Author Archive
New Orleans Super Bowl XLIV DVD: Another Average NFL Films Production
Posted: 21st June 2010 by C Douglas Baker in NFL
The New Orleans Saints Super Bowl XLIV highlight package is rather average, but a bit better than the last few years. Of course, for any New Orleans fan, it is a great keepsake, no doubt.
The feature of all the team specific Super Bowl highlight packages is about an hour long highlights reel of the New Orleans Saints regular season. This year’s edition does a decent job ...
Doc: The Rise and Rise of Julius Erving By Vincent M. Mallozzi John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2010
This is a “biography” of Julius Erving, better known to sports fans as Dr. J, that relies almost exclusively on news and video accounts and an over decade-old interview of the man himself.
It also includes interview material with his former teammates and coaches, and they do add flavor to the biography, but ...
This week, instead of going through all the games I watched, I am just going to make observations and mention the games along the way.
This really has been one of the strangest seasons. I think mostly because there were are so many mediocre teams vying for playoff spots at the end of the season, and the teams I thought were elite, like the Vikings and Saints, clearly faltered.
But before I ...
Mike Shanahan’s First Order Of Buisness: Get Rid Of Clinton Portis
Posted: 6th January 2010 by C Douglas Baker in NFL
Clinton Portis is one of the least likable players in the league.á He is a ôme firstö player who has constantly called out his teammates instead of looking in the mirror at himself.á
Just a short list from my feeble memory:
He criticized Joe Gibbs for playing him too long in a preseason game when he hurt his shoulder.
He criticized his offensive line and then got into a war of words with ...
Following is the definitive defensive team of the decade for the years 2000-2009.
The defense was much more difficult to choose than the offense because there are so many deserving players and statistics are not as helpful in evaluating the impact of a player on the game. For example, a shut down cornerback does not get many interceptions because nobody wants to throw the ball his way and ...
Following is the definitive offensive team of the decade for the years 2000-2009. In some cases I name two players when it is a particularly close call and the second player deserved a prominent mention on the team.
Mostly I name one player for each position.
I only use statistics where needed when players are fairly close and it helps differentiate between contenders for key spots.
Fact checking was ...
New England Patriots: History Review of The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
Posted: 31st December 2009 by C Douglas Baker in NFL
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly: Heart-Pounding, Jaw-Dropping, and Gut-Wrenching Moments from New England Patriots History by Sean Glennon
Triumph Books 2009
There are many books now available detailing the history of the New England Patriots. Having read many of them, I find that nobody has really come up with anything new to say. The typical ôstories ofö books essentially tell the same tales and I am not sure ...
Larry Bird and Magic Johnson in Their Own Words: A Book Review
Posted: 31st December 2009 by C Douglas Baker in NBA
á
When the Game Was Ours
by Larry Bird and Earvin Magic Johnson, with Jackie
á
MacMullan Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2009
á
When the Game Was Ours tells the real story behind the rivalry between Earvin ôMagicö Johnson and Larry Bird, the two marquee National Basketball Association (NBA) players of the 1980s.á
The rivalry of these two great players revived a moribund NBA. They became the faces of the league, not just through the decade they dominated, ...
Weekly NFL Observations for the 2009 Season: Week 16
Posted: 30th December 2009 by C Douglas Baker in NFL
Other than the multiple playoff implications set up for next week, the biggest story of Week 16 was the Indianapolis Colts eschewing a chance to go undefeated in the regular season by pulling their key starters out in the third quarter against the New York Jets.
The Colts ultimately lost the game. The look on Peyton ManningÆs face as he saw the backups give up the lead and the game ...
Doug Baker’s 2009 NFL Defensive Player of the Year
Posted: 30th December 2009 by C Douglas Baker in NFL
Before naming the defensive player of the year let me say that there are several candidates that are very deserving of the award. You cannot go wrong choosing any single one of them for the honor. This year there is no clearly dominant defensive player like a Bruce Smith, Reggie White, or Lawrence Taylor. ItÆs tough, tough call.
And the candidates are:
...