Should I do a Draft Recap?

Posted on May 7, 2024 by guelphbossman

Yeah, why not. Not like I am stupidly busy with life.

Alright we made it through all seven rounds (and the various undrafted signees over the following 48 hours). It was a slog at time but there was some very interesting spots during the three days, especially night one. Let’s just do this point form, shall we? I don’t feel like putting a ton of effort into something that is done in a much more thorough fashion by some websites who go as far as rating EVERY PICK. Yeah I’m not doing that.

The most stunning development of the draft, by a country mile, was the Atlanta Falcons and their pick at the #8 spot in the draft. I wondered if they would pick J.J. McCarthy in my final mock draft to back Kirk Cousins up for a season and then see where things are. I was right…the Falcons did draft a quarterback. That quarterback’s name, though, was Michael Penix Jr. People were stunned. Hell, Cousins was stunned. He certainly DID NOT LIKE THAT. This has all the makings of a three-ring circus so we shall see how things progress down in the heart of Georgia.
Speaking of stunning, how about Penix being one of the six quarterbacks picked in the first 12 spots of the draft. Incredible. Easily a new record for the draft.
Hey, look at me! I got the first four picks absolutely correct…as did I think almost everyone. It was almost a no-brainer as to who the first four selections would be and in what order they would go in.
Now, as for the first stretch of the draft I would go with Penix at #8 since I figured he would go much later in the first round. As for bigger stretches, how about Ricky Pearsall at #31, Max Melton at #43 (again with those Falcons) and Ben Sinnott at #53 who I had going sometime after the third round. Yikes.
Over 700,000 fans were at this draft. 700,000. I mean it wasn’t 700,000 different people but still. That’s an insane amount of people. And let’s be honest here: other than the people under the structure and close enough to be maybe caught on camera once, is it really that fun an experience? It looks awful to be part of unless you are close enough and feel like you are part of the “action” for lack of a better term. At least it doesn’t cost anything to go there so you could come and go as you please (as far as I know).
I perused all three shows on Night One. Gotta say, Nick Saban was a breath of fresh air. Honest insight and gave you info that always seemed to be missing from previous draft broadcasts. NFL Network did their usual solid job. And if you want to know how ESPN did, as soon as I went over to that broadcast, the first thing I saw is Mel Kiper basically yelling right in Booger McFarland’s face. So yeah, I would go 1) ABC 2) NFLN 3) watching people on Twitter bitch and complain about all things draft-related but at least picks weren’t getting tipped early unless you were looking for it 4) ESPN.

Let’s get to the winners and loser of this draft:

Winners

As I usually do, I will preface this with the fact that it is really too soon to truly understand the ramifications of this draft. Many pundits have been wrong. No one thought Tom Brady would be what he ended up being after being drafted 199th back in 2000.
Da Bears – Caleb Williams was the no-brainer first overall pick. Getting Rome Odunze to pair with him eight picks later was a big pick. Then to pick Tory Taylor in the fourth round was a coup. Overall, a great draft from Ryan Poles.
Da Vikings – This seems to be a bit more polarizing. As a friend of mine stated, he just wanted the Vikings to have a plan and stick with it. So if it’s taking J.J. McCarthy, then take J.J. McCarthy and don’t overthink it. Which they did. Then they moved up to get Dallas Turner in one of the best trade-ups of the draft. Including Khyree Jackson as their fourth-round pick means they actually got a lot of value with some of their picks, something many teams can’t say.
Philly – Their secondary is going to be something to deal with. Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean were drafted lower than many thought they would be (including myself). And now with Vic Fangio running the defense? Watch out.
Indy – They got quite the haul with their 2024 draft. And Adonai Mitchell actually picked around where he was supposed to be picked (if not a little later which makes him a bit of a steal). How about that?

Losers

I don’t care what anyone thinks but drafting Michael Penix Jr. at #8 is a terrible choice. I mentioned it above and I am not going to go over it again. There’s a GM overthinking things and it was interesting watching him try to basically justify the pick to Arthur Blank (or at least that’s what it looked like).
The Raiders – Now the Raiders, they needed a quarterback. Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell are not the answer unless one of them plays out of his mind this season. So did they trade up? No. They did get Brock Bowers which is a good pick but they need someone to throw him the fucking ball.
Buffalo* – I put an asterisk here. When they didn’t trade up to grab Brian Thomas Jr. I thought, OK maybe they aren’t go to draft a receiver. Then they trade with the Chiefs to move down to #32 which is kind of weird. The Chiefs picking Xavier Worthy is so much less of a deal than many made it out to be, it’s laughable. According to some, Worthy is nine Puka Nacuas rolled into one. Get the fuck outta here. The Chiefs reached for Worthy according to almost everyone’s thoughts going into the draft so cut it with the “he’s a sure-fire HOFer with Patrick Mahomes” horseshit. THEN, the Bills trade down AGAIN to get out of the first round altogether. Sure, the Panthers also reached with their receiver pick but still, what was Brandon Beane trying to accomplish? And please, moving up on Day 3 of the draft means very little, admit it. So after all this, what do the Bills do? DRAFT A RECEIVER! Are you kidding me? I mean the guy is hilariously entertaining but trading down twice to do what you could have done the previous night all to move up some of your later picks? Oh yeah, real big brain stuff. Again, get the fuck outta here. Over………thinking. And that kind of thing pushes general managers out the door.

OK I have to calm down. Enough of the draft. I was getting pretty pissed off there at the end. Maybe it’s the residual from the Leafs losing in heartbreaking fashion…again. Being a Leafs fan and a Bills fan I should know the pain is coming. But even though I do, it still sucks. Big time.

Were there other winners and losers at this draft? Sure. I don’t have the time, energy or inkling to even go into that. Not my forte, so I dip my toe in the water and steer clear of the “experts” who do this for a living.

Now a little blurb about what is happening with Rogers and their NHL contract. Remember what I said years ago about it? Let’s step into the way-back machine and take a look, shall we?

My opinion was that Rogers would rue the day they made that deal. Not the cost (although it was a ton) but the length of the deal. Twelve years at the time. Now it took longer than I thought it would (and that’s because Rogers couldn’t do this before now becuase there was no interest) but Rogers is selling off the Monday Night NHL game package to Amazon. Yep, it’s only the last two years of the twelve-year contract but still, I had a feeling it would happen. I don’t think Rogers is getting the return on investment they desired and that’s obvious with this move. I am guessing they will be much less of a major player when the Canadian rights come up in 2026. Feels good to be right at least some of the time, especially when others don’t quite agree with you. Then again, I live in the middle of a hockey-mad country that just watched the first- or second-most popular team (depending on who you ask) get bounced from the playoffs….OK I’m not going back to that well. It’s done. Over with. Stop it, Bossman.

Soon enough I will get back in the groove of things. Most important games lists. Conference predictions. My (probably shitty) Heisman ballot. I know it’s only May but with the new college football video game coming out soon I am starting to feel it. College football is in the air (kind of). Have a great week everyone!

The ALL-NEW Mock NFL Draft Version 2 Dash 2024 along with a look-back

Posted on March 23, 2024 by guelphbossman

That intro sounds like when The (Big Money!) Match Game 1976 would air on Game Show Network. Why did they need to put the year in? When people were watching it live, were they so fucking stoned that they had to be reminded what year it was?

Anyway, I am starting this post a couple days after Selection Sunday. Now I am not an avid college basketball watcher but I know they screwed some of these picks up. And remember, when a conference gets a team in, they get more money. That’s important. The ACC got five teams in and Virginia was one of them and they may be one of the worst at-large choices ever. A few teams that were left out, most notably Oklahoma and Indiana State, were, by most metrics, better choices. But the ACC is THE big basketball brand and only having four teams in would look disastrous. Fully deserved, mind you. But still disastrous. Luckily, I don’t care as much as I do with college football but these tournament committees are fucking terrible in every sport.

Let’s get to the root of this post: the next mock draft. I know…two mock drafts before the end of March? Haven’t done that in quite a while. And, of course, quite a bit changed thanks to the Kreepy Kombine and scouts changing their minds as much as they change their underwear (so about once every four days). Here’s the newest mock draft, now expanded to two rounds for your pleasure.

First Round

1	Chicago	Caleb Williams, QB (USC)
2	Washington	Drake Maye, QB (North Carolina)
3	New England	Jayden Daniels, QB (LSU)
4	Arizona	Marvin Harrison Jr., WR (Ohio State)
5	LA Chargers	Byron Murphy II, DT (Texas)
6	NY Giants	Dallas Turner, EDGE (Alabama)
7	Tennessee	Joe Alt, OT (Notre Dame)
8	Atlanta	Malik Nabers, WR (LSU)
9	Chicago	Rome Odunze, WR (Washington)
10	NY Jets	Olu Fashanu, OT (Penn State)
11	Minnesota	Laiatu Latu, DE (UCLA)
12	Denver	Jared Verse, DE (Florida State)
13	Las Vegas	Quinyon Mitchell, CB (Toledo)
14	New Orleans	Brian Thomas Jr., WR (LSU)
15	Indianapolis	Nate Wiggins, CB (Clemson)
16	Seattle	Bo Nix, QB (Oregon)
17	Jacksonville	Terrion Arnold, CB (Alabama)
18	Cincinnati	Brock Bowers, TE (Georgia)
19	LA Rams	Cooper DeJean, S (Iowa)
20	Pittsburgh	Troy Fautanu, OG (Washington)
21	Miami	Kris Jenkins, DT (Michigan)
22	Philadelphia	Xavier Worthy, WR (Texas)
23	Houston	Jer’Zhan Newton, DT (Illinois)
24	Dallas	Jackson Powers-Johnson, OG (Oregon)
25	Green Bay	Graham Barton, OG (Duke)
26	Tampa Bay	J.J. McCarthy, QB (Michigan)
27	Arizona	Zach Frazier, OG (West Virginia)
28	Buffalo	Tyler Nubin, S (Minnesota)
29	Detroit	Darius Robinson, EDGE (Minnesota)
30	Baltimore	Adonai Mitchell, WR (Texas)
31	San Francisco	Taliese Fuaga, OT (Oregon State)
32	Kansas City	J.C. Latham, OT (Alabama)

