Today, May First, as you all know is May Day. May Day of course, began long ago as a Spring Festival. People would dance around the May Pole, sing songs and occasionally have a communist revolution or two. May Day also represents the begining of summer. Tommorow of course here in Columbus the high will be about 45 degrees. This is not summer. The following people I blame for my lack of warm weather and as such not being able to dance around a May Pole: Don Rickles, Antoin Scalia, Joe Torre, Republicans in general and the 1985 Denver Broncos.
Now that my rant is out of the way May Day is also an occasion to look back at some predictions:
1) Wrong - Baltimore in First Place in the AL East by 4 games. Yeah I don't feel really bad about this one cause nobody (let me repeat that NOBODY) predicted that Baltimore would be in first place this century. When did Brian Roberts get this good? You think Oakland and self proclaimed ubergenius Billy Beane wonders if he should've let Tejada go while keeping Chavez? I have no idea if they could've kept Tejada but right now he is the best Shortstop in the game and right now he's my MVP
2) Right - NL West would be interesting. I know this isn't much of a prediction but frankly the NL West is usually boring and occasionally annoying (see previous posts on the public relations darling that is Barry Bonds). However this year LA is winning after predictions that its GM had run it into the ground. Arizona was given up for dead (raise your hand if you predicted Brandon Lyons leading the league in saves. your a liar Hart). San Fran is treading water waiting for the return of Bonds. Could be a wonderful race come September
3) Right - The Cubbies would have bullpen problems. Not rocket science here but sometimes a single does the job. The Cubs bullpen was bad last year. They did nothing to get it better in the offseason. The only thing Latroy Hawkins can close is a door, and frankly right now that is up for debate. I expect the Cubs to try and buy some bullpen but it might be too little too late.
4) Wrong - I expected several NFL GMs to have Drew Rosenhaus killed or at least beaten up. This, as far as I know, has not happened yet. Rosenhaus is the agent behind a number of NFL players holding out in hopes of a better contract (i.e. TO, Santana Moss, Ruben Droughns, Sean Taylor, etc) Now football will always have these type problems since contracts are not guarenteed. However wouldn't it be nice if Drew used his super skills for a noble cause like people who work for Wallmart rather than a prima donna like TO (a man who cried that his contract only gave him millions of dollars . what else does he want? a few goats?)
5) Up for Grabs - My original prediction of Spurs v. Heat way back in umm November. Could still happen. Assuming Ron Artest and/or Monthra does not destroy one of those teams. Stay tuned.
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11 comments:
You know what the kicker is in the whole T.O. holdout thing? That he made me out to be an asshole. After years of behaving like a complete prick in San Francisco, T.O. came to the Eagles and energized the team with his great play and his toned-down act. After his truly amazing performance in the Super Bowl, I could honestly say that I had grown to respect T.O. and I thought he was maturing into a true leader. Guess what -- I WAS DEAD WRONG. T.O. is a top-notch cocksucker and he ought to be cut by the Eagles. The only good thing that is happening is that everyone's seeing him for what he is.
PS -- Mikey, what did Joe Torre ever do to you? Only I can rip Joe Torre on this blog. He may be a dipshit but he's MY dipshit.
I always wanted to be in the mafia and Torre always thwarted my efforts.
I think the worst part is Freddie Mitchell is doing the same thing. Don't you have to catch the ball in order to make demands?
Mo, you say it's only NOW that "everyone's seeing [T.O.] for what he is"? I'd thought most of us recognized him for the Grade A jackass he is years ago.
The sad part of this is not that he's running his mouth again, but that after Philly cuts him - and, I should add, potentially get back to the Super Bowl without him - some other team will take a chance, thinking it has the right recipe to make Owens into a quality teammate. It'd be better for everyone if T.O. were run out of the league for good.
Hart, I think most people looked at the 2004-2005 season and the Super Bowl and re-evaluated their position on T.O. He was a huge jackass in San Fran but he behaved himself and acted like a professional while in Philly. That's why this behavior so much worse than anything he did before -- he showed us he was capable of something more.
