From Big Ben to Brett Favre, Jets hype to Bengals wideouts, Tebow-mania to the brutal NFC East the 2010 NFL season may be the most anticipated ever

JAMES RUBERA
Special Contributor

(Rubera writes for The Spop, a great web site that delves into sports and pop culture.  He is an avid football fan and will be contributing to JSB from time to time.)

The most popular sport doesn’t need any help getting people excited for a season. The constants are enough to hold the fans’ attention. The Saints will be exciting. The Colts and the Patriots will play each other. Coaches will get fired. Players will get arrested. But this year there are a lot of unusual situations that we will see for the first (or last) time. I can’t remember a prior season that had so much going on before it even started. All seasons have their storylines, but this upcoming 5 month stretch is overflowing with potential and it’s hard not to be overly enthusiastic about the following:

Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers

Ben will spot his rival quarterbacks in the league a four game head start as he sits suspended for a month after being accused of sexual misconduct with a college girl. Again. The Steelers missed the playoffs last year by a hair after losing two of their first three with Roethlisberger. They made their run in the middle of the season winning five in a row and then their final three of the year. Then they accused other teams of tanking at the end to prevent them from getting into the playoffs because “nobody wanted to play them.” Whether that’s true or not doesn’t matter. The point is they were hot and ready to be an elite AFC team again. (more…)

Popularity: 4% [?]

MITCH BLATT

It has become a tradition of mine recently to post NMA News (Taiwan) videos over the weekend of recent events in America with hilarious computer generated illustrations.

They did it with Steven Slater, the loser JetBlue flight attendant who went psycho on his flight (NMA representation). They did it with Sarah Falin, whose description is similar to Slater’s (NMA representation) and Al Gore.

Now I’ve started a new website for Asian videos with a whole bunch of NMA News videos there.

Here’s their most recent one on Rod Blagojevich’s trail, where the jury hung on 23 counts:
(more…)

Popularity: 2% [?]

For your viewing pleasure… LeBron James getting owned. Something that is going to happen very often in Miami.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Ok so its that time of year again and we are three weeks and a day away from the first snap of the 2010 NFL season. Are you hyped? I am. I did 50 so that I could get all 32 teams at least one prediction and I waited till now because I wanted the Favre saga done before I made my Vikings prediction(s). So here we go.

MIKE KAYE

1)The aforementioned QB in Minnesota will throw more game-losing interceptions then game winning touchdowns.

2) A team can make the playoff in the NFC with 8 wins.

3) Buffalo will win one game at most and Chan Gailey will be fired by week 10.

4) Sam Bradford will start week 2 or 3 for the Rams and will win two games.

5) The Tampa Bay Bucs’ Wide Reciever Mike Williams (of SU) will have the most immediate impact of any non-1st or 2nd round pick in this year’s draft. (more…)

Popularity: 5% [?]

The website Medical Insurance made an infographic comparing Kobe Bryant to Michael Jordan, and it was very interesting and well-designed, so I decided to post it. (Jordan comes out better in the comparison, it appears, but one place where Kobe should have more is MVP, if he weren’t denied it a few times because the voters disliked him.)

Via: Medical Insurance

Popularity: 6% [?]

LeBron James’ agent should have known by now that LeBron talking to a magazine isn’t a very good idea.

LeBron said that Dan Gilbert never cared about LeBron (direct quote).

“I don’t think he ever cared about LeBron,” James is quoted as saying.

Thank you, LeBron, but we already know you’re an egomaniac, so we don’t need you to speak in third-person just to remind us.

(From a factual standpoint, Gilbert came close to ceding the team to LeBron. He targeted free agents with LeBron’s approval and he let LeBron’s friends ride the team plane. Partick Hruby sets LeBron straight on the meaning of the post-breakup letter at ESPN Page 2.) (more…)

Popularity: 3% [?]

SCOTT JACOBS

The NFL’s biggest flip flopper, and it’s most synonymous gun slinger is coming back.  Again. That according to sources, who you may recall the first time around were a little off.  But like a good Brett Favre off-season story the conclusion is never 100% certain until the man says so himself.

Favre is reportedly coming back.  For a huge payday (like he needs it) and another crack at bringing one of the NFL’s most hard-lucked franchises their first Super Bowl title.  Minnesota and Favre came close last season, but an ill-advised interception late in the game, and a Garrett Hartley field goal in overtime dashed any Viking dreams of a trip to Miami.

So here we are.  Training camp is well underway,  HBO’s Hard Knocks has a new team and Brett Favre is prepared to join the Vikes this week, right in time to get in a few meaningless pre-season games, before he begins his 20th season. (more…)

Popularity: 3% [?]

The Miami Heat forward is under a ton of scrutiny for getting arrested.  But some are saying he didn’t do anything… at all

SCOTT JACOBS

We received an email tip from iSixty tonight about Udonis Haslem, who was arrested this weekend.  Haslem you may remember, turned down a lot of money to remain with the new look Miami Heat, a team he has spent his entire career with.  I had the chance to meet the young man 4 years ago, and he was surprisingly low key and soft spoken.  I guess that happens when you’re an undrafted player who makes it in the NBA as a garbage man, hustle-machine, as Haslem is.

Anyways, this tip we received included 4 pages of police reports, but since we don’t know the validity of the pdfs sent, we will not display them on JSB. We will however post the excerpt that we received.  From there we’ll open opinion up to the public.  Is Haslem a victim of something regrettable or was he targeted unfairly? (more…)

Popularity: 4% [?]