Geno's Coming to Town

 NFL Draft

The Jets made a big splash at the 2013 NFL Draft, with the ripple effect still taking place today. With the 39th pick, Gang Green selected Geno Smith, the quarterback from West Virginia, who looked like he was in agony in the green room, as all 32 teams passed on him in the first round. I like the pick, and when he practically fell into our lap in the second round, it was a no-brainer to take him. After a 2012 which saw some of the worst quarterbacking I've seen in 25 years of watching football, Smith has to be an upgrade. 

Geno joins a list that includes Richard Todd, Ken O'Brien, Vinny Testaverde, Chad Pennington, Brett Favre and Mark Sanchez as the next quarterback to possibly lead the franchise to it's first Super Bowl since Broadway Joe did it in 1969. According to his scouting report, Smith is a work-horse in the gym and in the film room, with a decently strong arm, but he needs to improve his accuracy. I don't think he should start this year, instead let him learn on the sidelines for a couple years behind David Garrard and Mark Sanchez. 

News broke this morning that Tim Tebow was the first casualty of this draft, after the Jets realized no other franchise wanted the Cinderella story of 2011 (except for a few teams that wanted him as a tight end). This ends the Jets career of the most publicized and popular punt protector in NFL history. However you slice it, the Tebow trade was a monumental disaster for all parties involved. Woody Johnson looks like a fool, Mike Tannenbaum and Tony Sparano have been fired, Rex Ryan is a lame duck head coach, Mark Sanchez's career took a hit, and Tim Tebow may not even find a job in the NFL next season. HIT THE BRICKS TIMMY!!!!

Geno Smith overshadowed the Jets' two first round picks of Dee Milliner and Sheldon Richardson. Dee Milliner has big shoes to fill, stepping in for Revis Island, but he's used to the pressure at Alabama. Jets doctors were convinced that his shoulder injury won't be a problem. Milliner was at the top of my wish list, and I was happy he was still available when we picked. On the other hand, I wasn't so happy with the Sheldon Richardson pick. Nose tackle was one of our needs this season, after releasing Pouha, but this pick stinks of Rex Ryan, and not what would have been better for our team. Richardson may be a good pro, but the scouts say he is a better fit in a 4-3, as opposed to nose tackle in a 3-4, Ryan's base defense. If Richardson does turn out to be a good player, than we have the makings of a good young defensive line with him, Quinton Coples and Mo Wilkerson.  

You can't really tell if the draft is a success for at least 3 years, but I feel like the Jets have two very good prospects in Geno Smith and Dee Milliner and a project in Sheldon Richardson. In addition to those picks, the Jets traded their fourth round pick to the Saints for Chris Ivory, who will probably be our starting running back this season. Ivory was never given a chance in New Orleans, and saw his production drop every year. Ivory has the size and speed to be a good running back, and I'm anxious to see how he plays now that he will be given a chance.

UFC 159

UFC 159 from the Prudential Center in Newark may go down as the most cursed/strangest pay-per views ever, with 2 fight endings due to an eye poke, one fight stopped from a broken thumb, and a title almost switching hands because of a broken toe. Before we get into that though, I want to go back to the day before, when I attended the weigh-ins.

Thanks to popular MMA message board, the UG, I was able to attend a special meet and greet with Dana White following the UFC 159 weigh-ins. The UFC set us up with kick-ass seats to see the Fight Club Q and A with Middleweight #1 Contender Chris Weidman. The Long Island native seemed confident going into his July fight with Anderson Silva. After the Q&A ended, I got to experience the UFC weigh-ins for the first time. They were alright, but not really anything I would care about seeing in person again. They just call each fighter up, they step on a scale and face off with their opponent. After the weigh-ins were over, we waited patiently for Dana White. (Ariel Helwani even stopped by and visited us for a few minutes as we waited)

I doubt he is ever going to see this blog, but I can't thank Dana White enough for everything he does for the fans of the UFC. He spent over an hour answering questions and telling stories. He covered everything from what type of razor he uses to shave his head, to his thoughts on the relationship with Fox, to a behind-the-scenes recap of a proposed boxing fight with Tito Ortiz. After that, we were all able to come down and get a picture and/or autograph with the UFC President. It was an awesome experience overall, and one I'll never forget.

UFC 159 the next night was a whole other story. The undercard was underwhelming, with one-sided fights and some strange stoppages. However, the main event could have been a possible disaster for the UFC. Jon Jones dominated Chael Sonnen like most people thought, finishing him with a flurry of punches at 4:33 of the first round. Then, when Jones went for his post-fight interview he saw blood leaking onto the canvas. That was when he noticed that his toe was broken, and the bone had punctured his skin. 

