SB Nation User Blog: Simms-McConkey

BBV Week 15 pool

Simms-McConkey — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:22:55 -0000

Well, I wrote quite a bit before but I can never quite get it back so let's just say it's looking like a three-horse race between RB27, XLII, and G-Brit, with a few of us having longshot chances... but we don't control our destiny.

YTD:

148: GiantRB27 (2)

146: XLII (4), GfaninEngland aka G-Brit (14)

142: Simms-McConkey (2), Brisulph (5)

140: ShenktheTank (9)

138: Meigs1414 (1), hocke26 (9)

137: njGiant (12)

135: Wangstu (14), M. (14)

134: LostinJersey (8)

132: GiantsReignSupreme (19)

130: Nck228 (5)

129: Mr. Met (21)

127: FreeBradshaw (17), WillgFass (20)

125: Woogie526 (5), cjmulrain (9), Shofner85 (12)

A quick re-up on the rules: All picks for Thursday and Saturday games must be posted by 12:00 noon EST

All picks for Sunday and Monday games must be posted Sunday noon EST.

Once picks are posted no changes will be accepted.

Thurs/Sat:

IND @ JAX:

DAL @ NO:

Sun/Mon:

SF @ PHI:

CHI @ BAL:

ARI @ DET:

ATL @ NYJ:

CLE @ KC:

NE @ BUF:

MIA @ TEN:

HOU @ STL:

OAK @ DEN:

CIN @ SD:

GB @ PIT:

TB @ SEA:

MIN @ CAR:

NYG @ WAS:

Good luck to all and especially the Giants

Week 14 preliminary results

Simms-McConkey — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:08:40 -0000

After a happy season together, Mike Singletary has turned on me and I've gotten the 49ers wrong 2 weeks in a row.

So for this week:

14-2: XLII -- makes it interesting getting into the mix with RB27 and G-Brit

13-3: Nck228,

12-4: cjmulrain, Meigs1414, LostinJersey, brisulph, GiantsReignSupreme, GfaninEngland, willGFass

11-5: Simms-McConkey, njGiant, M., hocke26, Woogie526

10-6: ShenktheTank, FreeBradshaw,

9-7: Wangstu, GiantRB27

8-8: Shofner85, Mr. Met

YTD:

148: GiantRB27 (2)

146: XLII (4), GfaninEngland aka G-Brit (14)

142: Simms-McConkey (2), Brisulph (5)

140: ShenktheTank (9)

138: Meigs1414 (1), hocke26 (9)

137: njGiant (12)

135: Wangstu (14), M. (14)

134: LostinJersey (8)

132: GiantsReignSupreme (19)

130: Nck228 (5)

129: Mr. Met (21)

127: FreeBradshaw (17), WillgFass (20)

125: Woogie526 (5), cjmulrain (9), Shofner85 (12)

In case you missed it, Phil McConkey was great

Simms-McConkey — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:06:22 -0000

Below is a link to a video I just watched at Youtube.com that appear to be produced by NFL films. I am no blue gonz or bobbiblue, but I have been a Giants fan for about 25 years. This video speaks to the team that originally won me as a fan, the great 1986 team. And more specifically, the player that inspired half of my Big Blue view handle, the inimitable Phil McConkey.

I bring this up (and try to use as many extra words as possibel in order to make this a viable fan post) in response to a comment in the ~~idiot~~ Peter King story about all-90s no Strahan. Someone made the comment that Phil McConkey was another nameless, less-than-noteworthy bum among the crowd Phil Simms threw to.

I say nay nay.

Please enlighten yourselves, especially Giants fans who really started up in time for the 1990 team, by watching this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0AOs1My1Vk

It includes commentary by Bill Parcells and Phil Simms, some great footage, and McConkey's heroic play in Superbowl ... oh, shoot... XX?

Enjoy.

This is me having one beer before the Giants game.

Simms-McConkey — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:02:13 -0000

This is me having one beer before the Giants game.

A pilgrimage

Simms-McConkey — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:21:01 -0000

24 years of Giants fandom. Zero trips to Giants Stadium. Me and the Meadowlands were like the Eagles and the Lombardi trophy, it seemed -- destined never to meet.

Then the clock started ticking on Giants Stadium, and I made the hard-sell on my wife, who's been given at least one pair of Patriots tickets every year for over a decade by her dad. Birthday, Christmas, anything -- all I want baby, is to get into a Giants Stadium seat before it becomes QualtexCom park.

And she went for it for Sunday, Dec. 6, 2009 against the Dallas Cowpies.

If the Giants had lost, I would have blamed myself. The alarm never went off and I started the day an hour late. I left my beloved Strahan road jersey at home. I went to the game with a Cowboys homer. All the ducks were in a row for the soul-crushing massacre. Not to mention, here I am at Giants Stadium with 2 Cowboys jerseys (his wife) and my wife was in a Pats wool hat.

