It's nearly impossible to turn on sports talk radio or pick up a newspaper in Detroit these days without hearing chatter about the prospect of the Detroit Lions trading Calvin Johnson.
Columnists Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press and Pat Caputo of the Oakland Press and 97.1 the Ticket have both recently touched on the subject, as have many contributors here at the Bleacher Report .
It won't happen.
Beyond my personal opinion that the concept of a team trading its best, and only, noteworthy player exceeds even a Lions level of stupidity. People within the Detroit Lions organization took strides to shoot down the rumors, as well.
Jim Schwartz called Johnson "virtually untouchable" when asked about the subject recently, and offensive coordinator Scott Linehan said it would be "insane" to trade Johnson. Linehan also said he would be "pretty depressed" if Johnson was traded.
So would a lot of people who follow the Lions and know anything about football.
If Johnson were traded, the Lions would likely get draft picks, potentially high ones, in return. Look at the history of players drafted high by the Lions.
Aaron Gibson? Bust. Charles Rogers? I think he's back in prison. Joey Harrington? Taking piano lessons. Mike Williams? Looking for a job. Kevin Jones? Bust. Kalimba Edwards? Last seen at the bottom of the Oakland Raiders depth chart and now out of the league.
Is there any need to go on?
Calvin Johnson is one of the best offensive football players in the NFL. And he plays for the Detroit Lions. The notion of a bad team trading an elite player simply because they are a bad team has no precedent in the NFL. This is not Major League Baseball.
Should the Lions have traded Barry Sanders back in the day just because they were a bad team?
The two quickest ways to hinder a young quarterback's development is to put him behind a terrible offensive line and give him no weapons to work with.
Matthew Stafford already has the disadvantage of being "protected" by Jeff Backus and Gosder Cherilus. Can you imagine how bad things would get if Bryant Johnson was his go-to guy?
Calvin Johnson is not going anywhere.
Let's end this subject and move on to something else.
Talk more about Tiger Woods and bimbos or Tim Tebow and the Bible. Both have more relevance than the concept of the Lions trading Johnson.
Five-star quarterback Cameron Newton, Rivals.com's No. 1 overall junior college player in the country, will take an official visit to the Plains Friday through Sunday.
Newton led Blinn College to the junior college national championship this season. In 12 games, he completed 204 of 336 passes (61 percent) for 2,833 yards with 22 touchdowns, and just five interceptions. He averaged 236.1 yards per game through the air. He also rushed for 655 yards on 108 carries (6.1 avg.) and 16 touchdowns.
Newtons' arrival could cause some controversy. He was dismissed from the Florida team after being arrested and charged with stealing another student’s laptop computer. He recently completed a pretrial intervention program and has stayed out of trouble during his probation.
If Auburn is able to sign Newton, this could be the biggest early signing week in AU history.
Auburn signed two four-star junior college prospects Wednesday. Rozell Gayden and Brandon Moseley both signed with the Tigers the first day junior college's December graduates were allowed to sign.
Newton has been in contact with Auburn lead recruiter Curtis Luper and offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Gus Malzahn recently, and is looking forward to his first visit to Auburn since his days at Westlake High School in Atlanta, Ga.
Curtis Luper said this on the Dunaway and Brown radio show Thursday. "There will be a big time recruit commit before Christmas." Could he be talking about Newton?
Auburn's interest in Newton had been kept relatively quiet until now, as the Tigers originally had no plans to add an extra quarterback in this class. But the chance to land Newton has changed things.
Newton’s arrival would certainly change the quarterbacks' situation heading into the spring. He would likely become the favorite to replace senior Chris Todd.
Why, you ask, would Zultan object to adding another team to the Big Ten? Well, as the self-appointed prognosticator for the Big Ten Conference, there is his reputation to consider.
Obviously, it has been a constant source of embarrassment to the sagacious seer that the Big Ten already has 11 teams.
When the Big Eight Conference realigned, it became the Big 12. Why isn’t the Big Ten known as the Big 11? This weighs heavily upon the great one’s already overtaxed mind. Was it simply that odd numbers are bad luck? Was it to skimp on making new signage?
How does it look for a conference that prides itself on its academic standards and its ethics to promulgate such an obvious misstatement—to have 11 teams, yet only acknowledge 10?
