Lenny from Indy

Stop bitching.  The first string Colts played for 2 quarters and change, and only put up 15 points.  It’s not like they never saw the field.  They had time to play.

Would you rather change places with the fans of these teams?

1. St. Louis Rams – 60 more minutes and they have the first drat pick.

2. Washington Redskins – All the money spend on all of those players and  they sit at the bottom of the NFC East.

3. Chicago Bears – The interception riddled QB with no one to throw the ball to?

4. Tampa Bay Buccaneers – The sharp decline this team has felt since 2002 is comical.

5. Buffalo Bills – Been a joke since the music  city miracle.

6. New York Giants – Just played themselves out of the playoffs.

7. Seattle  Seahawks – Mora Jr is the coach.  We’ve seen that movie here with Mora Senior.

8. Cleveland Browns – Nothing good comes from or out of Cleveland.

9. Oakland Raiders – Commitment to Excellence.  Just Win Baby. Buzz phrases + bad drafting = failure.

10. Detroit Lions – Fail. Abort. Restart. Repeating that cycle since 1997.

The Colts are first place in the AFC South, number 1 seed in the AFC, and the road to the Super Bowl comes through Indy.  Take a breath you spoiled brats.

It’s a sight that we are not used to seeing.  Tim Tebow’s and Florida taking a lost last night to Alabama.  Tebow cried on the sidelines and was teary eyed in his post game interview.

There was more passion, heart, and fire in that 47 second clip than has been displayed by the following teams in the NFL this season.

1.  Cleveland Browns

2. St Louis Rams

3. Buffalo Bills

4. Oakland Raiders

5. Kansas City Chiefs

6. Washington Redskins

7. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Between Tim, Colt McCoy, Sam Bradford and the wild card quarterback I’ll throw in to next years NFL draft, is that kid out of Central Michigan Dan LeFevour.  The next decades quarterbacks stand upon the doorway of greatness.

There is no reason why this picture of the Florida Gators cheerleaders needed to be here.  But, you don’t care.

Let the draft madness begin…

I reckon the “firing the coach thing” didn’t rally the troops to circle the wagons and get the win?

Hmmm.  This leaves me perplexed.

Now what Mr. Wilson?

In my own tiny opinion I believe that Ralph Wilson not only fired the wrong guy, he missed a few people.  This misfire exposes some other major glaring flaws within the team’s infrastructure.

Basic statement #1:  You are only as good as the players that you acquire through the draft and free agency.

Basic statement #2:  Proper coaching and a solid organized game plan is essential to at the very least being competitive in the NFL.

The Bills are so far behind the curve they make the Cleveland Browns look like Super Bowl Champions.  In case you didn’t know, Cleveland beat Buffalo in week 5 by the score of 6 to 3.  I’m not kidding with the score.  9 points all game.  This wasn’t a defensive battle type of game.  This has been referred to by some as, “The Game No One Wanted To Win”.  I think of that game as the game that set the NFL back 20 years.  Regardless of how it is remembered, it might be time for the Buffalo Bills to get back to basics.

It’s always odd when you look at the inner workings of a football team and see how they become accustomed to not only doing business, but how they are structured.

For instance… let’s take the current general manager Russ Brandon.  Russ, while involved in sports isn’t what you would call a “football general manager”.    Let’s look over Russ’ resume shall we…

Russ Brandon’s Resume

Class of 1989, St. John Fisher College

- Four-year letter winner as a wide receiver.

- .367 batting average on the baseball team.

- Inducted into the Fisher Athletics Hall of Fame in 2004.

Work Experience

Rochester Red Wings, Triple-A team – Started as a intern and by the time he left in 1993 he was the co-general manager along with Dan Mason, who is currently is still the Red Wings’ GM.

New York Yankees – Was apart of the Sports Advertising Network division.

Florida Marlins – Start at the spring training facility, then the Director of Corporate Sales in Miami two years later.

Buffalo Bills – Nov. 1, 1997 – Executive Director of Business Development and Marketing.

13 months later – promoted to the Vice President of Business Development and Marketing.  In 1999, as part of a way to expand the Bills’ market area, Brandon helped bring the Bills training camp from SUNY Fredonia to his Alma mater St. John Fisher College.