We finally got to the stadium without hitting any traffic at 1 p.m. The guy who sold me his tickets gave us a back route via route 46 to Liberty to Moonachie. Within a few minutes we were set up. Grill steaks, beers, snacks, and even a green football-field printed rug -- it tied the room together. I decided to have a beer.

I can't embed the photo but I have posted a fanshot and here is the link:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b9cc29b3127ccef8851da0e3c300000030O00AYsnDdy3ZuGQPbz4W/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/

New stadium is in the background.

There were Cowboy fans everywhere, giddy and with their, as we say at Christmastime, gay apparel. We ignored them, although I chatted up some friendly adjacent Giants fans. We nailed 4 1-pound ribeyes and headed for the game.

There's an enormous mass of milling, pushing people at the gate. And about 40 feet out, the most enormous and dangerous-looking Giants fan I have ever seen turns around to give some lip to a Cowboys fan. And the Cowboy kid thinks he can run his mouth until the dude reaches out with his 7-foot-long arm, snatches off a cowboys hat, and throws it away to be trampled.

Being the diplomat I am, I laughed and told the guy "good job." But I also turned him back to face front and said "hey, let's go watch the GIANTS kick some ass now, eh? Wouldn't want to miss the game over that [expletive]." Meanwhile my Cowboys buddy was doing the same thing with the now-hatless Romo fan.

As soon as we got in we were separated because I ran to the seats like a maniac. I had missed the opening meaningless drives because we got a late start getting in, but no harm. We were in section 340, upper end zone.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention -- I totally took a piss right on the escalator! I just said to the guys in front of me "hey, move up a few steps, I gotta piss" and they did! No bathroom stop necessary!

Now, 340 row zillion is way up there, there was only maybe 10 rows behind me to the last row. And yet these were great seats! If you're looking for a good seat at a reasonable price this is it. It felt close, visibility was great.

I was OK as Dallas went up 10-0, but from there we basically watched a 31-7 Giants win until garbage time.

I never left my seat -- well, my seat was luckily right on an aisle. So truth be told I barely sat in my seat. There were two teenage girl Cowboys fans right behind me who laughed every time I swore in a funny way and I didn't want to be obstructive. So I sat right in the aisle most of the game so I could get up all I wanted. And that was a lot.

I put a lot of value on the 12th man, and I was absolutely the loudest and most animated person in this section. Being as it was almost all upper-deck Giants fans, everybody seemed very cool with it. A handful of fans were as animated as me and there was a lot of aisle-running for high-fives and man-hugs, which involves beating the person's back black and blue to assure them you're not gay.

I think I got about 3 beers handed to me by the wife during the game.

Now, watching a game from the stands is entirely different than seeing a game on TV. There's no idiotic commentary. You can't see replay-worthy stuff up close. You can't/don't obsess over bad calls. I had no idea Romo was going 41-55. I had no idea they were so dominant in time of possession. All I saw and felt was that the Giants were totally in this game in the first half. They had the potential when they were down and they had the juice when they were up.

The second half went back and forth, but from my seat the game was never in question. Like I said, this game was 10-0 and 7-0 Dallas battles sandwiched around a 31-7 Giants war.

Dallas tried two field goals at our end and we knocked them both down. On the first I shouted "Okay, everybody, we're going to push this to the right!" And then somebody shouted "Wait -- our right or his right?"

It was our right. Obviously. As you watching at home I'm sure enjoyed.

The second half was a party. The fans were raucous. A few times my throat hurt and I wanted to sit down but hey -- we want the team to keep up the intensity, right? Eventually we were roaring right from 1st down. And I believe Dallas did have some false starts.

At 31-17 with 5:00 to go a lot of Dallas fans were heading for the door. At home I wonder if you heard the resonating cheers of "na na na / hey hey hey / goodbye." It may have seemed it was for the Cowboys but my feeling was it was for all those Dallas fans who had showed up in droves and were leaving.

By this time I was so amped I was down to just a sleeveless tee shirt and the hig-fives and man-hugs were at a fever pitch.

Here is a photo of me going berserk. It was from a camera phone in the dark so you're spared of the details, but I'm bottom right being psycho from the aisle. Again there is a fanshot and here is the link:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b9cc29b3127ccef8859f8fe3ad00000030O00AYsnDdy3ZuGQPbz4W/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/

Granted, a lot of G-fans also left and there wasn't a ton of crowd noise as Dallas tacked on their garbage TD. But there were no worries in that stadium. Onsides kick or not, that game was pretty much ours from after the 10-0 mark. At least it felt that way in person. If I had the money, I would go to every game.

Rather than focus on playcalling, and yard spots, and bad calls, you just get to tap into the raw force and emotion and momentum of the game. Rather than listen to the ambiguously lame duo of Aikman & Buck, you are listening to the roar of Giants fans.

