You're forgiven for the whiplash from going from yesterday morning's presumption that LeBron would lead the Cavs to a Game 5 win at home over Boston -- and presumptive series-clincher -- which, at the very least, would punt "Is LeBron staying or leaving?" to the East finals when the Cavs get bounced by the Magic.
But no. LeBron had to go and play the worst game of his career -- in the biggest game of his career. As I argue in today's SN column it's not about questioning LeBron's talent -- it is about questioning all the assumptions about him staying that were valid right up until last night's humiliation.
Presuming the Cavs finish choking away this series -- dangerous, I know -- I think that circumstances have flipped in the last 24 hours: That LeBron is now more likely than not to evacuate Cleveland for New York.
My rationale is fairly simple: If the best he's going to do in Cleveland is the 2nd round of the playoffs -- merely making them, not winning them, mind you -- then he might as well try again somewhere else, because that's as bad as missing the playoffs altogether, especially when you have the regular season's best record.
In other words, he has just a good of a chance of winning a title in New York -- or New Jersey or Miami or Chicago -- as he does in Cleveland. I buy into him giving the Cavs a hometown discount on the emotional factor that will go into his decision, but not THAT much of a discount. Not a 2nd-round exit discount.
As bad as LeBron played, it's obviously not all LeBron's fault -- let's put some blame on an overrated coach and an overrated GM. (Compare the Cavs' panicky moves to the confident built-for-playoff-domination moves made by the front office in Orlando.) All the more reason to bolt Cleveland for New York, where D'Antoni can coach and Walsh can construct a roster.
One thing remains constant: Where he is at right now, this morning, LeBron is no closer to winning an NBA title than any other schlub in the league without a ring.
Cripes, the fans in Cleveland were BOOING. Modest props for a fair reaction to an embarrassing performance, but they gotta take the long view when it comes to booing LeBron to his face in his own building. But it's a fair reaction: If this team can't even get past Boston in the 2nd round, what's the point?
Complete SN column here, including fun with Barry Zito (and Cliff Lee!), more mockery of this Brian Cushing situation, a bit of skepticism about Steve Lavin and more.
-- D.S.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
05/11 Quickie: LeBron, Sweeps, Tiger
Tonight is the biggest game of LeBron's career.
And he's got the stage all to himself for the rest of the week, because everyone else has moved on -- and looked better than the Cavs in doing it.
I'm feeling very comfortable with my pre-playoff prediction that the Magic would beat the Cavs to win the East. Orlando looks unstoppable.
(And picking the Lakers to repeat as champs isn't making me nervous either. Although I would love to be wrong.)
More in today's column:
*Hank Haney quit on Tiger like Tiger quit on the Players.
*The AP's NFL award voters are officially more offensive than Brian Cushing's cheating.
*It's a micro-slump for the Rays.
*Duke-Michgan St > Duke-Butler
See the whole thing here. More later.
-- D.S.
And he's got the stage all to himself for the rest of the week, because everyone else has moved on -- and looked better than the Cavs in doing it.
I'm feeling very comfortable with my pre-playoff prediction that the Magic would beat the Cavs to win the East. Orlando looks unstoppable.
(And picking the Lakers to repeat as champs isn't making me nervous either. Although I would love to be wrong.)
More in today's column:
*Hank Haney quit on Tiger like Tiger quit on the Players.
*The AP's NFL award voters are officially more offensive than Brian Cushing's cheating.
*It's a micro-slump for the Rays.
*Duke-Michgan St > Duke-Butler
See the whole thing here. More later.
-- D.S.
Monday, May 10, 2010
05/10 Quickie: Braden, Suns, Tiger
It's not just that someone threw a perfect game -- just the 19th P.G. ever.
It's that the someone was Dallas Braden, the outspoken -- and previously unspectacular -- A's pitcher.
And that he did it on Mother's Day in front of his grandma, who raised Braden after Braden's mom died of cancer (which MLB spent the day supporting the fight against).
And, in the quote de grace -- Grams said "Stick it, A-Rod," which turned into a Twitter thing.
All in all, just the type of remarkable and entirely unexpected moment that captures why we all follow sports.
Braden leads today's SN column, but I could have led with the Suns sweep -- remarkable in its own right -- or "mondo" Rondo, who had the best playoff performance in the NBA East of the year. (It would be hard to top Dragic for best this year overall.)
I also could have led with Tiger quitting on the Players. What an odd situation -- if he was in contention, you know he would have played through, just like he did at the US Open. But he wasn't -- he was stinking it up, and it's unclear whether it's from the disc issue or even if he was healthy, if something else is going on. Tiger is clearly frustrated, but it's hard to say about what.
I don't believe Brian Cushing. Do you?
Of the NBA Draft withdrawals, I'm most intrigued by Jimmer Fredette (1st-team All-America of the future), by Alex Tyus (who clearly doesn't want to be at Florida, but whose presence gives the Gators one of the deepest frontcourts in the country - quite a change of pace from the thinnest frontcourt in the country of two years ago), and by the Moore/Johnson pair at Purdue, instantly putting the Boilermakers back near the top of the Big Ten, rather than decimated.
Elana Kagan is a Mets fan, btw. Given the Sotomayor connection to baseball, thought you'd want to know.
Complete column here, and there's a lot more in there. More later.
-- D.S.
It's that the someone was Dallas Braden, the outspoken -- and previously unspectacular -- A's pitcher.
And that he did it on Mother's Day in front of his grandma, who raised Braden after Braden's mom died of cancer (which MLB spent the day supporting the fight against).
And, in the quote de grace -- Grams said "Stick it, A-Rod," which turned into a Twitter thing.
All in all, just the type of remarkable and entirely unexpected moment that captures why we all follow sports.
Braden leads today's SN column, but I could have led with the Suns sweep -- remarkable in its own right -- or "mondo" Rondo, who had the best playoff performance in the NBA East of the year. (It would be hard to top Dragic for best this year overall.)
I also could have led with Tiger quitting on the Players. What an odd situation -- if he was in contention, you know he would have played through, just like he did at the US Open. But he wasn't -- he was stinking it up, and it's unclear whether it's from the disc issue or even if he was healthy, if something else is going on. Tiger is clearly frustrated, but it's hard to say about what.
I don't believe Brian Cushing. Do you?
Of the NBA Draft withdrawals, I'm most intrigued by Jimmer Fredette (1st-team All-America of the future), by Alex Tyus (who clearly doesn't want to be at Florida, but whose presence gives the Gators one of the deepest frontcourts in the country - quite a change of pace from the thinnest frontcourt in the country of two years ago), and by the Moore/Johnson pair at Purdue, instantly putting the Boilermakers back near the top of the Big Ten, rather than decimated.
Elana Kagan is a Mets fan, btw. Given the Sotomayor connection to baseball, thought you'd want to know.
Complete column here, and there's a lot more in there. More later.
-- D.S.
Saturday, May 08, 2010
Saturday (Very) Quickie
PHILLY -- Had a blast at the rehearsal dinner last night, and had to
laugh at the irony that a mile away at the same time, Jamie Moyer was
setting a record for oldest pitcher to throw a complete-game shut-out.
laugh at the irony that a mile away at the same time, Jamie Moyer was
setting a record for oldest pitcher to throw a complete-game shut-out.
I'm a little obsessed with Moyer, entirely because he is 47 (and a
half!) and still pitching in the majors (and not as a knuckleballer).
I feel like I need to see him in person, because I am skeptical we
will ever see a pitcher his age again. What a marvel.
On the opposite end, there is Starlin Castro, the 19-year-old Cubs SS
who made a mythic debut yesterday: HR and a triple, accounting for a
record-setting 6 RBI. So much for tempered expectations.
And then there's Goran Dragic, the backup Suns PG who scored 23... in
the 4th quarter. Greatest playoffquarter by a backup player in NBA
history? (Why not!)
As I tweeter yesterday, hoping to get to the Schuylkill this morning
to watch some of Dad Vails, one of the great crew events of the year.
I haven't been to (or rowed in) Philly in 18 years. And 25 pounds.
Yikes.
(Wow: Just saw my college coach quoted in the Inquirer; he's now the
women's coach at St. Joe's. He let me earn a seat in the Northwestern
heavyweight varsity 8 as a freshman, my finest athletic accomplishment
ever. For that, I will always be grateful to him, even though
personality conflicts the next season, when I was team captain,
contributed to me leaving the team and the sport. Wow, haven't thought
about any of this in a long time....)
- D.S.
Friday, May 07, 2010
Friday Quickie: On the Road
On the road to Philly this morning for a wedding weekend. First time
back since a high school rowing regatta. Coincidentally, the biggest
college crew race of the year - Dad Vail - is this weekend. Will be
fun to watch and vicariously re-live my erstwhile prep and college
athletic career. Meanwhile, the groom is a huge Dolphins fan. Will
have to thank him for freeing up No. 15 in Denver.
back since a high school rowing regatta. Coincidentally, the biggest
college crew race of the year - Dad Vail - is this weekend. Will be
fun to watch and vicariously re-live my erstwhile prep and college
athletic career. Meanwhile, the groom is a huge Dolphins fan. Will
have to thank him for freeing up No. 15 in Denver.
Meanwhile, I'm filing this from my phone and don't have a link to my
SN column to provide. If you hit up the front page of the site or use
yesterdays link below, you should be able to navigate to it. If you
use yesterdays column, just click on my byline.
Meanwhile, more posts from the road all weekend, and - likely - a
steady stream of tweets.
For those not checking back, happy mother's day to all the moms. And
call your mother.
- D.S.
Thursday, May 06, 2010
Should Adults Wear Sports Jerseys?
Interesting debate right now -- sparked by some Twitter discussion from Spencer Hall and Chris Mottram of SB Nation -- about whether adults should wear sports jerseys.
Hall says: Never.
Mottram says: Only when watching or attending games.
I'm going to fall somewhere in between.
I wear a Tebow jersey while watching or attending Florida football games. I'm sure you are shocked.
However, I recognize that -- as an adult -- I look foolish. That's the key for me: It's fine to wear the jersey if you acknowledge that, in fact, you do look a little lame.
I do think that there is a continuum of how dumb you look in a jersey. Basketball tank-tops are just not a good look. Football jerseys always make the wearer look like he put on his dad's shirt. Baseball jerseys are a little more subtle; maybe it's the button-down thing. Hockey sweaters are kind of awesome but are best kept in an arena. Soccer jerseys are actually acceptable. They look like interesting T-shirts. Which is a good segue...
I would like to offer a third way: I am a huge fan of the "jersey t-shirt" -- the replica jersey that is printed onto a T-shirt.
I have a jersey T-shirt for Tebow -- three, actually. Two blue ones and a white one that I wore exactly once -- the Kentucky concussion game, after which I buried it.
I think that is an appropriate way for adults to rock the jersey look, without actually wearing a jersey out in public in a non-gameday context.
I completely respect the opinion that wearing jerseys as an adult is lame and shouldn't be done. And yet I completely respect the group that wants to wear them on game day.
It's hard to pass judgment. We all wear stupid things from time to time.
OK: Your thoughts on adults wearing sports jerseys?
-- D.S.
UPDATE: Here's a SBNation poll on the issue. Heated!
Hall says: Never.
Mottram says: Only when watching or attending games.
I'm going to fall somewhere in between.
I wear a Tebow jersey while watching or attending Florida football games. I'm sure you are shocked.
However, I recognize that -- as an adult -- I look foolish. That's the key for me: It's fine to wear the jersey if you acknowledge that, in fact, you do look a little lame.
I do think that there is a continuum of how dumb you look in a jersey. Basketball tank-tops are just not a good look. Football jerseys always make the wearer look like he put on his dad's shirt. Baseball jerseys are a little more subtle; maybe it's the button-down thing. Hockey sweaters are kind of awesome but are best kept in an arena. Soccer jerseys are actually acceptable. They look like interesting T-shirts. Which is a good segue...
I would like to offer a third way: I am a huge fan of the "jersey t-shirt" -- the replica jersey that is printed onto a T-shirt.
I have a jersey T-shirt for Tebow -- three, actually. Two blue ones and a white one that I wore exactly once -- the Kentucky concussion game, after which I buried it.
I think that is an appropriate way for adults to rock the jersey look, without actually wearing a jersey out in public in a non-gameday context.
I completely respect the opinion that wearing jerseys as an adult is lame and shouldn't be done. And yet I completely respect the group that wants to wear them on game day.
It's hard to pass judgment. We all wear stupid things from time to time.
OK: Your thoughts on adults wearing sports jerseys?
-- D.S.
UPDATE: Here's a SBNation poll on the issue. Heated!
05/06 Quickie: Los Suns, Zito, Hayward
Was the "Los Suns" effort an unprecedented moment of politics in the history of team sports?
I think it was -- particularly impressive given that fans hate to see politics and sports mix.
In today's SN column lead, I analyze the factors that made "Los Suns" successful -- but it is the same factors that make it unlikely to be replicated.
It would be great if "Los Suns" turned out to be the catalyst for change, but this is not the signal of an increasing prominence of politics within sports.
Oh, we will still have individual athletes or coaches speaking out on issues -- I expect we'll see even more of that, given the proliferation of channels for them to express themselves.
But at an institutional level -- a team-wide (and, as unique, corporate-sanctioned) effort -- it feels entirely unique.
That's what made it such an amazing moment. It's also why we won't see it again in other contexts.
More you'll find in today's column:
*In praise of Barry Zito!
*Philly Tazer Watch
*Good for Gordon Hayward.
*Biggest. Contract. Ever. (for an interior lineman)
*Did you need SI to confirm Ben is a douchebag?
Complete column here. More later.
-- D.S.
I think it was -- particularly impressive given that fans hate to see politics and sports mix.
In today's SN column lead, I analyze the factors that made "Los Suns" successful -- but it is the same factors that make it unlikely to be replicated.
It would be great if "Los Suns" turned out to be the catalyst for change, but this is not the signal of an increasing prominence of politics within sports.
Oh, we will still have individual athletes or coaches speaking out on issues -- I expect we'll see even more of that, given the proliferation of channels for them to express themselves.
But at an institutional level -- a team-wide (and, as unique, corporate-sanctioned) effort -- it feels entirely unique.
That's what made it such an amazing moment. It's also why we won't see it again in other contexts.
More you'll find in today's column:
*In praise of Barry Zito!
*Philly Tazer Watch
*Good for Gordon Hayward.
*Biggest. Contract. Ever. (for an interior lineman)
*Did you need SI to confirm Ben is a douchebag?
Complete column here. More later.
-- D.S.
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
05/05 Quickie: Harwell, Magic, Los Suns
Sorry for another short post today. If you saw yesterday's long-ish post about dads and baseball, you understand why I'm still underwater, so to speak.
But today's SN column has an interesting twist at the top: My favorite lines from Ernie Harwell's classic 1955 Sporting News essay about Baseball and America. Felt like an appropriate homage.
There's a lot more:
*The Magic ripped out Atlanta's soul. Then dunked on it.
*Lakers up 2-0: The Jazz might take one or two games in SLC, but they're not beating the Lakers in this series.
*Is PHX wearing the "Los Suns" jersey a political statement? You bet it is.
*John Calipari to the Bulls? Bull-something. Why would he leave? He has the best job in college basketball history.
*If the Jaguars wanted a "name" yet unproven Denver QB, why didn't they just draft Tebow?
*Let's all stop and appreciate the Livan Hernandez Resurgence.
More in the column. And more later.
-- D.S.
*
But today's SN column has an interesting twist at the top: My favorite lines from Ernie Harwell's classic 1955 Sporting News essay about Baseball and America. Felt like an appropriate homage.
There's a lot more:
*The Magic ripped out Atlanta's soul. Then dunked on it.
*Lakers up 2-0: The Jazz might take one or two games in SLC, but they're not beating the Lakers in this series.
*Is PHX wearing the "Los Suns" jersey a political statement? You bet it is.
*John Calipari to the Bulls? Bull-something. Why would he leave? He has the best job in college basketball history.
*If the Jaguars wanted a "name" yet unproven Denver QB, why didn't they just draft Tebow?
*Let's all stop and appreciate the Livan Hernandez Resurgence.
More in the column. And more later.
-- D.S.
*
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Are We Winning By Will Leitch: Review
Let's just get this out of the way: Everyone knows already that I'm an unabashed fan of Will Leitch's work -- he's a friend and someone I admire, both personally and particularly professionally.
So if I recommend his new book -- Are We Winning? -- to you, it's your choice whether my fanboy attitude earns your discount or your trust. I hope it's the latter.
I'm not even going to talk that much about his book. It's better than "God Save the Fan," which -- while excellent -- felt more like Will's unifying theory (or perhaps closure) from Deadspin and the state of all sports. "Are We Winning" reads more like his opus: The book he was born to write -- about baseball, naturally.
But inspired by the book's release and the events of the last 24 hours in my life, I'm going to veer into self-examination:
Yesterday morning, my apartment started leaking from the ceiling.
"Leak" is probably too much of an understatement: I was shuttling between a half-dozen buckets of various sizes, dumping them into the tub when they filled to the brim, trying to catch everything. I felt like Super Mario. I went through probably two dozen towels, trying to sop up excess water spreading on the floor. When every single one of those was saturated, I burned through at least a half-dozen full rolls of Bounty.
At one point, I opened the front-hall closet -- part of the damage zone -- and I saw my baseball glove, soaked in the nasty brown-black liquid currently dripping (pouring, really) into the buckets in my front hallway.
