That One Sports Show

We go over our athletes of the week, our would you rather question of the week, upcoming games to watch, our predictions for those and a few other quick hodge podge items. Would you rather: Be an Indians fan or Cubs fan right now (can you imagine a Cubs vs. Indians WS)? Next Week WYR: Have umpires or computers call balls and strikes? Ask your questions and post your thoughts on Facebook or the post. Respond below with your thoughts! Toss Up: Trevor Siemian total TDs vs. Von Miller sacks. John says TDs. Five College Games for us to pick: Nevada at (18) Notre Dame | G – ND, J – Nevada Arkansas at (15) TCU | G – Ark, J – TCU +30 Iowa State at (16) Iowa | G – Iowa, J – Iowa Virginia Tech vs. (17) Tennessee (@Bristol Motor Speedway) | G – Tenn, J – VT Virginia at (24) Oregon | G – Ore, J – Ore Columbus Crew FC vs. Vancouver | G – Draw, J – Columbus Tiger Woods to return to golf in October. Do we care? Were we right: #3 Oklahoma vs. #15 Houston | J – OK (wrong), G – OK (wrong) #18 Georgia vs. #22 North Carolina | J – Georgia (correct), G – Georgia (correct) #20 USC vs. #1 Alabama | J – Alabama (correct), G – Bama (correct) #2 Clemson at Auburn | J – Auburn (wrong), G – Clemson (correct, barely) #11 Ole Miss vs. #4 Florida State | J – Ole Miss (wrong), G – Ole Miss (wrong) New On the blog: 10 signs you’re going to lose your fantasy football league Oh, Hey Sam Bradford Open Letter to Teddy Bridgewater Closest You’ll get to the best damn band Subscribe on iTunes, like us on facebook, follow tosspodcast on Twitter and get the latest Studs and duds on YouTube.

Amazing to think that back in 1869, two teams would come together as a way to battle that would change the outcome of college rivalries forever. We discuss the humble and bizarre beginnings of college football and the first true football game. The formation of the first football league Let me take you back to 1869. A beat-up Rutgers is debating how to beat rival Princeton. They’ve just lost in baseball 40-2, Princeton just sunk the Revolutionary War cannon you used to steal and to top it all off, they’re just better than you brooooo. Instead of attacking them with academics, it was determined that the two colleges would compete in a three game football season. Both sides agreed and suddenly intercollegiate football was born. Along with the birth of intercollegiate football also came the firs major college rivalry. You though OSU v. Michigan was an historic rivalry? Not as much as Princeton and Rutgers. The First Game If you traveled back in time to the first football game (November 6, 1969), you’d be incredibly confused. Teams were made up of 25 players. Yes, you read that correctly. The teams of 25 were split into 2 cherry-pickers to help score more easily, 12 offensive players and 11 defensive players. Total chaos. The ball was round, the scoring was not in goals, but in games. The match ends when 10 total games are scored. It was a mess. Somehow, Rutgers ended up winning the game 6-4. First Football Game Innovations The Flying V is a formation that in some capacities is still okay, but in the capacity that Rutgers developed it in this game is totally illegal. Rutgers players locked arms and formed a wedge, one that was repeatedly broken by the largest member of the Princeton team, but proved effective in moving the ball down the field. Scoring against ones own team happened for one of the first times ever in this game. Can you blame the Rutgers player that booted it through the wrong uprights? After all, this insane 25 v. 25 game would make it tough to tell which way is correct. Although this was technically the first college football game, the rules and play were very far from the sport we now know. Not quite the football we know As if the 25 v. 25 wasn’t weird enough, the ball was round and basically a soccer ball. The rules were taken from the London Football Association, so it makes sense that it resembled European football. Later advancements in 1874 saw rugby-style rules implemented and then in 1875 the first “American Football” game was played with 11 per side. In that 1875 game between Tufts and Harvard, the ball was advanced by kicking or carrying and tackling was introduced as a way to stop a play. College football was used as a means for experimentation for what would eventually become the NFL. Tufts did go on to beat Harvard 1-0 in that 1875 version of football, winning the first true football game. A short first season With 3 games in the season, it seemed like Rutgers definitely held the advantage when sitting at 1-0, but the second game in the series saw Princeton win 8-0. A rubber match was set for the following week, but both sides determined that football was getting in the way of academics and the players needed to return to their studies. Some quotes from the first games One of the best images to me is partway through the game a Rutgers professor could stand it no longer. Waving his umbrella at the participants, he shrieked, “you will come to no Christian end!” signifying the first spectator that felt the sport was too barbaric and that it was no way to carry oneself. Another account summed up the game overall: “To sum up, Princeton had the most muscle, but didn’t kick very well, and wanted organization. They evidently don’t like to kick the ball on the ground. Our men, on the other hand, though comparatively we

