We Don't Walk Slow

The Eagles Will Be Worse Than The Sixers

Fail

Last year I thought the Eagles were going to be unstoppable. Bradford fitting into Chip’s system perfectly with Demarco running the rock up the gut would be too much too handle. This year I think the exact opposite for the offense.

We know what we are getting with Bradford. He’s serviceable but will make costly mistakes. If I had to pick a QB to lead me to victory in the last 4 minutes, Bradford would be in my bottom half of QB’s in the league.
Can you even recognize who this is?

They have no run game. I won’t count out Spoles because he had a great last year but he’s one year older and not a workhorse. Mathews will inevitably get hurt and he’s not a superstar anyway. Barner may rise but time will tell.
The wide receivers are not nearly as good as people think. Matthews put up his numbers in garbage time of blow out games. He had 997 receiving yards (159 against Arizona in a 17-40 rout) which is decent for a #2 receiver, not a #1. Nelson Agohlor posted a catch % of 52.3% which ranked 183 out of 212 eligible WR’s, this was slightly ahead of Riley Coopers’ 51.2%.
Is Julie Johnston a bigger star than Ertz?

I think Ertz and Celek are pretty good and I wouldn’t mind using Ertz like a Gronk. He can’t block though?
I’m not an OL guy but it looks like Jason Peters, Lane Johnson, Jason Kelce, Brandon Brooks, and Allen Barbre will be our starters which seems relatively experienced and barring injury, won’t be the team’s biggest problem.

So that’s the core of the offense. Defense will be above average with the rush from Barwin and Cox. Jordan Hicks and Mychal Kendricks are solid linebackers. Malcom Jenkins will lead a squad of McLeod, Carroll, and McKelvin (from Buffalo) of which I know very little. Jenkins was amazing last year.

The Sixers vs Eagles Prediction

Working my way up to this art.

The Sixers are going to have a whole lot of problems initially. I wouldn’t be surprised if they started the season winning 1 or 2 games of their first 10 as they figure out what the hell is going on with playing basketball together. Ben Simmons has some sweet passes in Summer League but they are to cutting guards against mediocre talent. When he gets on the court with Jahlil and Embiid it’s going to take some adjusting to. The Sixers are becoming stacked with talent but that has nothing to do with whether they can win basketball games. Who’s the team leader? It’ll take a while to find out. I predict a win total of 27 games.

Doug Pederson will be a worse coach than Chip Kelly. Just sayin’

27/82 is a 33% win percentage. If we multiply this by 16, we have get 5.28. I predict, the Eagles with win 5 football games this year. The defense will keep them in games but this team doesn’t have a play maker other than Sproles with a sprinkle of Ertz. Maybe Ryan Mathews will become one but he’ll most likely stub his toe and be out for the season if he starts getting touches. If Wentz becomes the QB, I’ll immediately shift my tone because Bradford is the pits. He’s an average pro at best and won’t be getting any better. With him at the helm, they’ll win 5 games. If we see what Wentz is capable of, they may be able to win more games.

By Tom Stortz|2016-07-15T13:58:27-04:00July 15th, 2016|Sports|2 Comments

ESPY’s Icon Award

[dropcap background=”yes”]I[/dropcap]’m looking for a comment here from Rob Kelley because I have a feeling he may agree.

I was watching the ESPY’s and they had an Icon Award where Peyton Manning, Kobe Bryant, and Abby Wambach were featured. Peyton, Kobe, and Abby…let us not forget…

Peyton Manning’s HGH

Tough call…

From May ’16

The network said shipments of human growth hormone were made to Manning’s home as he recovered from a career-threatening neck injury. In the piece, a former pharmaceutical intern at an Indianapolis anti-aging clinic was caught on a hidden camera saying he had knowledge Manning and other athletes used performance-enhancing drugs.

Abby Wambach’s DUI

From April ’16

Portland police said Wambach, 35, was pulled over at 11:05 p.m. local time Saturday after failing to stop for a red light. She was arrested after failing a field sobriety test and was taken to Portland’s Central Precinct, where she failed a breath test.