The glove shouldn't have even been there.
A few weeks ago, the weather got nicer and I got an unshakable urge to have a catch. I rang up my neighbor Jason, I dug out my old glove from deep in a closet in the back of my apartment, and we wandered out to the local park to throw a baseball for a half-hour or so.
We did it again the next week and by the third week, I had come to really look forward to it, not just because I enjoyed our conversation, but because I just enjoyed the catch itself. I probably haven't done that -- just played catch -- since I was a year out of college, living with my closest friends in Wrigleyville, within a few blocks of Wrigley Field itself. That was 15 years ago.
And so that's how my glove came to be in that front-hall (soaked) closet, rather than in the back (dry) half of our apartment where the glove had been sitting in a box for at least a few years.
****
A brief digression on my history as a baseball fan:
*I have a predictably tortured relationship with baseball as a fan and participant. I didn't play as a kid. One week at baseball camp when I was 12 was enough to prove that "no-field, no-hit" wasn't a template for even a no-cuts youth-league player.
*I was a HUGE Cubs fan -- I remember calling the local cable company on a regular basis, begging them to carry WGN. My dad was from Chicago and a Cubs fan, and I inherited the fandom from him. In that magical 1984 season, I was 11 -- just hitting the age of fan consciousness.
*I played Strat-O-Matic somewhat obsessively from 1985-1988; me and my friends kept using the 1984 season cards, and as a Cubs fan, that was fine with me. Rick Sutcliffe was unbeatable.
*It felt unique to be a Cubs fan in DC. But my dad got a Sunday season ticket package to the Orioles after they moved to Camden Yards, just because a Sunday at a baseball game was fun. It didn't hurt that the O's were competitive -- and Camden Yards was new and amazing.
*Quality Shanoff Trivia: In my college freshman facebook (way before Facebook), under my "Interests," I listed "Chicago Cubs." I had this Cubs hat I had worn since I was maybe 12 or 13, perfectly broken in. By the end of college, I had lost it.
*Living in Chicago for college, my Cubs fandom actually atrophied over the four years -- although I went to plenty of games at Wrigley, which was priceless. (Standard Friday: Afternoon Cubs game, then this wince-inducing hour of cheap open bar at a place called Kronie's.)
*After college, living in Wrigleyville was -- up until I moved in with my wife -- the greatest living situation ever. It felt like the center of the baseball universe.
*After I left Chicago, my interest in following baseball day-to-day -- not just the Cubs -- waned. Maybe that means I was never "enough" of a fan. I just developed other sports passions.
*When I started writing the Quickie, my interest in baseball was entirely focused on the big "national" storylines on any given day. I lost almost all of the sense of a "personal" baseball fandom.
*Since then, I would say that my favorite baseball team is "my fantasy team," a league I have played in for six years (Leitch is the commissioner, coincidentally enough). Fantasy rekindled my interest in following baseball.
*I am pretty terrible at fantasy baseball. A year ago, I committed to getting better -- to playing more avidly and making the mid-season moves that generally keep a team competitive. I finished in the middle of the pack; it felt like a success.
*This season, after 4 weeks, I am in 1st place. It will likely not last -- whatever the fantasy equivalent of an unusually high "BABIP" is, I have enjoyed it so far. Nevertheless, first place feels like an achievement. I spent Sunday snatching Wade LeBlanc from the FA wire and feeling like a genius.
End of digression.
****
Even as the glove sits drying next to a fan, I can already tell it's going to smell too gross to use. I lament the glove's loss, because I have had it since I was a kid.
My first baseball glove as a little kid was a Scott McGregor model. I don't remember the manufacturer, just the signature. Come to think of it, I don't think the glove had an imprinted signature on it; I believe I actually got McGregor's autograph on the glove at an event he was at.
My next glove was my first "real" glove -- it was (machine-) autographed by Bruce Sutter. Unbeknownst to me, it was a pitcher's glove; at that point, I fancied myself a 1st baseman. I was mostly afraid of the ball, and figured having it thrown at me by a fielder was preferable to having it hit at me by batters. And the outfield was a non-starter, because I sort of panicked at the thought of catching towering fly balls.
My dad played in a softball game on the weekends -- god, this must have been 20 or 25 years ago, so he was older than I am now, but not by much. I remember he was pretty good, too, a compact but powerful hitter and solid defensively in the outfield. He didn't play baseball in high school or anything; he was just your average fun-on-the-weekend softball player.
He had this Lou Piniella model glove that I coveted. I'm not even sure that it had anything to do with Sweet Lou himself; I only got interested in him as a player because of the glove. I liked the glove's shape, its particular webbing and that it was so much more broken in than mine. I remember my dad kept it in his closet and I would sneak it out to play with. It was better than my glove in its construction, but it was also better than my glove because it was his glove.
One day, I finally wore him down -- as a parent now myself, I understand how this transaction works -- and he "traded" me his glove for mine. I was probably 14 or 15, because it still has the faint marking on it of "8/8/88" when I noted the date of the first Wrigley night game.
I have had the glove ever since -- more than 20 years -- packing it away as I have moved from home to college to my own apartment to my grandparent's house to co-habitation with then-girlfriends (whose father, ironically, was buddies with Lou Piniella) to business school to part of the boxes that I brought with me into my relationship with my wife.
Despite the fact that the glove has barely been used since college -- where I finally found my calling as a decent career as a crafty IM softball pitcher (until an unfortunate, Mitch Williams-style meltdown in the league championship game my senior year, in which my team was defending campus champs) -- I lug it around from place to place on the mere possibility that it might get used for a game of catch.
That is how I know that baseball remains core to me as a fan.
Even if I didn't come to the realization of that until the glove was gone.
Postscript:
Will's book is a lot about the relationship between fathers and sons and baseball. (The subtitle is, in fact, "Fathers and Sons in the New Golden Age of Baseball.") If that Piniella glove -- and, of course, the Cubs fandom plus the Orioles games -- was the connection point between me and my dad and baseball, then it begs the question of how I will connect with my own two young kids about the game.
I took Gabe to his first baseball game two years ago, when he was two -- the Brooklyn Cyclones. We sat in the front row directly behind home plate, because I neurotically wanted the netting there between the ball and my kid. Gabe was more interested in the PA announcer and the team's seagull mascot.
Last summer, we took him back to Coney Island, this time bringing along his 9-month-old brother Jonah. Gabe was mostly interested in the helmet sundae; Jonah squirmed.
Gabe has a small toy bat, and in his room, I pitch him oversized stuffed balls -- he has more eye-hand coordination than I ever did. The next step is to go to the toy store and get him a plastic tee. I'm sure his younger brother will want to join in.
It is not important to me -- in the least -- that my kids be good baseball players. I'd like for them to be decent enough in gym class not to be an outcast. I'd like them to enjoy intramural softball. I'd like them to appreciate a game of catch. I'd like them to be good baseball fans.
(On Saturday, Gabe marched into my room and, for the first time, declared a baseball allegiance: "I like the Yankees." As my heart broke a little bit, I replied allergically: "Ehh, you don't know what you like yet." I don't want to dump on his individuality as a sports fan, but come on: The Yankees? If I do nothing else as a parent, it's to insulate my kids from becoming Yankees fans. In New York, that is no easy feat. All that said: If he really wants to be a Yankees fan, I'm hardly going to push him away from that. Nudge him, maybe....)
In July, I'm taking my wife and kids to Chicago, where we are meeting up with my siblings and siblings-in-law and my dad, to celebrate the centennial of my dad's dad, who would have been 100 years old that month. He took my dad to Cubs games.
To continue the tradition, that weekend -- hopefully with my dad and siblings coming along -- I am taking Gabe to his first-ever MLB game: Wrigley Field on a Friday afternoon. I can't think of a more perfect way to introduce him to Major League Baseball.
Fathers, Sons and Baseball. That's what Leitch has written about, compellingly. If you want to enjoy what has instantly become one of my favorite baseball books of all time, read it.
(If nothing else, I will guarantee you that reading it will -- as it did for me -- make you consider your own relationship with baseball, your relationship with your parents (as it relates to baseball) and your relationship with your kids (or future kids) as it relates to baseball.
And I can't think of a more enjoyable thing to think about.
-- D.S.
So if I recommend his new book -- Are We Winning? -- to you, it's your choice whether my fanboy attitude earns your discount or your trust. I hope it's the latter.
I'm not even going to talk that much about his book. It's better than "God Save the Fan," which -- while excellent -- felt more like Will's unifying theory (or perhaps closure) from Deadspin and the state of all sports. "Are We Winning" reads more like his opus: The book he was born to write -- about baseball, naturally.
But inspired by the book's release and the events of the last 24 hours in my life, I'm going to veer into self-examination:
Yesterday morning, my apartment started leaking from the ceiling.
"Leak" is probably too much of an understatement: I was shuttling between a half-dozen buckets of various sizes, dumping them into the tub when they filled to the brim, trying to catch everything. I felt like Super Mario. I went through probably two dozen towels, trying to sop up excess water spreading on the floor. When every single one of those was saturated, I burned through at least a half-dozen full rolls of Bounty.
At one point, I opened the front-hall closet -- part of the damage zone -- and I saw my baseball glove, soaked in the nasty brown-black liquid currently dripping (pouring, really) into the buckets in my front hallway.
The glove shouldn't have even been there.
A few weeks ago, the weather got nicer and I got an unshakable urge to have a catch. I rang up my neighbor Jason, I dug out my old glove from deep in a closet in the back of my apartment, and we wandered out to the local park to throw a baseball for a half-hour or so.
We did it again the next week and by the third week, I had come to really look forward to it, not just because I enjoyed our conversation, but because I just enjoyed the catch itself. I probably haven't done that -- just played catch -- since I was a year out of college, living with my closest friends in Wrigleyville, within a few blocks of Wrigley Field itself. That was 15 years ago.
And so that's how my glove came to be in that front-hall (soaked) closet, rather than in the back (dry) half of our apartment where the glove had been sitting in a box for at least a few years.
****
A brief digression on my history as a baseball fan:
*I have a predictably tortured relationship with baseball as a fan and participant. I didn't play as a kid. One week at baseball camp when I was 12 was enough to prove that "no-field, no-hit" wasn't a template for even a no-cuts youth-league player.
*I was a HUGE Cubs fan -- I remember calling the local cable company on a regular basis, begging them to carry WGN. My dad was from Chicago and a Cubs fan, and I inherited the fandom from him. In that magical 1984 season, I was 11 -- just hitting the age of fan consciousness.
*I played Strat-O-Matic somewhat obsessively from 1985-1988; me and my friends kept using the 1984 season cards, and as a Cubs fan, that was fine with me. Rick Sutcliffe was unbeatable.
*It felt unique to be a Cubs fan in DC. But my dad got a Sunday season ticket package to the Orioles after they moved to Camden Yards, just because a Sunday at a baseball game was fun. It didn't hurt that the O's were competitive -- and Camden Yards was new and amazing.
*Quality Shanoff Trivia: In my college freshman facebook (way before Facebook), under my "Interests," I listed "Chicago Cubs." I had this Cubs hat I had worn since I was maybe 12 or 13, perfectly broken in. By the end of college, I had lost it.
*Living in Chicago for college, my Cubs fandom actually atrophied over the four years -- although I went to plenty of games at Wrigley, which was priceless. (Standard Friday: Afternoon Cubs game, then this wince-inducing hour of cheap open bar at a place called Kronie's.)
*After college, living in Wrigleyville was -- up until I moved in with my wife -- the greatest living situation ever. It felt like the center of the baseball universe.
*After I left Chicago, my interest in following baseball day-to-day -- not just the Cubs -- waned. Maybe that means I was never "enough" of a fan. I just developed other sports passions.
*When I started writing the Quickie, my interest in baseball was entirely focused on the big "national" storylines on any given day. I lost almost all of the sense of a "personal" baseball fandom.
*Since then, I would say that my favorite baseball team is "my fantasy team," a league I have played in for six years (Leitch is the commissioner, coincidentally enough). Fantasy rekindled my interest in following baseball.
*I am pretty terrible at fantasy baseball. A year ago, I committed to getting better -- to playing more avidly and making the mid-season moves that generally keep a team competitive. I finished in the middle of the pack; it felt like a success.
*This season, after 4 weeks, I am in 1st place. It will likely not last -- whatever the fantasy equivalent of an unusually high "BABIP" is, I have enjoyed it so far. Nevertheless, first place feels like an achievement. I spent Sunday snatching Wade LeBlanc from the FA wire and feeling like a genius.
End of digression.
****
Even as the glove sits drying next to a fan, I can already tell it's going to smell too gross to use. I lament the glove's loss, because I have had it since I was a kid.
My first baseball glove as a little kid was a Scott McGregor model. I don't remember the manufacturer, just the signature. Come to think of it, I don't think the glove had an imprinted signature on it; I believe I actually got McGregor's autograph on the glove at an event he was at.
My next glove was my first "real" glove -- it was (machine-) autographed by Bruce Sutter. Unbeknownst to me, it was a pitcher's glove; at that point, I fancied myself a 1st baseman. I was mostly afraid of the ball, and figured having it thrown at me by a fielder was preferable to having it hit at me by batters. And the outfield was a non-starter, because I sort of panicked at the thought of catching towering fly balls.
My dad played in a softball game on the weekends -- god, this must have been 20 or 25 years ago, so he was older than I am now, but not by much. I remember he was pretty good, too, a compact but powerful hitter and solid defensively in the outfield. He didn't play baseball in high school or anything; he was just your average fun-on-the-weekend softball player.
He had this Lou Piniella model glove that I coveted. I'm not even sure that it had anything to do with Sweet Lou himself; I only got interested in him as a player because of the glove. I liked the glove's shape, its particular webbing and that it was so much more broken in than mine. I remember my dad kept it in his closet and I would sneak it out to play with. It was better than my glove in its construction, but it was also better than my glove because it was his glove.
One day, I finally wore him down -- as a parent now myself, I understand how this transaction works -- and he "traded" me his glove for mine. I was probably 14 or 15, because it still has the faint marking on it of "8/8/88" when I noted the date of the first Wrigley night game.
I have had the glove ever since -- more than 20 years -- packing it away as I have moved from home to college to my own apartment to my grandparent's house to co-habitation with then-girlfriends (whose father, ironically, was buddies with Lou Piniella) to business school to part of the boxes that I brought with me into my relationship with my wife.
Despite the fact that the glove has barely been used since college -- where I finally found my calling as a decent career as a crafty IM softball pitcher (until an unfortunate, Mitch Williams-style meltdown in the league championship game my senior year, in which my team was defending campus champs) -- I lug it around from place to place on the mere possibility that it might get used for a game of catch.
That is how I know that baseball remains core to me as a fan.
Even if I didn't come to the realization of that until the glove was gone.
Postscript:
Will's book is a lot about the relationship between fathers and sons and baseball. (The subtitle is, in fact, "Fathers and Sons in the New Golden Age of Baseball.") If that Piniella glove -- and, of course, the Cubs fandom plus the Orioles games -- was the connection point between me and my dad and baseball, then it begs the question of how I will connect with my own two young kids about the game.
I took Gabe to his first baseball game two years ago, when he was two -- the Brooklyn Cyclones. We sat in the front row directly behind home plate, because I neurotically wanted the netting there between the ball and my kid. Gabe was more interested in the PA announcer and the team's seagull mascot.
Last summer, we took him back to Coney Island, this time bringing along his 9-month-old brother Jonah. Gabe was mostly interested in the helmet sundae; Jonah squirmed.
Gabe has a small toy bat, and in his room, I pitch him oversized stuffed balls -- he has more eye-hand coordination than I ever did. The next step is to go to the toy store and get him a plastic tee. I'm sure his younger brother will want to join in.
It is not important to me -- in the least -- that my kids be good baseball players. I'd like for them to be decent enough in gym class not to be an outcast. I'd like them to enjoy intramural softball. I'd like them to appreciate a game of catch. I'd like them to be good baseball fans.
(On Saturday, Gabe marched into my room and, for the first time, declared a baseball allegiance: "I like the Yankees." As my heart broke a little bit, I replied allergically: "Ehh, you don't know what you like yet." I don't want to dump on his individuality as a sports fan, but come on: The Yankees? If I do nothing else as a parent, it's to insulate my kids from becoming Yankees fans. In New York, that is no easy feat. All that said: If he really wants to be a Yankees fan, I'm hardly going to push him away from that. Nudge him, maybe....)
In July, I'm taking my wife and kids to Chicago, where we are meeting up with my siblings and siblings-in-law and my dad, to celebrate the centennial of my dad's dad, who would have been 100 years old that month. He took my dad to Cubs games.
To continue the tradition, that weekend -- hopefully with my dad and siblings coming along -- I am taking Gabe to his first-ever MLB game: Wrigley Field on a Friday afternoon. I can't think of a more perfect way to introduce him to Major League Baseball.
Fathers, Sons and Baseball. That's what Leitch has written about, compellingly. If you want to enjoy what has instantly become one of my favorite baseball books of all time, read it.
(If nothing else, I will guarantee you that reading it will -- as it did for me -- make you consider your own relationship with baseball, your relationship with your parents (as it relates to baseball) and your relationship with your kids (or future kids) as it relates to baseball.
And I can't think of a more enjoyable thing to think about.
-- D.S.
