orlovsky. He did well in both preseason games and showed great athleticism but he's still raw and wasn't using much of the playbook. I do think he's got a good shot to win the backup job but he's not gonna start for another year or two. Stratch the backup gig for Stanton; he's out 4 weeks with a sprained thumb. Pretty disappointing because Stanton really needs to get in more reps in game-time situations (which he most likely won't get in the regular season). In the meantime, the Lions picked up Drew Henson. Nice to see him around but he's just there to get the Lions through the rest of the preseason without overworking Kitna and Orlovsky.

3 years for Da Brat.

It's been well over 16 hours, so I'll make my last pick now. I'm the last person to take a coach and it's pretty damn hard trying to come up with one because there's still so many legends out there. There are also some coaches out there that would run great schemes for my team but don't stack up when it comes to their overall coaching resume. In the end, I'm gonna go with a guy that's been overlooked and hasn't even been mentioned in this thread. Hank Stram 1968 PFW AFL Coach of the Year 1968 UPI AFL Coach of the Year 3x AFL Championship winner (1962, 1966, 1969) Super Bowl champion (IV) Kansas City Chiefs Hall of Fame 131-97-10 (Regular season) 5-3 (Post season) 136-100-10 (Overall) Another innovator of the game, Stram knows how to develop talent and coach them up. He's created the two TE formation, the moving pocket, and the triple stack defense, all of which I plan to use at certain times. Not to mention being the first coach to wear a mic, giving legendary Super Bowl quotes such as "matriculating the ball down the field" and "65 toss power trap". Tough call, but Stram is the type of coach I'm looking for here.

Not sure where to put this, but Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones died today from a brain aneurysm. Link

Chicago's offense actually looked very good tonight. It's possible that a lot of it was due to San Fran's poor defense but at least the Bears took advantage of it. But yeah, their defense did look pretty bad.

When I saw the score on ESPN's bottom line I thought it was a mistake. Team USA has been choking hard everywhere (except on the beach and the hardwood) since Phelps finished swimming. Well, you're sure not gonna like what happened on the track today.

I don't remember where I ranked Gert, but he sure took out my team. Of course any of the first 3 games could've easily gone my way, but I guess my team didn't have enough "clutchiness", even with MJ. Looking at the play-by-play, the score in Game 2 stayed at 85-83 for the last 2:19 of the game. What the hell?

Don't look now, but the women's basketball team is in a tight one with Russia as well (don't forget the Becky Hammond storyline either). EDIT: Well, it's not such a tight game anymore.

Yeah, I noted that in the preseason thread...I didn't even recall him being sick. Just wow.

Wow...just heard on Mike and Mike that Gene Upshaw passed away from pancreatic cancer at age 68. Right now, it's just on NFL.com but I'm sure it'll be on the other sites soon enough.

Alright, time has passed so I'll go ahead and pick now. Jeff Feagles Pro Bowl selection (1995) Super Bowl champion (XLII) (Fun Fact: He was also on Miami's 1987 national championship squad) NFL records: Most consecutive games played, career: 320 (streak still active) (OK, so he's not a position player but still...) Most punts, career: 1,585 Most punts inside the 20, career: 508 Most punting yards, career: 65,793 Quite possibly the greatest directional punter ever, Feagles is a perfect fit for my team. Two things that I want to control are the clock and field position. Feagles has mastered the art of the coffin corner kick and will pin opponents back inside the 20, 10, even 5-yard line and make them deal with my defense deep in their own territory. Like Stover, Feagles doesn't have a huge leg, but he can boom them when he has to.

You know, I'm surprised that with all this talk of Mysti-May Treanor, no one's (here or otherwise) mentioned that she basically shares her name with a pornstar.

I'm not a Dave Matthews Band fan but I'm surprised that no one mentioned LeRoi Moore's death. Link

That was a lot easier than I expected it to be. I think I'll keep my lineup the same; the only change I was considering was giving Eaton more minutes than Okur for more rebounding and defense off the bench but Okur's playing his role surprisingly well.