By Dalton Del Don
Who will win the Super Bowl?
I’ll go ahead and say it’s the Dallas Cowboys. Marion Barber is hurt, Wade Phillips is clueless, and the combined record of their four remaining opponents is 34-13-1. Moreover, aside from the division leaders, there are two other wild card candidates with records of 9-3 and 8-4, so there’s a legitimate chance the Cowboys don’t even make the playoffs. Still, this team is dangerous. The defense is underrated, allowing just 4.0 YPC and 6.7 YPA with the second most sacks in football (40). They need to create more turnovers, and Tony Romo needs to curtail the picks, but he also may be the NFL’s best player. His 8.5 YPA leads the league, and he’s rarely sacked. Jason Witten is back to health, and Roy Williams has nowhere to go but up. The Giants’ loss of Plaxico Burress may not affect the locker room, but his missing presence on the field will eventually kill New York. They are even better than last season, but don’t forget just how good Burress was during last year’s playoffs, MVP of the Championship Game and catching the game-winning touchdown in the Super Bowl. Who else in the NFC? The Cardinals? Bucs? Panthers? Vikings? Please. Dallas is still a long shot (I just recently placed a wager on them at 9-1 this week), but I’ll be a rich man if it happens.
Was O.J. Simpson treated like any other citizen during his sentencing?
I’m hardly a legal expert, but The Juice got the proverbial kitchen sink thrown at him, no? My favorite part was when the judge had a prewritten 11 minute speech in which she ripped him a new one with a condescending tone. Of course, he’s an idiot for getting into any kind of trouble in the first place, as this outcome is far from surprising, but nine years for that offense seems excessive. Judge Glass: “Earlier in this case I said to Mr. Simpson that I didn’t know if he was arrogant, ignorant or both. I got the answer and it was both.” Snap!
Would C.C. Sabathia look good in black and orange?
Hell yes. Word is he doesn’t want to pitch in New York, and his wife is pushing hard for SF. It remains highly doubtful, but I can dream after Brian Sabean has made some shockingly competent signings so far (Jeremy Affeldt – a lefty with a 9.2 K/9 IP mark last year, who had a 1.77 ERA and 1.04 WHIP outside of Great American Ballpark. Bob Howry – solid peripherals and a one-year commitment while Mike Lincoln gets a two-year deal). Edgar Renteria improved over the final two months last year, and he gets the back to the NL factor, but his defense has become a real problem. Sabathia has been worked incredibly hard over the past two seasons and his body type is also in question, but if he takes a discount, it would be difficult not to get excited about a rotation with Sabathia, Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain. Of course, Sabathia is probably on the wrong side of 30 in Sabean’s warped mind. Additionally, if he’s going to trade Jonathan “dirty” Sanchez, it better be for Edwin Encarnacion and not Jorge Cantu.
Can Chris Landry ever be taken seriously again?
Boring and irrelevant to some, I’ve found this case of plagiarism rather fascinating. How in this day and age did this guy not realize he was going to eventually get caught? My favorite part about the whole thing is that the site that was getting plagiarized found out about the situation with the help of a competing site that they previously had problems with. Like in “Pulp Fiction” when Butch goes back to save Marsellus Wallace even though they were just trying to kill each other 20 minutes earlier. Love that scene. But did Butch really have to be so deliberate when deciding his weapon of choice? Still, classic moment in cinematic history.
Who is the best NFL team no one is talking about?
The Baltimore Ravens. Flying under the radar, the Ravens boast the No. 2 ranked defense and No. 3 ranked rushing attack in the NFL. Oh, and their signal caller has posted the best QB rating in the league over the past seven games. Please read that sentence again. Over that span, the team has lost only to the 11-1 Giants, and Joe Flacco is only getting better. The team is well coached and has allowed just three rushing scores all year. There also isn’t a better secondary in football. They’ve allowed just 6.0 YPA with a league leading 20 interceptions. Opposing passes have posted an NFL-low 58.4 QB rating. This team is for real.
