27
Sep
2011
Week 3 “C’mon Man” Lowlights (VIDEO)
I don't think Falcons DC Brian Van Gorder said "C'mon Man" (Image: 30fps.com)
The weekly “C’mon Man” segments on ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown have become a favorite here at R&R, mainly because they allow us to catch any funny moments from each weekend’s games that we might have missed. And although it’s clear that Berman, TJ and the boys are continuing their downward slide into cartoon territory, we don’t mind pulling these lowlights from the worldwide leader for your viewing enjoyment.
This week’s edition includes a few moments from Sunday that we would be remiss not showing you, in particular the Chicago Bears pulling off the best trick punt return in NFL history (negated by a phantom holding call), Matt Cassel struggling to put his hat on, and a ref taking a tumble during the Raiders-Jets game:
VIDEO AFTER THE JUMP
29
Apr
2011
Mark Ingram, Jr. gets an emotional message from his dad after being drafted (VIDEO)
This might have been the most emotional moment from last night’s 1st round of the NFL Draft.
Alabama RB and former Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram found himself waiting the longest to hear his name called in the draft’s green room, as he slid farther and farther down the board. But after being selected #28 overall by the New Orleans Saints, Ingram was overcome with a sense of relief and emotion, as ESPN’s Suzy Kolber shared an email she received from Ingram’s father, Mark, Sr.
Ingram, Sr was also selected #28 overall back in 1987 by the New York Giants, and went on to be an integral part of the club that won Super Bowl 25. He is currently serving a 7-year federal sentence for bank fraud and laundering. When Kolber shared the father’s message to his son, Ingram, Jr. simply couldn’t hold back the tears:
With the addition of Ingram, the Saints now have a crowded backfield, with Pierre Thomas, Chris Ivory and Reggie Bush already in the fold. Shortly after the draft, Bush sent out this tweet, indicating that he’s aware of the writing on the wall:
25
Apr
2011
Hooray for Draft Week!! Hooray I say.
(Photo: mjbnewsonline.com)
As you may have noticed, we here at R&R have been feeling a bit disenchanted with the ol’ NFL these days, what with the lockout and ongoing labor discussions hanging over the game like a black cloud of death. I mean, it’s pretty tough to get excited about the off-season activities of your favorite team (let alone muster a blog post about it) when you have no assurances that there’s even going to be a season next season.
But fortunately, the NFL Draft is upon us to return a sense of normalcy to our lives! Beginning this Thursday night, we can forget about all the extra-curricular nonsense and get back to talking football. Once again, we can take refuge in the league’s greatest annual event, where fans of even the worst teams come away with a feeling of hope for the future. A place where we await war room updates from Ed Werder with baited breath, and find comfort in the cocksure smirk of Mel Kiper and the sweaty mess that has become Chris Berman. Although apparently, ESPN has removed Tom Jackson, Steve Young and Keyshawn Johnson from this year’s draft coverage team, which might actually mean someone will get a word in edgewise this year. Either way, we’ve been partial to NFL Network’s draft coverage in recent years, so we’ll probably be switching back and forth.
And I don’t know about you, but it just gives me a warm fuzzy feeling in my heart to know that I’ll be seeing this at some point this weekend:
Jets fans are always good for a draft meltdown (Image via rolandopastor.com)
13
Apr
2011
Remember Giovanni Carmazzi? Yeah … he’s a yoga-practicing goat farmer these days
Carmazzi was the 3rd round selection of the 49ers in the 2000 NFL draft (Photo: NYTimes.com)
One of the big stories this week has been ESPN’s documentary “The Brady 6″, which looks at Tom Brady’s selection in the 2000 NFL draft, and the 6 quarterbacks who were taken ahead of him. After believing he would be taken somewhere in the 2nd or 3rd, Brady and his family had to watch as he plummeted to #199 overall. Based on the teasers, the most newsworthy item from the film seemed to be the fact that Brady choked up when recalling his draft day experience. The blogosphere went wild over this footage of a teary-eyed Brady, but when the program aired last night, we found another nugget of information to be the most enlightening.