Wambach was booked at 2:02 a.m. local time Sunday and charged with misdemeanor DUII (driving under the influence of intoxicants), according to the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office. She was released on her own recognizance and was described as being “polite and cooperative” with police.

Kobe’s Sexual Assault

From July ’03 – Read my indepth article on Kobe for a better look but here’s the skinny:

The Kobe Bryant sexual assault case began in July 2003 when the news media reported that the sheriff’s office in Eagle, Colorado had arrested professional basketball player Kobe Bryant in connection with an investigation of a sexual assault complaint filed by Katelyn Faber, a 19-year-old hotel employee. Bryant had checked into The Lodge and Spa at Cordillera, a hotel in Edwards, Colorado, on June 30 in advance of having surgery near there on July 2 under Dr. Richard Steadman. Faber accused Bryant of raping her in his hotel room on July 1, the night before the surgery.

An Icon Award?!?!?!

Icon – a person or thing regarded as a representative symbol of something.

How soon we forget. I get it though. Hype them up to forget about the bad shit. It makes perfect sense but it’s undeserved. I immediately thought of these instances and even mean tweeted Abby Wambach.

Anyone else think @AbbyWambach deserves no honorable anything?

— Tom Stortz (@rnningfool) July 14, 2016

I’m not saying these men don’t deserve these awards. Their careers are unbelievable but I don’t think this award should be given to people who violate society’s rules. Does Lance Armstrong deserve this award or did he cross that line? What about Barry Bonds? I have no idea whether this was around back then but I promise you they wouldn’t be candidates because they don’t fit the bill. Just because it’s the choir boy Peyton Manning or the determined Kobe Bryant doesn’t mean that we should be putting them on the pedestal. These people had great careers and I don’t take any credit away from it but they aren’t worthy of this bullshit award that ESPN is using to praise them. Completely fucked up and I don’t respect them more for this award. They should have declined it.

By Tom Stortz|2016-10-28T15:32:26-04:00July 13th, 2016|Sports|1 Comment

Bjorn Borg Doesn’t Fuck Around

McEnroe & Borg in Wimbledon 1980

I watched a documentary on the matches between Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe on HBO entitled McEnroe/Borg: Fire & Ice. Being that Wimbledon is ongoing as I type this, I figured a tennis post made sense.

Bjorn Borg Holds 11 Grand Slam Titles

Bjorn Borg won 5 straight Wimbledon titles between the years 1976-1980. His most famous match came in 1980 when he faced John McEnroe, the up and coming American. This match is often cited as the best Wimbledon final ever played. The 4th set – McEnroe averted disaster and went on to level the match in Wimbledon’s most memorable 34-point tiebreaker, which he won 18–16. Born went on the dominate the 5th set for his 5th straight Wimbledon title.

The next major tournament was the US Open which Borg lost to McEnroe on the faster surface. The following year, McEnroe beat him in the finals in Wimbledon and in the US Open and that was that, Borg retired from tennis at the age of 26.

If You Aren’t #1…

Borg wins Wimbledon

Borg retired because he achieved what he set out to achieve and that was to be the best player in the world. Once McEnroe defeated him consecutively in a few tournaments, he decided that he no longer wanted to live the celebrity tennis life. I find that awesome to go out on top with what had to be a difficult decision.

What Being #1 Looks Like

Most of us accept that we’ll never be #1 in the world at anything and this is a fair assumption. I’ll relate this to my own life because I can’t relate it to anyone else’s. I enjoy bowling and golfing but there is no point for me to think that I can get out of bed every day and practice the sport and have a shot of being the very best. This goes against the idea that “you can do anything you set your mind to.” Which brings me to the idea that your job is what you get out of bed every day to do. This means that Bjorn Borg got out of the bed to be #1 in the world in tennis and I get out of bed every day to sell items that chose me. This is the conundrum.

