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thegeneralsnotebook · 6 years ago

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Adventures in Deck-building Parts 129 & 130: A Tri-ing Affair

Silverstream, Everything’s New!

Just Tri Starting a Faceoff!

One of the things that I remarked upon doing my first Double Feature some time ago was that there was an added thrill to the challenge because it was necessary to tie the decks somewhat into a coherent package. Whether the decks be thematically similar, or thematically opposite, mechanically opposed, made of complementary colours, or whatever. Somehow you have to put them side by side and see a connection. Friends Forever gave me a pretty clear way of doing that this week, by building Silverstream to embrace Tri-Cadance, and Luna to use Tri-Twi.

Where Silverstream is concerned, I treated this like a research deck, as a chance to evaluate the Mane and see where she could go. Accordingly, I started with a Continentals BRB list and plonked her down on top of it just to see if the deck would be any better with her in it. Theoretically, it seemed like a fine idea. SIlverstream would naturally favour a slower style of play for the deck, but surely her Eccentric and card draw could be more useful than Skystar’s seashells if control was what you wanted to play.

It turned out to be more complicated than that, though, due in large part to the early game that Silverstream pushes us into playing. Silverstream can use Trading Traditions as her starting Problem, but it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to do that. One of her main advantages is to take a big Problem herself and then move to the opponent’s Problem Turn 1. Since most Turn 2 confronts from the opponent require them to play a Friend, those lines will flip Silverstream and probably block their confront. Giving them a Trading Traditions to confront defeats that tactic entirely.

The issue comes up when we extend that logic. In most situations where this is the opening play, our opponent will pass Turn 2. We now have a free Turn 3, but what can we do with it? We have to develop our side, and flip Silverstream ourselves. This means that our deck needs to be built with some significant entry, and it’s hard to fit that into BRB without compromising that deck’s structure. It relied a lot on its ability to flip Skystar and suddenly have both Pink and Purple ready to go. So after some experimentation, I decided to instead go a different route.

Bodyguard is a card that saw much fruitful experimentation in SB, and its fit in a Pink/White deck has never really been questioned. Friends did give the colours some excellent new tools to play around with, though. Most pertinently, Griffon Shopkeep stands out as a brilliant pairing for Silverstream, as a perfect early play to fortify her beachhead at the opponent’s Problem. FF also lets us cap the deck off with some hard-hitting control elements, coming from Somnambula and Cadance. And if we have any spare AT, Mistmane is there to get our recursion rolling and score a point too.

Honestly, the more I look at this deck, the more solid it seems to me. Bodyguard was already a fine card to work with, but the deck lacked a bit of endgame punch aside from gaining a pile of AT at some point. With the recursion that White can have in this set, this deck looks ready to both pile up the Unicorn tokens and strike hard for the win.

Princess Luna, The Party’s Over

You Can Tri to Stop Us…

The last time that I wrote about Luna, I remarked that the emergence of Staff of Sacanas stood poised to potentially elevate her into a somewhat-relevant status in Harmony, if the right deck could be found to complement her. Naturally, that hasn’t changed with the new set, though she certainly has found some new tools to play with.

Notably, and in contrast to Silverstream’s deck above, this one truly is a tri-colour deck, with significant holdings in all three of its colours, and a plan to actually play Twilight from hand rather than just fishing her out of the discard pile. I haven’t talked a whole lot about how much Friends Forever helps out tri-colour strategies, but there is a lot of help here. Fire was the first one that we saw, but Sclerite can be an excellent tool too, when used right. This is the first deck in recent memory where I really watched my req’s as I was building it. I tried to avoid anything higher than 2 in Yellow and Orange, with the only exception being Meadowbrook, because she is kind of good after all.

“Single Faceoff Aggro” is a term that I expect to be hearing a lot more of over the course of the next little while, since Purple’s abilities with it have been growing of late. Essentially, this archetype expects to get most of its points from forcing the opponent into single faceoffs that they are likely to lose. Purple has the advantage in a style like that because moving the opponent’s stuff is the best way to force a single faceoff without allowing your opponent to even have the single confront point. Also working toward this archetype’s favour is the increase in Problem Bonus Points that we’ve seen lately. As more 2 Bonus Point Problems enter the game, faceoffs get more important, and so decks that look to start and win them as a chief strategy should get better as well.

So while Luna isn’t exactly chomping at the competitive bit, her deck still looks interesting and competent enough. And it’s definitely a good sign for the folks out there who want to start running multicoloured things in the new meta. The support out there works! And there are some fun shenanigans to consider once we’re really allowed to start mixing and matching colours.

With the whole queue back updated, expect some Harmony in the offing, though these decks most Harmony decks are basically Core decks anyway, just with a wacky Mane sometimes. Speaking of which, next week we have Discord, Bending the Rules!

#mlpccg #mlp:ccg

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junker-town · 4 years ago

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Bradley Beal knows the pressure Team USA has to win gold

Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Choosing to play in the Olympics was a “no-brainer” decision for Beal despite the pressure on Team USA.

Team USA has a tall task ahead of it at the Tokyo Olympics, being tasked with rebounding from a dismal showing at the World Cup in 2019 to win the program’s fourth consecutive Olympic gold. The pressure mounted even further when the Americans lost their first tune-up game against Nigeria Saturday.

Bradley Beal has never been a part of Team USA at the senior level, and he hasn’t been on the biggest stages of NBA basketball in the past few years either. But his inclusion on the national team was a no-brainer. Jerry Colangelo and the USA brass felt confident that Beal was ready for the moment after a decade spent on junior teams, and Beal is eager to prove that he can do whatever it takes to win and come back home with the gold medal.

Beal spoke with SB Nation about what he’s learning from the USA experience and how his protein beverage partner Rockin’ Protein is helping in the process. He also talked about the crazy Wizards season, what he wants to improve upon in the offseason, and what he’s taking away from watching the NBA Finals.

Note: This interview was conducted before Team USA’s loss to Nigeria. It has been lightly edited for clarity.

SB Nation: Let’s start with Rockin’ Protein. What can you tell me about this partnership? Why did you pick this company in particular?

Bradley Beal: For one, I’m always big on doing my research and background, and who they’ve worked with in the past has been tremendous. I’m a fan of all those athletes and just their history. For me, their product is great. It tastes great, for one, which is always important, but it’s high in quality protein, very low in carbs, low in sugar, you know, versus a lot of products that have all that added extra stuff that your body doesn’t need to perform properly, recover properly, or give you the energy. Those three categories they have shakes in all of them: protein builder, which is my favorite, recovery shakes, and the energy shakes. They’re just unbelievable. The fact that they’re made with real milk is a bonus too, our kids love the Shamrock Farms milk, so that’s also a cherry on top. But more than anything, man, I stand by their product. They’re a very first-class company to work with, and their product helps me.

SBN: That’s what I was gonna ask next, what do you get out of using Rockin’ Protein?

BB: For me, I’m big on the recovery part of my body. Energy, I always feel like I have, I always generate energy. So I don’t necessarily migrate to the energy shakes. And the protein builder, like I’m always going to keep up my muscle mass, build up a little bit more. And then obviously, as an athlete, you break it down in your body constantly so you want to build back up that muscle recovery side of it, so those are my two go-tos, vanilla of the protein builder is my favorite.

Photo by Ned Dishman/NBAE via Getty Images

Beal has been playing for Team USA since 2009 when he won gold at the U16 Championship.

SBN: Let’s talk USA Basketball. You’ve been part of USA Basketball since U16, right? Why has it been important for you to be part of the national team?

BB: Well, that’s a part of the beginning of it, you know, just a long history, lineage, I’ve been a part of this prestigious fraternity. They treated me well at 16, won a gold medal at 16, 17, played in the Hoop Summit, and went through the select team process as well, worked my way up, and now I’m on the big brother team. So it’s a blessing, you don’t take it for granted, you understand how hard and difficult it is to make the team and what you represent and the pressure behind it. We didn’t perform well last time out, so we have that feeling in the back of our head and we want to bring back the gold medal, nothing less.

SBN: What was that moment like for you when you got the nod that you were going to be on the Olympic team?

BB: It was special. When Jerry Colangelo calls you, you know it’s for either USA or somehow you go into the Hall of Fame. He’s very powerful in the basketball world, you know he is USA basketball. And it was just remarkable, you know, to hear his voice and he wanted me to be a part. You know, I want you there, I want you to play for the team. I want you to represent this country. That was big for us. I had to run it by my family, obviously, you know they won’t be able to attend, but it was like a no brainer. They said just go ahead and go live out your dream, we will be watching. So it was fun, it was an unbelievable moment for me. But it was definitely a no brainer at the same time.

SBN: So, this is something that you’ve dreamed of for a while.

BB: Of course, of course, I feel every player at least once wants to be an Olympian. Just to be called an Olympian is cool, to win a gold medal is even better. So, you know, to have both opportunities is special. Then to do it with so many talented guys is even a plus, learning from them, how we can gel and make this thing happen.

SBN: What has the environment been like at camp so far with the nine of you and the Select team?

BB: Camp’s been intense, it’s been tough. I mean it’s like NBA camp on steroids almost. it’s very attentive to detail, (Gregg Popovich) is excellent, like he is awesome to work with. And he just demands the best out of all of us, you know. And I think that’s what we all love and respect about him is there’s no favoritism, there’s accountability at every level, coaches, players, everybody, even himself. So I respect that heavily. He gets the best out of all of us. He demands it too, so his intensity, his ferocity is amazing. It’s contagious, it’s contagious.

SBN: I heard Pop called you thick the other day.

BB: Yeah (chuckles) he got away with loose language, but I embrace it, you know, I understood what he meant. I play against him twice a year only, but he’s always been a fan of how I play and I’ve always respected him. And happy that I get to share the floor with him. But I understood his comments.

SBN: How are you hoping to grow your game this summer and then how does playing for Team USA factor into that?

BB: Oh man, in so many ways. Obviously I always want to be better at everything, I say that every year, but in particularly I want to shoot more threes, deeper threes, and post up a little bit more. I feel like those are two areas I want to kind of dial in and focus in on more. I had a good year this year, but I’m always my toughest critic, I could have been better, for sure could’ve shot the ball a lot better from three than what I did. But more or less, even just shooting more of them is something that I could do better and be better at, too. So those are probably the two things and then, obviously, learning from so many guys on this team, you know their mentality going into the game, their preparation, the same with Pop. And just, you know, how guys really approach the game and how they play the game, with the intensity they have, focus they have. Like KD is crazy attentive to detail, to his body, to his game, his shot. At the end of the day, he just loves to hoop. That’s amazing to watch and to see. So to learn from everybody would be fun and exciting.

Photo by Stephen Gosling/NBAE via Getty Images

One of Beal’s offseason goals is to take more threes, and deeper ones, which makes his USA backcourt mate Damian Lillard the perfect guide.

SBN: I imagine if you want to take more and deeper threes, then being around the guy like Dame Lillard probably make sense.

BB: Yeah! Just picking his brain, you know, how are you able to do it consistently, because a lot of people can’t do that. A lot of people probably won’t even hit the rim from back there. So how do you generate that much power, your legs, is it your upper body, what is it? So picking people’s brains 100 percent will help.

SBN: Shifting to the Wizards real quick, I think the season probably ended a little bit earlier than you would have liked, but what is it about this team that you have that excites you going forward?

BB: Oh man, guys getting healthy. That’s the biggest thing, Deni (Avdija) suffered an injury, I think he broke his foot at the end of the year. Thomas Bryant tore his ACL at the beginning of the year, so those two injuries hurt. But we acquired Daniel Gafford at the trade deadline, who’s been a tremendous athletic big for us. Russ (Westbrook), obviously, at the beginning of the year, he’s been a triple-double animal, Mr. Triple-Double now. But obviously we just have to be better at everything. Our three-point shooting has to improve, our defense has to drastically improve. But there’s so much that we have to be better at, because, like you said, it didn’t end the way we wanted it to, you know we won one game in the series. To me, that’s unacceptable. So, we got to be better, it starts with our coaching change, obviously we’ve got to find a coach, and go from there.

