Thoughts on the Current Day in Sports

I haven't been able to get on here often enough lately, so I'm just going to write a post on whatever crosses my mind. And I promise more frequent posts ahead.

1. That rookie QB Colin Kaepernick on the 49ers looks like the real deal, if only through the first quarter and a half I've seen him play. With him behind center they still appear to be Super Bowl contenders, as they are simply dissecting the Bears as of this moment. (My original Super Bowl pick was the Philadelphia Eagles. Uhh, yeah.)

2. Fantasy playoffs start soon! Hope you haven't lost all hope yet.

3. Not too excited about Rob Gronkowski going down. He was a cog on one of my fantasy teams. The Patriots will be okay though; as if they don't have enough weapons already, Gronk's fellow tight end Aaron Hernandez could return this week.

4. About that Marlins-Jays trade. I understand Jose Reyes was overpaid. But even as a Phillies supporter, in my mind it is simply disappointing for baseball. It also leads to large-market owners around the league questioning revenue sharing, with good reason. And it makes the AL East just that much more fun: with the exception of the Red Sox, everyone there is a contender. First time probably ever that could be said.

5. I'm still not much of a college football fan right now. It disgusts me for many reasons. But what's going to be a real pain is listening to the, for whatever reason, condescending Notre Dame fans brag about their team's first relevant squad since before I was born.

6. Georgetown's handing it to UCLA in college hoops. At the current rate, Georgetown's going to be the only Big East team left in the next few years. Heralded freshman Shabazz Muhammad came off the bench in his UCLA debut.

7. How the heck did the usually top-notch Houston Texans' D allow Chad Henne, of all people, to pass for 354 and 4 TDs? It didn't take more than a game for Henne to win the starting job over the woeful Blaine Gabbert in Jacksonville. The bust has eclipsed the other bust for a shot a redemption.

8. I wish Tim Tebow would just go play in NFL Europe or something so the media hops off his jockstrap. Actually they still wouldn't. And NFL Europe doesn't exist anymore, but oh well.

9. For those of you still wondering, hockey is still locked out.

10. David Beckham will play his last game for the L.A. Galaxy, the MLS Cup, on December 1. I know the MLS has its diehard fans, but of all the places he could've played as his career winds down, why did he pick the U.S.A.?

11. Woah. I don't care who they've beaten. The Charlotte Bobcats are 5-4.

To Sum Up a Few Things...

The sports media has a tendency to beat a dead horse until its guts spew out on a slew of topics. What I'm going to do here is write what I think is the bottom line to all of them. Some topics I talk about may be overdone in the media, while others I feel inclined to write about for no specific reason.

1. Robert Griffin III has had one spectacular performance thus far this season against a rather poor defense. What he did was impressive, but if he had had a crummy game, we'd all be screaming that he was a bust the way we are about Ryan Tannehill and Brandon Weeden. What I'm saying is, while Griffin will probably go on to have a terrific career, one game is far too small a sample size to evaluate an NFL player.

2. Beating the Bills proved nothing for the New York Jets. The Bills may well win two games this year. The Jets are still a circus as of now. If they can win two out of three against the Steelers, 49ers, and Texans, maybe it's time to start to think they are legitimate. But right now, they're still an 8-8 team at best.

3. Tim Tebow still cannot pass the football. It's kind of weird to me how for all the work he does, he can't correct his throwing motion and throw spirals. He'll be in the league awhile, but would be better off becoming a tight end. It'd also be nice if, as a backup quarterback backing up a mediocre starter and special teams player, Tebow would be talked about less than most teams. But as long as ESPN exists, we all know that's not going to happen. 

4. If the NFL is going to fine multiple defensive players each week, there has to be a way for them to fine guys on the other side of the ball as well. Slap DeSean Jackson fifty grand for admitting he didn't play hard last year or something.

5. The NFL needs to quit making the rules so the offense scores every time and everyone gets 350 passing yards. Heck, even Blaine Gabbert amassed 260 last week. The league needs to start catering to the hardcore fan instead of the casual one, which we know will never happen. I won't get into player safety here.

6. If my Phillies fall short in their comeback bid for the playoffs, go A's and O's. Love the fight these teams possess despite such minute payrolls (by pro sports standards, of course).

7. I'm still not getting why the NFL is still hiding the evidence in the bounty scandal. Looks more and more each day like they don't have any. We'll wait till the meetings are finished.

8. Michael Vick should be benched for Nick Foles if he pulls another dud this week against Baltimore.

9. I really hope Seattle gets an NBA team back. And they should call them the SuperSonics again, because that was by far the best name in pro sports.

10. It's a real shame the Pirates are collapsing again. The way they're going, it's bound to be losing season number twenty in a row. As they're accustomed to this time of year, Pittsburgh has already turned their full attention to the Steelers.