Biggest Winners and Losers in Sports July 2015

I’ve decided to add a new post I would like to do monthly: the biggest losers and winners in sports. This means all sports apply.

What do you mean by a winner? Someone who has done something good…or has won.

A loser, well the opposite. Someone who is a piece of crap or has lost.

Let’s start off with the negative. Here are who I feel are the biggest losers this last month.

Losers

• Shaquille O’ Neal

Earlier in July the former dominant big man of the National Basketball Association posted from his Instagram account that an “all time Los Angeles Lakers team would beat an all time Chicago Bulls team by at least 50 points”.

A bit sour grapes and out to lunch, but fair enough. You’ve won your four rings and are one of the top centers to ever play the game of basketball, Shaq, but I fail to identify the need for you discredit the great Chicago Bulls of the 1990s (who won six rings in their dominant stretch).

Then as Scottie Pippen responded with a picture of his six rings, Shaq went on the “second fiddle, he’s a bum” rant.

He’s so mad it’s not even funny.

The Bulls team was Michael Jordan but Pippen played a huge role. He could defend. He was an awesome Robin. For Shaq to call him a bum is a bit ludicrous. Yeah I don’t think Pippen would win any rings without Jordan but he’s no bum. And no, the all time Lakers team would not win by 50 points over Michael Jordan.

Shaq should stay off Instagram if he’s going to act that way. And I like Shaq.

• Phil Jackson

It pains me to put such a great player like Shaq on this list and then the best coach possibly ever in the National Basketball Association, the zen master himself.

I couldn’t help it after hearing him constantly in the months of June and July this year slander everyone and everything.

Let’s take a look at the list of opinions he has had over the last month:

-Duke basketball doesn’t really yield many great basketball players

Fair enough, and when looking at the last fifteen or so years that may be somewhat true. But no need to be a dick about it especially to such a great college basketball school/program. He is just punching coach Mike in the balls for throwing an opinion like that out there to the media.

-Talking about the issues Iman Schumpert and JR Smith had while in the big apple

I dislike these two basketball players and thought it was great Phil Jackson let them go, but no need to divulge into the details on why they left. Who the hell would want to play for Phil’s team if he’s willing to slander guys like that after they have left?

-His non-stop talk of how Kobe Bryant has issues with him

This is old, old news. He went on again recently how Kobe constantly looked in anger and disgust at him. Yawn. Get over it. Watch him write another book about it.

-Being behind the Knicks drafting Kristaps Porzingis

Okay, this was in June but I had to bring it up. This guy has bust written all over him and it shows how the Knicks couldn’t even tank the season properly by getting the fourth overall pick instead of the first overall pick.

I’d put my money on Towns and Wiggins being a good duo, and Porzingis busting in the big apple.

• Tom Brady and the New England Patriots

Watching and reading about these two entities as well as their fans has become comical.

No one gets suspended for no reason. Especially a great quarterback with so as much leeway as Tom Brady.

Time and time again this organization is involved in one scandal after the next. And when they get caught, it becomes a big spin from their fans about how this and that didn’t happen or why this and that happened.

His legacy is tarnished now. When Brady gets into the hall of fame there will always be the argument on how he can’t be the best of all time simply because he was involved in so many scandals.

I don’t care if the balls were deflated at 0.5 psi or whatever excuse his fans use. He got caught, he destroyed his phone, and he was evasive.

The whole thing is stupid. There is no better tradition in sports than watching the New England Patriots lose in big games like they did from 2004-2014 before they cheated this year. Except maybe watching Lebron James lose.

The whole organization is arrogant and their fans are a joke.

• Junior Gallette (formerly of the New Orleans Saints)

The guy gets caught on film beating a woman with a belt on a beach. He gets rightfully released by the New Orleans Saints.

What does he do?

Pretty much he slanders the whole organization through his girlfriends Twitter account using hashtags like the genius he is and then denies it.

In the rant he accused offensive lineman Zach Grief of being embarrassed over his wife cheating on him, Sean Payton being a drug addict, and how he thought young safety Vaccaro was gay with Kenny Stills (now of the Miami Dolphins).

Don’t believe me, look it up for yourself. This guy should be at the top of the losers list. After Brady and the New England Deflat…Patriots.

• DeAndre Jordan

Yeah this is a no brainer.

Was the debacle in June or July? He deserves a shout out for the next year or so.

What grown man commits to one team and then backs out when the going gets tough. He hid behind his momma too.

The whole thing was too surreal to believe. And it’s hard to be a fan of this guy after the whole thing happened unless you’re a die hard Clippers fan who can’t tell the difference between black and white.

