I Tell Ya' Herbie

      Last season, we used the old seventies toy, Super Toe, as the face of "Herbie".

Well, since then I've found an actual Super Toe at an antique market in Dayton Ohio (Picture as I found him in Dayton), so starting next week, I'll have a picture of Super Toe today, although I still need some of those block bottomed footballs!

I tell ya' Herbie:

                           The first week of the season doesn't feature many great matchups but it will have two inter-conference games that are quite underrated as rivalries that could set the tone for the season for the winners.

I've always loved inter-conference rivalries and more of these types of games should be played.

I tell ya' Herbie:

                          Georgia vs Clemson may not have the cache' that it may have had a few seasons ago with Clemson's mild decline but it still matches the favorites of the SEC and a top contender in the ACC, especially with Florida State's surprising loss to Georgia Tech in Ireland.

The two schools are separated by only seventy miles and have played sixty-five times but this will be only the fourth time in the last twenty-one years and in the new era of playoff football where one loss won't kill your season, perhaps Georgia vs Clemson can once again become an annual rivalry.

I tell ya' Herbie:

                           The other renewed rivalry will see Penn State travel to Morgantown as an eight-point favorite over West Virginia and the Mountaineers.

Last season's 38-15 Penn State win in State College was the first game in a sixty-game series since 1992.

Penn State usually beats everyone not named Ohio State or Michigan on their schedule but they seldom under James Franklin defeat teams that they aren't far superior to.

West Virginia improved to 9-4 last season, Morgantown is a tough place to visit, and if Penn State isn't ready to play, I think West Virginia is capable of pulling an upset.

I tell ya' Herbie:

                           Boise State is the team that many are picking as the potential Group of Five representative in the playoff but the Broncos have a very tough game at Oregon early in the season that receives the attention as a Bronco-buster.

However, Boise starts the season with three games that aren't easy, the first of which is this Saturday against Sun Belt member Georgia Southern in Statesboro Ga.

The Eagles are also capable of an upset at home against a team traveling across the country, so Boise needs to take care of business before their Oregon and Washington State matchups.

I tell ya' Herbie:

                           One team that I am interested in watching is Nebraska with Matt Ruhle in his second year and starting true freshman Dylan Raiola at quarterback, the Cornhuskers should be a team worth watching- for good or bad.

Ruhle and Raiola could show signs of progress in Lincoln for even more improvement in 2015 or they could also struggle, bringing the fanbase to early concern, and Raiola, who committed to seemingly half the nation in his high school years, to start looking around for a landing spot elsewhere.

I could see it playing out either way, which is why it's so interesting to keep an eye on.

I tell ya' Herbie:

                           Of all the games in the first month of the season, the one I am looking forward to most (outside of the teams I support) is September 28th with Liberty traveling to Appalachian State.

The favorites to win the CUSA and Sun Belt conferences, the winner could have a huge leg up on the automatic playoff berth.

Liberty plays another weak schedule without an opponent that the Flames would not be favored, while Appalachian State travels to Clemson before this game, a win here, and a run of the table (with a Sun Belt title game win) could put a one-loss Mountaineer team into the tournament even with a loss to Clemson.

Cleaning out the Inbox: Football Passings

    There have been several recent passings from the world of football and we are well behind in the tributes to these past stars of the gridiron.

Goodbye to Abner Haynes at the age of  86.

One of the first stars of the AFL, Haynes chose the Dallas Texans over the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1960 when Steelers coach Buddy Parker and star quarterback Bobby Layne showed up at Haynes' house drunk, which made Haynes's father, a minister, to tell his son that he would be signing with the brand new Texans.

Haynes led the AFL in rushing and touchdowns in the league's first year, winning the Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year awards in 1960.

Haynes was named to the All-AFL first team three times and second team once, was named to the league's all-time team, and finished third in league history, yet Haynes is most remembered for his "kick to the clock" decision in a gale storm in the 1962 AFL title game.

Texans coach Hank Stram had given Haynes instructions to take the wind if they won the toss and when Dallas won the coin flip, Haynes's "kick to the clock" allowed the Houston Oilers to have the ball first and the wind in overtime.