Second Round

33	Carolina	Chop Robinson, EDGE (Penn State)
34	New England	Tyler Guyton, OT (Oklahoma)
35	Arizona	Kool-Aid McKinstry, CB (Alabama)
36	Washington	Xavier Legette, WR (South Carolina)
37	LA Chargers	Kamari Lassiter, CB (Georgia)
38	Tennessee	Cam Hart, CB (Notre Dame)
39	NY Giants	Michael Hall Jr., DT (Ohio State)
40	Washington	Payton Wilson, LB (NC State)
41	Green Bay	Amarius Mims, OT (Georgia)
42	Minnesota	Michael Penix Jr., QB (Washington)
43	Atlanta	Ennis Rakestraw Jr., CB (Missouri)
44	Las Vegas	Jordan Morgan, OT (Arizona)
45	New Orleans	Kingsley Suamataia, OT (BYU)
46	Indianapolis	Kamren Kinchens, S (Miami)
47	NY Giants	T.J. Tampa, CB (Iowa State)
48	Jacksonville	Ladd McConkey, WR (Georgia)
49	Cincinnati	Keon Coleman, WR (Florida State)
50	Philadelphia	Chris Braswell, EDGE (Alabama)
51	Pittsburgh	Edgerrin Cooper, LB (Texas A&M)
52	LA Rams	Bralen Trice, EDGE (Washington)
53	Philadelphia	Mike Sainristil, CB (Michigan)
54	Cleveland	Braden Fiske, DT (Florida State)
55	Miami	Troy Franklin, WR (Oregon)
56	Dallas	Paul Patrick, OT (Houston)
57	Tampa Bay	Cooper Beebe, OG (Kansas State)
58	Green Bay	Javon Bullard, S (Georgia)
59	Houston	Roman Wilson, WR (Michigan)
60	Buffalo	T’Vondre Sweat, DT (Texas)
61	Detroit	Christian Haynes, OG (UConn)
62	Baltimore	Ruke Orhorhoro, DT (Clemson)
63	San Francisco	Marshawn Kneeland, EDGE (Western Michigan)
64	Kansas City	Ricky Pearsall, WR (Florida)

Are there some changes? Absolutely? Are they Earth-shattering? Not really. Although you can expect at least one of these current second-rounders to rocket up draft boards for reasons that are sometimes, well, unknown or make no sense. By this point teams should know what they see in a player. So unless that player does something negative, they shouldn’t go from a consensus low-second rounder to a mid-first round pick in a matter of a little over a month. But hey, what do I know.

Also, what is with the sudden J.J. McCarthy hype? It has that feel of some people wanting McCarthy to go higher so they are basically willing it to happen. Any team that would consider drafting McCarthy in the Top 10 is obviously fine with extreme risk. Not saying McCarthy won’t end up being good but his college career has shown nothing that says he will be a top-end starter.

OK so years ago (nine to be exact), I used part of a mock draft post to talk about sites I enjoy. And it was definitely also about helping my blog in a way since I was still pretty green at the time (two years in). Let’s look back and see if I still feel the same way about these sites.

Matt’s College Sports Media Blog – Along with Matt’s College Sports on TV is still the premier site for college football and college basketball TV scheduling news and notes. I think he still likes Formula One racing which is great if you like that. He’s also a Bills fan which is pretty damn awesome.

Phil Steele – Still the best college football preview magazine. There are other good ones out there but nothing comes close. And his site fills in the gaps. I am assuming many hardcore college football fans subscribe to his site to get a lot of great stats and gambling info. I tried it for a couple of years and it was almost overwhelming. Still…worth it just to peruse all the free stuff he does put up, which is a lot.

A Rouge Point – This site does not exist anymore. Actually, it ceased to exist not even a year after I published this original post. It’s too bad since it was a great look at sports media coverage in Canada and posted NFL and NHL schedules for Canadian viewers.

Deadspin – Speaking of sites that are no longer around, this site might as well be. At one point it was one of the great sports sites on the net. It wasn’t long after I made the original post that things started to go downhill. A site that used to be brash and willing to take on all comers became a bunch of writers who thought they were the moral compass of a good portion of the Internet (especially sports fans). Even their best writers became insufferable. Then they all got fired/walked out in late 2019 when a company told them to stick to sports which made the site even worse. Now, it looks like they have been bought out, the staff was fired (again) and they look to be getting into the sports gambling industry. Ugh.

Awful Announcing – A site that used to absolutely skewer announcers (and sometimes athletes and sports organizations in general) has gone away from their bread and butter. They still throw up the occasional great article but aren’t as good as they were in their heyday.

LSUfootball.net – The first site I came upon when figuring out the sheer amount of games available for college football viewing…in the United States. Still a very informative site.

Alright another mock draft and post in the books. I assume most of you have March Madness brackets going. Chances of me going perfect ended at the end of the first game and I’ve already lost one of my Final Four picks. Good times. Have a great rest of the weekend everyone!

If I had the power to change things – UPDATED VERSION!

Posted on March 3, 2024 by guelphbossman

I did this post over nine years ago. Crazy, right? I went over some of the things I would do if I was put in control of college football. So maybe it’s about time to see how I did and then look at a few more things I would do. Let’s fucking go with this potential bullshit!

In OT, they should start farther back than the 25-yard line. OK they still haven’t changed this and they have made it worse by going to the 2-point shootout after the second overtime period. That is so ridiculous. Either take out the gimmick (which reminds me of the penalty shootout at the end of regular season hockey games which also drives me nuts) or make it so teams can tie after two overtime periods like in the CFL. College football had the greatest overtime format and they have somehow been overtaken by the NFL who, for all the good they do with rule changes, spent years fucking up their overtime games and basically stumbled upon rules changes thanks to the Bills and…well, I don’t want to talk about it.
Stop time after EVERY first down makes the game a little longer than most can handle. They listened! THEY LISTENED! Kind of. I had proposed doing it in the final five minutes of each half or even in the second and fourth quarter only. They do it all game now. Which is good? Problem is, some of that saved time has gone to more ad breaks. That is not so good. All in all, we will call this a push but it definitely leads into my next point that I had made…
Three-hour TV windows are dumb. This is still the case. And it’s done even more than it was back then. ESPN does it a few times a year with their evening games by pushing them to 6:00 and 9:00 so that the late SEC game isn’t TOO late. Now the ACC Network also does this one week, usually Week 2. They have so many games for their teams that they have to do this. At least they are smart enough to start at 11:00 and this past season, moved to three hour, fifteen minute windows for some of the games. That’s a perfect compromise. Expect other conference networks to potentially try this with conferences becoming bloated.
Can we stop with the games against FCS schools outside of the first month? No, it seems like they can’t. The SEC has dialed it back a bit. Only about half their teams (if that) play those games during the penultimate weekend of the regular season. But now we have the ACC doing it now. Stop it. Please. Play them in October. November should be for the biggest games, not Western Illinois (no offense to the Leathernecks) going to Georgia to get their asses handed to them for three-quarters of a mil.
Start Division 4 right now. I think I need to tweak this idea since a fuck-ton of realignment has happened in nine years. I am going to change this into football becoming its own special college sport and not totally following conference alignments in the rest of the sports. Don’t get me wrong, some of the realignments have been good but many have been weird, head-scratching, money-hungry or just plain dumb. So let football have their own conference alignments and allow the rest of the sports to go back to having the Southwest Conference or the Metro Conference or maybe other, better, more geographically sensible conferences since even in basketball, going halfway across the United States for a Tuesday night conference game is beyond ridiculous.
Is it time about time that CIS teams move south so to speak? At the time, I used Simon Fraser being in D-II as a starting point. Now, SFU doesn’t even have a football team thanks to their athletic department being a complete dumpster fire (not to mention much of the administration). Rogers still has their NHL contract for another few years (and there seems to be a bit of regret on their end which I mentioned would happen) so any CIS football, especially OUA, won’t be shown on their network any time soon. Maybe TSN can step up a bit with TSN+. Putting even one game a week (to start) on the streaming platform would be a good beginning to get eyeballs back on university football in this country. So, do I still think CIS teams should join the NCAA? Not nearly as much as I used to but some programs (I’m looking at you, York) need to seriously think about whether continuing having a football program is worth it.
Let us all be able to get the ESPNs, FOX Sports 1, etc. Yeah not even close. The amount of games available to us up here is still the same, if not a bit less now. Peacock has joined the fray and we cannot get those games up here. Still can’t get any of the FOX, FS1 or, now, FS2 games up here in Canada. I’ve always said (and I will continue to say it) that the death of cable (which still will happen regardless of all these streaming services teaming up in a way) will partially come down to not giving the customers what they want to see, especially if they are willing to pay for it. I had mentioned years ago that I would pay a few hundred bucks a season if I could have access to have every FBS game on TV. Every one. I don’t care about news or movies or TV shows or much else. Those I can watch when I want on Netflix or Hulu or Amazon Prime or some other streaming service if I really want to. But college football is the one thing I would want all of and should have the ability to get but I have the god damn audacity to be Canadian. What a dick I am. So yeah, this should still happen.
Do not put out the CFP poll until the bowl games are being selected. Because The Committee is filled with people who know college football but struggle with logic, you get situations like you got this past season. It easily (and I mean FUCKING EASILY) could have been rectified if when they had dropped Florida State to #5 after Week 13, they kept them there after Week 14, even though they knew one of Michigan and Ohio State was going to lose. Sure it wouldn’t have been that well received but then they wouldn’t have looked like complete assholes when they dropped them in the final poll to destroy their national championship hopes. If they wait until just as the bowl games and playoff seedings are being selected, then there’s not nearly as much of a problem. Debate all you want but at least you don’t compare it to previous weeks’ polls which make The Committee look like fucking idiots.

Alright, that was the list nine long years ago. I was in my 30s. And, looking at my body, a lot fitter. I hate the fact that injuries can happen due to nothing but air and movement these days. Other than what I see in the mirror, a lot has changed in college football as well since then. So I guess I have to come up with a few more things I would change. Here we go.

