Walker's Rants Back in the Saddle

After a little break, and a trip to Ireland, your favorite weekly blog post is back. Walker's Rants have returned from vacation, and we are ready to blow the doors off the hinges with our hot fire.

Curt Schilling retires from baseball; does that mean I won't be subjected to his horrid blog entries?

The NCAA tournament may not have the major upsets, but that does not mean it has been a boring tourney. Friday night (OSU vs. Sienna, FSU vs Wis.) was one of the best nights of college ball I can remember…

Okay so Lance Armstrong broke his collar bone, I got to say I just don't care.
1) I don't care about the Tour de France no matter who is racing in it.
2) Lance is only doing this comeback tour now to keep smoke off his ass for being a steroid user like everyone else in the sport is.

It is no surprise that T.O. did not show at the first day of training camp. However, it was a voluntary workout, and well that means he didn't have to go...

Congratulations to Todd Clever for becoming the first American to start a Super 14 game, no small feat by any means...

The Broncos need to figure out a trade to get Jay Cutler out of town. Nothing against Cutler, but the Broncos burnt that bridge with him, and there's no reason to try to salvage the relationship by sabotaging the 09 season...

It's funny how Americans downplay the WBC. Somehow I do not think it's an accident that we downplay the WBC and we also happen to suck in playing the WBC...

So apparently Gilbert Arenas has decided to grace Washington Wizards fans with his presence this weekend. Never thought I'd actually be disappointed to see him...

The early release of a partial NFL schedule is just stupid. All or nothing, baby...

The NFL should not lengthen their season. Part of what makes football so great is that it is short and simple. Every game matters, and any screw up is penalized...

While the Broncos need to move Jay Cutler trading him to the Jets would be a horrible move. The Broncos needs to bring a third team into the deal so they can get a QB in return...

Ichiro Suzuki may just be the best player in the Major leagues right now...

The Knicks may not appreciate what Patrick Ewing did, but he is doing just fine down in Orlando...

The Detroit Lions will take an offensive tackle with their number one pick in the NFL Draft...

It's going to be fun to watch the young USA 7's squad when they take the pitch in Hong Kong in a few days...

Congratulations to Ireland for bringing home the 6-Nations Championship...

Xavier is not an accident, and the scary part is they have a legit chance to slip into the Final 4. That actually makes me sick...

I wonder who will be the new head coach of the Virginia Cavaliers time is ticking and they need some serious help...

Pittsburgh GunnyMajor Leaguer

230 days ago

Score 2

Great stuff as always BigP. As most here know I am not the most knowledgeable gridiron person. That being said, I really cannot find fault if the NFL expands their schedule. In the US the NFL is no doubt on top of the heap sporting wise, I say take advantage of that while it lasts. I don't know how many preseason games they play but perhaps they can lop off one of them to make room.

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Pittsburgh GunnyMajor Leaguer

230 days ago

Score 4

Oh, and welcome back! Hope you enjoyed Ireland.

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Sj-hypocycloidAll-American

230 days ago

Score 2

Lots of ground to cover...

• Curt Schilling retires from baseball; does that mean I won’t be subjected to his horrid blog entries?

Why did you read them in the first place? I am blissfully unaware of them. I just enjoyed watching him pitch.

• T.O. - this is a non-story. He'll likely get about 12-15 TDs and 1200-1400 yards receiving. And he'll make the Patriots/Bills blowout games a little closer. This is a good move for Buffalo, and I'll be intrigued to see how it plays out.

• Cutler, Cutler, Cutler - Enough with this. Just trade him already. Who cares where. I don't want to hear about this anymore.

• Americans and WBC - The MLB players should care more. But we've seen that (overall) they don't, and that's that. So we lose. It doesn't affect their paychecks, so what's the motivation? Pride? Not enough. I hate to by cynical, but there's no real reason for them to play. Mike Schmidt wrote an interesting article about the WBC. Worth reading. Link: http://sport...mp;type=lgns

• NFL and 18 games - Couldn't agree more. And stop making so many rules to change how the QB is handled. The NFL is frequently so quick to react, and it would be nice if they just let the action go on. After all, two of the rules were made because of 1 QB injury and 1 broken jaw. One incident is hardly a trend. Sad.

