geoffp Blog Posts

FANECA FOLLY

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 08:22:01 PDT

It’s already been a month since the 72 hour high of NFL free agency wore off. If you’re like me, you’ve probably already forgotten where 90 percent of this year’s free agency crop has landed. The evaluation of how well teams have fared in the open market has long been archived and the discussion has clearly shifted to March Madness and spring training. Yet if there’s one thing that can be extracted from free agency this year, it’s that the Jets have become just like every other New York team with throwing money at whatever big names are momentarily unemployed. It’s no secret that the Jets have always been second banana to the Giants, but with the Giants’ improbable Super Bowl win in February, perhaps they’re feeling even more pressure than usual to step up and make some noise.

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LITIGATING LOSERS

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 08:49:20 PST

You don’t have to go too far back to recall games where one team was somehow “robbed” of a championship while the other basked in glory. To this day, I’m sure guys like Bill Buckner and Scott Norwood still deal with the inner turmoil that made them household names. Thankfully, what’s still nice about the increasingly tarnished image of professional sports is that no matter what the outcome is, the books are shut -- end of story. That is until now, where former St. Louis Rams’ player Willie Gary, along with two Super Bowl XXXVI ticket holders and a Rams seat license holder, have filed a $100M law suit against the New England Patriots. Gary, who for the past six years has earned a living playing for the Arena Football League’s Georgia Force, alleges that the outcome of Super Bowl XXXVI, where the heavily favored Rams were beaten 20-17 by New England, would have been different had the Patriots not illegally videotaped a Rams practice earlier that week in February 2002.

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CROWN OF ZORNS

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 14:34:58 PST

With all that’s going on in Washington this week with the steroids hearings, it’s no wonder the Redskins got second billing when they announced Jim Zorn as their new head coach. This isn’t really what the Redskins are about of course, and if Daniel Snyder had his way, even a presidential assassination would take to the back pages behind what’s going on at Redskin Park. But Zorn’s quiet press conference, which already is best remembered for his flubbing the team’s colors, is proving more and more that Dan Snyder has become the incarnate of Al Davis with a larger bank account. It’s also an indication of how much owners are willing to gamble…or settle…on coaches with marginal experience at best.

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New York Softens to a Tougher Big Blue

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 17:13:18 PST

Well it’s Friday night now, already less than 48 hours before Super Bowl XLII. There’s a wide eyed excitement in the air about the Giants that I haven’t seen in a very long time. Dare I even undermine my own New Yorkness for a second, and say that I find it quite refreshing to see this town lose its cynicism and view their “underdog” Giants through the same lens as the “Little Engine that Could.” Even the media seems to be taking a bit of small town stance, chatting up Big Blue as if they were some Midwestern high school team en route to the state championship game. Funny how things change. New York fans aren’t known for being fickle; at least not in the way they perceive their team. It’s been nearly 30 years since the infamous fumble by Joe Piscarcik, and that’s

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