NFL Free Agency Wishful Thinking

NFL free agency began at 12am this morning and so far, its been a soft open. When restaurants, stores, casinos, etc open new venues, they'll have what they call a soft open where the venue is open to the public but without the grandiose display of a Grand Opening event. This gives the venue opportunity to get the staff some training for the avanlanche that is the Grand Opening. Usually this is not the case for free agency. Every year people rush into the crowd to get the biggest names (plural) as quickly as possisble but as baseball proved, the economy is affecting everything. Even the untouchable NFL. Of course, don't tell that to Dan Snyder who once again won the money-pissing contest of off-season moves by giving $100M to Albert Haynesworth. The Washington Redskins - Free Agent Superbowl Champions 5 years running! Quick Reaction: I think this is a mistake. I understand he's an upgrade for them at that position but is making a realy good defense better worth the cost of 30 plus million guaranteed? I'd say no. The Skins need offensive line help, better wide receivers (unless they feel their 2 second year WRs will have more of an impact this year. how could they not since they barely got off the bench last year) and a quarterback. Some disagree with me on the QB situation there but I don't see Campbell as the answer. Of course, the Skins may have decided to copy their neighbors the Ravens by creating a great defense with an average offense. The Ravens seem to do that every year so it may just work.

As for my Eagles, I feel it'll be another disappointing free agency for the Eagles fan in me. Year after year I hope the Eagles will make the moves that seem necessary - big backup running back and quality wide receiver. And year after year, they get lineman or running backs that do nothing like Lorenzo Booker. The only year was the year they got Owens and Kearse...and then they went to the Super Bowl. For some reason, Andy Reid and the Eagles organization have erased that year from their memory. I just don't get it.

UPDATE: While I would like TJ Howsmydriving, I do like the rumor they're going after another Bengal, Stacy Andrews. I like it because of the eventual loss of Jon Runyan and maybe Thomas. Still, get TJ on the phone, PLEASE!

Signs you can't wait until 9pm Tonight

Ok Grammar, you win this round - Emmitt Smith rumored to be fired from ESPN

It’s a sad day for football fans everywhere as we lose a true American Icon, no, a Hero. According to DallasNews.com, Emmitt Smith has been relieved of his duties has an ESPN analyst. We saw this coming after he was removed from ESPN’s Sunday pregame show last year but that doesn’t make it any less painful. You see, Emmitt was the gift that kept on giving thanks to his inability to speak in public. ESPN apparently found this to be a character flaw of a TV analyst, I think it made him unique.



Here are some of Emmitt’s greatest hits. Goodbye Emmitt, I’ll have a slice of humble pie in your honor tonight.

And here's a nice video collection of some of his highlights. haha, rice of passage.

Franco and Rogen's Oscar short...makes me give Pineapple Express a Second Chance

The funniest bit during the Oscars presentation was the digital short starring Seth Rogen and James Franco with them reprising their characters from Pineapple Express. It was so good in fact that it made me want to give the movie a second chance. I only saw the movie once when it first came out and was disappointed. I had high hopes for the film because I’m a fan of Judd Apatow, Rogen and the trailer was great. So when I first saw the movie, I was extremely disappointed that the action was lame, the movie was slow and all the funny lines were in the trailer. Maybe that’s what made the clip last night so good; these characters are good together but only in small and controlled doses, like most substances.

Here’s the clip from last night.

And the trailer that I’d rather watch than the movie.

Finally Getting Excited for Baseball

Thanks to SI for putting this in my mailbox this week.


Seeing this cover and reading the corresponding cover story about Cole Hamels, I finally started to get excited about my Philadelphia Phillies defending their title this year. Good article, great cover. Lets play ball already.

Here's more insight into Cole Hamels, the person.

Fringe - Great Show, Below Average Lead Actress

I spent the past month rejoining Fringe because A. several people assured me that the show had grown far beyond its subpar pilot (it has), B. lots of free time and C. constant pestering by one Irish tool. Even with my dedication to becoming invested in another JJ Abrams show, it still took several episodes for me to get hooked. It wasn’t until the Observer character (see picture) was introduced in the show’s 4^th episode “The Arrival” that I finally gave JJ the props he deserved. Until that point I just wasn’t invested in the show for two reasons.

