Podcast:Special Guest Kyle Goings

Special Guest Kyle Goings chats about the Giants system,we talk Browns and Ohio State coordinators and a request for podcast input...

Pigskin Picking Machine

All four NFL playoff games and the national title game on this weeks PPM.

Last Week: 8-2
Overall: 111-45

National Championship
Clemson over Alabama 34-30

NFL Playoffs
Oakland over Houston 13-10
Pittsburgh over Miami 28-19
Seattle over Detroit 24-16
Green Bay over N.Y.Giants 30-26

Cavaliers reportedly to trade for Kyle Korver

It's not official yet,but it appears that the Cleveland Cavaliers are far from finished with tinkering with their roster as the Cavaliers are reported to have added sharpshooter Kyle Korver from the Atlanta Hawks.

The cost is some type of combination of the cap number from the retired Mo Williams, Mike Dunleavy,who hasn't worked out since being acquired from the Chicago Bulls and the Cleveland 2019 first rounder,which will have the typical 20 stipulations that most NBA trades for draft picks have for various scenarios.
The pick is the guaranteed part that the Hawks would keep with the Williams expiring contract and Dunleavy with high possibilities of being moved along to another team either in this deal or a side deal that the Hawks could make before the trade deadline.

In order for the Cavaliers to comply with the NBA rule of not trading first round picks,Cleveland needed to get their 2018 first rounder back,which they had sent to Portland in the Anderson Varejao trade last season.so Cleveland sent their 2017 1st rounder to the Blazers for the 2018 pick,so they could then trade the 2019 pick to Atlanta.
I think I'm dizzy now...

For Cleveland,this deal for the 35 year old Korver not only brings what was expected from Dunleavy,it also is a temporary fix for the absence of JR Smith ,who will miss a total of three months after breaking his thumb.
Korver is one of the best three point shooters in the league and his consistency (40 percent shooting from the distance) brings a shooter to a team that needs it.
Have to love this deal with what Kyle Korver brings to Cleveland.

The trade for Korver is just one of a few moves that the Cavaliers need to do in order to tune up for the playoff drive.
A lack of a backup veteran point guard has been a glaring need since the team allowed Matthew Dellavedova to leave via free agency and a reserve big man is a target with the season ending injury to backup Chris "Birdman" Anderson.

I'll be back to edit this in case there are any substantial changes to the trade...

Cleaning out the inbox-Non-Sports Version

We return to the inbox for a non-sports cleaning out and we start with a article on one of my favorite films that never was a huge hit.

Bulletproof Action writes on Remo Williams-the Adventure begins.
The 1985 film is based on the Destroyer series of novels and stars Fred Ward,who as Remo Williams was attempting to break loose from character actor status into leading man roles.
After the film disappointed at the box office,Ward would never get another shot at carrying his own films,although he was still sought after for character positions.
The post is very detailed in covering the film with facts on the stars,locations and on the plot.
I always was a fan of this movie and I never understood why it wasn't a bigger hit.
It's currently playing on the Starz networks and if you haven't seen the 1985 film,see what you think....

Megyn Kelly is leaving Fox News for NBC and despite my long-time fandom for Kelly,I'm not sure that this is a great idea.
Kelly will receive a daily show in the afternoons,a Sunday night interview (not sure how that's going work for the network that has Sunday Night Football) and will be involved with political coverage in election years.
Several careers have been damaged by getting away from the genre' that made them successful and so many have failed with daytime talk shows-usually the audience watching network television isn't always interested in substantive topics and that makes it difficult to attract an core group.
Kelly turned down 20 million per year from Fox to stay with them (and they say athletes are overpaid),but Kelly claimed that the easier schedule with NBC was a major factor in her moving on.
It'll be interesting to see if she can succeed where so many have failed....

What has been rumored and thought to have occurred without concrete proof for almost 50 years finally has some teeth behind the claim as a new book about Richard Nixon by author John Farrell (not the manager of the Red Sox) has discovered notes from Nixon chief of staff Bob Haldeman that confirm that Nixon did know about a clandestine partnership to keep South Vietnam from going to the negotiating table faster with the Lyndon Johnson administration.
Had those talks started,they might have swung a hairline election in the direction of Johnson's Vice President and Nixon opponent in the race-Hubert Humphrey.
The New York Times article even shows the notes that Farrell was able to find at the Nixon library among other information about the dealings with South Vietnam and envoy Anna Chennault.
Assuming that these are legitimate and they certainly seem to be,working against your country is beyond my understanding of what a presidential candidate should be doing.
When it comes to politics,the old adage is true-the more things change,the more they stay the same.

We are getting closer and closer to various 50 year anniversary celebrations from the different Apollo missions over the next few years.
The first one to hit the big 5-0 comes in a few weeks with the 50 year mark for Apollo One,which is the mission that caught fire in a test mission and cost the lives of three astronauts.
Over the next five years,we'll have all the Apollo missions being over fifty years old and not a trip to the moon since....

Forgotten Superstars: Keith Lee

We return to the Forgotten Superstars universe with a look back at my favorite college basketball player of the 1980s who didn't play in the ACC.

Remember, as a die-hard Big 10 fan that I am now (and was still so as far as football back then), I was that big of an ACC basketball fan.
However, two teams were from smaller conferences that I always tried to watch and was a fan of- Memphis State of the Metro and later the Great Midwest Conference, and UNLV of various conferences in the western US.

My favorite player was a 6'10 forward, whose game was more of a small forward than a power one in Keith Lee, shown to the left with apparently the world's largest basketball trophy!
Lee's game was an unusual one for its time- a finesse player who played the "4" only because of his height, often giving him an advantage over opposing defenders, along with an outside shooting skill that was ahead of its time, as noted.
Lee could post up and often did, but he had another skill that went beyond being an inside scorer and rebounder.

Lee had arguably the best set of hands that I ever saw on a big man, and he was a terrific passer and catcher.
All too often, catching the basketball is a skill taken for granted, but good ones manage to corral off-kilter passes, and the really good ones can catch the ball by the seams and have the ball in position to shoot quicker than other players.
Lee always seemed to be in a position to get his shot off quickly, and for a big man, Lee had such passing skills that you would expect to see from a much smaller player.

If you haven't heard of Keith Lee, I'm sure you are thinking, what couldn't he do?
Well, he had an unusual running gait, so he didn't always look like he was going all out, although I believe that was just his style of play, and sometimes it looked like he was bothered by physical play from players trying to guard him.
Other than that, as a Memphis State (Now known as Memphis) player, there wasn't much to criticize him for.
Lee took Memphis State to a Final Four. was a three-time All-American (2 first teams and a second), is still the leader in all-time scoring at Memphis, and has had his 24 retired by the Tigers.

All that, and you can see why I was excited and hoped that Lee would be the first-round pick of the Cavaliers in the 1985 draft.
I didn't have the USA network, which showed the draft then, but I remember hearing on the radio that Lee had been picked by the Chicago Bulls after the Cavaliers had passed over him for Charles Oakley of Virginia Union -A NAIA school!
I was unhappy until I heard the Cavaliers had traded Oakley and their 2nd round pick (Calvin Duncan) to the Bulls for Lee and their young point guard, Ennis Whatley, who had been the Bulls' first-round pick the season before.
I was thrilled, and getting Whatley made this trade look like a huge steal for Cleveland.

What I didn't know was the extent of Keith Lee's knee problems.
Lee would miss the first 24 games of his rookie year and never seemed to catch up.
Lee would miss more time in his second year in Cleveland and only played 13 minutes a game under rookie coach George Karl.

Looking at Karl's career in the league in the 30 years since, Keith Lee was never going to be a George Karl type of player, even before his injury problems- the health issues only made those worse.
Lee would miss the entire 87-88 season before being traded to the Nets, where he hobbled through 57 games in the final season of his career.

There are so few pictures of Lee as a Cavalier that this one from Getty Images is the only color or action shot I could find!
Keith Lee played in the era without a mainstream basketball card contract, so you can collect Keith Lee cards very easily- the 1989-90 Hoops set has his only card, a short print with the Nets.

Never a loud player, Keith Lee spent his college career being a great player who didn't have much to say, and he's continued that in his retirement.
Lee is currently a high school basketball coach in Memphis, giving back to the players and the town he represented so well.
We welcome Keith Lee to the Forgotten Superstars universe! 

Boxing Challenge

Wrapping up the third boxing challenge from 2016.

I defeated Ramon Malpica 152-127 for the victory in the third edition.
I've won two in a row after Ramon won the first one in 2014.

Ramon and I are discussing expanding the challenge to people that call into Fight Heads,so we'll be talking about that before next Friday when Erislandy Lara defends his WBA junior middleweight title against Yuri Foreman on Spike TV in the kickoff for the 2017 Boxing Challenge...

Steelers outlast Browns 27-24 in Overtime.

The Cleveland Browns looked to be in a position to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers junior varsity after Cody Parkey's field goal to start overtime.
Those hopes changed when Landry Jones hit Cobi Hamilton with a 26 yard touchdown pass and gave the Steelers a 27-24 win.
Isaiah Crowell rushed for 152 yards with Robert Griffin throwing for two touchdowns in the defeat.
The Browns finish 1-15 and will pick first in the April draft...

Brownie Bits

1) Robert Griffin had a decent day,but Griffin still had issues getting the ball downfield other than a 43 yard gain to Terrelle Pryor.
Griffin said that his injuries never fully healed,but he wanted to try to play for the team.
Give Griffin credit for that,but the Browns cannot afford to spend another season hoping to revitalize Griffin.
It was worth a try and I agreed with the decision,but Griffin looks like this-An injury-prone QB that has seen injuries kill his arm and one that has seen his strengths adjusted to and taken away by defenses.

