Smack Zone

Welcome to the Smack Apparel weekly football picks contest, where t-shirts and bragging rights are on the line every week. To play, click this link: Smack Apparel Picks Contest. Once there, register at the top-right of the page. Next, pick your winners for every game and enter a score for the tie-breaker. Each weekly winner will receive three Smack Apparel t-shirts, and the runner-up will receive one t-shirt. Share this post on Facebook and Twitter and tag your friends. Don’t forget to remind them who’s the king of picking games with your best smack talk! To help you out, here are a few random thoughts on this week’s slate.

COLLEGE GAMES

Florida State at Boston College – Welcome to the ultimate Tea Party event. Northwestern at Duke – May the highest composite IQ win. Virginia Tech at Purdue – What’s a Boilermaker without a splash of Wild Turkey? Georgia Tech at Notre Dame – This week’s lock: A team with gold helmets will win this game. Nebraska at Miami – Hello, 2015? 1995 called. It wants its national championship game back. Auburn at LSU – So many Tigers. Rawr. South Carolina at Georgia – After last week’s shocker against Kentucky, the Ole Ball Coach needs to bounce back against his Ole Rival. Texas Tech at Arkansas – The Razorbacks have allowed one TD pass in two games. Tech’s Pat Mahomes might double that … in the first quarter. Florida at Kentucky – A chance for one of these teams to stake an early claim as an SEC East contender. California at Texas – The Horns could use a “get-better” game to right their season. This ain’t that. Rutgers at Penn State – The battle for the bottom of the Big Ten East. Pittsburgh at Iowa – Coming off a rivalry win against Iowa State, favored Hawkeyes could be ready for letdown. Stanford at USC – The last 19 times Stanford entered this game unranked, it went 1-17-1. Stanford is unranked this week. Do the math. Ole Miss at Alabama – The touchdown-underdog Rebs could win, but it would make some major history: Ole Miss is 1-27 all-time in Tuscaloosa, and the Tide has never lost consecutive games to the Rebs. BYU at UCLA – Hint for UCLA: If BYU QB Tanner Mangum drops back for a Hail Mary pass, pray.

NFL GAMES

Patriots at Bills – Rex the Wonder Coach and his upstart Bills try to announce their presence with authority against the Very Shady Brady Bunch. Seahawks at Packers – We’ll defer to Marshawn Lynch’s mom, Delisa, for commentary on this one. Actual, news-making, direct quote from her Facebook page after Seattle’s loss to St. Louis: "Too the smart azz media who wrote that's why marshawn didn't get the ball in the superbowl ,how many times did russell get sacked yesterday. Dont worry i will wait on the answer plus it was totally different at the superbowl the line was better than yesterday no blocking and to the offense caller who should have been fired yes i said it Fired !!! He is the worst play-caller ever the only reason he called that dumb azz play yesterday is to be able to justify the 1 yard that wasn't called in the superbowl ,but most fans already figured this out .were still on a mission but i know the Seahawks staff loves that play caller more than a win ,go figure ‪#‎nfldontpayme# I love this team and will stand up to anybody who tries to destroy it boom!!!!" We could not have said it better ourselves. Lions at Vikings – It won’t matter how well QB Teddy Bridgewater or RB Adrian Peterson play for Minnesota if the Vikes’ D doesn’t do much better against Detroit rookie RB Ameer Abdullah than it did against San Fran’s Carlos Hyde (168 yards on 26 carries). Texans at Panthers – Houston’s DL/LB J.J. Watt could very well be the best fantasy play of the week from this game. Cowboys at Eagles – Eagles RB DeMarco Murray had nine yards on eight carries against the Falcons in Week 1. Very, very, very safe to say he’ll perform better than that this week against the team that was too cheap to pay him after he set a Cowboys record for rushing yards in a season.

