SportsCrack

Brett Favre's Potential Destination Odds

With a new rumor in regards to Brett Favre being broken just about every hour, I think it’s safe to assume that he might not stay retired. Wait a second, you knew that when he retired? Oh, well since it’s looking less and less likely he’s going to end up with the Packers, and with the potential of Aaron Rodgers attempting to kill him and all, I figured we should take a look at the potential places Favre might end up. You know, because there’s not enough stories about the whole thing already.

Odds: Likely

The Redskins are a likely landing spot if only because Daniel Snyder won’t hesitate to offer Favre a 1 year 45 million dollar contract.

Odds: Highly unlikely

This isn’t going to happen unless Favre is very, very pissed with the Packers organization for some reason. There’s no way he'd do this to the Packer fans, although it would make for an interesting Packers/Vikings Week 1 primetime match up.

Odds: Likely

No matter how legendary a career he had in Green Bay, Packer fans are going to be none to happy about seeing him play in another NFL uniform.

Odds: Unlikely

No real reason for Favre to end up here, unless the Buccaneer organization wants to break the most active quarterbacks on a depth chart record.

Odds: Likely

Assuming he doesn’t return to the NFL, ESPN has the dough to sign him and he could be their NFL Life retirement expert. He’ll be able to tell us which of the players that have retired will stay retired.

Odds: Unfortunately unlikely

The Falcons need a veteran quarterback and they need one badly. Unfortunately for them, they spent a small fortune on a rookie QB who has yet to play an NFL down. The future's looking bright for the Falcons!

Odds: Impossible

Impossible, but hilarious none-the-less. Imagine Rodgers coming home for dinner and walking in the front door and finding Brett stuffing his mouth with mashed potatoes. He very well could go insane.

Odds: Sort of likely

This is actually a legit, circulating rumor. It would make sense for them to sign him, but only if they’ve given up on or don’t rust the health of Jake Delhomme.

Odds: Not very likely

This is another circulating rumor, which is strange since Favre signing with the Bears would be nearly as traitorous as signing with the Vikings.

Odds: Very likely

If he's going to go somewhere, it looks like it's not going to be with the Packers.

If you told me this would be the most likely route in the Favre drama a couple months ago, I would have called you insane. But it seems that if Favre does come back, signing with the Packers would involve a lot of complications and by all accounts, the organization wants to move on.

Fourth Of July Linkapalooza

Burgers, fireworks, hot dogs. Congratulations to Joey Chestnut for going back to back at the hot dog eating championships. I don't know how he does it.. I can barely eat two.

While your hopefully not blowing your hand off with M-80's here's some links to wind down the night and hopefully sober you up some:

Excellent article over at ESPN about how the current salary cap fiasco will likely net a lot more undergraduates declaring for the draft.

Fantastic article over at ArmchairGM to help get you prepped for the NFL season. And it has a twist!

SI's recap of Joey Chestnut's second straight hot dog eating contest victory.

A little shameless self-whorification, get prepped for your fantasy football draft with the top ten skill position rookies for this year, over at The Bad News Bloggers.

And if your still in the mood for a little more fantasy football prep work, this isn't an article but the site is fantastic: Fantasy Football Cafe. Very, very good stuff there -- especially in the forums.

And don't forget to take a moment and remember all the men and women overseas and here at home who protect the U.S.A. It's because of them that we live in the best country in the world.

Sport Crack Public Service Announcement

You may or may not have noticed yet, but much of my time and efforts have been put into a new group blog, The Bad News Bloggers. I'm still going to post here, just not as often and most of the stuff that will be posted here will be simultaneously posted over at BNB.

To all three of my loyal readers, I highly recommend you go check out The Bad News Bloggers if you've enjoyed anything on this site. We've got someone from every major sporting market in the U.S. as well as some very different writing personalities. All of them great. We even have a Rays fan who followed and liked them before this bandwagon season! Craziness!

So, to conclude this shameless piece of self promotion, here's the link:

The Bad News Bloggers

I promise you won't be disappointed.

Top 10 Reasons The NFL Salary Cap Must Stay In Place

I know, duh right? But with the 2011 season getting closer and closer with each passing day, I’ve taken it upon myself to take a look at some of the reasons having no salary cap would be a bad idea. Okay, fine -- so I wanted to do another top ten. Sue me! While it’s pretty easy to think of a bunch of reasons why no salary cap would be bad, it’s always hard to compile these things and rank them in an order so people won’t disagree and make fun of you. And by hard, I mean fun. And when I hint that I tried to make it as controversy-free as I could, I’m lying. So let’s just let the good times/disagreements/witty insults roll!

