NFL moving Pro Bowl to Super Bowl week, venue

by | Nov 24, 2008 | NFL Random Thoughts

Item F in Peter King’s Ten Things he Thinks he Thinks this week was that the NFL plans to move the Pro Bowl to the venue of the Super Bowl, playing the all-star game as part of the build-up to the game played for the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

The Pro Bowl, played in Honolulu, HI since January 1980, has become irrelevant for many reasons, including the lack of star power due to players bowing out of participating and ridiculous rules, such as not allowing blitzing, which make football games lesser football games.

I think the NFL is reaching for solutions here. All-Star games in general just don’t have a lot of appeal these days, I don’t think. I’m not convinced that making the game part of Super Bowl week, which means no players from the participating teams will play, will add any interest to the game at all.

In fact the league could make the Pro Bowl a Powder Puff game featuring the best looking cheerleaders from each team as voted by the fans and I’d be only slightly more likely to watch. … Well, maybe more than slightly more likely. But not because the game would be played at the Super Bowl venue in the week leading up to the big game.

McNabb still starting in Philly

by | Nov 24, 2008 | NFL News

Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid announced this morning that Donovan McNabb would start on Thanksgiving against Arizona despite being pulled from yesterday’s loss to Baltimore.

Sal Paolantonio on ESPN this afternoon expressed curiosity about why the Eagles would return to McNabb since it’s a virtual certainty the team will trade or release him in the offseason.

I disagree with Paolantonio’s take on that. The Eagles are 5-5-1 after yesterday’s loss but if they can beat Arizona, they play three of their final four games against division foes. This still gives the team an outside shot at the playoffs – and if the Eagles are going to make the postseason, it’s unlike it will be with Kevin Kolb at the helm.

Kolb entered in the second half of the Ravens game and threw an interception that Ed Reed returned 108 yards for a touchdown. But that shouldn’t dim anyone’s views on how he will do as the team’s likely future starter. Many quarterbacks young and old have been made to look foolish by the Ravens’ always tough defense.

There apparently is little question that Kolb will get his shot sooner rather than later, and if the Eagles fall out of the race with another loss, it will likely come this year. But he’s had few reps in practice with the first team and on a short week it’d be a bad move to stick him out there on national television for big game.

If the Eagles are going to get hot and make a run this season Reid made the right move – he must hope that McNabb takes the benching as a wakeup call because the veteran is the only signal caller with a chance to take the Eagles on a late-season run.

Best Bets

by | Nov 22, 2008 | NFL Gambling

Last week’s three for three performance brought me back over .500 for the Best Bets. I’m at 8-6 now, having hit six of my last seven bets. Should’a been in Vegas.

It’d be great to keep the hot streak going. Using the Caesar’s-Hilton line at Vegas.com here are the picks for this week:

1. Kansas City (+3) vs Buffalo
Buffalo followed up a promising start with a four game losing streak. They lost a tough, last second game on Monday night. And they go on the road, to a tough place to play, minus safety Donte Whitner and cornerback Jabari Greer. That’s bad timing for heading to Kansas City where the Chiefs’ offense is starting to click with Tyler Thigpen throwing to the trifecta of Tony Gonzalez, Dwayne Bowe and Mark Bradley. The Chiefs haven’t won many games but I actually like them straight up in this contest.

(more…)

NFL Playoff system flawed?

by | Nov 18, 2008 | NFL Random Thoughts

The Philadelphia Eagles played a piss poor game against Cincinnati last weekend that they were lucky was held in Ohio rather than at Lincoln Financial Field, or the bad will from their fans might have blown Shayne Graham’s overtime field goal through the uprights.

The ugly tie left the Eagles in sole possession of last place in the NFC East with a 5-4-1 record and on the outside looking in at the playoffs as the standings currently sit.

I have little problem with forcing the Eagles to watch the playoffs from their respective living rooms – you can probably make a strong, solid case that a team finishing in fourth place in their own division doesn’t deserve to go to the playoffs. … Except for the fact that if they resided in the NFC North, they’d be in first place.

Yes, the last place team in the league’s best division is better than the best team in a couple divisions – a byproduct of the league’s conversion to the four division format a few year’s back. So far the switch hasn’t allowed any sub-.500 teams into the playoffs, but inevitably it sometime will. And I don’t suspect you’ll get the three North teams tied at 5-5 apologizing if they do make it in or offering the Eagles the spot.

There probably isn’t much the NFL can do about this minor injustice – and maybe they shouldn’t. It makes sense that division champions make the playoffs. There was some talk last year about after two Wild Card teams had better records than division winners about letting those Wild Card teams host first-round playoff games – that’d be a starting point reasonable for discussion.

After that, though, despite having allowed fewer and scoring more points (not that these are perfect measures, but what else are you going to use?) than the three tied NFC North teams that are likely competing to go to the playoffs ahead of the Eagles, there probably aren’t many ways to rejigger the system without completely tearing up the whole format and starting over.

Thoughts anyone?

Who cares if McNabb didn’t know about ties

by | Nov 18, 2008 | NFL Random Thoughts

Donovan McNabb was apparently confused at the end of Philadelphia’s tie with Cincinnati on Sunday, uncertain that that game was actually over.

During the postgame press conference he created somewhat of a shockwave by admitting he was not aware that games could end in ties.

That, along with his three interceptions, earned McNabb a D- ranking, for what it’s worth, from Ross Tucker at CNNSI.com. Granted, the Eagles’ tie with Cincinnati was ugly – and McNabb’s performance was pretty bad as well. Despite commentators saying as time was running out that the tie wouldn’t hurt them because it was a non-conference game, it does, in fact, hurt the Eagles because they play in the NFC East, where their 5-4-1 record leaves them firmly entrenched in last place. If the Eagles miss the playoffs, at the end of the season they’ll look back at this game as one reason why.

(more…)