29
Nov
2011
Vonta Leach destroys football helmets (PIC)
(Photo: Twitter.com)
From Ray Rice’s Twitter page comes this incredible photo of Ravens fullback Vonta Leach’s helmet, which needs to be replaced due to the beating Leach has put it through this season.
(Image via ShutdownCorner)
Yikes. This image gives you just a hint of the punishment Leach delivers on opposing defenders week in and week out. These helmets are generally built to take a beating, but there’s no question that Leach plays the game in a far more brutal fashion than most, and is a throwback to the olden days of the gridiron.
Let’s just be thankful that the players aren’t still wearing leather helmets, or Leach would be caving in skulls on a regular basis.
11
Nov
2010
Thursday Night Football is BACK!
(Image via NFL.com)
It’s a great time of year to be a football fan. No longer do we have to endure the endless din of the baseball season, and the NBA is just getting started, so the gridiron gets center stage for the next few months. And the midway point of the season also brings the return of Thursday Night Football on the NFL Network. Which means we get one more night of the week where we have an excuse to drink, and we don’t have to endure crap like Grey’s Anatomy on television.
Tonight we get a good one, with two 6-2 division-leading teams facing off in and inter-conference battle. With the Falcons vs Ravens, we get to see Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco, Roddy White, Anquan Boldin, Ray Rice, Michael Turner, Ray Lewis & Tony Gonzalez (to name a few), so there will be no shortage of star power on the field. Should be a great match-up, and White – who leads the NFC in receiving – is expected to play. But both teams come into tonight with very little rest since their last game, so we’ll see if that has any effect on their play.
For those of you without NFL Network – which seems to be a healthy percentage of homes out there, you can watch the game live online here.
10
Jan
2010
VIDEO: Ray Rice Runs Patriots Out of Playoffs
Ray Rice is a bad man (Photo: ESPN.com, AP/Elise Amendolaia)
The Baltimore Ravens defeated the New England Patriots 33-14 today in Foxboro, handing Belichick and Brady an early exit from the playoffs. As the highlights below show, RB Ray Rice led the charge for Baltimore, with an 83-yard TD run on the first play from scrimmage, finishing with 159 Yards and 2 TDs on the day. The Patriots were really never in the game.
RICE HIGHLIGHTS AFTER THE JUMP
29
Aug
2009
Living in oblivion
Because you care: My fantasy football draft gets underway in 2 hours and 28 minutes.
There’s an undercurrent of self-defeat in all of this.
After last season’s debacle, I promised to never to play fantasy again.
Reason #1: My teams have sucked horribly, painfully, year after year. Some of the worst fantasy teams ever assembled—last season ended with somebody named Chet Orley-Francine at quarterback and Aunt Jemima running the ball.
Reason #2: I just couldn’t get past the fact that I was a 35-year-old man who was regularly unsettled about my “team,” it’s riddled lineup, and inability to “win football games” on my computer.
As my contingent of oft-injured, mid-tier clowns tanked week after week, I felt my rich disdain for the entire operation bloom.
One thing about fantasy: it seems to me that if you get out of the gate slow, with a bunch of players unable to find themselves, you have about as much a chance at outshining your peers as Lauren Conrad at a Mensa convention.
"LC" and fantasy football contribute equally to this society.
My 2008 fantasy start was grizzly. I lost my opening three games by a combined four points–two of those games were lost by a fraction of a point. The scoring system was such where a runningback, for instance, could score 22.7 points in a game (suggesting–to me, at least–that this entire process took itself far too seriously). By Week Four, it was over: I lost by 70 points, the victim of my own poor administration (I was out of town for the weekend, and mistakenly started three bye players, a mid-malaise Chad Ochocinco, and Chelsea Clinton). Sitting at 0-4, looking up at a flock of 4-0 and 3-1 teams, my Matt Schaub-led band of hobby horses spiraled violently downward.
This Schaub guy (who I’m told, again, is a “sleeper”) drove me to drink. Week after week, he sabotaged my fake team: I’d play him and, in real life, he’d get the flu ten minutes before gametime, leaving the quarterback slot VOID. Thanks, Matt. So, I’d sit him, and he’d come in—randomly—and throw three touchdowns. I’d fall for it, play him the next week, and he’d burn up the field for 47 yards. By Week 8, I was floating.
I have a hard time imagining my grandfather, fresh out of World War II, deciding to spend his fall playing fantasy football. It certainly speaks to the complete ease most of us live in today. I’ll get flamed for suggesting that we’re in “languish” mode—yes, yes, I know: many adults who spend way too much time twiddling around with their fantasy football lineup also hold successfully hold down full-time jobs, engage in relationships as parents and spouses, and contribute to a local charity (or tavern). That said, I just can’t get past the absurdity of it all. Human beings were meant for more than this.