If you think kickers had the life now, forget it when the league average and minimum are upped due to no salary cap. Such a high minimum salary for such horrible athletes who barely play. Awesome! But hey, at least it will make everyone hate kickers and punters even more and that’s always a good thing! The league minimum and league average should rise hand in hand, since if either goes up, so must the other. And they would both have to go up if there’s no salary cap. So, there you go.

The answer to this is obvious, but the thought did cross my mind: Would Peyton Manning finally give up all his damn commercials if his already lucrative contract was enlarged to even larger proportions? The answer to this is a resounding no, which is a shame. Such an occurrence would be a major plus in the anti-salary cappers campaign.

With many teams unable to compete with the rich, heavy-hitting owners, a lot of teams will undoubtedly be forced to be less competitive. The likely solution would be to drop some teams into a IA or AAA type league. While I’m all for a AAA football minor league, having it hold host to the reemergence of Freddie Mitchell, Maurice Clarett, Charles Rogers and many other sub-par former football players instead of it being a breeding ground for not-yet-there rookie athletes would ruin the entire concept. Besides, would anyone even want to see Freddie Mitchell play again, even if it was in minor league football?

Yes, young man, yes it could. While it may seem impossible for a thing that’s already in such disarray to get even worse, lifting the salary cap would open other fronts in the situation that could damage the league for years to come. With the league average and minimum being upped, the entire draft would basically be a jackpot in which every college football player and their brother would be trying to get in on. Four years of college? Uh, no. It would be more like one and done. What that would mean is less college football experience and less college experience means less talented rookies. Less talented rookies means a shittier league years down the road. As for the current dilemma -- what NFL teams are doing, basically, is offering multi-million dollar managerial positions at top notch restaurants to the best cashiers Burger King has to offer. To be fair, they are Burger King cashier All-Stars, but still. Why in the world are they getting so much money when they haven’t even played in an NFL game yet? And haven’t we learned from the past that there’s not that much of a difference between a player drafted in round one and a player drafted in round five, save for media attention and the desire to succeed? Last time I checked, you couldn’t measure drive and determination through retarded drills with no pads on in Indianapolis. Teams need to stop putting so much stake in what their scouting department says about the players. The NFL Combine is an absolute joke and it amazes me that no one has come up with something better yet. I really hope Matt Ryan pans out for you Mr. Blank, unless you don’t mind throwing nearly 100 million dollars down the drain. Rant over.

With owners pouring out their wallets in hopes of winning the Super Bowl with it, they will likely need to get a substantial return on their investment through merchandise, tickets, food and beverages at the games. The prices of these would skyrocket to ridiculous proportions. The hardcore, purely fan-filled atmosphere that we currently enjoy at a football game would be threatened due to such expensive tickets. The stands could very well drift into an aristocratic, “Shall we go to the game on Sunday my darling?” type place. I don’t think I need to emphasize on why having football stadiums mimic the atmosphere at Lakers home games is bad, so I won’t.

Tying into number six, owners very well could outsource their team names to advertising companies for even more income revenue. Sure, it would probably seem harmless at first, with something like the Detroit Zoo Lions. But then, it would be the Kansas City A1 Barbeque Sauces. Then, eventually we’d be having games between the New England Downy Softeners and the Dallas Instant Relief Ex-Lax. Um, thanks but no thanks. I’m perfectly fine with some commercials and those ads that are on MMA mats. Keep the stupid product sponsoring where it belongs: In Europe.

Now I don’t want to come off as a gambling junkie or anything, but I’ve bet on some teams from time to time. Thing is, I’ve never had more than $20 to bet, so it would all go towards a four team parlay that would fail miserably and then completely ruin my Sunday. Word of advice: Do not bet on parlays. It’s tempting, because instead of winning $10 you could win four or five times as much. But just remember that you’ll never, ever win and you should be okay. Anyway, with the drop off of good teams to horrible teams being so steep due to the disparity in spending, you can throw parity in regards to your betting out the window. Sure, you’ll have some nice match ups from time to time, but nothing like what you enjoy now. You’d be stuck betting on either the heavily undermanned underdog (effectively losing all of your money) or the mammoth favorite which would net you about $5 or $6 for every $50 you put down. To make any real money, you’d have to put down hundreds -- which would be impossible thanks to that $212 dollar jersey you just bought.

You know you deserve a high spot in the top ten when you’re one of the first things and/or people that everyone thinks of when the topic of no salary cap comes up. Would it surprise anyone if Snyder goes so overboard after the salary cap is lifted and the league places a special penalty salary cap on him? You can’t blame Redskins fans for not caring. Either way, Snyder will likely spend his cash lavishly on all the wrong players, coaches and assistant coaches to the assistant coaches. Does the film guy have an assistant yet?

