The Football Fan Spot

The Seahawks are in a rare position this season. They are likely going to get a top ten pick as they are now 5-9 and recent lost at home to the previously 1-12 Buccaneers, but they already have a good veteran quarterback. For this reason, I believe they should take one, which may seem counter intuitive, but makes a lot of sense when you think about it.

Quarterback is single most cerebral position in football. You have to learn the offense, the plays, all the receivers routes, and develop good chemistry with receivers on option routes. You have to be able to learn and read complex coverages and read complex blitzes. For the most part, college quarterbacks don’t have to do this as much. A college quarterback, no matter who they are, needs a redshirt year, a year where they are nothing but a backup in case of injury, a year, where they can learn the offense, the routes, the receivers, the coverages, the blitzes, all of those things, in order to fully be a good quarterback in this league. Some require two.

However, with so many quarterbacks, especially elite quarterback prospects, being drafted early out of “we need this guy now” instead of, “well, we’ll need him in a year or two when he’s ready because we already have a decent veteran,” they lose this ability to have this necessary redshirt year. The list of guys thrown out into action in a major way in their rookie year include Joey Harrington (14 games his rookie year), David Carr (16 games), Patrick Ramsey (9 games), Kyle Boller (11 games) Byron Leftwich (15 games), Alex Smith (9 games), Vince Young (15 games).

Speaking of Smith and Young, both are doing decent jobs this season, in fact, of the three guys who have established themselves as guys who look like longterm starters in this league, Smith and Young are two of them. You might think this disproves my argument, but it actually strengths. Vince Young and Alex Smith both sucked when they came out. In two years before being benched, Vince Young threw 21 touchdowns to 30 picks and in three years before being benched, Alex Smith threw 19 touchdowns to 31 picks. However, after finally getting benched and finally sitting for a year plus, both have come back with good seasons and are establishing themselves as starting quarterbacks in the NFL.

The other of the three quarterbacks who have established themselves as starting quarterbacks this year is Chad Henne of the Miami Dolphins. Chad Henne was drafted in the 2nd round of the 2008 NFL Draft and had the luxury of sitting behind veteran Chad Pennington for more than a year. When Pennington got hurt this year, Henne stepped in and has a decent quarterback rating of 73.9 and more importantly is 7-4 as a starter.

Need further proof? Let’s take a look at all of the quarterbacks who are established as starters in this leagues.

Chad Henne- See above.

Tom Brady- Brady sat his entire rookie season behind veteran Drew Bledsoe after being drafted in the 6th round of the 2000 draft with the exception of one game he played where he went 1 for 3 for 6 yards. He took over for Bledsoe after he got hurt in 2001 and has led the Pats to 3 Super Bowls wins since.

Mark Sanchez- Sanchez is a 2009 1st round pick who started his first game as a rookie this season. Its tough to make a decision on him yet, but he has 12 touchdowns to 20 picks this season so he has struggled.

Carson Palmer- A perfect example of the redshirt year working to someone’s advantage, Carson Palmer didn’t make a throw his rookie year behind Comeback Player of the Year Jon Kitna, but took over in his 2nd season and has a career 88.4 QB rating with 126 touchdowns to 78 picks.

Ben Roethlisberger- Made 15 starts his rookie season, so he’s a bit of an exception, but he’s unorthodox style of play makes him an exception to many things. Plus, it should be noted that he only threw 295 passes his rookie year so he was used conservatively.

Joe Flacco- Started all 16 games as a rookie making him a bit of an exception, but he’s still young and he has not extremely impressive so far. Plus, he plays in a conservative offense with a strong running game and a good defense to support him.

Peyton Manning- Started every game of his career making him an exception, but Manning is so good that he’s an exception to most things.

David Garrard- Played in 4 games as a rookie after being drafted in the 4th round of the 2002 draft, but only played in 17 games in his first 4 seasons, making 296 throws in that span of time so he definitely had plenty of sitting and watching time. He took over as the team’s starting quarterback midway through 2006 and hasn’t looked back, with a completion percentage of 60% or more in all 4 season since then and 56 touchdowns to 32 picks in that stretch of time.

Vince Young- See above

Matt Schaub- Spent 3 years on the bench behind Michael Vick throwing a limited 161 throws in those years, before being traded to the Texans in 2007 where he has been the starter ever since.

