Here are a few things that I need to rant or just talk about, the topics vary but are all about sports so how bad can they be.
Finally the NFL has done something about their ridiculous over time rules. Sometime last month the NFL owners voted and there is going to be a much needed change. The old overtime rules were something like this in the NFL handbook, "if you score first you win." That's not even close to fair, what if the entire game was like that. You paid $200 for tickets drove into town, paid $40 for parking, $50 dollars for tailgating supplies, you walk in and pay for your first $8 beer and the game ends because the team that received the opening kickoff kicked a field goal and now you are on your way home. That would be ridiculous, and that's just how the old overtime basically worked. The new rules which are better but still need to be improved on only apply in the playoffs. The new rules state that you have to score a touchdown to win without giving the other team a chance to score. If you only score a field goal you have to kick off to the other team and give them a chance to score a touchdown to win. I'm a huge fan of this for many reasons. One it doesn't take away the importance of defense, and Two it adds strategy. If its 4th and 4 and you are at the 40 yard line there are some things to think about. If you kick it and make it, you still have to kick off to the other team and stop them. If you kick it and miss it they get the ball at the 40 and you have to stop them. Last but not least if you go for it and get it you keep the touchdown drive alive and have a chance to end the game with the opposition never touching the ball, or you miss it and they get the ball around the 40. What would you do, because I have no idea.
Here is why a young NFL stud is worth your first round pick in the draft. Now I'm not saying that you should be trading a top 10 pick, but anything after that should be game for a guy like Brandon Marshall. Just look at the Steelers for example and you need to look no further. We have drafted Charles Johnson, Troy Edwards, Plexico Burress, and Santonio Holmes in the first round of the draft and where have any of those guys got us or themselves in the NFL. The last 4 years in a row Brandon Marshall has caught over 100 balls and 1000 yards and last year he did it with Kyle Orton as a QB. All the Plex and Santonio have done is get in trouble with the law and force themselves out of Pittsburgh, and as for Charles Johnson and Troy Edwards they never lived up the hype or talent they possessed. You can say all you want that Santonio was Superbowl MVP but did he really deserve that, I personally thought that Big Ben should of won that award. Brandon Marshall is a 25 year old, 6'4" 230 pound workhorse who you know can produce with anyone behind center. So you got to ask yourself, do you want to draft a WR for their upside and get the next Charles Johnson or Troy Edwards. Or..... do you trade the pick for a guy who is a freak talent wise and has put up numbers that most first round picks never get too, I know what I do with that draft pick, and Brandon Marshall is a Steeler on draft day.
Speaking of the draft what is the NFL trying to do replicate Chanukah. Seriously I remember when the first 3 rounds were on Saturday and the last 4 were were on Sunday and it was exciting to sit around all day to see how your team either bettered or doomed themselves. We actually had draft day parties at college. We would wake up get as much beer as we could and just watch the draft. We would make a drinking game out of it while we waited for whatever team we rooted for to pick, and it was a lot of fun, there were Steelers fans, Browns fans, even Lions fans. Everyone was just hanging out, making fun of each other for an entire day for what their team did or didn't do. But now its all about money. The NFL realized that they can capitalize the TV market so they space the draft out and its ridiculous. As of this year the draft is three days long, with the first round on Thursday, rounds 2-4 Friday, and 5-7 Sunday. The next thing they are going to do add a round to make it 8 and space it out over that many days so we can have 8 crazy nights of draft. Go back to the way it was so the people who actually watch it can enjoy it and not have to worry about going to work the next day.
I don't know if you guys have noticed the Pittsburgh Pirates are officially back. After going on a 2 game winning streak to start the season they finally returned to form by losing the last four out of 5 games by a combined 43-12. I hate to say but I told all of you Pirate fans who have said that this will be our year to go .500 that there is no chance. We have the lowest salary in baseball at 32 million and lets face it a bunch of young guys who really don't know what its like to play pro-ball for an actual team in the big leagues, I honestly feel bad for them. Hopefully most of the players will end up doing well enough to get traded to a real team, or called up to a real team however you want to say it. Yet there are still the idiots out there who are part of the problem by purchasing season tickets or tickets at all for that matter. I understand that we have the best stadium in baseball but no one should by tickets to go there unless its to go see a concert. If you pay 8 dollars for a seat you are overpaying to see those bums, and all you are doing is proving the Nuttings right, you don't have to do anything in baseball to make money. All you have to do is find good young players on someone else's single A team and put them in the pros. People will go to see them, they will lose 90 games, and Nutting will make 60 million dollars. Glad to see the owner of a once proud franchise is doing so well while the rest of the city sulks in embarrassment.
i agree with your premise on taking proven players vs. draft picks, but the steelers would not and will not trade for a guy like marshall for the same reason santonio is no longer on the team. he has had more black marks on his record than holmes or roethlisberger. marshall does not fit the steeler image, even if that image has been spit on for a few years now by many of their high profile players. on the pirates, i share your frustration, but not showing up to the games is not the answer. if the city doesn't support the team (even if they don't necessarily deserve support), then the owner cries poor and has a better case to move the team or keep the payroll at a pathetic number. it doesn't seem like the pirates could ever leave pittsburgh, but the pens almost did and anything is possible. the answer is, i think, to draft really well, not be afraid to take a guy who may be tough to sign (i.e. matt wieters), build those guys in your system and then build around them instead of trading them for prospects before they cash on a contract. that is a little easier said than done, but it is the only way to survive for a "small-market" baseball team.
ReplyDeleteYea I do not necessarily think that Brandon Marshall is a good fit for Pittsburgh but I do agree with his point that teams now a days put way too much emphasis on draft picks. I agree that it is worth giving up the pick for young, proven talent.
ReplyDeleteAnd as far as the Pirates, we as fans are helpless and that's all there is to it. You're right, if we quit going to games, they will be able to move somewhere where they will make more money. But he's right too in the fact that its embarrassing and you almost feel bad for the guys who play here. But if we want a team we just have to suck it up that they stink for now and hope for the future. We have some good prospects and we did make that big pick a couple years ago wth Alvarez. Now all we can do is see how they develop, and if they do the next question is will we pay them? Hard to say.
Im not saying the steelers should take marshall im saying it hypothetically to a team that needs a reciever like what miami just did. And as far as the pirates go the only way to get the owners to start drafting smart and spending money is to show them that we as fans arent going to put up with thier cheap way of business anymore. They cant just move the team because they have a lease for the next 20 years in PNC park, because of that baseball wont let them move just like hockey wont let the coyotes move right now. The pens only almost moved because their lease was up with the melon arena and they wanted a new stadium. But no matter what its just to be talked about because no matter what because fans will keep goign to games and nutting will make millions a year off of terrible talent, we as fans are as much to blame as the nuttings, we are like the grandparent who keeps giving thier drug addict grandchild 20 bucks to go spend, we are enablers, and that will never change.
ReplyDeletei didn't think about the stadium lease - good point. but not going to the games does give the ownership a ready-made excuse to keep the payroll low. on the steelers - i can hear the laughter already, but something tells me limas sweed is going to turn it around and be a factor. ward, wallace, sweed, and maybe someone like golden tate or the white kid from texas in the draft can make up a good enough wide receiving crew.
ReplyDeleteI thought I was the only person who didn't give up on Sweed. I agree Tino!
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