17 Games: NFL Invitational Preview
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Jason
posted 8/30/2007 from
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As we announced a couple of weeks back, we’re celebrating the arrival of football season with a new contest: 17 Games. All Ballhype users (well, except us) are eligible to win "The Duke", and you’re free to create your own We’ve also created an invitational group, in which representatives from a handful of outstanding sports blogs will be competing for a modest $200 charitable donation--$100 from us, and another $100 from the not ungenerous Unsilent Majority. Embedded with the virtual heavyweights is an up-and-comer who’ll be chronicling the season for us all: Ty Keenan, from the basketball-themed Plissken at the Buzzer. Ty is the latest in a long line of talented student-bloggers from Bill Walsh’s old stomping grounds. His season preview follows:
As embedded correspondent for this competition, it’s my job to inform readers of everything that goes on in one of the most hotly-contested leagues in American sport: the Ballhype NFL Invitational. This group of celebrity bloggers actually has quite a bit in common with the league from which we’ll be picking games. In the NFL, 25 of the teams are generally mediocre, requiring massive amounts of insight and analysis to figure out which team has the best chance to make it to the playoffs and beyond. Similarly, our league features so many excellent bloggers that it’s difficult to predict who will fare best throughout the season. With that in mind, here’s a detailed look at our celebrity bloggers’ strengths, weaknesses, picking tendencies, and chances to win the right to give money to charity.
Michael David Smith: FanHouse, Football Outsiders, NY Sun, ProFootballTalk.com
- Strengths: Apparently some sort of football-writing robot. Most prolific writer at FanHouse by a wide margin (389 posts in last 30 days).
- Weaknesses: Roots for team run by Matt Millen.
- Most Likely to Pick: Whichever team looks like the best pick for each particular week. Too smart to pick the Lions.
- Chances to Win: Excellent. Clearly one of the most football-savvy participants. Writes enough that he won’t have to do any extra research.
- Fun Fact: Once owned a Charlie Batch jersey.
Unsilent Majority: Kissing Suzy Kolber, Deadspin Weekends
- Strengths: Gained reputation through commenting, so knows what it’s like to be the little guy. Drinks scotch, so clearly a real man. Name is a Rocky IV reference.
- Weaknesses: Evidence suggests he might enjoy scotch a bit too much, which could have some effect on picks.
- Most Likely to Pick: Against Brady Quinn.
- Chances to Win: Excellent. Picking strategy outlined above can only bring victories.
- Fun Fact: Quotes 1984 in interviews, so a man of culture, too.
Brian Powell: Awful Announcing
- Strengths: Watches nearly every game, since most football announcers are immeasurably terrible.
- Weaknesses: Focuses on announcers, who do not actually play the game.
- Most Likely to Pick: Games called by Joe Buck or Phil Simms.
- Chances to Win: Unclear. Buck and Simms call important games, for which the spreads/games are usually close, but there’s a decent chance that Powell will pick an unforeseen blowout.
- Fun Fact: Will not be able to pick Monday Night Football games this year, because the crew is finally good.
The Ladies: Ladies...
- Strengths: Sensitive to subtle emotions from players, giving them an edge over the rest of the participants.
- Weaknesses: Distracted by incredibly tight football pants. Potentially focus too much on food for Sunday game-watching parties.
- Most Likely to Pick: New England Patriots. No warm-blooded American woman can resist Tom Brady.
- Chances to Win: Very good. Picking Brady is a time-tested strategy, although there’s always the chance that a new QB hotness will emerge on a terrible team.
- Fun Fact: Fallout from last spring’s Ladies.../KSK college basketball bet should ignite a vicious rivalry with Unsilent Majority.
Jamie Mottram: FanHouse Impresario, Mr. Irrelevant, Blog Show
- Strengths: Has full weight of AOL cash behind him, making it possible for him to hire as many research interns as he’d like. Has been dubbed a "stud blogger" and "blogfather." Lists Will Clark as his favorite athlete ever.
- Weaknesses: Success of FanHouse has potentially made him content to sit on pile of money with many beautiful ladies. Past involvement with Cold Pizza means that he might draw on Woody Paige and Skip Bayless for advice.
