SimonOnSports

It's an excuse to tailgate on a thursday morning. Right now I'm not sitting at a computer nor am I watching the Macy's day parade. Nor am I helping to cook anything. No I'm tailgating. Tailgating for a game I have zero intention of going to. Kegs, Eggs and drinking games. Nothing makes for a better thanksgiving than that. Hours from now I will be drunk and full enough to even enjoy the Lions game, that is before I fall asleep. So, Have a Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you will enjoy it is as much as I know I will.

Last week I was pretty adamant on how I was sippin the green kool-aid and how I thought the Jets matched up very well against the Titans. I turned out to be right and just when I went to grab the pitcher to sip on some more kool-aid, it was all gone. Why? Because it seems like the entire national media went in to get a sip before I did. I turn on the radio or ESPN and I hear questions like, "Are the Jets the best team in the AFC right now?". Sometimes the answer to this question comes back as Yes. Yes? Seriously? The Jets played great the last three weeks, they completely throttled the Titans, I could not have been in a larger state of glee on sunday afternoon, and thoughts of SuperBowl creapt into my head for singular second... but the thought the Jets are now the best team in the AFC or even larger the 2nd best team in the NFL never crossed my mind. Did they miss when their defense got torched by the Chargers? Did they miss their inept showing against the Raiders? Th...

Lots of big games this week and a couple of rivalry games like the Iron Bowl that just don't quite make the cut. 5. Oregon Ducks at Oregon State Beavers Isn't this called the Civil War or something? Either way the Beavers need to beat their biggest rival to secure a spot in the Rose Bowl. If they can than they also significantly diminish USC's chances of playing in the Championship game. The Pick: Beavers by 6 4. Texas A&M Aggies at Texas Longhorns This is usually a rivalry game and a few years back the Aggies mauled Colt McCoy almost to death in the upset victory. Unfortunately the Aggies pretty much suck this season and have little shot of upsetting their in-state rival. The Pick: Texas by 23 3. Kansas Jayhawks vs. Missouri Tigers in Kansas City Missouri already clinched a trip to the Big 12 title game, why does this game have any meaning at all? Well that's pretty damn simple, computers. In all likelihood the Longhorns and Sooners tie-breaker will come down t...

Chances of me following up a 12-4 performance with another dominant performance is piss poor. 5. Buffalo Bills (-6 1/2) at San Francisco 49ers I've called the Bills overrated on about 400 occasions this year but at home against the niners who have to fly cross country and play in likely miserable weather. The Bills will win this game by a touchdown or more. 4. New Orleans Saints (+4 1/2) at Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Saints are back to being an offensive machine now that Pierre Thomas is getting the bulk of the carries. This game will be a close one but I'll take the Saints plus 4. 3. New York Giants (-3 1/2) at Washington Redskins The Giants are probably due for a let down at some point but they thoroughly dominated the Redskins in week 1. Additionally the Redskins have been play eh-football the past few weeks and could have easily lost last week to Seattle. With Jacobs back the Giants once again beat down inside the division. 2. Tennessee Titans (-11 1/2) at Detroit Lio...

Wow You Guys Suck: The Jaguars, Remember at the start of the season when some people (cough Mike Greenberg cough) picked the Jaguars to make the SuperBowl? Right now the Jags are 4-7 and even worse at home (1-5). Runners Up: Donovan McNabb maybe you wouldn't get benched if you didn't suck, the Pack defense was a complete no show. This Scarecrow Needs a Brain: Andy Reid, You are down by 3 points and you decide now is the time to sit your captain your leader and to put in Kevin Kolb. Bright idea jackass. Instead of a spark your team got throttled. Runners Up: LenDale White should shut his mouth post game, Norv Turner's clock management skills were superb. Cough Cough Cough: The Chargers, Down 3 with 3 timeouts left and 4 minutes to go, good ole Norve decided it was a genius idea to go into a hurry up 2 minute drill offense. The offense stalled and the Chargers needed to kick the game tying field goal with plenty of time left for Peyton Manning to win the game. Runners Up...

I don't know if Leon is a massive play most weeks but for this week against the Broncos it's time for the pick up and play. Leon is going to dominate.

