The Philadelphia Eagles Are No Dream Team or Miami Heat

Impressive. What the Philadelphia Eagles front office has done since the lockout was lifted has been simply impressive. Not only did they shock the world by adding top free agent prize CB Nnamdi Asomugha, but they acquired a few more nice pieces; most notably CB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie (via trade), RB Ronnie Brown and DT Cullen Jenkins. They also upgraded their backup QB position by adding Vince Young (who in my opinion is better than a bunch of QB's around the league who will be starters this year). The Eagles even got a 2012 2nd round pick from the Arizona Cardinals in the Rodgers-Cromartie trade (QB Kevin Kolb was delivered from Eagles). But adding the current bodies to the already talented Eagles team, which boasts such studs as Michael Vick, DeSean Jackson and Trent Cole, is what has some people already calling them the "Dream Team". Some have even started comparing this Eagles team to the 2010 - 2011 Miami Heat of the NBA. Really??? Slow it down folks - these comparisons are way off base.

First of all, you really can't compare football teams to basketball teams; it's a classic apples vs. oranges scenerio. In basketball, one great player has a lot more impact on a team than one great player does in football. It's basic math; basketball teams have only five players that are starters while football teams have twenty-two players that are starters (exluding special teams). As good as the players are that the Eagles acquired, none of them (for the slight except of Asomugha) are considered the best in the league. The "Dream Team" which was the moniker given to the 1992 USA Basketball Olympic team, were not only made up of some of the best players in the league, it was made up of some of the best players in world of all time! Probably never in the history of sports has a nickname fit a team so perfectly. So lets stop that comparison immediately. The Heat - Eagles comparison is a bad one also for very similiar reasons. LeBron James and Chris Bosh joining Dwyane Wade in Miami created a team which boasted three starters which are considered to be the three of the top players in the NBA.  Now while Vick and Asomugha may be hailed by some as elite NFL players, I don't see anyone calling Rodgers-Cromartie, Jenkins, Jason Babin or any of the remaining new Philly starters as best in the league. Also the Heat pretty much had to retool their whole team to accommodate their new star players. The Eagles team will still have most of their personnel from last year's campaign.

Now I know that some of this talk was started by some of the new Eagles (Young & Babin) but I think the media and fans have run with their words. The Eagles acquisitions have been great copy for training camp and the "Dream Team" "Miami Heat" chatter has been an excellent complementary piece. But the bottom line is neither title is accurate no matter how Philadelphia's season will play out.

2011 NCAA Tournament - March Madness or March Mediocrity?

The 2011 NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament is down to the Sweet Sixteen. The first weekend of the tournament has given us what we have come to love about March Madness, last second buckets and major upsets (including a #1 seed, Pittsburgh going down). But unfortunately we have also seen a display of some questionable and mediocre play, something that we have not become accustomed to observing.

I don't like bashing college athletes about their play because the reality is, they are young and still learning. Some of these guys are just 18 years old and less than a year out of high school. Then they are suddenly thrusted into the national spotlight and a lot of analyst expect them to handle pressure that grown experienced men would have trouble with. But there are some basketball plays that are just that, basketball plays. No matter what level of basketball an athlete is playing, certain mistakes shouldn't happen. Fouls should not be commited at certain points of the game. There should be a certain amount of urgency when you need a bucket and there are less than 10 seconds on the clock; strolling with the ball like your trying to impress a young lady is going to get you sent home. You must impose your will on lower ranked, inferior teams; not doing so will ultimately get your fellings hurt.  Even the referees had some mediocre games. Qustionable foul calls/non-calls and issues with time (clocks & counts) have had folks scratching their heads all weekend.

These are just some of the things that we witnessed this weekend that has made this great pastime of ours slighty less spectacular. Don't get me wrong, the games were still interesting and fun to watch but the errors so far seem to be more pronounced and painfully obvious.