Biggest Winners

Enough talking about the misfits in sports this last month. Let’s give props to the positive people.

• Dez Bryant (as well as Mr. Jerry Jones)

A nice, big, shiny contract for who I feel is a top five receiver in the National Football League. And before training camp too.

Can’t hate on that. As long as the offensive line holds up, him and Romo will be lighting the league up.

• Russell Wilson

21 million dollars a year for the next four years is the new contract Russell Wilson has received.

A bit over the top, I feel he’s worth more around 15-20 million. But hey, he’s been playing on a discount rookie contract for years. He has earned it. Let’s see if he can hold it up.

Based on getting paid like Dez Bryant, he has won this month. Also getting it done before training camp too to avoid the potential drama.

• Tim Tebow

He has earned a second chance to play in the NFL on the Philadelphia Eagles.

Fellow team mates feel he has a shot to make the squad.

I can’t knock the man and give him credit for his ability to keep going despite things looking all but finished for him.

• Lamarcus Aldridge and the San Antonio Spurs

Can you say favourites to win the NBA championship next year?

Duncan, Aldridge, Parker, Ginobili, Leonard, Patty Mills. My goodness.

They are going out with a bang.

Will the Seattle Seahawks Succumb to Greed?

This is a serious question I have had about my favourite team in the National Football League.

They say in this day and age in the NFL, it is hard to field a consistent winner year after year due to the cap as well as the greed of the players.

Perhaps the Seahawks could be experiencing the same.

Let’s look at what has happened since the disastrous play executed by Russell Wilson lead to the Seahawks failing to repeat as champions in early February of this year.

• Defensive end Michael Bennett wanting more money despite the contract he signed just recently. He makes eight million a year for the next three years on average yet believe he deserves more. Latrell Sprewell must be grinning at how smart this man is
• Bam-bam Kam Chancellor is holding out of training camp believing he deserves more money. Unlike Bennett who was invisible in the super bowl against the New England Patriots this year, Chancellor is clutch in the post season and vital to this teams defense. He makes close to six million this year, six million the next, and eight million the next according to spotrac.com. The stupidity once again amazes me. Especially from someone who looks like one of the classier Seahawk players.
• Quarterback Russell Wilson reportedly rejecting a 21 million dollar a year contract. This is the worst. I don’t know if this is true, I haven’t looked into the sources to see if it is. But if Wilson really did turn that down from the Seahawks, he’s an idiot. He won’t get a dollar more unless he goes out this year and has an MVP-caliber season. He is not nearly as good as Aaron Rodgers who makes around the same range. He is not as good as Tom Brady or Peyton Manning. He is a top ten quarterback and that’s being generous. 21 million? Haha, that’s pretty steep and generous.

The bottom line is these three should be grateful to live in the world that we do. Complaining about making north of five million dollars a year for each of them. Wow.

The detractors may be right, this team may go down due to greed.

Then again, I hope I’m pulling a reverse jinx here.

Tom Brady’s Legacy Officially Tainted

Today Roger Goodell announced the four game suspension of Tom Brady will be upheld. He will not play in the season opener for his New England Patriots.

What does this mean? His legacy is officially damaged and tainted.

None or the greats in the game ever received such a significant suspension or have been involved in as much scandals as he has.

By the way, who is 4-0 in the Super Bowls and who is 4-2? Yeah, exactly. Julian Edelman is smoking crack. Not like anyone knows who he is.

Good on Roger Goodell for having a no nonsense approach to the Cheatriots.

Predicting the 2015-2016 NFL Season

Preseason is just around the corner for the National Football League.

It’s that time of year to go ahead and make predictions. I will be wrong on a few things. I didn’t go through every teams schedule or single game to make these predictions. These are just based on how I feel the teams will do based on their additions over the offseason, their last season, or strength of schedule.

The teams with the toughest schedules this year are:

1. Pittsburgh Steelers: 147-107-2, .579
2. Cincinnati Bengals: 144-112, .563
3. San Francisco 49ers: 143-112-1, .561
4. Seattle Seahawks: 142-112-2, .559
5. Arizona Cardinals:142-113-1, .557

It’s not a shock three teams in the NFC west are in the top five, with the St. Louis Rams coming in at six.

So here we go.

AFC East Predictions

1. New England Patriots 12-4
2. Miami Dolphins 9-7
3. Buffalo Bills 8-8
4. New York Jets 5-11

Pretty obvious in my opinion. The Jets and Bills simply don’t have a quarterback. Credit to them for the moves they made elsewhere. I think both teams may have solid defenses as they both have the right personnel and offseason additions to vouch for that. But still, no quarterback, means not many wins. The Patriots (no brainer) and Dolphins both have quarterbacks who can win them games.

AFC North Predictions

1. Baltimore Ravens 11-5
2. Cincinnati Bengals 11-5
3. Pittsburgh Steelers 9-7
4. Cleveland Browns 6-10

The Browns could be even worse than I realize. Josh McCown flat out sucks. That is their quarterback? Their defense and coaching are the only positive things about that whole organization. The Steelers, Bengals, and Ravens are miles ahead of them in the regular season and in terms of how well run each organization is. I think all three of them have a good chance to make the postseason. Meanwhile in Cleveland…yeah, no comment.

AFC South Predictions

1. Indianapolis Colts 13-3
2. Houston Texans 11-5
3. Jacksonville Jaguars 5-11
4. Tennessee Titans 2-14

There’s simply no hope for the Titans. I feel they may have the worst roster in the league. Nothing to note on defense, nothing really on offense except young Marcus Mariota. He’s being put into a position to fail as far as I’m concerned. Meanwhile Jacksonville is cursed and mourning the loss of first round draft pick Dante Fowler. Blake Bortles should have a much better year than he did last year though. As for the Texans and Colts, they will keep feasting on the unfortunate two below them. The Texans upgraded at their brutal quarterback position while the Colts upgraded their offense and made a few defensive additions.

AFC West Predictions

1. Kansas City Chiefs 10-6
2. Denver Broncos 8-8
3. San Diego Chargers 8-8
4. Oakland Raiders 6-10

This is where I see things getting interesting in the league next year. I feel the Broncos will regress based on what we saw from them to end the year last year as well as their disastrous offseason this year. Such moves from them included the hiring of Gary Kubiak and Ryan Clady getting injured once again. Who will protect Peyton now?

The Chiefs are just getting better and better as far as I’m concerned. And the Chargers are the average Chargers. I do feel the Raiders will improve on their disastrous year last year. All that young talent and new coaching staff should tack on a few wins for them. In three years, look out, they may not be the laughing stock of the league anymore.

NFC East Predictions

1. Philadelphia Eagles 12-4
2. Dallas Cowboys 11-5
3. New York Giants 5-11
4. Washington Redskins 4-12

The Redskins are years away from being solid team. I give them props for hiring McLoughlan as new general manager. He has won every where he’s gone and if given the time, he will turn them into a winner. It simply won’t happen in one year. Bob Griffin is probably going to stay stinking up the joint.

Then there’s the Giants who haven’t done anything to note in the regular season in a while and it appears there may not be much time left for Tom Coughlin. The Cowboys and Eagles are simply the two better teams. Whoever wins the division will be a toss up between them. I went bold and chose the Eagles but if quarterback Sam Bradford goes down, Dallas may easily win it.

NFC North Predictions

1. Green Bay Packers 13-3
2. Detroit Lions 10-6
3. Minnesota Vikings 9-7
4. Chicago Bears 4-12

The Bears…nothing positive to note there but a new coaching staff. But how many coaches can Jay Cutler go through before he starts winning games for the Bears? Their defense looks atrocious as well on paper.

Meanwhile the Vikings, Lions, and Packers all either stayed the same or improved. The Vikings did not bad for a team with a new coach last season. The Lions and Packers stayed the same or made minor additions to pick up where they left off from last year.

NFC South Predictions

1. Carolina Panthers 9-7
2. Atlanta Falcons 8-8
3. New Orleans Saints 7-9
4. Tampa Bay Buccaneers 6-10

Not sure how this division is going to exactly go. Don’t even be shocked if the Buccaneers manage to win it. Who knows how their offense will be with Jameis Winston at the helm or their defense with a season under their belt with new coach Lovie Smith.

NFC West Predictions

1. Seattle Seahawks 12-4
2. St. Louis Rams 10-6
3. Arizona Cardinals 10-6
4. San Francisco 49ers 4-12

Tough to predict this division as well. I think one thing is obvious: the Seahawks are the favourites to win the super bowl again this year and the 49ers have regressed.

It becomes a game of rotating the Rams or Cardinals. Jeff Fisher’s job is on the line this year. If they can’t improve from their 8-8 or 7-9 seasons, he could be gone. The talent is there, there is no excuse. The Cardinals meanwhile are a good team. It will be interesting to see how things end up between the two.

