Hi Folks,
We do a lot of really insightful, thoughtful and serious features here at Footballguys with some very smart people thinking deeply for you. This is not one of those features.
This is a few pages of me downloading my goofy and dysfunctional mental hard drive that gets stuffed with way too many random items from too many hours watching, reading about and listening to football every weekend and throughout the week. It's the only way I keep relatively sane. Here's hoping it has a tiny bit of value for you. Let's go.
Just like last year, I'm starting right off the bat with the music on this one as we cover all the Holiday bases. First a Run DMC - Charlie Brown mashup of Christmas in Hollis.
Next up is Adam Sandler with the classic Chanukah song.
Elvis sings my favorite Christmas song. And for a picture of cool personified, he butchers the words but still kills it live.
And one last song for you Star Wars fans...
Lastly, one of my favorite Sports Illustrated covers from a few years back featuring Belichick Santa.
Happy Holidays from all of us at Footballguys.
Now on to Football. At least as much Football as you ever get from me...
Our friend Michael Fabiano of the NFL Network had a great pic this week.
Not really sure at all what's going on there. And I think I like it that way…
In case you missed it, snow was a factor in Sunday's games. I'll have plenty of pics of that but I think my favorite may be Baltimore's Asa Jackson literally playing it cool…
I love design. And I especially love logos. I think I'm with Fast Company that this could be the worst logo update of the year.
Seriously?
I get on Charger fans for being too passive. Can't say that was true Sunday as they seemed to enjoy giving a little back to Eli Manning.
That pic doesn't quite do it justice. Here was Manning's view:
Thanks to Footballguy Steve Wilburn for that one.
Our friend Peter King had a fun trivia question on the radio this week:
Who was the backup quarterback behind Tony Dungy on the 1974 University of Minnesota team?
Marc Trestman.
I did not know that.
Good one from my Buddy David Dodds : "From the Twilight Zone: Shanahan, who employs his son as offensive coordinator, is complaining about someone else receiving preferential treatment."
Our friend Johnny Detroit with a list of the preseason odds for the NCAA Football BCS Champ from this summer.
Auburn was 1000-1 and the Las Vegas Hilton reportedly has 14 open tickets. Wow.
Commercial of the Week. I know everyone loves the Ed Norton Droid spot. I get it. What's not to like?
But my favorite by far is this beautiful ad from Tullamore Dew Irish Whiskey as friends sing "A Parting Glass".
I don't normally want to buy the soundtrack from a commercial. But I do for this one.
If you're into the details, this article is a fun look at how a New York ad agency made the most Irish whiskey commercial of the year.
Our friend Adam Schefter with a nice one: "Just as everyone expected: Bears QB Josh McCown and Eagles QB Nick Foles are tied for NFL's lowest interception percentage this season."
And a fun pic that worked at least up till this week.
ACL injuries continue to be on the forefront of sports discussion. The awesome folks at Grantland had an outstanding article this week with everything you ever wanted to know about ACL injuries.
Thanks to my Buddy Jene Bramel for that one.
In case you needed any more reasons to love Andre Johnson, he went Santa Claus and took a bunch of kids on a $17,000 shopping spree.
That's awesome.
I'll have to admit I didn't know what team Jonathan Papelbon plays for these days. But one look at this pic and I was pretty sure he was at least a baseball player.
Jerry Jones recently gave beleaguered Cowboys defensive coordinator the vote of confidence.
"To be doing what we're doing and to fix what we're doing, there's nobody I would rather have than him and (defensive line coach) Rod Marinelli," Jones said. "Where we are today to get this fixed over the next, if you would, week or four or five days, the next three weeks, there's nobody I would rather have to get it fixed."
That's kind of sad.
For Jones, not Kiffin.
Kiffin's a kind looking, grandfatherly old school guy that's a fun guy to talk to.
But don't feel too sorry for him - he's still drawing a paycheck from the University of Tennessee and that was two failed jobs ago.
