Put me down as one of the Ravens fans who was inexplicably pissed off that the Orioles weren’t willing to move the time of their September 5th home game to accomodate the Ravens. The Super Bowl champions should be opening up at home on that day but will instead play on the road at Denver. You know who else ain’t having it? Rex Ryan.

“Well who really cares, you’ve got 81 at home, maybe you could have done the right thing and given one up and then played 82 on the road and then 80 at home,” he said. “I really don’t think people are going to care about that game.”

“You have a chance to have the defending world champs open up the season at home where they rightfully should. That’s unfortunate,” the Jets coach added.

The Ravens wanted the Orioles to play a day game in order to accomodate the football game at night. Ryan’s idea to play the baseball game away would complicate matters a bit more. It is interesting that the Orioles claimed it would be too difficult to accomodate the Ravens yet somehow thought both stadiums could handle simultaneous events during a joint Baltimore-Washington DC Olympic Games. One would think Peter Angelos would make some concessions but he’s like Mumm-Ra if he was composed of asbestos, tobacco and crocodile tears. He won’t even let any other attorney be a partner in his firm. He probably eats the male babies left out beyond the wall by Craster.

The scourge that is Angelos is still no reason for Ryan and Ravens fans to get so worked up about this issue. It would be great for fans to salute the team without climbing over cars and gates like a scene out of World War Z. However a win is more important and they’ll be home the following week to slap the Browns around like Ike Turner. Fans should be more interested in seeing how Flacco and the new defensive personnel perform. Perhaps John Harbaugh can ask for a moment to thank Denver for Elvis Dumervil right after the national anthem.

I wouldn’t be going to the game even if it was played at home so there’s no need for me to get worked up. I can watch from the comfort of a bar or home seat accompanied by friends and cheap beers. I’ll be wetting myself from the fact that pro football is back and I don’t have to use baseball to fill the emptiness in my sporting heart. My father used to take my brother and I to games at Memorial Stadium and Camden Yards but Angelos and Bud Selig killed my love affair with the sport many years ago.

The Orioles team on the field is likable and fun to watch for a change but the front office and ownership make it a chore to embrace them fully. Ravens players were incredibly supportive of the Orioles down last season’s stretch and through the playoffs but Angelos threw that back in the face of the most popular team in town. Accordingly they refused the opportunity to be honored on Opening Day. Nice try.

That’s the reason why football is #1 in a town which used to be owned by the Orioles. It’s also the reason Ryan threw some bows on them. Well done but now get back to hugging Mark Sanchez and telling him to find a happy place before a quarterback who literally shits himself takes his job. What? Too soon?

This one goes out to Petey from Rex.

50 Cent – Wanksta [HQ] by CaMGuY

UPDATE: Buck Showalter responds

Buck said Rex Ryan should be more concerned w/ playing #Ravens this yr. “I would stay in my supposed area of expertice.” #Orioles #Jets

— Eduardo A. Encina (@EddieInTheYard) April 19, 2013

NFL players and fans laughed under their breath when the Texans’ Brian Cushing denied using performance enhancing substances after being suspended four games in 2010 for violating the NFL’s PED policy. It’s not often that players call out or mock other players for that unless their name is Rodney Harrison. Rumors swirled about steroid use even before the Texans linebacker was drafted out of USC. He promised to go full OJ and find out how the hormones got into his system. We have yet tpo hear back.

Cushing should have gone full Romo and embraced the use of performance enhancing substances instead of issuing denials that would have made AC Cowlings shake his head. Bill Romanowski didn’t deny using them and anything else that would bring out the crazy. His play and antics on the field backed up his statements. Ain’t no one believe that he wasn’t on the juice. The NFL mic’ed up Cushing for the Texans game against the Browns. Watch this excerpt and see if you think he’s clean

If that’s not ‘roid rage, Blaine Gabbert is a servicable NFL QB. You can watch the full clip here. Watch Cushing’s teammates react to him. It’s as though they’re unsure how to deal with him. “Yeah dude, whatever you say. I gotta go stand over there now.” How long until he goes Michael Westbrook on an unsuspecting teammate who refuses to give him an exploding fist bump?

After watching my Cleveland Browns beat the Seattle Seahawks in the ugliest football game I have seen in a long time, I was treated to watching the Indianapolis Colts get embarrassed by the New Orleans Saints 62-7. Fortunately for the Colts, they are one more game closer to ending this debacle of a season.

And now news regarding the $4 million rent-a-player, Kerry Collins, that promptly got hurt:

Collins started three games for the Colts, getting knocked out in the third quarter against Pittsburgh. He hasn’t played a down since and has been limited to light individual work at practice since then.

With the Colts, Collins was 48 of 98 for 481 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. He has now thrown for 40,922 career yards, 10th in NFL history after passing Joe Montana in Week 1. In 198 career games, Collins was 3,487 of 6,261 with 208 TDs and 196 interceptions.

That leaves Indy with three quarterbacks on the active roster — Curtis Painter, who took over as the starter when Collins was injured; Manning, the four-time league MVP; and veteran backup Dan Orlovsky, who recently re-signed with Indy after getting cut by the Colts at the end of training camp.

Wow, that last statement might have been enough to make Colts fans lose their lunch; or at least their appetite. Oh, who am I kidding? Have you ever been to Indianapolis? I mean, what else are you going to do in Indiana, stock up on guns and gold bullion and wait for the end of days?

