New England also done. Mike, BATSU GAME!

There will be a lot of batsu in relation to the 50th edition of the Super Bowl.

Denver 20, New England 18

Mike's adjusted Super Bowl winners: New England.

Mike, BATSU GAME!!!

Let's Just Say Mike Thinks Plaschke Should Do Something He's Already Done

As we all know, Mike is VERY unhappy about how the whole NFL Los Angeles situation turned out (and it's STILL ongoing). One of the biggest media proponents of the "kidnapping" of Mike's now former team is also an opponent of a second LA team (namely the Chargers, who have first dibs on that second LA spot - and, frankly deserve it). Mike's thoughts: to do something that it turns out he's already done - and it's on video!

Packers Lose! Team Batsu Game!!

The Green Bay Packers are officially out of the playoffs, losing in the divisional round of the playoffs to Arizona 26-20 in overtime.

Mike picked Green Bay (a team his sister owns a share of) in his initial picks, and Tim (a Bears fan) picked them in both sets of picks.

They will get a team batsu game that will be announced on the next podcast.

Mike's adjusted pick is New England, and they are still very much in it.

The Grubman Interview Mike was talking about in the NFL Relocation Special

Remember how Mike mentioned that former NFL Executive VP Eric Grubman went on St. Louis radio (namely Bernie Miklasz's radio show) and trashed the now-doomed Peacock-Blitz stadium plan in St. Louis? You can listen to it here:

Episode 183 - NFL Relocation Special

With all due respect to Randy Newman, in this case, we DON'T love LA.

Mike and Tim talk about the NFL's now-resolved Los Angeles relocation story.

What happened: the St. Louis Rams (Mike's now former favorite NFL team) lied their way to Los Angeles - despite the fact that St. Louis had a stadium plan in the works - and will likely bring the San Diego Chargers with them.

Mike spends a bulk of today's podcast calling out the party's responsible for this tragedy, in no particular order:

• Rams owner Enos Stanley Kroenke (or, as Mike has come to know him in recent days, "Art Modell" Kroenke)
• NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell
• former NFL Executive VP Eric Grubman
• Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones
• Missouri State Senator Rob Schaaf (R-St. Joseph)

There are more names that need to be on this list, but these are the ones called out on today's show.

We end with a small bit on the Baseball Hall of Fame electing Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza.

Fair use: we open with a piece of St. Louis sports broadcaster Randy Karraker speaking at the NFL's relocation town hall in St. Louis in October 2015.  Since this is a "goodbye" episode of sorts, we continue our tradition of saying goodbye with "Somnia Memorias" from the Parasite Eve video game soundtrack.

Advocacy note:  If you are as angry about this as most St. Louisans or Rams fans outside of LA are, do not demostrate your frustrations by burning your Rams gear.  You can donate your gear to charity.  You can also refuse to put another dime in Kroenke's already over-inflated wallet (the man's worth $7 billion and that doesn't count the fact that he's married into Wal-Mart money).  So, avoid the following companies at all costs:

• THF Realty
• The Kroenke Group
• Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, and all things Walton
• All Kroenke-owned sports teams: Rams, Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, Colorado Rapids, Arsenal FC, Colorado Mammoth (a lacrosse team)
• Altitude Sports and Entertainment
• Douglas Lake Ranch, Canada
• Cedar Creek Ranch, Montana
• PV Ranch, Montana
• Broken O Ranch, Montana
• Screaming Eagle Vineyard
• Jonata Vineyard
• Meadowood Vineyard

Click here to download.

Mike's Office Space batsu game

A Three year old's take on "Art Modell" Kroenke

Show note: We will be talking about the NFL Los Angeles situation after it is resolved next week. We will share some notes on what's going on, but first a cute little video of a 3-year-old football fan sharing her thoughts on a certain owner who's trying to move his team to LA:







Easily the cutest video we've ever shared on the WSC blog. Now, on to the notes:

