NFL 1st quarter report

Well back again with another Blog and although most of predictions about College and Pro Football are not looking too good right now I have decided to look at the NFL a quarter of the way through the season.
We currently have 5 undefeated teams (Colts, Saints, Vikings, Broncos, and Giants) and 6 winless teams (Panthers, Titans, Chiefs, Browns, Rams, and Bucs) and in my opinion the last unbeaten team will be the Colts and the last winless team will be the Rams. Also the most fradulent of the undefeated teams is the Broncos because they have played no one and we will see how truly good they are in their next 4 games which are the Patriots, Chargers, Ravens, and Steelers. The winless team most likely to turn it around is the Panthers, because they are only 0-3 not 0-4 and if they get back to running the football with Stewart and Williams they can take some pressure of Jake Delhomme by limiting his throws thus limiting his interceptions and turnovers.
When it comes to the biggest suprise and disappointment, Denver is by far the biggest suprise and the Titans are the biggest disappointment because they have played a weaker schedule then the Panthers and loss less then Carolina.
In terms of awards right now the MVP is Peyton Manning, the Offensive Player of the Year is Drew Brees, the Defensive Player of the Year is Darren Sharper, The Coach of the year is Josh McDaniels, The Offensive rookie of the Year is Mark Sanchez, and the Defensive Rookie of the Year is Brian Cushing of Houston.
Awards at the end of the year: MVP: Peyton, OPOY: Brees, DPOY: Ray Lewis, Coach: Sean Payton, OROY: Moreno DROY: Cushing
Now for my revised playoff predictions:
AFC: 1. Colts 2. Ravens 3. Patriots 4. Chargers 5. Steelers 6. Broncos
NFC 1. Saints 2. Giants 3. Packers 4.Cardinals 5. Eagles 6. Vikings
AFC WC round: Pats over Broncos, Steelers over Chargers
NFC WC round: Packers over Vikings, Eagles over Cardinals
AFC Div round: Ravens over Patriots, Steelers over Colts
NFC Div round: Giants over Packers, Saints over Eagles
AFC Championship: Ravens over Steelers
NFC Championship: Saints over Giants
Super Bowl: Ravens over Saints MVP: Ray Lewis
Tomorrow Baseball playoff preview

Boxing vs. UFC/MMA

Whats up I am back again with another blog this time about the two main combat sports in the world, boxing and MMA/UFC, which is incredibly poignant because next saturday the UFC is putting on a PPV in Dallas while on the same night there will be a boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Juan Manuel Marquez and although I think the UFC card Saturday is weak for recent standards and that the Mayweather fight will have more buys, I still strongly believe that the UFC and MMA is the fastest growing sport in the world and has surpassed boxing as the most popular fight sport in the world for a variety of reasons. First of all boxing relies on two active guys to have a big PPV Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao while the UFC has had 8 guys main event cards which have gone over a million buys and gets nearly 600,000 buys for almost all of its monthly pay per views.Next is the fact that the UFC is clearly the king of MMA and the champion in the UFC is in all cases but 1 the consensus best fighter at that wieght class, while in Boxing there are like 10 different organizations each with their own champion so the fans have hard time truly knowing who is the best. Also MMA is bigger then boxing and is one of the 2 most popular sports in countries such as Canada, Brazil, England, Japan, Russia and many more. To prove my point a UFC fighter, Georges St. Pierre, was named the most popular athlete in Canada, by the fans, over the likes of Sydney Crosby and Steve Nash while another UFC fighter, Michael Bisping, was named the most popular athlete in the UK by the fans over the likes of Wayne Rooney and David Beckham. Another fact to back up my point is that a UFC event earned the highest gate in Pennsylvania history over any Steelers, Phillies, Eagles, Penguins, or Sixers game. The Last fact that in the fight capital of the world, Las Vegas, UFC 100 holds the record for the fastest sell out in the cities history. So no matter which sport you think is bigger and more popular there is one thing we can agree with and that is the UFC and boxing are here to stay.

