Live Blog: PreSeason Style

For the second straight week, Thursday is not just about fist pumping with the kids from Jersey and watching another poor soul leave the Big Brother house without a chance at winning the $500,000 prize. For the second straight week, Thursday is also about pre-season football. This week, Fox has blessed us with a game that many will predicts is just the first of two match-ups between cross state rivals Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Since, Big Brother doesn't start until 9:00 and the Jersey Shore isn't until 10:00, I figured tonight would be the perfect night for an abbreviated live blog. Live bloggers need pre-season too. So here we go...

8:00 PMEST: A few observations and thoughts off of the top:

• Joe Buck sounds terrible. It is painful to listen to a thing he says. Terry Bradshaw is in the booth with Joe and Troy Aikman. I hope that its just a pre-season thing. 
• I feel sorry for the kid that just sang the National Anthem. He is a little boy that can't be any older than 12. Miss Caster walked into the room while he was singing, looked at the television, looked again, and said, "Is that a boy?" I will leave it at that. 
• Watching football on Thursday has me very excited for the full-season Thursday night package that is part of the new CBA. It will be interesting to see what network ends up with the 8-game package that will lead into the NFL Network's package that will close the season. 

8:11: The opening kickoff sails into the end zone and continues a disturbing pre-season trend. During the first week of games, over 73% of the kickoffs were fielded in the end zone. The league has moved the kickoff from the 30 to the 35 for the sake of players safety. The idea behind the rule is that more kicks would reach the end zone thus resulting in more touchbacks and less injuries on kickoffs. Kickoffs have been the most dangerous play in football for years and this rule is clearly going to work to eliminate injuries on kickoffs. The downside is that we will have less returns and a tad less excitement.

8:13: On the first  play from scrimmage, Jonathan Scott the stating left tackle for the Steelers goes down with a right knee injury that should end his night. The Steelers have been thin on the offensive line and I would guess that Mike Tomlin will be holding his breath waiting for the news on the severity of the injury.

8:15: Big Ben Roethilisberger completes a pass on third down to Heath Miller. On the play, Ben is knocked down late but it didn't draw a flag.

8:17: Two things:

1. The Eagles seem to stall the Steelers opening drive but are flagged for a face mask. 
2. Joe Buck offers use of the teleprompter to Terry Bradshaw who says, "How the hell do you turn it on?" Its pre-season for everyone. 

8:20: Bradshaw says that in his day players had to get second jobs after the season to make ends meet. Terry claims he was a used-car salesman. 

8:23: Ben has all day in the pocket to complete a third-down pass to Arnaz Battle. Have you ever been to the Battlezone? I hope so because it doesn't seem to exist anymore. 

8:26: On what looks like a coverage breakdown, Antonio Brown is about ten-yards passed Asante Samuel for what ends up being an easy pitch and catch for a Steelers touchdown. 7-0 Steelers after a 10 play 80-yard drive that lasted 7:36.

8:30: I switched over to ESPN.COM to check the spelling of a name and noticed that the Patriots are up 21-0 on the Buccaneers early in the second quarter. I am a little worried that the Patriots are set to play this season in FU mode and blow teams out the way they did in 2007. 

8:31: The Steelers kick the ball well into the end zone for the second touchback of the night. 

8:32: On his first play of the night, Michael Vick scrambles to the left and throws deep past everyone and the ball falls harmlessly at the 10-yard line. 

8:32: I just heard Joe Buck's voice crack. I took my first look at my twitter timeline after typing the last sentence to find that its full of tweets about Buck's voice.

8:36: The Eagles punt, and its a beauty. The ball is downed at the 5-yard line. I hope we get at least one more drive from the Steelers starting offense.

8:38: Ben leads the Steelers onto the field for at least a second drive.

8:40: Ben shows his athleticism and makes a great play to scramble out of coverage and drop a short pass of to R. Mendenhall who makes an equally impressive play to gain a first down.

8:44: With the Steelers driving just past mid-field the clock runs out on the first quarter. After one, Steelers 7 Eagles 0


8:46: Marcus Gilbert, the tackle that took over for the injured Jonathan Scott also has left the game with a knee injury.


