To the East Side...blah blah blah.

But anyway, I'm part of a new New York Giants website where I'll be wriring, so check out my stuff here.  This thing was fun while it lasted and I might do the NGS contest when I get time, but from now on, I'll be at this new site.  Here's the URL.

http://www.ny-footballgiants.com.  Guess which column is mine?

Check it out if you'd like (e####ally you Giant fans out there).

Later kids,

InTikiITrust

Think about it...NFL and college football is starting up and in camp, MLB is in full swing, basketball is over and you know everyone will be analyzing and making mock drafts, and hockey...well....who knows?

Is it possible?  I'd have more time then as well.

-InTikiITrust

It seems every winter I try to get into college basketball and always hear "Why watch the regular season?  Only the tournament is important" from friends, family, and sports writers.  For the most part, it's true and I never really care about college basketball until brackets are announced and the NCAA Tournament offically begins.

Maybe Joakim Noah was right.  Maybe we - the mass population and the sports writers - don't really know as much college basketball as we all like to think.

I know I don't know as much as I would like.  I wish I could write a great blog with predictions, forecasts, and previews for the NCAA tournament.  Sadly, I place little to no importance on the regular season and don't follow many teams outside of Duke, UNC, UConn and Boston College.  Even those teams are a stretch: I look at scores and unless it's a great matchup, I rarely sit down and truly watch the game.

Who had George Mason in the Final Four?  Who had George Mason winning more than one game in their bracket?

Honestly, who even knew where George Mason was?

Joakim Noah made a believer out of me.  No, not a believer about his own personal talent (even though he is a pretty damn good player).  Noah convinced me to follow the regular season and not focus as much on the tournament.

While he may not win on Monday night, he did win in this aspect.  I'll be willing to bet a lot more people watch the regular season next season not only to watch Noah, but also to find that sleeper team like George Mason or Wichita State.  I know I'll be.

Hey Y'all,

First of all, congrats to the winner of the contest.  Kudos.

Secondly, sorry I haven't been on in like 4 months.  Truthfully, I wanted to win the contest and really thought I had a shot.  but oh well, what's done is done and I'm over it.  Plus, school came into play and I've just been busy.

BUT....I'm back.  Not like before, but I'm back no doubt.  I'll be posting about the Giants, Yankees, maybe the Mets, maybe the Sox, who knows.  Definetly will make an update about the draft.

So...hey again guys and girls!

-InTikiITrust

It seems that at the end of every football season, either college or professional, there’s always the “How to make football a more interesting game” blog, stating just that. In that blog, you’ll find ideas to make either the NFL game or the college game more fun, more exciting, and better overall.

I got an idea: make the referees accountable for their actions and in the NFL’s case, make them full-time employees.

I’ll come right out and say it: the officiating was awful in this weekend’s games. The missed calls, the blown calls, and the non-calls absolutely killed the games. It’s amazing that it’s playoff football and the refs are still a major factor in the game.

Yesterday we say the pass interference call in the Patriots-Broncos game; today it was the overturned interception in the Steelers-Colts game. Both huge plays that had big effects on the game.

Wouldn’t it be nice to sit down, watch a game, and not have to worry about the refs deciding the outcome o####ame? Sometimes I stay tuned just to see what terrible call the refs are surely to make. Sadly, it always happens. Sometimes, I think the non-calls are worse, like that fourth down fiasco in Indianapolis today. Clearly movement on both lines, but no one saw it so they let it go, which was clearly the wrong call. Spotting the ball also has me scratching my head: how many great spots have teams gotten this year? Steelers got about 3 great spots in 8 plays today!

Sometimes I think I’m delusional, but when I come here, as well as other fan sites, and see basically everyone complaining about the referees in a game, I know it’s true. Does anyone remember the last season in which the refs were this atrocious? The one thing I think should be consistently good in the NFL isn’t.

Make these refs full time employees of the NFL and make them accountable for the calls, or the non-calls, that they make. Some of these refs let the players get away with murder on the field, while others throw a flag every other play, making the game unwatchable. Make them think twice about throwing that flag.

