Super Bowl XLVI Preview Extravaganza: More London Consideration

Before we get to my annual Super Bowl Preview Extravaganza of the teams actually playing this weekend in Indianapolis, I think it’s time to check in on the NFL’s maniacal talk about hosting things in London. They already get an annual regular season game, usually with at least one completely trash team, but now Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay says maybe London could host a Super Bowl!

“There’s a little bit of change in philosophy,” Irsay said Monday. “We have the 50-year anniversary coming up, which we’re looking at. There are some members of our committee who have been thinking about having an international Super Bowl in London. That obviously has some real pluses and minuses if you weren’t going to have it on America soil. Right now, we’re in a wait-and-see approach.”

No. No no no no no no. Enough of this nonsense. American football’s premier league playing its title game overseas? As in eight hours ahead in the time zone for a game that usually is played at 3:30 PM PT? That is absurd. Ticket sales for Chicago vs. Tampa Bay this season were reported to be “slow”. While I’m sure the Super Bowl would sell out quickly at Wembley Stadium — simply through UK NFL fans and Americans who shell out extra traveling money — the idea that we need to force feed our sport on other markets is becoming tiresome. For the last five seasons the Buffalo Bills have lost a local home game to Toronto. New Orleans, San Francisco, Tampa Bay twice, and Miami have all relinquished a local home game to this pointless London match.

Could you imagine the English Premier League having Liverpool and Aston Villa playing each other at Gillette Stadium? Neither can I. This is nothing more than an attempt to further export our culture to other countries whether or not it’s practical or if the people even like it.

My only suggestion for Super Bowl L, is that the host stadium is the LA Coliseum, the same host from the very first Super Bowl. And who knows? Maybe the NFL will have a team in LA by then. But American sporting events and leagues should not be held abroad under any circumstances. No other country does it, so why should we?

No consideration at all. Please do not put the Super Bowl in London.

UFC.com and UFC.tv Hacked After Dana White Idiotically Dared Hackers

Dana White is outspoken, vocal, and sometimes a little bit over-the-top. Actually, he’s over-the-top a lot. Earlier in the week, likely in retaliation for supporting SOPA, UFC.com was hacked and redirected to a generic-looking template by a hacking group known as UGNazi. White played the tough guy and said he didn’t care that they did that, and even dared them to do it again. So they did. And then some.

Yesterday Dana White’s personal information was retrieved through a DOX, including his home address and social security number. Through this it was also discovered that a similar maneuver was used last week on US Attorney General Eric Holder, but of course the media was too lazy to actually report this.

All of this started through this really stupid comment from yesterday’s UFC on FOX press conference:

“Keep hacking our site, do it again. Do it tonight,” said White. “These guys look like terrorists now and a bill that was about to die, is about to come back.”

Well Dana, whenever you challenge hackers, you will lose. So you’re being a total idiot. Comparing Anonymous to terrorists is really dim-thinking, sort of like how media pundits and politicians repeatedly referred to Julian Assange and anyone associated with WikiLeaks to be “cyber-terrorists”. Since taken down, the UFC’s website featured the Anonymous logo and some dubstep music.

If you follow @danawhite, @YourAnonNews, or @JoshTheGod you will get a slew of back-and-forth Twitter wars with members of Anonymous and UGNazi that make Dana come off as a completely angry and clueless internet simpleton. The entire conversation can be found here. All of these public figures and heads of major organizations have to realize that if they as much challenge computer geniuses to damage their site, the hackers will win 100% of the time. SOPA is not and will not ever be the solution to stopping online piracy. No adjustments to the bill will make this any better and guys like Dana are fighting a losing battle and taking a big PR hit as a result. White has long gotten away with being able to shout people down without any return fire. Well now he’s got it, and he’s had confidential info leaked in addition to having the UFC’s websites hacked on the week of a live card on FOX.

Consider me a supporter of pretty much everything Anonymous and UGNazi do to these big corporations. It shows how easy it is for them to break into their websites and do what they want, faster than anything Washington could even attempt to do to stop them. The best part about Anonymous is that they aren’t concentrated in one area and it’s almost impossible to trace them. It’s going to shut all of these politicians and businessmen up from even challenging a system they know absolutely nothing about, but are going out of their way to try and control. You can’t provoke these guys in any way or else you’ll pay the price and you deserve what you get. All White needed to do was act in a mature manner and the issue would’ve never boiled down to yet another hacking. Instead, he brought a dull pencil to a gun fight and was predictably destroyed.

Pick your battles properly, Dana. Because #OpUFC has supposedly only just begun, and “stage 2″ is coming soon. If stage 1 was to hack the UFC’s website, stage 2 must be really big. Keep an eye out for anything involving this story today and this weekend, because you just know Dana White will not learn and probably provoke them again.

The fun has only just started, folks. I for one will be watching this situation unfold ’round the clock. Remember when I said that the public shouldn’t just drop the SOPA issue after the bill was pulled? Well there ya go.

A List of Stupid Things Phil Simms Uttered Yesterday

"For a field goal to be successful, the football has to split the two uprights and be above the crossbar!"

I don’t think I’ve heard a worse NFL commentary this season than Phil Simms’ analysis on the Pittsburgh @ Denver playoff game. It was breathtakingly stupid at best and filled with “stating the obvious” quotes and not knowing the rules of the game.

Here is just a sample of what caught my attention (and millions on Twitter obviously) from the CBS broadcast:

1.) “Denver fans are doing a good job of drowning out the Steelers fans!” – Well given that it’s a Denver home game and the Broncos were winning at the time of this comment, I’d definitely say it’s not a shock.

