Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Broncos head coach Sean Payton reportedly considered Bill Belichick a temporary takeover as head coach. A convoluted plan to get Belichick the 15 more wins he needs.

- Wall Street on SpaceX.

- Wait - a Chinese company owns Volvo but many Volvo cars are made in SC - so that's OK? I'm not looking at Volvo the same ever again.

- The US is failing its own NATO talking point.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- How come common sense only applies to dogs? 

- Sean Payton set to become new Broncos head coach. They should bring in Drew Brees as the QB coach.

- Morgan Housel - Everything You Can't Have

- Bugsy Siegel's LA Mansion back on the market

Condoleezza Rice

Condoleezza Rice joins Denver Broncos ownership group.

Good for her! I have long held that she'd be the perfect replacement as NFL Commissioner if they are ever able to get rid of human cockroach Roger Goodell. Officially becoming part of the Broncos helps her get her foot in the door and may be the first step in making that a reality.

Maybe the Only Day You'll Find Me Rooting for the Denver Broncos

A good cause.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Fire Grilled Turtles - band name or hipster entree?... Impressive!... Does it bother anyone else that nobody in the press seemed to ask where Syria got the poison gas in the first place? Didn't George W. Bush say that Iraq sent some of theirs into Syria to avoid inspectors? Why isn't that a bigger story?... Heh heh... Cult of Inhibitions - band name or all-inclusive resort?... This is going to put Match.com out of business... Just a reminder that one of the reasons the Broncos ran Josh McDaniels out of Denver was because he traded clubhouse cancer Jay Cutler... Sex Melon - band name or hipster cocktail?... I love the fact that Steelers fans have to live with the fact that Tim Tebow beat them in the playoffs...

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Tom Brady and the Patriots are 3-0 in the playoffs versus the top regular season defense. In those games the Pats average 31 points. The Broncos were the top regular season defense this season.... Jamie Foxx is the man (but what about the un-named off work EMT who was even more important to the successful rescue?)... Come on - just one taste... I think it is beyond hypocritical for any state that participates in a lottery to ban people from playing daily fantasy sports... Heh heh... Meat Slurry would be a good name for a band. Or for a companion entree to Golden Corral's Chocolate Waterfall... Perspective - if you had a minute of silence for each person killed in the Holocaust you would have to be silent for eleven and a half years... Add Horseshoe Bend on the Colorado River to the places I want to visit... How great would it be if someone replaced Stephen Hawking's computer voice with the voice of Emo Phillips?... President Obama's foreign policy in a nutshell - he attended the funeral of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah but skipped the funeral of Britain's Margaret Thatcher...

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

If ESPN's Chris Mortensen was asked to sit on a jury on a case involving Peyton Manning - he'd have to be recused because he's a longtime friend. Yet we are supposed to think he's objective when it come to Peyton's reputed HGH usage... Excelsior! Stan Lee turned 93 yesterday... Is the brain "affected" by alcohol or "effected" by alcohol? Or both?... Manning's doctor is famous for his HGH therapy but we are supposed to believe he was going to him for other treatments... The Ewoks are dead. All of them... Words in a Cunning Order would be a good name for a blog - or a publishing company... My favorite part of the Manning story is now whenever Peyton gets mad at anyone - people can immediately ascribe it to "Roid Rage"... Touching stories of George W. Bush visiting soldiers in the hospital... So does Manning retire at the end of the season with this HGH story hanging over his head or does he try to stay on and dare the Broncos to cut him?... I'm an awful person for laughing at this...

Separated at Birth

Tell me that Broncos QB Brock Osweiler doesn't look like this guy.

His new nickname should be the Football Piazza.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

For those of you wondering after watching the first half of last night's game - Brock Osweiler is Peyton Manning's backup in Denver... Can't believe this is the guy who has been leading the polls for the GOP... According to sources Chris Mortensen's Tweet that 11 of 12 of Jason Pierre-Paul's fingers being badly damaged has been deleted... Am I a bad person that I laughed at this?... College football announcers who say "true freshman" should be forced to say "true sophomore", "true junior" and "true senior" as well...  Never knew there was such a deep connection between Irish heritage and Fenway Park... With the Pope's upcoming visit to the US - I began wondering who is America's most prominent Catholic? Joe Biden? Stephen Colbert? Jim Gaffigan? Tom Brady?... I can't stand PK Subban on the ice but off the ice it's hard not to like him when he does things like this...

