Ray Rice, Matt Ryan In New Gillette Young Guns Campaign That’s “As Smooth As A Whistle”

The perks of being part of Team Gillette…here’s some EXCLUSIVE (!!!) behind-the-scenes video of Ray Rice and Matt Ryan in the new Gillette Young Guns ad campaign that drops during Wild Card Weekend. Want to hear Ray Rice hum the Rocky theme and tell a fake press conference audience that his face is “smooth as a whistle?” Well, now you can.

Oh, the release:

MATT RYAN, RAY RICE, EVAN LONGORIA, CARLOS GONZALEZ, DENNY HAMLIN, KYLE BUSCH NAMED TO 2011 CLASS OF GILLETTE YOUNG GUNS

Gillette Young Guns Adds Professional Football and Baseball Players to North America Roster BOSTON, December 31, 2010 — Gillette [PG] today announced the launch of its expanded Gillette Young Guns program by unveiling the 2011 roster of six rising stars in their respective sports: Matt Ryan and Ray Rice from football, Evan Longoria and Carlos González from baseball and Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch from auto racing.

Gillette Young Guns is a sports marketing platform connecting Gillette’s full line of grooming products with avid sports fans in North America. The program highlights up-and-coming stars andREAD MORE

Listen To Me Talk To Zerkle About Podcast Roots & Beg Him To Take Me To The Super Bowl

I was on a very special episode of The House of Punte this week, talking with Josh Zerkle, et al about the distant beginnings of our show and why in the hell I’m still doing it after almost 500 shows with no real money coming in. Josh really knows how to make a girl feel special.

Anyway, we talked about that, the party this weekend — oh, WE ARE HAVING A PARTY THIS WEEKEND IF YOU HADN’T HEARD AND IT’S SPONSORED BY CAPTAIN MORGAN AND BULLEIT BOURBON — and, for a minute or three, I beg him to take me to Dallas with him should he win the Blogger Fantasy League.

See, Zerkle’s team sucks. In a 12 team league, Zerkle’s DayQuil Fighter of the NyQuil finished 8-6, despite having the SECOND fewest points in the entire league. Look at this graphic where Matt Sebek of Joe Sports Fan decided to make fun of me, despite the fact that he scored fewer points than I did, lost to my team, and just happened to get one more win.READ MORE

Fantasy Integrity: What To Do When Your Season Is Over Before The Playoffs?

I am in three fantasy leagues this year. In my old friends league that’s a keeper league, I’m in first place heading into the playoffs (I have a bye as 6 of 12 make the playoffs).

In my second league, a non-keeper league with some show people, soccer teammates and random dudes a friend knows, I just eeked into the playoffs with a middle-of-the-pack squad. For what it’s worth, Nick is crushing everyone in that league, earning the top seed and a first round bye.

In my third and potentially most important league, I’m in last place in the BFL, sponsored by P&G. I’m on Team Gillette (seriously they have some awesome products and I totally might shave off the beard I had for, what, seven years just so I can use the phrase “Gillette is turning shaving into gliding” in a sentence and have the smooth-as-my-baby-son’s-ass face to back up that claim). I’m 3-10 with one more week to go in the regular season before a four-team playoff takes place to send one winning owner toREAD MORE

Fantasy Dilemma: When Should You Help A Contender Win?

I have a fantasy dilemma. I’m in the Blogger Fantasy League sponsored by P&G. You may have heard of it. Anyway, I’m on Team Gillette, who are like the nicest corporate folks on the planet, and my team absolutely stinks. I’ve totally let down the brand. I’m as bad as bad can be. Last week, I lost to Josh Zerkle’s team by around 50 points. (Read Jerod Morris’ recap from last week).

It’s that bad.

Now, what do I do the next few weeks? Do I try my darndest to play spoiler, or should I firesale my good players and help someone else make the playoffs? Do I pull the trigger on the fantasy football equivalent of an organ donation? My season is, after all, a train wreck.

I was faced with this dilemma last week when Aaron Schatz of Football Outsiders asked me to trade him Roddy White and one of my crappy quarterbacks for Big Ben and two of his crappier receivers. I thought about it for a day or two before I declined the deal. IREAD MORE

DL473: Steinberg On McNabb, Shanahan, Feinstein & Brinson On NFL, Rivers and Cam Newton

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Two shows in one! Dan Steinberg and Will Brinson on today’s show. It’s a bloggin’ good time.

First, who wants to listen to two Jews in their 30s talk about racism in the NFL? You do? Fantastic!

Steinberg and I talk about the Donovan McNabb and Mike Shanahan situation that has gotten way bigger than Shanahan ever could have imagined. Is there racism involved? Is “the race card” (I hate that term) being played here as a crutch or is there more to the situation and Shanahan’s comments just struck a nerve with people in DC? And why, seriously, does this happen all the time with McNabb? Is it because he’s the best black quarterback in the game right now? Is it because people want — expect — him to be better than he actually is? And when will we realize that constantly bringing up the racial divide in situations where it (likely) wasn’t intended does more to widen it than close it?