Phillip Rivers- Another perfect example, Rivers made 30 throws in his first two years as Drew Brees’ backup and then took over as the starter when Brees left to go to New Orleans and has started every game ever since and is one of the winningest starters in the NFL with a record of 44-18 as a starter.

Kyle Orton- Rushed into the starting lineup thanks to an injury to Rex Grossman during his rookie season and made 15 starts with a hideous 59.7 QB rating in those starts. Was not heard from until 2007 when he started 3 more games and then took over as the Bears’ starter in 2008 and then the Broncos starter in 2009 after being traded for Jay Cutler. His QB ratings for the last two years respectively are 79.6 and 89.2.

Matt Cassel- Didn’t make a start until week 2 of his 4th season after Tom Brady got hurt in 2008. He had a good 89.4 QB rating in 2008 and then was traded to Kansas City after Brady returned. He is currently the Chiefs starter and has a mediocre QB rating of 71.1, though he does have very little talent around him to help him out.

Tony Romo- Signed as an undrafted free agent in 2003 with the Cowboys but did not see any game action until 2006 when he took over for veteran Drew Bledsoe. Romo has been one of the best quarterbacks in the league since and is a two time Pro Bowler.

Donovan McNabb- Another exception, McNabb took over as starting quarterback midway through his rookie year and has had a successful career since, with the exception of a small history of injuries.

Eli Manning- Played sparingly in his rookie year, throwing 197 passes behind injury prone starter Kurt Warner and then took over in 2005 as the starter. He struggled early in his career, especially late in the season and at home in the Meadowlands, but worked through that and won the Super Bowl in 2008.

Jason Campbell- Took over as starter of the Redskins 9 games into his 2nd season and has been statistically alright with a career QB rating of 82.2. He is actually having a career season with a QB rating of 87.0 this season, but because his team is not winning and his 5 year rookie contract expires this offseason, he may have to look for another job this offseason, though he has proven he deserves one.

Brett Favre- Threw 4 passes in his rookie season in Atlanta, then was traded to Green Bay directly after his rookie season. And the rest is history.

Aaron Rodgers- While Brett Favre was making that history, Aaron Rodgers was sitting and watching for three years. When Favre retired and then signed with the Jets in 2008, Rodgers took over for Favre and has been one of the best quarterbacks in the league. He has certainly been a lot better than fellow 2005 1st round pick Alex Smith, who was drafted ahead of him and thrown into action during his rookie season.

Jay Cutler- Took over for Jake Plummer 11 games into his rookie season, and made 5 starts. However, with 43 picks over the last two seasons, even though he is an established starter, its safe to say that he’s not so good at learning the offense, the plays, all the receivers routes, and developing good chemistry with receivers on option routes, learning and reading complex coverages and reading complex blitzes. Just saying

Matt Stafford- Its too early to make a judgment on the 2009 1st round pick, who made his first start during week 1 of his rookie season, but throwing 20 picks to 13 touchdowns, despite throwing 5 touchdowns in one game against the lowly Browns, is not a good start.

Drew Brees- Played in one game in his rookie season with the Chargers and took over as the starting quarterback for Doug Flutie in 2002. Though he lost his starting job for a few weeks in 2003 and never established himself as a dominant starting quarterback in San Diego, after he left the Chargers for the Saints four years ago, Brees has been one of the best in the business.

Matt Ryan- Ryan started every game in his rookie season, but had a lot of help from a strong running game, a decent defense, and a weak schedule as he put up a 87.7 QB rating. This year, still the starter, he has struggled some, as their running game hasn’t been as strong nor has their defense, and their schedule is one of the toughest in the NFL. He has a quarterback rating of 79.1 this season and is averaging a lowly 6.4 YPA and I believe he is one of the most overrated quarterbacks in the NFL.

Josh Freeman- Hasn’t started every game as a rookie this season, but has started 7 games, and has 9 touchdowns to 14 picks, so, even though its still early, Freeman’s career has not gotten off to the best start.

Kurt Warner- Signed with the Rams as a 27 year old undrafted free agent in 1998, made 11 throws in his “rookie” year, and took over as their starter in 1999, leading the Rams to the Super Bowl. He has had his ups and downs since, but has made two more trips to the Super Bowl, and is a borderline Hall of Famer at this point with 207 touchdowns to 138 picks and a career 93.7 QB rating.

