Troy Polamalu's Brother-in-Law Hates My Article [Special Wednesday with Gus]

In my previous article, I detailed why I think Troy Polamalu is overrated. I came to the conclusion that he is a good safety, nothing more and nothing less. I had been reading an article about how Derek Anderson flipped on someone (again, but via twitter this time) who had criticized him when I received the following from Alex Holmes, Troy Polamalu's brother in law:

Alex (makes the first contact): @Ghassandwich this insane diatribe is a pathetic attempt to get attention. Makes it easy to understand why you have 30 followers.

We've got ourselves what Jesse would call an aPol(amalu)gist. I took offense to his use of the word “insane.” Maybe that's because my sister is a psychologist and she has taught me not to water down words that talk about people becoming mentally deranged. Maybe it's because being compared to someone who is capable of murdering and raping others without knowing what they're doing isn't exactly my cup of tea. Either way, this dude needed to be Derek Andersowned. So, I called him out:

Gus: @Trojan81 You preach hatred over logic. If I'm wrong, prove it. Internet trolls get more attention than logic, anyway so I could care less.

Alex: @Ghassandwich you have no logic! First off you are comparing different http://positions.Ed is a free safety, Troy is a strong safety. Troy plays at the line of scrimmage,deep in the secondary, at the linebacker level. Ed sits back and plays center field. Amongst NFL players there isnt a more respected player than Troy. There isnt a more dynamic player possibly in the history of the game than Troy and most importantly he has 2 SuperBowl rings. Which is the ultimate goal for NFL players not stats or individual awards.

One of the most dynamic players ever? I'll get to that later. But, his argument was laughable. Saying Polamalu plays everywhere on the entire field basically proved my point. I said Troy doesn't create enough turnovers and this guy is saying he doesn't do that because he plays the entire field? Nice one. He also happened to insult me the week USC got it's 2004 National Championship taken away.

Gus: @Trojan81 Also, you're a one time national champion, not two.

Alex: @Ghassandwich also I dont preach any hate and you are wrong I am a 2 time AP National Champion...and yourself?

Good one! I've never won a national championship that I've never competed for! That's like me making fun of him for never having been awarded a full scholarship to get a Masters degree at Kent State. As for saying they play different positions? That's like saying cornerbacks, offensive guards, defensive tackles, outside linebackers and wide receivers can rarely be compared since they might be right or left, X or Z. But he's allowed to do this because he compared Polamalu to every other player in the history of the sport. I decided to end this bickering:

Gus: @Trojan81 You claim I use no logic, and yet don't realize I gave a statistical comparison using facts. Nothing made up. You're bored.

Alex: @Ghassandwich your comparing different positions, totally different players. Hypothetically troy could play back and get that many ints. He does so much more

So there you have it. No two players in the NFL can be compared, nor can we voice a reasonable opinion about somebody. That is of course, unless the comparison came from a guy that won a championship at a level different than the one we're discussing.

-Gus Rafeedie

Holiday Rankings

With Summer unofficially starting two weekends ago after a splendid Memorial Day Weekend, I thought it would be a good time to rank the Holidays we celebrate in America. First, we'll run through the ones that exist, but don't really have much awesomeness about them. In most cases, the reasons for their existence are majorly significant, but they don't do a lot for me today.

President's Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Veteran's Day

-I get it. All historically very important, but I haven't had a day off for them in years.

Hannakuh, Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashana 

-I'm not Jewish.

Kwaanza

-I'm not whatever group of people who celebrate this.

Cinco de Mayo

-I had a reaaaaal bad run of May 5s the last three years, so it's not been a good look for me...team I was working for folded in 2008; sliced my pinkie open to the tune of eight stitches in 2009; thought my company was going to be sold and everyone was going to get laid off in 2010.

Columbus Day

-Big day back in NY with a day off and an awesome parade, but oddly enough Columbus, Ohio does little to nothing to celebrate it's namesake's day.

Labor Day

-The end of Summer, the start of school? No thanks.