Lobotomy-candidate and ordained asshole Mike Florio should be proud of himself. Only someone with a true absence of any integrity whatsoever would initiate a story about a hardrunning, Jesus-loving, truck towing, football player sitting out a game after losing 10-12 lbs. and flip it into an act of defiance in the midst of brutal contract negotiations. And then, in a culmination of his own efforts to cast doubt on the temerity of that player, and potentially irreparably harm the mutual hope at securing a deal, simply withdraw from the story.

To recap, Florio speculated on the story of Browns runningback Peyton Hillis sitting out a game because of strep throat. He specifically suggested that Hillis was sitting out the game, at least in part, because he was not signed to a long-term deal by the Browns. A few days later, ESPN evil leprechaun Adam Schefter offered a report by “anonymous sources” that said that teammates in the Browns locker room believed that Hillis was sitting out the game due to his contract negotiations not going well. Florio cited that report, and made no attempt to connect his speculative analysis preceding the report.

Florio then sent another note reporting on an appendectomy that Browns Center Alex Mack had the evening after a losing effort by the Browns against the Tennessee Titans. Florio took the story as an opportunity to remind his readers that Hillis had sat out with mere strep throat. Florio followed up that “report” with one that Hillis’ agent advised him not to play based on his illness, fanning the flames of a controversy that Florio created.

Rebutting anonymous sources, former Browns headcoach Eric Mangini completely refuted the notion that Hillis would sit out for a new deal, mentioning how Hillis continued to play despite injuries late last season. Current Browns head coach Pat Shurmur echoed that sentiment; along with teammates Greg Little, and Josh Cribbs. Hard to compete with “anonymous sources,” but it’s close.

Browns President Mike Holmgren has already admitted that they were working hard to sign Hillis to a long-term deal; and Hillis has never wavered from his desire to stay in Cleveland. When players sign new agents, the agents want to negotiate a new deal for the player because otherwise the agent doesn’t get paid, makes sense, right? Also, why not strike while the iron is hot. Still, Hillis had a great season last year, but injuries, and the lack of imagination slowed down his production towards the end of the season. Therefore, to what advent is it for him to sit out a game when another runningback who the Browns also really like, could be challenging him for playing time?

This level of speculation is apparently void from the creative mind of Mike Florio; who shoots first and never asks questions.

Finally, on Oct. 8, after planting the initial question that Hillis must be engaging in a negotiating tactic; Florio backpedaled quicker then Derrelle Revis with this little bit of “analysis:”

So even though it became a big story (especially in Cleveland), it’s apparently a non-story. Indeed, if the Browns had any reason to believe that Hillis didn’t play because of his contract, would team president Mike Holmgren agree to continue to have discussions on a long-term deal, at least until Hillis regains the franchise’s trust? We don’t think so.

Why do that when you can sit in your cozy New York office and just pontificate to the masses. Nice job creating a story, perpetuating a falsehood, and then declaring it to be a “nonstory.” You suck.

NBC was once a proud network in the days of Seinfeld and even Friends. But then NBC greenlit Joey, and Outsourced, and then they went through a very public divorce from Conan O’Brien, and well…it’s not been a good couple of years.

So now NBC is trying desperately to become the new home of all football news and as part of that mission/goal, they are giving unbearable, leprechaun, douche-fanboy Mike Florio more air and webtime. To his credit, Florio has turned his basic website, Profootballtalk.com, into a mini-empire. Dick Ebersol rarely misses on anything, so why would this be any different, right?

(fart noise)

Why, Florio is even appearing on television with Peter King! Florio also likes to try to create stories, or put his own spin on them. He also loves to brag about his influence in the industry.

In March 2010, after the NFL combine, Florio erroneously reported that Tim Tebow called for a prayer before the Wonderlic test and that someone told him to “Shut the F— up.”

Last January 2011, Florio lashed out at Packers QB Aaron Rodgers for allegedly ignoring a cancer-survivor fan who was seeking his autograph at the airport. Florio helped build the story through his site, and then when all the facts came out he walked it back, to his credit, like a man.

In March, while the lockout was going on, Florio predicted total calamity unless the parental NFL was restarted to keep their irresponsible adult-age players from committing unspeakable crimes.

A few weeks back, after week 1, Florio planted the idea that Matt Ryan was a choke artist, and that Ryan was going to shit the bed against the Eagles at home in the Georgia dome. That didn’t happen, and Florio didn’t say a word.

Now Florio is claiming that Peyton Hillis, the Madden coverboy and Jesus freak, sat out last Sunday’s victory over the winless-Miami Dolphins with strep throat over a contract extension that the Browns and Hillis’ representation are working to get done, despite evidence that Hillis, well, had strep throat and was sent home.

Though many will point to the Madden curse as a reason for Hillis missing a game due to a case of strep throat, we’re more inclined to wonder whether Hillis’ unwillingness to play was influenced in any way by the lack of a new contract. Hillis continues to earn the fourth-year minimum of $600,000. If the team had made a long-term commitment with a big-money bonus, would Hillis have been more willing to give it a try?

Maybe Hillis lost those 10-12 lbs. over the stress of negotiating a new contract with the Browns. Or maybe Florio just sucks.

Remember that scene in “Revenge of the Nerds” when Hiroshi is collecting all the Alpha Beta’s sweaty jocks after practice and Stan Gable pulls his over Takashi’s head. That’s Florio, except he went home and made a snow angel in them. Then called Stan’s house and breathed heavy into the phone.