SBN: As one of the leaders of the team, how much are you involved in that process of finding a new coach?

BB: More towards the end. So, obviously, the higher ups, they go through the process and investigating, thorough background checks and whatever they need to do to figure out who they want their candidates to be. Then when they dwindle down to about two to four is when Russ and I will probably step in. They’ll ask you know, who do you like, what do you like, go from there. But hasn’t been too much, you know, we let the GM do his job, and trust him to find the right one.

SBN: You kind of touched on this earlier but I mean, how much can you take away from a season that was so abnormal in terms of the protocols and your whole team got COVID and everyone got hurt. How much can you really take away from it?

BB: It’s tough, because those things did happen, you know, we want to not ignore them. But, I mean, they happened. Half of our team got COVID. You know, we couldn’t practice and play for two weeks. That’s a setback. So that’s tough in a lot of ways, but at the same time, everybody had an unfortunate situation, like this whole year was unfortunate for every team. So I was happy and thrilled about the way that we kind of revamped it and turned it around, I have no idea what it was, but we flipped it around and we made a push for playoffs. But the frustrating part is we didn’t end it obviously the way we wanted to. And there’s so many things that we can shift blame for that for, which is kind of like the, I don’t know, but at the same time, we know we should have been better than what we were.

Photo by Will Newton/Getty Images

As the leaders of the Wizards, Beal expects he and Russell Westbrook will have a voice on who the team hires as its next head coach.

SBN: When you’re out of the playoffs are you one of those guys that’s watching every game when you’re done?

BB: No, I think this year may be the first time I’ve actually really dialed in to watch the playoffs. Usually I’m not watching, and maybe it’s because I’m with USA and I have to get myself back into like, basketball realm, but usually once I’m done, I’m done. I will take a month or two off, maybe sometimes two and a half off, and just decompress from basketball completely and just pick it back up ready to go come July, August before the season.

SBN: What are you getting out of watching it this year?

BB: Just like how we talked about how uncertain this year is and crazy it is. Like nobody expected Phoenix to do what they did. To see them thriving, they built up their team with what they had, they used their young talent, developed them, they acquire Chris Paul, and they’re flying, they’re flowing. Milwaukee built around Giannis, they re-signed him, brought it Jrue Holiday, they put pieces around him, brought in PJ Tucker, like they brought in valuable guys on both sides. So it’s very, very intriguing to watch this series because it’s two totally different teams. Phoenix is wiry, fast, and tough, and Milwaukee are like the Monstars, they’re huge. They’re tough too, so it’s a very unique series, you know, so I’m very curious to see what happens.

SBN: Are you keeping an eye on Jrue and Khris Middleton and Devin Booker for when they eventually get to join you guys?

BB: I am because I’m trying to see if there’s any tension. Cuz Book and Jrue are gonna be going at it for sure. But I don’t know, I keep thinking it’s going to be tough. I would be mad as hell if I lost and had to come over, like I would be mad. But at the same time understanding the opportunity you get from USA, not taking that away. But if I lost in the Finals man, I would need to get away for a minute.

SBN: Is there anyone in camp so far who has surprised you in terms of what you’ve seen from their game based on what you saw in the NBA?

BB: No, I mean we know what each other can do. I think the thing that does surprise me is how unselfish we are, sometimes we’re too unselfish. It’s like, KD shoot the ball, like we know you shoot the ball, shoot the ball. I think that’s what’s crazy, the sacrificing part of it, you know, what do you sacrifice. Because all of us can go score 30, like I don’t have to go score 30 like I probably would have to during the year. I can go defend the best player now and use my energy for that, right, versus coming down, having to try to create a play every single time. We have 10-12 guys that can do that too, so that’s very positive in a lot of ways. At the same time, it’s tough because we don’t play together, you know, that’s new. This isn’t like an All-Star game. We really have to be dialed in and locked in and can’t disrespect our opponents, because we remember what happened last time we did that.

SBN: What are you hoping that the world can see from Bradley Beal at the Olympics this year?

BB: Oh, I don’t know. I’m a fierce competitor, that’s obvious. I’m going to do everything I can to win, whatever it looks like. I’m very unselfish and just compete hard. I just love this game, and I want that to show. Obviously everybody’s going to generate an opinion, whatever it is, good or bad, but it won’t change my approach and my reasoning in playing the game.

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wsmith215 · 5 years ago

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2017 NFL Draft: Where would Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson land in a do-over?

The 2017 NFL Draft started off exactly as expected when the Cleveland Browns selected defensive end Myles Garrett with the first overall pick. It seemed like a perfect choice at the time, but if the Browns had it to do all over again, knowing that this class held quarterbacks like Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson, would they still roll with Garrett?

The same can be said for the Chicago Bears, who shook things up early in 2017 and swapped the No. 3 overall pick, along with No. 67, No. 111, and a 2018 third-round pick with the Niners to move up to No. 2. They used that pick on Mitchell Trubisky.

It’s What if? week here at SB Nation, and our NFL team brands hopped in our respective time machines and traveled back to 2017 to redo the NFL Draft.

No. 1 – Cleveland Browns: Patrick Mahomes, QB, Texas Tech

The Browns, who were coming off of a one-win season and had been searching for a franchise quarterback basically since the expansion Browns settled in Cleveland in 1999, decided to go with Garrett, widely considered the best player available, in real life. Chris Pokorny at Dawgs By Nature, with the benefit of hindsight and several years of watching multiple failed experiments at quarterback, decided to go with a player who has emerged as one of the league’s most transcendent stars. If Mahomes had been the Browns’ first overall pick in 2017, I bet they would have won more than zero games that season.

There’s no reason to pile on Mitchell Trubisky any more than I already have, but I bet the Bears would be a lot happier if the draft had really shaken out this way. Kyle Posey at Niners Nation went with another exceptional young quarterback, and it’s a move that would have probably changed the path for the Patriots, too. If the Niners had taken Watson, they would have been much less likely to trade for Jimmy Garoppolo, who might very well have stayed in New England and would be the starting quarterback this season.

No. 3 – Chicago Bears: George Kittle, TE, Iowa

Just because the Bears didn’t make a blockbuster trade to move up one spot in this alternate reality doesn’t mean Lester Wiltfong at Windy City Gridiron wouldn’t shake things up. George Kittle, who had 1,053 yards and five touchdowns for the 49ers last season en route to the Super Bowl, was originally selected by the Niners in the fifth round of the 2017 draft. This is possibly the only move that would have been more surprising at the time than what the Bears actually did — but knowing what we know now about Kittle, it likely would have paid off.

The Jags grabbed Leonard Fournette with this pick, but Ryan Day at Big Cat Country knows that McCaffrey’s versatility and health would have made him a stronger addition than Fournette. McCaffrey had well over 2,000 yards combined rushing and receiving for the Panthers. Fournette had a really strong 2019 as well, with 1,152 yards on the ground and 522 receiving yards, but his three scores pale in comparison to McCaffrey’s 19 touchdowns. The best ability is availability, and McCaffrey has never missed a game to this point in his career. Fournette has missed 12 games in three seasons.

No. 5 – Tennessee Titans: Myles Garrett, DE, Texas A&M

The Titans initially selected wide receiver Corey Davis with this pick, and Jimmy Morris at Music City Miracles went so far as to float a smokescreen that he might switch out Davis for JuJu Smith-Schuster at this spot. Instead, Morris selected Garrett, who’s had 30.5 sacks and six forced fumbles over three seasons with the Browns. Adding Garrett to a team that ranked No. 31 in the league in 2017 with 35 sacks on the season could have changed the Titans’ trajectory in a big way. Imagine having Myles Garrett on last year’s Titans team that finished No. 3 in the league with 56 sacks? That’s terrifying.

If this pick seems familiar to you, it’s because John Butchko at Gang Green Nation decided to not try to fix something that isn’t broken. Since being selected by the Jets No. 6 in the 2017 NFL Draft, Adams has been all over the stat sheet, racking up 273 tackles, 12 sacks, six forced fumbles, and two interceptions, one of which he returned for a touchdown. Gang Green Nation would have been silly to not stick with him — just like it would be silly for the Jets to trade him this offseason.

The real-life Chargers used this pick on wide receiver Mike Williams out of Clemson. Williams went on to miss all but six games of his rookie season. He scored 10 touchdowns in 2018, and started to hit his stride last year, eclipsing the 1,000-yard mark for the first time as a pro. Michael Peterson at Bolts from the Blue went with White, who has been a force for the Bills since being drafted 27th overall. White earned a Pro Bowl nod in 2019 after finishing with 58 combined tackles, two forced fumbles, six picks — tying him at the top of the NFL last season — and a sack.

No. 8 – Carolina Panthers: Marshon Lattimore, CB, Ohio State

The Panthers obviously took Christian McCaffrey with this pick, but in this redo, McCaffrey’s with the Jags, and Cat Scratch Reader had to go back to the drawing board. Lattimore, who was selected by the Saints with the No. 11 pick, was an explosive playmaker at Ohio State. Our Saints blog, Canal Street Chronicles, is going to hate this pick with the fire of a thousand burning suns. The Panthers drafted not one, not two, but three cornerbacks (James Bradberry, Daryl Worley, and Zack Sanchez) in 2016 to fill the void left by Josh Norman. Not a single one remains with the Panthers, and Lattimore would be an upgrade over all of them.

Man, are the Saints ever getting hosed in this re-draft. The Saints originally traded with the Patriots at No. 32 to jump back into the first round and take Ramczyk off the board, solidifying the right edge of the offensive line for the foreseeable future in New Orleans. The Bengals let key linemen Andrew Whitworth and Kevin Zeitler leave in free agency after the 2016 season, and the line has never been the same, ending up ranked No. 28 in the league in 2017, No. 27 in 2018, and No. 30 in 2019 by Pro Football Focus. Cincy Jungle grabbed Ramczyk here because he might have been able to help change that.

No. 10 – Buffalo Bills: T.J. Watt, LB, Wisconsin

Buffalo Rumblings would have been perfectly content to grab Tre’Davious White here, but he was already off the board. The Bills still got better with this pick. Watt was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers at No. 30 in the actual 2017 draft. Watt was the last edge defender taken in the first round, and he has more sacks with 34.5 than any of the players selected before him. He capped off his 14.5-sack 2019 season with his first All-Pro nod, which is unlikely to be his last.

No. 11 – New Orleans Saints: Marlon Humphrey, DB, Alabama

We’ve already seen two of the Saints’ draft picks from 2017 come off the board in this re-do. In real life, the Saints took Ohio State’s Marshon Lattimore here, and Canal Street Chronicles still fills that need in the secondary with Humphrey. Humphrey finished last season with seven picks, three forced fumbles, a Pro Bowl bid, and first-team All-Pro honors. Canal Street Chronicles would have preferred we not mess up their excellent real-life 2017 draft haul, but Humphrey really isn’t a downgrade.

No. 12 – Cleveland Browns: Chris Godwin, WR, Penn State

Dawgs By Nature already grabbed the best quarterback in the league with the first overall pick, and now they’ve added a quality receiving target for him. Godwin was selected by the Buccaneers in the third round of the 2017 draft in real life, but after his 1,333-yard, nine-touchdown 2019 season, this seems like an appropriate spot for him. Now I’m kind of sad that we don’t actually get to see Mahomes slinging the ball downfield to Godwin.

It was basically robbery when the Saints landed Kamara in the third round back in 2017, though we didn’t know it at the time. The 2017 Offensive Rookie of the Year is about as effective as a receiver as he is on the ground. In 2017, his least productive season so far, he still had 797 rushing yards, 533 receiving yards, and six touchdowns. Revenge of the Birds noted that this choice was driven in part by the fact that David Johnson got injured in Week 1 of the 2017 season, and Kamara would have made a world of difference for Arizona.

Another Alabama product comes off the board at No. 14, sending Eddie Jackson to the Eagles courtesy of Bleeding Green Nation. Jackson slipped into the fourth round of the actual draft before being snapped up by the Bears, in part because he wasn’t able to perform at the Combine due to a broken leg he suffered during the October of his final college season. The two-time Pro Bowler also earned first-team All-Pro honors in 2018 after contributing one sack, two forced fumbles, and six picks.

