DaddyTips.com

Driscoll Middle School Trick Play Video

The Driscoll Middle School Trick Play video is burning up the charts on the Interwebs. Here it is, for your viewing pleasure:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UIdI8khMkw]

Nice, right? With all the talk about kids getting hurt playing football, this is one way to avoid a big hit. Assuming nobody decides to waste the kid as he strolls down the field.

I somewhat wonder if the play is against the rules. If so, it’s still fun to watch. Reminds me of the hidden ball trick from ‘The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training.’ Can’t find a clip of the movie, but here’s a real life version of the hidden ball trick.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brfWfv53uNs]

OK, it’s college baseball. That’s kind of like real life.

Is Mike Shanahan Protecting His Son?

Much has been said about the benching of Donovan McNabb on October 31, 2010. We have a new daddy-related theory to add to the mix. Is Mike Shanahan protecting his son?

First, some background:

(If you already know what happened and just want to skip to the theory, click here.)

This weekend, Washington Redskins coach Mike Shanahan benched quarterback Donovan McNabb with less than two minutes to go in a winnable game and put in backup QB Rex Grossman. Rex rewarded this vote of confidence by immediately fumbling the ball. The Lions’ Ndamukong Suh scooped it up and ran it it in for a touchdown, putting the game out of reach.

At the post game press conference, Shanahan gave the following explanation for the move:

“With a minute left and Rex knowing how to run that two-minute offense, I felt with the time and no timeouts, he gave us the best chance to win in that scenario, just knowing the terminology, what we’ve done, how we’ve run it. [That] puts a lot of pressure on the quarterback that hasn’t been used to that terminology, and I thought that was the best scenario for us to have a chance to win….It gave us the best chance to win. What you have to do sometimes if you’ve got to understand everything is sped up when you don’t have timeouts. It’s got to come automatic….I thought it was the best scenario to put him in there in that situation.”

The next day, the coach said that McNabb lacked the “proper conditioning” to run the 2-minute drill:

“The cardiovascular endurance that it takes to run a two-minute [drill], going all the way down with no time-outs, calling plays, it’s just not easy. If I thought it was the best situation to do, then Donovan would have run the two-minute offense.”

So… McNabb is not as good as Grossman at the 2-minute drill, and he’s not in shape. Kind of. Also a possible hamstring problem. Both hamstrings. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Redskins offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan — Mike’s son — says that McNabb “knew benching was a possibility”. McNabb, no stranger to being ridiculed for all sorts of things, says he was not aware of this.

Now, some facts. Rex Grossman, who started in the Super Bowl for the Chicago Bears when they got destroyed by the Indianapolis Colts, is not what anyone would call a good quarterback. At this point he is at best a second stringer. A backup. In fact, he was a backup for the Houston Texans last season, where Kyle Shanahan —  Mike’s son — was the offensive coordinator. Shanahan the younger ran an offense that was designed by Shanahan the elder. An offense that is apparently so complex it can only be run by someone who is deeply familiar with it. Even if they aren’t, you know, good enough to be an NFL starter.

So here’s the theory. It is possible that in the heat of the game, Kyle Shanahan — Mike’s son — tells his dad that the right guy for this situation is Rex Grossman. Dad listens. The result is the worst possible outcome — snap, fumble, touchdown for the other team. At the press conference, head coach/Kyle’s dad decides that the best way to handle this is to say something negative about his starting quarterback. The next day, he makes up a new reason, one that still says something negative about his starting quarterback, but not quite as negative. Kyle decides to weigh in and say that McNabb always knew that a benching might happen — because really, why would anyone think that keeping your mouth shut is a good idea at this point — something that, for the record, McNabb says he was unaware of.

This wouldn’t be the first time an NFL dad defended his NFL son. Back in 2005, former Giants great Phil Simms told Steve Young to “lay off” his son Chris when Young said that perhaps Chris lacked the mental toughness to be an NFL starter, in part because he was perhaps raised in a “laissez-faire kind of atmosphere”. Chris Simms is now basically out of the league and was recently busted for driving while under the influence of marijuana; he pleaded not guilty. The arresting officer said the smell of pot was “very strong” in Simms’ car and that the former Bucs and Titans QB “had a very flushed face”, according to the New York Post.

Phil Simms hasn’t said anything about Chris recently. At least not in public.

We have no inside information here. It’s just a theory. Rather than saying, “you know what, I listened to my son and we lost the game. It was a mistake, one I will try not to make again,” Shanahan the elder instead decided to protect his son and throw his quarterback under the bus. Just a theory.

What do you think? Is Mike Shanahan protecting his son?

Are We Done With Lance Armstrong Now? [Rants]

According to published reports, professional bike rider Floyd Landis has admitted that he was doping and claims that Lance Armstrong was doing it too. My question is: are we done with Lance Armstrong now?

I’ve never liked Lance Armstrong. There was always something about him. Maybe it’s the way he uses the fact that he had cancer as a marketing tool. Or the fact that nobody ever says what a douche the guy is. I mean, he was making out with an Olsen twin. What the hell? That’s douchey behavior.

