Chuck Liddell Gets KTFO by Rashad Evans

Wow!

The UFC just lost a lot of money. You could see it on the sad, sad faces of Dana White and Forrest Griffin.
The good news is that The Ultimate Fighter series is fully validated. Not only is the winner of Season 1 the Light-Heavyweight champion, but the new #1 contender is the winner of Season 2!

Expect Griffin's first defense of the 205 title to be against "Sugar" Shad Evans to come on December 27th.

Add this upset (a Liddell win and he would've definitely had the title shot) to Thiago Silva's back injury that cancelled his undefeated vs undefeated bout with counter-attack artist Lyoto Machida in October, and the rumored Rampage vs Wanderlei Silva bout for November 15th (on the Couture-schools-Lesnar undercard) will now determine the next #1 contender at 205. That's not bad news at ALL!

Perhaps they will match Lyoto Machida with Shogun Rua now... I'd enjoy that - provided we get the old, aggressive PRIDE Shogun back and not the fat one who let Forrest Griffin choke him out. Or maybe for the $ they put Chuck back in there with Shogun - his original opponent for his summer "comeback" tour.

Dr Hak's Updated LightHeavyweight UFC Rankings

1. Champion - Forrest Griffin*
2. Rampage Jackson
3. Rashad Evans
4. Lyoto Machida
5. Anderson Silva
6. Iceman Liddell
7. Wanderlei Silva
8. Rich Franklin
9. Shogun Rua
10. Thiago Silva
11. Keith Jardine
12. Brandon Vera
13. Sokodjou
14. Goran Reljic
15. Matt Hamill

Randy Couture returns to the UFC against... BROCK LESNAR

After just one win in the UFC, former WWE Champion Brock Lesnar will fight Randy "The Natural" Couture for the UFC Heavyweight (206-265lb) Championship on November 15th at UFC 91 on Pay Per View.

Couture had a falling out with UFC brass over pay (and to a lesser extent, frustration that the UFC wouldn't sign Fedor Emelianenko - considered the world's best fighter - so he could match up with him) last year, resigning on October 11th and sparking a court battle over his contractual status, but has signed a new 3 fight deal.

Lesnar, 1-1 in the UFC's thin Heavyweight division, was likely one or two wins away from "earning" a title shot, but Couture's return provided the UFC an opportunity to make a big money match now, and they took it. Lesnar dominated Heath Herring in a 3 round shutout last month at UFC 87.

According to UFC boss Dana White, Frank Mir - the former UFC HW champ who ruined Lesnar's UFC debut via submission at UFC 82 - will still challenge "Minotauro" Nogueira for the UFC Interim Heavyweight Title on December 27th, with a unification fight to come in 2009. Herring was the last man Nogueira defeated before fighting for the Interim title against Tim Sylvia.

Thoughts -

Sidebar (I know you can't put a sidebar before the main thoughts but this is my blog right?)
I have criticized the UFC's matchmaking before, and I won't be the only person who hears this and thinks "what? Lesnar gets a title shot ALREADY?"
That being said, I don't really have a huge problem with this matchup. I do have a small problem with it simply because to get a title shot, you need to "earn" it - and one win in the UFC with no previous MMA record of note isn't generally what you'd consider worthy of title contention - but if you look at the Heavyweight division and you look at who Couture could fight in his first fight back, the two main guys you'd consider who are under a UFC contract are already fighting for the interim title come December.

Perhaps if they hadn't already filmed TUF 9 with Mir and Nogueira as coaches, they could pull Mir out of the fight, and matchup Couture and interim champ Minotauro and have Lesnar rematch Mir, but that'd be unfair to Mir.

Letting Andrei Arlovski go seems like a mistake now, given his performance at Afflicition in July and his general popularity - but I'm thinking about this from a pure fight and rankings standpoint. When it comes to money and business, Lesnar Couture is THE biggest matchup they can make in the Heavyweight division at this time. Period. And... Lesnar could conceivable beat the heck out of Couture and then nobody could say anything. I can see that happening. I can also see it NOT happening. Lesnar is green in MMA but he's no Kimbo Slice, he's the real deal. Heck the WWE gave him the belt early too, so...

- sidebar over -

This is huge news from the UFC for a few reasons. Reason #1 is that Randy Couture is back in the UFC. This is big because a) he was suing the UFC b) he had deals lined up to fight outside the UFC as soon as he got clear of the legal issues c) he had left over money and thought he could make more dough elsewhere.

Him coming back SEEMS to be an admission that a) there is not a viable promotion outside of the UFC that can really pay him good money more than once b) he's not the draw he thought he was.

I like Randy Couture. I can't say he's the most exciting fighter per se, but he's a legend and UFC hall of famer for a reason. Coming out of retirement to win the UFC Heavyweight title when he's light heavy size and defend it successfully is a big BIG deal, especially when he's over 40 and he's fight 25 year old giants.

But Randy was trying to become a pioneer in another sense of the word. He could have been the first big name fighter to leave the UFC and see big time success...or he could've fallen flat on his face and seen none. Had he left and say, went to Affliction and caught on, the UFC might have some competition stateside. In Japan, Pride and now Dream have done moderately well, but both ran into huge financial difficulties and Dream is in danger of folding like Pride was (and then sold to the UFC).

Now that he's not spearheading the effort to get the UFC to "act right", there isn't anyone forcing the UFC's hand on fighter pay and treatment. Tito Ortiz perhaps will be the first real test, and his huge popularity should allow him some success, but a fight card can't be built around a single person - especially one who is, if not past his prime, entering the "mature" stage of fighting life cycle.

So the end result is that younger fighters hoping the UFC would pay them more than $5000 to fight will have to keep wishing. That's on one side of the coin.

On the other side of the coin, the UFC has just given itself a lot more possibilities in the heavyweight division. It may be true that the lightheavies (205lbs) are the real stars of the promotion, and for good reason with guys like Rampage, Iceman Chuck Liddell, Forest Griffin, Shogun Rua. But now, at least for a year or so, Lesnar isn't the only real draw at Heavyweight.

Exciting fights are to be made and a dormant division waiting for Lesnar to take over might get its wish a LOT sooner than we thought. I don't think Couture v Lesnar will do numbers as well as Iceman v Ortiz without a strong co-main event but I don't doubt the UFC's ability to make one! Rumors say Rampage, Shogun, and Wanderlei Silva may fight on the November card... Any matchup of two of those 3 works for me!

Anderson Silva Should Fight Crime

UFC v Afflicton MMA - July 19th

Affliction.



The word used to mean something fierce, a disgusting disease or condition. Now it means $80 t-shirt with disgusting skulls and images of death and the like...for your fashion enjoyment.

On July 19th, the t-shirt company will forage into Mixed Martial Arts. They have the world's best fighter, Fedor Emelianenko, taking on former UFC Champion Tim Sylvia, among other fights involving good UFC fighters from the past and top fighters from around the world who've never been in a UFC cage.