05/04 Quickie: LeBron, UVA, Ubaldo
Longtime reader Scott D. just pointed out that Game 3 of Cavs-Celtics is Friday. Friday! Imagine for a moment if MLB put four days between playoff games. They would be crucified. Ridiculous.
Anyway, today's SN column leads with the reality that LeBron can't wear an MVP award on his finger like a championship ring. The MVP is meaningless -- no matter how much geographic or competitive meaning he wants to assign to it -- without a championship. And, right now, the Cavs are as close to the brink as they have been all season.
I'm sure they will come back, win at least one game in Boston, reclaim HCA and win that series. I still think they fall short of an NBA title.
More in today's column:
*The UVA murder is precisely the kind of subject I don't write about particularly well.
*Maybe that's because I'm busy arguing superficial things like whether the Rockies ace has earned "first-name-only status": Ubaldo!
(It is a prerequisite of FNO status that your name be fairly unique. It's going to be hard for me -- or anyone else -- to earn FNO status with "Dan.")
*Will Leitch's new book about baseball is worth adding to your library. It comes out today. Buy it here. Hopefully, a stand-alone post about it later.
*RIP "FedEx Orange Bowl." I can remember sitting in Bethesda Library researching a paper early in high school about college bowl sponsorships. FedEx was one of the earliest ones.
Complete column here. More later.
-- D.S.
Anyway, today's SN column leads with the reality that LeBron can't wear an MVP award on his finger like a championship ring. The MVP is meaningless -- no matter how much geographic or competitive meaning he wants to assign to it -- without a championship. And, right now, the Cavs are as close to the brink as they have been all season.
I'm sure they will come back, win at least one game in Boston, reclaim HCA and win that series. I still think they fall short of an NBA title.
More in today's column:
*The UVA murder is precisely the kind of subject I don't write about particularly well.
*Maybe that's because I'm busy arguing superficial things like whether the Rockies ace has earned "first-name-only status": Ubaldo!
(It is a prerequisite of FNO status that your name be fairly unique. It's going to be hard for me -- or anyone else -- to earn FNO status with "Dan.")
*Will Leitch's new book about baseball is worth adding to your library. It comes out today. Buy it here. Hopefully, a stand-alone post about it later.
*RIP "FedEx Orange Bowl." I can remember sitting in Bethesda Library researching a paper early in high school about college bowl sponsorships. FedEx was one of the earliest ones.
Complete column here. More later.
-- D.S.
Monday, May 03, 2010
05/03 Quickie: Kobe, LeBron, Borel, More
Apologies for the very very very short post this morning. Lots to cover today in the SN column: Kobe's game-winning moves, LeBron's MVP, the Phillies' back-to-reality moment, Favre-hating and -- of course -- a bit of triumphalism from calling Super Saver in the column on Friday. More later.
-- D.S.
-- D.S.
Sunday, May 02, 2010
Sunday (Very) Quickie
So much for the Quickie jinx for Super Saver.
So much for LeBron's elbow "problems."
So much for Shane Mosley.
So much for any doubt about Roy Halladay.
So much for Dice-K solving Boston's problems.
So much for Andrew Bynum against the Jazz.
So much for Sean Payton's Super Bowl aura.
-- D.S.
So much for LeBron's elbow "problems."
So much for Shane Mosley.
So much for any doubt about Roy Halladay.
So much for Dice-K solving Boston's problems.
So much for Andrew Bynum against the Jazz.
So much for Sean Payton's Super Bowl aura.
-- D.S.
Saturday, May 01, 2010
Saturday (Very) Quickie
Thoughts while contemplating my favorite name of a 2010 Derby horse. And this.
*Ever think you'd see Tiger phone it in? Now you have.
*Tough luck for the Thunder. The difference was Durant shooting 5-for-oblivion. I know Durant is universally loved and I know that Ron Artest is arguably the best lock-down defender in the NBA, but if you're over 30, you're allowed to think "John Starks '94."
*The Nuggets are in the same boat as the Mavs: They ain't winning anything, as currently constructed. Implode 'em. Put Dirk in Denver. Put Melo in Dallas. Something...
*LeBron is NBA MVP: Of course he is. Who were the cranks who didn't vote for him?
*My only question about Favre is why he didn't get the ankle surgery -- minor or not -- in February, which would ensure he was all set by July. (Oh, I know why: He's the most selfish player in NFL history.)
*Barry Zito is 4-0. The Mets have won 8 straight. The Nats are 13-10. What's going on here?
*Where was THAT Jaroslav Halak against the Caps in Game 7?
*Holmes vs. the iPod: Anyone else flown next to someone who refused to turn off their iPod or phone when instructed to? It happens to me virtually every time I fly.
*Tebow looked good in his Broncos mini-camp debut. It was funny to watch the local Denver media finally figure out what a mania they have on their hands.
*Derby Day. Be sure to support your local OTB with a $2 flyer.
-- D.S.
*Ever think you'd see Tiger phone it in? Now you have.
*Tough luck for the Thunder. The difference was Durant shooting 5-for-oblivion. I know Durant is universally loved and I know that Ron Artest is arguably the best lock-down defender in the NBA, but if you're over 30, you're allowed to think "John Starks '94."
*The Nuggets are in the same boat as the Mavs: They ain't winning anything, as currently constructed. Implode 'em. Put Dirk in Denver. Put Melo in Dallas. Something...
*LeBron is NBA MVP: Of course he is. Who were the cranks who didn't vote for him?
*My only question about Favre is why he didn't get the ankle surgery -- minor or not -- in February, which would ensure he was all set by July. (Oh, I know why: He's the most selfish player in NFL history.)
*Barry Zito is 4-0. The Mets have won 8 straight. The Nats are 13-10. What's going on here?
*Where was THAT Jaroslav Halak against the Caps in Game 7?
*Holmes vs. the iPod: Anyone else flown next to someone who refused to turn off their iPod or phone when instructed to? It happens to me virtually every time I fly.
*Tebow looked good in his Broncos mini-camp debut. It was funny to watch the local Denver media finally figure out what a mania they have on their hands.
*Derby Day. Be sure to support your local OTB with a $2 flyer.
-- D.S.
Friday, April 30, 2010
04/30 Quickie: Derby, Mavs, LeBron, More
If you're a Seinfeld fan, yesterday's Twitter flash-meme of naming Kentucky Derby horses using Seinfeld references was an amazing distraction during the afternoon. So much so that I led today's SN column with it. I'm torn between the very obscure references and the ones that actually sounded vaguely like something you'd name a racehorse after ("The Boca Breeze").
But it's not like there isn't a ton to talk about today:
*Mavs bounced out. First time a 7 beat a 2 in the NBA Playoffs. But more than that, it's an indication that the Mavs need to be imploded. If Cuban's goal is to win a championship, he isn't going to do it with this group, including Dirk. Here's a scenario: Dump 'em all and make a play for LeBron, who is (and should be) intrigued by playing for Cuban.
*I'd really like to see the Thunder beat the Lakers tonight to force a Game 7. I'd really like to see the Cavs stumble with that LeBron elbow injury (as much as I dislike the Celtics). I'm really surprised that this is Grant Hill's first time beyond the first round of the playoffs.
(I have a soft spot for Grant Hill, who is just a few months older than I am -- back when I turned 37, I think I counted -- at most -- a half-dozen players older than me in the NBA. That block Hill had on Bayless at the end of the 1st half was a turn-back-the-clock moment for all of us oldies.)
*The most intriguing team in baseball? The Diamondbacks, and it has nothing to do with their play on the field and everything to do with their place as a traveling symbol for Arizona's immigration law and the protests surrounding it. Everywhere they go, they will find protests - for now, those protests will get a ton of coverage, which will beget more protests.
*Today's column also has my after-1-month MLB awards: Longoria and Pujols for MVP (over teammates Crawford and Rasmus), Garza and Lincecum for Cy, Maddon and Manuel for Manager... and I leave Rookie blank for now.
There's a lot more in there. Check it out here. More coming later and throughout the weekend, as usual.
-- D.S.
But it's not like there isn't a ton to talk about today:
*Mavs bounced out. First time a 7 beat a 2 in the NBA Playoffs. But more than that, it's an indication that the Mavs need to be imploded. If Cuban's goal is to win a championship, he isn't going to do it with this group, including Dirk. Here's a scenario: Dump 'em all and make a play for LeBron, who is (and should be) intrigued by playing for Cuban.
*I'd really like to see the Thunder beat the Lakers tonight to force a Game 7. I'd really like to see the Cavs stumble with that LeBron elbow injury (as much as I dislike the Celtics). I'm really surprised that this is Grant Hill's first time beyond the first round of the playoffs.
(I have a soft spot for Grant Hill, who is just a few months older than I am -- back when I turned 37, I think I counted -- at most -- a half-dozen players older than me in the NBA. That block Hill had on Bayless at the end of the 1st half was a turn-back-the-clock moment for all of us oldies.)
*The most intriguing team in baseball? The Diamondbacks, and it has nothing to do with their play on the field and everything to do with their place as a traveling symbol for Arizona's immigration law and the protests surrounding it. Everywhere they go, they will find protests - for now, those protests will get a ton of coverage, which will beget more protests.
*Today's column also has my after-1-month MLB awards: Longoria and Pujols for MVP (over teammates Crawford and Rasmus), Garza and Lincecum for Cy, Maddon and Manuel for Manager... and I leave Rookie blank for now.
There's a lot more in there. Check it out here. More coming later and throughout the weekend, as usual.
-- D.S.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
04/29 Quickie: Caps, Bucks, Mets, More
I'm not going to offend Capitals fans by claiming to be a big Caps fan and fully understand the obliteration of last night's loss. But you don't have to be a Caps fan -- or even a hockey fan -- to appreciate the chokery in DC: The first 1-seed to lose a 3-1 series lead in NHL Playoff history.
As I lead in today's SN column, it instantly becomes the defining detail of Alexander Ovechkin's MVP career.
Again, I try to stay away from hockey, because I don't follow the sport closely. But this result transcends hockey into something bigger, particularly because it involves the league's best player -- and one of the biggest stars in all of sports. And it's rough.
More you'll find in today's column:
*Speaking of chokes... the Hawks?
*Does the Mavs season end tonight in San Antonio?
*Suspend Dolphins GM Jeff Ireland?
*The Mets are the new Braves -- and vice versa.
*Tim Lincecum with the ND of the Year
*Hopefully, Tiger will get at least one heckler at Quail Hollow.
See the complete column here. More later.
-- D.S.
As I lead in today's SN column, it instantly becomes the defining detail of Alexander Ovechkin's MVP career.
Again, I try to stay away from hockey, because I don't follow the sport closely. But this result transcends hockey into something bigger, particularly because it involves the league's best player -- and one of the biggest stars in all of sports. And it's rough.
More you'll find in today's column:
*Speaking of chokes... the Hawks?
*Does the Mavs season end tonight in San Antonio?
*Suspend Dolphins GM Jeff Ireland?
*The Mets are the new Braves -- and vice versa.
*Tim Lincecum with the ND of the Year
*Hopefully, Tiger will get at least one heckler at Quail Hollow.
See the complete column here. More later.
-- D.S.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
04/28 Quickie: NBA Playoffs, NHL Game 7s
It's a pretty intriguing morning in the NBA, I think. Worth leading today's SN column, for sure:
*The plucky Thunder got a lesson in "pivotal Game 5s" from the defending champs. OKC will file that away for when they are hosting a Game 5 down the road. LA in control.
*LeBron's elbow! LeBron's elbow! Meh: Overrated issue, until he takes the floor against the Celtics in Game 1 and the Cavs lose HCA. Otherwise: Let's focus on the dislikability of both teams.
*I think the most intriguing storyline of the night: Was that Dwyane Wade's last game for the Heat? He talks a good game about being loyal -- what else would he say? -- but he also leaves plenty of room for bolting, if it doesn't look like the team is better than a 1st-round/5-game exit. As I said in the column: If your goal is a championship, going out in the 1st round in 5 games is closer to not making the playoffs at all than winning the championship.
*Wizards fans vicariously enjoy a playoff win through Caron Butler (and even Brendan Haywood). Better times ahead for Wiz fans: Ted Leonsis is one step closer to ownership.
Lots more in the column today:
*You can't stop the Mets!
*You can't stop Francisco Liriano!
(Or Livan Hernandez!)
(Or Stephen Strasburg!)
*Jeff Ireland has a new big-detail-in-obit moment.
*Scott Sicko: From NFL novelty to standard UFA.
*I imagine Fred Hoiberg keeping Harrison Barnes in Ames.
*Nothing beats a NHL Playoffs Game 7, especially when it involves the league's best player.
Complete column here. More later.
-- D.S.
*The plucky Thunder got a lesson in "pivotal Game 5s" from the defending champs. OKC will file that away for when they are hosting a Game 5 down the road. LA in control.
*LeBron's elbow! LeBron's elbow! Meh: Overrated issue, until he takes the floor against the Celtics in Game 1 and the Cavs lose HCA. Otherwise: Let's focus on the dislikability of both teams.
*I think the most intriguing storyline of the night: Was that Dwyane Wade's last game for the Heat? He talks a good game about being loyal -- what else would he say? -- but he also leaves plenty of room for bolting, if it doesn't look like the team is better than a 1st-round/5-game exit. As I said in the column: If your goal is a championship, going out in the 1st round in 5 games is closer to not making the playoffs at all than winning the championship.
*Wizards fans vicariously enjoy a playoff win through Caron Butler (and even Brendan Haywood). Better times ahead for Wiz fans: Ted Leonsis is one step closer to ownership.
Lots more in the column today:
*You can't stop the Mets!
*You can't stop Francisco Liriano!
(Or Livan Hernandez!)
(Or Stephen Strasburg!)
*Jeff Ireland has a new big-detail-in-obit moment.
*Scott Sicko: From NFL novelty to standard UFA.
*I imagine Fred Hoiberg keeping Harrison Barnes in Ames.
*Nothing beats a NHL Playoffs Game 7, especially when it involves the league's best player.
Complete column here. More later.
-- D.S.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
On Bill Simmons and Jay Penske
What would Bill Simmons do? Everyone makes this assumption that with Simmons' ESPN contract (nearly) up, he will either (a) take a huge payday to re-up with ESPN; (b) entertain offers from mainstream media competitors like AOL or CBS or Yahoo or Fox; or (c) strike out on his own, as he has intimated and not unlike his buddy Adam Carolla.
I want to go back to something I wrote about a few months ago, because I think that an ultimate option is (d) none of the above.
Instead, watch a recent development in the entertainment and tech news categories: Burgeoning media mogul Jay Penske throwing gobs of cash at successful indie publishers like Nikki Finke and, most recently, Boy Genius Report.
It only makes sense that Penske -- scion of the Penske auto-racing empire -- would want to create his own empire in sports. Penske's Mail Media even owns the ideal sports URL: Fan.com.
And so it would seem to make sense for the LA-based Penske to send an invite to the LA-based Simmons to meet halfway and discuss the kind of deal both seem to want. Penske can offer Bill a few things Simmons would find desirable:
*Tons of money: Penske can afford to pay Bill more than ESPN pays Rick Reilly, commensurate with Bill's status as the most popular sportswriter in the country. Forget the ROI of ad sales; it is reasonable to say that a mere $10 a year iPhone app would more than cover Simmons' annual compensation.
*Equity in his own enterprise: Beyond mere paychecks, Penske can give Simmons a stake in Mail Media -- or an even bigger stake in a spin-off sports property over which Simmons would be given the opportunity to ride the upside.
*Total creative control: It is one thing for Bill to get to write about anything he wants. It is another for Bill to expand on his executive role with "30 for 30" and invest in any project (or talent) he wants. Meanwhile, Penske's team can handle the finances and ad sales.
In this way, it's not unlike Howard Stern's deal with Sirius -- talent not merely as the brand, but as the entire business.
In exchange, Penske gets the biggest individual brand in sports media -- someone who will instantly bring an audience, creative vision and the ability to recruit other talent. Penske's media empire has its biggest star and a platform to be a player in sports media, online or off.
The odds-on result of Simmons' pending free agency is not unlike LeBron's: Rumors of interest elsewhere abound, but ultimately, he will more than likely re-sign with the home team, which has a vested interest (and plenty of resources) to make that happen.
But if Bill is serious about doing something new -- something his -- then no amount of money or responsibility at ESPN (or other mainstream sports media company) will ever totally satisfy him.
And that is an opportunity for Penske -- or any other media-focused investor -- to show Simmons another way.
I want to go back to something I wrote about a few months ago, because I think that an ultimate option is (d) none of the above.
Instead, watch a recent development in the entertainment and tech news categories: Burgeoning media mogul Jay Penske throwing gobs of cash at successful indie publishers like Nikki Finke and, most recently, Boy Genius Report.
It only makes sense that Penske -- scion of the Penske auto-racing empire -- would want to create his own empire in sports. Penske's Mail Media even owns the ideal sports URL: Fan.com.
And so it would seem to make sense for the LA-based Penske to send an invite to the LA-based Simmons to meet halfway and discuss the kind of deal both seem to want. Penske can offer Bill a few things Simmons would find desirable:
*Tons of money: Penske can afford to pay Bill more than ESPN pays Rick Reilly, commensurate with Bill's status as the most popular sportswriter in the country. Forget the ROI of ad sales; it is reasonable to say that a mere $10 a year iPhone app would more than cover Simmons' annual compensation.