Matt Hasselbeck- Spent a year on the practice squad and 2 years backing up Brett Favre in Green Bay before being traded to the Seahawks, where he took over for started Trent Dilfer in 2002. He has made three Pro Bowls in his career as a starter, which could be ending soon and hopefully a good young quarterback is waiting on the bench for when he leaves Seattle or retires.

Alex Smith- See above

To make sense of all that I have broken it down into categories and categorized each player in one of those categories.

Started a majority of their rookie season, has had an average career as a starter: 2

Started a majority of their rookie season, has had an above average career as a starter: 3

Took over as starter in late 1st/early 2nd season, has had an average career as a starter: 1

Took over as starter in late 1st/early 2nd season, has had an above average career as a starter: 5       

Took over as starter in mid 2nd season or late, has had an average career as a starter: 4

Took over as starter in mid 2nd season or late, has had an above average career as a starter: 6

Still a rookie, too soon to tell: 3

Started a majority of their rookie season, sat for a period of more than a year after that, then regained a starter’s job: 3

Of the 24 non-rookie established starting quarterbacks profiled, 10 did not take over as starter until midway through their 2nd season or later, and another 6 did not start until late in their rookie season or early in their 2nd. 8 did start the majority of their rookie season, but of those 8, 2 are currently 2nd year players and 3 completely sucked and were later benched before regaining their job. The other three, Donovan McNabb, Ben Roethlisberger, and Peyton Manning, started a majority of their rookie season and hit very few speed bumps in their career and are now Pro Bowl caliber quarterbacks, but they are extremely rare (3 out of 24). All 3 rookie starters this season have more picks than touchdowns showing that this trend could be continuing.

With drafting quarterbacks, the right move is the counter-intuitive one. Draft them when you don’t need them, or before you need them. Seattle is likely going to have a top ten pick this year and with current starting quarterback Matt Hasselbeck being 34 years old, now is a perfect time for them to draft a big upside project quarterback, like Ryan Mallett, who I have said has Peyton Manning esque upside given the right amount of time and good coaching. Sam Bradford, who has the skills, but needs to learn a pro style offense, is also a good fit. 

After the tragic death of Chris Henry on Thursday, teammate and close friend Chad Ochocinco wanted to wear Henry’s #15 on his jersey in his honor this Sunday against the San Diego Chargers. The commissioner of the No Fun League, Roger Goddell, immediately nixed the idea because it is against the rules and possibly even threatened fines against Chad Ochocinco. Like Chad always does, he is going to do it anyway.

A couple of weeks ago I talked about Bellarmine College Prep’s CCS winning game against rival St. Francis and how that would likely be the last high school game I would attend as a student of Bellarmine Prep. However, in the two weeks since, Bellarmine got the surprising call up to play for the Division I state championship, an honor last year’s 12-1 team which had 4 NCAA Division I recruits and is regarded as one of the best football team’s in our school’s history, did not receive. In fact, this was Bellarmine’s first ever call up to the state’s Division I championship game in the long proud history of the school. Though I was not able to attend the game, which took place about 8 hours away from campus, I did watch it TV, as the Bellarmine Bells took on the Oceanside Pirates from San Diego. Oceanside won the state championship back in 2007 and had 5 key guys on this team that played on this team. Oceanside was also on a 38 game winning streak entering the game and has 6 guys expected to get football scholarships to division one schools.

The first thing I noticed about the two teams was the size difference. Bellarmine has a proud history of athletics, 25 straight league swimming championships, among countless other banners that hang in our gym, but our athletics department as a whole, especially football, is more known for being smart, determined, and well coached that naturally athletic. Our top running back and lone division I recruit (Ivy Leagues) is a 6-0 190 pound running back. Our quarterback is 5-10 175 and some of our linemen aren’t even over 230 pounds. The Oceanside Pirates had about 7 guys who looked like they were related to Troy Polamalu. However, as has been the case all year, we didn’t care.

On the strength of our double wing offense, which is a blobby looking, but effective variation of the wildcat, which involves many handoffs between our strong running backs, strong full back, and our good running quarterback, who also occasionally serves as a lead blocker, the Bells took an early 7-3 lead with a long drive that spanned more than 8 minutes and did not feature a single pass. Star senior running back and lone Division I recruit Kyle Olugbode finished the drive with a simple 4 yard touchdown run up the middle.

