Why Old Man Raincloud isn’t a fan of the NFL Draft

 

The NFL Draft has been dominating our television screens over the past few days.  It’s been a cavalcade of dreams come true for so many young men that have finally gotten to this point.  They have worked tirelessly since Pop Warner and finally get the chance to have their moment in the sun.

And at the risk of making it sound as if I’m raining on their parade, I guess that’s why I hate it so much.

In all fairness, it’s not the players’ fault.  It’s more the fault of the league who builds these guys up as if all of them are going to be stars.  The assumed positivity of the ESPN network has almost gotten out of control.  Sure, they’ll mention that a guy had a sub-average 40 time or that he tested positive for marijuana at the combine.  But they’ll also roll over it within seconds and then show one of their ridiculous over the top montages that Michael Jackson would have wanted during the “Dangerous” tour.  Which seems like it’s a little much for a dude that gets taken in the seventh round.   

The Cowboys are the Kardashians of the NFL

The Dallas Cowboys have slowly become more of a circus in the NFL than a team with a winning tradition. It seems when the Cowboys are mentioned on TV, it is because of some off the wall statement by Jerry Jones or from something not football related. Jerry Jones recently said the Cowboys are part of “the highest rated show on TV”. Um, Jerry, I didn’t think the NFL was a show, I thought it was a sport.

To read the rest, please continue to Kody’s Sports Korner.

The Sports Blog Movement Grading Breakdown of Week One of the 2014 NFL Season ‏

The 2014 NFL schedule was released Tuesday, and I had planned on doing a column about which games would be the best on the lineup.  But then I realized two things:  1)  Somebody on this site will probably already be doing that, and 2) That’s not going to be as ruthless as me bagging on some of the other things that were going on in the league.

Thankfully, I never had to do that research.  The reason for that is because week one in the NFL is just about as big of a joke as one can find anywhere.  So without further ado, let’s take a look at just how weak week one is actually going to be.   

Obscure Spotlight: Vincent Brisby

The 2014 NFL Offseason Has Proved That Free Agency Hyperactivity Is At An All Time High, and Two May Soon Be The New Three…

Former Giants Defensive end Justin Tuck looks forward to another explosive sub-.500 season in a different jersey

Now that NFL free agency has kind of slowed down, we’ve really had the opportunity to sit back and let it soak in. We’ve seen franchise guys move around, and with every passing year it seems to surprise us less. As very well that it should, because free agency is crazy these days.

As you very well may know, I am a diehard New York Giants fan. The Giants had their most active offseason in recent history where they made some decent acquisitions, even garnering a B+ rating from their beat writer on NFL.com. They have brought back WR Mario Manningham, signed corner Walter Thurmond from the Seattle Seahawks and acquired a big name in Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie to help him try and repair that less than impenetrable New York Giants secondary amongst several other players. For the first time in as long as I remember, they really impressed me by going out of their way to make bold moves.

But as Dubsism would say…Here’s the $64,000 question: Did the Giants finally decide to make moves based on the way that they are going to run their own franchise for the next ten years; or did they make moves based on the way that they rest of the league seems to be losing their patience with players who do not perform? I personally think this is a case of monkey-see, monkey-do. The New York Giants will never be trendsetters; the franchise is just simply too old and doesn’t have what it takes to stick their neck out and lead the way due to their football-oriented conservative fanbase and ownership. So I believe that they have finally just caught up with the rest of the league, but in their defense the rest of this league has moved really fast. Just think about what’s happened this offseason already…

DeSean Jackson to the Washington Redskins: A Step in the Right Direction or a Match Made in Hell?

It’s official – the word came down late Tuesday evening that former Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson will now join forces with Robert Griffin III in the D.C. area as they will both try to help the Redskins recover from a dismal 3-13 2013 season, and attempt to get them back to the playoffs and atop of the NFC East like they were the year before.

Yeah, about that…

SBM Exclusive: The BLAST-CAST – Volume 14: Remembering Ralph Wilson

On Tuesday, the NFL lost an important figure, and the story simply isn’t getting the coverage it deserves. To fix that,  Ryan Meehan from East End Philadelphia and J-Dub from Dubsism take a look back at the contributions made to the NFL as we know it by the former owner of the Buffalo Bills, the late Ralph Wilson.

Click here to listen to or download the Blast-Cast (MP3 format)…The Blast-Cast is also available on Itunes; just search “SportsBlogMovement.”

Dez Bryant’s Guidelines and Jerry Jones Telling Him to “Keep His Guard Up”

On Tuesday a story “broke” regarding an interview Jerry Jones did where he said that although he considers Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant to be an established player, he said Bryant still needs to “keep his guard up”. Here’s the article…

http://cowboysblog.dallasnews.com/2014/03/cowboys-owner-jerry-jones-considers-dez-bryant-an-established-player-but-said-he-needs-to-keep-his-guard-up.html/

Here are some of the key guidelines that were set for Dez Bryant back before the 2012 season started:

QB Notes: Painter Returns to Giants, Schaub to Oakland

Originally posted at http://www.obscureathletes.com

Matt Schaub always looks like the guy who drank too much at your party, and is just waking up at 11:30 in the morning after having passed out on your couch. So of course the Raiders had to bring him in. The Texans shipped the one-time fantasy football star turned Houston washout to the Bay Area for a sixth-round pick in May’s draft. By my count, the Raiders have started fourteen different quarterbacks since Rich Gannon won the NFL MVP by throwing checkdown after checkdown to Tyrone Wheatley and Charlie  Garner. That year, the Raiders won the AFC. Schaub is no Rich Gannon, but hey–he can’t be worse than Matt Flynn.

Curtis Painter, the man most remembered as a week 17 hero, and subsequent winless starter in Indianapolis, re-upped with the Giants last week. Painter has spent his entire career in the league backing up one Manning or another, and will once again sport a clipboard for Eli in 2014. Last year, Painter completed 8 out of 16 throws, for 57 yards. He threw no touchdowns and was intercepted twice. The 28-year old has a career passer rating of 57.6, and has thrice as many career turnovers (18) as touchdown passes thrown (6).  Hey, who wouldn’t want to bring this guy back?

Don’t look now, but Joe Webb is BACK! The Quarterback/wide receiver signed with the Panthers over the weekend. Webb has said he has no interest in playing quarterback ever again, and I’m sure Cam Newton is happy to be free from the pressure Webb would no doubt put on him. Webb caught five passes last season, and his production should be more than enough to make up for the losses of Steve Smith, Brandon LaFell and Ted Ginn.

 

Jim Irsay: How Did His Problem Become This Severe?

By now, you’ve probably heard the story regarding Colts’ owner Jim Irsay’s arrest on Sunday night on charges of drug possession and driving under the influence. Irsay has since checked himself into a rehabilitation clinic and hopes to get clean much in the same way he did in 2002 when prescription painkillers took over his life.

Some of you might wonder how a problem this serious was able to fly under the hyper-maniacal feed that is the NFL news cycle. I personally believe that it has been able to do so due to two specific points:

1) Visibility of said celebrity

2) Our country’s attitude towards alcohol versus drug addiction

These two factors played a huge role in how Irsay’s problem became this severe.