Last thing: tailgating after the game, I'm sitting with 2 'Boys fans, and nearby is a big crowd of tailgaters -- half Giants, half boys. And then a few rows over, again -- a friendly mix. The battle was over, it's just a game, and we're all football fans. There was really no ugliness from kickoff to post-tailgating. Giants Stadium was a happy, friendly place.

Maybe it was the win!

I can't recommend enough that everyone try to pick up Eagles and Panthers tickets. it's a priceless experience.

BBV Week 13 pool Prelim. reults

Simms-McConkey — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:16:36 -0000

GiantRB27 is sort of becoming the Colts and Saints combined of this pool. It was a tough week for everyone except our fearless leader, who went 12-3 so far and has GB tonight. If Baltimore wins, Bradshaw, Meigs, and hocke26 will tie at 12-4 and we'd give the Hot Hand to FB cuz he's the man. The 2-6 players all got 10 wins so no movement there. Hocke & Meigs got a little closer with 11-4 performances.

Pending MNF:

12-3: GiantRB27

11-4: FreeBradshaw, Wangstu, Meigs1414, hocke26

10-5: Simms-McConkey, XLII, Shenkthetank, brisulph, M., Nck228, GfaninEngland

9-6: LostinJersey, WillGfass, Mr. Met

8-7: njGiant, Woogie526, Shofner85

7-8: cjmulrain

6-9: GiantsReignSupreme

YTD:

138: GiantRB27 (2)

133: GfaninEngland aka G-Brit (14

132: XLII (4)

131: Simms-McConkey (2)

130: ShenktheTank (9)

129: Brisulph (5)

127: hocke26 (9)

126: Meigs1414 (1)

125: njGiant (12), Wangstu (14)

123: M. (14)

122: LostinJersey (8)

121: Mr. Met (21)

119: GiantsReignSupreme (19)

117: Nck228 (5), Shofner85 (12), FreeBradshaw (17)

115: WillgFass (20)

114: Tito8-0(17)

113: Woogie526 (5)

112: cjmulrain (9)

I have written Tito in for the last-place 6 wins, in the event he makes it back for next week. If not, we're down to 20 players!

BBV Pick'em playoffs

Simms-McConkey — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:34:32 -0000

Hello fellow BBV prognosticators,

It's time to discuss what we can do to have a pick'em playoffs come NFL playoff time. Rather than type a bunch of options, what I'll do is lay out my best idea and let everyone weigh in on it. Every time I try to attach a poll my pc crashes, so please, when making your non-binding, just to get a feeling vote, use the subject line YEA or NAY. Only BBV poolers, please.

We will continue to discuss this and this is in no way written in stone based on this thread alone.

My goal for this playoffs is twofold. First, I want to inject some heat into the waning regular season by setting a cutoff for playoff eligibility. Therefore, of our remaining 21 players, I suggest we have a 16-picker playoff tournament. At this point, with 5 weeks and something like 150+ games to go, our last place player is only 3 correct picks short of making the playoffs is it began today, so nobody is anything CLOSE to eliminated or even "tough row to hoe."

Secondly, I want to make it possible for anyone to win the BBV Pick'emBowl. Therefore, I suggest 16 players because we could halve the field with each round of the playoffs. The top 8 pickers would advance from the wild card round to the divisional round, and 4 would go on to the Conference finals. Two would face off in the Superbowl.

Points will be a tiebreaker. For the sake of having an idea out there, I will say we pick the points for every game.

Therefore, we would have a regular season champ -- which really is the bragging point, I believe. Then we would reset to 0 points and have a wild stampede for the PickemBowl.

Because of the low number of games involved in the playoffs, to retain regular season points would effectively mean only a small handful of players would have a shot. I'm one of them, so I'm not leaning toward my benefits with this.

Of course, we could always bracket up with a seeded tournament, but I think that'd be maybe too personal than competing agasint everyone as we always have.

Please share your thoughts and ideas. We will use this thread to come to a general consensus, then have one final vote poll thread in a few weeks. Please recommend this post.

Going to Giants Stadium for 1st time

Simms-McConkey — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:25:13 -0000

Crazy as it may sound, I am going to the Meadowlands Dec. 6 for the first time in my life, to see the Giants play the Dallas Cowpies. Don't blame me, I've always been poor and my pops never brought me. But I made a major campaign to my wife about Giants Stadium closing this year, and so for my sort of combined birthday and Christmas present, off we go. I am going with my wife, a close friend who is a Cowgirls fanatic, and his wife.

Rather than try to ask a bunch of questions, would you guys please just give me all the lowdown on traveling to Giants Stadium from CT, parking, tailgating, the stadium, & etc? I'm not too interested in nearby bars or restaurants, just logistical information about getting to, being at, and coming from the game.