Someone other than the NCAA has to put forth strict NIL rules and regulations. This feels like a no-brainer. When NIL started, it was great. Great stories of these players getting some nice deals and some players even sharing the wealth with their teammates. Awesome. Then, to the shock of absolutely no one, things got out of hand. Quickly. Now players are making hundreds of thousands of dollars (which is fine) but it has nothing to do with their name, image or likeness. All it has to do with a booster (or group of boosters) ponying up a bunch of money to buy a player’s loyalty (for at least a year). Isn’t this the same kind of shit SMU got the death penalty for? There has to be rules to all this and keeping boosters out of the player payment business would be first and foremost on that agenda. Start there, draft something up, tell all the teams they will abide by it or there will be penalties. Keep going against the rules, you will give up the one thing they all covet: money. If a program is fined millions of dollars, they will think twice of allowing some of these boosters, who think they can do whatever the fuck they feel like, from digging their claws into some of their roster.
Football players (if not players in other sports) should be able to drop down to a part-time course load during the season. Playing college sports is not easy. You have to organize your time. I remember when I was a university athlete. I couldn’t get things right. I found it too difficult to commit to a sport AND a full-time course load. I am sure other athletes feel the same way. And the way college athletics are going, these students don’t need to finish their degrees before they leave school. They should be able to finish when they can. This may also push some student-athletes to be in more difficult programs. I mean there can only be so many communications jobs out there, right?
Targeting HAS to be figured out. Does anyone really know what targeting is? Hell, the officials struggle to figure it out so I am not surprised everyone else is perplexed by it. Most of it seems to centre around hitting a player with the crown of your helmet. And yes, it’s dangerous. I still remember getting speared in practice in high school by a guy who had never been on special teams before. It knocked the wind out me something fierce. It’s a player safety issue and has to be taken seriously. Splitting the penalty into Targeting 1 and Targeting 2 penalties is a good start in my opinion. Targeting 2 can be reserved for the egregious penalties where the player deserves to be ejected. And hell, throw a 20-yard penalty on to it instead of a 15. Hopefully that helps a bit. Targeting 1 can still be 15 yards but the player stays in the game. The coaches and players may understand this better and we can see how it goes for a few years before looking into it again and adjusting it where need be.
If there are going to be more superconferences (and less conferences in FBS in general) it’s time all conferences go to nine conference games. A few years back I would have railed against this idea but I didn’t realize that conferences might hit the 20-team mark in the next few years. Give it a decade and there is no way there will be nine conferences like there are now. At least one, if not multiple, conferences will cease to exist. With upwards of 18 teams at this point, putting an extra conference game makes all the sense in the world. Many Power Five teams can still have their one FCS non-conference game (which gives some FCS teams a much needed infusion of cash), along with a Group of Five non-conference game. Add a P5 non-conference game and there you go. See how easy that is? Do I have to figure everything out for you guys?

Are there other things needed to “fix” college football? Of course. It feels like college football is barreling down (in one of those Japanese bullet trains) towards no return. Where it will look not a whole lot different than the minor league of the NFL. It kind of is already but in 2030 I have a feeling we will look at even just before COVID and say “college football wasn’t like that, was it?”

The combine is occurring and I am glad to see some players saying “Fuck that noise.” If scouts can’t figure things out from the absolute avalanche of game film on these guys then they should find another line of work. No, instead we have to do drills that, as much as some want to say otherwise, don’t mean a whole lot compared to how they play the game. Tom fucking Brady just ran the 40 faster at 46 years old than he did when he was at the Combine. If that doesn’t tell you that the Combine is just basically Scouting Bonerfest, I don’t know what will.

Anyway, the UFL is coming up at the end of the month and I am less than mildly interested. I’ll watch but I won’t be really watching. Now, this European League of Football…if I could get that it would be interesting. It looks like if you had MACtion in Germany. I love it. Anyway, everyone have a great week.

Man, oh man, were there some overreactions this week…oh and the Week 2 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on September 7, 2023 by guelphbossman

Look, did Colorado surprise a lot of people this past weekend? Absolutely. No doubt about it. Deion Sanders is proving, whether you like him or not, that he can flat-out coach. And overhauling the roster like he did was not a bad idea at all. It does suck for the players that had to transfer out but unfortunately it’s football and the name of the game is winning.

Saying that………the amount of people I saw on Twitter that said Colorado will win 10 or 11 games this season was way too much. It should have been zero. Colorado may be better than advertised but they aren’t all of a sudden a New Year’s Six possibility. But hey, that’s the reactions from Week 1 of college football. Every. Single. Fucking. Year.

So let’s do it again on here! It’s overreaction time! Let’s look at some of the other overreactions you may (or may not) have heard after the Week 1 games were complete:

Ohio State is just an average team. Do we expect more from the Buckeyes against a team like Indiana? Sure. But they are bringing in a new quarterback and their best receiver was not 100%. The defense was amazing. Now the offense does have to be ready since in about a week and a half they get Notre Dame and that could get ugly if they don’t produce more points.
Colorado will have not one, but TWO Heisman finalists. What in the fuck? Who are the morons saying this? They are out there for sure. I saw them. Sure, they did great in their opening week win over TCU but calm the fuck down. TCU isn’t the TCU of last season for one and it’s only WEEK ONE. Anyway, moving on…
Gene Chizik has finally got the defense cooking in Chapel Hill. Again, it’s one game. Do the Heels look improved? Sure. But it’s not like South Carolina played well at all because, for the most part they didn’t. That, and the chain gang wouldn’t eat their hot dogs fast enough. Let’s see how UNC does when a top-notch offense is staring them in the face.
Jalen Milroe is already looking like another Alabama Jalen…that being Hurts. My God where do these people come up with this shit? Milroe looked OK but it was Middle Tennessee and he’s playing for Ala-frickin-Bama. We will see how he handles SEC competition before crowning him anything.
Washington has the best offense in the country. Could that end up being the case? Possibly. Michael Penix Jr. has already started his Heisman campaign in style. But let’s slow our roll here. There are at least four teams who looked better on offense (Colorado, Florida State, Oklahoma, Oregon) during Week 1. And I wouldn’t even say any of those teams will be the best offense in the country so why go ahead and put the Huskies at #1?
Book the Sooners for the Big XII Championship NOW! As I said, their offense was on fire but they were playing Arkansas State. We are all waiting to see if Brent Venables can have a Venables-type defense in Norman. If that happens, this could very well happen. But for now, I wouldn’t book any tickets yet if I were a Sooners fan.
Miami is BACK. Ho boy. Pump the damn brakes.

Let’s just put Week 1 behind us, shall we? Let’s move on to Week 2 which…oh my. Well, it’s better than Week 1. That’s really all I can say. But you know what that usually means. That’s right…chaos!

Thursday

Yep, that’s a new logo you see. TSN+ will be showing college football games this year. It kind of mimics the specialty pack but there are a few differences. But if you want to get TSN+ rather than the specialty pack for your college football fix, you are getting close to the same. Not a bad alternative and a good move by TSN to copy ESPN for the 10,000th time.

Friday

		US	Canada
Indiana State at Indiana	7:00
Illinois at Kansas	7:30

It kind of feels like this could be a relatively important game when the Illini travel to Lawrence to face the Jayhawks. Imagine saying that even two years ago. You’d be laughed out of whatever building you were in.

Saturday Early

Is the quality there? Eh, not really. But there’s choice. A lot of it. Can’t ask for much else. Also…MORNING FOOTBAW! The ACC Network’s weird annual Week 2 quadrupleheader hits again with the odd three hour-and-fifteen-minute windows. This will be a lot easier to do next year when Stanford and California join as you know one of them will host the ACC After Dark Week 2 matchup, guaranteed.

Saturday Afternoon

Is the afternoon slate better than the Noon slate? Sure. Not by much though. Some intriguing matchups though. As per the rules, one of Texas A&M or Miami must win their game against each other. Ties were outlawed almost three decades ago. Will CyHawk feature more than 30 points? Can App State and UNC put up ridiculous numbers like last year? And this will be Tulane’s opportunity to get a huge leg up in the Group of Five. A win over Ole Miss would be massive.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Ohio at FAU	6:00
Cincinnati at Pittsburgh	6:30
#11 Texas at #3 Alabama	7:00
#13 Oregon at Texas Tech	7:00
Houston at Rice	7:00
#19 Wisconsin at Washington State	7:30
Eastern Michigan at Minnesota	7:30
Temple at Rutgers	7:30
UCLA at San Diego State	7:30
Grambling at #14 LSU	7:30
McNeese State at Florida	7:30
Charlotte at Maryland	7:30
Arizona at Mississippi State	7:30
Air Force vs. Sam Houston (in NRG Stadium)	8:00
Southern Miss at #4 Florida State	8:30

FIFTEEN GAMES! Holy shit! I think this has to be the most in one timeslot ever on this blog. I don’t feel like checking so let’s just say we have a new record! Plenty of games but most people will be watching one game in particular, that being the Longhorns and the Crimson Tide. If Texas can somehow do what they were robbed of last season and upset Bama, this season turns on its head. This game is so big that they are also showing it on ESPN2 in the US and on TSN+ and the specialty packs. But it’s not the same broadcast. It’s the Pat McAfee Show alternate broadcast. So if you like that kind of thing, have at it.

Also, you will notice we have a new network showing college football. That’s right, the CW, with such hits as 7th Heaven, Gilmore Girls, Smallville and LIV Golf (well it was a hit with the golfers who got fucking PAID with that Saudi blood money) will be showing ACC football (and later on, ACC basketball) this year. This replaces Bally which, for all intents and purposes, is flat broke. There will be games most weeks and, it looks like, at odd times. 6:30? Weird.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
UC-Davis at #16 Oregon State	9:00
Auburn at California	10:30
Stanford at #6 USC	10:30

FOX quadrupleheader? Don’t mind if I do. TSN2 quadrupleheader? Yes, please. A good week if you are a Canadian as I don’t remember seeing this much college football being shown up here in a while. Maybe things are turning around. Looks like TSN finally gives a shit about things that aren’t the CFL, NFL, and NHL (which they don’t even have the national broadcasting rights to).

Hey, Watch This!

Texas at Alabama (7:00, TSN2/TSN+/specialty pack) – Unequivocally the game of the week and there’s nothing else close. That also means there will be some wild and wacky finishes that might overshadow this game. That is, unless, this is a close one and the Longhorns pull off the upset. Then it will be THE story in college football no matter what else happens.

Ole Miss at Tulane (3:30, TSN+/specialty pack) – As I mentioned above, if the Green Wave pull off a win here in front of what should be a raucous crowd in hot and humid New Orleans, there’s not a whole lot that will prevent them from a perfect regular season and another New Year’s Six spot. Normally I would say this is a lose-lose situation for any Power Five team in this situation but when the Group of Five team is ranked it can count as a big win (as long as that team doesn’t totally shit the bed the rest of the way).

Texas A&M at Miami (3:30, ABC/TSN2) – I made the joke above that one of these teams has to win, as per the rules of college football. We may actually see which one of these teams is back (for the most part) and which team still has some work to do. Now watch it be a 13-10 almost-unwatchable slog.

