PREVIOUS COLUMNS 8

BEST COMEBACK EVER?

I heard some national sports talk show hosts talking about the big win for the United States today,  wining back the America's Cup.  They were saying it might have been the best come from behind victory in the history of sports.

The Americans trailed the best of 17 series yacht race 8 to 1.  Then, they came back and won the remaining 8 races to win America's Cup back for the US 9 races to 8.  

It is a stunning comeback, but honestly, it can't rank among the best comebacks in the history of sports.

Why?  Well, because it's sailing.

Sailing is not a sport.  Plain and simple.  Sailing is a means of transportation.  Therefore, winning this "Super Bowl of yacht racing" is a nice achievement, but it can't rank on my list.

The America's Cup wasn't even a part of the American sports consciousness until we lost it.

I remember that, back in 1983.  The America's Cup began way back in 1851, and the United States won it every four years until Alan Bond and his "Austrailia II" boat beat skipper Dennis Connor and his mates in 1983.  

Once that happened, a sense of American fervor began.  Suddenly, it was like a dog that had their bone taken away, and every American wanted it back.  Once the US beat the Aussies four years later, and set everything right in the world once again, we all forgot about the competition for another 26 years.  It didn't matter that Australia won the Cup back in 1995, or the Swiss took it from them four years later.  Now suddenly, it's big news again that the US has won the race again.

I'm not buying it.  

We've had the discussion around the water coolers about what is a sport, and what's not.  In my mind, anything that is a mode of transportation isn't really a sport.  It may be an activity, or a pastime, but it's not a sport.

That includes auto racing, which falls into the same catagory for me.  Racing a car or a boat is something anyone can do.  There is no special skill set for it.  I don't believe that people are "born drivers", or someone is "a natural" at skippering a yacht or driving a car.  To do both, you sit on your ass and steer.  I'm sure there are many nuances about doing either, but it usually boils down to the equipment.  The better car or boat usually wins.

I'm proud of those yachtsmen, and it is great whenever the US wins something, but I am not doing cartwheels about it.

BROTHERS MANNING--A STARK CONTRAST

How weird is it that the Manning brothers are setting new standards for each other so far this year...in opposite directions!?

While Peyton is playing at the highest level the NFL has ever seen for a quarterback after three weeks of the season, Eli is playing worse than he ever has in his career.

Through three weeks, Peyton is completing an unreal 73% of his passes for 1143 yards, a league record 12 touchdowns, and has yet to throw an interception.  His quarterback rating is a video game like 134.7.  He has led his Brocos to three easy wins, and is making the offensive game of football look easier than anyone ever has before.

Eli meanwhile, has tossed eight interceptions to only five touchdowns, equating to a lowly 70.5 QB rating.  His Giants are 0-3 after the worst loss in coach Tom Coughlin's tenure, a 38-0 throttling by the lowly Carolina Panthers.

It's very Dickensian.  "A Tale of Two Quarterbacks", if you will.  While Peyton has surprised many of the experts, me included, with the ease of victories and his success, Eli has shocked most as well with his and the Giants ineptitude.

The Broncos look like world beaters, despite not having arguably their best two defensive players in the lineup (Von Miller and Champ Bailey), and injuries to many other key components of their team (Ryan Clady and Tony Carter).  After impressive wins over the Super Bowl champ Ravens and the Giants, Manning and the Broncos toyed with the Raiders last night like a cat toys with an injured mouse.  They have not yet showed even a trace of vulnerablity.

The Giants have looked completely lost by contrast. Three Losses by a combined margin of 115-54.  It's been ugly.  When a team is averaging 38.33 points allowed a game, and your quarterback doesn't have enough time to fart, much less pass, it is a recipe for disaster.  You kind of get the feeling that the trend will continue for both teams for a while.

As for the Buffalo Bills, a loss in the Meadowlands to the Jets is not as bad as it seems everyone is saying.  EJ Manuel did seem to regress a bit, but it wasn't his fault at all.  Yes, when a team sets a franchise record with 20 penalties, you expect to win.  The Jets are a resiliant bunch though, and Geno Smith outplayed Manuel.  The key to the game was simple...the Jets had the playmakers on defense to stop the Bills when it counted, and the Bills did not.

Much of that you can blame on injuries in the Buffalo secondary.  With 1st round pick Stephon Gilmore already injured, the cornerback on the other side, Leodis McKelvin, getting hurt early in the game, and safety Jarius Byrd out, the Bills lack of depth in the secondary was frightening, as Justin Rogers was torched more than once for long gains.