On the next possession, the Bells forced the Pirates to punt after a three and out and the Bells’ signature double wing offense went back to work. The Bells convert 2 4th downs en route to an early 13-3 lead after a long 53 yard drive, which featured only one pass attempt, a completion. Run first quarterback Mike McGovern pounded it in for a 2 yard score on a keeper. However, the ensuing extra point was blocked to keep the score at 13-3. The Bells’ lone weakness this season, oddly enough, is the field goal unit. Whether it is a botched snap, a botched hold, a botched kick, or a block kick, it always seems like something is going wrong with the field goal unit such that even extra points have not been so automatic this season.

The Pirates would mount another drive downfield on their next possession, doing so in the exact opposite way as the Bells, through the air with big plays. However, as was the case during their first long drive, they would be forced to settle for a field goal try, which would be blocked by Kyle Olugbode’s younger brother, Kris, a junior.

The Bells had all the momentum, a 13-3 point lead, and the block after a blocked field goal, but on the next play, Kyle would make a rare error, fumbling the ball right back to the Pirates, who would shortly after score on a short 4 run yard. The Bells would be forced to punt on their next possession, but an interception by Kyle Olugbode, now playing safety, off of a tipped pass by junior cornerback Rufus Wolokolie, would put an end to a threatening Oceanside drive before the end of the half. The Bells would go into the locker room feeling good about themselves, with a 13-10 point lead over favorited Oceanside and getting the ball to start the 2nd half after deferring the coin toss to start the game. The Bells also held a stunning 16:29 to 7:31 lead in terms of time of possession on the strength of their conservative double wing offense.

The Bells opening drive in the 2nd half didn’t get them any points, but it could be seen as a bit of a moral victory as they were able to knock another 6 minutes off the clock. Oceanside has an explosive offense, but if they never get the ball, there isn’t much they can do. Further adding to the Bells’ hope was an amazing punt by punter/wide receiver Kyle DeMerritt. After the punt, the Pirates had the ball on their own 1-yard line.

However, the Pirates showed that if you give an explosive offense like theirs the ball anywhere, it could be trouble. After being about 6 inches away from being tackled for a safety, the Pirates drove the ball out into the middle of the field with one play. Eight minutes of game time later, the Pirates held the 17-13 after an 18 play 99 yard touchdown drive, culminated by a 13 yard pass from quarterback Quentis Clark to Arizona bound wide receiver Jerry Whittaker. After the Bells were forced to punt on their next possession, the Pirates showed their big play ability, going 55 yards for the score in one passing play from Clark to San Diego State bound Rene Siluano.

Down by 2 touchdowns with 10:17 left in the game, the Bells had to scrap their double wide offense and go to a more traditional drop back system and many wondered if quarterback Mike McGovern, primarily a runner, had the arm and the playmakers at receiver to get the job done. McGovern answered those questions as the Bells went 84 yards downfield for the score. 53 of those yards, including the 15 on a screen play to Kyle Olugbode for the score, came from McGovern’s arm. However, there was still only 2:31 left in the game and, after failing on a two point conversion, the Pirates still held a 24-19 lead.

The Bells would attempt the on side kick on the ensuing kickoff, but fall just short of recovering. But, this one was far from over. An amazing showing by a Bell defense to force a three and out gave the Bells the ball back with 2 minutes left. The defensive stop gave meaning to what Bellarmine coach Mike Janda said before the game, that his team makes their best plays when they need them. Now, it was up to the Mike McGovern and the Bells’ two minute offense to take home state for Bellarmine, for San Jose, and for all of Northern California. The only question was, did we have a 2 minute offense?

Mike McGovern again answered some of the questions making a few big plays with his arm and some with his feet. No play was bigger and more exciting than a scrambling 24 yard completion to wide receiver Kevin Garish. The Bells had the ball inside the 40 and had some time, though no timeouts. On first down, Mike McGovern spikes it to stop the ball, or so he thinks. Flags are thrown on the play and it is believed by the crowd and the commentators to be encroachment on the Pirates’ defensive line. However, the refs had a different take on the play, intentional grounding.

