Guest blogger. Royal is in the house. He has brilliantly coined the term “ringwalled.” I am kind of jealous. Enjoy, and talk to you on Sunday with a monster rant…Peace.

EMAIL: mark_filler@hotmail.com

TWITTER: @Mark_Filler

RSS FEED:  http://thefillerbuster.com/?feed=rss

Much like Mr. Fillerbuster himself I started by own sports blog/analysis site a little while back. I got away from writing consistently, but once I checked out this site, I got in touch with Mark and we thought we’d give joining forces a shot. Here goes nothing. The countdown til Mark kicks me off his site begins. Take your bets…

 

Mr. Fillerbuster,

When trying to figure out how to format this, I guess I decided on copying your format, while responding to some of the things you write about. You’re pretty sarcastic and funny, so I’m sure you’ll handle my sarcasm well.

1. Man, is it refreshing to see a guy talking basketball! I can’t wait to get to the Knicks, the Nets, your comments on Aaron Craft and OSU, Molly Ringwald’s attractiveness, and of course McLovin and the constant stream of Superbad on my TV recently, but I’m a man of the people and I know what they want: football. So let’s lead with that.
2. First of all, gotta disagree with you on Cutler. I believe your word was you “despise” him? However, you think the Bears made the right call with that contract. I actually LIKE Jay Cutler. I know, crazy. But I kind of didn’t like the contract… Until I got the details. You’re the Chicago Bears. You pay out for like, nobody. The last time you paid out, you overpaid for Julius Peppers (Peppers performed OK, but just underwhelmed me personally). You didn’t even overpay for the legendary Urlacher. But you just make it rain on Jay Cuts? 7 years, $126.7 mil with $54 mil guaranteed. But not so fast. Cutler’s guaranteed dough ends after 2016. So you lock in a dude who’s in his prime for 7 years in case he pans out, however if he doesn’t you’re only stuck with him for three. Well done by Phil Emery. Now, shell out some money to fix that freakin defense.
3. Ranking the NFL head coach firings…

(a)    No-brainers: Mike Shanahan, Jim Shwartz, Greg Shiano. Let’s be clear. I’ve never seen a team underachieve quite like the Redskins, absolutely collapse like the Lions, or have a complete player-coach disconnect like the Bucs. Just awful. All of them. Schiano is a college coach, Shwartz is an Offensive Coordinator, and Mike Shanahan is a troll.

(b)   The “Products of their environment”: Leslie Frazier was never meant to be a head coach. Guy got the HC nod after doing a dynamite job as the “interim head coach” after Brad Childress got axed. Look, I could’ve told you Chudzinski wasn’t a great choice in the first place, but you can’t blame him for the offense being bad. And I don’t care what anyone says, the Browns were figuring out how to play D.

(c)    The headscratchers: WAIT… Jason Garrett still has a job!? Is this real life?! Remember that time the Cowboys threw in obvious run situations and lost an embarrassing game to the Packers that basically eliminated themselves from playoff contention and won the NFC North for the Pack!?!?!? But Mike Munchak got fired. That makes sense. They went 7-9 behind the greatest QB duo of all time as Ryan Fitzpatrick and Jake Locker joined their powers of mediocrity to strike fear into the hearts of NFL defenses everywhere. Look at their schedule. With the exception of one loss to the Jags, they beat who they should’ve beat and lost to who they should’ve lost to. What a joke. Munchak is an Oilers/Titans legend, and in the words of Rob Ryan he’ll be “unemployed for like, 5 minutes.”

1. Side Note: Bill O’Brien should’ve been an NFL coach yesteryear. The only reason he stayed with PSU is because of what those kids went through at the senseless hands of the NCAA and he didn’t want to abandon them. Penn State’s gonna be fine by the way. Hackenburg is the real deal. I digress… I think O’Brien saw Chip Kelly feel his way through an NFL season to a NFC East championship and he kicked himself all year for turning that job down.
2. Speaking of coaches, glad to see Lovie Smith get another job. Never should have lost his in the first place.
3. This is what I imagine went on in the search committee meeting for the Texans next HC.

GM: So… I’m thinkin O’Brien.

Committee: If we can even get him…

GM: We’ll just throw a lot of money at him and give him autonomy with our #1 pick.

