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The Armchair Quarterback


 Crazy keeps it interesting
 

I was reading about Ron Artest today and got to thinking that we really shouldn't be surprised with athletes who are a bit bonkers. I mean they are just a segment of a greater population and that population has plenty of insane people. What's surprising is that we don't see more guys in sports that pop crazy pills daily. Think about your workplace or your family. Don't most of you know at least one person you're related to or work with that would have been burned at the stake in medeivel times? I've got a lady just down the hall from my office that has 15 staff members under her and a whole lot of degrees on her walls. Yet the more contact with her that I have, the more convinced I become that one day I'm going to come to work and find out that she has dug a pit in her office, placed all her underlings in it and is sending down bottles of lotion in baskets for them to lather up with. Needless to say, I try to avoid eye contact with her as much as possible.

Anyway, my point is that crazy people aren't that unusual. What's unusual is that we can't recognize it quicker and get these people the hell away from us. If I had any power over the crazy chick at work she'd be gonzo in a heartbeat. I guess that's where the Pacers are finally at now. It might be too late though. If this Kings deal falls through what then? At what point do teams not offer anything for Artest but instead demand things in return for taking him. I could even see the Clippers organization(who haven't always been sane themselves) telling the Pacers, "Um, yeah we'll take him, but we're going to need Jermaine O'Neal also and all the autographed basketballs of Larry Bird you can get us".

**UPDATE**

With the Artest trade going down officially now, it's fair to assume crazy + talent=calculated risk. The downside with my situation is that the psycho lady down the hall has a lousy jumpshot.

Posted by The Armchair Quarterback at 1:44 PM - 2 Comments   Add a Comment  
 

 Woops, was I drooling? NFL Conference Championship Thoughts:
 

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........huh?...did somebody say something? Oh that's right, there were a couple of championship football games yesterday. I almost forgot about that. So did sports highlight shows if last night was any indication (Kobe Bryant led off most newscasts. The NBA upstaged the NFL on championship weekend. Ouch!). Just let me get a dry pillow case and we'll begin.

Broncos/Steelers
I in fact did fall asleep during the Bronco/Steeler game but I had the tivo going so I backed it up to see what I missed. What a waste of time. Now if you're a Steeler fan I'm sure it was very exciting, but if you don't give a damn who wins then you have to hope for a good game. It wasn't one. Jake Plummer will be made the goat for the turnovers but the Steeler defense hassled him all day just like they did with Manning and the Bronco running game sure wasn't tearing it up. Roethlisberger on the other hand had all day to throw and amazingly for the second game in a row he did. Now just because I thought the game was boring, that doesn't mean I wasn't impressed with the Steelers. Since when did the Steeler offense turn into the good version of the St. Louis Rams? Why haven't these guys been throwing all season? Maybe they wouldn't have had to claw their way into the playoffs if they had been tossing it like this. Or are they successful because it goes so against the Steeler philosophy that defenses just aren't ready for it? Maybe if they had been throwing it like this during the regular season it wouldn't work now. Roethlisberger looked 10 times better than he did a month ago. I guess those knees are better now. At any rate, I'm glad to see the Steelers come over from the dark side (run-oriented offense) even if it's only for a short time. The bad thing about the Steelers being in the Superbowl? The continuation of the Jerome Bettis media love-fest (it's going to be 100 times worse in the next two weeks). Now Jerome is a nice guy but if he was a chick and the media was the adoring boyfriend then Mr. Bettis would be pregnant right now.

Seahawks/Panthers
Another snoozer. Another game where one quarterback looks great and another looks terrible. Hasselbeck continues to impress. About mid-season I said that if the Seahawks were to go anywhere in the playoffs, Hasselbeck would have to be the one to make it happen. And he has. Alexander is a nice option for them but he's not the driving force in their offense this postseason. It's Hasselbeck. The bald dude is tearing it up.
Similar to the AFC game, this game had one quarterback getting chased constantly. The Seahawk defense though differs from the Steeler D in that it is vastly underrated. These guys are good. You wonder why the Bears couldn't figure out what the Seahawks did. Namely, stop Steve Smith and you stop the Panthers. By the way Smith has got to work on that pouty face he was displaying at the end of the game. It's identical to my 4 year old's.
I congratulate Seahawk fans everywhere. It's hard not to feel good for a franchise that has been so snakebitten in the past. Hard but not impossible. I mean I'm a Ram fan so let's not get carried away here.
Posted by The Armchair Quarterback at 1:25 PM - No Comments   Add a Comment  
 

 Is he gone? Can I come out now?
 

