Sports

How Favre pissed away good will

Jeromey Balderrama

This latest Favre drama is too funny to watch.  What started as rumors from family members has evolved into a huge spectacle that has to have some truth to it.  The sports media, notorious for slurping Favre, has even turned on him.

Two of the best NFL reporters offer really good insight:

ESPN’s John Clayton:

“In 2007, he’s the king of Wisconsin again, coming off one of his best seasons. Now, he’s like that unpopular relative who always threatened to show up at your house for the summer and then plops himself on the couch.”

Ouch.

Sports Illustrated’s Peter King brings some good perspective all-around, but explains why Packer fan (and NFL fan for that matter) is reacting to Favre’s alleged desire to return:

The one thing I don’t believe Favre understands yet is the tumult which will greet his return to the Packers, or to another NFL team. There are Packer fans who have moved on, and wish he would do the same. He doesn’t realize fully — yet — that Brett Favre returning to the Packers would bug a slew of Packerphiles who wish he’d make a decision and stick with it and ride off into the sunset with his glory intact. Because he insulates himself from much of the football world in Mississippi, I’m sure he doesn’t realize the impact that playing for another team would have on his bleed-Packer-green fandom.

Well put Peter.  As a Broncos fan, I would have loved to see Elway come back, especially when the Broncos had a lousy season as they had after he was gone. However, Bronco fans realize that retirement is part of the game and Elway has found other ways to stay active in football without suiting up and playing. I realize Favre is different: where Elway got to ride off into the sunset as a Super Bowl MVP, Favre’s last pass in the NFL was an interception.

At the same time, this is just a lose/lose situation all around.  If Favre submits his plea to return in writing, the Packers have little choice but to accept him, and throw out all of the re-adjustment of the offense they’ve made to suit Aaron Rogers.  If the Packers dare deny him or release him, they’ll face the wrath of angry Packer fan for costing out their greatest quarterback. Both Favre and the Packers can spin about how they want to come back and compete, but the reality is that this could become the season of sentiment.  Whether Favre is entitled to it is debatable, but I think the other 52 players in that locker room may have a tough time swallowing that they’ve been set back 4 months from the rest of the league just because Favre “got an itch”.

This whole situation reminds me of the Ben Folds (Five) song: Steven’s Last Night In Town.

“But We thought he was gone
And he’s come back again
last week it was funny
now the jokes wearing thin
cuz everyone knows now
that every night now
will be [Brett’s] last night in town”

Broncos schedule released

Jeromey Balderrama

If you’re an NFL junkie like me, you probably realize that today the NFL finally released their schedule for next year. The Broncos schedule can be found on their site.

The reception has been pretty decent as I read the blog. Mile High Report puts it best:

It looks pretty good; good time for the bye, not too many long roadtrips, KC at Arrowhead NOT in December, no “murderer’s rows” of tough opponents:

However, there’s one thing I’d like to add – NO HOME PRIME-TIME GAMES. I’m a little mixed about that. On one hand I love going to football games at night, experiencing the lights and knowing that you’re on national TV. On the other hand, you basically get no opportunity to tailgate (especially if it’s on a week night), the weeknight people working there are usually backups and things are slow from buses to concession stands, and the drive home late at night is a big pain.

The Broncos will still be on 3 times in prime-time – all away games. However, there’s no Sunday Night Football, unless flex-scheduling later in the season changes that. I think this may reflect the fact that the Broncos haven’t made the playoffs in 2 years, and many are predicting another tough year for the orange and blue. Let’s hope the network hacks are wrong.

Off to the closing now, wish me luck!

Update on the shirt curse

Jeromey Balderrama

a.k.a. “how to waste money & time on something completely insignificant”

There’s an update since I posted about the story of the new Yankees Stadium construction worker that buried a Bo-Sox jersey in cement. It looks like they wasted 5 hours of drilling to find and remove the jersey.

From ESPN:

“The first thought was, you know, it’s never a good thing to be buried in cement when you’re in New York,” Levine said. “But then we decided, why reward somebody who had really bad motives and was trying to do a really bad thing?”

Oh please.  Could you hear the fiddle playing in the background during that comment? Not being a Yankee fan (I loathe the Evil Empire), maybe I don’t have a full appreciation of this, but this is far from “the act that was a very, very bad act”.  I said on Friday that I hoped this was true, now I wish it was false. It would have been hilarious to spend all that time jack-hammering your new stadium, only to find nothing.

Friday fun: Buried shirts

Jeromey Balderrama

After reading through all of my RSS feeds, I found the single-most important story of the week that requires reflection:

From ESPN:

A construction worker and Boston fan working on the concrete crew at the $1.3 billion new Yankee Stadium buried a Red Sox shirt in with the concrete foundation under what will become the visitors’ clubhouse, in the hopes of jinxing the New York Yankees‘ new home, the New York Post reported.

Two construction workers told the newspaper about the stunt on condition of anonymity.

“In August, a Red Sox T-shirt was poured in a slab in the visitor’s clubhouse. It’s the curse of the Yankees,” one worker told the Post. “Nobody knows about it. It’s in the floors, it’s buried.”

There is not a more classic rivalry than Yankees/Bo-Sox.  This is hilarious, and I hope it’s true.

Why I’m glad I’m not a Raider fan

Jeromey Balderrama

Last year was definitely a tough year for the Broncos.  Going 7-9 and basically unraveling at the end of the year was pretty hard to swallow.  Right now the Bronco faithful are just praying that we can get back into playoff form in 2008, especially before the "free agent bloodbath" on the horizon.

But I still love the Broncos, and I’m proud to be a Bronco fan. 

It could be worse. I could be a Raider fan and have to come home to this every night:

OldAlDavis

It could be worse, Bronco Country.  At least we don’t have Skeletor or the Crypt Keeper running our team.