NFL Power Poll
Let's celebrate this True or False Tuesday with simple questions and answers about the 10 teams - and a bonus pick - in the NFL power poll. Deal? Deal.
1. New England (6-1). The Patriots are the only team in the league we can truly trust. True. It's staggering what the marriage of the Belichick and Brady has produced, but we know it's feature a lot of shrunken balls around the league, both on the field and in the opposing organizations.
2. Minnesota (5-1). The Vikings are about to make another deal or suffer the consequences. True. Minnesota has lost its top three tackles and Sam Bradford was crushed Sunday against Philly. Cleveland is looking for a second-round pick for All-Pro tackle Joe Thomas and the Vikings are definitely interested.
3. Denver (5-2). This is the best defense in the NFL. True. And what's scary is that they are getting to the quarterback in waves despite losing three members of their front seven to free agency and DeMarcus Ware to injury earlier this season.
4. Seattle (4-1-1). Russell Wilson is healthy. False. Dude looked bad Sunday night, going to one checkdown after another. (He threw for 224 yards on 37 attempts.) More notably for Wilson and his bad wheel, he ran all of one time for minus-2 yards. If he gets right, Seattle may be the favorite in the NFC. If not, then it's not.
5. Dallas (5-1). There's a QB controversy in Dallas. False. This is Dak Prescott's team, and right now, the Cowboys are lining up behind him. In fact, the only way this becomes a controversy is if Dez Bryant makes it one.
In this Oct. 9, 2016, file photo, Cleveland Browns quarterback Cody Kessler (6) walks off the field with Joel Bitonio after being injured on a hit by New England Patriots outside linebacker Dont'a Hightower in the first half of an NFL football game, in Cleveland. The Browns (0-5) and Titans (2-3) play Sunday, Oct. 16, 2016.(AP Photo/Ron Schwane, File)Worst
28. Jacksonville (2-4). Thursday's Jags-Tennessee Titans showdown will be this week's "Tom Emansky's Fundamental Video Game of the Week." Uh, false. Man, it really should be time for the NFL to review this Thursday night plan. It's broken right now, and the games are dreck. You guys are $10 billion operation, figure out how to pit teams coming off byes from weeks four-through14. Then start the season with a Thursday night doubleheader and then play two of those teams in week two. That means you keep the Thursday night paycheck, you get teams much more rested with game plans in place for a vast majority of the season and the product will be much better. Unless of course it's Jags-Titans.
29. Carolina (1-5). The margin between success and failure in the NFL can be as slight as turnovers. True, 100 percent, in fact, and the Panthers are the proof of it. All the plays that went their way a year ago have bounced our of their reach. And yes, protecting the ball and taking the ball are so cliched even Butch Jones hesitates to use them, but still.
30. Chicago (1-6). Now that Jay Cutler has been cleared to play, the Bears are going to make a run. False. This roster is hollow and, even after receiving a sprat from Brian Hoyer for a couple of weeks, now he has a broken arm. So Cutler comes back to finish out his final year with the Bears. Regardless, this team will be in the quarterback sweepstakes next April. Say it with us, "Defeats for Deshaun."
31. San Francisco (1-6). Chip Kelly will be the coach of the 49ers this time next year. We'll go false here. Yes, this is year one in San Fran, but you have to believe if the right job comes open on the college level, Kelly has to realize his system and style is 100 percent, old-school, Southern Baptist, which means it doesn't work on Sundays. That right job could be back at Oregon, and offer Kelly a kind of Petrino-like reunion tour.
32. Cleveland (0-7).Is the worm turning for the Browns? We will say true, if ever so slightly. They have found a nice collection of skill players with wide out Terrelle Pryor, backs Isiah Crowell and tight end Gary Barnidge. Defensively, they are playing hard, and if they get a chance to deal Thomas for a second-rounder, well, that will give the chance to add four impact picks in the first two rounds next spring.
