Johnny, Get It Together

It’s the last Sunday before the NFL season gets underway and we have football on every weekend until sometime in February. Get ready to enjoy the ride because I’m ready to dive into my 20 fantasy leagues, pick ‘em weeks, eliminators, and college pick ems as well. Let’s get this blog on the road.

Tracy McGrady retired this week and ended on a pretty cool note playing in his only ever NBA Finals this past season. Granted, his team lost to the Miami Heat, but nonetheless, the guy had a phenomenal career and will go down as one of the most lethal scorers the NBA has ever seen. His defense was suspect and his team play was a bit questionable, but when it came to his ability to put the ball in the hoop, you couldn’t find a better guy in the early 2000’s. It’ll be sad to see him go and we all will remember his breakout performances on the Orlando Magic and in his Houston Rocket days.

Madden 25 came out this week and all I have been doing is playing it and if you play it too, you should add me at chrismorrison99. I find this to be one of the best Madden games out since the 2005 Madden that introduced the hit stick. So much variability when it comes to team game play and with some of the precision features they added, the game feels more realistic than ever. I was a skeptic of Madden the past 2-3 seasons with the way the game play was shaping up, but this season the game play is fantastic and I love playing it anytime I get the chance.

 NCAA Football came back this week with a bang as some big time matchups took the stage especially with probably one of the best games we may see all season with Ole Miss and Vanderbilt. A back and forth fourth quarter and a refreshing new look at the start of the 2013 Football season. Georgia and Clemson was another big matchup this weekend and Taj Boyd came out slinging and made me drool at his NFL potential on Saturday especially with the way he carved up that Georgia defense. LSU and TCU was another great matchup where I expected LSU to run TCU out of the building, TCU showed up and made a name for themselves against a respectable SEC opponent. There were some embarrassing upsets in the first week as North Dakota State beat Kansas State on Friday sending Kansas State into a tail spin for the rest of the season. The most embarrassing loss was the Eastern Washington win over #25 ranked Oregon State which only makes PAC 12 land look that much more pathetic heading into conference play. Football is back everybody and it is only going to get better when the NFL kicks off on Thursday night!

Let’s talk about Johnny Manziel for a little bit shall we? When it comes to his actions off the field, I have no place in putting that in my blog because it is a story that really doesn’t appeal to me because I already am fed up with the way the NCAA is run and how players are treated like pawns in their scheme to make tons of money for big wigs while giving little to no compensation for players who don’t even get to sniff the millions of dollars these schools are generating every season. So talking about his off the field issues are not in my agenda but what he did on Saturday against Rice was absolutely embarrassing for college football and I found it shameful and immature of him to act the way he did in the second half of the football game. First of all, He’s playing Rice university who (first of all is a baseball school and) can’t compete at any level when it comes to major football competition. They are the definition of a cupcake team. He’s taunting their front seven all game and showing up their team and making referees pull flags out of their pockets to shut him up. Seriously dude? First off, it’s disrespectful and has no place in the game of football, and it’s Rice University. I honestly would cut him some slack if he came into the second half of an Alabama or LSU or Florida game and threw 3+ TD’s and started talking smack because in actuality that would be pretty bad ass and “baller status” if he ever did such a thing. But this is Rice, Johnny. Seriously? You’re going to taunt 2 star talent (at best) and tell them you own them and to “look at the scoreboard” because you’re winning? You are ranked top 10 in the country and they won’t even sniff a vote to reach the top 25 and you’re telling them to check the scoreboard? How about you check your ego at the door and come play to dominate instead of getting your pompous ego in the way of what your team can achieve this season along with forgetting about what teams like Rice have to say to you on the field. I know you are in the spotlight and that the news about you may be getting on your nerves and people might be saying things about you that you don’t like, but honestly, champions don’t give a crap about the critics in fact they feed off of them and attempt to turn their heads, not rear them up for battle. And Johnny, you are rearing many people’s heads at your actions on the football field as well as off, and if you don’t play to the level you played last season, expect to be undrafted and playing in the CFL with the golden boy Tim Tebow.

One final note before I go, Justin Morneau was given to the Pirates by the Twins. If you know anything about him he played for them forever and won AL MVP back in 2006. The guy is an on the verge Hall of Famer and he is going to provide the spark the Pirates need to help them in this final stretch run they need for the post season. I hope he can get it done for them, or else, he’s done.

Also, if you all haven’t checked out my NFL Preseason predictions, you should do so they should be just below this blog and I also will be doing my Vikings Vlogs starting this week so be on the lookout for those. If you don’t know my YouTube channel, here it is (chrismorrison99).

See y’all next week on Monday Night after the two Monday night games! Football is back and Autumn is in the air, I can FEEL IT!