It looks like good ol' Inspector Gadget has found something else out pretty interesting.

Rose Bowl star Vince Young will declare and enter the 2006 draft.

Not to toot my own horn, but Go Go Gadget!

-I'll be up in the sky with that cool chopper hat thing,

Inspector Gadget

Whenever a player with amazing speed busts out an amazing run, you always hear the announcers say “Well, you can’t teach speed.”  Reggie Bush had a couple great runs today and I heard “Reggie just has too much speed, and you can’t teach that to defenders.”  You hear it the day after on all the sports shows and it becomes a common phrase amongst sports fans.

But I disagree.  You can teach speed.

Before I go on, I want to give you the definition.  Basically, it’s distance over time.  Miles per hour.  Feet per second.

Imagine, if you will, that you’re scheduled to run your friend around the standard 400 meter track in exactly one month.  You have money on the line and really want to win.  What do you do to best prepare you for this race?  Easy: hire a coach you train during the week.  You go out on Day 1 and run 400 in seventy seconds.  You’re friend tells you he runs it in 67 seconds and thinks he’s got it in the bag, because after all, you can’t teach speed, right?

So you train day in and day out and you see that slowly but surely, you’re time is going down.  You’re improving your speed, that is, time over distance.  The special day rolls around and you beat your friend by three seconds (quite the difference in the 400).

Guess what?  You just learned speed.

The logic in the scenario above is a bit flawed but you see my point.  If you train right, you can increase speed.  Stamina will be a key point, but your body will learn how to run faster.  So why does everyone say that you can’t learn speed?  Because we don’t consciously learn it; somewhere in your brain your body knows how to run faster, but you just don’t know it.

It’s like learning how to talk.  Think of the phrase “The cat climbed up the tree.”  Say it.  It’s obvious you can because somewhere in your brain, your body knows what #### movements it needs to make in order to form and pronounce the words in that phrase.

Honestly, do you really know how to say that phrase?  You think it and you just say it.  You don’t have to think about it like you do a math problem or a history fact; you just know how to do it.

When you learn how to run, you’ll run faster.  I know what you’re saying, “I know how to run, what is this #### saying?”  But when you learn how to run with proper form, technique, strategy and breathing, you’re speed will be better.  Proper training will literally teach your body how to run faster.  You just don’t know it.

Does anyone honestly think that great runners roll out of bed every morning and run fabulous times?  Of course not, they train an insane amount of time and know how to run.  Without training, they might be the best runners in the world.  With it, they prove that they are.

Now I understand that some people are blessed with more physical talent than others.  No matter how hard the average American trains, he’ll never be able to beat Olympic gold medalists.  But with proper training (and even without it), you can increase your speed.

Can you teach speed?  Of course you can.  It’s just you aren’t aware of it.

Comments are welcomed, appreciated, and encouraged.

I feel for it too and the sick joker who made a fake judges account is a pretty sick, twisted guy.

Check it out for yourself:

The real NGS Judges Blog: http://blogs.foxsports.com/ngsjudges

The fake NGS Judges Blog: http://blogs.foxsports.com/NGSjudqes

I didn't know caps made a difference, but if you look for more posts from the fake judges blog, you won't find any.  Hopefully this is a sick joke and the judges didn't forget their username and password.

Yours forever,

Inspector Gadget

P.S. What was so special about Inspector Gagdet anyway?  I only remember him being able to like...super extend his gadget legs and arms.  What other powers did he truly possess?

Most men would agree that there’s nothing better than football season.  Is there really anything better than watching football all day Saturday, all day Sunday, and then again on Monday night?  I really don’t think there’s anything better than a football-filled weekend.  I love the weekends: I sleep late, I make mysel####reat lunch, sit down and I turn on the TV.  I flip through the channels to watch pre-games on ESPN, Fox, and CBS.  Once one o’clock rolls around, I flip to whatever station my Giants are on and I’m overcome with the worst feeling in the world.  It’s the one thing I truly hate about football.

The morons that do the commentary for the big networks are beyond awful.