In the real 2017 draft, Golladay fell into the third round before being selected by the Lions. His rookie season was less productive because he missed time for a strained hamstring, but he eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark in each of the last two seasons, scoring 11 touchdowns for Detroit in 2019. Stampede Blue gets a playmaker who would have come in handy that season with Jacoby Brissett taking over for Andrew Luck, who was sidelined with a shoulder injury he suffered prior to the season.

No. 16 – Baltimore Ravens: JuJu Smith-Schuster, WR, USC

Smith-Schuster was selected in the second round by the Steelers in 2017, but Baltimore Beatdown knows all too well from watching the Ravens go up against him twice a year that he has first-round caliber talent. Schuster, who was just 19 years old when he was drafted, is the youngest player in NFL history to reach 2,500 receiving yards. Assuming everything else remained the same for the Ravens, we could have had the joy of watching Lamar Jackson throwing to Smith-Schuster over the last two seasons and for years to come.

No. 17 – Washington: Jonathan Allen, DT, Alabama

Hogs Haven stuck with the team’s original 2017 choice, Jonathan Allen, and for good reason. Allen was considered the second-best defensive tackle in the 2017 draft, and he has 15 sacks over three seasons in Washington. Running back was a pressing need for Washington in the 2017 offseason, and Leonard Fournette and Aaron Jones were still on the board, but Allen’s been a good fit for Washington’s defense, so why shake things up?

No. 18 – Tennessee Titans: Adoree’ Jackson, CB, USC

Music City Miracles follows in Hogs Haven’s footsteps by also sticking with the pick the Titans made back in 2017 at this spot, cornerback Adoree’ Jackson. The Titans lost starting corners Perrish Cox and Jason McCourty during the offseason, so Jackson filled an immediate need, assuming he’d win the competition for one of those starting roles (which he did). Jackson brings a variety of skills to the Titans’ backfield. He’s managed three sacks, three forced fumbles, two interceptions, and a whopping 33 pass breakups over his three seasons in Tennessee.

No. 19 – Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Dalvin Cook, RB, FSU

Heading into this draft, Bucs Nation thought the team’s biggest need was at safety. Budda Baker and Malik Hooker are still on the board, but a glance at the Bucs’ depth chart and run game rankings over the past three seasons reveals that this was a wise choice by Bucs Nation. Doug Martin was solid early in his career, but started to decline after rushing for over 1,400 yards and six touchdowns in 2015. Cook, who was injured in his rookie season, had 615 yards and two touchdowns in 2018 before really hitting his stride in 2019. The Bucs, who finished the 2019 season ranked No. 24 in the league with 1,521 yards, could have used Cook’s 1,135 yards and 13 touchdowns in 2019.

No. 20 – Denver Broncos: Budda Baker, S, Washington

The Broncos originally went with tackle Garrett Bolles out of Utah with this pick, but Baker’s made enough of an impression in his short career to earn two Pro Bowl nods and first-team All-Pro honors in his rookie season, so it makes sense for Mile High Report to snag him. Baker is a tackling machine, and he has 3.5 sacks, four forced fumbles, four fumble recoveries, and 14 pass breakups over his three years with the Arizona Cardinals.

No. 21 – Detroit Lions: Cooper Kupp, WR, Eastern Washington

Kupp fell to the third round before being selected by the Rams in 2017, but Pride of Detroit would change that if they could. Kupp had 869 yards and five touchdowns in his rookie season despite starting 2017 buried behind Sammy Watkins, Robert Woods, and Tavon Austin on the depth chart. He was sidelined for half of 2018 with a torn ACL, and had a career season in Los Angeles in 2019 with 1,161 yards and 10 touchdowns. In real life, the Lions took Jarrad Davis at this spot, filling what Pride of Detroit identified at the time as the team’s biggest need, but Kupp is a smart move here, especially after Stampede Blue snatched up Kenny Golladay earlier in this re-draft.

No. 22 – Miami Dolphins: Malik Hooker, S, Ohio State

The Dolphins used this pick on DE Charles Harris, who they traded to the Falcons this offseason for a seventh-round pick. Harris was expected to be a dominant pass rusher coming out of Missouri, but underwhelmed with 3.5 sacks, one fumble recovery, and two pass breakups in three seasons. Hooker has been slowed down a bit by injuries, and the Colts declined to pick up his fifth-year option. But No. 22 is a more reasonable draft position for him in retrospect, and The Phinsider thinks he would be more of an impact player at this spot for the Dolphins than Harris was.

The Giants grabbed Evan Engram with this pick, and he’s put together three respectable enough seasons for a tight end. But the Giants finished 2017 ranked 27 out of 32 teams for the offensive line performance, per Pro Football Focus. Moton was originally selected by the Panthers in the second round of the 2017 draft, and he didn’t play in his rookie season, but moved into a starting role in 2018 and has been a key performer ever since. Big Blue View and Eli Manning alike would have loved this pick.

The Raiders went with Ohio State’s Gareon Conley here in 2017, and considering that the team traded him away to the Texans during the 2019 season, I’m sure Las Vegas wouldn’t mind having that pick back to follow Silver & Black Pride’s lead here. Williams actually landed with the Chargers, and underwhelmed in his rookie season after missing the first six games with a back injury. He’s hit his stride since, with 664 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2018 and 1,001 yards and two touchdowns in 2019. I wonder what the perception of Derek Carr would be now if he’d had a talent like Williams to throw to over the past couple of seasons.

No. 25 – Houston Texans: Desmond King, CB, Iowa

In the actual draft, Houston had shipped this pick off to the Browns, who used it on versatile defensive back Jabrill Peppers out of Michigan. Houston was coming off of a season of exceptional play from cornerback A.J. Bouye in particular, but Bouye became a free agent after the season. Houston had a ton of needs at the time, not the least of which was the quarterback position, but King would have been a natural replacement for Houston, so it’s a good pick from Battle Red Blog. King fell all the way to the fifth round of the 2017 draft, but he has 6.5 sacks, three forced fumbles, and four interceptions over three seasons with the Chargers.

No. 26 – Seattle Seahawks: D.J. Jones, DT, Ole Miss

This is quite a promotion for Jones, who was actually selected in the sixth round of the 2017 draft by the San Francisco 49ers. In reality, the Seahawks shipped this pick off to the Falcons, who used it to select defensive end Takkarist McKinley out of UCLA. Jones doesn’t jump off the stat sheet with two sacks in five years, but Field Gulls has obviously noticed that he’s quietly productive and a thumper against the run when they face the Niners twice each season. Jones is the player Niners Nation expects to have a breakout season in 2020.

It seems like every team is either re-drafting someone who was drafted long after the first round ended, or sticking with their original picks. The Chiefs shore up their secondary by snatching Shaquill Griffin off the board before the Seahawks can snap him up in the third round, which is what they did originally. Griffin has outplayed that draft status with the Seahawks, with 186 combined tackles, one sack, and three picks over the past three seasons and locking up a 2019 Pro Bowl bid. Now I hope that the Chiefs take his brother, Shaquem, if we redo the 2018 draft.

No. 28 – Dallas Cowboys: Marcus Williams, S, Utah

This pick was originally spent on DE Taco Charlton out of Michigan. The team and fans alike were reportedly concerned about his development, and Charlton was unceremoniously released after the second game of the 2019 season to clear a roster spot for Robert Quinn to return from injury. Instead of letting history repeat itself, Blogging the Boys went with yet another Saints player with this one, grabbing Marcus Williams out of Utah. Williams had four interceptions last season, which would have been a boost to the Cowboys, who had just seven across the entire team.

This one is a no-brainer for Acme Packing Co. Jones, the team’s selection at this spot in real life, has been a boost to the Packers offense. He’s continued to improve each season, finishing 2019 with 1,084 yards and a whopping 16 touchdowns, which tied him for the most in the NFL last season. In reality, they traded this one away to the Browns, who used it to select tight end David Njoku, and the Packers grabbed Jones in the fifth round, but he’s far outplayed what his potential was expected to be.

No. 30 – Pittsburgh Steelers: O.J. Howard, TE, Alabama

Two current Steelers players, JuJu Smith-Schuster and T.J. Watt, are already off the board, but the Steelers land a talented tight end in Howard. Howard has consistently put up respectable numbers for a tight end with the Buccaneers, with career highs of 565 yards (2018) and six touchdowns (2017). Vance McDonald is on top of the Steelers’ depth chart now, and he’s been all right, but not as productive as Howard, which likely made him appealing to Behind the Steel Curtain.

No. 31 – Atlanta Falcons: Dion Dawkins, T, Temple

The Falcons traded up in real life, swapping picks with the Seahawks to draft defensive end Takk McKinley. As much as I hate to think about missing out on McKinley’s absolutely delightful reaction to being drafted, The Falcoholic fills a real need here with Dawkins. Ryan Schraeder was the starting right tackle in 2017 and 2018, but his play started to decline over that time, and having Dawkins to take over as the heir apparent after some time learning behind the veteran Schraeder would have helped the line play more cohesively. This pick was swapped with the Seahawks, who then dealt it to the 49ers, who selected Alabama linebacker Reuben Foster.

No. 32 – New Orleans Saints: Evan Engram, TE, Mississippi

The Saints used the No. 32 pick on Ryan Ramczyk in 2017, but Ramczyk came off of the board early in this re-draft. Instead, they give Drew Brees a quality receiving tight end. Engram has averaged about 589 yards and four touchdowns each season for the Giants, who selected him with the No. 23 pick in 2017.

What would you do differently with the 2017 NFL Draft? Let us know in the comments.

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desertshake9-blog · 5 years ago

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The Linc - Nick Foles to the Jaguars for Leonard Fournette?

Let’s get to the Philadelphia Eagles links ...

2019 NFL Mock Draft: Jaguars trade Leonard Fournette for Nick Foles, Bengals replace Andy Dalton - CBS Sports One problem here: I don’t think the Jags are going to give up No. 7 overall in exchange for Nick Foles. You could work out a deal where the Jags send No. 7 and No. 69 to the Eagles for Foles, No. 26 and No. 54 (the trade value basically makes Foles worth the 28th overall pick, which is probably a reasonably fair swap), but Jacksonville is going to likely lose high-end, expensive talent to free agency as a result of salary-cap issues. Jacksonville would like to use the seventh pick to either replace the talent or to secure another young quarterback for the long haul. How about we make both front offices happy instead? The Jaguars can send Leonard Fournette -- their former top pick and a very talented player who has struggled with injuries and hasn’t meshed well with the front office -- to the Eagles for Foles and a throw-in pick down the road. There are some contractual issues here that might hold things up on both ends. Foles is either going to have his option picked up or will be given the franchise tag and traded. So he won’t be cheap. Fournette isn’t cheap either -- he has a top-10 salary over the next two years at the running back position. Philly might not be willing to spend at the position, but Fournette is a better pass catcher than he gets credit for, and he could excel in Doug Pederson’s scheme. The Eagles were at their best with LeGarrette Blount and Jay Ajayi running downhill.

2019 NFL Mock Draft Roundup: Eagles add interior pass rush - BGN Six out of nine picks are linemen. We all know the Eagles are not shy to invest premium resources in the trenches.

Offseason Talk - Iggles Blitz There is a feeling in the Tampa media that the Bucs could cut DE Vinny Curry and/or DT Beau Allen. Hmm. The Bucs are expected to play more of a 3-4 under Todd Bowles. That could make both guys expendable. If so, the Eagles could talk to one or both about coming back to add depth to the DL. While both players loved their time in Philly, price would be an issue. While neither player had a good season, they aren’t likely to come crawling back to the Eagles for peanuts. They’d want reasonable money. Keep an eye on this.

