No Brainer

Imagine the following scenario:

You're running a sales team and your numbers for the past couple years are way down. Christ, they are pretty much at the bottom of the industry. The downward trend is clearly the result of an unpopular staffing move to let go of your top sales guy due to "personality issues". Adding to the recent failures is the fact that none of the younger staff hired to replace the disposed star have stepped up to develop into a big time salesman. Obviously, you're under a ton of pressure from Senior Management to produce and your job is on the line. Then, lo and behold, your former star employee hits the open market again after being let go by a competitor. The aging star still has the same personality issues, but he gets results. Something your team desperately needs.

What do you do? Do you:

(A) hire the aging star to save your ass and give you needed short term results?; or

(B) pass because you are afraid of his "personality issues" tainting the young team?

Essentially, that is the situation facing Ed Stefanski and the Sixers with respect to the decision of whether to bring AI back to Philly.

The Sixers are about as dead a franchise as I can remember in this city. The Phils had some bad years in the late 80's through early 90's, but it was never this bad. People still cared. I can't find anyone that wants to discuss the Sixers. No one seems to care that they are this bad. The Sixers have reached the 100% Total Apathy level which is rarely seen in the Northeast. They are utterly unwatchable. I can't think of anything redeeming about watching these guys. Apparently, I'm not the only one because the Wachovia Center has been as empty as an Atlanta Thrashers vs. Florida Panthers NHL game.

Clearly, bringing back AI is the one and only thing the Sixers can do this year to get anyone in this town interested in them enough to turn on Comcast Sportsnet and watch their games, let alone buy a ticket. If the Sixers want to generate any buzz, they absolutely have to sign Iverson.

I really don't see much of a down side in signing AI. Of course, they might win a couple extra games to lower the number of ping pong balls they have in the lottery, but Iverson is no longer the type of guy that can take over games to the point that he can win them on his own. The only real issue would be to make sure AI's personality issues don't rub off on some of the young guys.

In my mind, this is a no brainer. Just sign the guy. Things surely can't get any worse for the Sixers.

The Smartest Guy In The Room, Part 387

(Let me preface this post by saying that I knew I was ready to return to this blog when I could watch the Birds win and have nothing but negative thoughts swirling through my head.)

Only the truly smug and offensively over confident try to pull what Andy Reid did with that ridiculous on sides kick to start yesterday's game. It offended me so badly that I was a mess the rest of the day. In fact, it drove me out of the house. I made the conscious decision to go outside and hang Christmas lights instead of watching the Eagles. Yes, I was that pissed off. (Well, in retrospect, I suppose I wasn't that upset. I did put the game on the radio and sucked the life out of my car batter in the process.)

I still haven't figured out a good reason to on sides kick to start the game. Unless, of course, you think you are the smartest guy to step foot on an NFL sideline since Bill Walsh. And with the opening on side kick, Big Red has once again showed us that he thinks he's the Steven Hawking of the NFL.

When you play such an inept offensive football team, such as the Skins, why do you risk starting the game off with giving them fantastic field position to set up a score to give them confidence which they undoubtedly carried throughout the entire game? It really seemed like Big Red said to himself "Eff it...I'm smarter than these guys. No one will ever expect us to on side kick here."

We all know what happened next....The Skins recovered the kick and returned deep into Eagles' territory. They then scored an early TD, which they built off throughout the game as they surprisingly moved the field up and down the field against the Birds' beleaguered defense. Sure, the Birds finally won a life and death struggle of a game, which should have been a much easier game, but did anyone come away from the game with the warm and fuzzies about the state of your Philadelphia Eagles? I know I didn't. Sure, there were positives (McCoy, McNabb, Avant, Weaver, and Maclin), but I have major concerns about this team, including:

-their inability to get off the field on third and long;

-the sloppy tackling;

-Macho Harris (I've had enough of him at Free Safety. He doesn't have the instincts for the position.);

-Chris Gocong (I've seen enough of him to know he's not a play maker. I watch a lot of SEC football and I see four guys every weekend that are better OLB's than him);

-Sav Rocca (Can we have him deported to Italy or Australia or wherever he's from before he shanks another punt?);

-Jeremiah Trotter...can please send him back to his Car Washes? It is painful to watch him chase ball carrier after ball carrier.

-Can we run a special teams play without a penalty? Seriously, is it that hard for all 11 friggin guys on the field to not make a stupid mistake?; and

-Our DE's other than Trent Cole. Can someone put an APB out for Chris Clemons, Juqua Parker, and Victor Abriamiri? I haven't seen those guys all year.

All in all, a win is a win is a win in the NFL, but this week showed that this team is really going to have to win with its offense, which may be difficult if D Jax is out for any extended period of time with the concussion he suffered against the Skins. However, the schedule, which looked like a bear a couple weeks ago, now seems to be softening. The final five games look like this:

-at Atlanta

-at Giants

-49ers

-Broncos

-at Dallas

Do any of these five games terrify you? If Matty Ice and Turner are out next week, the game against the Falcons becomes much easier. The G Men appear to be falling apart at the seams. The 49ers game looks tough, but it is at home. The Broncos were starting to show a ton of cracks before their win over the Giants on Turkey Day and that game is at home as well. I feel like the NFC East title will all come down to the final game of the year in Big D, but that's if Tony Romo doesn't fall apart like he does every December (and we know that's pretty much a certainty, right up there with the Mets falling apart during a pennant race.)

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By the way, congrats to my buddy Aran on the birth of his twin sons. I'm really happy for you, bro!

I Heard You Missed Us, I'm Back....I Brought My Pencil!

Ok, guys...I got the message. Finally. Over the last couple months, I heard it loud and clear. I need to get my fat, lazy ass back to blogging.

Frankly, I was shocked at how many friends would say something to the effect of: "You really need to get back to blogging. I still stop by your site hoping you would update it...and I get pissed when I still see the same picture of Pansy Ass Cole Hamels from your ill fated July 2009 comeback ."

For some reason, I have pushed this blog out of my life. But lately, I've realized how much I miss it. I really do. I lost my creative outlet. Why did I give it up? I guess it was mostly the demands on my time that kept me away from Blogging, but I do think Twitter and Facebook made me incredibly lazy. I can get a one liner out there so quickly right after something happens during a game instead of taking the time to craft an entire post.

Well, I am trying to figure a way to rebuild this blog and keep it going. It seemed like I had some people who checked in regularly and liked what I had to say. I have some ideas on how to get things moving again that I will try to implement over the next couple months. I might even change to a new web site address and finally convince a couple of buddies to join forces with me, but most of all I have to get the word out again to get my readers back.

Finally, thanks to my buddy Frank. I see why he's successful in the insurance industry. He beat me down over a two day period and got me to blog again.

By the way, if anyone is wondering where I got the title for this post. Check this out: