http://blackandgold.com/blogs/saintsbro/ en Wed, 22 May 2013 14:25:45 GMT vBulletin 1 http://blackandgold.com/bngforum/misc/rss.jpg http://blackandgold.com/blogs/saintsbro/ http://blackandgold.com/blogs/saintsbro/342-jimmy-grahams-dunk-momentum-shifter-odd-theory.html Thu, 27 Sep 2012 19:01:25 GMT Listen: I love me some Jimmy Graham. I love his story and him as a player. But I have been starting... Listen: I love me some Jimmy Graham. I love his story and him as a player. But I have been starting to think lately, that it's possible Jimmy Graham is actually kind of effing us up, with his patented "dunk" over the crossbar move after a score.

"That's crazy" you say -- I know it sounds crazy. It's not the ONLY thing wrong with the Saints, or the biggest thing wrong. But put on this tin foil hat, and hear me out.

I think when he does that dunk move, it is pumping up the other team and causing them to get back into the game. Or they respond with a big play of their own, almost every time lately. Especially when he does it on the road. It pisses the crowd and the opposing players off, and gets them fired up to beat us, instead of them rolling over and laying down or quitting. It didn't used to have that effect on the other team, but now that he's famous, I think it does.

Exhibit A: he did it in the San Francisco playoff game, on the road. Dunk. Then when San Francisco drove down the field a bit later and scored a TD, their guy did the patented Jimmy Graham dunk move, over their goalpost. To taunt us. It was obviously aimed at mocking Jimmy, ON PURPOSE. Because that's Jimmy's big Sportscenter and Madden move, the basketball dunk, right? I knew we were in trouble then, when the 49ers guy did that, because you could tell the Niners were pissed. Jimmy's dunk and the other dude's "answer" dunk, making fun of him -- well it was one of those weird little things that might have kinda changed the whole dynamic of the afternoon, tilting it in their favor. Pumping them up. I know, I know -- we lost that game on turnovers. But I'm talking about momentum, energy, or fire.

(Along with other things that changed the momentum that day, of course, like killing Pierre Thomas' head and stuff --they were REALLY celebrating and high-fiving over that, and yet we're the ones with the supposed bounties, who get players and coaches suspended, but never mind.)

Then Jimmy did it again after the crazy long TD at the end, and what happened after that?

Well I know we all like to blame the Gregg Williams defense for the loss at the end, but the Niners were pretty fired up, at the end of the game, would you say they were not? Did the Niners and Alex Smith look flat and dejected to you on that last drive, tired and desperate, or did they look REALLY SUPER PISSED OFF and coming at us with everything they had?

Exhibit B: the Skins game. First quarter, touchdown pass, Jimmy Graham. He does the dunk. Next play from scrimmage? Why that's an 88 yard TD pass to Pierre Garcon. You can't tell me the Skins bench wasn't fired up after that, the rest of the day. Some say it was the turning point of the game. So, just a coincidence, or right after the dunk?

If the other team dunked it on you, would YOU be mad? Sure you would. I remember one time I got completely enraged, when some Falcons player (I think it was Grimes) ran around the field with the ball, after the play was over, acting like he was showing it to the crowd, waving it around after he made an interception on Drew. Steam came out my ears.

Exhibit C: Panthers/Saints. First quarter: Jimmy Graham Touchdown, he does the dunk. Big celebration in the Panthers end zone. Three minutes later, very next Saints possession -- Drew throws the Pick 6.

Now I know you want to say that Drew threw that pick 6, it was his fault, but the other guy DID catch it, he DID read the pass, made the jump, and he was EXTREMELY fired up to take it back to the house...everyone agrees it was the game changing play of the game, and it was the next time the Carolina defense was on the field, only two plays after the dunk.

And keep in mind, that was ALSO right about the time that the Saints started falling apart in that game, in the series or two right after that. The offense fell asleep and didn't wake up, their defense was swarming all over us, and our defense suddenly couldn't stop Cam, who was dying to get into the end zone and do his OWN little patented Superman TD move for the cameras. He was super fired up. Earlier in the game he was kinda flat. See what I mean?

