Nearly a year later, and we’re finally back with our latest number segment. In the last 358 odd days, a lot has happened—including a certain popular pro football website absconding with our idea. Of course, they actually pay their writers, so they’ve already made it quite a bit further (maybe even all the way) than we have with five numbers in three years…
Of course, our posts our still better. And the original.
Interestingly enough, when I Googled their site to see if I could find an example, the first one I came across just happened to be the same number that we randomly drew today—the number 14.
There have been a lot of famous players to wear #14 in the history of the NFL, including Hall of Famers (and the best #25 in NFL History) Fred Biletnikoff, who wore #14 for the first two years of his career, Curly Lambeau, who was better known as #1 (according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame) and as the Packers owner/coach than a player, and John “Blood” McNally who apparently wore whatever number he could find.
As for players who wore (or are wearing) #14 as their primary number, here’s the best: (more…)
So we’ve reached the final four, meaning there are four possible matchups for the big game. A couple are intriguing, and a couple are…less so. Here’s my take on the possible matchups–and yes, these might be a bit skewed by the fact that I live in Minnesota and cheer for the Vikings…so facing two weeks of non-stop Packer coverage has me dreading what we could be looking at over the next couple of weeks…
Best Option: Indianapolis Colts vs. Seattle Seahawks – Never would I have imagined that I would have thought the Seahawks back in the Super Bowl would be my preferred option, but when it comes to the choice of two weeks of obnoxiousness from Packer fans and non-stop coverage of the condition of Aaron Rodgers calf, I’ll take the smugness of Pete Carroll, antics of Richard Sherman, and overblown hype for Russell Wilson any day of the week. On the AFC side, this game avoids any mention of Tom Brady and Bill Belichek, which is never a bad thing, and puts the NFL’s next mega superstar, Andrew Luck, on the center stage. Let’s just hope he shaves the beard…and isn’t the next Dan Marino. Unfortunately, not sure I see this scenario happening.
Next Best: New England Patriots vs. Seattle Seahawks – In terms of talent, this is probably actually the best possible matchup. As sick as we are of them, Tom Brady and the Patriots probably have the talent and creativity on offense to inflict some damage on the Seahawks stingy defense. Rob Gronkowski can create headaches for any defender, and who knows which running back Belichek would break out for the Super Bowl–he might have a practice squad guy just for the occasion.
Getting Ugly: Indianapolis Colts vs. Green Bay Packers – Probably the least likely scenario, this matchup does provide the platform for the young and budding superstar, but also puts Aaron Rodgers calf back in the spotlight, and means two weeks of non-stop cheese references. The matchup itself would actually probably be decent–both teams have potent offenses, and suspect defenses, meaning the NFL would probably get the high scoring aerial game it always desires. Of course, if this was Major League Baseball, there would be concern over two small market teams meeting for the title (a la Royals vs. Giants in the 2014 World Series). But this is the NFL, where somehow even a town of 100,000 people somehow supports a franchise–must be the revenue sharing.
Worst Case: New England Patriots vs. Green Bay Packers – Does anyone really want to see a rematch of Super Bowl XXXI? In Foxboro, they want to beat the best–not the Packers. And in Green Bay they’d like to have a shot to win, so they don’t have to pretend the season never happened, like they do in the Packer Hall of Fame for Super Bowl XXXII (seriously, it was like the 1997 season never happened the last time I was there). The general public? I would assume they would like to see a game that is actually somewhat in doubt in the second half. And the NFL just wants to make sure that the peak of the game isn’t hoping that Katy Perry suffers a Janet Jackson like wardrobe malfunction.
Who do you want to see in the Big Game? Let us know in the comments and/or by voting in our poll:
Last year, we dabbled with FanDuel as a way to try to cash in on our fantasy football research during the season, with moderate success–this year, we decided to take it a little more serious. Here’s a few things we’ve picked up on FanDueling so far:
One thing we picked up from a friend of ours who has been playing on FanDuel for longer than us is to stick with 50/50 leagues. Obviously payouts aren’t as high as winning a standard league, but all you have to do is finish in the top half of the league. Given that we have the 17th foremost fantasy expert on the whole of the internet in our back pocket, we’re pretty sure that we should finish in the top half of our leagues frequently.
We prefer to have at least a couple different leagues going, but we use different lineups in each league rather than the same one in each league. This hedges our bets a bit, in case we are off on one of our player picks.