Committee guy: Do we wanna look at anyone else?

GM: Nope. Meeting adjourned. I’ll call the owner. Thanks fellas.

1. Great Peyton pic on the New Year’s Day blog. Homeboy was just in the friggin zone.
2. Speaking of Peyton, I echo your sentiment on it being the greatest single-season a QB has ever had. It’s actually not really debatable the way I see it. Did anyone even care who Eric Decker and Demaryius Thomas were before he showed up? Unfortunately for him, all he and we care about is if he can get as many rings as his brother.
3. I don’t think the Jets will waive Mark Sanchez, I think he will stay so that Woody Johnson ensures we have another reason to talk about one of the NFL’s most irrelevant teams.
4. Having said that, Rex did well this year. I expected the Jets to win like, 2 and half games and they went 8-8. Good for him, good for them. Geno still isn’t the answer sorry guys.
5. Here goes my NFL Playoff picks:

NFC

 

Wild Card: Niners over Packers, Saints over Eagles

 

Divisional: Seahawks over Saints, Niners over Panthers

 

Champion: Seahawks over Niners

 

AFC

 

Wild Card: Bengals over Chargers, Colts over Chiefs

 

Divisional: Broncos over Bengals, Pats over Colts (hopefully in the Foxborough snow, I already have a football boner just thinking about it)

 

Champion: Broncos over Pats

 

SUPER BOWL:

Seahawks 27, Broncos 24

1. SEC Football. Thank God Mizzou won that game, or else I probably would’ve dedicated more time to highlighting how overrated their conference has been. Bama… you lost to Oklahoma??? Woof.
2. What a great statement by Art Briles. “Ummm, nope. Think I’m gonna stay here with my awesome RGIII era recruits. Remember that time we were in the top 10 this year and you guys weren’t even close?” Yup.
3. Texas just got “Ringwalled.” That’s right Filler. I just took your analogy, changed the spelling and made it my thing because I love it. UCLA? Ringwalled. Bill Cowher staying at home rather than coaching the Redskins or any other program out there with a vanacy? RINGWALLED. In the words of Lakers’ bro: DEAL WITH IT

http://gifatron.com/2013/01/lakers-bros-deal-with-it/

1. Side note: I legit remember Molly Ringwald being hotter in my head. Actually google image search her. She’s like a 7.
2. Now to basketball. Few things in the history of the NBA have been more useless than a potential washed up Gasol and Andrew Bynum trade.
3. I am intrigued by a possible Carmelo Anthony/Blake Griffin trade. It’s insane to me that the Clippers are even considering it. Blake has been playing out of his mind. Averaging 27 points over his last ten games. Not to mention that he’s not even in his prime yet and he’s really young. Meanwhile Melo will demand a max contract and to shoot 60% of all team field goals, with or without Chris Paul in the lineup. As a Knicks fan, I’m salivating.
4. Yes, the Knicks and Nets beat the Spurs and Thunder respectively. I started to get interested by this, but then I remembered that the NBA regular season for teams like Miami, San Antonio, OKC, Indiana etc. are kind of like the regular season for the Patriots. I mean, you have to try a LITTLE, but if you drop a game or two against the Bills/Jets, who gives a shit.
5. I know your point was that the Warriors are more than their guards and that’s fine. But I wanna take a minute to emphasize just how good Curry and Thompson have been. In my opinion, they are the best shooting backcourt I’ve ever seen in my lifetime and they’ve got the stats to back it.
6. Side note: Not a Lebron fan. But the golf commercial with him and Kevin Hart is hilarious. Mainly because he’s terrible at golf and he just looks funny in golf gear, in a golf cart, standing next to Kevin Hart who is a midget… etc. (Side, Side note: Imagine how far Lebron could drive a golf ball off an extra tall tee? Give him a few lessons and a super-custom driver. I wanna see that youtube video).
7. I hate to say this because I’ve never been a believer in Ohio State basketball over the years, even when they’ve been successful, but I think I do like Ohio State to end up being a 1 or 2-seed in the tournament and making a legit run. I think they beat Michigan State next week too. Aaron Craft is too good defensively to ignore and their bench is so deep. Defensive discipline and a deep bench are what you need to win in a tournament when you don’t have a superstar.

Until next time, Royal signing off.