Actual wife not pictured

It’s Super Bowl week—which for many men is the most important gambling day of the year. The one question on gamblers’ minds everywhere is not who will win the game, but which team will cover the spread.

Last year, not knowing whom to pick, I consulted with my wife, who knows next to nothing about football, with the hopes she would be my good-luck charm.  Amazingly, not only did she accurately predict that the Packers would cover the spread but she nearly got the score of the game right.

So I decided to consult her once again in hopes that she could pick me another winner. Here’s how our conversation went… (more…)

Every year, in the world of fantasy football, there are a few guys that just don’t live up to expectations. No matter how good your team is, you’ll always have one guy on your team that you hate. Every so often, there will be a guy SO BAD that you swear you’ll never draft him ever again. NO MATTER WHAT. You hate him for destroying your dream of fantasy football glory and you’ll never forgive him.

The 2011 season is no different. Below you will find a list of players who are currently the most hated men in fantasy football.

I prepared a similar list in 2009, but many of those players have become largely irrelevant. Predictably their shitty play in the fantasy world correlated with their shitty play in real life and now most of them are out of football. Before I get to the current list, let’s recap where the players from my 2009 list stand now. (more…)

Scandals are everywhere in college athletics. Over the past year, we’ve seen Terrelle Pryor get paid to autograph memorabilia at Ohio State, Cam Newtown get mixed up in allegations that his father tried to bribe Mississippi State and, most recently, that half the Miami football team was enjoying free prostitutes. Anytime a new scandal comes up, someone in the mainstream media, with nothing else to write about, likes to pose the question: Should college athletes get paid?

ESPN and the Wall Street Journal have made a case for paying college athletes and most recently, Taylor Branch, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer joined in on the fun with an insanely long article in the Atlantic. He gives plenty of reasons why college athletes should be paid to play—even comparing student-athletes to slaves—but fails to outline any sort of plan to pull this off. Here’s the main point of his argument…

For all the outrage, the real scandal is not that students are getting illegally paid or recruited, it’s that two of the noble principles on which the NCAA justifies its existence—“amateurism” and the “student-athlete”—are cynical hoaxes, legalistic confections propagated by the universities so they can exploit the skills and fame of young athletes. The tragedy at the heart of college sports is not that some college athletes are getting paid, but that more of them are not.

The basis for many people’s argument, including Branch’s, is that these college athletes are poor and this is why they resort to taking improper benefits. Since the NCAA and big-time Division I schools are profiting from these athletes, aren’t the students entitled to get a piece of the revenue pie?

Can we PLEEEAASE STOP with this argument!? This will NEVER, EVER happen, (more…)

I typically do some sort of fantasy football post around this time each year.  This year I struggled with a way to present a fantasy football post in a different manner than in years’ past.  I suppose I could have done some sort of predictions or strategy guide but I waited too long to do that and no one is coming to this site for fantasy football advice anyway.

Instead, I have a somewhat random collection of thoughts about the upcoming season and fantasy football in general.  They are a little all over the place but hopefully you’ll find this post both informative and entertaining.  (more…)

It seems like anytime an all-star game approaches, no matter what the sport, there are always people talking about how to make the game more interesting or how to make the game as exciting as it once was.

The truth is, there is nothing anyone can do to makes these games more exciting. All-Star games in any sport are nothing but a glorified, overly drawn out exhibition game.

All-Star games used to be exciting many years ago because sports coverage was very regionalized. Fans could usually only watch games of their local team. To follow the other teams in the league, you either had to read the newspaper or wait till the end of the news broadcast for a sports anchor to scroll scores across the screen.

The All-star game used to be one of the few opportunities a fan would have to see some of the game’s best players. Let’s say you were a fan of a National League team in the 80s. Your only chance to see American League stars such as Don Mattingly or Roger Clemens play was during the All-Star Game. This isn’t the case anymore. (more…)

The recent interleague baseball match-up between my hometown New York Yankees and the Chicago Cubs gave me an excuse to make my first trip to Chicago this past weekend.

As I took in a pair of games at historic Wrigley Field, I started to learn why the Cubs haven’t won a series since 1908. Losing has become part of their appeal and their fans have embraced the concept of the “Loveable Losers.” I even saw some kid being interviewed on ESPN saying he’d rather be a Cubs fan than a Yankees fan because “it would be boring to always win.” I’ve been a Yankees fan my whole life. Trust me kid. There is nothing boring about winning.