In some ways, you could even say Afflicition isn't trying to compete with the UFC (at least not yet) and if you listen to those in charge of the promotion you'd be right.

There are tons of fighters out there, and the UFC is only interested in having about 200 of them on their roster at a time. That leaves a lot of good fights and a lot of potential entertainment.

The big question though, is will Affliction be a success, and what determines "success"?

The UFC bled money for years before finally establishing itself as a money-making promotion, now Afflicition plans to make money right away? How is that possible when they have made it a point to say they will pay fighters more along the lines of what boxers make? (9/2/08 Edit : Tim Sylvia made $800,000 for his 1 minute loss to Fedor Emelianenko. Afflcition leader Tom Atencio a.k.a. "T-shirt guy" according to Dana White, then came out and said fighter salaries will be going down in their successive fights. It appears that hindsight is 20/20)

I am pretty sure the Affliction pay-per-view will be a good event, fightwise. I hope financially they find some success as well because the UFC - which I enjoy - doesn't need to be the only game in town. Boxing has management companies that put on fights and co-promote fights. Golden Boy, Top Rank, Seminole Warriors, Don King Promotions, et al. The UFC's exclusive-contract structure is such that they have their managed fighters going against each other and have a UFC champion. That'd be like having a Golden Boy champ, and a Don King champ and a Top Rank champ if the analogy were to go the other way. That'd be chaos.

Pause... that'd actually be similar to the way it is now, with all the random WBO WBC WBA IBF IBO NABO Ring Magazine titles going around, plus they have WAY too many weight classes in boxing...its pretty chaotic. MMA is better only because the UFC is the dominant promotion for weight classes from 170 to 205, and there's not a lot of good competition. WAMMA is trying to have a unified champion but the UFC wants to do it their way. Oh well!

OK this entry is done. Let's just say that I'm excited about Affliction joining the fray and I hope it works out, because more MMA is good for MMA...and for the UFC!

Bernard Hopkins, This Is YOUR Fault

Look,

I love Bernard Hopkins. I think he's a great boxer and clearly one of the greatest of all time. He's one of my 3 favorite fighters, along with Money Mayweather (we have the same birthday), and...I can't think of anyone else, so that makes him one of my 2 favorite fighters.

But he's lost 3 fights in the last few years to younger fighters who he was still better than for 1 reason and one reason alone.

He's an asshole. (Don't hit me!)

How else do you explain that a man who hasn't tasted the canvas in 15 years allows himself to lose a fight because he won't throw his hands?

Do I think he won the Calzaghe fight? Yes. Can I argue with the judges who gave Calzaghe the split decision when he landed twice as many shots as Hopkins, even if they weren't doing a lick of damage? No.

You know why? Because that's how American boxing judges score fights.

If I hit you with three jabs and you counter with a hard hook, guess what, I won that exchange. Especially if we repeat that sequence 10 times in a round, I just hit you 30 times and you hit me 10. Well... I win that because you're countering and I'm being the aggressor. So what you caught me on the way out? American boxing judges reward activity and busy-ness, not strategy.

Hopkins knows this.

There are a few exceptions. Where there is a truly recognized champion who is also the favorite in the fight, the judges may give them the benefit of the doubt on strategy, IF they know that's his strategy going into the fight.

Example - Floyd Mayweather Jr vs Oscar De La Hoya

This fight was almost exactly the same as Hopkins Calzaghe in terms of strategy and execution (except there was a lot less punching.) Mayweather plays defense the entire fight, letting De La Hoya come at him, swing and miss, and then pops him with a quick jab or hook as a counter.
You'll also notice that fight was a split decision too. But Hopkins doesn't and never has, carried the same amount of weight with the boxing community (or said a different way, doesn't get the same respect from the judges) as the undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr.

He's been the underdog in all of his BIG fights. When the judges expect you to lose, they view the fight that way. Its a natural filter.

You see, everyone knows Floyd is a counterpuncher and defensive genius. Its part of his schtick. B Hop calls himself "The Executioner". Now if you call yourself that, and then go into a fight playing D the whole time, the judges just might think its because you're being overwhelmed ...especially when you're the underdog to a younger fighter who is known for his volumunous punching output.

All this to say - yes, Bernard Hopkins executed his strategy very very well last night. And yes, he won the boxing match. But he didn't do what he had to do to win on the judges scorecards. Its just as bad as when he started slow against Jermain Taylor twice. Who the f*** starts a 12 round fight slow? Yea ok, 2 rounds of feeling your opponent out is fine. Find out how hard he hits, what he's trying to do. But 5, 6, 7? No. That would mean you gotta shut your opponent out the rest of the fight. And what is the likelyhood that the judges will score rounds 7 through 12 for you when you're fighting the undefeated "champion of the future"? Well...3 losses he shouldn't have will give Bernard that answer.

Perhaps I'm so upset because I
1) really like Bernard Hopkins and can't stand to see him lose a fight he had in the palm of his hands for NO GOOD REASON
2) was also born in Philly and
3) REALLY REALLY REALLY want to see him fight Roy Jones Jr again and now that fight may not occur. Hopkins is 43. He's also a smart man. He has options outside of in-ring fighting. Roy will fight Calzaghe next and who knows what will happen after that. My best hope is Calzaghe beats Roy this fall, meaning Roy and BHop need each other to get that money and we get that big fight about a year from now. That's one of the few fights I'd pay money to see. Mayweather-Cotto doesn't even get me that excited.

Ultimate Fight Night 13 Review

Last night was a great night for me. I had been looking forward to the loaded Ultimate Fight Night 13 card on Spike TV for some time, possibly even more than some of the UFC Pay-per-views I religiously journey to Champps Americana in Uptown Park to watch.

There were a few reasons for this:

1) Six fights in 3 hours. At least.
2) Big name fighters
3) Big name fighters with something on the line


You see, I have an issue with some of the UFC's matchmaking and PPV fight selections. I've been following MMA for about 3 years, and while I won't call myself knowledgeable enough to be a full-time MMA blogger, I know a weak card and a bad matchup when I see one.

Bad Matchup - Brock Lesnar vs a former UFC Champion in his first fight
Bad Matchup - Houston Alexander vs an undefeated contender
Bad Matchup - Michael Bisping v Rashad Evans as a main event
Bad Matchup - Sokodjou vs Lyoto Machida

Now, don't get me wrong, Joe Silva and Dana White do a decent job putting together their cards, and they have tons of talent to juggle and schedule; but occasionally I think they miss the forest for the trees.

We get it, no one gets a free pass in the UFC...BUT...they should take a page out of Vince McMahon's WWE Book of "How to Build a Star". It's something like what they are doing with Kimbo Slice in Elite XC. He's not fighting top level talent because...drum roll please...he's not ready!