I simply don’t understand it: how can people with such little football knowledge get a job as a football commentator?  How can people with such a bias get jobs that are supposed to be unbiased?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a pretty tolerant person who can suck it up and enjoy the game for the most part.  But sometimes I hear the things the commentators say and my jaw drops in amazement.  Can these paid commentators and “analysts” be that stupid and be such homers?  Why do they insist on putting a former player in the booth when good football analysts rot away all across America?

Is it just me, or is Mike Patrick, Joe Theismann, and Paul Maguire the worst trio in the history of anything?  The former ESPN Sunday Night Football crew, these guys might be some of the worst in the business.  Memo to Joe Theismann: we know you played football and during the game, we don’t care.  Focus on the game.  I understand that these guys have been working together for a long time, but we really didn’t have to hear that emotion-filled goodbye last night during the St. Louis Rams at the Dallas Cowboy game.  I understand you’re all good friends and it’ll be tough not being on Sunday night next year, but could it wait till after the game?  They’re probably all extremely intelligent analysts, but during the game, it’s tough to tell because they make jokes and focus on the glory days instead of the touchdown drive happening in front of them.

Hey, did anyone catch the Brent Musburger Show today?  Oh, I’m sorry, that was the Fiesta Bowl, but I couldn’t tell.  Does Brent Musburger ever shut up and does he ever say anything worthwhile?  Mr. Musburger, we all know Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn has a sister who dates Ohio St. line backer A.J. Hawk.  If we didn’t, we got the idea the first time you told us.  You didn’t have to tell us every time either Quinn or Hawk did something, because frankly, no one really cared.  You also don’t have to mention the New England Patriots every time the camera focuses on Charlie Weis.  Newsflash: simply because Weis decided to go for it on fourth down does not mean he’s a replica of Bill Parcells.  Other coaches have gone for it on fourth down in case you didn’t know.

It’s truly amazing Brent Musburger has a job in any booth.  The guy made ridiculous comment after ridiculous comment.  Did he tell us anything important today?  I really think I lost brain cells after listening to Musburger.

Another commentator I truly cannot stand is Joe Buck, no matter what sport he does.  It always seems that finding the random celebrity in the crowd is more important than what’s happening on the field.  Actually Joe, I don’t care what’s on the FOX network on Sunday night, especially when a team is charging down the field or the most important at bat is being disrupted by your annoying voice.  How about you focus on the game, rather than focusing on the could be Super Bowl match up?

I could go on and on.  The guys in the booth get the names wrong, fail to realize who is carrying the ball or who made the tackle, don’t understand the NFL rulebook and try to guess the outcome of a challenge, and tell us information we don’t need to know.  The majority of commentators and analysts are hard to listen to, simply because they focus on everything but the game they are supposed to be covering.  Sometimes I turn the game on mute because I know I won’t hear anything important.

Who’s to fault here?  The network, who hires these morons and tells them what to say, or the commentators, who know little about the sport they are covering?  Networks wonder why ratings hit low levels year after year.  I have a solution: put someone with a brain in the booth and let them talk about the game.  Why is it harder than it should be?

Just a few random thoughts

1) I have ideas in my head, but none are good.  I can't write anything good these days.  Maybe it's just because of slow news days or maybe I'm still bummed about not being a finalist, but man, it's tough to write day after day.  I've had about 5 ideas about articles I could write but they aren't any good.  Man, big writer's block.  We need something big to happen so I can actually write about something.

2) I love Bowl season but I want the Rose Bowl now.  I've heard too much about USC, listened to too many analysts and journalists discuss Bowls I care little about, and lost interest in the little Bowl games.

3) The NFL playoffs need to start.  Week 17 should be bad and I'm tired hearing about the so called "Reggie Bush Bowl".  I would have laughed if he didn't declare and stayed in college another year.  Get on with the playoffs already, just so I hear about something fun.

4) New Years Eve is the second most overrated holiday, only behind Halloween.  Finding something to do tonight was harder than it should have been and chances are, I'll be bored, begging to watch Sportscenter or some other sports show.  Heck, I wouldn't object to going online and talking Giants football with my fellow Giants fans.  But no, I'll be somewhere, watching a ball fall and ring in 2006.  Pretty boring if you ask me.

