Baylor...

You know I was sad that I missed a whole year of writing because I missed being able to share my opinion on this whole Baylor covering up rape and sexual misconduct and a plethora of other things in order to protect their precious football program, and lo and behold, the football gods have seen fit to give me an opportunity to talk about it anyway. Well call it football gods or karma or whatever you want, but here we are again with Baylor. 

Now you might remember Baylor. The football team in the Big-12 who somehow managed to work their way to being close to attending a National Championship a few times but never actually made it because the Big-12 doesn't have a Championship game and only conference champions get into the Playoff... wait that's not right? Oh yeah Penn State. Never mind. So in the time before a certain coach named Art Briles got to Baylor there was no hope for football in Waco, Texas. Before him the best record the Bears had ever managed to have was 10-2 during the 1980 season under Grant Teaff. At this point in football history the Southwest Conference was still in tact and this was before the whole SMU thing, the first death penalty which is important later on in this conversation so keep that in mind. Football in Texas was a huge deal and the Southeastern Conference hadn't quite yet gotten hold of the "dominance" that they enjoy. And Teaff enjoyed moderate success at Baylor, two Southwest Conference titles and eight bowl games, and retired from coaching in 1993. 

Now, he was the most successful coach at Baylor for a while. And when I say a while I mean over a decade. 14 years to be exact. That isn't to say that Briles didn't struggle. His first two seasons were 4-8, then there was a 7-6 season... But then 2011 happened. 10-3. 6-3 in conference play and a win in the Alamo Bowl. Not too bad. People had started to hope. 2012 was nothing special, 8-5. But then there was 2013 and 2014, 11-2 both seasons. Big time bowls, we're talking Fiesta and Cotton, no wins in either but still a good bowl. Briles' career ended abruptly in 2015 after a 10-3 season when he was fired for, you guessed it, covering up his athletes' misconduct... pardon me the rapes and abuses and bad things that his players did. ESPN and other places want to call it misconduct when it's so much more than that. Call it what it is. It's sexual abuse and domestic violence and general not-niceness that was covered up for years. 2011-2014 to be exact. Those years when he was doing so well at Baylor. 

Briles and his staff kept things secret and handled things "internally", code for not at all so their players didn't have to miss playing time, and never reported very important things that happened. They had instances of players such as Sam Ukwuachu who was indicted for sexually assaulting a Baylor female athlete and later was convicted, but he was still participating in team activities. But these weren't isolated incidences. According to ESPN's Outside the Lines, Baylor either "failed to investigate or adequately investigate allegations of sexual violence". Baylor was taking years to investigate complaints of sexual violence made by their students, or in some cases, they weren't investigating them at all. Art Briles was eventually fired, University President Ken Starr resigned, and AD Ian McCaw resigned as well. 

I can't accurately cover the extent of what all happened during the course of this whole thing, because there's so much information involved with it. It was and still is a mess. Recently a woman has come forth and alleged that there were 52 separate incidences of sexual assault by 31 players from 2011-2014. Right now those are just allegations, but that doesn't take away from the fact that Baylor is a mess of a program. A mess. Whether or not all those are true, I'd be willing to bet there's some truth in it. According to Sports Illustrated, "The university called Briles's team culture a disciplinary 'black hole' where 'reports of misconduct such as drug use, physical assault domestic violence, brandishing of guns, indecent exposure and academic fraud disappeared.'"

I mean just reading all that is sickening. What is the extent that coaches and athletic departments will go to to make sure they can play football well? Covering up literal crimes? Making sure that people who are broken by this are never talked to or heard? Hiding criminals just so they can play football? What is this? I'm not naive enough to believe that this is something that doesn't go on in other football programs, I'm sure it does, but the bottom line is that what happened at Baylor is now out there for everyone to know. There has to be punishment. I don't care that they fired Briles, who should never coach college football again, and I don't care that they replaced their AD and President. I don't care about any of that. It. Isn't. Enough. 

Remember when I said we'd revisit this whole death penalty thing later on? Well here it is. I think Baylor deserves it. I feel badly for the players who had no knowledge of what was happening, and probably lots of the players at Baylor now weren't even near the school when it was happening, but the bottom line is that Baylor doesn't deserve to have a football program. The things that the program did and covered up and lied about are sick. And for that reason why should they play football? Why should they be allowed to do that? 

And look at USC. They were stripped of most everything and had rights taken away from them. For paying players. Granted it went deeper than that, but still. The NCAA handed down these harsh punishments for that, practically the death penalty, and we're still not talking about Baylor getting it? SMU got the death penalty in the late 80's for a slush fund and for basically paying players. So what I'm saying is that if the NCAA is going to punish teams for paying players then they should definitely punish teams for having an entire athletic organization that thinks it's okay to cover up sexual assault and violence and other crimes by football players just for the sake of the game. That is not okay. Because what happens is that these players go on to the NFL where it's basically considered a right of passage to beat and/or abuse your spouse or significant other or random women and still be allowed to play. Why is this okay? It isn't. And it shouldn't be rewarded as such. 

Baylor needs to be punished for this. They need the death penalty. By not giving them any punishment the NCAA is saying it's okay for this to happen, they can still play football, they can still do what they do and business will continue as normal. But that's not okay. None of it is okay. 

Until next time college football fans, and dad.

I'm back!!

Well, well. It's been almost two years to the day that I started this blog. If you've read any of my previous posts you'd know that I am absolutely terrible at providing quality content. Or at the very least providing it on any sort of organized time schedule. But here we are again. It's nearing the end of my time at school and once again I find myself in need of a blog for a class. So here we are. I'm hoping that this time I'll be able to keep up with it even though, once again, we find ourselves at the beginning of the off-season. Ugh. I hate the off-season. But for today we have a partially interesting post: The College Football Playoff!!

Playoff Time!

So yesterday was the college football playoff. The third annual I believe. And this time guess who was in it? Go ahead guess. Alright I'll tell you. It was the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Clemson Tigers. One of those teams absolutely no one was surprised that they got there, Alabama, and the other well they've been earning respect for a few years and they did so well against my arch nemesis, Ohio State in case you're new here, that I was sure they also deserved to be in the playoff. That's Clemson, by the way. In case I've never mentioned it before I'm an Auburn fan. A huge Auburn fan as a matter of fact. And if you're also new to the whole college football thing, you should know that Auburn and Alabama are huge rivals. As such it was extremely hard for me to pull for them AGAIN to win the National Championship AGAIN. If Alabama had won last night it would be the second college football playoff win for them and their third National Championship in five years. For an Auburn fan, such as myself, it's insanely depressing to see your arch rival go to yet another National Championship when we can't even make it past 8-5 on the season. But being a good SEC fan I pulled for Alabama mostly due to the fact that I also don't care for Clemson who has also beat us a handful of times and annoyed me more than a handful of times. 

The problem arose, however, that Alabama did not win. Nope you read that right. They didn't win. Clemson did. In fact, it was Clemson's first National Championship in 30-some odd years. It's always weird when Alabama loses, I guess because it happens so rarely. It wasn't an easy game for the Tide. Not that they didn't play well, they just sort of let the game get away from them. That and there were certainly some sloppy mistakes. Alabama had 9 penalties for 82 yards, which is high for a usually very calm and collected Alabama squad. One could argue that Clemson didn't get called for penalties that they should have been called for but, for the purpose of this post, let's pretend that Clemson only actually deserved the three penalties that they got for 35 yards. Alabama looked a little iffy. Not just on defense, which allowed 420 total passing yards, but also on offense. Jalen Hurts was only 13 of 31 for 131 yards against Deshaun Watson who was 36 of 56 for those previously mentioned 420 yards passing. Hurts just didn't quite look like himself. He also ran for 10 carries and 63 yards but even that didn't seem to help much.