Brock Lesnar, credentials aside, is not ready to fight former UFC Champion FRANK MIR. Sure he came at Mir hard and seemed to have him in trouble, but then he got his ass caught in an anklelock...SummerSlam 2003 vs Kurt Angle or UFC 82? Either way he tapped. Now his star is a bit tarnished and WWE fans may not be as into the MMA thing as they would've been had Lesnar been tearing up low level heavyweights for a year or 18 months like he should've been.

I have less of an issue with Houston Alexander's 3rd UFC match because he did mow through Keith Jardine, a top contender, but his 4th fight last night was disastrous. It was a bit fluky, but now, it looks like his first 2 UFC victories were too. What do they do with him now? He just tied the record for suffering the fastest UFC knockout at :08 seconds. The people still love him though...oh I know what to do - match him against someone he can smash who has no ground game and thinks he can stand with him. The fans get what they want and Houston gets his confidence back. Don't mistreat your popular stars.

Bisping vs Evans - Bisping should've been fighting Matt Hamill again anyway. This wasn't a main event level fight. A 2nd main event probably.

Sokoudjou vs Machida - I'm not sure casual MMA fans knew him enough to have him fighting "the guy Dana White makes you fight when your contract is up and he wants you to go out with a loss". Tito Ortiz - whose contract is expiring and has definitively stated he's not coming back - will have his last UFC fight against Machida - known for making people look bad and beating them while doing so. Machida is undefeated and also is the only man to beat Rich Franklin besides Anderson Silva. And you DEBUT someone who you think is going to be a star against him? NO, you don't.

Now that being said, I didn't write this post to slam UFC matchmaking, I wrote to praise it!

Ultimate Fight Night 13 was a big time success. Not only did we see good fights, we saw fights with repurcussions. Such as "Karo Parisyan might've blown his title shot" and "Kenny Florian just put himself in line for the next lightweight title shot". That's whats up. Let me see something with implications and know whats coming next. (UFC would do well to put out official rankings)

First impressions

OK, Karo Parisyan... you have some decisions to make.
Not because he lost a fight, but because something inside of me thinks the whole "I'm owed a title shot" thing is getting in the way of his progress as a fighter. I didn't see it last night from "The Heat". I'm hoping this loss will do one of two things - 1) cause Dana to call him and say "you lost the shot" and he goes apesh*t and gets focused or 2) Dana ignores it and puts him against Jon Fitch in a #1 contender's match in July or August with the winner fighting on the December card against GSP or Matt Serra. Karo's gotta get past this title shot thing. You are going to have to fight even after you win the belt so all the complaining won't help you. All the "I don't want a tought fight" talk out of Karo - not only is it lame but it hurts his impression with alleged tough guy Dana White and with the fans who, while they might understand, want to see good matchups. That being said - he did earn a shot and so perhaps just giving it to him and moving on would be best. I don't think the Karo Parisyan I saw last night can beat Georges St Pierre or Matt Serra or Jon Fitch or Josh Koshcheck or Chris Wilson.

Nate Diaz is crazy...and may turn into a decent UFC lightweight when its all said and done. The whole "showing off while I choke this dude out with no hands" thing was pretty hot. You don't see that every day. Will he take some heat for it? Sure. But so what. Do you.

Poor Houston Alexander.

I like Joe Lauzon. A lot. He'll eventually work his way to a lightweight title shot but Kenny Florian has been on some other ish since losing to Sean Sherk over a year ago. THAT being said, that was close to an even matchup and Lauzon nearly locked in two heel hook submissions on him and didn't look too hurt during the final barrage...he just had no way out.

Who is this Anthony Johnson dude? Impressive

You mean to tell me that Manny Gamburyan, Marcus Aurelio, Din Thomas and Clay Guida were on the untelevised portion of this card but we have to suffer through some of the crap the PPVs give us? Not feeling that...at all.

Matt Hamill may be ready for a move up the light-heavy ladder. I'd like to see him vs Stephan Bonnar when he heals or against Thiago Silva or Wilson Gouveia.

I skipped the Maynard-Edgar bout. We want to see the Maynard - Emerson rematch (their first fight was ruled a no contest Maynard slammed Emerson, who tapped because he hurt his rib during the fall...however, the ref said Maynard knocked himself out during the slam at about the same time.)


Finally, I'm very satisfied with the UFC Fight Night 13 production (being on commercial TV forced them to quicken the pace between matches...they should do that with PPVs. Why don't I get 7 matches for $50 bucks? Until they do that I'm not ordering at home.) and can't wait until April 19th for the Serra-St Pierre rematch. Don't be surprised if Serra wins again...I know that's hard to conceptualize given how good St Pierre is and how he won't get caught slipping again (blah blah blah)...but it happened once...so...

Do The Wizards Need Gilbert Arenas?

The Washington Wizards have a bit of a problem.



Perhaps its one of those "good problems to have" but perhaps not. The problem isn't so much about right now, its about "the direction of the franchise".



For the last several years the Wizards' nucleus has been the All-Star trio known as "The Big Three". Gilbert Arenas, shoot-first point guard and blogger extrodinaire a.k.a. Agent Zero, Caron Butler - all around small forward a.k.a. Tough Juice, and Antwan Jamison - the team's veteran leader and rangy power forward.



Arenas, their "best" player, has been hurt 90% of this season, yet they are above .500 and comfortably in the playoff hunt. With a late season surge they could, in theory, end up in the 4 spot and host a first round playoff series against the hated Cavaliers or the Raptors. Had it not been for Caron Butler's 15 game layoff with a hip flexor injury, they might already be in that position. One weekend in the fall, they swept a 2 game home-and-home with the mighty Boston Celtics, who had smashed the Bullets (not a slip) to open the season, despite Arenas guaranteeing victory. All of this (and more which I will get into later) leads to the question...



Do the Wizards Need Gilbert Arenas?



Add to all of that the fact that the team has played decent, but inconsistent, ball without Caron Butler, who might be the most important player on the team. This is not a slight to Jamison, who has held it together over the last 2 seasons while Arenas and Butler have become injury prone, solidifying his position as team captain; but Caron's ability to guard SFs and big 2-guards on the perimeter adds to his value to the team in an Eastern Conference with the overrated LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Ray Allen, etc.



As I type this, I don't know how I feel about moving on without Arenas...so I'll break down the issues systematically.



First up...



How did this come up?



Clearly, playing well without your top dog isn't enough of a reason to start this discussion. The "issue" is that Gilbert is up for a new contract...a max contract perhaps, and if the Wizards won't pay him, someone will. It'll be a bigger issue is Arenas comes back in the next few weeks and helps the squad to a deep playoff run. The Eastern Conference finals are possible, especially if they don't draw Detroit in the first or 2nd round. I didn't say it was likely though. This is about the Future of the Franchise. This year, any deep playoff run would be a nice surprise.