Most of the time if you do what you really like to do in this world, you’ll be a bum. For me I’d spend my time watching TV, running around scenic parks, golfing, or learning Photoshop. Ultimately, none of these activities pay the bills. It’s not an easy idea to compute because it’s so ingrained in our society that you are supposed to accept doing work that you don’t like doing. Bjorn Borg got it right.

By Tom Stortz|2016-06-28T09:16:45-04:00June 28th, 2016|Sports|0 Comments

Who Doesn’t Want To Read About the Tex Mex 5K?

This is a dumb logo and I would never wear the free shirt with a tree on it.

Tex Mex 5k

Sam’s write up on his 3rd place finish at the Tex Mex 5k is worth reading if you love 5k’s. My only comment is that when you get older you don’t have as much time on hand, so training harder by putting less mileage is one of the only options to stay in shape. Good to see it worked in your favor.

My experience running the Tex Mex 5k was satisfactory as well on that hot June 22nd day. I got to the course about an hour early so I had plenty of time to warm up (lol). I was awarded the honorable bib number 1337 which I didn’t even realize until Sam’s eyes widened when he pointed out that I was LEET. I’ve been throwing in runs between 40-60 minutes along with some shorter runs about 4 times a week so I figured I was in decent shape. My time 2 years ago was 17:29 which is pretty much where I expect to be.

The Race

This has nothing to do with the race.

I was in the front of the race and got boxed in immediately by slower people. I scooted to the outside to get up with a group of about 10 guys behind the lead group of about 10 guys. My mouth immediately went dry but I felt fine physically so it wasn’t a big deal. I came through the first mile at 5:30 and my legs still felt strong. I was 11:03 at mile 2 so I knew I was keeping pace which led me to believe that I would still run a good time. The first part of the last mile is up hill and I knew from my run 2 years ago that the rest was downhill. My turnover wasn’t great up the hill but I got there without too much issue. I got passed by an old man (47) going down the hill towards the end and then outkicked by a stringbean. The final stretch is straight and I could see the timer as I got closer. About 100 yards away I could make out that the time was in the 16’s and I knew that the 17:30 mark would be eclipsed which was quite inspirational mind you. I finished at 17:17 which is my best 5k time in probably a decade. Also being able to do 3 miles at 5:34 pace makes me pretty confident I can run a good mile time which I promise I’ll do soon. Full results Tex Mex 5k results.

By Tom Stortz|2016-06-23T09:20:13-04:00June 23rd, 2016|Running|0 Comments

Read About Hank Gathers Death

I watched the Guru of Go which was an ESPN 30 on 30 about Paul Westhead’s style of basketball. To sum up the style, it’s a get the ball up the floor as quickly as possible and fire when ready. The idea was to out work your opponents until they are physically exhausted and break. The Loyola Marymount team from ’87-’90 was the quintessential squad to work the formula. The team in 1990 still holds the record for most points per game with an average of 122.4.

Loyola Marymount?

Loyola Marymount is a small school with enrollment under 10k located in Los Angeles, Ca. Bo Kimble and Hank Gathers were Philly guys who found their way to Loyola and learned under Westhead. In the ’89 season, Hank Gathers led the NCAA in scoring at 32 ppg. The ’90 season brought more success until Gathers collapsed after shooting a free throw. The doctors checked him out and ran many tests and had him put on medication for an irregular heartbeat. Unfortunately on the medication, Gathers wasn’t the same player which was evident in a game vs St Joe’s where he had a mere 1 1st half point. Bo Kimble ended up hitting a half court buzzer beater to finish with 54 points and the W.

