Snakes In My Pants

Brett Favre joins other Hall of Famers who played for the Jets, like Art Monk and Ronnie Lott.

Oh? You don’t remember their Jet tenures?

And in 20 years Favre’s Jet tenure will be as memorable as Willie Joe Namath’s Rams go-round. This is how it has always been with the Jets and so it shall ever be. Teases and moments of hope whose only apparent use is to raise Jet fans’ hopes for later dashing.

But … how glorious the view is from the summit of Mount Hope. Sure we know the scratching of pebbles only portends the avalanche of doom that will engulf this Jets team, but for a day or a week or a month the promised land seems as close as a Brett Favre throw.

17 years after the Jets traded up to draft QB Brett Favre (and watched him go one pick earlier) … Broadway Brett.

More fun stats from Football Prospectus:

- The New York Jets threw to the left more often than any other team in 2007.

- The New England Patriots lined up five-wide more than twice as often as any other team in 2007.

- The New York Giants threw one third of their passes to the left, one third to the middle and one third to the right in 2007.

The Packers have signed a high-profile free agent.

Ari Fleischer.

Yes, that Ari Fleischer.

He’s a Middlebury graduate by the way.

So what’s up with that? What could Green Bay possibly need PR help with?

I picked up the Pro Football Prospectus 2008 a couple of weeks ago and have been nibbling from it since. It’s great fun, especially if you enjoy the notion of bringing baseball-style statistical weed-diving to the pro football game. If stats like Defense-Adjusted Yards Above Replacement (DYAR) appeal, this book is for you.

But even if that doesn’t appeal, it’s got an appendix chock full of more digestible but still interesting statistics. I’ll endeavor to share a few over the next few weeks.

For a start how about the quarterbacks who suffered the worst and best rates of dropped passes in 2007:

* Eli Manning’s receivers dropped 49 passes last year, a clip of 9.3 percent, putting him atop the list (minimum 200 passes thrown). Chad Pennington’s receivers dropped eight passes for a clip of 3.1 percent.

More to come.

Looks like the Raiders’ actions have resulted in the Patriots getting yet another potential steal.  Jordan started out last year with a bang, but his back gave out yet again.  This gives the Patriots a talented stable of three very productive, but somewhat brittle, running backs.  I like the move.

Jorge Posada is going back on the DL — possibly for the season. Who on the Yankees hasn’t been on the DL this season?

And:

Fantasy football disappointment Jeremy Shockey takes his weird act to a place where they dig weird acts: New Orleans. (Oh and the Jets’ disgruntled Chris Baker is on the physically unable to perform list.) Apparently the Giants also tried to swap him for Jason Taylor.

Looks like the loss of Phillip Daniels caused the Skins to act quickly:  Jason Taylor is now a Redskin and all it cost the Washington was a second-round pick in 2009 and a sixth-rounder in 2010.  Taylor may be on the downside of a Hall of Fame career, but talk about adding an impact player at little to no cost to the franchise.  Looks like Snyder and company have finally traded picks wisely.

On the opposite sites of the intelligence and situational awareness continuum:

Don Imus puts his foot in his mouth again with inappropriate race comments.  You can judge this from Imus being a racist to his provided explination.  Regardless of what you believe, he handled it poorly.

On the opposite side of the continuum, “Pacman” Adam Bernard Jones has somehow taken the high ground and has said, referring to Imus, “I will pray for him.”

Two years ago The Onion probably could have written the article Jones to pray for Imus.  Now its surprisingly real.
And, yes, I am still calling him Pacman.  While I’m assuming his new jersey will say A. Jones, his P. Jones jersey and Team Pacman pro wrestling team still are top of mind for me…

The Grammar Bitches on this blog (we know who we are!) should enjoy this one: There’s really no nexus here, but I stumbled across this site tonight while trying to find out exactly how many syllables are in Ronnie Belliard’s last name (according to the AP Sports pronunciation guide, 3. according to Mary Stuart Mackey in 1922, only two).
Heh.