The other noticeable problem for Buffalo is the lack of running room for CJ Spiller.  Spiller is a true game breaker, and the Bills braintrust needs to find more creative ways to get him the ball in space.  If it isn't going to happen in runs off tackle, Doug Marone and company need to try different things--bubble screens, draw plays, counter runs, SOMETHING!

I'm not terribly worried.  I still think the Bills are heading in the right direction under Marone and Manuel.  They aren't a playoff team yet of course, but few really thought they were to begin with.  They are a work in progress, but I think they are making strides.

ILLEGAL PROCEDURE OR A FLAWED SYSTEM?

Houston Texans all-pro running back Arian Foster came out with news recently in a soon to be released documentary that he took money on the side during his senior season at the University of Tennessee.  He didn't say how much.  He didn't say how often.

This of course caused a stir because it is illegal in the world of big time college sports.  The stories of violations like these come out all the time, and often there are huge ramifications, usually for the school.  It's a big deal.  College athletes at any level, in any sport cannot accept anything of any value, or it is a violation of rules and will negate their college eligibility.  Same thing if any of these athletes sell anything of theirs for a profit.

Violations usually cause huge problems for the university, and usually nothing for the player who breaks the rules.  They are usually long gone and making millions in the pro's.  Reggie Bush lost his Heisman and USC ended up on probation, but it obviously didn't affect his career.  Quarterback Terrell Pryor and his coach, Jim Tressel, left Ohio State due to a scandal like this, but both are fine and working in the NFL.  Ohio State ended up on probation.  Eric Dickerson had a hall of fame career in the NFL.  His SMU Mustangs got the death penalty and, losing college sports for seven years and are only now coming out of it.

The thing is...the rule is ridiculous and hypocritical!.

The NCAA would be nothing without these kids.  If there were a well organized minor league system for the NFL and NBA like there is for baseball, it would cripple the NCAA.  There is not though, and the NCAA shckles their athletes, who have no other choice, like Kunta Kinte on "Roots".

Think about it.  Let's say you are a star collegiate running back.  You often have been recruited to college out of the inner city, and your single parent doesn't have much money.  You run for 200 plus yards and three long touchdowns to beat your rival school.  Over a hundred thousand fans, who paid close to $100 dollars each to get in the stadium to watch, cheer you on.  After the game, you sign autographs for hundreds of fans.  

Then reality sinks back in.  You go to a local restaurant to celebrate and the whole place wants to buy you dinner.  You have to say no.  You go back to your dorm and find nothing in your fridge.  You can't afford to buy anything to put in it.  In fact, even if you could, you would have to take the bus to the grocery store because you can't afford a car..

And so it goes.  Sounds utterly preposterous doesn't it?  Well, that happens every day in collegiate sports.  Or I should say, it SHOULD happen, if the NCAA had its way.  It doesn't of course, because most athletes, like Arian Foster, break the rules.  They HAVE TO in order to survive.  The other way is just not realistic.  

If every college athlete lived by the rules to the letter, they could not perform at the proper level.  They wouldn't have the money to support themselves.  

What should happen and what will happen are two different things of course.  

What should happen is the NCAA should realize how ridiculous thier rules for eligibility are and allow athletes to accept whatever they can get on the side, within reason.  They should begin documenting everything and cap all donations from boosters of anything of value at, say, a hundred thousand dollars per player per season.  Or fifty.  Whatever.

What will happen is....NOTHING.  The dance will continue to go on.  Athletes will continue to take what they can get on the sly in order to survive their college existence.   Every now and then, it will come out that a player did take money or something else when at college, an investigation will ensue, and a huge penalty will be handed out to the college.

Hypocrites don't like change.

BASEBALL MISSING OUT ON YOUNG FANS

In a way, it is sad to me to see what has happened to the sport of baseball.

As a youngster I have many many memories.  

Playing wiffle ball in my back yard with my friend Todd Lustik for countless hours.  There was a point in time when my parents had bought a cheap plastic wiffle ball pitching machine.  It was cheap but effective, and a lot of fun if my memory serves me correctly.

The rules of the game in my stadium were pretty simple.  First base was the trunk of the willow tree.  If you threw the ball and hit the tree trunk, it was an automatic out.  Second base was the laundry pole--same rules, or you could hit the kid running the bases with the ball.  Hit the runner, you got an out..  Third base was the maple tree or a base that we threw on the ground--third base really didn't matter, as there were few plays at third in our game.