Tragedy Strikes

As the West Coast Conference (WCC) Tournament neared, Gathers did not show up for repeated appointments to test if the reduced medication was still suppressing the arrhythmias. It was suspected Gathers was not taking any dosage on game days. On Sunday, March 4, 1990, in Los Angeles, he collapsed again with 13:34 left in the first half of the WCC tournament semifinal game against the Portland Pilots. He had just scored on his trademark tomahawk dunk on an alley-oop pass from point guard Terrell Lowery that put the Lions up 25–13. He collapsed a yard or two away from Pilots point guard Erik Spoelstra. He attempted to get up, telling the trainers, “I don’t want to lay down!”, then shortly after stopped breathing. Gathers died soon thereafter at a nearby hospital at 6:55PM PST. He was 23 years old

Bo Leads the Team

The Loyola team decided to continue to play the season despite the heavy hearts and played the ’90 NCAA tournament. A touching story from their run was Bo Kimble shooting a left handed foul shot in tribute to Hank. This was because one part of Hank’s game was his weak free throw shooting. At some point in the season he decided to start shooting his foul shots left handed. Bo did the same the first time he got fouled.

Loyola beat a stellar Michigan squad containing the Fab 5 in ’90 but eventually succumbed to the eventual NCAA champions UNLV. A remarkable run considering the heartache. After the season ended, the Gathers family started suing anyone involved in Hank’s death, one of them being coach Westhead. They ended settling with the University for 1.4 million but weird times indeed.

By Tom Stortz|2016-05-25T09:06:49-04:00May 25th, 2016|Sports|0 Comments

Drafting THE PLAYER

A fun topic to discuss because there are so many angles. Sam wrote a post about top QB selections in the past few years and I outlined the #1 and #2 picks. We both came to the conclusion that no can predict the future and trading up is a complete crap shoot. I’ll also add that there is nothing black and white in sports. You can cite examples until your blue in the face backing up a point and it could be completely wrong in reality. That’s why people love sports so much.

If you follow my blog you’d know that I’m not a huge proponent of being bad to get good. I’m going to suggest that you don’t have the draft THE PLAYER. You just need to know how to get the player.

Football Examples – There is no point talking about any other position than the QB

Tom Brady. Much to Rob’s chagrin, I’m not going to go into detail about how the 199th pick of the draft became the best QB of all time.
Where were other Super Bowl QB’s drafted?
- Russel Wilson – 3rd Round, Pick 75
- Ben Roethlisberger – 1st Round, Pick 11
- Joe Flacco – 1st Round, Pick 18
- Drew Brees – 2nd Round, Pick 32
- Brett Favre – 2nd Round, Pick 33
- John Elway – 1st Round, Pick 1
- Troy Aikman – 1st Round, Pick 1
- Eli & Peyton Manning – 1st Round, Pick 1
Sometimes the player finds you. “Rodgers was widely projected to be drafted by the San Francisco 49ers, his childhood team, making him the number one overall pick in the 2005 NFL Draft. The 49ers drafted Alex Smith out of Utah instead and Rodgers slid all the way down to the 24th overall pick by the Green Bay Packers.” Let’s look at the 49ers here for a minute. They had the #1 pick of the draft and chose the wrong guy. No one can predict Rodgers is going to be most talented QB in the draft, but he slid all the way to 24 and the Packers have been a Super Bowl contender ever since. It doesn’t matter if you have the #1 pick if you can’t pick talent.
Drew Brees is synonymous with what the Eagles tried to do with Sam Bradford. A QB who proved he could play at an NFL level and suffered an injury that left people skeptical of his effectiveness. The Chargers decided to go with Philip Rivers (after Brees led the Chargers to 11-4 and 9-7 records in consecutive seasons) and have been mediocre ever since. The Saints swooped in and got the player to set the future of their franchise for the last decade.