But when your team holds it together, a few random blowouts aside, without 1 and a half of their best players...you get to analyzing and looking at the situation.



The Wizards ownership has not shown a willingness to go over the soft-limit of the NBA salary cap and pay the dollar-for-dollar luxury tax that comes with exceeding it. However, with Antwan Jamison up for a new contract as well, that may not be avoidable. Can the Wizards afford to pay them both $20 Million? Perhaps, but then Caron will want his money too. And you DO have to have other players on your team.



So now, we must evaluate the Wizards options and why they make sense...



Option #1 - Re-sign Arenas to a Max deal, or match the best offer he can get in free agency.



PRO: You keep the fans happy and you ensure the Wizards are in the Top 5 of the Eastern Conference for the next 3-to-5 years...as long as their young big men continue to develop. You also have a deep, deep team with a lot of different lineups for a very good coach named Eddie Jordan to mix and match.

CON: Money...and....Gilbert Arenas may or may not return to form from his knee injury...and...we don't know if Arenas is willing to play the tough Defense (with a capital D) that the Wizards have played this year, now that they don't have the ability to score 120 a game.

Option #2 - Sign and Trade Arenas

PRO: You can add a strong player who compliments the current line up and/or pick up draft picks and run with Butler and Jamison and Nick Young as your main scorers. If they can keep Caron from getting hurt every year and Andray Blatche grows into his talent...you've got a good team.

CON: This strategy is risky because if it doesn't work, you've not only lost games and taken a step back as a franchise, you've gotten rid of the city's most popular athlete in years. Plus, you are relying on Nick Young and Olesky Pecherov to develop as scorers to replace Arenas' points...because Roger Mason isn't a long term option and Deshawn Stevenson will want more money too.

Option 3 - let him walk

Pro:...I don't see any pro's here. Except...I'm not sure what Arenas' locker room image is. I don't think he helps this team's chemistry. He likes to play and joke around, and he's close with rookie Nick Young, who's like his little brother. But Jamison is the leader of the team. Arenas is like 26, so perhaps he just isn't there yet, but he's out shooting paintball with the rookies (but not the other teammates) which leads me to think him not being around to keep the locker room "loose" also keeps the locker room serious and focused. That defense thing is also an issue. We can't really determine if they should keep him until we know if he's going to play that D the Wizards have been putting out there this year. He's expressed in the past his disinterest with defending, but perhaps watching how the team has done it without him has helped him to see the importance of developing that part of his game.

CON: You get nothing in return and you alienate your fan base.


Conclusion - ???

Its like this. Everytime the Wizards win a game against Boston, Cleveland or Detroit without Gil, I think they don't need him...Then they turn around and lose to Atlanta or Charlotte right away, or get blown out by 20 by Houston or Portland after beating New Orleans and I have NO IDEA what that means.

Perhaps it means that the team is too thin roster wise to give it 100% every game, and the live body they'd be trading Arenas to pick up would help that, along with a healthy Etan Thomas (who while I respect for his off-court activities, I'm not sure him and Eddie Jordan and Brendan Haywood can co-exist) - so then they'd have more energy on a night to night basis = consistency.

Or it could mean that they really need Gilbert's points and his 30 a game makes up for his lack of defense.

The true answer won't be known for some time. I'm currently ok with keeping or letting Arenas go. If I had my preference, I'd say re-sign him, but be ready to ship him out if he refuses to play that Defense we like now. Sadly, Abe Pollin is cheap and the whole luxury tax thing might scare him from keeping his best roster in 10 years together... Don't get me started on how we had Rasheed Wallace, Chris Webber, Juwon Howard and Rod Strickland and they blew that team up...ugh....you know what...that's the tie-breaker. Last time they had a squad they killed it for no good reason - so Gilbert needs to stay. His trade value won't decline unless his knee turns out to be a career defining injury.

I will say, that I am looking forward to the Wizards bring him off the bench for the last 6 games of the regular season and the Eastern Conference playoffs. I think that's an AMAZINGLY positive thing when they can throw him out there with Nick Young, Pecherov, Blatche and Songalia...they can put points up with that group and spell the starters. That'll be fun. The Cavs/Pistons/Magic - whoever...are in trouble.

Go Wizards!

*************UPDATE**************

Since I posted this, Gilbert has gone on record to the media and said he'd take a "pay cut" to allow the Wizards enough flexibility to re-sign Antwan Jamison and himself to keep the team together...if he wasn't the most beloved DC athlete before that, he certainly is if he's serious. He also mentioned that whatever good team he went to he'd have to take a pay cut so whats the difference taking one here in DC...SO - he's also open to leaving and has thought about it, looked at the $ situation and decided he's not going to some small market sorry team with cap room just to get cash. See what happens when that endorsement money starts coming in?

And The Moral of This Story Is...

One of the reasons parents sign their children up for youth sports is to teach them lessons about life.

A smart/aware child with a parent(s) who can properly relate life happenings into messages that stay with them will learn the concepts of:
Teamwork
Hard Work
Selflessness
Loyalty
Friendship
Respect
Determination
Sportsmanship
Fair play
Dealing with Success and Failure
Self Esteem
Etc...

But there are other ways to get life lessons from sports. For example, while watching the SuperBowl this year you would've learned, or been reminded that:

1) Cheaters never prosper

Earlier this season, New England Patriots head coach, Bill Bellicheck got caught cheating, received the highest penalty ever handed down by the NFL league - and it still wasn't enough. The New England Patriots were outed for illegally taping their opponents' sidelines to learn defensive signals months after the NFL sent out a memo to all 32 teams specifically telling them to not do this. How did they get caught?

Well, one of their former assistant coaches is now coach of their division rivals, the New York/New Jersey Jets. The first game of the season, they play each other, Jets coach Eric Mangini hears the cameras are indeed still out, and he blows the whistle on his former mentor (they had caught beef after he left to coach the Jets). The NFL fines Bellicheat $500,000 (he makes more than $5 Million a year), the team $250,000 and takes away their 1st round draft pick (what would eventually be the 31st pick in the draft...from a team that has made the Super Bowl 4 out of 7 years, meaning - THEY DONT NEED NO STINKING DRAFT PICKS!), while on the regular suspending Negro cornerbacks for 1 year when they haven't even been convicted of any crimes. Not that Pacman Jones hasn't got himself arrested 4 times in a year, and definitely needs to stay the eff away from strip clubs, but its not illegal to get arrested. Let the legal process work out! But here we have the coach of the most successful team caught cheating...in a way they just asked you not to do in a memo sent to all 32 teams...and they don't even suspend this dude.

W...T...F

The point is, the Patriots are cheaters and weren't properly punished by the NFL. Cats was mad. The Patriots themselves got mad, offended that anyone would dare say their accomplishments were tainted. (*) So they started playing angry and setting offensive records.In the end Karma got em. 18-1.