Valentine's Day

-The most overrated holiday in the history of Holidays.

Now onto the next group. The ones that are pretty legit and come with three-day weekends or big parties.

St. Patrick's Day

-The Irish really took over with this one. Tons of big parades, lots of green beer and pretty decent food, but since it's usually on a weekday and I have a job, I miss out on the fun.

Green Beer Day

-Miami University alums, STAND UP!

Memorial Day

-Indy 500. The start of Summer. Three-day weekend. What else do you want?

New Year's Eve

-Still one of the most overrated Holidays out there, but can be pretty fun if you make the right moves. Such as a late dinner somewhere quiet, a good friend's house, a hockey or basketball game.

New Year's Day

-Yeah, I'm considering them separate, so what? Good college football going on all day, fresh start to the year, and more recently, the NHL's Winter Classic. A very good look for everyone involved.

Halloween

-Peaking in college, this Holiday has something for everyone. Candy and killer costumes when you're a kid...sexy and offensive costumes in college and the few years after. 

Later this week, we'll run down the top contenders, including: Easter, Christmas Eve, Independence Day, Christmas and Thanksgiving.

NFL Education: Troy Polamalu is Overrated [Mondays with Gus]

I've decided that if we can't have pro football talk in the media because of a lockout by the owners, I'm going to generate some football talk of my own. I'll be damned if I'm going to let some billionaires dictate the coverage that comes on the sports news. So, here is my attempt to educate the loyal NFL fans during their time of need. While I can't teach you about everything in one article, I want to start with the man that is widely considered one of the best players in football. More than just talk about him, I want to let you all know that Troy Polamalu is completely overrated.

Let's start by looking at the raw numbers of his game play and compare it to one of the greatest safeties of all time, Ed Reed. Troy has the following averages per year: 3.375 INT's, 1.0 sacks, .5 fumbles recovered and 1 forced fumble. This is hardly the stat line of someone that is one of the best defensive players in the league. Troy has never led the NFL in any statistical defensive category. Read that last sentence again, please. As a comparison, Ed Reed sits at 6 INT's, .55 sacks, 1.11 fumbles recovered, and 1.11 forced fumbles. To simplify, he almost doubles production in interceptions, and more than doubles in forced fumbles. That means he's producing over seven turnovers a year to Troy's 4.375. Polamalu has two career touchdowns as compared to Reed's 12. The statistics show that Troy is only an average safety.

It's not just the regular season, either. Troy has struggled in the three Super Bowls he has been a part of. His Super Bowl stat lines are as follows: Against Green Bay, three tackles. Against Arizona, two assists on tackles. Against Seattle, four tackles, one assist. That sounds like the stat line of a special teams player, not one of the best defensive players in the league.

But stats aren't everything; they tell a story, but not the whole story. What gives Troy the edge over other people is that the plays he does make are more spectacular than others (In other words, good for ESPN highlight reels). People see him make a leaping one handed interception. He once made  an amazing diving interception keeping the ball from touching the ground by maybe two inches. While these plays are incredible, they don't make you an elite player. Diving for incredible interceptions one game and then being roasted for multiple touchdowns in the Super Bowl doesn't make you great. It makes you inconsistent. It goes beyond his pass coverage abilities, too.

Much has been made of his ability to leap over the center at the start of the snap. This play has been given far too much coverage. He made a good play stopping a run against the Titans last year. It didn't create a turnover, or even stop the Titans. It only made them lose a yard on a goal line play. Later in the year, he did the same thing against the Browns, only to end up face first in the ground on a designed roll out for Colt McCoy. Even on that second play, ESPN hyped it up as showing how great Troy is. I'm stunned that anyone could argue that someone is great for missing a tackle, but that's ESPN for you. Teams let him do this because, as I stated earlier, he has almost no ability to get to the quarterback. He gets his one sack a year because teams don't bother to shift blocking schemes to stop him from blitzing.

