There’s a writer I particularly like on a different sports opinion site (which you should never, ever read). Like the Football Outsiders guys (with whom he was affiliated), he’s trying to bring the equivalent of sabermetrics to pigskin. But I’m starting to wonder if he’s analyzing himself right out of a job. Take a look […] READ MORE
Author: Brian Donovan
The NFL Crystal Ball, Part 2
The last time I wrote one of these, the Cowboys were 0-1 and looked like the worst team in football. So, yeah, I got that one wrong. I was right about London games continuing to stink, though. Let’s see how these predictions work out: College football will be dramatically scaled back. Like the Dot Com […] READ MORE
Dear Texans: Welcome to Dumpsville
When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another…. Wait, no, that’s not right. Gosh this is hard. How about: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was […] READ MORE
In Defense of Ryan Fitzpatrick
Many of us — certainly including me — have said some harsh things over the last few weeks about embattled Texans quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick (TM? Has that been trademarked yet? If not, I’m calling dibs on Embattled Texans Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick; I have a feeling you’ll be hearing it a lot this month). But he […] READ MORE
Book Review: Throwback, by Jason Kendall
Kids and historians should read this book. Serious baseball fans should read it too, of course, but if you’re one of them and you didn’t realize Jason Kendall has a book out, the rest of this sentence is purple monkey dishwasher. Everyone back from Amazon* yet? Ok. Now that you’ve bought Throwback and are gnawing […] READ MORE
The NFL Crystal Ball
Things are getting heavy in the NFL right now. All across the sports pundit landscape, passionate, informed people are writing deep analyses and detailed think-pieces about the pressing issues of the day. Some good ones are up on this very site, in fact, and I urge you to read all of them…. and then come […] READ MORE
NFL Systems
Every time an airliner crashes, some wannabe comedian asks, “why don’t they make the whole plane out of the black box stuff?” Everybody hates that guy. But at the risk of getting one of the many wedgies he so richly deserves, I have to ask, Why doesn’t every team have a “system?” For instance, a […] READ MORE
Bill O'Brien, Coaching Trees, and the Transition from College to NFL
Like many Texans fans, I spent much of this offseason contemplating seppuku. But in between Google searches – and hey, did you know there’s a certain part of the internet that’s really into Japanese culture? – I started pondering a different question: Why do some NFL coaches just plain stink? Stink, I mean, in the […] READ MORE
Little League World Series Teaches Kids Wrong Lessons
Pieces like this traditionally lead with the disclaimers. So: No, I’m not a disgruntled Little League dad whose kid’s team got knocked out early. Yes, I like baseball. No, I’m not a doctor, and I don’t play one on TV. Yes, I’m a grumpy old man. That said, we need to talk about the Little […] READ MORE
