#NerdsUnite: Play on playa! (Breaking down the world of sports so you don't have to!)

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Derek - I met him when I was professor for a day at CSUF. Really rad dude, and he wants to come on board to help explain to us nerdy folk the wild world of sports. Smart dude, and knows his shizzy shiznat. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT DEREK!!!</editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @DerekJ_AllDay

Happy 2012 everyone! Hope all of you had a great New Years celebration and racked up some points for the last week of the fantasy football championship game. Personally, I did not have a very successful fantasy season by my standards. I had a chance to win the title in a pay league I play in and I lost it. Very disappointing season, but my buddies and I have started a basketball league, and baseball is right around the corner. There is always another fantasy league to conquer! 

With the new year comes the NFL playoffs. Week 17 and the regular season ended on Sunday and now the 12 teams left standing are playing for Super Bowl rings. I'm going to give you all an overview of the current playoff situation and also give you my picks for the Super Bowl. A lot of teams make it to the playoffs in the NFL, proven by the fact that the 8-8 Denver Tebows won the AFC West this year. The reason so many teams make it to the playoffs is for the excitement factor the fans get from having an opportunity to see their team play in the playoffs. The more happy fans the NFL has, the more money they make.

The NFL is broken up into two large conferences, the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). Then, each conference consists of 16 teams each. Those teams can then be broken up into 4 divisions in each conference, the NFC/AFC East, West, South and North. Each division has 4 teams each. That is really the entire structure of the NFL, and this structure is what decides who plays in the playoffs at the end of the season. 

How teams make it to the playoffs is relatively simple. Six teams make it to the post season from the AFC and six teams from the NFC. Whoever has the best record in each of the 4 divisions (N,S,E,W) automatically punches their ticket to the playoffs. Then there are 2 teams from each conference that make the playoffs through the Wild Card playoff spots. The Wild Card completely ignores the 4 divisions and their winners, and simply looks at the top 2 records in each conference of the teams that did NOT win their divisions. Basically, you take the top 2 losers and they get a second chance to make a good run at the playoffs. 

The teams that has the best record in their conference (Packers, Patriots) get what is called a first round bye in the postseason. This means that they do not have to play in the first round and get an extra week of rest and preparation. This gives them a well deserved advantage and makes almost every game of the regular season worth something. 

Now that you hopefully have a decent understanding of how we have reached this point prior to the playoffs, let me grace you with my super bowl picks! This year the 4 division winners representing the NFC are the Saints, Packers, 49ers, and the Giants. The 2 NFC Wild Card winners are the Falcons and the Lions. The 4 divisions winners representing the AFC are the Patriots, Ravens, Texans and the Broncos (the Tebows). The final 2 playoff spots and the AFC Wild Card winners are the Steelers and the Bengals. 

It's a little hard to take some of these teams seriously as Super Bowl contenders. I don't think the Broncos, Bengals or the Texans have a shot in hell at winning a game. I love the Texans, I don't love their chances. 

Now for the moment that we've all been waiting for...my Super Bowl picks. The team that I believe is going to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl is.........the Green Bay Packers! I think that they have a ton of competition this year in the playoffs. The Saints and the 49ers are HUGE threats to their chances of repeating as champions. The Saints and Drew Brees will absolutely shred the Packers defense apart, and they can score points with them. The 49ers defense might just be good enough to stop the Rodgers train, but then again maybe not. All in all I think that the Packers getting an extra week of rest will be the deciding factor in them making it back to the Super Bowl. 

Now for my final pick...the team that I believe will represent the AFC in the Super Bowl is........the Baltimore Ravens! They never get any love!  They're defense is a brick wall and even though their QB Joe Flacco can be inconsistent, they have Ray Rice! That bowling ball could run the ball every play and nobody would stop him. I know that they have to go through the Patriots to make it, but I really think they can do it. Everything is going to come down to the play of their RB Ray Rice. They're defense can and probably will slow down a Tom Brady, but the question becomes can their offense still score enough points to keep up? I say yes

Tweet me your Super Bowl picks @DerekJ_AllDay, and if anyone is bold enough to choose the Broncos then you can gtfo! Chargers fan for life! DerekJ signing off. 

#nerdsunite

Click here to follow Derek on Twitter!

#NerdsUnite: Play on playa! (Breaking down the world of sports so you don't have to!)