Projecting which Eagles player is next to make the Pro Bowl - NBCSP Alshon Jeffery: His last Pro Bowl appearance was in 2013 when he was still with the Bears, but Jeffery clearly has the talent of a Pro Bowler, although his numbers in his first two seasons with the Eagles have been modest. In the two years, he’s averaged 61 catches, 816 yards and 7.5 touchdowns per season. Another year like that and he won’t be a Pro Bowler. But he played through a torn rotator cuff in 2017 and then missed three games to start 2018 because of it. If he can stay healthy and play a full season with a healthy Carson Wentz, there’s a good chance he could take a spot in the annual All-Star showcase.

1-On-1: Joe Douglas - PE.com Vice President of Player Personnel Joe Douglas joins Fran Duffy at the Senior Bowl to discuss what he’s seen from some of the nation’s top college prospects and what he’s looking for from this year’s stellar crop of underclassmen.

10 Biggest Winners Of Senior Bowl Week - The Draft Network 1. Penny Hart, WR, Georgia State. Nobody went from as unknown to as intriguing as Penny Hart, who eviscerated defensive backs for three straight days during practices. I called him my biggest winner of the week on the Draft Dudes podcast, and nothing has changed even though he had a quieter Senior Bowl game — his roster was filled with slot receivers.

Best of Senior Bowl week: QB rankings, NFL draft risers, biggest takeaways, more - ESPN In$ider Which prospects’ draft stock rose the most this week? Montez Sweat, DE, Mississippi State. At 6-6 and 252 pounds, Sweat is an explosive speed rusher who is strong enough to go through offensive tackles and athletic enough to work the weave when they take away the edge. He is on the leaner and lighter side for a defensive end, yet he’s stout setting the edge against the run. He gets off the ball, he shoots his hands inside and he has the length (35⅝-inch arms) to keep blockers off his frame.

Bang for their Bucs: Wide Receiver, DeSean Jackson - Bucs Nation One could argue Jackson gave up on his team. There were times where it certainly appeared that way on the field, and on Instagram. However, looking at some of the usage numbers compared to the way other teams use receivers of similar talents, and maybe you can start to understand why he was so frustrated. Without stepping into the locker room, it’s hard to know exactly why his numbers became skewed in the way they did. No matter how you slice it, Jackson had more targets 20-yards or more downfield than he did 10-yards and less. For a receiver facing off coverage as much as Jackson does, those numbers shouldn’t be like that. Was it Winston? Was it Koetter? Was it Monken? We don’t know. I’d love to have Jackson on the Locked on Bucs podcast to discuss it - honestly and openly - but I don’t know that he feels there’s anything worth talking about. For now, we have the numbers and our perceptions.

Valentine’s Views: The Kansas City Plan sounds like a winner - Big Blue View I have suspected for a while that the New York Giants would like to emulate that plan, and a report Saturday evening by Paul Schwartz of the New York Post confirms that “More and more, this appears to be the scenario about to unfold for the Giants.” There is a lot to unpack from Schwartz’s report. The upshot, though, is that if Schwartz is correct — and as well-connected as the veteran Post writer is there is no reason to doubt his reporting at all — Manning will be back in 2019. A highly-drafted heir apparent could well be alongside him. If the Giants can find that guy.

Cowboys’ in-house OC search only shines brighter light on one of the biggest indictments of Jason Garrett’s tenure - SportsDay The addition of Jon Kitna means there have been 19 coaches to work under Garrett on the offensive side of the ball in his eight full seasons as head coach. Name the assistants who have left his staff to oversee the offense of another NFL team. None. Former wide receivers coach Derek Dooley is currently the coordinator at Missouri. Garrett’s brother, John, was the coordinator at Oregon State and Richmond before landing a job as the Lafayette head coach. But not one assistant has left the Cowboys offensive staff for a better job in the NFL since Garrett has been the head coach.

NFL owner’s superyacht catches the attention of a Presidential candidate - PFT When it comes to keeping up with the Joneses, Daniel Snyder continues to fall short. And the competition regarding which man has the biggest five-letter thing (yacht, or otherwise) has caught the attention of one of the umpteen candidates for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency in 2020. Elizabeth Warren has taken to Twitter to call out the Washington owner for his purchase of a very big boat. “This billionaire NFL owner just paid $100M for a ‘superyacht’ with its own iMax theater,” Warren said. “I’m pretty sure he can pay my new #UltraMillionaireTax to help the millions of yacht-less Americans struggling with student loan debt.”

8 ways Saints fans are overreacting hilariously to NFC Championship loss to Rams - The Falcoholic And hoo boy, are they ever mad. Harry Connick Jr. is boycotting the Super Bowl and shared the mad online letter he wrote to Roger Goodell on Instagram. And a church in New Orleans is offering the opportunity for disgruntled Saints fans to work through their frustration by throwing a penalty flag during services on Sunday. But these fine folks aren’t satisfied with tossing flags around and being mad online. They’re also doing a bunch of absurd things in real life in their quest for justice, and today seems like a great time to revel in it and laugh at all of this ridiculousness.

The Saints really didn’t need Sen. Bill Cassidy to argue on their behalf in Congress - SB Nation It was a Friday in Congress with no significant votes on the docket, just a discussion about sending money and weapons to the Middle East. The U.S. Government was in the midst of a shutdown — the announcement of our government’s temporary re-opening had yet to come. That made it the perfect possible time for one senator to ... pander to the home crowd with a little discussion about football. Yup. The growing wave of complaints of Saints fans cheated out of a Super Bowl 53 appearance crested to a logical escalation Friday. In the span of five days, New Orleans has leveled up from punched televisions to billboards to change.org petitions to class action lawsuits, and now, a debate on the floor of the United States Senate.

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antscale3-blog · 6 years ago

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The Linc - Nick Foles to the Jaguars for Leonard Fournette?

Let’s get to the Philadelphia Eagles links ...

2019 NFL Mock Draft Roundup: Eagles add interior pass rush - BGN Six out of nine picks are linemen. We all know the Eagles are not shy to invest premium resources in the trenches.

...

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BGN Facebook Page: Click here to like our page

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Source: https://www.bleedinggreennation.com/2019/1/27/18199324/eagles-news-nick-foles-trade-jaguars-leonard-fournette-philadelphia-quarterback-jacksonville-draft

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junker-town · 5 years ago

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We re-did the 2017 NFL Draft with everything we know now

Our NFL team brands did a re-draft of the 2017 NFL Draft, and things turned out very differently than in real life.

It’s What if? week here at SB Nation, and our NFL team brands hopped in our respective time machines and traveled back to 2017 to redo the NFL Draft.

No. 1 - Cleveland Browns: Patrick Mahomes, QB, Texas Tech

No. 2 - San Francisco 49ers: Deshaun Watson, QB, Clemson

No. 3 - Chicago Bears: George Kittle, TE, Iowa

No. 4 - Jacksonville Jaguars: Christian McCaffrey, RB, Stanford

No. 5 - Tennessee Titans: Myles Garrett, DE, Texas A&M

No. 6 - New York Jets: Jamal Adams, S, LSU

No. 7 - Los Angeles Chargers: Tre’Davious White, CB, LSU

No. 8 - Carolina Panthers: Marshon Lattimore, CB, Ohio State

No. 9 - Cincinnati Bengals: Ryan Ramczyk, OT, Wisconsin

No. 10 - Buffalo Bills: T.J. Watt, LB, Wisconsin

No. 11 - New Orleans Saints: Marlon Humphrey, DB, Alabama

No. 12 - Cleveland Browns: Chris Godwin, WR, Penn State

No. 13 - Arizona Cardinals: Alvin Kamara, RB, Tennessee

No. 14 - Philadelphia Eagles: Eddie Jackson, S, Alabama

No. 15 - Indianapolis Colts: Kenny Golladay, WR, Northern Illinois

No. 16 - Baltimore Ravens: JuJu Smith-Schuster, WR, USC

No. 17 - Washington: Jonathan Allen, DT, Alabama

No. 18 - Tennessee Titans: Adoree’ Jackson, CB, USC

No. 19 - Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Dalvin Cook, RB, FSU

No. 20 - Denver Broncos: Budda Baker, S, Washington

No. 21 - Detroit Lions: Cooper Kupp, WR, Eastern Washington

No. 22 - Miami Dolphins: Malik Hooker, S, Ohio State

No. 23 - New York Giants: Taylor Moton, T, Western Michigan

No. 24 - Las Vegas Raiders: Mike Williams, WR, Clemson

No. 25 - Houston Texans: Desmond King, CB, Iowa

No. 26 - Seattle Seahawks: D.J. Jones, DT, Ole Miss

No. 27 - Kansas City Chiefs: Shaquill Griffin, CB, UCF

No. 28 - Dallas Cowboys: Marcus Williams, S, Utah

No. 29 - Green Bay Packers: Aaron Jones, RB, UTEP

No. 30 - Pittsburgh Steelers: O.J. Howard, TE, Alabama

No. 31 - Atlanta Falcons: Dion Dawkins, T, Temple

No. 32 - New Orleans Saints: Evan Engram, TE, Mississippi

What would you do differently with the 2017 NFL Draft? Let us know in the comments.

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junker-town · 5 years ago

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7 moments we’ll remember most from the Brady-Belichick era

What will you remember most about the seemingly never-ending Patriots dynasty?

For nearly 20 years, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick had the NFL pinned down like a grade school bully. On Tuesday, that era ended when Brady announced he would not be going back to the Patriots, likely so he could start fresh with Tampa Bay at 42 years old.

Though neither Brady nor Belichick are retiring yet (and may not for a while), their careers have been defined by the other as much as by their own selves. So as they go their separate ways, now is a perfect time to revisit one of the most dominant, brilliant, occasionally obnoxious and seemingly never-ending dynasties in American sports history.

Here are just a few moments that members of SB Nation staff will remember the most from the Brady-Belichick partnership. You probably won’t be surprised to see we have a wide range of memories. Feel free to give us your own — the good, the bad, the stupid, ALL OF IT — because there is a lot to choose from.

When he replaced Drew Bledsoe

I was a Michigan fan as a kid, which means I was hip to Brady’s moxie, poise, chutzpah and grit before it was cool (indeed, I was hip to it even when Michigan fans refused to be). I was 13 when I watched him replace an injured Drew Bledsoe on a Sunday evening early in the 2001 season. I ran and told my dad what was happening. As Brady eventually led the Pats to the playoffs, I felt immense validation at having been in from the very beginning on one of the greatest sports underdog stories ever.

Then the Patriots wouldn’t stop winning, Brady grew more alien, and I no longer wanted to call myself a fan. Though it seems distant now, it’s worth remembering that there was a time when Brady was universally beloved.

— Louis Bien

When he made John Madden look stupid and started a dynasty

The Patriots were 14-point underdogs in Super Bowl XXXVI. It made sense. New England was rolling a backup quarterback who nickel-and-dimed his offense to the top of the AFC against The Greatest Show on Turf Rams. His low-wattage passing attack was a cavalry, and Kurt Warner’s offense was nothing but tanks.

I was 17 when this game happened, filled with optimism despite growing up with a Pats team whose only motivation to climb out of the AFC East basement was to get pelted with rocks over and over again in the playoffs. A small group of us watched this game from a friend’s basement — the furnished chunk of a split-level ranch. It was middle-school teacher nice; pool table, bar we weren’t allowed to touch, 32 inches of pure RGB beauty broadcasting the game from New Orleans. Paradise, really.

And it felt that way when New England raced out to a 17-3 third-quarter lead, even if we knew it wouldn’t last. St. Louis unsurprisingly came back to tie the game late in the fourth quarter. Brady got the ball back with 81 seconds left, then dropped back to pass despite John Madden’s protests; he wanted the Pats to play for overtime against a scorching-hot Rams’ offense that had just mounted a 21-second touchdown drive.

“With no time outs I think the Patriots, with this field position, you just have to run the clock out,” Madden opined from the broadcast booth. “You have to play for overtime now. You don’t want to force anything here. You don’t want to do anything stupid.”