One of the most important aspects of coaching in todays environment is balancing the motivation of individual players while also getting them to buy into the team philosophy. Every squad needs players to fill roles that are not glorious or name making spots. At universities such as Florida, USC, Texas, etc. where ninety percent of the recruits are four or five star athletes with NFL aspirations it's immensely important to get them to buy into the team philosophy. In many college jobs you only get one or two 5 star recruits and that player is slotted in as an immediate starter, motivating a player to work hard when he knows he's going to get a lot of action isn't very difficult. But what about having that freshman 5 star athlete and motivating him to continue to get better even though he's frustrated with a lack of consistent playing time or a shared role. Motivating that player to continue to improve and getting them to buy into the team concept is a much more diffic...

Earlier today I mentioned how Mack Brown and not Bob Stoops has a vote in the Coaches Poll . Well, it's basically all Bob's fault. Given the opportunity to partake in the poll, Stoops declined and now he's stuck to his decision which means he puts his team at a disadvantage. On Sunday the Sooners are already down 1 vote to the Longhorns in the Coaches pool and Mack Brown has the power to be as big a dick as he wants. If he decides to go all out and vote Texas 1 and Oklahoma outside of the top 25 it could make all the difference in the world. I can't really think of any reason to not partake in the poll other than laziness, and that laziness just might bite Stoops in the ass come sunday.

In a wonderful twist to this whole Big 12 BCS tie-breaking bullshit, Mack Brown has a vote in the USA Today Coaches Poll and Bob Stoops does not. How stupid is that? The Coaches Poll consists of 61 of the 119 Division 1 Head Coaches, why it doesn't include all of them just seems ludicrous. I can't find how the poll decides who is allowed to and who is not allowed to vote but it seems completely ridiculous that Texas and Oklahoma's spot in the Big 12 title game comes down to essentially a vote and Texas starts out with a 1-0 lead. The worst part is it's not as if Mack Brown just had a one vote advantage over Oklahoma. Mack Brown could essentially vote the Longhorns #1 and Oklahoma out of the top 25 if he chose to and while that would be disgraceful and completely shady and perhaps his vote would be relinquished next year, chances are the public wouldn't find out. Why? Because the Coaches Poll is anonymous until the final week of the year, so USA Today will not...

Explain the BCS to someone that does not understand it. Last night I spent approximately 20 to 25 minutes trying to explain everything to my girlfriend (not 100% sure why she was interested). We started how the BCS standings currently work, the Big 12 Championship game, the three way tie, how the winner of Bama and Florida are likely in, how some conferences have a title game and others don't, how if Missouri wins the Big 12 title then essentially the voters will be able to choose between USC, Texas, or Penn St and how some voters say they won't vote for a team in the top 2 if they don't win their respective championship, etc. Just go over everything you can logically explain it will take awhile. And then in completing this task and explaining it to someone that has limited idea of how everything works you will gain a greater sense of just how stupid the BCS is and how stupid not having a playoff is.

"WAAAAHHHH Texas beat Oklahoma how could you possibly rank Oklahoma ahead of Texas, WAAAAAHHH". That's essentially what I've heard on ESPN the entire past few days. Half the time the analysts follow up that saying with "I think Oklahoma is the better team today but you can't rank them ahead of Texas. WAAAAHHHH" which makes zero sense at all. Here's the main issue I have with every single one of the analysts that say you can't rank Oklahoma over Texas, you are contradicting yourself. Each of you says that Texas Tech should no longer be in consideration because they got the shit kicked out of them, which I guess I can be fine with, but then you somehow are able to manipulate that not in Oklahoma's favor. These three teams are all equal right now. They played each other they all have 1 win and 1 loss. Head to head does not mean anything. Texas > Oklahoma > Texas Tech > Texas > Oklahoma > Texas Tech ... it's a never ending ...

Last night gmreynolds71283 decided to man up for the million dollars and pick the monday night football game. He went with America's choice and not mine and chose the Packers to head into Nawlins and come out victorious. Unfortunately for him, the Pack got slaughtered and he will not be getting a million dollar check from ESPN. For his sake I hope he was able to raise funds and get his hedge bet in on the Saints or else he could end up walking away with absolutely nothing.* After gm's demise, user Bigsam1122 is now your leader with a streak of 23. On the leaderboard , he is followed by 2 users at 22, 1 user at 21 and 5 users at 20. I think we can all agree on one thing, if someone deserves to win 1 million dollars it's definitely TurdFurg3sson . Ya Turd Furgesson it's a funny name. *ESPN's will give 10K to the person with the longest streak if no one reaches 25 by the start of the year, so he's still got a shot to win that on December 31st.

