Scott Freeman

A great night of witty banter and trash talk made for a memorable inaugural Blogger Bowl Draft.  I’m still a little cheesed that the husband-wife team scored the first two slots and I was jammed all the way back at #8.

I’m not very pleased with the overall tone of my team.  Nothing like my church league.  Here’s how my team shapes up:

Round 1: Ronnie Brown–He’s ranked as high as #5 on some lists.  And he won’t be sharing the ball with that toker this year.

Round 2: Lamont Jordan–He’s a hoss but I’m not completely confident here.

Round 3: Willis McGahee–He knows that he is the best back in the league.  Too bad nobody agrees with him.  Still, he will pull in the yardage.

Round 4: Eli Manning–When he pulled that little stunt 3 years ago during the draft I said I would never select him.  I eat crow.

Round 5: Roy Williams–Hopefully he now has a quarterback who belongs in the NFL.

Round 6: Matt Jones–Drafted too early but I wasn’t letting Borland get him in both of my leagues.  With Jimmy Smith’s retirement he could be the man.  This is my heart pick.
Round 7: Dominick Rhodes–Here’s hoping he can hang on to his starting job.

Round 8: Joe Horn–Good middle-rounder.

Round 9: Laurence Maroney–Corey Dillon won’t last.  Here is your rookie of the year.

Round 10: Jerry Porter–Good pick here.

Round 11: Ben Roethlisberger–He probably won’t a great fantasy qb, but he makes a nice back-up.

Round 12: Mike Bell–Here’s hoping he hangs on to the starting job in Denver.

Round 13: Kevin Curtis–Should emerge as the #2 in StL.

Round 14: Phillip Rivers–Roll the dice.

Round 15: Marcus Pollard–I have to draft a TE.  That’s the rules.

Round 16: Cincinnati D–I need a D too.

Round 17: Sebastien Janikowski–Rule number 1 of fantasy football: never draft a kicker before the last round.

Again, I’m not all that jazzed here.   Compare this to my church league:

Shaun Alexander
Ronnie Brown
Larry Fitzgerald
Cadillac Williams
Terrell Owens
Daunte Culpepper
Mike Bell
Joey Galloway
Ben Roethlisberger
Deuce McAllister
Jerry Porter
Wali Lundy
Braylon Edwards
Phillip Rivers
Kellen Winslow Jr.
Eagles D
Lawrence Tynes

Now, that team will play for the championship.

Thoughts?

• So, Jeb is asked about running the NFL. While he is at it maybe he could tear a page from his brother’s book and force regime change in Detroit. I’m not a huge Lions fan, but Millen must be stopped.
• Rather than investing needed time and money into producing fuel efficient vehicles, GM will cap gas prices if you buy a Hummer or other SUV in California. “I only get 3 miles to a gallon but I’m saving a buck a gallon on gasoline.” Great move, GM. I may need to rethink that whole boycott thing. If you see my Lumina on the side of the road, you’ll know why.

• Playing the sax on Arsenio was the trick for Bill. Maybe a hilarious opening on SNL is just what Al Gore needed. Here’s an article about a hypothetical Gore-Feingold v. McCain-Rice showdown. I still think Gore is a bad move for the Dems, however.

• Am I the only person in America not watching American Idol? Am I the only one who feels we need to stop encouraging people to record cheesy music.

• By the way, I’m all for that border fence–we’ve got to keep those Canadians out of here.

Note: I’m taking a break this week from some of my usual heavy fare. (Well, probably not all week but at least today). In the meantime, check out a great entry from my twin brother Jason.

I love ESPN. It is, after all, the world wide leader in Sports. You have to love that. But there are things that either drive me crazy about the monolith that is Bristol or that I miss from the glory days. Here’s my list:

1. Bring Back Olbermann. Buy out his contract with MSNBC, apologize for not valuing him in the first place, overlook his ego, give him full editorial control over Sportscenter, whatever it takes to get him back. This would go along way to fixing number 2.
2. Ban catch-phrases and attempts at humor by stiff anchors. None of them will be the next Patrick and Olbermann. They won’t even be the next Mayne, Kilborn or Eisen. So, stop it. Now.
3. Put the permanent Muzzle on Chris Berman. His shtick was great 12 years ago. It’s just tired now. I can live out the rest of my days without hearing another nickname. On that note,
4. Isn’t it time for Vitale’s retirement party? There is no more annoying announcer in the HISTORY OF BROADCAST TELEVISION, BABY! How about hiring somebody who can announce without bluster and who sees the value of schools outside of the ACC?
5. Shut down page 2. When you go out and hire Skip Bayless you sacrifice all claims to a. hipness, b. objectivity, c. credibility and d. excellence.
6. Redeem your morning talk radio. I find it incredibly hard to believe that the best you can offer us between 9-12 is Colin Cowherd.
7. Someone scoring a hockey goal is not a top 10 play.
8. Can we limit the number of Alley Oops in the top 10 plays to 2?
9. Hire some journalists for ESPN the Magazine. Or hand it over to people who know something about content. When you do have meaningful articles we have to sift through 60 pages of nothingness to get there.
10. Bring back Olbermann. You can disregard my other suggestions if you will just act on this one.

What are your thoughts?

My Hogs are back in the Big Dance after a 5 year absence. After being one of the most dominant b-ball teams of the ’90s, we fell off the map for the first half of this decade. But, we are back. Hopefully, this is a further sign of us heading in the right direction.
I have them picked to lose to Gonzaga in the Elite 8. (We play better in Dallas than anywhere else and we have already beaten Kansas. So, why not?)
My upset specials are Memphis losing to my boys and Tennessee falling to Seton Hall (Sorry Vol fans).
My Final Four is Gonzaga, Duke, UConn and Villanova.
Unfortunately, I have Duke beating Villanova in the finals.

Man, I hate Duke.

But I love that I have my team to root for again.

How sweet it this? It’s been too long. I’ve been a Steeler fan since I was 4 years old. They haven’t won the big game since I was 10 or 11 years old.

We are due.

Hey Jason, would you mind not picking the Steelers in the Super Bowl? You going against them is working well right now.

First, a great study on Esther.

Then,
My boys are one step closer to the Super Bowl

And Finally,
Jack is Back
I hear the two hours tonight are even better.

My wife is wanting to play fantasy baseball. The same woman who hates sports. There may be some benefit to her working at that bank after all.

It’s probably too soon to tell her I want to go to Nashville in March, though.

It’s anathema in my family but I was glad to see Texas win the National Championship tonight. What could be more fitting in a game that lived up to all of the hype for Vince Young to score the winning TD? Tremendous athlete.

The reason I was pulling for Texas? Derek Lokey. Derek is a defensive tackle for the ‘horns. And back in the day I was his youth minister. He was one of the finest teens I ever ministered to. Congrats Derek! I know your mom and dad are proud.

Don’t worry Freeman family. I’m still a Razorback. And don’t forget what USC did to us this year. Good to see their streak snapped.

I started out the season with so much promise. I had great drafts in both of my fantasy leagues. Yet Sunday, I lost both playoff games. Nothing left but third place now.

As you may know from reading my blog, I have done a lot of study and research on the history of protest songs. I’m still crafting my top 100 protest songs of all time and hope to unveil that at some point. In the meantime, I’ve just stumbled on David Rovics. Provocative, to say the least. (Note: DO NOT listen if you don’t like dissent or are a Bill O’Reilly fan)

By the way, don’t know what to get me for Christmas? Here’s some suggestions (again, all in fun. Although, I REALLY want the Jabez shirt and it can be bought here ):