Neil Keefe

Dec 29, 2014

The Rex Ryan Love-Hate Relationship

I’m not a Jets fan, but I ended up being a Rex Ryan fan and his New York departure needs a proper goodbye.

I got my wish: Tom Coughlin will be the Giants’ head coach in 2015. I think the final few weeks of the season showed that the Giants’ 6-10 season was more of a product of leading the league with players on injured reserve rather than Coughlin losing the ability to coach overnight. Even without a postseason appearance since 2011 and a postseason game since Super Bowl XLVI, Coughlin still has that and XLII on his resume and that should be enough to keep him around until he decides he longer wants to be. And with Ben McAdoo assisting in the best offensive season of Eli Manning’s career and an Odell Beckham Jr.-Victor Cruz receiving tandem next year, the Giants could be back to where they were three years ago at this time. Unfortunately, if you’re a Jets fan, the future isn’t as bright.

The team that tried to become the King of the City in 2009 and 2010 with back-to-back AFC Championship Game appearances fired the man who got them there. Rex Ryan coached his final game as head coach of the Jets and general manager John Idzik watched his final game as the head of the front office on Sunday. Ryan was doomed from the start of the season when Idzik made him make Geno Smith the starting quarterback and when he decided to not spend $20 million that he’ll never get to spend. And Idzik was doomed from the second he went to the podium for the “We Suck, But We’re Trying Hard” press conference that will likely serve as the reason he is never leading a front office again.

I have written a lot of words about Rex Ryan since he became the head coach of the Jets and flip-flopped on whether I liked him or not more times than I have with Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. He came to New York as a fat, loud-mouthed defensive coordinator, who called out Bill Belichick in his first days, eliminated his own team from the postseason before a run to the 2009 AFC Championship Game, gave us a memorable season Hard Knocks in the summer of 2010, embarrassed the Patriots at Gillette Stadium in the 2010 divisional round and then came a stop on third-and-6 away from having a chance to win 2010 AFC Championship Game. He leaves New York as a slimmed-down quieter version of himself, who hasn’t seen the playoffs since that 2010 AFC Championship Game and is 26-38 over the last four years.

After going back and forth on Rex Ryan’s personality and abilities, I settled on liking the outspoken Rex, who didn’t want his team to settle for being a “slapd-ck team” and just wanted to eat a snack. The Jets might always be “the same old Jets” but even for a Giants fan like myself, who enjoys watching a good Jets loss, Rex gave outsiders a reason to watch for a few years and a reason to root for his Jets, like I did for that Jets-Patriots divisional game back in January 2011. So in honor, of Rex Ryan, I went back and found five things I wrote about him from August 2010 through January 2011 to look at his best season as Jets head coach.

Rise of the Jets – Aug. 12, 2010
There are going to be a lot of people that watch Hard Knocks simply to see what Rex Ryan is like outside of his comedic press conferences and aside from his extravagant Daily News and Post headlines. After watching Rex freely make fun of his in-laws in the opening minutes of the show, you just knew he was going to make the most of this opportunity to have a camera and censor-free microphone in front of him for training camp.

In the show, Rex Ryan appears to be an actor rather than an amusing and overweight NFL coach. Some of his lines and actions seem a little over the top and rehearsed, the same way that the cast of the Jersey Shore now plays up their personas to fulfill the roles of the celebrities they have become rather than be themselves like they were in the first season when the show gained popularity. (Don’t get me wrong, I will continue to watch Jersey Shore no matter how fake the cast becomes, just like I would watch Hard Knocks even if Rex Ryan were reading off cue cards.)

I think the pre-camp meeting was the best example of Rex being a head coach that knows there is a camera recording him. Rex made it clear that he wants his team to lead the league in the wins, but it was almost as if he was trying force every last swear word he could into this scene, so that fans would come away from Hard Knocks and say, “Wow, Rex Ryan is a badass.” But if you take away Ryan’s HBO vocabulary from that meeting, it definitely wouldn’t have passed through the final cut. A power point presentation on Day 1 of camp for NFL players? What player would pay attention to that? It was almost as if someone recorded the first day of class from each semester of college when the professor would just stand there and read the syllabus word for word before you letting you go early. Not exactly captivating TV without Rex trying to break the South Park movie’s record for most swears in one scene.

Rex has reached a point in my life that not many other people can achieve: the point where I could watch Rex Ryan do just about anything. It’s such an elite club that I can’t even think of another person on this list. Whether it’s trying to drop 37 F-bombs before taking a breath, wearing Chuck Taylor shoes given his body type, eating a lunch big enough for a family of four at Cafe Ryan, throwing footballs, punting footballs or just standing around making small talk, there isn’t anything Rex Ryan can’t do that wouldn’t be compelling. I only wish Tom Coughlin could be half as likeable as Rex Ryan.

Rex will never have trouble finding a job in the football world, which is disappointing, because the man could carry his own reality show. And like a lot of other people, I would watch every second of it.

A Reality Check – Dec. 7, 2010
I didn’t like Rex Ryan at first, then he grew on me and I even wished Tom Coughlin was a little like him when I said, “I only wish Tom Coughlin could be half as likeable as Rex Ryan.” Actually I wish Tom Coughlin could be half as likable as anyone, but I was wrong to think that Coughlin should change his ways to be more like Ryan. After my 180 on Rex, I have done other 180, and now a complete 360 and I am back to my initial stance of not being a fan of Rex Ryan anymore.

There are few, if any, press conferences in sports as entertaining as Rex Ryan’s, but even those are getting old. In two seasons, Rex Ryan has become what The Office has become for me over seven seasons — a show that I was skeptical about at first, and then grew to love before becoming skeptical again.