Not to dwell on the negative, but what are the chances my friend gets a beer tossed on his Cowpies jersey? If we fight, will we be arrested or just ejected from the Stadium? Could this possibility also affect my ability to go to the NEW Giants Stadium? I love my boy but if it means I can never go again I will stand idly by while he gets stomped. (just kidding.)

Lastly, if any regulars here are going to be at the game, maybe we can either meet up for some tailgating or at a beer booth at halftime.

Thanks in advance for all of your tips & advice.

Week 11 preliminary results

Simms-McConkey — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:59:07 -0000

Please check my tallies as always to avoid mistakes. With the disappearance of Phildo and Ianwestpalm, we are down to 21 players. Way to go Giants, even if I can't close my hand from losing my temper at the officials after back-to-back phantom calls against the Giants.

Week 11:

13-2: ShenktheTank

12-3: Simms-McConkey, njGiant, Meigs1414, GiantRB27, GiantsReignSupreme, G-Brit

11-4: cjmulrain, Wangstu, XLII, brisulph, Woogie526, M., Mr. Met

10-5: Tito8-0

9-6: hocke26, LostinJersey, Shofner85, Nck228

8-7: FreeBradshaw

7-8: WillgFass

YTD:

112: GiantRB27

111: GfaninEngland aka G-Brit

109: XLII, Simms-McConkey

108: ShenktheTank

106: Brisulph

105: njGiant

104: hocke26

103: LostinJersey

102: Wangstu, Meigs1414, GiantsReignSupreme, Mr. Met

101: M.

100: Tito8-0

99: FreeBradshaw

98: Shofner85

97: cjmulrain, Nck228

96: WillgFass

94: Woogie526

In his guest spot, J-Man the Bronco fan went 11-4 and correctly picked the Raiders over the Bengals.

We have to start talk playoffs at this point, I'll post the top 3 options Tuesday in a separate post from the week 12 pool!

Aaaand... way to go Giants!

BBV week 11 pool

Simms-McConkey — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:50:07 -0000

The hot hand for the second week in a row is from G-Brit. Let's bring this thing back stateside, G-Fans in America!

Seriously, though, G-Brit is on a tear with a record like 88-3 in the last 2 weeks, and got all 5 of his hot hand picks correct last week. So this is probably worth a good look:

Locks of the week

ARI at STL: ARI. As hard as the Rams played the Saints, it does not get any easier with the Cards coming to town.

CIN at OAK: CIN. No doubt no one wants to play the Bengals now, and they are unbeaten on the road facing what must be a very demoralized Raiders team.

Hard to call

MIA at CAR: CAR. Both teams run the ball and both could struggle to stop it. I will take the Panthers as Delhomme, yes Delhomme, is less turnover prone than Henne.

SF at GB: GB. Which GB team turns up? Will the 49ers have any offense? Take the Packers in a low scoring game.

Upset special

The only game that stands out as an upset is TEN at HOU: TEN. The Titans are hot at the moment and the Texans have not taken their game to the next level. Something about Vince Young and Houston at the back of my mind - but I cannot remember what.

Cheers

Week 10 results:

13-2: G-Brit

12-3: WillGfass

11-4: njGiant, Wangstu

10-5: Mr. Met, Nck228, LostinJersey, hocke26, Meigs1414, freebradshaw

9-6: Shofner85, shenkthetank, GiantRB27, Tito8-0, Simms-McConkey

8-7: GiantsReignSupreme, M., Woogie526, Brisulph, ianwestpalm

7-8: XLII, cjmulrain

YTD:

100: GiantRB27, welcome to the century club.

99: GfaninEngland aka G-Brit

98: XLII

97: Simms-McConkey, Chris Mortensen, Adam Schefter, Accuscore

95: Brisulph, shenkthetank, hocke26, Mike Golic

94: LostinJersey

93: njGiant

91: FreeBradshaw, Mr. Met, Wangstu,

90: M., GRS, Meigs1414, tito8-0, phildo*

- Phildo you must be back in time for week 11 picks to get your 7 "bye" wins and avoid falling out of contention / being dropped

89: Shofner85, WillgFass

88: ianwestpalm, Nck228, Ron Jaworski

86: cjmulrain

83: Woogie

Week 11 Games: *Must pick Thurs. night game 1 hr. before kickoff. Balance of picks, usual Sun. noon deadline.*

*MIA @ CAR:*

CLE @ DET:

ATL @ NYG:

WAS @ DAL:

SF @ GB:

IND @ BAL:

PIT @ KC:

NO @ TB:

BUF @ JAX:

SEA @ MIN:

ARI @ STL:

NYJ @ NE:

SD @ DEN:

CIN @ OAK:

PHI @ CHI:

TEN @ HOU:

Good luck all, especially me.