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False ProphetAll-Star

229 days ago

Score 3

Yo, correct me if I'm wrong, but the rules changes are as follows:

• players on the ground can't swipe at a QBs knees
• no head contact on receivers by defensive players
• no head contact by offensive players from the defensive player's blindside
• no lining up the entire team on one side for an onside kick
• limiting the size of the wedge on kickoffs

With the exception of the last one (which I'm not sure if it really does help or not), these are all safety issues, mainly to prevent dangerous situations. The head contact rules are to eliminate concussions, and while your right, one play =/= a trend, maybe that's the point of the rule (ie preventing it from becoming common). The rules make sense from both a players standpoint (no one wants to have their knee blown up/be concussed) and from an owners standpoint (are you seriously gonna say if you pay a guy 10+ mil a year to do something you wouldn't want to make sure that the guy isn't taken out for a season because someone crawled over to him and swiped at his knees?).

I'm all for playing the game, but I'd rather see players not have extremely debilitating injuries/bad concussions even if it means eliminating moves that players prolly shouldn't be doing to begin with (ie head contact, it's just not as effective as using your shoulder/hitting them low)

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Steel TownDraft Pick

229 days ago

Score 1

I strongly disagree with the QB rules changes this year and years past. I know it is cliche to say put a skirt on 'em a la Jack Lambert, but that is what's happening. One of the things that separated good QBs from bad was the ability to stay poised in the pocket. Every year they make it harder and harder to hit the QB. This simply takes the fear out of staying in the pocket. The linemen will continue to have to pay fines while, with the exception of a few outliers, they continue to make significantly less money than the guys who are being protected. I wonder how Adrian Peterson feels knowing that Tavaris Jackson is considered to be the franchise player in that organization according to the league. Meanwhile, it's open season on the running backs. Welcome to the era of the QB strike zone.

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Sj-hypocycloidAll-American

229 days ago

Score 1

They may as well have the QB throw on every down, because the chances are good that some sort of penalty will enable the team to advance the ball. Between don't breathe in the vicinity of the QB and pass interference, the ball could be moved down the field with little or no interaction from the players.

An extreme extrapolation, I know, but the overprotection of the QB is nonsense. One must wonder how the QBs of the 70s and 80s ever made it through a season having to do crazy stuff like take hits and get tackled...

I'm also not convinced it's strictly safety at play here either. As FP states: "are you seriously gonna say if you pay a guy 10+ mil a year to do something you wouldn't want to make sure that the guy isn't taken out for a season because someone crawled over to him and swiped at his knees?"

That is exactly what I want. The DT and DE job description is "stop the run" and "sack the QB" - I don't think that putting these restrictions in place enable the linemen to do that. Now if they get knocked down, they have to get up (which any smart OL will not allow and can prevent simply by pushing them back to the ground) completely and start their rush again? There's not enough time for that...once they go down, they might as well stay down, because they will have no shot at getting the QB.

Maybe they can go to a "one mississippi" rule for rushing the QB...

And I can't wait for the day that QBs wear red uniforms on game day so everyone will know not to touch them.

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RawbeezeitzMajor Leaguer

229 days ago

Score 2

I think it was nice to see WRs get some protection in the new rules.

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BigPPupMajor Leaguer

229 days ago

Score 1

The rule changes are horrible. I understand that the NFL wants to protect its players, but its a contact sport let the boys play.

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Manny StilesMajor Leaguer

229 days ago

Score 1

They're not "boys" anymore, they're billionaire's "investments"...

Welcome to the America. Land of the Pussified.

Just be glad they don't hand out orange slices and medals of participation to every player after each game.

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False ProphetAll-Star

229 days ago

Score 0

I mean, honestly, defensive players swiping at a QBs knees from the ground is not the most effective way to tackle a QB to begin with. You can still swipe at his legs from the ground, just not at the knees.