One day Rex is saying that the Jets are the team to beat and the next he is saying that he knew the AFC East would run through New England. I understand that you have to take a grain of salt with whatever Rex says, but it’s become ridiculous. He wants to come off as this cocky, arrogant and pompous winner when the Jets are winning close games against barely competent teams. And after losses, he becomes an apologetic, sincere and humble the next. It’s an odd act that has made him a favorite of Jets fan, but an immature and unprepared clown to outsiders.

Tom Coughlin might not have a comedic personality or a limit to the amount of snacks he can eat in a day or a twin brother that looks like Sean Connery’s character John Mason at the beginning of The Rock, but he has beaten Bill Belichick in a big game (the biggest of games), and at least with Tom Coughlin you know what you’re getting, whether you like it or not. Oddly enough, I’m thankful that Tom Coughlin is the way he is.

Year in Review, Part 1 – Dec. 29, 2010
I’m not sure who Rex Ryan wants to be. One day he wants to be an NFL coach and the next day he wants to be friends with the players and a class clown with the media. So far his team has underachieved by the standards he set in Hard Knocks (leading the league in wins), but you would never know that from the way he conducts himself.

I was still on the fence about whether or not I liked Rex Ryan and then on Sunday when he was giving his press conference and found out in the middle of it that the Jets made the playoffs because the Jaguars lost, and he started acting like the Jets had decided their own fate with a convincing win, well it was then that I finally decided Rex isn’t for me.

I don’t agree with everything that Bill Belichick does or how he handles the media, but I get why he acts that way, and at least he is consistent. He gave this interview outside the locker room after losing to the Giants in Super Bowl XLII, and had the Patriots won, his postgame interview probably would have been very similar.

Call him smug, or arrogant or pompous, but call him consistent. That is all I ask of Rex. Be consistent. Find a personality and stick with it. Either be an authority figure or a coach that is buddy-buddy with the players. Don’t try to be both because you can’t be both.

A Giants Fan for Jets – Jan. 14, 2011
I once saw Dave Attell do stand-up and the show started at midnight, and Dave had already done two shows that night. Saying he was drunk would be like saying Marisa Miller is good looking. But as the show went on and on and a waiter kept delivering drinks to Dave, the show only got better and better. I’m sure the people at the 8:00 show got a good show, but it was definitely not as good as the people who went to the 10:00 show, and their show definitely was not as good the show that I saw at midnight. This is what’s happening with Rex Ryan.

Rex started off talking trash on the first episode of Hard Knocks, it got better once the regular season started and then once the Jets began to play important games. Then the playoffs started and he began to call out anyone that walked by him leading up to this game where he has used material on Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. Just think about some of the crazy things that have come out of Rex’s mouth and then think about this: he has NEVER been the head coach for a team in the Super Bowl. Imagine Rex Ryan with two weeks between the AFC Championship (if the Jets can get there) and the Super Bowl? I think only a two-week marathon of The Office or Friday Night Lights could keep me as entertained.

And the Winner Is … – Jan. 19, 2011
On Sunday night, CBS ran a piece on 60 Minutes about Billy Walters, a sports gambler in Nevada that bets hundreds of thousands of dollars on football and basketball games and won $3.5 million on the Saints in last year’s Super Bowl.

I take back anything bad I have said about Rex Ryan. He’s a hero. And I’m not joking when I say that. He’s the man.

When Rex ran into the end zone to celebrate Shonn Greene’s touchdown with the players, he won me over. For a minute I thought Rex was the one that scored the touchdown and seeing the players celebrating with him and letting him be one of the guys for that moment made you realize that when Bart Scott says he would “die for Rex Ryan” that he probably isn’t the only one on the Jets that would.

When I look at my team, the Giants, I see a team that if Tom Coughlin was fired tomorrow, the players would give remarks like, “football is a business” or “it’s not Tom’s fault” when really the majority of the team probably wouldn’t care and would likely be happy. (And Antrel Rolle verified this on Tuesday.) If Rex were fired, I could see the Jets threatening to not show up and play. That’s the vibe you get from this Jets “team” and it’s something you don’t get from the Giants.

The Jets are Rex Ryan. The entire team has bought into his trash talking system, and during Hard Knocks when he kept reiterating, “Play Like A Jet” I thought, “What is wrong with this guy?” Playing like a Jet meant not winning championships. But what Rex meant was that “Playing Like A Jet” meant “Playing Like A Jet From When I Took Over This Team.” Nothing with the Jets before Rex Ryan matters and like he said, “Same old Jets going to the AFC Championship for the second year in a row.”

Blogs • Giants

Dec 26, 2014

NFL Week 17 Picks

It’s the final week of the regular-season picks and the last week of full-day football Sundays and it always marks a depressing time of the year.

It’s always a little depressing to write the Week 17 Picks. The regular season is coming to an end, as is everything that comes with Football Sundays for four-plus months. This Sunday is the last chance to put together an improbable parlay or teaser, watch the Red Zone channel, justify eating unhealthy and drinking an abundance of alcohol for 12 hours and feel like it’s not a big deal if you order takeout multiple times and don’t step foot outside or see daylight for the entire day. Week 17 means the end of the regular season, but it also means the start of the postseason, and in Week 17, every team falls into one of three categories.

