The ManCave06!

What can we expect to hear within the first 30 minutes of the 2012 NFL Draft on April 26th:

“With the 2nd pick in the 2012 NFL Draft, the Washington Redskins select, Robert Griffin the 3rd, QB, Baylor”

Late Friday night, news broke that the Redskins have traded their 1st round picks in 2012,  2013, 2014 and their 2nd round pick in 2012 to move up to #2 in this years draft from the St. Louis Rams.  One may initially think the Skins gave up a lot, but just consider this year’s 1st round picks between the Rams #2 and the Redskins #6 just a fair exchange.  What the Redskins really give up are two 1st round picks and a 2nd.

As a fan of the burgundy and gold, I am not mad at all!

#HTTR

By now we all know what happened at Penn State University involving allegations of former football coach, Jerry Sandusky’s sexual acts with minors.  Since people had actual knowledge of the situation of this unlawful act, high officials at Penn State were fired including that of Head Football Coach Joe Paterno and the school President.  Now, we’re learning about similiar situation starting to unfold at Syracuse University where allegations are coming forth that long-time Assistant Coach Bernie Fine has had a history of sexual acts with minors as well.  As soon as this news broke, a long-time friend of Fine and Head Coach, Jim Boeheim came to his friends defense and said that the accusations were false and believed that the motive was for money and national attention similiar to what was warranted at Penn State.

Boeheim did what any of us would have done and that was come to the aid of a friend whom he thought he knew.  The university did it’s part by sending communication to students and alumni immediately to inform them of the allegations hours prior to the press release. Nearly a week later, a turn for the worse happens when ESPN released a recorded conversation that took place between one of the accusers and Fine’s wife dating back to 2002.  In their taped conversation, the accuser and wife discussed Fine’s actions as both were aware of what he has been doing for years prior. After an unsuccessful stint in trying get the attention from local police, the accuser provided the tape to ESPN in 2003!!!!!!!!!!!   So for 8 years, ESPN has had this tape and have never made mention of it to anyone!  Not the police, not to Syracuse officials, not to Jim Boeheim…NO ONE!  Does this sound familiar with the Penn State situation? Well, here is what ESPN had to say to defend their reasoning for not releasing the tape:

Just as media outlets have pointed fingers at Penn State for how they handled the Jerry Sandusky allegations, the same fingers should be pointed at ESPN and possibly the police department who received the tape as well. Boeheim and other Unversity staff should not be at risk for their jobs as this situation differs from that at Penn State, where no one was aware of Fine’s actions.  Fine lived a secret life that no one on outside of his wife and those victims were aware of. Boeheim on the other hand was insensitive of his choice of words when this news was made public, but he has since been apologetic but one can only image how hard Boeheim is taking this considering how Fine has betrayed him as a friend and as an university staff member.  One can only hope that in time, Syracuse and Penn State can put this behind them and continue building on their rich prestige and tradition.

The NFL has announced a 2 game suspension for Ndamukong Suh for his action on Thanksgiving Day against the Packers when he stomped on the arm of a Packers lineman while laying on the ground. This incident happened after Suh appeared to drive the lineman’s head to the ground a couple of times as well.

Ndamukong Suh in just his 2nd season in the league is just as frequent to the league office as Lindsey Lohan is to rehab. That’s why I call for Suh to report to Anger Management classes. As aggressive as the game of football is, it seems like Suh mentally seeks to destroy any and everyone who stands in his way.  Often times, his actions go beyond what is deemed practical in the game and we’re not talking about these helmet-to-helmet penalties that are being drawn 3 times a game!  We’re talking about if he could, I’m sure he would have a Mortal Kombat finishing move (← ← ↓ →) as his way of getting a sack.  Honestly, in many ways this is good for the new image of the Detroit Lions, but it also creates the James Harrison effect on the young player where the league has their eye on Suh all the time!

In just 2 season, Suh has been fined by the league office 3 times within the past 15 months due to on field penalties and avoided another 2 fines within that timeframe that were also borderline. As one would hope, Suh remains agressive but only within the realms of the game and not tactics that can lead to player injuries. The league just hopes that the suspension and $164K worth of game checks that are being lost will finally get the point across to Suh, who has even gone as far as meeting with league commissioner Roger Goddell during his bye week to discuss his on-field play.

Suh is adding to his reputation as being one of the dirtiest players in the league, but in the meantime the NFL players participated in a SI.com poll for the league’s Meanest Players where Suh ranked in at #3.

After leading Florida to 2 SEC Championships (2006, 2008) and 2 National Championships (2006, 2008), Urban Meyers failed to win back-to-back conference titles in 2009 by losing in rare fashion (32-13) to eventual National Champions, Alabama. The loss to Alabama prompted Meyer to take a leave of absence from the team citing health problems, but quickly returned in time to coach Florida to a 51-24 win over Cincinnati. Following the game, there was much speculation whether Meyer would return to coach Florida in 2010 especially with the loss of elite QB Tim Tebow and a recruiting class that many of which can be seen playing on Sunday’s.

After much speculation of his retirement, Meyer returned to coach the Gators during the 2010 season. With a depleted team, Meyer was able to lead the Gators to a 8-4 record and 4-4 in conference. Following the season, Meyer again cited the health concerns and decided leave Florida and take up an analyst job at ESPN.

Perhaps it wasn’t a case of bad health and high stress load, but it was the fact that Meyer couldn’t win with a young recruiting class to build the program up all over again and especially without Tebow. Now Meyer brings his gimic spread offense to the Big 10 and plans to lead Ohio State back to the glory days of the Big 10. Florida was a great job, but playing in the SEC is work and classes must be strong every year to win. At least in the Big 10, one would expect Meyer and Ohio State to be at the top of the polls year in and year out by playing in a week Big 10 division in comparison to the opponents he faced weekly in the SEC.