The Texans overcame the error, winning the game 20-17 in the second overtime in the final game as the Dallas Texans as they left for Kansas City for the following season.

Goodbye to Jim Ninowski at the age of 88.

Ninowski played for four teams in his twelve-year career, most notably with the Lions and Browns.

Ninowski was acquired from Cleveland to start for the Lions in the 1960 and 1961 seasons but threw only nine touchdown passes against thirty-six interceptions in the two seasons.

Ninowski returned to Cleveland in 1962 but a shoulder injury forced him from the lineup, Frank Ryan took over as the starter and would be a backup for the remainder of his career, which concluded in 1969 with a four-game stint with the New Orleans Saints.

Goodbye to Benjamin Gay at the age of 44.

A five-star recruit in 1997, Gay chose Baylor and was kicked off the team after only five games for rules violations.

Gay played a half-season before being kicked off that team for rules violations and was waived by the CFL's Edmonton Eskimos in 2000.

Gay tried out for the Cleveland Browns and made the team in 2001 as a running back and kick returner.

Gay rushed for fifty-six yards and his only NFL touchdown in a November win over Baltimore. He was waived at the end of the season, signing with Indianapolis for 2002 but would not make the team.

Goodbye to Brad Dusek at the age of 73.

Dusek spent all eight seasons of his NFL career with Washington after being acquired from New England, who picked him in the third round of the 1973 draft from Texas A&M as a solid all-around linebacker.

Dusek would start ninety-one games for Washington in those eight seasons.

Dusek recovered sixteen fumbles, picked off four interceptions, and had fourteen sacks to go with three touchdowns, which Dusek scored off fumble recoveries.

Goodbye to Tony Hunter at the age of 64.

A standout tight end at Notre Dame, Hunter was chosen twelfth overall with the first of the Buffalo Bills' two first-round draft picks in the 1983 draft, ahead of Buffalo's fourteenth pick, Jim Kelly.

Hunter played two seasons in Buffalo before being traded to the Los Angeles Rams and catching fifty passes in his first season as a Ram before a career-ending leg injury in 1986.

Goodbye to Dave Williams at the age of 78.

Williams spent his best seasons with the St.Louis Cardinals before moving to San Diego and Pittsburgh along with the WFL's Southern California Sun.

Williams was the Cardinal's first-round pick in 1967 from Washington and played five seasons there, catching 162 passes and 22 touchdowns.

Williams was the top receiver for the WFL Sun, scoring twenty touchdowns for the Southern California franchise.

Browns release Foreman, Ika

   On cutdown day for what is called the "initial" 53, the Cleveland Browns dropped a few interesting names, and while some could be returned to the practice squad should things work out on the waiver wire, others might not have problems finding a new home.

The biggest surprise was running back D'onta Foreman, who was signed in the offseason as the hard yardage back and was expected to help the ground game in the early season absence of Nick Chubb.

Foreman suffered a scary neck injury in camp and left the final preseason game against Seattle with a rib injury, so the Browns may have felt that Foreman's injuries were a luxury that they couldn't afford with Pierre Strong also dinged up among a running back room not filled with depth.

That lack of depth could see the Browns scoop up a back in the next day (perhaps Samaje Perine, who could be waived by Denver) to feel a bit safer, although I've always liked Foreman as a back.

I wonder if he'd be interested in a return when healthy or maybe there is something we don't know about Foreman and the Browns relationship that may have played a part in this decision.

Cleveland also declared David Bell the winner for the final spot at wide receiver with the Browns releasing Michael Woods and James Proche.

Woods was the Browns' sixth-round pick in 2022 and missed all of 2023 due to a knee injury but caught five passes and two touchdowns in the final preseason game.

Proche was used as a punt returner last season and is noted for his special teams play.

I think the Browns would be interested in signing either or both to their practice squad ( and maybe another released receiver in Jaylen Darden) but I think someone is likely to sign Woods during the scramble period.

Cleveland released two players that may return after the dust settles as the team let goTony Brown and Justin Hardee.

Both can play in the secondary in a pinch, are top-notch special teamers, and as veterans will not have to clear the waiver wire, so deals may have been arranged with one or both to hang around town.