When we weren't playing that game, Todd or numerous other friends in my neighborhood would play catch with me. We would do infield and outfield drills--fire a ball hard onto the ground to see if your partner in the exercize could field your throw.  Then he would do the same to you.  After a few of those, we would fire the ball into the air as high as we could throw it, to simulate pop ups.  It wasn't hard but it was realistic.

When Todd Lustik or Marty Kerstein couldn't come over, I remember finding fun practices down the street.  Haz Humphrey lived about five houses down the street from me, and I remember numerous after dinner nights of "Hot box" with Haz, Jan Novoselski and I.  

Growing up, I played in the Irondequoit little league, an Ir4ondequoit church league, KPAA (Hodak Park athletic association) .  

Bottom line was...whether I was interested  in an organized league or not, baseball was a HUGE part of my life.

That has all changed now.  For better or worse, I don't think you will hear those kind of stories anymore.  

When was the last time you were driving down the street, and saw a couple of kids throwing a baseball back and forth?  When I was a kid, it was a common occurance.  Now, you rarely EVER see kids just having a catch.

It is a shame, and I don't honestly know what to do about it.  Kids aren't going to have my memories of wiffle ball or hotbox, because those games have faded away.  Far fewer "wiffle balls" have been produced in the last ten years, compared to 20 or 30 years ago.  

The thing that kills me is....I LOVE the game of Baseball!  I was brought up with it, tutored in the fine art of the sport, and made a fan for life by my father.  

It is SUCH a great game, and is being ruined by the current leaders of the game.  Sadly, football has taken over the American conscience.  Once the NFL starts, baseball is put on a back burner.

Being a fan of both sports, I can totally understand it.  The NFL is the ruler of the roost right now.  I really think that baseball can turn back the hands of time though, but it has to happen soon.

Being a 40 plus football fan, I have to admit that it will be tough for baseball to change things.  I just hope that basebal starts with the young fans.  What 10 year old knows what the term "hotbox" is anymore?  Hardly any.  That is the group the sport has to develop again if it hopes to succeed nationwide. 

Nothing  against football.....but it's a shame how baseball has decimated its youth base over the last twenty years or so.  

A NEW BEGINNING FOR BILLS?

We fans of the Buffalo Bills have seen this before.

Ever since Jim "Machine Gun" Kelly took his golden right arm into retirement, the Buffalo Bills have longed for a quarterback of his caliber.  Not only the skills, but also the leadership, guile and intangibles have not been seen on One Bills drive since Kelly hung 'em up.

First, the heir apparent was Todd Collins, the Michigan quarterback was drafted by Buffalo in the 1995 draft.  Fourteen starts were enough for the Bills to realize their mistake.

Rob Johnson was next up, and we all know how that worked out.  Doug Flutie stole his job, and provided some excitement for fans, but at age 38, he wasn't a guy to build around, so the Bills let him walk to San Diego in favor of...Johnson again.

In 2002, the turned the reins over to a proven commodity at least, Drew Bledsoe.  Bledsoe put up some great numbers, but his inability of feel a pass rush and his advancing age made the Bills brain trust to give up on him too.

Next, it was on to Kelly Holcomb,  then a forgettable year with first round pick JP Losman, who lived up to his name.  

The next great hope was the Bill Walsh anointed Trent Edwards, who was so bad for two full seasons that the job was handed to Ryan Fitzpatrick.  The Bills were apparently the only team in the NFL to NOT realize that Fitzpatrick was nothing more than a backup, and he was finally off to Tennessee after four seasons.

Finally, the Bills decided that finding a franchise quarterback was not going to happen with undrafted retreads or reached first round picks.  They drafted some kid no one had heard of named EJ Manuel.

At the time of the pick, many die hard Bills fans threw their heads back in their hands and exclaimed "Nooo, not another Losman!  What are they thinking???"

So far, it has only been two games, but I gotta say...these guys knew what they were doing!

In the pre-season, Manuel played parts of two games.  He looked so good that the Bills found a mysterious injury to keep him off the field for the last two meaningless games.

Through his first two games that count, Manuel has looked even better.  He is completing a whopping 68.2% of his passes for 446 yards, 3 touchdowns and 1 interception.  It's a quarterback rating of a better than respectable 95.9.  

Most importantly, he has led the team to one near victory over a playoff team, and one victory.  Sure, that victory was against a questionable Carolina Panthers team, but a win is a win.

What is the most impressive thing to me is just that Manuel does not look like a nervous, untested rookie.  Trent Edwards looked that way.  Todd Collins looked that way.  Rob Johnson played like a deer caught in headlights.  JP Losman was the poster boy for nervous looking quarterbacks.  Manuel plays like a seasoned veteran.  The players have to see that, and it rubs off.  

