America's Game

Highest of recommendations to NFL Network's America's Game Series, detailing the seasons of the 20 best Super Bowl Champion Teams of all-time as voted by a blue-ribbon panel. If for no other reason than it has rare footage of old regular seasons that you don't see in the sports history which, more than any others, is defined by one game a year. It is a very good "encyclopedia" of the best teams from then and now. The countdown is up to 14 so far the rankings are:

20. 1983 Los Angeles Raiders
19. 1999 St. Louis Rams
18. 1969 Kansas City Chiefs
17. 1994 San Francisco 49ers
16. 1996 Green Bay Packers
15. 1971 Dallas Cowboys

The 1971 Cowboys episode is probably the best one yet because Running Back Duane Thomas steals the show. Thomas was a pioneer in the realm of preseason holdouts forcing a trade to New England which was then reversed by the NFL. He is still bitter to this day and if you've ever wondered what Terrell Owens will sound like in 35 years, this episode will provide your answer. I can't do it justice you just have to watch.

It airs Fridays at 8:30pm, next week's episode will detail the season of:

14. 1991 Washington Redskins

No Bowl Game Today

That makes me sad but here's how I plan to spend the time...

The Office: It looks like Jan was the person that Michael invited to Sandals after all and this episode will touch on that and the after effects.

Syracuse vs. Pittsburgh: Funny how three losses in December can temper expectations in about two weeks time. Big East Conference opener should tell us a lot about whether or not the Orange are tournament team this year.

Real World/Road Rules Challenge: I think I've missed two weeks of episodes meaning one elimination for the men and women. Assuming they are still alive I expect Brad or Aneesa to get eliminated tonight.

I...Am...Innocent

Dan Greco would like you all to know that he is not the "angry reader" who has been terrorizing this blog over the past month. While it is Pizza Parlor policy not to comment on ongoing investigations, I have found it safe to exonerate both Dan and the suspect he implicates (throws under the bus) in this letter.

Dear Pizza Parlor Derek, Mr. Paul Poop and SCZA;

At this time, I would like to announce to the Pizza Parlor, SCZAnation and Paul's Poop that I am NOT the "Angry Reader". The "Angry Reader" is someone who is 1) most definitely is Angry, 2) Does not like the content on any of your blogs, and, 3) Is most likely to be jealous of the popularity and success of your blogs.

If I were to hypothesize, the "Angry Reader" could be Mr. Brian Beers. Here is my logic in garnering this guess. Mr. Beers frequents each of the aforementioned blogs occasionally leaving comments under his own and other aliases. I believe that Mr. Beers could be the "Angry Reader". But, for sure, the "Angry Reader" is not me.

Kindest Regards,
Dan

SCZA Joins the Bandwagon!

Could he name one Carrie Underwood song?

Maybe I will Buy It

Boy finds surprise in copy of Madden '07

PPCS: January 3

Sugar Bowl: Notre Dame 27, LSU 20- I could play it safe with a 22-6 record and pick favorites all the way through and no one is giving Notre Dame a chance in this game, but Charlie Weis with six weeks to prepare against the inconsistent JaMarcus Russell. Showcase game for Brady Quinn, first game since coming in THIRD in the Heisman Trophy voting? I see Notre Dame running a lot of outlet and screen passes in lieu of a running game that wouldn't work against LSU's front four. Definitely take the 8 1/2 point spread if you're a betting man (Josh) and see this is as a winnable game for Notre Dame outright. No matter where it is.

My First YouTube

Courtesy of Tara Reid!

Fiesta Bowl a Ratings Success

Final word on the Fiesta Bowl, I promise...

Boise State won again yesterday! Monday's Fiesta Bowl scored an 8.3 rating or a 15 share (meaning 15% of the country that was watching television was watching Boise State/Oklahoma). Between this and the Broncos selling all their tickets, you can file Boise State under "travels well" and "draws well" which is as important as "plays well" in determining bowl teams.

PPCS: January 2

Orange Bowl: Louisville 42, Wake Forest 21- This game would be a lot tougher to pick if 1) Cinderella didn't put on her slipper last night and 2) I didn't see a picture of a Wake Forest player having his teammmates take a picture of him in front of the Orange Bowl logo at the 50 yard line. Wake Forest is the quintessential "Happy to be Here" Team. Louisville has too many weapons.

Who is Charles Davis?