Below there are ten Distorted Pictures of College Mascots. How well can you identify the high flyers? If you get stumped you can opt for help by either going here for 10 clues or here for the list of the 10 coaches so you can match them up to each distortion. When you're done or have given up, here are the answers . 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Answers Try Out Other Silhouette Trivia Fat Football Coaches Lefty Hitters To The Rack

Roses For the Old Man Were They For the Rose Bowl or a Get Well for Hip Replacement Surgery? This Is An Incomplete Pass Enjoy the Cotton Bowl Graham NOOO!!!!!! Mommy Said I Could Have Another Cookie Gatorade Dodging Undefeated Coaches Are Always Fleet of Foot Dude It'll Be Ok Yale Losing 'The Game' Isn't Really a Big Deal ND Sucks Seriously You Lost to Syracuse? Seriously? Brains + Brawn A Rhodes Scholarship at FSU? So He Didn't Use the Peter Warrick Discount? AHHHHHHH It Tastes Like Crap Who Put Poop on the Apple Cup? So You're Going to Kill Us Aren't You? Ya, You Are Going to Get Obliterated Blowin Lines Is Blowing Snow Better or Worse than Blowing Leafs? Football + Snow = Awesome Snow Makes Every Football Picture 1000 Times Cooler

Over the weekend ESPN did a lot of dodging but despite avoiding three bullets, one man is one pick away from a million. First sfniners_1 was just two games away from 1 million dollars on Saturday. So what did he do? He went out on a massive limb and took Wake Forest (15.8%) at home against BC. He was rewarded by being eliminated after BC scored a touchdown with 1:12 left on the clock to take a 3 point lead and eventually the victory. Next up user name Jordan achieved his 24th victory when BC defeated Wake. But he then waited until sunday to make his final strategic pick. He chose division leading Carolina (67%) to go into Atlanta and knock off their rival. Boom the Falcons pounced on the Panthers and took them down with relative ease. Here's hoping he was hedging. User girlie_girl21 decided at 23 victories that she also needed to make a play at 4:15 on sunday afternoon. So she went with... the Panthers as well. Whoops. And that brings us to gmreynolds71283 , who current...

Is Charlie Weis the Product of a Woman with a Large Fupa and The Penguin? Me Thinks So.

Step 1 Make Sure Your #1 Draft Pick Gets Injured Steven Jackson is a dominant force in the backfield. Every game he plays he gets his yards he gets his tds he gets his catches. He's an all-around threat. But up 20 in the 4th quarter against a beaten down Cowboys squad he's still in the game. Why? So that he can injure his quad and manage to get 7 carries in the next 3 weeks. Step 2 Trade Away Your 2nd Pick For a Player About to Go in the Shitter Tony Romo is out and Owens is doing absolutely nothing on a week to week basis and you're desperate for any quarterback production because as you will see later they sucked balls. So you trade away your best wideout for a quarterback with solid stats. You trade TO for Donovan McNabb. Donovan McNabb carefully crafts back to back miserable performances starting with a 4 turnover game and increasing the ineptitude to a 3 turnover -5 point playoff hopes destruction. Step 2b Make Sure the Side Player You Are Getting Gets Busted for...

Last week Donovan McNabb was the moron of the weekend . This weekend? If pictures speak a thousand words it looks like he's not quite the sharpest pencil in the drawer.

Lendale White yesterday was a bit confused and upset after the game as to why he didn't get much playing time. Just look at what he had to say: “I have been over it. It is a game, so what?’’ White said. “You would like to win it, but it is one game, so what? … I only played three plays so I really couldn't tell you what happened, I don't really know, I wasn't paying attention, I didn't care really.’’ “You never know, man,” White said. “I can't tell you that. I don't know if I would have gotten the ball 30 times if we would have won the game or not. I would like to be involved more, but if I am not involved I would like somebody to tell me what's going on. Coming into these games, you expect to get certain carries or see certain things going on at least that's what they tell you. “And then you get in these games and then randomly you only play three plays. I just wish somebody would let me know what's going on before I go out there. Three plays, ...