*Equity in his own enterprise: Beyond mere paychecks, Penske can give Simmons a stake in Mail Media -- or an even bigger stake in a spin-off sports property over which Simmons would be given the opportunity to ride the upside.
*Total creative control: It is one thing for Bill to get to write about anything he wants. It is another for Bill to expand on his executive role with "30 for 30" and invest in any project (or talent) he wants. Meanwhile, Penske's team can handle the finances and ad sales.
In this way, it's not unlike Howard Stern's deal with Sirius -- talent not merely as the brand, but as the entire business.
In exchange, Penske gets the biggest individual brand in sports media -- someone who will instantly bring an audience, creative vision and the ability to recruit other talent. Penske's media empire has its biggest star and a platform to be a player in sports media, online or off.
The odds-on result of Simmons' pending free agency is not unlike LeBron's: Rumors of interest elsewhere abound, but ultimately, he will more than likely re-sign with the home team, which has a vested interest (and plenty of resources) to make that happen.
But if Bill is serious about doing something new -- something his -- then no amount of money or responsibility at ESPN (or other mainstream sports media company) will ever totally satisfy him.
And that is an opportunity for Penske -- or any other media-focused investor -- to show Simmons another way.
04/27 Quickie: Howard, Big Ben, NBA
Sorry for the quick entry this morning, riffing on today's SN column:
*Cripes, that's a lot of money to pay for a 36-year-old Ryan Howard.
*Big Ben's acceptance of responsibility? Unimpressive.
*So this means Roy Halladay won't go 30-0, right?
*It's going to be hard to stay up for a 10:30 tip for Lakers-Thunders, but you have to try, right?
*My favorite late-round draft pick: UAB's Joe Webb by the Vikings
*Jan Vesely wouldn't have ignored the NBA draft if he was a college kid.
*Tim Tebow's NFL jersey > Sam Bradford's NFL jersey.
Complete column here. More later.
-- D.S.
*Cripes, that's a lot of money to pay for a 36-year-old Ryan Howard.
*Big Ben's acceptance of responsibility? Unimpressive.
*So this means Roy Halladay won't go 30-0, right?
*It's going to be hard to stay up for a 10:30 tip for Lakers-Thunders, but you have to try, right?
*My favorite late-round draft pick: UAB's Joe Webb by the Vikings
*Jan Vesely wouldn't have ignored the NBA draft if he was a college kid.
*Tim Tebow's NFL jersey > Sam Bradford's NFL jersey.
Complete column here. More later.
-- D.S.
Monday, April 26, 2010
04/26 Quickie: Draft Winners, NBA Playoffs
Love the Scott Sicko story. That guy will get more attention for not playing in the NFL than he ever would have for playing in the NFL.
Speaking of the NFL, the Monday after Draft weekend is for the post-mortem: Winners, losers, projections, notable UFAs and more.
As I lead in today's SN column, Pete Carroll is off to a good start; Detroit is starting to look respectable; and Jason Campbell is starting in Oakland.
And even though Tim Tebow won't start in Denver this year, I think he can win Offensive Rookie of the Year, because Josh McDaniels has a vested interest in getting Tebow TDs near the goal-line.
(There's my Monday-morning contribution to the "Tebow exceptionalism" argument I made at the Teblog on Friday to make the point that we should default to his success, not failure.)
I know many of you are gagging on your Wheaties over that prediction, so let's move on...
The NFL hits a hiatus (before mini-camps and, undoubtedly, more Tebow-Mania... and not just by me), just in time for the NBA Playoffs to get really, really interesting:
I am loving this Spurs-Mavs series, with San Antonio on the verge of bouncing out Dallas, the 2-seed. The 5-seed Jazz are on the verge of bouncing out the 4-seed Nuggets. The Suns and Blazers are a total toss-up (particularly given Roy's return), and you can't have watched even a little bit of the Thunder win over the Lakers in Game 4 and not been at least a little bit intrigued that OKC is not going to go down easy.
Oh, and then there's LeBron's triple-double and Wade's 46, for the only reason that Heat-Celtics series is still interesting.
At a minimum, Lakers-Thunder Game 5 is a must-see.
There's a bunch more in the column, including why the Rays are the best team in baseball right now and why Oregon hoops is a tough job, even for the qualified Dana Altman.
Complete column here. More later.
-- D.S.
Speaking of the NFL, the Monday after Draft weekend is for the post-mortem: Winners, losers, projections, notable UFAs and more.
As I lead in today's SN column, Pete Carroll is off to a good start; Detroit is starting to look respectable; and Jason Campbell is starting in Oakland.
And even though Tim Tebow won't start in Denver this year, I think he can win Offensive Rookie of the Year, because Josh McDaniels has a vested interest in getting Tebow TDs near the goal-line.
(There's my Monday-morning contribution to the "Tebow exceptionalism" argument I made at the Teblog on Friday to make the point that we should default to his success, not failure.)
I know many of you are gagging on your Wheaties over that prediction, so let's move on...
The NFL hits a hiatus (before mini-camps and, undoubtedly, more Tebow-Mania... and not just by me), just in time for the NBA Playoffs to get really, really interesting:
I am loving this Spurs-Mavs series, with San Antonio on the verge of bouncing out Dallas, the 2-seed. The 5-seed Jazz are on the verge of bouncing out the 4-seed Nuggets. The Suns and Blazers are a total toss-up (particularly given Roy's return), and you can't have watched even a little bit of the Thunder win over the Lakers in Game 4 and not been at least a little bit intrigued that OKC is not going to go down easy.
Oh, and then there's LeBron's triple-double and Wade's 46, for the only reason that Heat-Celtics series is still interesting.
At a minimum, Lakers-Thunder Game 5 is a must-see.
There's a bunch more in the column, including why the Rays are the best team in baseball right now and why Oregon hoops is a tough job, even for the qualified Dana Altman.
Complete column here. More later.
-- D.S.
Friday, April 23, 2010
04/23 Quickie: Tebow, Obviously
Ironically, I don't have a ton to add from last night's post-draft post.
The overall reaction seems to be "What a surprise!" I know I'm impossibly biased, but by yesterday morning, I really didn't see Tebow not getting taken in the 1st round. (Given that I had Tebow going to the Vikings and had heavily discounted him going to the Broncos, I will claim some surprise that it was Denver who got him. I didn't read those tea leaves closely enough, obviously.)
The second most-popular reaction seems to be "What a risk for Josh McDaniels!" I would qualify it as a calculated risk: McDaniels is a QB development guru, so if he thinks he can work with Tebow, I believe he can.
And, in the short term, McDaniels is among the few coaches who I think can creatively design situational plays -- short-yardage or goal-line -- to maximize Tebow's talents. And I think the opportunity is wide open for Tebow to start in 2011.
But the overall vibe is that Tebow was THE story of the Draft last night. Consider that: The 25th pick of the Draft eclipsed not just everyone in front of him, but a draft that was kicked off by a QB being taken with the No. 1 overall pick, usually a lock for "Story of the Draft."
I'm going to dig into all this more on TimTeblog a little later today, but the foreshadowing was in my final tweet last night: Tebow exceptionalism has been proven over and over again. At some point, doubting should become benefit-of-the-doubt. The default should be that he will succeed.
Tebow even influenced the second-biggest storyline of the draft -- Jimmy Clausen's freefall out of the 1st round. It was a study in contrasts, right down to the humiliation of Mel Kiper -- who dogged Tebow for months while putting Clausen as the No. 4 overall pick on his "Big Board."
I'm sure Clausen will go quickly in the 2nd round. Again, this was just a schadenfreudy humiliation -- it's no indication of his future pro success or failure.
More in today's SN column:
*Good morning after for Lions fans. A rare good morning.
*I love the Colts' pick of Jerry Hughes at the end of the 1st.
*Pete Carroll did really well: Solidifies OT and DB.
*That was the best game of Kevin Durant's career.
*That was probably the best game of Derrick Rose's career.
*Ubaldo Jimenez affirms he is an elite starting pitcher.
*I am so underwhelmed by the 68-team tournament (UNLESS they make the play-in game for the 12-seed, which would be kind of awesome).
*Will Elin just divorce Tiger already?
Complete SN column here. More later.
-- D.S.
The overall reaction seems to be "What a surprise!" I know I'm impossibly biased, but by yesterday morning, I really didn't see Tebow not getting taken in the 1st round. (Given that I had Tebow going to the Vikings and had heavily discounted him going to the Broncos, I will claim some surprise that it was Denver who got him. I didn't read those tea leaves closely enough, obviously.)
The second most-popular reaction seems to be "What a risk for Josh McDaniels!" I would qualify it as a calculated risk: McDaniels is a QB development guru, so if he thinks he can work with Tebow, I believe he can.
And, in the short term, McDaniels is among the few coaches who I think can creatively design situational plays -- short-yardage or goal-line -- to maximize Tebow's talents. And I think the opportunity is wide open for Tebow to start in 2011.
But the overall vibe is that Tebow was THE story of the Draft last night. Consider that: The 25th pick of the Draft eclipsed not just everyone in front of him, but a draft that was kicked off by a QB being taken with the No. 1 overall pick, usually a lock for "Story of the Draft."
I'm going to dig into all this more on TimTeblog a little later today, but the foreshadowing was in my final tweet last night: Tebow exceptionalism has been proven over and over again. At some point, doubting should become benefit-of-the-doubt. The default should be that he will succeed.
Tebow even influenced the second-biggest storyline of the draft -- Jimmy Clausen's freefall out of the 1st round. It was a study in contrasts, right down to the humiliation of Mel Kiper -- who dogged Tebow for months while putting Clausen as the No. 4 overall pick on his "Big Board."
I'm sure Clausen will go quickly in the 2nd round. Again, this was just a schadenfreudy humiliation -- it's no indication of his future pro success or failure.
More in today's SN column:
*Good morning after for Lions fans. A rare good morning.
*I love the Colts' pick of Jerry Hughes at the end of the 1st.
*Pete Carroll did really well: Solidifies OT and DB.
*That was the best game of Kevin Durant's career.
*That was probably the best game of Derrick Rose's career.
*Ubaldo Jimenez affirms he is an elite starting pitcher.
*I am so underwhelmed by the 68-team tournament (UNLESS they make the play-in game for the 12-seed, which would be kind of awesome).
*Will Elin just divorce Tiger already?
Complete SN column here. More later.
-- D.S.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Tim Tebow Drafted by Broncos
I am still processing the events of the night:
*Tim Tebow was, in fact, a 1st-round NFL Draft pick. Not only that, but he was the only QB taken in the 1st round besides the No. 1 overall pick, Sam Bradford.
*The Broncos are a curious fit: They have Orton and Quinn -- hardly long-term solutions at QB. But McDaniels is a Belichick protege, and Tebow (and Urban Meyer) are Belichick-friendly.
*So I guess I'm a Broncos fan now, hunh? I already got multiple texts from a friend in Denver welcoming me to the fan base. Tebow's Broncos jersey will be a Top 10 seller in the NFL in 2010.
*The biggest loser of the night was not the undrafted Jimmy Clausen -- it was Mel Kiper, who had Clausen ranked as the No. 4 overall prospect of the draft. It is a discrediting moment.
*"Tim Tebow Draft" is the No. 1 most searched term on Google tonight. What a bookend to the "John 3:16" Google domination in January 2009 that convinced Tebow to return to school.
If you want, find more over at TimTeblog.com.
-- D.S.
*Tim Tebow was, in fact, a 1st-round NFL Draft pick. Not only that, but he was the only QB taken in the 1st round besides the No. 1 overall pick, Sam Bradford.
*The Broncos are a curious fit: They have Orton and Quinn -- hardly long-term solutions at QB. But McDaniels is a Belichick protege, and Tebow (and Urban Meyer) are Belichick-friendly.
*So I guess I'm a Broncos fan now, hunh? I already got multiple texts from a friend in Denver welcoming me to the fan base. Tebow's Broncos jersey will be a Top 10 seller in the NFL in 2010.
*The biggest loser of the night was not the undrafted Jimmy Clausen -- it was Mel Kiper, who had Clausen ranked as the No. 4 overall prospect of the draft. It is a discrediting moment.
*"Tim Tebow Draft" is the No. 1 most searched term on Google tonight. What a bookend to the "John 3:16" Google domination in January 2009 that convinced Tebow to return to school.
If you want, find more over at TimTeblog.com.
-- D.S.
Tebow Draft Day: Renewed NFL Fandom
Well, everyone knew this was coming: Without a real NFL allegiance -- I think we can all agree the Jaguars thing, um, didn't really work out -- I was always going to adopt the team that drafted Tebow. And, on Tebow Draft Day, here is the post that lays it all out:
Let's start with a confession: I enjoy the NFL -- though not nearly as much as college football -- but I don't have a particular NFL team I root for. I mean: I have my fantasy team. But that isn't the same thing.
This is strange. Everyone should have a favorite NFL team -- it's the most popular sport in the country. It just feels... wrong. I envy the folks with a strong NFL allegiance -- feels like almost everyone has one.
I used to have a team...
The onset of puberty and fan identity happen at roughly the same time. Immersion into your favorite team – into sports more generally – helps to offset the awkwardness of a cracking voice or unsettling sight of hair in weird places; hormones dictate that girls get more interesting – but still socially awkward, you throw yourself into love of your team.
For me, that was the unstoppable 1985 Bears. Growing up in a die-hard Redskins town, I was a Bears fan. On its surface, that was because my dad was a Bears fan – there was an early and powerful father-son connection to be made there. But looking back, there was a deeper interest for me: Displaced fandom made me unique, gave me an identity as a fan. I could be a Skins fan like the rest of ‘em… or the only Bears fan in the school.
At this age, I was an outlier: The more typical path of the emotionally and physically awkward 13-year-old fan is to find a new community – commonality – with other fans around them. Fan identity is incubated in a safe environment – not so for me.
And so I was a Bears fan. I suffered through the Redskins' success (often at the Bears' expense) and reveled in the 1985 domination. When it came time to go to college, I was headed to Northwestern, just outside of Chicago. To be able to root for my favorite football team up close seemed like the best kind of bonus.
As it happened, it didn't quite turn out like I expected. I actually became less of a Bears fan once I got to Chicago -- in part in my immersion into a town of crazy Bears fans. It was like I lost the "unique" part of my fandom that was such a big component of my fan identity.
From there, things atrophied further. In 1997, I actually went to go work for the NFL, and if it wasn't seriously eroded by then, upon the conclusion of my one season with the league, the dissolution of my NFL fandom was complete.
Very briefly, I found a new spark of interest -- the emergence of Kurt Warner, which I think is the most interesting story in NFL history. Once I started writing the Daily Quickie, I obviously was immersed in NFL news, but that didn't do anything for my individual NFL team fandom. I was still lost.
In 2006, I tried an odd experiment: Given the assignment from Deadspin to write the Jacksonville Jaguars season preview, I adopted the Jaguars as my own. They seemed an interesting fit: There aren't many of them out there, and the north Florida location seemed like a pretty good fit with my then-5-year-old Florida Gators fandom.
I tried. I really did. (I also recognize if "real" Jaguars fans were offended by my bandwagon-hopping.) But it just didn't take. I couldn't watch them every Sunday -- hell, even fans in Jacksonville can't watch them on TV every Sunday -- and I just didn't have a passion to keep up with them.
But around the same time -- fall of 2006 -- I recognized almost immediately that Tim Tebow was my favorite football player of all time. That only grew in 2007 -- as I'm sure it did for many people. It compounded in 2008, and -- obviously -- my interest in the subject intensified in 2009.
It was sometime after that first season with the Jaguars -- and first season with Tebow -- that I decided that, ultimately, I was going to end up rooting for whatever team Tim Tebow was drafted to.
If you thought it was odd that my fandom for Florida came when I met my wife -- who was a "real," born-and-raised Gators fan -- it might seem even more odd that I would pick an NFL team based on a specific player.
Maybe that's not the case. I know a lot of fans -- particularly ones I see on message boards -- who care about their college team but don't have a particularly strong NFL allegiance who root for their favorite college players on whatever NFL team they end up on.
Now, that's not the same as being a fan of that team -- whoever is on that team. It is actually the opposite: You are a fan of a team precisely because of who is on that team. This can cause complications.
For example: If Tebow is drafted by the Vikings, I will definitely root for the Vikings and want to watch the Vikings play -- as a function of being a Tebow fan. If things go awry and Tebow ends up on the Patriots in four years, I presume I would stop rooting for the Vikings and pick up rooting for the Pats.
This cannot possibly do anything but make Vikings fans cringe -- I'm not even sure they would want me. Then again, this is the fan base that went from loathing Brett Favre to cheering him in the span of a week; they hardly can claim a problem with someone else's bandwagon fandom.
And so in addition to the next phase of Tim Tebow's career beginning tonight, I look forward to the next phase of my own career as a sports fan -- I'm ready to pick up and root for the team that Tebow plays for, whether the fans of that team want me or not. I will buy the jersey. I will read the coverage. I will watch the games.
Does it matter that my interest is focused specifically on Tebow? I don't think a team's existing fan bases are in a position to be turning away new converts.
Obviously, fandom is not just fundamentally social but also intensely personal.
To that extent, the team's existing fans are hardly in a position to judge the level or intensity or focus of my fandom. (Although I'm sure there will be plenty of judging going on -- much of it not positive.)
But they should count me in.
My transformation -- or, I guess, evolution -- continues tonight. And I get the feeling that there are many folks out there who root for Tebow who will be joining me. He presents a cult of personality unlike any athlete in sports right now. I'm not sure any team's marketing department or existing fans understand that yet.