Jan. 12, 2007, after spending two years as the Executive Vice President of Business Operations, Brandon was named the new Bills COO (Chief Operating Officer) and took control over both business and football operations.  That’s quite a jump for anyone in any business.

Here is what you are telling me when I see this resume.  A marketing/sales guy is now involved in the draft, free agency, and everything in-between???

This is a catastrophic error on the part of Ralph Wilson.  This team has been in disarray for a decade.  There hasn’t been any improvement on this team, no team chemistry and poor decisions made at every level.

Firing the coach wasn’t the issue.  It might have been one of the issues.  A very minor issue compared to the inner workings of the Buffalo Bills front office.  Your structure of management and choice of people might be the issue.  This goes beyond “time to clean the house”.  You need to set off a nuke and start again.

Don’t waste your time finding the “big name coach”.  The “big name coach” in the current management structure is doomed to fail.

I made it easy for the Cleveland Browns to start prepairing for 2010. Most of this would classify as common sense, but as you can see by the last 10 years of the Browns franchise, that’s in short supply.

1. Find new General Manager. You are already aware of this one. Find a football guy and not a puppet or bean counter. Get someone aggressive. Really important that you don’t screw this one up right out of the gate.

2. Let the new General Manager hire a new coach. Both General Manager and Coach will have major say in who gets drafted and signed to the team. Remember, they are going to rebuild your mess. By the way, whose idea was it to hire Eric Mangini 9 days after he was fired? Did anyone notice his terrible track record in New York?

3. Find a veteran Quarterback to start the 2010 season. What you currently have on the team are some of the worst quarterbacks in the league.

4. Find a vetran backup quarterback to back up your starting quarterback. You’ll need this guy in case your starter goes down with an injury.

5. Draft Sam Bradford first in the 2010 draft. He will be your number 3 quarterback. He will not start in 2010. He will practice with the team, study, watch lots of film and learn. If all of that goes well, Sam will start for you in 2011.

6. Rebuild your reciever core. The soon to be former coach sent all of the good recievers away to other teams.

7. Using free agency, reset the offensive line. The current one is terrible. You’ll need to draft some guys in later rounds because the picks that you have in the early rounds are needed for skill players.

8. I actually think your defense is in good hands with Coach Ryan. What you need to do here is find big players to implement Coach Ryan’s aggressive play book. Use the new general manger to find them.

9. Change your uniform and come up with a logo. It’s been too long with this drab butt ugly uniform. Brown stands for feeling the Steelers fist in your hind quarters twice a year. Brown stands for high draft picks that never achieve. Brown stands for losing. Change the culture at its core with a new look.

This stuff shouldn’t be too hard to do if you are hell bent on having a competitive franchise.

Good luck and godspeed in your endevor to rebuild one of the NFL’s worst franchises.

This is all you really need to know about this game. Look at the sadness on fry guy.

Moving forward – Browns are on a bye week and will be swallowing sadness that they aren’t Steelers fans whilst da Bears invite the Cardinals into their lair.

So I predicted some games yesterday.  Let’s see how I did…. yesterday’s predictions are in the red text.

Upset of the week… Oklahoma beats Texas. – WRONG!  I BOTCHED THIS ONE BIG TIME.  MY BAD!

The obvious… Ohio State kills Purdue and I die a little on the inside. - WRONG!  I’M HAPPY I GOT THIS ONE WRONG.  IT HURT ME TO PREDICT THIS GAME THE WAY I DID.  F U OHIO STATE!  MY APOLOGIES TO THE GREAT PURDUE TEAM!

Expected… USC beats up on Notre Dame and the Catholic in me gets angry. – CORRECT!  SURE THE CATHOLIC IN ME WAS A TAD ANGRY BUT USC WON!  EPIC WIN!

More Expected… Florida rolls over Arkansas.  Tim Tebow after the game proclaims, “I don’t want to get drafted by Buffalo in the 2010 NFL Draft!  Can someone suck more than them this season please?” – CORRECT!  WELL I WOULDN’T SAY THEY ROLLED OVER ARKANSAS BUT THE TEBOW MACHINE KEEPS ON ROLLING.

2-2 for the day.  Meh.

Let’s start with a few quick facts on the Buffalo Bills in no order…

1. 9 seasons since the teams last playoff appearance.