Cleveland is very deep along the interior of the defensive line and two recent draft picks didn't make the cut as 2023 third-rounder Siaki Ika and 2024 seventh Jowan Briggs were released.

Briggs is a player who could return to the practice squad and while Ika was a high draft pick, Andrew Berry usually gives his picks every possible chance to succeed, considering that- it says volumes that the Browns have given up on the former Baylor Bear this quickly.

Cleveland has placed four quarterbacks on the roster for now (DeShaun Watson, Jameis Winston, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, and Tyler Huntley) but this is likely to see if they can get something for one of them before they are forced to let one player (my guess is Winston if there is a trade, Huntley if they release someone) go for no return.

The Browns also released veteran offensive tackle German Ifedi, which means the Browns feel good about the health of Jack Conklin and/or Jedrick Wills before the opener as Ifedi was the main depth after an injury to James Hudson.

Cleaning out the Inbox

    Time to clean out the inbox and as has happened before, we move to lobsters.

We start in Pueblo, Colorado where employees of a local Red Lobster found a naturally orange lobster. 

Nicknamed "Crush" for the Denver Broncos defense, orange lobsters are very rare, as in one in every thirty million!

My first thought is how closely an orange lobster resembles a cooked lobster and how fortunate it was to be picked out of the crowd for survival.

Crush was donated to the Denver Aquarium where he will be seen by the public after a quarantine period.

We moved to New England for more orange lobsters as "Peaches" gave birth to what is hoped to be many orange lobsters.

Although the odds are that only a few will turn out to be orange, finding Peaches with eggs gives some hope with orange lobsters being so scarce, egg-bearing orange lobsters are rare on the rare scale!

We stay in New England and Concord, Massachusetts where archaeologists have found musket balls that date back 250 years to the famous "Shot heard around the world" that escalated the beginning of the American Revolution.

Early reports state that they are likely to have been shot by British troops during the battle in April 1775.

Atlas Obscura writes of the renovation of the first airplane to be used as "Air Force One" as the official plane of the President is referred to.

The 1948 Lockheed C-Constellation was upgraded by Dwight Eisenhower and became the first plane to use the name Air Force One in 1953.

The plane moved to Vice President Richard Nixon in 1954 and was retired in 1968 to an Arizona storage facility, where no one realized its status until 1978.

The plane is currently being restored in Virginia, where it has been since 2016. 

Browns add another late draft pick

   Andrew Berry continues his constant moving of late-round draft picks in and out, this time adding a 2025 sixth-rounder from the Chicago Bears in return for defensive tackle Chris Williams and a 2025 seventh-round pick.

Williams played two seasons for the Indianapolis Colts (2021 and 2022) before spending last season on the practice squads of Kansas City and Cleveland.

Williams had two sacks for the Browns in the preseason but was still considered a long shot to make the final roster, so getting anything in return for a player who was unlikely to make the team is a win for Berry and the Browns.

Chicago is having injury issues along their defensive line and their head coach Matt Eberflus has some knowledge of Williams, having coached him as the defensive coordinator in Indianapolis, so much like the Browns trade last week to obtain Nick Harris (and a seventh-rounder for a sixth) due to depth concerns, this made sense for the Beara at a nominal cost.

The Browns still have questions on the offensive line, especially at tackle, so adding a sixth-rounder could help them swing another deal to help them at tackle before the roster cutdown for the season opener against Dallas.

I don't look at these picks as disposable because I believe you can add players that can help you (as the Browns appear to have possibly found in their seventh-round pick in April's draft in cornerback Myles Harden).

However, moves involving picks can help teams fill gaps with veteran players when the injury bug swarms over a specific position group, so any extra selections could come in very handy in acquiring personnel in that situation.

Getting something for a player who would have likely gone elsewhere for nothing in a few days is always an excellent move.

I think that we haven't seen the last of these moves before the season begins.

Cleaning out the Inbox: Passings

    It's a pro wrestling-heavy version of tributes and we begin with two brothers, who starred as a tag team and passed away less than two months apart.

Goodbye to the Wild Samoans, Afa, and Sika at the ages of 81 and 79.