Side note -- I wouldn't bet on Philly going to the Super Bowl this year minus T.O. The truth of the matter is that Philly is a very average team with a very average QB minus T.O. Donovan owes a lot to Owens and won't be the same without him. The NFC is a pretty shitty conference right now and no team has the inside track to the playoffs, much less the Super Bowl.
The Eagles cruised through the playoffs without Owens, beating Minnesota and Atlanta by 13 and 17 points, respectively. While I agree that no team has an inside track on the Super Bowl, it's folly to label Philly as a "very average" team. No "very average" team reaches four straight conference championship games, and the 2005 Eagles look a lot like the 2001-04 versions.
Overall, yes, the NFC is weak, and Philly will have to contend with Atlanta and others in the coming season. But they've got to be considered the favorite, even without T.O.
In my mind, Philly was the 4th best team in the NFL last year. I would put the Patriots, Steelers and Colts ahead of them. While they did beat the Falcons and Vikings to reach the Super Bowl, I didn't view either of those teams as legitimate title contenders last year (especially not the Vikings) and I don't view those teams to be title contenders this year either.
That Philly may be the best team in the NFC is one thing, that they're an elite team is another thing entirely. 4 straight championship games in a crappy conference doesn't impress me given the state of the NFC these days. Hell, the Giants only missed the playoffs by 2 games and we know how goddamn bad they are.
Another point -- compare Donovan McNabb's best season from 2001-2003 when they made the NFC Championship game to his 2004 campaign. There is no question that Donovan, a nice guy and a pretty good QB was not nearly as good as his reputation. Having T.O. for one season raised his single-season career high completion percentage from 58.4% (2002) to 64.0% (2004). Likewise, his career high in completions (300), yards (3875), yards per attempt (8.3) and TD's (31) were all set with T.O. on the team and shatter his previous marks for the same stats (285 completions in 2001, 3365 yards in 2000, 6.7 yards per attempt in 2003 and 25 TD's in 2001).
What I'm getting at is that Philly can be considered a favorite in the NFC but the team is not the same without T.O., not by a longshot. The Eagles were 13-1 at the time of T.O.'s injury. I would not predict them to win more than 10 games this year without him. As much as that may seem crazy on May 2nd, I guarantee you that the Cowboys and Redskins won't be easy marks for the Eagles this year. I think the Eagles are very overrated. They lack depth on defense and now have only Todd Pinkston at WR. Even Jason Sehorn could cover that loser.
I would put the Vikings as the front runner for the NFC. While they did lose Moss, they've done an outstanding job at signing free agents for the defense. Couple that with a great draft and assuming TO is a holdout (and probably more importantly Brian Westbrook) I would place the Vikings as the favorite. Obviously they would need to get home field for the playoffs but given the current state of the NFC North I would not see this as exactly a problem.
I would hesitate to put the Vikings as favorites because of how bad a coach Mike Tice is. For a guy that had Culpepper, Moss and the embarrassment of riches at RB (M. Bennett, M. Moore, M. Williams, O. Smith) he never knew what to do on offense. Naturally, I won't blame the defensive problems on him since there wasn't much talent there. The Vikes know how to put up points but Tice simply gets outcoached in the 2nd half of each season every time. He doesn't use his RB's enough and doesn't get as much out of his TE's as he should when you consider just how much field he's working with in the middle with WR's going deep on every play.
I think the Vikes are one of those teams with enough talent to win but not enough heart or brains and that starts at the top.
Basically, the entire NFC is shit and will get smoked in Super Bowl XL.
I think Mighty Mike got it right - the Vikings will be right on top with their offense. Yes, you can question Tice's judgment at times, but the offense has always been spectactular and their drafting & off-season acquisitions should give their defense a chance for once. I still think that if Vick could get home-field throughout, the Falcons may be the team to beat. Especially if Buckeye WR Michael Jenkins is allowed to play in games this year.
In all the years I've been watching football, I've never known a team with talent to consistently win in spite of their coach. Winning in the regular season is one thing (the Vikes, Rams and several Schottenheimer teams have all proven that) but I think that when you get down to the final few teams in mid-January, a good coach is as important as a good team.
For that reason, despite all of the talent they've drafted, signed and retained, Tice will find a way to screw it up.
The book is still out on Jim Mora, Jr., however. He may be a good one, I just don't think we can tell quite yet.
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