The refs were for the most part shotty on the day, missing two in bounds/out of bounds calls, one favoring each side, and once actually throwing a flag and then pretty much having to come out and say my bad as no penalty actually occurred. One play the ref called holding, came out to say who it was on, stopped mid sentence before saying who it was on and then just said that the penalty had been declined. What happened on this play was, a defensive tackle from Oceanside encroached on Bellarmine center Rudy Iniquez just before the snap and thus was able to push him back farther than he could have if he had not encroached. This made it look like McGovern, who was past Iniquez when he spiked, was past the line of scrimmage and thus the play was intentional grounding, loss of 3 yards and loss of down.

The Bells now had 3rd and 13 in their opponent’s territory with 40 seconds left and two straight long throws for incompletions by McGovern would end the game, 24-19 Pirates. Though it is unknown what would have happened if the ref had not made that call, that missed call hurt both sides. It took away from the Bells a chance to win or lose fairly, but also took away the same right from the Pirates.

Even though the Bells didn’t win state, it was still a huge season for a team that after losing 4 Division I recruits from last season, which was arguably their greatest season ever. The Bells were not expected to go 8-1-1 in the regular season. Once they did that, the Bells were not expected to even win our CCS conference, coming into CCS as a 5th seed, let alone make state for the first time in the school’s history. And once we were there, we were not supposed to win, but we almost did. As the commentators repeatedly and somewhat annoyingly after a while called us throughout the game, we were the little team that could. Though I will not be a part of it as a student fan cheering ever again, I feel proud of Bellarmine’s football tradition and hopeful for next season and the future.

Chris Henry has died today at age 26. The majority of reports of his death have all talked about his hardships and his failures. In the car today, thinking about Henry’s death and how short life can be, and about untapped potential, a song game on the radio that I felt described the situation well, especially the first few lines. The song is “Leave Out All the Rest” by Linkin Park.

I dreamed I was missing
You were so scared
But no one would listen
Cause no one else cared

After my dreaming
I woke with this fear
What am I leaving
When I'm done here

So if you're asking me
I want you to know

When my time comes
Forget the wrong that I've done
Help me leave behind some
Reasons to be missed

And don't resent me
And when you're feeling empty
Keep me in your memory

Leave out all the rest
Leave out all the rest

I am not going to talk about the mistakes Henry has made in his life, I am not going to go in detail about his off the field failures, or his untapped potential. I’m not here to judge him and his life at all, because I didn’t know him. I am just going to say Henry was a person, with friends, family, talents, shortcomings, and aspirations, just like everyone else, and leave out all the rest because as a human being that is what he deserves. I’m sure there are many, many people out there who will miss Chris Henry and for those people I wish the best and for him I wish that he may rest in peace.

The Red Sox have made quite a splash in the past few days, after a relatively quiet start to their offseason which for the most part consisted of low balling Jason Bay and pissing him off and trading for Boof Bonser to counter the Yankees’ addition of Curtis Granderson. On Monday, the finalized a 5 year 85 million dollar deal with John Lackey, previously of the Los Angeles Angels and then they followed that up by practically saying goodbye to Jason Bay by signing Mike Cameron to a 2 year 15.5 million dollar contract.

I can see the John Lackey signing going horribly wrong. Lackey has a career ERA of 5.75 in Fenway and clearly does not like pitching in the park and has actually expressed frustration at times with the Green Monster. That’s not bad luck because of how many times he’s pitched in the park. That’s a trend, an explainable trend and one I don’t want to see 85 million dollars spent on. Lackey was the one guy in the Angels rotation that I, as a Red Sox fan, used to actually look forward to facing. Now, who do I have to look forward to facing? Lackey also has a injury of history problems, especially recently, and his career ERA of 3.81 is good, but not great, not worth the money we’re paying him. He’s also 31 and will be under contract until he’s 36, a lot can happen between now and then. Remember when the Mets signed Pedro Martinez. He was 33 and they signed him until he was 37, for a big money 4 year deal. Pedro was an amazing pitcher at the time, but age got the best of him quickly and he only ended up winning 32 games in the 4 years he was a Met thanks to age and injury. I don’t like the idea of signing a good, but not great pitcher, who has been awful in Fenway in his career, and is on the wrong side of 30, for 85 million dollars over 5 years.