And Exhibit D: Chiefs game, 3rd quarter: Jimmy scores and does the dunk. Next series, Jabari intercepts Cassell, our one big defensive play...we get the ball on the 6, for an almost inevitable score by Jed Collins. Now we should be rolling, right? Well what happens next? The Saints offense went into a COMA, that's what. The offense was acting NORMAL, before the dunk. After the dunk, if you didn't give them the ball first and goal on the Chief's 6, nothing would happen for the Saints offense. They could get 6 yards in 3 plays for the TD, but not ten....the rest of the day.



I don't know, it's just something I've noticed over the past few games, a weird feeling I had, so I went and looked at the box scores and what was happening to the game momentum or "vibe" when Graham does the dunk.....it's there at arguably pivotal places in four losses in a row...it might be coincidence, or it might be backfiring, and revving up the other team, to actually help them beat us.
Weird. ]]> SaintsBro http://blackandgold.com/blogs/saintsbro/342-jimmy-grahams-dunk-momentum-shifter-odd-theory.html http://blackandgold.com/blogs/saintsbro/336-outside-lines-why-you-should-love.html Mon, 20 Aug 2012 17:04:44 GMT Wow. Did ya'll watch this? It got me almost as pumped up for the season as watching Youtube videos of Drew in the pregame huddle or Tracy Porter taking it to the house in Miami -- you know the clip where you see Sharper yells something at Peyton Manning and taunts him as he runs past him. Love. It.

Here's the thing. Don't fall for it. Don't be butt hurt. Transcend the butthurt. Embrace the hate. Breathe it in. I watched this thing and I loved every minute of it. I loved it because they're lies, I loved it because they're wrong, and mainly I loved it because I know good and well that it would piss Outside The Lines, Goodell and the rest of the world off to no end, if they heard that Saints fans down here LOVED the report, and embraced it and high-fived each other, when they learned that people out there thought their coach was "rogue" "cocky" "troubled" or "arrogant." Fist pump! Yesssss!

If you watched it objectively, with fan goggles off, it was actually pretty weird. John Barr's portion of Outside The Lines yesterday seemed to me, to be more focused about un-named journalist sources grumbling about how Sean Payton treats reporters, and how no one in New Orleans would answer Barr's questions, than anything else. We all know what a terrible crime that is. Turrible, just turrible.

Sean Payton not answering a local beat reporter's question about a Jeremy Shockey rumor that he got from the internet, from some teenage kid on Saints Report? Oh, the humanity. The arrogance. The shield cannot abide this hubris. Can Payton ever be rehabilitated, or is he just too arrogant for words? According to one unnamed league source, Payton is a "cancer" on the NFL? Oh man that got me sooo stoked. You know why? Because cancer wins, dammit!

They conveniently left out details that this unnamed reporter who got "blacklisted" for asking a stupid question was ...Bryan Allee-Walsh.

Now. Brian's okay. Not a great writer, not bad, just okay. But put yourself in Payton's shoes for a minute. When Payton looks out from the podium, the expectation is that he will see a bunch of professional sports reporters, doing their jobs. For the most part he does see that. But it's New Orleans. The Deep South. We're way down in Dixie here. Payton is from Illinois, up north, and he has done time dealing with big powerhouse media types in Dallas and New York. He looks out there, and sees a room of reporters... and then he sees this one dumpy, kinda-hungover looking guy off in the back corner, with a flowing ratty gray beard, who insists on looking like a gonzo journalist version of General Robert E. Lee in a Hawaiian shirt and straw hat. Is Payton supposed to take this guy serious? Looking like that?

Some of these "lifer" local reporters with nowhere else to go, seem to forget that how you look and how you carry yourself is important, in any profession. That you get back what you give out. That if you look like you are a dapper Confederate colonel dressed year-round for the Economy Hall tent at the Jazz Festival, serious people might not take you so seriously. That if you dress like you are in the same decade with everybody else, or don't look like you just wandered in off Bourbon Street, they might take you more seriously.