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Derek - I met him when I was professor for a day at CSUF. Really rad dude, and he wants to come on board to help explain to us nerdy folk the wild world of sports. Smart dude, and knows his shizzy shiznat. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT DEREK!!!</editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @DerekJ_AllDay

Hello everyone! Welcome back to my sports corner, and thanks for reading! Good luck to everyone participating in their fantasy football championship games over these next two weeks. I lost my league and my bragging rights against all my friends, but I am also playing to win the title for a pay league on ESPN.com. So all is not lost! 

The shit has hit the fan for Major League Baseball. The iconic Milwaukee Brewer, Ryan Braun, recently tested positive for the use of illegal performance enhancing drugs. Braun won the Nation League Most Valuable Player award last year and lead his team to an NL Central division win. He brings everything to the table as a player and is one of the best in all of baseball. 

This isn't the first time that baseball has had an issue with the use of steroids. Most think of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa battling it out for the home run crown in 1998. McGwire eventually won putting up 70 home runs and setting the single season record. Later we all found out that McGwire set the record while using performance enhancing steroids. Barry Bonds came around a few years after McGwire and again set the single season home run record; all under the use of steroids. Since then the league has greatly increased their drug testing program, and many players have been given 50 game suspensions when testing positive. More importantly, when you test positive you are put under more scrutiny than most people are capable of handling. 

Steroids have been a serious stigma in baseball since I became a fan, and quite frankly nothing really surprises me anymore. Although, I will say that this is probably the most surprising positive test we have dealt with. Since Braun came into the league he has always been a poster boy of good behavior for the league. He put up phenomenal numbers and the fans in Milwaukee go absolutely bat shit crazy for this guy. He had that charm, and that seemingly good nature that told you he would never betray the game or his fans by using steroids. 

There is a slight glimmer of hope revolving around the Ryan Braun situation, and that is because he is appealing his positive test and the 50 game suspension the subsequently follows. There is a slight possibility that his test was a false positive, or that the test could have shown a positive result due to the use of certain medications; which is what Braun claims. Rumors have spread on the internet that the positive test was due to increased testosterone caused by herpes medication, but this has not been proven and likely came from a source as reliable as TMZ. No player has ever had a successful appeal so it is hard to really take him seriously, but there is a first time for everything. 

As a fan of the game of baseball I hate seeing these clowns ruin the integrity of the league for all of the other athletes who are competing under fair circumstances. Although, there is no doubt at all that the league has cleaned up its act quite a bit more since 1998 when I first became a fan so there is most certainly hope for MLB to completely clean up the game. A lot less people are using steroids, and if they are using they seem to all be getting caught. Steroids in sports, and especially baseball, is an extremely hot button issue and has really been one of the longer controversies in sports of my generation.  

We can all take consolation in the fact that mega superstars like Albert Pujols, Jim Thome, Jose Reyes, Justin Verlander, Jered Weaver and so on have never turned up with a positive steroid test and many other super stars can be added to the list with them. Is the game really as tainted as the media makes it appear?

Tweet your thoughts @DerekJ_AllDay and give me your opinion on the steroids situation in baseball. Brewers fans I'm looking at you!!

#nerdsunite

Click here to follow Derek on Twitter!

#NerdsUnite: Play on playa! (Breaking down the world of sports so you don't have to!)

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Derek - I met him when I was professor for a day at CSUF. Really rad dude, and he wants to come on board to help explain to us nerdy folk the wild world of sports. Smart dude, and knows his shizzy shiznat. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT DEREK!!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @DerekJ_AllDay

Hello again everyone! As we are in the midst of finals week for most schools I want to again wish you good luck and good grades! If you aren’t already on break then it is a week away, stay positive! Many things have been going on recently in the sports world, such as Chris Paul being traded to the Lakers, and then the commissioner vetoing the trade and not allowing it to go through. Many asked… why? The answer is that other NBA owners bitched and moaned to the commissioner because the Lakers were going to be too good. The commissioner replied by rewarding their childish behavior. On most days, like 99% of the time, I would be writing about that NBA deal…but not today. Today is a bit about baseball free agency/trades, but it’s mostly about me, my team the Angels, and the King…Albert Pujols.

I have been an Angel’s baseball fan since 1999 when I was 9 years old. We were a mediocre team with some promise at the time, but I joined their fan base because I am a loyalist and I will always stick with my local teams. In 2002 I, along with all Angel’s fans, was rewarded with a World Series victory. Nobody expected us to do much that year, and shockingly enough we proved all of them wrong by winning the championship. That was easily the most exciting moment in Angel’s history because it is their only World Series victory. The Angels have now rewarded their fans with something else…

Last Thursday, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (yes, that’s their full name) announced that they signed Albert Pujols, or King Albert, to a 10 year 254 million dollar contract. King Albert has been a Cardinal for the past 11 years and has literally put up Hall of Fame numbers. I will attempt to not bore you with the details of his stats, but he is arguably the best player in the history of baseball, and is absolutely the best player currently in baseball.

Also, on Thursday, the Angels signed a pitcher named CJ Wilson. He is also a great player and is going to help us on our way to the World Series!

Baseball is very interesting because of how important free agents are to the game. Every player has a contract, and while they are signed to a contract they play for a certain team for the amount of years and money that they signed for. Once that contract is over, they have the right to become a free agent, where they will be able to take offers from all of the major league teams and accept which ever offer they would like. Albert Pujols was a free agent before he signed with the Angels.  This makes the league very interesting as a whole because even legends like King Albert, could end up changing teams when you don’t really expect them to.

This is not to be confused with trades, which is when a team exchanges players/money/draft picks to another team for players/money/draft picks. For example, the Angels trade Jigglypuff to the Dodgers for Charizard (horrible trade I know), and take on the contracts of those players. These are very emotional times for baseball fans, as the players they have grown to love could leave your team at any time whether it is via trade or free agency.

Anyways back to Pujols, and how happy I am! Ever since I have been a fan the Angels have never been the big spenders of the market. Years come and go, and the big free agent prize player never ends up signing with the Angels…until now! Prior to the signing of King Albert the Angels were contenders for the playoffs, but were not even close to favorites. Now that we have signed King Albert and CJ, media outlets are anointing us as 1 of the 2 favorites to go to the World Series! 4,000 fans showed up to the press conference to introduce Albert and CJ, and every sports media outlet in the country was covering it.

In other words, NOW WE GOT SWAG!

For all you Angel’s fans out there that have been through a lot of both the thick and the thin, we stand UNITED! For the fans of the other teams, sorry, better luck next time. This is our league now baby! Haha

If you ever had interest in baseball, now is the time to jump into fan-hood. The league is going crazy with activity, and so many teams are showing up to be serious contenders. The time of the Yankees or Red Sox ruling the league is over, and parody has begun.

It doesn’t matter which team you pick to cheer for, but what does matter is that you commit to that team and your allegiances never change!

For all sports discussions, especially baseball, tweet me @DerekJ_AllDay. Also, tweet CJ Wilson himself @str8edgeracer or King Albert @PujolsFive (Although Albert isn’t very active). I can’t wait to talk with you!

#nerdsunite

Click here to follow Derek on Twitter!

#NerdsUnite: Play on playa! (Breaking down the world of sports so you don't have to!)

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Derek - I met him when I was professor for a day at CSUF. Really rad dude, and he wants to come on board to help explain to us nerdy folk the wild world of sports. Smart dude, and knows his shizzy shiznat. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT DEREK!!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @DerekJ_AllDay

Hey everyone, hope all of you had a great thanksgiving break and had time to tune in to all the legit football games. Always remember, it’s tradition to get trashed and embarrass yourself in front of your family. Just ask Ndamukong Suh!

As always if you have any questions about my post, tweet me @DerekJ_AllDay and I will respond to you as quickly as I can. I was very recently inspired because the NBA lockout was finally resolved! This means that I can start watching my Lakers again, rather than staring at depressed owners and players whining because they don’t already have enough money. Because of the recent news many of you might be hearing things about the lockout that are a bit difficult to understand. The reason a lockout begins is because of the CBA, or Collective Bargaining Agreement, which is required for all major leagues in America. It is an agreement between the Player’s Association and the Owner’s association on all the details of the league. Essentially, the CBA is a loophole to get around the laws of our country, because monopolies are illegal and by definition the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL are all illegal.

There were many factors going into the lockout, the most of which was greed, but there was also business at hand. The two most important topics were splitting BRI (Basketball Related Income) between owners and players, and managing details of the salary cap (max payroll on a team). The part that is often forgotten in this situation is that the Owners backed out of the CBA contract before it was actually going to expire. Depending upon the terms of the CBA either the players or the owners are able to “back out” of their agreement after a certain amount of time before the actual contract expires, and that is precisely what the owners did. They had a choice to allow the season to go on without any interruption OR back out of the current CBA and cause the work stoppage/lockout. They chose the latter.