FILE - In this May 24, 2016, file photo, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell answers reporter's questions at an NFL owner's meeting in Charlotte N.C. The NFL says it will spend an additional $100 million to develop new technology and support more medical research into the growing problem of head injuries. Goodell announced the “Play Smart. Play Safe” initiative in an open letter Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016. (AP Photo/Bob Leverone, File) How about one more?
The powerless poll needs one more way down the list, right?
How about this? Bonus pick: 1,203. Roger Goodell. Goodell's job is in jeopardy. We'll say false, but it's no where near as secure as it was three years ago and there has to be whispers that are growing. Consider the turn of events in the last year:
- There's the nightmarish handling of the DeflateGate issue. (Whatever you view on that, whether you're like Stewwie and write "Tom Brady*" with the asterisk or whether you are like Spy and think Brady was railroaded, whatever. We all can agree that this entire thing was botched and delayed and confounding from the very start.)
- Now add in the weak stance/no stance on the protests that have become a real smudge on the shield.
- Now add in the awful way the league has embarrassed themselves in the Josh Brown thing. Again, we are happy to have the discussion on whether the league should be trying to enforce domestic violence regulations when the law enforcement arms of our country do an awful job at it, and I can make an argument on either side of that issue. That said, the league put in a protocol after it completely tripped over its collective tongue in the Ray Rice deal - a matter that jumpstarted the questions whether Goodell could handle a ship this big - and what happened with the Brown scenario over the last few months? The league completely ignored its own protocol and winged it. It's an awful mistake in general, and one that seems downright inexcusable coming from Goodell, considering how much heat he took during the Rice debacle. (And this is not even getting into the growing rumblings - rightly or wrongly - from the players about the way this was handled on differently when it comes to race, and that the black guy is out of the game and the white guy is on the commissioner's exempt list, which means he can't play but he's still collecting his game checks.)
- And finally - and maybe most importantly, all things considered - is that TV numbers are down by double-digits and stadiums are starting to look less and less full. Goodell has garnered a lot of good faith among his 32 bosses because he has helped grow the game exponentially in the last decade. And money rules the world in the realm of the uber-wealthy so all that other stuff in the Room of 32 is background noise for the most part. As the game - and their wallets - grow, Goodell was paid handsomely in the neighborhood of $40-plus-million annually (and that's a really nice neighborhood) to handle the broom and clean up the messes and hold the umbrella in the poop storms that come up.
He's done that, even when he has been the cause of said poop storm, well enough to this point as long as the big checks with several commas keep coming.
But now that the popularity in the stands and on the tube are turning the other way, well, it magnifies his shortcomings in other areas.
Ooltewah High School assistant basketball coach assistant coach Karl Williams, head coach Andre "Tank" Montgomery and Athletic Director Allard "Jesse" Nayadley during (front to back) appear before Judge Robert Philyaw during a preliminary in Hamilton County Juvenile Court on February 25, 2016. Hamilton County District Attorney Neal Pinkston charged the three with failing to report child abuse or suspected child sexual abuse in connection with the rape of an Ooltewah High School freshman by his basketball teammates Dec. 22, 2015.Buckle up
The national storm that was created by the Ooltewah incident last December was big. We remember it, and hopefully our next wave of new school leadership will learn powerful lessons from it.
Sadly, there's another high school sports story brewing with controversy on the horizon. Rightly or wrongly, the one brewing in Mississippi that may be bigger on a national scale.
According to this story, is protesting in south Mississippi after a black high school football player had a noose put around his neck and was pulled backward. Yes, a noose. In 2016. Some people are too dumb to live truthfully.
It's wrong and it's awful and there's a big divide between pranks and potential hate crimes, which is what the NAACP is calling for this to be charged as. That seems a bit over the top, but this will be a monster case in the eye of the public, in large part because of the negative symbolism around a noose.
It will be interesting to watch how this one is handled in a couple of regards, including where was the NAACP when the Ooltewah thing happened? Yes, the main victim on the Owls assault was a black basketball player and the three main perpetrators were also black.