The three-time WWF tag team champions managed by Captain Lou Albano, also held tag team titles in several territories, most notably Georgia and Mid-South but had their most success in the WWF.

The Samoans were a sensation in 1979-80, winning the titles from Ivan Putski and Tito Santana before losing them to Bob Backlund and Pedro Morales at the famous 1980 Shea Stadium show.

Backlund couldn't hold two titles at the same time, so the titles were vacated with the Samoans winning a tournament for their second reign which ended with a loss to Tony Garea and Rick Martel.

After the loss, the Samoans wrestled in various promotions before a return in 1983 that would see them defeat the Strongbow Brothers for their third reign before dropping them to Tony Atlas and Rocky Johnson.

Both Afa and Sika received title shots against WWF champion Bob Backlund in their first WWF run and after the WWF national expansion, Sika was managed by Mr.Fuji in several title opportunities against Hulk Hogan in 1985.

Goodbye to Pete Sanchez at the age of 81.

Sanchez wrestled as one of the better preliminary wrestlers in the WWF from 1963 to 1992, usually losing on television to the top stars but enjoyed a high enough status to enable him to give those stars a tougher time than they would usually have in those matches.

Sanchez would often win on the house shows on the circuit against opponents of his level and if you didn't live in the WWF territory, Sanchez might be best remembered as the opponent for Ric Flair in 1976 as Flair made his first appearance in the federation as a "special attraction" on the undercard.

Goodbye to Vladimir Petrov at the age of 66.

Al Blake was another trainee off the Minnesota assembly line in the mid-1980s and when another Minnesota grappler John Nord changed his mind after accepting the spot, stepped in to become "Vladimir Petrov".

When Magnum TA suffered his career-ending auto accident in 1986, feared Russian heel Nikita Koloff was turned to the good side to dedicate his career to his fallen rival, creating a need for someone to face Nikita under the guidance of "Uncle" Ivan Koloff.

That man was Petrov, the supposed Russian amateur rival of Nikita but his matches with Nikita saw him lose those matches and within a year, was gone from the territory other than a brief trip to the UWF against champion Steve "Dr.Death" Williams.

Goodbye to Mark Wells at the age of 66.

Wells was a member of the 1980 Miracle on Ice team that won the Olympic gold medal in hockey but never played in the NHL.

Wells played three seasons in the minor leagues before retiring in 1982 after hockey was diagnosed with a rare degenerative spinal disease which often left him bedridden and unable to work.

The hospital bills would force Wells to sell his gold medal in 2010 for $40,000 to pay medical expenses and keep his home.

Goodbye to War Chant at the age of 27.

The 2000 Breeders Cup Mile winner on the grass, War Chant won five of his seven career starts and won both of his starts on turf.

War Chant finished ninth in the 2000 Kentucky Derby before taking five months off to prepare for the final two races of his career, including his exciting Breeders Cup Mile triumph.

War Chant stood at stud in America until 2011 when he moved to Australia for the remainder of his life.

Browns trade Cade York to Washington

     Andrew Berry and the Cleveland Browns continue to collect seventh-round picks.

One week after swapping a sixth-rounder to Seattle for Nick Harris and a seventh-round selection, Berry traded kicker Cade York to the Washington Commanders for a conditional seventh-round draft pick.

Cleveland's fourth-round draft pick in 2022, York was the starting kicker in that season but was released in the 2023 pre-season after some erratic performances with the Browns trading with San Diego for Dustin Hopkins.

York was re-signed in the off-season even though Hopkins was signed to a three-season contract extension as the Browns must have been thinking about Hopkins's injury history and the new kickoff rule that could leave kickers vulnerable to contact.

York hit both of his field goal attempts in the two exhibition games, including a fifty-five-yard kick against Green Bay, and both extra point tries, so there are signs that York may be rounding into the kicker that Cleveland drafted in 2022.

I'm not sure about the conditions of the seventh round but usually, it is activated if York kicks/on the roster for a specified amount of games.

I've always liked Cade York's potential and I wish there was a way to keep him around but Washington needs a kicker, York will have a chance to kick there, and while a conditional seventh rounder isn't a great return, it's something for a player that likely wouldn't be able to return to the practice squad.