If you listen to the NATIONAL guys, like Pat Yasinkas (on the show), the respected guys, and especially the media guys who actually played or coached the game, they don't EVER seem to have any problem with Payton's attitude! Even Larry Holder, a national CBS guy recently turned local, he came right out after this story and said, "no, I don't have a problem with Payton, and that story was wrong." Jim Fassell basically said, "yeah he's cocky, but you have to be, in this profession, we all are." Hmmmm.

The ones who are clueless, or extremely LOCAL, or have an axe to grind, well they're the only ones who seem to see this horrific "dark side" of Payton or his "arrogance" when he's dealing with the press. Who'd a thunk it. Beats me why that happens.

I mean Jeff Duncan had all that hard-nosed football reporting experience and expertise, before he came here to New Orleans, right? Knows the game inside and out? Uh, no. I'm sure Sean Payton didn't ever Google Duncan's resume, or read Duncan's 2004 book "Tales From The Saints Sideline," or nobody in the office ever told Payton about it. The book where Duncan called the Saints "the NFL's bumbling, lovable Fleur de Losers"? Payton came here to get RID of all that type of talk. Duncan was one of the main ones perpetuating and doing it. You do the math on that one. Payton is so freaking arrogant, to not be amused by bag-head jokes!

So Brian's journalistic question that got him temporarily booted from the press pool in 2009 was, in essence: I heard a rumor on the internet, that you are lying about the turf toe, that it's not turf toe, did Jeremy Schockey actually injure himself by kicking his foot against a soda machine.

Is Payton supposed to dignify this with a straight answer? Now I don't know about you folks, but I can think of about eight million better things for Sean Payton to be doing with his time in the middle of a Super Bowl run, then answering stupid questions from local beat reporters, debunking anonymous posts and threads that came from Saints Report... or Canal Street Chronicles or The Onion for that matter. It's the National football league. Payton is the coach. Next time, ask him a question about football, Brian!

So before we freak out, or bust a blood vessel by hating on ESPN or John Barr, ask yourself this question. How many other NFL teams out there have a half hour special of "bulletin board material" for the season, custom made for them, and entirely dedicated to them? Most teams and locker rooms have to grope for bulletin board material, for motivation.

That montage of last season highlights and collisions that played on the Jumbotron in the Dome, before the Saints took the field last Friday night? Benson had to pay somebody money to have that thing edited up and made, to get folks pumped up. And now we have ESPN coming down here, spending their money, and going to all this trouble researching and editing all these really slick and very classy-looking productions just for US, just for our players and coaches to watch them and get that chip on the shoulder even bigger and more ready for a fight. This stuff looks a heckuva lot better than Gregg Williams' crappy Powerpoint slides, don't you think? ]]> SaintsBro http://blackandgold.com/blogs/saintsbro/336-outside-lines-why-you-should-love.html http://blackandgold.com/blogs/saintsbro/321-some-tin-foil-hat-thoughts-whole-crazy-bounty-wiretappingthing.html Wed, 02 May 2012 01:10:31 GMT Okay. This is my first blog entry -- it’s kind of a long read, but try and stick with me here. ... Okay. This is my first blog entry -- it’s kind of a long read, but try and stick with me here.

So the latest news is that the guy from the NFL who investigated the “bounties” is quitting. Yeah, I know, I know, he’s resigning kinda mysteriously and without comment – now everyone’s talking conspiracies, about why this guy might have quit, or saying that it looks kinda fishy, "what does this mean," etc.

Well it does look kinda fishy, almost like there may be a problem with the “evidence” in the Bountygate investigation or something. This guy is the guy who sniffed out the scandal, collected the facts and evidence, and reported them to the head honcho, Jeff Miller, the NFL’s chief security officer. But who knows, it might actually be TRUE -- the guy might have just gotten a better job offer in corporate security somewhere.

