Demophon's profile

Demophon
17519
Name: Chris Phillips
Location: Western Massachusetts
Member since: August 18, 2009
Last visit: October 16, 2011

Demophon has posted 27 links and 364 comments to SportsFilter and 0 links and 7 comments to the Locker Room.

Recent Links

Being convicted of attempted murder helped a former NHL player save a life: Former NHL player Mike Danton was sent to prison for plotting to take a life. In his return to professional hockey, the skills he learned while incarcerated may well have saved one.

posted by Demophon to hockey at 04:01 PM on September 20, 2011 - 1 comment

Steve Spurrier arrested?: Earlier this spring, South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier was led away in handcuffs to make a point.

posted by Demophon to football at 09:10 AM on July 22, 2011 - 6 comments

Clemens trial ends abuptly: The judge presiding over Roger Clemens' perjury trial declared a mistrial over inadmissible evidence shown to jurors. U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton said Clemens could not be assured a fair trial after prosecutors showed jurors evidence against his orders in the second day of testimony.

posted by Demophon to baseball at 12:22 PM on July 14, 2011 - 16 comments

NBC Sports Chief Dick Ebersol resigns: Dick Ebersol has resigned as NBC Sports Group chairman, an industry giant who helped launch "Saturday Night Live" and built the network into the home of the Olympics.

posted by Demophon to olympics at 06:14 PM on May 19, 2011 - 0 comments

Casey has taken his final swing in his final at-bat and now waits for the game to end: One of the greatest homerun hitters has decided that he can no longer fight a losing battle. In a statement released jointly by the Minnesota Twins and the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Harmon Killebrew said "it is with profound sadness" that he will no longer receive treatment for the "awful disease."

posted by Demophon to baseball at 02:50 PM on May 13, 2011 - 2 comments

Recent Comments

Dan Wheldon Dies in 15-Car Crash at Las Vegas

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posted by Demophon at 06:45 PM on October 16, 2011

Oakland Raiders Owner Al Davis Dies

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He was a good and loyal man, but he had become a caricature of himself with is inability to let others run his team as the league had evolved beyond him.

posted by Demophon at 01:03 PM on October 08, 2011

Kurt Warner: Tony Romo Can Win Super Bowl

Fine then, where does he appear in the top 10 for everyone else?

posted by Demophon at 11:41 AM on July 14, 2011

Kurt Warner: Tony Romo Can Win Super Bowl

I did not say 7 "no doubt" NFC QBs. I said 7 NFC QBs & 4 no doubt AFC QBs. I only referred to the to no doubt AFC QBs because I think you could arguably put two more (Flaaco & Schaub) ahead of Romo too, but then you go back down the long argument list so I limited the AFC part of the conversation to just the top 4 bringing the total to 11. Its not that I don't like the guy, I just say he is not a top 10 QB and by providing at least 11 options I have proven that point. Apparently your Cowboy fanhood prevents you from hearing rationale conversations about your QB.

posted by Demophon at 10:55 AM on July 14, 2011

Kurt Warner: Tony Romo Can Win Super Bowl

You should take a look at the one playoff game they played against each other. I'll give you a hint; it didn't go the way you think it did.

Once again, even without McNabb there are still 7 NFC and 4 no doubt AFC QBs who rank ahead of the over hyped product of Jerry World. Romo is NOT a top 10 QB!

posted by Demophon at 07:25 PM on July 13, 2011

SportsFilter: The Wednesday Huddle

So today ESPN is doing one of those good things that they still do, the Don't Give Up Jimmy V Foundation auction. I remember watching that speech at the ESPY awards (one of the items I will grant you that ESPN doesn't do right) in 1993 and getting fired up by his words. I listened to it again this morning when they played the speech on ESPN radio and it got me to thinking about how hard it can be sometimes to reconcile what you are hearing with what you know.

Jimmy V was a good basketball coach and a great motivational speaker, but he was a terrible person for the way he treated some of his players while at NC State. It is that snakeskin oil salesman approach that Jimmy V was an early adapter of that has led college basketball to where it is today with the highest paid coach being another snakeskin oil salesman who has built up and then left two programs programs in ruins when he felt that the heat was around the corner.

