NFL expectations
OK, the layers of this James Harrison story are now getting to the heights of soap opera juiciness that Dallas reached right about the time they shot J.R.
By now everyone knows that Harrison was cut by the Pittsburgh Steelers and has signed with the New England Patriots. If Harrison does not play a down with New England, the potential information he could supply - ranging from sets to weakness to signals to audibles - could be worth what the Pats are paying him. (How crazy has this thing become? We heard a national talking head wonder aloud if Harrison was doing the duty of a double agent and signed with New England to spread misinformation.)
At first, we thought the hubbub from Steelers fans was unjust. The team cut him. He signed elsewhere. Dude has every right to find a gig. (Speaking of every right, it's a little puzzling the backlash that Dez Bryant is getting for not being willing to work for less money to give the team more cap room. Pay cut? Seriously? Hey some do and bully for them. Brady and Duncan as two of the notable Hall of Famers who worked for below market value, but those are the outliers. Nobody is bad-mouthing Kirk Cousins or Matt Stafford or any of the rest for getting as much as they can. Dez should be no different. And in truth, this is a stop-gap measure because the Cowboys mismanaged their salary cap, and you know when Dak needs to get paid, there will no loyalty shown for those cut to make room for the QB's money. Pay the man his money or cut him and watch someone else do it.)
Where were we? Oh, yes, Pittsburgh and the Harrison deal.
Well, now more details are coming out, and it appears that Harrison was a dreadful teammate down the stretch. Here are some details that include stories of him not visiting Ryan Shazier in the hospital and sleeping in team meetings. Steelers players are blasting Harrison, from linebacker Bud Dupree to lineman Maurkice Pouncey, and claiming he purposely got cut.
Harrison, who had been inactive for the last month or so of games, obviously was not happy with not playing.
Now the finger pointing and blame and all the intrigue add another layer of giddiness if these teams meet in the AFC title game.
Still, we can all pretty much agree that Harrison's legacy will forever be altered in Pittsburgh.
As for the rest, well, maybe a situation this ugly is some what beautiful and that judgement is in the eye of the beholder.
Thoughts?
Fab 4 picks
Gang this is from Wednesday's comments section, and three of the picks have already come and gone. So it goes. (A 2-1 mark Wednesday moved us over the .500 mark for the bowl season for the first time.)
Here we go. Man, you take a vacation and your workload increases.
How does that happen.
Anyhow, we promised some picks on a loaded couple of days.
Here you go, and these are the games we like for the rest of today and tomorrow.
We will come back Friday with some picks for the weekend and again Monday for the New Year's Day games.
Buckle up. And yes, the Oklahoma State-Virginia Tech game may be the most intriguing but that does not mean it will be the most entertaining for our purposes, friends.
Boston College plus-3 over Iowa and over the 45. Boston College has the following edges: a) They enjoy playing physical; b) This was the height of their bowl aspirations so there will be no let down here; c) Iowa has been really mediocre away from the home crowd. Also, BC freshman running back AJ Dillion is a future NFL dude. He has 13 rushing TDs and more than 1,400 rushing yards with a better than 5.0 yard-per-carry average. Yes, buy the half.
Michigan State minus-1 over Washington State. The Cougars were great in Pullman - 7-0 at home, 2-3 on the road - but this one is off the happy hunting grounds and against a defense better than most WSU faced. (Edit: We still love MIke Leach, though.)
Stanford plus-3 over TCU under 51. We are going to buy the half on the game line, and we believe in Stanford, which suffocated Brandon Wimbush, Notre Dame's run-first QB, in November. A healthy Bryce Love makes all the difference here.
Texas plus-3 over Missouri. Lots of folks think this one will go over the 62, and that's a fair point considering Mizzou has torched folks through the second half of the season. Make a lot of sense. But this Texas defense held Oklahoma to less than 30 and we know Tom Herman is putting a lot on this game to finish strong going into a season of higher expectations in 2018.
Side note: Herman is something like 12 billion and 1 as an underdog against the spread, but we'll buy the half to be safe.
Bowl season: 8-7 against the spread and that includes the three picks from Wednesday (53.3 percent)
Regular season: 50-30-1 against the spread (62.5 percent)
God bless Mike Leach
Man, we hope Jeremy Pruitt wins and wins big at UT. Hey, we grew up a Lil' Johnny Vols Fan and we also know that the Vols being good helps our radio show.