8:47: Mendenhall busts off a 7-yard run on first down. He has looked vert impressive and athletic so far.

8:49: Ben beats a blitz and dumps the ball off to a wide open Mewelde Moore. Moore takes the ball into the redzone.

8:50: After an Eagles sack forces a 3rd-18, Big Ben scrambles to buy time and finds Hines Ward in the end zone for a touchdown. 14 Steelers 0 Eagles 11:06 2nd Quarter


8:53: Another touchback...Another commercial...

8:55: The Eagles try a bubble screen to DeSean Jackson that is sniffed out by the Steelers. Roethlisberger has been fantastic tonight on third down.

8:57: Right after Bradshaw goes wax poetic on the snap and authority behind Michael Vick's passes, Vick floats one down the sideline and is picked off by Ryan Clark

9:00: Byron Leftwich has relieved Roethlisberger and that is the two-minute warning for this blog.

9:01: Terry Bradshaw has been a disaster in the booth so far. If he isn't interrupting Buck, then he is interrupting Aikman. On the night, Roethlisberger is 8-12 125 yards 2TD 0INT. ESPN has yet to release his Total QBR. I bet it was pretty good.

9:02: The Steelers fail to capitalize on the turnover as the Eagles swarm Swayze Waters and block his field goal attempt. Swayze Waters? That name sounds made up to me. His mother must have been a huge fan of Dirty Dancing. Samuel looked like he was the Eagle that got the block.

9:05: LeSean McCoy starts the drive with a nice change of direction run for about 11-yards.

9:06: Troy Polamalu jumps in front of a Vick pass and drops it. He should still be running.

9:07: On the next pass, Vick throws the ball into a crowd of Steelers and is picked off by Keenan Lewis. Somewhere, Matthew Berry is sweating his balls off. Vick has been a disaster tonight and Berry has screamed from the top of a mountain that Vick should be the first pick in any fantasy draft. Vick is 3-8 24 yards 0TD 2INT. ESPN has yet to release his Total QBR but I would bet it isn't very good.

9:09: Pam Oliver is in preseason mode as well. She totally botches a sideline report that left me wondering what she was talking about.

9:11: A great play by Leftwich on third down is called back on a holding penalty. On the next play, Leftwich throws a beauty down the seam for 29-yards to complete a 3rd and long to Jericho Cotchery.

9:14: The Steelers are killing the Eagles on third down.

9:16: It is the 2:00 warning in Pittsburgh. Terry has left the booth to take his spot on the halftime set. If this was an experiment to see if Terry would gel with Joe and Troy the Fox executives have gotten a clear answer tonight. Terry is pretty lousy and Joe and Troy don't want him around.

9:18: Former Saint, Anthony Hargrove sacks Leftwich and the Eagles finally get a stop on third down.

9:20: Vick is going to get a chance to run the 2-minute drill at the end of the half. I would think this is the last drive for starters on both sides. Next week, the third week of the preseason, is usually the "dress rehearsal" and starters usually see action into the third quarter.

9:23: I have to admit, Vick can really zing the ball when he wants to. He can run too, but on this night he isn't interested in being hit and kind of jogs out of bounds on a second down play.


9:24: On the next play, the football gods punish Vick for jogging out of bounds and he is crushed by James Harrison and a blitzer. Aikman scolds Vick for not getting rid of the ball sooner.

9:26: Vick makes some athletic plays to avoid another sack but then throws his third interception of the night. McCoy missed a blitz pickup and then threw the ball into coverage. Troy Polamalu was the recipient of that arrant pass by Vick.

9:30: This time the Steelers make Vick pay as Leftwich throws another beauty down the seem to Cotchery. Steelers 21-0 over the Dream Team with :18 seconds left in the first half.

9:31: That is it for the first pre-season live blog of the season. Looking back quickly I am glad to get the practice. I wasn't as bad as Michael Vick but not as good as the Steelers. The blog could have used some more pictures and a few links. I think the content was good but not quite mid-season form. If I had a backup I would demand him into the game. Since I don't, that will have to be it for now. Its time for Miss Caster and I to relax and enjoy Big Brother and the Jersey Shore.