But nobody calls him on it. Why not? Because he’s Lance Armstrong. He only has one testicle. (Note: I’m not sure how many testicles he has. Ask the Olsen twins.)

He dumped Sheryl Crow, and it could be because she had breast cancer. The rumor, if I recall correctly, was that she wanted kids and he didn’t. Then he went out and had kids. Methinks Lance just wanted to bang younger women.

But he had cancer! And made those rubber bracelets!

And he’s such a champion! He won all those bike races! No way was he aided by drugs. The French are just jealous. They’re still mad because we saved their ass in WWII. Amirite?

Now it appears that Lance Armstrong may have been lying all along. Landis is definitely lying; he’s either lying doping now, or he was lying about not doping before. Since only high school students trying to look cool lie about taking drugs, I’m going to go with the latter.

Landis is definitely an enormous jackass. In a 2007 New York Times Magazine story, Landis denied doing anything that was against cycling rules. The article talked about his “supporters”; I think some even gave him money to help with his legal fees. Legal fees to defend himself against the allegations that he had done bad things in order to win a bike race.

I’m not someone who spends a lot of time worrying about performance enhancing drugs in sports. I don’t think it’s a good idea, but I do think there is a tremendous amount of hypocrisy in the sports world when it comes to this topic. Brett Favre couldn’t take the field without popping pain pills. Um, hello? If you’re going to put an asterisk next to Barry Bonds because he couldn’t have hit home runs without HGH, shouldn’t you do the same thing for Brett Favre’s consecutive game streak? Oh, but the pain pills didn’t help him play better. True. They helped him play, period. But hey, you know. He’s Brett Favre. That makes it okay.

I could give two shits about cycling. But that’s not the point. The point is the lying, the repeated lying, and the lack of anyone giving a shit about telling the truth.

If it turns out that Lance Armstrong is a lying sack of shit, what will that mean for his “legacy”? Will people burn their rubber bracelets in outrage? Will he have to give back all the money he earned from being a “hero” and a “champion”?

Nah. Because nobody cares. They believed whatever he said, reporters bought into it, and that’s it. It’s old news, right? Who cares? What’s done is done. Besides, he’s really sorry. The French made him do it.

Deadspin points out that “No proof is offered, as of yet. Just the word of a man who has nothing left to lose.” That is, no proof that Armstrong did anything, and Landis has nothing left to lose. For the record, I still think Lance Armstrong is a dick, and that he gets a pass when he does douchey stuff like making out with an Olsen twin, or dumping Sheryl Crow because she has cancer and is too old for his one-balled self, or using his cancer as a marketing tool. But it’s possible that he wasn’t lying about this.

Besides, he had CANCER. Didn’t you know? He’s such a great guy.

Junior Seau Castrates a Horse

This should be a headline from The Onion. But it’s not.

OK, Junior (seems odd to call a grown man that but whatever) castrated the horse on his TV show, Sports Jobs, which airs on the “is that actually a” channel Versus.

But. Um. Junior Seau Castrates a Horse. Why?

Actually, there was an Onion bit that this reminds me of. In their fake TV listings section, a network was airing a show called “Would You Watch That?” “How about a bear eating a birthday cake?” the description asked. “Would you watch that?”

How about Junior Seau castrating a horse? Would you watch that?

Now you can. Who says family TV is dead?

Junior Seau Castrates a Horse — Back Porch FanHouse.

Wes Welker’s Dad Speaks For Him

I’m a Wes Welker fan; he was on my fantasy team this year, and always seemed like a decent enough guy. (That is, he wasn’t pulling guns on people like Gilbert Arenas. I know, different sport.) And it certainly sucked for him (and the Patriots) that he blew out his leg in the Week 17 game. But I always find it interesting when a player’s dad speaks for him.

“Not too good,” Welker's dad, Leland, told the Boston Globe. “We're sick. We're absolutely sick. We take all those hits and stuff all season long. And then just one fluke cut, and he just blows it out.”

Maybe this is because I can’t imagine my dad doing something like, and not only because he’s dead and I never played sports. Even if that’s it, it seems odd that a professional athlete would have his father speaking for him. It happens more often than you might think. Phil Simms did it for his son Chris, although that was a little different since Phil actually played football and is on TV as an analyst. Rex Grossman’s dad was yakking when his boy was about to get spanked in the Super Bowl. It’s one thing when the player is in high school or even college, but by the time he’s a pro, one would think dad isn’t in the picture quite as much. But he is.

via Wes Welker Carted Off With Knee Injury — NFL FanHouse

Comment from ProFootballTalk

We’re going to start posting our favorite comments. This has nothing to do with being a dad, it’s just something I find amusing. dADD, folks. I see it, I post it.

A blog post on ProFootballTalk.com called Del Rio throws barb at Fred Taylor before reunion prompted this gem:

chapnasty says: December 22, 2009 5:20 PM

Not really much here. Just another post trying to turn something little into something huge. Do you guys ever get tired of hearing your readers tell you that you suck?

Who could ever get tired of that?

Comment from Steelers-Browns Game

so many breaks in the action ruins the game i wish it wasnt all about the money