Nebraska at Colorado (Noon, FOX) – Alright, I’ll bite. Let’s see if the hype matches what ends up happening. Some might have put this higher but that’s crazy. It makes this list because of the talk, not because of the teams involved. And Colorado can’t just win this game by a little. That would prove nothing. If they beat the brakes off the Huskers, then we all have to take notice and maybe think the Buffs could be for real.

Sickos Game of the Week

Temple at Rutgers (7:30, specialty pack) – Look, Rutgers is probably going to start 2-0 which really doesn’t mean a whole lot considering their schedule but still, that’s something right? With everything on at this time, you would have to be a complete psychopath to watch this game. I will make sure to tune in and watch at least a few plays. I feel like I owe it to everyone and myself.

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

Ball State at Georgia (Noon, TSN+/specialty pack) – Time to bring back the blowout of the week segment. And this could be the dictionary definition of blowout. I could see UGA putting up 60 on the poor Cardinals.

Wanna Bet?

Nebraska was actually a good bet. That game ended up exactly how I thought it would (for the most part). Florida, however….well the less said about that one the better. Time for my gambling picks for the second week of the college football season. Use them at your own peril.

Indiana (-30.5) over Indiana State

Purdue (+3) over Virginia Tech (and the outright win)

Ohio State (-41.5) over Youngstown State

Utah (-8) over Baylor

Nebraska (+2.5) over Colorado (and the upset win…definitely going out on a limb with this one)

Michigan (-37.5) over UNLV

Tulane (+7.5) over Ole Miss (but the Rebs will hold on for a close victory)

Texas A&M (-4) over Miami

Alabama (-7) over Texas

Washington State (+6) over Wisconsin (with the Badgers winning a tight affair)

Minnesota (-20.5) over Eastern Michigan

Mississippi State (-9) over Arizona

Stanford (+29.5) over USC (I feel a backdoor cover in this one)

I will be on the Twitter/X machine again this weekend. Even without Tweetdeck I am figuring out how to navigate fairly well. We shall see if I can make it two Saturdays in a row making it all the way to the end. Enjoy the games everyone!

Guess who’s back…

Posted on June 7, 2022 by guelphbossman

Back again. Bossman’s back. Tell a friend (who likes football).

That’s right I have finally decided to return to the ol’ blogosphere (do they still call it that). I’ve been off for about four months and it feels like it has been four years. Are things better for me? Meh. I guess. Now I feel I need a distraction again to keep me sane so it’s back to this thing. Not like much has happened in the football world since I was gone AW SHIT TOM BRADY DIDN’T RETIRE. Sometimes the offseason is much more entertaining than the actual season. But I digress.

I figured I would return by doing a little bit of research. I know what you’re thinking: when has this jagoff ever really delved into researching stuff? Well I have…every so often. OK not enough. Maybe this is part of my metamorphosis into a newer, better Bossman. Or, I just have a bit of time on my hands. Oh yeah, the research! I am going to research….me! More specifically my blog.

You see, over the years I have made demands or requests or said things I would like to see change about college football or the NFL. I don’t know how often I have followed up on those but I am going to venture a guess and say almost never. So I am rectifying that by going back into the vault to see some of the things I’ve said and update on what has happened with them. In some cases, quite a bit. In others, nothing at all. So strap in and let’s go on a journey…or more like one of those car trips where everything looks the same and you crave any new scenery or you’re going to veer off the road and crash into the guardrail.

August 13, 2013: I think it’s high time for them (Tulane) to move out of the Superdome and into a smaller stadium considering they wouldn’t be able to fill a Texas high school football stadium these days. First off, some Texas high school football stadiums are big. Like 10-20,000 seats big. And they damn near fill them! Insane. But anyway, this was my first, let’s call it request on this blog. And it worked! I don’t want to take credit for this but I am going to take credit for this. Tulane moved into on-campus Yulman Stadium one year after this comment. And they arguably get more fans in a stadium that, by all accounts, looks quite nice.

November 24, 2013: I still believe they need to cut down on the individual bowl tie-ins as there could be some somewhat unwatchable matchups come December that could be avoided with better flexibility. At the Power Five level, this has not changed and we could argue it has got a bit worse. At the Group of Five level, we now see a bit more flexibility with bowl bids. Some bowls just pick out of the G-5 conferences as a whole. And other bowls get a choice of two or three conferences. So it’s slightly better but really I was hoping there would be more at-large bids. Maybe I didn’t make myself clear.

October 15, 2014: I would say it makes the most sense to put all the ESPNU games, for example, on one channel throughout the day. Bell (and, presumably, Rogers) doesn’t think that way for some odd reason. And they still don’t. I don’t get it. It seems so easy but obviously someone in programming suffers from temporary brain damage when they are figuring out the schedule. IT’S THE SAME FUCKING THING FOR LIKE THIRTEEN WEEKS EVERY YEAR!

February 17, 2015: In OT, they should start farther back than the 25-yard line. Instead, the NCAA decided “Fuck it” and changed OT completely after the second overtime. That nine-overtime debacle between Illinois and Penn State should be proof that the new method is garbage. Should have listened to me guys. Even starting overtime from the 30 could have changed things radically since not many college kickers can routinely hit 47-yard field goals.

February 17, 2015: Stop time after EVERY first down makes the game a little longer than most can handle. Why they haven’t dealt with this I don’t know. There is no need for the clock to stop after a first down in the first or third quarters. You could make the argument that other than the final five minutes of either half you don’t need to either and I would be fine with that too. Shave about ten minutes off the average game? Sounds like a win for the college game if you ask me.

February 17, 2015: Three-hour TV windows are dumb. I was on a roll this day (although, to be fair, the whole point of this blog post was changed I’d make). And yes, whoever thinks these make sense are morons. I’m looking at you, ESPN, since you are the only ones that do it. Well, that isn’t entirely true. The ACC Network, for one week early on in the season every year now, does the same thing. It’s stupid. Just stop it.

July 6, 2015: TSN and Sportsnet both would be smart to stop the regional channel horseshit and make one channel a full news channel (a la Headline Sports way back in the day). This hasn’t happened and probably never will. Whether it should now is a matter of debate. I don’t know how many viewers Sportscentre and Sports Central get but it can’t be nearly as many as there were back in 2015. So to have a full sports news channel would still make sense but they would both have to restructure the way there channels operate (and, in Sportsnet’s case, talk to the NHL about the archaic blackout policy).

November 19, 2015: However, in my opinion, pretty much all FBS vs. FCS games should be in September (or August if the season starts then). I have softened my stance a bit on this. Buy games are necessary for FCS teams and I understand that. I still am not a fan of seeing these games in November but having them in October would be fine as well. With more conferences going to a 9-game conference schedule, I have a feeling there will be less of these games in November but we shall see.

August 4, 2017: Let’s be honest here: Conference USA is a hodge-podge bag of crap. If they were smart they would start talks with the Sun Belt to “create” two new conferences with more of a geographical natured to them. Oh this is one of my favourite blog posts of all-time. The amount of flack I got for this from Conference USA fans was hilarious. But look what happened. The conference is on the brink of disaster now because they did nothing, thinking they were even remotely special. Fucking dumb. So let them die. Many of the teams left for greener pastures and the rest…well, sorry for your damn luck.

November 20, 2018: I look forward, though, to balanced divisions in 2020, which I believe is the year the Atlantic Schooners begin play. Oh Bossman, what were you thinking? Forget adding a tenth team: almost every year it seems like one of the current nine CFL teams is in some sense of financial peril.

January 20, 2020: I agree there should be a holiday after the Super Bowl. Hasn’t even been discussed in the U.S. so no chance of it happening here yet. At least my plea for Daylight Savings Time to end might come to fruition!

August 3, 2020: If a division winner has a worse record than a Wild Card team, they should get the #5 seed and not the #4. I have said this in previous seasons when there were only two Wild Card teams but it goes the same now with three. You shouldn’t be rewarded for winning a shitty division with a bad record. You already get into the playoffs. That’s your reward. Same the other way as a really good Wild Card team shouldn’t be punished for having the audacity to be in a division with one of the best teams in the league. It’s dumb. And won’t be changed. Dumb owners and dumb Commissioner Gingerhammer.

December 17, 2020: I will say it again for the millionth time: why bother with the conference affiliation towards either CBS or FOX? It doesn’t matter anymore. Well look at that! They are finally getting rid of the completely archaic NFC-to-FOX and AFC-to-CBS way of broadcasting NFL games. It will now be a bit of a free-for-all which, honestly, is much better. You want the best games, at the best times, with the best available crew. Many times that didn’t happen in the past because of how things were done. Not anymore!

August 11, 2021: I still believe every team should have one road, one home and one neutral-site game during the preseason but that’s a conversation I’ve had many times before that no one wants to listen to. Naw, much better to have regular season games in London, Berlin, Paris, Rome, Baghdad, rural Kazakhstan and the Maldives. And no bye week afterwards ya pussies!

Every time I did a post on if I ran the bowl games. Look, my plan would work. Or the various plans I’ve had over the years. Cut a few bowls and make it a 7-win minimum to be bowl-eligible for sure. Give as many games a national spotlight (which they almost do but they could be better at it). Put a few more games on non-ESPN networks (I don’t know when this will ever happen). And the selection show. It would work so much better and make that thing worth watching.

So there you go. I know I have made other requests or had other ideas but I think you get the picture…I’m not influential at all. Saying that, some of my ideas have come to fruition which makes me happy if not a tiny bit proud. Maybe in the next few years a few more of my ideas will come true and I will be a very happy Bossman.

Alright. First post back. Feels good. Shake the cobwebs off. I am goofing around with new themes for the site to see what works. So if you notice things changing from week to week, it’s probably my undiagnosed ADD.

It’s already June. Where does the time go? I guess that happens when the days start melting together and you have very little sense of time. Have a great rest of the week everyone.

What’s Gonna Happen Next? – Week 15 NFL TV Schedule

Posted on December 16, 2021 by guelphbossman

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2021 has not been as ridiculous as 2020 was…except for one team. The Jacksonville Jaguars have basically been a sitcom this season. And their main character is Urban Meyer. To say this has been a disastrous few months for Meyer and the Jags is an understatement. Not like anyone thought they would good but no one could have predicted the drama surrounding this franchise. And it has continued with the latest story out of Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuval. Looks like Urbs decided to kick Josh Lambo’s leg while he was stretching before a preseason practice. Lambo is their kicker. Lambo was pissed off about this and in the end Urban said “I’m the head ball coach. I’ll kick you whenever the fuck I want.” First of all, asshole, Steve Spurrier is the HBC. Secondly, Lambo is your fucking kicker. What was the point of even doing that? Maybe he knew it was going to be a shitshow and decided to start things early. All I know is I would hate to be a Jag-you-ares fan right now, that is for sure.

