DL510: Cutler, Twitter, BEN, Rodgers, Jets, Football, Super Bowl

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Where is show 509, you ask? Well, it’s a lost episode, for now.

That said, we’re back with show 510 talking about the media talking about Jay Cutler and spending a good amount of time on the fact that people were quick to rip him for “quitting” without finding out the real story. A product of the immediacy of Twitter, or more a story about the other shoe dropping on a guy most in the NFL really, really don’t like?

And can we please stop with the Philip Rivers comparisons? Rivers was terrible in the AFC title game he played with a torn ACL. It’s also hilarious that Maurice Jones-Drew had the guts to rip Cutler, saying, “All I’m saying is that he can finish the game on a hurt knee… I played the whole season on one…”

Really, MJD? The WHOLE season? In what amounted to a playoff game in week 15, Jones-Drew had six second-half touches (three run, three pass) for 16 yards. The lesson: being hurt and playing poorly isREAD MORE

DL507: Trey Wingo on NFL Playoffs, Coaching Carousel & 18 Games…Or No Games

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Trey Wingo is my favorite ESPN personality and one of the truly good people in this industry (and I’m not just saying that because he’s on the show.) We talk about the NFL playoffs, the coaching carousel in the league and why fans of PLAYOFF teams still think the grass is greener somewhere else. We talk about the rash of injuries in the league and how that could get worse with an 18 game schedule.

We talk about social media and how it’s changed the way we consume sports (both with online viewers watching games and with everyone online debating the historical context of plays we just saw, ad nauseum.

We talk about Rex Ryan playing the media to distract them from covering his quarterback and how the better game in the AFC has been totally overshadowed by front-page stories about New York and New England.

We talk about Seattle’s win over the Saints and if that win does more or less for the idea that teams with the better records in theREAD MORE

DL505: Doug Flutie On Helmet-to-Helmet Hits, Paying Players, Conference Alignment & BCS

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Doug Flutie joins the show! Yes, he was plugging something, but it’s not like he was plugging knives or anything like that (note: that’d be totally awesome if people starting going online equivalent of door to door selling knives.) Flutie is plugging the Capital One Cup. Particulars below:

Doug is touring on behalf of the Capital One Cup, which honors one Division I mens and one Division I womens program for their cumulative on-field success across 13 different sports.  The winning universities will receive the Cup in July and be handed a $200,000 check earmarked for student/athletes looking to continue their studies.  The team that wins tonight’s BCS Championship will win 60 Capital One Cup points.  For more information – and to follow the standings of your school or favorite team – listeners can go to www.capitalonecup.com.

It’s a great program, so check it out.

Flutie and I spin the Capital One Cup into a conversation about conference realignment and how any of the schools are able to actually pay for their non-revenueREAD MORE

Call of the Weekend: Tom Hammond & Mike Mayock, “Are You Kidding Me?”

Every NFL fan has seen this video six hundred times by now, but it’s still the best play of the weekend. Having said that, is it the best call of the weekend? To be honest, the call itself is probably not. But bear with me on this one…

I think Tom Hammond is a solid announcer for NBC, though whenever I hear his voice I immediately assume I’m either watching Notre Dame or an Olympic Track and Field event. I just don’t think Hammond’s call is as spectacular on this play as some people were saying online after it happened. He does — to his credit — sound as surprised as all of us, which was good to hear from a play-by-play announcer because, let’s face it, who in the world expected that to happen?

That said, this is the call of the weekend for one reason: Mike Mayock, who has quickly established himself as a better-than-solid in-game color analyst. There’s a lot to be said, clearly, for someone who seems prepared for every situation…even the inexplicable.

“Are you kiddingREAD MORE

If Jim Harbaugh Becomes NFL’s Richest Coach, Should Current Coaches Hold Out For More?

[If you are a regular to the show, you've certainly heard Nick make reference to "our buddy Mike McKeeman" and the wonderful, if somewhat out-of-left-field ideas he has over email. This is one of those ideas. The words below are his.]

I want to see an NFL coach holdout. I complain all the time about petulant wide receivers who whine that they’ve outplayed the contract extension they signed just two years ago and threaten to sit out training camp and the regular season. But I would love it if an NFL coach decided to take this tact against an owner. I just want to see what would happen.

Could it happen next year? Rumors have Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh signing a deal with the Miami Dolphins, or two or three other teams, that would make him the NFL’s highest paid coach. Harbaugh has been extremely successful at Stanford, taking over a team that went 1-11 the year before his arrival and leading them to an Orange Bowl victory and a Top 5 ranking four years later.READ MORE

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

DL499: Here Are Ten (Or Eleven) Of Our Favorite Show Memories

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I always hated when, around the holiday season, my favorite shows would be listed in the TV Guide as *NEW* but wouldn’t be anything more than a damn clip show with five minutes of “new” material only used to transition from one clip to the next.

So, with that, I ask this: what would you do, baby, without us? IT’S A CLIP SHOW!

The difference in our situation, of course, is that we’ve been gaining listeners over the course of the last few years, so you, dear reader, may not have been around to hear Rick Telander talk about running into Jay Mariotti in a sauna, or Ian Eagle tell the story of when Bill Raftery invented the term “Onions,” or when Tony Kornheiser called me a narcissist. (Note: all in the show).

There are hundreds of clips we could have pulled. Some of the notables NOT in the show include: Norman Chad telling us that Kornheiser is dead to him, Annie Duke talking about just getting back from speaking in front ofREAD 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

DL493: Metrodome Avalanche, Tripping Gunners, Golden Hurricanes & The Heyman Hoax

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Two shows today, with the second of two only talking about the season finale of Dexter. Look for that in a few.

But first, Nick and I talk about the Metrodome going topless. Mostly, we talk about how amazing the visual was and how great it was for FOX to get this. We wonder if they were tipped off that it was going to happen, and how they were in place to capture this amazing moment.

Turns out, we should have read Hiestand. He has the story at USA Today.

I have a brief during-the-show panic attack about dying in an avalanche before we wonder what will come of the Metrodome and specifically if they can just tear the roof off the joint and make it an outdoor stadium. Like, CLEARLY, God wants it to be.

We discuss the Jets strength coach who dripped Miami’s Nolan Carroll during their game. His name is Sal Alosi, and while we hate calling for people’s jobs, we outline why we think he should be fired. Specifically, theREAD MORE

Call of the Day: Worried For Jack Kogod’s Health After Chelsea & Redskins Epic Failures

Blogs are fun, especially when you can take a huge Monday morning in sports and make it about the health and well-being of a fellow blogging friend. Or, you know, twist the knife a little by posting two of the most epic failures of the weekend in one entry, both crushing results for Jack Kogod of KSK.

First, let’s post a video of Chelsea’s Didier Drogba getting stoned on a penalty kick that would have won a match for Chelsea. Instead of sitting atop the Premier League standings with a road win over Tottenham, Chelsea looks to be in big trouble in England’s top division, behind Arsenal and Man City in points (with Arsenal having a game in hand) and, oh yeah, tied with Manchester United, despite United having played TWO fewer matches (they play this afternoon in England’s version of Monday Night Football.)

So here’s the Fox Soccer Channel replay of Drogba’s miss. How to make this into a media post and not just a rip on Kogod? Well, Warren Barton gave credit to Chelsea for playingREAD MORE