2. Owner Ralph Wilson is a bit tight with the funds. Some would call him cheap.

3. A front office of novices.

4. The drafting skills of a you pick’em league at a elementary school yard football game.

5. The flashback uniform and logo is so much better than what is currently in place now.

6. New stadium deal not done in Buffalo.

7. No one in town is a big fan of head coach Dick Jauron.

8. A choice was made to play 8 games in Toronto, Canada over the next 5 years.

9. Fans deface players property when they make a bonehead play.

10. A failed Terrell Owens experiment can’t even be salvaged because why would another team want to waste money and picks on a guy that can walk to a new team in January.

11. You have the honor of playing the worst NFL game of the decade last week as you grappled with the Cleveland Browns, only to lose in the final seconds 6 to 3. You can’t even say that it was a defensive battle as the offenses on both teams generated so little heat that this was the most passive football has ever been.

12. It seems like when a player spends time in Buffalo and then moves to a new team, either through trade or free agency they seem to become better players.

13. A culture of losing is firmly in place.

14. An unemployed 18-year old has been collecting money through an internet campaign to buy a billboard that contains the message, “It’s time to clean house, Ralph.”

Make no mistake Buffalo, this is really sad.  I’d love to make a wise ass comment but these are facts.  This team is cooked.  The organization is rotten from top to bottom.

Many Bills fans talk of the past, the late 80’s and early 90’s had high flying teams and great players.  The end result was sadness.  It was sadness then and it is sadness now.

However, now you have a generation of fans that either do not remember or were too young to remember that you had a competitive team in Buffalo.

It doesn’t look like it’s lack of participation on the fans part would be a reason for moving the team away.  55,000 people have season tickets to Buffalo Bills games.  Kudos to the people for believing in the Bills.  Jeers on the ownership and management structure for engineering a monumental amount of sadness for paying fans to swallow.

Yeah I said moving.  It’s no secret that there is a group aggressively looking to bring one NFL team to California and Buffalo is on a short list of teams to try and woo with the dreams of a new stadium, new land, new fans, new outlook, and sunshine all year round.  But, I have to think that the Minnesota Vikings, San Diego Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, and even the Jacksonville Jaguars are higher on the list of teams to steal away than the hapless Bills.

Jacksonville?  An expansion team quite possibly is desired more than the Buffalo Bills.

Do you feel the sting?

The sting of shame as it hits you in your mouth.

Feel the shame Buffalo.

I see you already do.  Courage.

Hey Cleveland! City of bottom feeders… Check this out… BRAYLON CAUGHT THE BALL!

It’s amazing what a player can accomplish when you pull a great player out of the primordial ooze and get him involved with a well coached, real team.  A team that’s not in shambles.  A team that has drive, determination and grit.  While the Jets didn’t win this game last night. One thing is certain….

The Jets are for real and they have a #1 receiver.

Sure its taken them since the Joe Namath era to right the ship.  That’s not important right now.

The New York to Cleveland tunnel had been established when the Browns made the mistake of hiring Mangini earlier this year.  Mangini has traded away good players and draft picks to his former team who fired him in a solid effort to sink Cleveland further into the muck and mire of mediocrity.

He’s doing a great job.

Draft picks and secondary players aside, the Cleveland to New York tunnel has not been established for star players yet.

Earlier this week Braylon Edwards was traded to New York for essentially nothing.

The Cleveland to New York tunnel now exists.

Braylon on his fourth day on the job had a great game.  I wonder why he wasn’t this focused in Cleveland?  Hmmmmm.  I guess that will remain a mystery for the ages.  Oh no wait!  I have the answer.

Nothing good ever comes when you are connected to the Cleveland Browns.

Braylon however, now free, has a bright future ahead of him with the New York Jets.  A team on the rise.  Meanwhile Cleveland, the football team, and its people are left to wonder when the higher power will end the miserable mistake known as Cleveland, Ohio.

Last Sunday Cleveland’s “big win” over the dead on the inside and outside Buffalo Bills has been already named by some as, “The Worst Game of All Time.”  Cleveland won 6 to 3.

No touchdowns.  Only field goals.  Neither team wanted to win that game.  Seriously.  I cannot make that up.

The Browns have a 53 man roster of nothing.

Nothing to be happy about this year.

Nothing to build on for next year.

