The Godfather of Sports

No better way to get over hump day than with an amateur sports blog! In Part II of 'The Things to Take Away from Super Bowl 50' I will be talking about how defenses really win championships. Cliche? Sure. But, it's cliche and over used for a reason... it's true and these numbers don't lie. Also, not one to normally care but one Super Bowl ad this year was great! I'll tell you which one at the end of Part II. Since 1986 the #1 defense reached the Super Bowl 9 times and the #1 offense 6 times really, 8-to-5 because the 96' Packers were both the #1 O/D.) In those Super Bowls with the #1 DEF the MVP 6 of the 8 times was a defense/special teams player. They are: 2015- (DEN) Von Miller-Linebacker  2013- (SEA) Malcolm Smith- Linebacker 2002- (TB) Dexter Jackson- Safety 2000- (BAL) Ray Lewis- Linebacker *1996- (GB) Desmond Howard- KR/PR 1985- (CHI) Richard Dent- Defensive End In the other 3 games it was an offensive player that got the MVP. Here is who th...

Super Bowl 50 was great! It had defense, offense, and a ton of big highlight plays (and I didn't mention the ads and halftime because I don't care.) There are three things I, and you should, take away from it. I am breaking my analysis into three parts. Part I is about how about Peyton Manning winning (and retiring) is the beginning of the end for multiple poster players of the 2000s. Part II will be about how defense really wins championships. And finally, part III is about why mainstream media and social media is slowly ruining the game that is football. The confetti has fallen, the hardware has been handed out and Peyton Manning has won his second Super Bowl. Five years from now everyone young and old will still know who Peyton Manning is. 10 years from now most will still remember #18, The Sheriff, but maybe not everything about him... fast forward 20 years and he will be what Joe Montana, John Elway, Warren Moon and company turned into: broadcasters, coaches, restauran...

Denver Broncos vs. Carolina Panthers (Super Bowl 50) Kickoff 6:30 on CBS Super Bowl 50 is today and I will be giving you three keys to the game all with the help of former Kansas City head coach Hank Stram!  First off, the Carolina Panthers are 5 point favorites and that is one pretty generous spread. But, there is one stat that is very impressive and may warrant such a spread. The Panthers averaged 1.10 points EVERY TIME they had the ball. That means they scored more than they had to punt the ball away. The Denver Broncos were 10th with .21 points per drive but that is almost not worth mentioning. While on the subject of offense, the Panthers' QB Cam Newton ran the table last night at the NFL Honors Show picking up both the AP Offensive Player of the Year and AP Most Valuable Player awards... Check to the Panthers.  Second, the Broncos have the #1 Defense and the Panthers,the #1 offense *Cliche alert* defense wins championships. And only one out of 15 teams t...

Hank Stram stopped by Holland Stadium to give his picks for Super Bowl 50! Click to see who he thinks will matriculate the ball the best for win. Also, he the thinks the losers are puss belles!

The days are counting down to Super Bowl 50 and I would like to get excited for it. I want to help celebrate half a centuries worth of title games in the National Football League but I am having a hard time getting pumped up. I am still concentrated on what the league has turned into and if they aren't careful will continue to turn into. The 2015 Pro Bowl was a great example this NFL season in a nutshell. What happened this year? WAY more flags than needed. I know the new rules implemented over the years favor the offense (for protection/more scoring) with an increased number of 'roughing the passer,' 'targeting a defenseless receiver,' and a whole other litany of calls that didn't even exist till a few years ago. I digress. Below is the total amount of flags thrown since 2009 and the total number of yards. (This includes offsetting and declined.) 2009: 3,699 flags = 26,044yds 2010: 3,713 flags = 27,045yds   2011: 3,896 flags = 28,487yds 2012: 3,809 flag...

So, let me recap Part I for those that did not care to read it: Aver age total points per game in a Pro Bowl from (1996-05): 61.7 Roger Goodell era average total points per game in a Pro Bowl (2006-15): 72.9 This year 43 players opted out of the Pro Bowl (14 of those are in Super Bowl) Average non-premium regular season ticket: $86 Average Pro Bowl ticket: $129 (Not including travel/lodging) In short. The game is becoming less interesting, has less star studded and more of a glorified 7-on-7 with third tier team players. In Part II I want to talk about moving the Pro Bowl date and who is really missing out and why. In 2010 Goodell thought it was a good idea to move the Pro Bowl before the Super Bowl. I have no idea who is this for or why this is good for the game. With the current system you automatically lose every player that is going to the Super Bowl. Which, most likely, is a lot of players that received Pro Bowl bids. And it is also very likely that one or both of the ...

The 2016 Pro Bowl was a joke. Every single website, blogger, tweeter, a nalyst and armchair QB agree. Just Google 2016 Pro Bowl and there will be nothing but negative articles. However, I see this more as a league wide problem that was magnified by this, for the sake of argument lets call it a, game. Lets look at a few items from that Pro Bowl. 43 players opted out. Okay, so 14 of those are going to play in the Super Bowl which is fine. But, that still leaves 31 players that would rather do anything else other than play in the Pro Bowl. Even Mike McCarthy, the Green Bay Packers Head Coach, went home with 'stomach aliments' leaving his offensive coordinator to head coach.  Now, lets take a trip back to 1996. Ten years before Rodger Goodell took over as NFL Commissioner. Be low are the years, the scores, point totals and finally the average over those ten years: 1996: 26-23 (49) 1997: 29-24 (53) 1998: 23-10 (33) 1999: 51-31 (82) 2000: 38-17 (55) 2001: 38-30 (68)[Goo...