A little comment on the Rams coaching situation.
The new Ram coach is Scott Linehan and I'll admit I know very little about him. I know he had some success with the Vikings as an offensive coach and did some good things with the Dolphins this year. What will he bring to St. Louis? Hopefully some common sense sometimes.
As a Ram fan, Mike Martz drove me crazy. I appreciated his commitment to the passing game which I am a fan of. Yet I also realize you have to protect your QB and pay attention to some aspects of the game and your team that don't involve your offense. Martz couldn't do that. Plus as far as physical appearance and mannerisms goes, Martz ranks just a hair below Bill Belichick on the creepy scale. He's got a different look and style than Belichick but still this is not a guy I'm letting near the kids soccer field on Saturdays.
Anyway, I hope Linehan turns out to be a real genius. I've had enough of the counterfeit version.
Posted by The Armchair Quarterback at 3:48 PM - 1 Comment   Add a Comment  
 

 I'm trying to care about the rest of the playoffs. I really am.
 

Some thoughts on the upcoming games and a few afterthoughts on last weekend's games:

The Steelers/Colts game has to be on of the most fascinating postseason games I've ever seen. There were so many "what the hell?" moments that after a few days I'm still pondering them. Two obvious ones:

  1. I know it's been asked a million times and the only thing left on this beaten horse is the hoofs but what was Pete Morelli thinking when he reversed the Polamalu interception? I don't buy the conspiracy talk. It was just one of the worst calls in NFL history. Kind of like my decision to eat that piece of pizza I had been saving in the fridge since before Christmas. No thought towards the consequences. Morrelli's call has to rank right up there with Nick and Jessica's brain fart on ending a cash cow marriage. Even die hard Colt fans have to be asking, "What the hell?"
  2. Why does Nick Harper cut back instead of running towards the right sideline after picking up the Bettis fumble? There is no way Roethlisberger has the speed to cut him off if he doesn't cut right back into him. This has to be one of the worst running decisions ever. I've watched the replay serveral times. The lane was wide open if he just veers to the right. Say it with me, ---"what the hell?"

Morelli is taking a lot of heat for his Polamalu call. I can't imagine what it would be like if Harper runs that Bettis fumble back and the Colt's win. Does he ever work another NFL game in his life? Wouldn't his life be in danger? I saw the report about a brick being thrown through his window. That's with the Steelers winning.

Well enough about the past, how about this week's games? Both games seem very evenly matched which means they should be pretty closely contested right? Which means they'll probably be blowouts.

  • Can the Jake Plummer continue to defy expectations? He hasn't been god-like this year or anything but he has been efficient and effective and those aren't words I would have put with Jake Plummer before this season. It would be kind of like calling Paris Hilton modest and studious after seeing her next year at UCLA going for her bachelors degree while wearing turtlenecks and knee length skirts. Even after seeing it with your own eyes it would still be hard to shake the image of her in the Carl's Jr semi-porn commercial wouldn't it? Anyway, I think the Steelers will shut down the Broncos running game and Jake will have to make some plays. Interceptions are going to be a key to this game. Roethlisberger shocked the hell out of me with his first half play last week and if he can do it again the Broncos are in trouble. ------I was wrong on 3 out of 4 games last week so who should I jinx this week? I'll take the Broncos by 3.