I like Tom Brady, he's a Michigan man and a true underdog story come to life. But he plays for the Patriots. So I was happy to see him get ROCKED like this.
Really though, how do you win all the games UNTIL the SuperBowl? That's a joke. I like Tom Brady, but i don't mess with cheaters. So f*** 'em. Shout out to Plaxico Burress. Shout out to Eli Manning.

2) Patience is a virtue

Last year the Giants started something like 7-2, and finished 8-8, barely making the playoffs (because all the teams in the NFC sucked last year...All of them). They also lost their first round playoff game. It was widely assumed that head coach Tom Coughlin was going to get fired. I don't remember off hand but I think something similar happened the year before also. Coughlin, a noted hard-ass, was thought to no longer be getting through to his players. He had rules like be at meetings 5 minutes early or get fined and other craziness, and they weren't feeling him - and quit on him. Not only did the sports media make it known Coughlin was on the hot seat, they pretty much led everyone to believe he was DEFINITELY gone as coach of the New York Giants. The NY sports media tried to run him out of town.

To put this in a little context - the San Diego Chargers went 14-2 last year, lost in the 2nd round of the playoffs and FIRED their coach (What?!). If 14-2 doesn't secure your job, how does going 1-7 your last 8 games? (It doesn't). Brian Billick led the Ravens to a Superbowl victory a couple years ago and was fired this year despite his team going 12-4 last year. Yet Tom Coughlin still had a job in 2007.The Giants started 0-2. It should've been 0-3 but the Redskins don't know how to finish off games and couldn't get a touchdown with first and goal from the 2 at the end of their Week 3 game. But things were different with Coughlin this year. Long story short, he listened to criticism. And did what he could to change to get through to his players. And they played hard for him. They ended up winning 11 road games in a row. That's AMAZING. The 11th was the Super Bowl

So what does this have to do with Patience? Well, the Giants QB is 4th year Eli Manning. It takes time for QBs to come up. Some of the Giants other players were growing up too. It wasn't a team full of veterans (like the current Patriots) and there were some personnel gaps that weren't the coach's fault. In fact, their secondary is allegedly a weakness for them, and one the Pats were supposed to exploit. Coughlin was able to convince ownership that he had a plan and they were progressing just fine - just not INSTANTLY.

These days everyone wants everything right now. Fans want to win right now. Ownership does too. But you have to give people a chance. Bill Bellicheat, as much as I don't like him, was the Cleveland Browns head coach back in the day and their record was HORRIBLE. Now he's allegedly the best coach in the NFL. It takes time for people to figure things out. If you ain't been a head coach in the NFL before, there's a pretty good change you won't be great instantly at it. There are only 32 of those positions...sooooo, even if u have a mentor and sit under the learning tree, its different when you do it yourself.

You have to give things time. And not just in sports.

Kudos to the Giants ownership for not being knee-jerks. And Congratulations.

3) Quit hating and get money

At some point, no matter what people say about you or what you've done in the past, you gotta handle your business. Tiki Barber, a running back with the Giants who retired after last year while he probably had 2 or 3 good years left...is now a commentator for NBC. He came out early in the season and said Eli Manning, Giants young QB, was "laughable" as a leader in the huddle.
1, that's fucked up.
2, Eli responded verbally and won himself a lil' locker room respect. Then he went out and won the Super Bowl MVP award that same season.

The lesson? Quit hating, get money. How the eff does Tiki Barber instantly flip from team captain to dirty laundry airer? How you gonna turn around and diss your teammate on national tv just to have something to say on a NBC pregame show? A pregame show??? Where your Super Bowl ring at Tiki? Eli's got one. You quit on your team and they went off and prospered. Stop hating and get money. Let's talk about the rest of these sports media fools...

4) Don't count your chickens before they hatch

All season, the Patriots and their "we're not really cheaters, watch us blow you fools out week after week" antics, while entertaining, didn't prove much. But don't tell that to ESPN, Fox, CBS and the NBC NFL broadcast teams. To them, the Pats were the best team ever. And there was nothing anyone could say because the Pats were blowing cats out 48-10 weekly. Ratings were way up. This Super Bowl was seen by 97.5 Million people. Then the Colts almost beat them in Week 12. The Colts, defending Super Bowl champs, were also undefeated going into their showdown with the Patriots. Highest rated regular season game in damn near ever. But no one was talking about the Colts the way they talked about the Pats. That's disrespectful.

The Colts didn't get a chance to rematch because they lost to the Chargers, in the AFC playoffs. A game in which both team's best players came up hurt. So the Pats were able to sneak by the Chargers with no LaDanian Tomlinson and a really hurt Phillip Rivers. Not to mention their three close calls in the regular season. The Eagles didn't play scared, and ran up on the Pats with their backup QB and some blitz schemes. Lost by 3. The Ravens HAD the Pats, messed around and called a timeout with a lead and the Patriots facing a 4th and 1. The Pats went for a QB sneak and didn't make it...but the timeout had been called. Then the roid rage took over when one of their linebackers got mad at a bad call, grabbed the ref's flag and tossed that sumbitch. Huh? Who does that? 15 yard penalty. Pats score. Pats Win.

Then, Week 17, The Giants decided not to rest their starters, even though they had qualified for the playoffs the week before. Didn't have much to gain from the Pats game...except confidence and momentum. The Giants came at the Pats and Tom Brady had to throw 3 TD passes in the 4th quarter. Great game. Exciting. But it was in New York, so people assumed if the Pats can beat the Giants on the road, their's no way they aren't going to beat them on a neutral field.

Way.

First of all, the Giants didn't run ALL their plays that game. It was like an exhibition. You play hard, but you don't want to reveal to everything so the teams you play the next week don't know your best plays and tendencies.So you can't count that as muchBut. The REAL counting chickens scenario went like this...Last week, officials from the New England Patriots inquired about trademarking "19-0". Word? B**** you ain't won 19 games yet! Let that be a lesson to you - Temp fate at your own peril. That's what you get for trickin.

Earlier this week, accusations surfaced that the Pats taped the St Louis Rams' practices back in 2003 - the beggining of the Patriots "dynasty". The Commissioner, who has put out statements that he considers the Spygate episode dead, came out and said he reserves the right to revisit the matter if actual new information comes out...OOPS
As soon as that happened, I knew they were losing. Not only is it a big distraction, but the commissioner probably called them and demanded they throw the game before "cheaters" sit atop the record books a'la Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds. Now they got some United States Senate investigations about to pop off. People want answers.

Cheaters Never Prosper

"And the winner is Hov! My Man.... SPEECH!"

Daniel Snyder, We Are Not F***ing Playing With You

Dear Daniel Snyder

Look,

I know the Redskins are your team. You're a relatively young guy and a passionate Redskins fan who ended up blowing up your communications/marketing firm and collecting ooogles of dollars.

