Chris Henry? Dead?

There has been a lot of a-booing and a-hooing over the death of Chris Henry, today. I am not one of them. I mean, I made fun of a kid getting stabbed at a nightclub for Sam Houston's sake. So, why would I care about a dirt bag WR? I won't get into his whole record, but I will point out one thing. How did he die? He was jumping into the back of a moving pickup truck to attack his fiancee. At least he died doing what he loved...beating his fiancee.

Action Football! Season 2 Episode 17

A Season 1-esque behemoth, this. Enjoy!

ThursDay in Football

NCAA
To no one's surprise, Lane Kiffin is being looked at by the NCAA for recruiting violations. Reggie Bush and his momma sitting in their free house are shocked. One of the main violations has to do with the used of hostesses for recruits (READ: whores).

Texas has decided to make Mack Brown the highest paid coach in college sports. He'll be getting paid $5 million a year or half a billion pennies. At his press conference, Brown was quoted to be "drinkin' Maker's Mark-a. Cranberry vodka" and he apprearently owns a "fur coat 'bout hairy as Chewbacca". Living the dream.

Notre Dame is interested in UConn coach Randy Edsall. I don't know what the hell that means. I guess the AD has to pass a note to Edsall in a film session and it says "Do you like me?" with a box that says yes or no. (PREPARE YOURSELF FOR THIS ONE!) Looks as though Notre Dame is trading in one husky coach for another Husky coach. HOO-WAA! Where's my rim-shot? Or is it a rim job? Either way, I am taking my pants off.

Michigan State freshman WR Myles White has been suspended from the team for being arrested for underage possession of alcohol and making sissies in public. For once, an athlete I can identify with. Also, he has plead not guilty; however the Bath Township police have pretty good evidence against him. Detectives Stabler and that big-boobed detective are compiling a strong case for the ADA on this one. They really want to make an example of White. Side note, what a f*cking waste of time, money, reasources, and oxygen to take a kid pissing drunk at a club to court.

NFL
Tony Romo has been practicing holding on special teams for the Cowboys again. I am sure this will end well.

LateGate 2009 (HOW YOU LIKE THAT ONE, RANDOLPH?) is starting to unfold for the Patriots. A day after Adalius Thomas was sent home for showing up late to a meeting, Thomas comes out and says he is upset. To be honest, I'd be pretty cranked too if I had to get up for an 8am meeting, drive in the snow, and then be sent home for just being a couple minutes late. That being said, I would be gettiing up out of my second hand bed in my creepy one-room apartment, I'd be driving my used Nissan with a cracked windshield, and my meeting would be for my craptatstic job where I make no money. Maybe Adalius could have left a bit earlier for the weather. I mean, Tom Brady was there and Giselle was having their horse-faced child. He is so devoted to that team that family comes second. Oh wait.
I never knew Mack Brown was Ronnie James Dio Fan. Ride the Tiger, Mack!

Action Football! Season 2 Episode 16

Donna Dixon Line

In our last podcast, I made a reference to Donna Dixon. I didn't know who the hell she was. I thought she was a disco singer. She is, in fact, married to Dan "Dr. Detroit" Aykroyd. Then, I found out she was Garth's dream-woman from Wayne's World. Touche!

Action Football! Season 2 Episode 15

There seem to be some issues with iTunes, so if you subscribe via Apple's behemoth and you find that only the first, say, seventeen minutes are being downloaded, you can always download the full episode from the same site you can stream it (by clicking the image above*).

* Just in case you're my grandmother and need further explanation, right click the "MP3" icon at Gcast, select "Save link as..." and save to wherever you see fit.

Coincidence or Subtle Dig at Bowden?

Bobby Bowden announced his "retirement" yesterday and in an article about said announcement, the SportingNews Today ran this picture:

Now, maybe it's a little conspiracy theory, but what do you read on that curtain?

Action Football! Season 2 Episode 14

TuesDay in Football: Three Week Build Up Edition

When a blog has gotten to the point that the content going up is from loyal readers (tip o' the tam to Sam), you're in trouble. So here's some stuff that's going on and other things that probably should have been mentioned but weren't.

NCAA
Might as well start with Sam's tip: Jimmy Clausen got drilled in the grill by an upset Notre Dame fan outside a South Bend "restaurant" (read: "bar") early Sunday morning. Now, I dislike Jimmy Clausen as much as any rational person, but I don't think that he deserved to get sucker punched. Maybe that disgruntled fan should've sought out Charlie Weis to deliver an ol' one-two to his fupa. Which is what I want to do everytime the clip of a teary-eyed, pre-Senior Day game Weis is on tv.

Old news, but a trio of Tennessee Volunteer football players (and some broad) were arrested for attempted robbery.

New news, the one player - Janzen Jackson - not kicked off the team (and the broad) had the charges dropped. Congrats, upstanding citizens!