1. Playing for a playoff berth or playoff seeding.

2. Playing with the goal of trying to make sure no one gets injured before the playoffs.

3. Playing for absolutely nothing.

Here is how each team is categorized:

1. Houston, Baltimore, Atlanta, Carolina, San Diego, Kansas City, Green Bay, Detroit, Seattle, Denver, Arizona, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati

2. Indianapolis, New England, Dallas,

3. Jacksonville, Tennessee, Cleveland, Buffalo, New York Jets, Miami, Minnesota, Chicago, New York Giants, Philadelphia, Washington, Tampa Bay, New Orleans, St. Louis, San Francisco, Oakland

So 12 teams need to win on Sunday, three just want to make it through Sunday without a playoff-crushing injury and the remaining 17 teams just want to get through 60 minutes of football and head to offseason and end what has been a lost season.

In both the NFC and AFC only one spot is still up for grabs, but only the NFC South winner as the 4-seed in the NFC and the Patriots as the 1-seed in the AFC are locked into their spots and not one matchup has been set yet. Week 17 is about as perfectly set up as you could want it to be if you’re a Giants fan like me (or a fan of any of the other 16 teams with nothing to play for) whose team is out of it. All I have left are my parlays, teasers and the hope for as much drama as possible to end the regular season.

(Home team in caps)

HOUSTON -9.5 over Jacksonville
Despite a three-game losing streak and being 5-6 at one point, the Texans are still alive for a playoff berth if they can win and Baltimore and San Diego lose. If the playoffs started today, none of the Texans’ eight wins would have come against the playoff team and the only way the 2014 Texans will have beaten a playoff team is if the Ravens find a way in, which of course, the Texans can’t have happen.

INDIANAPOLIS -7 over Tennessee
The Colts are locked into the 4-seed in the AFC and if they can survive Wild-Card Weekend, there’s a good chance they will head to Gillette and serve as the red carpet for the Patriots to the AFC Championship Game. Last week, when talking about the Cowboys-Colts game, I said, “The Colts don’t need it and can focus on staying healthy for the final two weeks before their inevitable first- or second-round playoff loss.” Then the Colts went out and lost 42-7 and proved that if the Colts can get through the first round, which is a big if at this point, they will get rolled in the divisional round on the road. But that doesn’t mean they won’t take the chance to steamroll the Titans here, which the Titans will gladly welcome en route to the No. 1 pick in the draft.

BALTIMORE -10 over Cleveland
Baltimore’s loss last week in Houston cost me a teaser and I wasn’t surprised it did since I have been so adamant about hating the Ravens and wanting them to lose all season. But now they are in a position where they can still make the playoffs if they beat Cleveland and San Diego loses to Kansas City. So I’m fully expecting the Ravens to rout the Browns and for the Chiefs to beat the Chargers, so the Ravens will get in the playoffs.

NEW ENGLAND -5 over Buffalo
The Patriots have nothing to play for. As long as Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski and Darrelle Revis don’t get hurt, the Patriots will consider Week 17 a win even if they don’t win. The Bills lost their season to the Raiders and I can’t imagine them finding motivation to show up in Gillette with four quarters separating them from the offseason and vacation.

New York Jets +6 over MIAMI
Goodbye, Rex Ryan. It was painful watching you nearly make a team quarterbacked by Mark Sanchez become the Kings of the City in New York and it was relieving to watch you lead the Jets back to mediocrity, but the entire six-year ride was enjoyable from a non-Jets fan’s perspective. You gave me the 2010 divisional round win over the Patriots as 10-point underdogs (and more importantly a huge money line) and jump-started the Giants’ Super Bowl run in 2011 after Victor Cruz’s 99-yard touchdown on Christmas Eve. You gave us the memorable lines in the 2010 season of Hard Knocks and gave me plenty of column material over the last five seasons. I think I owe it to Rex to give him a real farewell next week. Even if he was never my team’s coach, he was still a likeable personality, who helped make the game fun during a time when there was plenty of reasons to believe it might no longer be fun. Thank you, Rex. You returned the Jets to where they should be and hopefully without you they stay there.

ATLANTA -4 over Carolina
If the Falcons win, they win the NFC South at 7-9. If the Panthers win, they win the NFC South at 7-9-1.

Minnesota -6 over CHICAGO
I like how Jay Cutler says he either wants to play in Chicago or Tennessee as if he’s established enough that he can pick and choose where he wants to play. And if the Bears don’t want him, why would the Titans? They are the worst team in the NFL and looking at the No. 1 pick in the draft. Does anyone think the Titans would deal that pick in some sort of package to acquire Cutler when he hasn’t started 16 games in a season since 2009? We know what Cutler is and that’s not going to change when he starts the 2015 season at age 32. But I’m sure the Titans will be jumping at the opportunity for the coveted chance to give up possibly having a franchise quarterback for the next decade in exchange for the quarterback that lost his job to Jimmy Clausen.

San Diego +3 over KANSAS CITY
The Chiefs still haven’t thrown a touchdown pass to a wide receiver this season. In a game that close, I’m going to use that as the reason to take the points at Arrowhead. Zero touchdown passes to wide receivers!

NEW YORK GIANTS -3 over Philadelphia
What would this line have been after Week 13 when the Giants were 3-9 and losers of seven straight and the Eagles were 9-3 and coming off a Thanksgiving Day win in Dallas? Philadelphia -7.5? But four weeks later, the Eagles are three-point underdogs on the road in the season finale after pissing away their near-guaranteed playoff berth at 9-3 thanks to three straight losses in which we were once again reminded why Mark Sanchez was run out of New York and isn’t the answer or future for any team in any city. I wish I cared enough about the Eagle’s demise to listen to Philadelphia sports radio and its callers because I’m sure there aren’t many of either left believing Chip Kelly is a genius, especially after losing a season-ending game to the Redskins, who won for the first time since Oct. 27 when they beat the Tony Romo-less Cowboys. I’m relieved the Eagles were eliminated before January because it’s one less team I have to worry about winning the Super bowl this year.

