Hi Folks,
Congratulations.
You, like me, survived another NFL Offseason. Maybe, like me, it was “Barely” and that’s all right too. (One of the greatest one word lines in movie history at the :13 mark but that’s another column...)
We do a lot of really insightful, thoughtful and serious features here at Footballguys with some very smart people thinking deeply for you. This is not one of those features.
This is Random Shots and it’s a few pages of me downloading my goofy and dysfunctional mental hard drive that gets stuffed with way too many random items from too many hours watching, reading about and listening to football every weekend and throughout the week. It's the only way I keep relatively sane. Here's hoping it has a tiny bit of value for you.
I’m also going to give it my best effort this week to spend less than 95% of my time talking about Ray Rice.
We’ll see and let’s go.
J
I’ll admit, he’s a little frightening at times but with the NFL season kicking off Thursday night, I was feeling like Jimmy Johnson.
Players and coaches think they’ll come to Oakland and they’ll change the Raiders. Once again, Oakland shows they’ll be the ones doing the changing taking fine players like Maurice Jones-Drew and turning them into this.
Before the game, the Raiders Twitter feed was pushing the #StartTheCarr hashtag for new QB Derek Carr. You gotta like that.
If you’re a junkie like me, you pay attention to how players arrive at the stadium. Some guys wear suits. Some are casual. Some guys like Mark Sanchez and Nick Foles wear their jerseys...
Carolina QB Derek Anderson replaced Cam Newton and looked great.
Yeah, we saw that coming...
But you can’t go into the huddle there, Big Guy.
Even though I loved his engagement there.
Derek Anderson was doing his best “Nate” impression from the NFL Play 60 Commercial.
Cam wasn’t making this face though.
Panthers kicker Graham Gano and the Trombone Player were competing for the same real estate in warmups.
Gano was cool after the game contacting the guy, apologizing and setting him up with tickets.
ESPN Sunday Countdown had seven months to prepare for Sunday’s show and 30 minutes into it they’re already down to Frank Caliendo gags? Seriously?
You might have noticed DeAngelo Williams rocking a new hair style. There’s a cool reason behind it as he’s paying tribute to his Mom.
He even went with the toenails per Adam Schefter.
I don’t know what kind of cup Joe Flacco’s wearing, but every QB in the league should have one.
Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict left the game with a concussion after this encounter.
Every time I hear people complain about how much money NFL players make, I think about images like these from Sunday.
Dez Bryant takes a car wreck type hit.
And elbows are not supposed to look like Tyler Eifert’s does here.
Thanks to Reddit’s iamsodaft there.
Mandatory.com is back with Part Two of What If These QBs Were Bald?
Warning - you won't be able to unsee some of these.
Here’s Johnny Manziel.
Cowboy Fans, do not fear. Help is on the way.
Thanks to Conrado Prado for that one.
And can we talk about the San Francisco fans taking over the stadium?
We’ve all seen Romo throw interceptions. That wasn’t shocking. But I couldn’t believe how the crowd sounded like a home game for San Francisco. Ridiculous.
Jerry Jones went on forever trying to explain away the sea of red jerseys.
He made excuses ranging from AT&T stadium was really nice to reaching for the rebellious son cheering for his fathers rival theory.
Translation: Home field advantage is one of the biggest edges in sports and Cowboy fans gave that up to San Francisco Sunday.
Wes Welker is reportedly ready to go with a new helmet.
Green Bay’s Eddie Lacy wins Coolest Undershirt Of The Week.
But Marshawn Lynch looked like the Hulk for real.
Speaking of Lynch, my buddy Casey came prepared to select Lynch last week in our local draft. He had the music on the boom box queued up as well as the candy. Here’s Casey after the pick.
Message for Larry Fitzgerald’s Dad (and every other dad out there trying to live their lives through their athletic sons): Let the coaches coach.
Don’t whine about your son’s lack of targets in the offense.
I’m fascinated as to what he was thinking or what he expected to happen there. Bruce Arians is going to read that, do a face palm and say, “Wow, I never really thought about trying to get the ball to Fitz”. Grow up.
Hats off again to my friends at the FFPC for once again knocking it out of the park with their Live Draft Extravaganza in Las Vegas for Opening Weekend.
It’s a fantastic way to start to the year where hardcore fantasy junkies congregate and draft and have fun.
Las Vegas is interesting by itself. It’s even more interesting with Fantasy Football. You don’t see a lot of Jack Youngblood and Greg Zuerlein jerseys together.
That’s awesome.
I wore my lucky NFL Films shirt Steve Sabol gave me and the MIKESTRONG Young Guns represented. Here’s the brain trust at the NikeTown store.
