Monday Mania - “December Dash?,” More Cutler, Detroit Lions Draft, and Bigfoot?

Posted by HyperLithium

March 23, 2009

I can’t deny it and neither can any of the football world but reporting on the NFL is actually a little slow right now. This is about the only time of year, that I can think of, where the NFL is not the most reported item in all of sports. March Madness is way outpacing football and rightfully so. Who doesn’t fill out a bracket? I mean, at least just one! This is really the first year I’ve been much more conscious of my picks but I have participated since elementary school off and on with generally little success but a lot of fun. I, also, sat down with a friend yesterday and actually watched basketball. All of this has just added another reminder that the NCAA has it all wrong when it comes to football. I will get to that along with my take on Cutler and what the Lions should be thinking in the draft.

December Dash?
Okay, maybe a stupid name as I’m not really sure what you might call it but if the fact that March Madness is EVERYWHERE isn’t a wake up call to the stupid BCS Bowl Games then I just don’t know what would be. It was again a big topic this year about switching out the bowl games with some type of “playoff” for NCAA football. Many people are on both sides but I think most are in agreement that the BCS system is generally not that fair and really is not ideal. I’m not going to setup the playoff bracket for you but I will just say I’ve heard of a couple that I woud support without issue.

The NCAA needs to learn from the success of March Madness and apply it the the football program. Not only is “the tourney” much more fair but it’s more interesting and an absolutely immense draw. It’s obvious that teams can’t play games Saturday and Sunday in football but weekend to weekend would be perfect. More people would probably be interested in more football games than just Bowl X and Y. Why? Because the weight of the games are increased so much no matter who is playing when there is a playoff going on. All of a sudden the Ball State Cardinals would be all over the press for a week and I’d know their starting line up. More press, a better more fair format, and a real ultimate champion. What is there to lose!?

Jay Cutler… some more
There is a good chance I’m going to be left on the far side with this one but when did lying become so accepted in our society? As much as I like Mike Golic on Mike & Mike in the Morning on ESPN I think Golic is pretty wrong on this topic. Golic’s take is that Cutler is just whining at this point and he needs to get on the field. Saying today he shouldn’t need a pat on the back or butt to take the field.

Maybe I’m misintrepting it all but I don’t think Cutler is necessarily looking for a “Dat a boy” but rather just an apology and a sincere acknowledgement that he’s their QB this season. Why is that so bad? I can’t imagine if my boss was replaced by someone who told me I was gonna be great to work with then they tried to get rid of me. Follow that with lying about getting rid of me and then not being willing to say they won’t do it anyway. Who in the hell wants to work under that condition? NFL aside, I don’t even think most NFL coaches would be taking a coaching job if the Owner was doing that to them.

At some point Cutler is going to have to show up and practice. Hopefully McDaniels learns that being a damn weasel just doesn’t work when you’re trying to lead men. This all leads into…

Lions Draft
Ah, the Lions, fighting for King of the toilet franchises. Who are the toilet franchises? Oakland, Detroit, and Cincinnati are easily the worst run franchises in the NFL with Arizona probably rejoining them in the future. Oakland has Al Davis, need I say more? Detroit, well, I really wonder if Detroit doesn’t become Los Angelos in the next 10 years. “Los Angelos Lions” really sounds great and we all know how well ‘Detroit’ is doing right now. Cinncinati, well, Mike Brown is just an absolutley terrible owner. I’m not sure the game has had a worse owner doing personnel moves. Not only can he not scout talent but he far surpasses anyone else in the league for continuning to bring in players with repeated offenses. The Bengals don’t keep their good players and will never go beyond overachieving. Those three are the trio de Toilet.

Now, back to the Lions draft. Detroit has a couple choices. One, they could sell the barn to get Jay Cutler. He’s young, smart, big arm, and would instantly give them a franchise quarterback. They have a number 1 pick and there isn’t a QB in the draft that comes close to Cutler right now and a good chance they won’t in five years either. Calvin Johnson would sure as hell appreciate this.

Another option is to use that first pick on Aaron Curry, LB Wake Forest. This will cost them less than drafting a QB first and give them an instant starter and impact player on defense. As long as Curry stays healthy I’d be looking at him for Rookie of the year. Sure, let’s wait and see what he does but Curry is about as ideal you get at linebacker.

To accompany this if they don’t get a QB they should be looking at Jeff Garcia or Byron Leftwich. I can’t believe those guys are still there to begin with and they give you a great shot to win. Hell, even if they got a QB they should try to sign one of these guys. In addition to that Orlando Pace, Tory Holt, and Derrick Brooks could all boulster that team. All three guys would make instant impacts and probably play long enough for the Lions to really rebuild.

Goddam, why aren’t I a GM?

Non-NFL Note of the Week (Tech)
Bigfoot Networks is releasing another fancy pants Network Card. They are the makers of the “Killer NIC” which included onboard memory, a “Network Processing Unit,” and a custom heatsink on a 10/100/1000 card. There are two versions right now that are selling for $230 and $150 for the M1 and K1.

Their new products are going to be called the Xeno Pro and Xeno Ultra. These are being released with the promise of making voice chat a lot better for gamers. The pricing seems odd at $180 and $130 compared to the current models but so be it. Alienware has signed on and it’s pretty fitting. Not only is Alienware selling overpriced computers they are probably selling to the same people who have too much money and not enough brain.

A better cheaper alternative? I have been telling anyone that will listen for quite awhile to get an Intel network card. An Intel 10/100/1000 PCI NIC will run about $30 right now and will actually register a difference for most people without emptying out the wallet. Oh, and if you get two of them ($60) Intel’s software lets you easily pair them giving you about the fastest connection you’ll never need at home. Just to put this in further perspective, Intel’ s 2.4 GHz Quad-Core Q6600 is going for $200 as I’m writing this.

Hyper’s Thoughts