Basketball Examples

Love or hate Lebron James, he is the best player in the NBA excluding Steph Curry (even currently). You don’t need a great team to be good if you have Lebron James on it. At the age of 20, he led the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 42-40 record and getting to the 2nd round of the playoffs with players like Zydrunas Ilgauskus, Eric Snow, and Drew Gooden. Unable to win a championship in Cleveland (he got to the finals) he took his talents to South Beach and ended up becoming part of the Heat squad to win 2 championships. This proves that you literally only need LeBron, the player, to become an elite team.
The Magic had two #1 picks in a row to get Shaq and Penny and went to the NBA Finals soon after. The Magic made a serious blunder in not giving Shaq the required money and the Lakers swooped in with an understanding that this is the player who will take us to the championship. Paired up with Kobe, the Lakers were right.
Of course this scrawny kid will re-write NBA history

Steph Curry was drafted with the 7th pick of the 2009 NBA draft and has revolutionized the way the game was played. At 6-3, 190, he’s not the overwhelming force that LeBron James is at 6-9, 275. It’s not clear that Steph is going to become the best player in the NBA and that’s obvious as he drops to 7. The Warriors gambled and got the player of the generation. It should be noted that both Steph and LeBron were born in Akron, Oh.

What’s Your Point Vanessa?

This quote by Greg Popovich is the point:

“I think he’s going to be a star. And as time goes on, he’ll be the face of the Spurs, I think. At both ends of the court, he is really a special player. And what makes me be so confident about him is that he wants it so badly. He wants to be a good player, I mean a great player. He comes early, he stays late, and he’s coachable. He’s just like a sponge. When you consider he’s only had [two years] of college and no training camp yet, you can see that he’s going to be something else.”

Gregg Popovich, in 2012, on Leonard

All the Pieces of the Puzzle

#2 pick of the ’93 draft. Sharon Wright wasn’t much better.

The San Antonio Spurs have not had a top 20 pick in the NBA draft since 1997. What I’m pointing out is the difference between “tanking” to get a pick and being THE BEST at recognizing talent and finding the player. However you slice it, the Spurs are the model of what an NBA team should be. They are better at identifying talent than any other team and this is why they’ve been top caliber for 20 years. Philadelphia has proven continuously they are not that good at this part.

To come full circle to the Eagles and trading up, my gut says it’s not going to work because you can’t predict who the player (aside from Lebron James) is when they are 21. People develop differently under different systems. I’d bet my bottom dollar that if Kawhi stayed in Indiana he wouldn’t be a top 5 player in the NBA right now. Systems and coaches make players want to be who they can become. That’s one of my main issues with the Sixers and Hinkie’s strategy. The system breeds losing. Losing gets ingrained in your mind. It’s bad for business.

There’s also a major point that I’m overlooking and it’s management and their abilities. Here’s a clue if you’ve been sucking for a long time, get new owners. Notice the Philadelphia owners quitting early on Chip and Hinkie who saw the world differently. I will say though that If I saw the way Chip utilized Demarco Murray last year, I would have wanted to kick him to the curb too. It’s bigger than high draft picks, it’s knowing how to win at all costs. Why do you think Popovich and Belichick hate talking to the press – it’s because loser’s talk to the press. Look at Cam Newton after the Super Bowl. He gets it. This point is more for humor but maybe it’s not. You need the Popovich’s and Belichick’s to rise above. Are coaches good because they win or does winning make good coaches? Was Gary Kubiak considered a good coach when he went 61-64 with the Houston Texans? Is he considered a good coach now? Technically that point contradicts my point but he was brought into a club that had won at least 12 games the past 3 seasons. Elway specifically went out and got Peyton. Does that sound like a better plan than tanking and looking to draft high?

At this point I’ve lost my way and got caught up in rambling and ranting and citing examples and at the end of the day where am I? I could have probably summed this up in one sentence. – get the best player the league has to offer and hold on to them forever.

By Tom Stortz|2016-04-22T11:12:24-04:00April 22nd, 2016|Sports|2 Comments

Tiger’s Lunch Story and Picking Up the Bill

Tiger Woods Story on ESPN.com

A long read about Tiger and his gravitation towards wanting to be a Navy Seal. The read has virtually no golf in it but gives insight into who Tiger Woods was in 2006 and what he has become. I enjoyed the piece but didn’t come away with a much different opinion of Tiger except it sounds like he won’t be coming back to golf.

