Going Stagg

NFL season predictions

Today marks the start of the NFL season, so I figure it’s time for some solid predictions. I want to note that these aren’t supposed to be funny-ha-ha or specifically designed to elicit a response. These are truly what I believe will happen in the upcoming season.

Ten (Not so/Maybe) Bold Predictions

If you’re feeling up to it, make this a truth or lies: In the comments section, number these statements and put whether it’s truth or lies and a quick reason why.

1. Peyton Manning and Tom Brady will start every game of the regular season.
2. Brett Favre will win 10 games with the New York Jets.
3. The Houston Texans will not make the playoffs.
4. Mario Williams will have more than 15 sacks.
5. The Cleveland Browns will win less than 10 games this season.
6. Jacksonville beats New England in the AFC Championship game to go to the Super Bowl.
7. LaDainian Tomlinson will take back the number one fantasy football player spot from Tom Brady or Randy Moss.
8. The AFC South will be the hardest division in football. The NFC East is second.
9. Vince Young will for the first time in his career throw more TDs than INTs.
10. T.J. Houshmandzadeh is the new man in town: He’ll catch more TDs than Chad Ocho Cinco this year.

Divisional Standings Predictions

The division standings come playoff time (follow the link to see my full ‘08-’09 NFL standings predictions):

AFC South

1. Jacksonville Jaguars
2. Indianapolis Colts
3. Houston Texans
4. Tennessee Titans

Continue reading NFL season predictions…

Most interesting college football jersey so far: Colorado Buffaloes

There had been rumors that Colorado was coming strong this season with a fairly innovative jersey. Crazy jerseys have been done before in the NCAA (usually by Oregon), but Colorado usually runs a fairly typical route.

But when my brother and I were watching the game last night, we took immediate notice of something that looked like road tread on the shoulders. I thought it was just a black-on-black type treatment with one of the blacks not being registration black (meaning one would be a little lighter than the other). But as it turns out, the lighter color is caused by little white raised resin balls close together in a shape.

I don’t think I like it. What I do like is the suggestion my brother gave: Maybe they’re there so the players can grab at their shoulders and get their hands a little stickier to better catch or handle the ball. Is that true? I don’t know. I feel like it may be illegal. But if it IS true, I’m going to go ahead and say that’s a pretty good move. It makes it less aesthetic and more pragmatic.

P.S.— I have to go on record as saying that although the popular opinion is to hate Oregon uniforms (and especially their black-on-black stuff), I love it.

Welcome to college football! GO COCKS!

I don’t usually use all caps or exclamation marks in my headers (I’m not really a cheerleader kind of guy), but today definitely warrants it. The South Carolina Gamecocks open the college football season tonight on ESPN against NC State. (That picture is starting QB Tommy Beecher. Because I’m not in South Carolina I don’t get to see much Gamecock practice I don’t know how well he’s doing, but as long as his last name isn’t Smelley or Mitchell, it’s a good thing.)

Just hearing those words make me ridiculously excited. Welcome to no longer having a Saturday—I’m posting up on the couch from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. to catch all the games. But in honor of the Gamecocks’ game tonight, it’s prediction time.

Tonight’s Game

• Line: -14.5, South Carolina, O/U at 45
• Tough line. It’s dead on. I think it’s going to be close. NC State has beaten South Carolina 4 out of the last 5 times they’ve played. I say we step it up, though. I take Carolina at -14.5 and the over.

Two fantasy football drafts in the books

This week was outstanding. Two out of three fantasy drafts completed, and I think I’m doing alright. In honor of Adam Kaye’s request (even though Baylor still sucks at Div-I anything), I’m posting the results.

Get Money Crew—League “High School Brewsical”

Obviously I had the first pick so I was constantly picking back-to-back—the best position to be in. Don’t like Maroney, but he’s still a number one available that late so I had to take him as my second back. Owen Daniels is the man. I know the Texans use him a lot. I’m just hoping the risks of Big Ben and Santonio pan out.

