Don’t You Dare Get Chris Berman Angry

….He gets testy at times when people don’t do things correctly. Obviously this isn’t live, and someone who worked for ESPN or someone who knows someone who works for ESPN got this video uploaded. Anyways….this is classic.

Note: Contains strong language in certain parts of the video, turn down the volume a little bit if you’re at work.

Ladies and Gentlemen I Give You Christopher James Berman – Awful Announcing

Super Bowl Preview Extravaganza: Perfect Patriots

18-0. That has been the season coming into Sunday’s Super Bowl against the New York Giants. Never before since the NFL went to a 16 game schedule has a team gone this far without a loss. The New England Patriots, amidst all the controversy of Spygate, Gisele, Anklegate, and Bill Belichick,  have done just that. It has been a season in which records were broken. Tom Brady threw 50 TD passes, breaking Peyton Manning’s record of 49. Randy Moss caught 23 of them, breaking Jerry Rice’s single season record of 22.* The season started out with them being busted for spying on the Jets, losing a draft pick (like it matters, the 49ers traded their pick to the pats, the 49ers sucked, and the Pats now have the 7th pick of the draft), but at the same time, they were blowing teams out of the water. Scores of 38-14, 34-13, 34-17, 49-28, they had dominated.

But, the undefeated season was nearly wrecked several times. The Cowboys lost 48-27 to New England, but had the lead in the 3rd quarter at 24-21 before New England pulled away and scored garbage points. At Indianapolis, in the famed “Game of the Century”, the Pats were down 20-10 with 9:36 left. Instead of folding, they rallied and won a thrilling 24-20 win over their recent rivals in the Colts. At home against the Eagles, with AJ Feeley, not Donovan McNabb, as QB, they won by a mere 3 points. They could’ve lost had AJ not try to be a hero and throw up a wild pass for Asanta Samuel to intercept.

On Monday Night Football, against the awful Ravens, with the betting line set as the Patriots as a 20 point favorite they were down 24-20 with little time remaining…….actually, the Ravens decided to shoot themselves with mistakes and let the Patriots score the winning touchdown. The Pats weren’t out of the woods, Kyle Boller’s desperation pass to Derrick Mason was caught, but 2 yards shy of the goal line. The perfect regular season still was in danger, as they were down 28-16 in the 3rd quarter to the New York Giants in the season finale. Tom Brady, Laurence Maroney and Randy Moss took the game over, and they held on for a 38-35 win in the Meadowlands.

Even in the playoffs, they only won 31-20 over the Jaguars, and 21-12 over San Diego to get to Glendale. The common denominator for both games, the losing team kicks field goals, the winning team scores touchdowns.

There is no “invincible” team as the media perceived them many times in the season. But the fact of the matter is, they are good.

The X Factor: Kevin Faulk. The cousin of legendary player Marshall Faulk, Kevin has been an unsung hero in this dynamic Patriots offense.  While not much of a running threat, he torched the Chargers in the AFC Championship Game, as he caught 3 critical 3rd down passes, and catching 8 passes for 82 yards overall. This season, he caught 47 balls for 383 yards and a touchdown. Look for him in screen passes and quick outs from Tom Brady.

Super Bowl XLII Preview Extravaganza: Profiling the Giants

Did any of you really believe the New York Giants would even win a playoff game? I didn’t, but now they are the Cinderella team looking for their first Super Bowl win since 1991, when some kicker named Scott missed a game winning field goal.

The season started out poorly, going 0-2 to the Packers and Cowboys. It looked like they were about to be taken into OT against the Redskins, but a goal line stand at FedEx Field turned the ship around en route to a 6 game winning streak. But once again, the Giants stumbled at home, losing their last 4 at Giants Stadium, including a 38-35 loss to the Patriots to seal that undefeated reg. season and finishing 4-4 in the 2nd half of the season.

They were underdogs in all 3 road playoff games, but they were 7-1 on the road, and proved that they could win the big games. Eli Manning has played tremendous football in this year’s playoffs, with zero turnovers….that is right, that is the same Eli who lead the league in interceptions.

At this point, the Giants have absolutely nothing to lose. No one expected them to make it to Glendale, now they can either lose to New England but hang their heads high for a tremendous season, or pull off a tremendous upset and hoist the Lombardi Trophy.

The X-Factor: Ahmad Bradshaw. The rookie from Marshall, a 7th round pick, is very quick, hard to bring down, and a hidden gem in this Giants offense. Brandon Jacobs will get the attention, but Bradshaw ran for 152 yards on 17 carries, including an 88 yard TD run at Buffalo that salted the game away, and clinched a playoff berth. If Chris Snee does not get called for holding at Green Bay in the NFC Title Game, Bradshaw would’ve had a 52 yard touchdown run to win the game for the Giants. He is very much a home run threat, and can exploit that suspect run defense of the Patriots.

Five Spot

Haven’t done this link dump in a while….

1. Epic Carnival lists the top 10 reasons why Tiki Barber and Jeremy Shockey prevented the Giants from winning.

2. CHUG!!! CHUG!!! CHUG!!! CHUG!!! CHUG!!

3. Wide Receiver overrated? West Coast Bias say so.

4. The Big Lead reports on the firings of Gregg Williams and Al Saunders of the Redskins……destruction!

5. Awful Announcing, like most of us, thinks Reggie Miller is a pathetic analyst.

You’re welcome in advance….just making up for a slow, football free weekend.

Eddie Murphy Called It!

That’s right, the Prince from Coming to America called it! The Giants did kick an oblong ball through a big H to beat the Packers of Green Bay.

