NFL Lidlifter

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If there was a roof on the stadium, they’d blow the top off of it.  It does not matter whether this one was to be played in the Pacific Northwest or just off Lombardi Avenue-Lambeau Field, it would be loud.
 
And it will be raucous, and it will be electric, and it will be filled with big plays, and probably lots of penalty flags.
 
The Green Bay Packers and their new look “Drive for 75” offense, they want to run 75-snaps a game, goes against Seattle’s Legion of Boom defense tonite, in the opening game of the NFL season.
 
There’s the volatile Mike McCarthy, decked out in Packers green, always with a red-face, against the hyper active, always clapping-shouting-moving around Seahawks coach Pete Carroll.
 
There is the dynamic Russell Wilson, the flamboyant Seahawks QB against the run-and-gun get it done Packers QB-Aaron Rogers.
 
There is the always angry Marshawn Lynch running the ball for the Hawks against Clay Matthews and all his friends on the Green Bay defense.
 
And then there is that Seattle defense, Richard Sherman, his mouth, his attitude, his style, leading a bunch of warriors looking to shutdown and shutup the Packers.
 
Think there will be some trash-talking tonite?  You bet.  Think there will be big plays?  Yes-sir.  Think there will be tons of flags?  Of course, with the new ‘Seattle rules” installed to stop DBs from mugging wide receivers.
 
When last seen, the Hawks were burying the Broncos in the Super Bowl.  When last played, Green Bay was not happy with the crash and burn end to their season.  They both have a purpose tonite.
 
What a way to start the year in the NFL.  Anybody up for 43-41 game?  Welcome to 2014 NFL fans, buckle your helmet and seat belt, this will be a wild game, and likely a wild ride all season long.

The Other QB

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You can go to jail in the real world for ‘Insider Trading’, but this isn’t the real world, it’s just the National Football League.
 
So here we are, just a week away from the Chargers season opener against the Arizona Cardinals, and who is that on the practice field for the Bolts?  Former Big Red starting quarterback Ryan Lindley.
 
Just think of the possibilities.
 
The Chargers signed Lindley, the ex-Aztecs record setting quarterback, because they needed a 3rd team QB to run the scout team.  They know he is young, athletic, bright, competitive.
 
And they know he knows every tidbit of information of Bruce Ariens’ Cardinals offensive playbook. 
 
Lindley spent two years in Arizona, and wound up starting games because of injuries to the other QBs.  Force fed, he had good outings and some awful ones, typical of what young QBs go thru.  But he is a student of the game, a football junkie, and a man who knows what the Big Red will run. 
 
Yes, that Big Red team that will host the Chargers next Monday night.
 
The Chargers may like Lindley, may think he has a future, but they are taking from him this week, every fragment of information on play calls, formations, color codes, numberings, audibles that the Cardinals use.  He may not have arrived here with a Red & White playbook in his hand, but he has it in his mind.
 
How smart of the Chargers to move on Lindley.  How stupid of the Cardinals for cutting him last weekend, knowing they open the season against San Diego this weekend.  They could have hid him on the developmental squad for one week, then pink slipped him .  Granted the Cardinals signed ex-Bolt linebacker Thomas Keiser, and may be trying to steal some defensive information from him too.
 
Insider trading, the Bolts have it, the Cardinals may regret making it available.
 
The Chargers won’t go to jail with the data.  The Cardinals though may be taken to the woodshed, because of what Lindley knows and what the Chargers will do with their defense now that they have that knowledge.

Tuesday September 2nd, 2014

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Do you believe this?

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They sure do it differently over there.  How and Why?.  Who Knows?
 
Life abroad in Japan is very different.
 
A country with an enormous work ethic.  A nation where the demands to succeed in industry and life are held up as the greatest achievements.  A society where family, work ethic, and education are held more important than just the yen (the almighty dollar).
 
And they do love their sports, especially baseball.  The Tokyo Giants, Nippon Ham Fighters, Lotte Marines and so many more of their major league franchises.  The Tokyo Dome, Yokohama Stadium and the likes.
 