Don't forget to check out Episode 36 of The Sports-Casters with Dave Dameshek from NFL.COM and Todd Fritz from the Dan Patrick Show.

Say goodnight fist pumpers...

Fantasy Football Web Host: Pay to Play or Play for Free?

My Fallen Friend

Most of the (okay all) fantasy football leagues that I play in are of the pay to play variety. I wouldn't call the stakes astronomical, but I am in leagues that cost anywhere from $50-$110 to enter. I have started seasons already $500 in the hole just from entry fees. The thing about the entry fee is that its all relative. If you play in a cheap league you win cheap prizes. If you play in an expensive league you can win expensive prizes. 


With money at stake, it sometimes shocks me how blasé a commissioner can be when choosing the website for the league. I always ask the commissioner why he has chosen the site and nine times out of ten the answer is something like this, "Well, it was free and easy to set up so what the fuck's difference? Go eat a chicken wing and stop being a pain in the ass." Occasionally a commissioner will say that the league has run on specific site for a long time and the website preserves the leagues history. That is maybe the best reason for a league to stay on an otherwise terrible website. 


For years, I wouldn't be in a league that didn't use the software of Statsworld. Statsworld was a small company in Cincinnati way ahead of their time. Way back in 1994  (believe it or not that was 17-years ago), Statsworld had a desktop version of their software that made running leagues much easier than my previous method. Okay, ill tell, that method was walking my ass to the corner store for a slushy and the Monday edition of the USA Today. Then I went home and had to go through each box score to determine the winners in my league. I would of course have to repeat the process on Tuesday so I could track the Monday Night Football game and then later in the season the league would play on Saturday and I would have to use the Buffalo News to get those box scores. 


As Statsworld evolved, so did I. At some point the desktop version gave way to an online version and dial up internet gave way to high speed internet and fantasy football was changed forever. I never needed to buy another slushy again. (I just couldn't write newspaper. I love the newspaper, and I don't want to be responsible for it being obsolete)


About three years ago, my worst nightmare came true. My dog had cancer  Statsworld had been sold to some bullies that called themselves MyFantasyLeague.Com. They promised to be everything that Statsworld was and more. I knew it couldn't be possible. I didn't want to believe it was possible. I turned my back on MyFantasyLeague.Com so fast that I drafted Sam Bradford as my second QB in my first draft of the 2008 season. 


Since the death of Statsworld, the same question has hung over the head of each league I have ever started or continued to be the commissioner of; What website should I host this league on? 


Let's break down the choices (One more thing, It's no longer good enough to be a quality website. In todays world of smartphones and tablet computers your website better have an app for iPhone and Android users. If you don't, I'm not interested in you. Also, I didn't write much about live scoring because everyone does it and everyone sees, to do it just fine.)


ESPN: The World Wide leader in sports has made their site almost unbeatable. 


First, if you have an auction league and you can't have a live draft (meaning your draft needs to be had with members behind computers in various corners of the country or world) ESPN IS BY FAR THE BEST SITE FOR YOUR LEAGUE. Their auction software is second to none and everything is free. They have an app that is also free that works for iOS and Android. They do not have a native iPad app but that feature could be added at any time. Also, there are third party apps such as Fantasy Football Monster '11 HD that will allow you to manage your ESPN league team on the iPad. 


If your league is a snake draft ESPN is still very appealing. They have plenty of content right on their site including podcasts, rankings, projections, and all kinds of other bells and whistles to help their game be the most appealing. Again, they have a free app, free drafts, a mock draft center for practice, and an onsite injury expert. They also have a nicely packaged drat kit that can be easily printed out and be your main companion at your draft. With magazines taking a huge hit due to the lockout, more of us are going to be turning to online cheat sheets. ESPN has this covered and covered well with opinions from multiple personalities and their consensus choices. 


So ESPN is a no brainer right? If all of the above is free, why in the world would I use any other website? Well, a few reasons. First, the standard game that ESPN plays is nothing close to the fantasy football I have ever played. Some enjoy the standard ESPN game, but if I were to run a league on ESPN it would be a custom league and not a standard. ESPN claims to fully customizable but they really aren't. Especially tricky is adding bonus points for yards in a game or yards on a play. ESPN is very limited in their choices. Another drawback to ESPN is that they only allow so many drafts on a given day or time. Basically, if you snooze you loose. If you think ESPN is best for you (and it might be) then you should schedule your draft as soon as you can so that you will have access to the site on the date and time that you want. 


