We'll have a lot of draft talk here in the Toy Department this week, including Q&As, video debate, the continuation of KVV's mockery of mock drafts.

But let's get it started with a poll question. We'll keep this stashed over there in the right-hand margin of your screen all week.

Already, there's a lot of good things floating around. David Steele thinks you gotta pay Terrell Suggs before you open the vault to Anquan Boldin. ProFootball24x7 wonders whether the Ravens have cap space to get Boldin, Eric DeCosta's wife, Lacie, has Darrius Heyward-Bey in her mock draft, and Ken Murray has updated his mock draft.

 Plus, the Eagles could still be involved in the Boldin sweepstakes. It's guaranteed to be a fun week.

Posted by Rick Maese at 11:00 AM in Burning Question, Ravens | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Someday I'll tell my children about Tiger Woods.

I'll tell them about the Masters. About the Tiger Slam. About the 2000 Pebble Beach National Pro-Am (making up seven strokes over the final seven holes? And winning by two? Are you kidding?) I'll tell them about the 2000 U.S. Open, of course, and the 2006 British Open and probably the 2006 PGA Championship, too. And definitely the 2008 U.S. Open.

Will I tell them about Sunday? I don't know. He's made the improbable almost routine. Starting the day five back, he kept doing what Tiger does. He fought his way to a share of the lead and stood over a 16-foot putt on the 18th green. He nailed it to beat Sean O'Hair by a single stroke. He shot a final-round 67. Just another Sunday.

Someday I'll tell my children about Tiger Woods. They'll need to know about the most dominant athlete I've ever seen. I'm not even sure who's second. But let's try to figure that out.

Poll question: Who's the most dominant athlete of the past 10 years? Click here to vote.

(And if your favorite isn't mentioned, feel free to call me an idiot and write-in your preference below.)

Photo: Stephen M. Dowell / Orlando Sentinel

Posted by Rick Maese at 11:45 AM in Burning Question | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Statistically, Julian Tavarez hasn't had the greatest career. But last week when he reluctantly agreed to sign with the Washington Nationals (the only MLB team to make him a real offer this spring), he uttered what will probably go down as one of the greatest sports quotes of all time.

"Why did I sign with the Nationals?" Tavarez told a group of reporters. "When you go to a club at 4 in the morning, and you're just waiting, waiting, a 600-pounder looks like J-Lo. And to me this is Jennifer Lopez right here. It's 4 in the morning. Too much to drink. So, Nationals [are] Jennifer Lopez to me."

You have to love that kind of brutal honesty. But it got us thinking: What if we viewed every franchise the way Tavarez does: As the equivalent of a bar-time hook-up?

What would the Red Sox look like? Or the Washington Redskins? Or even the Baltimore Orioles?

The possibilities are as magical as they are skanky.

Franchise: The Dallas Cowboys

At the bar, they are: The silicone-injected (not-so) young lady trying to seem more "Texas" by sipping Bud Light out of a bottle while all of her friends are downing pink drinks. Desperate for your attention, but doesn't want to show it, mostly because she won a few beauty pageants back in the '90s, but can't seem to realize that was almost 10 years ago. She might still be kind of cute if you could ever shake the mental image of her together with some of the morons who used to hang around her. Thinks of herself as America's sweetheart, but hang around her long enough and you're probably going to end up either in jail, or in a doctor's office.

Think: Pamela Anderson

Continue reading "What if we viewed every franchise the way Julian Tavarez does?" »

Posted by Kevin Van Valkenburg at 9:45 AM in Burning Question | Permalink | Comments (41)