We know the love they have for their heroes here, Ichuro Suzuki, Yu Darvish and so many other Pacific Rim players who have come to major league baseball.
 
And there is a pride to finish what you start in Japan.
 
Which is why no one flinched there, when word filtered out that the ex-Red Sox,  Dice K Matsuzaka,  routinely threw 130-pitch games, or Masahiro Tanaka, the Yankees big money free agent threw 156 in a playoff game.
 
Granted the mounds are different, the variety of pitches they throw are different, and they throw just one start per week in between lots of time fulfilling workouts.
 
But the story that filtered out of Japan this weekend, about a high school playoff game defies logic.  A game that lasted 50-innings between Chukyo and Asahi in a tournament.  The game was spread out over 4-days before Chukyo scored 3-runs in the 50th inning to win 3-0.
 
And the other storyline that no one can fathom, the two starting high school pitchers, pitched all 50-innings.  Taiga Matsui threw 709-pitches in the 4-days straight he took the mound; the loser, Juk Ishoka, threw 689 for the other team.
 
They do it differently in Japan.  Pride, powerful arms, and a philosophy to finish what you start.
 
What is the translation from English to Japanese of the words,  pitch count, Tommy John surgery, rotator cuff?

NFL Leadership – An Apology

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I bet you’d never imagined those words would have come out of his mouth, not who he is, and what he represents.
 
Roger Goodell, the NFL Commissioner, under siege, admitted he erred in the mishandling of the minimal two game suspension of Baltimore Ravens star running back Ray Rice, implicated in knocking out his wife in a domestic abuse incident, in an elevator, caught on video.
 
A 2-game suspension has led to 2-months of enormous heat directed at Goodell and his league.  The Rice incident was troubling, as has been the inconsistent level of discipline against players.
 
A four game suspension given to Colts defensive end Robert Mathis, for using a fertility drug to start to begin a family with his wife.  Four games for helping her give birth, but two games to a knockout punch of a woman?
 
The swift near year-long suspension of Miami guard Richie Incognito for the hazing club slurs against a teammate, a suspension that last all of last season, and now carries into this season, since everyone views him as toxic.  He got 9-games for his mouth, but Rice got two.
 
No discipline yet for Colts owner Jim Irsay, arrested DUI influence with 29,000-cash and a cache of illegal painkillers, a true drugstore right in his front seat, but we did get a fine against Broncos icon QB-Peyton Manning for mouthing off after a cheap shot hit hurt his WR-Wes Welker.
 
So this, a couple of months after it happened, Goodell admitting the league made a mistake in the Rice case, and promises instant judgment on any player arrested in a domestic abuse case going forward.
 
It’s not an easy job-disciplining players.  San Francisco’s Aldon Smith just got 9-games for 3-off field arrests, rightfully so.  Cleveland’s star receiver Josh Gibson just got an entire season, in his continued bouts with marijuana, alcohol, and just obeying the law.  Jacksonville’s Justin Blackman is likely sitting the season too, because he cannot keep his name off the police blotter.
 
And now you can add to the list, the lst to volunteer in the new world of discipline, is 49ers defensive tackle Ray McDonald, arrested for hitting his pregnant wife on Sunday morning.  He’s got a problem with the incident and with a commissioner now with the glare of the spotlight on him to drop the hammer.  McDonald did this just days after the NFL handed out a new letter of the law memo on sanctions for domestic abuse of women, children, and those pregnant.
 
Roger Goodell has been a great leader; he now has to become a fearless leader, of those lawbreakers he finds on NFL rosters.
 
In a league where this commissioner now has to deal with fires daily, we have lawsuit upon lawsuit, the appearance of unmitigated greed amongst the owners, violence on the field, violent acts off the field. 
 
The NFL season is about to start, and we will pay attention to the games, but we will also now pay attention to the leader of the games.
 
Amazing to hear those words “I erred” coming out of the mouth of the most powerful man of the most powerful sport in America, the NFL.