UPDATE: Urb was kicked to the curb. He was shitcanned overnight.

Alright on to the schedule which also includes a certain team that we almost never see up here from Duval County in Florida.

Thursday

Kansas City at LA Chargers

8:20, FOX, TSN1/3/4, CTV Two

Saturday

New England at Indianapolis

8:15, TSN1/5, CTV Two

Sunday Early


Tennessee at Pittsburgh	All affiliates (except Detroit & Buffalo)		Vancouver, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Atlantic		London, Toronto
Houston at Jacksonville
NY Jets at Miami
Carolina at Buffalo		Buffalo, Rochester, Boston	Northern Ontario, Kitchener, Toronto		Atlantic
Arizona at Detroit		Detroit		TSN1, TSN5	Ottawa
Washington at Philadelphia (moved to Tuesday)
Dallas at NY Giants		Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane, Minneapolis, Burlington	Montreal		Vancouver Island, Alberta

Sunday Late


Cincinnati at Denver	Buffalo			TSN1
Atlanta at San Francisco	Detroit
Seattle at LA Rams (moved to Tuesday)
Green Bay at Baltimore		Minneapolis, Detroit, Buffalo, Rochester, Burlington, Boston, Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane	Saskatchewan, Winnipeg, Northern Ontario, Kitchener, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Vancouver, Alberta		Atlantic

Sunday/Monday/TUESDAY! Primetime

New Orleans at Tampa Bay	Sunday, 8:20, NBC, TSN1/3/4, CTV Two
Las Vegas at Cleveland	Monday, 5:00, TSN1
Minnesota at Chicago	Monday, 8:15, ABC, TSN1/3
Washington at Philadelphia	Tuesday, 7:00, FOX (Minneapolis, Buffalo, Rochester, Burlington, Boston)
Seattle at LA Rams	Tuesday, 7:00, FOX (Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane, Detroit)

Potentially Exciting Notes (probably not from Duval)

Hey remember those good Monday Night Football Games we’ve been getting? Well fuck all that noise because now we are given the Vikings and the Bears in an NFC Norris battle that no one really asked for. Then again, I’d say the SNF game is only slightly better since I can’t see the Saints beating the Bucs. I really don’t care as long as Taysom Hill does well for me in fantasy.
The cross-flex train hits again. CBS gets the Falcons-Niners game in the late window which very few people in North America (let alone Canada) can watch (except for Sunday Ticket and RedZone of course). I’m thinking it’s about time to stop talking about this since finally, after doing this for years now, very few people care about the supposed ramifications of the cross-flex.
TSN is still using very few stations during the day on Sunday to show the NFL. I just don’t get it. Let’s see what they are showing instead:
- On TSN2 there’s NCAA women’s basketball. OK. And the WNBA Draft Lottery. That’s fine. Both are live. Then the Top 50 Best and Worst Celebrations. Good lord.
- On TSN3, the Blues-Jets game is right in the middle of the timeslot at 3:00 so there’s nothing much you can do about that.
- On TSN4, there’s NCAA women’s basketball and then a LaLiga game? And then they plan to go to the Bengals-Broncos game around halftime. OK then.
- And then on TSN5, the Bruins-Senators game is on at 5:00. What the fuck is it with these weird start times for NHL games?
OK so much of the stuff is live sports or events which is fine. So I will give TSN a pass this time.

UPDATE #2: The Raiders-Browns game has been moved to Monday at 5:00 due to the Browns being decimated by positive COVID tests. I don’t know how two days is going to make that much of a difference but that’s what the NFL has decided for now.

UPDATE #3: People who get their CBS affiliate out of Detroit will no longer get the Bengals-Broncos game as it has been switched to the Falcons-49ers game. Kind of sucks but at least Kevin Harlan is on the call.

UPDATE #4: The WFT-Eagles and Seahawks-Rams games have been moved to Tuesday night because of issues with COVID. Both games start at 7:00. The plan is to split the country: one part will get one game and one will get another. The game you don’t get you can get if you have Sunday Ticket. I will update you once that map comes available from 506sports.

UPDATE #5: Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane and Detroit will receive the Seahawks-Rams game on Tuesday. The rest of the affiliates will get WFT-Eagles. I will update you on what the CTV/CTV2/TSN info will be on these games (plus the new Monday afternooner/early eveninger).

UPDATE #6: The Raiders-Browns game will not be seen on CTV2. It can be seen on TSN1.

UPDATE #7: The two Tuesday games will only be seen on FOX as far as I can tell. The other game not shown in your area can be seen on Sunday Ticket if you have it. Otherwise, from what I can tell, you will be shit out of luck. Kind of surprised they didn’t get go with a 7:00/10:00 split on the games but I assume it has a lot to do with local news on FOX channels.

UPDATE #8: The WFT-Eagles game can be seen on TSN1 and TSN5. The Seahawks-Rams game will be on TSN4.

Updated playoff picture time!

#1 – New England	#1 – Green Bay
#2 – Tennessee	#2 – Tampa Bay
#3 – Kansas City	#3 – Arizona
#4 – Baltimore	#4 – Dallas
Wild Cards:	Wild Cards:
#5 – LA Chargers	#5 – LA Rams
#6 – Indianapolis	#6 – San Francisco
#7 – Buffalo/Cleveland/Cincinnati/Denver	#7 – Washington/Minnesota/Philadelphia/Atlanta/New Orleans

Look at that dog’s breakfast. The good thing is that with no teams clinched yet this is going to be one of the wildest final quarters of the season ever. Let’s see what can happen in terms of solidifying the playoff picture this week:

First Round Bye

No team can clinch a first round bye this week

Division Title

Tennessee clinches with a win AND an Indianapolis loss
Green Bay clinches with a win OR a Minnesota loss
Tampa Bay clinches with a win

Playoff Berth

New England clinches with a win AND a Miami loss AND a Cleveland loss AND (a Baltimore loss AND a Cincinnati loss AND a Kansas City loss) OR (a Baltimore loss AND a Denver loss AND a LA Chargers loss) OR (a Pittsburgh loss AND a Denver loss AND a LA Chargers loss) OR (a Baltimore loss AND a Pittsburgh loss AND a Cincinnati loss) OR (a Baltimore loss AND a Cincinnati loss AND a LA Chargers loss)
Green Bay clinches with a New Orleans loss AND a San Francisco loss
Tampa Bay clinches with a Minnesota loss AND a San Francisco loss
Arizona clinches with a win OR (a New Orleans loss AND a Minnesota loss) OR (a New Orleans loss AND a Philadelphia loss AND an Atlanta loss AND a Green Bay win) OR (a Minnesota loss AND a San Francisco loss)
Dallas clinches with a win AND a New Orleans loss OR a San Francisco loss
LA Rams clinch with a win AND a New Orleans loss AND a Minnesota loss

So the Patriots are not clinching this week.

Hey the elimination list has more than one team!

Detroit
Jacksonville
Houston
NY Jets

Four teams and every one of them is a gongshow (with the Jags being the worst of the bunch somehow). No other teams can join this list this week. This is crazy. Again, the NFL has to be loving this.

Alright enjoy all the games and enjoy the upcoming weekend!

The reins have been passed in Chicago – Week 5 NFL TV Schedule

Posted on October 7, 2021 by guelphbossman

It looks like Matt Nagy has finally figured out what to do in the Windy City. He’s on a pretty hot seat right now so any decision he makes will be scrutinized. So he finally pulled the trigger and ended the speculation. Andy Dalton would………..not be the starting quarterback. Sorry, Red Rocket. The quarterbacking reins are being given to Justin Fields, the guy they traded up to get in what was one of the better draft moves this past draft. It was also a move that many in the Bears organization will erase the stink of trading up to get Mitchell Trubisky a few years prior. This is a smart move in my opinion. Fields is the guy and if you trade up for a quarterback in the first round, chances are you are looking for him to start at some point during that rookie season. So why not do it now? The Bears are not a Super Bowl contender but could be just over .500 which may be enough for a playoff berth so do it and face the consequences. He needs the game action to get used to it so no better time than the present. Now let’s hope he doesn’t have the same ending to his rookie year as Joe Burrow did.

Alright, it’s NFL schedule time. Let’s get to it!

Thursday

LA Rams at Seattle

8:20, FOX, TSN1, CTV Two

Sunday Morning

Atlanta vs. NY Jets (in London)

9:30, NFL Network, TSN4, CTV

Sunday Early


Miami at Tampa Bay	Buffalo, Rochester				Vancouver Island, Alberta, London, Toronto
New Orleans at Washington
New England at Houston	Burlington, Boston		Montreal, Atlantic	TSN4
Tennessee at Jacksonville
Philadelphia at Carolina
Green Bay at Cincinnati		All affiliates (except Minneapolis & Detroit)	Vancouver, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Winnipeg, Northern Ontario, Kitchener, Toronto, Ottawa
Denver at Pittsburgh
Detroit at Minnesota		Minneapolis, Detroit	Winnipeg		Ottawa

Sunday Late


Chicago at Las Vegas	Minneapolis, Detroit
Cleveland at LA Chargers	Seattle, Spokane, Cleveland		TSN4
NY Giants at Dallas		Minneapolis, Detroit, Buffalo, Rochester, Burlington, Boston	Northern Ontario, Kitchener, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal	Atlantic
San Francisco at Arizona		Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane	Vancouver, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Winnipeg

Sunday/Monday Primetime

Buffalo at Kansas City	Sunday, 8:20, NBC, TSN 1/4/5, CTV Two
Indianapolis at Baltimore	Monday, 8:15, TSN 1/3

Notes on the Sked

We are getting to that time of year when during the week there could be some hockey and basketball on TSN. On Monday night, TSN4 is showing a Raptors preseason game and should join the Colts-Ravens game in the second half. On TSN5 there is a NHL season preview and fantasy draft show. Yeah. Again, they should join the football game in the second half.
Four early games not showing anywhere in Canada. That is unless you have Sunday Ticket or RedZone or both. Or like me you can watch the British version of RedZone. I believe I explained this last year but they show a main game in both the early and late timeslots on Sunday and when those games are in commercial breaks, they do highlights from the other games. So kind of a hybrid model. Not bad if RedZone is being screwy (which it sometimes does).
Only one TSN station showing NFL games during the day on Sunday. NASCAR and tennis rule the day for TSN. At least they chose games that aren’t being shown in very many places in this country.
Shockingly, the Chiefs enter the Sunday Night Football game looking like a relatively average team. I wonder if the Bills are the favourites in this one. And no they aren’t. I guess it being in Kansas City puts the Chiefs as the slight 2.5 point favs. Honestly, we have had more good primetime games than bad ones so far this season. I sincerely hope that trend continues as it is so easy to check out of a primetime NFL game when it’s a blowout.
Ugh, the London game. Oh god and it’s the Falcons and the Jets. Let’s see how early I will be waking up and actually getting in front of a TV to watch it. My guess is sometime in the third quarter.