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

My favorite stat from the weekend - Tom Brady is about to go to his 9th AFC Championship game meanwhile Peyton Manning now has 9 one-and-done playoff appearances... Lazy or awesome?!?!... It is rumored that the Denver Broncos may want to part ways with head coach John Fox. If true they should look for a top offensive coach to take his place. You know - someone like Josh McDaniels... Heh heh... The wife of Moses was Zipporah. It's amazing how lost to history she has become. We really know zip about Zipporah... Heh heh... If they had called it an iSegway instead of just Segway - would everyone own one by now?... Ratio wise - I wonder if the distance between stars is much different than the difference in distance between atoms... Peyton Manning lines up another commercial opportunity...

Super Bowl Hangover

Some leftover Super Bowl thoughts.

- The Seahawks were just dominant. As a Patriots fan I concede that this year's Pats team wouldn't have stood a chance against Seattle so there's the consolation of thinking it was much better to lose in the AFC Championship than to get beat in the Super Bowl.

- What's worse to hear - a poker bad beat story or a Super Bowl square "what if" story? If Denver failed on its 2-point conversion at the end of the 3rd quarter I would have won $2,000 in one of my pools.

- How scary looking was the guy the NFL had bring out the Lombardi Trophy? I expected his entrance to be accompanied by the Undertaker's WWE music.

- The Broncos are now 0-4 in Super Bowls where they wear orange jerseys. Patient "Doc it hurts when I do this". Doctor "Well don't do that." Denver stop wearing orange jerseys in the Super Bowl. Problem solved.

- Some good commercials last night but my all-time favorite Super Bowl commercial still remains the Budweiser Upside-down Clown.

Brady vs Manning XV

Tom E. Curran had the best take on tomorrow's AFC Championship match-up or as many are calling it - Brady vs Manning XV (sorry can't find link to his article). Basically what Curran said was if you call yourself a football fan then you've already taken sides in the "greatest QB of all-time" argument and if this one game is going to get you to switch then you were wrong in calling yourself a football fan to begin with.

I agree with that argument but as a Tom Brady guy let me say that the Patriots and Tom Brady are in a can't lose situation Sunday. If New England wins then Brady apologists get to crow that once again Tom Terrific comes up big in big games and once again Manning needs a playoff-Heimlich maneuver. If Denver wins then big deal. The Broncos had the best scoring offense in history while Brady was working with cast-offs from the Island of Misfit NFL Players. And even with the loss Brady would still be 10-5 all-time head-to-head against Peyton. All the pressure is on Manning.

One of my favorite takes on Brady vs Manning XV came from Kissing Suzy Kolber.

Then again - as a Brady guy I think this nicely sums up the situation.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Serious question - if Peyton Manning is hurt worse than the Broncos are letting on and is suddenly out for the season after taking a big hit Sunday - would Denver bring back Tim Tebow to be their QB? Do you think fans would prefer handing things off to Brock Osweiler? Tim Tebow would know his place as a back-up this time around... Fan art tributes to Teddy Roosevelt... I like the word "lumberjacks" and think florists should instead be called "flowerjacks"... This past week PBS had an American Experience special on JFK. The subconscious or conscious comparison to Brack Obama is not flattering to Obama and I think people on the Left had to have been thinking about it... After this week I think we also got a good glimpse as to why this Administration was not able to come up with a technological replacement for the Space Shuttle. Imagine that disaster!... Speaking of PBS and technology - some people there obviously think Albert Einstein was a closet rapist...

Wes Welker

Little late to the game on this but I had to say my two cents.

Like most Patriots fans I am sad to see Wes Welker leave. Especially sad to see him joining Peyton Manning in Denver. Unlike most Patriots fans - I think this was the right move. How many times last season did you hear in a bar, "Wes Welker normally catches that." The later in the season, and the more often it was said - the less convincing the person felt saying it.

People will, of course, bring up Welker dropping that pass in the Super Bowl but as I said before - that dropped pass didn't cost them the game. Rob Ninkovitch jumping off-sides on third down was a bigger mistake. And Tom Brady's intentional grounding was even bigger than that. Without that safety the Patriots would have been down just by 2 at the end of the game and a field goal could have won the game.

Still - there's no mistaking Welker dropped a lot of passes last year. Last year Welker dropped 11 passes - which was second most in the NFL. Sure he also was targeted a ton but consider that according to ESPN - since 2010 Welker dropped one pass for every 12.5 caught. Amendola's drop rate was one for every 21.9 caught over that same time frame.

Against the Titans in the second game of the season Welker was benched after dropping a pass. Back then the Patriots thought Brandon Lloyd and Julian Edelman could replace Wes' production. Now it seems they are hoping Edelman and Danny Amendola can shoulder the load. The main point is early last year the Patriots recognized the dropped passes problem

Welker's main value is catching the ball. Both Amendola and Edelman can catch the ball too but both also have younger legs which means they can also both run better than the soon to be 32-year old Welker. Bubble screens, a favorite play of the Patriots, gain more yards with younger, fresher legs. Plus there's no yards after catch if the pass is dropped.