Among the marquis names chosen before the 3-time Super Bowl Champion were Chad Pennington (No. 18, Jets), Giovanni Carmazzi (65, 49ers), Chris Redman (75, Ravens), Tee Martin (163, Steelers), Marc Bulger (168, Saints) and Spergon Wynn (183, Browns). As lifelong 49ers fans, the Bradys were particularly upset that their home team had passed on their son, but the San Francisco brain trust – which included Bill Walsh and Steve Mariucci - were more enamored with Carmazzi, a physically gifted QB from Hofstra who had wowed scouts at the combine and workouts.
As we know, Carmazzi struggled with the leap from 1-AA Hofstra to the big time, and retired from the NFL in 2001 without ever playing a regular season down for the 49ers. He had five operations on his shoulder and played two years of football in Canada before retiring from the sport in 2005. And apparently Carmazzi values his privacy these days, because he declined to be interviewed by ESPN for this documentary … which pretty much made him fair game for the producers to paint him however they like. So they decided to depict Carmazzi like this:
“(He) does not own a television and declined to be interviewed. He lives two hours north of San Francisco, and describes himself as a yoga-exercising farmer … He has five goats.”
Ouch. From top NFL prospect to hermit yogi goat farmer in just over a decade. Quite a precipitous fall. Not as bad as Marinovich or Leaf or anything, but still …
8
Feb
2011
The long, sad road of William “The Refrigerator” Perry (VIDEO)
Perry today, at his home in South Carolina (ESPN image via TheDailyMail)
This one will tug at your heart strings. ESPN’s Tom Friend recently re-connected with former Bears DT William Perry, and put together this feature on the man forever known to football fans simply as “The Fridge”. What Friend found was a broken man, 25 years removed from the glory days of the ’85 Super Bowl championship, and still battling his weight and ongoing addiction to alcohol.
Perry – who is now 48 years old and living with his wife in Aiken, SC – suffers from Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a neurological disorder that can cause paralysis and is worsened by alcohol. Diagnosed in June 2008, the sickness hit Perry hard and he began wasting away … but he never quit drinking. And eventually, it took it’s toll on The Fridge:
On an April afternoon in 2009, his blood pressure dropped. Valerie began to panic, but, fortuitously, Daryl and Daryl’s wife, Tavy, happened to stop by that night after going to dinner.
“We said, ‘Let’s go see bro’ and see how he’s doing,”’ Daryl says. “When we got in the house, he was lying motionless. He wasn’t moving. He wasn’t blinking. I was tapping him on the shoulder, yelling at him, just trying to get a response. Nothing. So we called the paramedics.”
Consensus from the doctors is that Perry nearly died that day. Not only had he suffered a relapse of Guillain-Barre, he had pneumonia. He couldn’t hear out of his right ear and couldn’t see more than five feet in front of him.
Worse yet, the Fridge — famous the world over for his stomach — weighed exactly 190 pounds.
Yet, despite suffering through recovery in the hospital for 16 months, Perry continues to drink beer. He stubbornly ignores the orders of his doctors, won’t take his medication, and seemingly lives in constant denial of his failing physical condition. Back up to a weight of 400 pounds and barely able to carry himself around the house, Perry somehow still believes himself to be in good health, despite the mountain of evidence to suggest otherwise. And after watching this piece, there’s one sad truth you can’t help but come to accept: The Fridge seems destined for a tragic ending, and it’s made all the more tragic by his detachment from reality.
WATCH THE ESPN VIDEO FEATURE AFTER THE JUMP
27
Jan
2011
America thinks Jay Cutler is the least likeable QB in the NFL
(Photo: KansasCity.com)
Here’s another one for the “winning forgives everything” file: ESPN’s SportsNation is running a poll to find out which current NFL quarterback is the least likeable: Ben Roethlisberger, Michael Vick or Jay Cutler. And in what really should come as no surprise at this point, America thinks that Cutler is the worst of the bunch. By a large margin.
So according to this unscientific sample, Cutler’s moping and perceived tap-out in the NFC Championship game is less forgivable than (alleged) rape and (convicted) electrocution of dogs. Gotcha.
(ESPN Image via FoulBalls.com)
The persecution of the Bears QB has reached a fever pitch this week, with FoxSports.com’s Jason Whitlock openly calling Cutler a quitter, and implying that he had mentally checked out long ago. Then there’s this video from TMZ, which is getting all sorts of attention today. Apparently Cutler doesn’t exhibit enough of a limp while walking around town for some people’s liking. And on Monday there was an uproar when he went to dinner with his family after the game, and had the gaul to use the stairs to walk up to the private dining area … when there was an elevator available (gasp)!
