WHAT IS GOODELL SMOKING?

ED REED HAS A FINE FOR A HIT IN 2010 AND A FINE EARLIER THIS YEAR FOR A HIT THAT WAS BS.

ITS NOT EDS FAULT WHEN OFFENSIVE PLAYERS LEAD WITH THEIR HEADS INTO EDS WHEELHOUSE OF A TACKLE.

HES NOT TRYING TO KILL THESE GUYS, HES TRYING TO MAKE PLAYS.

HES THE GREATEST SAFETY OF ALL TIME, YOU CAN’T SUSPEND THE GREATEST SAFETY OF ALL TIME FOR BEING THE GREATEST SAFETY OF ALL TIME.

NFL,

I am your biggest fan, you’re my favorite sport, but get your shit together. You can’t pick and choose random hits for penalties and late hits and fines and blahblahblah. fix your helmets. make them rubber, i dont care. Stop being stupid and dont you ever suspend another player from another game. I pay money to watch these studs play and if I had a ticket to the next Ravens game id demand a 100% refund.

CLEAN IT UP.

This is an absolute blessing in disguise for San Fran. FINALLY, Alex Smith has found his way to the bench and I don’t ever see him coming back. When Smith was ruled out of tonights game this morning the spread dropped from San Fran -7.5 to San Fran -3. I immediately threw out my breakfast, logged into my Bovada account, and placed $1000.00 on San Fran to win before the bookies realized what they did. I watched Kapernick run this San Fran offense last week and I was muddled that they’ve been stashing such a gem all year.  I know Coach Harbaugh hasn’t noticed it just yet but Kapernick IS Michael Vick minus 2 Madden Speed points and all the dog raping stories. I’m here to tell you this is the lock of the century. Forget anything else i’ve ever blogged about up to this point. No more Smith means no more 100 yard passing games. No more games with Frank Gore getting 450K touches. No more 1 TD 2 INT QB starts. Kapernick is a Wild Card, a Fire Cracker, He’s Cam Newton-esk minus the Ego, He’s Tom Brady-like but athletic. Ths kid brings real diversity to the QB position, something that’s been lacking in SF for years. Haven’t you always fantasized about SF having a great QB like Brees, or Rodgers? How they would make the final score 49-0 every week just for fun? Well, wait no longer, the time is now. Carpe Diem my friends, minimum bet is $1,000 on SF tonight.

Blackmon

Hilton

Alexander

Ingram

Starks

You’re welcome.

Later

TOSS $50.00 ON THIS FUTURE BET AND MESSAGE ME WHEN THEY MAKE THE WILD CARD AND SNEAK INTO THE PLAYOFFS.

I’LL TEACH YOU HOW TO HEDGE.

-DREW

Anyway, while I’m on the hurricane hiatus, BwT won’t be updated as frequently as the few of you are used to. However, once this is all over we will once again become the best sports site that no one knows about. At least until our new site launches…

Thanks for your patience!

PR

Lets recap, so I can pat myself on the back.

The Good:

Rashad Jennings – put up 12.50 points, but that was an easy one.

Josh Gordon – He led the team in receiving with 46 yards in a game with only 11 completions. Weather was a huge factor. Not a big output, but still he is a solid WR3 with WR2 upside.

Titus Young Sr. – HUGE game, put up a career high 2 TDs and 100 yards receiving. WR2/3 a very solid start every week. Targets should continue to be 8+ per week.

Dustin Keller – 7 receptions for 67 yards. Nobody found the end zone, but he had a whopping 11 targets. He is a top 10 TE ROS.

Larod Stephens-Howling – told you to stash him vs the Niners. In a PPR league he is a good start this week vs. the Packers since they will be throwing most of the game if they hope to compete and he should get a lot of screens.

The Bad:

Joel Dreessen threw up a 0, Stokley 1.9, Tamme 3.3, Moore 2.5. So it didn’t quite live up to the absolute shootout that I expected. This was because Denver did a great job on Brees, holding him to only 22 completions on 42 attempts and 213 yards. The game was pretty much put away in the beginning of the 3^rd quarter. Decker and Thomas are both top 15 WRs, Thomas is arguably the #1 WR from here on out as he is the superior talent and him and Manning are on the same page. So much for Peyton not being able to throw the deep ball, he looks better than he did with the Colts, due to a fantastic surrounding cast. As the defense plays better, to me, this seems like the team to beat. I’m having a hard time choosing which Manning will win it all this year.

Week 9 Pickups:

There are not too many people to add to the list this week. Keller is huge, but has a bye this week. Freeman if still available should be snagged. Titus Young of course. Here is your list:

1. Jonathan Dwyer RB – if he is still around, you must grab him. He is the only “healthy” RB in Pittsburgh. He could be giving up 3^rd down plays to Redman, but he looks like the best RB on the team.
2. Danny Amendola WR – if nobody has grabbed him back up, he is worth a #1 waiver priority in all leagues. Top 15 WR before he got hurt. Should be back after the bye.
3. Daniel Thomas RB – He’s back, he’s healthy, he’s slow, but he gets the job done in a run first offense. He played more snaps than Reggie Bush last week and he has a very favorable next few weeks vs IND, TEN and BUF. I’d project him for a couple TDs and 150 yards over the 3 games. In all the games this season that he has gotten 10+ touches he has scored at least 1 TD. Perfect for bye week filler/flex play.
4. Cecil Shorts WR – #1 receiver in Jacksonville. Now that is not saying much, but he is averaging about 95 yards per game and had a TD over his last 2 games. If you are going to own any receiver in Jacksonville, he is the guy. I would not waste a waiver pick on him though, as there are other similar wide receivers that could be had.
5. Greg Olsen TE – If you need a bye-week filler this week at TE, Redskins are giving up the 2^nd most points to TE’s in the league. Olsen is due for a breakout game.