WASHINGTON +6 over Dallas
The Cowboys essentially have nothing to play for because so many unlikely things need to happen for them to move higher than the 3-seed. So the Cowboys are going to be the 3-seed and host either the Packers, Lions, Seahawks or Cardinals in the first round. (Right now it would be the Cardinals and I’m sure the Cowboys are hoping that it stays that way.) But until then, the Cowboys’ only goal for Week 17 is to be healthy for Wild-Card Weekend and when you’re not really playing to win, it’s hard to cover.

TAMPA BAY +4 over New Orleans
This is one horrible game. Everything I thought I knew about the Saints being unbeatable at the Superdome has been destroyed since they lost their final five home games of the season after having not lost at home during the Sean Payton era since the end of the 2010 season. But after losing 41-10 to the Panthers, the Saints followed that up by losing 30-14 to the Falcons in a win-or-go-home game. That’s 24 points in back-to-back games at the Superdome for the Saints with their season on the line. The Saints as I had known them over the last six year (minus the one year the NFL took away from them) no longer exist.

GREEN BAY -8 over Detroit
When I first thought about this game, I couldn’t see the Packers blowing out the Lions in a game that is the difference between having a first-round bye plus a second-round home game and having to go on the road in the first round. Then I remembered how the Lions played last week in Chicago against an awful team and Jimmy Clausen and it made my decision a lot easier.

SEATTLE -12.5 over St. Louis
When I see what the Jets’ defense was able to do in a game that meant absolutely nothing to them and everything to the Patriots at Gillette Stadium, I started to daydream like Lloyd Christmas imagining life with Mary Swanson about the thought of the Seahawks’ defense playing against the Patriots on a neutral field. If the Patriots’ vaunted offense could only put up 17 points in a one-point win at home against the Jets, what are they going to do in a potential Super Bowl matchup against the best defense in the league? The Seahawks have five in a row (and eight of nine) and during the winning streak they have allowed 3, 3, 14, 7 and 6 points. That’s 6.6 points allowed per game in a league that has changed every rule to basically make it so every drive ends in some amount of points.

Arizona +6 over SAN FRANCISCO
I probably shouldn’t be taking the Cardinals here considering they are starting a quarterback (Logan Thomas), who wasn’t good enough a week ago to start over a quarterback (Ryan Lindley), who completed 18 of 44 pass attempts for 216 yards. Granted that start came against the Seahawks and both Carson Palmer and Drew Stanton would have lost as well, but I’m not sure the guy who has completed one pass in nine career attempts is going to be much better.

(UPDATE: Apparently after one practice, Bruce Arians decided Logan Thomas wasn’t the best option and decided to go back to Ryan Lindley.)

DENVER -14 over Oakland
Terrance Knighton probably wishes he didn’t guarantee a Broncos Super Bowl win almost two weeks ago. Sure, I thought the Broncos would at least get to the Super Bowl if they could get the 1-seed and host the AFC Championship Game, but now that that’s not going to happen and with the way they Broncos have played for the last month, I’m not sure they will even win their first playoff game now that their bye is in danger. And on top of the Broncos’ current state of disarray, Peyton Manning is being asked and talking about his plans for 2015. Maybe the Broncos can flip the switch in January and look like the 6-1 team, whose only loss was in Seattle in overtime, but that’s a risky plan to believe in.

PITTSBURGH -3.5 over Cincinnati
I don’t feel good about this one, but I would feel better about the Patriots’ chances of being eliminated in the playoffs if they have to face the Steelers and for the Steelers to get to that point, I need the Steelers to be feeling good about themselves.

Last week: 8-8-0
Season: 119-118-3

Blogs • NHL

Dec 24, 2014

‘Road to the NHL Winter Classic’ Recap, Episode 2: ‘The Russian Machine’

The second episode made me kind of/sort of like Alexander Ovechkin for the first time ever, but I’m sure that will change.

Is Alexander Ovechkin the most popular athlete of the four sports teams in Washington D.C.? That’s the question I kept asking myself after Capitals owner Ted Leonsis said it in the opening minutes of the episode. The Nationals’ most popular player is Bryce Harper, the Redskins’ is Robert Griffin III and the Wizards’ is John Wall. Ovechkin and the other three all have their own individual question marks because Ovechkin hasn’t won the Cup, Harper hasn’t been Mike Trout, RGIII is on the verge of playing himself out of D.C. and the Wizards haven’t been good so no one has paid attention to them. (At least that’s how I see each situation from an outsider’s perspective.)

But when I think about the question on a larger scale, I always come back to the Sidney Crosby-Alexander Ovechkin debate, which began when the two entered the NHL in 2005-06 after the lockout, and will never go away for as long as they play or live. It doesn’t always happen that a great player is linked to another great player for the duration of a career or lifetime and in turn a rivalry (whether real or fake) is created, but when they happen, they are what makes sports great. Crosby-Ovechkin is one of those instances.

I have always been a Crosby guy. He is the best player in the NHL and has been for a decade and likely will be for the next decade. Here’s what I said about the two in the recap of the first 24/7 episode back on Dec. 16, 2010.

These two players will be linked and connected throughout their entire careers, and if you’re a hockey fan, you’re either a Crosby guy or an Ovechkin guy. You can’t be both. You have to pick one. I’m a Crosby guy and have been from Day One, though I am pretty much alone on this among my friends.

When Evgeni Malkin is watching the game against Toronto on TV and laughs while saying, “Sid … Look,” as Crosby joins a scrum in front of the net after a whistle, I couldn’t help, but think of all the cheap shots and slew foots the Penguins committed against the Rangers in the 2006-07 Eastern Conference semifinals. But being able to play that way and get away with it is part of the game and a big part of the Penguins’ game, and it’s what makes them good. And it’s what makes me like them and like watching them play.