Often times in the rap industry we hear the likes of Coedine aka “Purple Drank” used in lyrics.  So much so, it has become a custom to see artist in videos holding 2 white foam cups depicting ”Purple Drank” as its contents.  Well often times in this era, we hear things and don’t fully understand the substance.  We hear about these fades that are made cool because our favorite rapper talks about it in lyrics or depicts it in a video, but we often times don’t see or don’t fully understand the impact that is associated with such drugs in the grand scheme of things.

Here is a story of former defensive end, Johnny Jolly, who most recently had a career with the Green Bay Packers up until 2009.  He was suspened for the 2010 season, the same year the Packers won the Super Bowl, for Coedine use.  During this time, his life when into a downhill trend as he was separated from organization and players that could have been there for him.  Instead, trouble found him and someone who once had a promising football career will now spend the next 6 years of his life behind bars because of illegal drug use.  This is an unfortunate story and one that should be heard by all to gain understanding of how drugs can in fact take over and rule our lives!

The preview story is below but the FULL STORY is definately worth the watch!

Lets be frank folks.  I can go on with a long post today talking about victorious Tebow was last night in the Broncos 17-13 win over the Jets, but it was Von Miller and the Broncos defense that kept Tebow and the offense in that game last night.  Up until that final drive by the Broncos late in the 4th, the Broncos offense looked so-so moving the ball yard by yard up the field with a read-option offense typical of what you would see in college but with an ineffective passing game.  Tebow looked good in his short yardage passes, but anything 10 yards or more down the field was thrown a yard or two short of receivers and often times at their ankles.  Yards After Catch (YAC) was minimal for receivers last night as they spent more time on the ground trying to make the catch.

So, let’s get away from the Tebow factor and move our attention to the Broncos defense.  All year-long, I have said that Orton didn’t deserve to be benched because it wasn’t the offensive production that was allowing teams to score at will against the Broncos.  On paper, the Broncos defense look like they should play better defense with the likes of DJ Williams, Elvis Dumerville, Von Miller, Brian Dawkins and the great Champ Bailey.  Well last night was their night to shine.  All these players made an impact in the game but Von Miller was a force and ended the game with 10 tackles and 1.5 sacks as he was all over the field making plays.  If anyone should get recognition for their play during the entire game, it should be Miller and not Tebow who although was clutch during that final drive, ended the game throwing 9-20 for 104 yards and 0 TDs.  Rushing the ball he was a lot affective rushing for 68 yards off 8 carries and 1 TD.  Considering these game stats, check out Tebow production in final drive: 3-5 for 35 yards; 7 rushes for 70 yards and TD.  Tebow was a factor for nearly 5 minutes of game clock.

Unlike what you may hear on SportsCenter or any other radio outlet, it was the Broncos defense that kept the Broncos in this game and allowed for Tebow to drive down the field 95 yards in the closing minutes to win that game.  So all in all, you may hear a lot about Tebow this morning, but cap goes off to the Broncos defense! Rookie standout Von Miller and the Broncos defense was a factor the entire game!

This Sunday marked the Redskins 5^th consecutive loss this season making them 3-6 after starting the season 3-1.  Following this week’s loss to a 1-7 Miami Dolphins team, fans voiced their opinions and demanded Head Coach Mike Shanahan’s firing.  From FedEx Field to the White House, these pleas from fans sound quite familiar.

3 years ago, President Barack Obama walked into office with a financial situation that has impacted every American in the United States.  In 2010, Mike Shanahan was hired as the Redskins Head Coach following 2 disappointing seasons with Jim Zorn as coach.  Shanahan walked into a Redskins culture that had been known to be offseason champions by signing huge and often times bad contracts, by drafting horrible prospects and trading draft picks for underachieving players.  Like President Obama, Mike Shanahan along with a new General Manager Bruce Allen was expected to bring change to our beloved Nation’s Capital.

Once President Obama wasted no time as Commander in Chief and promised free health care to all Americans.  Shanahan on the other hand, had a defense that had been a top 10 defense the previous 3 years and hired Jim Haslett as Defensive Coordinator who converted to a 3-4 base front from a 4-3. That first season, the Redskins ranked 31 out of 32 teams in defense while President Obama is still dreaming of health care as legislators try to approve the dollars that will be used to finance the bill.

President Barack Obama has also spent the past 3 years trying to fix our economy, but it’s hard to erase the previous 8 years brought forth from the Bush administration and it’s even harder when you don’t have other lawmakers and politicians supporting you.  Shanahan has spent 1.5 years in an organization that has a decade worth of bad business practices, so fans cannot expect change to happen within 2 seasons.  The least we can do as fans is support our team.  Unless you agreed with Rex Grossman that this team would win the NFC East, I feel like we are what we thought we were or at least should have been to start the season.

Whatever your business logic preference is; top-down or bottom-up organization structure, the Redskins organization has already started.  They began by firing the entire coaching staff and GM Vinny Cerrato following the 2009 season.  A whole new regime of experienced coaches arrived and by the start of the 2010 and 2011 season, the Redskins make up looked entirely different.  We saw in the preseason and the 1^st 4 games of the season the identity the coaches wants this Redskins team to have, but with key players going down with injuries, younger players not living up to their potential (Trent Williams) and poor QB play you get the product on the field that we have seen for much of the past 5 weeks.

So in conclusion, many think that President Obama deserves another term as President of the US. He has had just as many failures as he has had successes during his presidency, but still many want him back.  I am here to say as a Redskins fan, I want Coach Shanahan back!  One more year! One more year! One more year!

If former President George W. Bush can get a 2^nd term following his 1^st, then Shanny deserves on more season!