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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 Random Shots and it's 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 some value for you.
We'll see. Now let's get to it.
J
Halloween is almost here. In the "Best Costume" contest, the early leaders in the clubhouse are these two guys from Buffalo. So good.
I should probably end this thing right there.
Nailed it.
Here's how you know you've got it going on.
You can do a television interview with ESPN in your underwear. And nobody will know. At least nobody watching on TV...
Love it.
TrendingTopLists.com with some fun old NFL logos.
I'm pretty sure there was a penalty on this play with Greg Olsen...
Another "A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words" picture.
Or maybe just one word will do it: "Respect"
I don't want the Music Notes to always be a "Joe's Favorite Bands" thing but this week it will be. Manchester Orchestra does it for me. If you're new to them, start where they did with the debut "I'm LIke A Virgin Losing A Child" and the followup "Mean Everything To Nothing". My favorite song from them is Colly Strings from the debut album and this is my favorite video for the song. Apologies for the low quality recording but this captures the feel and emotion well. Click here to see and hear. Maximum volume is recommended. I've seen him play this live a bunch of times but that note at the 3:38 mark and the 90 seconds after slay me every time.
Also, here's a higher quality recording of just the audio.
More sweetness with cleats from Antonio Brown.
For the Dolphins game, he paid tribute to Miami legends Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez and MMA star Kimbo Slice. Rock on, Antonio.
Austin Powers star Verne Troyer recently said what most of us have thinking, "The NFL fines were bull****". Troyer and Brown are friends.
Note the video has some NSFW audio at the end.
And Troyer's right of course. The fines are total bull****.
Here's how Major League Baseball deals with things like Bryce Harper's Harambe bat.
Let that sink in. The bow ties at Major League Baseball are less uptight than the NFL...
A good "It's just a game" pic.
Florida State trainers taking care of a Wake Forest player here.
Thanks to Footballguy Adam Downs for that one.
It's almost November which means it's time for Patriots coach Bill Belihick to start having fun with the injury report. As Adam Schefter said this week, "The Patriots had everyone but Big Papi listed as Questionable..."
More cleat awesomeness. Washington defensive end Ricky Jean Francois has strong connections to Haiti. Sunday he rocked these with a plea to pray for the country and people of Haiti as they deal with the hurricane aftermath. Teammate Pierre Garcon has the same ties and they both traveled to Haiti last week to help with distributing supplies.
ESPN's Matt Hasselbeck with kicker (and lawyer) love Sunday morning.
The Ravens Inactive list was brutal Sunday.
As NFL.com's Ian Rapoport said, "All the starters (basically)."
Another week. Another misspelled jersey.
But let's be honest. If we're going to start firing everyone who's ever misspelled Amukamara's name, there won't be many of us left. Myself included.
Side note - Always Always Always do your best to spell names correctly. Few things carry more weight with a person than their name. So do your best to get it right. Even if it's a difficult name to spell. And that goes for pronunciation too. But if you fancy yourself as one who "just always gets it right", know that everyone around you thinks your (or "you're" - just seeing if you were paying attention) the grammar or spelling police. And don't be surprised when people never ask you over for dinner. You're welcome.
Thanks to Footballguy Rick Gordimer for that one.
Last week the NFL laid down the law on not allowing NFL Teams to use game highlights on the team's official social media pages. To make clear, I'm not saying they won't let let DieHardDogPound.com post a clip on their @dieharddogpound1968 Twitter account (I hope both of those are real things). I'm saying the NFL won't let the CLEVELAND BROWNS post a video clip on @BROWNS of PLAYERS ON THEIR PAYROLL AT WORK doing what they're PAID TO DO.
That is kind of baffling.
I say "kind of" as it's important to remember the league is run by mostly old super rich guys. While old super rich guys have lots of positives I'm sure, understanding social media in 2016 is not normally thought to be one of them.
Interestingly enough, some of the teams "do" understand social media in 2016. Most notably the Browns and the Eagles who responded to the new "no highlights on social media" rule perfectly.
Thanks to Footballguy Clayton Gray for those.
For whatever reason, the NBA doesn't have the same old super rich guy mentality when it comes to understanding the marketing. If I were advising the NFL (and Commissioner Goodell, I'm available...), the first thing I'd tell them is to get with the program and follow the NBA here.