Is Crosby chippy and even dirty? Yes. Does he excessively whine to refs and dive? Yes. Does he get into scrums in front of the net after whistles because he knows that he won’t get a penalty and that no one will touch him then? Yes. Is he the best player in the world? Yes.

Capitals assistant coach Dean Evason made it a point to call Ovechkin “the greatest player in the world” during his locker room rant when the Rangers scored more goals against the Capitals than the Jets did points against the Dolphins last Sunday (7-6).

“Our best player is fighting! The greatest player in the world!”

I understand that Evason was trying to make the point that the Capitals were embarrassing themselves and there’s no need for Ovechkin to be fighting when the team is getting shutout, but was it necessary to call Ovechkin “the greatest player in the world?” Sure, that’s Evason’s opinion and he spends every day around Ovechkin, so I would expect his opinion to be skewed, and I’m probably making too big of a deal about nothing, but do you think the Pittsburgh coaching staff is telling Crosby he is the best player in the world? No, because he knows he is.

After watching Ovechkin attend the Wizards game and seeing him act like a normal person and not a four-time 50-plus goal scorer and one-time 65-goal scorer, I actually kind of liked Ovechkin, which is something I never thought I would say. I’m a Crosby guy and always will be, but for the first time, I wasn’t so anti-Ovechkin even after he spent Tuesday night taking shots at every Ranger. I’m sure I will be back to being anti-Ovechkin in March when the Rangers-Capitals play again.

***

Here are the thoughts from the second episode:

– I spend every Capitals scene hoping it ends quickly, so there is more time to focus on the Blackhawks. But I will say, this episode was probably the best Capitals coverage we have gotten after four 24/7 episodes in 2010 and one EPIX episode last week.

– Corey Crawford is either a dick or EPIX picked the wrong time to start to involve the goalie on their show when he freaks out on the media for really no reason. “Oh fuck … What do you want to ask me?” Crawford asks in a snippy and irritated way when reporters try to find out his status and his potential return from injury. Relax, Crawford and just be grateful anyway cares how you are feeling or when you are returning to play hockey.

– The Blackhawks should offer a service where you can pay to watch their games on a different channel where there is a camera and mic on Joel Quenneville the entire time. I already pay for HBO and right now there isn’t a show worth watching on the network and every movie they play either sucks or I have already seen it. This is likely the case for many HBO subscribers and for all the HBO subscribers who are also hockey fans, why wouldn’t they subscribe to this channel? I’m sure the Blackhaws have a “2” or “Plus” channel the way MSG does, so they could just use one of those and then all you need is one camera and one mic. Make it happen.

– After seeing Tom Wilson and Michael Laatta’s apartment in the first episode, I can certainly see how the roommates live the way they do after watching them eat at Ted’s Montana Grill. Unless other players don’t want the cameras involved in their personal lives, there has to be better options to cover on the Capitals. We are now halfway done with the season and we have seen enough of Wilson and Laatta to know that if they are featured any more, it’s likely not going to be entertaining unless they decide to show scenes from their social life.

– The audio of the broadcaster saying, “Metropolitan Division rivals collide tonight,” in reference to the Capitals-Blue Jackets game took me by surprise. The Capitals and Blue Jackets are rivals? Solely because they play in the same division? Are the Rangers and Hurricanes rivals?

– It seems like every team now has a postgame award to give out to that game’s best player following a win and even though I might think the Rangers’ Broadway hat is No. 1, it’s hard to not respect the Abraham Lincoln hat and beard the Capitals use for their player of the game award. Not only does it fit the team’s city, but there’s no one who is going to wear the combination that is going to look anything other than ridiculous while giving a locker room speech.

– Daniel Carcillo didn’t look like Daniel Carcillo at the Blackhawks’ family skate. If EPIX didn’t put up a graphic with his name, I don’t know that I would have known it was him as he looked more like Billy Corgan from his early Smashing Pumpkins days than he looked like the guy that helped the Rangers reach the Stanley Cup Final last season.

– I was rooting for Scott Darling to stay on the team over Antti Raanta even though I already knew that Darling had been sent down to Rockford before the episode. It’s hard not to root for someone who played on 13 minor league teams, including playing in the Southern Pro league four years ago, to have a job in the NHL. Even if Darling never makes it back to the league, his journey was an improbable one and it’s unlikely that when he was playing for the Louisiana IceGators in 2010 he could have thought he would one day be playing for the Blackhawks. For a former sixth-round pick, that’s impressive.

– There’s not much to say about Ovechkin’s amazing goal against the Devils other than that if this was 20 years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to see the goal on this show or on YouTube, which is how I originally saw it. Instead I would have to wait for the following year for the latest Don Cherry Rock’em Sock’em video to come out on VHS. I’m obviously happy with the state of technology and being able to watch games on my phone anywhere, but I am nostalgic for that process and growing up watching Cherry commentate on Stephane Richer’s end-to-end goals, which is what Ovechkin’s reminded me of.

– Navy Pier in Chicago is a pretty cool place. The only time I have been there was last January when I was in Chicago for Rangers-Blackhawks and needed to kill time one day, so we spent the day at Navy Pier at the tail end of the Winter WonderFest riding carnival rides. The Blackhawks’ season ticket party definitely looked like a better time at the Pier.

– The final thought of the second episode once again is related to Joel Quenneville: Only one “peanut butter” from Q? Come on, EPIX.

Blogs • Giants

Dec 18, 2014

NFL Week 16 Picks

There are only two weeks left to pick in the regular season and that means two weeks left to get the season record where it needs to be before the playoffs.