There are numerous approaches to picking your lineups, but the one that we’ve settled on using most frequently is to grab at least a couple of top line starters, then we actually fill in our Defense, Kicker and TE with some mid-tier spots. Then we go back and fill in the rest of our starting offense, generally trying to find 4 guys who are average out the remaining dollars (ie, if we have $28k left, we try to find 4 guys in the $6700-$7300 range, rather than grabbing another guy in the $8k range). We don’t always stick to that last part, but we try.
Generally speaking, we also only set lineups on Sunday morning, rather than trying to jump on Thursday games. No need to end up with Adrian Peterson in your lineup the week that he goes and gets arrested.
Week 1 this year saw great success–we jumped in a couple leagues late Sunday morning, in one league riding Calvin Johnson and AJ Green to #9 out of 100, and Matt Ryan and Matt Forte and some spare parts to a #11 out of 100 in the other.
This week, so far we’re only in one league, riding Andrew Luck and Jamaal Charles as our big dogs–we’ll let you know our remaining picks next week, when we have our results in, but feel free to post your thoughts on who we should be using in the comments below.
When I randomly drew #36 as the next number in our By the Numbers series to write about, I thought it would be a great number to debate, especially given the Hall of Fame candidacy of Jerome Bettis, whom many (including yours truly) feel will likely get the nod next year. But in starting the research, a few things surprised me:
Somehow, we’ve never actually done a post questioning whether or not Bettis is actually worthy of the Hall of Fame. Assume that will be rectified soon, because even though I have him picked to get voted in, I’m not sure he would get my vote.
There are shockingly few big name #36’s in NFL history. Or really any sport, actually–in Best by Number (the book that inspired this series), Meadowlark Lemon is given the nod as best #36 across all sports–a guy who played in games that weren’t even real. Basketball & hockey are pretty much not mentioned (at least names I recognize). And baseball? Let’s just say when Jerry Koosman makes the top six, you’re not exactly talking about a storied number.
So who was the Best #36 in NFL history? Hit the jump to find out…
The next number up is #53–linebackers and linemen (primarily centers).
Harry Carson – New York Giants – The Hall of Fame linebacker played from 1976 to 1988, made 9 Pro Bowls, and helped the Giants win Super Bowl XXI. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2006.
Len Ford – Los Angeles Dons, Cleveland Browns, Green Bay Packers – The Hall of Fame defensive end wore #53 for his first two years in Cleveland, before switching to #80. I’ve not found a record of what he wore in Los Angeles with the Dons of the AAFC.
Mike Webster – Pittsburgh Steelers, Kansas City Chiefs – The Hall of Fame center wore #53 in his final two seasons, playing in Kansas City, where he originally signed on as the offensive line coach. He will make the list for #52 for sure.
Alex Wojciechowicz – Detroit Lions, Philadelphia Eagles – According to ProFootballReference.com, Hall of Famer Wojciechowicz wore #53 in at least his final season with the Eagles, although I found no pictures of him in it.
Mick Tingelhoff – Minnesota Vikings – One of the most frequently mentioned potential senior candidates for the Hall of Fame, Tingelhoff wore #53 for all 17 of his seasons with the Minnesota Vikings, including his five All-Pro and six Pro Bowl seasons.
Randy Gradishar – Denver Broncos- The Broncos linebacker started as #52, but switched to #53 in 1976 after his first of seven Pro Bowls. Combined with his two All-Pro seasons, he is bound to start coming up in senior candidacy conversations for the Hall of Fame sooner or later.
Bill Romanowski – San Francisco 49ers, Philadelphia Eagles, Denver Broncos, Oakland Raiders – Say what you want about the character of Romanowski, he wore #53 for 16 seasons and four teams, and made a couple Pro Bowls along the way.
No current players are real close at cracking this list–NaVorro Bowman is probably the best, with Maurkice Pouncey up there with him from the offensive line side. Super Bowl XLVIII MVP Malcolm Smith also wears it.
So, what say you–who is the best #53? Let us know who got your vote in the comments…and let us know if you think we missed someone.
Nearly a year later, and we’re finally back with our latest number segment. In the last 358 odd days, a lot has happened—including a certain popular pro football website absconding with our idea. Of course, they actually pay their writers, so they’ve already made it quite a bit further (maybe even all the way) than we have with five numbers in three years…
Loading ...
Here’s Clark Judge’s recent article on Talk of Fame saying what the Pro Football Hall of Fame got right with…
Paul you want to know something out of all the Wide Receivers on the 1970s 1980s 1990s and 2000s All…
Hall does not want large classes of 7 or 8..I don't see any return to 5 moderns anytime in future,…
Thanks Paul ... looking at his last roster spot which was Eagles but hopefully, Jones wont try to come back.…
Holt has several years left on modern ballot, was in final 7 and after waiting until Fitz is elected in…