Remember this is all about Quality Wins and Bad Losses so if you lose to a top ranked team its not going to kill you, if you lose to Arkansas St. in the opener it will haunt you the entire season. And there you have it, what was supposed to be a thrilling battle between #2 and #5 turns into an epic beatdown and creates a massive Re-Org in the power rankings. 1. Oklahoma - After the TT throttling, here's why I put the Sooners above the Crimson Tide, quality wins. Losing to Texas on a neutral field is rough, but they are a top 5 team, the Tide have not come close to facing a top 5 team. The Sooners have knocked off their remaining Big 12 schedule, but the most impressive part is that they have two very good out of conference wins. Cincinnati essentially won the Big East this weekend by throttling the Wannies. TCU has positioned themselves as probably the 3rd best non-BCS team behind Utah and Boise St. The Sooners have the wins. Quality Wins: Cincinnati, TCU, Kansas, Nebraska, ...

Is there anything better than Ninja's on a Sunday Morning? No? I didn't think so. Via Japan Probe

Making this quick, the five pick suggestions are the Patriots, Chiefs, Cowgirls, Bears and Redskins. Non Spread Picks

Got Jury Duty today so the day off from bloggin...

The Green Kool-Aid is seeping into my brain at alarming rates. How do I know this? I actually think the Jets are going to go into Tennessee give them a massive fight and come out the winner. Yes I know I'm drunk on the arm punt kool-aid but listen to my non-sober reasoning for a second. The Jets defense has done two things very well this year and done one thing miserably. The defense has repeatedly stuffed the run thanks to Jenkins and they have continually put pressure on the quarterback. Meanwhile they have sucked at covering secondary wideouts and tight ends. Well the good thing this weekend for the Jets is that the Titans really don't good secondary or primary receiving options. Sure Gage is a solid deep threat but he's inconsistent. Brandon Jones is eh, mediocre. And Justin McCareins is terrible. The Jets can match Revis on either Gage or Jones shift safety (Elam) coverage over the other and let Rhodes concentrate on the rushing attack. With this coverage if ...

Just stop. Please just stop. Can't you just be ok with the fact that he has no friggin idea whether he wants to play next year or not? Just deal with that fact we don't need to start up the "Is Brett gonna Retire?" press cyclone now, we don't need to start it once the Jets play their final game, we don't need to start it until he actually has a press conference declaring what he's going to do. So don't speculate and just don't ask him that question, you're not going to get an answer and the only thing you're doing is pissing off sportscenter watchers.

Last weekend was incredibly lackluster but this weekend is when BCS trips are decided. All 5 of the Big 5 this week have major implications on whether you're in or your out of the money. 5. Oregon State Beavers at Arizona Wildcats Once again the Beavers just need to win out and then they likely get a rematch with PSU in the Rose Bowl. Lose and they'll go to some boring bowl no one cares about. The Pick: Beavers by 6 4. Brigham Young Cougars at Utah Utes In the battle of the Mormon state the Cougars have the opportuntiy to ruin intrastate rival Utah's return to the BCS. If the Utes pull off the victory than they can book their trip to whichever BCS bowl has last pick. The Pick: Utes by 3 3. Pittsburgh Panthers vs. Cincinnati Bearcats This is the Bearcats chance to clinch the Big East championship and their BCS bid because there is no way they lose to the Cuse in the following week. Meanwhile Wanny if he could win 3 games in a row would also win he will somehow earn a tri...

Once again ESPN is only a few solid decisions away from forking over 1 Million Dollars in Straight Cash to some random guy named sfniners_1 , I'm guessing that A) He's a niners fan and B) That he didn't pick the Niners in any of his streak picks. Let's Take a look at his picks, in parenthesis is the percentage that the rest of the world selected his same pick. October 19th: The streak started with 2 NFL picks on October 19th. The Bears (76.8%) pulled off a 7 point 48-41 victory over the Vikings and then the Bucs (98.4%) easily knocked off the Seahawks on NBC. October 21st: He went against America and picked the Temple Owls (48.1%) to knock of the Ohio Bobcats which they did 14-10. October 22nd: He went Hockey for the first and only time and took the Devils (95.1%) over the Stars. The Devils won 5-0. October 23rd: He went Baseball for the first and only time and took the Rays (77.9%) and James Shields to win Game 2 over the Phillies and Brett Myers. The Rays won 4-...

Because I just haven't been really paying attention aka I'm in denial. But I'll Give a prediction for the game... You're going to see a lot of this. And a lot of this. And probably some of this. And a good chance of this. UGH, the Buckeyes are favored by 20 and will certainly shove Beanie Wells down the Wolverines throat all game. It probably is not going to be pretty.