Josh Gordon Thoughts

Here are my overall thoughts on the Josh Gordon situation and since goodell came out with a new nfl domestic violence issue...that topic as well. First the Ray Rice Domestic Violence Issue.

1. Goodell came out and said they made a mistake by issuing rice only a two game suspension for punching his wife. They have deservedly gotten a lot of slack and criticism. So with that goodell came out today with the new policy:  a) First offense- 6 game suspension
                        b) second offense-life time ban.

Love it.....if a player hasn't learned after their first case of domestic abuse not to abuse them again they don't deserve to ever get another nfl paycheck...while the common less fortunate population would most likely spend a significant time in jail, these assholes get nothing. they get a fine and *gasp* get suspended for a few games, where any of us would spend time in jail, a restraining order, probation, and a fine. So now people are being critical of this new policy...because it's too harsh...seriously? you abuse your significant other you should not only be banned from the nfl for life but you should also spend the rest of your shitty life in agonizing pain rotten in a prison sneaking heroin into jail in your butt so you don't get murked.

2. Josh Gordon- yes the nfl admitted it screwed up so people need to stop comparing the suspension to ray rices. Gordon was also a repeat offender, not to mention the shitnose gets a dwi while being in alcohol treatment program for ALCOHOL AND DRUGS!!! and yes i get it, weed overall is not as bad as other things. But guess what dipshits. the nfl players union collectively argued for a suspension like this when you mess up multiple times. and boo hoo gordon don't give me your retarded sob story that goodell wasn't able to understand your story and thus reduce the sentence. look bro you have a problem...you messed up in college you messed up in the pros. if getting millions of dollars and being one of the 300 people in the world lucky enough to play in the nfl and you aren't able to put your team and family ahead of your own personal shit than you don't deserve ANY CHANCES!!! Take this year, go to rehab, get your life in order and come back better than before. Look no one forced you to drive drunk nor to smoke weed, you did it to yourself so please shut up fans and uniformed morons when  trying to justify your position. that's the problem when arguing with some sports fans...some are just plain stupid as shit...

college footballs top 25 with complete anaylsis

Here is my analysis for the  preseason top 25, my picks for the top 4, champion and destroying the old school mentality of the archaic thinking against a playoff.

1. Florida St- Heisman winner, great coach, super weak conference, weak schedule. should run the table
2. Alabama- AJ McCarron returns for what goddamn seems like his 10th season in college football. Should lose 1 game, but play in the SEC so that won't affect them, because hell the sec is the greatest conference of all time, GREAT GREAT GREAT
3. Oregon- Heisman candidate QB, aggressive offense, great coaching and 900 uniform combinations, so they should run the table, willl lose 1 game however against oregon st in the civil war and drop 15 places in the rankings, thus ending any chance for a national championship
4. Oklahoma- My favorite to finish #2 in the country...mostly because their conference also sucks and they play tulsa and louisville tech
5. Ohio St- go "f" yourself ohio state...will lose 3-4. get out of my life you stupid nut
6. Auburn- too high- good team, hard schedule, will lose 2
7. UCLA- interesting team, they came on strong last year...darkhorse heisman candidate-however i think it's too early..it's goddamn ucla...they are always under-performing. will finish the year with 3 loses and #22 in the country
8.Michigan St- my darkhouse national champion. if they can get past oregon week 2 they will run the table. 9. South Carolina- steve spurrier will find a way to lose a game or two...always has. overrated as all hell. Met him at a golf tournament and he was wasted and didn't smile in a picture...
10. Baylor- don't know anything about this team this year...know they will probably average 50 points a game and give up 48
11. Stanturd -hoping they lose every game, they are due to have a down year...this is the year.
12. Georgia- one of those sec schools like s. carolina that always starts the year super high and than loses several games but because they play in the sec are overrated and thus get the benefit of the doubt when they lose. another 9-3 season. good job richt.
13. LSU- actually one of the sec schools i think is GOOD. They will finish 10-2 and probably a #8 ranking and play in the sugar bowl. good team.
14. Wisconson- always overrated. will lose 4 and finish outside the top 25.
15. USC-AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA- a player lies after "falling" off a balcony and tells the country he was saving his drowning nephew and another player accuses the coach of extreme racism and quits. i don't think they were good enough to be ranked this high, thinking they lose 4-5. do they miss kiffin yet??
16. Clemson- always lose 2 games like georgia and s. carolina. probably finish with 3 and a justified #16 ranking. most years they are much higher
17. Notre Dame- they sure are taking their time to "investigate" the players accused of academic cheating. Oh how the mighty have fallen. love it- i have they lose every game, and tie stanturd
18. mississippi- get the fuck out of here. ole miss sucks. eli went there. please stop putting them in the rankings. Only thing good about this school is p. willis.
19. Arizona State- tough schedule- might be a year away from earning a top 20 ranking.
20. Kansas state- right where they should be.
21. Texas AM- eh. Sure why not.
22. Nebraska- finish #12. super weak schedule. will lose against michigan st and that's it.
23. North Carolina- nope.
24. Missouri- nope.
25. Washington- hahahahahaha nope. Cal makes it here.