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SSreportersLegend

229 days ago

Score 1

Manny I 100% agree with that.

Basically this "pussified" mentality is going across the board.

If kids can't play tag because the school is afraid they'll get sued if the kids get hurt, that's a problem.

If by just showing up at soccer practice I can get a medal, that's a problem.

If the QB can't be touched without a stupid penalty yet I can make devastating blocks on punt returns, that's a problem.

It starts from the 5 year olds and works its way up to grown men.

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Manny StilesMajor Leaguer

229 days ago

Score 0

I'm trying to sll my book idea: "America the Pussified" but it seems the populus word of mouth (a.k.a. the professional media) has spead "the economy" to a point where it has swiped the balls from all the book publishers as well!

If there ever was amore typical buzzword - The Economy.

I'll pay you $1000 for every person you can find that can tell me what exactly comprises "the economy" (and never lose a dollar) yet every single American uses the word like it's the new "awesome"...

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RawbeezeitzMajor Leaguer

228 days ago

Score 0

I like it when players don't get concussions because some free safety wants to be on Jacked Up.

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Manny StilesMajor Leaguer

230 days ago

Score 1

Who is Curt Schilling? Never heard of him. Welcome back, Original DDub!

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Sj-hypocycloidAll-American

230 days ago

Score 1

I'm sorry, ignorance alert....what is DDub??? It's probably obvious, but I am totally be missing the boat here.

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Sj-hypocycloidAll-American

230 days ago

Score 1

please forgive the egregious "grammar" in the previous comment

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SSreportersLegend

229 days ago

Score 2

That would be "who is DDub?" Sj.

This is the original DDub, Dumont "AGM Linebacker" Walker. The initials would be DW, so I think you can figure out the rest.

This is the the other DDub.

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Sj-hypocycloidAll-American

229 days ago

Score 1

Ah. Thank you

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BigPPupMajor Leaguer

229 days ago

Score 2

Thx SS for clarifying the Original DDub confusion. It is good to be back at the Chair. Ireland was amazing I have tons of pics and stories to tell at another time

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Manny StilesMajor Leaguer

229 days ago

Score 1

Did you play any Irish Road Bowling? (remember when that was the "featured sport" on the front page for about 3 months?)

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BigPPupMajor Leaguer

229 days ago

Score 0

Yes I do remember that being the featured sport forever. But I did not play any road bowling. I was in Dublin and around that area most of the time. I played a lot of rugby till I finally separated my AC joint

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False ProphetAll-Star

229 days ago

Score 2

BigPPup, the US didn't "suck" at the WBC. We made semis without our best players and with very restrictive rules by managers/owners on how we could use certain players. I don't feel that's "sucking", although it might be a let down

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BigPPupMajor Leaguer

229 days ago

Score 2

No they overachieved for the talent that was on the field, but I should say the US sucks for its overall approach to the entire competition not the actual guys on the diamond

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Manny StilesMajor Leaguer

229 days ago

Score 1

I agree with you BigPP, it's not a let down if we kinda knew it was going to happen this way. I commend them for getting as far as they did, it actually/surprisingly exceeded my expectations. People seem to dismiss what it means to be a "Team" here in America. These "foreign" teams have played with each other, know each other, are used to each other, share a tighter bond within the game. It's a TEAM sport!!! The sum of the parts are NEVER greater than the whole! The U.S. team was piecemeal from day one and it only got worse as guys got hurt and were replaced by other pieces...

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RomiezzoLegend

229 days ago

Score 4

"After a little break, and a trip to Ireland, your favorite weekly blog post is back."

I thought Walker's Rants never have an offseason or breaks or whatever... it's all good though.

AGM just got a lot better. Welcome back, bro.

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BigPPupMajor Leaguer

228 days ago

Score 0

No offseasons here, but was a bit hard to post while in Ireland, was too drunk, too hungover, or too hurt to type, not to mention I watched no american sports while there

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