Oh Yeah...The NFL Draft is this weekend

I sort of forgot, but the NFL Draft is this Thursday. Usually around this time, I'm well-read on a decent portion of the draft pool. I try to predict which player each team might draft. I sit and listen to all the analysis provided by "The Hairdo" Mel Kiper, Jr., and Todd McShay. It's a nice way to get excited for the upcoming season.

This year is different (for me, anyway). I know about the big names, and I know about the former Syracuse players. That's pretty much it. The reason being...

The strike.

With a work stoppage, I'm having a hard time getting excited about the 2011 season, mainly because I don't think there's going to be one. There is already a plan in place if the strike lasts into the season. If the NFL powers-that-be had that conversation, things don't look good. With the prospect of the season being cancelled, what is there to get excited about? How can there be giddy anticipation about what a player can do for a team if we aren't going to see him show his stuff?

I'll watch the draft, but the excitement might be curbed a little.

Oh Yeah...The NFL Draft is rh

Where does Edge go among the greats?

On Monday Night Raw, fans were surprised with the sudden news that Edge (real name Adam Copeland), a long-time WWE wrestler, would be retiring immediately. After meeting with doctors last week regarding numbness in is hands, Edge was diagnosed with cervical spinal stenosis, a bone disease involving the narrowing of the spinal canal. Doctors advised him to retire immediately. According to reports, the WWE creative team essentially gave Edge and open mic for Monday night's live broadcast, and allowed him to go out and make a retirement speech. During this emotional de facto shoot promo, Edge talked about how he became a wrestling fan, his career, and he thanked the fans for their support. The speech can be viewed here.

Watching this segment last night, I wasn't sure if it was real. I was expecting Alberto Del Rio to ride out to his music in a luxury car and beat up Edge, or cut a promo insulting him. I expected Christian to come out to the ring and give some kind of pep talk to his long-time friend, encouraging him to keep wrestling. In general, I was expecting it to be a work. But it wasn't. It was real, and I witnessed, arguably, one of the most dramatic moments ever on a WWE broadcast.

With Edge retiring, it begs the question, 'where does he belong among the greats of the wrestling business?'

There's no denying that Edge had a great career. In WWE, he was a triple crown champion, won the King of the Ring, and was the first ever Money in the Bank winner. On a more general level, he managed to stick around WWE for about 14 years, which is impressive when you realize how few Attitude-era wrestlers are still with the company. These accomplishments will definitely get him into the WWE Hall of Fame.

In terms of where he ranks among the all-time greats of the wrestling business, I'm not sure I would necessarily put him on the same level as Hogan, Flair, The Rock, Sting, Steve Austin, and The Undertaker. Guys like that, in their prime, were the sort that wrestling companies could build their entire product around. Edge was a talented wrestler, but never, in my eyes, was a guy who a wrestling company could build everything around. He was missing that 'it' factor that could draw money like sharks to blood. However, I would put him on the same level as guys like Terry Funk, Jake "The Snake Roberts, "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig, and Dusty Rhodes. He's a guy who could go out to the ring, have a great match, entertain the fans, and put a few butts in the seats. Essentially, a great "worker," as they call it in the business. Edge fits that criteria. He was a great worker, and because of it, WWE got a ton of mileage out of him, and he will always be remembered fondly by wrestling fans.

To the College Football Analysts on ESPN: Spring Football Sould Be Taken Seriously

Each year around this time, Spring football practices get under way at most schools. And each year, I watch College Football Live on ESPN to get the lowdown on the some of the top teams. It's a great way to familiarize myself with some of the names I'll be hearing throughout the upcoming season, key games, and what kind of results to expect from each team.

In addition to what was already mentioned, there is something else that happens every time this year. During one of these Spring football feature broadcasts, at least one analyst says 'fans take Spring Ball too seriously.'

I am officially putting all the College Football analysts at ESPN on notice. If I hear this from anyone, and that means ANYONE, again, I'm going to write a letter full of toilet language, curse words, and childish insults to all of you. I promise this letter will be so intense, once you read it, you will cry, your hair will fall out, your lawn will die, and any wallpaper in your house will peel immediately.

Fans should take Spring Ball seriously if they really care about the team. It's the de facto starting point for the season. Teams come together on the field in an organized manner for the first time since last seasons end. With players departing every year, these practices exclusively feature the group that will be lining up together throughout the upcoming season. Most of the recruits aren't there, but unless any of them are something really special, the numbers you see on the field during these practices, barring injuries and discipline cases, are the numbers you'll be seeing from Labor Day weekend onward toward Thanksgiving and bowl season. These are teenagers and young men whose every triumph (or failure) will effect our happiness. This is the team.

On top of that, the players and coaches take these practices very seriously. This is the time when athletes can push for playing time in the fall. On the flip side, coaches see which players are going to possibly make an impact, and which players will be "used to provide depth," or in fan language, which players will have the cleanest jerseys after the games. The players and coaches also emphasize these practices to brush up on their schemes, work on fundamentals, and to get a taste of competition before the long summer layoff. If these sessions mean so much to the players and coaches, why shouldn't they mean as much to the fans?

And lets not forget, college football, like it or not, is a business. Schools prominently feature these practices to drum up fan interest. If things look good now, fans will jump on the bandwagon, pony up, and buy tickets. Schools want fans to take these practices seriously, or else it means business is in the toilet.

I would also like to point out the hypocrisy that the analysts exhibit. In any instance when a team or a player looks great during a Spring Game, they always say that it doesn't mean that much. However, when there are things that look bad during the Spring Game, the criticism is in huge supply. Make up your minds, people!