Brady did no such thing. Like he had against the Raiders in Foxborough three weeks before, the young quarterback calmly dropped back and sliced up the St. Louis defense with a thousand small cuts. Five yards here. Six yards there. A 23-yard sideline strike to Troy Brown, who deserves so much more recognition than he actually gets. Madden’s tone changed:

“I kinda like what the Patriots are doing ... This is amazing. This is something, I’ll admit, I don’t think they should have done. But they had the guts, they have the quarterback, and they did it.”

Then, finally, the moment:

We exploded from our spots on the edge of the floral-upholstered couches. Cool ranch flecks flew from our hands and into the atmosphere. My buddy Matt grabbed me and we collapsed, screaming, into a delirious hug on the floor. Sports had never made me feel that way before. Everything was a dumb, sloppy mess, and it was amazing.

“That’s the way you should win a Super Bowl,” concluded Madden, appropriately convinced of just how damn wrong he was about Brady.

— Christian D’Andrea

When he grew his hair long

What was happening there? Look, Brady is an objectively handsome man. That long hair nonsense that happened in 2011 was just such a bad look. Please don’t do this again. Oh, and remember when he dropped that pass in Super Bowl LII against the Eagles? That was fun.

Photo By Rob Tringali/SportsChrome/Getty Images

— Caroline Darney

The tuck rule

It’s not mature nor proper to blame a loss on a bad call. There are dozens of things that happen through the course of a game that affect the outcome. For instance, the Raiders were much too conservative during the fourth quarter of their 2002 Divisional Round matchup against the Patriots in snowy Foxborough.

But that game will always be remembered for that pivotal moment. In the final two minutes, Brady fumbled the ball, but the call was overturned because of a rule that said that even if a quarterback loses control when in the process of tucking the ball back into his body, it’s an incomplete pass.

Photo by Jim Davis/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

This was a fumble. Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise.

It was a fumble, a turnover that would have ended the game, allowing the Raiders to move on while cementing Charles Woodson as a national hero. I’d like to think that loss for New England would have nipped the Patriots’ dynasty in the bud, but years of intense therapy (and a dash of common sense) led me to believe otherwise. But it’s still fun to believe the Patriots are built on a foundation of lies.

— Eric Stephen

Brady and Moss against the Dolphins

As a Patriots fan, I could have chosen a number of different plays and moments from that glorious 2007 season, but two moments that still delight me took place against the Dolphins in Week 7. The Dolphins were 0-6 at the time, and the Patriots were in the midst of an undefeated season. On the first possession of the game, Brady found Donté Stallworth for a touchdown, and from then on it was obvious that the Dolphins were in for a long day.

But the big story of the offense that season was the connection between Brady and Randy Moss. Not only was Moss playing well after leaving Oakland, he looked even better than he did in his Minnesota days. He was doing ungodly things to defensive backs. Brady would finish the season with a record 50 touchdowns, of which Moss caught 23. I couldn’t wait to see what the two would do against Miami.

It only took until the beginning of the second quarter for them to connect in the end zone, and it was glorious. From the Dolphins’ 35-yard line, Brady launched the ball deep after a play-action fake. When the ball came down, Moss was just past the goal line. The ball was slightly under-thrown, but no worries. Moss stopped his run and jumped over two defenders to catch the ball for a touchdown.

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That play was an archetypal display of Brady and Moss’s unstoppability. Even when the ball was less than perfect, and two defenders were in position to stop the play, Moss erased the disadvantage.

A few minutes later, the same thing happened again. Brady launched the ball deep, this time from even farther out, and found Moss in the end zone blanketed by two defenders. Again, Moss caught it. He landed on his feet and the two defenders fell to the ground. Then he simply handed the ball over to the referees, because the play was just business as usual.

It encapsulated the feeling of that season: excellence as routine. And there was nothing anyone could do to stop it. It’s too bad the Super Bowl was cancelled that season due to the weather or something like that.

— Zito Madu

Brady and Belichick’s mutual friend

A story in four parts:

Via YouTube

Congratulations to Tom Brady on yet another great victory- Tom is my friend and a total winner!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2015

Belichick wrote Donald Trump a letter the week of the 2016 general election, which Trump read at a rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, the night before the polls opened. Belichick confirmed that it read:

Congratulations on a tremendous campaign. You have dealt with an unbelievable slanted and negative media, and have come out beautifully — beautifully. You’ve proved to be the ultimate competitor and fighter. Your leadership is amazing. I have always had tremendous respect for you, but the toughness and perseverance you have displayed over the past year is remarkable. Hopefully tomorrow’s election results will give the opportunity to make America great again. Best wishes for great results tomorrow.

Bill

“Donald is a good friend of mine,” Brady told WEEI in December 2015. “I have known him for a long time. I support all my friends. That is what I have to say. He’s a good friend of mine. He’s always been so supportive of me — for the last 15 years, since I judged a beauty pageant for him, which was one of the very first things that I did that thought was really cool. That came along with winning the Super Bowl. He’s always invited me to play golf. I’ve always enjoyed his company.

“I support all my friends in everything they do. I think it’s pretty remarkable what he’s achieved in his life. You’re going from business, kind of an incredible business man and then a TV star, and then getting into politics. It’s a pretty different career path. I think that is pretty remarkable.”

— Natalie Weiner

Never forget that his last pass with the Patriots was a pick-six

Brady didn’t have much of a choice but to take a chance. The Patriots were trailing the Titans by one point with only 15 seconds on the clock, starting a last-gasp drive at their own 1-yard line.

So he dropped back into his own end zone and tried to quickly get the ball to Mohamed Sanu for a first down. Instead, he threw a pick to ex-Patriots cornerback Logan Ryan, who jogged in for the touchdown to send his former team out with an early playoff exit:

PICK-6! The @Titans extend their lead with nine seconds left. #Titans #NFLPlayoffs : #TENvsNE on CBS : NFL app // Yahoo Sports app Watch free on mobile: https://t.co/EF5fHZbZSf pic.twitter.com/AOcwqlTSlc

— NFL (@NFL) January 5, 2020

At the time, we knew it *could* be the last throw Brady ever made in a Patriots uniform. But most of us didn’t think it would really happen. Would the six-time Super Bowl champion, the greatest quarterback in NFL history, the man partially responsible for the most dominant dynasty most of us have ever seen in this league really end his career in New England with a pick-six?

As it turns out: yes.

Now that I think about it, it’s kind of fitting that, of all quarterbacks, he’s replacing Jameis Winston, whose Bucs career started and ended with a pick-six.

— Sarah Hardy

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junker-town · 5 years ago

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20 sports movies we love that will ease your boredom

WireImage

It may be hard to find real sports to watch right now, but there is an ABUNDANCE of great fictional sports at your fingertips.

Televised sports are on hiatus for the foreseeable future. It’s a tough (but obviously necessary) blow, considering we’re all stuck inside with little to do, and sports would be the perfect diversion right about now.

Thankfully, there are hundreds, or possibly thousands, of sports-centric movies available to wile away the hours. Some might even be convincing enough to get you to yell at your screen, or feel the inimitable catharsis that comes from watching your team (the good team, obviously) win.

Below are some of the SB Nation staff’s go-to sports flicks, with information about where to stream them included. The majority are also available to rent via Amazon, YouTube, Google Play and the like.

Hot Rod (2007)

Available on Netflix, Prime and Pluto.

Insofar as failing to jump over things with a moped is a sport, Hot Rod is about sports. It’s an extremely dumb, pleasant movie with no stakes whatsoever, and it is my number one.

— Seth Rosenthal

Yes, it’s hilarious — but even more importantly, it has the ability to absorb you before you realize it and not let your mind wander out of its grasp. Distraction grade: 10 out of 10

— Will Buikema

Creed (2015)

Available to rent

Too many Rocky sequels to count, but this one really engages with the mythos around the character and who gets to take part in that myth. Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson are two of Hollywood’s brightest stars, and while it’s frustrating they were not awarded like Sylvester Stallone for their performances, all three are terrific here. Also: unlike the original Rocky, this movie recognizes that boxing includes dodging and blocking as well as punching!

— Pete Volk

Goon (2011)

Available on Netflix.

You could probably analyze Goon for commentary about how we glorify violence in hockey, or you could sit back and enjoy a genuinely hilarious movie. It has everything you want in a hockey film. There’s a dim-witted but lovable bouncer who gets a chance at a hockey career in the minors, and a grumpy Quebecois prodigy with a physicality issue. There’s gratuitous blood and gore, and Liev Schreiber getting into fights, and a hint of bromance. There are even cameos from former NHL players, and one from current Dallas Stars forward Tyler Seguin in the film’s 2017 sequel, Goon: Last of the Enforcers, which is also on Netflix.

If you don’t mind some exaggerated violence and slapstick comedy (and particularly if that’s what you’re into), I highly recommend it. Plus, the soundtrack slaps.

— Sydney Kuntz

Bend it Like Beckham (2002)

Available on demand with Starz and DirecTV

It’s funny, it’s sweet, and the fact that you’ve definitely seen it before doesn’t mean you shouldn’t watch it again. It made Keira Knightley an international star, and Parminder Nagra picked up the FIFA presidential award. Beyond the film, it represented a crucial moment in David Beckham’s relationship with his country. He’d gone from villain in 1998 after that red card against Argentina, to hero in 2001 after that free kick against Greece. Eight months later this came out, and canonized him as a national treasure.

— Andi Thomas

High Flying Bird (2019)

Available on Netflix

What better to watch during a period without basketball than a movie about basketball personnel that takes place during a time of no basketball? High Flying Bird, shot entirely on iPhone by Steven Soderbergh, follows a top rookie and his ambitious agent during an NBA lockout, as they try and change the owner-heavy economic structure of the NBA.

— Pete Volk

Escape to Victory (1981, also just known as Victory)

Available on demand with Cinemax and DirecTV

Sylvester Stallone is an Allied solider in a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp. So is Michael Caine. In there with them, for some reason, is Pele, Bobby Moore, Ozzy Ardiles, and half of Ipswich Town’s 1981 UEFA Cup winning squad. And wouldn’t you just know it, they have to play an exhibition against a handpicked German side, for reasons of propaganda. Will they escape … to victory?

— Andi Thomas

Goal of the Dead (2014)

Available on Shudder

”Some kind of a riot. They are burning cars.”

”Given the refereeing, no wonder.”

French football superstar Samuel Lorit faces off against his hometown team in a cup game. His formerly adoring fans now all despise him. And then a tainted steroid injection turns pretty much everybody into zombies, straight from the 28 Days Later school of hard-running mouth-frothers. Good blood-soaked fun, if probably a bit too long. But then all films are too long these days. Return of the King won a million Oscars, and that didn’t have a ‘roid-raging zombie kicking a man’s head off his neck and into the goal.

— Andi Thomas

Fighting with My Family (2019)

Available on Prime and Hulu

Maybe the only worthwhile WWE Studios release ever? I’ll await the flame from fans of The Marine 5: Battleground in the comments. What would have otherwise been yet another vanilla sports inspiration story is elevated by a terrific cast, led by newly Oscar-nominated Florence Pugh.

— Pete Volk

The Damned United (2009)

Available to rent

An adaptation of a brilliant but bleak novel about Brian Clough’s doomed spell at Leeds United, the film dispenses with most of the book’s harrowing existential loneliness and discovers a surprisingly soft-hearted buddy story underneath. Michael Sheen disappears uncannily into his role, absolutely nailing Clough’s astringent self-possession, but Colm Meaney almost steals the film as Clough’s nemesis, Don Revie. A reminder that English football, back in the ‘70s, was a strange, drizzly place full of strange, compelling people.

— Andi Thomas

Hoop Dreams (1994)

Available on HBO, Kanopy and DirecTV

One of the best American documentaries. Also one of the best movies about dreams, who crushes them and how they evolve. It is also one of the best movies about race and poverty in America. All in all, this is one of the best movies about the allure and grace of basketball. A phenomenal film!

— Pete Volk

Horse Feathers (1932)

Available via the Internet Archive

I grew up watching the Marx Brothers with my dad, and I would be remiss not to mention this college football-centric classic. Turns out the “amateur” status of college football players was a joke in the 1930s, too!