Now, let's give credit to Alabama where credit is due. They owned the first half. In fact they owned the first three quarters. Alabama scored a total of 24 points in the first three quarters to Clemson's 14. OJ Howard even surprised everyone by running for 68 yard touchdown off a pass from Jalen Hurts. But the person who scored those first two was missing later on in the game. That's right. Bo Scarbrough. The running back. The guy that everyone has been saying to hand the ball off to all year because when he touches it, no one can touch him. It's been a source of stress for Alabama fans. Watching their offensive coordinator call pass plays or screens or pitches or whatever and not give the ball to one of the best players on their team who has consistently proven he can bash defenses to bits to get yards and points. Bo lit it up last night with his 16 carries for 93 yards and two touchdowns. But he went out in the third quarter with what was eventually named a broken bone in his leg, and the Crimson Tide seemed to falter along with his departure.

Clemson was able to rally behind their quarterback not to mention their exceptional running back Wayne Gallman who had 18 carries for 43 yards and a host of receivers. Among them were Jordan Leggett who had 7 receptions for 95 yards, Mike Williams who had 8 receptions for 94 yards, Deon Cain who had 5 receptions for 94 yards, and Hunter Renfrow, who caught the game winning touchdown pass that ended the game, with 10 receptions for 92 yards. In case you're not keeping track that is four receivers who each had almost 100 yards receiving. Alabama didn't have anywhere close to that. OJ Howard had 4 receptions for 104 yards, which is impressive, but the only other person who managed to have substantial receiving yardage for the Tide was Calvin Ridley who caught five balls for 36 yards which just isn't much when compared to Clemson's receiving corp.

Make no mistake Clemson earned their National Championship. They rallied in the fourth quarter and scored three touchdowns, one in the final seconds of the game, to beat the number 1 team in the country. Nick Saban had never been beaten in a National Championship game before. And yet Clemson beat them. It was a good night for Alabama, and they have a lot to be proud of. After all they have the exact same record as Clemson does even with their lack of National Championship. More than likely Alabama will be ranked number 1 in any pre-season poll that comes out, and they will probably go back to the playoffs next year. But for now the National Championship is Clemson's, and I think they deserve it.

Until next time college football fans, and dad, see ya!

Tebow Time?

Okay I know this is supposed to be a college football blog, but this particular post involves Marcus Mariota who is technically not in the NFL yet so there's that. Also Sam Bradford and Tim Tebow attended college and played football so I think it's safe. Either way I'm going to talk about Tim Tebow making his return to the NFL in the form of the Philadelphia Eagles. 

So is Chip crazy or what?

Okay so I guess I first need to address that I'm not the biggest Chip Kelly fan. He was a good and aggravating coach at Oregon that transitioned to the NFL and has proceeded to confuse pretty much every fan of the game with his trades and general Chippiness. He traded Nick Foles and acquired Sam Bradford first of all. And, not that I don't love Sam, but what the heck? Sam Bradford has been perpetually injured since he made his arrival in the NFL. One injury after another and that's after the injuries that sidelined him at Oklahoma. I mean yeah he was a Heisman-trophy winning quarterback, and rightfully so, but he's still "Always Injured Bradford". I wonder how much longer he has in the NFL before he just says, "Okay if I get injured anymore I will literally no longer have legs" and retires early like so many of his counterparts. I'm not saying that Nick Foles was some amazing quarterback for the Eagles that didn't deserve to not be traded, but I'm saying that I really wonder what Chip was thinking when he traded him. Of course I'm also just this biased blogger so I guess I don't really get to have a say in the goings on of NFL teams. 

So then you start hearing rumors that Kelly is trading up to get Marcus Mariota, who he coached at Oregon, to come to the Eagles as well. If you're keeping track that would be 2 Heisman-trophies at the Eagles. I honestly think that Mariota is going to be the best possible option for the Eagles especially after the next one I'm about to lay on you. 