Giving that team a high round draft pick in the 2010 draft is like giving a recovered gambling addict $10,000 dollars cash while three high class escorts sit him down at a blackjack table.  He’ll crumble.

The Cleveland Browns is in ruins.

In other news I heard that Braylon Edwards emailed LeBron directions how to get to New York.

Cleveland sucks. Not just the sports teams. Everything about Cleveland sucks.

Even people who live in Cleveland understands how much it sucks to be in Cleveland.

Sure it’s a joke.  But, many things said in jest are usually a way to let out the truth.

Goodnight Cleveland. Hell laughs at you.

Does Eric Mangini still work for the Jets?

Let’s break down what “Coach” Mangini has handed to the team that FIRED HIM LAST SEASON!

The Browns received very little on draft day as the Jets traded up and drafted Mark Sanchez.

The Browns now get wide receiver Chansi Stuckey, linebacker Jason .  And allegedly a 3rd and 5th round draft pick in return the Jets get Braylon Edwards.

ATTENTION CLEVELAND FANS!  THERE IS NO METHOD TO ERIC MANGINI’S MADNESS.  IT’S JUST AS YOU SEE IT ONLY MADNESS!  AT THIS RATE YOU WILL HAVE THE FIRST ROUND DRAFT PICK NEXT YEAR IN WHICH MANGINI WILL TRADE AWAY FOR TONY ROMO, A CAN OF BEANS AND A RIDE IN JERRY JONES’ CAR!

You need to do something you have never done before people of Cleveland.  You need to rise up, stand erect and show your displeasure in the dismantling of basically the only player of any worth on your offense.  Protest!  Call in an complain! Email! Set up websites!  DO SOMETHING!  What is left of your “team” is being driven into the ground.

St. Louis laughs at you Cleveland.

Listen to the spin that the “Mangenius” has at his press conference.

First year head coach for the Cleveland Browns, Eric “Mangenius” Mangini has had a bumpy start.  By bumpy I mean they are 0-3.

0-3 would be classified as a bad start.

In the past 2 games they Browns have put up a whopping total of 9 points for a grand total of 29 points for the year.

Quarterback Brady Quinn deemed the “quarterback of the future” is now relegated to the bench as now its Derek Anderson’s turn to guide the Browns team to a victory.  Let’s remember that the Browns a few years ago traded up in the draft to acquire him.  Now he is starting at the title of, “draft day bust”.

It’s no secret that former Browns coach Romeo Crennel didn’t leave a solid team behind for Mangini but let’s face facts, Mangini’s “I’m here and this is how it is done” attitude seems to be impressing no one.  And, its not leaving a great impression on his players.

Again, the team is 0-3.

How much more abuse can Cleveland fans take from the Browns?  The team has had 2 winning seasons since they re-entered the NFL in 1999.   They had to watch the actual Cleveland Browns, owner Art Modell and its new city of Baltimore celebrate a Super Bowl win in 2000.  This seems like cruel and unusual punishment, even for a Browns fan.

One unnamed Cleveland player says that the team has not given up on Coach Mangini.  However, its hard to imagine what these players would have to play for a coach that will fine people $1,701.00 for one unpaid water bottle or high jacking all the rookies for a 10 hour bus ride for a football camp in Connecticut.  His stay with the Jets comes down to Eric being more of a “me” guy than a “we” guy.

“Me” guys do not win championships.  “Me” guys might have a a brief moment in the sun.  “Me” guys will take credit for everything when it works.  You won’t find a “me” guy when they fail.  “Me” guys will pound their chest and manage upward.  The “me” guy points all blame away from themselves.  One thing about “me” guys…  They flash out fast.  Eventually the act gets tired, they get figured out and are shown the door.

“We” guys are in it for the long haul and win championships.

Eventually, Cleveland will find a “We” guy.

We observed week 2 of the NFL season.  Here’s the valuable lessons learned.

The Jets beat the Patriots.  I’m not making that up.  It’s the first time in 8 years that the Jets beat the Patriots at home (well the Jets play in Giants Stadium… I guess its home… I dunno).  The city of New York celebrated the epic win by bathing the top of the Empire State building with a green colored light.  We knew that Rex Ryan had a plan.  We talked about this earlier in the week.  Check out what I said about Rex Ryan.

The Patriots are no longer one of the Elite teams in the NFL.  America is happy, very happy.

Bears beat the Steelers in Soldier Field.  Parts of Chicago feel happiness.  The rest of the city wishes the Cubs were still in the playoff hunt.  Steelers kicker Jeff Reed looked sick on the sidelines as he watched Bear kicker Robbie Gould kick the winning field goal.  Jeff missed two kicks today.  The good people of Pittsburgh would like a shot at kicking him today.

Matt Ryan of the Atlanta Falcons will reign supreme in Atlanta for a long time.  “Matty Ice” as he has been nicknamed by teammates, has a unique skill set that will be able to take Atlanta far into the playoffs this year and for many years to come.  Can they bring back the “Dirty Bird” when they score touchdowns?  That ruled back in the day.

Detroit still hasn’t won a game in over a season.  Matt Stafford looks a lot like Peyton Manning circa his first year in Indianapolis.  Flashes of brilliance with a bunch of interceptions and losses.  Can Detroit turn around the massive amounts of failure and damage that Matt Millen inflicted on the Lions?  Check out this guy, here is his “Post game” thoughts on his Lions after today’s big loss to the Minnesota Vikings.

Meet Brett Favre, game manager.  I like this Favre better than the “gunslinger”.  With weapons like Adrian Peterson and Percy Harvin he really has no excuses to make silly mistakes.  Plus Favre’s success kills Packers fans.  It’s fun to watch them squirm, whine and complain.

The Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills won!  Seriously.  The Bengals had the tougher road as they had to beat the Green Bay Packers.  Buffalo played Tampa Bay.  Tampa Bay needs to rebuild badly.  They have Kellen Winslow.  That’s about all you would want to keep on that team.

The Cardinals bounced back from last weeks loss to wallop the Jaguars, 37-17.  The Jaguars will draft Tim Tebow in the first round in next year’s NFL draft if the ownership would like to stay in Jacksonville.  Do I have to remind you that all of the Jaguars home games are blacked out because they haven’t sold out one of the teams eight home games?  Poor David Garrard isn’t going to know what hit him.  He is a great player among many underachieving players.  A change of scenery might do David good.  Tampa Bay anyone?

Jake Delhomme had a bounce back game.  25 completions for 308 yards, one touchdown and one interception.  However, the Panthers still lost to the Atlanta Falcons.  Maybe a change of scenery will do Jake good.  Tampa Bay anyone?

San Francisco’s offensive can be summed up in two words, Frank Gore.  16 rushes for 207 yards.  Two touchdowns.  It was like playing Madden on the beginner setting.

Matt Hasselback left the game with a rib injury before the half as the Seahawks went down pretty easy after that to the San Francisco 49′ers Gore’s.

Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saint used the Philadelphia Eagles as a doormat today.  I think the Eagles liked it.  Check the highlights…

The Texans beat the Titans.  Lots of offense, whoo-hoo!  The Titans are 0-2.

Who would have thought that the Denver Broncos would be 2-0?  With all of the change and drama they have had in this past off season is pretty amazing.  However, the Broncos beat the Bengals and Browns.  We’re not talking about stellar teams here.  Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels hasn’t had a real test yet.  We took a few shots at Josh’s witty and abrasive style on the blog.  We’ll have to readdress Broncos head coach after he beats a strong team.

The Redskins/Rams game was so overwhelmingly bad that it’s not worth talking about except to tell you that the Redskins won.

In a similar story, The Raiders beat the Chiefs.  People who dress up as Star Wars characters are happy this week.

Phillip Rivers threw for 436 yards today!  Fantasy football WIN!  However, the Chargers lost to the Baltimore Ravens.  Reality FAIL!

The Baltimore Ravens are the team to beat in the AFC North.  Ray Lewis still has mad skills.

Have you heard what they call the new Dallas Cowboys stadium?  Giants Stadium South.  Big win for the G-Men.  A devastating, historical loss for Jerry Jones and his Cowboys team in the new 2 billion dollar stadium that opened its doors to 100,000+ people last night.

Bonus stupidity:  Totally unrealated to week 2 NFL action check out Jake Delhomme and Steve Smith in a commercial.

A commercial with Jake only…

and finally a commercial with Jake and Charlie Daniels.

I’m not sure what to say either…