Super Bowl Sunday....Hello? Hello? Is this thing on?

As a nation our worst nightmare has come true. The Philadelphia fanbase vs. the Boston fanbase for a championship. The last two weeks for people in this area have been beyond annoying. Philly fans managing somehow to continue an imagined fight with Vikings fans and ESPN sportswriters actively looking for the manger Tom Brady was born in.

Ya know Bunky there's not only a puppy bowl but also a dog bowl for older pups, all of whom are up for adoption! Um, let's see; old movies, a Game of Thrones marathon, posting vacation pictures to Instaface, horsing around on the computer, or even catching up on Booth and Brennan on Bones on the Hulu come to mind as better alternatives than having to watch this pig slop of a game. Then again so does yelling at traffic, chewing foil and starting food fights at Bill Knapps, so really how you entertain yourselves is up to you.

If however you're looking for a place to crap all over the game, the halftime holograms, the announcers, the First Down Dancers®, and cutaway ads for Sheehan's Rustproofing on Route 440, let the Jersey City Desk be your Super Bowl Sunday oasis.

Giants football Gameday!

Would you look at that, it's Sunday and so a Giants game is at our throats again. Unlike a bad college season which ends for 95% of college teams next weekend, the Giants shall plod on into the holidays.

The Kansas City Chiefs roll into the New Meadowlands this afternoon for a windy and cold November matchup, red vs Big Blue. On paper this looks like a wipeout, the Chiefs are 6-3 and the Giants took a huge step to challenge the Browns for the #1 overall draft pick when they laid a deep dish pizza in San Francisco last Sunday.

But that wind out there, 40 mph, 50 mph, the G-Men see this often, the Kansas Cities, not so much. How many times in history have the Giants been able to turn a really windy day into scoreboard gold? So, passing will suck equally, let's see who can run the ball. Toledo Rocket rookie Kareem Hunt started like a house afire for KC but has found the sledding much tougher over the last month. He hasn't had a 100 yard game since mid-October and hasn't scored a TD since late September. SO, can the Giants keep him bottled up, thus giving them a shot at a useless win?

No. The Giants are 30th in the NFL against the run. We'd expect the KC offensive line right now to be chomping at the bit to get out and get run blocking. Kansas City however isn't much better coming in at #29 against the run. That'd be great but the Chiefs have what you;d actually call a real running attack whereas that went out the window for the Giants in like week 2.

Is there anything in the passing numbers, something so lopsided that even the weather might not stop it? Not really, the Chiefs are 8th in the league in passing yards and for context ahead of teams like Detroit, and Atlanta. The Giants, they can't run well and can't pass consistently hitting the team passing list at #22.

Everything seems to tip in Kansas City's favor today. All the stats line up for a Chiefs win, we're seeing piss-poor effort from some of the G-Men and the Chiefs are far more likely to be the team with a 100 yard rushing day.

Still, that wind...

Fearless Forecast
Kansas Windy Chiefs 22
New Windy Giants 17

Draft Watch®
Huge loss by the G-Men last week. Well timed and to the right team, the one ahead of them in the draft order. They need to keep up that "lolligag the ball around the infield" attitude with KC. The Browns are at home today against the on-the-rise Jacksonville Jaguars. The one thing that could help the Browns win today is the Jags are the #1 overall rushing team BUT, and are you sitting down? The Brownies are #6 vs the rush in the NFL.

1) Cleveland 0-9
2) NY Giants 1-8
3) San Francisco 1-9
4) Indianapolis 3-7
5) Cincinnati 3-6

For those of you looking ahead and wondering now whom might be available and who is projected to come to the Giants here are a couple draft prediction sites. Walter Football & CBS Sports.

Giants football Gameday!

What's that? A bye week? Hmmmm. OK then:

Fearless Forecast
Bye Week 24
New Jersey Giants 20

We'll be back with Draft Watch® next week

Giants football Gameday!

What a game we have on tap for you Giants fans over at the New Meadowlands today. It's so humid your jerseys and shirts will wear you. It'll rain off and on and did we mention, the Giants are 0-4 and their opponents today, the recently relocated Los Angeles Chargers are 0-4. You really have to love G-Men football to go to this one today. In fact Johnny's going to guess that season ticket holders were like Santa Claus this week, "Hey ah, Anthony, I know you've always wanted to go see a Giants game, how about you take MY tickets and take your girlfriend Laina with you."