• As expected, the football teams in Oakland, St. Louis and San Diego have filed relocation papers to the NFL.  The cities also submitted paperwork, with only one city - St. Louis - having anything remotely close to a workable stadium plan.
• According to Bernie Miklasz, the NFL owners - who will decide these teams' fates no later than Wednesday - break down thusly: 19 strongly in favor of Carson (Chargers/Raiders), 5 in favor of Inglewood (Rams), and 8 undecided.  A proposal requires 24 out of the 32 votes to pass.
• The LA committee, consisting of 6 mostly old-school NFL owners - Clark Hunt (Kansas City), Bob Kraft (New England), John Mara (NY Giants), Bob McNair (Houston), Jerry Richardson (Carolina), Art Rooney II (Pittsburgh) - is said to be leaning heavily in favor of Carson and heavily contributed to the final St. Louis stadium proposal drafted by Dave Peacock and Bob Blitz.
• That said, there are elements within the NFL that want St. Louis to lose their team, namely some NFL executives (cough*Eric Grubman*cough) and a handful of "new money" owners, namely Jerry Jones (Dallas).
• The Rams, per media request, released their relocation papers to the public, and they just unfairly trash St. Louis.  The proposal also uses bad math (i.e. only accounting for St. Louis City and St. Louis County populations - and disregarding the remainder of the St. Louis metro area) and is filled with flat-out lies and failure to take responsibility for a primary contribution to lousy attendance in recent years - 12 straight non-winning seasons, no playoff appearances since 2005, and the worst 5-year stretch of football in NFL history, going 15-65 from 2007 through 2011.  They also lie about negotiating with St. Louis and falsely claim that their faulty lease gives them the right to relocate.  (It doesn't: the lease contains a clause requiring the Edward Jones Dome to be in the top 8 of all NFL stadiums in terms of quality.  Since the Dome opened in the middle of the 1995 season, 20 new stadiums have been built.  By the way, to comply with that top 25% clause, the convention center authority would have had to spend $700 million and essentially tear down the Dome and rebuild across Broadway and into the park currently across the street from the Dome.)  I could go in greater detail, but I'm angry enough.  Just know that St. Louis fought back with the facts, and in force - for more reference, check out the hashtag #kroenkecomplaints.  Moving on.
• Chargers owner Dean Spanos, unlike the elusive "Art Modell" Kroenke (although I think San Diegans may feel like tacking the deceased Baltimore Ravens founder and most hated man in northeast Ohio to Spanos), shot a short video where he explains to his fans why his team is filing for relocation.  Simply put: 9 different proposals in 14 years to replace the aged Qualcomm Stadium (or Jack Murphy Stadium, as it was originally called), and little political will to get it done.  You can see Spanos' video here.  (By the way, Jack Murphy is the 4th oldest stadium in the NFL.  Only Soldier Field (which had a new stadium built within the shell of the old), Lambeau Field (substantial improvements to the facility) and the Oakland Coliseum are older.)  Also, there's a self-preservation aspect here: the Chargers claim about 25% of their fan base comes from the neighboring LA area.
• Some view the Raiders as a drag on Carson, mostly because of the old school owners hatred of the late Al Davis.  Also, owner Mark Davis (son of Al, and the only owner to show up to his city's town hall) is viewed as being one of the weakest owners financially.  There have been talks about bringing on more partners.  We shall see.
• Take the Raiders out of the equation and it's just Chargers vs. Rams: Chargers win, hands down.  Spanos is better liked among NFL owners than Kroenke, and clearly did his due diligence to try to find a solution in San Diego (something AMK did not do at all in St. Louis).  Also, I'd like to remind you that Kroenke was part of the reason the Rams left LA in the first place, by purchasing a minority stake in the team from the late Georgia Frontiere.
• One last note that must be emphatically mentioned: Spanos loathes Kroenke, primarily because the latter was told about the Inglewood land by the former and bought it without informing the former.
• I just realized that I hadn't even thought about the air traffic hazard that is Kroenke's Inglewood project.  The site is dangerously close to LAX and the FAA has some serious concerns about a stadium messing with their equipment.  Under California law, if the FAA says no go, it's illegal to start building.
• And absolutely lastly: Everyone, please STFU about the Jacksonville Jaguars already!!!  Their owner Shad Khan (whom Kroenke screwed out of owning the Rams in 2010) signed a lease on that stadium through 2030, has put money into the stadium, and the team has incrementally improved on the field.  I'll still criticize his stewardship of Fulham (currently 19th in the Football League Championship), but at least he's trying.  Speaking of London, guess who also hates "Art Modell" Kroenke?  3 points if you said Arsenal fans.

If the NFL owners have any honor at all, they will disqualify Kroenke and the Rams from LA and force them back to St. Louis, hopefully under the provision that Kroenke sell the team to someone who will work with Peacock-Blitz and actually make an effort to keep the team in St. Louis long-term.  They will approve Carson for the Chargers initially and the Raiders later on.



That assumes, of course, that the NFL owners are more like Richardson and McNair and less like Jerry F. Jones.

Episode 182 - January 2016 Batsu Games

Due to circumstances involving Adam Archuleta, we had a recording snafu today so Mike had to go back and record this episode of the podcast.  Think of this as a summary of what was supposed to have been recorded.

Mike's batsu game for his 2015-16 bowl picks: do a re-enactment of the famous Office Space scene with Tim's old laptop and a baseball bat autographed by Baseball Hall of Fame manager Whitey Herzog.  Tim did get video of the proceedings, and we'll try our best to get the video to you.  Which brings us to fair use for this podcast: we end with "Still" by Geto Boyz - the very song that featured in that scene.

