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The Word of the Day – CHARACTER – Miles

In The Word of the Day on February 21, 2012 at 8:19 am

CHARACTER

“You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him”

James D. Miles

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The Word of the Day – THON – PSU

In The Word of the Day on February 20, 2012 at 7:56 am

THON

“Congratulations to Penn State students who raised $10,686,924 this weekend for the Cure of Pediatric Cancer…UNBELIEVABLE!!!!”

 

WE ARE PENN STATE PROUD!!!

PICK YOUR FAVORITE 2012 PHILLIE

In Philadelphia Phillies on February 19, 2012 at 7:11 pm

Since the Pitchers & Catchers worked out for the frist time today and we’re all excited for the start of the season lets have a little quick fun to get Spring Training going. Opening game is April 5th in Pittsburgh and the first home game is Monday April 9th against the Florida Marlins.

So here you go, whos’ your favorite Phillie?

Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, Placido Polanco, John Mayberry, Shane Victorino, Hunter Pence, Carlos “Chooch” Ruiz, Jim Thome, Roy Halliday, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels, Vance Worley, Kyle Kendrick, Joe Blanton, Michael Stutes, Antonio Bastardo, Jonathan Pappelbon, Brian Schneider, Michael Martinez, Juan Pierre, Laynce Nix, Jose Contrares, David Herndon, Dontrelle Willis, Michael Schwimer, Phillippe Aumont, Ty Wiggington, Dominic Brown, Chad Qualls.

Barring a trade some combination of these guys will be the opening day roster. Can you come up with ONE name as your favorite Phillie? Better yet, if you could have a free jersey of any player to wear around town whose jersey would you pick?? Feel free to click the Comment button and Respond.

Mike pick? I can’t decide right now, Utley, Hamels, Halliday???

Let the Spring begin!!!

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WHY WOULD YOU RUN A HALF MARATHON??

In Running & Exercise on February 18, 2012 at 6:09 am

I’m not sure that I can think of any good reason to run a half marathon, 13.1 miles, but we recently caught up with a couple guys, Mike Furman and Alex Duhaime (Duey for short), who did just that. We sat down and had a Question & Answer session to try to understand what would make you want to do such a thing.

You may find some interesting motivation in their answers.

 

What was the name of the race and where was it run?

MF:  SweetH20 Sweetheart ½ Marathon at Sweetwater State Park in Lithia Springs Georgia.

How old are you?

MF:  25

AD: 25

 Were you an athlete in the past?

MF/AD: We both  played college baseball at the University of West Georgia

 What made you want to run a half marathon?

MF:  Started getting bored and realized that after work all I did was watch TV. I started getting out of shape and really just wanted a challenge.  

AD: I have always enjoyed running and I wanted to get back into shape.

Had you ever run in any similar type of race?

MF:  I did a sprint triathlon in the spring of 2010 (swim 500 meters, bike 12 miles, run 3.1 miles) and a couple 5ks (3.1 miles) but I’ve never done any races consistently.

AD: No, this was my first competitive race.

How did you train and for how long?

MF:  Well, we didn’t give ourselves a whole lot of time to prepare for this thing… 35 days to be exact.  First thing we did was sign up and pay our race fee (once that’s done, there is no backing out) We would do 1 long run every weekend and increase the mileage by 2 or 3 miles every week.  We Started with what we were expecting to be a 5 mile trail run (being that the ½ marathon was on a trail, we did all of our long runs, on trails) the 5 miler turned in to a 4 miler and a lot of huffing, puffing, and complaining.  Knowing that I have gotten shin splints in the past from running on treadmills and really running too much too soon I decided to ride the bike (stationary) and swim to help my cardio and not put as much stress on my legs.  I figured, if I can train my body to perform at a high intensity for a long period of time (regardless of the activity) my breathing would not be a factor in the race.  I typically did a spin class twice a week, swam once and got a leg workout in, throughout the week.  Also rode the bike before and after a regular workout for nearly 30 minutes at a time.  Also found later in my training that the stair master was a big help.  Really helped strengthen my legs and prepared me for, what turned out to, some mountainous-like inclines during the race. After our 4 mile disastrous run, we decided not to focus nearly as much on speed but more so on, just getting the distance and letting the speed take care of itself.  So the next weekend (1/21) we jumped up to a 7 mile run.  Made a few wrong turns on some windy trails and ended up running 8 miles… what a pleasant surprise.  The next weekend we tackled 10 miles and the weekend following, 12.  With the race in 2 weeks we backed off to try and refresh the legs we had practically destroyed over a 1 month span and just ran 8 miles the weekend before the race.  The week of the race came down to, do or die… give it up or give it hell… I chose to ride the bike with almost no resistance on Tuesday and Wednesday (week of) for about 30 minutes.  I felt like it would be good to at least get some blood flowing and not completely neglect my legs for the week.  By Saturday (race day) morning I was feeling as good as I had felt all month, anxious, excited, and actually a little nervous.

