Adam “Pacman” Jones is really on the verge of some major trouble. The police recently confirmed he was involved in a fight at a Dallas hotel with his Cowboys assigned security guard. No charges are being filed, no arrests were made. Very close call for Jones. He has to know that if his name goes on one police report, his NFL career is immediately over. If this kid wants to keep playing football, this is not the way to do it.
Al Davis could be getting himself and the Raiders in trouble for his recent public claim of tampering by the New England Patriots. Davis said the Pats tampered and brought Moss in for an early workout before trading for him back in April 2007. The NFL said they may give a large fine and potentiall dock one or more draft picks. Basically, the league is saying Davis needs to shut his mouth and file his grievences properly and in a timely manner.
Jets safety Eric Smith will be serving a one game suspension after losing his appeal over the hit on Anquan Boldin. Yesterday afternoon on Sirius NFL Radio, Smith stated his claim and said he was going to knock the ball loose and prevent a TD, and was looking to hit Boldin right in the chest. The corner hit Boldin from behind, which basically knocked the receiver into the helmet-helmet collision. If you watch the video below, you can see that Boldin clearly was hit from behind and it does indeed look like Smith was going in for a chest high hit. However, the severity of the injury and the fact that Smith looks like he was leading with his helmet is probably what the NFL is going on. It’s legal to hit a defenseless player (IE – receiver in the air), but helmet to helmet while defenseless is going to get you a fine.
In other news, my fantasy team is down to only 2 players I drafted. Clinton Portis and Braylon Edwards. I just traded Tomlinson and Earnest Graham for Eli Manning, Greg Jennings and Santonio Homles. Got my 2nd win with all three new starters in the lineup last week. Hopefully things are looking up.
Friday 8/22:
Brewer game! I love Friday night baseball. Something about the atmosphere just makes it so much more fun. I think it’s something about everyone finally getting out of work after a long week and just letting go and enjoying the game. Brewers played the Pirates. We had great seats, it was a fun game and the hometown boys won 10-4.
View from our seats
Friday was also my first fantasy football draft; for the free league I’ve run the last several years. Since I was at the game, I missed the draft. However, I spent ages pre-ranking my players and it actually worked to my advantage. Despite the fact that Yahoo will fill all starting roster spots before bench spots, I still got a pretty good team. The draft order in this league was based on last years performance, and since I sucked, I had the #1 pick (snaking order, 8 teams) Here’s my draft picks:
1.(1)LaDainian Tomlinson
2. (16) Terrell Owens
3. (17) Reggie Wayne
4. (32) Reggie Bush
5. (33) Brandon Marshall
6. (48) Kellen Winslow
7. (49) Matt Hasselbeck
8. (64) New York
9. (65) Shayne Graham
10. (80) Greg Jennings
11. (81) LenDale White
12. (96) Chris Chambers
13. (97) Donovan McNabb
14. (112) Alge Crumpler
I’m decently pumped about my team. I think I have awesome wideouts and running backs. The Giants defense is probably going to get dropped because of the hits they’ve taken on the D-Line, but I’m not terribly worried about that. In fact, while I was posting, I just dropped NJ-A and picked up Seattle.
There was also some good preseason football Friday night. Cowboys looked really good and Crayton even might have stopped Dallas fans from freaking out about their WR depth. Packers looked good as well and Aaron Rodgers definitely bounced back from poor play last week. Running game of the Packers is still a little scary, but hopefully Ryan Grant will help that in the regular season.
Saturday 8/24:
Went golfing Saturday morning. Got rained out midway through, which bummed me out because when the thunder was first heard I was starting to hit some really good shots. I also came decently close to a hole-in-one (I know, close doesn’t count for anything).
Went down to Chicago Saturday night and met up with best bud and his woman. Ate at this place called Earwax which had good vegitarian food and neat little atmosphere. Almost died afterward at this chocolate/ice cream shop… got some sort of orange dreamsicle float that was really large and had two huge ice cream scoops kind of hanging onto the brim of the glass. Shouldn’t have finished it, but it was good.