R.I.P. long term contracts and home town discounts. Hello short term, no-strings-attached ones! With so much money being thrown around in all directions, even players not named Chad Johnson would be grinning with glee. “Loyalty? Sorry, but I got’s to get my money!” You couldn’t blame them either, money would be flowing around like a Pacman Jones visit to the strip club. I don’t say that in a condescending way either. Making it rain is tons of fun, even if I, unlike Pacman, do it with four one dollar bills. Anyway, don’t expect many long term contracts if there’s no salary cap, either. Why would there be? Remaining loyal and being a team player on one particular team for many years would be a thing of the past. In fact, if you did it in the no salary cap era, you’d probably be made fun of and beaten up in the parking lot. One to two year contracts would be flowing like.. a waterfall. Although skill positions and the super-duper stars would likely get medium sized contracts, everyone else would essentially become mercenaries for hire for a year or two.

Ah, number one. It was an easy choice. The worst thing that having no salary cap in the NFL could do would be phasing out champions built on knowledgeable sculpting of the team as a whole. I for one consider this to be one of the best parts of the game. Although other sports require tinkering of the team, only football requires the delicate balancing of 52 players and the placement of the correct people in certain situations. We’ve seen owners try and win with just money and we’ve watched them fail. That’s not how the task should be approached especially when it’s been proven you need to have knowledge, acquire key players and position them all correctly in the chess match that is an NFL season. The road to the Lombardi trophy is paved with hard work, sweat, blood, tears and teamwork. Not money.

Mark Madsen’s 2001 Lakers Parade Speech: An Analytical Breakdown

Yes, this qualifies as the B.N.B. sort-of related to sports video of the day. Yes, it may be a little old. Yes, it is absolutely hilarious. And yes, it’s a little late for a daily video, so what -- wanna fight about it?

Anyway, if you’ve read any of my Real Sporting World articles, you know I have a strange fascination with Mark “The Mad Dog” Madsen. I’m guilty of poking fun at him from time to time but really, I respect the man for being himself. He is 110% always the Mad Dog that is Mark Madsen, even if he does often make people doubt that he’s actually a real living human being. He is folks, he is that and more.

If you’ve never heard of Mark Madsen, he is a professional basketball player best known for his bench cheering skills and the unparalleled intensity he exhibits when tossed into a game. Whether or not these things have anything to do with the fact that he’s averaged 12.0 minutes per game for his career (seriously, become a believer: Here). But although one might first notice that the Mad Dog has averaged 2.2 points per game or 0.4 assists is the intangibles he brings to the table. Not only will Madsen give you his all on the court, but he’ll give you his all on the bench as well.

You also might know him best from his Lakers days, because that is when he was most relevant. I’ve taken it upon myself to remind the world of the legend that is Mark Madsen whenever I can, and I figured why not feature him in the BNB video of the day? But what video to pick, for there are so, so many. Then it dawned on me. His legendary speech at the 2001 Lakers Championship Parade. Following the speech is an analytical breakdown, because although it’s pretty straight forward, I knew it would be a blast to do. Enjoy.



(Note: I’ve broken the common trend of how many actual seconds each clip is into the video and replaced it with what it says on the You tube player as you play it. There’s no math involved and as we all know, everybody wins when that‘s the case.)

0:01 - The speech extravaganza host begins his introduction. He pretty much gets it spot on. Even though you’ve already probably heard it, I’ll post what is said for our speaker impaired readers (with my comments in italics in between quotes for the rest of the post):

“Out of the University of Stanford or Stanford University if you like..” This announcer is on his game, he’s attempting to please every possible person who could be at this parade. Well done.

“He was an honor student..” Not surprising.

“He is a crowd favorite..” Also not surprising.

“Didn’t play very much but when he played, he played with an intensity that no other Laker prob--ever exceeded.” Whoever this announcer is, I like him. He doesn’t sugar coat anything, he aims to please and he isn’t afraid to make bold statements if it’s true. He goes to say ‘..no other Laker probably’ but immediately corrects himself because he knows there is no other nominees in the intensity category if Mark Madsen is involved. Bravo!

“He’s the guy who went and picked the other guys’ laundry up and brought it to their rooms. He’s the guy who carried their bags from the hotel lobby up to their rooms.” By other guys’ the announcer means Kobe Bryant. After the bag part, he realizes he’s beginning to downplay the Mad Dog and boos are heard. A professional, he quickly realizes this and spouts:

“That’s enough.” I’m beginning to like this announcer even more than I like Mark Madsen if that’s even possible.

“Mark Madsen!” A thunderous applause is heard. A couple boos as well, but they’re drowned out -- probably due to the fact that whoever was booing was promptly beaten. Dumb asses. Okay, they’re not drowned out completely, but still. This is in Los Angeles! There’s probably some renegade Kings, Warriors and Clippers fans littered throughout the crowd. Yeah, that’s it.