2) I hate that Mike Tomlin benched three of his top offensive players and can only hope that it backfires.
You see,Tomlin was a protege of Tony Dungy as he came up through the coaching ranks and Dungy did this stuff all the time with the Colts (Remember this,longtime readers?) and it never worked as the only title the Colts won under Dungy was the one time that he didn't do that!

3) I know that many will demean the Browns effort because of the lack of starters on offense,but I didn't see missing players on defense and the Browns might taken advantage of a less than motivated Steeler defense as far as effort goes,but their players were there.
This was a better game by the Browns offense than people will think..

4) The biggest plays in this game meant defeat for the Browns and they are what bad teams do.
In the third quarter,Briean Boddy-Calhoun intercepted Landry Jones and made a terrific return of 68 yards as he dove for the pylon for what would have made the score 21-7 Browns.
The play was called a touchdown,but was overturned as Boddy-Calhoun's dive saw him lose the football just before reaching as Darrius Heyward-Bey knocked the ball into the end zone for a touchback that gave the ball back to the Steelers.
Landry Jones then led Pittsburgh 80 yards for the tying score-a 14 point swing....

5) The other came late in the game with the game tied at 21 and the Browns move to the Pittsburgh five after the 43 yard pass noted above from Robert Griffin to Terrelle Pryor.
With the clock rolling and under a minute to play,a field goal attempt to win the game from short range by Cody Parkey seemed inevitable.
The stage was set for one more Browns ending as Isaiah Crowell,who had been so good in gashing the Steeler run defense,fumbled the ball and sent the game into overtime.
I felt terrible for Crowell,who had such a strong game running the football,but that summed the season better than I could have...

6) Cameron Erving was moved to right tackle to the game and allowed one sack before suffering a knee injury that Hue Jackson said "didn't look good".
The Browns were hammered with O-Line injuries almost all season with Joel Bitonio,John Greco,Austin Reiter and now Erving.
It'll be interesting to see when each of those players can return next season because with some of the replacements getting playing time this season,the line could be at least decent as far as depth and improved on the field....

7) He only carried the ball seven times,but I really liked the burst shown by George Atkinson and he ran for 34 yards and a score on those runs.
I'm not saying Atkinson should be considered a missing star,but I liked what I saw to the point that I wonder why the Browns didn't give him more of a shot in the backfield...

8) When I do the Browns review,I might give some awards and easily the rookie of the year will be Emanuel Ogbah.
Ogbah made a huge third down stop on a Steeler reverse and I think he'll win that award.
Ogbah looks like a keeper...

9) For the first time all season,the Browns might have found a keeper on returns with former West Virginia star Mario Alford.
Alford won't make you think of Devin Hester anytime soon,but he does try to advance the ball,which is a new thing in Cleveland...

10) The win clinched the top pick overall.
I hate these games,because I'm always conflicted.
Winning is always nice,but you have to know that 30 minutes after the game is over that a loss would have been the best thing..

11) Getting advice already from friends that think the answer is to trade down.
Couldn't disagree more.
Impact talent changes franchises not multiple lower picks.
Who has been the one elite player that the Browns have had since 1999?
Joe Thomas-3rd overall.
You still have to get the picks right no matter where you pick and I like my odds better higher in the draft...

12) The Browns have the first overall pick,the 12th pick in round one from the Eagles,the first pick in the second round (33) and the Titans pick in round two at 52.
So four of the top 52 players could be Browns.
Now,I've noted that I want to keep the one and I like Texas A&M defensive end Myles Garrett a little more than Alabama's Jonathan Allen.
If San Francisco loves one or the other and wants to offer something strong,I'd listen to drop one spot,but not much farther down.
I would be willing to move up or down at 12,depending on the player available or the offer,but I really would like to stay in the top two.
I'm not against some moves at 12,33 or even 52 to add assets,but keep in mind the Browns already have two second rounders (Eagles),two fourth rounders (Panthers for Andy Lee) and two sixth rounders (Steelers for Justin Gilbert) in the 2018 draft.
Plus,if the Browns cannot re-sign Jamie Collins,they are likely to add a compensation third rounder in that draft.

13) In other words,this front office has plenty of ammo in the next two drafts to start this process rolling,but they have to get them right-If they don't,this whole analytics things might be looked back at as a goofy attempt similar to the Chicago Cubs college of coaches.....

14) I already have three podcast guests lined up to talk Browns and the draft in the offseason.
I'm not sure of the future of the podcast (I've been lazy and I'm not wild about paying money when I haven't been using what I pay for),but I think if it does end in June-It'll go out strong.....