Sunday 8/24:
Another Brewer game. Finally saw CC in person, although he did not pitch a great game. Ended up being a pretty good game, went into extra innings (we’ve seen 3 extra innings games this year, 2 of them wins). On JJ Hardy bobblehead day, Hardy had the game winning single. Nice how that works out.
Had my other fantasy football draft tonight. Actually attended this one, although barely made it due to the length of the baseball game. Another 8 team league, snaking draft order. I had Yahoo auto pick the draft order and I wound up with the #1 pick (which of course everyone thought was a scam being I’m the commish of the league, haha). Here’s my team:
1.(1)LaDainian Tomlinson
2. (16) Clinton Portis
3. (17) Braylon Edwards
4. (32) Laurence Maroney
5. (33) Torry Holt
6. (48) Roy Williams
7. (49) Derek Anderson
8. (64) LenDale White
9. (65) Earnest Graham
10. (80) Donald Driver
11. (81) Vernon Davis
12. (96) David Garrard
13. (97) Dallas
14. (112) Josh Scobee
Had one problem during the draft… I was connected to the internet via cell phone and lost my connection in the middle of the draft. I had players in my “draft queue” but once the connection dropped, the queue was erased and Yahoo auto-picked. Happened during a back-back pick, and I got Maroney/Holt out of it. I *never* would’ve picked Maroney. In the draft chat, I was just commenting on how Yahoo had Maroney ranked way too high just moments before it happened. Holt is good, but he’s old, so that scares me. I wanted to grab Reggie Bush in one of those spots and Wes Welker in the other. Damnit. Maybe I can make a trade…
Completions (.1)
Passing Yards (25 yards per point; 2.5 points at 300 yards; 3.5 points at 400 yards; 5 points at 500 yards)
Passing Touchdowns (4)
Interceptions (-2)
Sacks (-1)
Rushing Yards (10 yards per point; 2.5 points at 100 yards; 3.5 points at 200 yards; 5 points at 250 yards)
Rushing Touchdowns (6)
Receptions (0.5)
Reception Yards (10 yards per point; 2.5 points at 100 yards; 3.5 points at 200 yards; 5 points at 250 yards)
Reception Touchdowns (6)
2-Point Conversions (2)
Fumbles Lost (-2)
Field Goals 0-19 Yards (3)
Field Goals 20-29 Yards (3)
Field Goals 30-39 Yards (3)
Field Goals 40-49 Yards (4)
Field Goals 50+ Yards (5)
Field Goals Missed 0-19 Yards (-1)
Field Goals Missed 20-29 Yards (-1)
Field Goals Missed 30-39 Yards (-1)
Field Goals Missed 40-49 Yards (0)
Field Goals Missed 50+ Yards (0)
Point After Attempt Made (1)
Point After Attempt Missed (-1)
Sack (1)
Interception (2)
Fumble Recovery (2)
Touchdown (6)
Safety (2)
Block Kick (2)
Return Yards (50 yards per point)
Kickoff and Punt Return Touchdowns (6)
Points Allowed 0 points (10)
Points Allowed 1-6 points (7)
Points Allowed 7-13 points (4)
Points Allowed 14-20 points (1)
Points Allowed 21-27 points (-1)
Points Allowed 28-34 points (-4)
Points Allowed 35+ points (-7)
Fractional Points:
Yes
Negative Points:
Yes
Here’s what would come with a pay league:
– Live stats
– Extensive weekly and draft scouting reports
– Advanced controls for scoring/stats (more customization)
– Prizes (Cash!)
Here’s what I’m thinking for prizes:
– $10 weekly high scoring team (16 weeks * $10 = $160)
– $10 weekly high scoring player (I would probably do NOT on the same team as the high scoring team, but that’s up for debate) (16 weeks * $10 = $160)
– Lump sum grand prize or 1st/2nd place prizes (I’m thinking $160 grand prize, $35 2nd place = $195)
League setup costs $124.99
So, some easy math
160 + 160 + 160 + 35 + 125 = $640
$640/8 teams = $80/team.
If that sounds like too much money, we can either increase the number of teams or decrease the prizes. There’s other ways to add to prize amounts, like charging for trades/transactions, etc.
The Butcher Shoppe 