Tim's batsu game for his 2015 NFL picks: wear a shirt or jersey of any of Houston's pro teams (specifically the Texans, Astros and/or Rockets).  Tim is leaning towards a Texans shirt.

We also briefly share our thoughts on a situation in North American soccer involving San Antonio.



Click here to download.

Bowl Prediction Check

How did the guys do with their bowl picks?

Yes, we know there is a championship game still to be played, but the result is kind of moot in terms of batsu game implications.

Both Mike and Tim correctly picked Clemson and Alabama to make the championship game.

Bowl Game	Mike's Pick	Tim's Pick	Actual Winner
New Orleans	Louisiana Tech	Louisiana Tech	Louisiana Tech
Cure	Georgia State	San Jose State	San Jose State
Camellia	Appalachian State	Appalachian State	Appalachian State
Royal Purple	BYU	Utah	Utah
New Mexico	New Mexico	Arizona	Arizona
Miami Beach	Western Kentucky	South Florida	Western Kentucky
Boca Raton	Temple	Temple	Toledo
Famous Idaho Potato	Akron	Akron	Akron
GoDaddy	Bowling Green	Bowling Green	Georgia Southern
Poinsettia	Boise State	Boise State	Boise State
Hawaii	San Diego State	San Diego State	San Diego State
Bahamas	Middle Tennessee	Western Michigan	Western Michigan
Foster Farms	UCLA	UCLA	Nebraska
Independence	Virginia Tech	Virginia Tech	Virginia Tech
Pinstripe	Duke	Duke	Duke
Heart of Dallas	Southern Miss	Washington	Washington
Sun	Washington State	Washington State	Washington State
St. Pete	Marshall	Marshall	Marshall
Quick Lane	Central Michigan	Central Michigan	Minnesota
Military	Navy	Navy	Navy
Texas	LSU	LSU	LSU
Arizona	Colorado State	Nevada	Nevada
Russell Athletic	Baylor	Baylor	Baylor
Armed Forces	Air Force	California	California
Holiday	USC	USC	Wisconsin
Music City	Louisville	Louisville	Louisville
Belk	Mississippi State	Mississippi State	Mississippi State
Birmingham	Memphis	Memphis	Auburn
Citrus	Michigan	Florida	Michigan
Outback	Northwestern	Northwestern	Tennessee
Cactus	Arizona State	West Virginia	West Virginia
Alamo	Oregon	TCU	TCU
Liberty	Arkansas	Arkansas	Arkansas
TaxSlayer	Georgia	Georgia	Georgia
Peach	Florida State	Florida State	Houston
Fiesta	Notre Dame	Ohio State	Ohio State
Rose	Stanford	Stanford	Stanford
Sugar	Ole Miss	Ole Miss	Ole Miss
Cotton*	Alabama	Alabama	Alabama
Orange*	Clemson	Clemson	Clemson
Championship**	Clemson	Clemson	Alabama

Mike: 22/40 (3/6 in major bowls, championship eligible)
Tim: 30/40 (4/6 in major bowls, championship eligible)

The key stat: in bowl games that Mike and Tim disagreed, Tim wins 10-2.

2015 NFL Predictions Check

How did the guys do with their NFL picks?

Division	Mike's Original Picks	Mike's Adjusted Picks	Tim's Original Picks	Tim's Adjusted Picks	Actual
NFC North	Green Bay	Green Bay	Green Bay	Green Bay	Minnesota
NFC South	New Orleans	Atlanta	Carolina	Carolina	Carolina
NFC East	Philadelphia	Philadelphia	Dallas	NY Giants	Washington
NFC West	Seattle	Arizona	Seattle	Arizona	Arizona
NFC Wild Cards	Arizona St. Louis	St. Louis NY Giants	Philadelphia NY Giants	Atlanta St. Louis	Green Bay Seattle
AFC North	Pittsburgh	Cincinnati	Baltimore	Cincinnati	Cincinnati
AFC South	Indianapolis	Indianapolis	Indianapolis	Indianapolis	Houston
AFC East	New England	New England	New England	New England	New England
AFC West	Denver	Denver	Denver	Denver	Denver
AFC Wild Cards	Cincinnati Houston	Pittsburgh Oakland	Pittsburgh Miami	Pittsburgh Oakland	Pittsburgh Kansas City

Mike's Original Picks: 8/12
Mike's Adjusted Picks: 6/12
Tim's Original Picks: 6/12
Tim's Adjusted Picks: 7/12

Tim, BATSU GAME!!  Tim's batsu will be announced along with Mike's bowl picks batsu on the next podcast.

Reminder: Both Mike and Tim picked Green Bay to win it all.  However, Mike's adjusted Super Bowl winner is New England.