With God as my witness, I have a confession to make.  Regarding the atrocities committed at Penn State, the subsequent cover up, and the aftermath, I am guilty.  Maybe not to the extent that Joe Paterno, the athletic department administrators, and Jerry Sandusky are guilty, but I have blood on my hands.  I didn’t fully grasp my own complicity in the crimes until I returned for a football game this Fall.  There, amid the pomp and the pageantry, my mind kept drifting back in time, and the guilt began gnawing at me like a rat’s tooth on bone.

Remember when the days were long,

And rolled beneath the deep blue sky.

We didn’t have a care in the world,

With mommy and daddy standing by.

                                                                Don Henley

I entered Penn State in the Autumn of 1986, the year Keep Reading…

It’s up, over at Rotoworld.

The 2012 draft class had some solid, intriguing pass rush prospects, but overall it was considered a weak year – especially compared to a 2011 class that featured Von Miller, Aldon Smith, and Ryan Kerrigan.  This year is a different story, however.  We’re looking at two of my personal favorites this week, but I can’t stress how much edge rushing talent this draft class will likely end up having.  If your favorite team misses out on one of these two guys it’ll hurt, don’t stress too much….unless they go to a division rival.  Then you should worry.

Link to the rest of the article.

In this post, I wanted to take a break from analyzing players in their rookie season. I wasn’t really sure exactly where I wanted to go with this article, so I just spent much of my “film time” this week going through all the games, and seeing what stood out to me. On this week, and well, almost every week, it was the Seattle Seahawks defense. Now, we’ve all had it forced down our throats recently just how good this unit is. The praise is well deserved. I’m not going to be talking about the recently made popular “Legion of Boom” defensive backfield of Kam Chancellor, Earl Thomas, Brandon Browner, and Richard Sherman like you may be expecting. I’m not even going to feed you more on how big of a Bruce Irvin fan I am.

What I do want to do is give recognition to DT Brandon Mebane. I’m not sure Keep Reading…

A Civil War Between Aaron Mellette & Demetrius McCray

Click Here For Video Of The Match-up

On a crisp late autumn afternoon, in a scene much like the ones played out a century and a half before, on battlefields throughout the North and South, two armies emerged from tunnels at opposite ends of Rhodes Stadium for a Southern Conference showdown.  The November 19, 2011 matchup of Appalachian State versus Elon University was not only a rivalry game between two North Carolina schools, just 130 miles apart, tucked tightly into what had been the cradle of the Civil War, but also an epic battle between two of the FCS’s finest players, Elon wide receiver, Aaron Mellette, and Appalachian State cornerback, Demetrius McCray.

It was a war waged on the Carolina plain all afternoon, in a series of small skirmishes and bigger battles, with McCray matched up Keep Reading…

It’s up, over at Rotoworld Draft:

E.J. Manuel‘s career up to this point has been marked with inconsistency – a guy whose size, athleticism, and arm make you drool over the possibilities, but possessed too many holes in his game to overlook or bet on him at Party Casino. His biggest flaw (holding the ball too long) has been a notable career killer for many an NFL quarterback. Holding the ball too long can be a symptom of many factors, but the root of the problem almost always goes back to the quarterback being unsure and uncomfortable with the defensive coverage and how it affects his progressions. Further, Manuel would exacerbate this problem by “shrinking” in the pocket (squaring up to the line of scrimmage and crouching, entering a running stance) and trying to improvise – often leading to self-induced pressures and sacks. Even when not pressuring himself, his movement Keep Reading…