This story though was great though because it’s a known fact that if one person is a billion times richer than another guy, they should pick up the tab. On a side note, the way the ESPN website moved the story through the pictures in the background was fucking awesome. I wish rnningfool.com had that technology.

Then there’s the story of the lunch, which spread throughout the Naval Special Warfare community. Guys still tell it, almost a decade later. Tiger and a group of five or six went to a diner in La Posta. The waitress brought the check and the table went silent, according to two people there that day. Nobody said anything and neither did Tiger, and the other guys sort of looked at one another.

Finally one of the SEALs said, “Separate checks, please.”

The waitress walked away.

“We are all baffled,” says one SEAL, a veteran of numerous combat deployments. “We are sitting there with Tiger f—ing Woods, who probably makes more than all of us combined in a day. He’s shooting our ammo, taking our time. He’s a weird f—ing guy. That’s weird s—. Something’s wrong with you.”

By Tom Stortz|2016-04-21T16:45:12-04:00April 21st, 2016|Sports|0 Comments

History of #1 & #2 Picks in the NFL Draft

Goff and Wentz

The Eagles traded for the #2 pick from the Cleveland Browns. The Eagles sent five draft picks to the Browns: the No. 8 pick in the first round, a third-round pick (77th overall) and a fourth-round pick (100th overall) in this year’s draft, a first-round pick in 2017 and a second-round pick in 2018. Cleveland also sends a fourth-round pick in 2017 to the Eagles.

Presumably, the Eagles are going to use the 2nd round pick to draft Cal’s Jared Goff or North Dakota States Carson Wentz, whichever is not drafted by the Ram’s at 1. I’m a firm believer that you need a stellar QB to win football games. If your team has a bad QB, it doesn’t matter how good the rest of your team is because not only is it their job to score points, but it’s also their job not to give up points to the other team by means of turnovers. I understand the desire for a premier QB and why trading up seems like a good idea but it’s worth looking at how QB’s drafted 1 or 2 fare.

I’m going to set a 20 year time span and look at all the 17 QB’s drafted with the #1 and #2 picks and rank them based off performance.

Ranking of #1 & #2 Picked QB’s

Peyton Manning – Peyton Manning played 13 years with the Colts and 4 with the Bronco’s winning 2 Super Bowls. “Manning is the first and only quarterback to achieve 200 career wins (regular and postseason),his five NFL MVP awards are a league record, he was the most valuable player of Super Bowl XLI, was named to a record 14 Pro Bowls, has 14 4,000-yard passing seasons (NFL record), and is the NFL’s all-time leader in passing yards (71,940) and touchdown passes (539). His career record was 186-79 and is being mired by some strange drug scandal that most likely will go away. His ability to market Papa John’s and Budweiser is also unquestioned.
Cam Newton – Cam led the best regular season team to his first Super Bowl last year eventually losing to Peyton Manning’s Bronco’s. Known primary as a rushing QB during his first few years, he’s evolved into the most dynamic QB in the NFL. I would be shocked if he doesn’t win multiple Super Bowls considering he is only 26 years old. Known as Superman and bringing the Dab to extreme popularity, he has become America’s QB.
The Eli disappointed face

Eli Manning – I ranked Cam ahead of Eli even though Eli has 2 rings and everyone knows rings are all that matter. Eli has always thrown tons of picks and tends to whine more than the average football player should. He miraculously beat the Patriots twice but hasn’t done much other than that. Eli’s career record is 97-86 which puts him at 6 more losses than his brother and 89 less wins.
Donovan McNabb – No rings but he led the Eagles to 5 NFC championship games and one eventual defeat to the Patriots in the Super Bowl. Donny lacked some accuracy but had Philadelphia heart and gave the team a decades worth of competitive football. He’s managed to stay in the limelight with boneheaded tweets and getting a multiple DUI’s.
Me caveman

Andrew Luck – I hesitate to put Luck this high after a terrible season last year after getting hurt and only playing a total of 7 games in 2016. I would add that he played miserably during those games. However, he went 11-5 and made the playoffs for each of his first 3 seasons in the NFL which is impressive to say the least. He’s gotten spanked by the Patriots twice now in the playoffs and has yet to overcome that hurdle.
Carson Palmer – No rings but still playing at the age of 36 and leading the Cardinals to the NFC championship game against the Panthers last year show’s he still has it. Tremendous accuracy as a passer but little to know playoff success. He’s running out of time to get that Super Bowl ring but he seems to possess the proper QB skills if the team around him is built correctly.
“I don’t throw downfield.”