Finally, he doesn't tackle properly. He dives for offensive players head first rather than making a form tackle (in fairness, many Steelers defenders play like this because that's what they're taught. That's why the NFL has installed rules stating it will punish teams that continue this behavior). This poor tackling makes for huge hits, highlights, and missed tackles. That's why things like this happen. 

I'm not arguing that Troy Polamalu sucks. He doesn't. When you look at his entire body of work, you'll realize he's a good safety. Nothing more, nothing less.


-Gus Rafeedie

Things In Sports I'm Over

Fake Booing
LOUUUUUUUUUUUUUU, STUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU, HOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU, YOUUUUUUUUUUK. OMG it's so ironic that you guys sound like you're booing your own player, but wait a second. You're not booing, you're yelling MOOOOOSE, or something else that sounds like boo, but it's totally freaking the opposite. It was clever 10 years ago, now that dozens and dozens of fan-bases do it, it's just tired.


White Outs, Black Outs, C of Red, Etc.
Wearing the same color shirts, or worse, teams giving out the same color shirts, so that everyone in the stands looks unified and matches during the big game. Still in college? Going to a big time college game? Go for it! Pro teams and fans and adults in general, you guys need to stop it.


Evil Empire Haters
Especially Red Sox fans. Stop pretending like you guys are so deprived and depraved. You spend more than every other team in baseball and go out and sign big Free Agents just as much as the Yankees. Examples: Dice-K, Beckett, Lackey, Crawford, Gonzalez. The secret is, you've been doing it for longer than people think with the likes of Mo Vaughn, Manny Ramirez, J.D. Drew and so on. I get it that Lester and Bucholz are farm guys, but so are a couple of the Yankees more prominent arms. Stop pretending like it's you and the 28 other teams vs. the Pinstripes, when it's really much more like you and the Yankees vs. world.


Soccer
I don't know if I can be over something I was never under, but can you believe the MLS is still around? But let's be honest. That is all. 

Stop Letting Fans vote for All Stars [Mondays with Gus]

When I think about how much rides on the decision of who makes the all-star teams in MLB, I start to cringe that fans would be allowed to have any involvement whatsoever. The size and length of contracts and home field advantage for the world series are the two big ones I'm talking about here. I understand that MLB (and any corporation or non-profit organization) want their fans/customers to feel personally involved in the success of the franchise, because that drives sales. And I know that fans probably have a lot of fun watching the numbers and seeing who's on top at what position. That's all good and well, but it's really too large of a decision for regular fans.

For starters, most fans only know as much about baseball as they watch on television or read on websites with official ties to MLB itself (MLB.com, individual team sites, ESPN). This means that whatever stories ESPN and MLB think will generate revenue determines what the fans hear about. There is a limited amount of information the average fan knows (or can comprehend, depending on how much they know about the game itself). The average fan that votes can't go to games of every team and make legitimate determinations on who is best at his position. They just vote for whoever they see as their favorite (read: most talked about on TV), which brings me to Derek Jeter.

You know Jeter's going to make the All-Star team. You also know that he doesn't deserve this distinction in the slightest. He's on pace to bat .258 with 6 HR's and 49 RBI's. That's awful. One glance at his numbers (without realizing he's THE Derek Jeter) [editor's note: this fact cannot be put into words or measured with new fangled 'statistics] would make you think he's in the minor leagues. But, he's going to get the fan voting, which is likely going to hurt the American League's chances of getting home field advantage for the world series. What if Jeter loses the game for the AL? Does that mean that the Indians/Red Sox/Rays have to pay for it? I'll admit that the stupidity of the all-star game determining the world series is worth discussing. But, the potential disaster it could cause is magnified by the fan vote.

Furthermore, contracts and their values are determined partially by distinctions such as whether or not a player is of all-star caliber. There are a lot of great players that are not making to all-star games, and therefore missing out on bigger contracts because of it. I'm not gonna sit here and say we should all cry about someone who will “only” sign a $10 million deal instead of the $12 million that he might have got, but it's worth talking about. The fan vote is changing which teams can afford certain players.

