Welcome everyone and we are going to jump right into it because it’s been a long ass week and I still have some shit to do. Gotta get the “what’s playing†up in the Popcorn Junkies and finish up a bunch of DVD reviews that will probably be done by the weekend. Just busy busy and not enough time to enjoy my loneliness of living alone.
How quaint eh?
Oh…and if you want to really be disturbed, then I recommend joining the forums as an everyday talker. I mean you see the link at the end of each one of these columns for our own personal thread dealing with only this stuff. But some of the stuff talked about in the rest of the forum is just plain ass disturbing. Fun, but disturbing. Honestly, I recommend checking them out. They are run by this cool lil chick named Ellie, but don’t piss her off because she will POWN you!
No really, don’t make her mad.
Ok everyone, time to…
1.) The St. Louis Cardinals Curse?
Paulie: Two guys die within a few years of each other and it’s a curse? Freaky coincidence maybe, but not a curse. People die, sometimes even in the same family. Does that mean that family is cursed? All it really meant to me was that I lost my fantasy game cuz the Cubs/Cards game got cancelled. So how bout that Panda Porn?
Charles Joseph: LOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOL
LOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOL
LOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOL
LOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOL
LOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOL
LOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOL
LOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOL
LOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOL
That’s right…I said it…
It does suck for them, twice in 5 years.
Danny: Well, CJ said he’d do that and he did.
I merely thought this was a topic of interest simply because during the NFL Draft, ESPN broke in to give us the news. Understandable. Then Peter Gammons gave a good 5 minutes on the life of Josh Hancock and his career. Mind you the kid played for like five teams and he was only 29. But then he started talking about how horrible it was that the Cards lost two players in five years and some kind of curse. Then later on Sportscenter, they insinuated the same thing. I was wondering…is it really a damn curse?? Its two guys! Its tragic yes, but not a curse. RIP Josh Hancock, our thoughts go out to your entire family.
2.) NFL Draft
Danny: Well the Saints had really nothing to go for because the offense is stacked and out defense bulked up in free agency a bit. Still we made some good pick-ups of a cornerback and such; and it seems that after the success with Colston out of Hofstra last year…the Saints are going to keep scouring the smaller schools for explosive talent. Keep it up boys; the season is looking good already. Meachem is a great wide receiver though and it will be phenomenal watching him and Colston on opposite sides of the field catching passes from Drew Brees for another five years or so.
Brady Quinn. Oh my Brady Quinn. And to think that about two months ago I didn’t think anyone could be hated in Miami more then Nick Saban. Ted Ginn is a great player don’t get me wrong, but to go in with a beat-up Culpepper, a not-so-sure-he’s-coming-here Trent Green, and Cleo Lemon as your QB’s is retarded when a perfectly good Irish white kid is sitting right there. Beck is a great pick and will be a future star one day, but Quinn was gold at number nine.
And then the Eagles took Kolb over Beck and Stanton? WHAT? I don’t even want to talk about that stupidity. There were some absolute steals in this draft though with the center Kalil going late and the tight end Olsen going very late. A fun draft of which I watched every single minute of it. Now if only the next four months would fly by and preseason would get its ass here.
Paulie: Poor Brady Quinn. How does it feel to be karma’s bitch? That’s what you get for telling everyone that YOU should be the #1 pick. And it’s fitting that you’re going to the QB hell that is Cleveland. Just be thankful that they’ll only be expecting you to be the next Bernie Kosar, so you don’t have to set your sights THAT high. That being said, Miami still should have taken you at 9. Word may be that they had this Beck kid right behind Quinn on the board. And he may well be that good but they also could have done tons better than Ted Ginn in that slot. Hell, if Miami wanted a good WR/KR well… they should have kept Wes Welker. He’d have been cheaper and at least as good.