Alex Smith – I’ve started to respect Alex Smith. They love using the term “game manager” and although I’d never want him as my fantasy QB, I think he wins football games. In his 10 year career he’s only seen the playoffs 3 times winning 1 game twice. He needs to get riskier to start becoming an elite QB and he seems content to dink and dunk and play within his limits which doesn’t win Super Bowls.
Matthew Stafford – 0-2 in playoff games and seems to be on the decline. He threw for 5,000 yards one season which seems to be his claim to fame. His career record is 42-51. He has a smokeshow wife though and played blackjack next to Sam one time. You could certainly argue that he deserves to be much much lower on this list.
Marcus Mariota – Obivously too early to call at this stage in his career but doesn’t seem to be heading into bust territory even though he put up a measly 3 wins in 12 games. He’s got decent legs and is working with no WR’s in Tennessee currently. I’d give him a chance and see if he develops.
Jameis Winston – Jameis has pure ability. Whether that develops into QB skills is another story. His off the field antics have earned him a lousy reputation but he hasn’t been in the news in a while so maybe he’s starting to take his role seriously. He did manage to become the youngest player in NFL history to throw for 4,000 yards even though his team was only 6-10 with him at the helm so there is certainly upside.
Michael Vick – Ahh the dog fighter. Vick has been in the playoffs 3 times during his 14 year career winning 2 total games. The epitome of a running QB with no passing accuracy. Aside from a few decent years with the Falcons, and 1 career year with the Eagles where Matthew Berry said it made sense to take him with the #1 pick in fantasy drafts, he’s been a bust. How he is still playing shows how hard it is to get a decent QB in the NFL.
Wonky eye

Sam Bradford – I think Sam Bradford is horrible. At the beginning of last season when he torched the Packers in preseason, I was all over the hype. I thought the system would play perfectly into his strengths and he would produce HUGE fantasy numbers. Boy was I wrong. He sucks. He’s actually better when he’s hurt because at least he’s not sucking on the field. If you wanted to argue and put him last on this list I would say I’m fine with it. It’s like he’s just mediocre at everything and in a league where you need to be at least elite at something, he’s not.
Robert Griffin III – How he took the Redskins to the playoffs his rookie season is beyond me. For reference in how he did that game against the Seahawks, he was 10-19 for 84 yards losing 24-14. His 3-10 sophomore year opened the door for Kirk Cousins and the Redskins decided who was better fit to lead the team. I think they made the right decision. Oh yeah, he also gets injured pretty easily.
David Carr – A horrible NFL QB for the Houstan Texans. He holds a 23-56 lifetime career record. I can’t say much about him because I don’t know much other than he stinks and is the older brother of Derek Carr of the Oakland Raiders. Also this fact I dug up, “he also set the NFL record for fumble recoveries in a single season, recovering 12 of his own.”
Tim Couch – Tim Couch’s greatest feat is that he’s married to Heather Kozar. After being selected #1 by the Browns, he never developed into a stud QB. He played for 5 seasons battling injuries because of a shitty Browns offensive line and finished 22-37 overall record. This tidbit though, “Couch holds the distinction of being the only quarterback in NFL history to throw two game-winning passes of 50 yards or more with 0:00 left on the clock”
JaMarcus Russell – After a 5-10 2nd year season in which Russell started every game, he didn’t exactly take care of himself in the offseason. NBC Sports described Russell as “annually and incredibly overweight”, saying he arrived at mini-camp weighing 290 pounds, up from his initially reported weight of 271. He played 9 games that year going 2-9 and as they say, “that was that.”
Ryan Leaf – Ryan Leaf is described as the #1 bust in NFL history. In 3 seasons of play, he amassed a career record of 4-17. On February 4, 2016 in an interview with Yahoo! Sports, Leaf himself compared the problems of Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel to his own, saying it was like “looking in the mirror” and that the only difference was that Leaf’s substance abuse problems happened after he retired. Leaf went on to state that Manziel is able to get the help he needs.