Nevermind the fact that any doctor will tell you a patient can walk normally with a Grade II MCL tear. Don’t let that get in the way of a good media execution. Disgruntled Bears fans are just looking for a fall guy to blame the loss on, when the fact remains that Chicago was losing that game with or without Cutler.
Meanwhile, Roethlisberger and Vick can violate any number of legal and moral codes, win a few football games, and all is forgiven. I’d say our priorities as a nation seem to be perfectly in line, wouldn’t you?
[H/T FoulBalls]
17
Jan
2011
VIDEO: Bart Scott treats Sal Paolantonio like Mean Gene Okerlund
When the Jets stunned the Super Bowl favorite New England Patriots to advance to the AFC Championship yesterday, Jets LB Bart Scott clearly had a lot of emotions to get off his chest. I mean, after all the build-up and trash talk between these two division rivals, you knew that this was more than just your average NFL match-up.
So when the vociferous Scott was approached by ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio after the game, he turned in his best WWE-style interview, with Sal playing the role of straight man:
Not quite up to the level of a Macho Man Savage rant, but not bad. Not bad at all. Best Line: “All we hear is about their defense … they can’t stop a nosebleed!”
UPDATE: Not surprisingly, Scott didn’t stop playing the disrespected card there. Watch his locker room tirade after the jump:
24
Nov
2010
Justin Bieber: “Seriously, bro, what’s up with Brady’s hair? I own this look.”
OK, this is from a few weeks back… but Kenny Mayne‘s penetrating investigation into Tom Brady‘s flowing locks remains relevant until the Pats QB cuts those Bieber-like locks.
16
Aug
2010
Giants/Jets set to christen the New Meadowlands Stadium
(Photo by Lori Van Buren / Times Union)
Tonight’s Giants/Jets pre-season clash marks the NFL debut of the New Meadowlands Stadium, which is still inexplicably being shared by 2 teams in the world’s largest sports market. And while the stadium has yet to sell naming rights to the highest bidder, the fact that it’s no longer called “Giants Stadium” should certainly help the Jets shed their image of second-fiddle team in their own home town. But more than anything, winning will determine that.
In just a few hours, the teams will fight it out for bragging rights in their new digs (well, as much as you can after pulling the starters midway through the 2nd quarter, anyway). While the stadium has been used for a few concerts and sporting events, this will the be the first time rowdy Giants and Jets fans will get to kick the tires on the new $1.6 billion building., which features 82,500 seats, four’ 40×130′ HD video screens, and separate home locker rooms for each of the tenant clubs.
Video screens are located in each corner of the stadium ... noticeably not looming above the field (Photo by Lori Van Buren / Times Union)
There have been some early complaints about the leg room in the new seats, obstructed views, as well as an overall gray/drab feeling about the building to go with the exorbitant PSL price tags. But tonight, the New Meadowlands will be lit up in Jets green (since they are the home team for this game), and we’ll get a taste of what a real gameday will feel like. ESPN’s Lomas Brown and Jon Ritchie took a walk around the stadium to give a preview of what fans can expect:
VIDEO AFTER THE JUMP Read the rest of this entry »
28
Apr
2010
ESPN’s “Run Ricky Run” should be mandatory viewing
In case you haven’t been watching, ESPN’s 30 for 30 series is must-see sports programming. It’s a series of documentary shorts from different filmmakers on a variety of sports topics, resulting in some of the best sports films in recent memory (see the docs on the University of Miami football program and Allen Iverson’s trial as a youth, in particular). Set your DVR’s, folks.
The latest episode is entitled “Run Ricky Run”, with Sean Pamphilon and Royce Toni taking an in-depth look at the fascinating journey of former Heisman Trophy-winner and Dolphins RB Ricky Williams. It’s a story that demanded to be told, and this film provides unparalleled access to Williams and those close to him.
It doesn’t take long to realize that Williams is as far from the run-of-the-mill professional athlete as could possibly be. His much-publicized love of marijuana led to multiple suspensions, and when he went to Canada to play ball in 2006, it seemed to signal the end of his NFL career.