What is the album of the year?
Hands down, it’s “Dear Science” by TV On The Radio. If you don’t like this album, there’s a good chance you think Tony Kornheiser is good on Monday Night Football, Curb Your Enthusiasm isn’t funny, Sarah Palin was a savvy VP pick by the GOP, and Natalie Portman isn’t hot. If you haven’t been captivated yet by this brilliant LP, as TVOTR states: “I’m living a life not worth dying for.”
What’s up with Plaxico Burress?
Forget the legal implications. Or the moral ones. Who parties at a Radisson hotel? And while wearing sweatpants?
Was Sean Avery’s suspension one of the craziest ever?
Sure was. When I first heard this story, I was positive it was a piece by “The Onion.” This has been beaten to death, so I won’t add much, but I still don’t understand what happened here. I guess he had been warned not to go there by the commish? What did Elisha think? Is Justin Timberlake going to write another song about her?
Why has Carson Palmer not undergone Tommy John surgery yet?
He hasn’t played since Week 5, has a ligament and tendon detached from his elbow, and the Bengals are 1-10-1. What good does delaying the inevitable do? This team should have been thinking about next season for weeks now. I guess nothing less should be expected from the inept franchise.
Is Darren Sproles currently a better running back than LaDainian Tomlinson?
Sure looks that way. At 5-6, 281 lbs, Sproles isn’t an ideal 20-plus carry guy, but he’s gotten a full yard per carry more than Tomlinson this season (4.7 to 3.7), and that’s not situational. He’s also averaging 13.4 yards per catch, and San Diego’s offense simply becomes tougher to defend when he’s on the field. Sproles is basically a more powerful version of Reggie Bush, and he needs to see the field more. Tomlinson has had a terrific and Hall of Fame career, but the end is near. Repeat after me. Do not take LT2 in your fantasy draft next year.
Not buying Dallas at all, even before today’s predictable meltdown. They haven’t won a playoff game since what, 1996? This is not a team that performs well under pressure, and with their situation their playoffs have already begun (and of course they promptly went out and proved it with that horrible pick to Townsend in crunch time). Whether it’s the Keystone Cops coaching/ownership situation, the fact that Romo is Mr. Anti-Clutch, or some other reason, they just can’t get it done. I would take any of the other teams in the NFC East over them, in all seriousness, and I frankly doubt Dallas could beat any of the teams in the South either in a must-win game if it came down to it. Cardinals they could maybe do since that would essentially be a home game for them, and Minny/Chicago, maybe, but Dallas isn’t going to be winning any Super Bowl (I also wouldn’t give them a prayer against any of the presumptive AFC qualifiers on a neutral field).
‘Dear Science’ is great, although I liked ‘RTCM’ a bit better, actually. Regardless, it’s probably the best record of the year, yes, although I don’t think it’s the slam-dunk you have it down as, because M83’s ‘Saturdays = Youth’ is right there too IMO.
I cannot even begin to imagine Sabathia going to SF. They already have a gigantic albatross of a starting pitcher contract that is going to foul up their lineup for another 4 or 5 years. If I was Sabathia, I wouldn’t be all hot about the notion of struggling to win 15 a year for a team that is going to be hard-pressed to eclipse 70 a season for the foreseeable future. It’s the prime of his career, he’s going to be making more money than he, his kids and his grandkids could spend in their lifetimes short of a spectacular PCP habit, so why not go somewhere you can win? I get that SF has a nice climate and is a pretty city and all that, but baseball is a summer game, all North American cities have decent summer weather, and with his scratch, he could ditch Milwaukee or New York for Cape Town, Melbourne or Buenos Aires every autumn if he wanted. Besides, beyond Lincecum/Cain, aren’t Bumgarner and Alderson both supposed to be up in the next year or so? It just seems like they could make a lot better use of that money than adding yet more starting pitching.