An Oregon cheerleader was knocked out and concussed by a water bottle chucked onto the field after the Ducks beat the Arizona Wildcats in Tucson. The Pac-10? Really? If I heard the report without the schools named, I'da guessed damn near the entire SEC, half the Big 12, and a quarter of the ACC and Big Ten before I landed on a Pac-10 school. Go figure.

The BCS has hired former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer to spin their system. I spent a lot of W's terms working in a place that had news radio (not NewsRadio, unfortunately) on, and I quite liked Fleischer; easily my favorite press secretary. Since I'm no BCS hater, I hope that he does a good job. I can't imagine it'd be much more difficult than "Mission Accomplised"....

NFL
Like the Vol Gang, this is old news, but the Bills shit-canned Dick Jauron. Soooo, yeah, there's that, I guess.

First, like a week before the season started, Bucaneers coach Raheem Morris fired offensive coordinator Jeff Jagodzkinskizzkii. Now, defensive coordinator Jim Bates was demoted with Morris taking over the defense. Does anybody else get the feeling that, if the Bucs are 1-12 in a couple weeks, Morris will decide he's the starting quarterback, middle linebacker, place kicker, bus driver, and concessions manager?

Eric Mangini claims that the Detroit Lions faked injuries to slow down the Browns no-huddle offense. Even if it's true, fuck you, Mangini. Is there a less likable (more unlikable?) coach in the NFL?

WTF?

Action Football! Season 2 Episode 13

So, yeah, this week's episode...

I'll get it uploaded this evening. I was going to do it yesterday, but sort of forgot all about it. What can I say, when you're making lasagna and watching the first season of Sons of Anarchy, other shit falls by the wayside....

God dammit, Jared Allen

Okay, so our official Action Football! policy regarding Jared Allen is "fuck that guy." Unfortunately, when I watched this video, he seemed pretty likable. Even though the "business up front, party in the back" thing is played out (it's like making a joke about a band saying "now a song from our new album" being cue to go to the bathroom; STOP MAKING THAT JOKE!), the two Rs thing was kinda funny.

And maybe I've just been watching too many old Offices (thanks Netflix streaming on PS3!), but there's something oddly Jim Halpert-ish in Allen's speech mannerisms. Like if Jim took a ton of steroids and saw his personality and sense of humor revert to his sixth grade self (#69...get it? A mullet...GET IT?).

In closing, Jared Allen: don't make any more semi-likable videos. Get back to doing what you do best; driving your pick up truck (probably) drunk and taking cheap shots at quarterbacks' knees. It'll make things a lot easier for us.

Action Football! Season 2 Episode 12

Boy oh boy, the student has become the master.

Who knew after ten years of Action Football (possibly not that long), it would take me basically checking out for a month for Rochester to start writing? (As a side note, did anyone notice that I lamed out on getting the Top 25s and Quad 4s up? No? That's what I thought.)

Not for nothing, Rochester did a motherfucking marvelous job with his MonDay in Football.

Saying I haven't been inspired to write here is the understatement of the year. But finally, finally something happened that got my typin' fingers a-twitchin':

The woeful Kansas City Chiefs cut Larry Johnson. I can't tell you how happy this makes me. It's hard for me to verbalize exactly how much (or, why, really) I hate Larry Johnson. Every time I see this guy (not you Grandmama, you're cool), I consider training up like that weird German arm wrestler kid so, if I ever saw Johnson in the street, I could give him a Hellboy caliber dick punching that would ring throughout history.

Larry Johnson occupies the same rarefied air as Terrell Owens and Joey Porter; athletes I dislike so much that it almost makes me physically ill to think about them. The sort of football players that, were they to join the Green Bay Packers, I'd constantly hope for career ending injuries. (Well, season ending, at least.)

Since entering the League, Johnson's had problems with coaches Dick Vermeil and now Todd Haley, threatened to hold out, demanded to be traded, has been suspended by the Chiefs and the NFL, and has been arrested four times "on various assault charges against women." What a charmer!

Still, what ultimately did him in were a series of tweets dissing his coach and some Chiefs fans and a well-reasoned (note: sarcasm) decision to start calling people "fags" publicly (a fan by way of Twitter and a reporter by way of vocal cord). Regardless of what Trey Parker and Matt Stone allege, we're not currently living in an age in which "fag" has lost all connection with gay slurs. And, man oh man, how dumb do you have to be to use that word in a scenario that you know will be reported? Especially when you go out dressed like this:

HEY-OH!

Still, as much as I wish this ass had talked himself out of the League, you and I both know someone's going to sign him. So I guess I can always hope for a season ending injury. (At least.)

MonDay in Football

Really? I have to do this? Personally, I am a bit worried about Buddy and his non-posting ass. I'll give it the old college try. And, I am an NC State alumnus, so we all know what the hell that means.