Cameron is a decent player, decent power, decent speed, amazing fielder, bad hitter for contact, but he’s going to be 37 by Spring Training so he in no way warrants a 15.5 million dollar deal over 2 years. He has 49 homeruns and 24 stolen bases in the last two years, but a .246 average and he did it against inferior NL pitching. He hasn’t played in the AL since 2003 and he strikes out way too much, 298 times in the last 2 years. It’s not that I don’t like having Cameron and Lackey on the team, but the Red Sox gave up 100 million dollars for these two players instead of paying Jason Bay what he wanted, 5 years 75 million dollars. I would have rather had Bay than these two guys and we could have used that 25 million dollars for something nice, like another starter if that was really our problem last year, which I don’t think it was, or maybe we could have used that money and the money we saved by shipping off Mike Lowell, to get Adrian Beltre and add another big hitter to the lineup which we needed more than pitchers.

The one thing I think the Red Sox should do now is go after Adrian Gonzalez of the Padres. He would be a perfect fit for the offense. We could offer a package surrounding Jacoby Ellsbury, who would be a great fit to cover a ton of ground in center field in Petco, and also to hit a ton of doubles and triples into the gaps in Petco. He could offer Ellsbury and a top pitching prospect other than Clay Buchholz plus another 2nd tier prospect and that could be enough to get Gonzalez, who is a 27 year old left handed hitter who can hit to all fields and had 40 homeruns last season in spacious Petco Park and more walks than strikeouts. He could play 1st and Youkilis could move to left field or 3rd, depending on whether or not Mike Lowell actually gets traded, which is not a for sure thing anymore because of his injured thumb. This is a bit of a projected lineup for next year with Gonzalez in Beantown.

2B Dustin Pedroia

3B Kevin Youkilis

1B Adrian Gonzalez

C Victor Martinez

RF JD Drew

DH David Ortiz

CF Mike Cameron

LF Jeremy Hermida

SS Marco Scutaro

Bench: Jed Lowrie, Casey Kotchman, Jason Varitek

I think this may be the biggest trade ever in the history of anything. Has there ever been a bigger trade in sports history? Maybe when the Cowboys traded Herschel Walker to the Vikings for their entire team, their next like ten draft picks, and half of their owner’s soul, but this is different. This one is actually fair. Two, count ‘em two, former Cy Youngs switching teams in the same deal, as well as 7 top prospects switching teams as well. I don’t even want to think about all the work that went into this deal because I know how hard it can be for even the smallest deal to get done, but this one, 4 teams, 11 players, 6 million dollars changing hands, these GMs must not have slept for days to get this one done. Maybe that explains a few things here, more on that later, but anyway, I’m not going to talk about how it got done because that’s its impossible. Its done, let’s make sense of it.

Deal for Phillies

Receive: Roy Halladay, 6 million dollars, and prospects Phillippe Aumont, Tyson Gillies, and Juan Ramirez

Give: Cliff Lee, and prospects Travis D’Arnaud, Michael Taylor, and Kyle Drabek

Honestly, its hard to make a call on the prospects here because the only one I’ve actually seen play is Kyle Drabek, but I can assume that they are getting close in value to what they are giving, maybe a little less because Drabek seems like a future ace. I’ll just focus on Cliff Lee for Roy Halladay. I don’t understand the move. Halladay is a great pitcher, don’t get me wrong, and I think he’s better than Lee, but Lee is proven in that park, in that city, for that team, in that league. When a player changes teams, there are so many things changing, so many variables that could go wrong and then all of a sudden the player isn’t who you thought he was, especially when changing leagues and facing batters he’s never faced before. Remember Barry Zito? Halladay is better than Zito, but imagine a few years ago when Zito was still with the A’s. If you had heard that the A’s were trading Zito for someone that was slightly lesser of a pitcher, but had been proven in both leagues, you would have said that A’s won that deal. However, a few years later, Zito is in the NL and pretty much sucks. Lee is not as good as Halladay, but he’s proven in both leagues and younger. He fits the team. He’s proven with the team, with the ballpark, the league, the city, the fans, etc. Halladay hasn’t done that get and, though I would never hope this, in a few years, he might not as the dominant starter he is now. I don’t understand the move here.