2.) “For it to be a forward pass, it’s got to go….forward!” on the Ben Roethlisberger backwards pass to Mike Wallace (ruled incomplete). He gets paid a six-figure salary to do this.

3.) “That’s a good timeout by the Denver Broncos, because the clock stops.” – Way to go, gumshoe!

4.) I did not have an exact quote for this, but he actually argued on the aforementioned 3rd quarter Ben Roethlisberger backwards pass that John Fox elected not to challenge that particular play because Pittsburgh would’ve only lost 1/2 yard according to him. The throw and subsequent fumble would have cost Pittsburgh about 5 yards, but they would have retained possession.

5.) “I’d try a 67 yard field goal” – Late in the 4th quarter with the game tied at 23-23, Phil Simms actually suggested Shaun Suisham kick a 67 yard field goal because of the thin Denver air. This is the single stupidest comment he made, which is saying something.

Shaun Suisham is 4-11 from 50+ yards and has made zero field goals from 53 yards or longer. If the longest field goal he’s made is 52 yards and he has a terrible record of hitting ones from long-range, why would Pittsburgh even entertain the thought of anything like that? Worst case scenario is the kick gets blocked and returned for a touchdown or the kick comes up short and leaves a chance for a Devin Hester/Chris McAllister type of runback.

The odds of a Hail Mary touchdown from the Denver 49 is WAY more likely than making a field goal 6 yards longer than the NFL record. Seriously, why were he and Jim Nantz going through great lengths discussing this in the final minute of regulation?

That was a truly horrendous broadcast to get through, and I normally like CBS.

I know I’m leaving out other pearls of nonsense but I can’t remember all of his stupidity. I’ll leave you with video of Simms’ forward pass knowledge.

ESPN Asks if Matthew Stafford Was Snubbed From the AFC Pro Bowl Roster (UPDATE: And Then Totally Botch the Correction)

The NFL released its Pro Bowl roster (EARL THOMAS, BABY!!!!) and it was loaded with Patriots, Bears, 49ers, Packers, Saints, and Broncos. There were some questionable snubs, including league-leading tackler London Fletcher once again not making it to Hawai’i. ESPN in its infinite wisdom put out a SportsNation poll asking which player was snubbed from the AFC Pro Bowl roster. There’s just something wrong with one of the options…

Yep, Matthew Stafford of the playoff-bound Detroit Lions was widely considered to be a Pro Bowl snub on the AFC roster. Well when you play in the NFC North, then it’s not really a big shock that he didn’t make it on the AFC’s list of eligible players. Awesome research, ESPN. And of course, Stafford is on the exact same poll for the NFC so maybe someone at ESPN was really pissed that he didn’t make it ahead of Eli Manning.

 

UPDATE: Well ESPN fixed the mistake and Stafford is not in the poll. It’s too bad those incompetent dumbasses cannot figure out which position Houston Texans LB Connor Barwin plays.

Yeah of course linebacker is the same as offensive lineman. Inexcusable mistakes.

Peter King Seriously Suggested Having a Full NFL Slate on Friday

SI columnist and NBC insider Peter King highlighted ten things randomly swirling in his coffee-fueled head for the weekend’s NFL action, and the last thing he wrote is probably one of the worst ideas imaginable:

No one asked me, but why couldn’t the NFL keep the Thursday game intact, have Friday the 23rd — today — be the 14-game normal late-season gameday, with the Bears and Packers tonight on NBC, then the Saints and Falcons playing as normal on Monday the 26th? There are too few family days and nights on all of our calendars, and crashing the NFL schedule on the 24th and 25th is, to me, crass.

Are you serious, Peter? The purpose of the NFL moving the Sunday slate to Saturday is BECAUSE they don’t want a full day of football to clash with Christmas Day. Christmas Eve isn’t an official holiday so pushing it to Saturday is acceptable. Why would the NFL put 13 games on a Friday when:

1.) It’s a work day.
2.) It’s a work day and you’re playing games as early as 10 AM!!!!! That’s nonstop football from 10-4 PM. Good luck with work productivity and television ratings.

This isn’t baseball, there is no way the NFL would shift almost all of their games from Saturday to Friday to accommodate Christmas falling on a weekend. When the English Premier League has midweek games on a non-holiday, all of them are played no earlier than 7:45 PM. There’s a reason no one asked you, King. Your idea sucks and would be ratings suicide and a total schedule-mangler.

GIF OF THE DAY: Seahawks Fans “Make it Skittle” on Marshawn Lynch

Last night’s St. Louis @ Seattle game was ugly, inept, and everything you hate about NFC West football. But the Seahawks prevailed and once again were the superior team in the 2nd half. Marshawn Lynch capped off another brilliant day with a 16 yard touchdown run to put away the hapless Rams once and for all. The fans, in reference to Lynch’s habit of eating Skittles on the sidelines, decided to….well….make it rain Skittles.

When I first saw this live, I thought it was a cool gesture. Then I realized that if Lynch wasn’t wearing a visor, and one of those things lands in his eye, we’re probably at injury #417. It’s a stupid thing to do as throwing small, solid candy like skittles is no different than throwing pebbles (Fruity Pebbles?). Please don’t do this again, fans. You should all know that Seattle is the king of having players injured in bizarre fashion.

This of course is the only way the national media can ever talk about Seattle, or the fact that they and Arizona have inexplicably found themselves two games out of a playoff spot. I’m pretty sure I’ll be irritated and annoyed that FOX is going to talk about this endlessly for the remainder of the season, but as long as Lynch continues to brutalize people, all I can say is “Taste the Rainbow, suckers”.