POS: Name (Round-Pick Overall)

• QB: Ben Roethlisberger (2-24)
• WR: Marques Colston (3-25)
• WR: Santonio Holmes (4-48)
• RB: LaDainian Tomlinson (1-1)
• RB: Laurence Maroney (5-49)
• TE: Owen Daniels (6-72)
• W/T: Chris Chambers (7-73)
• K: Nate Kaeding (10-120)
• DEF: New England (9-97)
• BEN: Matt Schaub (8-96)
• BEN: Rudi Johnson (11-121)
• BEN: Isaac Bruce (12-144)
• BEN: DeSean Jackson (13-145)

Get Money Crew—League “Elbows Deep”

A pretty much completely different team than my other league, which I usually try to avoid. I should have taken a wide receiver way earlier than I did, and that could be my downfall here. Obviously, I love DeSean Jackson. I think he’s going to get some serious playing time. I hope he blows up so I can play him over iffy Roddy White.

POS: Name (Round-Pick Overall)

• QB: Ben Roethlisberger (4-45)
• WR: T.J. Houshmandzadeh (3-28)
• WR: Roddy White (6-62)
• RB: Joseph Addai (1-4)
• RB: Ryan Grant (2-21)
• TE: Owen Daniels (7-76)
• K: Mason Crosby (11-124)
• DEF: New York (10-117)
• BEN: Matt Hasselbeck (5-52)
• BEN: Donald Driver (8-93)
• BEN: DeAngelo Williams (9-100)
• BEN: Anthony Gonzalez (12-141)
• BEN: DeSean Jackson (13-148)

Fantasy Football Rankings 2008

Most would consider this bad practice, you know, possibly letting other people in your league know who you’re thinking about taking before the draft. I’m not scared of them.

Quarterbacks

1. Tom Brady
2. Peyton Manning
3. Tony Romo *shudder*
4. Carson Palmer
5. Drew Brees
6. Ben Roethlisberger
7. Eli Manning
8. Brett Favre
9. Donovan McNabb
10. Matt Schaub

Running Backs

1. LaDainian Tomlinson
2. Adrian Peterson
3. Marion Barber
4. Frank Gore
5. Brian Westbrook
6. Joseph Addai
7. Steven Jackson
8. Clinton Portis
9. Marshawn Lynch
10. Ryan Grant

Wide Receivers

1. Randy Moss
2. Terrell Owens
3. Andre Johnson
4. Reggie Wayne
5. Braylon Edwards
6. Marques Colston
7. Plaxico Burress
8. T.J. Houshmandzadeh
9. Torry Holt
10. Larry Fitzgerald

Don’t mess with Texans

I try real hard not to curse in my blog posts, but I don’t know whose jackass idea it was to create this piece of crap:

I know it’s hard to tell, but that’s the Houston Texans secondary logo. That stupid thing is creeping all throughout the organization like a cancer. They started giving it out over the summer to season ticket holders on t-shirts. And now it’s made it all the way to the banner of the Houston Texans home page. This is abysmal.

First of all, my biggest complaint is the ridiculous way Texas is shaped. It’s like a some got the creative idea to make the gulf coast curve to line up with the curve of the top right of the ‘T’. Oooohhh that would be so creative. You know what it really is? Dumb. Texas is TEXAS and you don’t mess with it. The state is the state and you don’t not cartoonerize it (that’s right—cartoonerize) to make it look like Under Armour is branding our team. It looks like a third grade teacher asked their kids to draw the state from memory with a crayon.

Secondly, the Mexican border looks exactly like that: Like the state of Texas ate a ton of Mexican food and got bloated and had to lie down. Poor El Paso is losing real estate like whoa over there in West Texas.

I don’t know whose bright idea it was to go ahead and start marketing this secondary logo to everyone, but I BEG YOU TO STOP. It’s horrid. The sad thing is that the main logo is AWESOME:

If the team EVER decides that secondary logo needs to be on the uniform, I’m writing a handwritten letter.