What? The Panthers drafted too? Are you sure? The first round was pretty good. Beason will be a nice insurance policy for Dan Morgan’s next concussion. Though I still would have liked to have seen Olsen there. Ryan Kalil? Can he play guard too? Cause we sure enough didn’t need a center. Another defensive end? Ummm… since when is defensive end a safety? There are like, 2 and a half safeties on the roster! And Dwayne Jarrett. I’m sure Keyshawn wouldn’t have been so buddy buddy with him on draft day if he had known that the rook was pretty much taking his spot right away. Of course, it wouldn’t surprise me if the Panthers cut Keyshawn BECAUSE of what he said to Jarrett on draft day. They did just pay him a $3mil roster bonus last month. But we trade one USC loudmouth for a younger USC loudmouth. Let’s just hope the younger can be as reliable a pass catcher as the elder. Of course they missed the perfect opportunity here to draft the other Steve Smith. Give him number 89. Give the real Steve Smith another number and see how long it takes for defenders to actually look at who’s in the helmet rather than the name and number on the jersey.
Charles Joseph: We did…ok. Not great. Not bad. Brady Quinn isn’t on our team, so that’s a big plus. I was much more pleased with Adrian Peterson at 7. He should give us one competent weapon on offense. Look out now, only 3-4 more until we have a chance to score. Our best pick was Aundrae Allison. He had a great senior bowl, then went out and ran a 4.39 at the combine. He’s got good hands, route running could use some work, but overall he should be our best receiver this year and he and Sydney Rice should make for at least a semi competent receiving corp. for our no talent quarterbacks to attempt to throw the ball to. Speaking of no talent quarterbacks, who the hell did we pick…some guy from Coastal Carolina??? Did we realize there were still good options on the board? Chris Leak? Jared Zambroski? Duke’s QB? Oh well, hopefully we’re still bad enough to get Childress fired after the year. Before the draft I said we had 3-4 win potential, now I think we should be able to replicate last years 6-10 mark.
Wait.
No we can’t. 4-12.
Quinn falling as far as he did was a shock. And as SMS said many times, Miami was the best fit for him and they should have drafted him at 9, and should have traded up to draft him after they passed on him. Atlanta did the best to help themselves. Jamaal Anderson is a good player and should start immediately. Miami killed themselves and have to hope they land Brohm next year.
3.) NHL Playoffs
Charles Joseph: First round was a lot quieter than expected. New York and Ottawa pulled the biggest surprises and moved on. No real surprises in the West, with San Jose being the only lower seed to move on, and that was pretty much expected. Second round match ups are all pretty even so far. As of the time I’m writing this. Buffalo is the only team with a 2-0 lead, every other series was 1-1. After watching and listening to Anaheim for 5 games in a row, I don’t see Vancouver being able to stop them. Loungo would have to play out of his mind and shut out Anaheim for the rest of the series for Vancouver to have a chance. Detroit/San Jose should be a great series. Detroit’s youngsters are finally starting to do something in the playoffs and they now match up against equally young and talented San Jose. This one should be a 6-7 game series, but I see San Jose grinding it out in the end. New Jersey/Ottawa series should be pretty exciting too. Ottawa has a bunch of offensive talent. But New Jersey has Broudeur. But he has been very shaky so far in the playoffs, and New Jersey is going to have to rely on the offense. Elias, Gionta, Gomez, Parise, and every one else need to step up. I think they do and New Jersey should move on. Buffalo, is more and more looking like the class of the east, and should easily handle New York.
Danny: Ducks straight and simple and I think they will continue all the way into the Finals and hold Mr. Stanley’s big ass cup above their heads. The Senators will be their opponent, but just not be able to take it from them. I call Ducks in 5.
Paulie: Hmmm, looking at the current schedule… I say… Ducks and Sens in the finals. Ottawa wins the Cup! Ottawa wins the cup! Mostly because I just really still can’t take a team called the Ducks THAT seriously. They were scarier when they were still Mighty. If they couldn’t be Mighty anymore they should have dropped the Ducks too. Quack Quack.
4.) NBA Playoffs
Paulie: Ahh, the 3 month extra season known as the NBA playoffs. Of course, the first round seems to be moving along fairly well, and as expected. Detroit sweeps through Orlando, Cleveland is sweeping though the Wizards, Jersey is dealing with Toronto, the Bulls swept the Heat. Wait. What? When the hell did the Bulls get good again? I may have to start watching basketball if they’re gonna be good again. Let’s check out west. Suns are taking care of the Kobes. Spurs/Nuggets seems to be a pretty good series. I’m pulling for the Spurs since I don’t have this unnatural hatred for Tim Duncan that the rest of the world seems to have. Jazz/Rockets is another good one out there. Golden State is one win away from taking out the Mavs…
*blink*
Umm… How many broken seals is that now? 6? Ok… umm… I’ll be over here out of the way of Armageddon. Thanks.
