Weight Loss

The last 10 pounds ...is the toughest to lose!!!! I started at 235 on my 39th birthday on Jan 15th. Not my heaviest (that's about 243) and gave myself a goal of getting to 199 by this summer, a weight I haven't been in over 15 years! The first 20 lbs went quickly and I got to 215 by March 15th. On March 26th I got below 210 at 209.8. Since then I got to the lowest at 207.4 but have been fluctuating between 208 and 211. I started running (for the first time in my life) in February to help shed the lbs and get out about 3 times a week. Stamina is up and I have been feeling good. My wife and I even did a 5 mile hike in an hour and 20 minutes on Saturday. The hard part is watching our weight stay on this plateau. So I'm trying to mix things up a little. I'm taking in more calories but trying to keep my net within 100 below and 200 above my budget. I have been focusing on nutrition, trying to get my fiber up, eat more and more fruits and veges and trying to get my sodium down (seems impossible).

Now, I'm also a big craft beer fan and in a Mug Club at a local brewpub. I however considerably cut down on my beer intake since January. The past two weeks however I have been having the occasional weeknight beer and 2 or 3 on Friday and Saturday. Even had two yesterday to finish off a growler before it went bad. The funny thing is that I went from the 211 level down to 206 since increasing my beer intake. Luckily I am not a soda fan and the only other things I drink are coffee and a small glass of oj in the morning and the rest is water and some diet iced tea at night.

Thinking of now starting an ab workout since working out is getting easier for me. Hopefully that will kick start me more toward my goal. With that and more calories I hope it works. 199 before June would be wonderful but still I am thrilled with the more energy and can't wait to get back to softball season! And, if I can get to 199 then maybe then I can get back to my peak athletic weight of 185 by my 40th birthday. 

I just logged into my RunKeeper account to look at something and noticed that with yesterday's run I have eclipsed the 10,000 calories burned mark! That's 30 activities of running and walking since February! LOVE IT!!! That's equivalent to approximately 55 pints of beer!!! Here's to the next 10,000!

Top QB's of the 2000's

With Big Ben in the big game again I wanted to look back at who are the top QB's in the last decade.  A wiegted formula was applied and factors considered were playoff appearances, playoff wins and losses, Super Bowl appearances and wins, Pro Bowls, All-Pro's, MVP's, Offensive POY's, Passing titles, Passing TD, Yards and INT leaders.  Stats from 2010 were not considered.  These were only stats compiled from 2000-2009 season. 

10.  Brad Johnson - 2 Playoff appearances with a 3-1 record and a Super Bowl title with the Buccanears.  Also elected to 1 Pro Bowl.

9.  Steve McNair - 2 Playoff appearances with a 3-2 record.  His one Super Bowl appearance was in 1999 so it doesn't count.  He also made 3 Pro-Bowls, held one passing title and won the MVP in 2003.

8.  Eli Manning - The top pick of the 2004 Draft has made 4 Playoff appearances, 1 Pro-Bowl, and holds a 4-3 Playoff record.  In 2007 he led the Giants to a Super Bowl win and personally won the MVP as well.

7.  Rich Gannon - As backup for most of his career he a sub-par QB with the Vikings, Redskins and Chiefs.  Finally in the early part of the decade he was given a chance to shine in Oakland and shine he did.  For 4 years he was one of the top QB's in the league but 2002 was his best year.  During that year he led the league in passing yards and won the MVP while leading the Raiders to their first Super Bowl in 20 years.  In those few short years he made 3 Pro-Bowls, 2 All-Pro teams and went 4-3 in the Playoffs.

6.  Donovan McNabb - This 6-time Pro-Bowl selection led the Eagles to 5 Conference Championship games and 1 Super Bowl.  He holds a 9-7 record in 7 Playoff appearances.  