Cubs fans and their relationship with Wrigley Field is like being in a bad relationship with a beautiful woman. They are blinded by its exterior beauty and can’t see the flaws on the inside.

On the exterior, everything about Wrigley Field looks amazing. The field has a quaint atmosphere of a minor-league park with its ivory-covered brick walls and auxiliary scoreboard. But what you’ll find in the interior are cramped seats, no video board and a trough in a disgusting men’s room where 50 men are pissing simultaneously. Oh yeah…and the team playing inside stinks.

But Cubs fans are blinded by Wrigley Field, just like a man would be blinded by dating a beautiful woman who brings nothing else to the table.

Every game is like a party for Cubs fans, where the outcome isn’t as important as having fun. Remember the crap your parents told you after losing a game in Little League, that it’s not important if you won or lost, as long as you had fun? It seems like Cubs fans live by that notion. The result is a side note to getting drunk and tossing beach balls around. I can see why Wrigley Field is called “The Friendly Confines”: Because the park is too small and their fans are wimps (except for the teenage girl that called my 63-year old father a “faggot Yankees fan”). Obnoxious Yankees fans were scattered all over that park, talking shit at every opportunity and most Cubs fans just sat there and took it. Even when the Cubs won on Friday, they failed to seize a rare opportunity to talk trash. Maybe that’s the difference between New Yorkers and Chicagoans. Perhaps they are just too polite to say anything.

As the team with 27 World Series Championships took two-out-of three from a team who hasn’t won a title in over 100 years, it became clear which city had the better baseball team. But when it comes to other important aspects, Chicago holds its own against New York City. Though I was only there a few days, I took in a good amount of the city and have drawn some key comparisons between Chicago and New York. (more…)

Spring Training is here! Major League Baseball players are reporting to camp and getting ready for the upcoming baseball season.

Meanwhile, sports writers follow the players down South in order to provide news to baseball fans across the country that are hungry to read about baseball after a long winter.

Yet we are still over a month away from any meaningful games so there really isn’t a lot to talk about.  There’s not much going on at Spring Training other than light jogging, pitchers fielding practice and soft tossing.  However, beat writers have to write about something while they are down in Florida and Arizona, so they find ways to turn just about anything into a 1,500-word press release.

I’ve found a number of articles—mostly on MLB.com— where the reporters are desperately reaching for any kind of story. Here are five of the best releases I’ve seen thus far that can barely be called newsworthy.

1. Some Fat Yankee Pitchers Aren’t Quite as Fat; Others are as Fat as Ever

The BIG news around Yankee camp this spring has been about the weight of their pitchers.

Ace hurler C.C. Sabathia claims to have lost 25 pounds because he stopped eating Cap’n Crunch.

“I stopped eating Cap’n Crunch every day,” Sabathia told news reporters Monday morning. “I used to eat that stuff by the box.”

Meanwhile, pudgy relief pitcher Joba Chamberlain has dropped some of that baby fat and put on some muscle during the off-season.

“Obviously, I added muscle,” Chamberlain said. “That just comes from being a man, too. I’m 25 now, not 21.”

Yankee skipper Joe Girardi then really spiced up the Chamberlain story with this quote…

“I think his hairstyle being different is the one thing I noticed first.” (more…)

It’s Super Bowl week—which for many men is the most important gambling day of the year. The one question on gamblers’ minds everywhere is not who will win the game, but which team will cover the spread?

This is a particularly hard year to bet on the Super Bowl because both teams seem to be evenly matched and the spread is small, with the Green Bay Packers favored by just 2 ½ points over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

If you’re struggling with who to bet on this coming Sunday then you’ve come to the right place.  I’m having a hard time picking this game myself, so I’ve decided to consult with my wife, Mrs. Sacks, and perhaps with her female intuition she can accurately predict which team will cover.  I sat down with my better half recently and asked her to break down the game like only she can.

Johnny Sacks: What are your initial thoughts about Pittsburgh?

Mrs. Sacks: I’ve been to Pittsburgh a few times and I don’t like it. It tries to be like Philadelphia but it’s not nearly as good.   I also hate that their fans wave those stupid towels and I don’t like that “Black and Yellow” song.

Johnny Sacks: I hate that song too.  I believe you are referring to the Terrible Towel.

Mrs. Sacks: Yes. Those things.  They’re stupid.

Johhny Sacks: How about Green Bay?  What do you think about them? (more…)