Charles Joseph: The story of the playoffs is clearly the WOYAHs taking care of the 67 win Mavs so far. Out playing them and their home crowd is flustering the Mavs, combine that with Dirk playing like David Hasselhoff and you can see why the Mavericks are in dire straights. Lebron swept what is left of Wizards, Bulls beat the shine of the Heat’s championship. Nets/Raps is a pretty good series so far. Neither team has really dominated, and the Nets missed a wide open 3 to knock the raps out the other night but missed and now its really anyone’s series. Suns are doing what they are supposed to , and the Spurs should pull away from the Nuggets. Interesting playoffs so far, it could be a fun 7 months.
Danny: Good-bye Magic and maybe Grant Hill for good. Shame such a talented player was marred by so many injuries. In my opinion, it’s down to the Cavs and Bulls in the East. Yes the Pistons are a very good team, but I think it’s time for LeBron or the Band Of Misfit Toys to go to the Finals. The Bulls looked extremely good in their sweep of Miami. I mean the best I have seen from them all season and I think they could take it to whomever the West churns out.
And that would be the Suns. The Suns are by far the team to beat in the West even with Dallas there. The Warriors are handling the Mavs. THE WARRIORS!!!! There is no excuse for that even if Jordan, Pippen, Cartwright, Paxson, and Grant were in Warriors’ uniforms. It’s going to come down to a Suns/Bulls Finals in my opinion and I just am not quite sure who would take it yet, but there’s time to talk about that later.
5.) Talladega
Charles Joseph: Exciting race that you guys missed do to that little draft thing. Couple Big hits. Mears really hit hard when he thought Jimmy was going to pit with him and Mears hit the inside wall HARD. Then just a few laps later, Kyle Busch hit the inside wall hard too after Jimmy got pushed up into Rudd and that started and accordion affect and Busch slammed nose first into the inside wall. Amazing they both walked away. Again, I’m writing this as the race is going on. The last 5 laps have been insane. I just breathed for the first time in those 5 laps. Well that was anti-climatic. But Jeff Gordon won, breaking a tie with Dale Ernhardt for most career wins. Good race for the first 188 laps, but “Overdrive†was a letdown. And that’s a terrible name for the extra section. Ooo…Stewart didn’t look very happy with McMurray. I’m sure he’ll have something to say about that. Its going to be a very interesting week. And the fans are throwing crap at Jeff…dumbasses. I hate it when the fans do that, Gordon is a fantastic driver and doesn’t deserve all the crap he gets from the fans, that is why NASCAR fans get the “Redneck Hick†label and it never gets mainstream attention, because the fans treat one of the sports biggest stars like that. People boo Bonds, but they don’t throw shit at him, I know its happened in the past, but come on. Ugh…
Danny: I was reading some of your comments in the forum there Chuckles as the draft was going on, but as you could see from the live coverage…I was kinda busy. I did see the highlights though and the throwing trash from the fans was just ridiculous. There is no place for that in any sport no matter if it’s NASCAR, football, baseball, or whatever. I get so into some games and so angry that I may not speak to people for days if my team lost, but I would never pitch something at someone and risk injuring them AND going to jail for it. Bunch of inbred redneck hicks.
Paulie: Vroom vroom! Drive that way really fast! TURN LEFT! TURN LEFT! Hey! That guy’s really good! But he just passed Dale for wins! Let’s throw shit at him! But, Dale’s dead, what’s he sposed ta do? Not win no mo so nobody passes Dale? WELL DURN TOOTIN HELL YEAH! This is the culture I grew up in, and thus why I avoid NASCAR. But did you see John Force get his ass whipped by his own daughter? Now THAT was a race. And John Force’s daughters are really, really frickin hot.