While I'm on the Kiffin family, I thought of Lane Kiffin this week. As the coach of the University of Tennessee, Kiffin was in a recruiting battle against South Carolina trying to convince Alshon Jeffery to attend UT.
From the ESPN article: "According to Jeffrey and Wilson, Kiffin told Jeffery that if he chose the Gamecocks, he would end up pumping gas for the rest of his life like all the other players from that state who had gone to South Carolina."
How's that working out for you, Lane?
Thanks to my Buddy Brad Lewis for that one.
In a league built on wild finishes, the ending of the Minnesota - Baltimore game was remarkable with the back and forth.
For you poker guys, you'll love the article year describing the odds at the end as if it were a poker game.
Thanks to my Buddies Sigmund Bloom and Gregg Rosenthal for that one.
I know this game is all about winning and nice guy coaches don't last if they don't produce. But you know what I think is awesome? Southern Miss football coach Todd Monken bought his senior players suits so they'd be prepared for their first job interviews.
Is he a great football coach? I don't have a clue. But I like this guy.
San Francisco fans were reportedly issued cards telling fans to avoid constantly standing.
I'm going to assume this is a prank from Seahawks fans.
Speaking of Seattle and San Francisco, I like the emerging rivalry.
Countered with…
Carolina's Greg Hardy is the Kraken and went to Hogwarts.
It was on wikipedia so you know it has to be true.
I'm gald to see Denver coach John Fox back in action. He seems like a good guy. Here's a nugget for you - When Fox went in for his heart surgery, he checked into the hospital under the name of Johnny Drama.
That's sweet.
Washington coach Dan Snyder reportedly won't interfere with the week 15 QB decision.
Good one, Dan.
Two things here.
#1. Who really believes this?
#2. And for good reason. Continuing my year long rant, the fact the owner of a multi billion dollar company is somehow forbidden to have input, or worse, "interfere" with the decision of who fills the most important position in the company is ridiculous.
Oh. And nice effort Washington fans.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say Sunday won't go down as a proud day for the Steelers.
But it got worse.
Ending with the miracle that wasn't.
My question?
Where was Mike Tomlin when we really needed him?
This was a weird (weirder than normal) scene at the Raider tailgate Sunday.
Some guy from England appeared to "knight" a bunch of Raider fans.
What I saw was a dude with a furry cape convince a bunch of Raider fans to get on their knees before him and pledge allegiance to the Queen.
A hundred bucks says the guy had on Chiefs underwear.
That was for you Mike Wenger.
If you're like me, you probably sit around wondering what your quarterback might look like if he were bald. Well I'm pleased to tell you our friends at Mandatory.com have some answers for you.
Some of the better ones.
Human nature is fascinating. Shawne Merriman blew up the internet this week as he walked off a set. This particular article on FTW is exploding with a zillion shares.
People love prying and love drama. Dude didn't want to talk anymore about a painful childhood and didn't want to be gawked at for their pleasure. So he ended the interview. Not that hard to understand. Yet everyone wants to continue talking about it. I guess I am too. But I'm not taking about Merriman. I don't blame him one bit. Sure, he could have ended it better but the public fascination and rubbernecking with it just bums me out.
Look for the good in things. Like what Tom Brady will look like bald.
Ok, off the soapbox now.
NBA note. Roy Hibbert's elbow is messed up.
Sorry. Freaky elbow is all I got for the NBA this week.
Good news for fans. The rest of the league is going to adopt the apparent Broncos' concussion protocol where a player will be allowed to return to the game if he "can stare off into the distance, emit a low, guttural moan, and remain awake for at least two seconds.”
God Bless the Onion.
Mike Shanahan had a great quote Wednesday talking about shutting down Robert Griffin III.
"What I'm trying to do is be as honest as I can. And I don't normally do that."
For once, I believe him.
Thanks to Footballguy James Schneider for that one.
Arizona's Darnell Docket with the hand stomp. Easy there, Big Fella…
The game's dangerous enough as it is. Now players have to watch out for the snow plow too?