P.S.—And this is the greatest P.S. I’ll ever get to write, literally as I was writing this post, I heard the greatest news I’ve ever heard and literally laughed for over a minute. I’ve always always always loved Chad Johnson, but this takes the cake: He has already started taking steps to legally changing his last name to Ocho Cinco so he can wear his Ocho Cinco jersey without getting fined by the NFL. God bless Chad Johnson.

Michael Phelps does it, why can’t I?

12,000 calories. That’s ridiculous. It’s how many Michael Phelps has to eat in a day. Check out his body in that picture. If I told someone I was on a 12,000 calorie diet (that did not include alcohol), they’d literally think I was crazy. I suppose when you’re swimming 50 miles a day, you’re going to have to have something in your body to burn. Here’s his opinion on diets:

Continue reading Michael Phelps does it, why can’t I?…

Go out to eat and help end hunger in Houston at the same time

Normally, I’m not a big “go out to eater” or even a big contributor to charity. (I know, I know. It’s not that I don’t want to, I’m just a little hesitant on a lot of the organizations.) Either way, here’s a real easy way to help out: Houston Restaurant Week starts today and lasts through Saturday.

It’s a pretty good deal, actually. Pay $35 per person, get a three course meal, and the participating restaurant will donate $5 to Houston’s End Hunger Network. Done deal. Nehxt. Most of the restaurants that are participating are actually pretty nice, too. For example:

• Amerigo’s
• Bistro Moderne
• Brenner’s
• La Strada

…and the list goes on. And if you’re feeling really generous, reserve a table using Open Table (the option is available on the main Houston Restaurant Week site in the menus section) and there’s the option to give even more.

So check out the menus and find out which place is serving the food you like best and hit it up. You can eat, pay cheap prices, and donate to a good cause all at the same time.

Rice University students created an awesome, sustainable house

I’ve always loved architecture and for the longest time wanted to BE an architect. I loved physics, and the ultimate combination of physics and design is building a building! (Yes, and airplanes and a number of other things, but these are my rankings.)

Anyway, since I worked and taught at Rice, I was totally excited to see that some students made it on to NOTCOT, one of the awesomest blogs on the Internet. But it also happens that what they did was really cool. They managed to create a sweet, minimalist-style house for only 25 Gs.

Rice students and faculty designed and built a dwelling of modest size (500-square feet) with a small projected budget ($25,000.00) while implementing innovative design and construction techniques.

Our project, set in a neighborhood in need of affordable housing, is a modern interpretation of the shotgun-style structures that are disappearing from the area and serves as a prototype for use in various Houston communities.

How cool is that! Make sure to head on over to the site and check out the link.

via NOTCOT

Don’t worry—it’s not the end of an era yet

I love mustaches. I’m pretty sure most guys have an obsession with their facial hair. Most girls are like, “Why do you willingly make yourself ugly?” This is a common phrase from my sister. It’s a good thing my brother has a ridiculous full beard.

Anyway, there are some pretty famous mustaches out there, but one of the more recent ones that became a staple almost immediately was the mustache that Jason Giambi grew. It was perfect and looked like he combed it 100 times a day, all Ron Burgundy style.

Well, much to my chagrin, I had the displeasure of catching him on TV tonight and lo and behold—NO STACHE. It was terrible. I was distraught. I had to look it up. And the greatest thing happened.

It’s coming back:

He was taken out of the game in the eighth inning Sunday for defensive purposes, and when the Yankees fell behind 9-8, Giambi decided to shave.

“I shaved it as soon as I came out of the game,” Giambi said. “We were losing when they hit that grand slam and then we came back and won.”

Giambi said he’s already growing a new mustache.

“In about a week, it will be back. It goes hand and hand with winning,” Giambi said. “I would have kept it if we were winning that game.”

Thank God. It’s seriously one of the only redeeming things about the Yankees. That, and the fact that they might actually be MORE likable than the Red Sox this year.

Oh, and P.S.—If you’re looking for my favorite mustache of all-time, look no further.