Buyer Beware: Polian tenures come with ups and downs

by | Jan 3, 2012 | 2011 season, Business of Football, NFL Draft, NFL Random Thoughts

I was shocked when I heard news yesterday about Bill Polian—not that he had been fired, but that apparently Twitter was blowing up with Vikings fans & local sports media wanting to quickly make a move to bring him in as the voice of authority for the team.  Digging deeper showed that many other media & fan bases, including Chicago, Oakland, and even Dallas were clamoring over the opportunity to hire a “proven commodity” in Polian.

But they all seem to be overlooking one significant factor – Bill Polian’s track record is generally one of building teams that are great in the regular season, then failing in the playoffs, or ultimately in the big game itself. Essentially he is to football exactly what the local media uses in Minnesota ridicule the Minnesota Twins – regular season success followed by postseason failure.

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NFL Picks, 2011 Season Week 16

by | Dec 19, 2011 | 2011 season, NFL Picks

As one would expect in a week where an 0-13 team finally wins, and a 13-0 team finally loses, picks last week were amongst the worst we’ve seen all season—still, when you’re 11-5 (Tony) and 10-6 (Andy) overall, that’s not a terrible week.

That puts us at 150-74 (Andy) and 149-75 (Tony) for the season, which  puts us on par with many national “experts”.

This week, four games are picked differently—about as many as we’ve ever picked separately, and probably enough to give one of us a solid lead heading into Week 17.  Or, if things go as normal, we’ll split and still be just one game apart…

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NFL Picks: 2011 Season, Week 13

by | Nov 29, 2011 | 2011 season, NFL Picks

Andy finished 11-5 last week, which would normally be a solid week—unfortunately, he was up against my great football mind, which went 13-3 for the week. OK, to be fair he pretty much handed me the Green Bay/Detroit game…and the Carolina/Indianapolis game.  Still, I’ll take tied after 12 weeks.

Week 13 brings three matchups where we differ, so we’ll definitely see a leader heading into Week 14. Andy appears to be using some of my own logic against me, avoiding two west coast teams that are heading east in picking Miami over Oakland (which might be a solid pick, given how the Dolphins have been playing) and Jacksonville over San Diego. I think the running games from Oakland and Tampa Bay (over Carolina) will carry the day, and that the turmoil in Jacksonville with Jack Del Rio being fired will reign.

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2012 Football Hall of Fame Inductees

by | Nov 22, 2011 | Hall of Fame

This afternoon apparently marks the announcement of the semifinalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2012, and so far we’ve managed to not officially gone on record with our picks for this year.  So here goes…

In 2011, we hit on 3 out of 5 picks (Sanders, Sharpe & Dent) while missing the obvious Marshall Faulk and the longshot Ed Sabol, while picking Dermontti Dawson and Tim Brown. So how will we do this year? Keep reading to find out…

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NFL Picks: 2011 Week 11

by | Nov 15, 2011 | 2011 season, NFL Picks

After weeks of struggling to work my way back to a tie for the overall season record in picking games, we had two games picked differently last week—and I managed to get myself on the wrong side of both of them. My faith in the Jets fans ability to make enough noise to slow down the Patriots and the Browns to do … anything … was clearly unfounded, and now I’ve got my work cut out for me (and yet I’m picking the Browns again this weekend?  Even I don’t know my logic on that one).

In week 11, though, we’ve actually got four games going differently—I would venture a guess that I’ve got the longer shot of being right on more of them, but it’s been a strange last few weeks in the NFL, so hopefully my upsets pan out.

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