Jimmy V's message was moving then, only 7 weeks before he passed, and is still moving today, but the messenger must be taken with a grain of salt

posted by Demophon at 10:47 AM on July 13, 2011

Kurt Warner: Tony Romo Can Win Super Bowl

A draft is about future potential. Calling Romo a "top-10 quarterback" is about the present. If Romo wasn't injured, he was on pace in 2010 to throw for 4,280 yards and 29 touchdowns on 18 interceptions. His QBR was 94.9. Sounds like a top 10 quarterback to me. Only five quarterbacks threw for 4,000 yards and 29 touchdowns last season.

A normal draft yes, but as I spelled out in my scenario it's still all about 1 year win or your out. I don't think you get more present than that. In that scenario Romo does not go in the first 10 picks which means he is not a top 10 QB.

As for Romo's 2010 pace, how much of that was also a product of the fact that he was facing some of the lesser quality defenses in the league and was having to play catch up which means more passing plays and more chances to load up those stats. In his 4 full games last year he faced the 31st, 20th, 32nd, 29th, and 10th ranked pass defenses from last season and in the only game against a team in the top half of the league put up his lowest yardage total.

Again, football is a team sport. By that logic, you would take John Elway over Michael Vick or Matt Ryan.

No actually I am saying that as a tie breaker with other things evening each other out I would take Elway over Vick or Ryan. Since Elway is no longer on the playing field of Vick or Ryan I guess I don't have to make that choice. However Romo and McNabb are on the same playing field and McNabb gets the tie breaker over Romo by having not fallen apart like a house of cards in almost every playoff game he has appeared in. If Romo ever proves us wrong like Dirk did this year, then he could get that tie breaker.

As rcade pointed out, the top 10 QBs is about the present, guys like Elway are not participants in the present, so using that point over and over doesn't really make a point yerfatma. The weakest guy in the league that has a ring as a starting QB in my opinion now would be Eli and like I said Eli gets the nod on a tie breaker. I am not saying Eli is exponentially better than Romo, but I am saying I would put him ahead of Romo on the top 10 list.

posted by Demophon at 10:00 AM on July 12, 2011

Ombudsman: Has ESPN Learned from The Decision?

Do I want to see ESPN doing more shows like "The Decision"? No, not really. Do I understand why they did it? Of course, it got the ratings. Is it going to force me to stay away from them? No, because they have never said that their goal is to be all about sports all the time. As insomnyuk pointed out, Entertainment is what the E in ESPN stands for. Its not like they are MTV who started out showing music videos and now you never see music there. You still get to see sporting events on ESPN, they just mix them in around entertainment shows. Do people really want to go back to the days of ESPN showing Worlds Strongest Man competitions all day long before interrupting the marathon for a one hour Sports Center and then showing fishing shows and billiards tournaments until 2am?

To me I compare the people who complain about ESPN's evolution to being the same people who complain about their favorite band that they used to go see play in some smokey bar on the out skirts of town. One day that band gets discovered and becomes big time, but as per their contract with the record label has to play some sugar shit song that gets lots of radio play and makes the weekly top 40. Initially the people are so happy that the band they knew about before everyone else has now made it big, but once they go commercial and become something that everyone knows they suddenly become "sell outs". Which would you rather be, the millionaire rock star living it up in Beverly Hills or the band playing places with saw dust on the floor but living off food stamps because its all about the art?

Well ESPN is now living it up in Beverly Hills while everyone complains that they have abandoned their "art" instead of watching some of the really good TV that they still occasionally put out (OTL, some of the 30 for 30 documentaries). Personally I am willing to deal with "The Decision" and Chris Berman if it gets me more OTL's and 30 for 30's.

posted by Demophon at 09:41 AM on July 12, 2011

Kurt Warner: Tony Romo Can Win Super Bowl

2. You can tell Donovan McNabb is done when people start using him as a "I'd rather have so-and-so". He's in his Grand Old Man phase if we're pretending he was great under pressure. As I recall, he leads the league in # of times throwing up in playoffs and # of times a teammate said player choked in the Super Bowl.

Even so I would still take a QB who led his team to a Super Bowl over one who has only managed to get out of the first round one time. I am not saying that McNabb is the QB I want leading my team for the next 10 years, I am saying that right now head to head I value what McNabb brings to the table more so than what Romo does. Romo is a product of playing for the Cowboys. If he played for the Seahawks we would being talking about him being compared more to Kyle Orton than Tom Brady. Don't forget that Romo also had a 1-5 record at the time of his injury, yet Jon Kitna took the same team and came within one win of a .500 record (4-6).