Today, we begin a recurring Smack Zone series, How to Win an Argument with a ______ Fan. Our goal with these quick-and-dirty lists is to provide support material for the next time you find yourself in a sports bar smack down and need to put a particularly obnoxious fan in his or her place. (Or, if you happen to love the team in question, feel free to use this material to prepare your rebuttal. You're welcome.) We can think of no better place to start than the Bronx, home of the 27-time World Series champions (and 13-time World Series losers). Without further ado, here are 11 unassailable, 100-percent factual and historically accurate points that will help you win an argument with a New York Yankees fan:

1. Suzyn Waldman and John Sterling might be lovely people, but in the booth they are just the worst. It’s hard to tell if Yankees fans actually like the Yankees broadcasters, or if they merely tolerate them. Either way, here is audible proof that there’s just nothing worse in baseball.

Start with Sterling: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxtgPjgZwPw] And this gem from Waldman: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV3NhT0oXzY] Owowowow. My ears. 2. Sure, they’ve won 27 World Series. But they’ve also LOST 13 of them. Granted, that means they have won the American League title 40 times, but what good are those other 13 if they couldn’t finish the job? 3. They were on the wrong end of the most significant post-season hit in baseball history, Bill Mazeroski’s Game 7-winning home run for the Pirates in the 1960 World Series. What’s worse is the Yankees actually led the series, 2-0, before losing three in a row. Then they won Game 6 12-0 and had all the momentum in the world before Maz put them out of their misery in the ninth inning of Game 7. 4. They lost the 1995 ALDS to the Mariners after leading 2-0. What made this particularly brutal was that it was the only time during Don Mattingly’s long Yankees career that they made the playoffs. It was the last, fading echo of the Lost Decade of the 1980s. 5. Speaking of the 1980s … they mostly sucked. Sure, Mattingly and Dave Winfield were OK. But you talk about all that “great” Yankees history, you get stuck when you reach Donny Baseball’s decade. That famous sign outside the Yankees’ spring training complex in Tampa? The one that shows all 27 championship years stacked together? There is a glaring absence – the entire decade of the ‘80s. 6. Long-time owner George Steinbrenner was convicted of making illegal donations to the campaign to re-elect Richard Nixon president in 1972. He never went to prison, but it took a presidential pardon in 1989 to clear his record. 7. Steinbrenner vs. Billy Martin vs. Reggie Jackson was the greatest and most ridiculous three-way feud in the history of the game. The 1977-78 seasons earned the team the nickname the Bronx Zoo, even though they won back-to-back World Series titles. One big reason it was a zoo was the three biggest ego-maniacs in the game consistently made it all about themselves, often to the detriment of the team. It made for great theater, though. 8. Steinbrenner’s feud with Dave Winfield was even uglier in the mid-to-late 1980s. Steinbrenner was banned for life by Commissioner Fay Vincent for consorting with gambler Howie Spira, who was meant to dig up dirt on Winfield’s charitable foundation. It was all ridiculous, an exercise in egotism, and emblematic of everything wrong with the organization that eventually would earn the title the “Evil Empire” from Red Sox executive Larry Lucchino. 9. Even after one of the most successful eras of the team’s history, they couldn’t get an exit right. Both Don Zimmer, beloved bench coach, and Joe Torre, eventually a Hall of Fame manager, were essentially pushed out because of conflict with Yankees management (read: Steinbrenner). While Torre kissed and made up (sort of), Zimmer never really reconciled. 10. It all comes down to money. The Yankees have it and just don’t care if they waste it. Seriously. A 10-year, $275-million deal for Alex Rodriguez was obscene enough. But consider that the Yankees spent $179.1 million on five pitchers – Ed Whitson, Jose Contreras, Carl Pavano, Kei Igawa and A.J. Burnett – and received a total of 75 pitching victories for their money. It’s even worse when you realize that 34 of those victories came from the right arm of Burnett, so the other four bums combined for 41 wins. Pathetic. 11. Really, though, the one disgrace that should shut up any Yankees fan (but probably won’t) is this: two thousand four. As in, the year 2004. As in, the year they no longer could use the chant “1918” with any conviction. The year they led the Red Sox in the ALCS, 3-0, then became the first team in major-league history to blow a three-game lead in a seven-game series. It all fell apart in Game 4, when Mariano Rivera could not hold the lead against Kevin Millar, Dave Roberts, Bill Mueller, David Ortiz and Co. The Bloody Sock. Who’s Your Daddy? Johnny Damon. The Idiots. All of that … [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNnqbf2Vpv0] Case closed. Next week’s argument: the New England Patriots.