- Most Likely to Pick: Washington Redskins. Not only because they’re his favorite team, but also because Mottram is the Daniel Snyder of Blogburgh.
- Chances to Win: Decent. Running the #1 site in Ballhype’s rankings is nothing to sneeze at, but Redskins fandom suggests he won’t be able to pick more than eight games correctly.
- Fun Fact: The latest comment on his myspace page was posted by Sarah Spain, the Bears Super Bowl date girl.
The Big Lead: The Big Lead
- Strengths: Name suggests victory is imminent. Unknown identity presents mysterious front to opponents. Has actual media connections.
- Weaknesses: Lives in fear of another unprovoked Cowherd attack.
- Most Likely to Pick: Any team that signs (or even tries out) Jeff George. Owes Jason Whitlock for helping to push site over the top.
- Chances to Win: Pretty good. Ability to break stories gives them a leg up on lazier participants.
- Fun Fact: Claims that being mentioned in New York Times resulted in 17 more hits than normal.
Dan Shanoff: Dan Shanoff
- Strengths: Picking underdogs.
- Weaknesses: Football games do not exist in Quickie format. Writes about babies, who are too small to play football.
- Most Likely to Pick: Jacksonville Jaguars. Must prove that his newfound fandom is more than a gimmick.
- Chances to Win: Excellent. Connections to ESPN Empire could be the difference.
- Fun Fact: Holds MBA from Harvard Business School, which has helped him create several blogs that provide no income.
Brooks: Sports by Brooks
- Strengths: Longevity (started in 2001). Army of models distracts nearly all competition.
- Weaknesses: Models have no effect on Ladies.... Based in LA, a soulless city with no football team.
- Most Likely to Pick: Whichever team has the hottest cheerleaders. Against the Raiders.
- Chances to Win: Great. Can’t go wrong with choosing based on hotness, and the Raiders have proven that they’ll happily let teams blow them out.
- Fun Fact: Recommends Deadspin and FanHouse as examples of important, quality blogs. Thanks, Brooks!
Ty Keenan: Plissken at the Buzzer
- Strengths: Writes for a relatively small blog, which gives him hunger that the bigwigs lack. Actually has to write about the group every week; therefore, obligated to pay attention.
- Weaknesses: Doesn’t write about football. That’s a rather significant weakness.
- Most Likely to Pick: San Francisco 49ers, for loyalty’s sake, but not above picking whichever team gets him the most site hits.
- Chances to Win: Incredibly terrible. Cinderella story would surely capture the hearts of America, but this is not a movie.
- Fun Fact: Due to lack of fame, allowed to list "self" as charity.
Tags:
NFL
Comments (10)
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Erin Do not be deceived by Ty Keenan's wraithlike appearance. That diet of watery gruel was just what he needed to take down an entire criminal empire. -
This comment has been deleted.
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sooze or atleast halfway there.
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awfulannouncing Is it possible for me to steal Dan's Picks in this contest just like I did in the KSK Keeper Draft? If so I need to start studying up right away.
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Unsilent Majority Only if I can draft Darren McFadden.
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chone "No warm-blooded American woman can resist Tom Brady." - In New England, it's not just limited to the ladies...A substantial population of males from Maine to most of Connecticut would go Larry Craig (allegedly)/Pete Sheppard for the father of J.E.T. Not that there's anything wrong with that. -
SportsGirl365 Can I be UM's charity? Does that count? -
SSReporters Buck and Simms call important games
More like "Buck will call New York Giants" games.
Links (2)
The Annexation of Puerto Rico
Published 8/30/2007 by Ty Keenan at Plissken at the Buzzer
... ," a new game they've created involving weekly NFL picks. (Yes, I like other sports, too.) There's a celebrity blogger group (featuring such Blogburgh stalwarts as Jamie Mottram and The Big Lead) for which I'm serving as an "up-and-coming" embedded correspondent. Essentially, that means I'll write weekly updates on the group and NFL-at-large. My first post, a preview of the competition, is up now. ...
You Create The Caption #71
Published 8/30/2007 by Awful Announcing- at Awful Announcing
... 17 Games: NFL Invitational Preview (Ballhype) ...
Most Likely to Pick: New England Patriots.
Not on my watch. *hitches up pants, spits Bostonward*