Yep, no need for very many comments on the schedule this week. Hope you enjoy all the games!

Most Important Games of the 2021 College Football Season – The Third Part

Posted on June 9, 2021 by guelphbossman

It’s getting seriously hot and (at times) seriously humid outside. Meaning summer is basically here. Thank God this province wants us not to engage in any sports or camping or get togethers of any kind. Think of all the money we save on sunscreen! I need to work on this blog to get my mind off the bullshit. So let’s just get on with this already!

Week 7

Game of the Week: Oklahoma State at Texas (7:30, ABC) – You don’t see many Big XII games in this spot anymore. To be honest, you don’t see many Big XII games in Canada either. Will these games mean as much when the playoff expands (which it most certainly is now)? Who knows to be honest. All I can say is I will continue to enjoy the games as much as I can as they try to, well, “make the postseason better.” To be honest, expanding the playoff would be down my list a bit. Number one on my list? Abolishing divisions.

Other Really Important Games: Miami at North Carolina (3:30, ABC) – If Miami truly gets their act together, this could end up being the Game of the Week (and possibly a Game of the Year candidate). Either way this is probably a huge game for both teams in the ACC. The winner of this game gets a leg up on the division that Clemson is not in (see my point about getting rid of divisions?).

Florida at LSU (3:30, CBS) – Hey it’s one of those weeks where the main networks (ABC, CBS…let’s throw FOX in there as well) have the biggest games. Another game that you could argue has a chance to be GOTW. Still wondering what will happen once the SEC on CBS contract ends. We have three more seasons of this and then all SEC games will be on ESPN/ABC (or ESPN2…or the SEC Network…or maybe ESPN+ you get the idea). Will CBS acquire another conference’s games? I think they’d be dumb not to. The Pac-12 could be ripe for the picking to be honest.

UCLA at Washington (3:30, Pac-12 Network/DAZN) – Let me explain since that might look like Greek to some of you. As of right now I have the Bruins and Huskies on the Pac-12 Network. First of all, it’s in the afternoon so Chris Petersen shouldn’t be upset. Secondly, Pac-12 teams have to have a minimum amount of games on the Pac-12 Network and the network usually gets a good game or two every season because it has to fill its quota. And finally, it looks like the Pac-12 Network will be available on DAZN in Canada. That may change by the time the season commences. Fingers crossed it doesn’t.

TCU at Oklahoma (4:00, FOX Sports One) – This could be worse. At first I had this game on FSN. I honestly don’t know if FSN will even have Big XII games. I have a feeling they won’t but who knows with the Mountain West invading the FOX networks. Anyway, until further notice, the Sooners will continue to be the class of the conference. At some point, though, a team is going to come along and knock them off their perch…for real. Maybe Gary Patterson’s Horned Frogs can do the trick.

Kentucky at Georgia (7:00, specialty pack) – There are a lot of good games this week. Unfortunately, after the top games (and a few others), it drops off a cliff. Normally, I wouldn’t put Kentucky in the Games of the Week but, by all accounts, this seems to be a team that could cause a lot of problems inside the SEC East. A win here and the Cats could, once again, be a contender in the SEC East. Look, I get they are very pessimistic about their football program in Lexington but if Mark Stoops somehow gets this team to the SEC Championship, they should offer him like a 15-year deal. No questions asked.

UCF at Cincinnati (4:00, specialty pack) – Yes a Group of Five game in the Games of the Week section! I have a feeling this will be the only G-5 game in this section this season. This is seriously huge too as these are the two teams that most would consider the top contenders for the Group of Five spot in the New Year’s Six (along with Boise State and maybe Coastal Carolina). Don’t be surprised if ABC pulls the trigger and gets this game in primetime knowing it may be their best chance at getting a really good AAC game on in primetime.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Ole Miss at Tennessee (Noon, specialty pack) – Don’t laugh. Both teams could be quite good this year. I said don’t laugh. Either team could win nine games. I told you not to laugh. Both teams could win their division. OK now you can laugh.

Best Group of Five Game: UCF at Memphis (4:00, specialty pack) – See above.

Worst Power Five Game: Texas Tech at Kansas (7:00, ESPN+) – Jesus Christ who would watch this? This game would have to be seriously close for me to even consider watching it. Which I can’t if I predict right and this ends up on ESPN+. Crisis averted.

Week 8

Game of the Week: Oregon at UCLA (4:00, FOX) – Wow, ok. Yeah this week, on paper, does not deliver. This is easily the worst week that I will cover in these final two posts. I mean you have to think Oregon blows the doors off the Bruins but what if UCLA has one of those crazy games they’ve had in recent years under Chip Kelly? It would be fun to see them just go off and score like 50 on the Ducks. They still might lose but hey…50-burger!

Other Really Important Games: Oklahoma State at Iowa State (Noon, FOX) – Hmmm…maybe this should be game of the week especially since it’s on BIG NOON SATURDAY. I still wait for the day where Matt Campbell finally gets a job offer he can’t refuse and leaves Ames. As horrible as it sounds for Cyclone fans, I could see Iowa trying to hire him once Kirk Ferentz decides to retire.

USC at Notre Dame (7:30, NBC) – Remember when almost every year a game between these two teams was a big deal? Sometimes for only of these teams but a handful of times for both programs. This may be one of those games. The Irish will once again feed off the hatred of all non-Irish fans and hope to get into the College Football Playoff yet again, pissing off a bunch of people. USC is in the wide open Pac-12 South and a win like this doesn’t help them inside the conference but will be a huge plus when it comes to their place in the Top 25.

Ohio State at Indiana (7:30, ABC) – I think it every year. Ohio State is going to visit a Big Ten East team not named Penn State or Michigan State and lose. Haha, of course I don’t mean Michigan, silly! The Hoosiers still look like they could make some noise in the Big Ten East but they have to hope to recreate some of last year’s magic to have any hope of beating the Fighting Ryan Days.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: LSU at Ole Miss (6:00, specialty pack) – Ugh, I hate the three-hour timeslots. They serve no purpose whatsoever. Like unless you are showing Army or Navy or any other team who might want to try the option, this won’t work. And SEC games are not known for ending before the three-and-a-half hour mark. So good luck to the game after this one (I have BYU-Wazzu starting at 9). Have fun on ESPNEWS for perhaps an hour.

Best Group of Five Game: Coastal Carolina at Appalachian State (Wednesday, 7:30, TSN1/TSN4) – I don’t know if I am in the minority but I like watching Sun Belt football. And despite App State’s success since their move up to FBS, last year’s performance by the Chants shone a huge light on the conference and proved that one of these years, their champion will make the New Year’s Six. This is probably the Sun Belt East Division championship. See? Divisions suck (no offense to the Ragin’ Cajuns of Louisiana).

Worst Power Five Game: Georgia Tech at Virginia (Noon, specialty pack) – Honestly, this isn’t too bad. For the worst of the week? I’ve seen much worse games in this spot. Not saying I’m watching the bulk of the game but I wouldn’t mind tuning in for a bit. For such a not-so-good week it seems to have a good mid-card set of matches.

Week 9

Game of the Week: Penn State at Ohio State (Noon, FOX) – Oh my. This could be…well, this could be an amazing game. Penn State should be finally back at least sniffing the Top 10 and tOSU is tOSU. This is almost a shoo-in to end up on BIG NOON SATURDAY.

Other Really Important Games: North Carolina at Notre Dame (7:30, NBC) – A second consecutive week that Notre Dame on NBC will be in primetime. If the Irish can somehow get through this rough two-game stretch they could be home-free the rest of the way. I will admit, I am a sucker for good primetime Notre Dame football on NBC. I don’t know what it is. It just feels special, kind of like when the SEC has their one primetime game on CBS every season.

Florida vs. Georgia (in Jacksonville) (3:30, CBS) – THE MOTHERFUCKING GOD DAMNED WORLD’S LARGEST OUTDOOR COCKTAIL PARTY!!!!! Perhaps you could put this at number one. I wouldn’t argue. I also wouldn’t argue if you said it would be the best football game played in Jacksonville all year. I still say an open bar is the way to go for Brad and Gary in this one. Imagine a drunk Gary Danielson crying over a call that went against Alabama three seasons ago? Actually, maybe we should cancel the open bar.

Iowa at Wisconsin (Noon, specialty pack) – The Big Ten West Championship game? Maybe? Honestly these are the only two teams I would trust to win the Big Ten, despite the fact they haven’t won all the West division titles. But would you trust Northwestern? Minnesota? NEBRASKA? I thought so.

Florida State at Clemson (3:30, ABC) – OK this might be a stretch. Especially since this is in Death Valley. But one of these years, FSU is going to beat Clemson and everyone is going to be left with their jaw on the floor. You might snicker at that but Pitt beat them at Clemson a few years back. So there is hope you Nole fans.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Iowa State at West Virginia (Noon, ABC/TSN2) – I am not going to make the mistake of saying Dana Holgorsen is the Mountaineers’ head coach like last time. I mean, I miss him as WVU’s coach because he was in some big games meaning he would blow his stack more often than he does now at Houston. I wonder if he just drinks less Monster Energy or Red Bull or whatever he has ten of before Noon.

Best Group of Five Game: SMU at Houston (3:30, ESPN+) – I had to dig a bit deeper this week for a good Group of Five game. It was either this or Troy-Coastal Carolina. I am sticking with this one although the Sun Belt game is on Thursday night and at least on the specialty pack where as this one I have on ESPN+. Why? Same problem every year when we get into mid-October towards the end of the season: so many good conference games and only so many slots to put them in. Every so often the American gets the shaft. This looks like it will be one of those weeks.