Plus even without McNabb on the list that still leaves 7 NFC QBs that I would take ahead of Romo plus 4 no doubt AFC QBs for a total of 11 that prevent Romo from seeing the inside of the top 10.

Here's a scenario for everyone. As part of the new CBA it is announced that every QB in the league is going back into a draft and will be signed to only 1 year contracts. Any team that doesn't make the playoffs gets demoted to the UFL. It becomes an "all-in" year for every team because unless you win you are out of the league. Does Romo go in the first 10 picks? I don't think so.

posted by Demophon at 09:18 AM on July 12, 2011

Kurt Warner: Tony Romo Can Win Super Bowl

Those are weird, isolated, historic stats. By that measure, you'd have John Elway or Steve Young come out of retirement before you'd pick Romo because nowhere in there does it actually say what they're capable of now.

Actually it shows that players such as McNabb do better under pressure while players like Romo fold like a house of cards.

posted by Demophon at 06:26 PM on July 11, 2011

Kurt Warner: Tony Romo Can Win Super Bowl

I will give you that Cutler's completion percentage is lower than it should be, he was also playing with a far inferior wideout collection than Romo. Also while Cutler does throw too many picks, his TD to INT ratio (23/16) is pretty much exactly the same as what Romo was on pace for last year (11/7) before getting hurt. Cutler is also a more mobile QB than Romo, averaging a yard more per carry in nearly twice as many attempts. Not to say either is ever going to be Vick-like at the position. Given the choice I would not want to see either one of them under center for my team because of Cutler's poor body language and personality and Romo being Romo, but head to head I will take Cutler every time.

Even though McNabb is on the other side of his career, I would still rather have him because of his post season experience (9-7 as a starter compared to Romo's 1-3, and 4 of those McNabb losses game in Conference championship games while Romo only has been out of the first round once), better record in close games (35-34 to 18-20 in games decided by 7 or less) and much better when closing out the season and playoff chances are on the line (22-11 vs 10-13 in December/January games).

Eli gets the nod for having the better record in all the same categories as McNabb (4-3 to 1-3 in post season, 23-16 to 18-20 in close games, and 16-18 to 10-13 in Dec/Jan games). Plus Eli gets a tie breaker by already having a ring.

For Freeman I know it was just one season but it was also only his second in the league. His making the list is more of an eyeball test than a statistical reason. I watched three games for the Bucs last year and in all 3 he seemed to be cool and collected under center and in the pocket. By comparison Romo always seems to flying by the seat of his pants and seems to lack the field general qualities that Freeman is showing in only his second season. It may have been a small sample that I watched, but I was impressed in that time which is why I would take him over Romo.

posted by Demophon at 03:13 PM on July 11, 2011

Kurt Warner: Tony Romo Can Win Super Bowl

I can come up with 8 in the NFC alone that I would put ahead of him.

Name them. Romo's 2010 season was shortened by injury, but in 2009 he had 4,483 passing yards, 26 touchdowns and only 9 interceptions. Only three NFC quarterbacks had a QBR higher than his 97.6.

While everyone knows that QBR is a bullshit stat my eight in the NFC alone are: Rodgers, Brees, Vick, Ryan, Cutler, Freeman, Eli, and McNabb. It may be close with Eli and McNabb, but they both have gotten a lot further in the playoffs a lot more times than Romo has so I would take them before Romo.

All that excludes the AFC where you can add to the list with Brady, Rivers, Peyton and Rothlisberger while Flaaco and Schaub come close as well.

posted by Demophon at 02:10 PM on July 11, 2011

Kurt Warner: Tony Romo Can Win Super Bowl

Hey if Trent Dilfer can win a Super Bowl then that is proof any QB CAN win one. Sorry Dan Marino.

Although there is no way Romo is a top 10 QB in the NFL. I can come up with 8 in the NFC alone that I would put ahead of him.

posted by Demophon at 11:56 AM on July 11, 2011

SportsFilter: The Wednesday Huddle

Today In Inappropriate: War Fighter On Halladay

So who other than Phillie fans were going to be offended by that attempt at humor or was actually going to take it seriously? I don't think that the Fox statement was necessary?

posted by Demophon at 01:05 PM on June 22, 2011

Ricky Rubio Coming to America

And of course we all know that he will be living in Queens and working at McDowells

posted by Demophon at 11:45 AM on June 22, 2011