By Dan O’Shea

At least three rookie QBs got significant playing time in Week 3, and none of them was named Johnny Football.
Derek Carr started for Oakland, as he has done all season (not that anyone cared because . . . Oakland), but we also got to see Teddy Bridgewater, MIN, and Blake Bortles, JAC, in the pocket when starting QBs for their teams went down with injury.
Nobody ever wants to start a rookie QB on their fantasy teams (the most recent exception being Cam Newton, Version 2011). Even their good outings are usually marred with mistakes that in the real world we chalk up to part of the learning process, but in the fantasy world we call 5.5 points, thanks to three INTs and a lost fumble.
That said, with six teams on bye in Week 4, and Carr, Bridgewater and Bortles all slated to start, a lot of fantasy teams will be starting rookie QBs this week. So, who has the edge? Or. at least, who is likely to make the fewest mistakes?

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Posted on September 24, 2014

By Jim Coffman

In less than 10 days, the Bears have gone from “was 8-8 too optimistic?” to “beat the Packers and establish yourselves as a leading team in the conference.”
How did that happen?
Well, one big answer is that the coach, and the quarterback, remained steadfast.

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Posted on September 23, 2014

By Steve Rhodes

What was your favorite part of the Cubs’ season-long celebration of Wrigley Field’s 100th birthday?
I know the Ricketts’ favorite part: The end, when they begin putting the final nail in the coffin of the only untraded long-term asset that kept this franchise not only viable, but in tall cotton at the bank for decades.
Here are some of mine:
* Theo’s 100th flipped player.
* The team’s 100th version of its renovation.
* The 100th rerun of the Undercover Boss episode where Todd Ricketts throws away a bunch of hot dogs – on camera – and then lies to his boss (actually, his employee) about it by pretending he sold them.

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Posted on September 22, 2014

By Roger Wallenstein

The hiring of managers can be lumped together with closers, set-up men, five- and six-man rotations, and defensive shifts when it comes to ways in which the game of baseball has changed the past few decades. Robin Ventura is a prime example.
Ventura is just one of a number of skippers – St. Louis’s Mike Matheny, Colorado’s Walt Weis, Detroit’s Brad Ausmus, Cincinnati’s Bryan Price are in the club – who had zero managerial experience prior to being hired to lead their respective teams.
Robin never was so much as a minor league coach before following Ozzie Guillen for the 2012 season. Same with Ausmus, who had been considered for managerial jobs with the Red Sox, Marlins and Astros before being hired to succeed Jim Leyland. Ausmus at least had the auspicious, sought-after position of managing the Israeli national team in the 2013 World Baseball Classic.

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Posted on September 22, 2014

By Mike Luce

1. Florida State.
Beat #24 Clemson 23-17 (OT).
Florida State pulled out a win without star quarterback Jameis Winston. The sophomore served a one-game suspension after reportedly screaming obscenities in the quad. The game gave Winston time to research the next hot internet trend and, presumably, reflect. Or whatever.
(As a further result, Winston is also being accused of ruining a perfectly good (NSFW) internet meme. Winston, along with these Florida State fans, apparently didn’t know that the meme itself was based on an elaborate hoax.)

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Posted on September 22, 2014

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

In Tresty We Trusty. Plus: Brandon Marshall And Gloria Allred Grind Coach Coffman’s Gears, No Tears For Lovie, and California Uber Alles! Cubs And White Sox Under Alles.

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Posted on September 19, 2014

By Thomas Chambers

A calendar year in horse racing can be divided into four quarters:
– Two-year-olds, who may have gotten a taste of the bigs in their limited rookie seasons swing into the Spring shakeout and jump onto the Triple Crown trail. Or not.
– Several survivors go to the Kentucky Derby, and perhaps the Preakness and/or Belmont after that. If “selfie” can make it to Webster’s Dictionary, so can “elusive Triple Crown.”
– The Summer season, where the green and gawky three-year-olds and the experienced horses at four come into their respective own, sometimes crossing paths.
– The Fall season, where trainers look to get their charges ready for the big wrap party, the Breeders’ Cup Championships (Oct. 31 – Nov. 1, Santa Anita Park), where it’s the most serious kind of racing, no goofin’.
The concept isn’t mine. We retain the four-quarters paradigm from the shrewd battlefield tactician Lovie Smith, who was capable of, like Chuck Norris, taking it more than one game at a time.

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Posted on September 19, 2014

By Carl Mohrbacher

The San Francisco Feat
Well golly-gee, we have ourselves a winner!
It came at the expense of Jay Cutler’s sternum, Chris Conte’s shoulder, Jeremiah Ratliff’s brain and Charles Tillman’s career, but a win nonetheless.
Or nonethemore. Whatever you call it when you lose three starters on defense for some amount of time/forever and your quarterback nearly has a pizza-sized hole punched in his chest.
That said, the value of this victory simply can’t be understated; this was a season-saving win for the Chicago Bears and a wildly entertaining 32 minutes of football.

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Posted on September 18, 2014

By Dan O’Shea

I’m beginning to think that there are so many criminals, degenerates and questionable characters in the NFL that perhaps teams should just go with the flow and start drafting guys who are already in prison. All the games could be played within the confines of various “yards,” and at the end of the games, we could all rest assured for another week that pro football stars wouldn’t be running around among the rest of us committing their crimes.
As it is, however, we seem to be getting fresh news every week of another player who has gotten himself into trouble, and will miss games, and in general become a major distraction. For fantasy football gamers, trying to predict who will have a breakout year and who will stay healthy is no longer enough – we need to start studying police reports and rap sheets, too. Our Week 2 review discusses the latest troublemaker, and more:

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Posted on September 16, 2014

By Mike Luce

What did we learn in Week Three? We like to think that, for those who pay attention, some less-than-obvious teams and players surfaced.
1. The Pittsburgh Panthers (3-0, 1-0 ACC).
Pitt leads the ACC Coastal division with one conference win (over Boston College in Week Two) and an overall 3-0 record including a 42-25 foregone conclusion victory over Florida International on Saturday. With games ahead at home against Iowa and Virginia Tech, and on the road at North Carolina and Miami, the Panthers look like a contender to reach the conference championship game.

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Posted on September 15, 2014