Hole Punch Sports

Wow, times flies when you don't have anything to blog about. Or, more accurately, when you're sidelined with what the sports world calls "flu-like symptoms". Now I'm feeling great, thanks to some rest, my mom, and the culinary brilliance of Chili's To Go . What did I miss? 1. The Final Four were chosen. Called out from among mere men, the Final Four rose forth, shaking the Earth in their illustrious...sorry. I mean, I really have been inside too long. Florida. Georgetown. Ohio State. UCLA. Who had them picked? I didn't, but it's not hard to imagine that thousands of fans did. Georgetown is the closest to being a surprise, but even they were a No. 2 seed in an up-for-grabs regional. John, go ahead and tell us you had Georgetown making it this far. Seriously. We're dying to know. (As you can see, I'm not bitter at all. Actually, I'm...well, I'll get to that at No. 2. Suffice it to say I have still never won an NCAA tournment contest o...

Holy crap. Matt Schaub, who spent the first three years of his NFL career as a backup to Mike Vick in Atlanta, just signed a six-year, $48,000,000 deal with the Houston Texans, according to ESPN.com's Len Pasquarelli , who did use quotes this time. Schaub was acquired by the Texans in a trade with the Falcons, who received some draft picks. Thus spake Pasquathustra: As for the Falcons, the trade allows the cap-strapped team to essentially recoup the $2.3 million qualifying offer it made to Schaub and invest that money elsewhere. And the haul the team received in the trade -- a swap of first-round choices in 2007 and second-round picks in the 2007 and 2008 drafts -- provides Atlanta with considerable flexibility. So, in other words, good move for Atlanta, a team already set at the quarterback position. They picked up some good draft choices for a backup who didn't play much anyway. What's even better is that, by giving the Texans Schaub as a new starting quarterback, the Fal...

You pander to one reader, you've got to pander to the other. And so my attention turns to a potential copyright violation by the NFL . If you haven't heard, a law professor named Wendy Seltzer posted a video clip of the copyright notice that aired at the end of the Super Bowl on YouTube. The NFL said, "Hey! Copying our copyright notice is copyright infringement!" and sent YouTube a notice to take it down. YouTube took it down. Since she's a law professor, and this was intended for educational purposes, Seltzer figured it was fair use, and counter-notified YouTube. (The blog article where I first saw this link to her blog several times, and you can find more/better details there.) The NFL again asked YouTube to take it down, ignoring the fair use notice. Seltzer argues that, under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, that the NFL's request was, itself, illegal. That's pretty much the whole story. It's not big news so much as it is cute, but it'd be ...

Pugs asked for it, so I'll attempt to deliver. We'll see how it goes. (In all seriousness, though, suggestions for posts/topics are always welcome and even encouraged.) I just read a Denver Post article about roster decisions facing the Colorado Rockies. Predictably, it was the most depressing thing I've seen all year. See for yourself . Let's look at some choice nuggets: With his bulldog nature, Josh Fogg seems a safer bet to keep on staff than the talented but erratic Byung-Hyun Kim. Fogg might not have dynamic stuff, but he has double-digit wins in four of his five big-league seasons. Byung-Hyun Kim, huh. Byung-Hyun Kim? Kim's best known for his "performance" in the 2001 World Series, during which he surrendered game-winning home runs in back-to-back games. Not entirely his fault—most managers don't leave their closers in for 61 pitches, watch them fall apart, then put them in the next night—but it's no surprise a player associated with los...

I know almost nothing about college basketball this year. So my bracket will probably win my family's tourney challenge for once! Har de har, ain't that always the truth. I was going to leave it at that, and let y'all have at it in the comments, but I think I need to say something . College hoops have been on pretty much every time I turned on my TV, so I've probably seen a little more college basketball this year than I have in the past. I just haven't seen the right teams. Anyway, here goes: - All hail North Carolina! Since they're a No. 1 seed and my favorite team, they're the clear Hole Punch pick for the national championship, even though I'm a little surprised they're a top seed. - I look forward to Kansas becoming the first No. 1 seed to lose in the first round. - Remember when people said Duke was on the bubble? Now they're a 6th seed, which isn't bubble-level at all. Remember, kids: if you're in a major-enough conference, you onl...

That's funny, just the other day I was wondering what ever happened to former Redskins quarterback Patrick Ramsey. I didn't wonder enough to find out, but I guess I will now. The Broncos just signed Ramsey to a two-year contract worth $5 million. Considering how this offseason has gone, that is a terrific value. What does Ramsey bring to the table? Statistically, you'd be tempted to say, "not much". He likes to throw short (career 6.6 yards per attempt) but still can't connect on very many passes (55.7 career completion percentage). A quarterback who can't throw is worrisome. But he was thrown in the fire as a young player, and showed some improvement over time. Honestly, I didn't see him play much, but I do remember hearing his toughness praised, which is cool. He'll make a solid backup quarterback, and I'm glad the Broncos made that a priority. Don't get me wrong. Jay Cutler & Pat "sy" Ramsey are a downgrade from Jake P...

The Broncos signed tight end Daniel Graham , formerly of the New England Patriots and a one-time University of Colorado star, to a five-year, $30 million contract with $15 million in guarantees. The length of the deal is kind of a funny conicidence, because five years is exactly how long it's been since I would have cared that the Broncos acquired Graham. Admittedly, I'm excited. The first time I saw Graham play live, my brother ("John" in the comments) told me to keep an eye on him. Glad I did. He was incredible! Not only was Graham one of CU's finest blockers (back then, that meant something), he was easily its most clutch receiver. I left that game knowing he'd be a star. As a pro, Graham has 1,393 receiving yards. That's not last year. Not in his best year. But in his entire five-year career. What happened? I don't really know. He had some problems with drops for a while, but he just never became a central part of the Patriots' offense. Instead...

You guys rock. I want to talk about a few things mentioned in the comments, in case anyone missed them. 1. Travis Henry signs with Denver (John mentioned this). Already said what I want to say, and it's a great move. 2. Joey Porter signs with Miami for $20 million guaranteed (John). Porter's a very good linebacker, but he made the jump to superstar last year solely on the basis of personality. That's incredibly annoying. Why would someone who craves the spotlight would be in such a hurry to sign with Miami? They're fast becoming one of the most irrelevant teams in the league, in my opinion. It's cute, though, that an NFL team features adult males named "Joey" on both sides of the ball. 3. George Karl threatening to bench Carmelo, which "The Goreman" saw mentioned on PTI. You can find Karl's words, sadly, in a Mark Kiszla column . (I know you guys aren't Woody Paige fans, but Kiszla is one hundred times worse.) This is good and this is bad...

Watched some basketball this weekend, and here's what I noticed: 1. I caught part of the Houston Rockets at Denver Nuggets game Friday night. The Nuggets' struggles have less to do with chemistry and more to do with a complete lack of discipline and intelligent play. Allen Iverson still looks for his own shot just a little too often in trasition, it seems, but at least he creates a very good shot for himself. Carmelo is still too willing to take bad shots. Steve Blake is a better fit on the roster than I thought he'd be, but he also clearly belongs in a reserve role. He's willing to hustle and very willing to pass, but he's not an especially skilled passer and, at times, made surprisingly poor decisions on the fast break. (Obviously the trade deadline is past, but the Nuggets have spent years trying to run at altitude without a gifted distributor at the point, which makes no sense.) Add it all up and you have a team that looks extremely outcoached right now. I don...

In today's comments section I acknowledged that the Broncos would have been wiser to go for free agent cornerback Nate Clements, late of the Buffalo Bills, than to trade for Dré Bly. I was wrong. The San Francisco 49ers signed Clements to an eight-year, $80 million contract (warning: bad pun in first sentence of link). As Len Pasquarelli wrote, By virtually any standard used to assess NFL contracts by those in the industry, the contract makes Clements the highest-paid defensive player in league history. I'll say. Quickly now, a few things: $80 million is a lot of money. It is also much more money than Clements will actually make-there's no way he'll go eight years without renegotiating or being cut. A more telling number is the $22 million he's guaranteed. That $22 million or, as I call it, enough cash for two-and-half PlayStation 3s, is still a lot of money. Nate Clements did not make last year's Pro Bowl. Do the best cornerbacks always go to the Pro...

The Denver Broncos' quest to eliminate all depth in their offensive backfield continues. ESPN.com is reporting that the Broncos are close to an agreement with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to trade backup quarterback Jake Plummer for a draft pick, potentially a fourth-rounder. This would be a great move for Tampa Bay. Plummer doesn't give a team what they'd want out of a generic veteran-he doesn't avoid turnovers, and he's probably not the kind of guy you want giving advice to younger players. ("How come you never throw with your left hand, Bruce?") But he did go to a conference championship a year ago, and could have a few years left as a starter in the league. If the Buccaneers can get two years of solid quarterbacking for a second-day draft pick, that's a coup. And if Plummer doesn't pan out, the Bucs will barely miss the pick. For the Broncos, I don't really like it. I suppose I can understand why it would be tough to keep Plummer around, espec...

The Bell-Bly trade was just one of many interesting NFL moves today. 1. Steelers cut Joey Porter . For such a short article, it's heavy on great lines, like this one: Over the past couple of days, Pittsburgh shopped Porter in trade discussions and there was some interest. In the end, the Steelers decided to give him the chance to find a new team instead of sending him somewhere he might not want to go. Translation: they fired him. What a considerate organization! (I could be wrong, but doesn't it sound like John Clayton is just bending over backwards to compliment the Steelers here?) Besides, of course they couldn't trade him. Porter's good enough that his team would only go around offering him in a trade if they were about to cut him. Porter and running back Verron Haynes were released Thursday as the Steelers got under the salary cap. But the decision to release Porter wasn't as much a cap move as it was a change in direction. A three-time Pro Bowl performe...

The Denver Broncos have (probably) just acquired Detroit Lions cornerback Dré Bly , giving up only Tatum Bell, George Foster, and a draft pick. (Wait, that's three people.) Bly is best known for his time as the nickelback for the early-century St. Louis Rams, one of the most wretched defenses of our era. (In the nadir that was their 2000 season, the Rams gave up 29.4 points per game.) On a dangerous team that competed solely and I mean solely, on the strength of a record-setting offense, Bly was one of the very best defensive bench players. At first glance, it seems we gave up too much for the 29-year-old defender. But when you're sitting across the proverbial bargaining table from a genius like Matt Millen, you take what you can get. This trade seems odd to me in terms of timing, but I like it more the more time I give it. To be fair, Bly is speedy and has a nose for interceptions. He's taken five of his thirty-three career picks in for touchdowns. Think of ...