Overall: ESPN is far and away the best FREE website. If you want to play a standard game of fantasy football then there is no better place on the internet. 


Sample League: http://games.espn.go.com/ffl/leagueoffice?leagueId=408077


MyFantasyLeague.COM: This site once broke my heart, but its impossible to ignore all of possibilities. 


ESPN is the best free site. I think that MyFantasyLeague (MFL) is the best pay site. This site it jam packed with options, that even after two seasons of running games on it, I don't think I have discovered everything. MFL is packed with stats and ways to organize those stats. Your league is truly customizable on MFL. ESPN claims to be fully customizable but like I said before that is only true to an extent. On MFL, you can set scoring options for anything you can think of. Last year, my league had a rule that awarded a player .5 point for having his ass tapped. We thought it would be hard to track, but MFL was there for us. 


MFL is in the strange position of having almost too many features. Starting a league on MFL from scratch can seem like a choir that was made for a United States President not a fantasy football commissioner. The site is complicated. The good news is that MFL has a great staff and they are always available to help you solve whatever problem you might have. 


My favorite feature of MFL is the infinite amount of ways you can decorate the league home page. You can post polls, assign each team a logo, give the league a logo, keep track of money, transactions and standings without ever making a click. MFL also has an app that works of the iPhone, iPad, and Android. 


Overall: MFL is the perfect alternative for the complicated league. A complicated league needs complicated options and ESPN isn't quite built for that. MFL will cost you, but it isn't as expensive as you might think. MFL will offer a switching league the same price as their former pay site or 50% off. The basic price is $89.95 but if you run multiple leagues the second league receives a $10 discount. If I were you, I would shoot an email to sales@myfantasyleague.com and make a deal. 


Sample League: http://www29.myfantasyleague.com/2010/home/67229#0


Some Other Free Sites:


If ESPN doesn't make your sister giggle there are some other free options out there. 


NFL.COM has been stepping up their game the past few seasons. NFL.COM can offer you a free game with a basic list of customizations. They have recently added an iPhone app and a secondary app that can be used as an in draft tool. The site while customizable, like ESPN, is only customizable to their specifications. Here is an example. NFL's standard game does not award bonus points for rushing totals. I am in a league that awards points when a runner advances past 125 yards. That rule wouldn't be possible on NFL.COM. You could however award points for gaining 100-199 or/and 200plus. In this case you either need to adjust your rule or pick another site. It's a very little thing, but when there are so many options we have no choice but to split hairs. 


Overall: In a year or two we might all be playing fantasy football on NFL.COM, but for now I am going to give them some more time to develop. 


Yahoo.Com is probably the second best free site out there. Yahoo is a free site that claims to be fully customizable. What I like about Yahoo is that this season they have added scoring flexibility to their already FULLY customizable game that they didn't offer last season. That shows me that they are listening to the needs of their players and adjusting accordingly. This also tells me that like ESPN and NFL they are only fully customizable to a point.


Yahoo also takes great pride in their mobile apps. They have an iPad and Android app with the promise that iPad support is coming soon. There are also many third party apps that will assist you with Yahoo leagues. 


This season Yahoo is offering 2 premium add-ons to enhance their game. For $9.99, you can puchase a scouting report that is loaded with rankings, team analysis, important news items, injury updates and more. According to Yahoo, this comprehensive weekly newsletter is the most complete and up-to-date source of information you can find anywhere. Also, for $14.99 you can purchase the Yahoo! Trade Review. If a trade protest is made, members of the Yahoo! Sports staff will review the trade. If the trade in question appears to be overly biased or unfair towards one team, the trade will be overturned. Trade Review is only available for purchase by a league's commissioner. That seems like a cool little feature, but it is grossly over priced. How often in your league is a trade made that is so unfair the members of the league can't sort it out themselves? Save your $15 bucks and create a committee in the league that does the same thing.


Overall: Yahoo is a solid alternative to ESPN.  


