The Great American Football Crusade

Last year, my father and I began a tradition. I had just graduated college, and we decided that now that I didn't have academic obligations, we'd embark on a quest to see every NFL stadium in the country before we die, (of course, when I say that, I mean before he dies, but I can't exactly come right out and say that, can I?).

To summarize, we're going to try and hit up 1-2 stadiums per year, preferably away games for the Jets, until we've eventually seen every stadium. I'm 27, and my father's turning 56 this week. Which means I'll probably have kids by the time this thing is over.

Also, my uncle will probably be along for some of these trips, as Jet games have become a tradition between the 3 of us. This year, we're driving down to Baltimore for the Raven's matchup, and on the bye week we're flying out to Green Bay to see the Vikings play the Pack at Lambeau. We're doing this because, well, it's Lambeau, and any football trip should have Lambeau as its number one priority.

The trip started last year in Jacksonville, and my goal is to keep a running diary of each trip and hopefully make it in to a book years down the line when everything's said and done, and we've seen every stadium.

Due to the fact that it's July and football news is scarce, I'm posting the diary from that trip, which I think is pretty funny, and it also set the precedent for any trip we take from here on out.

Well, recently just got in from Jacksonville, and I don’t know if you guys knew about this yet, but the Jets lost really badly. That being said, I still had one of the most fun weekends of the year.

A few months ago, my old man called me when I was at work and asked if I was interested in going to see our Jets in Jacksonville. Of course I responded with a yes, who would honestly turn down the opportunity to fly from Jersey to Florida in October, get drunk all weekend, and talk trash to Florida fans? What’s not to love about a weekend like that?

That being said, no one told us we’d be attending the worst loss in the past 20 years for Gang Green, but that’s neither here or there. As far as I’m concerned, that was the first legit vacation I had in over a year, so I keep telling myself the Jets were actually competitive for memory’s sake. Pathetic? Probably. But lying to myself allows me to give you guys my own semi-running diary of my weekend of Jacksonville. A weekend of greasy food, wine, beer, and endless gay jokes. So here we goooooooo…….

I’ll skip all of Saturday, even though I had an awesome steak at Ruth’s Chris with my Dad, so we can get right down to the good stuff.

11AM – We wake up and go to the hotel. Pops and I decide it’s time to go to Wal-Mart to pick up sandwiches, beef jerky, and booze. Somehow, we walk into the Wal-Mart dressed in full on Jets gear, and hear practically no trash talk. In fact, the only trash talk we hear is from people who noticed our gear and started talking to us about the Florida Gators. I’m not kidding when I say this, no one in Jacksonville has any type of passion for the Jaguars. In fact, I’m convinced that the fans simply go to the game because it’s another excuse for Florida fans to talk trash to Florida St fans.

11:30 AM – I call up my buddy Joe and find out where everyone’s meeting up. It’s a sub shop called Ross Doe’s, and as soon as I hang up the phone with Joe, I forget the name of the sub shop, and on top of that I’m too embarrassed to call Joe and ask him again, so we drive around the stadium for a half hour looking for a sandwich ship with the name “Doe” on it, as that’s all I remember. Dad is not pleased.

12 PM – We pull into the lot finally, and there’s one Jet fan with about 10 Jaguars fans. As soon as we get out of the car, the Southern hospitality kicks right in. It really is a different world down there. If a bunch of Jaguars fans pulled up to your tailgate party, the last thing you’d probably do is shake his hand as soon as he’s out of the car, offer him your food and beer, and welcome him with open arms. Yet somehow, we’re offered boiled peanuts (a big thing down south apparently), beer, and everything off the grill as soon as we get out of the car.

12:15 – One guy starts talking to us about the Noles, followed by another guy who chimes in about the Gators. Anger ensues, followed by more boiled peanuts. I’m actually starting to like these things.

12:45 – A few more Jet fans show up, a few from home, and everyone agrees that we’re all collectively pissed that we’re all going to miss the Sunday papers after the Yankees blew a series against the Tigers. On a better note, everyone heard Chris Russo on Saturday morning, so we all engage in a collective Mad Dog impersonation….”Yankee fans! It’s Elimination Saturday!!!” Seriously, few things in life are as enjoyable as doing a Mad Dog impression, and it’s even better when there’s a bunch of people doing it.

12:50 – More Gators talk.

1:15 – A few Jet fans show up, and the best one is a father who’s originally from Long Island with his 3 sons. 2 are Jet fans, and one believe it or not is a Dolphins fan. It’s not every day you see a father give a group of strange men permission to continually haze his son, yet this guy encourages it. You really gotta love Jet fans, there’s noone like us out there.

1:30 – After hazing the Dolphins fan, everyone’s gathered in a circle talking Jets talk. Everyone’s yelling to make their voice heard, and you remember how great it is being a fan. We’ve all got our different opinions, but everyone’s got the same case of wanttowinagoddamnsuperbowlalready-itis.

1:31 – Joe shows up, and my buddy Pac shows up a little bit after. What can I say? I had a great time hanging out with both of them. Pac stays and chills with his buddy, while Joe has to go and hang out with his family for a little while.