Wes Welker will probably put up eye-popping numbers next year. I hope he does. But that doesn't change the fact that the Patriots made the right move.

Whither Tim Tebow?

"Who will rid me of this troublesome QB?" John "Henry II" Elway

Supposedly now that Peyton Manning is in hand - the Denver Broncos will trade Tim Tebow possibly as early as this afternoon. Speculation is ripe throughout the Intertubes about where he will end up. Jacksonville? That would seem the natural marketing fit yet the football people there prefer Blaine Gabbert which I don't understand. Sure Gabbert has a slightly higher completion percentage but he throws many more interceptions than Tebow. Miami? Don't know about you but I'd rather have Tebow than Matt Moore.

There's a school of thought that Tebow could work as back-up for an established QB like an Aaron Rogers in Green Bay, maybe a Drew Brees in New Orleans or Tom Brady in New England. Green Bay just lost their backup QB Matt Flynn who signed with Seattle so there seems to be a slot open there. I honestly couldn't tell you who is the backup QB in New Orleans but if Tim Tebow got traded there then everyone would know who the backup was. New England has perhaps the best depth at QB of any team in the NFL. Tom Brady is a God, Brian Hoyer could probably start for half the teams in the league and Ryan Mallett is a cannon-armed diamond in the rough. That said - how about a trade that would send Ochocinco to the Broncos for Tim Tebow? That would solve a problem for both teams. If I'm Bill Belichick I definitely make that offer. Just for the salary cap space it would be worth it (Chad Ochocinco costs them $3 million while Tebow would just be $1 million).

One of the more intriguing rumors is the Jets being interested in Tebow. I wonder if that is the offshoot of all the speculation that the Patriots are interested? How funny would that be if the Jets get goaded into a move just out of fear that Belichick was somehow outmaneuvering them? I would actually like to see Tebow in New York but not with the Jets. How ironic would it be if Tebow ends up as Eli Manning's backup with the Giants? I think that would be great on a cosmic karma scale.

Don't sleep on the very real possibility that the Broncos announce today that they are not trading Tebow but are releasing him instead. They could spin it that they owe it to Tim after everything he did for the team last year to let him decide what team would be best for him to sign with. This would eliminate the embarrassing situation of having to settle for a 5th or 7th round pick for a guy who was your starting QB last year.

If Tebow is released then a whole new set of opportunities open up. How come nobody has mentioned the CFL? Tebow in Canada would be the biggest thing since Doug Flutie played north of the border. It would give Tebow the chance to start at QB and prove that he can do the job just as Flutie had to go to America's Hat to show he could be an NFL QB.  You know the CFL is salivating just at the thought of Tebow.

I still think the Flutie comparison is apt. Looking back - how many NFL teams would have been better off with Flutie than the prototypical NFL QB's they tried while Flutie was up in Canada? When all is said and done - people may think the same thing about Tim Tebow.

So what's God's will for Tim Tebow? We might find out today.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Can't the Broncos just trade Tim Tebow to the Rockies to be their 5th starter? Bam - problem solved... Video of Bruins'Milan Lucic destroying Michael Komisarek of the Maple Leafs... ESPN should make Bobby Knight announce some women's NCAA games paired with Jeremy Schaap. Tell me the ratings for those games wouldn't be the best women's NCAA games of the year?... If I were an NFL GM and Tim Tebow only cost me a 5th round pick - I'd trade for him and have him return punts and come in on goal-line packages. Seriously... Has anyone asked George Karl what was harder - beating cancer or coaching Carmelo Anthony? Too soon?... I'd love it if someone did a Watchmen mashup with Tim Tebow doing his best Rorschach, "When Peyton Manning gets hurt in the 3rd game of the season and the fickle Broncos fans plead save us - I'll whisper 'NO'"...  Mitt Romney overwhelmingly won the Puerto Rico primary / caucus and though the result was not surprising the fact that no news outlet mentioned that historically the island is tied to the Massachusetts Congressional delegation was. The ties to Massachusetts go back generations yet nobody mentioned the connection... If the day after Christmas can be known as Boxing Day - why can't the day after Saint Patrick's Day be known as Hangover Day?... Can pregnant women go swimming?

Please God

Dear God - I don't ask for much and I don't ask often but there is something I really want.

Right now the Denver Broncos are doing the Old Testament equivalent of coveting their neighbor's wife. They really, really want to sign Peyton "Jezebel" Manning who has been flirting with any team with money like a shameless hussy.

What I want is simple. Right now Brady Quinn is visiting the Kansas City Chiefs. Thy will be done and have him sign there. I would also like the Broncos to lose out on Peyton Manning - have him sign with the 49ers or Titans instead. So far - nothing special in the request but here's the bit that might take some doing. Please talk to your servant Timothy Tebow and convince him to take a year off from the NFL to do missionary work in the Phillipines.