OK, it was ugly. Uglier than pre-boiled crab meat. Uglier than school cafeteria lunch smeared on the walls after a food fight. Uglier than a lot of things associated with Jameis Winston. Bucs fans could not have imagined anything this ugly, this soon: Titans 42, Tampa Bay 14. And it wasn’t even THAT close. It actually was uglier than the average four-TD blowout. What we need is perspective. So, here’s a related, ugly little statistic to keep in mind after Famous Jameis’ less-than-stellar debut as quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers: 2-10. That was the combined record in debut NFL starts for the past 12 QBs selected with the No. 1 overall pick. These guys, like Winston, all lost their first NFL starts as rookies:

• Andrew Luck, Colts
• Cam Newton, Panthers
• Sam Bradford, Rams
• Matthew Stafford, Lions
• JaMarcus Russell, Raiders
• Alex Smith, 49ers
• Eli Manning, Giants
• Carson Palmer, Bengals
• Tim Couch, Browns
• Peyton Manning, Colts

Among the quarterbacks selected with the No. 1 overall pick since 1998, only David Carr (Texans) and Michael Vick (Falcons) celebrated victory in their first NFL starts. Carr’s team finished 4-12 that year, and Vick was 4-for-12 passing in his first Atlanta start. What can we read into Marcus Mariota’s brilliance (158.3 passer rating) for Tennessee and Winston’s ugly incompetence Sunday at Raymond James Stadium? Not much, frankly. One horrible day does not a bust make. Similarly, one fantastic day does not mean Mariota is destined for the Hall of Fame. Still, if you’re a Bucs fan today, the question naturally becomes: What if? And that’s legit. It’s perfectly reasonable to wonder if the result would have been reversed if Mariota wore pewter, red and white on Sunday instead of Titans red, white and blue. It’s a question we won’t be able to answer for months or even years. Yet, today, it is telling that Bucs fans can ask that question without an ounce of hesitation. It’s OK to ask the question in the wake of that kind of embarrassment on the football field. Now, how will Winston answer? That’s what we’ll be watching in the weeks ahead. Gator on Gator [caption width="300" id="attachment_980" align="aligncenter"] Image: SB Nation[/caption]Jarrad Davis made perhaps the most important tackle of the day for the University of Florida Saturday in its 31-24 victory against East Carolina. What made it newsworthy was that the Gators defender didn’t tackle a Pirate – he tackled teammate Alex McAlister after McAlister recovered a fumble and headed needlessly to the end zone. Ah, nice job, Jarrad. Heads up play. A far, far better instance of Gator on Gator than this infamous moment from 2013 against Georgia Southern: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05h49R4QX9U] Super Dumb The Giants had it locked up Sunday night against Cowboys. It could have been a game that threw Dallas into disarray already – a tough opening week loss, compounded by losing star WR Dez Bryant to a broken foot for at least five weeks. Instead, the Giants inexplicably gave the Cowboys a last gasp by passing, rather than running, when the game clock was winding down. Think the New York media was pissed about it? Check out this game story from the Daily News: Questionable Call Costs Giants. Coach Tom Coughlin took the blame, as he should have. It’s a comfort, actually, to know that multiple-Super Bowl winners like Coughlin and Eli Manning can suffer this kind of serious brain cramp. It puts our own fallibility into perspective. We’re sure Giants fans can appreciate that big-picture outlook. Right? Yeah. Sure they can. Chelsea's Not-So-Special One  During the 2014-15 Premier League season, Chelsea was as dominant as a club could be. It won the league by a whopping eight points (87 points to 79 for second place Manchester City), it won the League Cup domestic tournament, and it lost three games in league play ALL SEASON. With the “Special One,” Jose Mourinho, back in the manager’s chair, a long stretch of prominence among Europe’s soccer elite seemed inevitable. Nope. After a 3-1 loss to Everton Saturday, Chelsea finds itself in 17^th place out of 20 teams. It was Mourinho’s third league loss in five games already. So far this season, Mourinho has complained about his own team physician taking too long to treat an injured player during a game and has cursed out Everton manager Roberto Martinez when Martinez had the audacity to speak first to members of the media after Saturday’s game. This is glorious for Chelsea haters all over England and the world. Watching the Special One implode is an unusual experience, and the schadenfreude is thick in the air in London these days. Want an American equivalent? It would be like if defending national champion Ohio State had lost a squeaker at Virginia Tech, then got blown out at home against Hawaii this season. Chelsea’s struggles are a wonderful life lesson. Take nothing for granted, even if you have a Russian billionaire bankrolling your season. Oh, and it gets no easier for Mourinho’s lads this week. After a Champions League match against Maccabi Tel-Aviv Wednesday, they face title contenders Arsenal Saturday in what will surely be a scintillating London derby match. Brace yourself. The Special One is slipping. Uncle The biggest winners of the football weekend were, without a doubt, the competing one-week fantasy sports services Draft Kings and Fan Duel. We sincerely hope you didn’t give in to temptation and play the latest drinking game – slam your beer/beverage of choice throughout the duration of every Draft Kings or Fan Duel commercial. If you did, we don’t envy you the headache you woke up with this morning. Remember: Friends don’t let friends play drinking games tied to the hundreds and hundreds of Fan Duel and Draft Kings ads.

[caption id="attachment_973" align="aligncenter" width="474"] Illustration: Steve Hill[/caption] For better or worse, Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota will be linked throughout their NFL careers. It’s an amazing quirk of the schedule that the No. 1 and No. 2 overall picks from the most recent draft will make their professional debuts together Sunday at Raymond James Stadium. Are we witnessing the birth of the next great NFL quarterback rivalry? Hard to predict. After all, the anticipated long-time rivalry between Tim Couch and Donovan McNabb (No. 1 and 2, Class of 1999) never quite materialized, did it? And the potential RGIII-Andrew Luck rivalry hasn’t exactly emerged, even though their careers began with such promise in 2012 and both are still young. What makes a great NFL QB rivalry? It requires individual greatness and superior achievement, certainly. It also requires something more. In order for a rivalry to develop, they must face each other frequently over the years, and the stakes must be high. People have to care. There has to be a buzz all week long. We all know it’s not really QB vs. QB in an NFL game. Intellectually, we know that the true competition is between the defensive coordinators and the great QBs. But history says something else. History says quarterbacks are measured not only by their team and individual achievements. They are measured by their success against one another. Fair or not, that’s how Winston and Mariota will ultimately be measured, too. And it all starts this weekend. Here is a quick look at some of the top QB rivalries in NFL history. Perhaps Winston-Mariota will join them one day: Tom Brady (Patriots)-Peyton Manning (Colts, Broncos) New England fans can argue that the 16 regular-season meetings between two of the game’s four or five all-time greatest passers have not constituted a rivalry. That’s because Brady’s teams have defeated Manning’s teams 11 of those 16 times. However, they are 2-2 in four postseason matchups, and Manning’s teams actually are 2-1 against Brady’s teams in AFC Championship Games. Still, Brady’s four championship rings trump Manning’s one pretty easily. The rivalry was stirred a bit this offseason when a less-than-complimentary email written by Brady about Manning surfaced during the Deflategate investigation. Brady apologized and Manning took the high road. They meet again Nov. 29 in Denver. Joe Namath (Jets)-Johnny Unitas (Colts) Their teams met in Super Bowl III (Unitas was sort of a bit player because of injury), then met again in 1972 when the Jets beat the Colts, 44-34. Namath passed for 496 yards and six TDs that day, which marked the official changing of the guard from the short-cropped Unitas Era to the shaggy-haired Namath Era in the NFL. Roger Staubach (Cowboys)-Terry Bradshaw (Steelers) A lot of NFL fans who grew up in the 1970s wanted to be Staubach, and just as many wanted to be Bradshaw. They both embodied bravado and charisma as much as any athletes of their generation. They met twice in the Super Bowl. Bradshaw won them both, but Staubach got two rings of his own against other teams. Dan Marino (Dolphins)-Joe Montana (49ers) They met in Super Bowl XIX, but not often after that. Still, their rivalry was more about historic production and statistics (Marino had the clear edge) versus simply winning (Montana might have been the best of all time at that). Troy Aikman (Cowboys)-Steve Young (49ers) They met three consecutive seasons (1992-94) in the NFC Championship Game. Aikman won the first two and Young won the third. Brett Favre was in the mix here, too, but Aikman-Young was the premier QB rivalry in the league for nearly half a decade. Andrew Luck (Colts)-Russell Wilson (Seahawks) This is one for the future. Both have out-shone fellow 2012 draftee RGIII, and Wilson has clearly staked his claim as the best young QB of this era. Luck, however, is poised to make a move this year and it would surprise no one if they led their teams to the Super Bowl. Sure, we know. We’ve left off a bunch. Otto Graham-Bobby Layne, John Elway-Jim Kelly, Marino-Kelly, Bradshaw-Ken Stabler, Dan Fouts-Jim Plunkett, and so many others. Where will Winston-Mariota end up on the list? It starts Sunday.