What I see the league doing is basically exercising the law of nature we all work under. People with tons of positives, can get away with more negatives. The league is incredibly popular, attractive and wealthy. Incredibly popular, attractive and wealthy people get away with a lot.
Until they don't.
Until what they're doing is recognized as just too stupid. And until the other people around them start becoming popular, wealthy and attractive themselves. Without the stupid baggage.
And let's not get carried away. Much has been made lately of the NFL's falling TV ratings. In fact many feel the ban on teams using highlights in social media was a knee jerk reaction designed to boost the ratings. As knee jerk reactions are won't to do, the result was the opposite. But be real, the NFL is still far and away the king of TV. Their ratings could continue to tumble and they'll still be ahead of the pack. For a while. But not forever.
Get with the program NFL. And Commish, it's bryant@footballguys.com...
Ron Burgandy says, "It's almost Movember..."
NBA Note - Someone tell Dwight Howard it's preseason...
NBA Note Part 2. What if I told you we finally listened to all the people asking us for DFS NBA coverage?
Stay tuned...
Because I know you guys need to know how they make sure the goalposts are level...
Footballguy Martyn Patterson sent me this screenshot from Sunday's game.
I hope this wasn't an alien transmission or DaVinci Code key thing meant just for Martyn. If so, sorry Buddy. About half a million Footballguys know now...
Who knew there was Chinese Arena Football? And that their celebrations were so good?
Good News / Bad News for Houston.
Good news is they're showing textbook blocking skills. Bad news is it's against their own guys...
Thanks to @NFL_Memes for that one.
Just sayin'...
You go, Silver Lions Guy.
People are pretty excited over Cam Newton "Storming OUT" of Sunday's post game press conference. It only lasted 90 seconds and you can see it here.
Thee takeaways for me.
First, I don't mind a player showing emotion after a game like this. I think there's a difference between sulking and hiding with the towel over the head and being just genuinely frustrated, angry and embarrassed over a loss. Losing games is something Newton hasn't done a lot of. I don't know for sure, but I'd guess a Cam Newton led Junior High school and High School team didn't lose a lot of games. I get the "You'd better be able to take it if you want to dish it out" angle. There's truth there. But I do sort of like the honest picture you get with Newton. I'll take it over the perfect pull the string out of their back and give the nothing-answer Peyton Manning stuff. Bottom line, I'm willing to cut the guy some slack here. And he didn't "storm out". Please.
Second. He was efficient. He said 48 words according to the Charlotte Observer. Bill Belichick would be proud.
Lastly, after the debacle of week 3:
His style game Sunday was on fleek. That counts for something. Maybe.
Tom Brady with the Gray Waldo should take note...
But once again, Brady proves my truth that You Can Wear Anything After A Win. Which is really just an offshoot of To The Victor Goes The Spoils or something like that.
More Color Rush Fun...
Buffalo's Justin Hunter scored and managed to toss the football to the one 49er fan in the endzone. Who fumbled it off his face.
Great job, Fellas.
Mark Ingram owners already know Sean Payton hates them.
With a COBY FLEENER RUSHING TOUCHDOWN AT THE GOAL LINE, now he's just being cruel...
Another example of the Black Eyed Joe Jersey Coverage Rule Of Thumb: Always take a 13 being covered by a 91.
This game isn't that difficult...
Tyrod Taylor is good at Football. AND has minty fresh breath.
Thanks to Footballguy Gerry Graham for that one.
Throw in Cam Newton from a few weeks ago and we can put together a dental hygiene program with quarterbacks.
I know this fan was going for Tom Brady as Minuteman.
It felt more like Tom Brady as Che Guevara.
The Bruce Arians Kangol cap thing was genius. Especially for Arizona. As half the retired guys there already have a hat like this. Perfect.
Non Football Note - Danny MacAskill is an Alien. And Scotland is beautiful. See proof of both here.
Some teams are blessed with so many offensive weapons, the defense can't cover them all. Cleveland is not one of those teams. So if I'm the defensive coordinator facing the Browns, put someone on 11.