Some other Pay Sites: 


CBS Sports is a website that I can honestly say I have never had the chance to use for a whole season. It has always seemed to be too rich for my blood. The CBS Commissioner game is $159.95. For that price, CBS better send a couple of Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders to my draft to work the room and entertain my buddies. I will tip my cap to CBS for full app support for iPhone, iPad and Android. 


One awesome thing about CBS Sports is they offer support for people who want to play in leagues that cost big money. An individual can join a league for $499 and enter a prize pool worth $3,500. 


CBS also has a free game on their site for the casual gamer. 


Overall: I would be interested in trying CBS out sometime. I admit that I don't know enough about it to strongly recommend or strongly disapprove. They seem to offer a game for everyone, have app support, and easily customizable UI.  If you use, or have used CBS in the past send me an email and let me know what you think. I will post your opinion in a future column.  


Fanball: I mention Fanball because it went the way of the dodo this past offseason. I have been in a few Fanball leagues in the past, and I never embraced the site or enjoyed it that much. It seemed like a cheap version of my beloved Statsworld and for some reason their live scoring never seemed to work all that great on Sunday. I don't think they had the servers to handle it. 

Fanball has died and gone to the place of the dodo. 

  


Today, if you go to Fanball's website you are redirected to something called, CDM Sports. CDM is new to me and this year isn't going to be the year that I will try it.


Overall: There are too many other options for me to be sticking my nose in here. I am glad fanball and their awful live scoring and lack of any kind of functional app has disappeared. Fanball was the kind of partner that would say one thing and then do another. For example, the commissioner of the league that last year used Fanball, called them before our draft to see if they would be releasing an iPhone app. The guy on the phone said it would be released the day before the NFL Kickoff and we are still waiting to this day. He promised, made sure we drafted and were to the point of no return, and then broke the promise. 

I am sure I have left out a few fantastic sites that offer free or pay games that you like very much. Let me know about what I missed and why I should consider running my league there. I'm anxious to hear from you in the comments or by emailing me at thesportscasters@gmail.com. 


Fantasy Site Power Rankings 


1. Statsworld (always and forever)

2. My Fantasy League
3. ESPN
4. Yahoo
5. CBS (I want to know more)
6. NFL


I might be back later with ten more things spotted in the second night of the NFL Pre-Season. In the meantime, say goodnight sweet Bella. 

Pre-Season Football is Back... and still boring.

The NFL is Unlocked. The Preseason Still Stinks

Ten Observations from the First Five Games

1. The folks over at the NFL Network are always on their game. I had a blast watching the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony last weekend, and it was an awesome treat to have the NFL Network jump from game to game tonight on a preseason version of the RedZone Channel. The NFL Network will show six live preseason games and the other 58 on tape delay. If you are really into preseason games then keep your television tuned to the NFL Network. It would really suck to be a Time-Warner subscriber. 

2. Twitter is good for a lot of things. One of the things that makes twitter great is when you can enjoy sporting events with the people on your timeline. Tonight, former head of NFL Officials, Mike Pereria (who just joined twitter yesterday) spent the whole first half of the Seahawks vs. Chargers game answering questions posed by his followers. It really felt like we all had the chance to watch the game with Mike. Even though he is new to twitter, he did a great job picking out questions to answer and offering knowledge. I am already working on getting Mike on the podcast and he was kind enough to return my initial message to try and work something out. 

3. I had fooled myself into thinking that one positive to come out of the lockout would be that the preseason would be more interesting. It isn't. The preseason games tonight felt, smelled, and looked a lot like the preseason games of years past. Tom Brady took the night off in New England. The Chargers were very carful with Philip Rivers and a second round QB from Northwestern named Mike Kafka was the leader of the Dream Team for most of the night in Philadelphia. Mike Vick didn't need much work. He played one drive and was 4-6 for 74-yards and a touchdown pass. 

4. Ryan Mallet might be the talk of the weekend after putting together an impressive professional debut as the Patriots drilled the Jaguars. Mallet was 12-19 with 164-yards and 1 touchdown. I can't wait for a few weeks when his TQB rating from tonights action is released. 

