Diary of a Fan Drifter

The NBA season is about a month away, and it's the most intriguing one in recent memory.  You have five or six legitimate contenders in each conference with an abundance of superstars going into free agency after the year ends.  As a basketball fan, this year should be euphoria.

Except for one thing - I don't have a team to cheer for.

What do you do when your
team skips town?

Growing up in Cary, North Carolina, a Raleigh suburb, college basketball ran my sports world.  I was right in the middle of Duke, UNC, NC State, and the rest of the ACC, and my brain could not take in professional sports because in my mind, it didn't match up.

One thing I did have time for, however, was to check the Charlotte Hornets score in the paper each morning.  If they won, who played well, where they were in the standings, how other division teams fared.  With no professional sports teams close by (yet - the Carolina Hurricanes came to Raleigh a little bit later), the Hornets were the only franchise I felt a connection with that felt like my team.

Then they left for New Orleans.

They were no longer my team.  I could still follow them in the paper, but they were halfway across the country.  They were no longer my Charlotte Hornets.

Bold Predictions for the NFL Season

Thursday night's Broncos-Ravens game kicked off the 2013 NFL season, and it did so in grand fashion.  Peyton Manning reminded everyone that he's one of the best ever, and it became blatantly obviously the Ravens will in fact miss everyone they lost in the offseason.

Sean Payton is back, RGIII is in fact playing week 1, and this is finally going to be the year your team pulls through and competes for a Super Bowl - unguided optimism tends to be the most infectious in the first 2 weeks of the season.

As another exciting NFL season gets into full affect, I'm here to give you some insight on what the upcoming year will hold, as well as my playoff picks.

People will realize Joe Flacco isn't worth his huge contract

In case you missed it, the Baltimore Ravens signed their quarterback to an NFL-record 6 year, $120.6 million contract.  That's more than Brees, Brady, Manning, Rodgers, anybody.  So in order to live up to his contract, he's going to have to play like the best quarterback in the league (or at least one of the best).  But that's just not going to happen.

In winning the Super Bowl last season, Flacco had one of the greatest postseasons in NFL history.  While that is a good sign, that's still just four games - and he doesn't have the nickname Joe Flaccid for nothing.  The guy accounted for the two worst quarterback ratings in the NFL last season, and was flirting with the amazingly terrible Rex Grossman for the worst in NFL history.

However, the Ravens made things tougher on him this year, too, and that may be the biggest reason for his struggles.  His best receiver is no longer with the team and his starting tight end is hurt, so now his starting receiving core consists of a secondary receiver in Torrey Smith, an undrafted rookie, and a tight end who was retired a month ago.  Not very good when you're trying to turn an average NFL quarterback into a superstar.

You think Joe Flacco is more than average? In 2012, he threw for 3,817 yards and 22 touchdowns.  Peyton Manning had 4,659 and 37.  Tom Brady? 4,827 and 34.  Eli Manning? 3,948 and 26. Cam Newton? 3,869 and 19.  Josh Freeman, you know, the guy in danger of losing his job in Tampa? 4,065 and 27.

Lets just pump the brakes a little bit.  He had a fantastic postseason and now he's a Super Bowl champion, but those four games are more likely to be outliers than to be his new norm.

*Side rant* - Can we PLEASE stop with this whole 'our quarterback needs a new contract so lets pay him more than anyone ever' thing? Does anyone really believe Flacco is better than two of the best to ever do it in Peyton and Brady? And the Falcons are probably going to pay Matt Ryan more than Flacco's contract because he's the next competent guy up.  Drew Brees, who is the Saints whole team essentially, makes about $20 mil a year.  What if Baltimore pay Flacco 16 mil a year and Ryan gets about the same? What's wrong with that 6 year, $96 million contract - especially when that might be the most you're worth?

The Sad Stories of What Should Have Been

By now, you've probably heard that the New England Patriots cut Tim Tebow.

You might not have heard that the Green Bay Packers cut Vince Young.

Now, if you follow football, you're probably not surprised by either of these.  Tebow was almost out of the league until the Patriots gave him a chance to try and be a backup, but they went with the guy they already had.  Young was out of the league and was brought in to Green Bay to be Aaron Rodgers' backup, but they changed their minds.

Tebow experienced playoff success in Denver

Both guys are mobile quarterbacks that are arguably the two greatest college quarterbacks from the past decade.  Both guys aren't the greatest passers, and Tebow's struggles have been well documented.  But both guys boast winning records in their now-dormant NFL careers.

The last time we saw Tim Tebow as a starter, he took over a 1-4 team and led them to the playoffs, where he beat the league's top defense that year.  He has a career record of 9-7 as a starter in the NFL, but has never started a full season.

Young had a promising start to his career, gracing video game covers

The last time we saw Vince Young as a starter, he took over a team that started 0-6 and led them to the playoffs - which, by the way, is the only time in NFL history a team made the playoffs after starting out that poorly.  He has a 30-17 career record which gives him a 63.8 career winning percentage - only Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco, and Ben Roethlisberger have a better one.  He's also been to a few Pro Bowls.