Alright so here's the real point of this blog. That's Tim Tebow. Yes that Tim Tebow. The one that painted the Bible verses on his face and led Florida to two national championships. That same one. Also the guy that is currently an analyst for the SEC Network, but I digress. The Eagles have signed him to a contract and apparently it's a good thing? I'm not really sure. All I know is that I watched Tim Tebow play in the NFL. And while he was definitely the best player for his team while he was in college, the NFL just was on a different level. He could never quite get up to the hype that everyone thought he would. That's not entirely his fault. A lot of the time the college quarterbacks that everyone thinks are going to play out really well in the NFL don't quite do that. Instead they fall flat on their face and people like Tom Brady step on them on their way to fame and fortune. Let's not forget that currently some of the best quarterbacks in the league were not first round picks or Heisman trophy winning quarterbacks. 

I know I keep bringing up Tom Brady, who I hate, but it's because the dude just won the Super Bowl AGAIN and he was the 199th pick in the NFL Draft from Michigan. Did anyone think that he would do what he's done as a quarterback? No. They didn't. In fact the number 1 pick that year was defensive end Courtney Brown. Ever heard of him? No. Me neither. That's because he had a mediocre professional career and finished in 2006. 

The point is that just because a quarterback seems good on paper doesn't mean they always are. Bradford and Tebow are just that. They're pretty good on paper, and they even play kind of well. But well enough to really make a splash in the NFL and say, "They were worth that pick." No not really. Honestly, I think that the smartest thing Kelly could do at this point is draft Marcus Mariota and let him play just because I honestly believe Mariota could make waves for the Eagles. Especially since he and Kelly already have the connection of coach-player. And it clearly worked for them at Oregon. Why wouldn't it translate to the NFL? Right? Maybe. 

Of course what would also be fun is to have three Heisman-trophy winning quarterbacks signed on the team and then just let them go at it Gladiator style in order to crown a winner. I'd watch that.

Trouble, Trouble, NCAA Part 2

Homeless and Not Important

When I say I’m bad at blogging I mean really bad. Clearly I’m just not cut out for this sort of thing which is good I guess since the class ends tomorrow. Anyway I’m going to continue on about the NCAA while I’ve got the chance.

I guess the biggest issue at the moment that I want to discuss is the whole homeless Baylor player thing. In case anyone didn’t know there was a player at Baylor named Silas Nacita who apparently was homeless when he walked on at Baylor. He accepted a place to live from someone and that is not good with the NCAA as they ruled him ineligible despite his high grades, and the fact that he made Academic All Big-12. I’m not really sure how to begin here. Everyone knows that the NCAA is full of these little quips and stupid rules that no one understands nor cares about. Why in the world is it right for a player who wants to play the sport he loves at the school he loves to be told he can’t because he doesn’t have a house to live in? How is that right? At least that’s what people are asking and have been asking since this whole thing came out. This whole situation also played out this time last year when JUCO transfer Antoine Turner, who was headed to Boise State, was also homeless. He had nothing. He began getting offers from strangers all over the Boise area offering him money and a house and everything that you could imagine. The only problem was that if he had accepted any of it, the NCAA could have declared him ineligible. The same thing that they did with Silas Nacita.

The difference between the two is that Turner was already going to be on scholarship at Boise State and Nacita wasn’t. Unfortunately that means that the odds are in Turner’s favor. He was granted a waiver from the NCAA and Boise State was able to help him. Also the NCAA employs a thing called the “Student Assistance Fund” that the NCAA has. In essence it gives money to the schools to help people like Turner who have no home, or no food, if the situation calls for it.

But what about poor Silas Nacita? Well the difference is that he was a walk on athlete. Which means he was not on scholarship so these benefits do not extend to him. It’s a ridiculous scenario and one that really needs to be looked at again. Even if we don’t know the whole story behind this kid, why in the world should a homeless athlete be punished for being homeless? He has nothing and no one and even the school that he plays football for can’t help him because the big, bad NCAA has rules that prevent homeless athletes from being taken care of? Wait, no, excuse me, just the ones who are on scholarship. Those are the special ones.

“We’ll look after those, but forget the ones that weren’t quite good enough to be offered a scholarship.” –The NCAA Probably.

I know that in every story there are things that aren’t reported on. We may not know the whole story behind Silas Nacita, but it’s still unfair. Why aren’t all athletes taken care of if need be? Why does the Student Assistance Fund only apply to scholarship students? And if the NCAA doesn’t care enough to use the SAF to help non-scholarship athletes then why should it matter if someone wants to offer him their couch for the week? Or give him a gift card for food? He matters then. He is important enough to violate their rules because he plays football for the university, but he’s still not important enough for us to use the funds set up for this kind of scenario to help him. Yeah real smart NCAA.

The NCAA has been called many things with “bully” being the chief among them. It seems they like to flex their muscles and intimidate and annoy. They’re like the bug flying around your head that you can’t get rid of, but if you irritate it then it’ll sting you. I don’t like the NCAA. I think there needs to be punishment for breaking rules, but the rules need to be changed… or at the very least updated. So that every single thing that the NCAA does isn’t a contradiction.

Anyway that’s that for now. Until next time college football lovers.

Trouble, Trouble, NCAA Part 1

I'm really not good at this whole blogging thing. I mean if the dates in between my posts are any indication. I'm going to do better. Honest. Well I actually have a few things of interest to discuss this week. The first being poor Alabama. So much trouble that seems to be following them as of late. Are apologies by the great coach really necessary? I'll deal with that. My other topic is the NCAA. I think I've made myself clear in that I don't like them. But really what college football fan does? I mean if you think about it. Let's be honest with ourselves here fans. Anyway so let's get down to it. Bama first.

3 in Four

Three players in four days. That's what life has been like for the poor Alabama Crimson Tide since Saturday. First it was Geno Smith with a DUI. Then it was Jonathan Taylor and his domestic issues, and then finally it was Tyren Jones and his drugs. I'm not going to pretend like this isn't a common thing. As I've said before during the off-season there isn't much that these kids are doing besides getting arrested, but I digress. Jonathan Taylor has had a pretty good amount of problems and was given a second chance by Nick Saban to fix things and play football like a respectable kid. He couldn't do that and Saban dismissed him after Taylor's domestic violence stuff which he has already been dismissed from another SEC school for previously.

People were all over Saban and basically demanding an apology from the coach for signing the rough player. Some said that he never should have taken Taylor in the first place, that he was trouble from the get-go. Saban, however, was totally unapologetic about signing the kid. He said that he wasn't "apologizing for the opportunity we gave him". And honestly I don't think he should. Why should he apologize for doing what almost every other college football coach has done at some point? You see a good player that gets removed from a school for being in trouble and you think you can "rehabilitate" him and get his talents in the process so you grab him up. You give him some rules and then he plays and all seems well. For the most part that's how these things work. A lot, and I mean a lot, of coaches take players that get kicked off other teams for issues and use them for their benefit while simultaneously helping the player get better. It doesn't always work that way. See Jonathan Taylor or Dorial Green-Beckham or Michael Dyer. However, there are times that it does work. See Cam Newton, objections are coming for that one but he never got in trouble with the law again and he played well he's Cam Newton so yeah, or Zach Mettenberger. These things can work. Players can be fixed and they can do good things. 

So should Saban apologize for giving this kid a second chance? No. Because they deserve second chances to prove that they can change for the better. That's what is important. I actually admire Saban for getting rid of him instead of letting him slide multiple times after multiples issues. He did let him off and then when it became apparent that Taylor wasn't going to obey rules, then Saban had no choice. But he doesn't owe anyone an apology. 

Geno Smith did get his second DUI. And he's still there while Tyren Jones, the running back that was found with the marijuana, is now gone. I'm not really sure what Saban's doing there. Smith is a good safety, but then again Jones was going to be a good running back. Admittedly, he's down a good ways on the incredible depth chart that is Alabama's running back position but still. Of course Jones was also suspended indefinitely for the last half of the season for breaking team rules and not being up to Alabama's standards, so I suppose there's that too. Saban is a good coach and he's proven over and over again that he knows how to handle his players. His players know what to expect from him, and they have strict standards that they have to adhere to. I admire the great coach for that. 