I admit that the only thing I'd get out of this arrangement is a very good laugh but I'd love it if John Elway and the rest of the Broncos management had to go hat in hand to the other side of the world to beg Tim Tebow to come back to the team to be their starting QB. After publicly shunning him for Manning how great would that be? I mean - I would just love that.

Please God. I don't ask much and I don't ask often.

Tim Tebow and Tom Brady

I imagine that many people last night were checking the Bible for the appropriate Bible quote based upon the score change (guilty as charged) and I think funny enough a proper quotation was found at the end of the game. Last week Tim Tebow had 316 yards passing and everyone immediately seized on John 3:16. Last night Tebow finished with 136 yards passing and John 1:26 seems fitting enough; "When he saw Jesus passing by he said, 'Look the Lamb of God'". Tebow was John the Baptist preaching football in the Wilderness and last night he saw what a real football Jesus looked like (Jesus passing - get it?).

I am far from a Tebow hater - the opposite would be true. I think this season he made the Broncos much more competitive and vastly more interesting. Orton or Quinn would have led this team to maybe 5 wins tops. Tebow took them to to not just the playoffs but also to a 1st round playoff victory. Broncos fans should be pleased - he exceeded expectations.

Now the Patriots will have to deal with the haters of their own. The "this defense isn't good enough to win the Super Bowl" haters. The "this team still hasn't beaten a team with a winning record" haters. I hope that puts a chip on their shoulders because we have seen in the past how a "us against the world" Bill Belichick coached team reacts in those situations.

All I know is that the team I saw last night looks mightily tough to beat. I see the Patriots making the Super Bowl. Belichick lo vult (Belichick wills it).

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

All day yesterday I was wondering where Rex Ryan was watching the playoffs. It certainly wasn't from the sidelines... Not to toot my own horn but I did predict Denver winning the game last Thursday... I hope next year the Patriots use the money they wasted on Albert Haynesworth and Ochocinco to get the fans something nice... I am waiting for Rick Santorum to confess that he enjoys accubation - the practice of eating or drinking while lying down. That would be cool... Ever see the World's Strongest Man competitions where they have those huge guys running a 100-yard dash carrying hundreds of pounds? Wouldn't one of those guys make a great short-yardage back in the NFL? Assuming of course they could pass the steroids tests... There is a species of fish that hides from prey by swimming into the anus of a sea cucumber. The fish is called a Pearlfish but I wonder if science would be willing to rename the species the JimmyCarterfish... Just when you think Stephen Hawking couldn't get any more awesome you learn that he likes to go to top shelf whiskey tasting events... Newt Gingrich is annoying in large part because he is a constant autohagiorapher - one who speaks or writes about themselves in a smug fashion... So what did Bill Maher Tweet about Tim Tebow today? Yeah - thought so... Man who creates amazing Rube-Goldberg machines in his apartment... Am I the only one who has trouble sleeping because I'm worried about the status of Tom Brady's playoff beard?... Just saying it for the record - Jorge Posada is not a Hall of Fame player... How big of a surprise would it be if Mitt Romney admitted he was a autotonsorilist - one who cuts his own hair. Just a Flowbee and some "product" he buys from WalMart... Just a reminder but Hall of Famer Barry Larkin was basically kicked to the curb in Cincinnati for one and a half seasons of Felipe Lopez.

Denver Broncos

I have a hunch and I wanted to share. I think the Denver Broncos may win Sunday's game outright.

Even before seeing the fact that the last 5 teams in the NFL playoffs with a record of .500 or worse are 5-0 against the spread the past 5 years - I had a hunch about the Broncos. Even before seeing that Denver coach John Fox is 6-2 ATS in the playoffs and 5-1 ATS when an underdog - I had a hunch about the Broncos.

The Steelers are very banged up. Many pundits are saying Tim Tebow is the worst QB in the playoffs but I would take Tebow over an completely immobile Ben Roethlisberger. Who would you take - Tebow or Charlie Batch? Remember how the Steelers fared against the 49ers - a team with a strong running game and defense? Remember how the Steelers lost twice to the Ravens - a team with a strong running game and defense? Remember how the Steelers got beat by the Texans - a team with a strong running game and defense? Three out of four of those games were on the road. This Sunday the Steelers will be facing a team with a strong running game and dense and they will be on the road.

And they will be without Rashad Mendenhall and maybe Ben Roethlisberger. Last year the Saints lost to the Seahawks as prohibitive favorites. On the road. Against a team with a strong running game and defense. And their QB and running backs were healthy.

The Steelers are 9 point favorites and -$400 on the moneyline. I may be taking the Broncos on both.