My Fair Brady: Draft Maker or Draft Breaker?

With training camps in full swing, our favorite teams all have a long list of questions that need to be answered. Fantasy football owners are also gearing up and preparing for the season, and just like their professional counterparts they face their own unique uncertainties that need to be answered before heading into the draft. Who are the number two [read more...]

Did Beckham take Brady or Zidane to the ESPYs?

While David Beckham is most likely enjoying a romantic honeymoon with French footballer Zinedine Zidane, it was Landon Donovan who got the shaft at the 2008 ESPY awards. Who am I to question the great and powerful ESPYs? While David Beckham is likely the prettiest player in the MLS (as evident by the ESPY nod), I don't think you can hand [read more...]

2008 Fantasy Football Bloggers Mock Draft Update Round 1

If you are anything like me, you are starving for any football discussion that doesn't include Brett Favre (please make it stop!). So, I figured I would give you an update on a little mock draft that some very football savvy bloggers and I have been participating in over the last week or so. So far, not many surprises but round [read more...]

AFC East Offensive Lines: New England’s Success Starts In The Trenches

It has long been stated that football is won in the trenches, and the signing of Michigan tackle Jake Long by the Miami Dolphins as the first overall pick in the 2008 NFL Draft underscores that importance. Since New England has dominated its division foes by giving quarterback Tom Brady all day to pick apart opposing defenses for nearly a [read more...]

The Brain Leak

The Brain Leak (Week of 6/16/08 - 6/22/08) Another week, another seven days worth of sports-related drivel. With not much more than the yearly push towards the Mid-Summer Classic to bide my time, you'll notice I have instituted some fresh (some might say seedy) perspectives to the already multi-faceted Leak. In addition to serving up heaping servings of the usual BS, TBL [read more...]

Soriano using recycled plastic bags to catch fly balls

OK, Lima Bean posse, this is where I openly rant about anything and everything affecting our general mental health diet. We'll call it Organic Sports Therapy... Grocery bagger guy: I don't need a bag for a banana dude! And I won't feed your bagging addiction. Stop being such bagwhores. Baggers everywhere, grocery and retail: Please stop bagging my [read more...]

Can Home Field Advantage Boost NFL Fantasy Stats?

When you look at the advantages of playing in front of the home crowd, the numbers clearly support it makes a difference. In 2007, home teams won 38 more times than they lost. And 21 of the 32 teams were .500 or better at home. In a previous post, it was suggested that formula translates to success in fantasy leagues [read more...]

Used groin for sale

As I've mentioned many times before, I developed a mysterious groin injury while playing recreational soccer -- which I believe to be a "sports hernia", as defined by the sporting world, and often referred to by the media. But it has been easily confused with a common inguinal hernia, whereas these are completely different medical problems, complicating the diagnosis [read more...]

Why Chicks Should Be Banned From All-Star Voting

Perhaps I've been drinking too much of the Colin Cowherd Kool-aid, but I've realized female sports fans are messing with the natural order of things -- and that is turning me into a chauvinistic, repressive fool. As I recall, Colin has spoken about the upsides -- a requirement even -- of having a relationship with a girl who doesn't love sports. [read more...]

Giddy up, does Tom Brady in drag turn me on?

I'm pretty sure I don't want to know the answer to that, because it will most likely keep me awake at night, questioning my sexuality again. Is he pretty? Why do you make me sweat at night with your sexy touchdowns cute quarterback? What I do know is that Cate Blanchett playing Bob Dylan in the Zimmy biopic I'm [read more...]

How do you spell d-y-n-a-s-t-y?

When the Scripps National Spelling Bee comes to ESPN/ABC at the end of the month, I expect to feel numb -- almost stung. It's been over 22 years since I heard that cacophonous bell during the St. Theresa school spelling bee. I felt paralyzed. I ruined my shot at the three-peat, which would have culminated with four [read more...]

A sports-herniated tale of groinal melancholy

I've recently come to grips with the fact that my budding career in the over 30 "B" League of the Asheville Buncombe Adult Soccer Association is probably over. And it's been a mental hernia -- a sports hernia to be exact -- which seems like the equivalent of impotence. Ask any athlete who has been treated for this injury [read more...]