5) Online sports message boards are a better source of information than a majority of journalists out there.  People on message boards actually watch the game and don't have a supervisor looking over their shoulder.  Everyday when I go online, I check my message boards first because I know I'll actually get the information I want to hear.  Plus I won't be reading the junk found in every article.

6) This one ties in with number 5.  You know sports journalism hits a low point when they profile message boards and hail them as great.  You know its bad when news organizations check those websites and correct the errors the posters make.  When is the last time a professional athlete or the member of an athlete's family checks message boards and sometime post on them, it becomes clear where the true information and true opinions are found.

7) I hope the NGS II starts soon after the first one finishes, because man, I really want to compete again.

First off, let me say congrats to the 16 finalists.  Good job and make me proud.

Some people believe there is a parallel universe where everything is mixed up.  Black is white, up is down, bad is good, and George W. Bush is considered one of the best U.S. Presidents of all time (just kidding).

I sit here watching the Miami Hurricanes face the LSU Tigers, looking at interesting NFL-prospects and wondering if the New York Giants have a shot at drafting one or two of these guys in the first round of the 2006 draft.  The two guys I’m really looking at are Miami offensive tackle Eric Winston and L.S.U. defensive tackle Claude Wroten.  Then it hits me: what does the draft order look like in our parallel universe and who would get drafted where?

I assume there are organized sports in the parallel universe, which must be tons of fun to watch.  Imagine the point of the three major sports:  not trying to score and trying to make the other team score, letting guys round the bases, not playing defense and letting guys take three point shots at will.  Wait a second, that sounds like the NBA now!  Just kidding, back on the subject. 

So here it is: The First Round of the 2006 NFL Draft in the Parallel Universe. (draft order after Week 16)

1. Indianapolis (13-2) – A.J. Hawk, LB, Ohio State

2. Seattle (13-2) – Chad Greenway, LB, Iowa

3. Denver (12-3) – Michael Huff, S, Texas

4. Cincinnati (11-4) - Haloti Ngata, DT, Oregon

5. Jacksonville (11-4) – Marcedes Lewis, TE, U.C.L.A.

6. Chicago (11-4) - D'Brickshaw Ferguson, OT, Virginia

7. New England (10-5) – Jimmy Williams, DB, Virginia Tech

8. Pittsburgh (10-5) - Reggie Bush, RB, USC

9. New York Giants (10-5) – Eric Winston, OT, Miami (FL)

10. Carolina (10-5) - DeAngelo Williams, RB, Memphis

11. Tampa Bay (10-5) - Winston Justice, OT, USC

12. San Diego (9-6) – LaRon Landry, S, L.S.U

13. Denver (from Washington) (9-6) - Rodrique Wright, DT, Texas

14. Dallas (9-6) – Matt Leinart, QB, USC

15. Kansas City (9-6) - Marcus McNeill, OT, Auburn

16. Atlanta (8-7) – Darnell Bing, S, USC

17. Minnesota (8-7) – LenDale White, RB, USC

18. Miami (8-7) – Vince Young, QB, Texas

19. Philadelphia (6-9) – Jonathan Scott, OT, Texas

20. Baltimore (6-9) – Laurence Maroney, RB, Minnesota

21. Cleveland (5-10) - Tamba Hali, DE, Penn State

22. Detroit (5-10) - Jeremy Trueblood, OT, Boston College

23. Arizona (5-10) – Gabe Watson, DT, Michigan

24. Buffalo (5-10) - Brodrick Bunkley, DT, Florida St.

25. St. Louis (5-10) - D’Qwell Jackson, LB, Maryland

26. Oakland (4-11) - Thomas Howard, LB, U.T.E.P.

27. Tennessee (4-11) - Jay Cutler, QB, Vanderbilt

28. San Francisco (3-12) - Max Jean-Gilles, OG, Georgia

29. Green Bay (3-12) - Davin Joseph, OG, Oklahoma

30. New York Jets (3-12) - Daryn Colledge, OT, Boise State

31. New Orleans (3-12) - Darrell Hackney, QB, U.A.B.

32. Houston (2-13) - Andrew Whitworth, OT, L.S.U.

Wow.  I have not seen a mock draft quite like this one.  In the parallel universe, the offense would simply run backwards towards their own end zone.  Thus, the goal of the defense would be to push them towards their end zone.  Defenses would be great if they let up 70 or 80 points a game.  Great offenses would score 10 points a game.  Football (or would it be called llabtoof?) would be the most interesting, craziest game ever.