Cool.
That said, personally, we are truly sad that Mike Leach is not the new head football coach at Tennessee.
Yes, Pruitt may be a better fit, but we are talking about from an entertainment value here, and simply put there is no one more entertaining than Leach.
We all have seen the clip about Leach's tips on marriage and mascots among other things. (Here's Mike from Wednesday cooling his coffee during a news conference. Mike, please do not change. Ever.)
Now comes this. Mike Leach writing a column for The Players Tribune and sharing his five thoughts that have nothing to do with football.
Here are the bullet points, but do yourself a favor and read the complete list.
* "When I was a kid I had a pet raccoon. I really liked raccoons - still do. I know an inordinate amount about raccoons actually." (The raccoon's name was Bilbo Baggins.)
* "Hawaii is awfully hard to beat as a vacation destination."
* In my opinion the best sports movies are about baseball and boxing. I think the pacing of those sports just lends itself better to cinematic storytelling because there are so many natural pauses. (He goes on to praise Ricky Bobby and Talladega Nights and even discusses naming kids Walker and Texas Ranger to the point that he knows there are tons of kids in Texas named Austin, Dallas and Houston. To that he has this to say: "I wouldn't do that, or at least I'd try to get more creative with it. Name your kid Amarillo or Carrizo Springs. You know what, I'm going to move back to Texas, have another kid and name him Fort Stockton.")
* "I'm a thin-crust pizza guy. I respect people who like thick crust, but in my view it's mostly bread. I like a lot of cheese topped with Canadian bacon, black olives and mushrooms."
* "Before I ever got into coaching, I got my law degree at Pepperdine. I think the legal profession is getting somewhat corrupted. When it comes to lawyers, I think it's kind of a Catch-22."
Thank you Mike Leach.
(Side note: Could you image what Nick Saban would say to a request from anyone about his five thoughts not about football? Oh my.)
This and that
- Looks like trouble in Red Stick, as LSU and Coach O reportedly are going to part ways with Matt Canada, college football's highest paid offensive coordinator, after just one season.
- Here's a Missouri player speaking his feelings about offensive coordinator Josh Heupel leaving the team before the bowl game. The numbers back up his claim that Heupel left them "in a bad position As men they have to look in the mirror. They let a whole bunch of teenage boys down, 18 and 19-year olds." The Tigers had scored 34, 28, 68, 52, 45, 50, 45, and 48 points in their last eight games. In the bowl against Texas Missouri scored 16 and had four turnovers.
- Side note: We talked about Leach before and the bowls, but man Jeff Brohm can coach his headset off, and his trick play before the half led to a field goal that was ultimately the difference in a 38-35 bowl win over Arizona.
- Man, do we not have any original ideas for TV shows? Rosanne is coming back. Mad About You is coming back. Wonder what the cast of Seinfeld could ask for to remake a season or two of that iconic comedy?
- Hue Jackson said he'll back up his promise to jump into Lake Erie if the Browns go 1-15. And he hopes to raise some money for charity in the process. Good for him.
- Man, we get outraged about just about anything these days, you know? Here's Wheel of Fortune fans getting upset with "Lisa" for buying an unnecessary vowel. Here, Cowboys fans are mad because pop star Ciara moonwalked across the logo. Buckets.
- Speaking of the Cowboys-Seahawks, here's the good and the bad of the NFL rating discussion. Sunday's loser-is-eliminated game between Seattle and Dallas was up 51 percent from 2016's comparable national game of the week in week 16. But the 12.2 rating was the lowest for the Cowboys on "America's Game of the Week" slot on Fox since 2005.
- How's this for a throwback: Vince Carter - at 40 years young mind you - outscored LeBron James on Wednesday, 24-16. Last time that happened when they faced off was more than a decade ago.
Today's questions
Put your thinking caps on, and help us come up with the short list of athletes who joined the enemy.
We know the James Harrison move has been the talk of the NFL for the last couple of days, and think Roger Clemens going to the Yankees is high on that list, too,
Who else you got?
Also, if we're going to remake all these old TV shows, which one would you like to see redone?
As for this day, Dec. 28, let's wish Denzel Washington a Happy 63rd Birthday.
Rushmore of Denzel movies. Go, and remember the mailbag.