NCAA
Oregon got rolled by Stanford. The beat down was shocking. The score was shocking. However, what shocked me the most was the white RB for Stanford. Even, Duke and Vanderbilt don't go that way. Toby "Kunta Kinte" Gerhart ran for over 200 yards and three scores. I'd like to believe that somewhere in Connecticut, Merril Hoge was giving him a thumbs up.

Memphis has fired Coach Tommy West. I loved the idea of running three wide receivers over 6' 2" and a big fat tackle breaking running back. This just goes to show you that my team concept from EA Sports' NCAA Football 2009 will not work in real major college football. Turds.

Northwestern beat Iowa and killed Rick Stanzi. Okay, they didn't really kill Stanzi, but he hurt his ankle. And as an athlete, I can tell you that is one of the worst injuries in the world to have. Okay, so I am not an athlete, but I did jog this morning. Okay, so I did not jog, but I did walk this morning. However it was the the Krispy Kreme and I did take a Segway back. Baby steps to a healthier Rochester.

NFL
Lawrence Taylor was arrested on Sunday. In other news, the sun rose in the east and set in the west. I was breathing oxygen and respiring carbon dioxide. Oh, and water is wet.

The (My) Buccanneers ended their losing streak against the Green Bay Packers. Who feels like celebrating? Hey, let's go rob lead-footed safety Sabby Piscitelli's house! Wait, someone already beat us to it. Damn.

Tom Brady was motivated by Miami LB Joey Porter's talk before the game this weekend. Joey Porter has obscene numbers this season (12 tackles and 2.5 sacks). That is nearly 2 tackles a game. He a machine. A big dumb loud mouthed overpaid borderline retarded machine that has been on only one winning team since leaving Pittsburgh. Someone once has described Joey Porter as "the strongest retard in the Special Olympics." Apt.

The Broncos signed Ty Law. The 35-year old DB will paid $800,000 and will be permitted to talk about episodes of "Matlock" and "Murder She Wrote" with his fellow DB's at team meetings with Lawrence Welk playing in the background. In related news, Herb Adderly is waiting for the Broncos call. Their secondary is old.
If this is gay, then hand me a vodka cocktail and find me a muscley man to grind on!

Action Football! Season 2 Episode 11

Top 25s and Quad 4s coming up Saturday morning. You'll wait and LIKE IT!

Action Football! Season 2 Episode 10

Now you know.

Joe Cox: The Ginger Ninja?

My ass! I finally saw a picture of Joe Cox the other day in a magazine. He looks like Powder. He may get the Bulldogs together to beat the Gators this weekend, or he may bring a deer back to life after a hunter shoots it. Why are you shaving your head, Joe? As a ginger, I can tell you, we are not the people to have a bald head. Christ, he is scary looking.

Seriously?

I am gonna have to be the one to say this? Seriously? I mean, come on. The Packers were not willing to bring Farve back for one more disappointing year, but Ahman Green is a no-brainer? COME ON! I am sure Samkon Gado will be more that happy to take a break from his job as a clerk at Big Lots to do whatever the hell the Packers are going to do with Green for the next whenever the hell they use him. Here is a list of Free Agent RB who are available and you play GM:
1. Shaun Alexander
2. Samkon Gado
3. Andre Hall
4. Rudi Johnson
5. Travis Minor
6. Michael Pittman
7. Dominic Rhodes

Rochester Binghampton Quad 4s: Week 7

1. New Orleans (6-0; 4)
2. Indianapolis (5-0: 1)
3. Denver (6-0; 5)
4. Minnesota (6-0; 3)
5. New England (4-2; 10)
6. Atlanta (4-1; 7)
7. NY Giants (5-1; 2)
8. Pittsburgh (4-2; 9)
9. Philadelphia (3-2; 6)
10. Cincinnati (4-2; 8)

Week 6, 5, 4.

Buddy Randolph Quad 4s: Week 7

1. New Orleans (6-0; 4)
2. Denver (6-0; 5)
3. Indianapolis (5-0; 1)
4. Minnesota (6-0; 2)
5. New England (4-2; 10)
6. NY Giants (5-1; 3)
7. Atlanta (4-1; 8)
8. Cincinnati (4-2; 7)
9. Baltimore (3-3; 9)
10. Pittsburgh (4-2; 14)

Week 6, 5, 4.

Rochester Binghampton Top 25: Week 8

1. Florida (6-0; 1)
2. Texas (6-0; 3)
3. Alabama (7-0; 2)
4. Boise State (6-0; 4)
5. Miami (5-1; 5)
6. USC (5-1; 6)
7. Penn State (6-1; 9)
8. Oklahoma State (5-1; 11)
9. TCU (6-0; 12)
10. Cincinnati (6-0; 13)
11. LSU (5-1; 14)
12. Virginia Tech (5-1; 7)
13. Oregon (5-1; 15)
14. Oklahoma (3-3; 10)
15. Georgia Tech (6-1; 17)
16. Iowa (7-0; 18)
17. BYU (6-1; 16)
18. Texas Tech (5-2; 24)
19. Ohio State (5-2; 8)
20. Houston (5-1; 22)
21. Ole Miss (4-2; NR)
22. Pittsburgh (6-1; NR)
23. Boston College (5-2; NR)
24. Central Michigan (6-1: NR)
25. Utah (5-1; NR)

Week 7, 6, 5, 4.