Now I know your head is spinning (because I know mine is) and you’re cursing me out right now (because I know I am), but wasn’t this whole activity fun?  I think we can all agree we do not live in that parallel universe, due to the fact it is just too crazy for our brains.  I’ll stay here for now and go take some aspirin: my head really hurts.

As always, comments/suggestions/criticisms are welcomed.

Hey everyone, InTikiITrust here.  How are we today?  Good? I'm glad.  Okay enough with the ####-chat, on with the blog.

First off, I want to say thank you to the people at Fox Sports and their blogging directors for creating the Next Great Sportswriter contest.  It's been a lot of fun and I know if not for this contest, I would have never blogged.  Now I'm addicted and I'll surely keep on blogging.  Thanks to you guys for putting this thing on: no matter who wins and who loses, it's been a lot of fun and I think everyone would agree.

Secondly, I would like to thank all you cool cats for creating awesome work that is fun to read and a lot more fun to think about.  My day would be much more dull if I was not in this contest, because the work of a lot of you bloggers is great.  It's really a lot of fun to read and a lot of fun to discuss.  Whoever the 16 finalists are: kudos to you guys, you deserve it.  There's been a lot of great writing and whoever wins definetly deserves it.  Thanks guys and good luck.

Okay, here's my suggestion.  It looks like we've created a great community here.  A lot of friendships have been made and I think we all respect each other.  Let's continue it even after this contest is over by 1) continue blogging and 2) Fantasy sports!  I don't know about some of you guys and girls, but I love fantasy sports.  Anyone up for a Foxsports.com Bloggers Fantasy Baseball League?  I'm in definetly.  If we have enough interest, we could have a buy-in league (5 or 10 bucks, maybe more) an just a regular, free league (always fun).  I would also love to do March Madness with you guys.

I don't know, but I think it'd be cool to have a league amongst ourselves and then be able to make fun of ourselves in our writing (I know I would have at least one post entitled "Woe is me: Why oh why did I draft ______ in the 1st round).  It could be fun.  Comment if you like or hate the idea.

Anyways, thanks boys and girls, it's been fun.  Good luck and happy blogging: you're all winners in my book!

Hey guys, this might be my last post of the competition, so please read and think about it.  I think it's an interesting topic and part of me thinks it could happen.  Enjoy reading and thanks for everyone who's ever read my blog.  Thanks a lot, and good luck in the competition.

When Bill James, baseball analyst and statistics guru, wrote The Bill James Baseball Abstract in 1977, not many people listened to him or care what he had to say.  After all, how much can statistics really tell you?  Many general managers, coaches, and scouts of that time simply watch a player and look at his skills, often ignoring the statistics he put up (for the most part).  After Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane used statistics developed by James to scout players and built winning teams with those players, people really began to care about what James had to say and accepted these facts into their baseball world.

But a while back, I began to wonder: Could sabermetric type stats be developed and used in the NFL to identify talent?

Any baseball fan knows what I’m talking about: stats developed in the past 30 years that are not the normal stats you see every day.  Statistics the box score does not have: win shares, runs created, and total player rating are just three sabermetric statistics, and there’s a lot more.

Could people develop some statistics to judge the overall worth of a defensive back, a linebacker, a running back, and a defensive lineman?  Is it possible?  If these stats were developed, would coaches and general managers use them to scout and eventually draft players?