I love Steve Smith. You knew this was just a matter of time…
December is always the scariest month for Cowboys fans…
And this is a big part of the reason why.
Play in the snow they said. It'll be fun they said.
I'm not sure Calvin Johnson is buying it.
And we completely lost Nick Foles for a second.
Thanks to my Buddy Andrew Garda for that one.
It's not in the Eli Manning ballpark (where only Eli resides), but Matt Stafford is letting his presence be felt in the face making category.
ESPN with a fun look at giving their personalities the Mike Ditka treatment.
Thanks to Dr. Pepper for bringing back Danny Wuerffel for the halftime contest Saturday. I'd recognize that throwing motion anywhere.
Not surprisingly, Gary Kubiak made a classy exit in Houston.
I was hoping he'd use a picture from the hospital bed from a week ago...
Either the Bengals can't tackle or the Colts have brought back Jim Brown.
Headsup on the Jaguar sideline. Where's Arthur Blank when you need him?
New England was robbed a couple of weeks ago when a clear pass interference was uncalled. Sunday the refs evened the score with an imaginary interference call against Cleveland.
New Orleans tight end Jimmy Graham seemed happy to see Mark Ingram rocking the Auburn gear after losing a bet.
On that note, Nick Saban was paged in the Austin airport this week.
That's classic.
I don't know how airports work with the paging, but I'd be shocked if there isn't now a list by the intercom titled "DO NOT PAGE" that includes Jon Gruden, Bill Belichick, Pete Carroll, Urban Meyer, Jimbo Fisher and more.
Here's what it's like to be a Jets fan…
God Bless you Guys.
Swoop, the Eagles mascot had trouble with the snow.
LeSean McCoy on the other hand, looked like he was running with snow tires.
Did you know his nickname is "Shady". Oooooh.
The best running back and the best tight end went down with injury Sunday. Just another week in Fantasy Football…
Here's how Gronkowski owners (and Patriot fans) are coping.
On the flip side, it could be worse.
You could have been a Nick Foles or Brent Celek owner.
If you are, this is the picture that will haunt you.
For you older guys, you won't be surprised to see Brian Westbrook liked the play.
Celek and Foles owners, not so much.
But none more so than some of the guys playing in the FanDuel 3 Million Dollar FFFC Contest
I had the good fortune to attend the event in Las Vegas this past weekend with 50 owners competing in a one day event where the winner walked away with a 1 Million Dollar first prize plus a ride home in a private jet. Second place was $300,000 and third place was $100,000. The owner who finished in third place was a Foles owner. Celek taking the knee cost him a cool $200,000.
That's the hardest of hard luck. I'm not even going to call out the others this week. I wanted to throw up and I didn't have a penny on the line.
Sometimes it's better to just not know...
That'll do it for this week, Folks. Thanks to Footballguy Doug Drinen, Andrew Garda, David Dodds, James Schneider, Brad Lewis, Jene Bramel, Gregg Rosenthal, Sigmund Bloom and Steve Wilburn for the help on this one. If you've got a Random Shot of your own, shoot me an e-mail at bryant@footballguys.com.
Note for you folks inclined to pray or those that care enough to read all the way down this far. This season of Random Shots is dedicated to my close friend Mike Wenger who apparently has decided to upstage Chuck Pagano this year. Mike's been diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia and is undergoing aggressive chemotherapy. Much Love, Buddy. Mad Respect. Go Chiefs.
A ton of you folks have been so kind to reach out with nice comments for Mike. I wanted to let you know that we've got a cool fund raiser we're doing for the family where our good friends at Slantshirts.com have printed up MIKESTRONG shirts for us.
Click Here to order. Profits from the shirt sales will be donated to the Wenger family to help offset bills. Plus there are lots more cool shirts on Slantshirts.com . Much thanks.
Thanks for playing along. I hope you make the most of whatever you're doing in your life. Love your neighbor and stick together.