As a basketball fan, this genuinely has me very pissed off. These owners actually could have prevented the entire lockout, and we could have been watching our teams for weeks now! Instead, we have to wait until Christmas to see the first game of a shortened 66-game season. I’ll be honest here, I feel cheated. On one hand I am excited that the NBA is back in business, but on the other I really feel like taking a swing at the owners of the NBA.

The owners were losing money, granted, but instead of making their product more profitable, they essentially just took all the money they were losing directly from the players. The previous deal that recently ended guaranteed the players 57% of the BRI. The CBA contract that was agreed upon days ago only guarantees the players 51% of BRI. 6% is A LOT in the business world, especially when franchises in the NBA are worth something in the hundreds of millions. I couldn’t be more disappointed in the greed shown by the owners.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not worried about Lebron or Kobe not being able to pay off their backup mansion or anything. It’s about the ethics. In the end the players were almost forced to accept the deal, because they wanted to get back to playing basketball so badly, and they knew that was NOT going to happen without making the owners rich and taking money away from themselves.

IMHO, the players deserve all the respect in the world for this. What the players did was extremely noble, especially in a time of low economic wealth, professional athletes are often picked on and people ask why they make SO much money. Well they DON’T in this case. Here they are losing 6% of their total income that is received from BRI. All of them! They made a choice as a group to lose money for the sake of the game, and I am so stoked about that! These players deserve all of our respect and support, but those owners deserve to be “BOO-ed” out of their own arenas. Let’s not forget that this most recent agreement is for 10 years, but the owners/players have an option to “back out” after just 6 years. In just 6 years we could lose the season all over again! I can almost guarantee the owner’s greed will drive them to backing out in 6 years, and committing their sins all over again.

The question I pose to you all is do the owners or do the players deserve the blame for all of this, or was it just part of a business decision that had to be done? Are you pissed about the season being shortened and in the past potentially cancelled? Or are you willing to forgive and forget? Give me your thoughts @DerekJ_AllDay along with any other topics on your mind. Peace out!

#nerdsunite

Click here to follow Derek on Twitter!

#NerdsUnite: Play on playa! (Breaking down the world of sports so you don't have to!)

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Derek - I met him when I was professor for a day at CSUF. Really rad dude, and he wants to come on board to help explain to us nerdy folk the wild world of sports. Smart dude, and knows his shizzy shiznat. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT DEREK!!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @DerekJ_AllDay

Watsup fellow sports nerds! It’s the sports dude here checking in. Today I’m gonna explain to you guys why sports fans are not necessarily jocks, and are in fact, most of the time, big fat NERDS!

I was watching the Packers and Vikings game last week and a very obvious fact slapped me in the face. That whole damn place was filled with nothing but sports nerds! They love their team with a furious passion, and dress up like blocks of freaking cheese to show how committed they are to their team. It’s hilariously awesome!!! I mean hell, if these people were actually jocks they would be sitting there with no expression on their face, and taking shots for every yard the Pack got. They’re not there for the booze, or for the bodacious cheerleaders, they are there to celebrate the Packers and they all instantly become brothers and sisters in arms the moment they walk into that stadium. 

Those who know the Green Bay Packers know their fans are called the Cheeseheads. This nickname originated because of Wisconsin’s large production of cheese. It quickly took over the fans of Green Bay. They have hats that are big pizza like slices of cheese, and they wear these dairy inspired hats with more pride than you could imagine.

This type of passion for sports teams is shown all over the place. Just look at a Raiders game, or the rally monkey(s) for the Angels, a Pittsburgh Penguins game, or ANY college games. These people are nerdy for their teams, and get as completely geeked out as they possibly can!

Now, if these same people were going to Blizzcon dressed as orcs and elves they would instantly be entered into the nerd category. Yet for some reason if you dress up like a goofball and go to a sporting event you are looked at as something different! I say NAY! We are the sports nerds, just like you gamers, and you techies, and you tweeting twits…and we shall UNITE!

No questions yet, obviously, but start sending them my way on Twitter, @DerekJ_AllDay, and also tune in for my daily comments on the sports world.

I leave you with my Sport’s nerd of the week…!

#nerdsunite

Click here to follow Derek on Twitter!