Tag Archives: NFL

The 20 best NFL players ever

I love rankings. I’m a sucker for them. So when The NFL Network began airing a series on the Top 100 Greatest NFL Players of All Time I was in. The series has been very good thus far, perhaps only falling short of the America’s Game series and the old Super Bowl highlight shows up until the mid-80s. Ten players are covered each week and they are “introduced” by someone else, like a celebrity, a former or current player or coach, or perhaps even a personality from another sport. It serves as a good introduction to some of the old players for fans today who are not students of the sport’s history.

There are two episodes remaining. Twenty players to go. You can see the list as it stands right here. Later on you’ll be to click there and, presumably, see if what I’m about to do is close to right.

Here is who I think the NFL Network is going to deem the top 20 players of all time. I feel pretty confident that the twenty I have here are the ones they’ll reveal. I’ve listed them in the order I think they’ll reveal them. Comments are free. Continue reading →

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The greatest team of the Super Bowl era is…

File this under “Things I do while the two oldest children are playing nicely and Liz has the two little ones at the doctor.” Today I browsed over to whatifsports.com and decided to do something a little insane; namely, try to figure out who the greatest pro football team of the Super Bowl era was.

I took the 44 Super Bowl champions and split them into four 11-team divisions. The winners of Super Bowls I-XI were one, XII-XXII another, XXIII-XXXIII a third, and XXXIV-XLIV the fourth. Each team played a double round-robin, with each team getting a home game against a division opponent. I did this by plugging them into simulated matchups on the web site, so an objective source picked all of the winners. Then, the top three finishers in each division made it to the playoffs. Division winners got an automatic top four seed in the playoffs and a first round bye. The eight second and third place finishers faced off in the first round. Finally, the two last teams met. What happened? Who’s the greatest team? Read on and find out… Continue reading →

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The Five Dumbest Rules in Sports

I love sports, but no sport is perfect in its rules and definitely not in how it enforces its rules. Here are my thoughts on the five dumbest rules in sports. What are yours?

5. NFL’s tuck rule – I can’t stand the Raiders, but that was a fumble.

4. Shootouts in soccer – Penalty kicks are great for drama and should be a part of normal game play, but deciding the winner of a big game with a part of the game where the goalkeeper is at such a disadvantage is ridiculous. Play the 15 minute periods of extra time, then go into sudden death, or as it was called during the 1998 and 2002 World Cups, the “golden goal.”

3. NFL’s End Zone and Sideline Reception rules – I submit to you Calvin Johnson’s “non-catch” from Week 1 against the Bears less than two weeks ago. Did he have possession of the ball? Was he down and did he have possession of the ball? Was the ball across the plane of the goal line? Yes, yes, and yes. Just a dumb rule all around.

2. College football’s down by nothing – In the NFL if you make a great play but happen to hit the ground, without getting downed by contact, you can get up and keep going. In college football you can make a great catch in space, but if your knee just so happens to kiss a blade of grass you are down. How many more game breaking plays would there be if this stupid rule were changed to match the NFL’s rule, that you have to be downed by contact?

1. NFL Overtime – I really don’t care that they’ve changed it so that both teams get possession now. It’s better than sudden death, it amounts to being “sudden death or the first team to five points” but it’s still dumb. I say play an entire fifth quarter and if it’s a tie, then that’s what it is. Obviously, in the playoffs, after the first overtime you could do sudden death, but that wouldn’t be a problem. I think America’s supposed disdain for ties that has brought about the current system(s) has taken a bit of strategy away from the game, to its detriment.

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Are the Minnesota Vikings’ fans the most tortured in sports?

There is a good case to be made that, after last night’s loss in the NFC Championship Game, the Minnesota Vikings propelled their own fan base into the pole position for the most tortured fans in sports. Examine the evidence and judge for yourselves.

The franchise was borne from expansion in the NFL in 1960. This was a day and age when expansion teams took several years to even be competitive. In that respect, the Vikings were a little behind the Dallas Cowboys, also borne in 1960. The Cowboys made it to the ‘66 and ‘67 NFL title games but lost to the Packers. However, Minnesota fans finally had cause to rejoice in 1968, the first year of the post-Lombardi Packers.

Minnesota won the Central Division title but lost in the first round to the superior Baltimore Colts. It set them up, however, for bigger and better things in 1969. They lost a close game on the road to the New York Giants in the opening week, but then racked up a 12-game win streak, the longest such streak in 35 years. Behind the “Purple People Eaters” defense of Carl Eller, Alan Page, Gary Larsen, and Jim Marshall, the Vikings imposed their will on opponents. Quarterback Joe Kapp’s ability to run and throw kept opponents off balance. Continue reading →

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