First Pick Blog

Okay, we started one week late. But let’s just call that our “bye” week. Here are the First Pick Blog Staff standings after week 2. Included are everyone’s Monday Night Football pick as well.

Tied for 1st:

Ben Simpson, 8 correct picks: Buffalo, Indy, Carolina, Houston, Giants, Seattle, Pittsburgh, and Chargers

Monday Night Pick: Denver Broncos

Mujtaba Elgoodah, 8 correct picks: Same as Ben

Monday Night Pick: Denver Broncos

2nd Place

Brian Skinnell, 7 correct picks: Buffalo, Cincy, Giants, Houston, Pittsburgh, San Diego, and San Fran

Monday Night Pick: Denver Broncos

3rd Place

Matt Fehr, 6 correct picks: Cincy, Indy, Houston, Seattle, Pittsburgh, and San Fran

Monday Night Pick: Atlanta Falcons

Tied for 4th place

Alex Millon, 5 correct picks: Cincy, Houston, Giants, San Diego, and San Fran

Monday Night Pick: Atlanta Falcoons

Jimmy Luehrs, 5 correct picks: Cincy, Philly, Seattle, San Diego, and San Fran

Monday Night Pick: Denver Broncos

Okay, terrible game-costing decision by Josh Morgan and bonehead of the day move….but I partly believe this came from boiled over anger from the chippiness of this game. The Rams took plenty of cheap shots all game long and these replacement referees are a joke. Also I lost every game I bet on…

Not the first time Courtland has angered a player to the point of insanity…

According to ESPN.com, “side judge Brian Stropolo was pulled from today’s Saints-Panthers game when it was discovered on his facebook that he is a Saint’s fan.” Not included in the article were the various statuses posted by Stropolo, but don’t worry, the crew here at The First Pick dug them up for you…

Brian Stropolo

Don’t worry guys, been outside in the backyard practicing all week! The flag arm is ready for Sunday! LOL @ Cam Newtown 😉

Brian Stropolo

Pass interference is when the defender doesn’t even touch the receiver right? ;-ppppp #DownwithCam

Brian Strop0lo

Just talked to Drew, he’s pumped i’m assigned to the game! Can’t to show him my ref skillzzz! #WhooooDatttt!

Brian Stropolo

Hey facebook friend! If anyone from the NFL asks….i’m not a Saints fan! Tell them I like the…Browns! Yea i’m a Browns fan! #T-Richforlife!

By Ben Simpson

Wanna hear a secret? Sometimes…I hate sports.

For all the success stories, the underdogs, and the unsung heroes finally getting their due there are millions of others with failed dreams, false realities. Kids, myself included, grow up worshipping a man or woman because they can throw a ball 50 yards with pinpoint accuracy or shoot one through a nylon net from 15 feet away with a hand in their face. Sports can ruin lives. A missed shot, a bobbled grounder, can cast you into the shadows of infamy for eternity. A simple mistake and one can go from hometown hero to outcast. How did we get here? How did we reach this point?

The nation just recently witnessed what can happen when coaches, a position of authority can fall very far off the path of righteousness. A coach is supposed to help, to nurture, to protect. But they are humans, and no human is perfect. We build up coaches to the point where they are no longer people, but gods. They can control the children they teach, and teach them evil. They can teach them that their opponent is not just another kid like them, but an enemy, who needs to be beaten. They can teach them that “Winning is not everything, but the only thing.” They can teach them whatever they want, for they are coaches, and whatever coach says goes.

This is the last I will ever speak of the terrible events at Penn State, but no matter your feelings on the matter know this: Joe Paterno was more than just a coach in Happy Valley, he WAS Penn State. When in reality, he was a man who won football games, and was damn good at it too. The spotlight turned from the children and the monster who destroyed their lives, to the aging coach who didn’t do enough. But if there was more to be done, information to follow up on, there is only one man who could have found the answers. One man whose opinion mattered the most. Joe needed to do m0re, had to do m ore. But sadly it seems the program was put above the welfare of children…

But it is more than just the coaches but the athletes themselves who sometimes forget what they stand for. For it is the athletes, not the coaches, who we pay 80 dollars to see. It is the athletes for whom we sacrifice sleep for, relationships for. It is their names who we don on our backs and wake up wishing we could be. We long for the ability to stand up on top of a podium, in front of the world, and call ourselves champions. We invest our hearts, our souls into people and teams. I’ll be the first to admit that the fans share much of the blame. I base my life on how the teams I like are doing, a simple loss can ruin my day, or week. I have to step back sometimes and remind myself that there is so much more out there, so much more matters, than whether or not the Tigers lost the pennant. But it’s so hard to separate, and sometimes we choose not to.

Sports can kill. It can kill dreams, the kids who were told they weren’t tall enough, fast enough, strong enough. The kids who had empty promises whispered into their ear by recruiters, who all along were waiting for someone better to appear. The kids who said all the right things, did all the right things, worked as hard as their body could, and were not even close to being drafted, to make the next level. Meanwhile there are athletes who are blessed with the height, with the body, who barely has to work or do anything for themselves their entire lives and make it by a long-shot. They are lazy, but it doesn’t matter. They are rude, but it doesn’t matter. Sports, like life, are not fair.

