First off, just wanted to talk a little about my picks for last night's fight card....The only thing that really surprised me was the Chris Leben loss to Jake Rosholt....That's a good win for Rosholt 'cause Leben has now taken the role of gatekeeper in the UFC, meaning that if you can get past him, you've got a chance to go far up the ladder....
I just wish that I had the cojones to trust my gut and plunk some money down on Nogueira, but like I said, it was a toss-up....I was able to find the knockout bet on the Jardine/Silva fight, so I didn't care who won, just as long as it ended up as a KO for someone....that's a good win for Thiago Silva considering people like myself were writing him off after a big loss to Lyoto Machida...
Wow, I feel like complete garbage as I recover from a great birthday bash for my good buddy Jordan last night....so I'll say one last time, Happy Birthday Jordan! Went to the Crazy Horse in Kanata and pretended to be a cowboy for a night....but it was from that party that I got the idea to write early on a Sunday afternoon....
We were sitting and having birthday dinner when one of the TV's was switched over to the Kansas City/Seattle pre-season game....so inevitably, the talk turned how each of our teams is doing in the pre-season.....when it came to talking about the Bills, everyone gave me some grief, but I don't really have a problem with it because the pre-season doesn't mean anything....
The vast majority of people will base how their team is improving in the pre-season on the few drives that the first-stringers have against other first-stringers, but really, it's not the way you should judge your team....the only way you can really gauge improvement is if you were able to attend daily practice and scrimmage....
The true chemistry is built through hundreds of repetitions on the practice field that the average fan would never have access to.....the perfect example is someone cheering on the Vikings....Vikings fan cannot possible judge how the team is going to this season based on a couple of drives led by Brett Favre....
And please, for the love of God, never point to the pre-season standings to prove that your team is going to improve from last season....if you run into this guy or gal, all you have to do to shoot them down is point to the Detroit Lions of last season....4-0 in the pre-season and 0-16 when it actually counted...
Looking at the standings right now, the NFC East has all four teams at 1-2 so far.....but trust me when I say this, it's going to be the toughest division in all of football.....you can make cases for the Cowboys, Giants and the Eagles all having a chance to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl this year....
And another request, DO NOT base some of your fantasy picks on pre-season results....I see this all the time when I'm doing fantasy drafts and it's simply foolish.....looking quickly at the stats, Matt Leinart is leading quarterbacks in passing yards.....it doesn't mean that he's gonna challenge Kurt Warner at any point for the starting job....you can't find a diamond in the rough based on pre-season results.....don't bother trying!
The season starts on September 10th and until then, leave the dissecting of pre-season games to the degenerates who bet on these meaningless games....