Only two weeks left to go. Only 32 regular-season games left to pick and then 11 playoff games after. The stretch run carries on and another winning week is needed to finish the 2014 season the right way.

(Home team in caps)

JACKSONVILLE -3.5 over Tennessee
There’s no more fitting end to Thursday Night Football than having the the 2-12 Jaguars and the 2-12 Titans meet. The Thursday Night Football games this year were decided by 20, 42, 31, 32, 5, 2, 14, 18, 21, 13, 4, 13, 6, 8. Only four of the 14 games were decided by eight points or less in what were some of the worst and sloppiest played game of the entire season. Sure, Thursday Night Football has shortened the week for fans who need their fix (either viewing or gambling) before the following Sunday, however there’s no denying the games are rarely competitive and overall not exactly in the best interest of the health of the players. But Thursday Night Football isn’t going anywhere, so look forward to another slate of lopsided next season and maybe there won’t be any matchups as miserable as this one.

Philadelphia -8 over WASHINGTON
One of my favorite parts of this season has been Jay Gruden’s weekly roasts of Robert Griffin III’s abilities even if Gruden has recently said that his words about RGIII get misconstrued.

San Diego +1 over SAN FRANCISCO
If Michigan really offered Jim Harbaugh a six-year, $48 million deal and he doesn’t take it, then what the eff is he doing? That’s $8 million a year to coach a program that can’t go anywhere but up and if it doesn’t work out he can just get another job somewhere else. After three straight NFC Championship Game appearances and a Super Bowl loss, I’m not sure what the 49ers are thinking by trying to trade or fire Harbaugh unless he is really the absolute biggest dick in the world. Maybe they haven’t seen the rest of the head coaching landscape in the league, but they are going to have a likely impossible time trying to replace him.

Minnesota +6.5 over MIAMI
There isn’t a bigger fraud team in the NFL than the Dolphins. Last season, at 8-6, the Dolphins controlled their own destiny looking to get into the playoffs for the first time since 2008 and the second time since 2001. They lost to the Bills 19-0 and the Jets 20-7, two teams with nothing to play for, and missed the playoffs once again with an 8-8 finish. This season, at 7-5, the Dolphins have lost back-to-back games to the Ravens (28-13) and Patriots (41-13) and will miss the playoffs once again. All Miami did this season was cost me picks and parlays and I’m happy to watch them endure another late-season collapse.

Green Bay -12 over TAMPA BAY
The Packers’ loss to the Bills dropped the Packers from second in the NFC and getting a first-round bye and then a home game in the divisional round to sixth and having to play on the road during Wild-Card Weekend with the Lions taking over the NFC North lead. The Lions are going to win this week in Chicago against Jimmy Claussen and improve to 11-4. The Packers are going to win in Tampa Bay to also move to 11-4. So next week’s Week 17 Packers-Lions game in Detroit is going to be for the NFC North title, a first-round bye and a divisional round home game in the NFC playoffs.

Detroit -9.5 over CHICAGO
Here are the quarterbacks that lost by 10 or more points to the Lions this season: Eli Manning, Aaron Rodgers, Teddy Bridgewater, Jay Cutler and Josh McCown. What do those five quarterbacks have in common? They’re all better than Jimmy Claussen, who hasn’t started a game since 2010, didn’t play in any games in 2011, 2012 or 2013, has never thrown for more than 195 yards in game, has thrown three touchdown passes in his career and has one win in the NFL. That quarterback is being asked to jumpstart a Bears team that couldn’t win when they had a healthy Brandon Marshall and a team that has absolutely nothing to play for at 5-9 and playing for a coach that won’t be the Bears head coach the second their Week 17 game ends. Good luck, Jimmy Claussen.

NEW ORLEANS -9.5 over Atlanta
The 6-8 Saints playing the 5-9 Falcons for first place in the NFC South. If the Giants were in the NFC South, they would be in the mix for a postseason berth and a home playoff game. Instead, the only thing they have to play is their draft position and Tom Coughlin’s future. Meanwhile, if the Falcons win this game, Mike Smith will keep his job since the Falcons could be postseason bound. I’m rooting for the return of the Superdome Saints because of what Julio Jones did to me in Week 14 in Green Bay.

NEW YORK JETS +10.5 over New England
This is the final Jets-Patriots game of the Rex Ryan era. Here are how the other 12 have gone.

Patriots 27, Jets 25
Jets 30, Patriots 27 OT
Patriots 13, Jets 10
Patriots 49, Jets 19
Patriots 29, Jets 26 OT
Patriots 37, Jets 16
Patriots 30, Jets 21
Jets 28, Patriots 21 (playoffs)
Patriots 45, Jets 3
Jets 28, Patriots 14
Patriots 31, Jets 14
Jets 16, Patriots 9

The Jets are 4-8 in the 12 games, but have lost by 10 points or fewer eight times. Obviously none of that has anything to do with how this week will play out with the Patriots playing for the No. 1 overall seed in the AFC and the Jets playing for nothing other than pride and trying not to get hurt with 120 minutes of football standing between them and the offseason. All the past Rex Ryan-Bill Belichick matchups show is that the Jets, even at 3-11, can’t be counted out to keep this game close or give the Patriots a tough time. (As I finish writing this, I can definitely see the Patriots winning 21-0 at the end of the first quarter.)

Kansas City +3 over PITTSBURGH
I originally picked the Steelers to win this game, thinking the Chiefs were worse on the road than they actually are. Whichever team wins this game is in the playoffs heading into Week 17 and the one common factor between these two teams are their bad losses. The Steelers have lost to the Buccaneers and Jets, while the Chiefs have lost to the Titans and Raiders. Without knowing which version of both of these teams will show up with major playoff implications on the line, I’m going to have to take the points.

