Dez Bryant Suspended Until Sept. 2010

The NCAA ruled late Tuesday night that Oklahoma State wide receiver, Dez Bryant, will be suspended for the rest of the Cowboys regular season along with any post season appearances. Bryant was ruled academically ineligible earlier this month after lying to the NCAA about a meeting with Deion Sanders at his house over the summer.Before the NCAA’s ruling, a source close to Bryant stated that if he were to be suspended for the entire season that he would leave school to begin to train for the NFL draft in April 2010. Bryant is projected to be a first round pick.

As for Oklahoma State, I feel like we can still win games without Dez. I just think that Zach Robinson will be hesitate to look downfield and if he does see a receiver in double coverage he won’t even think to loft a pass up there like he would have for Dez. I don’t see OSU beating Texas but I do see them beating Oklahoma, the struggle for that game will be OU’s home field advantage.

Meeting Your Idol

This is a random post but I’d like to give you my take on finally meeting the person you’re the biggest fan of.

Last weekend I met Peyton Manning. I am probably one of his biggest fans and I have always wanted to meet him. When I was in high school I made a list of 162 things that I wanted to do before I died. Meeting Peyton was the first thing on my list. Everyone had always asked me “what would you say to Peyton if you ever got to meet him?” I thought about it for a long time and had a whole speech prepared. When I was within five feet of him all of my preparedness disappeared . When I spoke to him, I was stumbling over my words while trying to find the right thing to say. Nothing came out right and I don’t think that it helped Peyton understand exactly how big of a fan that I am. He didn’t seem like he really felt like dealing with any sort of fans, so he didn’t want to take a picture with me. That kind of offended me but at the same time I tried to be as understanding as possible. Meeting him was still probably one of the highlights of my life, I just wish he would have been a little more friendly.

The point to my story is that you shouldn’t meet someone who you are a huge fan of. They rarely live up to your expectations. I feel like it is better to have a innocent and positive view of your “idol.” It could ruin your view of him or her forever. But then again you never know, maybe you’ll meet your idol and they will be everything that you ever expected and you will learn to like them even more. I’m not saying that they are bad people but maybe you might just catch them at a bad time. Maybe they are not feeling too well or they are going through something stressful.

In this case I feel like ignorance is bliss.

Week 7 picks

• San Fransisco @ Houston
• San Diego @ Kansas City
• Indianapolis @ St. Louis
• New England vs. Tampa Bay (in London)
• Minnesota @ Pittsburgh
• Green Bay @ Cleveland
• Buffalo @ Carolina
• New York Jets @ Oakland
• Atlanta @ Dallas
• New Orleans @ Miami
• Chicago @ Cincinnati
• Arizona @ New York Giants
• Philadelphia @ Washington

Week Six Picks

Houston @ Cinncinatti- I think this will be another close win for the Bengals.

Detroit @ Green Bay – Easy win for the Pack

St. Louis @ Jacksonville - MJD will have more than 200 all purpose yards.

Baltimore @ Minnesota – I think that this will be a very good game. But home field advantage will be a big factor

New York Giants @ New Orleans- This will be the best game of the day. It will be a high scoring affair and the giants will win by three

Cleveland @ Pittsburgh- These match ups just keep getting better.

Carolina @ Tampa Bay – how exciting

Kansas City @ Washington – another exciting match up

Philadelphia @ Oakland – road win for the Eagles

Arizona @ Seattle – Seattle has the best home field advantage, Arizona will struggle.

Tenessee @ New England – The Titans will be 0-6 after today, New England by 10

Buffalo @ NY Jets – Jets by two touchdowns

Chicago @ Atlanta – Should be a good game.

Denver @ San Diego – This is my upset special. Everyone is saying that Denver is the worst 5-0 team, and I agree but I think a win over San Deigo on Monday night will silence a lot of critics.

So sorry for my absence

I would like to apologize for not posting any new blogs this past week. I have been very busy with midterms and other projects. I have also been in Dallas since Wednesday working the OU/Texas game for ESPN on ABC so I have had absolutely too busy/tired to do anything at all.

I will make my week six picks later this evening and I will definitely be back to posting every day starting this Monday.

NFL Week 5 picks

So here are my picks for week 5, they are very basic and I am sorry but I am heading to College Station for the OSU vs ATM game and I didn’t have much time to pick

• Cin @ BAL
• MIN @ Stl
• Tb @ PHI
• WAS@ Car
• PIT @ Det
• Oak @ NYG
• DAL @ Kc
• CLE @ Buf
• ATL @ Sf
• Hou @ ARI
• JAC @ Sea
• NE @ Den
• IND @ Ten
• NYJ @ Mia

Dez Bryant News

Dez Bryant has been ruled ineligible by the NCAA. He violated NCAA bylaw 10.1, which prohibits players from knowingly providing false information to the NCAA regarding a possible rules violation. Bryant met with a former NFL player, who has now been identified as Deion Sanders. Dez Bryant gave his side via his facebook status, which states “This is why I’m suspended…..I went to Deion sanders house ….and the NCAA found out…..they ask me if I been to his house I told them no…I thought it was a violation…but it wasn’t… so I told them I went to his house… I lied to them and I shouldn’t have….and I’m not suspended for the rest of the season….I’m sorry osu!!”

