You Wouldn’t Like Me Angry

I’d like to start this blog off with a top five list of things that people say about sports that will instantly piss me off to the point where I will have a bad day. Here’s the List.

1. The 2004 MLB Season. I’m not going to get into this one, because it’s only going to upset me, but suffice it to say that if you want to piss me off, just bring this subject up in conversation.
2. Talking about any trade that I’ve made with Chad Ruter in fantasy baseball. If I have a weakness in fantasy sports it’s my uncontrollable need to make a bad trade in fantasy baseball around half way through the season. I’m pretty sure Chad sets his calendar by this event. People in my league get upset that the trades that I’ve made with Chad have had a lot to do with his four year reign has our fantasy baseball champion.
3. When people say that Shaq is a talentless giant who only dominated basketball because of his size. I had the pleasure of watching hundreds of Lakers games over the course of about eight years when the Lakers went from being a underachieving bunch of young talented players, to one of the greatest teams in NBA history. People forget when Shaq was in Orlando he was a slim, freakishly athletic player who could outrun opposing centers, tear down backboards from their frames, and even break dance. As Shaq got older and larger he became a great passer and weak-side defender who dealt with more contact than any other center in NBA history. When Shaq was at his peak he may have been the most dominant player in the NBA since Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell.
4. Two Words: Hank Steinbrenner
5. And the newest addition to the list, not putting Bill Walsh in the top five of the greatest coaches in NFL history. I know Chad only mentioned this in passing in yesterdays post, but I’m not entirely sure he put Walsh behind Mike (Can’t manage the clock in a pressure situation to save his life) Holmgren just to incite a deep rage inside of me for future comic fodder.

Let’s get one thing straight here… Bill Walsh is the father of the modern day game and also led the 80’s 49ers (one of the greatest teams in NFL history, in my mind only surpassed by Noll’s Steelers and the 90’s Cowboys) to three Super Bowls and who’s philosophy led them to two additional titles. Not to mention the coaches who were either assistant coaches under Walsh or assistant coaches under the original Walsh disciples.

Joe Gibbs was a great coach for his time, but it was clear that he was not cut out to take a team from this era to a championship, and while his three Super Bowl wins were impressive, his legacy is not even close to the legacy that Bill Walsh has left on this game. The West Coast offense has become so infused with the passing game in the NFL that you will not find a team in the league that does not incorporate it in one way or another. It also rendered many defenses obsolete and made defensive coordinators create defenses that rely more on speed and zone reads than ever before.

It’s tough to argue about guys like Lambeau, Halas, Lombardi and Noll, as they were the forefathers of NFL coaching. However, when it comes to the modern game 1980-Present you’d be hard-pressed to find a coach who has had as much of an affect on the game as Walsh. In the future I’m sure Bill Belichick will be on that list so I have no qualms of putting him in the conversation of the top five. If I would had to make a top 5 for NFL coaches it would be: Lambeau, Lombardi, Halas, Noll, and Walsh. I think history will prove that these were not only some of the most prolific winners of all time, but they also left the game with the greatest legacies. (See me in ten years about Belichick, that kid is going places.)

If anything this post will show you what happens when Chad says something that sets me off, and Chad’s next post will probably show you what happens when I question Chad’s logic.

Enjoy

-JJ