I trained for a little over a month.

How was the course and was it what you expected?

MF: The course was unlike any trail I could have imagined.  We trained on trails that got beat up on the play ground.  There was one hill/mountain that had me on all 4’s trying to get to the top… Yes, it was that steep!  This course was mean!

AD: We went and ran the course during our training and found it to be difficult, but the half marathon course was much more difficult than any of our training sessions.

How was the weather?

MF:  Cold, wet, windy, and cold! 36 degrees at our 8 am start time and got colder throughout the race.

AD: It was about 30 degrees and 10-15 mph winds.

What place did you finish and what was your time?

MF:  I finished 50th overall with a time of 2:27:58… (out of 144 runners)

AD:  I placed 52nd out of 144 runners with a time of 2:28:05

Do you plan on doing another half marathon?

MF:  Absolutely going to do another one.  I think I’ll stick to the regular road races though… No more trail runs for a while.

AD: Yes I just signed up for the Atlanta Publix Marathon on March 18th

 
What else is on your list to accomplish?

MF:  I want to run a full (26.2 mile) marathon before the end of 2012.  Then from there maybe I’ll shoot for an Olympic size triathlon (aka Half  Iron Man)… You never know.

AD: I would like to run a full marathon and maybe an Olympic size Triathlon. (Half Ironman)

It looks like boredom can be a great motivator. It seems to me that a Half Marathon is quite an accomplishment for a couple guys just trying to get some exercise and get in shape. By the photo below it looks like you’re still alive and actually enjoyed the challenge. We look forward to following you through the Iron Man competition. I think at that point it would be safe to say that you aren’t just trying to get in shape.

 

Congratulations guys on a great accomplishment!!!! 

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THE GREATEST QB OF ALL TIME – THE RESULTS

In Greatest QB of All Time on February 17, 2012 at 6:14 am

I’d like to thank everyone for the feedback of our Greatest QB of All Time Preview article. A lot of votes came in for Otto Graham, Johnny Unites, Joe Montana, Dan Marino and Joe Namath. As we discussed in the preview article we selected 14 QB’s and performed a statistical analysis to try to determine who the Greatest Quarterback of All Time is. As we stated the passing craze that began in the 1970’s eliminated many great QB’s from earlier times when the ball wasn’t thrown every down. Greats like Johnny Unites, Bart Starr, Otto Graham, Norm Van Brocklin and others of that era just couldn’t compare statistically, which doesn’t take away from them in any way as all time greats of the game. We will do a second study that would include just QB’s prior to 1970.  We have selected the following as our Top 14 in alphabetical order:

  • Troy Aikman
  • Drew Brees
  • Terry Bradshaw
  • Tom Brady
  • John Elway
  • Brett Favre
  • Dan Fouts
  • Jim Kelly
  • Peyton Manning
  • Dan Marino
  • Joe Montana
  • Ben Roethlisberger
  • Roger Staubach
  • Steve Young

Each of these QB’s are either members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, won a Super Bowl or have won a Super Bowl and will be members of the Hall of Fame in the future.

We selected 8 regular season statistical categories that we felt would put all of the players on a level field without showing bias to a QB that played longer than the rest, Brett Favre, and holds many of the career QB records. What we did was break it down by how they performed in the categories by percentage across their career.

If a player did not play in at least half of his teams games in a season that seasons numbers were not included. For example, Tom Brady played in just 1 game in 2008 due to injury. Also, one of the hardest guys to include in this was Steve Young. There are several seasons in which Young missed games, mainly because he was backing up Joe Montana when he was in San Francisco but he also split time early in his career in Tampa Bay. With that said here are the 8 regular season categories:

  • Career Total Yards Produced versus Teams Total Yards %
  • Career Passing Yards/Game
  • Career Yards per Pass Attempt
  • Career Yards per Pass Completion
  • Career Pass Completion %
  • Career Pass Interception %
  • Career Pass TD’s  %
  • Career Game Winning Drives

Each QB was given 14 points if they finished 1st in the specific category 13 for 2nd, 12 for 3rd, down to 1 point if they finished last in the category. All 8 categories were added up and the QB with the most total points in the 8 categories becomes our Greatest Regular Season QB of All Time.

We will show you who finished 1-5 in each of the categories and we will show you how all 14 finished and what their total points were. You may want to match how the QB finished and who had Hall of Fame running backs in the same backfield.