Hopefully he will, in fact not be out all season!

Recap of Week 4

I am 11-2 with my picks this week, pending tonight’s game. For the season I am 20-9 (I starting making picks in week 3)

I am very proud of my picks this week.

The two I got wrong were:

• Tennessee @ Jacksonville: As soon as I pressed “publish” I knew that I was wrong about this AFC South battle. I knew Jacksonville was going to win, but for some reason I thought that Rob Bironas would pull it out in the end with a 57-yard FG, just like he seems to do against the Colts. David Garrard played very well and the Titans defense allowed more than 300 yards passing. I am very surprised that the Titans are 0-4 but I can’t say that I’m not happy about it. Maybe it’s VY time?
• Baltimore @ New England: I really thought that Baltimore was going to win this one. I didn’t get to see much of the game and the highlights that I saw were emphasising the two BS roughing the passer calls that both lead to Patriots’ touchdowns. I really enjoyed and agreed with Rodney Harrison’s quote, “Tom Brady, if you’re listening, take off the skirt and put on some slacks.  Toughen up.” I particularly liked that quote because it came from one of Brady’s former teammates.

I was confident that the Broncos were going to beat Dallas. I was watching the game with a die hard Cowboys fan and he asked me why I would pick against the Cowboys, I explained how I thought the game was going to end. I said that the Broncos would score last, late in the fourth quarter, by some crazy play that would make it into the “Top Ten Plays” on SportsCenter and Romo would get the ball back with a few minutes left and he would blow it for the team in the last few seconds. I went to go watch the game in my room while finishing up some homework and I ended up falling asleep, I missed the fourth quarter and I was awoken by a text saying, “What a pick! Exactly what you said would happen, happened!” I was right and I missed the whole thing. As for the Broncos, I say enjoy these four wins because they will most likely lose their next four games, which are New England, @ San Diego, @ Baltimore and Pittsburgh. I maybe see them pulling a win out against San Diego but I wouldn’t place a bet on it.

As for tonight’s game, I am pretty positive that the Vikings will pull out their fourth win of the season but I will be cheering for the Pack the whole time.

NFL Week 4 Picks

• Tampa Bay @ Washington: I’m gonna go with home field advantage on this one.
• Baltimore @ New England: With Wes Welker being questionable and Ray Lewis being probable, I’m going to go with defense on this one. Oh and good news, Brady will throw at least one pick. =)
• Detroit @ Chicago: Chicago will win by at least 10.
• Tennessee @ Jacksonville: This game will be the Titans’ first win on the season although it will be a close one. Tennessee hasn’t lost by more than seven points all season.
• Oakland @ Houston: I picked Oakland last week and I’m not going to make that mistake again.
• Cinncinati @ Cleveland:  I’m going to go with the Bengals on this one.
• Seattle @ Indianapolis: Well I know better than to pick against the Colts this week. And plus Matt Hasselbeck is out for another week. And even though the Colts don’t have Freeney, there will still be plenty of pressure waiting for Seneca Wallace.
• New York Giants @ Kansas City: This one is a no brainer. Giants in a blow out.
• Buffalo @ Miami: Miami will get its first win this week.
• New York Jets @ New Orleans: Both teams are going into this game undefeated but I think that experience will come out on top. Brees over Sanchez.
• Saint Louis @ San Fransisco: The Rams are 0-3 and they will be 0-4 after Sunday.
• Dallas @ Denver: This is a hard one to pick. But I think that home field advantage will prevail and the Broncos will win by three.
• San Diego @ Pittsburgh: The Chargers don’t normally play well at Heinz Field, this will be a low scoring win for the Steelers.
• Green Bay @ Minnesota: As much as I want the Packers to annihilate the Vikings it’s not gonna happen. This will be a great game and hopefully the Pack can get at least a pick out of Farve, but either way, the Vikings will come out on top.

Why I Dislike Fantasy Football

I have never really been a fan of fantasy football. Every season the thought crosses my mind about joining a fantasy league but I never do. And once week one rolls around I know I have made the right decision.

The reason that I dislike fantasy football is simple. I’m a purist and a dedicated fan. I think that participating in a fantasy league makes you cheer for players for the wrong reason. Maybe it is different for me because I am a fan of a specific team, I could never cheer for anyone in the AFC South or anyone playing the Colts that week. People have suggested to me to draft Colts players and bench anyone from the team who is playing the Colts that week. But even if I did that, I wouldn’t be cheering for the Colts as a fan, I’d be cheering for my own personal benefit. Let’s say that I had Reggie Wayne on my fantasy team and it’s third and goal on the one yard line, I would want Peyton to throw it to Reggie when in reality Peyton should be handing it off to Joseph Addai. I would be upset with Peyton for giving the ball to Joe even though I know that it was the right play to execute. Having Reggie on my fantasy team would cause me to question Peyton’s intentions on every play where he doesn’t loft a pass up to Reggie down the left sideline.

I think that fantasy football can be a good thing for people who are just getting into the NFL but not for people who are fans of a certain team. Fantasy sports can help people get familiar with players’ names and who plays for what team. They can also get people more into sports by giving them a reason to care. But for me, I watch football because I love the game and I love my team. I will watch every game that is on TV whether I have a fantasy player in it or not.

I try to not dislike fantasy football but it’s just not for me.