So anyway... I was going to talk about the NCAA but how about I take that next time... so consider this part one of two. Tomorrow will be the NCAA post. I'll delve into why I hate them and why I'm ready for them to take their leave. But I'll also try to see it from their side. Just kidding, I'm biased remember? So until part two tomorrow... Promise it'll be tomorrow.

Bigger is better?

It was a relatively quiet week in college football. I mean besides the combine and all of the hype about Marcus Mariota and his quick feet and Jameis Winston and his not so quick feet, and the reminder that RGIII just didn't pan out the way that the combine made people think he would. Besides all that there haven't been too many fun off-season tales to talk about. However, I've found two that I think will suffice. The first is a little on the serious side, and the second is a follow-up to the Winston's Baby Fat that I wrote about last week. So onto the first issue

Florida's Minor Violation

In case you missed it, the beloved NCAA finished up an investigation into the football program at Florida about a recruiting violation from a year ago. It involved Joker Phillips, who many remember as the failed Kentucky head coach, who was an assistant to the team at the time. He apparently conversed with a recruit during the "dead period" which is not allowed and somehow gave him a leg up on the competition. The NCAA must have not realized that it didn't matter when the recruit was spoken to there wasn't much that could be said to bring any recruit to Florida while Muschamp was still the head coach. Regardless of that, when Florida figured it out they suspended Joker on their own and then he resigned due to personal reasons not too long after that. It was determined by everyone's favorite authority figure, the NCAA in case you're lost, that the self-imposed penalties were enough to suffice and they wouldn't be punished any further. 

I mean I get it. I really do. But this was literally one of the smallest recruiting violations that could have ever happened. I mean it's not like he wasn't in the wrong but let's be real here what harm could it really do? The kid is going to pick Florida over an Alabama, Auburn, LSU, or even Ohio State or whatever other team could have come calling, just because Joker Phillips shows up at his school, says hello, and gets his Facebook URL? Come on. Give me a break. The off season is also great for seeing what the NCAA is going to do since they're obviously bored and need someone or something to pick on until the real fun starts again. I know that they had to do something because it is a violation, whether it was a really important and necessary violation or not, it was still a violation. So in order to assert their dominance they must investigate and annoy and eventually punish if they deem it necessary to do so. In this case, I think it's fairly decent, and not like them, to let Florida off. As we've seen with other teams before self-imposed violations don't necessarily mean that it will shake the NCAA (see Miami). However, sometimes even after the NCAA investigates and punishes it doesn't mean that it will stop the team from doing wrong things again (see SMU). More recently teams that self-imposed violations have avoided the swing of the hammer from the NCAA, see Syrcause basketball, so Florida did well to get off the hook. I, personally, don't think that it gave Florida any more of a shot at landing the kid than it did anyone else, but hey, I'm not the NCAA. I still don't understand why college players shouldn't get money when people use their likeness and their signature for monetary gain. There's a lot I don't get about the big business of college football. I love it, but I don't get it.

Lorenzen Strikes Again

So everyone probably has heard of Jared Lorenzen at some point if you like football. He was a larger than average QB once upon a time who played and played well at Kentucky. He defied most of the conventions surrounding how a quarterback should look and weigh, and he had one heck of an arm while he did it. Anyway when the picture of the voluptuous Jameis Winston surfaced, Lorenzen simply couldn't resist having his say about it. He posted this lovely number on his Twitter:

In honor of #FatTuesday I will play "who looks better?" P.S. The answer is obvious. #biggerisbetter #22 pic.twitter.com/2PXjLl9r5K
— jared lorenzen (@JaredLorenzen22) February 17, 2015

I swear this made me laugh so hard when I read it. I've read a lot about Jared Lorenzen and he seems like a cool guy and this sort of affirmed that for me. Picking at Jameis about that photo by a famous fat quarterback is just wonderful. As we all know by now the photo of Jameis isn't exactly true to his measurements and so it's not something to get worked up about. However, I still love this post. It's always nice when you can have a sense of humor about something that most people will despise you over. Anyway just a fun little story to cap the blog this week. Until next I write, see ya football lovers.