My top 4
1. Florida State
2. Oklahoma
3. Michigan St
4. Alabama

Florida State 33 vs Oklahoma 28- Florida State Champion
Marcus Mariotti- Heisman

Preseason rankings rant: I HATE the preseason rankings. what good does it do? It rewards teams that lose early because they have time to win a few more games and thus moving up in the rankings. It also is that "best team on paper" argument...what if they aren't that good, they don't lose and than get absolutely destoyed when they play a good school (NOTRE DAME is one example against alabama). Rankings should come out after 4 weeks- out of conference games are through and any teams that have suspended players begin returning and teams that have injuries to important players begin to play schools not named north dakota state and rice.

Playoff Rant: Today on mike and mike bobby bowden was on and said that he hates the playoff because, it doesn't necessarily put #1 and #2 in the championship game....jesus christ...shut up you senile. First of all, there were controversies almost every single year when it was the BCS and computers ranked teams #1 and #2 and most years there was a team that was left out of having the change to win the championship because they might have won every single game but the computers ranked them #3. Secondly before the BCS there was no guaranteed #1 and #2 championship game either, since there were different polls that were used, and different games that were recognized. I think 6 was the perfect number. Get rid of championship conference games. Top 2 teams get byes, and the other 4 play. I know, I know the controversy what if the #3 or #4 teams have the same record...just win baby...the difference is that they still have a chance to play for the championship.

Thoughts? Questions? Concerns?

exciting

Besides the obvious (ie perfect game) what would be your top 5 most exciting plays in football, baseball or basketball? My list:

5. 3 pointer to win a game at buzzer down by 2
4. Triple play
3. Fg to win a game with no time left
2. Walk off homerun
1. Hail mary td to win game

56

Just finished Kostya Kennedy's 56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports, a decent enough read and a break from my usual fare. He clearly did a ton of research--interviews, newspaper reports, scrapbooks and diaries--to fill it out and consider the streak's impact on players and fans and even those who paid little attention to the game but knew DiMaggio. He clearly makes a case for the streak's significance in a larger American culture, though it inevitably pales somewhat next to the parallel developments of the summer of 1941--like, you know, Nazi Germany's advances, Roosevelt's radio broadcasts, Britain's pleas for help, and the implementation of the draft--that Kennedy pulls in as a foil to the nation's interest in baseball, and as a threat to individual players who might be drafted and to a sport that might be shut down to prepare for war. He does take some liberties in writing as though he knows the thoughts and feelings of some of the characters, which I was less enamored of--perhaps he has some reason for assigning the thoughts he does, but the historian in me wants footnotes and documentation to support those assumptions (while I'm sure the reader in everyone else wants the historian in me to shut up about footnotes and enjoy the damn book already).

But my favorite part of this book was the reading experience. I've never read a book on an iPad before, in part because I've never had an iPad (I recently was assigned one for work, so I'm getting to experiment a bit), and in part because even reading on my Kindle Fire can be really distracting since it does so much more than let me read. But in this case the iPad was perfect, mostly because I could switch back and forth between Kennedy and Baseball-Reference.com to check out the stats and bios and careers of guys I was reading about. Dom DiMaggio was pretty darn good, but most of us only know him because of his brother (Californians might know a bit more about all the DiMaggio boys who played ball in San Francisco). Charlie Keller was a slugger who walked a lot, somebody it seems like Billy Beane would have loved a few years ago. Lefty Gomez--Joe's roommate on the road--was good, but a Hall of Famer?! Phil Rizzuto, too, strikes me as another Hall of Famer who benefits from a couple of big years, but even more from being a Yankee (and I'm not so sure what makes him noticeably more qualified than Dom DiMaggio). It was also a bit shocking seeing so many holes in these guys' careers, 2-, 3-, and 4-year gaps when they were in the service (and also holy crap Ted Williams left those numbers with a 3-year hiatus).

Plus, seeing a bunch of guys who are smaller than I am, instead of some hulking behemoth, makes me realize I could have been a pro if I'd just been born a little earlier (ha!).

The last little bit of the book gets into some probabilities of a 56-game streak, the odds of it happening, the odds of it happening with DiMaggio, how much it stands above the next-longest (Rose's 44), its likelihood compared to the likelihood of somebody hitting .400, etc. A nice analytical addition, and something that will be familiar to folks who've read Nate Silver and his ilk on these things. This is a heavy way to end a light read, but it also drives home Kennedy's larger point--this is the rare number that's going to stand for awhile (unless DiMaggio makes a comeback, since he also hit in 61 straight as a San Francisco Seal).