Ranking Every Teams Starting Quarterback

In terms of which quarterbacks will be starting on week one for their NFL teams next week, here is how I would rank them:

1. Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers
2. Peyton Manning, Denver Broncos
3. Tom Brady, New England Patriots
4. Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints
5. Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh Steelers
6. Russell Wilson, Seattle Seahawks
7. Andrew Luck, Indianapolis Colts
8. Phillip Rivers, San Diego Chargers
9. Matt Ryan, Atlanta Falcons
10. Tony Romo, Dallas Cowboys
11. Eli Manning, New York Giants
12. Jay Cutler, Chicago Bears
13. Cam Newton, Carolina Panthers
14. Joe Flacco, Baltimore Ravens
15. Matt Stafford, Detroit Lions
16. Nick Foles, Philadelphia Eagles
17. Alex Smith, Kansas City Chiefs
18. Ryan Tannehill, Miami Dolphins
19. Andy Dalton, Cincinnati Bengals
20. Jake Locker, Tennessee Titans
21. Colin Kaepernick, San Francisco 49ers
22. Carson Palmer, Arizona Cardinals
23. Robert Griffin III, Washington Redskins
24. Matt Schaub, Oakland Raiders
25. Josh McCown, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
26. Brian Hoyer, Cleveland Browns
27. Geno Smith, New York Jets
28. EJ Manuel, Buffalo Bills
29. Chad Henne, Jacksonville Jaguars
30. Matt Cassel, Minnesota Vikings
31. Shaun Hill, St. Louis Rams
32. Ryan Mallett/Ryan Fitzpatrick, Houston Texans

Aaron Rodgers to me has been the best in the league for a few years now. He is flat out dangerous, has a rocket arm, and wicked accuracy. He also has the ability to torch any defense. Besides the San Francisco 49ers for whatever reason. If he is not number one then it’s either Peyton Manning on Tom Brady, the two usual suspects. No quarterback has ever matched Peyton Manning’s success in the regular season and not many quarterbacks have matched Brady’s success in the post season. These are clearly the top three quarterbacks in the league without much debate.

After those three it’s clearly Brees and Big Ben. Without Brees the Saints do not have the same attack on offense. They have been dominant for years due to him and Sean Payton, one of the best duos in the league. As for Pittsburgh I really do think if they did not have Big Ben for the last few years they would have been a lottery team. The fact he can survive behind the offense line and a defense that has been getting weaker year by year speaks volumes. I commend him for making them even a near .500 team.

The next two I would say are the best from the 2012 NFL draft: Russell Wilson and Andrew Luck. You could rotate either one. As a Seahawks fan I would admit Andrew Luck has the bigger upside of both. In a few years you will see Andrew Luck as the number one quarterback in the league. I am not over rating the guy. He is a generational talent. Like Aaron Rodgers he has the ability to torch any defense on any given night. I saw him do it against the Seahawks. In his first year he was reckless but learned a lot and I saw a kid with skills last year. The Patriots made a mockery of him and his team in the postseason but I doubt it will happen much more often. Him and Russell Wilson are elite and two of the top young quarterbacks in the league.

This is where the list gets complicated. After deciding who has the highest upside and who is the best, who should come after? There is really no good way to rank this. I would say from what I’ve seen Rivers is still top ten. He looked rejuvenated out there last year and damn good. You could rank him even higher than that. Matt Ryan and Tony Romo are also top ten in my opinion. They have not won super bowls like Eli Manning and Joe Flacco have but they have consistency in the regular season. Tony Romo is good but unfortunately the least clutch quarterback we have ever seen in the league. Poor guy.

Cam Newton is a guy I have said will be a top five quarterback one day. He just hasn’t surpassed those ahead of him. If he repeats his dominance this year I will rank him near the top five on next years list no questions asked. Until then I think it’s fine to put him behind Eli and Joe Flacco.

I think Ryan Mallett or Fitzpatrick are the worst starting quarterbacks in the league. Whoever the Texans name. Fitzpatrick is terrible and Mallet has little to no starting experience. I can’t rank him very high. Shaun Hill was considered one of the better backup quarterbacks in the league for years. Mallett never really was because he had to sit every game for Tom Brady.]

If Blake Bortles was a starting quarterback I would rank him much higher than Chad Henne without thinking twice.

The same could be considered for Derek Carr if the Raiders choose to go with him over Matt Schaub, which I doubt for now. Matt Schaub is alright, but he might be done as a quarterback. His last time with the Texans was an awful sight. And people have said he has not looked good in the preseason for the Raiders either. Keep your eye on him and the Raiders this year.