Buddy Randolph Top 25: Week 8

1. Florida (6-0; 1)
2. Alabama (7-0; 2)
3. Texas (6-0; 3)
4. Boise State (6-0; 5)
5. USC (5-1; 6)
6. Cincinnati (6-0; 7)
7. TCU (6-0; 9)
8. Iowa (7-0; 12)
9. Georgia Tech (6-1; 19)
10. Virginia Tech (5-2; 4)
11. Miami (5-1; 10)
12. Penn State (6-1; 13)
13. LSU (5-1; 14)
14. Oregon (5-1; 15)
15. Oklahoma State (5-1; 17)
16. BYU (6-1; 18)
17. Houston (5-1; 23)
18. Ohio State (5-2; 8)
19. Pitt (6-1; 24)
20. Texas Tech (5-2; NR)
21. West Virginia (5-1; NR)
22. South Florida (5-1; 21)
23. Nebraska (5-2; 16)
24. Cal (4-2; NR)
25. Oklahoma (3-3; 11)

Week 7, 6, 5, 4.

Action Football! Season 2 Episode 9

Action Football! Season 2 Episode 8

Half the football watching, twice the sponsorship!

Rochester Binghampton Quad 4s: Week 6

1. Indianapolis (5-0; 1)
2. NY Giants (5-0; 3)
3. Minnesota (4-0; 5)
4. New Orleans (4-0; 2)
5. Denver (5-0; NR)
6. Philadelphia (3-1; 6)
7. Atlanta (3-1; 7)
8. Cincinnati (4-1; NR)
9. Pittsburgh (3-2; 10)
10. New England (3-2; 4)

Week 5, 4.

Buddy Randolph Quad 4s: Week 6

1. Indianapolis (5-0; 3)
2. Minnesota (5-0; 4)
3. NY Giants (5-0; 5)
4. New Orleans (4-0; 2)
5. Denver (5-0; NR)
6. Philadelphia (3-1; 6)
7. Cincinnati (4-1; 9)
8. Atlanta (3-1; NR)
9. Baltimore (3-2; 1)
10. New England (3-2; 8)

Week 5, 4.

Rochester Binghampton Top 25: Week 7

1. Florida (5-0; 1)
2. Alabama (6-0; 3)
3. Texas (5-0; 2)
4. Boise State (5-0; 4)
5. Miami (4-1; 5)
6. USC (4-1; 6)
7. Virginia Tech (5-1; 7)
8. Ohio State (5-1; 8)
9. Penn State (5-1; 9)
10. Oklahoma (3-2; 10)
11. Oklahoma State (4-1; 11)
12. TCU (4-1; 13)
13. Cincinnati (5-0; 14)
14. LSU (5-1; 3)
15. Oregon (5-1; 17)
16. BYU (5-1; 18)
17. Georgia Tech (5-1; 19)
18. Iowa (6-0; NR)
19. Kansas (5-0; 20)
20. South Florida (5-0; NR)
21. Notre Dame (4-1; 25)
22. Houston (4-1; 24)
23. South Carolina (5-1; NR)
24. Texas Tech (4-2; NR)
25. Wisconsin (5-1; 22)

Week 6, 5, 4.

Buddy Randolph Top 25: Week 7

1. Florida (5-0; 1)
2. Alabama (6-0; 3)
3. Texas (5-0; 2)
4. Virginia Tech (5-1; 4)
5. Boise State (5-0; 5)
6. USC (4-1; 6)
7. Cincinnati (5-0; 7)
8. Ohio State (5-1; 10)
9. TCU (4-0; 8)
10. Miami (4-1; 11)
11. Oklahoma (3-2; 12)
12. Iowa (6-0; 15)
13. Penn State (5-1; 13)
14. LSU (5-1; 9)
15. Oregon (5-1; 14)
16. Nebraska (4-1; 17)
17. Oklahoma State (4-1; 16)
18. BYU (5-1; 19)
19. Georgia Tech (5-1; 22)
20. Kansas (5-0; 21)
21. South Florida (5-0; 23)
22. South Carolina (5-1; NR)
23. Houston (4-1; NR)
24. Pitt (5-1; NR)
25. Notre Dame (4-1; NR)

Week 6, 5, 4.

Rochester Binghampton Quad 4s: Week 5

1. Indianapolis (4-0; 1)
2. New Orleans (4-0; 3)
3. NY Giants (4-0; 4)
4. New England (3-1; 6)
5. Minnesota (4-0; 7)
6. Philadelphia (2-1; 8)
7. Atlanta (2-1; 9)
8. San Francisco (3-1; NR)
9. Denver (4-0; NR)
10. Pittsburgh (2-2; NR)

Week 4.