Cleveland +4 over CAROLINA
I was as excited for the Johnny Football era as anyone, but after that embarrassing performance at home against the Bengals, I no longer have any interest in watching or rooting for Manziel until he proves he is better than Brian Hoyer. But for as bad as things were in his first NFL start, they can’t get worse. At least I don’t think they can.

Baltimore -6 over HOUSTON
Unfortunately, the Ravens are going back to the playoffs after missing out on them last season for the first time since 2007. I have rooted heavily against the Ravens this season after the way owner Steve Bisciotti handled that early-season Ray Rice-related press conference, but here they are at 9-5 and in control of their season with two games left. I guess I will just have to settle for rooting against them in the playoffs. Unless they play the Patriots.

NEW YORK GIANTS +6.5 over St. Louis
Odell Beckham Jr. put up 108 receiving yards against the Seahawks, so I don’t think the Rams will be able to contain him. I just hope the Giants’ defense can do to the Rams’ offense what the Cardinals did in their 12-6 Week 15 win against the Rams. That’s asking for a lot and too much, so this one is going to come down to the Giants’ offense being able to score against the Rams’ defense, specifically Beckham Jr, and I trust him more than I have ever trusted anyone in any Giants’ offense.

Buffalo -7 over OAKLAND
I am all aboard the Bills’ bandwagon. I desperately want the Bills to win out against the Raiders and Patriots and have everything need to go their way actually go their way and then pull off a first-round upset on the road against either the Colts or the NFC North champion. Let’s go Bills! Let’s go Bills! Let’s go Bills!

DALLAS -3 over Indianapolis
The Cowboys have to have this game. The Colts don’t need it and can focus on staying healthy for the final two weeks before their inevitable first- or second-round playoff loss.

Seattle -9 over ARIZONA
Ryan Lindley vs. the Seahawks’ defense, which has allowed 27 points in its last four games and allowed only three points to the Cardinals four weeks ago in a game Drew Stanton started, is going to be a disaster.

Denver -3.5 over CINCINNATI
Once again, the Broncos need to win out and have the Patriots lose to either the Jets or Bills to take over the No. 1 overall seed in the AFC. It’s a longshot at this point, but it’s still a possibility and as long as it’s a possibility, I’m rooting for it.

Last week: 8-6-2
Season: 111-110-3

Blogs • NHL

Dec 17, 2014

‘Road to the NHL Winter Classic’ Recap, Episode 1: The Joel Quenneville Show

The behind-the-scenes show is now on EPIX instead of HBO, but thanks to Joel Quenneville’s vocabulary it doesn’t matter what channel it’s on.

I was devastated when I found out that the NHL’s version of 24/7 wouldn’t be returning for this season. Sure, the series was coming off its weakest season with the Red Wings and Maple Leafs featured for a month without Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg involved for a majority of the time. But for the previous two seasons of the show in 2011 and 2010 (thanks to Gary Bettman for the 2012 lockout), it had become can’t-miss TV and quickly became a December tradition like going to Rockefeller Center to see the tree or watching Tom Coughlin’s Giants collapse down the stretch.

Thankfully, EPIX stepped up and stepped in to replace HBO and keep the series running this season, so we could watch life with the Chicago Blackhawks for the first time and, unfortunately, with the Washington Capitals for a second time. As I did back in 2011 for the Rangers and Flyers and in 2010 for the Penguins and Capitals, I decided it made sense to dust off the series recaps and start them up for this year’s four episodes. And I’m happy I did because of Joel Quenneville.

There used to be talks that the Winter Classic should always feature one consistent team, like the Lions or Cowboys on Thanksgiving, or make the game always be between the two same teams. Fortunately, for the sake of the series, that has never happened.

I always thought MTV’s biggest mistake with The Jersey Shore was that it didn’t change the cast after the first successful season and then just kept changing the cast for each following summer. Because of the original’s cast immediate rise to fame, each subsequent cast would have gone over the top to make sure they wilder parties, sleazier at the bars and clubs and more creative when it came to nicknames. If Mike Sorrentino was able to set the bar as high as he did in the first season of the show, who knows what his successors would have or could have been capable of to try and become that season’s version of “The Situation”. Luckily, when it comes to the Road to the NHL Winter Classic, we get a new cast every year. And when Bruce Boudreau burst onto the scene as an F-bombing leader with BBQ sauce or ketchup all over his face, I wasn’t sure if he could be topped until John Tortorella displayed just how much of an a-hole he can be by ripping his players, the media and the HBO production team all while passing Boudreau’s F-bomb record like Mark McGwire passing Roger Maris. But now both coaches have been surpassed and by a much more likable leader.

Joel Quenneville, a former Whaler, has the demeanor of the type of dad you hope your girlfriend’s dad is not. But aside from seeing his press conferences in the past and hearing him speak in official settings, I never really got a sense for who Coach Q truly is. After the opening 15 minutes of the first episode, I was worried that might carry over into the series and maybe EPIX wasn’t about to let the show go completely uncensored the way HBO had. And then we got our first glimpse of Quenneville behind the bench and what had been a tame introduction suddenly turned into hockey’s version of the Urban Dictionary from the mustached-man.

Quenneville’s overall vocabulary broke into the series’ all-time moments, which previously included the Penguins’ practical jokes, Alexander Ovechkin’s tramp stamp, Marian Gaborik drinking the night before a game and carrying his massive Christmas tree home and Ilya Bryzgalov’s philosophy lessons. Quenneville has a chance to be the best character the series has ever had and right now he’s on pace where it’s his title to lose. And he’s the reason why watching new teams every December is what makes this series. Now let’s just stop having the Capitals in the Winter Classic.

