The Dartboard

One of my favorite days of the year is upon us. The NFL Draft. A day when every team thinks they find the puzzle pieces that will put them over the top.

If you don't follow football, you would be shocked to learn how the process works. Teams spend millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours scouting players. And in the end, they usually get it right only half the time. Especially in the first few rounds of the draft, the 'experts' get it wrong more than they get it right.

So it's fun to join in on the arm-chair GM game. So as a gigantic fan of college football, here's my take on a few of the guys that should go very early in the draft.

Matthew Stafford ( QB Georgia ) - Stafford already signed a deal with the Lions a few hours ago to be the number one overall pick. This year is not regarded as a 'deep' draft class, meaning there aren't alot of superstars to pick from. But in any year, Stafford is a superstar. He can make all the throws, and has one of the best arms to come out of college in a long time. His only downside at this point... is that he's the best player available. He's going to the Lions.... poor Matthew. I think he'll be a serviceable QB in the league, it's just going to take a while... or him moving to another team before that happens. But he'll stay in the league, and be a starter for most of his career.

Mark Sanchez ( QB - USC ) - Sanchez is the biggest boom/bust prospect in the draft. Someone is going to draft him WAAAAY higher than his resume warrants. He's got physical tools, but is still pretty green under the gills. He too will be hurt by going to a crappy team, and he'll take a lot of lumps in the NFL. I don't think he'll have half the career that Stafford will have. He is the 'buzz' player right now before the draft, but nobody has played a game in 3 months. How someones stock can rise so much when you're not playing is beyond me. Halfway through the college season, he wasn't mentioned as a top ten pick.... I think he's still the same player he was in November, and isn't worth the risk. Serviceable backup for most of his career I think.

Aaron Curry ( OLB - Wake Forest ) - The safest defensive pick in the draft. Curry can come in and start and be productive right away - even if he goes to a crappy team. Defensive players don't get hurt by going to poor teams as much as offensive players do. Especially at LB. Curry should be a mainstay for most of his career. He reminds me of AJ Hawk coming out of college. Sorry Nort, Hawk isn't living up to being the 5th overall pick, but he was still a good pick. Curry won't be the next Ray Lewis, but he'll make whoever picks him up happy with the pick for a long time.

Andre Smith ( OL - Alabama ) - Gulp. This one boggles my mind. He is the second rated OL in the draft... DESPITE flaking out at the NFL Combine ( he just up and LEFT. Like walked out. That's never happened before in the history of the combine. I'll say it again. He just left. ) He also showed up having put on over 20 pounds since the season ended, and his body looked like he swallowed a bag of nickles. He was a beast in college... but I think he got by on his size alone in college. A defensive end in the NFL will run circles around him. I'm spooked cuz a TON of mock drafts have the Packers picking him at the nine spot. GULP. I hope we don't take him. I don't see him staying very long in the league.

I think the receiver that will be the best out of this draft class will be Hakeem Nicks out of North Carolina. He's big and has great hands. He's projected by the experts as the fifth best WR... but I think he's going to make more of an impact right away, and in the long run will be the best wideout available this year.

The RB, the DL, and the DBs are all so muddled, I'm just guessing as much as the experts are when it comes to them, so I'm not going to prognosicate when it comes to them.

But it will sure be fun to watch this weekend.

Hey Bear.

WTF?

Monkey Talk From the Zoo

A text exchange from this afternoon while we were at the zoo:

Flax: "Mason just waived at a monkey."

Will: "Don't talk about people from Cudahy like that Flax, it's not nice."

For the six of you that have internet access in Cudahy, send your hate mail to Will.

Child Labor

Didn't even teach him that. Now, if I could just get him to handle the lawnmower.

Did You Grab Your Ankles Yesterday?

Monopoly money. How can the numbers that the government plays with when it comes to budgets/ bailouts/ entitlements/ handouts/ subsidies/ pensions/ infrastructure be real?

Here in Wisconsin, they're gonna pass a gigantic budget. I stopped paying attention when the INCREASE in spending exceeded the 2 BILLION dollar mark. They're gonna increase the gas tax, the cigarette tax, they already increased the 'bed tax' for hospitals. Property taxes are going up. The estate tax went up. They raised the corporate tax level. They increased the cost of vehicle registration. They even added a twenty dollar 'wheel tax' on vehicle registrations in the city of Milwaukee.

They took AWAY a tax credit for companies investing in making medical records digital. They are SOOOO looking for extra money to spend, that they took away money promised to companies for doing something the state ENCOURAGED them to do.

They're gonna tax companies that need to get Air Carrier status. As someone who used to work in the transportation industry, this one is pretty stupid. Air Carrier status means you've taken the steps necessary with the Department of Homeland Security to expedite and streamline the process of transporting things via the air. If you need something to go quickly, you can use any one of a host of airlines to ship your cargo. But it's a absolute nightmare of paperwork and logistics to get it approved, and actually on the plane. But if it's something you need to do business alot, you can get certified as an Air Carrier, and avoid some of the bureaucracy. So it's a good thing if you do it... but Wisconsin, and only Wisconsin wants to tax a company for taking that step.

They're going to REDUCE the capital gains exclusion to 40%

They're going to significantly increase the tax level for the top level earners in Wisconsin.

They want to tax digital ( music and video ) purchases in accordance with the state sales tax here.

But hey, at least we're not Oregon. Oregon wants to raise the beer tax by 1900%.

Eugene Kane

So I stopped reading him for a long long time. But the other day, I made the mistake of picking up the paper, and his article was sitting there waiting for me. I should have known better than to read it. The article was about Rev. Wright ( of Obama's former pastor fame ).

I had to post this, because I wanted to make sure that I read it right. Mr. Kane is comparing Rev. Wright to Martin Luther King Jr??????? How is that even possible?

And then he ends the article by saying that people might be disappointed by Rev. Wright not saying here in Milwaukee "God Damn America"... 'but that we know he really didn't say it the first time'........ What. The. Fuck?

He did say it the first time!! How can you say with a straight face that this guy is just like Dr. King??? And then say that he didn't say things that were CAUGHT ON CAMERA???

I remember why I don't read Mr. Kane anymore.

Mambo Number Eighty Five

Had the chance to go to the Admirals game last night. ( that's hockey for you outta-towners )

Turned out to be a decent game - even though the Admrials didn't start to really take the game serious until the second period was almost over.

It would have been a great game... because there was alot of opportunities for fights.

BUUUUUUTTTT... there is a ref in the AHL that wears number 85... and he is a gigantic prick. He came flying in outta nowhere to break up almost every fight that was about to happen. I thought the refs were supposed to let it go until one of the guys fell down... but noooooooooo. This asshat had to jump in like he was taking a bullet for the president or something.

There's always one guy that has to ruin the fun for everyone else. Yesterday, I found THAT guy.