5.  Kurt Warner - The man who went from bagging groceries to the league and Super Bowl MVP in 1999 had an up and down 2000's.  Moved out of the St. Louis after a 2nd Super Bowl appearance in 2001 for Marc Bulger, he helped usher in the Eli Manning era in New York as his back-up but eventually became a start again for the Cardinals and led them to their first Super Bowl appearance in 2008, only to come up short against the Steelers.  During the 2000's he made 4 Playoff appearances and holds a 6-4 record.  He won his 2nd MVP, made 3 Pro-Bowls, was selected to 1 All-Pro team and led the league in Passing, TD's and Yards during his MVP season. 

4.  Ben Roethlisberger - In 6 seasons in the 2000's he only led the Steelers to 3 Conference Campionship Games and 2 Super Bowls, winning them both.  As a very mobile QB he hasn't won pretty but he's won.  He held an 8-2 record in the playoffs and made 1 Pro Bowl.  With a potential 3rd title in 2010 he could very well be considered one of the best QB's of all-time.

3.  Drew Brees - A 2009 Super Bowl victory and MVP narrowly put Brees ahead of Roethlisberger.  Throughout the decade his stats have been superb but had only won 1 playoff games in 3 tries before 2009.  He was named Offensive Player of the year once, made 5 Pro-Bowls, was selected to 1 All-Pro team, won 1 passing title and led the league in yards and TD's twice. 

2.  Tom Brady -  Could have easily been the #1 QB of the 2000's with 3 Super Bowl victories in 4 tries.  He's won 1 MVP, was named Offensive Player of the Year once and was elected to 2 All-Pro teams in 6 Pro-Bowl Years.  He has led the league in Passing and Yards twice and led the league in TD's 3 times.  A loss to the Giants in the 2007 Super Bowl may have cost him the top spot in the decade and possibly being considered the top QB of all time. 

1.  Peyton Manning - Stats mainly defined his career until he finally won a Super Bowl in 2006.  He has been selected to 9 Pro-Bowls, won 4 MVP's and 1 Offensive Player of the Year.  He was also selected to 5 All-Pro teams while leading the league in Passing and TD's 3 times and Yards twice.  His only downfall was early playoff exits.  In 9 Playoff appearances he has a 9-8 record and is 1-1 in the Super Bowl.  Even without a second Super Bowl title he could very well hed to the Hall of Fame as the greatest QB of all time.

SUPER BOWL BOUND!!!!

Here We Go, Here We Go, Here We Go Steelers, Here We Go…Pittsburgh’s going to the Super Bowl.  That’s right for the 3^rd time in the past 6 years the Steelers will try to add to their league leading 6 Super Bowl title with their 7^th in 8 tries.  This time, however, they go up against the most prestigious franchise in NFL history, the Green Bay Packers.  The history around these two teams is tremendous but I only care about one, the Steelers. 

Today I am basking in the victory over the Jets.  The first half was awesome!  Heading into halftime with a 24-3 lead I felt they just needed 1 more TD to lock up the game.  They didn’t get it.  They didn’t even get a field goal.  Then with a safety and a touchdown late in the fourth quarter to bring the Jets within 5 I was worried.  I could just see Sanchez getting the ball back with a minute and a half and driving the ball for a game winning TD.  It never happened!  On the gutsiest call of the game the Steelers called a pass on a long 3^rd down with 2 minutes left.  An incomplete and the Jets would have plenty of time after a punt.  A completion and the game was over.  Big Ben came through and won the game with that pass.

So now we have a long two weeks to break down both teams and analyze the game inside and out.  The media will try to get any quote they can from both teams to create a story and trash talk.  To hold us over I am attaching two YouTube videos which I have been playing constantly and wanted to share.  Enjoy!  The Steelers are going to Dallas!!!

GO STEELERS!!!

When will the NCAA Learn?



 Ross William Hamilton/The Oregonian

 I wanted to write today about the National Championship game last night between Auburn and Oregon but I only saw the first half.  When will the NCAA learn that starting a game after 8:30 on the East Coast, especially a national championship game, is not conducive to loyal viewership.  There are many people that love college football but need to be up by 5 or 6 the next day for work or school.  Now I know what your thinking, the West Coast viewers need to rush home from work to see the game start at 5:30, right?  That's true but being an East Coast person, I DON'T CARE!  If the NCAA cared then they would play their biggest game of the year at 6:30 on a Saturday or Sunday but we all know that would never happen because the NFL is God and the TV networks don't want competition.  Ultimately I guess it really isn't the NCAA's fault, it's TV's fault.