Coach Holmgren To Return to Seattle

Everyone’s favorite Seattle Seahawks football coach is coming back for his final year as head coach. Mike Holmgren will give it another go in Seattle, but will not have a contract extension (contract expires after 2008-09 season). He was quoted as saying in his press conference, that…

“Kathy and I came to a decision this weekend to finish my contract, and we’re very happy about it,” Holmgren said. “We’re going to go after it hard one more year.”

I also heard on the television (yes, there was apparently other news than Heath Ledger’s tragic death) that we should expect some double reverse passes, onside kicks, etc. Good, because I am going to explode if a 4th and 1 play turns into an off tackle Shaun Alexander run.

SSR Announcement: I’ll hold off on Seahawks talk after the Super Bowl. In the mean time….it’s non-stop Super Bowl XLII coverage, without making it American Idol.

Oh Yeah….

Patriots 34 Chargers 14

Packers 24 Giants 16 

Playoff Record: 4-4.

Season Record: 173-91.

Video: ‘85 Bears vs. Dolphins MNF Intro

This is one way to get around the pain that is an NFL copyright. Many Youtube users are bringing out the old stuff. Rare footage of the actual broadcast of the 1985 Chicago Bears against the Miami Dolphins. Now the real game wasn’t shown, just the introduction. Featuring Frank Gifford, Joe Namath and…..wait a minute, who is that last guy?

What a Lousy Day

RIP to every one of these sports figures.

1. Bobby Fischer. Okay, I don’t know how Chess is considered a sport, but he was a legendary chess player, and a very controversial person. Yesterday, Fischer succumbed to kidney failure.

2. Ernie Holmes. Does “Steel Curtain” ring a bell? That’s right, Holmes was a member of that famed Steelers defense, but was overshadowed by the likes of Joe Greene, LC Greenwood, and Jack Lambert. Holmes, at the age of 59, was tragically killed in a car accident.

3. Georgia Frontiere. She had 70000000 husbands, was the owner of the Rams. She was responsible for the moving of the Rams to St. Louis from LA. Her name was brought up in the suspicious drowning death of one of her husbands, Carroll Rosenbloom. Georgia went from Miami dancer and singer, to one of the most powerful businesswoman in the US. Frontiere suffered from breast cancer for years, and today she has died at the age of 80.

1976 Bucs vs. 2007 Dolphins

First published on ArmchairGM….yes, I’ve been under the weather, that’s why I haven’t posted in 2 days.

Beat this idea punks! You guys keep comparing the best teams against the Patriots….I decided to match the two worst teams in the history of the NFL. The winless 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the 1 very lucky win 2007 Miami Dolphins. The game was played in Monster Park Candlestick 3Com Pac Bell Park of Stadiums in San Francisco, with temperatures in the 60s and moderate rain. Cleo Lemon started the game for the Dolphins, and Jesse Chatman started as running back. Both teams had a balanced playbook. Chris Chambers, who was traded to San Diego, makes an appearance in this game.

1st Half

Same old same old as the Bucs went three and out on their opening possession of the ball game. The Dolphins marched right down the field with power running by Jesse Chatman, and an 18 yard pass from Lemon to Ted Ginn Jr. But, as the real season went for Miami, they stalled at the goal line. Jay Feely just made the chip shot FG, 3-0 Dolphins.

Tampa finally got going on offense, but it had the share of mistakes. At the Miami 29, QB Steve Spurrier (yes, him), was called for an intentional grounding penalty. But on a 2nd and 20, Spurrier redeemed himself by finding TE Bob Moore for 38 yards to the 1 yard line. Spurrier connected with Moore again, 7-3 Bucs.

So at the start of the 2nd quarter, Miami went…..and punted it back to Tampa, who were determined not to be 0-15. RB Louis Carter had a key 24 yard run to send them to the Miami 31. A few plays later, Spurrier threw another TD pass, this time to Morris Owens. 14-3 Bucs.

Both teams exchanged punts after a scoring explosion by their standards, at halftime it was….

Tampa Bay 14 Miami 3

 

2nd Half 

The Dolphins had a brilliant start to the 2nd half as Cleo Lemon went 6-6 on the drive for 79 yards, including an 11 yard TD catch to Chris Chambers, 14-10 Bucs. Tampa Bay midway through the 3rd had a gift. With Miami driving, Lemon threw an interception to Curtis Jordan, stopping the potential go ahead score. Of course, the Bucs couldn’t capitalize, they missed a field goal.

A wild 4th quarter was set off as Miami’s Trent Green was put into the game…for reasons unknown. He promptly fumbled the ball in Tampa territory, Buccaneers ball, another good drive aborted. And then Tampa gave it right back when Essex Johnson was stripped of the ball after a 10 yard run, Dolphins. Lemon was immediately put right back, and in a few plays, found Greg Camarillo for the go ahead score. 17-14 Dolphins.

After several more minutes of boredom, Tampa drove to the Miami 17 with a chance to force overtime. Kicker David Green missed his 2nd FG try, as it hit the upright with 1 minute left. For reasons I can’t imagine, Miami threw the ball again instead of running the clock out, as Tampa only had 2 timeouts. Lemon was picked by Curtis Jordan again, setting up Green’s game tying FG with :05 left in the game. 17-17, OT BABY!

OT

The teams traded punts to start OT, and then Steve Spurrier, with the game of his life, had Essex Carter for a 34 yard gain to the Miami 12. They went for the kill this time, no FG. Ed Williams won the game with a 12 yard touchdown grab.

Bucs WIN!!!! 23-17!!!! THEY ARE NO LONGER WINLESS!!!

Simulation courtesy of www.whatifsports.com.