By Bob D'Angelo, Smack Zone Contributor Another NFL regular season kicks off tonight, rekindling some longtime clashes that bear watching this season. Pun intended. The Bears and Packers renew their feud Sunday at Soldier Field. So here’s a look at our top 10 NFL rivalries, past and present. Chicago Bears vs. Green Bay Packers The two teams first met November 27, 1921, when Chicago blanked the Packers 20-0. Chicago leads the series 93–91–6. They have played each other twice in the postseason. A week after Pearl Harbor, the Bears won 33-14 in the 1941 semifinals to avenge their only loss of the season. The Packers prevailed 21-14 in the 2010 NFC title game to reach Super Bowl XLV. This is a quirky series. Remember defensive lineman William “The Refrigerator” Perry scoring a touchdown for the Bears on “Monday Night Football” in 1985? Then there was Green Bay kicker Chester Marcol in 1980, who tried a game-winning field goal attempt in overtime. The ball was blocked and bounced back to Marcol, who sprinted around the left side for the game-winning score in a 12-6 decision. Dallas Cowboys vs. Washington Redskins This rivalry began before the Cowboys were a gleam in original owner Clint Murchison Jr.’s eye. Murchison nearly had a deal to buy the Redskins from owner George Preston Marshall for $600,000 in the late 1950s, but Marshall wrecked the deal by changing the contract terms. Marshall also tried to block the formation of the Cowboys franchise when the NFL considered expanding to Dallas for the 1960 season. Oh, yeah. There were some contentious games, too. On Thanksgiving Day in 1974, Cowboys rookie quarterback Clint Longley replaced the injured Roger Staubach and threw two TD passes for an improbable 24-23 win. In 1991, Washington was 11-0 until losing 24-21 to Dallas, but the Redskins still won the Super Bowl that year. In 1989, the Cowboys went 1-15. Their lone victory? A 13-3 win against Washington. The Redskins reached their first two Super Bowls (after the 1972 and ’82 seasons) by defeating Dallas in the NFC Championship Game. Kansas City Chiefs vs. Oakland Raiders This rivalry no longer has the intensity it did when both teams were powerhouses in the old AFL in the 1960s.  But boy, could these teams hit. Kansas City has won two of three postseason games against the Raiders. The most significant one was the final AFL Championship Game in January 1970, when the Chiefs intercepted four passes and engineered a 17-7 upset that sent K.C. into Super Bowl IV. What Chiefs quarterback threw for the most yards against the Raiders? Elvis Grbac, who passed for 504 yards at Oakland in 2000. It wasn’t enough: the Raiders won, 49-31. Steelers vs. Ravens This series defines toughness. Pittsburgh and Baltimore are AFC North rivals who have met four times in the postseason, with the Steelers winning three times. The Ravens finally broke through in January 2015, winning 30-17. Intense? Steelers coach Mike Timlin was fined $100,000 in 2013 for interference on Jacoby Jones’ kickoff return that had touchdown written all over it.  But the Ravens won 22-20, thwarting a Steelers’ two-point conversion in the final minute. Green Bay Packers vs. Minnesota Vikings This series began in 1961 when the Vikings entered the league, but the rivalry heated up when former Packers quarterback Brett Favre joined Minnesota in 2009 — and beat Green Bay twice, including a four-touchdown torching in his return to Lambeau Field. They have met in the playoffs twice. The Vikings stunned the Packers 31-17 in a wild-card game at Lambeau during the 2004 postseason. Randy Moss “shined,” scoring