— Pete Volk

Minding the Gap (2019)

Available on Hulu

Only tangentially about sports, since the group of kids at this documentary’s focus are skateboarders, but this is one of the great modern American documentaries about growing up, difficult friendships and toxic masculinity. Highly, highly recommend.

— Pete Volk

Starship Troopers (1997)

Available on Showtime, CBS All Access, DirecTV and Vudu

There are several reasons Starship Troopers is memorable — the broadly written anti-nationalist commentary! The exploding bugs! The co-ed showers! That one fight scene soundtracked to Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You,” for some reason! — but space football is the only one that fits with our theme. In the future, America’s favorite sport is played in high school gymnasiums on old wrestling mats. There are no special teams or roughness penalties. The ball is Nerf’s rough approximation of a baked potato wrapped in foil.

Johnny Rico, our protagonist, wins and is escorted off the field a hero. Roughly 20 minutes of film later, he’s left to die on an alien planet. Shit’s real, yo.

— Christian D’Andrea

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Rush (2013)

Available on HBO

If you liked Ford V. Ferrari, you’ll probably love this. Retelling the true story of James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Niki Lauda’s intense Formula 1 rivalry, Rush has fantastic racing scenes and benefits from focusing on the wildly different personalities and approaches of the two rivals.

— Pete Volk

A League of Their Own (1992)

Available on Showtime, and very often randomly on cable

It almost feels redundant to list this classic, which you’ve probably already seen once or dozens of times. But if you have seen it, you know it holds up better than most of the feel-good, strings-swelling-styled sports hagiographies of the 1990s. A more-or-less accurate retelling of a vital and often ignored part of American sports history, conveyed via an all-star cast and too many quotable lines to count. The “hard” may be what makes it great, but there’s nothing hard about watching this iconic and genuinely uplifting movie. (I also wrote more about it here.)

—Natalie Weiner

Speed Racer (2008)

Available to rent

One of my favorite movies of all-time, taking many aesthetic cues from anime and seamlessly bringing them into the live-action world with breathtaking visual effects. Speed Racer is visually explosive and a delight for the senses, with a grounded conflict at its core (a family business getting bought out by a heartless corporation). In my opinion, this is sports + movies in their best balance with each other.

— Pete Volk

The Heart of the Game (2005)

Available to rent

A hardscrabble team works diligently to overcome the odds, with a few twists. The movie centers on a girls basketball team from Roosevelt High School, 10 minutes from where I grew up in Seattle, and the star of the team gets pregnant. Bring tissues.

— Natalie Weiner

Uncut Gems (2019)

Available to rent

No movie better captures the anxiety of being a sports fan, or the bad decisions you make because of your fandom. Also sports luminaries Kevin Garnett and Mike Francesa deliver excellent performances. My favorite 2019 release! Louis wrote more about it here.

— Pete Volk

Undisputed II: Last Man Standing (2006)

Available on Starz and DirecTV

This is the height of me on-my-bullshit, but please allow it: Scott Adkins and Michael Jai White are generational action stars, and this entry in the excellent Undisputed series shows their singular talents at their best. White plays an ex-boxer framed for a crime and sent to prison, where he fights for his freedom in an underground MMA ring. Adkins plays the terrifying Yuri Boyka, the reigning prison champ. This is so up my alley it’s not even funny, and hopefully it’s up yours, too!

— Pete Volk

More Than a Game (2008)

Available on Starz

It’s very easy to take LeBron James for granted. After all, he’s been doing otherworldly things in the NBA for almost two decades now. Sometimes it just seems like he’s always existed, like he’ll just be inevitable forever. At a time when we’re (hopefully temporarily) deprived of watching him play basketball, it’s worth revisiting this great documentary about his origin story. Yes, he overcame seemingly insurmountable odds, but the part that sticks with you is the people around him — those who believed in him completely, and who he has been just as loyal to in return.

— Natalie Weiner

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junker-town · 5 years ago

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Richard Sherman won a bet on himself few players should make

Richard Sherman finished the 2019 regular season as a Pro Bowler and a second-team All-Pro,

Richard Sherman’s contract was his only chance at getting the salary he knew he deserved. Few players should follow his lead, though.

Richard Sherman was arguably the best cornerback in the NFL for most of his seven seasons with the Seattle Seahawks. He was named Pro Football Focus’ top cornerback of the decade and his 32 interceptions between 2011 and 2017 were five more than any other player in the league.

Unfortunately, that era of dominance in Seattle ended with an Achilles tear during the 2017 season. The team opted for a defensive rebuild and that meant parting with the aging members of its Legion of Boom secondary. Four months later — and a few weeks before Sherman’s 30th birthday — the Seahawks released the cornerback and recoup $11 million in salary cap space.

Sherman believed he could return from his devastating injury and continue to be an elite cornerback into his 30s. But convincing a team of that? Well, that was going to be tough.

His only realistic options were:

Sign a middling contract that’s largely guaranteed. It’s a common path for players deemed past their prime. Take Jordy Nelson’s deal with the Raiders during that same 2018 offseason, for example. Then 32, he signed a two-year, $14.2 million contract, a decent amount even if it was well lower than his days as one of the top 10 highest-paid receivers in the NFL. Despite only playing one season in Oakland, Nelson received $10.97 million of that money.

Sign for a whole lot more, but without the guarantees. Plenty of players swing for the fences like this. “I lose players every year because an agent will tell players ‘I can get you $60 million,’” agent Greg Linton told SB Nation in 2018. “I can get you $100 million! It’ll be five years, $100 million with about $8 million in the first two years and a roster bonus of $90 million in year three. I can put anything I want on paper.”

The latter was the route taken by Sherman. His three-year deal with the 49ers had a maximum value of $39.15 million, which amounts to a top 10 salary among cornerbacks. But, if Sherman was a shell of his former self — or unable to perform due to injury — the contract had the potential to pay out just a fraction of that total.

It was a significant risk for Sherman, who essentially bet millions that he’d be great once again. His contract — which is broken down in full here — leans heavily on Sherman earning Pro Bowl and All-Pro honors. He eventually won his bet.

Why Sherman’s contract was mocked by critics

Sherman was largely blasted for the contract he signed with San Francisco. Incentive-laden deals that are light on guarantees are typically considered favorable for teams, and unfavorable for players.

Most of the criticism revolved around the fact that Sherman negotiated that type of contract on his own, without the help of an agent. That’s not entirely unique — other players, including Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner and Chargers offensive tackle Russell Okung — have done the same.

Wagner is currently the highest-paid inside linebacker in the NFL and secured $40.25 million in guarantees on his three-year, $54 million deal.

Okung, on the other hand, negotiated a terrible five-year, $53 million deal for himself with the Broncos in 2016 that earned him just $8 million and was voided after one season. He did better the second time around with a four-year, $53 million deal from the Chargers that had $25 million in guarantees.

Sherman’s contract with the 49ers appeared comparable to Okung’s with the Broncos, because of the possibility that it could wind up being a relatively cheap one-year deal. As a consequence, many jumped at the chance to lambast the cornerback for not using an agent.

“The thing I’m most frustrated about is all the people that were so high on bashing this deal refuse to bash the agents that do awful deals every year,” Sherman told reporters in 2018 via Pro Football Talk. “There are agents out there that are doing $3 million fully guaranteed deals that look like $50 million deals. When the guy gets cut after two weeks or after a year, and the guy only makes $5 million of a $50 million contract, nobody sits there and bashes the agent.”

Sherman is right when he points out that incentive-based contracts aren’t unique to those without an agent. A number of players have received similar contracts with the help of someone negotiating on their behalf.

Those types of deals are especially common for players who enter free agency without the leverage of health and the prime of their career. Sherman even said as much in a recent Twitter conversation with longtime Browns offensive tackle Joe Thomas.

100% when your coming off an injury that has ended many careers it’s not the same negotiating leverage as a healthy body

— Richard Sherman (@RSherman_25) January 4, 2020

PFT’s Mike Florio pointed out potential pratfalls of the contract — most notably, incentives that don’t fully guarantee until the third day of the following league year, and could be exploited — that could’ve been avoided with an agent. But for the most part, Sherman’s contract was pretty normal for a player with something to prove.

And he took the chance to dunk on the critics when he turned his risky contract into a lucrative deal after its second year.

How Sherman proved the doubters wrong

While Sherman didn’t make the Pro Bowl in his first season with the 49ers, it wasn’t exactly a bad year for the cornerback. He gave up just one touchdown, but — for the first time in his career — he finished a season with zero interceptions.

That was because opponents hardly ever threw his direction. He was targeted once every 12.6 snaps in coverage in 2018, making him the least-targeted cornerback in the NFL.

That’s both a sign that he was doing relatively well in coverage, and also an indictment of a struggling 49ers secondary that couldn’t cover anyone else. San Francisco only intercepted two passes all year and gave up 35 passing touchdowns. It was hard for Sherman to stand out on a 4-12 team with a defense playing so poorly.

He didn’t make the Pro Bowl and wasn’t an All-Pro, so he missed out on $3 million in incentives.

The 2019 season was different. A healthy and rejuvenated 49ers defense made life miserable for quarterbacks, and that allowed Sherman to shine. It helped too that he had an offseason that wasn’t saddled by recovery from his Achilles tear.

Sherman was PFF’s top-graded cornerback of 2019 and allowed just 27 receptions in 15 games. He also came away with three interceptions and his first pick-six since 2013.

PICK-SIX ALERT! Richard Sherman takes it all the way back!#SFvsTB (via @NFL) pic.twitter.com/x8MIZ4FJ89

— PFF (@PFF) September 8, 2019

His play earned him Pro Bowl and second-team All-Pro honors. That meant big money.

He received a $3 million bonus for those accolades, as well as a $1 million bonus for playing over 90 percent of the 49ers’ total defensive snaps. His base salary for the 2020 season also jumped from $7 million to $8 million. Assuming he’s still on the 49ers’ roster in 2020 — which seems like a foregone conclusion — Sherman will receive at least $29.725 million of his three-year deal and as much as $34.775 million.

That’s not too shabby for a cornerback in his 30s coming off a significant injury. And Sherman went to Twitter to dig up comments from people who didn’t think he’d pull it off. Here’s a sampling:

Hahahaha https://t.co/hfB4jHi6Lx

— Richard Sherman (@RSherman_25) January 3, 2020

Maybe it’s a tale of players knowing their abilities and believing in themselves. More players have incentives that can’t be achieved and are negotiated by agents but hey let’s not talk about that https://t.co/Jet2cJoQyC

— Richard Sherman (@RSherman_25) January 3, 2020

Saved the Law school money and the agent fees. Guess those nuances can be figured without it ‍♂️ https://t.co/LvCtUfzvIg

— Richard Sherman (@RSherman_25) January 3, 2020

It was a well-earned victory lap for someone who was heavily criticized nearly two years ago. Ultimately, though, Sherman signed a contract that was perfect for his situation — and not many others.

Most NFL players shouldn’t follow Sherman’s lead

Sherman’s contract was right for him for a few reasons. The fact that he was 30 and coming back from a major injury meant his contract ceiling was limited. But his status as an aging star with several Pro Bowls under his belt provided useful name recognition.

If Sherman excelled in San Francisco, it would be magnified. And that made tying his contract value to Pro Bowl and All-Pro accolades prescient. There was never a chance that Sherman’s success would go unnoticed by fans, the media, and his peers.

That’s not true of all NFL players.

Take Minnesota safety Anthony Harris, for example. He finished the 2019 regular season tied for the NFL lead in interceptions and sits as the league’s highest-graded safety on PFF. And yet, he still hasn’t made a Pro Bowl in five seasons with the Vikings. That’d never happen to Sherman, who is as visible and recognizable as defensive players get in the league.

So unless another NFL player with similar star power suffers a serious injury late in his career, betting big on Pro Bowl and All-Pro nods would probably be foolish. For Sherman though, it was his only way of getting the pay day he knew he could earn, critics be damned.

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junker-town · 5 years ago

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These are the best and worst sports in fiction, according to us

What is your favorite fictional sport and why is it Calvinball?