       

For all the good things that the fan vote creates, and there are many, it also puts too much in the hands of the fans. They are in no condition to be determining who gets home field advantage in the world series. For my money, I would rather see the fans just be the fans, while players and managers can be players and managers and analyze the game internally to determine who the best players are. While I am all for giving power to the fans (See my previous post on why fans shouldn't pay for stadiums), I cannot justify allowing them to tarnish the game with their lack of expertise.

-Gus Rafeedie

Golf and Trash Talk: The Next Royal Wedding? [Mondays with Gus]

If golf wants to take itself seriously and move up to the next level of popularity in this country, it's going to need to throw off the culture of being the gentleman's game. It can do this very simply by bringing trash talk front and center. Gentlemen aren't supposed to talk trash, but that's exactly what most sports fans want to see. The golf community doesn't come off to me as the kind of group that would accept a debate like this, but I think it's time to try to stir the pot. It's good for the game, and it's good for the fans.

From a business perspective, it's a simple matter of attracting a more diverse group of fans. Some people cannot get into golf because they see it as boring. Baseball gets the same type of criticism, and there is a similar answer: The people who say that simply don't play the game. Nor can most people play the game. 

Golf is expensive and time consuming. Most people in America can't cough up the thousands of dollars required for clubs, balls, shoes, green fees, etc. At least if people can't play the game (and how many of us play football regularly, but still watch?) they should be able to still get into it if golf wants to grow in popularity. The perfect way to do this is through trash talk, because to some degree everyone in America can relate to it.

Imagine if Tiger Woods, while in his prime, came out and started pulling out some Ali-level trash talk. What if he took it a step further and started talking trash about Augusta National and it's lack of black members? That's exactly the kind of thing that would boost ratings. Why do sports fans watch the Yankees and the Red Sox? Because everybody in America absolutely hates one of those teams (or both, in my case) with a passion. That's what golf needs. People screaming at the TV, not sleeping in front of it.

Not only does it make sense from a ratings standpoint, but there's also the actual trash talk itself to consider. There's the obvious material, like most golfers being white and all that. But, the beauty of golf and trash talk is that in golf you don't have teammates (usually). You can talk all the smack you want and not have to worry about how other people that have to stand up for you will respond. That's why Ali was such a great trash talker, and why people like Tom Brady and Michael Jordan never could talk like him. They have teammates to worry about. Sure, MJ and Tom Brady have their moments of smack talk, but nobody can even come close to screaming “What's my name, Uncle Tom?!” to another black man, like Ali once did. You can talk more freely in individual sports like golf because you are the entire team. It's not that you're on the best team, you are the best team.

There's something wrong with a sport when most guys that play it would prefer to smoke a cigar, drink beer, and be really nice and respectful to those around them. I'm not buying it. So, come on golf. What do you say? How about some trash talk?

C'mon Royals

That's gorgeous

Why did you leave this kid in there for 14 runs? Clearly he was getting people out at the same frequency as Aroldis Chapman this year. Not going to do him any good emotionally or mentally knowing that his ERA went out after the game to buy beers.


Supersize Me. Cute movie, Morgan Spurlock. Thought it was tough doing it for a month? This guy is slamming Big Macs (Terry Tate voice) EVERY SINGLE DAY! 


I don't have any advanced metrics or good reason why this is happening...but since April 25, over 21 games, the New York Yankees have scored more than  five runs just twice. Two times. Dos vez. Pathetic. A May record of 5-10 is not a good look for the pinstripes.


Darren Rovell has to be kidding with this article right? A bit of hyperbole (did I use that word correctly?) to already think this pony is winning the Triple Crown to begin with, and furthermore, that one out of every five people paying $20 to what - look at a horse, maybe take its picture - is conservative... This guy usually give great insight, but then every once in a while he tosses out some droll like this that makes me think he has no idea what the business of sports and entertainment is about. One out of five people!? HA! Try one out of 40 or 50.