The Palmer thing is far beyond me. I told my cousin, who owned him in my home league this year, that a visit to Birmingham was in the offing back in like September, just because all of the symptoms he was experiencing at the time seemed like such a dead ringer for what’s happened to some of my young pitchers over the years, but he held off on acquiring Garrard from me (or any other QB help) and went to his doom at a horrific 2-11. It’s been obvious all along that TJ was in the cards. Now they’ve blown 3-4 months of prime recovery time and probably cost his ‘09 season in its entirety as well. Incredibly awful decision-making, both by Palmer and by the team. Longer term, I think he’s completely finished as a top-5 QB and may be lucky to get another 15-20 wins in his career.
Sproles is 281 lbs?
181. My bad.
Dreamweapon – What does the fact Dallas hasn’t won a playoff game since 1996 have to do with this current team? It’s a reshuffle league. Look at who they lost to last year – the team that went on to beat a 19-0 team in the Super Bowl! I’d hardly call that a choke. I hope that was hyperbole about you taking Washington over them, b/c that’s a sick joke. Anyway, there are plenty ppl on your side, but we shall see. I’m more confident in them after yesterday. I think they are very dangerous.
You liked RTCM more eh? Wolf Like Me was my favorite song of 2006. I haven’t heard M83, but I will now. What are your other suggestions for albums that came out this year?
I doubt CC ends up in SF.
I agree about Palmer being done as a top-5 fantasy QB.
Oh yeah, the Deece sucks pretty hard this year, I was just sniping at Dallas for fun. But there may be a kernel of truth to the charge–granted, past teams may not have a specific impact on this one, but OTOH I do think the fact that Romo sports a losing record in December and January is significant. The Townsend pick was just more of the same–knowing Romo’s psyche, I swear to god I knew it was coming. I have the Pitt D/ST in the Rotoscoop league and was in a tight match late, I tuned into that game with a couple of minutes left, when Dallas got the ball with a tie score. I wouldn’t believe me either, but I swear I actually _knew_ a pick-6 was coming–not just the INT but six for me. I wasn’t even sweating it, it was a fait accompli. About three plays later, it happened, exactly to script. If the Cowboys make the playoffs, I swear to god I will reopen my online sports book account and lay money on the line, Romo in a playoff game is a gambler’s dream. They have a ton of talent, no doubt, but I have to agree with Steve Young when he calls them “brittle”. I’ll put it this way: if they actually _make_ the playoffs, it’ll be because they somehow found a way to beat the Giants at home, and perhaps just as impressively, the resurgent Eagles at the Linc. If they pull that off, then maybe they’re made of sterner stuff, in which case sure they could win–they would already have proven they could beat NYG, and neither Pitt or Tenn or anyone else is unbeatable. I just can’t imagine them actually pulling it off with their apparent lack of leadership both on and off the field, and given the quality of the teams they’ve left to play. I think they’ll lose to an angry Giants team by six, luckily scrape by Baltimore at home by a FG, and then get destroyed by 18 in sub-freezing temps in Philadelphia. That’s my guess.
If I was Sabean, I would be trying to deal Cain, Bumgarner or Alderson to the Dodgers for Kemp, since Coletti appears to have taken the small success of the Manny deal and their playoff appearance as a mandate to completely destroy his team (I mean, I know I would rather have any one of those pitchers than the overrated Cano and Melky “Career 4th/5th OF” Cabrera). Kemp is the friggin’ Eric Davis of his generation, only healthy! God I wish Doug Melvin would get in on this madness. Use the supposed Sabathia money to sign some big bats, maybe Furcal and Adam Dunn, hell, maybe they could even compete in that shitty division.
Love, love, LOVE M83. Gorgeous music, lush and melodic, and it really blooms under repeated listening. Very much in the shoegaze tradition (e.g. Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Ride, etc.) as far as the 4AD-style opiate-like atmospheric sheen, only imbued with some of the better recent French electro-pop sensibilities, such as the creative sample recycling and rehabilitation, a la Air or Daft Punk. But for a band which such obvious influences, and being so rooted in the 80s, they (or really, just “he” now, since it’s just Gonzalez at this point) make very distinctive and uniquely beautiful music. I would highly recommend any of their three proper albums.