  • The Panthers have to head into rainy Seattle this week and that should be an edge for the Seahawks. As a Ram fan I should hate Seattle and wish them ill this weekend. I don't. They just haven't been in the NFC long enough and rivalries take some time. Plus they haven't really done anything to earn my dislike yet. For example the Ram SuperBowl loss to the Patriots solidified my Patriot hate for several decades. Before this year it was the Rams who were providing the crushing losses to the Seahwaks. If I was a Seahawk fan I would hate the Rams. This year's Ram losses to the Seahawks really weren't that dishearting because St. Louis wasn't going anywhere anyway. As such, I wouldn't really have heartburn if the Seahawks go the Superbowl. Especially if doing so causes overconfidence next season and major contract issues that hurt their chances to win the division in the future (woops--that sounds like I could be developing some potential Seahawk dislike. Let it simmer for another season and we'll see how it goes).-----I'll pick the Panthers by a touchdown.

Posted by The Armchair Quarterback at 6:10 PM - 3 Comments   Add a Comment  
 

 NFL Playoff Thoughts: Round 2
 

Patriots/Broncos
I’m usually not this excited about being wrong. The Broncos made my year. It’s really pathetic that I get as pumped about a team losing (even one I hate) ---as I do my own favorite team winning. Such is the extent of my Patriot animosity. I still think the Pats are a great team and if they get their secondary healthy and run the ball better they’ll be dangerous again next year. However, I clearly built these guys up to be better than they were this year. In my defense I previously had picked against New England for 4 straight years and they had pissed me off enough times that I had lost the ability to be rational about their team or their quarterback. I’m convinced Brady is still the best QB in the game but I guess this proves he’s mortal and not a servant of Satan (although let’s not rule out the possibility that the guy with the horns and cheesy goatee had some money on the Broncos). The Broncos look tough, Mike' Shanahan's eyes still creep me out, and to Jake Plummer's credit he didn’t implode this season, as many predicted (including myself at the beginning of the season). Sure the Patriots helped Denver out by not securing the ball better, but isn’t that how New England won some games in the past?

Colts/Steelers
I’m officially never picking the Colts in the postseason again. They choke in big games, and by they, I mean Manning. This guy is going to go down as the biggest choke job in the history of the NFL. So he was pressured a bit. Big deal. He still looked like crap on many plays where he had some time. It’s not even a question now; Manning plays tight when the stakes are high. His college career should have taught us that. The Steelers played great for a half. The Colt secondary got their jockstraps handed to them. But let’s be clear about this, the great QBs find a way to make it happen even when they are playing against a good defensive scheme. What really gets me is Manning then tells the press after the game that he doesn’t want to point fingers because he’s a good teammate buuutttt…..his protection broke down. He could have stopped after saying that or even included himself in the criticism but he chose to spell it out a second time for the press and again blamed his protection. Way to take responsibility. What a retard. If I was an offensive lineman for the Colts I’d let a really “good teammate” like Payton get a nice big dose of broken protection in the first game next season. Anyway, Manning's a whiner and a pussy and probably can't even spell the word "clutch".
Oh and this ought to answer the question of whether or not it’s a wise choice to rest an offense for a month when they depend on timing and rhythm.

Seahawks/Redskins
I’m impressed with Hasselbeck. He’s growing on me. He didn’t dazzle but he played well and held his crew together even with Alexander going down. The Redskins have a nice defense and an offense that sucks. So Seattle scored just enough and didn’t give up points they shouldn’t have. The Colts, Bears, and Pats wish they could say the same thing. That's what the playoffs are about. This was the game I cared the least about so I don't have much more to offer other than I'm very sad to see the Clinton Portis sideshow end.

Bears/Panthers
Woops. My bad. I had the Bears defense down as being really great. I’m thinking that a great defense doesn’t let the Panther's main and sometimes only offensive weapon torch them seemingly every play. Maybe Steve Smith is just that awesome. He’s destroyed just about everybody else this year, so why not Urlacher and Co.? Still it was a good season for Chicago. Nothing to be ashamed of . Except for Kyle Orton's beard.
Posted by The Armchair Quarterback at 11:03 AM - 5 Comments   Add a Comment  
 
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Author: The Armchair Quarterback
From Utah, USA
Age: 36
 
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