LeBron James and the Vogue Cover: More “King Kong” than “King James”

Tom Withers of the Huffington Post describes LeBron James on the cover of the April Vogue thusly: LeBron James is striking a pose. The Cleveland Cavaliers' superstar will appear on the April cover of Vogue, joining actors Richard Gere and George Clooney as the only men to do so in the influential fashion magazine's 116-year history. Wearing a tank top, shorts and [read more...]

Bill Belichick: The Mystery of The Hoodie

Bill Belichick is giving the press nothing. Nada. Not an inch. And I, for one, love it. Mike Greenberg on the Mike and Mike in the Morning show is "flabbergasted" over the Patriots head coach's ability to give so little of himself to the press. Greenberg said things like he has never seen anyone who is so guarded in the [read more...]

Super Bowl XLII: Separating Fact from Fiction

They choked. In the end, the Patriots cracked under the constant media scrutiny and pressure of the last 12 weeks; cracked under the weight of perfection. Wading through all the nonsense of the "Eli came of age" talk, the New England Patriots, from the coaching staff to the players, must take the lion's share of the blame for their losing Super Bowl [read more...]

Super Bowl XLII: We’ll Never Hug a Snake

If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? In scientific theory, yes; philosophically, no. But, don't get started on the whole "chicken or the egg" thing. That requires a discussion of evolution and genetics that could generate rioting hordes with pitchforks. In Boston, Portland and Concord this morning, fans [read more...]

FSR Daily

-The Boot Saga continues, as Tom Brady missed at least the first part of practice on Thursday. Probably didn't have to tell you this, but Belichick had no comment on his quarterback's injury status. -A warning to Ben Gordon owners, the Bulls guard had an MRI on his wrist Thursday. If possible, get Kirk Hinrich as a backup plan just in [read more...]

FSR Daily

-The Tom Brady walking boot mystery was unraveled yesterday. Turns out the Pats QB just has an ankle sprain and will be 100 percent for the Super Bowl. Odd that the media would make a big deal out of nothing, isn't it? -Shaq is out again for the Heat, this time he will miss at least six games. The Big Aristotle, [read more...]

FSR Daily

-Tom Brady was caught in New York wearing a walking boot. No news on the severity or the even the legitimacy of the injury, but we will continue to update the situation. -Carmelo Anthony left the Nuggets game with the Lakers early because of a sprained ankle. He will be re-evaluated today, so we'll have an update on his status before [read more...]

Playoff Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet and Sleepers Week 2

There were some pretty surprising performances last week. Antwaan Randle El, Vincent Jackson and D.J. Hackett far exceeded expectations while usual studs like Plaxico Burress and Clinton Portis laid a freakin egg. As for my sleepers selections last week, Shaun Alexander, Nate Keading and Jeremy Stevens didn’t work out as well as I thought. But, Shaun and Nate each have a [read more...]

Your Fantasy Football Start’em Sit’em and Sleepers for Week 10

Can you feel the tension build every time you’re deciding on who to put into your starting line-up? Me too my friend. That could only mean one thing; it is crunch time. It’s that time of the year where the championship money is within your grasp and the yearlong bragging rights are on the line. Your fantasy football league playoffs are [read more...]

Your Fantasy Football Start’em Sit’em and Sleepers for Week 7

Did you know that Vinnie Testaverde outperformed Brett Favre, Vince Young and Kurt Warner last Sunday? Crazy isn’t it? Well this week I looked and I looked and I think I found a prediction almost as ludicrous. But, before I tell you who and why, here’s a little reminder of how I have things set up. I list two players [read more...]

Blips, Blurbs & Blasts

OK, Tom Brady, let's review. Your team has won three of the last four Super Bowls, and you've been the MVP in two of those games. Most football experts believe that the Patriots are the only team with any chance of knocking the Colts out of the postseason. You are currently dating Bridget Moynahan, one of the most drop-dead gorgeous [read more...]

Hart Surgery: Ten Plagues of Sports

As a Jew, I am constantly trying to explain the nuances of my religion to outsiders. This week in particular, being Passover, I generally receive an extra amount of questions (usually: "Why are you eating that giant cracker?"). Far and away the longest week of the year, Passover is basically like a Jewish version of Hell Week (to put it in [read more...]

Hart Surgery: The Politics of Football

There are two giant events taking place this week, the Super Bowl and the New Hampshire Primary. In terms of media coverage, the two events strike me as exceedingly similar. Both consist of media types scrambling desperately to spin straw into gold, hoping something remotely abnormal will happen to report on but usually coming up empty. Generally, both usually fail to provide much in [read more...]