Anyway, while I'm on this rant I might as well finish what I started and tell you everything that's wrong with NCAA Football.  First we have the bowls.  There are way too many of them and they drag out way too long.  The National Championship game this year was played on January 10th.  That is 37 days since both teams last played a game.  That's right, 37 DAYS!  Typically the season ends on the first weekend in December but some season end Thanksgiving weekend.  That will still leave almost a month layoff with the traditional bowl games being played on January 1st.  I personally believe that the long layoff doesn't produce the best football.  Just look at last nights game that featured two of the most proficient offenses, a Heisman Trophy winner and a finalist.  The play was somewhat sloppy at times (from what I got to see) and the scoring was low with the outcome being 22-19. 

Now that the bowls are finally over we can look back at 35 bowl games.  35 bowl games, seriously?  That's 70 of the 120 FBS schools or 58.3%.  Of these eligible schools, we had 16 teams that finished 6-6, 1 that was 7-6 and 16 teams that finished 7-5.  That's almost half that had a mediocre record.  Weren't bowl games at one time a reward for having a good season?  Nine years ago there were 25 bowl games.  20 years ago there were only 19 bowl games.  The bowl season is too washed down now.  There was a time that I cared about the games but anymore they are just an afterthought. 

Many have debated about ending the bowl games completely and moving toward a playoff system.  I don't think this is completely needed but I do think changes need to be made and there can be a compromise using both systems.  Many have proposed using the bowls as part of the playoff but I think travel would be too much and the bowls tradition would be lessened.  Right now we have the Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, and the Fiesta  Bowl as the major BCS Bowls with a couple like the Cotton Bowl and Capital One Bowl as lesser majors.  These can all be utilized.  First I propose there is a playoff.  No matter what, the NCAA needs a playoff and I believe that if they are going to have conferences then all conference champions need to be included. 

Right now there are 11 conferences.  I propose that 5 at-large's be included to bring the number to a total of 16.  Seedings and the 5 at-large's will be determined by the BCS standings.  The top 5 in the BCS get seeded right along with the conference champions.  The first weekend of the playoffs will be the first weekend after the conference championship games and the top 8 seeds will have a home game.  The following week will be the quarterfinals and these games will be played the 3rd weekend of December.  That will then leave 4 teams remaining and these games will also be played at the higher seeds on the 4th weekend in December.  The Championship will be played two weekends later in January at one of the four BCS locations on a rotating basis.  The other three BCS bowls will be played on January 1 and these bowls will be able to choose 6 of the 12 eliminated playoff teams.  Other bowls will be cut down in number, will choose from non-playoff teams and must be played on January 1 or before.  Based on my proposal, the first weekend would have played out in the following way:

(16) Troy vs. (1) Auburn
(9) Michigan St. vs. (8) Arkansas
(13) UCF vs. (4) Stanford
(12) Virginia Tech vs. (5) Wisconsin
(14) Connecticut vs. (3) TCU
(11) LSU vs. (6) Ohio St.
(15) Miami, OH vs. (2) Oregon
(10) Boise St. vs. (7) Oklahoma

This year the first round would have been on December 11, Quarters on December 18 and the Semis would have been pushed off until December 31 or January 1 and I would have left the championship game the weekend of January 8th.  It wouldn't be perfect but it would be a start and would also be much more exciting than the way its set up now plus the best team would win the championship!

One Wild Weekend



(AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)



The NFL seems to be a more and more a league of trends.  Every year you can pretty much count on one team going from last place in their division to first, or at least, making the playoffs.  You can also count on at least one of the previous Super Bowl contenders not making the playoffs (except this year) and the other one not making it past the Divisional weekend.  The only team in the past ten years to make it to the championship was the 2004 Patriots, who repeated as champ.  Finally, since 2004, you can count on at least two road teams winning in the Wild Card and two winning in the Divisional Series.  This held true except for 2006 when zero roads teams won in the Wild Card and in 2009 when only one Divisional road team won.

