US Soccer Continues To Impress

July 25, 2009June 15, 2012Danny Vinik Leave a comment

Most people have stopped following the US Men’s National Team after it’s tough loss to Brazil in the finals of the Confederations Cup. The US has actually been participating in the Gold Cup, a tournament for teams in the Americas, over the last several weeks. The matches have all taken place on US soil and the United States has used almost no players who played in the Confederations Cup, but nevertheless, the United States will face Mexico in the Finals tomorrow at Giants Stadium.

For those that have watched the games, the United States certainly hasn’t run over its opponents. The US won the games they needed to win, but didn’t demolish anyone and weren’t at the form seen in South Africa. That would make sense though since the roster has just four carryovers – Freddy Adu, Charlie Davies, Heath Pearce, and Luis Robles. Seven players were looking for their first cap while sixteen of the twenty-three man roster have less than five caps. The team looked nothing like the Confederations Cup roster yet they find themselves winning games and advancing. Continue reading “US Soccer Continues To Impress” →

Who Cares About The NFL Draft

April 25, 2009May 23, 2010Danny Vinik Leave a comment

Less than 90 minutes from now, the NFL Draft will get under way with the Detroit Lions selecting QB Matthew Stafford with the #1 overall pick. For the next five hours, ESPN will broadcast every pick of the first two rounds. Then, Sunday morning, they will broadcast ANOTHER eight hours of draft coverage. Just five hours of coverage would be overkill, and ESPN is showing 13.

To be fair, I don’t consider myself much of a football fan. Yea, I’ll watch all my Patriots’ games and know the team fairly well, but in terms of teams I care about, they are down on the list. I still can’t figure out who can watch 13 hours of NFL Draft coverage without killing themselves though.

No other sport has that kind of coverage for an event in which NOTHING is determined. You barely hear anything about the MLB and NHL drafts. The NBA Draft has the closest thing to the kind of coverage that the NFL Draft has, but that is because one player on an NBA team can make much more of a difference than one player on an NFL team.

Think about that in terms of numbers. Five players are on the court at one time in the NBA. If you can significantly improve one of those players in the draft, then you have just improved your team by 10-20%. In football, there are eleven players on offensive and a different eleven for defense. That’s 22 players, so significantly improving one player via the draft only improves your team by 5-10%. Continue reading “Who Cares About The NFL Draft” →

Problems with Plaxico

April 7, 2009May 23, 2010Danny Vinik Leave a comment

Plaxico Bur plaxico-burress ress, what is wrong with you? Just listen to this statement:

In the last month, Burress has received 5 traffic violations in Florida while he is under arrest in New York for carrying an unregistered firearm after shooting himself in the leg.

Wow. He is without an NFL team after the New York Giants cut him last week and yet he continues to act immaturely. In his most recent traffic stop, Burress cursed out the officer, told him that he knew the sheriff personally and swore at the arresting officer multiple times.

Plaxico Burress, what is wrong with you?

As your NFL career hangs in the balance, all you are doing is making it harder and harder for you to return to the NFL. You are trying to avoid jail time for a charge that carries a three and a half year sentence. Your lawyers are working constantly, appealing to the district attorney for a plea bargain that keeps you out of prison. How exactly are these traffic violations going to help? How is cursing out a police officer, who was doing his job, going to help? Continue reading “Problems with Plaxico” →