That is like hiding one of your children in the attic. For years, of course, it was Northwestern shivering up there.
But the Wildcats are no longer the odd man out. This year the name of the shunned team is debatable. Zultan, however, believes that Big Blue is being cloistered from view.
If the Big Ten invites another in and becomes 12, they cannot be the Big 12 Conference because one already exists. Will they become the Big Ten-Plus-Two Conference? The Dirty Dozen Conference? The Midwest 12 Conference, with East and West Divisions?
Zultan needs to know in order to factor the details into his crystal ball programming. After all, he cannot judge the future or the winners of football contests without a well-constructed network!
It also means more games for the all-seeing seer to predict. Work, work, work—that is all he ever does, and you propose heaping on more complex forecasting, further depleting his tenuous mental reserves?
The only way to appease the mighty Zultan is if the Big Ten Conference manages to snag Notre Dame. The sulky seer has a special karma with the Irish. The Big Ten would officially become the “Almighty 12.”
The Bowls, Revisited
In case you have forgotten—Zultan made his college football bowl projections after careful analysis of the matchups a couple of weeks ago. Upon review, however, the mighty one is shocked—stunned, even—that once again so many of you question his choices.
The all-seeing one does wear a turban, after all, and he has a crystal ball. If you foolishly ignore his projections, you may be embarrassed at your results. Remember that it is not too late to register your own vote if you have not yet done so.
Click here to enter your own picks to see if you can best the mighty Zultan—and win a prize for your efforts: a $100 gift card at Best Buy, WalMart, or Target—you choose.
All who enter, regardless of results, will also be eligible to win a CD titled The Best College Football Fight Songs—who could ask for more!
Let us review the voting so far:
1)Champs Bowl—Miami 9-3 vs. Wisconsin 9-3.
Zultan picked Miami—as did 57 percent of you.
2)Humanitarian Bowl—Bowling Green 7-5 vs. Idaho 7-5.
Zultan picked Idaho—as did 62 percent of you.
3) Holiday Bowl—Arizona 8-4 vs. Nebraska 9-4.
Zultan pickedArizona—as did 43 percent of you.
4) Armed Forces Bowl—Houston 7-5 vs. Air Force 10-3.
Zultan picked Houston—as did 80 percent of you.
5) Sun Bowl—Oklahoma 7-5 vs. Stanford 8-4.
Zultan picked Oklahoma—as did 34 percent of you.
6) Texas Bowl—Navy 8-4 vs. Missouri 8-4.
Zultan picked Missouri—as did 66 percent of you.
7) Insight Bowl—Minnesota 6-6 vs. Iowa State 6-6.
Zultan picked Minnesota—as did 62 percent of you.
8) Chick-fil-A Bowl—Virginia Tech 9-3 vs. Tennessee 7-5.
Zultan picked Virginia Tech—as did 66 percent of you.
9) Outback Bowl—Northwestern 8-4 vs. Auburn 7-5.
Zultan picked Auburn—as did 74 percent of you.
10) Capital One Bowl—Penn State 10-2 vs. LSU 9-3.
Zultan picked Penn State—as did 59 percent of you.
11) Gator Bowl—West Virginia 9-3 vs. Florida State 6-6.
Zultan picked Florida State—as did 30 percent of you.
12) Rose Bowl—Ohio State 10-2 vs. Oregon 10-2.
Zultan picked Ohio State—as did 51 percent of you.
13) Sugar Bowl—Florida 12-1 vs. Cincinnati 12-0.
Zultan picked Florida—as did 77 percent of you.
14) Papajohns.com Bowl—South Carolina 7-5 vs. UConn 7-5.
Zultan picked S. Carolina—as did 81 percent of you.
15) Cotton Bowl—Oklahoma State 9-3 vs. Ole Miss 8-4.
Zultan picked Ole Miss—as did 51 percent of you.
16) Liberty Bowl—Arkansas 7-5 vs. East Carolina 9-4.
Zultan picked Arkansas—as did 90 percent of you.
17) Alamo Bowl—Michigan State 6-6 vs. Texas Tech 8-4.
Zultan picked Texas Tech—as did 87 percent of you.
18) Fiesta Bowl—Boise State 13-0 vs. TCU 12-0.
Zultan picked TCU—as did 87 percent of you.