According to the story above, the NAACP spokesman said the Mississippi sophomore was assaulted by three white players, but the coach - a black man - refuted that saying it was his understanding that it was only one white player responsible. It's also important to note that, the Ooltewah case feature a violence that, while without the hate symbol of a noose, was far greater and exponentially more physically damaging than having your neck pulled.
No white person, myself included, could ever discuss the mental tram for a black person having a noose put around his neck. It's horrible and hateful and certainly deserves punishment. But, even in my inability to understand the magnitude of that, it seems that it would be much preferred than having a pool cue shoved up your rectum to the point that you'd need multiple surgeries, no?
Of course, the kicker here is that the officials in Stone County, Miss., apparently took the 'head in the sand' play right out of the Ooltewah and Hamilton County play book. According to the NAACP spokesman, none of the player or players accused of the act have been punished beyond being removed from the football team.
Even worse, the family told the NAACP that the Stone County sheriff's department tried to talk them out of pressing charges. In the above story, officials from the Stone County school board and the sheriff's department declined to comment or did not return calls.
Man we can be a mean and hateful society at times. And the only thing that scares me more than that is how downright stupid we can be.
This and that
- Man, that took a couple of turns this morning. With that, we'll cover a couple of biggish topics in the tidbits portion of today's show.
- We'll take the Cubs in 5, winning it in Chicago as it should be for a party of city-wide proportions. We'll take Javier Baez as the MVP, and great stat here: Of the 25 players on the Cubs roster, 23 of them were acquired by GM wunderkind Theo Epstein. Only Jaez and Willson Contreras were already in the Cubs system before Epstein arrived.
- Side question going into this thing: There's a huge off-the-field Hall of Fame swing to this series. If the Indians win, it will be the third championship for Cleveland manager Terry Francona. That's Hall-worthy. If the Cubs win, Epstein pencils himself into the discussion as the greatest executive since Branch Rickey by ending the curses in Boston and Chicago, right?
- Another thing: Cleveland would be an overwhelmingly sentimental pick against any other opponent save the Chicago Cubs. So, naturally, Cleveland has printed "Cleveland against the World" T-shirts and here's betting they sell like hot cakes. (Not sure where that expression comes from. Where are hot cakes the best seller? IHOP, a bakery maybe? Whatever.) And factoring in the LeBron angst and the great love for a fun and potential record-setting Warriors team last June, most of the country was against Cleveland in the NBA Finals too, right? Well, one big exception was the place where the they believe the best single-season NBA team resided. A little town called Chicago, which assuredly was pulling for Cleveland then. This week? Not so much.
- We normally have a college football countdown or three today, but alas, we got distracted. Sue us. We can say this: UT fans are starting to get some better news as some of the guys in the first run of the injury bug are getting well. Darren Kirkland is expected to play this weekend and his presence at linebacker will be much-welcomed.
- Here's a great look at the great life of Tommy Bartlett, the Hall of Famer, from TFP hall of famed sports columnist Mark Wiedmer. Good stuff.
- Man, if you are a Subway fan or stockholder, you best get what you can while you can if this story is true. Jared Fogle's ex-wife is suing the sandwich chain, saying they were told three times, dating back as far as 2004, about Fogle's sinful ways. Fogle of course is serving prison time for child sex and porn charges. If this proves true, this could be game-changing for Subway, both in the bank account and in the court of public perception.
- Cool story here. At the ETSU basketball madness thingy, two students were selected at random, and they each got to pick a Bucs player to try to make a halfcourt shot for a free semester at ETSU. And of course, both ETSU players drilled the shots so everyone is going to Sizzler.
Today's question
Feel free to discuss any of the NFL true or falses. Also, feel free to make a World Series pick.
Here's another question: What should baseball do or be planning to maximize what will be the most World Series in a long time considering the casual sports fan's interest in the Cubs storyline?
Now, if you just need a Rushmore, or if you like those cats from last week who try to predict where the Rushmore will take us each day, well, we thought about going most famous plane crashes but that's too macabre. (Today's the 17-year anniversary of Payne Stewart's death.)
Let's try this: On this day in 1978, the original "Halloween" was released. Rushmore of old-school scary-movie monsters.
Go.