But, see, that’s actually NOT the REAL thing to look at, in the article. People are missing the boat here. The really interesting thing that leaped out at ME from the latest articles, is that now we know, that Joe Hummel, the principal investigator on the Saints “bountygate” scandal, used to work for the FBI. Hmmm. Now that is kinda interesting.

Because, I mean, you can’t help but notice, there sure seems to be a lot of ex-FBI guys poking around the Saints lately...and now we recently learned from ESPN, that the REAL actual FBI has been "told of the allegations" about the whole "Loomis wiretapping" thing.

Not that they’re actively investigating, mind you – that’s NOT what the FBI spokesperson said. They only said that they have been “told of the allegations.” That’s the quoted official statement of what the FBI said, when asked. Just that yeah, someone has told us about it, we are aware, and we can’t really comment further. That was prior to the ESPN story going to press.

What the FBI said is interesting, because, you know, words DO mean something.

Now "what if" somebody who was an ex-FBI man, and had worked at a high level job doing security for the Saints, “what if” he got terminated by Mickey Loomis and the team? And "what if" that ex-FBI man had a grudge, and decided to sue the Saints in civil court, over some dirt on Payton, Vitt and Loomis that he claimed to have (and naming Mickey Loomis personally by name, nearly FIFTY TIMES in the 13-page lawsuit, in case we missed the point of WHO the lawsuit and the allegations were really aimed at.)

And "what if " that ex-FBI person, was somehow also informally reaching out and talking to the ex-FBI guy who worked at NFL security, up in New York, who suddenly began investigating the “bounties” almost IMMEDIATELY AFTER the unsuccessful civil lawsuit petered out in 2010... And "what if" that same ex-FBI guy was NOW one of the unnamed "sources" recently talking to ESPN, and to the real FBI, trying to get them to probe into Mickey Loomis and his alleged "wiretapping" scheme.... well... that would be a really far-out TIN FOIL HAT conspiracy, that no one could POSSIBLY ever believe, right? ...

I mean, it's not like an ex-FBI guy with a serious grudge against Loomis and the Saints -- serious enough for him to sue in civil court after getting let go by the team --it's not like he could possibly remember the phone number of his former office at the FBI, or be able to know the identity of the actual FBI agent or office who would look into that kind of exotic wiretapping cases, or might maybe know the names of other retired ex-FBI agents out there who were working for NFL security, up in New York. There’s just NO WAY two various ex-FBI guys, who now worked in the same industry of pro football, could actually be talking to each other, at all...do ya think? It's not like ex-FBI and law enforcement guys are known for being fraternal or a network or anything like that... That's just impossible.

But this ex-FBI guy who worked for the Saints, and later sued them, "what if" he wasn’t just any ordinary ex-FBI guy. He was kind of a pretty big name. He was known as the guy who brought down Edwin Edwards. And his area of specialty was…by a complete coincidence…WIRE TAPPING, eavesdropping and secret recording of Edwin Edwards’ conversations. That’s how he got Edwards.By using a device and eavesdropping. Just like someone now says Mickey Loomis did. Yeah, I know. This is "crazee talk," isn't it.

And it's also not very likely that the ex-Chief of Security for the Saints, who had a grudge against the organization, would happen to know the names of any OTHER disgruntled ex-Saints employees out there, from during his tenure, who might ALSO have a beef against Loomis and the Saints, right? Like maybe a certain electrical employee, who got fired by the Saints for allegedly "borrowing' Saints equipment, at the same time while this same ex-FBI guy was CHIEF OF SECURITY for the team....

No, we can reasonably conclude that it is totally impossible, that the Saints ex-Chief of Security would have been the one who investigated that electrician guy, in 2007, or that he would know the guy's identity, or know that he was still out there, and that he might also want to see Mickey Loomis get taken down almost as much....

And if I was an ESPN reporter who went looking for more dirt on the Saints, the LAST THING on earth that I would do to write my story, is to start by Googling the name of the ex-FBI, ex Chief of Security guy who publicly sued the Saints in civil court, or call him up and ask him for more names of people I could talk to, off the record, with no names.... that just couldn't happen. Too “TIN FOIL HAT” for me to believe.