Buddy Randolph Quad 4s: Week 5

1. New Orleans (4-0; 2)
2. Indianapolis (4-0; 3)
3. Minnesota (4-0; 4)
4. NY Giants (4-0; 5)
5. Baltimore (3-1; 1)
6. Philadelphia (2-1; 6)
7. New England (3-1; 8)
8. NY Jets (3-1; 7)
9. Cincinnati (3-1; 9)
10. San Francisco (3-1; 10)

Week 4.

Rochester Binghampton Top 25: Week 6

1. Florida (4-0; 1)
2. Texas (4-0; 2)
3. LSU (5-0; 3)
   
4. Alabama (5-0; 4)
5. Boise State (5-0; 5)
6. Miami (3-1; 10)
7. USC (4-1; 6)
8. Virginia Tech (4-1; 7)
9. Ohio State (4-1; 8)
10. Penn State (4-1; 9)
11. Oklahoma (2-2; 11)
12. Oklahoma State (3-1; 13)
13. Ole Miss (3-1; 14)
14. TCU (4-0; 15)
15. Cincinnati (5-0; 17)
16. Georgia (3-2; 18)
17. Oregon (4-1; 19)
18. BYU (4-1; 20)
19. Georgia Tech (4-1; 20)
20. Kansas (4-0; 22)
21. UCLA (3-1; 23)
22. Wisconsin (5-0; NR)
23. South Florida (5-0; NR)
24. Houston (3-1; 12)
25. Notre Dame (4-1; NR)

Week 5, 4.

Buddy Randolph Top 25: Week 6

1. Florida (4-0; 1)
2. Texas (4-0; 2)
3. Alabama (5-0; 3)
4. Virginia Tech (4-1; 4)
5. Boise State (5-0; 5)
6. USC (4-1; 7)
7. Cincinnati (5-0; 6)
8. TCU (4-0; 8)
9. LSU (5-0; 10)
10. Ohio State (4-1; 11)
11. Miami (3-1; 18)
12. Oklahoma (2-2; 9)
13. Penn State (4-1; 14)
14. Oregon (4-1; 17)
15. Iowa (5-0; 13)
16. Oklahoma State (3-1; 16)
17. Nebraska (3-1; 22)
18. Auburn (5-0; NR)
19. BYU (4-1; 21)
20. Missouri (4-0; NR)
21. Kansas (4-0; 22)
22. Georgia Tech (4-1; NR)
23. South Florida (5-0; NR)
24. Wisconsin (5-0; NR)
25. Cal (3-2; 15)

Week 5, 4.

Action Football! Season 2 Episode 7

Craving our Action Football! Top 25s and o-fficial Quad 4 Power Poll? Tough luck. Boo, Rochester! Keep your eyes peeled for those weekly entries on the blog in the coming days. (Hopefully before next Monday afternoon....)


(By the way, Rochester did say "Utah.")

MonDay in Football

This post doesn't have anything to do with football news. Instead, it's explaining the last few posts lest you get too confused. Since it's the eve of recording the next podcast, I figured it was high time to get the Top 25s and power polls from last week. I mean, Christ, we've only got hours before they're completely obsolete, so why not?

Rochester Binghampton Quad 4s: Week 4

1. Indianapolis (3-0)
2. Baltimore (3-0)
3. New Orleans (3-0)
4. NY Giants (3-0)
5. NY Jets (3-0)
6. New England (2-1)
7. Minnesota (3-0)
8. Philadelphia (2-1)
9. Atlanta (2-1)
10. Green Bay (2-1)

Buddy Randolph Quad 4s: Week 4

1. Baltimore (3-0)
2. New Orleans (3-0)
3. Indianapolis (3-0)
4. Minnesota (3-0)
5. NY Giants (3-0)
6. Philadelphia (2-1)
7. NY Jets (3-0)
8. New England (2-1)
9. Cincinnati (2-1)
10. San Francisco (2-1)

Rochester Binghampton Top 25: Week 5

1. Florida (4-0; 1)
2. Texas (4-0; 4)
3. Alabama (4-0; 5)
4. LSU (4-0; 7)
5. Boise State (4-0; 6)
6. USC (3-1; 9)
7. Virginia Tech (3-1; 12)
8. Ohio State (3-1; 10)
9. Penn State (3-1; 3)
10. Miami (2-1; 8)
11. Oklahoma (2-1; 11)
12. Houston (3-0; 13)
13. Oklahoma State (3-1; 14)
14. Ole Miss (2-1; 15)
15. TCU (3-0; 16)
16. Cal (3-1; 2)
17. Cincinnati (4-0; 17)
18. Georgia (3-1; 22)
19. Oregon (3-1; 24)
20. BYU (3-1; 19)
21. Georgia Tech (3-1; 20)
22. Kansas (4-0; 21)
23. UCLA (3-0; 23)
24. Michigan (4-0; 25)
25. Florida State (2-2; 18)

Week 4.

Buddy Randolph Top 25: Week 5

1. Florida (4-0; 1)
2. Texas (4-0; 2)
3. Alabama (4-0; 3)
4. Virginia Tech (3-1; 7)
5. Boise State (4-0; 8)
6. Cincinnati (4-0; 11)
7. USC (3-1; 9)
8. TCU (3-0; 13)
9. Oklahoma (2-1; 9)
10. LSU (4-0; 12)
11. Ohio State (3-1; 15)
12. Houston (3-0; 17)
13. Iowa (4-0; NR)
14. Penn State (3-1; 4)
15. Cal (3-1; 5)
16. Oklahoma State (3-1; 18)
17. Oregon (3-1; NR)
18. Miami (2-1; 6)
19. Georgia (3-1; 19)
20. Nebraska (3-1; 22)
21. BYU (3-1: 21)
22. Kansas (4-0; 23)
23. UCLA (3-0; 24)
24. Michigan (4-0; NR)
25. Notre Dame (3-1; NR)

Week 4.

FriDay in Football

NCAA
Injured Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford will not play against Miami on Saturday night. I'm sure the decision to rest him for another week was made much easier because Miami got whipped by Virginia Tech last week and Bradford's back up, Landry Jones, has thrown for about a hundred touchdowns in relief.

West Virginia runner Noel Devine rushed for a career best 220 yards in a 35-24 win against Colorado last night. Bigger story: Colorado scored 24. What the shit, West Virginia defense?

There's a possibility that Oregon running back LeGarrette Blount may be reinstated before the end of the season. Apparently Oregon's definition of "season long suspension" is like Bill Clinton's definition of "sexual relations." HEY-OOOOOH!

NFL
Troy Polamalu hasn't ruled out playing Sunday night against San Diego. I haven't ruled out completely not giving a shit.

Speaking of the Steelers, running back Rashard Mendenhall was disciplined for not knowing his assignments. There's a joke in there somewhere about the quality of education at Illinois, but I can't quite pin it down....

In an update of a point from the other day, apparently Nike doesn't have a formal deal with Michael Vick after all; they'll just be providing him with free swag like they do with tons of athletes...and football bloggers, maybe? I could sure use some more retroed Jordans.

Action Football! diagram of Byron Hout going down after being chumped by LaGarrette Blount.

Action Football! Episode 6

(For those wondering, the answer is "Da Art of Storytellin', Part I" which I totally remembered right after we wrapped.)

WednesDay in Football

NCAA
New Mexico's going all Columbo on coach Mike Locksley after he punched an assistant in the grill. First Tom Cable, now Mike Locksley, next Rex Ryan (you know it's coming), Aught Nine is shaping up to be the Year of the Punchin' Football Coach.

Urban Meyer said Tim Tebow is looking "terrific." The comment, surprisingly, had nothing to do with Tebow's readiness after his concussion. He was just wearing a nice new blouse.

Brand new Yankee stadium is going to host a brand new bowl game in 2010. First, people are rightly saying that we don't need another bowl game. Second, people are saying that no one's going to go to the game because it's outdoors in New York in December. Well, Christ, there's a bowl game in Boise so it's not like there isn't a precedent. Still...no one's going to that game.

NFL
Brady Quinn was demoted (back) to back up quarterback in Cleveland. Man oh man oh man oh man: Cleveland sucks!

The injury woes keep woe-ing in Seattle with Matt Hasselbeck and offensive tackle Walter Jones expected out for the Seahawks this weekend. [Note to self, insert Starbucks joke here before posting.]

Apparently Michael Vick has signed a new endorsement deal with Nike. The move is a little puzzling, but since details are scarce, I'm going to shock the world with this prediction: Nike's going to use the "be kind to animals" angle to market a line of fully synthetic athletic shoes. No leather, bitches. You heard it here first!

BOOSH!

Admittedly, this picture has nothing to do with the post and "hot chicks" is about the laziest cliche of sports blogs. But Adrianne Palicki was on Friday Night Lights so at least it has something to do with football....

TuesDay in Football: Wednesday Morning Edition

NCAA
USC running back Stafon Johnson underwent seven hours of throat surgery after a weight lifting bar crushed his larynx. All reports indicate he'll fully recover, but I think that's a little misleading. It's still unknown whether he'll ever be able to speak again. In my opinion a "full recovery" means no lasting effects from an accident, and call me crazy, but I think losing the ability to speak would count as a lasting effect. You can bet that my hopes are for a real full recovery, but that Johnson's not paralyzed (or dead) is fucking fantastic.

NFL
Miami Dolphins quarterback Noodle Arm Pennington is done for the season (and, face it, his career) with a torn shoulder capsule. You know, I can't hear the word "capsule" without thinking of those things that you put in a glass water and then four hours later a sponge animal grows. I gotta get some of those things.

MonDay in Football

NCAA
Tim Tebow done dinged up his brain. After sustaining a concussion in the Florida/Kentucky game, Tebow was kept in the hospital overnight for observation. He's back home now. It's good that he seems to be doing fine, but there's a part of me that wishes he'd at least have had the decency to barf on the field, '08 Jahvid Best style.

While most of the quarterback injury talk is about Tebow's concussion, the real (shitty) story is Baylor's Robert Griffin going down for the year with an ACL injury. That suuuuuucks.

Texas Tech coach Mike Leach has banned his players from Twitter after some minor digs at were posted. Perhaps the players could tweet about how cool pirates are to get back in his good graces.

NFL
Byron Leftwich is out; Josh Johnson is in as Tampa Bay's quarterback. Looking into my crystal ball, I see MonDay in Football three weeks from now: Josh Johnson is out; Josh Freeman is in as Tampa Bay's quarterback.

Unrelated.

Get ready, y'all

For (at least) eight full days of Brett Favre knob slobbing.

FriDay in Football

NCAA
He may not be a role model*, but he will be starting against Wazoo. USC quarterback Matt Barkley's back, baby.

And speaking of college quarterbacks, apparently Jimmy Clausen's turf toe won't keep him out of Notre Dame's game against Purdue. Well, bully for you, Fighting Irish.

NFL
The New York Giants make like 30 Rock and tell safety Kenny Phillips to shut it down. Put on IR with a banged up knee, Phillips is out for the year.

Apparently Eagles defensive back Sheldon Brown wore a Jason mask during player introductions before last week's game against the Saints. The NFL decided that it was a fun little gimmick and chose to overlook it. Just kidding; they fined him $10,000.

* Like that Charles Barkley commercial, remember? Because both of their names are "Barkley," you see.... Ugh, never mind.

Your Weekend Primer

While the football "weekend" has technically started, most of the games are, of course, yet to come.

So here's what you should watch:

TCU a. Clemson (AF!) - Way back in July, this game was picked as our game to watch. With TCU ranked somewhere around 15, depending on the poll, and needing to prove they belong on the national stage and Clemson looking to make a statement, it should be a doozy. Even though this was our pick for the weekend, it isn't the Game of the Week. That would likely be...

Miami a. Virginia Tech - If the Hurricanes can score 21 points, they'll win.

But don't think that's it:

• Southern Miss a. Kansas
• North Carolina a. Georgia Tech
• Cal a. Oregon
• Texas Tech a. Houston
• Pitt a. NC State
• Michigan State a. Wisconsin
• Iowa a. Penn State

A really great slate of games.

If you listen to the podcast, you already know that Sunday's as bleak as Saturday is bountiful; a whole bunch of turds on the NFL schedule. The only games worth a damn are:

• Tennessee a. NY Jets
• Atlanta a. New England
• San Francisco a. Minnesota
• Indianapolis a. Arizona

Of those, the 49ers/Vikings game is about the best. Sunday will be a real good day to do some work around the house only partially paying attention to the games on tv...

Ole Miss-step

South Carolina 16, Ole Miss 10

Our opinion of Ole Miss and their top 10 preseason ranking is no secret. I'm not here for any dead horse beating.

But, boy oh boy, some showing by the Rebs.

Here's a text exchange between Rochester and me:

9:52 BR: Ole Miss, huh?
9:54 RB: They're almost as good as NC State
9:54 BR: Oof.

That was right after, down 9-3, Ole Miss quarterback Jevan Snead was sacked and stripped by a South Carolina defensive lineman. It seems like the 14/15 ranking that we gave Ole Miss after our first Top 25s is about where they'll end up in the AP and Coaches polls next week.

Expect them to be a whole lot lower here at Action Football.

In a nutshell. (The State)

Action Football! Season 2 Episode 5

Rochester Binghampton Top 25: Week 4

1. Florida
2. Cal
3. Penn State
4. Texas
5. Alabama
6. Boise State
7. LSU
8. Miami
9. USC
10. Ohio State
11. Oklahoma
12. Virginia Tech
13. Houston
14. Oklahoma State
15. Ole Miss
16. TCU
17. Cincinnati
18. Florida State
19. BYU
20. Georgia Tech
21. Kansas
22. Georgia
23. UCLA
24. Oregon
25. Michigan

Buddy Randolph Top 25: Week 4

1. Florida
2. Texas
3. Alabama
4. Penn State
5. Cal
6. Miami
7. Virginia Tech
8. Boise State
9. USC
10. Oklahoma
11. Cincinnati
12. LSU
13. TCU
14. Ole Miss
15. Ohio State
16. Florida State
17. Houston
18. Oklahoma State
19. Georgia
20. North Carolina
21. Nebraska
22. BYU
23. Kansas
24. UCLA
25. Washington

WednesDay in Football

NCAA
Notre Dame's looking pretty thin on offense because of a rash of injuries. A real shame. Really.

Penn State linebacker Sean Lee's hoping to get back into the lineup for the Big Ten opener against Iowa and holy shit these are boring stories.

NFL
Everyone knows that Chad Ochocinco wanted to do and then did a Lambeau Leap in Green Bay. Soon, everyone will know that the Bengals fans he leaped to were plants. So help me, if I read the word "Leapgate" somewhere, I will lose my shit.

Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen shot some photographers in Costa Rica after they got married. Or at least that's what I think happened. I didn't read the article that carefully.

Cashing in on nostalgia.

I've long said that the smartest thing Nike's done in the last fifteen years was to start reissuing (or retro-ing, if you will) sneakers from the late '80s and early '90s. There are now a generation of men who coveted a pair of shoes but neither had money to buy them nor parents willing to throw down serious money for a shoes that would be outgrown in a matter of months that have that money, parents be damned.

I bet most of the men in the target demographic could identify the picture above quicker than most mothers could identify their own children.

Combine the two, and you've got these. And since I fit firmly in the center of the Venn diagram of kids that spent an afternoon in Foot Locker and didn't buy anything and sports video game nerds, you'd better believe I bought 'em.

With my Retro 3's, if I could get a pair of Air Raids and a pair of Air Force 180s, I'd have done my 12 year old self proud.

That...would be record.

Look, I don't want to get all KSK MMQB here, but this surely could have been worded better.

As I've mentioned before, I'm a big, big fan of The SportingNews' daily e-paper, but in today's issue, a feature in which two NFL scouts provided observations about the League after week two had the following:


So in other words, I shouldn't expect Antwan Odom to end the season with 56 sacks? Good to know.

Like the kids do.

Oh yeah, might as well mention that we've got a Twitter account set up.

Another place to not write.

@actionfootball, bitches!

Slacking on our pimping.

Funny that with how exciting it is to have football back the blog's gone about as dead as it was in, say, April. In order to get reader(s) content with the content, I'm gonna try to get on my grind again. That means:

• Doing "----Day in Football" again;
• Making good on the promise to revisit the NCAA week-by-week picks in advance of the weekend;
• Laying out must see games;
• And probably some other bullshit filler (you know, lists and stuff).

That said, we're hitting Studio West for an Action Football! After Dark. This week's episode includes the debut of our Rochester * Randolph Top 25 Polls. It's gonna be the heat!

In order to kick this new found motivation kicked off, let's take a look at the Action Football! picks for NCAA weeks one through three:

Week One: Virginia Tech v. Alabama - I'm not sure if it was the game having a sponsor or that it was played in the Georgia Dome, but the aura of this game was a halftime throw-a-football-through-a-Dr. Pepper-can contest away from being a conference championship game. Or, maybe because it was the first ABC featured game after a long, long off-season I was simply prone to inflating it. Either way, 34-24 Alabama.

Week Two: Ohio State v. USC - The theme through the first few weeks (which will likely be the theme through the first few weeks from here to eternity) was "Big Ten Redemption?" There was a lot riding on this game - especially for Ohio State - and after a pretty good game, USC escaped Columbus with an 18-15 win. Of course, we all know what happened the next week: USC pooped their pants against Washington, losing 16-13, and everybody was apey over Terrelle Pryor's "bounce back" (262 yards passing, 110 rushing) in a 38-0 win over Toledo. First, USC's got a habit of let downs; second, bully for you, Ohio State, whipping a team you should whip.

Week Three: Florida v. Tennessee - By now, you've heard it everywhere: a victory for the Gators in the standings, a victory for Kiffin's Vols in spirit. Florida showed that they're not unbeatable, Tennessee showed that they're almost ready to walk the walk. Of course, I'd hold off on reading too much into the game as far as Florida's concerned; technically, the Gators showed they weren't unbeatable last year (by being beaten), only to regroup and run the table. What if the Tennessee game was their wake up call this year - a wake up call that they won, no less - and they come out next week like the last half of the season last year?

Excellence in blog writing.

I think it's probably apparent that I don't think about what I write on this blog before I write it. Or edit anything in any way. It's pretty much a one-off, steam of consciousness type deal.

Luckily, some bloggers actually take care to craft their words. When I come across a particularly excellent bit of writing I feel like I should recognize it.

So here (Jon Bois at Mouthpiece Sports on buying NFL Sunday Ticket):

Which we do, and we’re rewarded with unlimited access to live footage of, say, Brodie Croyle or Koy Detmer pegging his wide receiver in the back of the helmet. What a cruel sham.

Simple, insightful, hilarious.

Action Football! Season 2 Episode 4

Live it. Love it.

Well, suh-prise suh-prise.

From today's SportingNews Today e-paper (which, if you're not getting, you really should):