Earlier this morning Anthony made a phone call, "Hey, Joey, I know you've always wanted to see the Giants play at MetLife..."

Let's skip the crapola analysis and just say if Big Blue wins today this is one of those wins you look back on draft day when you're drafting 8th not 3rd and wonder why they even tried.

Enjoy drafting 8th.

Fearless Forecast
New Jersey Giants 24
Lower California Traveling Wilburys 23

Giants football GAMEDAY!

The playoffs grow closer and boy howdy do the New Jersey Giants have a BIG game with the Lions from Johnny's hometown of Detroit in the rain today at  the new Meadowlands. Not often the Lions get out this way. Even less often leading a division by two games with three to play. The Lions last division title was back in 1993 when Scott Mitchell, Herman Moore, Barry Sanders and Johnny Morton led the Lions. Most Lions fans Johnny knows are expecting them to crash out and lose to the G-Men, Cowboys, and Packers at the end of the year and blow it. Somewhat new ground for the Motor City Kitties as they come east.

First off, if you had both the Lions and Giants and 9-4 when they played this game at the beginning of the year raise your hand.

Liarhead.

So, in the rain can the Lions running game, resurgent of late, move the ball on the ground and take pressure off Matthew Stafford's injured throwing hand? Despite what the Lions say it IS a big deal. The Bears only had a chance last week because Stafford got picked twice on throws into the flat that had nothing on them. With a wet ball can Stafford distribute it around like he wants and needs to, to the Lions better than average wideouts. There's your ballgame. Can the Giants force the Lions to pass. While neither team tears up the league in offense, (the Lions are 21st and the Giants at 27) both teams do hold onto the ball. Giants average 27 minutes a game while the Lions check in at just over 30 minutes a game with the football. Both QB's will take their shots downfield but a more conservative gameplan will be the order of the day in the rain.

This game will have a playoff feel to it no doubt. Both teams are fighting for their playoff lives, the Giants to keep pace with everyone in the NFC East and the Lions to keep ahead of Green Bay and realizing no wildcards are coming out of the NFC North. It should be a conservative game for the most part and yes, wet weather can make a quick hash out of a prediction. That being said this game smells like one played with a score in the teens or low 20's. If that's the case, and with the Lions seeming invincibility late when they need it AND the fact Matt Prater is the kind of kicker who can make long field goals when needed, here we go...

Fearless Forecast
Detroit Lions 19
New Jersey Giants 17

Giants football GAMEDAY!

So, is the Giants game today on the shores of Lake Erie at the Factory of Sadness vs the 0-11 Browns a tasty helping of Thanksgiving leftovers or a hand grenade disguised as a piece of pumpkin pie? Sure that 0-11 Browns record looks like a tasty meal, at home or on the road, the Browns are inept everywhere. However, only two NFL teams have gone winless in the Super Bowl-era. Actually, before their loss to the Steelers a week back some computer sports group put out odds the Browns only had a 20% chance to lose ALL their games. This seems to be telling us that yes, indeed, there is a hand grenade aspect to today's game. If the Giants lose to an 0-11 team in basically what should be a free win, one wonders how that plays out over the past month of the season. Does everything go into the toilet?

Relax, Johnny's been a Browns fan forever and you Big Blue fans have nothing to worry about. Do you have serviceable, ne, good wideouts? Well then Eli Manning should carve up a suspect Browns secondary like cake. The Browns offer little to no pass rush, Eli should have all day to make things look good on the offensive side of the ball. The Browns can't stop the run either so make sure to throw some ball control in there too. Defensively the Giants will be going up against one of many Browns QB's; Is RGIII back? McCown? Kessler? Kosar? While they can't run the Browns can pass a little and have two actual NFL-caliber guys who catch what gets thrown, Pro Bowl TE Gary Barnidge and breakout former OSU QB Terrell Pryor. Pryor is a big target and strong, capable of breaking tackles. This IS predicated on the idea the Browns QB's have any time to throw the ball. Why do the Browns start so many quarterbacks? They all get ground up by the opposing pass rush. The Giants front four should have a field day.

Yeah, not too much to worry about today G-Men fans, unless they start fumbling the ball, Eli decides to play blindfolded, they drop punts or get lost before the game and head over to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Fearless Forecast:
New Jersey Giants 31
Cleveland Browns 13

Giants football GAMEDAY!

London game, PU. Does ANYONE enjoy these things? It's practically punishment to the teams forced to travel and play what we consider way too early. In fact, Johnny is trying to write this moments before fucking kickoff...

The Rams are nothing special but neither this year are the Giants. They have just enough to stay in the division race but one gets the feeling one or two more bad losses and that chase is over. Today is a real mental test, not just the travel but the absolute intensity of the Josh Brown domestic abuse story in which the Giants and the league come off looking absolutely stupid. Thunderstruck. Hit with a shovel. When you do a terrible job on this topic, one you the NFL has said is important to you and you do nothing when you find out a guy is beating his wife regularly and it's all covered up, yeah, that's awful. So, do the Giants have the mental toughness to take their longest road trip ever and beat a team with nothing to lose in LA?

Both teams are in London because they're middling as New England and Denver don't play overseas do they?

Fearless Forecast w chips
New Jersey Giants 23
LA Rams 14

Jets and Giants football GAMEDAY!

Hey hey, you've waited an entire offseason for your favorite area football teams to get going and today is that day! We'll start with the Giants because they would seem to have a better game with more meaning today:

The Giants are in the Jerry Jones Funhouse where anything, however improbable can and does happen to opposing teams. The Dallas Dome is fast becoming 3 Rivers Stadium/Heinz Field for the Stoolers getting magic plays and really odd calls. The "luck" the Steelers actually moved stadiums, funny how that happened. The Giants it would appear have more going for them than Dallas right now. No QB in Big D could well spell doom if the Giants can stop the Dallas run. Ezekiel Elliot must be given a rude welcome to the NFL because no backup the Cowboys use is going to beat the G Men on his own throwing. Stop. The. Run. We're guessing the Giants offense, unpredictably spotty at times last year may well be the same today but we think Eli Manning can move Big Blue more often and longer distances and they'll score just enough to get a win to start the season.

Fearless Forecast
New Jersey Giants 22
Dallas Cowboys 17

The Jets today face a team in Cincinnati that no doubt stewed in the rarefied juices of their pattymeltdown at home vs. the Steelers in last year's playoff game. They can't not have heard the jokes, the crying Jordan face memes, the Andy Dalton criticisms, the Vonteze Burfict commentary and will be ready to burst forth at the New Meadowlands today at 1pm. That can cut both ways. We know the Jets are at home but if they can keep Cincy close the first quarter and a half and draw them into a bone crushing running/field position game they have a chance. Drag Cincinnati into the deep water in the fourth quarter might be their best and only hope. The Jets are already beat up and it's Johnny best guess they won't score a lot today, they may even need like 3 field goals and a safety to get it done. Barring a Bungles collapse and bad behavior hangover we just don't see the J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS winning today. Johnny hopes he's wrong but...

Fearless forecast
Cincinnati Bungles 30
New Jersey Jets 18

Sunday NFL open thread

We didn't think games could get shittier than the Giants vs the Washingtons but then one must only wait until 4pm to have to look at the Jets and Titans.

Days like this were made for NFL Redzone. Tell us what you're seeing and don't hold back.

This takes balls:

Breaking News: The weather is so bad in Buffalo the Jets game there Sunday is being moved

A neutral site game is what the Jets will face as yet another 3-4 feet of snow fell in and just south of Buffalo today forcing the NFL to move the game to either Detroit, Pittsburgh or Washington but no final announcement has been made yet. We'd expect tickets to be free, seriously on that, to help fill the stadium wherever it turns out to be.

New Jersey Giants football gameday!

It sort of almost kind of feels like fall this morning around north Jersey and what better way to usher in a new season of New Jersey Giants football! The Giants are the first of two Monday night football games tonight with a late game featuring San Diego and, whatever. Two Monday night games. Stupid.

To downtown Detroit we go friends, and Johnny is going to hip some of you tri-staters that some Giants fans are going to come back from Ford Field and actually have nice things to say about downtown Detroit. They may have a glazed look, but know this, they weren't drugged....by Detroiters. Downtown Detroit is a great chic place anymore and when was the last time you heard that? Greektown, games at Comerica Park and Ford Field going on side by side, Mexicantown, great restaurants, the riverfront riverwalk, casinos, Woodward Ave, Canada a bridge or tunnel away and always great music. If you get the chance another time Ford Field is a great place to see a game.

The Giants are looking down the barrel of a very middling season. They aren't the team they were even two years ago. Depth is a big issue except in the secondary, the defensive line has worn down meaning each time Eli comes on he feels he needs a 14 point drive. This leads to mistakes yadda yadda yadda. While we doubt Big Blue will lose their first six games this year (And if they start 0-3 we think Cranky-pants Coughlin gets broomed) but this is a difficult road game. Forget Detroit can suck 90% of the time yet beat playoff teams when all the lights are on at Thanksgiving 43-10. Try, really try to forget Megatron plays for the Lions. A road game against a team that was close to breaking through the year before is a tough draw.

By all accounts Matthew Stafford is excelling in Jim Caldwell's new offensive circus-style gameplan. By all accounts Calvin Johnson is in the prime of a hall of fame career. The one thing Lions' opponents may fail to account for is Reggie Bush who had a great season with Detroit last year, rushing for a smidgen over 1000 yards. Spend too much time on Megatron and the Lions tight ends and Bush will feast. Detroit also added Golden Tate from the Super Bowl champion Peahens. So for all the weaponry at Stafford's disposal tonight Eli isn't quite so lucky. The offensive line is a mess and the G-Men's #1 pick WR Odell Beckham Jr. won't play tonight. The lack of a good NFL offensive line should concern Eli Manning's wife more than anyone because next to sack-meisters Nick Fairley and Ziggy Ansah lines up one Ndamukong Suh, who let's face facts is capable of any evil. One day he's just going to pull someone's leg off and beat them to death with it. Detroit has their next Alex Karras on the field today. Ndamukong just pawn in game of life. If Eli can't hook up with Victor Cruz better than last year and the new running backs aren't good, oh boy, this could be a long night and season.

No doubt the Lions well remember last Dec. 22 when the Giants but a dent hit in the Lions playoff chances 23-20. The Giants picked off Stafford twice and Megatron caught 3 balls all day. The Giants secondary had better be ready to help keep this game in the 20's as well.

Fearless Forecast (and yesterday's was a doozy kids)
Detroit 34
New Jersey Giants 20

New Jersey Jets football gameday!

Is it? Could it be? YES! The NFL is back with games that count in the standings AND for player suspensions!

A gorgeous Sunday dawns for the J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS home opener over at the New Meadowlands (and a reminder to our readers Johnny isn't getting paid to call the stadium in the New Meadowlands by it's corporate name, so he doesn't have to. Pony up bitches!). Game time temps in the mid to upper 70's and after this week's heat wave oh that's tasty. With a huge game for Rutgers next weekend against The Nittany Scourge could it be this area is ready to commit a whole weekend to football, not just Sunday?

So, football, yes, pigskins and X's and O's. The Oakland, Los Angeles, The Al Davis Death Star, Rancho Cucamonga, Oakland Raiders come a calling today, hey would you look at that, at the New Meadowlands of all places. We'll take kind of an overview look at the game because we don't have many trend lines and who knows what a real first game brings. Preseason means nothing. The year the Lions lost all their regular season games they won all their preseason games.  Geno Smith will lead a Jets team that with some hard work and a couple bounces, could be playing serious football in December. New England aren't what they have been. Miami is usually right around 8-8 always and Buffalo is, well, cold. But he has to lead and the Jets have to score points. Chris Johnson and Eric Decker you are up. Smith Johnson and Decker will have to shoulder much of the Jetropolitans offensive load. They'll for once have to cover for a defense that could leak in the secondary, for so long a Jets strength. 17 points a game isn't gonna feed any kind of good season.

The Raiders are coming off a league leading 11 straight seasons with a losing record. That's worse than Johnny's Browns. When you suck more than the Cleveland Browns you might be a black hole. Hey, isn't that the Raiders cheering section? Yahtzee! It seems like the Oakland Eleven will be going with rookie Derek Carr at QB today, something that should make Jet fans really happy. Two things happen in a rookie's first game. They talk about you on SportsCenter in glowing terms or Tom Jackson shakes his head while looking down watching your "highlights" roll across the screen. If Darren McFadden is healthy that could be a problem. Good player when he can play. James Jones from Green Bay and running back Maurice Jones-Drew from Jacksonville also moved west to be paid in pirate plunder rather than US currency. That's a good enough lot that if somebody gets on a roll the Jets could lose a winnable game. It goes back to the Jets offense scoring and holding onto the ball.

At Johnny's first college football game at now since lost to time Memorial Field in Marquette Michigan in 19&%, he learned his first college cheer to back those Northern Michigan Wildcats out on a real frozen tundra. Go ahead Jets fans, feel free to use it:

Hassle Them
Hassle Them
Make them relinquish the ball!!

Hassle Them

Hassle Them

Make them relinquish the ball!!

Fearless Forecast

New Jersey Jets 22

Chokeland Raiders 17

OMAHA!

And the Seahawks jump offside...

The Super Bowl hype machine is up and running and you know what Johnny's noticed?

NYC seems SO desperate to let people know THEY have something to do with it. Yes, with NJ thinking they'd be the ones overlooked by the media and getting no attention for their events the script has completely flipped. Did anyone watch the NYC news reports the last couple nights? Read the blogs and newspapers? They seemed almost pained to say everything for the next few days was Jersey-centric. From the non-stop team reports here in Jersey City on the NFL Network and ESPN where the Broncos and Seahawks are both staying, to the media day at the Prudential Center in Newark, to the kickoff concert.

It's the New York City media outlets looking desperate for attention.

They continually showed their big Broadway football NFL experience in Times Square thing where nobody was. New York media outlets are talking up NYC events that frankly aren't drawing. Lots of fans here for the kickoff concert at Liberty State Park last night. Look at the pictures in the link, lots of fans hanging outside the hotels here in Jersey City.

As hard as Roger Goodell and his NFL lackeys might have tried to minimize New Jersey in the whole Super Bowl run up it appears that New Jersey has become the star and New Yorkers are left trying to photobomb us.

Never let them forget it either...

Both Super Bowl teams arrive in Jersey City Sunday with much fanfare

At least by Jersey City's Mayor and the fans of the teams themselves. There just aren't a lot of Seattle or Denver fans who make up the local population to make that happen. You citizen are encouraged to go to both the Denver Donkeys arrival celebration which takes place at 4pm at the Hyatt hotel, 2 Exchange Place AND Crooked Pete and his Merry Band of Self-Important Seattle Peahens who will have their arrival celebration at 8pm at the Westin, 479 Washington Blvd.

Said Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop of the welcome ceremonies:

“We are excited to welcome the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks, as well as all of their fans, to Jersey City,” Fulop said. “Working closely with the NFL has been a great opportunity to showcase Jersey City as we prepare for the nation’s largest annual sporting event. We hope that everyone attending the Super Bowl experiences everything Jersey City has to offer.”

Johnny wishes he could get excited by these teams but come on, Denver and Seattle. Nuff said.

Experts: NJ is getting outright hosed on Super Bowl money

The NFL, without showing all work, uses a formula from a company calling itself Sport Management Research Institute to tell host cities they will get upwards of half a billion dollars from travelers and others coming for the game and festivities. People who don't do their homework on these numbers hear this and think fabulous what a great deal we're getting, some kind of factoring and science must have been used in these projections. Well the half a billion is being grossly overstated by as much as 75% and the science used so the NFL can use the $500 million number is based on "false science" say experts:


Andrew Zimbalist, a sports economist at Smith College, told NJ.com in a recent Q&A that the study that produces that $500-600 million figure is based on "false science":

The studies that they do that I’ve seen—they don’t make all of them available—but the ones that I’ve seen use input-output analysis and produce reams of data that an uninformed observer would look at and say, ‘Well, this is science.’ The NFL certainly wants people to believe that it’s science.

S.P. Sullivan at NJ.com did a great breakdown of the true costs and benefits of Super Bowls and what New Jersey and to a lesser extent NYC can expect from this year's Super Bowl. Sullivan interviewed quite a few experts who said the NFL numbers just do not add up:

Matheson says the rosy economic figures being offered by the NFL and host committees are flawed in part because the parties funding them have an economic interest in reporting big numbers. They also focus on economic activity created by the game without factoring in economic activity prevented by the game, he says.

"The way that the studies go wrong is that they do a pretty good job estimating all the economic impact that does occur because of the Super Bowl, but they don't do a very good job of estimating the impact that doesn't occur," Matheson said.

There is so much more on this at the link above. It makes for a great read if you want to know the truth and not just what's being told to you.

Stupid question NJ.com, Should the Super Bowl be postponed if it snows?

Now, they're not talking 1-2" of snow and postponement. They mean like we just had, 6, 8, 10 inches and up. The answer of course is NO. No they shouldn't delay or postpone the Super Bowl a day or two or a week because of inclement weather. Of course the Super Bowl brings in the millionaires who don't go to football games all year then show up and expect to be catered to.

Screw them. Johnny nor most of America does not care if rich people have to deal with getting to the stadium in the snow or sitting outside in the snow. We all do it or have done it. The Lions vs Eagles game this year was a treat for fans, not a zonk. Then again it's the rich people who keep Roger Goodell, the NFL Commissioner obviously in over his head, in his job. They expect to be sheltered from such events, kind of like Montgomery Burns.

But this is all speculation Johnny, the chances of snow showing up next weekend are, whoops, ruh ro, pretty good according to CBS 2 Weatherman Lonnie Quinn who is calling for a whopper next weekend. He said on a sports call in show yesterday our area is looking at a storm even bigger than the 10" we got on Tuesday.

So, our answer is of course not, we regular fans love football in the snow. We hope this snow does materialize for the Super Bowl, because then Roger Goodell is going to have to choose; His millionaire lackeys or the millions of fans who want a SnowperBowl.

Joining the Denver Donkeys are the coffee house misanthropes from Seattle

The Peahens have won the NFC and are also on their way to Jersey City full of vim, vigor and a bag full of shitty calls helping them to the Super Bowl. The NFL should really be quite ashamed of the way that game was officiated.

So fans from Denver and Seattle will be coming to Jersey City to wait near their teams' hotels to get a glimpse of their favorite players or to get an autograph on a jersey. Seeing as Johnny is a Browns fan and the Donkeys have kept Cleveland out of three Super Bowls any Denver fan asking Johnny a question is going to get a wrong answer or wrong directions. Look out Bayonne, here come some Denver fans.

No tailgating at the Super Bowl

Because TERROR! Yep, security concerns have caused tailgating before a football game, the supposed biggest game of the year to be 86'd. From the article:

"...because space will be so tight in the parking lot thanks to all the security checkpoints and TV crews, even the lucky ticketed few might be banned from (literally) chilling in the parking lot pre-game."

So no tossing the football around in the parking lot before the game either. So no tailgating, no tossing the ball around the lot, no football-type actions of any kind.

"Children of Sombertown, your playing days are over!!"

Who the hell would want to go to this if your team wasn't playing? There's nothing football about this game. You do realize while you aren't allowed to grill a burger or eat a hot dog outside the stadium walls, inside the muckity-mucks will be enjoying the finest food and yes, some of it grilled on site. Again, you really want to spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars on this? If so you're not one of the fans sitting in snow and single digit wind-chills in Green Bay, Cleveland, the New Meadowlands, Buffalo, Baltimore and New England today. In essence, if you want to pay all that money for puffery and no real football feel, you're not a football fan Johnny wants at his tailgate.

Here's a great time waster for a Thursday morning for football fans

Or maybe just for football fans. Yes we're running both football as you'd call it by reflex and soccer/football for a really cool website called FootballasFootball. All the NFL teams have had their logos re-imagined as if they were a European Football club and the results are quite amazing. We'll just show you one here and by all means follow that link and go see the rest.

Detroit Lions