You've been the main owner for quite a while actually and you've done a few nice things with the revenues and the stadium and what not. But you know what? You're f***ing up right now.

What's all this I'm reading in the papers about letting Gregg Williams go? How could you even consider such a thing?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/23/AR2008012302806.html



You know what, let me rephrase that.

Its your perrogative to consider whomever you want, to be the head coach of the team. But why hire someone who would want to bring in a new Defensive Coordinator, when the defense is BY FAR the strength of a team that made the playoffs 2 of the last 3 years?

If you're not going to promote GW to head coach, which is your right, and he has in the past expressed that he enjoys being DC and isn't necessarily pressed to be a head coach right now, I'm thinking you'd hire someone who can get along with him, and not blow the whole damn thing up.

Hire Jim Fassel to be head coach and bring in Baltimore's Rex Ryan as DC and Seattle QB Coach Jim Zorn as Offensive Coordinator?
2/3rds of that plan are f***ing stupid. See you made me go and curse.

F***ING STUPID.

You must think we (the passionate fans that fill your stadium revenue coffers quite faithfully) are effing playing with you. You MUST think this dude Jim Fassel isn't going to get his ass booed the very first chance we get. Let the offense go 3 and out. Once. Let them throw an incomplete pass. ONE TIME.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

First snap - First game. Guaranteed.

This is not a game, son.

You still have Al Saunders under contract. He's the current offensive coordinator. You seem to have decided to let him go..

I wouldn't do that, but I'm not against the idea. You want to bring in someone with an offense Jason Campbell can run soon. Well...you know what. Todd Collins, who knows Saunders' offense, was lighting it up with crossing routes and 7 routes and the ball was going down the field. Why can't Jason do the same? He's got a stronger arm and he's not entirely stupid (though the red zone INTs have to stop...I'll let him be a 2nd year player in 07. In '08 I'll start evaluating QBs in the draft, son. Matter of fact, there's this kid out of San Diego, Jack Johnson who tore up the Blue-Gray game and is 1-AA player of the year...Can we get him in the 3rd? Please? If he's there at 83 you gotta get him. The Chargers had two really good QBs and that worked out pretty ok for them).

So anyway, if you don't want to give JC another year at Al's offense, whatever. It wasn't like the Skins was putting up 30 a week. Fine.

But letting Gregg Williams go, not even to mention not be the Head Coach?

Thats f***ing lunacy. LUNACY. He has the players to make his system work. They were stomping cats in the nuts all season long (whatever that was in the Pats game aside). And he was missing a ton of his best players for long stretches of the season (R.I.P. #21 Sean Taylor). His defense works. And he adjusted it for his personnel to MAKE it work.

So now you want to go get Buddy Ryan's son, who is on some next generation of the 4-6 D, and you'd have to bring in entirely different personnel. Really? That makes sense how when youre D is currently Top 10? With plenty of young and good players.


OK I'm going to stop the rant soon...

Bottom Line = None of the fans want Jim Fassel. Its not even that we have to have GW as coach, but who the eff said hiring that bum is a good idea? How does that make sense? You are seriously trying to get some season ticket plans cancelled.

None of the fans care who the OC is, as long as the offense progresses

Fire Gregg Williams (or force him out) and let the defense slip next year and you will need to get some police protection. That's not even a threat. That's the truth. Cats will be looking for you. And you ain't hard to find. "Its the short guy with the glasses getting on the private jet."

All I'm saying is. Can you please not f*** this coaching search up like you did when you let Schottenheimer go after finishing the season 8-3 over his last 11 games in his first season with a roster he didn't choose to get Steve Effin Spurrier. Could you please not do something stupid again? PLEASE

PLEASE DO NOT MESS THE TEAM UP ANYMORE!

Apparently, I'm not the only one PISSED...
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/dot.comments/2008/01/skin_fans_in_revolt.html

Thank You Joe Gibbs

Joe Gibbs retired today after an atypical press conference yesterday that had the media buzzing.

Gibbs, who has been saying "I intend to fulfil my contract" - which expires after next season - to keep the rumors away, said something different and the reporters and players who heard it went all WTF! on him.

Apparently, they had reason to.

So...Joe Gibbs retired...

How do I feel about this?

Hmmm....

Well... I will first say that when he initially came back, I was so excited i had a DREAM that I was sitting there talking to Mike Vick of all people talking bout "we got Joe Gibbs, nigga!!". I guess because Vick is from VA. Perhaps I envisioned him returning to the mid-atlantic with Gibbs. Regardless, the dream would make more sense if it were like...LaVar Arrington but whatever.

So I expected good things. The 4 years he had here were, however, weird. The team played with lots of spirit, as Gibbs' strength has always been motivating his players. I can't recall a single time when I complained that the team looked "flat". "These n**** is FUCKING UP" - yes, "they look like they don't care" - no.

So the first year they realize, OK, you can't just run the effing counter-trey (guard pulls and lead blocks a cut of direction run) EVERY 3rd play...if not every two plays. Then they add a pitch out. Then they realize, oh wait, we can't get the ball down the field. Oh wait we need some real plays. And it just was a mess.

To their credit, they didn't draft Kellen Winslow TE out of Miami that year. They took Sean Taylor, S out of Miami. Winslow vowed revenge. (Which is dumb because we'd play the Browns exactly once every 4 years, so max 3 times in his career) Taylor became a ProBowler. R.I.P. 21

Well Gibbs went out and said, ok, we're not going out like that, and at least hired a staff member who was a vertical passing "expert". I forget who but they did it. That year the Skins played tough, but lost like...4 consecutive games to the AFC in November to put themselves apparently out of playoff contention. Blown leads and shit. I gave up on the season...then they reel off 5 straight victories...WTF!!!

I couldn't even enjoy it because it was like "so what, they're not making the... the... playoffs???"
They proceeded to beat Tampa at Tampa in the wild card round without any offense (it was going to Cooley or Santana - that was it. 8 blockers and a Qb + cooley and santana moss. Wild), then lost at Seattle...because Carlos Rogers can't catch easy pick-6's and they had no offense. Brunell's arm was close to falling off and they had no backups to speak of.

So then comes 2006. The weirdest most inexplicable year in the history of a NFL team...until 2007.

So because the offense is cold hard trash, and Kansas City hired Herm Edwards to liven up their press conferences, rather than promote offensive coordinator Al Saunders, we hired him to run our O.

(...yeah...him and his 700 page playbook. That's too many gotdamn plays son. For real. You expect me to remember 700 plays??? What if there are multiple plays per page...ugh.)

So this is exciting news because despite Trent Green NEVER having a WR of note, him and Tony Gonzalez racked up 4000 passing yards and 30 pts a game annually.

Plus Gregg Williams is our defensive coordinator though I think he was in place for the 2005 run, the one with the swarming defense. I miss those games. Total shutdowns. Blitzes...beautiful. They stopped blitzing in 2006. Why? I don't know. It stopped working. It was weird. The whole season was weird.