It's like being in your front yard, trying to fix a lawnmower when you don't know what you are doing.  You call an equally inept friend to come over and help you and both of you can't figure a damn thing out.  Then suddenly some handy neighbor walks by, sees the two of you wiping your brow and cussing.   He walks up and says, "Well you need your doohickey connected to your whatsamajig.  Go get me a couple of ball bearings and some WD40, and I"ll have this fixed in no time."  

You just stand back, take a relaxed breath, and know that all your problems are solved.  The job will be taken care of by competant hands.  EJ Manuel is that handy neighbor down the street, and the Bills are those two morons that can't fix anything on their own.

Now you just have to hope that they neighbor will be right down the street for a long time.

As long as Manuel is around, the future is looking brighter than it has for a long long time for the Buffalo Bills.

ALONE AGAIN

My wife has left me again.

No, not as in "she's left me for another man".  Or "She's left me for good tp get a divorce."

My wife has flown back home to Denver once again for a week of work.  You see, my wife is a hairdresser, and a damn good one at that.  So  good that she does clients hair in two different time zones.  In addition to her Rochester clients at Beauty Plus salon in Greece Ridge Mall, she flies back to do her Denver clients every six weeks, then flies back home to the Roc.

What this means to me is that I am left to fend for myself, which I have to admit is getting tougher and tougher to do.You see, I am legally a blind person.  

Many of you know this from my past columns, or by knowing me personally, but it may come as news to some of you, especially my twits, or my Twitter haters who read my column and I think still believe I am somehow lying about that (why anyone would lie about being blind is beyong me, but these morons apparently think that judging by their responses).  

Anyways, I wanted to talk a little about what it is to be going blind.  Maybe this will be enlightening to some of you.  If not, I apologize, and I will get back to sports next article.I have something called Choroideremia.  This is a genetic disease that I got from my mother.  Women are the carrier of this faulty gene, and there is nothing I can do about it.  There is no pill I can take.  There is no surgery I can get.  The photo-receptor cells in the choroid layer of the retina are slowly dying off because my body doesn't produce the special protein that nourish them.  

Five years ago, I had about 17 degrees of usable center vision in each eye.  Now I am down to about ten, and it is dropping rapidly.  Without a cure or a treatment, I will eventually lose my sight altogether.

I used to see perfectly when I was a kid.  I played sports.  I drove a car.  I went to college.  I lived by myself .  I did it all, and I did it easily.  

That has all changed.

I used to love living alone.  I loved the freedom and independence.  Now, each time I get left alone, it gets tougher and tougher, and more and more stressful.Making things even harder is the fact that I have to take care of our four dogs (shhh, don't tell anyone), and three cats.For most people, this is no problem.  For me, it's a nightmare.  

The cats are indoor cats, so I can't let them out of the house, and they are crafty little buggers...they try.  So I have to find them, and put them in a closed room every time I have to let the dogs out.  With my eyes, that's about as easy as you trying to find two mice in a football field at three in the morning.  They like to hide in their many hiding places in the house, and are no longer good driven to come out when I shake the treat bag.  Needless to say, this will be an interesting week.

Now add in the other issues.Trying to cook for myself is getting more and more difficult.  Trying to read the small instructions on the back of frozen dinners in the bright red backgrounds on the box is a chore.  

Remembering where I put the salt and pepper shakers, then having to find them if I forgot.  God forbid I lose the TV or cable remote.  That sometimes takes an hour to find.  If a fuse blows out in the house, it could be a couple of hours to fix.  An hour or two to find a flashlight, and maybe another hour or so to figure out which switch to flip on the fuse box.  

Feeding the dogs.  Scooping the litter boxes, by feel mainly, if I can't see the box well.  Everything gets harder for me.  There are so many things that could go wrong, and the stress gets to me more each time.

Want to know the worst part of it all?  It's that I know all of this is only going to get worse.  I wish there was some way to explain the heartbreak and frustration that goes with that.  To know that all of these things I have taken for granted for so long, and even now can still do, may eventually become impossible tasks for me.

All I can hope for is the research that is being done.  A phase one clinical trial for an idea that could at least halt the progression of this disease is supposed to start up next January at the University of Pennsylvania.  I am hoping to be a part of that trial.  So are all my brothers in blindness who have what I have.  It's not the only hope we've got, but it is a huge hope.

I am not going to ask for money.  I have done that plenty already.  I will provide the website though if anyone wanted to donate.  It is www.curechm.org.

Why am I writing this?  I don't know.  Partly just to explain how I am feeling right now.  The other part of it though is as a warning to you.  You are all one wrong turn or doctors visit from being in the same boat as me.  All of those little things that you take for granted now, could all be taken away in a millisecond.  I urge all of your healthy people to enjoy each minute of your life, and realize how lucky you are.

Now I've got to go find the remote.  Wish me luck!

TEBOW A SHELL OF HIS FORMER SELF

Tim Tebow was cut today by the New England Patriots.  It was the first time in his career, and possibly the last, that he felt the sting of being fired....of being let go....of getting the pink slip....of getting a visit from "the Turk".  

As any of you who have followed my writings over the past two years know, I have had a serious man crush on Tim Tebow.  I have said I thought he would set the league on it's ear with excitement.  I have said that Tebow would silent his critics, show everyone that he is a winner.  I completely correctly predicted BEFORE he became the starter in Denver, that Tebow would lead that 1-4 Broncos team to a playoff berth.  In fact, I correctly predicted the Tebow-mania that would happen that season before it happened.  Bottom line--I LOVE the kid!

That is why it just pains me to see what NFL people have done to him.  

Tim Tebow was a completly different quarterback in week five of the 2011 NFL season than what he is now.  It is obvious to watch to anyone who saw him play then...and now.

It is painful to watch.

So many "experts" would say no, that Tebow is the same quarterback, with the same mechanics, flaws in his style and abilities to read a defense.

They are wrong.

He is NOT the same!

That 2011 Tim Tebow played differently.  He managed a game differently.  He used his feet, cunning, guile, and instincts.  He thought nothing of running first and passing second.

And you know what?  All of that WORKED!

For him, and his team...it actually worked.

It wasn't always pretty, but it led to wins, which is the reason they play the games isn't it?  

Apparently though, it isn't.  The Broncos, then the Jets, and lastly, the Patriots, wanted to see stats.  Numbers.  Tnagible evidence.  

Tim Tebow doesn't give you that.  Probably never will.

Despite the success Tebow was having in Denver, it wasn't enough.  The coaching staff tried to rein him in.  They told him to try to look downfield, stay in the pocket more, and try to make plays with his arm instead of his legs.  They robbed him of his instincts.  They robbed him of a successful career as an NFL quarterback.

Many would say that Tebow could never have been a successful NFL quarterback playing like he did early in his Denver career.  That teams would have caught on to him eventually.  They'd say that Tebow would have to learn to become a pure quarterback eventually.  

I beg to differ.  Sadly, we will never know now.  

Tim Tebow is too far gone.  Watching him attempt to play for the Patriots in what will probably be his final NFL game, he has become a shadow of the type of QB he once was.  He is a mess.  They messed with him too much.  They tried to put a square peg in a round hole.  They tried to turn Michael Vick into Peyton Manning.

What the NFL has done to Tim Tebow would be like the NBA trying to turn Michael Jordan into a stand up 3 point jumpshooter in his first year in the league.  Preposterous right?  Why do that to a guy who had the most explosive first step in the history of basketball?  Yet that is exactly what the NFL coaches and coordinators have done with Tebow.  They have tried to turn him into somethings he's not, instead of 

trying to sharpen and huild on what he did well.

I still maintain that Tim Tebow could be one of the winningest quarterbacks in the NFL if a team would just give him one crack at being their starter again, tailor a playbook around his abiliities, and just let him do his thing--play with his instincts.  Whether Tebow wanted to pass the ball three times in a game, or 30, chances are that team would still be a winner when the clock hit 0:00.

Now, there most likely aren't any more teams out there who will ever give him that chance.  Sadly, we will never know if I would have been right.

ANNUAL FANTASY FOOTBALL PRIMER--START WITH TWO RB'S

Yes, it's that time of year again when grown men (and some women) stop listening to their spouses, pay more attention to what Michael Fabiano says than their bosses, and lay awake at night for hours trying to decide if Jimmy Graham is worth a top 15 pick.

It is fantasy football season and many of you will be having your drafts in the upcoming weekend or the day or two following.  For those of you who have had yours already, I apologize.  For those who faven't, hopefully this will be a help.  For those of you in my two fantasy leagues, kindly go to another website right now...thanks.

The basic tenet of this years draft is that you want to start your team with two running backs.  This is usually a pretty good strategy any year, but it is more imperative this year.