It’s true NCAA football is back and we take a look at the top games coming up as well as what we’re looking forward to the most during the season. Some Picks We’ve given our opinion on the outcomes of some of the ranked games, here they are: #3 Oklahoma vs. #15 Houston John – Oklahoma | Geoff – Oklahoma #18 Georgia vs. #22 North Carolina John – Georgia | Geoff – Georgia #20 USC vs. #1 Alabama John – Alabama | Geoff – Bama #2 Clemson at Auburn John – Auburn | Geoff – Clemson #11 Ole Miss vs. #4 Florida State – Monday Night – Orlando J – FSU | G – Ole Miss #58.1 – Ambidextrous Pitchers, Would You Rather, Mashup #58.2 – Dear Mr. Teddy Bridgewater #58.3 – NFL Rundown, The Sit Heard Around the World #58.4 – NCAA Football Is Back! #58.5 – The First Intercollegiate Football Game

We take a final look at the NFL landscape leading up to the first full week of actual NFL gameplay. We also talk about Colin Kaepernick, what he’s trying to accomplish in San Francisco and if he’ll still be there after this week. #58.1 – Ambidextrous Pitchers, Would You Rather, Mashup #58.2 – Dear Mr. Teddy Bridgewater #58.3 – NFL Rundown, The Sit Heard Around the World #58.4 – NCAA Football Is Back! #58.5 – The First Intercollegiate Football Game

Geoff reads a heartfelt letter to the injured quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings, Teddy Bridgewater. You can read the full letter here if you’d prefer to not hear Geoff’s voice as he reads through.   #58.1 – Ambidextrous Pitchers, Would You Rather, Mashup #58.2 – Dear Mr. Teddy Bridgewater #58.3 – NFL Rundown, The Sit Heard Around the World #58.4 – NCAA Football Is Back! #58.5 – The First Intercollegiate Football Game

Ambidextrous Pat Venditte made his Mariners debut and pitched quite well this week. We go over his accomplishments, the MLB pro day of Tim Tebow, and much more. Athlete of the Week – Pat Venditte The amphibious (joking) pitcher got some game time with the Mariners this past week and had a pretty decent outing. Venditte was pulled him up from the minors August 27th. He had been with the Toronto Blue Jays for most of the year, but was traded to the Mariners in early August. Venditte had a three up, three down fourth inning in his first work with the Mariners and had two strikeouts with his left arm and three with his right. In 4ish innings of work he had 5 strikeouts, one hit and one run. I’d say that’s a pretty good start for a man who was just in the minors. Adrian Beltre tried to get cute and turn his helmet around backwards. Your browser does not support iframes. Would You Rather Would you rather question of the week: take a fastball to the face from Aroldis Chapman (but it’ll only hit your nose) or a hard hit across the middle from James Harrison? Toss Up Ranked teams upset opening weekend vs. JT Barrett rushing touchdowns on 9/3. Geoff thinks there will be more ranked upsets than JT Barrett rushing touchdowns, but we both agree Barrett will have 2. John thinks there will only be 1 ranked game upset. Geoff also selected App State to beat Tennessee, so that tells you a little about him. The Pick em is back! Be sure to join our NFL Pick ’em League. Winner of the league gets an Amazon gift card. #58.1 – Ambidextrous Pitchers, Would You Rather, Mashup #58.2 – Dear Mr. Teddy Bridgewater #58.3 – NFL Rundown, The Sit Heard Around the World #58.4 – NCAA Football Is Back! #58.5 – The First Intercollegiate Football Game