This year, if you had to pick two road teams to win in the Wild Card, it would have probably been the Saints and Ravens.  If you would have picked those two teams and the other home teams, you would have gone 1-3 this weekend as only one of those two won and the other two home teams lost.  Of the two “easy” road team picks, the only one to prove us right was the Ravens.  A team expected to compete for the AFC title went into Kansas City and took care of business.  The first half was a hard fought match but the Ravens D took control after halftime and allowed them to run away with a 30-7 victory. 

The other two road teams to win this weekend had games that were too close to pick.  The Eagles had a Week 1 rematch with a Packers team they lost to at home with Kevin Kolb starting.  This time they had Michael Vick for a full four quarters but it didn’t prove to help.  The Packers D was too good and the Eagles D would bend but broke.  As the worst D in the red zone during the season, the Eagles allowed the Packers to 3 for 3 from the red zone on this day as well.  Despite the Packers dominance, the Eagles were right in it until the end.  However, this time there would be no miracle as Vick was intercepted with less than a minute left.

The third road team to win also had to do it in the final minute of play.  With 47 seconds left the Colts lined up with the future Hall-of-Famer, Adam Vinitieri, ready to kick what is only natural for him, a game-winning field goal.  He was perfect putting the Colts up 16-14.  Now it was up to second year QB Mark Sanchez to lead his team down a short field with timing running down for another go ahead field goal.  Somehow Sanchez was able to get his team in position and Nick Folk kicked the game winner with time running out. 

(Kirby Lee/NFL)

 

Finally, the sure pick of the week…the Saints on the road against the 7-9 Seahawks.  The Saints came in as the defending Super Bowl champions and the heavy favorite.  Unfortunately their defense did not join the rest of the team in Seattle.  In the last four weeks of the season the Seahawks did not score more than 21 points in a single game and the highest point total they put out all year was 36.  Against the Saints they scored a shocking 41.   

 Am I shocked by the outcomes?  No (other than the Saints D lying down).  I expected the Ravens to go into KC and win easily and I expected the other two games to be close and coming down to the end.  I think the biggest thing that shocked me was the ineptness of the Colts coaching staff at the end of the game.  With 52 seconds left and on third down they pass the ball for an incompletion which stopped the clock with 47 seconds.  They were well within Vinitieri’s range and could have just run the ball and kicked the field goal with approximately 15 seconds remaining.  Then as the Jets are driving and settling for a long field goal attempt, the Colts coaching staff calls a time out with 30 seconds left allowing the Jets the opportunity to plan a next play and add 20 yards to the field goal attempt making it a chip shot for the win.  Someone should be fired for those blunders today.

Looking ahead we had the Jets at the Patriots and the Ravens at the Steelers in the AFC.  Both games could have easily been championship games and feature four of (possibly) the top 5 teams remaining.  In the NFC we have the Packers travelling to Atlanta and the Seahawks leaving their friendly confines to play the Bears.  As history shows us, two of the road teams may win this weekend.  If I had to pick two now, I’d pick the Ravens and the Falcons.

Welcome to the Beer Stand

The Beer Stand is another one of those sports blogs that's out there.  I know, right now your saying to yourself "Not another one!"  Well it is another one and one I've been wanting to start for years.  It will focus on a National level but will be biased toward my favorite sports and teams.  It will focus on the NFL and College Football, Baseball and Basketball.  Expect a lot of posts on the College level of Basketball but very minimal on the NBA level as I have no interest.  I may post on others like the NHL and the PGA or even some other non-major or individual sports.  Expect a Philly flavor.

Speaking of flavor, I have a taste for beer and lately I've turned into a beer snob.  Expect some posts from time to time on craft beer I drank and reviews.  I may even catalog and start a reviewing system.  Look for more topics as well but primarily this will be a sports blog.

I hope you enjoy and thanks for reading.

Du