Once we came up with those results we added 2 Playoff stats, Super Bowls played in and Super Bowls won.  We used these 2 categories since playoff stats are all over the board and impossible to compare based on numbers of games each played. Obviously doing this helps Tom Brady and John Elway, as it should since they’ve played in more Super Bowls than any other QB with 5 but also helps Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw who have won the most Super Bowls with 4. It also helps Jim Kelly with his 4 Super Bowl appearances even though he didn’t win. Making 4 Super Bowls is an amazing accomplishment. The guys it really hurts are Dan Fouts with no Super Bowl appearances and Dan Marino with 1. You will see how the addition of the Super Bowl stats changed the overall ranking.

Here are the results. See what you think and feel free to click “Respond” and say your piece. Did we miss anybody that should’ve been included? Did we include statistics that didn’t make it fair? Finally, did you like the results?

Career Total Yards Produced versus Teams Total Yards %

  1. Brett Favre
  2. Peyton Manning
  3. John Elway
  4. Tom Brady
  5. Drew Brees

Career Passing Yards/Game

  1. Peyton Manning
  2. Drew Brees
  3. Dan Marino
  4. Tom Brady
  5. Brett Favre

Career Yards per Pass Attempt

  1. Ben Roethlisberger
  2. Steve Young
  3. Dan Fouts
  4. Roger Staubach
  5. Peyton Manning

Career Yards per Pass Completion

  1. Terry Bradshaw
  2. Roger Staubach
  3. Dan Fouts
  4. Ben Roethlisberger
  5. John Elway

Career Pass Completions %

  1. Drew Brees
  2. Peyton Manning
  3. Steve Young
  4. Tom Brady
  5. Joe Montana

Career Pass Interception %

  1. Tom Brady
  2. Joe Montana
  3. Steve Young
  4. Drew Brees
  5. Peyton Manning

Career Pass TD’s %

  1. Tom Brady
  2. Steve Young
  3. Peyton Manning
  4. Terry Bradshaw
  5. Roger Staubach

Career Game Winning Drives

  1. Dan Marno
  2. John Elway
  3. Peyton Manning
  4. Brett Favre
  5. Tom Brady

FINAL RESULTS – REGULAR SEASON

1.     Peyton Manning – 88 points of 112 possible points

2.     Tom Brady – 84 points

3.     Drew Brees – 73 points

4.     Dan Marino – 68 points

5.     Ben Roethlisberger – 66 points

6.     Joe Montana – 65 points

7.     Steve Young – 64 points

8.     Brett Favre – 60 points

9.     Dan Fouts – 55 points

10.   John Elway – 54 points

11.    Jim Kelly – 48 points

12.   Roger Staubach – 48 points

13.   Terry Bradshaw – 40 points

14.   Troy Aikman – 30 points

The categories below were calculated like the rest. Due to my formatting they had to be listed in numerical order but the points were done the same way. For example on Super Bowl Wins both Bradshaw and Montana got 14 points and Brady, Aikman and Young got 12. This covers the ties.

Super Bowl Wins

  1. Terry Bradshaw – 4
  2. Joe Montana – 4
  3. Tom Brady – 3
  4. Troy Aikman – 3
  5. Steve Young – 3

Super Bowl Appearances

  1. John Elway – 5
  2. Tom Brady – 5
  3. Terry Bradshaw – 4
  4. Joe Montana – 4
  5. Jim Kelly – 4
  6. Roger Staubach – 4

 

GRAND TOTAL GREATEST QB OF ALL TIME

1.     Tom Brady

2.     Peyton Manning

3.     Joe Montana

4.     Steve Young

5.     Ben Roethlisberger

6.     Drew Brees

7.     John Elway

8.     Dan Marino

9.     Brett Favre

10.   Roger Staubach

11.    Terry Bradshaw

12.   Jim Kelly

13.   Dan Fouts

14.   Troy Aikman

The results are in. As we stated we’re open for any and all comments and opinions. Thanks again for your interest in Philly Pressbox. Feel free to follow us on Facebook at Philly Pressbox as well.

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The Word of the Day – FIND A WAY – Paige

In The Word of the Day on February 17, 2012 at 6:12 am

 

FIND A WAY

“Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way”

 

Satchel Paige

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The Word of the Day – SMELL THE ROSES – Hogan

In The Word of the Day on February 16, 2012 at 5:59 am

SMELL THE ROSES

“As you walk down the fairway of life you must smell the roses, for you only get to play one round”

 

Ben Hogan

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THE GREATEST QB OF ALL TIME

In Greatest QB of All Time on February 15, 2012 at 7:33 pm

We’d like to thank everyone who has viewed and commented on our Greatest QB of All-Time Preview. There have been so many great names put out as the greatest ever from Otto Graham to Johnny Unites to Joe Montana to Dan Marino to John Elway to name a few. In every case the comment was there is “no question” who was the best. That’s what has made this so interesting. Feel free to go to our original post and read all of the comments. There were also many comments on Facebook and LinkedIn in different groups.