Worst Power Five Game: Rutgers at Illinois (Noon, BTN) – Good lord. Just don’t. If it plays out the way I think it will, there is probably two games at this time meaning you wouldn’t get it even if you had the Big Ten Network. Probably for the best.

A mixed bag (as October usually is). But still…it’s a bag full of college football games. I am getting excited. I’m also getting a bit nervous as I know what I am like during those Saturdays. A completely unproductive glutton. I can live with the unproductive part but I am trying to get back into some semblance of decent shape after gaining a lot of weight during the pandemic. And the type of food I would eat on college football Saturdays is no bueno anymore…at least that amount of food. I might have to do food prep Friday night just to get through the day!

Still have not got a preview magazine although I haven’t really tried. Hoping the Athlon one (which is part of my subscription) comes in the mail soon. At least unlike last year, Indigo is open so I can go in and check it out one of these days. Also I am still going back and forth on whether to order the Phil Steele magazine. It’s rather expensive and takes a while to come in the mail. I might do the thing I did a few years back and pair it with the NFL magazine (if they do one) and get them shipped at the same time. It sucks because it means I wouldn’t get it until early August but it’s such a great magazine that I don’t know if I can not buy it, you know? If you have never seen the magazine before you don’t know but believe me, it’s PACKED with info. Can I really go into the season not knowing who the Rutgers long snapper will be?

Normally, the CFL would be starting their preseason soon. However, with the NBA and NHL seasons going into July this year and the U.S. Open coming up (yeah I watch the golf majors, don’t judge me), I won’t be missing football nearly as much. Instead it looks like the CFL will start August 5th with a slightly shortened schedule. And the Grey Cup will be moved into December and is in Hamilton. The only Grey Cup I’ve ever went to was the 1996 one that has been dubbed the Snow Bowl. It was cold, snowy, and a shit-ton of fun to watch. Maybe I will buy tickets to this one as long as they aren’t brutally expensive. OK so yeah I miss football. Have a great week everyone!

We’ve made it! Kind of. The Week 1 College Football TV Schedule.

Posted on September 3, 2020 by guelphbossman

The time is finally here! And without a true Week Zero (at least for FBS teams) this means it is the real start of the college football season! I will say it was nice to see college football last week and it did not disappoint. Huge play on the first snap, sloppy football for about 55 minutes (including two horrible snaps to the punter for Austin Peay), and then 5 minutes of awesome action. It was almost cathartic, right?

So enough of this yappin’…let’s get to why you’re all here. Now this will look very different this year. Especially since Week 1 will still feel a bit like a Week Zero with the amount of games being played. But Saturday will have football all day so let’s rejoice for that. Alright, let’s get to it!

Thursday

		US	Canada
South Alabama at Southern Miss	9:00 PM

It’s not the big start we’ve had in the past but it’s still something at least. This is the first game of the season featuring two FBS teams. I will watch because it’s college football and I have been waiting for this for months. Being off work all this time has made things that much worse so I will enjoy every minute of this.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Eastern Kentucky at Marshall	1:00 PM
Middle Tennessee at Army	1:30 PM

Yep, only two games. Nothing that important but it’s two more than many thought we’d have in this timeslot. I can’t see the EKU-Marshall game being close but the MTSU-Army game could become interesting. Also, note the odd start times for these games. It looks like CBS Sports Network will be adopting these start times for quite a few weeks of the season, meaning they will usually only show two games on Saturdays. That’s part of the new reality of college football in the Fall of 2020.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
SMU at Texas State	4:30 PM

Yeah this is not the Week 1 we are used to. At all. Look expect more teams that you’ve never seen on major networks appearing on major networks. Like here. Texas State? On ESPN? And TSN? 2020 continues to be on-brand with their wackiness.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Arkansas State at Memphis	8:00 PM

OK this is a little bit better but not by much. Both teams slightly better than their conference counterparts from the previous game but that’s about it. But it is college football in primetime and should get a ton of viewers, depending on what’s happening with the NBA and NHL playoffs.

Monday

		US	Canada
BYU at Navy	8:00 PM

Hey here we go. Now this is a really nice matchup. This was made to happen because of BYU’s schedule being decimated due to the Mountain West and Pac-12 opting out of the season.

As for the game itself, we have two teams who have far-flung fanbases so this should also get a lot of viewers. They have to hope that NBA and NHL don’t have important playoff games and if they don’t, this could set Labour Day records for amount of viewers for a college football game.

Games to set your eyeballs on

OK this section is a moot point this week since you can honestly set your eyeballs to all the games. Won’t be that hard. I am going to discuss what we will probably be looking at this season when it comes to college football on TV.

To start, the late night window will rarely exist. Other than BYU, there are no teams in either the Mountain or Pacific timezones playing in the Fall so we won’t get those games that last past 2 in the morning. Part of me will miss them but part of me will wonder what the hell to do with the extra time. Maybe sleep? Nah, that’s crazy.

Also, I mentioned the CBS Sports Network windows. They are going with 1:30 and 6:00 windows for much of the season, a stark change from their usual 4 timeslot setup. The ESPN networks will be doing those sometimes as well. Hell, even CBS is doing it later on in the season since the Masters was moved to November. They will do a 6:00 start to their game that week to coincide with the end of the third round of play in Augusta.

So yeah, quite a few changes to this season and there could be more in the offing, especially if the Big Ten decides to return in October.

Some gambling fun and games

Will not do this either this week since it’s pretty straight forward, other than perhaps the MTSU-Army game. I’ll go with the Cadets in that one.

So it’s not the normal five straight days of college football we have become accustomed to over the past few years. That’s OK though. At least it’s something. And not to say that the conferences not playing are making the wrong choice. What I am saying is that if this group of conferences gets through their whole 2020 season it will not be good for those other conferences, especially the Big Ten which is looking bad in all of this. Poor Kevin Warren has been put in an awful spot. He really does have to get the Big Ten’s presidents, athletic directors, and head football coaches together to hash this out since otherwise he is going to take the blame for something that isn’t his fault.

Anyway, I will be on the ol’ Twitter machine for the games this weekend. My Twitter handle is @TheBauceman. I change my name all the time so don’t look for Bossman because you might find something different that is not college football at all.

Soon enough we will get back into the same old rotation of college recap-college schedule-NFL schedule. Some sense of normality is returning, albeit slightly altered. Alright have a great time watching all this college football…..all 6 games of it. It’s a start. Just keep telling yourself that. That’s what I’m doing. Have a great day!

“We are having a season come hell or high water!” – Roger Goodell, probably (also the NFL Preview)

Posted on August 3, 2020 by guelphbossman

I know, Roger takes his directives from the 32 buffoons running the NFL franchises. Saying that, I am pretty sure this is how he feels as well. They will do almost anything to have a season because money, right? Hell, the NBA and NHL are working relatively well but they have their issues. But they are in bubbles. Not flying all over the fucking place like Major League Baseball and look how that’s going? I would not be surprised if MLB decided to shut things down, even if its temporarily, by the weekend. So I don’t get how the NFL thinks they can make this work, especially with concerns over Coronavirus and now players starting to opt out of the season for those very same concerns. But they are going to try, dammit!

Alright normally I wouldn’t do an NFL preview post this early in August. But yeah everything has been put in a blender so figured with the college football schedule and season a bit of a mess, I would start with this and see how things go. To begin, I will do what I did last year and look at my previous preview and see how well I did with those predictions. I am sure this went well (I’m rolling my eyes):

I had the Saints beating the Chargers for the Super Bowl. Good fucking God already with a horrible start. This isn’t good.
The Chargers beating the Chiefs on the way to the title game. If it wasn’t so sad, it would be hilarious.
Patriots losing the AFC Championship. They didn’t even get that far but I don’t think that’s a bad prediction. So I am giving myself a checkmark for that one.
I had Cleveland making the playoffs. Oof. I definitely drank the Kool-Aid on that one.
I was quite wrong about Buffalo which makes me happy. I was also kind of wrong about the Rams but they barely missed the playoffs despite the Todd Gurley mess.
All the teams I thought would be bad, were bad. So at least I got something right.

End on a high note I say. Even the worst prognosticator has to get things right, yes? It’s basically in line with my previous predictions with some good and some bad (like really bad). So now let’s focus on this year’s predictions for a season that may or may not happen. Standings time…with records this time around! (* means I predict them to be a Wild Card team and the number in the brackets will be their playoff seed):

AFC East	NFC East
(3) Buffalo 12-4	(4) Dallas 11-5
(5) New England* 10-6	(7) Philadelphia* 8-8
NY Jets 7-9	NY Giants 5-11
Miami 5-11	Washington 4-12
AFC North	NFC North
(2) Baltimore 12-4	(3) Minnesota 12-4
(6) Pittsburgh* 9-7	Green Bay 8-8
Cleveland 7-9	Chicago 7-9
Cincinnati 3-13	Detroit 4-12
AFC South	NFC South
(4) Indianapolis 10-6	(1) New Orleans 14-2
(7) Houston 9-7	(6) Tampa Bay* 9-7
Tennessee 7-9	Atlanta 7-9
Jacksonville 2-14	Carolina 5-11
AFC West	NFC West
(1) Kansas City 13-3	(2) San Francisco 12-4
LA Chargers* 9-7	(5) Seattle* 10-6
Las Vegas 7-9	Arizona 6-10
Denver 6-10	LA Rams 6-10

Notes

The biggest change this year is there is an extra Wild Card team for each conference. So it’s almost a guarantee there will be a .500 team getting into the playoffs every season. This year I have the Eagles getting in at the 8-win mark. Also, you won’t see many teams with winning records now miss the playoffs. Houston I have at 9-7 will miss the second season.
Where will the good division races be? The AFC South, AFC East and NFC West should be fairly close races with the top two teams being very close in terms of talent. The Saints will blow everyone away to win the NFC South and I can’t see the Chiefs having any trouble this season winning their division.
The NFC Wild Card race should be exciting down to the end. The Seahawks should get in rather easily. The Buccaneers, now with Brady and Gronk, should do enough to be one game clear of the field for the second Wild Card spot. The Eagles, Packers, Falcons and, yes, the Bears will be in the race for the final spot in the final weekend of the season. I think the Eagles will beat the Packers in their Week 13 matchup to clinch the tiebreaker for the seventh playoff spot in the NFC.
In the AFC, not as much of a race but still a few teams in the mix. The Patriots (or the Bills if they finish second in the AFC East) will get the first Wild Card spot easily. The Steelers, Texans and Chargers I all have at 9-7 for that final spot with Pittsburgh and Los Angeles going through (as I mentioned above). I doubt anyone else would even be close.
There won’t be much of a race to the bottom this season. The Jaguars are awful and will be awful and if they don’t even get Gardner Minshew back for the season, they could be even worse than the 2-14 record I have them at. That franchise is a gongshow and that one year making the AFC title game we can definitely say was now an aberration and not the norm.
Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson are the two MVP favourites. But let met throw another dark horse contender into the mix: Dak Prescott. Despite the fact this means the Cowboys will be good it will make for some VERY uncomfortable times in the Metroplex and for Jerry Jones.
As for the Rookie of the Year choices, I will go with Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Chase Young. As always it is a crapshoot as to who could win this but these two seemed to be set up for success right out of the gate.

