The Stankoniforous Files

Ed had a post about the same thing and Stank-0 dismissed it out of hand.  Stank-0 is not a fan of MLB, it could be because his team the Royals, haven't been in contention in a long time.  The Royals won the World Series when Stank-0 was a wee lad of 4, in 1985.

So Stank-0 was ready to disregard the MLB playoffs until he saw the virtuoso performance of a one Harry Leroy Halladay.

Halladay threw only the second no-hitter in postseason history, the first since 1956.  The first was thrown by Don Larsen for the New York Yankees. This was also his first time pitching in the postseason and it was a masterpiece.  All his stuff was working to perfection.  Halladay was in a zone. During the 9th inning, Stank-0 could have sworn that Halladay wasn't hearing the crowd at all. Citizen's Bank Park was in a fever pitch as well.

It was a helluva opening act for the MLB postseason and Stank-0 will be there the rest of the way.  It could be the Phillies with their H2O (Halladay, Hamels, Oswalt) against the Yankees bullpen to meet in the World Series, again.

The biggest breaking news is that Randall Gene Moss of the Patriots, may be dealt to the Minnesota Vikings.  This is interesting for several reasons.  This was his original team back when he was drafted in 1998. 

Stank-0 thinks this shows a few things: 1. The Patriots were NOT gonna pay the man. It wasn't gonna happen. 2. The Patriots think his best day might be behind him. Who knows?

The Patriots are smart to potentially deal him out of division and conference. The NFC North will need some corners right fast and in a hurry.

If this does happen, Lorenzo Favre will play 2-3 seasons longer.  You do know that Favre tried to recruit Moss way back when right? It also gives Favre the deep threat he's never had.  Wait til Rice comes back. O_O
Mawse, Rice, and AD?! How do you stop that? Eight in the box? Or double cover Mawse and let Rice tear you a new one? Or play cover 2 and let AD run wild? Defensive coordinators are gonna start losing sleep.

You know who benefits the most? Berrian. He will get to eat up the #3 corner.

 
Stank-0 is loving the season right now (Chiefs are the lone undefeated team left!!! You mad huh?!) but lost in all this euphoria about this season is the very real fact that there may be no football in the near future.

The two major players are Roger Goodell, NFL Commish and DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the NFLPA.  There's a faction of owners that want more protection for the investments, such as new stadiums.  Those are represented by Jerry Jones (Cowboys), Robert Kraft (Patriots), Pat Bowlen(Broncos), and  Jerry Richardson (Panthers).

At the basis is money obviously.  The owners want the the players to take a small percentage.  Stank-0 won't even get into asking the players association to take a smaller piece of a pie that continues to grow at a steady clip.  The Federal Reserve should have the NFL print their money for them. Let's not even talk about the Super Bowl commercials.  Networks are standing in line to get the NFL on their station and willing to pay the preacher.

Stank-0 is in total agreement regarding the rookie wage scale.  It's reached the point where no team wants the first 3 to 5 picks in the draft because the signing bonuses are so astronomical.  If the player's association wants some public relations leverage, they should budge on this point. 

No this time there's a major sticking point: the owners want an 18 game season. Talks have stalled on this point and they should.  Even with this 2010 season, there's a highly probability that the majority of divisions will be clinched way before week 17, like last season.  What's the utility in adding two additional games? Looks like a pure money grab.

There's plenty of stars being knocked out week after week, why add to the toll?  This labor dispute is more than billionaires fighting millionaires, it's players trying to protect their bodies from useless games.  If there is a lockout, Stank-0 won't even be upset at the players.

There are other issues such as revenue sharing, which doesn't get much press. The leagues does share revenue but teams have created alternate streams of income such as luxury suites, which are outside the agreement.  The upper 15 are subsidizing the lower 17 and some owners believe that some in the lower 17 are keeping revenue artificially low to continue to receive the subsidies.

In the end, if they don't calm down then everyone will lose.

I had the privilege of watching every game today on NFL RedZone.  It's wonderful.  It's like Twitter on Sunday with video.  It continually jumps from one game to the other. 

On my TV, the Broncos @ Titans and the Lions @ Packers were on.  Not exactly must see TV.  On got on RZ it was poppin.  Saw the important parts of 8 games today.  It was glorious.  I'm not sure I can watch the NFL without RZ anymore.  It's that crucial. Conflict.

The only downside? The guy's voice.  He doesn't have the voice to do the show, and he tended to talk over the broadcasters of the game we switch to.  Just switch us to the game and get out of the way. The analysts will bring us up to speed.

One other thing, there needs to be better filler when all the games are on commercial break.  Not sure how to fix that part though.  It felt like the guy was talkin to use up the time until the game(s) came back on. 

My only gripe is what took the NFL so long to create this? It renders ESPN superfluous. No need to wait until the end of the day to see the highlights because Infl watched them as they happened.

PS. I'm sure that Stank-0 is glad that KC is the last unbeaten team in the NFL, but how long will it last?