Hall of Fame Class of 2018: Ray Lewis

by | Jan 2, 2013 | Hall of Fame, NFL News

Assuming Ray Lewis follows through on his plans to retire, the only likely hurdle between him and a first-ballot Hall of Fame induction in five years would be the memory of legal issues he faced in 2001 after two individuals were killed in a fight with Lewis and his companions after the Super Bowl.

While the most serious of the charges we’re dropped in exchange for his testimony against others, he pled guilty to obstruction of justice, avoiding prison time and ensuring that he’d be able to continue what ended up being one of the best careers a linebacker has had in NFL history.

That career included 13 pro bowls, seven first-team All-Pros, a Super Bowl MVP award, two NFL Defensive Player of the Year awards, three AFC Defensive Player of the Year awards, being named to the 2000’s All-Decade team, and a host of other awards and records (see the sidebar here). So while his legal troubles may be a discussion point in the Hall of Fame conversation (even if they’re not supposed to be), the debate isn’t whether or not he will get in, it’s only a possible debate about when.

And the bigger debate, in many people’s eyes, is where exactly he falls in the list of “Greatest of all-time” for Linebackers (realistically, probably inside or outside ‘backers).

Personally, while I’ve always thought he was great, I also thought he also was greatly aided by usually playing on teams that had a system (and the players up front) to funnel traffic his way and keep blockers off of him–so I would be hesitant to put him ahead of guys like Lawrence Taylor, Dick Butkus and possibly even a few more (Ray Nitschke? Mike Singletary? Jack Lambert or Jack Ham?).

So we put the word out to you (especially our regular Hall of Fame commenters)–we’ve got the poll going, is Lewis the greatest of all time, or who would you rank ahead of him? Let us know in the comments.

Who is the best linebacker in NFL history?

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NFL Best Bets: Week 17 – 2012

by | Dec 29, 2012 | 2012 season, NFL Gambling

As we’ve mentioned time and time again, our bets have sucked all season. We maybe had a two or three week stretch where it looked like things were coming around, but for the most part it’s a good thing our time in Vegas this season was limited to one three night stretch for Andy.

That said, we both did pretty well last week, recovering if only briefly from terrible stretches, posting 3-1 marks in week 16. That improves Andy’s record to 29-34-1. Tony rebounds from back-to-back 0-4 weeks, improving his season record to 27-37.

As we wrap up the regular season, here are our bets for week 17. Use these at your own risk:

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2012-2013 College Bowl Betting

by | Dec 22, 2012 | 2012 season, College Football, NCAA Gambling

With our NFL Bets being so terribly this season, I thought we should take a stab at something different this season, and place some bets on some of the top college games. So we pulled up some of the college bowl game lines, and away we go.

To make things a little more interesting:

  • We each get to make 9 bets from a select list of Bowl games
  • We have a theoretical budget of $2,500 to spend
  • We have to place a minimum bet of $100 on any game we choose to bet on
  • We must spend the full budget
  • We must bet on the Alabama/ND game, the Kansas St/Oregon game, the Texas A&M/Oklahoma game, the Wisconsin/Stanford game, the Nebraska/Georgia game, and the Minnesota/Texas Tech game.

Our bets:

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NFL Best Bets: Week 14 – 2012

by | Dec 6, 2012 | 2012 season, NFL Gambling

Well, our bets for the season are still terrible–but a 4-0 week for Andy last week, combined with a ho-hum 2-2 week for me, puts us at 24-28 (Tony) vs. 24-27-1 (Andy) for the season. Maybe rather than following our betting advice, you can find a book in Vegas that will take action on our fierce battle?

This weeks picks:

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NFL Picks, 2012 Season, Week 12

by | Nov 21, 2012 | 2012 season, NFL Picks

The New England Patriots scored a convincing win last weekend against Indianapolis, but it ended up being a costly one.

Star tight end Rob Gronkowski could miss a month or more with a broken arm suffered while blocking on an extra point late in the game.

Richard Hill, assistant editor for Pats Pulpit, acknowledges that Gronk is a tough loss to swallow, but adds that the team may be primed for another deep playoff run nonetheless.

Aaron Hernandez and three other lesser known tight ends will have to step up in his absence. And all three phases of the game will have to adjust and play better.

Nonetheless, the schedule plays out favorably for clinching a playoff spot, with two contests against Miami and single games against New York Jets and Jacksonville on the slate. A first-round bye, however, might be a tough get.

“It won’t be easy,” Hill says. “They’ll need the Ravens to either drop two games (likely) and beat the Broncos (possible, but it’s at Mile High), or they’ll need the Broncos to stumble along the way (not likely).”

Hill provided some longer thoughts that we’ve turned into its own post. He also joined us as our guest blogger for this Thanksgiving weekend’s slate of games.

Week 11 realistically saw a great week of picks across the board, but Andy’s 10-4 picks were far and away the worst of the week, finishing two games back of Derek Arnold from the Russell Street Report—who’s pick of Chicago on Monday night kept him from matching Tony’s 13-1 mark. The only game Tony missed was the Jets drubbing of the Rams, a game that Andy and Tony discussed as potentially going that way earlier in the week over lunch (you’re going to have to just trust us on that one, we really did discuss it).

That puts some distance between first and second place for the season:

Week 11 Season
Tony 13-1 105-54-1
Andy 10-4 102-57-1
Celebrity Bloggers 12-2 100-59-1

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