But they will.
-- D.S.
Let's start with a confession: I enjoy the NFL -- though not nearly as much as college football -- but I don't have a particular NFL team I root for. I mean: I have my fantasy team. But that isn't the same thing.
This is strange. Everyone should have a favorite NFL team -- it's the most popular sport in the country. It just feels... wrong. I envy the folks with a strong NFL allegiance -- feels like almost everyone has one.
I used to have a team...
The onset of puberty and fan identity happen at roughly the same time. Immersion into your favorite team – into sports more generally – helps to offset the awkwardness of a cracking voice or unsettling sight of hair in weird places; hormones dictate that girls get more interesting – but still socially awkward, you throw yourself into love of your team.
For me, that was the unstoppable 1985 Bears. Growing up in a die-hard Redskins town, I was a Bears fan. On its surface, that was because my dad was a Bears fan – there was an early and powerful father-son connection to be made there. But looking back, there was a deeper interest for me: Displaced fandom made me unique, gave me an identity as a fan. I could be a Skins fan like the rest of ‘em… or the only Bears fan in the school.
At this age, I was an outlier: The more typical path of the emotionally and physically awkward 13-year-old fan is to find a new community – commonality – with other fans around them. Fan identity is incubated in a safe environment – not so for me.
And so I was a Bears fan. I suffered through the Redskins' success (often at the Bears' expense) and reveled in the 1985 domination. When it came time to go to college, I was headed to Northwestern, just outside of Chicago. To be able to root for my favorite football team up close seemed like the best kind of bonus.
As it happened, it didn't quite turn out like I expected. I actually became less of a Bears fan once I got to Chicago -- in part in my immersion into a town of crazy Bears fans. It was like I lost the "unique" part of my fandom that was such a big component of my fan identity.
From there, things atrophied further. In 1997, I actually went to go work for the NFL, and if it wasn't seriously eroded by then, upon the conclusion of my one season with the league, the dissolution of my NFL fandom was complete.
Very briefly, I found a new spark of interest -- the emergence of Kurt Warner, which I think is the most interesting story in NFL history. Once I started writing the Daily Quickie, I obviously was immersed in NFL news, but that didn't do anything for my individual NFL team fandom. I was still lost.
In 2006, I tried an odd experiment: Given the assignment from Deadspin to write the Jacksonville Jaguars season preview, I adopted the Jaguars as my own. They seemed an interesting fit: There aren't many of them out there, and the north Florida location seemed like a pretty good fit with my then-5-year-old Florida Gators fandom.
I tried. I really did. (I also recognize if "real" Jaguars fans were offended by my bandwagon-hopping.) But it just didn't take. I couldn't watch them every Sunday -- hell, even fans in Jacksonville can't watch them on TV every Sunday -- and I just didn't have a passion to keep up with them.
But around the same time -- fall of 2006 -- I recognized almost immediately that Tim Tebow was my favorite football player of all time. That only grew in 2007 -- as I'm sure it did for many people. It compounded in 2008, and -- obviously -- my interest in the subject intensified in 2009.
It was sometime after that first season with the Jaguars -- and first season with Tebow -- that I decided that, ultimately, I was going to end up rooting for whatever team Tim Tebow was drafted to.
If you thought it was odd that my fandom for Florida came when I met my wife -- who was a "real," born-and-raised Gators fan -- it might seem even more odd that I would pick an NFL team based on a specific player.
Maybe that's not the case. I know a lot of fans -- particularly ones I see on message boards -- who care about their college team but don't have a particularly strong NFL allegiance who root for their favorite college players on whatever NFL team they end up on.
Now, that's not the same as being a fan of that team -- whoever is on that team. It is actually the opposite: You are a fan of a team precisely because of who is on that team. This can cause complications.
For example: If Tebow is drafted by the Vikings, I will definitely root for the Vikings and want to watch the Vikings play -- as a function of being a Tebow fan. If things go awry and Tebow ends up on the Patriots in four years, I presume I would stop rooting for the Vikings and pick up rooting for the Pats.
This cannot possibly do anything but make Vikings fans cringe -- I'm not even sure they would want me. Then again, this is the fan base that went from loathing Brett Favre to cheering him in the span of a week; they hardly can claim a problem with someone else's bandwagon fandom.
And so in addition to the next phase of Tim Tebow's career beginning tonight, I look forward to the next phase of my own career as a sports fan -- I'm ready to pick up and root for the team that Tebow plays for, whether the fans of that team want me or not. I will buy the jersey. I will read the coverage. I will watch the games.
Does it matter that my interest is focused specifically on Tebow? I don't think a team's existing fan bases are in a position to be turning away new converts.
Obviously, fandom is not just fundamentally social but also intensely personal.
To that extent, the team's existing fans are hardly in a position to judge the level or intensity or focus of my fandom. (Although I'm sure there will be plenty of judging going on -- much of it not positive.)
But they should count me in.
My transformation -- or, I guess, evolution -- continues tonight. And I get the feeling that there are many folks out there who root for Tebow who will be joining me. He presents a cult of personality unlike any athlete in sports right now. I'm not sure any team's marketing department or existing fans understand that yet.
But they will.
-- D.S.
Quick Note on That ESPN Tebow Column
If you saw that ESPN.com column today about Tebow, there was this:
Tebow was in New York making an appearance for EA Sports, which chose him to be the cover boy of its 2010 NCAA video game, hoping to tap into his folk-hero status. Just across the room waiting to talk to him next sat a blogger who had earlier joked (sort of) to me that he'd secretly hoped Tebow might be persuaded to perform a circumcision on his infant son.But that should come as no surprise to readers here, who would recognize that from this not-so-secret post back in October 2008. (Although yes, the post was a joke. Sort of.)
04/22 Quickie: NFL/Tebow Draft Day
Well OBVIOUSLY I was going to lead today's SN column with a brief overview of Tim Tebow's draft prospects -- which I've given the shorthand "WWTG?" (Where Will Tebow Go?)
Let's start with this: Unless Ben Roethlisberger is traded, where Tebow goes tonight -- if he goes at all (more on that in a sec) -- will be the No. 1 story of the draft, fairly remarkable if you consider that he is hardly considered a Top 10 (even 1st round) talent.
Speaking of which, the big question is: Will Tebow go in the 1st round? Consider that the conventional wisdom, up until a week ago, was "2nd round" -- and that was considered some kind of inflation. Now, the conventional wisdom is presuming he will go in the 1st, with it being a surprise (if not a shock) if he goes in the 2nd.
More personally, let's also remember that tonight marks the start of a new NFL fan allegiance for me. (More on that later today.)
There's tons more in today's column:
*I love the new draft format, and I think there are all sorts of fascinating unforeseen consequences coming in the 18 hours between 11 pm tonight and 6 pm tomorrow.
*Big Ben: Well the Steelers kind of HAVE to trade him now.
*Roy Halladay: 30 wins or bust!
*I'm briefly but earnestly obsessed with Pete Carroll's Twitter feed.
See the whole thing here. More later.
-- D.S.
Let's start with this: Unless Ben Roethlisberger is traded, where Tebow goes tonight -- if he goes at all (more on that in a sec) -- will be the No. 1 story of the draft, fairly remarkable if you consider that he is hardly considered a Top 10 (even 1st round) talent.
Speaking of which, the big question is: Will Tebow go in the 1st round? Consider that the conventional wisdom, up until a week ago, was "2nd round" -- and that was considered some kind of inflation. Now, the conventional wisdom is presuming he will go in the 1st, with it being a surprise (if not a shock) if he goes in the 2nd.
More personally, let's also remember that tonight marks the start of a new NFL fan allegiance for me. (More on that later today.)
There's tons more in today's column:
*I love the new draft format, and I think there are all sorts of fascinating unforeseen consequences coming in the 18 hours between 11 pm tonight and 6 pm tomorrow.
*Big Ben: Well the Steelers kind of HAVE to trade him now.
*Roy Halladay: 30 wins or bust!
*I'm briefly but earnestly obsessed with Pete Carroll's Twitter feed.
See the whole thing here. More later.
-- D.S.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
2010 NFL Tim Tebow Mock Draft
Given that Tim Tebow is the biggest storyline of the 2010 NFL Draft -- who will draft him? where will he go? is he a 1st-rounder? will someone trade up for him? -- it seems fitting to create a 2010 NFL Mock Draft composed entirely of... Tim Tebow.
1. St. Louis Rams: Tim Tebow, QB Florida.
Umm...no. If the NFL Draft was about selecting the most popular or compelling player -- or, say, the best player in college football history -- Tebow is a lock at No. 1. But it's not. It's apparently about selecting some idealized version of "NFL quarterback," despite his flimsy shoulder.
2. Detroit Lions: Tim Tebow, QB Florida.
If marketing mattered as much as winning, the Lions would seriously consider taking Tebow and finding a way to get him in the game -- or certainly on the front of the marketing collateral. As it stands, they have their franchise QB. Detroit fans would have loved Tebow, though.
3. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Tim Tebow, QB Florida.
If the Bucs didn't take the Tebow-esque Josh Freeman in the 1st round a year ago, Tampa would be right up there with the Bills and Jags as teams that might-just-might be convinced to take Tebow as a Top 10 pick. They still flashed a little regional interest back at Tebow's Pro Day. But not for this pick.
4. Washington Redskins: Tim Tebow, QB Florida.
The Redskins were on the original short list of teams interested in Tebow -- one of the first to want to bring him in for a workout. Then they traded for Donovan McNabb, giving up their high-2nd-round pick (more likely to be used on Tebow than the No. 4 overall pick), and the D.C. dream ended.
5. Kansas City Chiefs: Tim Tebow, QB Florida.
"Transitive property" at work here: Chiefs GM Scott Pioli comes from the Belichick Mafia. Belichick, of course, loves Urban Meyer and Tebow. KC has bigger needs here than duplicating a position they invested in so heavily a year ago -- but maybe a Tebow trade partner with the Pats in the early 2nd round?
6. Seattle Seahawks: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
Another team on the short list of teams that originally expressed a lot of interest in Tebow. It makes a lot less sense since Pete Carroll traded Seattle's 2nd-round pick and cash for Charlie Whitehurst as the presumptive heir to Matt Hasselbeck. Vast needs for Seattle here beyond another QB.
7. Cleveland Browns: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
The Browns seem as interested in Tim Tebow as any team in the league -- right up there with the Bills. They need a QB to develop. They need a face of the franchise. Tebow offers both, but the No. 7 spot will simply be too much for Mike Holmgren. But that doesn't mean Cleveland won't get him.
8. Oakland Raiders: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
Another team on the Tebow short list. Al Davis is a little crazy -- but not crazy enough to take Tebow with the No. 8 overall pick. (Keep reading down to my special 2nd-round preview, because I think that Oakland still offers the floor for Tebow's draft position.)
9. Buffalo Bills: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
At least a few mock drafters have put Tebow here; that's how interested the Bills supposedly are. I don't even rank this on my Tebow Draft Scenarios, but I do think that there is a better chance than for any other team that Buffalo exits the first round of the NFL Draft with Tebow in tow.
10. Jacksonville Jaguars: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
Gosh, remember when "Tebow to the Jags at No. 10" was it? Done deal. Case closed. The Jags would follow the marketing hype -- and, to be fair, the idea that in 3 years they will need a franchise QB to replace Garrard. But now? Basically zero buzz that the Jags will take him here.
11. Denver Broncos: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
Lots of discussion when Denver brought Tebow in for a workout on Monday, but given that they just traded for Brady Quinn, it is entirely unlikely that the Broncos would use the No. 11 on Tebow. If they want him, they have two 2nd-rounders (43, 45), but will need to package them to move up.
12. Miami Dolphins: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
Fins QB coach David Lee got a first-hand look at Tebow while coaching him during the Senior Bowl. Tebow shares an agent with Dolphins head coach Tony Sparano. And Tebow is a classic "Parcells QB." But there is no way that the Dolphins use this pick -- or any -- to take Tebow.
13. San Francisco 49ers: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
The last time the 49ers used a 1st-round pick to take a highly touted QB that was mentored by Urban Meyer, they got Alex Smith -- where was the draftniks' skepticism on THAT one? -- which might make both the team AND Team Tebow (which includes Meyer) disinclined to meet up here.
14. Seattle Seahawks: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
So let's assume that the Seahawks use their first 1st-round pick on an extreme need, like offensive line. Their fans are happy. Maybe they decide they want to reach here and take Tebow -- or maybe trade out, for extra picks, to a team hot to get him, like Buffalo?
15. New York Giants: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
Bob Tebow predicted that Tim would go in the first 15 picks of the 1st round. Well, we are here. The Giants won't take him, but that doesn't mean that Tebow won't be selected by the time we get here -- if a team that wants him badly enough is able to trade up with New York... or earlier.
16. Tennessee Titans: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
When it comes to Tebow's 1st-round prospects, the name you hear come up a lot is Vince Young, who the Titans picked with the 3rd overall pick of the 2005 Draft and whose college style wasn't necessarily going to translate to the NFL. VY is the template for TT: Context is critical. (But taking Tebow here is not for Tennessee.)
17. San Francisco 49ers: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
This isn't unlike the Seahawks: Let's say the 49ers pass on Tebow on their first 1st-rounder. Maybe they take a flier on him here -- or, more likely, they are given the opportunity to trade down for extra draft picks, which they need more than Tebow. But the Bills might be willing to do it.
18. Pittsburgh Steelers: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
A running joke has been the notion of pairing Tim Tebow and Ben Roethlisberger in some kind of "perfect strangers"-style buddy comedy reality series. This part is no joke: The Steelers have an image problem at QB and might very well trade Big Ben. But not for Tebow, even if he is the anti-Ben.
19. Atlanta Falcons: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
Well, here is one team where you hear absolutely no discussion of interest in -- or fit for -- Tebow. Which makes them a solid candidate to field offers from teams that want to trade up before things get a lot more unpredictable in the 20s.
20. Houston Texans: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
NFL.com draft guru Gil Brandt has been as bullish on Tim Tebow's draft prospects as anyone in the draftnik industry, and as recently as last week, Brandt has been insisting that he sees Tebow going in the Top 20. If he isn't gone by now, Houston will be getting offers to trade out for picks.
21. Cincinnati Bengals: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
Entirely unlikely to take Tebow, but certainly a willing taker if a team wants to try to trade multiple picks to get Tebow here. Beyond that, the Bengals are a great example of a team that let its franchise QB sit for an entire year, no pressure, to learn. And it worked out great. Template for Tebow?
22. New England Patriots: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
I have always felt in my gut that Bill Belichick would do anything reasonable to get Tebow -- I think Belichick is sincerely intrigued by the intellectual challenge of scheming ways to get Tebow to contribute. Here would be a surprise -- but you know Belichick would love to confound the draftniks.
23. Green Bay Packers: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
Green Bay is a team that spent a late 1st-round pick on a QB with a lot of upside; gave him years -- three long years -- to sit and observe and develop; then unleashed him on the league -- quite successfully, actually. They won't take him, but the team that does could learn from Green Bay.
24. Philadelphia Eagles: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
Plenty of circumstantial evidence that the Eagles wouldn't mind having Tebow on the roster, but with the new commitment to Kevin Kolb, QB isn't a need at No. 24. However: Trading out to a team that wants to give up multiple picks to move into this spot and take Tebow? Possible.
25. Baltimore Ravens: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
Every team's beat writers have tried to find a Tebow hook -- it's worth the traffic to the Web site. And thus: The so-called "Purple Wildcat," which the Ravens could run when not letting Joe Flacco throw to the revamped corps of WRs. Still: Balto hasn't been on anyone's Tebow radar.
26. Arizona Cardinals: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
Well, it's not like the Cardinals don't have questions at QB: Kurt Warner is gone. Derek Anderson has been imported. Matt Leinart's struggles have continued to prove that draftniks' "grades" are far from conclusive. A very early mock draft (Don Banks, SI.com) had Tebow here. Distant memory.
27. Dallas Cowboys: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
"He'd never get on the field." That was Cowboys owner Jerry Jones about Tim Tebow's prospects with the Cowboys. Even if he was inebriated when he said it and since back-tracked a bit, let's agree that he was being honest about his feelings. And as GM, that's what will stand. (Trade out?)
28. San Diego Chargers: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
They don't need a starting QB and Philip Rivers doesn't look like he's going anywhere for a long time. Plus, they have plenty of other holes to fill as they try to keep pace with the Jets and Colts in the AFC. Does that make them a contender to trade out for multiple lower-round picks?
29. New York Jets: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
I don't think anyone is suggesting that this wouldn't be a wild development -- Tebow on Broadway, playing for the voluble Rex Ryan. Of course, the Jets have a starter for the future (and now) in Mark Sanchez, plus a Wildcat guy in Brad Smith. Another contender to trade out, especially because....
30. Minnesota Vikings: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
If there is a scenario that would make teams like the Bills or Browns antsy to trade up into the 20s, it is the very reasonable prospect that the Vikings could take Tebow here, in a move that would instantly become the sensation of the draft -- if only for the concept of "Favre-Tebow" media overload.
31. Indianapolis Colts: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
If the Vikings pass and Tebow is still on the board, the Colts will get plenty of offers to trade out of this pick, allowing the Bills or Browns or anyone else to avoid the extreme uncertainty of the 18-hour hiatus between the 1st round and the 2nd round.