Playoffs? PLAYOFFS? God I love that Jim Mora promo.

Wild Card Round

(2) Baltimore def. (7) LA Chargers

(3) Buffalo def. (6) Pittsburgh

(4) Indianapolis def. (5) New England

(2) San Francisco def. (7) Philadelphia

(6) Tampa Bay def. (3) Minnesota

(5) Seattle def. (4) Dallas

Divisional Playoffs

(1) Kansas City def. (4) Indianapolis

(2) Baltimore def. (3) Buffalo

(1) New Orleans def. (6) Tampa Bay

(2) San Francisco def. (5) Seattle

Conference Championships

(2) Baltimore def. (1) Kansas City

(1) New Orleans def. (2) San Francisco

Super Bowl

(2) Baltimore def. (1) New Orleans

Lamar Jackson is going to get his chance to erase the memory of last year’s playoff run, as short as it was. Last year I had the Saints winning the whole thing and Drew Brees riding off into the sunset. This time I have the Saints losing…and then Drew Brees riding off into the sunset. I don’t think the top Wild Card teams are better than the worst division winners this year though which is different than my normal stance. Even though I say that this season, I still believe that the division winner should not automatically get a top four seed. If a division winner has a worse record than a Wild Card team, they should get the #5 seed and not the #4. I will continue to hammer this idea home until hopefully Roger Goodell does it because it makes the NFL more money somehow.

As for what the next post will be and when it will happen, I have no idea. I am still awaiting more information on new college football schedules. The Pac-12 did the nice thing and have the whole schedule out already. Most of the rest of the conferences should be doing similar over the next few days depending on the amount of changes that have to be made. For the most part, it looks like there will not be nearly as much football until late September as most of the Power Five schools won’t be starting until then. It’s all a shitshow at this point so until I see something that I can honestly piece together and work with, I won’t be doing anything. Anyway, have a great week and let’s hope that football is truly on its way back.

Well that was different – the (relatively short) NFL Draft recap

Posted on May 4, 2020 by guelphbossman

OK so this is how the 2020 NFL Draft started. Roger Goodell in his pretty nice basement printing out the names he was given through email or Zoom or something on those NFL draft cards and telling the world which team drafting whom. It was definitely different but again, everything is different these days. The thing is, we are obviously starved for sports. The ratings for Night One were through the roof. People want to see something live, anything that isn’t the news about the Coronavirus.

So yeah this is how it started. By night number two, this is what we started to see:

Roger clearly already sick of doing this and I am sure there is a tall glass of straight gin somewhere just off camera. I am going to be honest with you: by the end of night two I was done as well. I watched, I believe, about 90 minutes of day three which was seven hours long. I love college football. I love the NFL. I enjoy watching the NFL Draft (yes I am one of those guys). But after a while this got brutal. I will explain all this below in the rather late but at least truncated recap of sorts. Let us begin.

“Here’s the drafted player. And here is the worst thing that has ever happened to him.” This was the theme all draft long but it was especially the case in round one. It felt like since ESPN couldn’t do a normal draft they decided to go Full Rinaldi and do emotional stories about every damn draft pick. After a while this felt very exploitative. I get that some of these players have gone through a lot. But to you use it to fill the time between picks felt creepy. Hopefully with the next draft (either the NHL or NBA) they do not do the same.
Luckily for Las Vegas they will get their chance to hold a draft in 2022. Or as Roger said, 2020. Meaning now. Maybe he was drunk the entire time.
The first three picks I nailed. Nailed! Then again almost everyone did. After that my mock draft went to shit, as did everyone else’s. Rinse and repeat for next year.
This wasn’t a crazy draft. Very few trades early on and no stupid picks or huge reaches, at least on night one. No Daniel Jones picks this time around. No trading up to start Mitchapalooza. None of that. It was actually a bit refreshing not to have crazy drama on draft night.
We didn’t get a former player trolling the fans. Which is fine since it would have been in Vegas. Who would they troll? The locals are getting a new team. You could tell them all to eat shit and I am sure they wouldn’t care.
We also didn’t get players doing all sorts of crazy high fives and potentially setting themselves up for Rock Bottoms and Stone Cold Stunners all night which that pussy Goodell won’t take advantage of. I would actually respect him more if he did even if tons of people would rip him apart shortly afterwards.
Back to the basement, I am sure Roger’s basement, despite him being a millionaire, is crazy amazing. I don’t have a finished basement so any finished basement feels amazing to me I think.
Jerry Jones doing his draft from a yacht: hilarious.
Bill Belichick having his dog at the computer when the Patriots pick came in? Also hilarious.

Winners

This is way too early. For winners and losers. We know this. But let’s see what the first opinions are anyway since at least a few of them will be correct although there’s always one “bad” draft class that ends up being quite good. Happens every time.
Arizona – The Cards did quite well. They got Isaiah Simmons in the first round which was kind of an underrated pick. They also picked Josh Jones well below where he probably should have gone. None of their picks were reaches and they may have a great late-round steal with Eno Benjamin. Good job by Cardinals GM Steve Keim.
Baltimore – Nothing flashy but the Ravens are known for getting one absolute steal and this was no different. With the amount of picks they had they were bound to get at least some picks right but they hit paydirt with almost every pick. Patrick Queen was a great pick as I believe he’s quite the underrated linebacker that was on a team loaded with talent. J.K. Dobbins was also a great pick. They also pick up two great receivers in Devin Duvernay and James Proche later on. The Ravens are going to be quite the team soon enough with these picks.
Buffalo – They didn’t have a first round pick because they traded it away but getting Stefon Diggs for it is a good replacement. I believe A.J. Epenesa was a great pick as was Jake Fromm on day three. And they had the balls to pick a kicker which I believe is smart if you need one. At this point, the Bills may have had one of the smallest but most fruitful drafts.
Jacksonville – C.J. Henderson, K’Lavon Chaisson, Laviska Shenault and DaVon Hamilton as their first four picks? I’d say that’s a great haul.

Losers

Green Bay – Hey how pissed off is Aaron Rodgers at the team for picking Jordan Love? It’s not like the Packers picked a guy who will be a career backup: they have their quarterback of the future. The Pack fulfilled almost none of their needs. Tight end Josiah Deguara was a massive reach with a few much better tight ends on the board. The Packers, I can safely say, appear to have the worst draft and it’s not really close (although this would barely be bottom three in most drafts of the past).
Las Vegas – Where do I start with this? Henry Ruggs III is a good receiver but could have been available later on. Same goes for Damon Arnette which may be the worst first round pick of this draft. Their first night, overall, was brutal. The rest of their picks weren’t reaches really but none of them pop out as potential starters.
New England – Fire that dog. Kyle Dugger at that spot was not good. They followed it up with Josh Uche which was a good pick. Then the bottom fell out. The rest of their draft really was not that good. Hey at least they didn’t draft a long snapper right?
Seattle – Jordyn Brooks was a bit of a reach as most didn’t consider him a first rounder. Things didn’t get better on night two. Nothing special here with their day three being pretty disgusting overall.

As I alluded to earlier, I still got most of my mock draft wrong but at least I got the first three correct. This is from me doing my final mock draft the day before the draft. Definitely helped me this time around. I am honestly wondering if I should do even less mock drafts next year. Not that I did many. I did three. But I am thinking about dropping that to two. Other than the final mock, it feels like I am just doing one so that I have a post. I may have to find other things to discuss on the ol’ blog instead.

Did I watch the whole draft? No. I did watch the first round live and most of the second night as well live. I was chatting with friends during both nights and it was a nice change from the past few years when I was on Twitter, just trying to keep up with all the action. The final day I did not even watch most of it. Day three is about the first three rounds and analyzing them. I really don’t need to see that again. I will be honest though: with less drama, Twitter didn’t explode like it has in the past. The tipped picks (which still happens) can get kind of annoying but for the most part it was great to have something to watch live during this very weird time.

I want to say we are getting closer but that might not be the case. As of right now, it looks like the college football season will go on as scheduled but things can change. Look at how much has changed in the past two months. So anyway, if the college football season were to start on time, we would be, at this point, 117 days away from Week Zero. I am hoping to get preview magazines soon and once that happens, I will start getting pumped for a season that may or may not happen the way it normally does. Well have a good week everyone and fingers crossed everything gets back to normal soon, whatever the new normal ends up being.

		US	Canada
Charleston Southern at #25 Clemson	2:15
#23 Texas A&M at Miami	3:30
UTEP at Northwestern	3:30
Richmond at Michigan State	3:30
UNLV at #2 Michigan	3:30
Wagner at Navy	3:30
#20 Ole Miss at #24 Tulane	3:30
Iowa at Iowa State	3:30
Marshall at East Carolina	4:00
Kent State at Arkansas	4:00
Tulsa at #8 Washington	5:00
Appalachian State at #17 North Carolina	5:15

Bossman's Blog

A lot of college football (and perhaps a bit of miscellaneous crap that I think warrants a post)

Tag Archives: NHL

Should I do a Draft Recap?

Winners

Losers

The ALL-NEW Mock NFL Draft Version 2 Dash 2024 along with a look-back

First Round

Second Round

What’s Gonna Happen Next? – Week 15 NFL TV Schedule

Thursday

Saturday

Sunday Early

Sunday Late

Sunday/Monday/TUESDAY! Primetime

The reins have been passed in Chicago – Week 5 NFL TV Schedule

Thursday

Sunday Morning

Sunday Early

Sunday Late

Sunday/Monday Primetime

We’ve made it! Kind of. The Week 1 College Football TV Schedule.

Thursday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime

Monday

“We are having a season come hell or high water!” – Roger Goodell, probably (also the NFL Preview)

Well that was different – the (relatively short) NFL Draft recap