Inventing a sport is hard. The best fictional sports from movies/books/shows/etc. seem to fall into two categories: Either exceedingly clever games you have always wished you could play (and sometimes can!), or senseless, broken dreck that no one could possibly find fun, no matter what a story’s canon would lead you to believe.

Here are the best and worst fictional sports, as selected by SB Nation staff. There are a lot of other options out there, however, and plenty of discussion to be had about what sports even count as “fictional.” Does a sport you can “play” in a video game count? What about, uh, murder-based sports?

Let us know in the comments. Or just yell at us about our decisions. That’s fine, too.

Best: Jumanji

I wanted to consider the board game oeuvre of fictional sports, and considered Cones of Dunshire for the top spot. But Jumanji is it to me for the way it captured my imagination as a kid. Will it inflict untold damage, and potential death, upon you and everyone around for miles? Sure. It may also turn you into a cool monkey boy with a prehensile tail. Just roll the dice, dingus, it’s your turn.

Worst: Star Wars holochess (I guess it’s called Dejarik)

It’s kinda like Magic: The Gathering crossed with chess. The board looks too cramped for much strategy to take place, though. Plus you have to let the Wookiee win.

— Louis Bien

Best: Blernsball

Blernsball is the 30th-century version of baseball, which took place in Futurama (Season 3, episode 16, “A Leela of Her Own”).

The reasoning behind this being the best fictional sport, is that baseball in the future undoubtedly has to be better than baseball in its current form. It’s that simple. Baseball is good now, and assuming they were to actually evolve over nine more centuries, it could be great.

But that’s also a big if.

Worst: Poohsticks

The objective of Poohsticks (from Winnie-the-Pooh, obv) is to stand over some running water, drop a stick, and see whose stick gets down to the end first.

Go play Fortnite or Call of Duty instead.

— Harry Lyles Jr.

Best: BASEketball

A sport that combines all the fun of basketball with none of the running, jumping, or otherwise-needed athletic traits one needs to typically be good at basketball. Any game you can play with a beer in hand is a good one. Especially if all you have to do to play defense is remind opponents how their sister’s GOING OUT WITH SQUEAK.

Worst (but not really): Bouillabaseball

It’s just baseball with fish parts. I expected better from the ALF writer’s room, but I still stan the Equinox Weenies.

— Christian D’Andrea

Best/Worst: Vampire Baseball

Though I’m loathe to admit I’ve read “Twilight,” I would like to make fun of “Twilight,” so here we are. Basically, in the book, a real treat for our heroine was getting to watch Edward and his vampire family play vampire baseball. Wow, sounds fun, they have superhuman abilities I wonder what their sports will be like?!

Get your hopes down, it’s just regular baseball that’s louder. Because they hit the ball so hard. Great date idea Edward, Bella gets to watch your family game of regular baseball. She doesn’t even get to play. I can’t believe she likes Edward more than Jaco— I mean I don’t care, Twilight’s for children.

— Clara Morris

Best: The Running Man

I’m sure there are some prudes out there saying “but Jaaaames, murder isn’t a sport!” To which I would reply “it is the REALEST sport, even when fictionalized.”

The Running Man is unquestionably one of the greatest action movies of all time, which game us the best fictional sport of all time. It’s professional wrestling, with all its pomp and circumstance mixed American Gladiators with a healthy sprinkling of pure, unadulterated murder.

In case you’re not familiar with the plot, the basic concept is simple: Dangerous convicted felons are given a chance to fight for their freedom in gladiatorial battles against armed, themed enforcers on a dystopian game show. It probably says something about me that I like this so much, but here we are.

Worst: Taking the Stone

This is from the show Farscape and is the dumbest thing of all time. Rather than try to explain in my own words let me just share the entry from Wikipedia, which does a great job detailing how dumb this is.

“The game consists of jumping into a deep well, and chanting while falling. A sonic net at the bottom of the well, sustained by the participants’ voices, cushions their fall. When the youth reach the age of 22 cycles, rather than grow old and be deformed by the planet’s radiation, they stop chanting part way into the leap and die against the rocks. This death is called Taking the Stone.”

Jumping into a well. Maybe killing yourself. Bad sport.

— James Dator

Best: Cricket

Or, more specifically, the good Dr. Stephen Maturin’s take on cricket. At the beginning of Patrick O’Brian’s The Fortune of War, what can only be described as the hulk of the HMS Leopard drifts into the Indonesian bay of Pulo Batang. The crew, exhausted by their recent ordeal in the Southern Ocean, relaxes with a game of cricket against that of the HMS Cumberland. Or they try to, before Maturin, equipped with a bizarre, home-made bat, makes his appearance on the behalf of the Leopards.

A rapacious grin ran round the Cumberlands: they moved much closer in, crouching, their huge crab-like hands spread wide. The Admiral held the ball to his nose for a long moment, fixing his adversary, and then delivered a lob that hummed as it flew. Stephen watched its course, danced out to take it as it touched the ground, checked its bounce, dribbled the ball towards the astonished cover-point and running still he scooped it into the hollow of his hurley, raced on with twinkling steps to mid-off, there checked his run amidst the silent stark amazement, flicked the ball into his hand, tossed it high, and with a screech drove it straight at Jack’s wicket, shattering the near stump and sending its upper half into a long, graceful trajectory that reached the ground just as the first of La Flèche’s guns, saluting the flag, echoed across the field.

As far as rebukes towards English pretensions go, deliberate or not, it’s pretty hard to beat Dr. Maturin’s efforts. This is cricket as it really ought to be played: nonsensically and with maximum force.

NB: My favourite part of the above passage, incidentally, is the confusion it created amongst O’Brian’s significant American audience over whether Dr. Maturin was any good at cricket or not.

Worst: Quidditch

Take a perfectly good magical sport, with three goals, multiple balls, rogue and malevolent magical items designed to hurt you, and flying. The bones of quidditch are close to perfect, giving scope for brilliant tactical and individual play in three dimensions.

And then the Golden Snitch ruins it. There’s absolutely no need for the damn thing. The chasers, beaters and keepers are playing an interesting, well-constructed sport. The seekers, meanwhile, are playing a ridiculous version of hide-and-seek which almost inevitably overrides what everyone else on both teams are trying to achieve.

Not only does the hunt for the Snitch render the actually good part of the sport irrelevant, it also destroys quidditch as a spectator sport. Since the Snitch is so small as to be untrackable, the audience in the stands has no idea what’s going on at any given time, making this a sport that’s both nonsensical and impossible to follow.

Kill the Snitch, and then we’ll talk.

— Graham MacAree

Best: Crunchball 3000

Now I know what you’re all thinking. What the hell is CrunchBall 3000. Well it’s a computer game that has LORE.

The game has elements of rugby, soccer and football and is an excellent time waster at wo— I mean it’s a really underrated way to pass the time.

Worst: Quidditch ... but in real life.

*It’s not really the worst, I just wanted to talk about it.*

Don’t get me wrong, IRL quidditch is fun. I’m just mad that the one time I played, I was the seeker and the snitch could go anywhere. We were in a park and there were no boundaries. I stopped chasing them after three minutes. I have asthma, man. I was off it.

— Kofie Yeboah

Best: Calvinball

When I was a kid in my hometown, there were a few boys on my street who were around the same age as me. In the summer, we would all spend our hard earned pop-bottle deposit returns on buying used baseballs at rummage sales and then use them to play in an open field down the road from our houses. Baseball is actually a very loose term for what we played, especially once the ball was lost or the cover tore off. Then it was a free for all. Little did I know until later in my development that such games as those we played were already mastered by the titular characters in Calvin and Hobbes. Calvinball, you see, is a game with no rules, other than the rules you make up as you go along. No two games are allowed to be the same, and no rules made up on the fly are allowed to be duplicated. Throw on some masks, hit a baseball with a mop and go score some points by running seven times around the sprinkler. Wait! The sprinkler is now the loser zone, so you have to use a croquet mallet to hit a tennis ball over the driveway without it touching any dirt or concrete. If it does, you lose 10 points.

“Other kids’ games are all such a bore!

They’ve gotta have rules and they gotta keep score!

Calvinball is better by far!

It’s never the same! It’s always bizarre!

You don’t need a team or a referee!

You know that it’s great, ‘cause it’s named after me!”

As Calvin opined in the final Calvinball strip when a football game turned into one of the crazy contests, “Sooner or later, all our games turn into Calvinball.”

There really isn’t a better sport out there, real or fictional.

Worst: Star Trek’s parrises squares

Let’s keep this portion short and sweet: They never gave any rules to parrises squares on the show, but it clearly is dumb because there is no way the folks who made Star Trek: The Next Generation were able to come up with a cool sport. That’s probably why they didn’t bother showing viewers much of the game, which is played with an “ion mallet” on a padded playing field.

I know no other details. But it’s is clearly dumber than real-life quidditch, which is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever watched in my entire life.

— Sam Eggleston

Best: Rocket League

Video games are murky territory, and I’m not sure if most of them can be classified as fictional sports. Is Counter-Strike a fictional sport, or a simulation of a military operation? I’m not really sure. But Rocket League is unquestionably a game about a fake sport, and it is by far the best fake sport anyone’s ever invented.

Soccer is the most popular sport ever invented by humans. The coolest iteration of soccer ever invented is from Nike’s 3v3 Secret Tournament ad, which was played in a metal cage. Rocket League iterates on this concept further by replacing the human competitors with freaking rocket powered cars. If it was possible to create Rocket League in real life, it would be the world’s most popular spectator sport.

Worst: Professional wrestling

Oh no, I’ve exposed the business! It’s difficult to classify wrestling as a type of sports or entertainment, hence the term “sports entertainment,” but essentially it’s a TV show about a fake sports league. There’s no non-fixed sport that bears a strong resemblance to pro wrestling, so I think it’s fair to classify pro wrestling as a fictional sport.

Wrestling Twitter, don’t scream at me. I am not here to talk shit about the entertainment you love. I’ve watched thousands of hours of pro wrestling and I love it. But as an actual sport, it’s kind of a mess. There are no published rules, and the referees seem utterly incapable of enforcing the ones that broadcasters tell us about. Competitors are not punished for repeatedly assaulting referees. Any sensible sport would have introduced additional referees or an instant replay system after 100 years of consistent shenanigans, but the major pro wrestling organizations simply refuse. No fictional sport has less competitive integrity.

— Kim McCauley

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junker-town · 5 years ago

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The Icebox’s lessons on how to be a boss

Icebox is ready to play some football with the Little Giants | Warner Brothers production / SB Nation illustration

Becky “Icebox” O’Shea is one of the greatest characters in kids film history. She inspired us 25 years ago and she still inspires us now.

The 1990s were the golden age of kids sports movies. Worn-out VHS tapes of The Mighty Ducks, The Sandlot, The Big Green, and Air Bud were in heavy use throughout the decade, from sleepovers, to youth group functions, to those days when your overworked, underpaid teacher just needed a little break.

Little Giants fits in that same category, yet it also belongs in its own. For one, it’s the only one about football. More importantly than that, though, is that the protagonist is a girl. Not a mom. Not a love interest. Not a tertiary character who hangs out in the background.

Becky “Icebox” O’Shea is both relatable and inspirational, a hard combo to pull off without venturing into Mary Sue territory. But Little Giants navigates it perfectly, thanks to a script that treats her like a three-dimensional person and to a winning performance from Shawna Waldron.

Becky is tough as nails, and she doesn’t take crap from anyone. She’s also allowed to be a kid, with all the flaws that come with it. Some of her actions — such as her awkward attempts to gauge Junior’s interest in her, and her outburst against her well-intentioned dad — might make us cringe now. It’s not because they’re immature. It’s because we completely understand what it’s like to be young and have feelings that you don’t know what to do with.

Seeing a character like Icebox on screen meant a lot to the girls who grew up with the movie. We all know what it’s like to be better than the boys and not get the credit for it, and to be disregarded or passed over for being who you are. She’s not just for us, though. She’s for anyone who has ever felt excluded.

In the movie’s opening minutes, when she finds out she wasn’t picked — by her own uncle! — to make the football team, Icebox is crushed.