Huge shout out to my Man Simon Shepherd who flew in from London. Simon’s the man behind the Footballguys Mobile Draft Dominator App and the Footballguys Magazine App. He beamed like a proud papa scanning the room to see all the players using the app. And you can see how happy I am with it. We are just getting started there...
Gronkowski’s back and Tom Brady is pumped.
Unfortunately, that was pretty much the high point...
Patriot haters will like this one...
Here’s what New England fans can say though. In Tom Brady’s entire career as the Patriot starting QB, this week is the first week they’ve been last place. Ever. That’s pretty crazy.
Brady had a fun line this week to WEEI in Boston.
“When I suck I’ll retire. I don’t plan on sucking for a long time.”
I moved into a new house during Week 1 of the NFL Season. That’s not exactly something I’d advise doing but the closing dates were a bit out of my control.
I felt a little like I was breathing underwater with hot spots and wifi until AT&T and DirecTV saved the day.
This was a happy day at Joe’s house.
These are my people.
Much was made of Eagles RB LeSean McCoy leaving a 20 cent tip recently.
USA Today’s For The Win ran a story with the headline: “LeSean McCoy explains the 20-cent tip he left a waiter”
From Les Bowen of the Philadelphia Daily News:
I’m not sure ““It’s bull****, man,” he said. Declined request to elaborate.” counts as an “explanation”.
As For The Win said, the only real winner here was Eagles guard Evan Mathis who went onto the restaurant’s Facebook page and posted this comment about McCoy’s server, Rob.
“So... Don’t sit in Rob’s section?”
Regular readers know I love the “Glitch In The Matrix” stuff where things are off. Sometimes the Matrix works together beautifully as it did for Saturday’s Arkansas State Game.
If I were the coach, I’d make Jemar Clark and Darion Griswold stand next to each other all the time.
Go Clark.
So much for rust. Washington special teams were in midseason form...
Thanks to Reddit’s Wu-Tang_Cam for that one.
Here’s a scene you don’t see every day.
Pete Morelli was Doug Martin’s high school principal.
Sam Bradford didn’t need to say a word.
Quick note on Bradford. This wasn’t coming from him at all but I heard lots of people talk about Bradford and the “personal devastation”. Can we give that a rest? I’m sure he’s disappointed. As are Rams fans. But knee surgery is a blip on the radar of life. I’ve been there. “Devastating” is the single mom with terminal cancer and no insurance.
On that note, hats off to the Bengals organization. I’m not sure I’ve ever typed that sentence before but they deserve some props. They recently signed defensive tackle Devon Still to the team’s practice squad so Still could keep his insurance and help pay for his four year old daughter’s cancer treatment.
As Still told the Cincinnati Enquirer this week, "They could have just washed their hands completely of it."
Instead, Still will be able to afford the treatment for his daughter which is expected to be in the million dollar range. Rock on Bengals.
I love how Andy Reid was “desperate” going for it on 4th down but Mike Tomlin was a “gutsy gunslinger”. I know the gunner was uncovered but I’m always fascinated how the results change the perception. It’s life.
Everyone saw Antonio Brown kicking Browns punter Spencer Lanning in the face.
It’s a fun world we live in where a zillion parodies were created in what seemed like minutes.
I think my favorite may have been Brown as Karate Kid going “Crane Technique” on Lanning.
Lanning was a good sport afterwards posting on his Twitter feed:
Thanks to Footballguy Brian Sumner for that one.
Once again, we see clear and obvious proof that the NFL Preseason means both nothing (San Francisco) and everything (New York Giants).
God Bless Matt Bryant. A 51 yarder at the end of regulation and then a game winning 52 harder in overtime to win. Sweet.
Swapping a movie note this week for the music. I like Wes Anderson movies but I’m not the Anderson fanboy who loves anything he does.
This is a pretty cool short video looking at Anderson’s composition and centering. The kind of stuff that you may not immediately pick up but instead you just think to yourself “this looks great”. Good stuff. Music next week.
Once again, Maryland wins the Uniform Competition.
Glitch In The Matrix pointed out to me by Peter King: San Francisco’s Frank Gore is the 10th player to gain 10,000 rushing yards for one team—in 10 seasons.
I’m out.
Hard Luck Awards for Week 1.
Sometimes it's better to just not know...
That'll do it for this week, Folks. Thanks to Footballguy Doug Drinen and Brian Sumner for the help on this one. If you've got a Random Shot of your own, shoot me an e-mail at bryant@footballguys.com.
Good news to report. Regular readers know I dedicated this column last year to my close friend Mike Wenger who was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia one year ago.
Thank God I can say that we’re now talking about Mike’s cancer in the past tense. He’s back to work and is doing exceptionally well. Big thanks to you folks for the support and prayer. Much love.
Thanks for playing along. I hope you make the most of whatever you're doing in your life. Love your neighbor and stick together.