2010 NFL Mock Draft XIV (02/03)

I know it’s National Signing Day today, but I’m putting up a mock draft to give you a small side of NFL with your huge main course of NCAA football. Like I mentioned last time, I will be taking into account the input of the commenters for this one, and my next one will be more than just the first round. I know you’re excited. I will again be providing my reasoning and thoughts on some of the picks at the bottom after the actual mock itself. To see how things have progressed with my 2010 mock drafts take a look back at I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, and XIII. Here is the fourteenth installment:

Friday 5 – Play-By-Play Announcers

Alright, we have our first ever Friday 5 from Mr. Wright, who you all may remember from his weekly posts that I put up during the NFL season, with both his Bettor’s Guides and the Power Rankings. He did a top five Play-By-Play announcers list on his site, and told me I should feel free to re-post it over here. So here it is:

My Top 5 Play-By-Play Announcers Of All-Time
M.D. Wright
1.29.10

***EDITOR’S NOTE: New series of favorites — as we move up to the broadcast booth and pick the favorites there.

Mind you, I am not excluding the Tom Brookshires and Don Criquis of the world, but I can only speak on the 25+ years that I have been watching sports. So I will stick with what I know and not who I’ve only HEARD ABOUT.

Without further adieu, here is my Top 5 Favorite Play-By-Play Announcers of All-Time (that is, 1979-Present ha). Also, this list is about guys I’ve actually listened to regularly or nearly daily on local stations or during network TV. Guys like Vin Scully, who I’ve only heard call 30+ games and other legends like that are not being ignored, I am doing this for the purposes of highlighting the guys who I actually hear most — and not agreeing with everyone who likes to do a Who’s Who list of icons and legends in the broadcasting booth.

2010 NFL Mock Draft XIII (01/29)

It’s been just over a week since my last mock draft so I figure it’s that time again. Unlike the last few however, I will not be taking into account the input from the commenters on the last mock. Instead I will start over fresh with this one, and I will start taking the comments into account again with the next mock draft. The draft order is essentially set now except for who will pick 31st and who will pick 32nd. There are a few other things that need to be sorted out, but this covers it. To see how things have progressed with my 2010 mock drafts take a look back at I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, and XII. Here is the thirteenth installment:

Good Luck, Bryan

As many of you know, Bryan flew to Vancouver yesterday to work at the Winter Olympics. I’m putting this post up to wish him good luck while he is there and also to say that with him in another country and me having started classes, things might be a little slower around here. I’ll do my best to keep getting stuff up here but as of right now, I don’t even know if Bryan has access to the internet. I am still planning to put up frequent mock drafts as well as writing a Super Bowl preview. It also looks like this will mean that our fan mock draft is going to be starting in March, which will probably work out for the better because we will have all of the results from the combine by then. If you have any questions, comments or concerns feel free to let me know via email or in the comments.

Some Olympic Hardware

Earlier today, I got curious and looked up what the medals for the upcoming Olympics would look like.  What I found was way more in-depth than I wanted, but I read all the articles and watched all the videos anyway.  Apparently these medals are wrought with symbolism.  Something about some whales and stuff, I don’t really remember.  Anyway, I thought they looked a whole lot better than the medals from Turin four years ago.

After I was satisfied with the medals from Vancouver, I went back on a pictorial walk through past Winter Olympic medals and figured I’d share them with you all.

Enjoy.

Minnesota Vikings at New Orleans Saints

The second-to-last post for this 11-part series, previewing each and every game for the NFL playoffs. To see any of the previous nine, click on the appropriate link below:

Jets at Colts

Jets at Chargers

Cowboys at Vikings

Ravens at Colts

Cardinals at Saints

Packers at Cardinals

Ravens at patriots

Eagles at Cowboys

Jets at Bengals

This game will likely prove to be the most intense game so far this post season. These were the two highest scoring offenses during the regular season and both have stellar defenses. However I think one of the biggest factors in this week’s game is how well the Vikings can handle going into the Superdome and coping with the loud crowd that comes with it. All four of the Vikings losses have came when they were on the road this year. Away from home they are 4-4 and New Orleans is one of the hardest places to play as a visiting team.

Friday 5 – Reasons to Watch the Winter Olympics

Okay, I’m going to be honest, this isn’t exactly the top five reasons to watch the Winter Olympics. It’s more so of a list for the top five things to look at while watching the Winter Olympics. In short this is a cop-out Friday 5, where I’m listing the five best looking female athletes that will be competing in the Winter Olympics this year.

The Honorable Mention for this one goes to Hilary Knight of the United States Women’s Hockey Team. Here’s a picture of her, and the top five after the jump:

The Unspoken Rules of Hockey

This time of the year is like a dead period for me.  College football is over, the NFL playoffs are in full swing but the Rams suck and Weller has those covered, I don’t like basketball and I only get to see one or two hockey games a week.  (I hate you Mediacom.  I hate you so much.)  That should semi explain my absence in the past week, plus I’m leaving for Vancouver on Tuesday morning and I’ve been filling out various paperwork all week.  Then this hockey fight between the New York’s Marian Gaborik and Philadelphia’s Daniel Carcillo caught my eye:

For those of you who don’t watch much hockey, Gaborik has 61 points on the year while Carcillo has 11.  Gaborik has 23 penalty minutes. Carcillo has 130.  Needless to say, it was a mismatch.

New York Jets at Indianapolis Colts

This is the ninth installment of my 11-part series, previewing each and every NFL playoff game this year. To read any of the other eight click on the appropriate link below:

Jets at Chargers

Cowboys at Vikings

Ravens at Colts

Cardinals at Saints

Packers at Cardinals

Ravens at patriots

Eagles at Cowboys

Jets at Bengals

The Jets need to play their absolute best football to win this game. Unfortunately for the Colts, that’s exactly what the Jets have been doing lately and on top of that the Jets seem to have luck on their side as well. For the Colts this will be a very similar game to last week, with one difference. The Ravens had a defense that excelled at stopping the run, and the Jets are a team that excels at stopping the pass but both are great overall defenses. The Jets and Ravens are essentially the exact same team offensively. Run first, pass minimally, young quarterback, one successful young running back and an effective veteran running back as well as a good full back. So if the Colts defense can have a similar performance to the one they put on last week the Jets will have a tough time scoring, therefore a tough time winning.

2010 NFL Mock Draft XII (01/21)

It’s been about two weeks since my last mock draft and some things have definitely changed since then so it’s time for a new one. As I have done with the past few I will be taking into account the input from the commenters on the last mock. As usual, I will be determining my draft order based off of Bryan’s awesome, weekly post that shows exactly what the draft order would be if the season were to end today. To see how things have progressed with my 2010 mock drafts take a look back at I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, and XI. Here is the twelfth installment: