The Crystal Ball 2013 Final Cuts

Rolling Stone recently published a stunning article about Aaron Hernandez, his behavior and crime and culture in the NFL. After reading the article, I feel surer than ever about my statement that the Patriots knew much more about Hernandez than they claim to admit.

And I'd love to find out just how much more was covered up for Hernandez at various points in his journey, and just why these people who covered up preferred to ignore the problem instead of getting the young man help.

Opening Kickoff

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones stated recently that while the NFL owners do not mess up much, they have with Los Angeles, but the league is closer than ever to returning to L.A. Jones is dead on accurate, the owners rarely mess up. But he is mistaken here. The NFL never messed up with Los Angeles. Keeping that city without an NFL team was the perfect threat to force other NFL cities to build taxpayer funded stadiums that allowed the league and owners to fill their pockets with luxury box and other upgraded stadium revenue while getting said building for basically free. If that's messing up, then I'm doing it all wrong.

The Way it Was

49ers backup quarterback Seneca Wallace decided he would no longer play football and seemingly retired. Now he's the new backup in Green Bay. That ought to make the season opening game between these two teams very interesting.

Looks like the Raiders are going with Terrelle Pryor at quarterback, at least to start. I wonder if Dennis Allen will ever get to coach a team with real talent. I hope so, I'm curious if he's a decent head coach.

Cincinnati locked up defensive tackle Geno Atkins for 5 years. Yikes, this sincerely terrifies me, and makes me wish we had him.

The New York Jets signed Brady Quinn for quarterback depth. Yeah, that'll help.

Bills receiver Stevie Johnson turned up the Week 1 trash talking by claiming there's no one on the Patriots that can stop him. Stevie, they don't have to stop you, they know whoever is starting at quarterback will do their job for them.

Keep your fingers crossed, there's a chance Tebow could return to the Patriots this season! Oh let that please happen, just to see people lose their minds!

The Patriots cut incumbent punter Zoltan Mesko, who was then promptly signed by the Pittsburgh Steelers. What a transparent move by the Steelers. They didn't do this to improve their punting position, they did it to try to tap that sweet Zoltan power of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Steel Pit

The Steelers reached compliance with the NFL and pared their roster down to the required size, and the 2013 team, barring injury and replacements, is set.

Of note, the team cut Jonathan Dwyer, last season's leading rusher and Alameda Ta'amu, the once promising nose tackle and when drafted, whispered heir apparent to Casey Hampton. Apparently, Dwyer's cut was not at the urging of the coaching staff, but I think it says something that they also didn't fight to keep him.

The team lost all 4 preseason games, finishing off the preseason in Carolina with an underwhelming loss played mostly by men who were out of a job two days later. And while preseason games do not matter from a wins and losses perspective, it was the manner in which Pittsburgh lost the games that was troublesome to those watching the team for signs of what was to come in 2013.

Now, it's known to those throughout the NFL, and those who watch, that teams never reveal during the preseason how they plan to deploy their offense and defense during the regular season. However, Pittsburgh never really took advantage of having throwaway games to try new things and take chances at opportune times. The preseason is a good time to work out what to do in certain situations. If you try something bold and it fails, big deal, it's just preseason. But Tomlin and company never did. Now if the team faces a tough situation during the regular season, plays apropos for such a situation will not have any real game time functionality to know potential issues, nor will players have any particular confidence in the success or failure of these calls.

The team never flexed the offensive passing game muscle, by far their strongest asset. Nor did they ever get rookie Le'Veon Bell on the field due to several injuries, which is a troubling item.

The Steelers looked unprepared and inexperienced throughout August, and I have a bad feeling this impression of the team will likely last through the Fall and into Winter. It could be a long season in Pittsburgh.

Only In Faux NFL Reality…

Quarterback Sage Rosenfels said in an article that Brett Favre, his Vikings teammate in 2009, admitted to choking at the end of the game. Do you think Sage has anything to gain personally by this story, like having people remember who he is?

Pacman Jones had his assault trial delayed until October. Considering Cincinnati's uniforms, there's a Halloween related sarcastic comment in here somewhere. I'd find it, but I'm just fatigued hearing about Jones screw up his umpteenth chance to be a professional sports figure and a decent human being.

Around the Washington area, this t-shirt is for sale that shows RGIII blended with the team's Native American logo. The t-shirt has sparked some major controversy, especially considering the growing furor over the team's nickname and disrespect of Native Americans. Not discounting the controversy or questions of racism, I'd like to point out that the t-shirt is just plain cheesy and tacky. And if I see someone wearing one, I'm going to question their intelligence based upon their sartorial choices.

CBS Sports NFL commentator and former Steelers head coach Bill Cowher recently made his music video debut, being feature prominently in the video for artist Queen V, rumored to be dating Cowher. Ok, hold on one second. They still make music videos?

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers suffered a staph infection outbreak. Come on people, it's called soap and hot water. Use it.

Upon Further Review

The Patriots cut Tim Tebow. No surprise, without Hernandez to keep in line, what was the point of having an inaccurate quarterback who makes questionable decisions? the AFC East already has two of them.

Tebow, as he has always maintained in his short NFL career, vowed to keep working and striving to achieve his dream of being an NFL quarterback. To his credit, no matter what has happened in his career, Tebow has continued on that path no matter what the naysayers have put forth. This time, I believe, may be different.

When Tebow signed with New England, many people felt that if anyone could make a quarterback out of him, it would be Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniels, the coach who went all in with Tebow in Denver, a move that ultimately cost McDaniels his job. It would seem, even Belichick's powers have a limit. If there were NFL teams in need of a quarterback and on the fence about Tim before, now they might change their mind seeing that Belichick couldn't bother to give him a roster spot.

I think there is a certain nobility in Tebow continuing to hold onto his dream of being an NFL quarterback, and not compromising that dream. However, at this point in his career, he may want to finally start altering that dream. While it's great to hold fast to your beliefs and dreams, you must recognize when compromise is needed. For Tebow, that time is now.

He has had his moment as a starting quarterback in the NFL, and even won a playoff game, which is more than most quarterbacks that pass through the NFL can say. But if he wants to continue playing in the league, it's time to consider a position switch, to perhaps an h-back or tight end, something to which his athleticism, ball handling skills and running ability could be applied.

As the NFL season starts without Tebow on a roster for the first time in 4 years, Tim needs to ask himself. Is it better to hold onto his desire to be an NFL quarterback and be out of the league, or to live the dream of being an employed NFL tight end, a slightly different, but no less significant dream.

He Said He Said

"I'm not gonna accuse nobody of nothing, because I don't know facts. But you're a zillion-dollar company, and your lights go out? No. (Laughs) No way." - Former linebacker Ray Lewis to USA Today's Nate Davis, stating he questions the validity of the power outage during the Super Bowl.

Well, I already knew Lewis didn't know facts. Because it's a fact that obstruction of justice means you are covering up evidence and hindering law enforcement's ability to investigate and solve a crime. It doesn't mean law enforcement officials did not do their job and bother to solve a crime.

"If we didn't feel Robert was full-go and ready to play and do all the things you ask a guy to do, he would not be playing in this game." - Washington head coach Mike Shanahan on RGIII's status for Week 1.

Come on, he was starting RGIII no matter what. If you believe this line of bull, I have the deed to a bridge in Brooklyn I'd be willing to sell to you for a deeply discounted price.

“I think I'm going to be exactly the same. The reason people have voted you captain is you've shown those leadership skills already. I don't think I have to change, especially in the speaking up department." - Steelers safety Ryan Clark on being named a team captain for the 2013 season

Ryan, you do know that team captains shouldn't be hanging out in the locker room of their arch rivals after games, right?

"You can't arrest me, I'm a Colts player." - Colts safety John Boyett to police officers arresting Boyett for public intoxication and resisting law enforcement

Did no one tell this year's rookie class that the I'm a football player defense only works for misdemeanors committed by stars and super stars?

"I did not let him go today, but he's more than ready." - Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians on running back Rashard Mendenhall

Well that's a first.

Idiot of the Week

This week, I give the award of idiot, with much glee, to former linebacker, current ESPN talking head and permanent blowhard Ray Lewis.

Lewis, in the latest installment of America's Game, stated he feels the blackout at the Super Bowl was no accident, but a carefully calculated attempt to thwart Baltimore's momentum and help San Francisco get back into the game. Get ready people for this level of intelligence and thoughtful opinion every week on ESPN. I'm so excited to watch ESPN's Sunday morning ratings plummet faster than Flacco's quarterback ratings.

Lewis explained his questionable thought process by explaining that if you grew up like Lewis, and he means poor, that the power would get shut off due to hard times. But he questions how an operation like the NFL could possibly lose power during its biggest event of the season.

If Lewis had two brain cells to rub together, he'd realize the power loss is to be blamed on the same thing that caused thousands of fans to show up in Dallas for Super Bowl XV and find they had no seats for their legitimate tickets: Greed, Hubris, Ego, Arrogance and Stupidity. The NFL sold tickets for seats for Super Bowl XV they could never have installed properly in time for the game because they wanted to make money.

The stadium lost power during Super Bowl XVII because instead of spending the money to properly upgrade facilities based upon possible over usage, officials opted to save the money and figured everything would be fine. When they were embarrassingly wrong, well then they looked stupid for their ego and arrogance.

Sorry Ray Ray, but this conspiracy theory is off base. However, if your concussion addled brain still believes there was a conspiracy behind Super Bowl XVII, you may be right. How about you look back over the last quarter of last season, and Baltimore's entire playoff run with an objective eye. And then I'd like you to explain to me how a defense that gave up over 400 yards of offense, in almost every game, and was led by a one armed linebacker in his late 30s that was regularly beaten by no name tight ends and running backs, and an offense led by a quarterback who's previous big game moments met with disastrous results, and an offensive coordinator who slept through several seasons as Peyton Manning's head coach managed to not only make the playoffs, but win four playoff games on miraculous plays and questionable calls WITHOUT help from a commissioner who apparently owed you a major favor. Because if you ask me, the real conspiracy is how suddenly the Ravens were rarely penalized and got every break AFTER you announced your impending retirement.

Idiot.

On Tap This Week

The NFL season begins tomorrow night, and we'll be there with our opening night kickoff pick. Get ready, here it comes....