A few people who have seen the game have commented on the FOX College A-Team of Thom Brennaman, Barry Alvarez, and Charles Davis. I like Brennaman, if for no other reason than he's not as overexposed as Joe Buck and his call of the Statue of Liberty play was appropriate for the moment. Alvarez is supposed to be their John Madden, and while nowadays anyone can be a better John Madden than John Madden, all Alvarez seemed to bring to the table was say how impressed he was with Boise State's fundamentals. So who is this Charles Davis guy? Here is a profile of him when he was with TBS. They omit that he went to school at the Bryant Gumbel School of Journalism where former black athletes and non-athletes are taught that in order to sound articulate you must sound extremely homosexual. Is it too late to hire that Miami color-commentator?

PPCS 21-6!

With 5 games left (Orange, Sugar, GMAC, International, and BCS National Championship), I am 21-6 with my PPCS picks straight up, missing Troy, Central Michigan, San Jose State, Florida State, Georgia and Wisconsin. Unfortunately for Josh, teams like Boston College, Miami and Texas are winning but not covering so his Sportsbook account is taking a hit.

The key to my success is 1) my dorkish following of the sport from week to week and 2) my observation of bowls to find out what games mean more to some teams than others which may propell them to an upset, Boise State and Kentucky are prime examples of this.

Best Line of the Night on Fox

Not from Thom Brennaman, Barry Alvarez, or Charles Davis..

Yup, Jack Bauer interrogating the earpiece guy from Season 5.

Earpiece guy: "You're hurting me"

Jack: "No...I'm not."



Fox's predictably incessant promos for '24' last night, not only made me excited for the 2 night season premiere on January 14 and 15, they made me excited to see them AGAIN tonight during the Orange Bowl (prediction coming later today).

If all the footage shown is from the first four hours, which would be true to previous season premiere launch campaigns, then we are in for a ridiculous season.

Coaching Jobs: College vs. NFL

Yesterday was actually a very tame "Black Monday" around the NFL coaching carousel. Only Dennis Green (Cardinals) and Jim Mora Jr. (Falcons) were told "Thank you for your time, god speed". Mora wrote his own slip with his comments about the University of Washington job being his "dream job" and the Cardinals are likely to pursue USC Head Coach Pete Carroll and likely to be told "thanks but I'm about to win four National Championships in a row". Nick Saban is likely to resign as coach of the Miami Dolphins and take the job at Alabama after denying contact because:

1) He has no soul.

2) It's a $5 million a year job

3) As booster money sweetens the pot, College Football head coaching jobs are becoming more attractive than NFL jobs for a few reasons

a) If a coach recruits well enough he can take two months out of the year (January and February) off.

b) Pretty much every college coach is what every NFL coach wants to be (a Head Coach/General Manager) except without a salary cap.

c) Smaller market media. With only a few exceptions most college towns are smaller than NFL towns and there is less media competition and less tendency for media pressure threatening job security. The Norman Times or whatever dosen't have a back page to write "Stoops to New Low" after a defeat to Boise State (haha!).

NFL Owners are going to have step up the payscale for their coaches if they are going to compete with the prestigious college programs for top notch coaching talent.

Greatest Night of My Life!

In one day, 2007 already has its game of the year. I hope some of you just out of sheer curiosity watched last night's Fiesta Bowl between Boise State and Oklahoma. I was text messaging at a fever pitch with Paul, Josh, and Pete Thamel who was lucky enough to be in attendance. I hate when people say that if they made a movie about a game no one would believe it. This game WAS a classic sports movie. For those that missed it here's how it played out.

-Boise State jumped out to a 14-0 lead just to make sure everyone starts paying attention.

-Eventually Oklahoma's talent on offense wore down Boise State's defense and OU tied the game at 28 with a two-point conversion.

-Jared Zabransky reverts to himself circa Week 1 2005 vs. Georgia and throws a pick-six on a sideline out, seemingly sealing the game for Oklahoma and turning Boise State from America's Cinderella to all-time choke artists.

-After an uninspired three plays on the next possession leave Boise State with a 4th and 19, they run a hook-and-ladder play to precision for the game-tying touchdown with :07 left.

-In overtime on Oklahoma's first play, Adrian Peterson runs for a touchdown and it becomes implausible that Boise State can hang for FIVE quarters with Oklahoma.

-Then Ian Johnson catches a break when he is ruled down by contact during a play which he fumbled on the Oklahoma 5 (the replays I saw were too far away).

-On the next play Boise State Head Coach Chris Peterson, whips out his grapefruits onto the field and calls a WR-direct snap-run/pass-option TE dump and its executed for a touchdown on 4th and Goal.

-Realizing that the Broncos can't hang with Oklahoma any longer, Peterson whips out the grapefruits and goes for two. Zabransky takes the snap fakes a throw to the tripps side of the formation I yell "he still has the ball!" puts it behind his back Ian Johnson takes it and scores the easy two BOISE STATE WINS!