2:10 – I promised him I won’t mention who, but Joe comes up to me and says “******** is really wierding me out man. He’s really weird and I’m seriously freaked out.” A normal person might sympathize, but I’m half-drunk and I’ve also been standing in the sun for over two hours now, thus, I can’t help but find this hilarious.

3:00 – Everyone’s pretty drunk by now, we’ve all been downing beers and the J-E-T-S chants start. Pictures ensue, massive bordline-gay high fives follow, and more boiled peanuts are offered by the Jacksonville people.

3:10 – Joe comes up to me and says, “seriously, he’s really freaking me out and I’m scared. This guy knows who I am and he’s a complete weirdo, what do I do?” I shrug my shoulders and just tell him to hang out with us, when in reality I wanted to go up to the unnamed weirdo and tell him that Joe really thinks he’s a nice guy and he was talking about hanging out with him when they get back up north. I realize this is just way too mean of a thing to do and resist the urge, although I’m partially regretting not doing it for entertainment’s sake.

3:30 – Everyone realizes it’s game time, and the walk to the stadium is off and running. We hear absolutely no trash talk on the walk over, find our seats, and wait for the game to begin. The stadium’s really nice, and I’m extremely jealous, Jacksonville doesn’t deserve that stadium. First off, they can’t sell enough tickets to fill it up, thus they close out about 12-15,000 seats per game in the upper deck and end zone. The only time they open them up is for the Florida-Georgia game. And it’s nothing against Jacksonville either, the people there were very nice, it’s just that’s a college football area. I realized when I was down there that they should have put that team somewhere else.

4:30 – Awfulness has ensued, but my Dad and I have found two things to keep us entertained. First, the Jacksonville cheerleaders are called “The Roar,” which is possibly the gayest nickname I’ve ever heard. This leads to my Dad and I repeatedly clawing our hands in a Richard Simmons-like motion, and saying “Hear our roar, roooooaaaar,” in a Richard Simmons-like voice. Funnily enough, the Jacksonville fans are pretty entertained by this. Second, the Jaguars have this funny chant whenever they get a first down. When they get one, the PA guy comes on and says something like,” Fred Taylor with a 5 yard gain, RESULTING IIIINNN……and then the whole crowd goes, “FIRST DOWN! MOVE THE CHAINS! MOVE THE CHAINS! MOVE….THE…..CHAINS!!!” It’s actually not that bad of a chant at first, but when you need something to make fun of, it’s classic gold. Thus, when they call a safety back, my Dad and I stand up and scream, “Aannd the referees call roughing the passer, RESULTING IN……..NAIL IN THE COFFIN! NAIL IN THE COFFIN! NAIL…..IN….THE…..COFFIN! Also, for the rest of the game, even when we were down 41-0, we did the Move the Chains chant in our favor, which was actually pretty funny. On a final note, a bunch of people have plastic yellow chains to wave around when the chant ensues, and one of the other Jet fans in my section grabbed someone else’s chains, and started chanting “Move the Chains” while swinging it over his head and doing it in one of the funniest gay voices I’ve ever heard. That might have been the funniest part of the trip.

When I got back to the hotel room, my Dad and I watched a little SNF, and after he passed out I wound up clicking on CNN, and I see North Korea’s finally tested a nuke. That’s just awesome.

All in all a good trip, I had a great time and there’s not much more to say. Everyone made fun of me for flying all the way to Florida to go see a loss like that, but you’ve honestly got to laugh. I guess you could say I had an epiphany when I was down there, probably due to how much fun I had, but it’s pretty funny the amount of bitching that came from guys treating the loss like the end of the world. North Korea’s testing nukes, and everyone’s treating a blowout after 4 solid games like the sky is falling.

Honestly, I took a lesson from this weekend, and it’s this….Lighten up guys, it’s one game. I’m just as passionate as anyone, but good god, football season makes life better, I’m truly convinced of that. And it’s week 5, there’s plenty more weekends you could go and tailgate with your buddies and your family. And my advice to you is to go out and do it. Because football season is short and sweet gentlemen, we go almost 2/3 of every year without it, so damnit, go out and enjoy it. Football season is supposed to be FUN, not stressful. And it really amazes me that though the majority of fans preseason expected a rebuilding year, that those same people are going bonkers over a huge blowout on the road to a Superbowl contender.

North Korea’s testing nukes, and there’s guys ready to offer their first-born child if we bench Chad, fire Mangini, switch to a 4-3, and make Leon the full time starter. That being said, my preaching is over, and I had a great time with everyone.

a few early 2008 draft rankings

Some early rankings (very early) at a few offensive positions. Keep in mind that they're a little rough and are in no way my final preseason rankings.