The first, like most JJ Abrahams shows, Fringe took several episodes to fully explain the connections between the series of strange events and introduce the complicated characters. It was moving at a slow pace that relied heavily on the 3 central characters’ interactions to keep you invested. And that lead to problem number 2, the lead actress kind of sucks. Anna Torv is suppose to be a tough, smart and emotionally driven FBI Agent who is supposedly so good at her job that she was picked to lead the Fringe team with little oversight AND is being aggressively pursued by one the largest production companies in the world, Massive Dynamics. Unfortunately for us the viewers, she’s not convincing as tough or confident. Say what you want about Jennifer Garner’s post Alias career, but when she played Sidney Bristow on ‘Alias’ she was always believable as a secret agent week to week. She pulled off threatening badass, conflicted double agent, and widower to a murdered fiancé. I’m not sure Anna Torv would make a convincing accountant. Too often the show calls for the character to be emotionally troubled by the Earth threatening events happening around her and too often Anna appears disturbed that somebody didn’t turn off their cell phone in a meeting.

The only time she’s managed to show any personality throughout the season was the scene when Torv and Joshua Jackson were drinking together in a bar. Suddenly free from the seriousness forced pon her and her character, Torv was able to exert a personality. Unfortunately those scenes will be few and far between because that’s not who her character is. Maybe if the writers take advantage of the recent revelation that she was tested on as a child, they could allow both Torv and the character to be infected with some personality. This could possibly lead Torv to emerge as a serviceable lead character. And if not, the show will have to rely even more so on Walter Bishop. A character that is fantastic in small doses but cannot sustain a show on his own.

Well if you're going to be mugged, do it right.

The fine people at WikiHow have provided a full proof method to avoid mugging, the Fake Wallet. Yes, on top of your real wallet, cellphone, keys, changes, and anything else in your pockets, you should carry a separate wallet to throw off the perp. And they provide you with 6 steps on how to make your fake wallet feel more real. What they don't tell you, is when to carry the fake wallet because lets be honest, you can't bring that thing with you everywhere.

5 Signs you'll need a Fake Wallet:

5. The cab companies refuse to come to the street address you give

4. Your tires were stolen while you were in the car.

3. You feel unsafe walking in the neighborhood during the day.

2. You pack a taser, pepper spray, and a gun next to your fake wallet.

1. You are in Detroit

Be the Bear

Our relationship in a nutshell. She sometimes annoys me, I sometimes get mean and try to make up for it with an 'i love you." We make it work. Plus Kelli looks this good in black.

Dan LeBatard Radio Show's Goal Calls with Randy Moller

When I lived in Miami several years ago, I loved listening the Dan LeBatard show during the afternoons. It was actually a funny and entertaining Sports talk show instead of the usual boring sports shows that have nothing but callers like 'mike is here to talk about Virginia Tech's 3rd string offensive lineman.' They did sketches, talked movies and made fun of themselves.

The station also owns the Florida Panther hockey radio games and they've gotten the play by play man, Randy Moller to drop random movie and song lyrics into the goal calls. Listen on the youtube clip below and here.



My favorite, minute 2:55. 'I'm never going to dance again." Although...'Pay the man his money' with a great Russian accent comes in at a close second.

Revenge of the Fallen (explosions)

I'm not trying to get back in the habit of making the website about movie trailers and links but its Transformers and I would be remiss if I didn't at least comment on it. So far, I'm more interested than excited. My hope for the sequel isn't more explosions (which is the entire trailer), rather I want more robot fighting and robot character interaction. I want IronHide to talk tough, Optimus to be a badass, Starscream to be conniving, Megatron to belittle Starscream, etc. I understand its only a teaser and a movie like this has plenty of special effects to add over the next 5 months but still, give me more Autobots vs. Decepticons, not more Shia. Ok, I'll settle for some Megan Fox. Overall, I give the trailer a solid B.