0:38 - The Mad Dog is officially at the microphone at this point. He raises his patented number one finger and thanks the crowd, completely oblivious to the booing. Madsen knows these people are either a) jealous he’s not on there team or b) too drunk to remember when he played that year -- so it’s all good.

“Thank you!” The man is the definition of class.

0:40 - Madsen pauses to let the thank you sink in then offers,

“You are the greatest fans in the world!” Okay, I think we can all agree that this is a blatant lie -- but that isn’t stopping Mark from making it appear and sound as if he sincerely believes this. A maniacal Mad Dog grin completes the whole thing. Not only does he give you 110% on the court and bench, but the man gives it all in the P.R. department as well. Lakers fans the greatest in the world? Haha! Good stuff Mark, I nominate you for an Emmy!

0:43 - Still holding up the number one sign, Mark keeps grinning and let’s what he just said sink in. The man’s a genius. Even Lakers fans know they’re not the greatest in the world, but scream it at a pep rally and let it sink in for a few seconds. ‘Hey, we might just be the greatest fans in the world! Sure, half of the people with Laker flags on their cars wouldn’t be able to name who we played in the Finals -- but who cares! We’re the best in the wooooooooorld!’

0:45 - Madsen punctuates this thinking with a roaring,

“YEEEEEEEEEEEEAH!!” P.R. Genius.

0:47 - He pauses again then shouts,

“WHO LET THE DOGS OUT!?!” This has absolutely nothing to do with the Lakers team, unless they played this during the season. Which wouldn’t surprise me, but I doubt it. I think it has to do with his nickname more than anything. Yes, I thought of that myself. Regardless, Madsen proves here that he's topical. The man knows what’s in style and he’s aware of his nickname. What more could you want from your 13th man?

0:54 - After a couple of woofs, some expressed bliss when the crowd barks back Madsen gets our bilingual friends involved,

“And for those who speak Spanish: ‘Les hablababes vamos ingles da dimos, que ano benenay, loremos, otra PAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!’” Yes, I butchered the shit out of that but the accuracy is not the point. The man prepped his speech with a bit for the Spanish speaking Lakers fans. Nothing needs to be said here, only that is just amazing.

1:08 - Everyone goes wild. I wish I knew what that meant, or maybe everyone is just going wild because it was so out of the blue, legendary and fantastic. Madsen backs from the podium with hands raised, high-fiving his teammates as the crowd goes nuts. Absolutely nuts. Where are the booers now? Huh? Can’t boo someone who just spoke Spanish for no reason, can you?

1:23 - As the crowd goes nuts, the host (?) appears back at the podium with a simple,

“No wonder they call him the Mad Dog.” Indeed. Never before has a nickname fit someone so incredibly well. The man truly is a mad dog. In a good way, of course.

1:28 - Our host concludes with a quick summation of the man as a whole,

“Isn’t he something, and he’s so sincere. Just a great guy.” Say what you want about his intensity, lack of minutes and cheerleader-esque attitude -- but the man wears his heart on his sleeve and he gives 110% no matter what. For that, I applaud you Mark Madsen and I always will. I mean, hey, anyone who can cheer on Kobe Bryant and look like he enjoys must be a great person.

1:33 - The video ends with a shot of Madsen smiling and then putting his head down. Humble. Humble as pie.

What have we learned in this journey? Well, for one -- we’ve learned that Mark Madsen is the man. Two, we’ve learned that sometimes sports biggest stars don’t make their mark by putting up gaudy numbers or winning MVP awards. Sometimes, they leave their mark with effort, being a good teammate and failing to let money affect who they are.

We’ve also learned that Mark Madsen belongs on a particular NBA team where he could make the most impact and be appreciated when doing so. Have you guessed it yet? Come on, think a little harder.. A hint? You seriously want a hint?

They play on the East Coast.

No not the Seattle Supersonics, that‘s the West Coast, dimwit. Think. Another hint? Wow.

They have a player on the team known for giving 110% all the time as well.

The Miami Heat? I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that. Fine, here’s one last one.

The nickname rhymes with 'Meltics'.

That’s right! Your a quick one! The Boston Celtics! In addition to actual basketball talent, they have career bench guys like James Posey (who‘s also talented at basketball to be fair), Brian Scalabrine and Eddie House’s kid! It’s a perfect fit!

Not only have you gotten a refresher course on Mark Madsen as a person, but you’ve also just read the birth piece to a movement designed to get Mark Madsen on the 2009 Boston Celtics roster! A petition’s on the way!

[Note: This article was simultaneously posted @ The Bad News Bloggers -- And yes, I wrote both versions Sherlock]