5. Offenses around the league might not be very crisp just yet. There were a ton of field goals kicked tonight. In the 2006 preseason, Drew Brees struggled during the preseason and failed to lead the Saints offense to a single touchdown. Finally, in the first game of the regular season Drew Brees hooked up with then rookie Marques Colston to get the monkey off of the offense's back. I guess my point is that it might not be unusual at all to see offenses settling for field goals this early in the preseason. The announcers of the Eagles and Ravens game did a good job pointing out that the offenses have yet to do much work in goal line situations. 

6. It should't mean much, but I can already hear Tim Tebow honks huffing and puffing about his 6/7 91 yards passing and 2 rushes for 15-yards. I am sure Tebow supporters will also mention that Kyle Orton was only 2/6 for 37-yards. All of this obviously means very little, but I am sure Tebow supporters will jump on the opportunity to mention his almost perfect 6/7 performance. The Broncos fans should be most excited that Matt Prater went 3/3 with a long 42-yard field goal. 

7. The Eagles are 1-0 and are one step closer to a 4-0 pre-season, a 16-0 regular season, and a 3-0 march through the playoffs to a Super Bowl victory. The Dream Team can not be stopped. Next week they will face an overmatched Lithuania squad. 

8. 47-12 can only be described one way...ass kicking. The Patriots pounded the Jaguars without Tom Brady. In fairness, the Jags were resting Maurice Jones-Drew. Regardless of who is playing, it's never a good thing to lose a game by 35-points, but I wouldn't go run and hide my head if I was one of the 18 Jaguars fans across the world. Stevan Ridley a rookie RB from LSU had 16 carries for 64-yards and 2 touchdowns. Not to be outdone, Ryan Medlin a rookie from Fayetteville State, and a player without a profile on the NFL's website, rushed for 54-yards and 2 touchdowns. Who is bagging all of the groceries in Jacksonville this week? It seems like the team brought them all to New England for the first preseason game of the season. 

9. Is Tarvaris Jackson really going to be the starting quarterback in Seattle? Is he really one of the 32 best quarterbacks in the world? Is he really better than Charlie Whitehurst? Why did the Seahawks give up a second and a third round pick for Whitehurst only to burry him behind Hasselbeck and then put him behind Tarvaris Jackson on the depth chart? What did they see in him then that they didn't see in him when they brought Tarvaris Jackson in and immediately named him the starter. The Seahawks treated Jackson like the starter today limiting his action to a drive or two and only letting him drop back for five passes. On the other hand, Whitehurst got a lot more work and went 14-20 for 120-yards leading the Seahawks to a 24-17 victory over the Chargers. 

10. To summarize the first night of football after a five month lockout that resulted in the cancelation of one game, I would say these things:

• New England destroyed Jacksonville and could be getting ready to having a huge season. 
• The field goal kickers were very busy tonight. 
• Despite the lockout, pre-season football is still pretty boring. 
• We are 27 days away from the real thing. 
• The tuck rule made an appearance tonight. 

Don't forget to give a listen to Episode 35 of The Sports-Casters featuring interviews with DJ Gallo from ESPN Page 2, and Jay Clemons and Matt Bowen from the National Football Post. I am already working on Episode 36 witch should include interviews with Dave Dameshek, Todd Fritz, and Don Banks. 

3 More Things

Where is Frank Drebin?

1. The Sports-Casters Spending Spree

I have been so excited about our fantastic show on Tuesday that I have been on a bit of a spending spree. Someone needs to get here quick and tie me down before Miss Caster snips off my balls. 

It started yesterday when I spent over an hour walking around at Barnes and Noble. I love to walk around and look at all of the books. I hate buying books from Barnes and Noble because they are so damn expensive. I basically walk around the store with my iPhone in hand and the Amazon Price Checker app open. I won't buy any book that is priced $5 higher than Amazon. 

This is what I ended up buying.

- "3 Nights in August, Strategy, Heartbreak and Joy. Inside the Mind of a Manager" by Buzz Bissinger

I have wanted to read this book for a long time and it was perfectly priced at $4.98 thanks to it's inclusion in the bargain books section of the store. 

