Posted in On the DL Podcast
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10/1 2010

DL446: Jerod Morris of Midwest Sports Fans Talks Football, Fantasy, $55k Dinners & The Ibanez Effect

Posted by Dan Levy.

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Jerod Morris of Midwest Sports Fans is in our fantasy league. He picked fourth, just after me and two after Will Brinson. Morris has Adrian Peterson and suddenly with MJD and Ray Rice, respectively, Brinson and I are both 0-3 and kicking ourselves at the moment and conspiring to create a super Team Gillette out of our two terrible teams.

This show is different than most of our shows. Since Morris and I are facing each other in the Blogger Fantasy League, sponsored by P&G, we both asked the other person to be on our Friday show this week. Morris hosts a Friday Football podcast at MSF that you really should check out…and not just because I’m on it. Well, that’s mostly why.

Actually, we decided to give my listeners a little behind-the-scenes of look at the show as we taped the segment for HIS show during MY show. After going through a little explanation of what they’ve been working on at MSF and a quick breakdown of how badly I need to beat him this week in the BFL, I hand the show over to Morris.

He wanted to talk about the Eagles and Redskins, so we spend a good amount of the time discussing the Michael Vick/Kevin Kolb situation that’s unfolded over the first month of the season before getting into an in-depth conversation about Donovan McNabb, the trade, the fallout and what’s going to happen this weekend. We both think the “will he get booed” story is completely overblown and agree that he won’t, but for a loud group of 100 or so idiots, assuredly egged on by one of the local sportstalk hosts trying to stir the pot for his own publicity and ratings.

The real question is — nay, should be — can the Redskins win and will McNabb play well? I don’t think they’ll win, and I think McNabb could play well, but if anyone knows his tendencies, it’s the coaching staff he’s facing this week. Morris dropped some knowledge that starting QBs going back to their old homes have a remarkable record in those games. It will be interesting to see if that trend continues, or if the Eagles get the better of McNabb.

After the MSF segment, we turn it back to other topics for our show. First, Morris lives in Dallas, so we talk about the Dez Bryant dinner that reported cost $55,000 and wonder if people have gotten a wee bit hypersensitive when it comes to athletes spending money, especially within the context of “the economy.”

Look, athletes are not going to start being frugal because some of us don’t have jobs. Could older players get upset that the Cowboys ran up a bill for that much money when they could have been more productive by giving a donation to the retired players pension fund? Certainly. But for the average fan to complain about how an athlete spends his money? It’s ludicrous. It’s our fault they have that much money…we don’t get to decide how they use it. And seriously, who really cares if Dez Bryant is broke in ten years or gets hurt in a year and never makes the millions he anticipates. We are NFL fans, not Charles Schwab.

Back to the interview…Morris and I talk about “The Ibanez Effect.” You surely recall the fallout last year when a blogger “accused” Raul Ibanez of being on steroids. Well, you should also recall that it was Morris who wrote that article, and Morris who was subsequently reprimanded by Ken Rosenthal on Outside the Lines. The article did not actually accuse Ibanez of anything but merely brought up the idea that a guy having a season like he did in the start of 2009 will always have that speculation swirling around him. That didn’t exactly translate well.

So, a year and a half later, how has that changed his profile in the blog community, and how did his experience change the way people speculate about steroids? What does he think about other writers using the “he’s on steroids” angle now…primarily because they know it will get them the attention Morris wasn’t intending for himself?

We also briefly touch on Morris’ multimedia endeavors with Midwest Sports Fans and how he’s using audio, video and writing to grow the site.

Thanks for listening. Let’s hope I kick the crap out of his team this week.

(Legal Junk: “The P&G Blogger Fantasy League (BFL) is a group of 12 digital sports influencers competing on the NFL.com fantasy platform for the chance to win P&G product, a donation to a local charity, and a trip to Super Bowl XLV, all furnished by P&G. The NFL Entities have not offered or sponsored the sweepstakes in any way.”)

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Posted on October 1, 2010 at 9:27AM

 

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