two touchdowns and giving Packers fans a pantomime mooning after his second TD grab in the fourth quarter put the game away. The Packers won the other meeting 24-10 eight years later to the day in another wild-card game. San Francisco 49ers vs. Seattle Seahawks This is one of the NFL’s newer rivalries. Since the Seahawks joined the NFC West in 2002, Seattle has won 16 of 27 meetings. The signature game was the 2013 NFC Championship Game, when Seattle held off San Francisco 23-17. The game ended when Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman tipped away a pass in the end zone. Sherman then blasted 49ers receiver Michael Crabtree in a memorable postgame TV interview. New York Giants vs. Philadelphia Eagles This rivalry began in 1933 and has featured big plays and miracle finishes. There’s “The Hit,” when Chuck Bednarik leveled Frank Gifford with a crunching tackle that forced a fumble. The Eagles recovered, taking another step toward the 1960 NFL title. Gifford was knocked out of action for 18 months. Then there was the “Miracle at the Meadowlands” in 1978, when quarterback Joe Pisarcik just needed to take a knee to run out the clock. The Giants led 17-12 with 31 seconds left when Pisarcik fumbled the snap. Herman Edwards picked up the loose ball and returned it for a touchdown, helping the Eagles earn a wild-card berth. In 1988, the Eagles had forced overtime and had lined up for a game-winning field goal. Luis Zendejas’ kick was blocked, but he picked it up and lateraled to lineman Clyde Simmons, who scored a touchdown. Dolphins vs. Jets Miami and New York have played some classics. The greatest might have been Dan Marino’s fake spike in 1994 that capped Miami’s comeback from a 24-6 deficit. With Miami at the Jets’ 8, Marino signaled he would spike the ball to stop the clock. Instead, he threw a TD dart to Mark Ingram with 22 seconds left to give the Dolphins a 28-24 victory. The 1982 AFC Championship Game is the only postseason meeting between the two division rivals, and it was notable for an Orange Bowl turned into a quagmire by heavy rains the week of the game. Miami intercepted Richard Todd five times, with A.J. Duhe swiping three passes. His 35-yard pick for a touchdown sealed Miami’s 14-0 win and sent the Dolphins to Super Bowl XVII. In 1986, Marino and Ken O’Brien combined for 884 passing yards and 10 touchdowns, with Marino throwing six. But O’Brien’s four TDs went to Wesley Walker, who tied the game with his third scoring catch and won the game in overtime with TD No. 4 in a 51-45 final. Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Cleveland Browns The “Turnpike Rivalry” has mirrored the hard-nosed image of both blue-collar cities. Ask quarterback Terry Bradshaw, who was lifted and spiked into the turf by Joe “Turkey” Jones in a 1976 game. The teams first met in 1950 when the Browns won 30-17 at Pittsburgh. Cleveland dominated the first 20 years of the series, but Pittsburgh took control when both teams were moved into the AFC in 1970. Even when the Browns moved to Baltimore to become the Ravens, Cleveland’s “new” Browns feuded with Pittsburgh. Cleveland running back William Green and Pittsburgh linebacker Joey Porter traded punches during pregame warm-ups in 2004. Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Dallas Cowboys OK, it’s not a traditional rivalry, but it deserves to be here for producing two of the most memorable Super Bowls, both won by Pittsburgh during the 1970s. The rosters of both teams were littered with Hall of Famers. Dallas got some payback in Super Bowl XXX, beating the Steelers 27-17.