Just Arizona's Patrick Peterson in a Tyrannosaurus Rex costume...
Peterson lost a bet in their "Chuck It To The Bucket" contest where players try to hit a target throwing a football. Unfortunately for Peterson, Carson Palmer is a participant. Peterson lost and this was the punishment.
The video is even better.
Props to Peterson for not backing down in a football passing contest. In fact, Peterson won not long ago. And Palmer paid his bet rocking this Marshmallow suit in warm ups.
The video for this one is awesome too.
I love this so much.
The ESPN crew is growing on me.
Sunday they had fun with their old hair.
Charles Woodson picked the Raiders...
And Randy Moss picked Charles Woodson...
There's some comfort in knowing that if I ever needed to, I could mail in Random Shots and just post Civil War General Luck and Fitzpatrick memes...
Although because of this...
It looks like my time may be running short for General Fitzpatrick's side of these.
Thanks to Footballguy David Dodds for that one.
Scott Van Pelt with some Charles Woodson Ascot action Monday Night...
More fun with Peterson. At least fun for Cardinals fans.
I know it's the cool thing to think all announcers and television analysts suck and don't know what they're talking about. Count me in as not cool then as I love Jon Gruden.
Bill Belichick's a man of few words. Unless he's talking about how much he hates the Microsoft Surface Tablets. Tuesday he took five minutes to describe the depths of his disdain.
Here's the Cliff Notes version from NESN: “As you probably noticed, I’m done with the tablets,” Belichick said. “They’re just too undependable for me. I’m going to stick with pictures, which several of our other coaches do, as well, because their just isn’t enough consistency in the performance of the tablets. I just can’t take it anymore. … “For me, personally, it’s a personal decision, I’m done with the tablets. I’ll use the paper pictures from here on, because I just have given it my best shot. I’ve tried to work through the process. But it just doesn’t work for me, and that’s because there’s no consistency to it.”
Here's the response from Microsoft who paid 400 million dollars for the teams to use the tablets...
Count the Vikings in as another team who understands Social Media.
FOX used this photoshop for a promo last week pasting a bobble sized Sam Bradford head onto Teddy Bridgewater's body.
Minnesota replied...
Then with...
That's how you do Social Media. Someone please let the NFL Suits on Park Avenue know.
Because my guess is their reaction to all this is more like Bill Murray's here...
Thanks Brett Favre...
Thanks to @NFL_Memes and TacoBellGawd.
Pittsburgh went for the two point conversion Sunday and lined up in this formation. If I'm the Steelers, I like my chances there.
Wrapping with this one. Jarrius Robertson is 14 years old and has a disease called biliary atresia that affects his growth. He's had 13 surgeries and at one point was in a coma for an entire year.
He also happens to be Saints Super Fan.
From ESPN: "Robertson, who often attends practices or games and provides constructive criticism, then began doing videos with the team, including one where he comically told soft-spoken receiver Marques Colston to stop "trying to be Mr. Show-Off."
"Coach Sean Payton, quarterback Drew Brees and defensive end Cameron Jordan appeared on "Good Morning America" to surprise Robertson by making him an "honorary member" of the team.
"As a coach, you love it when you see someone with his energy," Saints coach Sean Payton said. "He is on everyone's butt, trust me."
Click here to see the video and Robertson's reply. Trust me, it's worth the 90 seconds.
Good job Saints. And Rock on Jarrius Robertson.
What's that mean to us? I'll tell you. Somewhere in your world, there's a Jarrius Robertson. They're likely not as embattled as Robertson. And you likely don't have something as cool to offer as an honorary contract with the Saints. But you CAN do something that'll lift their spirits. It might not be anything more than sending someone a text to say thank you or that you care for them. It might be apologizing to someone you wronged. I don't know what it is. But I bet there's someone there you can lift up. It won't make Good Morning America. And that's fine. But I bet it'll be a big deal to that person.
Off the soapbox.
Thanks to Footballguys Keith Overton, Clayton Gray, Adam Downs, Martyn Patterson, Rick Gordimer, David Dodds and Gerry Graham 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.
Thanks for playing along. I hope you make the most of whatever you're doing in your life. Love your neighbor and stick together.
Peace and Grace to you.
J