-In the post-game celebration RB Ian Johnson proposes to his cheerleader girlfriend who looks hesitant but doesn't want to say "let's wait" and ruin Boise State's perfect night....or mine!

This game was so good I couldn't sleep hours after it was over. It was everything I hoped college football to be, the underdog that the Lee Corso-types never gave a chance or gave a shit about sticking it to the uninspired traditional powerhouse. Announcers in their first BCS game wondering if Boise State's performance lays credence to calls for a playoff system. Three trick plays and a game that will be unmatched all year long as I texted Josh at 1:00am when it was all over "Now you see why I love this shit!"

Darrent Williams 1982-2007

As you may have already heard Broncos CB Darrent Williams was shot and killed this morning outside Denver nightclub "The Shelter" after a New Year's Eve/Kenyon Martin's birthday party. Witnesses say there was an argument inside the nightclub but the individuals involved were not identified and no stated motive has been given for the killing.

While most people know Williams as the "other corner" or the guy who teams would pick on instead of Champ Bailey, it should be noted that Williams was only in his second year and had all the tools necessary to be a consummate pro-bowler like Bailey.

I didn't know much about Williams personally only that he survived the gangs of Fort Worth, Texas and did cool things with his hair. This is a tragedy far beyond missing the playoffs for the Broncos. Of course you'll hear the new cliche' that "nothing good happens to athletes at a nightclub at 2am" and deep down we know THAT'S not true but no athlete should be around less than 3 people when out in a town at all times. They are way to easy to target for people with bad intentions.

Is it Dark in Here?

Welcome to the NEW Pizza Parlor! For 2007 this blog is getting redone both in layout and look and concept.

First, what you notice. Thanks to Blogger Templates for the new look. As I had suspected for sometime, just as those clowns on Myspace can change their layouts as much as they want, so can we on blogspot. Google "Blogger Templates" or "Blogger Layouts" for some more out of the box type layouts if you so desire. I will have the links that were on the old layout (sparing the amazon.com links to Bill Simmons' and Bill Romanowski's books) in the coming days.

Secondly this blog will be more of a blog and less of a journal going forward. Gone will be long unfulfillable promised projects like the PPCS or the Pizza Parlor Index. Expect more random thoughts, some with links some without, some with pictures some without as this blog will be more reader friendly and more convenient for me to post while and after I'm working.

And of course, after January 8. Those of you not converted will not have to endure so much pageantry!

Happy New Year and enjoy the NEW Pizza Parlor!

PPCS: January 1

A low-key New Year's Eve, in contrast to last year's debacle, as allowed me the chance to get this day's picks up as the Outback Bowl is just kicking off.

Outback Bowl: Penn State 27, Tennessee 24- Why Advil, Gatorade, or McDonald's breakfast hasn't jumped up and grabbed the naming rights to this 11:00am kickoff game is beyond me. Good matchup between Tennessee's newfound offense led by new Offensive Coordinator David Cutcliffe and Quarterback Erik Ainge and Paul Poslusny and the Penn State defense. I expect a close game and the Lions to get the Big Ten's first bowl win.

Cotton Bowl: Auburn 17, Nebraska 7- This could be a yawner or a defensive struggle depending how you feel about defensive struggles. Both teams QB's aren't the air-it-out types that we've seen in the December bowls and both defenses are tough. Kenny Irons should get into the endzone once or twice and be the difference maker for War Eagle.

Gator Bowl: West Virginia 35, Georgia Tech 10- This one could be ugly, Georgia Tech is without its starting quarterback who was ruled academically ineligible leaving a backup to get Calvin Johnson the ball. Pat White and Steve Slaton should both have big games.

Capital One Bowl: Arkansas 28, Wisconsin 17- Wisconsin's record is a little padded by not playing Ohio State and playing Bowling Green and Buffalo. Freshman P.J. Hill for Wisconsin and Darren McFadden for Arkansas should do all the scoring.

Rose Bowl: Southern Cal 31, Michigan 28- "How Proud are You?..." this bowl means the end of those tireless commercials, thank God. While both teams are super talented and both teams are less than thrilled about being here, I expect Southern Cal to come out stronger because they'll be playing in the same stadium as their last loss and prepared for this game the day after UCLA while Michigan has spent a good month complaining about getting screwed out of a chance to lose to Ohio State again. Southern Cal should be a dynasty for years to come and that dynasty starts again tonight in Pasadena.

Fiesta Bowl: Boise State 38, Oklahoma 35- Perhaps because I want to see it happen so bad. Perhaps because Adrian Peterson may be coming back too soon off a broken collarbone. Perhaps because this is the most complete Boise State team ever. Perhaps because it's my blog and I can pick who I want to.