Deal for Mariners

Receive: Cliff Lee

Give: Prospects Phillippe Aumont, Tyson Gillies, and Juan Ramirez

Again I’ve never seen any of these prospects play or even heard of them, all I know is that Baseball America, who I trust for prospect rankings, has Aumont and Ramirez ranked as their top two pitching prospects. However, I like the deal for them. Cliff Lee is not Erik Bedard. He’s not injury prone and overrated. He’s a legit ace who has success in the AL, which is key. They need an ace and he and Felix Hernandez, assuming they don’t go and trade him now, make a hell of a 1-2 punch atop their rotation.

Deal for Athletics

Receive: Michael Taylor

Give: Brett Wallace

Straight prospect swap, Billy Beane has done well with scouting young talent in the past, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.

Deal for Blue Jays

Receive: Brett Wallace, Kyle Drabek, Travis D’Arnaud

Give: Roy Halladay, 6 million

Bye bye face of the franchise. Hopefully these prospect pan out or their fans are going to have a riot. I have never seen Brett Wallace play, but from what I know about him he’s a 2008 1st round pick, who has been traded twice already, once for Halladay once for Matt Holliday (talk about a lot to live up to), he’s a natural 3rd baseman who is going to have to play 1st in the future because of his size, and he has a huge bat. D’Arnaud was one of the Phillies top ten prospects and plays a position of need for the Jays. However, all I can say for now is these guys better be good.

My Heisman Ballot

Mark Ingram- Alabama

Higher YPC, more receiving yards than Toby Gerhart against tougher competition with a weaker quarterback to take guys out of the box. He took his team farther, to the National Championship Game, and was literally his team’s entire offense. He only had 194 yards less yards than Gerhart on 62 less carries and did more through the air. This one is close though, but I give it to him because of the fact that he was the best player on the best team, even though, with the exception of a few stats, Gerhart has better start.

Toby Gerhart- Stanford

Single handedly resurrected Stanford Football this season, with 311 carries, an amazing number, and 26 touchdowns because he was his team goal line back.

Tim Tebow- Florida

Stats don’t say it all with this guy, his effort alone wins game for a team that only lost one game this season. However, his stats say a lot too, 31 touchdowns, 18 passing and 13 rushing.

Colt McCoy- Texas

Didn’t step up on a big stage by throwing 3 picks in what could have been a loss to Nebraska., but had 30 touchdowns, 27 passing and 3 rushing, but the 12 picks this season hurt his case.

Ndamukong Suh- Nebraska

Big time defensive player, but there’s a reason defensive players don’t win this award, they don’t have enough individual impact on their team. However, Suh should be proud of just being nominated. He had 12 sacks on the season as a defensive tackle and opened things up for his team to rank 2nd in the nation in sacks. He played at his best in big games, but even his 4 sacks against Texas couldn’t win the game for them, showing that defensive players just don’t make enough impact on their team to win the Heisman.

Changing it up a little bit here, let’s talk High School football. Some say football at the High School level is the purest football, mostly because no one ever passes. I am a High School student and my school’s football team, the Bellarmine Bells, played the St. Francis Lancers yesterday for the CCS league championship. A little bit of background on the game, this was not a normal championship game.

The Bells were looking to win the league championship for the 2nd straight year. This year’s team didn’t have the stars of last year’s 12-1 team, which sent 4 players to Division 1 schools to play football, including linebacker Michael Clay who is a key reserve and long snapper for the Rose Bowl bound Oregon Ducks this season, quarterback Austin Carta Samuels now of Wyoming who won Mountain West rookie of the year this season, and running back Usua Amanam (who won’t accept my Facebook friend request!) and offensive tackle Kevin Dancer, both now of Stanford. However, what this year’s team lacked in stars, they made up for in teamwork and entered the CCS title game with a record of 10-1 with one tie.

Bellarmine and St. Francis are also huge, huge rivals. Bellarmine has had St. Francis’ number over the past few years, beating them in the regular season in 4 straight years for the first time ever in the 62 past matchups of the  rivalry and I, as part of the senior class of 2010, was there for all 4. St. Francis’ coach Michael Mitchell was looking for his 100th career win in his final game in his 14 year career as coach of the Lancers and to end the team’s losing streak against the Bells with a win in the title game.