32. New Orleans Saints: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
The champs can afford to be bold and take Tebow -- it would be the draft equivalent of an onside kick in the 3rd quarter of the Super Bowl. But, more likely, they will be hit with plenty of offers from teams desperate to avoid a Day 2 bidding war for Tebow. If Tebow is still around, it's a seller's market.
Bonus 2nd-round coverage!
The new draft format creates a fascinating dynamic -- with 18 hours to sift through the prospects on the board, if Tebow is still available, plenty of teams will be jockeying to try to get him -- competing with teams trying to trade up for any "value" picks left.
That's why I think a team serious about Tebow will need to trade into the back of the 1st round to get him; there is simply too much competitive uncertainty if he drops into the 2nd round.
33. St. Louis Rams: Tim Tebow, QB Florida.
34. Detroit Lions: Tim Tebow, QB Florida.
35. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Tim Tebow, QB Florida.
36. Kansas City Chiefs: Tim Tebow, QB Florida.
I group these as a "Gang of Four." None need Tebow -- the Bucs made a courtesy call in Gainesville during Tebow's Pro Day in March. All need more talent, and they could get extra picks by trading out to a team that wants to jump the line and snag Tebow.
Look at the Bills, Browns, Raiders, Broncos and Patriots for trading up here. The Gang of Four will also have plenty of offers from teams looking for other value picks that are surprisingly left on the board overnight -- or they will keep their picks to snag that talent themselves.
(Keep an eye out for the Chiefs at 36 -- GM Scott Pioli has a working history with both Pats coach Bill Belichick and Broncos coach Josh McDaniels.)
37. Philadelphia Eagles: Tim Tebow, QB Florida.
The moment that the Eagles traded Donovan McNabb, I added them to the short list in the Tebow Derby. If Tebow is still around here, they will seriously consider taking him -- but with the Browns, Raiders and Bills jockeying for him, there will be plenty of interest to trade out.
38. Cleveland Browns: Tim Tebow, QB Florida.
If the Browns don't take a QB at No. 7 -- and there is no indication that they will -- and Tebow is still on the board here, I think Mike Holmgren takes him and trusts that he can develop him into a starting QB just as the rest of his rebuilding starts to click. No pressure to start/win immediately.
39. Oakland Raiders: Tim Tebow, QB Florida.
Mel Kiper may list Tebow's "floor" as the Bills at No. 41, but I think that Al Davis can't help himself if Tebow is still available when Oakland picks here. I think this is the lowest he will go.
40. San Diego Chargers: Tim Tebow, QB Florida.
If Tebow is still on the board -- and everyone knows that the Bills are going to take him next -- there will be a frenzy of deal-making to try to trade up and get him. In this scenario, watch the Patriots here.
41. Buffalo Bills: Tim Tebow, QB Florida.
Armchair psychological analysis of Al Davis aside, if Tebow is still on the board here -- and the Bills didn't take Jimmy Clausen with the No. 9 overall pick or elsewhere in the 1st round, there is no way Tebow drops further than this.
43. and 45. Denver Broncos: Tim Tebow, QB Florida.
Again, given the signals of Denver's interest, if the Broncos really want Tebow, they will have to use one or both of these 2nd-round picks to get ahead of the Browns at 38 or the Raiders at 39 -- or the Bills, at whatever price they're willing to pay.
1. St. Louis Rams: Tim Tebow, QB Florida.
Umm...no. If the NFL Draft was about selecting the most popular or compelling player -- or, say, the best player in college football history -- Tebow is a lock at No. 1. But it's not. It's apparently about selecting some idealized version of "NFL quarterback," despite his flimsy shoulder.
2. Detroit Lions: Tim Tebow, QB Florida.
If marketing mattered as much as winning, the Lions would seriously consider taking Tebow and finding a way to get him in the game -- or certainly on the front of the marketing collateral. As it stands, they have their franchise QB. Detroit fans would have loved Tebow, though.
3. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Tim Tebow, QB Florida.
If the Bucs didn't take the Tebow-esque Josh Freeman in the 1st round a year ago, Tampa would be right up there with the Bills and Jags as teams that might-just-might be convinced to take Tebow as a Top 10 pick. They still flashed a little regional interest back at Tebow's Pro Day. But not for this pick.
4. Washington Redskins: Tim Tebow, QB Florida.
The Redskins were on the original short list of teams interested in Tebow -- one of the first to want to bring him in for a workout. Then they traded for Donovan McNabb, giving up their high-2nd-round pick (more likely to be used on Tebow than the No. 4 overall pick), and the D.C. dream ended.
5. Kansas City Chiefs: Tim Tebow, QB Florida.
"Transitive property" at work here: Chiefs GM Scott Pioli comes from the Belichick Mafia. Belichick, of course, loves Urban Meyer and Tebow. KC has bigger needs here than duplicating a position they invested in so heavily a year ago -- but maybe a Tebow trade partner with the Pats in the early 2nd round?
6. Seattle Seahawks: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
Another team on the short list of teams that originally expressed a lot of interest in Tebow. It makes a lot less sense since Pete Carroll traded Seattle's 2nd-round pick and cash for Charlie Whitehurst as the presumptive heir to Matt Hasselbeck. Vast needs for Seattle here beyond another QB.
7. Cleveland Browns: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
The Browns seem as interested in Tim Tebow as any team in the league -- right up there with the Bills. They need a QB to develop. They need a face of the franchise. Tebow offers both, but the No. 7 spot will simply be too much for Mike Holmgren. But that doesn't mean Cleveland won't get him.
8. Oakland Raiders: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
Another team on the Tebow short list. Al Davis is a little crazy -- but not crazy enough to take Tebow with the No. 8 overall pick. (Keep reading down to my special 2nd-round preview, because I think that Oakland still offers the floor for Tebow's draft position.)
9. Buffalo Bills: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
At least a few mock drafters have put Tebow here; that's how interested the Bills supposedly are. I don't even rank this on my Tebow Draft Scenarios, but I do think that there is a better chance than for any other team that Buffalo exits the first round of the NFL Draft with Tebow in tow.
10. Jacksonville Jaguars: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
Gosh, remember when "Tebow to the Jags at No. 10" was it? Done deal. Case closed. The Jags would follow the marketing hype -- and, to be fair, the idea that in 3 years they will need a franchise QB to replace Garrard. But now? Basically zero buzz that the Jags will take him here.
11. Denver Broncos: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
Lots of discussion when Denver brought Tebow in for a workout on Monday, but given that they just traded for Brady Quinn, it is entirely unlikely that the Broncos would use the No. 11 on Tebow. If they want him, they have two 2nd-rounders (43, 45), but will need to package them to move up.
12. Miami Dolphins: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
Fins QB coach David Lee got a first-hand look at Tebow while coaching him during the Senior Bowl. Tebow shares an agent with Dolphins head coach Tony Sparano. And Tebow is a classic "Parcells QB." But there is no way that the Dolphins use this pick -- or any -- to take Tebow.
13. San Francisco 49ers: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
The last time the 49ers used a 1st-round pick to take a highly touted QB that was mentored by Urban Meyer, they got Alex Smith -- where was the draftniks' skepticism on THAT one? -- which might make both the team AND Team Tebow (which includes Meyer) disinclined to meet up here.
14. Seattle Seahawks: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
So let's assume that the Seahawks use their first 1st-round pick on an extreme need, like offensive line. Their fans are happy. Maybe they decide they want to reach here and take Tebow -- or maybe trade out, for extra picks, to a team hot to get him, like Buffalo?
15. New York Giants: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
Bob Tebow predicted that Tim would go in the first 15 picks of the 1st round. Well, we are here. The Giants won't take him, but that doesn't mean that Tebow won't be selected by the time we get here -- if a team that wants him badly enough is able to trade up with New York... or earlier.
16. Tennessee Titans: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
When it comes to Tebow's 1st-round prospects, the name you hear come up a lot is Vince Young, who the Titans picked with the 3rd overall pick of the 2005 Draft and whose college style wasn't necessarily going to translate to the NFL. VY is the template for TT: Context is critical. (But taking Tebow here is not for Tennessee.)
17. San Francisco 49ers: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
This isn't unlike the Seahawks: Let's say the 49ers pass on Tebow on their first 1st-rounder. Maybe they take a flier on him here -- or, more likely, they are given the opportunity to trade down for extra draft picks, which they need more than Tebow. But the Bills might be willing to do it.
18. Pittsburgh Steelers: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
A running joke has been the notion of pairing Tim Tebow and Ben Roethlisberger in some kind of "perfect strangers"-style buddy comedy reality series. This part is no joke: The Steelers have an image problem at QB and might very well trade Big Ben. But not for Tebow, even if he is the anti-Ben.
19. Atlanta Falcons: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
Well, here is one team where you hear absolutely no discussion of interest in -- or fit for -- Tebow. Which makes them a solid candidate to field offers from teams that want to trade up before things get a lot more unpredictable in the 20s.
20. Houston Texans: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
NFL.com draft guru Gil Brandt has been as bullish on Tim Tebow's draft prospects as anyone in the draftnik industry, and as recently as last week, Brandt has been insisting that he sees Tebow going in the Top 20. If he isn't gone by now, Houston will be getting offers to trade out for picks.
21. Cincinnati Bengals: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
Entirely unlikely to take Tebow, but certainly a willing taker if a team wants to try to trade multiple picks to get Tebow here. Beyond that, the Bengals are a great example of a team that let its franchise QB sit for an entire year, no pressure, to learn. And it worked out great. Template for Tebow?
22. New England Patriots: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
I have always felt in my gut that Bill Belichick would do anything reasonable to get Tebow -- I think Belichick is sincerely intrigued by the intellectual challenge of scheming ways to get Tebow to contribute. Here would be a surprise -- but you know Belichick would love to confound the draftniks.
23. Green Bay Packers: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
Green Bay is a team that spent a late 1st-round pick on a QB with a lot of upside; gave him years -- three long years -- to sit and observe and develop; then unleashed him on the league -- quite successfully, actually. They won't take him, but the team that does could learn from Green Bay.
24. Philadelphia Eagles: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
Plenty of circumstantial evidence that the Eagles wouldn't mind having Tebow on the roster, but with the new commitment to Kevin Kolb, QB isn't a need at No. 24. However: Trading out to a team that wants to give up multiple picks to move into this spot and take Tebow? Possible.
25. Baltimore Ravens: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
Every team's beat writers have tried to find a Tebow hook -- it's worth the traffic to the Web site. And thus: The so-called "Purple Wildcat," which the Ravens could run when not letting Joe Flacco throw to the revamped corps of WRs. Still: Balto hasn't been on anyone's Tebow radar.
26. Arizona Cardinals: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
Well, it's not like the Cardinals don't have questions at QB: Kurt Warner is gone. Derek Anderson has been imported. Matt Leinart's struggles have continued to prove that draftniks' "grades" are far from conclusive. A very early mock draft (Don Banks, SI.com) had Tebow here. Distant memory.
27. Dallas Cowboys: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
"He'd never get on the field." That was Cowboys owner Jerry Jones about Tim Tebow's prospects with the Cowboys. Even if he was inebriated when he said it and since back-tracked a bit, let's agree that he was being honest about his feelings. And as GM, that's what will stand. (Trade out?)
28. San Diego Chargers: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
They don't need a starting QB and Philip Rivers doesn't look like he's going anywhere for a long time. Plus, they have plenty of other holes to fill as they try to keep pace with the Jets and Colts in the AFC. Does that make them a contender to trade out for multiple lower-round picks?
29. New York Jets: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
I don't think anyone is suggesting that this wouldn't be a wild development -- Tebow on Broadway, playing for the voluble Rex Ryan. Of course, the Jets have a starter for the future (and now) in Mark Sanchez, plus a Wildcat guy in Brad Smith. Another contender to trade out, especially because....
30. Minnesota Vikings: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
If there is a scenario that would make teams like the Bills or Browns antsy to trade up into the 20s, it is the very reasonable prospect that the Vikings could take Tebow here, in a move that would instantly become the sensation of the draft -- if only for the concept of "Favre-Tebow" media overload.
31. Indianapolis Colts: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
If the Vikings pass and Tebow is still on the board, the Colts will get plenty of offers to trade out of this pick, allowing the Bills or Browns or anyone else to avoid the extreme uncertainty of the 18-hour hiatus between the 1st round and the 2nd round.
32. New Orleans Saints: Tim Tebow, QB Florida
The champs can afford to be bold and take Tebow -- it would be the draft equivalent of an onside kick in the 3rd quarter of the Super Bowl. But, more likely, they will be hit with plenty of offers from teams desperate to avoid a Day 2 bidding war for Tebow. If Tebow is still around, it's a seller's market.
Bonus 2nd-round coverage!
The new draft format creates a fascinating dynamic -- with 18 hours to sift through the prospects on the board, if Tebow is still available, plenty of teams will be jockeying to try to get him -- competing with teams trying to trade up for any "value" picks left.
That's why I think a team serious about Tebow will need to trade into the back of the 1st round to get him; there is simply too much competitive uncertainty if he drops into the 2nd round.
33. St. Louis Rams: Tim Tebow, QB Florida.
34. Detroit Lions: Tim Tebow, QB Florida.
35. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Tim Tebow, QB Florida.
36. Kansas City Chiefs: Tim Tebow, QB Florida.
I group these as a "Gang of Four." None need Tebow -- the Bucs made a courtesy call in Gainesville during Tebow's Pro Day in March. All need more talent, and they could get extra picks by trading out to a team that wants to jump the line and snag Tebow.
Look at the Bills, Browns, Raiders, Broncos and Patriots for trading up here. The Gang of Four will also have plenty of offers from teams looking for other value picks that are surprisingly left on the board overnight -- or they will keep their picks to snag that talent themselves.
(Keep an eye out for the Chiefs at 36 -- GM Scott Pioli has a working history with both Pats coach Bill Belichick and Broncos coach Josh McDaniels.)
37. Philadelphia Eagles: Tim Tebow, QB Florida.
The moment that the Eagles traded Donovan McNabb, I added them to the short list in the Tebow Derby. If Tebow is still around here, they will seriously consider taking him -- but with the Browns, Raiders and Bills jockeying for him, there will be plenty of interest to trade out.
38. Cleveland Browns: Tim Tebow, QB Florida.
If the Browns don't take a QB at No. 7 -- and there is no indication that they will -- and Tebow is still on the board here, I think Mike Holmgren takes him and trusts that he can develop him into a starting QB just as the rest of his rebuilding starts to click. No pressure to start/win immediately.
39. Oakland Raiders: Tim Tebow, QB Florida.
Mel Kiper may list Tebow's "floor" as the Bills at No. 41, but I think that Al Davis can't help himself if Tebow is still available when Oakland picks here. I think this is the lowest he will go.
40. San Diego Chargers: Tim Tebow, QB Florida.
If Tebow is still on the board -- and everyone knows that the Bills are going to take him next -- there will be a frenzy of deal-making to try to trade up and get him. In this scenario, watch the Patriots here.
41. Buffalo Bills: Tim Tebow, QB Florida.
Armchair psychological analysis of Al Davis aside, if Tebow is still on the board here -- and the Bills didn't take Jimmy Clausen with the No. 9 overall pick or elsewhere in the 1st round, there is no way Tebow drops further than this.
43. and 45. Denver Broncos: Tim Tebow, QB Florida.
Again, given the signals of Denver's interest, if the Broncos really want Tebow, they will have to use one or both of these 2nd-round picks to get ahead of the Browns at 38 or the Raiders at 39 -- or the Bills, at whatever price they're willing to pay.
04/21 Quickie: NFL Sked, Draft, Ben, Tebow
Let's get right to the point: I did, in fact, meet Tim Tebow face-to-face last night. I'm still trying to organize my analysis of the experience. I will say this: It is an understatement to say that he had never heard of "TimTeblog.com."
Aside from that recap, I've got one more Tebow-related post before the Draft that I will publish here. Bear with me.
As for today's SN column, there is a ton of ground to cover. Start with the thesis: This week showcases the NFL at the height of its power.
*The schedule release yesterday was AN EVENT (the NFL knows what it's doing kicking off the season with Saints-Vikings).
*They will do their best to mitigate the Big Ben suspension today by wedging it between Schedule Hangover and the climax of pre-Draft insanity.
*And then there is tomorrow's Draft, unprecedented in format and likely to draw the biggest audience in the history of the event. I had already thought that Draft Day was the single-biggest day of the NFL year besides the Super Bowl -- tomorrow will reinforce that.
(Speaking of the Draft, will Tebow show? As of last night, he still wasn't sure. I can make a compelling argument both ways. I would argue that the NFL needs him there more than he needs to be there for the NFL.)
More you'll find:
*The 2010 Thunder remind me of the '86 Bulls.
*Totally surprised by the Celtics rout.
*Unsurprised by the Suns rout.
*It's a farce that the NBA plays a playoff game on Sunday then doesn't play Game 2 until Wednesday. If MLB tried that, people would freak.
*Expect nothing from Big Ten commish Jim Delany today.
*Of the three big men who declared for the NBA Draft yesterday (Gallon, Babbitt, Samuels), one will be a break-out NBA hit. My bet is on Gallon.
*I'm not a big Mike Shanahan fan, but I'm glad to see him steering clear of T.O. in DC.
*I'm not a big Jason Taylor fan, and it's fair to wonder if he signed with New York to be near the media spotlight.
*Who didn't put Dwight Howard on their Defensive Player of the Year ballot? Transparency!