If the referee had let the fight continue, which was arguably the right call since Sonnen was intelligently defending himself, and the first round ended, Jones would not have been able to continue. Since the fight wouldn't have been stopped because of an accidental foul, like the Bisping-Belcher co-main event, but because of an injury, then Chael Sonnen would have been awarded the victory and the Light-Heavyweight Championship, in what would be another asterisk on Jones' career record. Could you have imagined the trash talk Sonnen would have spewed if he had 20 pounds of gold around his waist? 

Catching Up

FINALLY....... COSTA'S IN THE CAGE HAS COME BACK!!!!!

After the sports purgatory of February/March, there is a lot to talk about so far in April.

 NFL

We start with today's breaking news, the Jets' trade of Darrelle Revis to the Tampa Bay Bucs, for this year's first round pick (13th overall) and a conditional 4th or 3rd round pick next season. Revis signed his John Hancock on a 6-year $96 million contract that puts him in Tampa until he's 33. It will be hard to determine who got the better of this deal until we see who the Jets take on draft day Thursday, and how well that player performs in his first couple seasons in the league, and how well Revis comes back from his torn ACL.

The fact of the matter is the Jets knew that Revis was going to get big money on the open-market, and with a dozen holes on the team they couldn't give one player the type of money he was going to be looking for. There is no denying that the 2013 Jets team has gotten weaker because of the loss of arguably the best defensive player in the league, but Jets fans know we don't have a team that is going to be very competitive this season. I have faith that John Idzik could turn this franchise around (if not Jets fans can boo two first-round picks this year instead of just one) and this trade sets us up better for the future.

Putting the bottom line on Darrelle Revis' Jet career is bittersweet. On the field there was no denying that he could have been the best Jet to ever put on the uniform. However, he left a sour taste in my mouth after two holdouts, plus him forcing our hands this off-season. It's clear the only person Darrelle Revis cares about is Darrelle Revis, and because of that I say goodbye and good riddance.

NBA

The Knicks started off there first-round series against the Celtics with a raucous Madison Square Garden crowd this weekend, hungry for a deep playoff push. A date with the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals is a realistic goal for even the most pessimistic Knicks fan. Carmelo Anthony has been playing out of his mind the final month of the regular season, and this team can only go as far as Melo is willing to take us. JR Smith is really our only other consistant scoring threat, as Raymond Felton and Iman Shumpert both have their good and bad days, and Stevie Novakaine is a non-threat against good teams.

I made jokes when we first made the move, but Kenyon Martin has been the cure for our supposed soft team. K-Mart brings a great energy to the court and provides the role of "enforcer" on the team, stepping in if the opposition is a little to physical with Melo. 

WWE

I had a great time at Wrestlemania weekend at the Meadowlands. Fan Axxess was hit and miss, with the autograph lines a little too crowded on the Saturday afternoon session. I decided to spend the day ringside where they had matches with younger talent, like Chris Hero aka Kassius Ono, had fans doing some fun competitions, and the highlight of the day, a Q and A session with CM Punk and Paul Heyman. Looking back on it the money would have been better spent going to the Hall of Fame, which I heard was awesome. 

Wrestlemania itself is an awesome live event experience, as Jet-Life Stadium was breath-taking when I first saw the set. This year's Mania was hurt by being a little too predictable, and I don't think I would've loved the show if I ordered it on pay-per view. There must have been a timing issue, because you didn't get any backstage promos or skits that you come to expect at Wrestlemania. Being there in person though, it was amazing. The highlight of Wrestlemania was the CM Punk-Undertaker match, as the Deadman continued his winning streak at the Showcase of the Immortals to 21-0.

Raw the night after of Wrestlemania was the most fun I've ever had a wrestling show, and I couldn't believe I was going to skip it. Dolph Ziggler cashing in his Money in the Bank was a moment I'll never forget, but the Sheamus-Randy Orton match was unforgettable for another reason. I can't pinpoint an exact reason why (the fans being fed up and just decided to entertain themselves is most likely), but we started by doing a Yankee Stadium like roll-call of the announcers, referee and ring announcer, then just started chanting for random wrestlers. I think April 8, 2013 will go down in history as Fandango Monday. The fans were humming Fandango's entrance during his match, the main event, after the event. leaving the arena, and even in their cars as they left their parking lot capping off a great weekend.

MLB

The small-market Yankees are doing an excellent job holding down the fort until the calvary can return.  Vernon Wells, Travis Hafner, Lyle Overbay, and Kevin Youkilis are all playing above their expectations. Combine that with the fact that Andy Pettite, CC Sabathia, and Hiroki Kuroda all have ERA's under 3, if we can avoid any more injuries the Yanks might surprise some people who wrote them off this year.

With news that Derek Jeter had another set-back in his recovery from a broken ankle, it's not out of the realm of possibility that the Captain is no longer an everyday shortstop. If Jeter can accept a role as DH then he can still play for a few more seasons, if not, can you think of a better ending than having Jeter, Andy Pettitte, and Mariano Rivera all take their final bows together at the end of this season?