It's also totally IMPOSSIBLE, that the ex-Saints director of security would also know the name of the ex-radio journalist, who at one time got banned from the Saints facility; who according to Lee Zurik, this certain ex-radio journalist was also the same guy who gave the ESPN reporter a list of names and phone numbers for sources for his ESPN “dirt” story he was “digging” for? And this ex-radio journalist was also one of the two people that Lee Zurik was able to confirm that the FBI had actually interviewed and talked to so far in their investigation? Oh really? And the other name was the ex-FBI guy? What an extreme coincidence.

I mean the Chief of Security is absolutely NOT gonna know the name of a dude from the media who was banned from the teams sidelines and locker room, when it was his job as Chief of Security to enforce it....he is not gonna remember that guy he had to ban from the locker room and sidelines, right?

I mean, this is ALL totally impossible, tin foil hat stuff, right? Right?

It's completely crazy, to think that there might be an ex-FBI guy fired by the Saints, same guy who famously used wiretapping to "get" Edwin Edwards when nobody else could. Same guy who then used secret audio recording and video surveillance of conversations while he was Chief of Security for the Saints, who secretly wore a wire AS A CIVILIAN, while talking to Mickey Loomis, trying to entrap him. And then, he sues them, and when that doesn't work, the Saints “bounty” investigation suddenly falls out of the sky and into the lap of the league's ex-FBI investigator up in New York. And when that doesn’t work, this wild unprovable story comes out of left field, about Mickey Loomis "wiretapping" on opposing teams? WIRE TAPPING? Really?

The question we all need to ask here, is WHO GIVES A **** ABOUT WIRE TAPPING? No really, I mean that. Obviously it is illegal, it’s cheating, it’s messed up, and we would feel really bad if other teams listened to our signals and used it to beat us. Not cool. But is this something that ANY OF US were really thinking about, before this came out? Was wiretapping on YOUR radar? Did you lay awake at night, worrying that other teams might be listening in to OUR signals? Is this something normal people talk or think about?

So yeah, I’m asking, who really GIVES A **** about WIRE TAPPING? Who? The FBI, and people who used to work for the FBI, that’s who! Nothing perks up their ears quite like it. It gets their attention. They live for this stuff, they think like that, we don't. It's what they do.

A crazy thing is emerging about ALL these crazy allegations against the Saints, ALL of them – it’s nebulous, I can’t quite put my finger on it, it’s starting to add up and snowball and gain steam, but it hasn’t reached critical mass yet. It’s not at the point where we can safely take off the TIN FOIL HAT, and say I TOLD YOU SO. Not yet. But something is really getting weird about this stuff.

We have the whole Bounty thing, okay, we're busted, we got that; we have evil Mickey Loomis, supposedly wiretapping on other teams, with secret communications equipment being installed and uninstalled; there’s all these ex-FBI people floating around the periphery of all these scandals, or doing the actual investigating from up in New York; and we have an ex-FBI, ex-security guy who actually did WEAR A WIRE inside the Saints building, while talking to Mickey Loomis, recording what he said, and who actually DID install secret video surveillance cameras etc, all while he was Chief of Security, and who later sued the Saints, and basically tried to blackmail them for a cash settlement, and sorta lost in his shakedown efforts.

So there’s sorta this weird recurring theme or idea emerging -- once you dig into it, this theme of ex-FBI, this idea of secret evidence or NO evidence, this creepy idea of people listening in to something they shouldn't. This stuff keeps coming up again and again in EVERY supposed Saints "scandal" and lawsuit since 2009, ALL of them.....And somehow the league also knows exactly what Saints players like Jonathan Vilma said about the bounties, in various team meetings at specific times before the NFC Championship Game. But won't disclose how they know it.

Total coincidence, I know. Tin foil hat. ]]> SaintsBro http://blackandgold.com/blogs/saintsbro/321-some-tin-foil-hat-thoughts-whole-crazy-bounty-wiretappingthing.html