That look of heartbreak is fleeting, because it then gives way to a steely gaze of determination that makes one thing very clear:

Warner Brothers Production

BOSS

More than anything, Icebox is a freakin’ boss.

Young or old, man or woman, girl or boy, in 1994 or decades later, we are her students. Here are a few lessons we can learn from Icebox, even today, about how to be a boss:

1. Make things happen for yourself.

Icebox just wanted to play football. And there was part of her that was motivated by the jerks who thought that she couldn’t play because she was a girl — never mind that women have been playing football for longer than you’ve been alive, Uncle Kevin!

So she started her own team, with players she helped recruit, to, as she told that turdface Murphy, “kick your little Cowboys butts.”

She also volunteered her dad to coach the team because hey, sometimes it’s better to ask forgiveness than permission.

2. Don’t let the bullies win.

The first time we see Becky, she’s making a tackle (with excellent form, naturally). Minutes later, this little twerp — who probably has a name, but he doesn’t deserves one — makes a disparaging and tasteless remark about her urinary technique.

She responded appropriately:

Shortly after, when Murphy and his gang of hoodlums give Nubie — who didn’t even try out for the team — a wedgie for NO reason, Icebox gets the Omar Little treatment. Murphy’s crew realizes Icebox is coming and they get the hell outta there.

She tracks them down in her go-kart, one by one, and makes them wipe out on their bikes, hopefully painfully. That’s another important boss reminder: There’s nothing wrong with letting others have a healthy fear of you.

3. It’s OK to doubt yourself sometimes.

The best leaders are the ones who can get introspective and question whether everything they thought they knew is really true. For Becky, her world is turned upside down the first time she sees Junior, and realizes, even if she won’t admit it to anyone else, that the Icebox does in fact get crushes.

She experiences the entire spectrum of first-crush emotions: when you come into physical contact for the briefest of seconds and your insides turn into a butterfly sanctuary; the euphoria of getting teased in a friendly, possibly flirty way that makes you feel seen; the agony of seeing them teasing someone else in a friendly, possibly flirty way that makes you feel invisible.

This is new territory for her, and she’s both embarrassed and curious by these feelings. She starts experimenting with makeup and doing pretend cheers for Junior in the mirror, wondering if he will ever like her like her if she’s his teammate and not a cheerleader like her cousin Debbie.

Junior, affably clueless Junior, tells her, “But you’re not. You’re different. You’re cool. You’re the Icebox. I mean, come on, you’re probably the only girl I’ve met that could beat up my dad.”

Oof, read the room, dude. As hurtful as this was to hear, those words put Becky on a path to figuring out who she is deep down.

4. No one can put you in box (no pun intended).

Becky feels like she has to choose between being a fullback, like her dad calls her, or being a princess, like her mom used to call her (before she abandoned them, as if you needed another reminder of how strong Becky is).

She decides on the latter when she quits the football team to join Debbie on the cheerleading squad. That lasts until Junior gets injured on a cheap shot courtesy of Spike and his Bountygate dad.

It also leads her to an important self-discovery: She can be both a football player and a cheerleader, a fullback and princess, Icebox and Becky.

Warner Brothers Production

Call her Icebox AND call her Becky

She doesn’t have to choose.

5. Stand your ground.

Sometimes, that means quite literally, like when she holds the line:

Other times, it’s more figuratively — like when grammatically incompetent Spike announces, in third person, his refusal to play football “with a girl,” she fires back with, “I can tackle anything, any time, anywhere. Got that?”

Then, Spike threatens her (with death?!) and she doesn’t back down one inch.

(Spike totally had a crush on the Icebox, BTW.)

6. Share in the glory.

There’s no way the Little Giants would have completed their comeback if Icebox hadn’t entered the game. She also knows it takes a team effort. Although she doesn’t directly score one of their three touchdowns that follow, she’s responsible in part for all three.

First, she forces a key fumble (suck it, Spike) and then takes over at quarterback for the injured Junior. She leads the huddle and directs Johnny to run the football to his dad to score a Beast Quake-like touchdown.

Then, Becky’s perfect spiral is the cure for Hot Hands’ dropsies. He outraces the defense and hauls in the catch, running it in for the tying score.

More importantly, she makes the critical goal-line stand to help set up the “Annexation of Puerto Rico.” She acts as a decoy on the game-winning play, knowing that Spike (who is obsessed with her), will follow her.

And she was right. Because she’s a boss — and one who can still teach us valuable lessons to this day.

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junker-town · 5 years ago

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A rift in the space-time continuum informed us City wins the Premier League again

Bad news, City wins the Premier League again.

We don’t know quite how it happened. As is traditional, there was a storm. Then lightning struck somewhere nearby. A power surge. A moment of darkness. And then, as the lights blinked back on and we all confirmed we were still alive, it appeared on our computer screens: “Premier League 2019-20 in review.”

The Race for the Title

Ultimately, a bit anticlimactic. A 5-0 thrashing of Spurs in August, victory at Anfield in November, title race settled. Manchester City’s 104 points is a Premier League record, but their season will probably be best remembered for the stunning stoppage time defeat to Leicester that kept them from finishing the season as invincibles. And of course, Shoegate.

The race to finish second was a bit more interesting. If you had asked a Tottenham supporter five years ago if they would take a season in which they finished second-place in every competition, they’d have said yes, but reality stings worse than anyone could have imagined. The League Cup defeat to Manchester United hardly registered as a disappointment, and City were always going to run away with the Premiership; keeping Liverpool at bay is basically a trophy, right?

That FA Cup collapse against United, though. Their capitulation in the Champions League final against PSG. Those games were the stuff that nightmares are made of. Hug a Tottenham fan today.

As for Liverpool, well: last season they finished second by one point; this season they finished third by eight. Last season they won the Champions League; this season they were knocked out in the semi-finals. You could call it failure if you wanted to. But in truth, the standards at the top of professional football are so ludicrous that, frankly, all “failure” really means here is “didn’t quite nail perfection, again.” Although losing to Manchester United in such carnivalesque fashion will presumably sting a little. Who knew Harry Maguire could do that? Well, Spurs did.

The Race for Europe

As with last season, the scrap for the remaining Champions League places was the really thrilling adventure, and we have just two words here: Brendan Rodgers. Brendan Rodgers. No man has ever so entirely got back on his bullshit. Forty goals for Jamie Vardy. At least one team talk delivered entirely nude. Twenty for Ayoze Perez. That photo shoot. That other photo shoot. Youri Tielemans, player of the season. Stealing Pep Guardiola’s shoes. Wearing Pep Guardiola’s shoes. A week in prison. A prison escape. And all the rest.

Leicester’s glory was Chelsea’s loss, though it was interesting to see how the fans coped with having a manager they couldn’t really boo. The more creative among them upgraded their A4 protest signs to A3, and even occasionally A2, the better to allow space for the various caveats their outrage required. On the pitch, meanwhile, things went roughly as might be expected: some of the kids were okay, Christian Pulisic looked excellent until his unfortunate injury, and Lampard’s getting another season regardless.

Everton hasn’t finished above Liverpool for a long time, but this season they did at least manage to outscore their dominant neighbours. The front three of Kean, Richarlison and Iwobi looked even better on the pitch than it did on paper, and Everton spent all season terrorising even the finest defences. And who knows, if they could find a half-decent one of their own, they might end up back in the argument proper.

We’re less optimistic about Arsenal, who were slick, pretty, occasionally thrilling, and had a spine made of candy floss and dreams and wishes. A cynic might suspect that we wrote this review of Arsenal’s season before they’d even kicked off, but we’d be safe, because how could you ever prove it?

The Race for the Middle of the Table

Set up for success by a stunningly competent summer, the Hammers finished a respectable eighth, their best finish in four years. Sebastian Haller and Pablo Fornals turned in outstanding campaigns, but the real story was Jack Wilshere, who defied the odds to start in all 38 matches.

This also marks the first time in Premier League history that West Ham have finished above Manchester United, though the Old Trafford faithful don’t seem too concerned. ”WE LOVE YOU SLABHEAD, WE DO,” echoed around the league all season, as the fans paid tribute to their captain Harry Maguire: rock in defense, set piece scoring maestro, and star of the League and FA Cup finals. His signing was a revelation, a true bargain at £80 million. This league finish is a mere bump in the road for the Red Devils; with Maguire and new manager Michael Carrick leading the side, United’s future is bright.

Despite being stretched thin by Europe, Nuno Espirito Santo’s squad turned in another solid Premier League campaign to finish tenth, but it’s unclear how sustainable the Wolves project is. With superagent Jorge Mendes’ shock announcement that he’s quitting the football business to live in a Tibetan monastery, and taking Rui Patrício with him, there are huge questions about the future makeup of the squad at Molineux.

No one was talking about Southampton before the season, but it turns out that a man who finished second in the Bundesliga with RB Leipzig can coach. Ralph Hasenhüttl appears to be building a solid foundation for the future with Che Adams’ solid campaign and the debut of three new academy products. Also, Watford has a Premier League team. Each week, they fielded 11 professional footballers, and they played football well enough to not get sucked into a relegation battle. For that, they should be applauded.

Finally, you know that season Bournemouth have? The one where they start okay, then look like they might be in a bit of trouble, then win five on the bounce including a 4-0 over, idk, Chelsea, then end up in the lower mid-table? Yeah, that happened again.

The Race to Stay in the League

The best of the rest: Aston Villa, who finished in an ultimately comfortable 14th. Heaton & Mings may sound like the consequences of leaving a salmon behind a radiator, but it turns out they are also a decent basis for a solid Premier League defence. Nobody tell Everton.

They were joined in assured safety by Burnley, and while plenty predicted they’d survive again, nobody saw the method coming. Nobody predicted that Sean Dyche would, while on a mini-break in the Dordogne, consume a piece of cheese so strong that it induced a hallucinogenic episode; that the voice of God would speak to him as he writhed in psychedelic delirium; that God would tell him to start playing delicate attacking football and to reinvent James Tarkowski as a no. 10; and that all this would kind of work? Best of luck to Tarkowski at the Camp Nou.

Never has a team felt more “just there” than Sheffield United. Nondescript. Unfussy. Quietly scraped some 1-1 draws against top-half teams and finished on 41 points. Good for them! Crystal Palace’s survival was less assured: it turns out that selling your best defender and annoying your best attacker in the same window can put a club in a bit of a spot.

However, the vagaries of the season conspired to do Palace a massive favour: if the title race had been alive in the final week, Spurs might have picked a full-strength team, and Palace would have been in trouble. But the race was run, and those members of the Spurs squad that weren’t actually on holiday were certainly trying to remember where they’d left their passport. One Gary Cahill hat-trick later, and Palace were safe.

The Race to Get Back to the Championship

It’s sad that such a promising young Norwich side is about to be gutted. The Canaries finished one point from safety while playing ambitious attacking football, but they’ll be entering the Championship with a completely different squad. Offers are already pouring in for Max Aarons, Jamal Lewis, Ben Godfrey and Emi Buendia. How will Norwich rebuild with £100 million-plus in the bank?

Also looking to come straight back will be Brighton, and though the steady rise of Graham Potter has encountered its first serious stumble, in truth, neither he nor any of Brighton’s players need to take particular blame. Sometimes it seems that the Premier League itself gets tired of certain smaller teams, as though snobbery and elitism are embedded in the very bones of the competition. We can think of no other explanation for a side scoring sixteen own goals in consecutive games.

And finally, that Steve Bruce, he’s a proper football man. Don’t blame this on him. None of this is his fault. His 3-4-3 diamond with Miguel Almiron at the libero was genius. Imagine if Mike Ashley backed him in the transfer market and bought the players to fit his system? Newcastle would have been pushing for Europa League instead of finishing bottom by thirteen points.

We’ve doubled checked with SB Nation’s Experimental Quantum Physics department and they tell us that, as far as they can tell, it’s genuine. So there you go. The future. Or at least, one future. Maybe this one, maybe not. Maybe the very act of reading it is enough to destroy it. We don’t know for sure. The EQP’s emails tend to run on a bit.

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