There are really only three players that you want to think of drafting other than running backs in the first two rounds of a typical 12 team league, and they are named Calvin Johnson, AJ Green and Dez Bryant.  Anyone other than them and you are wasting your time, and a valuable pick.

"What about quarterbacks?  Where is Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady??" you ask.

They are best taken in the 3rd or 4th round.  There are so many very good QB's, that it makes no sense to take one early.  There just isn't enough of a separation or drop off between the top 12 or so quarterbacks in the league to have to take one too early.  

After the aforementioned big four, the next tier has Cam Newton, Matt Stafford,  Matt Ryan and Colin Kaepernick.  All four have the potential to end up being the highest scoring fantasy QB this year.  The next level of Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, Tony Romo, Russell Wilson and even Mike Vick are capable of leading a fantasy team to a title.  The position is so deep that guys like Ben Roethlisberger, Eli Manning, Andy Dalton, Josh Freeman, Jay Cutler and Joe Flacco are being drafted as backups and are capable of winning a few games for you depending on matchups.

If you are one of the owners that took AJ, Dez or Calvin in the first two rounds, you better go running back with your third pick.  If you don't you will be left scrambling for what's left, and that will be a decent running back on a bad team.  Guys like Darren McFadden, Ryan Matthews, Chris Ivory or Rashard Mendenhall.  You don't want to depend on a #2 back playing for a team who will most likely be behind 28-3 at the half of most of their games.  Not a lot of 2nd half carries for those guys.

The hope is that Lamar Miller, Giovannoi Bernard or Eddie Lacy is still there in the 3rd or 4th round.  After that, the pickings are slim.  That's why you need to start out with two running backs, and possibly three in your first four rounds.  It's better to get running back depth before getting a 2nd wide receiver.  Like quarterbacks, after the top 3-5 receivers are off the board, there is not a ton of difference between the next 10-15 wideouts.

As for tight ends, it is not a position worthy of a high pick.  I think there are enough solid players at the position that you can get just as much production from the 10th tight end off the board that you will get from the 4th or 5th best tight end someone picked five rounds earlier.  I'm just as happy with a guy like Jordan Cameron, Kyle Rudolph or Zack Sudfeld in the 10th or 11th round than I would be getting Vernon Davis in the 5tth or Antonio Gates in the 7th.  It's too early for both, and that's where some yahoo in your league will draft them.

As for defenses and kickers, as usual, it doesn't pay to take either before the last couple of rounds.  That is, unless you are in a specific league that rewards defenses highly for points or yards allowed.  In that case, you might want to take one of the best defenses as early as the 9th or 10th rounds.  If your scoring system is fairly typical and only awards the most points to fumble and interception returns, it is a total crapshoot.  Wait until the last couple rounds and then draft the defense with the most playmakers.  I like the Cardinals in this respect because of what Patrick Peterson brings to the table.

With kickers, you just take the best available kicker that plays for the team with the best offense.  The rationale is that the better the offense, the most trips into field goal range, which should mean more points.  At this point, there are two schools of thought though.  Some like the most explosive, highest scoring teams kicker.  Others like a good offense who struggles in the red zone.  The Saints could be a good example of the first point.  The Redskins could be a good example of the second.  Both have merits and only time will tell if Garrett Hartley or Kai Forbath will have more fantasy points at seasons end.

Finally, here are my favorite sleepers for this year, and my favorite possible busts.

Sleepers:

1.  T.Y. Hilton, WR, Indy

2.  Deshawn Jackson, WR, Phil

3.  Matthew Stafford, QB, Det.

4.  Tavon Austin, WR, St.Louis

5.  Jonathan Dwyer, RB, Pitt

6.  Montee Ball, RB, Den

7.  Jordan Cameron, TE, Cleve

8.  Michael Floyd, WR, Ariz

9.  Denard Robinson, RB, Jax

19.  Nick Toon, WR, New Orleans

Busts:

1.  LeShon McCoy, RB, Phil

2.  Ray Rice, RB, Balt

3.  Jimmy Graham, TE, New Orleans

4.  Frank Gore, RB, San Fran

5.  Marques Colston, WR, New Orleans

6.  Darren McFadden, RB, Oak

7.  Dwayne Bowe, WR, KC

8.  Mike Wallace, WR, Mia

9.  Russell Wilson, QB, Sea

10.  Antonio Gates, TE, San Diego

I will now be taking my talents to rantsports.com as a professional fantasy sports blogger, so be sure to read my stuff all season long.  I'll keep you updated.  Good luck in all of your leagues!