The problem with statistics like these is actually rather simple: football is not baseball.  Baseball is a game thrown pitch by pitch.  Runs can be generated only one way, rounding the bases before the third out is made.  Football, on the other hand, is a game where plays are executed and things happen you never expect to.  There is no formula to score a touchdown: a 99 yard run, a 4 yard pass, and a punt returned for a touchdown are all worth six points.  A field goal from any distance is worth 3 points.  Plays break down, stuff happens that should not happen, and the game is unpredictable.  On top of that, there is no definitive statistic-accumulating organization.  At the end of a season, different websites may list different statistics for the same player (tackles are a tough one to judge).  Some statistics are hard to find and not even charted at all.

But if there was some way that statistics could be organized and accepted as true, could different sabermetric stats be developed?  I thought about it a few months ago and tried to develop a formula for defensive backs but realized it was too hard, considering football stats are rather hard to gather (I have a link if anyone is interested in what I originally came up with, comment and I’ll post it).

KC Joyner, The Football Scientist, created the thought in my mind.  He went out trying to find out why players ran for the yards they did or passed the way they did.  If you could exploit weaknesses in players with the use of statistics, how much would that help you?  If you knew that a cornerback was much more vulnerable to the long pass than the short pass, how often would you try to exploit him?

Billy Beane used sabermetric statistics to find players no one else wanted, players no one thought could ever be good.  If a NFL general manager could use sabermetric statistics to draft players who were low on draft boards, how much would that change football? Could it be done knowing the chaotic nature of football?

As always, comments/criticisms/suggestions are welcomed.

Hundreds of thousands of children, teenagers, and adults across America will get it this holiday season.  Thousands already have it.  Even more have played it and if it maintains its popularity, it probably will be around in fifty years.  Madden, the football game for systems like Playstation and Xbox, has been one of the most popular and most competitive games in the past few years.

I remember playing Madden 64 on my Nintendo 64 when I was a teenager.  The playbooks were simple, the game play was straight ahead and it was easy to play.  Since then, the Madden series of video games has seen great advances in graphics, game play, and features.  One can develop a franchise, where players can be traded, ticket prices can be set, and practices can be held, in the newest Madden, Madden 2006.  During games, players can use the Hot Route and Playmaker ability, as well as changing the play at the line and shifting the blocking assignments.  Depth charts are consistently being changed and players try to find the weakness in the opposing defense or offense and try to exploit it.

I admit that playing Madden 2006 changes your opinion on professional and college football.  I constantly yell at the television set while watching football, screaming “What an awful play call!  How could you not run a reverse there?” or “I saw that coming from a mile away! The defensive line needed to shift, but it failed to! What are these guys doing out there?”  I always have to sit back and remind myself I’m not a football coach and I’m not as smart as the guys on the sidelines or in the booth.

But it raises this simple, yet complex question: if kids like me are playing these games at such a young age, reading simple defenses while on offense and changing the defensive formation when seeing what the offense is doing, what does it mean for the future?

Throughout the history of the NFL, as well as other sports, players have redefined the positions they play.  Coaches do something never seen before and it becomes accepted as the norm.  What affect will the Madden football games have on the NFL in the future?

Unlike the coaches in today’s NFL, kids and young adults have the ability to see every game played on television, have every stat imaginable at the click of a mouse, and can replay games with the use of VCRs and TiVo machines.  On top of that, ESPN’s Sportscenter and other networks’ halftime shows consistently review plays and give analysis to both NFL offenses and defenses.  People now have opportunities that the current coaches in the league never had.

What impact will the play of Madden have on the NFL in twenty years?  Thirty years?  Forty years?  With kids as young as 10 years old watching football every Sunday in the fall and winter and playing Madden in their spare time, it’s hard to imagine how many good offensive and defensive coordinators will grace football teams in thirty years.  A majority of the high school football players I know play Madden and love it: how much does Madden, along with their on-the-field football knowledge, affect the way they think about football?

I’ll be the first to admit I’m not the most knowledgeable football fan and there’s an extremely slim chance I’ll ever got a job on a football team.  But what about that one kid who’s destined to become the best offensive coordinator in the NFL?  How much will Madden make on his future career?  Will the Madden series be the next thing to change football forever?

Comments, suggestions, criticisms, are always welcomed.