*I don't doubt that Edinson Volquez took fertility drugs. I doubt he took them for -- y'know -- fertility.
*I am fully on board the Jason Heyward Bandwagon.
*After all that stalling, Reggie Bush settles. He oozes.
Complete SN column here. More later.
-- D.S.
Aside from that recap, I've got one more Tebow-related post before the Draft that I will publish here. Bear with me.
As for today's SN column, there is a ton of ground to cover. Start with the thesis: This week showcases the NFL at the height of its power.
*The schedule release yesterday was AN EVENT (the NFL knows what it's doing kicking off the season with Saints-Vikings).
*They will do their best to mitigate the Big Ben suspension today by wedging it between Schedule Hangover and the climax of pre-Draft insanity.
*And then there is tomorrow's Draft, unprecedented in format and likely to draw the biggest audience in the history of the event. I had already thought that Draft Day was the single-biggest day of the NFL year besides the Super Bowl -- tomorrow will reinforce that.
(Speaking of the Draft, will Tebow show? As of last night, he still wasn't sure. I can make a compelling argument both ways. I would argue that the NFL needs him there more than he needs to be there for the NFL.)
More you'll find:
*The 2010 Thunder remind me of the '86 Bulls.
*Totally surprised by the Celtics rout.
*Unsurprised by the Suns rout.
*It's a farce that the NBA plays a playoff game on Sunday then doesn't play Game 2 until Wednesday. If MLB tried that, people would freak.
*Expect nothing from Big Ten commish Jim Delany today.
*Of the three big men who declared for the NBA Draft yesterday (Gallon, Babbitt, Samuels), one will be a break-out NBA hit. My bet is on Gallon.
*I'm not a big Mike Shanahan fan, but I'm glad to see him steering clear of T.O. in DC.
*I'm not a big Jason Taylor fan, and it's fair to wonder if he signed with New York to be near the media spotlight.
*Who didn't put Dwight Howard on their Defensive Player of the Year ballot? Transparency!
*I don't doubt that Edinson Volquez took fertility drugs. I doubt he took them for -- y'know -- fertility.
*I am fully on board the Jason Heyward Bandwagon.
*After all that stalling, Reggie Bush settles. He oozes.
Complete SN column here. More later.
-- D.S.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
When Dan Shanoff Met Tim Tebow
There is a scene in the classic movie "A Christmas Story" where Ralphie finally -- finally -- gets a chance to meet Santa Claus to ask about the Red Ryder BB gun, only to blank in Santa's presence.
Santa says: "How about a nice...football?" (In Ralphie's own head: "Football? Football? What's a football? With unconscious will my voice squeaked out 'football'. A football? Oh no, what was I doing? Wake up, Stupid! Wake up!")
Ralphie nods his head, and Santa sends him down the slide. Halfway down, Ralphie realizes what is happening, stops short, clambers back up the slide and announces his interest in the gun. Santa replies: "You'll shoot your eye out kid!" Then taps his boot on Ralphie's forehead, sending Ralphie down the slide into oblivion with a whimpering "Nooooo....."
That's a very real scenario for me, because tonight, there is a pretty good chance that I am going to meet Tim Tebow. Finally meet Tim Tebow, I guess you could say. Or, the way many of you might characterize it: Awkwardly meet Tim Tebow.
There is a 100 percent chance that I will be standing in a room with him as a frenzy of media folks jockey to interview him at a launch party for EA's NCAA Football 11. The closest I have otherwise been to Tebow is about 20 rows up from the field at the Swamp at the Tennessee game last September.
So then the open question is whether or not I will actually talk to Tebow myself -- as part of the group or, perhaps, even a brief 1-on-1 interview. If so, the even bigger question is: What would I talk with him about?
In my Ralphie moment, the handlers will nudge me into a one-question interview with Tebow and I'll sputter "Football...." Tebow will answer pleasantly about making a difference or finishing strong or the effort he will bring to whatever NFL team he is lucky enough to be drafted to. And then he'll move along, and I'll realize the brilliant, thought-provoking question I should have asked:
"Wait, wait: How can one reconcile the "relationships-over-championships" attitude with the tears of disappointment on the sidelines of the Georgia Dome? What do you think is the most applicable secular interpretation of your religious beliefs? What's your favorite piece of Tebow mythos? What role did growing up a Gator fan play in your college career? AndhaveyoueverheardofTimTeblogdotcom?"
Let's be realistic here: I don't exactly have the typical media person's perspective on Tebow. Everyone else will attend tonight and ask him the standard questions about his college career, draft status, NFL prospects, video-game expertise, faith, etc. And, more than likely, Tebow will reply with standard answers.
But what about the guy who has the blog focused entirely on Tim Tebow? The guy who has written nearly 800 posts about Tebow over the past 9 months? The guy who has dissected and analyzed practically everything Tebow has said or been said about him?
To be totally honest, the entire prospect of talking with Tebow freaks me out. Not just because of the obsessive coverage or the faux-journalistic distance I've maintained from Tebow (for example, not getting media credentials to cover him up close in G'ville or his trips to NYC).
And, no: Not because of the awkward moment when I mention -- if I even have the chutzpah to bring it up -- that he-has-probably-never-heard-of-it-but-I-have-a-Tebow-focused-blog-called-TimTeblog.com... only to have him say "Wow, hm. No, can't say I've heard of it." Probably followed by something chipper like "But sounds fun!" Either that, or a quick safe-word alerting the PR handlers to take me back to the media holding pen.
(Quick digression: The most common question I get when I talk with people about the blog is that they ask me if I think Tebow has seen or read it. With absolutely no false modesty, I tell them that I am 100 percent sure he has never even heard of it, let alone read it. I think he steers clear of coverage of himself, no matter what the form. If his family or the Florida sports information department has set up a Google Alert for "Tebow" -- and I'd be shocked if they didn't -- it would be hard for them to miss the blog. But really, bank on it: He's never seen it or heard of TimTeblog.com. And I'm not even sure how I could bring it up without sounding like a complete tool.)
But let me tell you what freaks me out the most: Coming up with a question beyond the banal. Getting a response beyond what I already know he will say. (Now, I recognize that any speaker as polished as Tebow will always glide back to the talking points, but I can at least make an effort.)
I have been racking my brain -- not to mention the archives of the blog -- trying to come up with the questions that might illuminate Tebow in some new way. Short of that, I am heading in trying to make sense of the larger theses that I have developed about Tebow over the past year about Tebow's football or his faith or his mythology.
I can envision a dream scenario: That my questions are good enough that Tebow would be willing to sit down with me for a half-hour at some point this summer when things are a little bit calmer, for a more extensive discussion. But I'm not holding out for that.
I can also envision a nightmare scenario for tonight: That my question will just be the same old thing. Not even that his answer will be one I've read or linked to a hundred times -- but that the experience won't live up to built-up expectations of the year of attention I have put into the Teblog project.
The reality is that there probably ISN'T a question -- or an answer -- that would validate my unusual dedication to the Tebow beat. And, ultimately, recognizing that is how I'm going to get over the babble in my head, get in the queue to talk with him, introduce myself and ask him a couple questions.
My wife -- the original Gators fan in our family and who has supported the Teblog effort so patiently (most of the time) -- has a pretty interesting theory: That it is very hard to talk with someone you know a LOT about when you don't actually know them. It's a false familiarity that should be recognizable to any sports fan -- or fan of anything, I guess. But I digress.
Some might (appropriately) say that the crucible for shamelessness about all this was defined back in mid-July when I launched a blog devoted entirely to covering Tim Tebow -- that whatever happens tonight is only a function of that.
Still doesn't change the fact that this feels like the culmination of the past year's work, and I'm still not sure how it fits. Maybe after tonight I will enjoy a revelation.
*****
The essay above was republished from a post that originally appeared at TimTeblog.com. And it's worth asking: What would YOU ask him?
Santa says: "How about a nice...football?" (In Ralphie's own head: "Football? Football? What's a football? With unconscious will my voice squeaked out 'football'. A football? Oh no, what was I doing? Wake up, Stupid! Wake up!")
Ralphie nods his head, and Santa sends him down the slide. Halfway down, Ralphie realizes what is happening, stops short, clambers back up the slide and announces his interest in the gun. Santa replies: "You'll shoot your eye out kid!" Then taps his boot on Ralphie's forehead, sending Ralphie down the slide into oblivion with a whimpering "Nooooo....."
That's a very real scenario for me, because tonight, there is a pretty good chance that I am going to meet Tim Tebow. Finally meet Tim Tebow, I guess you could say. Or, the way many of you might characterize it: Awkwardly meet Tim Tebow.
There is a 100 percent chance that I will be standing in a room with him as a frenzy of media folks jockey to interview him at a launch party for EA's NCAA Football 11. The closest I have otherwise been to Tebow is about 20 rows up from the field at the Swamp at the Tennessee game last September.
So then the open question is whether or not I will actually talk to Tebow myself -- as part of the group or, perhaps, even a brief 1-on-1 interview. If so, the even bigger question is: What would I talk with him about?
In my Ralphie moment, the handlers will nudge me into a one-question interview with Tebow and I'll sputter "Football...." Tebow will answer pleasantly about making a difference or finishing strong or the effort he will bring to whatever NFL team he is lucky enough to be drafted to. And then he'll move along, and I'll realize the brilliant, thought-provoking question I should have asked:
"Wait, wait: How can one reconcile the "relationships-over-championships" attitude with the tears of disappointment on the sidelines of the Georgia Dome? What do you think is the most applicable secular interpretation of your religious beliefs? What's your favorite piece of Tebow mythos? What role did growing up a Gator fan play in your college career? AndhaveyoueverheardofTimTeblogdotcom?"
Let's be realistic here: I don't exactly have the typical media person's perspective on Tebow. Everyone else will attend tonight and ask him the standard questions about his college career, draft status, NFL prospects, video-game expertise, faith, etc. And, more than likely, Tebow will reply with standard answers.
But what about the guy who has the blog focused entirely on Tim Tebow? The guy who has written nearly 800 posts about Tebow over the past 9 months? The guy who has dissected and analyzed practically everything Tebow has said or been said about him?
To be totally honest, the entire prospect of talking with Tebow freaks me out. Not just because of the obsessive coverage or the faux-journalistic distance I've maintained from Tebow (for example, not getting media credentials to cover him up close in G'ville or his trips to NYC).
And, no: Not because of the awkward moment when I mention -- if I even have the chutzpah to bring it up -- that he-has-probably-never-heard-of-it-but-I-have-a-Tebow-focused-blog-called-TimTeblog.com... only to have him say "Wow, hm. No, can't say I've heard of it." Probably followed by something chipper like "But sounds fun!" Either that, or a quick safe-word alerting the PR handlers to take me back to the media holding pen.
(Quick digression: The most common question I get when I talk with people about the blog is that they ask me if I think Tebow has seen or read it. With absolutely no false modesty, I tell them that I am 100 percent sure he has never even heard of it, let alone read it. I think he steers clear of coverage of himself, no matter what the form. If his family or the Florida sports information department has set up a Google Alert for "Tebow" -- and I'd be shocked if they didn't -- it would be hard for them to miss the blog. But really, bank on it: He's never seen it or heard of TimTeblog.com. And I'm not even sure how I could bring it up without sounding like a complete tool.)
But let me tell you what freaks me out the most: Coming up with a question beyond the banal. Getting a response beyond what I already know he will say. (Now, I recognize that any speaker as polished as Tebow will always glide back to the talking points, but I can at least make an effort.)
I have been racking my brain -- not to mention the archives of the blog -- trying to come up with the questions that might illuminate Tebow in some new way. Short of that, I am heading in trying to make sense of the larger theses that I have developed about Tebow over the past year about Tebow's football or his faith or his mythology.
I can envision a dream scenario: That my questions are good enough that Tebow would be willing to sit down with me for a half-hour at some point this summer when things are a little bit calmer, for a more extensive discussion. But I'm not holding out for that.
I can also envision a nightmare scenario for tonight: That my question will just be the same old thing. Not even that his answer will be one I've read or linked to a hundred times -- but that the experience won't live up to built-up expectations of the year of attention I have put into the Teblog project.
The reality is that there probably ISN'T a question -- or an answer -- that would validate my unusual dedication to the Tebow beat. And, ultimately, recognizing that is how I'm going to get over the babble in my head, get in the queue to talk with him, introduce myself and ask him a couple questions.
My wife -- the original Gators fan in our family and who has supported the Teblog effort so patiently (most of the time) -- has a pretty interesting theory: That it is very hard to talk with someone you know a LOT about when you don't actually know them. It's a false familiarity that should be recognizable to any sports fan -- or fan of anything, I guess. But I digress.
Some might (appropriately) say that the crucible for shamelessness about all this was defined back in mid-July when I launched a blog devoted entirely to covering Tim Tebow -- that whatever happens tonight is only a function of that.
Still doesn't change the fact that this feels like the culmination of the past year's work, and I'm still not sure how it fits. Maybe after tonight I will enjoy a revelation.
*****
The essay above was republished from a post that originally appeared at TimTeblog.com. And it's worth asking: What would YOU ask him?
04/20 Quickie: Ben, Bron, NFL Sched
I think it's pretty clear that the day of the release of the complete NFL schedule has become a holiday for fans -- part of the league's strategy for a year-round, no-offseason sport.
That's why they won't suspend Ben Roethlisberger today, when he would pull attention from the release of the schedule. They will mitigate the news as much as possible by wedging it between the schedule release and the lead-up to the 1st round of the NFL Draft on Thursday.
Schedule Day is the lead of today's SN column, but it's loaded:
*LeBron goes "Wap. Wap. Wap. Wap."
*But you have to love the Bulls' trash-talking.
*Hard to feel sympathy for the Nuggets.
*Wow, the Red Sox are not good. (And the Rays are very good.)
*Joe Maddon can wear a hoodie in my baseball league.
*Kyle Singler just made Duke the team to beat in March 2011.
*Remember the name: Jeff Driskel, Florida's next great QB.
*I don't mind Big Ten expansion. Super-conferences!
*There is a better-than-good chance that I am going to meet Tim Tebow tonight. Bonus post on that later this morning.
Complete SN column here. More later.
-- D.S.
That's why they won't suspend Ben Roethlisberger today, when he would pull attention from the release of the schedule. They will mitigate the news as much as possible by wedging it between the schedule release and the lead-up to the 1st round of the NFL Draft on Thursday.
Schedule Day is the lead of today's SN column, but it's loaded:
*LeBron goes "Wap. Wap. Wap. Wap."
*But you have to love the Bulls' trash-talking.
*Hard to feel sympathy for the Nuggets.
*Wow, the Red Sox are not good. (And the Rays are very good.)
*Joe Maddon can wear a hoodie in my baseball league.
*Kyle Singler just made Duke the team to beat in March 2011.
*Remember the name: Jeff Driskel, Florida's next great QB.
*I don't mind Big Ten expansion. Super-conferences!
*There is a better-than-good chance that I am going to meet Tim Tebow tonight. Bonus post on that later this morning.
Complete SN column here. More later.
-- D.S.
Monday, April 19, 2010
04/19 Quickie: NBA Playoffs, NFL Draft
Now you all know that I have shown insane levels of restraint in not making the blog a Tebow-NFL Draft hotbed -- I'm glad I have TimTeblog.com for that -- but we won't be able to help digging into the Draft (and its top storyline, Tebow) starting tomorrow through the end of the week.
But for now, today's SN column leads with the opening frame of the NBA Playoffs and how it sets the tone: KG getting suspended (dirty!), Kevin Durant getting an education in playoff basketball from the Lakers, and the Blazers getting raves for beating the Suns in PHX without Brandon Roy.
Personally, I find the pace of the NBA Playoffs to be interminable -- people gripe when there is a single extraneous day in between MLB playoff games. The NBA by practice puts days between each individual game in a first-round series. I love the NBA Playoffs, but man....
More you'll find in today's column:
*Memo to the Lions: Just draft Suh. Please.
*SN mock drafters don't see Tebow to the Vikings at 30.
*91,000 at Bama's spring game: Hol-eee....
*Mets get season highlight with 20-inning win Saturday (back to reality Sunday).
*Josh Selby is Xavier Henry all over again. Ho-hum.
*Dan Boyle: In for a rough day.... Just a mistake.
Complete SN column here. More later.
-- D.S.
But for now, today's SN column leads with the opening frame of the NBA Playoffs and how it sets the tone: KG getting suspended (dirty!), Kevin Durant getting an education in playoff basketball from the Lakers, and the Blazers getting raves for beating the Suns in PHX without Brandon Roy.
Personally, I find the pace of the NBA Playoffs to be interminable -- people gripe when there is a single extraneous day in between MLB playoff games. The NBA by practice puts days between each individual game in a first-round series. I love the NBA Playoffs, but man....
More you'll find in today's column:
*Memo to the Lions: Just draft Suh. Please.
*SN mock drafters don't see Tebow to the Vikings at 30.
*91,000 at Bama's spring game: Hol-eee....
*Mets get season highlight with 20-inning win Saturday (back to reality Sunday).
*Josh Selby is Xavier Henry all over again. Ho-hum.
*Dan Boyle: In for a rough day.... Just a mistake.
Complete SN column here. More later.
-- D.S.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Joakim Noah Has a Message To Share
Blogs With Balls 3.0 | Joakim Noah from HHR on Vimeo.
Ironically, he probably has no idea about my insane Florida fandom.