There. Consider yourselves warned.

Urban Meyer Gets Schooled by Joe Tessitore and Chris Spielman

Fans know Urban Meyer as a college football coaching machine. Wherever he has been a head coach, the fans at that school got the moon. In two seasons at Bowling Green, he went 17-6, implemented the spread offense, and made QB Omar Jacobs into a fringe NFL prospect. In two seasons at Utah, he went 22-2 (one of those seasons being a perfect 12-0), won two Mountain West Conference titles, and his 2004 team became the first non-AQ team to receive a BCS bid since the system's inception in 1998, going on to beat Pitt in the Fiesta Bowl. At Florida, he went 65-15, won two national titles, one division title, and coached Tim Tebow into being a Heisman Trophy winner. When it comes to college football, Urban Meyer knows stuff about things.

In the latter years at Florida, Meyer dealt with health problems, player arrests, and had to rebuild his team due to players leaving for the NFL. After the 2010 season in which The Gators finished a disappointing 8-5, Meyer was burnt out and decided to leave coaching. ESPN quickly snatched him up and gave him a job as a college football analyst.

With spring ball under way at most schools, we're seeing Urban Meyer, the broadcast journalist, for the first time.

On Sunday, ESPN aired its annual Spring Game spotlight, this year covering Texas' scrimmage. Meyer was calling the game alongside long-time ESPN analysts Chris Spielman and Joe Tessitore. The post-game wrap-up can be viewed here or below.




In this video, we see just how different Meyer's world is now. Toward the end, Tessitore asks both analysts to predict The Longhorns' 2011 record. Spielman goes first and provides his prediction (an 8-4 season) and a strong argument to back it up. When Meyer's turn comes up, he gives his prediction (10-2), which is then followed by shallow observations and critiques. Tessitore chimes in and basically takes Meyer to the woodshed and provides reasons why his prediction is far-fetched. I hadn't seen Urban Meyer get schooled like that since the 2009 SEC Championship Game. The only thing missing was Tim Tebow crying like a Junior High School girl who just arrived home and realized she left her oboe on the school bus.

When you're the head coach at a Division 1 school, you can get away with answering questions with little or superficial elaboration. As an analyst, you can't. Welcome to broadcasting, Urban.

Okay, so it really wasn't a knee-jerk reaction...Wrestlemania really stunk

I decided to sleep on it. I went to work. I went to the gym. I thought about my opinion of the show all day. 'Was it me?' 'Did I have a false sense of entitlement?' 'Was I being unfair?' 'Did I expect too much?' These questions swirled in my head all day. And now, it's a day later, and I still feel the same way as I did when Wrestlemania ended. The show really fell short of expectation in my mind.

I'll get right to it.

I expected great, entertaining matches, and matches were not all that great. The matches were either squash matches (The 8-man tag team match, the Snooki match), boring and pointless (Cole/Lawler), or they were TV-quality (all the rest). Now, I get the shift in focus of WWE. They're moving away from wrestling and trying to be more of an entertainment show. Even so, these matches fell short of what I, and what I think most people, expected for Wrestlemania. The lone exception was the Undertaker/HHH match. One of my friends referred to it as epic. I wouldn't go that far, but these two went to the ring, left it all out there, hit some great spots, and incorporated great ring psychology. While both wrestlers are past their primes, they gave all they had. Easily, it was the best match of the show. Other than that, it was a largely unimpressive display.

The show had horrible, unnecessary filler segments that had no business being on the broadcast. Filler segments are fine for TV. Wrestlers get hurt, things take longer than expected....on a live show, spit happens. But this was Wrestlemania. The biggest show of the year. The show that the company looks forward to and plans for with great anticipation. I don't care if this is "sports entertainment." Wrestlemania is not the place for cannon fodder, and the show was riddled with it.

Lastly, The Rock's involvement in the show was poorly done. Yes, he was the host. Yes, he was billed as being apart of the show. But the writers seemed to have scripted the show to be The Rock's show, which, frankly, is bullshit. Wrestlemania should be about the matches, and it should be about the talent. Essentially, the product is the talent. You're selling the talent to the fans. The Rock opening the show, doing so many of the aforementioned filler segments, interfereing in the main event, then closing the show showed how misplaced the focus was.

I read online that fans who attended the show live said it was great, and the atmosphere was very cool. I wish that feeling could have come through the TV screen.

Feedback is welcome. What did everyone else think, now that a day has passed and it's all sunk in?

Ring of Honor Delivers

Consider me one of the wrestling fans Ring of Honor grabbed during this weekend's run of shows.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, Ring of Honor, in an attempt to take advantage of the buzz Wrestlemania has created, went to Atlanta and had a run of two shows at the Center Stage Theater. For 10 bucks a show, I ponied up and watched their Friday night show and the Saturday afternoon show.

While I didn't blindly love every match like most ROH fans seem to do, I thought both shows were very good. In contrast to WWE, the company has a product based around technical wrestling. These matches feature athletic performers who aren't necessarily going to charm your face off with a promo, but can work great, entertaining matches. The in-ring product really is what makes their shows.

Also mentioned previously, Ring of Honor's TV deal with HDNet is coming to an end. They will air the final episode on the network tomorrow night. While I am a fan of WWE, their shows do lack solid in-ring action, which has come under heavy criticism from wrestling fans. Hopefully, Ring of Honor can secure a new deal soon, and fulfill the needs of fans looking for great wrestling matches week-in and week-out.