The 'Skins, considered a few offensive players away, went out and got Brandon Lloyd from the 49ers to compliment Santana Moss and Chris Cooley.

Brunell...didn't work out in 2006. Long story short, his arm gave out. He had that one game at the Texans that I didn't go to for personal reasons, where he set the NFL consecutive completion record.

That's cute.
All of them were dump off passes. There was NO vertical passing game for the Skins in 2006. Speaking of vertical passing. The Redskins moved up in the draft before the 2006 season to take QB Jason Campbell from Auburn. So by the end of the year the fans wanted to see him get some reps with his big arm and...well we didn't know what other talents he had. Mobility? Intelligence? We'd find out.

So the last 7 games of 06, JC17 goes out and learns on the job. He showed flashes, but I've continued to say "Fuck Jason Campbell" since they drafted him. Its not that I think he totally sucks, but he ain't shown and proved nothing yet.

Which is why at yesterday's Joe Gibbs Chunks The Deuce press conference it was cool to see Gibbs acknowledge that if JC and Todd Collins both come back, some competition might be in order. I'm tired of his ass overthrowing wide open receivers and throwing interceptions, in the red zone, at the end of games. He does that shit weekly. I'm still willing to give him a chance though.

Back to 2006. Not only did the Brunell arm fall-off thing mess things up, the team couldn't stop anyone on 3rd down. Ever. Statisticians who follow the NFL professionally expected the Skins to be a much better team this year simply because the alarming rate at which opponents converted 3rd downs HAD to get better.

So after 2006, they went soul searching and had to figure all this stuff out.

Why bring in Al Saunders if you're not going to use his playbook? During the season, when the running game stalled, Gibbs goes all Triple H on him and declares they were going back to "Redskins football" which means running the ball with counter trey and pitches to Clinton Portis. OK fine, you still ended up 5-11.

The defense decided to blitz less, much to my chagrin, and tried to get pressure on the Quarterback with 4 or 5 man rushes instead.

Well in 2007, it worked at first. The Skins got off to a decent start to the season. Good wins, really close losses that can be attributed to first year starter at QB. In fact, every game they lost this year except to the Pats was winnable late in the 4th quarter, including Seattle in the playoffs. I don't think they tried against the Pats. In fact, let me retract my earlier "never came out flat" comment but put an asterik next to it because that was the weirdest thing I'd ever seen. Like they had a reason to bow down to the Pats in week 8. Whatever.

The Skins outplayed every other team they played this year. So when they ended up at 5-7, after 4 consecutive last second Jason Campbell is Effin Up losses, I was like "ok, well next year we'll draft Malcolm Kelly, who JC can't overthrow, and we'll win these games"

Then JC gets hurt against the Bears in what was looking like it was going to be a 0-0 tie. Todd Collins comes in and lights it up. And continues for 4 weeks.

Then the Saints, the only team in the way of a Redskins playoff berth, lost to the Eagles.

This meant that Minnesota "HAS GOT TO GO". At Minnesota. With all-world-rookie Adrian Peterson. I had a dream about Adrian Peterson and how he was "the truth", which he is, because I fell asleep during a Vikings game. So I was a bit worried...but not...really. I was in DC watching this game with my dad.

First thing I noticed, on the first TD pass to Cooley...the Redskins were RUNNING PLAYS! The offense that Al Saunders brought Todd Collins with him to run and teach Jason Campbell was unleashed!

It was like Al Saunders wasn't the offensive coordinator, so long as Jason Campbell was the QB. But he was now. And the Skins started winning.

And we made the playoffs. =)

And we almost beat Seattle until the wheels came off and the team of backups lost the magic. And I wasn't even upset.

I was satisfied with the season. Which is weird when I know the Skins can beat every team in the NFC playoffs.

But the season was so emotional that I just...I was ready for it to be over to be honest. And I didn't even know it.

So imagine how Joe Gibbs, 67, feels.

Perhaps this team is on the cusp of a SuperBowl run next year. Perhaps.

Perhaps they take the reigns off JC with the offense and he flourishes. Or they open QB competition up and Todd Collins wins, plays well the first 7 weeks until JC learns it all and then he gets back in there. Perhaps they play with some consistency and they draft Calais Campbell to get some pass rush off the edge and the D REALLY shuts people down...

Thats a lot of ifs.

All teams in the NFL have "wait till next season" ifs. Joe Gibbs is too old for that. He's won THREE SuperBowls. Would it be more satisfying to get one more after all he's been through this go-around. Maybe. But maybe not. Maybe when you have grandkids and more money than you can spend, football isn't as important to you.

So he's walking away. And I'm ok with that.

Sure, partly because before the streak I was ready for him to leave. But also because its best for him.

The team actually could use one more year of Joe Gibbs leadership and motivational skills.
Hopefully he'll still be around to do some pep talks.

The team is back where it needs to be and where it wasn't after Spurrier came in and messed things up. Its in position to do well.

The nucleus of talent is on the roster. The playoffs don't seem like a distant memory, and its not uncommon for the Skins to be on national tv.

Thanks Coach Gibbs. Hail to the Redskins!

Redskins Wrap 2007-2008 and 2008 Draft Preview

Some of you might wonder why I blog weekly about college football but not much about my favorite NFL team, the Washington Redskins. Its an emotional thing. I try to be semi-objective in my sports blogging and Redskins posts would more often than not come out like vents.

They lost 6 winnable games this year. Not even winnable. Should've won and outplayed the opponent games. They finished 9-7. Lets say they won half of those. They would be 12-4. If one of those wins was against the Cowboys (Jason Campbell last second pick in the red zone seals 28-23 loss) or the Packers (Santana Moss's point shaving game) The Skins would be sitting at home resting this weekend. Its not even sour grapes, watch the games, they outplayed the Bills, Cowboys, Giants, Packers, Bucs...let me shut up.

Now u see what I'm talking about.

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2007-2008 Redskins Wrap Up


Yesterday the Washington Redskins season came to an end.

I am very happy how the season turned out and very very proud of them. I am not angry that they lost to the Seattle Seahawks, even though you could see during the 4th quarter a big window for a victory.

The truth of the matter is the Redskins have been holding it together without their best player - R.I.P. Sean Taylor - their #1 corner back, Carlos Rogers, their #1 outside linebacker in Rocky McIntosh, their #1 and #2 right tackles in Jon Jansen and Todd Wade and their #1 right guard in Randy Thomas. Oh, and their alleged #1 QB in Jason Campbell. All for long stretches of the season.

They lost 4 winnable games in a row in the last seconds of the game. Which is the wildest most frustrating stretch of football a team you can cheer for can ever play, believe me. This doesn't even count the 2 close losses earlier in the season to the Giants and Packers. Yet at 5-7, after going to Sean Taylor's funeral, this band of replacement players and backups, old and young, put together 4 straight victories and nearly knocked off the Seahawks, the NFC's most consistent team over the last 5 years, at Seattle. I can't be mad at that. I love the Redskins and sometimes it seems more like a bad relationship when they play below their potential, but I can appreciate the hard effort and work they have put together this season.