- "Blood. Sweat and Chalk, The Ultimate Football Playbook: How the Great Coaches Built Today's Game" by Tim Layden 

I am working really hard to try and book Tim Layden on The Sports-Casters. Looking ahead, I figured I would be prepared and read his latest book. It has just been released on paperback and was 20% off. It ended up costing me only $11.99. 

- "The Ultimate Mac How to Handbook No. 5" Presented by Mac Life. 

I made my way to the magazine rack hoping to find a fantasy football magazine or an NFL season preview  magazine. I was really disappointed with the selection. There were three magazines worth my money and I had already purchased them all. Other than those three, the selection sucks this year. This is clearly an underrated casualty of the lockout. ESPN doesn't have a fantasy magazine this year, and the NFL didn't put one out either. 

Anyway, I got suckered into a horrible purchase. I have no one to blame but myself. I walked over to the Apple magazine section and got all pissed off to see that the new Macworld was on the rack but hadn't arrived in my mailbox yet. I didn't see the September edition of Mac Life just yet but I did see this cool looking magazine that seemed to offer ticks, tips, and fun ideas for the Apple products I am proud to own. Instead, I got a magazine full of re-printed articles from the monthly Mac Life magazine I subscribe to already. Price of this awful purchase? $9.99

Last night, I had a craving to watch The Naked Gun. I went to my DVD collection and was shocked to see that I didn't own The Naked Gun. How did I not own this OJ Simpson classic? Today, I wasted no time heading to Best Buy to purchase the complete Naked Gun box set. Instead, I ended up with this collection of Blu Ray and DVD Movies. I am proud to say that none of them were priced higher than that awful magazine purchase. 

-Major League "Wild Thing Edition"

-*61

-National Lampoon's Vacation

-Friday Night Lights 

After Best Buy, I stopped at Target and WalMart to try and find a copy of The Naked Gun. NO DICE. Apple to the rescue; I am going to rent The Naked Gun on Apple TV tonight for the small fee of 2.99. I can handle it. 

2. Upcoming Editions of The Sports-Casters 

Besides buying stuff that I don't really need, I have been working on booking the next couple of podcasts. Here is where we are at:

Episode 35

DJ Gallo from ESPN's Page 2 and SportsPickle

Jay Clemons from The National Football Post 

Matt Bowen from The National Football Post

Notes: DJ Gallo is someone I have been chasing for a long time. He has played a little hard to get. We talked a ways back on Twitter and he told me to email him. I never heard back. I tried again a day or two ago and we were able to work it out. Jay Clemons will join us to talk about Fantasy Football. Matt Bowen is a former NFL player and we will talk to him about the upcoming football season. 

Episode 36

Dave Dameshek from NFL.COM

Todd Fritz from the Dan Patrick Show

Don Banks form SI.COM

Notes: Fritz has big shoes to fill as fellow Danette knocked it out of the park on Episode 34 of The Sports-Casters. Don's #1 guest, Dave Dameshek will make his third appearance on the show. He also appeared on episode 4 and 20. 

Future Guests: 

We have a commitment from Richard Deitsch to preview the NFL/BCS on TV sometime towards the end of the month. I am also working on Tim Layden, Bob Ryan, Dan Levy, Jeff Duncan and Rob Demovsky to preview the Saints vs. Packers season opener. 

3. Fantasy Football Ranking/Five on Fantasy

Don and I have been working on a new show segment called, Five on Fantasy. FoF debuted on Season 1 Episode 32 and has also been on Episode 33 and 34. I am enjoying the segment and we have been trying to mix it up with not only information on the players, but also information on the strategy and the different ways that you can play fantasy football. 

Last week I started my fantasy football top 10's. I started with Wide Receiver, will do QB this week, and RB on episode 36. I also have thrown out some sleepers for WR and will continue to do it for RB and QB. 

Here is a recap of my top 10 Wide Receivers for the 2011 Fantasy Season          

1. Andre Johnson 

2. Roddy White

3. Calvin Johnson

4. Vincent Jackson

5. Hakeem Nicks 

6. Larry Fitzgerald

7. Reggie Wayne 

8. Greg Jennings 

9. Miles Austin

10. Mike Wallace

Here are five sleepers:

Steve Breaston, Lance Moore, Jacoby Ford, Mario Manningham, and Mike Thomas.