QB:
1. John David Booty, USC (I know some might dissagree, but Booty's got such a cannon and you can't ignore what this school had produced at QB lately)
2. Eric Ainge, Tennessee (2nd on my QB board with a bullet. Ainge is possibly my favorite senior for next year. Absolutely love everything about him, especially his coachability. He's consistently gotten better every tear at Tennessee).
3. Colt Brennan, Hawaii
4. Brian Brohm, Louisville (Maybe I'll get hammered for having Brohm under Ainge and Brennan, but IMO, Brohm is overrated. I think he's going to struggle without Petrino and he looked completely shaken up in the Rutgers game, and enough to definitely cause concern).
5. Chad Henne, Michigan
6. Matt Ryan, BC
7. Andre Woodson, Kentucky (sleeper, big time, kid lit it up during the last few weeks, demolished Clemson and almost beat Tennessee. Held his own against Florida as well.)

RB:
(Seniors only, don't forget though that Rice, Slaton, McFadden, Hill, and Jones will all be eligible to declare):
1. Allan Patrick, Oklahoma
2. Mike Hart, Michigan
3. Yvenson Bernard, Oregon State (love this kid)
4. Brandon Ore, VaTech

WR:
1. Marcus Monk, Arkansas
2. Limas Sweed, Texas
3. DeShaun Jackson, Cal
4. Todd Blythe, Iowa St
5. Ernie Wheelright, Minnesota
6. Adarius Bowman, Ok St

T:
1. Sam Baker, USC
2. Jake Long, Michigan
3. Kirk Barton, Ohio St
4. Pedro Sosa, Rutgers
5. King Dunlap, Auburn

G:
1. Will Arnold, LSU
2. Mike Fladell, Rutgers
3. Kirk Elder, Texas A&M
4. Robert Gustavis, Arizona St

TE:
1. Travis Beckum, Wisconsin
2. Martin Rucker, Mizzou
3. John Carlson, Notre Dame
4. Joey Haynos, Maryland

one pro and one D-1.........but they're NOT predictions.

It's usually at this time of year that most people start spouting off their predictions. I've never been one to jump right in to claiming what team will do what, because for the most part I've come to the conclusion in recent years that predictions are inherently stupid. They're based on flawed logic and there's too many mitigating factors that contribute to a teams success or lack there of.

That being said, I'll give you two teams, one college and one pro, who I FEEL will do extremely well this upcoming season.

Seattle

Reasons: Loved their free agent pickups this season, most notably Patrick Kerney. I've always felt Kerney never got his due in terms of being mentioned with some of the elite pass rushers in the league. His prescence will most certainly help Julian Peterson continue his reemergence in Seattle's 4-3. Loved the Deon Grant signing as well. For a secondary that was in desperate need of some veteran leadership, they couldn't have found a better guy for the job than Grant on the FA market. Deion Branch has to be considered their first round pick and after him I liked (not loved) Seattle's draft. Needless to say though, it's hard to argue how good this offense can be when healthy and Hasselbeck is arguably the best quarterback in the conference after Brees. Branch is also too much of a gamer to not start clicking with Hasselbeck, and I have to believe he's going to bounce back to his full potential. Bottom line is he's a flat out better player than Darrell Jackson who flourished at times in Holmgren's offense, and there's no excuse as to why Branch can't.

On top of that, great coach, invaluable home field advantage, and they're coming off of a season where they were PLAGUED with injuries. Meaning that they're unlikely to suffer that sort of bad luck again.

If I'm a betting man, I'm putting Seattle back in the Super Bowl barring serious injury and I think it'll happen quite easily.

Wisconsin

It's a product of the team losing only one signifigant player (Thomas) and the rest of the conference getting signifigantly weaker. Ohio State is in a transition year and Michigan lost practically that entire defense. Henne, Hart, and Manningham are great but that team isn't nearly as complete as it was last year and I still am not a Carr fan.

Don't forget that WU's only loss last year came to Michigan as well and this year they'll have them at home. PJ Hill is a Heisman contender from the start and Travis Beckum might be the best Tight End in the nation. Him and Hill are definitely enough to keep the offense going with Tyler Donovan running the show.

Big fan of their defense too. Jack Ikegwuono is probably the best defensive back in the Big 10 and Al Langford helps compliment him on the other side. Can't deny that the Badgers have a top notch secondary.

I love WU for the Big Ten and won't be surprised at all if they make a push for the National Championship.

The beginning

Well, here we go. After years of bouncing around the idea of establishing my own football website, I've finally given in to my own laziness and simply amended the entire ordeal to a simple blog for now.

The goal here is to discuss any and all aspects of football. Not just NFL, and certainly not just College. We're looking at any and all angles of the game on all levels. Of course, NFL and D-I will obviously be dominating the content here, but I don't want to limit myself to any one level. Plus, if I ever want to talk about something other than those two outlets, I've already covered myself from the get-go (this is all assuming that the few people who would even read this besides myself would even care, so I don't know why it matters. It's a pretty pointless thing to be writing about for the time being, and I'm not sure why I've put this much thought into it. In fact, why am I still typing about this?).

So there you have it, a slight insight things to come. Just random opinions and observations on all levels of the game, and I figure it's a good thing to start now so I'll be in the swing of things come autumn.

Hope you guys enjoy the blog, and until the season starts I'll try to pump out 1-2 posts per week.