Sports can kill people too. Through concussions, through the tireless bone-crushing of body into body. Through that one line drive, that one right hook. The retired athlete who is too proud to admit something is wrong, that his mind is turning into mush. The coach who continues his stressful lifestyle, despite the anxiety and the cold sweats that keep him up late at night wondering if he’ll have a job in the morning. The gambler who uses sports to make his living, despite his family’s pleas to stop, who finds himself in a ditch off the highway for failure to pay his bookie in time. It sounds silly, sounds like television, but it happens. Sports can kill.

This is an entire website based around sports and entertainment. We write about sports because we want to, because we feel we have to. But even we need to stop ourselves every now and then and remember that this is for fun, that sports are played to entertain. But sometimes even we forget…

99.99% of the time I love sports. I feel they inspire hope, bring people together, and help us escape from our problems. But after the final buzzer, after the last inning, we need to remember that our problems are still there. It’s only a game, and yet, its so much more…

By Ben Simpson

Well the 2012 Slam Dunk Contest participants were announced.

Defending champion Blake Griffin passed on returning, leaving a lackluster field of New York’s Iman Shumpert, Paul George of Indiana, rookie Derrick Williams of Minnesota and Houston’s Chase Budinger.

The league announced Thursday that there no longer will be judges in the event, which also will be reduced to one round. Each contestant will execute three dunks. Fans will determine the champion by voting on NBA.com, Twitter or through text messaging.

The format in recent years was two rounds, with a panel of judges voting on the first round before fan voting in the second.

So in honor of Chase Budinger, I bring to you the all-time slam dunk contest whiteys! BTW I know guys like Doug Christie were in it, just going to put full 100% white guys in here, mixed fellows are going to fall under the black dunker category.

First my mission is to find the first white guy to ever participate. Hellooo Wikipedia. The most difficult part of this is the names I don’t know…is it racist to go through the process of saying, “Well, that name sounds white” and google-ing it? Yes, it probably is. Wiki keep things in alphabetical order on the list so will I, starting with Chris Anderson!

      Chris was in it 04 and 05. In 2004 Chris put on a show, a nice tribute to white dunkers everwhere, all while looking like mad max. In 2005 the man formally known as Christ Anderson, now Birdman fell quite short. Taking numerous attempts to just dunk the basketball, Anderson was never seen or heard from again.

Next! Ladies and Gentlemen I give to you: Mr. Brent Barry!    Warm up jacket and all, Barry dominated the 1996 dunk contest, winning it all

Now back to 1987 and Tom Chambers, here’s a video of Chambers posterizing Mark Jackson. Sadly Chambers was up against Jordan that year….

Here’s Rex Chapman who was in it 1990 and 1991. Not bad at all. 

For a more recent participant, look no further than Rudy Fernandez in 2009. Not technically white but i’m counting it. 

After going through many names..I finally reach Bob Sura! 1997 slam dunk participant! Sura finished 5th, but bleached hair and all lost to Kobe, skip to 1:40 in the video to watch Sura. 

And that’s the list! Now here’s Chase Budinger with his dunks, enjoy! 

By Ben Simpson

With Linsanity not on TV, Wizards playing at 10:30, and terrible college basketball matchups on I guess I have to resort to a running diary of 2 hours of American Idol…Yea that one hurt me too…

8:00-Is there a more overrated show than the Big Bang Theory? Answer: Yes, Two and a Half Men. Also, can a show be too hyped that I don’t even want to watch it? That new Smash show with Katherine McPhee is too damn confusing with its advertising. Is it a play? a musical? a reality show? This is what happens when I can’t watch Lin…

8:01-Jesus Idol, you’re one minute behind, I blame LeBron. I’m greeted with a montage of last week’s drama. Apparently there was a lot of puking and people stating, “This is all I ever wanted, singing is all I have.”

8:05-First group of the night: The Bettys. Or as Steven Tyler slyly quips with a blank response from J-Lo, “Couldn’t it have just been Betty and the Boobs?” Score 1 for ST. All I have written down in my notes is: Bettys Bomb+more shots of people puking.

8:11-First of many commercial breaks after a group named Groovesauce hits one out of the park and receive a bunch of “Wooo’s” from Randy. Gotta love the guy though, the only judge to make it this far.

8:13-So the plot of The Vow is that Rachel McAdams gets in a crash, loses her memory, and Channing Tatum has to convince her they were in love before? Hell if I found out Rachel McAdams had amnesia I would claim we were in love too. Btw if “Smash” totally sucks they should change the name to “Crash”….anybody…anybody…?

