"Stud" and Fantasy Sports

A close friend of mine (JW) commonly (probably tritely, as well) uses the word "stud" when referring to a fantasy sports standout. For instance, Dirk Nowitzki has been a "stud" during the 2006 NBA Playoffs. I wonder how this term came to mean "fantasy standout." The dictionary knows no such meaning for the word.

Even a casual perusal of a poor man's dicitonary clarifies to its reader that a stud is "a horse used especially for mating." That is the denotative meaning. We will not discuss the connotative meaning, for my blog must remain "G-rated." This is the reason I cannot use this word to refer to a professional athlete who just scored a triple-double, hole-in-one, or a hat trick. Why STUD? Why not phenom, superstar, or any other word apt in description? (Shew...I'm glad this is off my chest now. After reading this post, you can no longer claim ignorance after using this term!)

USA v. Ghana: Line-up & Prediction

This is the most interesting game of the tournament as far as what is at stake. The USA need a win by at least 3 goals if the Czech and Italians were to tie. If Italy were to beat the Czech, all the USA would need is a win. Here is my "best-bet" line-up: GK - Keller D - Bocanegra, Gooch (yc), Cherundolo MF - Beasley, Reyna (yc), Dempsey, O'Brien, Donovan F - McBride, E. Johnson Notes: - 3 in the back will force play outside; Dempsey (RWM) and Beasley (LWM) are fast enough to play both ways - Midfield control will be the most crucial factor to a multi-goal win. We will not counter-attack well with the speed of the Ghana side. Also, if we don't control the midfield, Michael Essien will. - I think McBride and Johnson are the best bet up front. McBride receives the ball well. Johnson's size, quickness, and skill will serve us well. - A big question is who will play Def. MF. With no Mastroeni, we resort to either Dempsey or O'Brien in a 3-5-2 formation. SUBS: - Con...

Don't be 'Joe Fan'

The response from Wednesday's USA last minute thriller versus Algeria felt like the crest of a crescendo that had been swelling since 2000 or so, or maybe even 1996 at the outset of MLS. My favorite US Soccer fan type is 'Joe Fan' who only watches soccer for 1 month out of every four years. He knows general soccer lingo. He even knows the favorites to win the tournament. None of these, though, is his calling card. You'll know Joe Fan by this very one thing -- as the World Cup is discussed among him, he'll whip out his anti-USA soccer spiel that he's been working on all week, or worse -- the one he heard from Michael Wilbon on PTI the previous afternoon. Most Joe Fan-types have these things in common: They think soccer is boring because there isn't much scoring. Soccer isn't even as big as hockey in the US, so it must not matter much. He thinks that since the USA isn't a top 10 favorite to win the World Cup, they must not be any good. He sees the USA ...

Favre Talking Points

I was a closet Green Bay fan in high school, mainly because of some big-time Packer fans in my church. Granted, it was easy to pull for them, since they weren't rivals with America's Team -- that's right! What intrigues me the most is that three teams took different approaches to Brett Favre, and I believe they would've have been mistaken to respond differently. Packers were criticized (as was Favre) for not letting Favre come back. I'm sure there are still some detractors that would say Favre would've won more games than Rodgers (6). What's interesting is that Aaron Rodgers QB stats (other than wins) were better than Favre's. The point is that, the Packers weren't going to win the NFC last season, with or without #4. They could be a Super Bowl team in 2-3 years. The Packers made a great move by parting with Favre. It couldn't have happened better for them. Jets are a bit more troublesome to parse apart. The only thing that makes them look foolis...

Bodwin

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