The Bells trailed 16-7 at half time, but the Bells scored two touchdowns early in the 2nd half, one on a 64 yard run by junior running back Kris Olugbode and another on a 21 yard pass from senior quarterback Mike McGovern to senior tight end Hendee Wall which gave the Bells a 21-16 lead.

However, Lancer senior quarterback Kyle Miller led the team on a drive down field for a touchdown. The Lancers would try for and fail on a 2 point conversion. The Lancers led 22-21. The Bells answered after not getting very far on the following kickoff return with a 86 yard drive led by senior running back Kyle Olugbode, who is Kris’ older brother. Kyle had runs of 5, 6, 14, 18 and a 33 yard touchdown run. He finished with 128 yards and a score on 18 carries. The Bells would fail to convert the 2 point conversion and the Bells held a slim 5 point led, 27-22 with 2:28 left.

Kyle Miller led the Lancers down to about midfield, when he threw a mistake desperation throw which was picked off by Kyle Olugbode, who also plays cornerback. It looked as if that was the last throw of Miller’s high school career, but the Bells went three and out, giving Miller one last shot with a minute and 14 seconds left and zero timeouts.

Miller completed passes of 37 and 10 quickly on the next drive and would finish with 259 yards passing, 3 touchdowns, 2 threw the air and one on the ground, on 11 of 20. However, he would get sacked on 2nd down in the red zone, forcing third down, and then make a questionable decision to spike it with 40 seconds left on the clock, forcing 4th and 11 on the Bells 22 yard line.

His next throw would be his last as a Lancer. It was broken up by Bell senior cornerback Calvin Hemington. The Bells took over possession on the failed 4th down and would kneel down for the victory. As a fan, it was amazing. To be a Bell watching our team go 5-0 against our rival in the time I was a student, winning the 5th one in dramatic fashion to win our 2nd straight CCS title, was amazing.

The bleachers erupted in mass chaos and celebratory shoving. I have three giant lumps on my legs from being caught up in the chaos of victory and I didn’t even play in the game. I stood in the bleachers the whole time. I call them my battle wounds. I got a Bellarmine “terrible towel” during the game, a towel I had to physically pry out of my friend’s hands, almost tearing it in the process. The towel now sits hung above my bed and reads “Go Bel ls” thanks to a bit of stretching as a reminder of this game, my last football game as a student. 

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I had a nice full meal and then I was planning on watching some football with the family. I knew the night game was Giants at Broncos yet when I scrolled my TV Guide, I could not find NFL football anywhere, only a college football matchup between Texas and Texas A&M. No offense to those two teams, but I wanted to watch some NFL football, plus I have already seen enough of Colt McCoy’s girl arm and Von Miller’s one pass rushing move this year. Where was the NFL football? I turned on my computer to figure this out and I saw what I had feared, the game was only being showed on the NFL Network, which, because I’m not made of money, I do not get.

I spent the next 15 minutes trying to find a place to watch the game online because the normal place I go to watch online when NFL network screws me over wasn’t working right and I finally found a place thanks to a very helpful Yahoo Answers poster. It was broadcast straight off the NFL’s website, but it was extremely slowing stream. I’d see Knowshon Moreno take over from the backfield then some choppy stuff and then see him tackled 15 yards downfield. Once the screen froze on Tom Coughlin’s perpetually frost bitten face for a good minute. Like that’s what I really want to see.

My screen was frozen with this image for a good minute

I’m sure I’m not the only one this happened to, in fact, I posted my frustration on my Facebook and Twitter and got a bunch of people who agreed with me. The NFL Network has been limiting what the common income family can watch for years and I never really had a problem with it because it was just the occasional Thursday game, but now they are ruining the Post Thanksgiving Dinner Football Watching (name pending) for all common income families on the West Coast. And what's so great about the NFL Network anyway. My friend has it and he told me that during one game, there was no audio for the first 5 minutes of the game. FAIL!

I am not saying what the NFL Network is doing is illegal because it’s not, but I was angry. I had to sit with my family around my laptop and watch a slow buffering game on a small screen on my computer just to watch some Post Thanksgiving Dinner Football. Well back to my game, oh wait, it’s frozen on a Lions/Packers highlight…and now it stopped working completely. I’m sure plenty of my readers have NFL Network horror stories too, so let’s hear them and once again Happy Thanksgiving.