What are the Consequences of FALSE Tampering Charges?

by | Jul 24, 2008 | Business of Football, NFL News, NFL Random Thoughts

So, unless you’re hiding under a rock, or you’ve wisely already made ZoneBlitz the only Web site you visit each day, you probably already know the latest news in the ongoing Favre-Packers-Vikings love triangle, which is that Favre does NOT, in fact, have a Packers issued cell phone. So, either the tampering charges were apparently based on some other evidence, or the Packers are just on a fishing trip, trying to make life as miserable for the Vikings as it has been for the Pack since Favre decided to “un-retire.”

And that got us to thinking–what are the consequences for the Packers if the Vikings are found NOT to have been tampering? If the Packers suspected that the Vikings might be tampering, since he speaks to his friend Darrell Bevell frequently, and filed the complaint simply believing that the NFL might find something–and if not, then at least the Vikings have had to deal with a problem right before training camp, there has to be some sort of consequence for filing false charges, right?

If there’s no penalty, you can expect this to become a strategy in coming seasons, as teams try to hassle division rivals to try to gain an edge. At least until Roger Goodell steps in and tells them to knock it off (a la the Poison Pill contaract provision), or he comes down hard on some team for doing so (and destroys all the evidence afterward).

ESPN (Re)joins the Blogosphere…again

by | Jul 23, 2008 | NFL Media

Apparently realizing that if any average joe can start a football blog, they better have their act together, ESPN is re-vamping their football blog strategy–doing away with their Hashmarks blog, and introducing eight divisional blogs for the NFL, and six BCS conference blogs for college, each headed by a real honest to god reporter with some print journalism experience.

As noted on ProFootballTalk, it remains to be seen how the blog network will actually work, especially given that people reading blogs are often looking for a different approach/perspective than traditional newspapers (or overgrown supposed sports networks) tend to offer.

Then again, from ESPN’s perspective, maybe they consider utilizing real journalists for such an endeavor to be a different approach.

The Hypocritical NFL

by | Jul 23, 2008 | Business of Football, No Fun League

The NFL is all about money–money from ticket sales, money from jersey sales, money from the networks.  Money from the networks that they make by selling sponsorships and ads.  Often sponsorships and ads from beer companies.

However, when it comes to the players, beer and alcohol is a no no–at least for endorsements.  That’s why Charles Woodson can’t promote his wine, called TwentyFour.  The NFL apparently sent Woodson a letter, saying:

…any interviews supporting alcohol would be seen as an endorsement and “may have a detrimental effect on the great number of young fans who follow our game.”

Like the article we linked to, we find it amazing that the NFL can promote as much beer as they want, but a player can’t promote his own line of wine.  And yet we find it somewhat surprising that the simple act of having a wine isn’t enough ‘endorsement’ to get the league to put it’s foot down.

And we’re going to go out on a limb, and say that Woodson developed his taste for wine in his playing days in Oakland–not Green Bay.

Shanahan Continues To Show His Colors, cuts Mike Bell

by | Jul 22, 2008 | NFL Random Thoughts

In 2006, Mike Bell went from undrafted free agent to starting tailback for his hometown Denver Broncos in the first week of training camp.  Despite eventually losing the starting role to Tatum Bell, he still put up a respectable 677 yards and scored 8 TDs in his rookie season.

Prospects looked decent for the Broncos, with a backfield of Bell and Bell splitting the load.  But Mike Shanahan wasn’t satisfied–acting on his apparently insatiable desire to add players of questionable work effort, talent and intelligence into the fold, he acquired Travis Henry and drafted Selvin Young, which upset one Bell (Tatum) to the point of demanding a trade, and forced the other (Mike) to fullback.

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Why We Started This Blog

by | Jul 2, 2008 | Fantasy Football

One of the reasons that we started this blog was that Andy and I generally talk a lot of fantasy football throughout the season.  And preseason.  And pre-preseason.  Enough that, even though we don’t have full time jobs writing about it, we often think we would be better at doing so than many people that do.

Case in point:

Article (already discussed here) from Yahoo that amongst other things, has three “experts” pciking their ‘Top 5 players you’ll most heavily target in drafts.’  Now, I don’t know about you, but the top guys that I most heavily target in a draft are usually guys that will go in the first 2-3 rounds–maybe into the 4th, if I’m lucky.  Beyond that, it’s not so much that I targeted them, as they were the best of the rest.  Or the best of the worst.

In this article, Andy Behrens lists his #4 player as Matt Forte, rookie RB for the Bears.  Even links to an article, where apparently the value of Forte was previously discussed (I’d go into more detail, but it appears this article has already disappeared from Yahoo).

Now, fast forward to an article posted today, written by the same Andy Behrens.  In this article, which ranks the Bears as the worst team in the NFL from a fantasy stand point–a point I can probably agree with him on.  However, check out that first paragraph:

“Not surprisingly, there are no Bears among the top 25 quarterbacks in the Yahoo! experts composite rankings. There are also no Bears among the top 25 running backs, or the top 50 receivers, or the top 12 tight ends.”

So apparently, I’m supposed to be heavily targetting Matt Forte, despite the fact that he’s not a top 25 back.

The lesson here?  Both at ZoneBlitz and at Yahoo, you get what you pay for, in regards to fantasy football advice.