NFL Preview 2009-2010

The countdown is on less then 30 hours until the Steelers and Titans kick off the NFL season and I am here with my predictions for every teams record, the major awards, the playoffs, who will win the Lombardi trophy so lets get started.
AFC North
1. Pittsburgh 14-2 (1 seed)
2. Baltimore 13-3 WC (5 seed)
3. Cincy 7-9
4. Browns 5-11
That was tough to write being a ravens fan but the Steelers schedule is so much easier then Baltimore's Baltimore plays the Colts and Pats and visits the Chargers and Packers while Pittsburgh plays the Dolphins and titans and hosts the Chargers and Packers
AFC South
1. Colts 12-4 (#2 seed)
2.Texans 11-5 WC (6 seed)
3. Titans 10-6
4. Jags 3-13
AFC West
1. Chargers 12-4 (#3 seed)
2. Denver 5-11
3. Kansas City 4-12
4. Oakland 2-14
AFC East
1. Patriots 11-5 (4 seed)
2.Dolphins 9-7
3. Bills 5-11
4. Jets 4-12
NFC South
1.Panthers 12-4 (#2 seed)
2.Falcons 11-5 WC (5 seed)
3.Saints 10-6
4. Bucs 1-15
NFC East
1. Cowboys 11-5 (4 seed)
2. Eagles 11-5 (6 seed)
3.Giants 9-7
4. Redskins 7-9
NFC West
1.Cardinals 12-4 (3 seed)
2. Seattle 10-6
3. 49ers 5-11
4. Rams 2-14
NFC North
1. Packers 13-3 (1 seed)
2. Vikings 10-6
3. Chicago 3-13
4. Detroit 2-14
AWARDS:
MVP: Aaron Rodgers
Offensive POY: Aaron Rodgers
Defensive POY: Ray Lewis
Offensive ROY: Beanie Wells
Defensive ROY: Brian Cushing
Coach of the Year: Norv Turner
Comeback Player of the Year: Matt Schaub
Suprise Team: Green Bay/Houston
Dissapointment: Chicago
Playoffs
Wild Card round
Ravens over Pats 24-20
Chargers over Texans 20-13
Dallas over Atlanta 31-24
Arizona over Philly 34-27
Divisional round
Ravens over Steelers 17-13
Chargers over Colts 31-27
Arizona over Carolina 27-24
Green Bay over Dallas 23-17
Conference Championship round
Ravens over Chargers 20-17
Green Bay over Arizona 27-20
Super Bowl
Ravens over Packers
27-21 MVP Flacco

September Baseball Preview

There is about a month left in the season and I am back to give you my predictions for the division and wild card races in both Leagues as well as the major awards in both leagues and How I see the Playoffs going.
AMERICAN LEAGUE:
AL EAST: Yankees (Best record in AL)
AL Central: Tigers (# 3 seed)
AL West: Angels (#2 seed)
Wild Card: Red Sox (#4 seed)
NATIONAL LEAGUE:
NL East: Phiilies (#3 seed)
NL Central: Cardinals (#2 seed)
NL West: Dodgers (Best record in NL)
Wild Card: Rockies (#4 seed)
AWARDS
AL MVP: Derek Jeter
NL MVP: Albert Pujols
AL CY Young: Justin Verlander
NL Cy Young: Chris Carpenter
AL Rookie of the Year: Elvis Andrus
NL Rookie of the Year: J.A Happ
AL Manager of the Year: Mike Scioscia
NL Manager of the Year: Jim Tracy
PLAYOFFS
AL Divisional Series
NYY over Det in 5
LAA over Bos in 5
NL Division Series
STL over COL in 3
PHI over LAD in 7
ALCS
LAA over NYY in 7
NLCS
STL over Phi in 6
WORLD SERIES
STL over LAA in 6 MVP: Pujols
Next Week: NFL Preview

College Football Preview

Im so excited College Football season is right around the corner (Starts Thursday) I am here with a previews and prediction for each conference, the BCS games (including the national championship game), and the Heisman trophy race.
The Big East is the weakest of the BCS conferences with no preseason top 25 teams in the entire conference but I see Rutgers winning the conference because they get most other conteders at home.
The ACC is the most even conference in the BCS with 1o of the 12 teams making Bowls last year and i expect more of the same with Florida State winning the Atlantic and Georgia Tech winning the coastal due to the fact that they host the Hokies and then beating FSU to win the ACC.
The Big Ten will come down to two teams Ohio State and Penn State who meet in Happy Valley on November 7th, where I see Ohio State getting revenge for last year and beating Penn State to win the Big Ten.
The Pac 10, which has been dominated by USC this decade, will see a new king this year as Cal beats USC in Berekly to win the Pac 10.
The Big 12 will again be dominated by high powered offense and the southern division which will be a three team race between Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Texas which I see Oklahoma winning and beating Big 12 North Champion Kansas in the Big 12 title game.
The SEC will be very competitive especially in the West where Ole Miss will beat out Alabama and LSU to win the West and face the SEC East champion Florida in the SEC title game with Florida coming out on top.
Also Boise State will run the table and earn a BCS birth
When it comes to the Heisman I see the three finalists from last year (Sam Bradford, Tim Tebow, and Colt McCoy) being the finalist again with Colt McCoy winning the trophy largely due to the fact that voters have shown a tendency to not want to give some a second Heisman.
The BCS bowls will be as followed:
Rose- Ohio State over Cal
Fiesta- Texas over USC
Sugar- Boise State over Ole Miss
Orange- Georgia Tech over Rutgers
National Championship- Oklahoma over Florida.
Later this Week: Baseball blog