With that said, we will be posting the results on Friday morning. Feel free to comment. I’m sure there will be more debate when you see how things turned out. Remember we have 8 regular season categories and those results. We then added 2 Super Bowl related results, Super Bowls won and Super Bowls played in and calculated the numbers again. You can see it all.

Thanks again for the interest and we’ll see you when the final results are posted.

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The Word of The Day – REFUSE TO LOSE – Earnhardt

In The Word of the Day on February 15, 2012 at 6:30 am

REFUSE TO LOSE

“The winner ain’t the one with the fastest car it’s the one who refuses to lose”

Dale Earnhardt

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DON’T FIRE ANDY REID!!!!

In Philadelphia Eagles on February 14, 2012 at 5:12 pm

I know that I’m going against popular demand but I’m glad Andy Reid is here and I hope he stays another year until the Eagles win the Super Bowl. So bring on the comments, all haters are welcome, I’m ready for you. Here’s why I say Andy stays. Last season saw:

  • 3 new offensive linemen, Evan Mathis, and 2 rookies, Danny Watkins and Jason Kelce, that got a lot better as the season went on. Todd Herremans is a quality tackle and some say Jason Peters is the best in the game. They also had a new O-Line coach in Howard Mudd.
  • The O-Line development led Shady McCoy to Honolulu after a tremendous season both rushing and receiving.
  • A crazy season of DeSean Jackson antics and average play that will change next season. Jackson can be a great player again but he hurt this team.
  • Brent Celek and Jeremy Mackiln are good solid players. Jason Avant and Riley Cooper are serviceable reserves.
  • Injuries and turnovers to Michael Vick. You can’t help the injuries but Vick will protect the football much better next season.  The Vince Young experiment didn’t work and it hurt this football team. There was a new QB coach in Doug Pederson.

Overall I think this is a good, maybe great offensive football team if they don’t turn the ball over. Not many teams have these weapons!!

  • The defensive line was pretty decent. Jason Babin was a Pro Bowler. Trent Cole is solid and the guys in the middle, Cullen Jenkins and Mike Patterson did a decent job but some depth is needed up front. Jaqua Parker might have run out of gas but showed spurts.
  • The LB’s got better but need some major help. The Casey Mathews experiment didn’t work out, however he played much better later in the season. The jury’s still out whether he can be a full time player. I’d like to see them pick up a gap filler like London Fletcher a free agent from the Redskins and use the #15 pick in the draft on a LB, preferably Boston College’s Luke Kuechly. That would add some experience and toughness to the group that has to do a better job stopping the run.
  • The DB’s were a mystery. Nnamdi Asomugha was pretty bad. He was pretty a guarantee to get burnt at least once a game for a TD. That won’t happen again this year. Every team in the league couldn’t have been wrong on the guy. Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Asanti Samuel, if he’s back, Nate Allen, Kurt Coleman, Jaquawn Jarrett, Josilio Hansen will be better next year.

Again there were an awful lot of new faces on defense. Add to that a new Defensive Coordinator, Juan Castillo, new DL Coach, Jim Washburn, new  LB Coach, Mike Caldwell, new CB Coach, Johnny Lynn, whose been replaced and new Safeties Coach Mike Zordich and not having any offseason practice time to get to know the new players and new coaches hurt this team badly especially early in the year.

  • The Special Teams added a rookie kicker, Alex Henery and a rookie punter, Chaz Henry to go with solid long snapper Jon Dorenbos. I can’t say you can upgrade from David Akers but these guys did a nice job.

 All of these things bring us to Andy Reid. Here are a few facts and figures for you to consider:

  • 5th Winningest Active Coach. Bill Belichick (175 wins – 17 seasons), Mike Shanahan (157-25), Jeff Fisher (142-20), Tom Coughlin (142-16), Reid (126-13).
  • Reid is 2nd among active coaches with 45 more wins than losses. Only Belichick is better with 78.
  • Reid is tied for 1st among active coaches for years taking his teams to the playoffs with Belichick with 9. Remember Belichick has coached for 17 seasons to Reids 13.
  • Reid has also coached the 2nd most playoff games and won the 2nd most playoff games to only Belichick.
  • Reid has been to 5 NFC championship games and 1 Super Bowl as Head Coach of the Eagles.
  • If Reid coached another 13 seasons with the same 126 wins, his 252 wins would rank him 3rd all time behind Don Shula and George Halas and 2 win ahead of Tom Landry. That’s pretty serious company.

 The only thing that is not on this Andy Reid resume is a Super Bowl Championship. The team is set up to make a run at the Super Bowl with the players they have and a possibly a few slight additions and there’s no one better than Andy to take them there.

E-A-G-L-E-S!!!!!