Blogs With Balls is in Chicago in June. Tickets are on sale now.
Sports Bloggers as Godfather Characters
The sure-fire way to get bloggers to link to you is to talk about them. Especially when you come up with a gimmick like mapping sports bloggers to characters from "The Godfather."
So which character did the Gally guys attach to me? Hyman Roth.
I'm going to go ahead and not assume that it was entirely because of the Jewish thing -- although if you scan the list of bloggers, there are surprisingly few Jewish folks on there.
Anyway, the Roth character is a meaty one: The token Jewish guy in the Corleone family, who then becomes an antagonist while building his own empire.
(The great acting coach Lee Strasburg was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of Roth.)
Maybe I'll build my own empire some day (although I'd prefer not to end things as Roth did).
-- D.S.
So which character did the Gally guys attach to me? Hyman Roth.
I'm going to go ahead and not assume that it was entirely because of the Jewish thing -- although if you scan the list of bloggers, there are surprisingly few Jewish folks on there.
Anyway, the Roth character is a meaty one: The token Jewish guy in the Corleone family, who then becomes an antagonist while building his own empire.
(The great acting coach Lee Strasburg was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of Roth.)
Maybe I'll build my own empire some day (although I'd prefer not to end things as Roth did).
-- D.S.
04/16 Quickie: NBA Playoffs, Draft, More
Today's SN column lead was the follow-up to Wednesday's column that the entire NBA season was all about LeBron. The playoffs are no different -- perhaps even more so.
Because it's "Title or Fail" for Mr. James. Not unlike Florida football in 2009 -- even the Colts in 2009 -- anything less than a national championship is a failed season. I think that goes even more for LeBron than Florida, if only because of its weight on the pending Summer of LeBron.
And so one's playoff predictions come down to this: Where do you think LeBron's season ends?
*With a championship?
*Losing in the Finals, say to the Lakers?
*Losing in the East finals, say to the Magic?
It's that last scenario that we've seen before -- LeBron's Cavs were the favorite in the East (if not the entire NBA) a year ago. That dream collapsed in 6 games -- in large part due to Cleveland's inability to stop Orlando's "stretch-4," Rashard Lewis. So the Cavs went out and got Antawn Jamison. The Magic, of course, did their work in the summer, getting Vince Carter (losing Turkoglu), Brandon Bass and Ryan Anderson, and re-signing Marcin Gortat. On paper, it was unmatched depth. On the court, they have "hand" (in Costanzan terms) over the Cavs.
Considering I'm a leading "instant historian," I'm a sucker for believing too much in what happened last year as forecast for what will happen this year. It remains my biggest weakness as a prognosticator of seasons or playoffs (or brackets).
But I think the Cavs fall short again -- losing to the Magic in the East finals, before the Lakers beat the Magic again in the NBA Finals.
What are your NBA playoff picks? Put them in the comments.
Tons more in the column today, including a reaction to Big Ben (yikes), yawning at the Browns' play for Bradford, celebrating Jorge Cantu and anticipating the reception for Tiger Woods at Quail Hollow, plus a lot more.
More later.
-- D.S.
Because it's "Title or Fail" for Mr. James. Not unlike Florida football in 2009 -- even the Colts in 2009 -- anything less than a national championship is a failed season. I think that goes even more for LeBron than Florida, if only because of its weight on the pending Summer of LeBron.
And so one's playoff predictions come down to this: Where do you think LeBron's season ends?
*With a championship?
*Losing in the Finals, say to the Lakers?
*Losing in the East finals, say to the Magic?
It's that last scenario that we've seen before -- LeBron's Cavs were the favorite in the East (if not the entire NBA) a year ago. That dream collapsed in 6 games -- in large part due to Cleveland's inability to stop Orlando's "stretch-4," Rashard Lewis. So the Cavs went out and got Antawn Jamison. The Magic, of course, did their work in the summer, getting Vince Carter (losing Turkoglu), Brandon Bass and Ryan Anderson, and re-signing Marcin Gortat. On paper, it was unmatched depth. On the court, they have "hand" (in Costanzan terms) over the Cavs.
Considering I'm a leading "instant historian," I'm a sucker for believing too much in what happened last year as forecast for what will happen this year. It remains my biggest weakness as a prognosticator of seasons or playoffs (or brackets).
But I think the Cavs fall short again -- losing to the Magic in the East finals, before the Lakers beat the Magic again in the NBA Finals.
What are your NBA playoff picks? Put them in the comments.
Tons more in the column today, including a reaction to Big Ben (yikes), yawning at the Browns' play for Bradford, celebrating Jorge Cantu and anticipating the reception for Tiger Woods at Quail Hollow, plus a lot more.
More later.
-- D.S.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
04/15 Quickie: Hayward, NBA Playoffs
I'm saving my NBA Playoff picks for tomorrow's SN column lead, and I'm glad I did, because the news of Butler's Gordon Hayward testing the NBA Draft is a pretty compelling topic to lead with: It is the anti-"Hoosiers." As I said in the column, Jimmy Chitwood didn't bolt Hickory for the NBA.
I don't begrudge Hayward -- at all. Just ask Da'Sean Butler about what kind of freak things can happen to ruin your pro career. And although Hayward would be an All-American next year, his draft prospects won't get better than this year (projected around 15-20).
Hayward going pro doesn't fit the wholesome movie-script storyline, but it fits entirely with reality.
The column is loaded today:
*Reggie Bush will pick torching USC over perjury.
*Brandon Marshall was worth it for the Dolphins.
*SN has Tim Tebow going to the Raiders at No. 39.
*I have Kevin Durant, youngest NBA scoring champ ever, as the No. 2 guy on my MVP ballot.
*Stephen Curry's 42 to end the season was ridiculous.
*So was DaJuan Blair's 20/20 double-double.
*I'm much less intrigued by Brandon Knight becoming the latest top PG to go to Kentucky than I am about Ray McCallum following his dad to U. of Detroit. Both will end up in the NBA soon enough.
*Jorge Cantu: H/RBI record to start a season. Not bad!
*But probably not as interesting as Jose Guillen hitting a HR in his 4th straight game...
*Which, in turn, is not as interesting as Colby Lewis -- spot-starting for CJ Wilson -- striking out 10....
*Which, in turn, isn't as fascinating as Twins fans' first experience with rain at a home game.
*Elin divorcing Tiger? Well, obviously.
*It's official: My first fantasy championship.
See the whole column here. More later.
-- D.S.
I don't begrudge Hayward -- at all. Just ask Da'Sean Butler about what kind of freak things can happen to ruin your pro career. And although Hayward would be an All-American next year, his draft prospects won't get better than this year (projected around 15-20).
Hayward going pro doesn't fit the wholesome movie-script storyline, but it fits entirely with reality.
The column is loaded today:
*Reggie Bush will pick torching USC over perjury.
*Brandon Marshall was worth it for the Dolphins.
*SN has Tim Tebow going to the Raiders at No. 39.
*I have Kevin Durant, youngest NBA scoring champ ever, as the No. 2 guy on my MVP ballot.
*Stephen Curry's 42 to end the season was ridiculous.
*So was DaJuan Blair's 20/20 double-double.
*I'm much less intrigued by Brandon Knight becoming the latest top PG to go to Kentucky than I am about Ray McCallum following his dad to U. of Detroit. Both will end up in the NBA soon enough.
*Jorge Cantu: H/RBI record to start a season. Not bad!
*But probably not as interesting as Jose Guillen hitting a HR in his 4th straight game...
*Which, in turn, is not as interesting as Colby Lewis -- spot-starting for CJ Wilson -- striking out 10....
*Which, in turn, isn't as fascinating as Twins fans' first experience with rain at a home game.
*Elin divorcing Tiger? Well, obviously.
*It's official: My first fantasy championship.
See the whole column here. More later.
-- D.S.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Finally, a Fantasy Championship
I have been playing some form of fantasy sports since the mid-90s: Football and baseball, mostly. A few seasons of basketball. I have been in leagues with co-workers, with friends, with randoms. I have been in snake drafts and, a couple years ago, even tried an auction-draft baseball season.
The common factor among every season: I was a loser.
Almost always, a second-division loser. I can remember making the playoffs once or twice, but that feels hazy -- like I created that in my head to make myself feel better about the perennial sucking. (Wait: I just remembered that somewhere in a box in a storage unit, I have one of those old ESPN.com pennants for winning my league. I cannot remember how or when I won it -- maybe the late-90s? It is also possible I merely swiped one from the ESPN.com fantasy storage closet while I was working next to it.)
My failures have been pretty epic: In my main baseball league, I had a breakthrough year in 2009... finishing 9th or 10th out of 16 teams. In my three football leagues, I was so bad that I had to claim moral victory in my Kissing Suzy Kolber keeper league by capping yet another last-place season by knocking DJ Gallo out of the playoffs with a rare win.
All that said, I am going to win my first fantasy championship tonight, when my "Gilbert's Arenas" wins the "6-Inch Verticals" NBA fantasy league, defeating Deadspin's Tommy Craggs in the two-week championship series. The league was organized by Yahoo's Brett Dykes (aka Cajun Boy), who set up a scoring system so convoluted -- a Byzantine calculus including made (and missed) field goals and free-throws, made (and missed) 3s and all sorts of other traditional stats -- that someone like me could stumble my way to a championship. In fact, I was somewhat of a juggernaut.
And, oh, did it feel good to finally win consistently. And does it feel good to finally win that championship.
And so I want to take a moment to spotlight my team of champions:
PG: Chauncey Billups, Aaron Brooks
SG: Dwyane Wade, Stephen Curry, Eric Gordon
F: Josh Smith, Al Horford, Carlos Boozer
Drafted but Dropped At Some Point (but still getting a playoff share): Tyreke Evans (!), Al Harrington, Jonny Flynn, Andrei Kirilenko, Greg Oden, Charlie Villanueva.
Critical Mid-Season Pickups: George Hill, Chris Andersen, Omri Casspi, Anthony Tolliver and Late-Season Pickups: Terrence Williams, Tayshaun Prince, Taj Gibson, JJ Hickson.
Finally: I might have kicked myself for dropping Tyreke Evans after the first week of the season, but the player I ended up swapping him for turned out to by my team -- and arguably league -- MVP: Marc Gasol, who under the scoring system, was an absolute monster. Because of his role on my one and only title team, he will always have a special place for me.
Team of Champions: I salute you!
(As for the rest of the players under my management, across all sports: New standards!)
-- D.S.
The common factor among every season: I was a loser.
Almost always, a second-division loser. I can remember making the playoffs once or twice, but that feels hazy -- like I created that in my head to make myself feel better about the perennial sucking. (Wait: I just remembered that somewhere in a box in a storage unit, I have one of those old ESPN.com pennants for winning my league. I cannot remember how or when I won it -- maybe the late-90s? It is also possible I merely swiped one from the ESPN.com fantasy storage closet while I was working next to it.)
My failures have been pretty epic: In my main baseball league, I had a breakthrough year in 2009... finishing 9th or 10th out of 16 teams. In my three football leagues, I was so bad that I had to claim moral victory in my Kissing Suzy Kolber keeper league by capping yet another last-place season by knocking DJ Gallo out of the playoffs with a rare win.
All that said, I am going to win my first fantasy championship tonight, when my "Gilbert's Arenas" wins the "6-Inch Verticals" NBA fantasy league, defeating Deadspin's Tommy Craggs in the two-week championship series. The league was organized by Yahoo's Brett Dykes (aka Cajun Boy), who set up a scoring system so convoluted -- a Byzantine calculus including made (and missed) field goals and free-throws, made (and missed) 3s and all sorts of other traditional stats -- that someone like me could stumble my way to a championship. In fact, I was somewhat of a juggernaut.
And, oh, did it feel good to finally win consistently. And does it feel good to finally win that championship.
And so I want to take a moment to spotlight my team of champions:
PG: Chauncey Billups, Aaron Brooks
SG: Dwyane Wade, Stephen Curry, Eric Gordon
F: Josh Smith, Al Horford, Carlos Boozer
Drafted but Dropped At Some Point (but still getting a playoff share): Tyreke Evans (!), Al Harrington, Jonny Flynn, Andrei Kirilenko, Greg Oden, Charlie Villanueva.
Critical Mid-Season Pickups: George Hill, Chris Andersen, Omri Casspi, Anthony Tolliver and Late-Season Pickups: Terrence Williams, Tayshaun Prince, Taj Gibson, JJ Hickson.
Finally: I might have kicked myself for dropping Tyreke Evans after the first week of the season, but the player I ended up swapping him for turned out to by my team -- and arguably league -- MVP: Marc Gasol, who under the scoring system, was an absolute monster. Because of his role on my one and only title team, he will always have a special place for me.
Team of Champions: I salute you!
(As for the rest of the players under my management, across all sports: New standards!)
-- D.S.
04/14 Quickie: LeBron, Marshall, NBA Finales
The NBA regular season revolved around LeBron. The offseason certainly will. Sandwiched in between, the postseason will, too: It's "Title or Bust" for LeBron, period. Fair or unfair?
More you'll find in today's SN column:
*Great deal for the Dolphins to get Brandon Marshall.
*Does anyone want Dez Bryant?
*Jazz-Suns the linchpin of NBA postseason seedings.
*Ricky Romero!
*Ekpe Udoh: I like his NBA prospects a lot.
*Larry Brown to the Sixers: Really? Ugh.
There's a bunch more in there. Sorry for the quick post this morning. More later, including a long-awaited championship.
-- D.S.
More you'll find in today's SN column:
*Great deal for the Dolphins to get Brandon Marshall.
*Does anyone want Dez Bryant?
*Jazz-Suns the linchpin of NBA postseason seedings.
*Ricky Romero!
*Ekpe Udoh: I like his NBA prospects a lot.
*Larry Brown to the Sixers: Really? Ugh.
There's a bunch more in there. Sorry for the quick post this morning. More later, including a long-awaited championship.
-- D.S.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
04/13 Quickie: QBs, Target, NBA Seeds
Intriguing day for QBs around the NFL, leading today's SN column:
More on the radar today:
NBA early-entries: Wes Johnson is a Top 5 pick. Ed Davis is a Top 5 pick... in 2009. In 2010, he might slip into the 6-10 range, particularly if his injured wrist doesn't let him work out for teams in advance of the draft.
Yankees home opener today: Expect the usual triumphalism as they put up the championship banner.
Big Ben's meeting with the Commish should be a good scolding... Sam Bradford is meeting with the Rams, and presumably they will not ask "Can you take NFL punishment?" but "Can you sign before the draft?"
And, yes, there's even a new Tim Tebow storyline: He wasn't on the NFL's list of 16 players attending the draft. I'm not sure that means he WON'T attend (I think he should, because he's the biggest storyline of the draft), but for now, he won't. (He will be in NYC next Tuesday for an EA event. I might be there. More on that later.)
More on the radar today:
The NBA's regular season is nearly over, and the West has its 8-seed locked in to play the Lakers: Durant's Thunder, which will get a valuable education in playoff basketball. Actually, I love the Lakers-Thunder 1st-round pairing.
NBA early-entries: Wes Johnson is a Top 5 pick. Ed Davis is a Top 5 pick... in 2009. In 2010, he might slip into the 6-10 range, particularly if his injured wrist doesn't let him work out for teams in advance of the draft.
Target Field looks really nice. Certainly nicer than the Metrodome.
The A's are the new Mariners (while beating the Mariners, coincidentally).
Yankees home opener today: Expect the usual triumphalism as they put up the championship banner.
Lots more in today's column. More later.
-- D.S.
Monday, April 12, 2010
04/12 Quickie: Phil, Holmes, Halladay
Sorry for the brief intro to today's SN column, but check it out here, including:
*Phil as the anti-Tiger.
*Jets steal Holmes.
*Just give Halladay the NL Cy now.
*John Brantley is pretty good.
*The new "short-term" LeBron plan.
Lots more. More later.
--- D.S.
*Phil as the anti-Tiger.
*Jets steal Holmes.
*Just give Halladay the NL Cy now.
*John Brantley is pretty good.
*The new "short-term" LeBron plan.
Lots more. More later.
--- D.S.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Saturday (Spring Game) Quickie
I've tried to show restraint here about Florida football during the spring practice season, but today is the Gators' spring game, so permit me a bit of obsessiveness:
It is the official start of the John Brantley Era. You may remember him from such posts as "Let John Brantley Start Over Tim Tebow Against LSU."
As a passer, Brantley is mechanically superior to Tebow -- so much so that I think Brantley will emerge next season as Mark Sanchez 2.0: One season of starting, but a sure-fire 1st-round pick.
True freshman Trey Burton plays the "Tim Tebow 2006" role -- the energetic back-up who will likely play a role in short-yardage situations.
Other things to watch for: The WR corps, which will benefit from Brantley's style; the linebackers, who are a wrecking crew; and Mike Gillislee, the talented RB squashed in between Jeff Demps and incoming freshman stud Mack Brown.
It's a gorgeous spring day here in New York -- and in Gainesville.
Couple of things on my radar today:
*Tiger: Still on pace to win.
*No charges against Big Ben?
*Break up the SF Giants!
*No Kobe, no problem -- at least against the T'wolves.
*Did Alex Ovechkin just lock up NHL MVP?
*Buying: David Price for a breakthrough season.
*Not buying: Jimmy Clausen.
Enjoy the day. Probably a lot of Masters-watching. At least keep the windows open...
-- D.S.
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