As always, follow us on twitter @BoxingWithTyson for site updates and fantasy advice.

On to this week. Some top guys that are OUT this week.

Pierre Garcon - looks like he could possibly require surgery and be out for the year. I would hold onto him until this is certain because if he can get healthy he is the #1 receiver on an explosive offense.

Greg Jennings - needs surgery and will miss 4-6 weeks, he will be back for the fantasy playoffs, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he wasn’t eased back into the offense. Benefits in order: James Jones, Jordy Nelson, Jermichael Finley and Randall Cobb.

Rashard Mendenhall (Isaac Redman Questionable) – we could see another big week for Jonathan Dwyer against the weak defense of the Redskins.

Aaron Hernandez – did not make the trip to London, expecting a child and his ankle has not reacted well, he has a bye next week too. More targets for Welker, Edelman, Gronk, Lloyd. Greg Olsen would be a good guy to play vs the Bears D, vulnerability to the TE in Chicago’s cover 2 is over middle of field. Bears are giving up 7 TE catches over last 5 games.

Notes

Jordy Nelson is not practicing today, will test hamstring on Saturday or Sunday, very questionable, when healthy is a top 5 receiver in this offense…Randall Cobb is now a top 15 receiver regardless who is playing and not playing on the Packers offense (top 10 in PPR) try and get him for cheap, he is a middle-class man’s Percy Harvin…Calvin isn’t practicing, but should be good to go…Victor Cruz is the #1 receiver in PPR leagues… Buccaneers offense looks top notch…Donald Brown is practicing and if he plays both him and Vic Ballard are Flex options at best…Jonathan Stewart is now the lead/starting back in Carolina, about time!

Follow us on twitter @BoxingwithTyson

Information started to leak out earlier today that one of the main topics at the owners’ meetings was the retirement and succession plan for David Stern. Fast forward, and the owners now have a detailed retirement timeline for Stern. Ultimately, Stern will leave his post on February 1st, 2014, from ESPN:

The elevation of Adam Silver, Stern’s deputy, to commissioner was unanimously approved Thursday by the NBA Board of Governors, the sources said.

Stern, 70, has been the NBA’s commissioner since Feb. 1, 1984. Last December, at the time a new collective bargaining agreement was announced, he predicted it would be the final labor deal before he steps down.

I don’t have many immediate feelings about this; David Stern has been at the head of the NBA since before I was born, and lead the league to a golden age. The international popularity of the sport and league have exploded under his tutelage, and countless rule changes and regulations have been enacted on Stern’s orders. As someone who controlled the NBA for so long he would obviously large impact, but the magnitude of his tenure cannot be overstated.

As for Adam Silver, he seems likable. Like many diehard fans I thoroughly enjoy him struggling through pronunciations in the second round of the draft. when many teams take to stashing foreign players or drafting relative unknowns. Certainly, his duties will include governing the first round of the draft, but I hope he keeps his time-honored tradition in the second round too.

More seriously, Silver will be stepping into the position in a league that already has a labor agreement for a few more years. While helpful, labor issues will be a constant as the league tries to appease all parties. This most recent agreement felt like a band-aid, a large band-aid, but still a band-aid. The issues that the CBA negotiations claimed to be alleviating were clearly just rhetoric; competitive balance and parity, owners (alleged) losses, and rising contract numbers. Those things still exist, and probably will as long as the NBA is structured as it currently is. Among other issues, Silver will have to decide which of these are threats to the NBA’s present and future. Yes, Stern will be leaving a league in a safe place, but there is work to be done for Adam Silver.

Nevertheless, despite all of the disagreements we may have with his policies or business methods, David Stern will certainly be leaving the league in better standing than it was when he arrived:

Four current owners bought into the league between 1981 and 1985 at prices ranging from $11 million to $19 million. (How prescient was Jerry Reinsdorf, who bought the Bulls during Micheal Jordan’s first season in 1985 for $16 million and now sits on an asset worth more than $600 million?) The league’s 23 teams were collectively worth roughly $400 million.

Flash forward to today. NBA owners divvy up $930 million annually from TV contracts. The 2012 NBA Finals were broadcast in 215 countries. Attendance averaged 17,273 last season for all regular season games. We valued the average NBA team at $393 million in our last look at the business of the NBA. That average will certainly top $400 million in our next take, after the recent sales of two low-revenue franchises in the New Orleans Hornets for $338 million and Memphis Grizzlies for $350 million. The NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement has made even small market franchises must-have assets. The collective worth of the NBA’s 30 teams is now more than $12 billion.

Update: To see Stern in a different light, you can read one of the best, Adrian Wojnarowski, completely ether him in this piece. Here’s an excerpt:

The biggest ego in the history of the sport, the emperor of the NBA gets everything he ever wanted now: 15 months of farewells and bows; a tidy 30 years to fit onto his Hall of Fame plaque; and a chance to repair and repackage a legacy that NBA commissioner David Stern had slowly, surely lost the power to manipulate.