It’s the 28th straight time a Madden football game has been released since 1988 and you know we had to try it out. We go over some of the good, some of the bad and some of the flat out annoying parts of this years rendition of the greatest football simulation past the 1985 NFL Challenge game for DOS. Never one to fluff a duff too immediately, let’s start with the bad. The Bad The Continuous Animations can be frustrating The running back has the ball, gets hit and instead of going down starts to stumble backwards. Amazingly he recovers, but now 5 yards back from where he was previously, just in time to get hit again, except this time he goes down. What had been a 7-yard gain has dwindled to a 2-yard gain. Sometimes the animations look cool, but overall I find myself yelling at players to just go down already. The Opening Game That You Are Forced To Play I don’t like the Rams. I’m not super into the history of the Coliseum. I don’t particularly like Jared Goff, but these are all things I’m forced to deal with before ever playing a snap of Madden. All I’m asking for is a way to skip through this. You can skip everything else in the game, why not this cut-scene-riddled two-minute drill? It has no bearing on the rest of the game, so let me pass oh great bridgekeeper. It doesn’t help that I had to play through this portion twice. Rag Doll Tackles This is mainly Geoff’s complaint because I think it looks funny, but the rag doll effect when a tackle is completed is a bit bizarre. Many of the players would be looking for crutches after their bones turn to Jello, but they seem to be fine immediately. Thankfully I’ve not seen anyone physically go through another opponent, so at least there’s that. The Good The Game Commentary Holy crap is this adjustment a good one. A totally revamped commentary system, two new commentators (Brandon Goudin and Charles Davis), and weekly updates to the dialogue. No more Phil Simms annoying me to no end. This year the good folks at EA scrapped the entire commentary system of previous years and put together a new, more dynamic system. With Goudin and Davis recording weekly, the commentary will never get stale. I even had them comment on how the same team was playing themselves when I got matched up with the same team online. Can’t say enough about this update, but here’s a bit more: Punting: Backspin To Win The kicking in Madden 17 has been refurbished and with a new kicking system they’ve added more control of the ball itself. Instead of forcing the ball out of bounds in the corner, you can now apply backspin to the ball and make it rest gently at the 3-yard line. New placekicking controls will also lead to a higher number of missed field goals/extra points, or that’s at least what I’ve seen so far. Draft Champions A new way to draft a team, three players are shown and you select one over and over fifteen rounds of the draft. The team is then good for 24 hours or 5 games, whichever comes first. After that you can draft an entirely new team. Pretty cool. Ratings Geoff: 4.5/5 John: 4/5 Consensus: There are some buggy things to work out, but overall the improvements this year are for the better and the update to commentary is amazing. Look for those weekly updates and enjoy fresh farm-to-table phrases.

Sad but true, we say goodbye to the 2016 Rio Olympics and take a look at the future. What will the future hold for Mr. Ryan Lochte, who knows, but there are definitely less sponsorships in there. The US is still waiting for their first table tennis medal, but they did manage to squeak out a bronze in men’s volleyball. We take a look at some of the sports we’d like to see in upcoming Olympic games while perusing the IOC Recognized Sports list. #57.1 – Athletes of the Week and Which Kobe is Best #57.2 – Football This and Football That #57.3 – The History of the Madden Football Franchise #57.4 – Farewell Rio, Hello Tokyo: An Olympic-sized Goodbye