What to Make of This?

These 17 examples show that you can get the greatest QB in NFL history or just another bum. There have been 4 Super Bowl rings won by these players and they all have the last name of Manning. It goes to show that it doesn’t matter if you have the #1 pick or not. Drafting up tends to bite you more than it helps your team. Remember Ricky Williams? There is so much emphasis on the draft and building a future but no one has a crystal ball and there is no guarantee that a QB pans out over the length of his career. I personally think the Eagles are making a mistake even though I agree getting rid of Bradford is essential.

By Tom Stortz|2016-04-21T14:38:08-04:00April 21st, 2016|Sports|1 Comment

How Have I Never Seen This Before?

Pres take on the video because he does it so much better than me.

I wish I had a video of the facial expression I made when that crab lady came storming down the finish line at the 40 second mark. At first I thought that’s just how she ran. Just chewing up terrain like a motherfucker. Like get out of the way tired bitch because Crab Running Lady is coming the fuck through. Turns out she was in the process of dying as well. I’ve never seen that before. Is that how it works with running? Before you totally collapse you turn into some sort of superhuman crab running machine for a couple minutes? I mean she would have finished with no problem if the other chick didn’t trip her. She had that crab running style on lockdown

By Tom Stortz|2016-10-28T15:37:41-04:00April 18th, 2016|Running|2 Comments

Nick “the Brick” Anderson

30 for 30 aired “This Magic Moment” which recapped the Orlando Magic’s lead up and then run to the finals in the ’94-’95 season. It began with back to back #1 picks where the Magic were able to get Shaq and Anfernee Hardaway to set the foundation. I highly recommend watching it but I found a part of documentary even more fascinating and that was Nick Anderson and his troubles at the foul line.

The below video is game 1 of the ’94-’95 NBA finals. It starts with the Magic up 3 points, 110-107, with 10 seconds left to play. The Magic had blown a 20 point lead earlier in the game but could still salvage the game as long as Nick Anderson makes 1 foul shot. Watch what happened:

After the sharpshooting Kenny Smith 3 to tie the game the Magic lost in OT and were swept in the series thereafter. Many people think that the series would have had a completely different feel if Anderson hadn’t missed 4 straight foul shots. Perhaps. However, Nick Anderson never recovered mentally from this free throw scarring.

Nick Anderson, a career 70% foul shooter, shot 40.4% from the line the subsequent season. He shot around 95 foul shots that season which is a decent sample size. Anderson had to be removed from the closing minutes of several close games due to being undependable at the charity stripe.

His struggles worsened through the first half of the 1997-98 season. Through January 27 of that season, Anderson was averaging only 6.5 points per game, and shooting a paltry 36.3% from the free throw line. However, in the second half of the season, Anderson experienced a sudden career revival, as his scoring average abruptly jumped to 22.6 points per game, and his free throw percentage improved to a 67.6%, a figure close to his former career average. He ended the season with a scoring average of 15.3 points per game.

As someone who isn’t an NBA player and sucks at making foul shots, I know the feeling of not wanting to get fouled because you can’t make a foul shot. It’s a serious mental block. The worst part is it perpetuates because the other team starts noticing it too and you essentially become ineffective because they know all they have to do is foul you and it’s a good spot for them. I feel for you Nick.

By Tom Stortz|2016-04-18T15:49:29-04:00April 18th, 2016|Sports|1 Comment