Jason McIntyre

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THeBigLead

How’s this for product placement: Times Square, the NFL and the Hustler Club. Fitting. Below are our division picks in order of how everyone will finish. And yes, we have Peter King’s NFC Super Bowl representative not reaching the playoffs.

 

NFC East: Dallas, Philadelphia, NY Giants, Washington
NFC North: Minnesota, Green Bay, Chicago, Detroit
NFC South: New Orleans, Carolina, Atlanta, Tampa Bay
NFC West: Arizona, Seattle, San Francisco, St. Louis
NFC Playoff teams: Minnesota, New Orleans, Dallas, Arizona, Philadelphia, Green Bay.

 

AFC East: New England, Miami, NY Jets, Buffalo
AFC North: Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Cleveland, Cincinnati
AFC South: Indianapolis, Houston, Tennessee, Jacksonville
AFC West: San Diego, Kansas City, Oakland, Denver
AFC Playoff teams: San Diego, New England, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Baltimore, Houston.

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all awards are subjective. fwiw, my AL MVP ballot: Jeter, Mauer, Tex, Youk, Cabrera (ducks)

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The Big LEad

At any rate, we’re Favre’d out for now, so we’ll close with our fantasy QB rankings now that Favre will be on the minds of any drafting this week:
1. Brees
2. Brady
3. Manning
4. Warner
5. Rodgers
6. Rivers
7. Romo
8. McNabb
9. Schaub
10. Hasselbeck
11. Cassel
12. Favre
13. Palmer
14. Roethlisberger
15. Cutler

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The Big Lead

Since we spent most of Sunday on a beach and missed the gentleman’s final at Wimbledon, the best we can offer you on the greatest tennis player of all-time (it’s official now, if it wasn’t after he won the French Open) is a smattering of glowing - and one negative! - commentary about Roger Federer: (Also, for those of you clinging to the idea that Tiger’s better at golf that Roger is at tennis, Federer’s career record is 182-26. In the last five years, he’s an astonishing 121-8. There no longer is an argument for Tiger > Federer.)

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Undeniable Locks in the Top 10: Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird. In NBA history, those might as well be the Big 5.

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The Big Lead

Undeniable Locks in the Top 10: Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird. In NBA history, those might as well be the Big 5.

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The Big Lead

Q: Being the resident tennis expert, surely you can answer this one: Is Federer’s reign over? It’s Nadal’s time, right? And you’ve probably been dragged into the no-win debate about Federer vs. Tiger at least 400 times, but indulge us. Assuming a “tie” is not suitable, who’s been more dominant in their respective sport? It’s got to be Federer and his 11 slams (out of 16) in four years, right?

 

No question it’s Federer. (And a tie is never suitable.) I always say that if Federer had grown up in, say, Omaha, gone to Stanford, endorsed Buick (insert joke here), and played 20 events in the U.S. each year instead of four, he’d be a national sports hero, right up there in the Tiger, Jordan, Ali suite. Instead he remains this Swiss oddity, who flits across the sports consciousness every now and then. We could debate Federer-Tiger until last call, but consider this: Federer has currently reached at least the semifinals of eighteen—eighteen!—straight Major tournaments. Tiger’s equivalent streak of consecutive “top four” finishes at Majors? Four.

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The Big Lead

Following a bewildering series defeat at the hands of the Orlando Magic, it has become painfully clear that to attain these goals, LeBron James must test the free agent market next summer. Whereas there was a glimmer a hope that a title this year would have kept him in Cleveland for the long haul, a second straight ouster in the Eastern Conference semis - following a trip to the Finals in 2007 - confirms that with no help, LeBron will end up in another city in 2010, likely New York.

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skeptical, but not wholly opposed to the idea...

TheBigLead

If the NFL wants to eventually move the game to London once a decade, the first step should be to recruit some premiere athletes from across the pond. And not just kickers. (Osi doesn’t count; he went to high school in Alabama and never had a chance to make a name for himself as an athlete in London.) Problem is, football’s a much more complicated sport to grasp than the NBA, NHL, soccer or MLB; how many elite NFL players picked up the sport for the first time at 17 or 18?

 

NFL scouts should spend a year combing the youth Futbol and Rugby leagues throughout London and report back to Goodell on their interest in football. Get the players first, let them enjoy a modcium of success, stir interest in jolly ol England, then talk about moving the game.

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TheBigLead

We’ve flip-flopped on this issue a few times over the years, but we’re starting to feel stronger and stronger about the idea of having a 2-year college minimum and/or bumping the age minimum to 20. Raise your hand if you’d like to see John Wall become a lottery pick in June, wallow on an NBA bench for 2-3 years, and only have him emerge as the talent we all thought he’d be by the age of 25?

Opinion Source Information:

TheBigLead

We’ve flip-flopped on this issue a few times over the years, but we’re starting to feel stronger and stronger about the idea of having a 2-year college minimum and/or bumping the age minimum to 20. Raise your hand if you’d like to see John Wall become a lottery pick in June, wallow on an NBA bench for 2-3 years, and only have him emerge as the talent we all thought he’d be by the age of 25?