8:16-The 6,7,9 Group is next. Led apparently by some chick named Brielle and her mother. Also, apparently bitchiness runs in the family. Everyone makes it except frat-boy crooner Kyle Crews, much to the happiness of Brielle’s mama, “We love Kyle, he has a pretty good voice.” Ouch…

8:23-Holy crap, i’m barely a 1/4th of the way through…wait did that girl just fall? First casualty of the night! They promoted it at the top of the show, and Jackie is down! The Ref is above her counting off! One…two…the group is planning on going on without her…three…four….Jackie’s pulling a Willis Reed! Too bad her group can’t rally, Dustin and Tentgirl (she’s the girl who lives in a tent, come on people keep up) both forget the words.

8:25-Scientology commercial……wow I can’t even think of a pun to go along with that

8:30-More montages of people forgetting the lyrics…btw wasn’t/isn’t there a show called “Don’t Forget the Lyrics” with Mark McGrath?

8:34-Coming up…more fainting?? Ryan, what cologne are you wearing today???

8:37-Commerical for something called Dream Nude Airfoam by Maybelline. I could get behind that product. Apparently it is 100% Nude Perfect.

8:39-I’m sorry but aren’t there certain actors who you just can’t see in anything else. Kiefer Sutherland falls in this list. I know he has this new show where his mute son holds the key to the universe but I keep expecting him to kick down a door and scream, “WE NEED MORE TIME!” Other actors I can’t watch in anything else: The Napoleon Dynamite guy (I have no idea what his real name is) and the guy from Monk (Tony Shaloub I think is his name). See!! I don’t even know their freaking names!

8:45-Ryan Seacrest tells us for the 28th time that Group Round is “Heating up!” I would be impressed if one time Ryan was just honest and said, “Yea..group week is boring as hell.”

8:50-Faint Watch! Imani (Iman Shumpert’s sister, no not really) is down!

8:55-Imani tries to rejoin her group again, but falls again! No Imani! Don’t go a third time!

9:00-…Imani faints again, this time on stage to be sure all the cameras catch her. Ryan: “The Unthinkable just happened!” Really dude…she just fainted twice in the past half-hour, the unthinkable?…

9:01-Question: Are the judges A-Holes if they send Imani home?

9:02-Answer: Yes, and they do

9:05-My two favorites (god someone shoot me) are two dudes by the name of Phillip Phillips and Heejun Hun who i’m calling from now on: Jeremy Lin. They both make it through, Linsanity lives on!!

9:09-Apparently the second half of the show is individual performances, which is what people want to watch. Group Round is worse than the Pro-Bowl.

9:11-PP and J-Lin do me proud, both advance.

9:23-Reed, not understanding the whole idea of playing with the AI band, suddenly has 30 minutes to figure out how to change his previously arranged acapella. In those 30 minutes he somehow manages to meet with a vocal coach, call his mom (he actually calls her i’m not lying), and figures out the entire arrangement. 2 minutes before he goes on he changes his mind and decides to play drums and sing. Could this be the biggest botch since Detroit signing Iverson??

9:24-Darn…he totally kills it.

9:30-I’m beginning to lose my mind…as more people sing “Georgia is on my mind”.

9:45-Everybody is split into 4 groups in 4 different rooms. I mean, isn’t it obvious if you’re in a room with someone who totally kicked ass that you are in the right room? If I turned around and saw someone who totally sucked I would know its all over.

9:50-PP and J-Lin are still in it! 3 rooms make and 1 room doesn’t.

9:55-The remaining contestants head to Vegas for more…oh dear god please no…group singing!

10:00-I just wasted two hours of my life, and you just wasted 10 minutes of yours reading this…

By Ben Simpson

Tell Melo to stay home, the Knicks don’t need him anymore. Instead the fate of the franchise should be put in the hands of the skinny Asian kid from Harvard.

The story-line has already been stated over and over again: unrecruited out of high school, undrafted, overlooked, signed, released, etc. Another prime example of why sports are so great and representative of the real world; sometimes hard work and dedication does pay off. Jeremy did everything right, yet his dream kept knocking him back down every time he tried to drive to the lane. He knew he was good, his close friends knew he was good, the problem was no one else seemed to know. His lack of recognition is strange due to the fact that this youtube clip of his Harvard days is floating around..

With half a second to play Linsanity did it again tonight against the Raptors, hitting the go-ahead 3-ball to bring the Knicks to a 90-87 win over Toronto. Lin finished with 27 points and 11 assists. Amare, making his return from leaving due to the death of his brother, picked up on the game of Lin immediately, scoring 21 points. The two fit perfectly, ala Nash+Amare back in Phoenix.

So what does the future hold for Lin? Well so far he’s proven he’s a winner, with the win streak up to 6 games and counting. He’s a scorer, having over 20 points in all 6 games in a Knicks uniform. He is just what the doctor ordered in New York, keep an eye out however for when Melo makes his return. Can the two play together? Will Lin have to go back to scoring 12 and 8? We can’t know what the future holds, but for now let’s bask in the light of the never-give-up attitude of Mr. Jeremy Lin.

By Ben Simpson