Off Season

Ugh, I hate the off season. There's all those headlines that read something like, "Nick Saban declared to be legally Satan" and the others that are like "Gus Malzahn admits to stealing toilet paper for rolling of trees" and people read them and fuss over the comment sections like these stories are realistic or interesting. Then of course there's the articles about what the players are doing in their down time. Hint: most of them are getting arrested. I, for one, just miss not having football to watch on Saturdays. I really feel like there is something missing in my life when I have to wake up and not get ready to watch a game of any sort on a Saturday morning. I'm not saying I don't enjoy the crazy stories of off season tales and woes, plus I'm a pretty big college basketball lover so March Madness is always fun for me, I'm just saying I miss college football. So in order for me to curb my appetite for the sport I'll be addressing some fun articles about the off season that keep us all entertained while we wait patiently for football's return.

Yeldon Overrated?

Anyway I'd like to address this one article that I read on my favorite college football website Saturday Down South about Alabama's own TJ Yeldon. Personally, I loved the kid. He was always a good running back to me. I mean Bama has never been short on good backs, and, while he wasn't Eddie Lacy or Mark Ingram or even Trent Richardson, he was still good. However, this anonymous scout came forward and said that he was "overrated, because he's coming from Alabama". I think this is a tad unfair toward not only Yeldon, who is very good, but toward Alabama as well. I just don't see how people can say in one sentence that Alabama itself is an overrated team and then in the next say that they're the best in the nation. Alabama has this thing about having some of the best players in the country, and they do this year after year. I mean as I mentioned up there they had Mark Ingram, Trent Richardson, and Eddie Lacy all right in a row. Ingram and Lacy are playing professionally and Richardson will be picked up by someone who will use him the right way and let him play because he's still good and he deserves to have that chance. But I digress, anyway the point is that Alabama has good players year after year. It's not fair to say that Bama is overrated because they are who they are. They're a good team every single year. Whether or not they win it all isn't even the discussion, it's that consistently they are one of the best teams in the nation. They're not overrated because being overrated, by definition, would be a team who was ranked high every year and then didn't win. Alabama is not that team. If you want a team that fits that definition well see Oklahoma. Yeldon shouldn't even be in the same sentence with overrated because he proved that he could play with one of the best teams in the country and rack up some serious yards while doing it. I'm not saying he's the best back in the world, because he isn't, but I'm saying that this scout is crazy. Yeldon won't go first in the draft, he won't even be the first back to go, but someone will get him. And that team will be dang lucky because Yeldon is good. He proved that over and over again. For the whole article, and SDS's commentary, go here.

Winston's Baby Fat

I'm only addressing this because I find it hilarious. Earlier last week I saw this picture surface of the Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston: 

He was looking slightly rounder than one would expect a quarterback to be and of course people instantly made fun of him for his physique, which is silly. But that's not why I want to talk about it. The picture itself is a little over a month old, so it's not even of Jameis recently, but it's still hilarious that this is something that is deemed newsworthy during the off season. One of my favorite jokes made about this picture was that he looked like the uncle from your family that swears he can still beat everyone at football. Or that he's basically like Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite. I loved that comparison just because I sort of imagine that's how most quarterbacks are after they're finished with football, "No really I can still throw it 85 yards!" Honestly, it makes me laugh that this was even an issue that people brought up. No one even bothered to do research on it to see if it was recent before they made assumptions that Jameis had just let himself go right here before the combine. The Big Lead did a story on the picture where they contacted a guy at Florida State to see if the picture was recent and why Jameis looked so porkly, you can read it here. I love off season "news" stories. The Bleacher Report is the world's worst for stuff like that. I mean it's all funny reads, but it kinda makes you wonder if they actually ever report on real news. 

Anyway I guess that's all for this one. Until next time football lovers.