Turkeys of the Year: Dan Snyder

[insert long blog post about being the worst owner in all of professional sports here]

That's right...worse than this guy! [DISCLAIMER: IF YOU HAVE ANY CHILDREN NEAR BY PLEASE SHIELD THEIR EYES]
OK, maybe not worse than this guy...but pretty f'ing bad!

Turkeys of the Year: Boston Red Sox

Not a good year to be a Red Sox fan.

• Your owner preseason publicly cried about the Yankees signing Teixeira to a big contract, despite offering Teixeira a gigantic contract himself. Nothing hypocritical about that.
• The two corner stones of your championships are now heavily suspected to have used performance enhancing drugs in recent years (Manny suspended this year, and both rumored to be on the 2003 PED list).
• Remember when you had the deepest rotation in the league? How many of those guys even survived the season in your rotation or on your team?
• Oh, and the Yankees just won their 27th World Series title.
  

-Steve Lugerner

Turkeys of the Year: Gilbert Arenas

Agent zero...accomplishments: one playoff series win in his career. The way this guy talks about his own ability you would think he has multiple rings by now. He's had three knee surgeries in the last two year. Even I wouldn't blame a player for being that unlucky - oh wait, until he blamed his own team this offseason for 'wanting to sell tickets' and letting him rush back. Maybe take some responsibility for your own actions Gil? Finally, he got his $111 million dollar contract essentially tying the Wizards to an unstable personality for the next 4+ seasons.

Here is an excerpt from a recent Washington Post article discussing the rift in the Wizards locker room:

The last time [Arenas] played almost a full season, in 2006-07, Arenas was able to carry the Wizards out of a 4-9 hole and to the best record in the Eastern Conference by late January. "I'm sitting here thinking, 'Do I have to go into attack mode like I was [three] years ago to get us over the hump?' " he said. "I hope not. It's only so many nights, so many games before I'm going to have to start doing what I do."
The question is whether Arenas is still capable of such heroics while he struggles to regain the form that made him a three-time all-star after a hiatus of almost two seasons because of a bothersome left knee. Arenas said he is the only player on the team who has had to sacrifice his game, but he has been the leading scorer in eight of the 12 games, has taken 64 more shots than anyone on the team, and is shooting just 39 percent. He also leads the league in turnovers per game (4.0).

The man is honestly delusional and I’ll be the first to admit I let it slide for years because at least back in the day he could put up 50 on back to back nights and single-handedly win games. After watching him commit 6 more turnovers last night, I can't help but wonder if Gilbert can even play the point position the way we NEED him to. Honestly, I think Gilbert's basketball IQ is so much lower than anyone recognizes. He leads the league in turnovers...so this notion he can be a "pass first point guard" and be as good as the top PGs in the league is just wrong. He doesn't have the decision making ability.

I can't speak for how the other players in the locker room feel, but I can't help but wonder if some of the veterans are tired of Gilbert pretending he's a top 5 player in the league and his annoying ego song and dance with the media. His game is clearly hurting the team right now more than helping and until he just shuts his mouth and recognizes that, we are screwed!

-Steve Lugerner

Turkeys of the Year: Knicks and Nets

Going to be posting the biggest Turkeys in sports today.

Easy one to start with: Fans/Management of the New York Knicks and New Jersey Nets.

The most pathetic part about the management of both these teams is they think they have any chance of luring Lebron James or even Dwayne Wade to New York. I'm sure Lebron is just dying to play on a team with Chris Duhon running the point (who’s shooting percentage is comparable to Michael J. Fox at a gun range) and Eddie Curry now back at center after losing a teenage-eating-disorder amount of weight. He’s like the guy on the cigarette commercials who literally has half a face.

And the 0-14 Nets? I'm sure Lebron would love to team up with the Chairman Yi and Rafer ‘skip-to-my-lou’ Alston over the Cavs roster. The Nets are as far from a championship caliber supporting cast as ANY team in the league.

I guess in this day and age in the NBA when your team can't draft or do anything right, you have to pray for a free agent year like 2010, and sacrifice an entire season to have cap room. If I was a fan of either team, I'd be furious about my team rolling out such a pathetic roster for 82 games at the slim hopes of attracting a superstar. Who in their right mind would pay for season tickets for these two teams coming into the season?

-Steve Lugerner

Lugie's List 11/23 - Gobble Gobble

A moment of silence for my survivor season, which after lasting 10 weeks (beating my previous record of 2 weeks) is disappointing. How the Bengals can lose to Oakland after beating Pittsburg last week is beyond me…which leads me to…

1. By my count there are only 5 good NFL teams (Pittsburg and the Bengals fall out this week…even losing on the road is unacceptable when it's KC and Oakland):

2. San Diego – Norv Turner is still the coach. I refuse to even consider them contenders until a coaching change is made. Having said that…they’ve won 5 straight and have a shot at a first round bye.

3. Minnesota – They are cruising to a first round bye and look solid on both sides of the ball. Having said that…they haven’t beaten anyone on the contender list and Brett Favre is their QB – ticking time bomb come playoff time.

4. New Orleans – After a few close calls in recent weeks, the dominant Saints returned against Tampa, and at 10-0 stand a fairly good shot to finish undefeated in the regular season. Having said that…they have a showdown with the Patriots next Monday night which will be their toughest game of the year and hopefully Colts-Pats 2.0 for the viewing public.

5. Patriots – Belichick stuck it to the Jets yet again Sunday (does Rex Ryan have to give back his Coach of the Year trophy he received after week 3?). Having said that…Bill Belichick is a preening shmo who steals the souls of 5 children before every game to inspire his evil coaching.

6. Colts – The Colts looked shaky again Sunday barely holding on to remain undefeated. Having said that...they have Peyton FREAKIN' MANNING.

So I shamelessly stole a joke from Curb to fill my column. Having said that...you read it anyways. (ok moving on...)

7. Was the Bears-Eagles game as awful /boring to watch on TV as it was to Gamecast on my phone in the car ride home? Andy Reid again attempted to lose the game for the Eagles by running on 3rd and 4 where a first down nets them a W. There isn't a coach in the league that is worse at calling plays on the downs that matter most.

8. I've started reading the SportsGuy's new book on basketball/NBA, and 30 pages in, I will admit, I'm loving it. Which brings me to my stance on the SportsGuy I've held for years: nobody writes better about the NBA than him. It was honestly his incessant Boston love that became too much for a Boston-hater like myself. Heck, I didn't even hate the Celtics up until the 50th straight article about why Big Papi was the most feared hitter of the last 50 years or why Tom Brady is the best QB of all-time. Maybe those columns don't exist exactly, but you get the point.

9. Things I'm thankful for (and for purposes of comedy I'm not going to mention the obvious ones, so family...friends...take a hike): sugar-free Red Bull, Sarges, #27, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air re-runs, legalized gambling, illegal gambling, Maury Povich and Baked Lays (I'd be 50 pounds heavier without Baked Lays...no question in my mind).

10. Sunday Night TV Ratings: Dexter A+; Curb A; Mocha Joe A+; Californication B+