Thanks guys.

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2008 Redskins Draft Preview

And now for the 2008-09 season.

See, since the Skins were 5-7, and there wasn't really an obvious path to the playoffs for them (New Orleans had to lose to someone sorry, and they had to win out and Detroit had to keep losing, and they had to beat Minnesota and NYG and Dallas - thats a lot of ifs to project) - I had already started looking at the team next year and what draft picks I wanted them to make.

Let's break down the team by area

QB - Jason Campbell is inconsistent, which you can expect out of a 2nd year player and 1st year full starter. I hope that watching Todd Collins perform out of this world for 4 and a half weeks solely due to this knowledge of Al Saunders' playbook inspires him to get it memorized. The Redskins offense was healthier towards the end of the season, which helped TC15 out, but I was looking at some nice offensive patterns the Skins wouldn't DREAM of running with JC17 in there. Its almost like Joe Gibbs didn't hand over the playcalling duties to Al Saunders until Jason went down. No QB is needed right now because TC has showen he can be a reliable backup for another year or two. JC could blossom but he could also continue to be frustrating as hell and keep overthrowing ninjas...which leads us to

WR - sure I could and probably should talk about RBs before WRs but if you want to go down that path of criticism, just tell me to keep it real and talk about the OL and DL first.
The bottom line is the Redskins have a #2 receiver playing #1 and a #3 receiver playing #2. That's Santana Moss and Antwaan Randle El. They are each 5'9'' or below. Reche Caldwell, James Thrash, Keenan McCardell, have played well this year but none are long term options.
You see what I'm trying to say is, we need to upgrade at receiver. I was a little curious why the Redskins were considering selling the farm to move up and draft Calvin Johnson last year and now I see why. He's 6'4'' to start. So I expect to see the Skins address this need in the draft's first few rounds.

RB - Clinton Portis is a decent RB, but he frustrates me. And he gets hurt easily. Not sure why Ladell Betts and Rock Cartwright didn't get more carries this year. Mike Sellers at FB isn't the long term option. He can block, but he stays coming up short than a mofo in short yardage situations - the ones he lobbied to get involved with.

OL - The injuires makes it hard to determine if a draft pick should be used on the line or not. I'd tend to say no. Outside of Patrick Kerney DESTROYING undrafted rookie Stephen Heyer in the playoff game, the backups held up. Heyer is young and may develop further with instruction and maturity. Jon Jansen and Todd Wade aren't that old. Randy Thomas will be back at RG. So if u have backups holding up fairly well as starters (Minnesota has beasts on the DL and we ran over them like it wasn't nothing) and you get your true starters back, that's called "depth". Woo hoo! Also trade bait.

TE - Chris Cooley is a ProBowler. Yoder is cool as a backup.

K - Suisham missed a momentum changing kick against Seattle. That's not the first choke whiff he's had this season but he's not a bad kicker. No draft pick needed. Signing someone decent to compete in training camp though.

P - Derrick Frost is an OK punter. Same as Suisham. Let him compete in camp.

DL - The defensive line needs upgrading. Other teams can get a rush at the QB with 4 down linemen occasionally. Early in the season I saw some of that out of the Skins but not late when it counted and definitely not against Seattle. Watching Kerney slam Todd Collins to the Seattle turf the entire 1st half convinced me, and hopefully the team, that DL is what needs to be upgraded before WR or DB. Not to say the young guys at DT suck or Andre Carter is a bum, but the other DE spot needs to be addressed and word is, Albert Haynesworth is a free agent. That being said, the Skins are 20 Million OVER THE CAP. They always convert roster bonuses to signing bonuses, but that doesn't mean they'll have enough to go after the head stomping All-world DT. I'd like to see a presence up the middle though. So the first two rounds of the draft, one's gonna be DL

CB - The Rogers, Springs, Smoot, Torrence, Macklin, crew is ok for a 5-deep at CB. Now, Rogers got hurt seriously and Smoot has a big contract. So...we'll be needing some top level corners. Rogers will not have his explosiveness and agility back until at least 09 and maybe never. I'd be ok with a 1st round pick, IF and only if there was so much talent at DL that we knew with the 51st pick in the 2nd round we could get someone good...like how they got McIntosh in the 2nd round when there were a ton of linebackers in his draft. Is CB a bigger need than WR? Not sure

S - Sean Taylor cannot be replaced easily. There is no player as good as Taylor, the 5th overall pick, at the Safety position in this draft. I really hope they don't draft Kenny Phillips, the top rated Safetey, who happens to be from the University of Miami like Taylor (and Portis, Moss, McIntosh). That's too much pressure on the young man and not fair. Plus he's not nearly as good. I'm ok with Reed Doughty for now but we might need to sign Mike Doss or someone with experience. A 4th round pick would be ok with me

LB - We've had some injuries at the lineback position this year. McIntosh and Washington, two starters, missed significant time. The backups played more than fine. But LB is one of those positions where you kind of keep bringing in talent. If Gregg Williams sticks around, it'll be good to get more bodies for him to rotate in. Not a top draft need unless someone falls mysteriously (like Laurinitis gets busted for weed a week before the draft)

The 2008 NFL Draft
I believe the Skins priorities for drafting should look like this
1. DE
2. DT
3. WR
4. CB
5. S
6. LB
7. OL

The top 3 or 4 needs are so close, I'm ok with the Redskins using their first two picks on the best players available at the time they draft, provided they are in those categories - DE, DT, WR and CB.

Players I'd like to see the Redskins draft (and think might be available)

1. CB Aqib Talib, Kansas. He's 6'2'', can CATCH (carlos rogers beware), can run back kicks, and highly skilled. Mock drafts show him available at 20. I highly doubt this will last. But that's where they are at now. I know the Skins would be in a position to draft a big time DE with the 20th pick because there are some good options, but this draft is deep at DE so one of them will be there at 51 as well. That's my belief. Thus, if Talib is there, take him

2. WR Malcolm Kelly, Oklahoma - Big, good hands. 6'4''. Smooth. Can Freestyle rap. (click to watch).

3. DE Calais Campbell, Miami or Gholston, Ohio State - DE with stats and ability. Campbell is like 6'7''.

Its important to note the Skins traded their 3rd round pick (I think) to the Jets to get Pete Kendall at LG. Which was necessary since they let Derrick Dockery go and trying to get Todd Wade to play LG nearly got Jason Campbell killed in preseason. So that may affect draft orders, and necessitate the DE pick going first. Gotta address needs (no! you take the best player available! LaRon Landry worked out. Needs we'dve had Amobe Okoye, who is fine but I love Landry.)