***

Here are the thoughts from the first episode:

– Kevin Dineen going over the practice plan with the Blackhawks an assistant coach for the team made me both nostolagic and sad for the days of the Hartford Whalers when Dineen was their captain.

– When was the last time Joel Quenneville taped his stick? 2012? 2010? Such a head coach/old-man move by Quenneville to leave his knob taped like it hasn’t been changed since 1993 and has just been collecting dust and losing its grip in a basement or garage.

– When talking about the Kings’ Western Conference finals game-winning goal in Game 7, Corey Crawford says, “I think I ran through that last goal maybe 100 times in my head.” 100 times? That’s it? Does Crawford think that’s a lot of times? I have run through the Kings’ three overtime goals in the Stanley Cup Final against the Rangers about 1,000 times each in my head and I wasn’t playing in the game let alone the goalie who the puck got past to end the series. (If Crawford doesn’t let goal in, then maybe the Blackhawks end up winning the West and the Rangers beat the Blackhawks and win the Cup. There’s no way of knowing this would or wouldn’t have happened, so I’m going to pretend like it would have.)

– Quenneville talks about winning the two Cups and getting back to being a championship team while mentioning how hard it is to win a championship. When you look at any Cup-winning team, there are so many things that had to happen and countless bounces that had to go their way just in the playoffs to make the champions. It seems like Quenneville realizes how fortunate he has been to be the head coach of two winning teams in a three-year span. It’s also this realization that makes me depressed knowing how close the Rangers were last year and how hard it is to even get back to the Finals, knowing it could easily be another two decades until they are back there.

– Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews are so soft spoken when the camera is on only them that it’s interesting to see how vocal and different they are during the games, and for Kane, how crazy he gets when he’s out on the town.

– I’m sure Bauer wasn’t thrilled with Toews pulling their sticks off the rack and saying, “These sticks are garbage” and holding them responsible for his scoring drought.

– I wasn’t sure if we would see Ovechkin’s tramp stamp the way we did four years ago, but sure enough, there it was in the first episode. It’s really not exciting to watch or write about the Capitals and it’s gotten even worse over the last four years.

– Barry Trotz reminds me of Bruce Boudreau. He also reminds me of someone who would play a police chief if he were an actor.

– Last season, I went to Chicago to the Rangers play. It was my first time in Chicago, my first time at a Blackhawks home game and my first time witnessing Jim Cornelison sing the Anthem in person and it’s incredible. The people of Chicago are doing it right. Everyone should be cheering and clapping during the anthem at every event.

– Any time I see Michal Roszival score a goal, it hurts. And it hurts even more knowing he has his name on the Stanley Cup.

– I miss Daniel Carcillo. Come back “Car Bomb”. You can take Tanner Glass, Chicago. I will drive him to you.

– I was a so-so Brandon Prust fan when he was on the Rangers. He was fan favorite because he was a third- and fourth-line grinder who did the things every blue-collar fan enjoys. He got overpaid on the open market and went to Montreal and turned into a scum. Maybe he was always scum when he was on Calgary and then here in New York and I just didn’t realize it. But putting on that Canadiens jersey has changed Prust for the worst and now he’s even diving as he did against Kane. And when he’s not diving, he giving out flying elbows in the Eastern Conference finals.

– Bryan Bickell looks like a mess in the Blackhawks’ trainers room and should have been an easy target for a joke from Andrew Shaw, but Shaw totally botched whatever he was going for and set up Bickell almost too perfectly to rip him about his Lloyd Christmas-esque haircut. (After Quenneville’s mouth, this was my favorite scene of the episode.)

– Scott Darling rips through the teams he has been with and they are as follows: Louisiana IceGators, Reading Royals, Florida Everblades, Mississippi RiverKings, Las Vegas Wranglers, Wheeling Nailers, Wichita Thunder, Cincinnati Cyclones, Charlotte Checkers, Hamilton Bulldogs, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, Milwaukee Admirals, Rockford IceHogs and Chicago Blackhawks. According to Darling’s HockeyDB page, he didn’t even play in a game with all of those teams, which makes his path to the NHL that much more remarkable. But the craziest part of it all is that four years ago he was playing in the Southern Pro league and now he is on the Blackhawks.

– Capitals goalie coach Mitch Korn, who is supposedly called one of hockey’s Top 10 geniuses, lives in a hotel for the entire season, yet he checks out and moves everything out of his room and into his car before every road trip. Louis CK was right when he said “genius” and other adjectives are used too loosely nowadays.

– Brad Richards was a good Ranger. He wasn’t great and wasn’t what everyone thought he would be when he signed a nine-year, $60 million deal after the 2010-11 season, but there is a short list of players in the league that could have lived up to that deal and he wasn’t one of them. Now he gets to be on the Blackhawks and not have to worry about being a star or carrying a team or running a power play and bettered his chances at winning his second Cup. Good for Brad Richards.

– After I graduated from college, I lived in Hoboken, making little to no money and my apartment looked and was furnished like and my fridge was stocked exactly the way Tom Wilson and Michael Laatta’s apartment is, all the way down to the bed on the floor without a frame and the team blanket folded over the couch with XBox controllers also on the couch. The problem here is that I had no money. Like zero dollars. Tom Wilson is making $925,000 this year and Michael Laatta is making $575,000. Step it up a little.

– The final thought of the first episode goes to Joel Quenneville: “Kaner, what a f-cking shot. Peanut Butter. Holy f-ck.”

Author: Neil Keefe

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