Anyway, overall it was a pretty shitty year for tunes by my reckoning–most of the good albums were the latest releases by long established bands/artists, there weren’t a lot of new faces, which is kind of depressing, but I guess more of the same good stuff is still good stuff. Apart from the new TVOTR and M83 records, I suppose my other favorites were:
Wolf Parade – ‘At Mount Zoomer’. Comes with the caveat that Spencer Krug’s voice simply does not work for some listeners, and I understand. I can live with it, and the music itself is goofily, gleefully awesome.
The New Year – ‘The New Year’. Hey, it’s the Kadane brothers, masters of the billowing multi-guitar attack. These guys fronted (if you can call it that, they’re pretty publicity shy) Bedhead, probably the single most criminally unknown/unappreciated great band of the 1990s (just listen to “Haywire” or their narcotic, ramshackle cover of Joy Division’s “Disorder”). This is as close to their absolute zenith as they’ve been as a unit since ‘Beheaded’.
Ruby Suns – ‘Sea Lion’. Pretty difficult to describe, weird as hell and all over the map, and perhaps just a tad too precocious for its own good, but plenty of bright spots. I’m not even going to bother trying to describe, the listener just has to form their own reaction. I definitely liked it.
Spiritualized – ‘Songs in A&E’. There’s no point denying that I’m a massive Jason Pierce fan and would praise pretty much anything he did, but this really was something of a bounceback record, it’s way better than ‘Amazing Grace’ and likely the best overall Spiritualized record since the immortal ‘LAGWAFIS’ way back in ‘97. It’s still not quite on par with the first three Spiritualized records or a lot of what Spacemen 3 did, but that was a long time ago now, those days are probably over now, and if this is what’s left, I’m still pretty thrilled.
The Walkmen – ‘You & Me’. Straightforward but intelligent and pretty indie rock.
Sigur Rós – ‘Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust’. I imagine anyone with any interest at all in indie music has at least heard Sigur Rós by this point. Interesting album b/c it exists on a somewhat smaller scale than their usual continental-sized epics. Not their best by any means, but quite good.
Mogwai – ‘The Hawk is Howling’. Good record, great live show. Not for background/idle listening.
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – ‘Lie Down In the Light’. Oldham’s annual Appalachian gothic masterpiece. He makes great records, but is as terrible in concert as Mogwai is great.
Just wanted to thank u for your help in winning the regular season of my Yahoo league with the most points and tied for the best record. I appreciate your greatness and look forward to competing against it next season. And oh yeah, Cowboys suck, no Super Bowl for u there…
Kritter – Good to hear man.
Dreamweapon – I’ll get back to you after I digest your comment in its totality. Seriously, thanks for the music recs.
That’s cool, I’m glad to do it. I love this shit, music is one of my favorite things in life. You could expand this, have some threads, maybe even something like Top-20 albums all-time, ppl could post their stuff in the comments too, I often find it interesting to see what kind of cross-pollination there is with others’ tastes, and have gotten into a lot of great stuff that way.
I second the props for The Walkmen. Great band; this year’s release is probably their second-best album.
Other faves of the year:
– American Music Club, The Golden Age
– Sons & Daughters, This Gift — somewhat like an English version of early X
– Nick Cave
– French Kicks, Swimming — a band so slight they’re almost subliminal, but after the fourth listen you never want to hear another band again
– Gaslight Anthem, The ‘59 Sound — reminds me of an American version of Idlewild; not much in terms of originality but they borrow so much from so many sources I like (Clash/Social D/Springsteen) and bring so much energy that you can’t help but be swept away. Incredibly earnest
– Bloc Party, Intimacy — strong rebound from the patchy second album; gets a bit carried away with the electro-clash elements at times but also crafts some great grooves and moments of quiet beauty that we really haven’t heard from these guys before
Thanks for the recs Steve. I’ll check them all out.