19) Orange Bowl—Iowa 10-2 vs. Georgia Tech 11-2.
Zultan picked Iowa—as did 62 percent of you.
20) BCS Championship—Texas 13-0 vs. Alabama 13-0.
Zultan picked Alabama—as did 72 percent of you.
Click here to review the great one’s initial analysis.
So you disbelievers cast your votes for Nebraska instead of Arizona in the Holiday Bowl and for Stanford over Oklahoma in the Sun Bowl. You also sadly trampled Bobby Bowden’s last game by picking West Virginia over Florida State in the Gator Bowl.
You shall live to rue your picks. It is not too late to set the scale right by casting your own vote in this contest. Then we shall see who is right and who is WRONG.
Zultan waits to see if there are any superior to him—it seems highly unlikely.
December 18th, 2009 by Chris Mueller AKA The most interesting man in the world
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Recently, I have been pondering what the landscape of the WWE will look like once the Undertaker retires.
In the last few years, the Undertaker has been taking noticeably longer breaks from the WWE to deal with injuries and have knee surgery. This can only signal one thing: The Dead Man's time is coming to an end.
I have been an Undertaker fan since he debuted in 1990 at the Survivor Series as Ted DiBiase's mystery partner. He was a giant of a man compared to most, and he seemed impervious to pain.
His gimmick was no-selling the moves performed by his opponents, and staring ominously without expression. It went over almost instantly, and within a year he was WWE champion.
He was one of the only people I can remember to hold the WWE title not only within his first year, but as his first title.
Over the years he gained more attention by having great feuds, amazing matches, stellar promos, and one of the best managers in the biz, Paul Bearer. He is forever linked with casket, buried alive, hell in the cell and last ride matches.
Since about 2006, he has been taking more and more time off each year to mend himself from the grueling life of the pro wrestler. He is moving slower and taking fewer risks, which is to be expected for a man in his forties.
It never really clicked that he might soon be gone forever, because he has been around for so long.
Not only is he one of two wrestlers to still be with the company since the first episode of RAW (the other being HBK), but he has one of the longest streaks of working for WWE in history, without leaving them for competition.
The man is WWE through and through. He is the head of the Smackdown locker room, for sure.
When he retires, we will lose something that the WWE is otherwise lacking: a good gimmick.
The Undertaker along with many others have stated that the Undertaker gimmick was not supposed to last this long, but the fans responded so well, and still do.
Without the Undertaker, who will strike fear into the hearts of the WWE's evil wrestlers? Who will intimidate all the guys who intimidate others? Who will have a Wrestlemania undefeated streak?
No one.
Once the Undertaker is gone, the WWE will no longer be what it was to me when I was a kid. It will no longer be the world of outrageous characters and even more outrageous fights. It will simply be a wrestling company.
And that saddens me.
Someone on Bleacher Report recently wrote an article about the lost art of the gimmick; forgive me for not knowing who it was. They are absolutely right. The WWE, along with all of wrestling, has lost the ability to create an amazing character who is not based in reality.
I am dreading the day when I read the headline "Undertaker Retires," because for me, it will be the end of an era that will never be matched again.
Rutgers will play the University of Central Florida in the St. Petersburg Bowl on Saturday, and this one is not burning up the sports discussions in the Tampa Bay area.
Rutgers coach Greg Schiano pulled no punches about playing over in the Fruit Dome (aka Tropicana Field).
He wasn't happy with the date and destination for his Scarlet Knights.
Which begs the question, who is more motivated in this first bowl game of the season?
The answer could lie within the armour of the UCF Knights.
There's simply more on the line for UCF than there is for Rutgers.
A win by UCF could make them a dark horse candidate to join the Big East, as strange as that may sound.
A win by UCF could give their fans and supporters some ammunition to look squarely at their former rival, the University of South Florida, and say, "See, we're better than you guys, you got blown out by Rutgers!" It would also give UCF recruiting ammunition if they were courting the same players as USF.
Amazingly, the St. Pete Bowl has told us that it's a sellout, and it will be interesting to see if there's a fanny in every seat on Saturday.
Yes, Rutgers has a LOT of talent—young talent—and has nothing to gain in this football game.
Yes, UCF is excited to play a Big East team, and they tell us their fans will show up.
Knights vs. Knights.
Sounds like something from the days of King Arthur.