6.) Will Randy Moss Work As A Pat? – Go here for more on this and vote in a super sexy cool poll: Randy Moss/Patriot Co-Existence Poll
Paulie:Yes. Yes. For the love of Dog. YES. When Randy Moss came into the league, he was a late 1st round draft pick with not so high expectations because of his past. He was just a guy on the team. And he wreaked hell on opposing secondaries. Then, they expected him to step up into the spotlight they shined on him and lead the team. And that’s where Randy melted down. He went to Oakland, and they expected him to be the savior of the franchise. And he melted down more. Because that’s not Randy. That’s not what he does. Randy works best when he can just be out there, being one of the guys, part of the system. He can do that in New England. He’ll get back to just having fun there. The team will be winning. He’ll buy Emperor Belichick’s kool-aid. And everything will be hunky dory in Pat land. Will he be a 1500 yard, 15 TD receiver again? No, New England doesn’t work like that. And Brady doesn’t have a big enough arm to go deep a whole lot. But Randy will get his Super Bowl ring in New England, either this year, or next and then I bet he’ll probably retire. I don’t think he cares about records or the Hall of Fame at this point in his career. He just wants that ring to go out on and I think he’ll work his ass off for a good team to get it.
I mean, hell, if you got promised the world in a place like Oakland and got trapped in Raider hell, would YOU play all that hard?
Charles Joseph: Yes. Resoundingly yes. His negatives have been greatly exaggerated over the years. He was never a model citizen in Minnesota, but he wasn’t the “cancer†everyone made him out to be. I don’t think he was a cancer in Oakland either, he was just a good player on a bad team who phoned it in for the second half of the year. He won’t have to worry about being a bad team in New England, because they are a clear Super Bowl favorite. That’s been his only problem over the years, when he’s on a bad team, he forgets to care. He should have no problem caring this year, and should lead the Pats, well, not LEAD, but help the Pats get to another Championship.
Danny: ESPN, NFL Network, ESPN.com, NFL.com, Sportsline.com, SI.com, etc…etc…are all putting all the focus here on Moss being some type of cancer in the locker room. I’ve talked about this topic a bit in the forums and think I said it best already with this:
What has been the focus of the Randy Moss talk ever since Sunday morning when the trade happened??
“What is up with the Pats taking such locker room cancers?”
“Can Belichick control Randy Moss?”
“Will the Moss of old show up or the one who wants the spotlight with his antics?”
THAT SHIT right there is what I mean by tarnished. He hasn’t done that much, but no-one is focusing on his talents and simply focusing on the mooning, the bitching and moaning in Oakland, etc… It actually pissed me off a good bit because the guy is talented as hell and I wish they could simply keep the focus on that. I don’t know how he’ll survive though in New England. Like I said, I think a few years will be fine…but then he’ll get bored like he has everywhere else and cause some kind of commotion and say the Pats’ owners never treated him right. coughKEYSHAWNcough!
That is it and before I go, I would actually like to give my fellow IP personnel a few bits of credit in the new section of PTP entitled:
Please check out Mr. James Hatton’s Monday Night Rabble every Monday night or Tuesday morning over in Pulse Wrestling. It is nothing more then a big group of people enjoying or ripping the hell out of RAW and one of the best things to read at the beginning of your week.
Richard Mauntah is over in Tailgate Crashers doing all the work on sports such as cricket and horse racing that a lot of us just don’t even get. But he is there to not only make sure you understand, but that you are always kept up to date.
Eric S. is a busy busy man with the amount of stuff he does. He always has some kick ass columns in the Pulse Wrestling section, but be sure to check out his DVD reviews…they always seem to cause a stir.
Speaking of DVD reviews, head over to The DVD Lounge where there are a lot of good people watching a lot of crap so you don’t have to. And you can win free shit. No, I’m serious…free DVDs and even books. Yes, those are the things you read.
Popcorn Junkies is a place you really need to go check out as well because there are great people like Caroline, Ping, Michaelangelo, Kubryk, and more bringing you news and movie reviews at all hours of the night and day.
Oh and be sure to check out the return of Widro’s Hot Seat this week where yours truly will be the guest. Hope it was a fun week for you because it certainly was for us even though it’s amazing how much we are never on the same page in trying to get this column done. Go here in the forums and bitch at us or simply e-mail any of us by clicking our names. Like I said, also hang around the forums, they’re fun.
Put ‘em on the board, Houshamazilli…CHAMPIONSHIP!
I’m spent!