Back to School

I am going back to Towson tomorrow for my sophemore year. I am a little nervous about getting back into the flow of things and doing well in school but I feel like after 2 weeks at the most I will be fine. I am looking forward to reconnecting with some of my friends from school such as DS, Jason, Scott, Ben and many more as well as all my frat brothers and having the freedom that being a college kid affords you.
I have a few goals I hope to accomplish this year namely keeping up my good grades that I had last year. Another goal of mine is to make new friends and strengthen my relationships with my old friends some of whom I mentioned above. One more goal I have is to help my fraternity grow in terms of quantity and quality as well as use my position on exec board at Hillel to make it as strong as possible. Also I hope to get a job either on or off campus to supplement the money my parents are giving to me. Furthermore I want to figure out what direction I want to go with my major, Sports Management, in order to determine what I want to do for my future career. Going along with that idea is that I would like to get a summer internship in the sports industry but if I don't I would be happy to return to Camp Milldale for a 9th summer. The next goal of mine is to travel to places I have not been to like I did last year going to Israel and Argentina. Lastly I hope to enjoy this year as much as I did last year if not more.
I would be lying if I said I am not going to miss my family especially my parents, my bubby, and my brothers they are great and I know they would do almost anything for me. This being case along with the fact that they are only 20 minutes away I know that if I am missing them I will be able to see them on a semi-regular basis and that they are only a phone call away.
Next Week: College Football Preview/Baseball blogs

Apology/Favre and Vick

first of all I would like to apologize for not writing in a few months but I have been very busy, largely due to working at a summer camp for the past two months, also I have not found anything good to write about until now...Mike Vick and Brett Favre.
When it comes to Mike Vick I think Roger Godell is handling this situation perfectly not because I think Vick doesn't deserve a second chance but because Godell must protect the NFL and its sponsors from crazed protesters and PETA attacking them constantly and hurting their PR. Also Godell was lied to face to face by Vick so even though Vick has said all the right things we need to see if Vick's actions match his words.
Now on the field I think the eagles are good but not great fit for him because I think he is too similar to McNabb and his best asset while he was in the NFL was his running ability and no coach runs less the Andy Reid and they just drafted a running back high in the draft. Also Reid is tied to McNabb and both have a very short window of time left before they are gone so now Vick has a lot more pressure on him.
Teams that I felt would have been better fits for him are Pittsburgh, Green Bay, and Seattle among others. Pittsburgh would have been a great fit because their fans and owner are very loyal and support anyone in black and gold. Also they have an established QB who has rings so there is no expectation of Vick becoming the starter so he can slowly work his way back. Green Bay would have worked because again their fans are loyal and they need two things which Vick could give them a backup QB and help/insurance at running back in case Ryan Grant does not return to 2007 form and there is less media pressure then in Philly. Lastly Seattle would have been another good fit for him because both the coach, Jim Mora jr, and the Offensive Coordinator, Greg Knapp, are familiar with Vick from their time together with Atlanta also the Seahawks need help in the running game as well as insurance just in case Hasselbeck is not healthy and they are out of the media spotlight.
Now I come to Brett Favre and his return to the Vikings. Let me start off by saying that about a year ago I was saying Favre was the greatest QB in the history of the NFL but now he is tarnishing his legacy with this constant flip flopping about retirement. Also I love the convenient excuse he has for his poor play down the stretch last year, his shoulder, which was fine when he beat the titans and patriots but magically was torn against denver, the niners, and seattle.
On the Vikings end of the deal I think there are some major negatives, namely the fact that their team is best suited for a game manager like Trent Dilfer with the 2000 Ravens or Brad Johnson with 02 Bucs, and Favre is far from a game manager. Also their O-line is not going to be as good as it was last year due to the loss of Center Matt Birk. Furthermore they are relying on a rookie WR to be either a starter or a slot guy and I can only think of 3 or 4 rookie WR in the past 10 years who have made a huge impact. Lastly if Favre gets hurt like 18 year veteran QBs do how can either Rosenfels or Jackson have confidence in themselves or their coaches knowing that they were tossed aside so quickly.
Again I apologize for the gap in postings and I promise to write more often