Two Jews talking NFL and racism.

We also touch on JohnREAD MORE

I Might Be Going To The Superbowl Yet, Baby

Brian Bassett, my fantasy opponent in the Blogger Fantasy League, sponsored by P&G, had the official recap this week. Go read it after you’re done reading this. But I’ll give you the best part for free:

AFC BEAST

Ray Rice – After not being able to crest the 100 yard rushing mark, or break the plane so far this season, he did both in one game, accumulating 2 TDs and 159 yards from scrimmage.  Also, Rice powered famed Rutgers apologist Dan Levy of Press Coverage to a brutal evisceration of Team What Would Revis Do. Sigh

Sigh. You see that! HE SIGH’D. Because of me. Because of Ray Rice. Because of our all-of-the-sudden fantasy juggernaut, scoring the third-most points in the league. Because we won.

We’re back, baby. Well, not back as much as here, considering our resounding victory over Bassett’s What Would Revis Do team was our first victory of the season. So, yeah, not back at all. But here. We’re here, and we’re resounding. How resounding?

How about 7.28 points of resounding. Yep, not just seven points. Seven-point-two-eight, baby.

IREAD MORE

DL451: Brian Bassett of The Jets Blog on The BFL, LT, Jets Overexposure & A Former Jet’s…Overexposure

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Brian Bassett of The Jets Blog is my opponent this week in the Blogger Fantasy League, sponsored by P&G. I’m about one week away (and one loss away) from entering the fantasy football witness protection program. Seriously, if this were a league with just friends, without a sponsor and a trip to the Super Bowl, I’d erase the league homepage from my bookmarks and move on.

That’s how bad my team is.

Bassett and I start with a little baseball, as I ask about the Jets in the framework of the Yankees. Does he tailor his coverage of the team with the Yankees in mind (i.e. will he try not to post something he wants eyeballs on during one of the playoff games? In a word: no. I ask because many baseball bloggers have told me that on big football weekends (opening day, playoffs, etc) they see a visible dip in traffic and often take that into account when posting. The same can be said for NBA writers during the first weekend ofREAD MORE

On Vick, Kolb, Reid, Karma & Fantasy Football

I believe in Karma.

It’s a little more complex than simply ‘do good things and good things happen’ (or the converse ‘do bad things and bad things will happen’), but the general principle of being responsible for one’s actions is an important part of everyday life. More than seeking reward for being good, it’s the potential — and propensity — for Karmic retribution that should govern our decisions; do not transgress and you won’t have to pay.

The problem, of course, with believing in Karma is that not everyone else does. Karma — or whatever I’m call Karma — is more a guideline to try and be a positive part of society, and a good influence in every day life. So how can you justify watching people do terrible things — or even moderately bad things — and end up getting rewarded for it? Does Karma tell us that they’ll end up with stomach cancer later in life or that they’ll get hit by a bus or something? Does Karma tell me that I’m going to wakeREAD MORE

When Rooting For Fantasy Kinda Gets In The Way of Reality

This was the year I decided I was really going to jump in with both feet and root for the hometown Iggles. Now, I’m finding it hard to root for Michael Vick.

See, I grew up a Broncos fan and, over the years, became disenfranchised disenchanted (ed note: had franchise on the brain) with the organization. Besides, it’s not like they  need me with all the Tebow bandwagoneers anyway. Alas, I found myself following the Eagles for years, but never brought myself to root for them. I suppose, in a way, I was like a lot of Eagles fans in this town: I hated them way more than I loved them.

Two years ago, I wrote something like this for The 700 Level, asking if it was okay for me to switch to the Eagles. I got killed for it, and maybe deserved the treatment I got. It turns out, you’re born an Eagles fan or your not, says the prolific commentariat at The 700 Level. Yes, being an Eagles fan is tantamount to being a homosexual. Hey,READ MORE

DL436: Phil From Gunaxin Talks Blog Building, Ethics & Vick Fantasy Morals

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Each week,  I’ll be chatting with a member of the Blogger Fantasy League to talk a little trash, learn about their work and talk about issues in our industry. This week, I play against Phil Van der Vossen of Gunaxin.com. As he calls it, Gunaxin is “stuff for guys” from sports to girls to games to pop culture to food…and everything in between. It’s a men’s lifestyle site, like Maxim, but without paying for all the girlie photos.

We actually talk quite a bit about that idea — taking content from other places and making it your own — and what the ethics are in doing so. If you’ve ever met Phil, read his stuff or listened to him talk on other shows, you know he pulls absolutely zero punches. And if you know anything about me, you know I respect the hell out of people who are willing to call other people out.

So there’s a lot of that — calling out other sites for gaming the system or for taking others’READ MORE