It’s a long and storied franchise and one that’s near and dear to our hearts. This week we took a look at where the greatest football simulation of all-time came from and what changes its seen over the years. In 1982 Electronic Arts was founded by Trip Hawkins, a young upstart in California that was a computer and strat-o-matic whizz. He was always searching for a way to make the perfect football simulation and in 1984, with developer Joe Ybarra had a meeting with John Madden to see if they could get him to put his name on a football video game. If you’re unaware, John Madden is not a big fan of technology. He would never fly with his team, opting for a train or bus to take him where he needed to be. The Internet was not something he believed in and really only saw computers as a coaching tool. The meeting on the train proved to be a tough task for Hawkins and Ybarra as Madden insisted on “11 players or it’s not real,” a phrase that would later be featured on the back of the box. Technical limitation in 1984 proved to make the game slow and overall pretty terrible, with 6 or 7 a side as the optimal number. Madden insisted on 11 per side and Ybarra and Hawkins got to work. Over the next three years the game was developed, a timespan that for most games would be a deathbell, but in 1988 the first version of Madden was released for the Apple II. Joe Ybarra, when looking back on the development process said “All my memories are of pain.” After the successful launch of Madden, the years and game progressed into eventually what we see today. New technology has allowed for better game mechanics, better graphics and overall a better game. If it weren’t for that meeting on the train and the determination of a football simulation enthusiast, we’d still be farting around with Joe Montana on our screens. Other Football Video Game Franchises Joe Montana Football was the only big name rival and Sega wanted to re-brand Madden with the Montana name since Madden was not available for Sega. EA said no in 1990, and Sega did its own thing with Montana and followed the game with 4 sequels. The franchise has been dead since 1995 but is getting a mobile reboot this year. NFL Street (2004-2006) NFL Blitz (1997-2005, 08, 12) Blitz: The League (05, 08 dabbled in “League”, unaffiliated with the NFL – had players like “Mike Mexico”) Mutant League Football 1993 – EA ESPN NFL 2k5 (triggered EA to buy exclusive rights) Backbreaker was supposed to be the golden boy in 2010 With EA taking over football, there’s clearly a breakdown of sports video games and people in charge of those. For example, EA has corner of the market on football, futbol, golf, UFC and boxing. 2K Sports has taken over basketball and Sony has baseball on lock with MLB “The Show”. EA first got a license for Madden in 1995. All previous versions, 1988 and up had random player names. We live in a much better time. Some Failed Madden Features I’ll give EA credit, they definitely try out a lot of different concepts when coming out with a new version of Madden. Somehow they’ve managed to be less stale than Call of Duty and the yearly release. They don’t always get it right though. Here are a few features that we’re glad are gone. The QB vision Cone (06) – The triangle of death that comes out of your QB helped make more accurate passes, but it just didn’t feel right. Madden IQ Test (09) – Step right up and see how dumb you are. Don’t be shy, Madden will tell you instead of letting you just pick the level. Rewinds – This was one of the cheapest systems ever added to Madden and probably the end of several friendships. Something bad happen in t

Football is just a holler away and the AP has already released their preseason rankings for the NCAA. Is it really necessary? With a Selection Committee in place that works hard to make sure the top teams get into the playoffs at the end of the year, why do we insist on naming the top 25 teams? It comes down to the media and as a sports media outlet we’re to blame. We shame ourselves and then move on. Joey Bosa still at odds with the Chargers, can his relationship be repaired in time to make some mad caysh by the end of the season or will he sit out and wait for the next draft. #57.1 – Athletes of the Week and Which Kobe is Best #57.2 – Football This and Football That #57.3 – The History of the Madden Football Franchise #57.4 – Farewell Rio, Hello Tokyo: An Olympic-sized Goodbye

John and Geoff are back for another week and here in the first segment they go over their athletes of the week, Dak Prescott and David Ortiz. They also discuss an important “would you rather” question of “Would you rather be on a winning team and never touch the field or be the star of a team that never wins?” Let us know your thoughts. Which Black Mamba is best? Is it #8 Kobe Bryant or is it #24 Kobe Bryant. The stats between the two are eerily similar. He played ten seasons in both jerseys, had one more ring, three total while wearing #8, but had his only MVP award while wearing #24. #8 Kobe had 16,866 points, 3,148 assists and 3,634 rebounds, while #24 Kobe had 16,777 points, 3,158 assists and 3,413 rebounds. John says #8 Kobe is the best, but Geoff disagrees and says MVP #24 Kobe is best. What do you think? Hope Solo was booted from the USWNT, but it doesn’t really feel like it’s going to be that big of a deal in the long run. Connor McGregor beat Nate Diaz in UFC 202 and we’re both looking forward to the rematch. #57.1 – Athletes of the Week and Which Kobe is Best #57.2 – Football This and Football That #57.3 – The History of the Madden Football Franchise #57.4 – Farewell Rio, Hello Tokyo: An Olympic-sized Goodbye

Best Characters: Sal Bandino! (wanna wrestle?), Sean, Wendy Wrestling Action: 4/5 Would we watch it again: No Poop Joke Count: 100+ A new minisode brings a new crew as Amanda and Jackie join Geoff and John as they all take a look at Ready to Rumble, the 2000 WCW flick with David Arquette and Scott Caan. Sean and Gordie are just two porta-potty cleaners with a love for “The King” their favorite wrestler of all-time who is ambushed and ousted from the WCW while they are in attendance. The story becomes one of redemption after that as Gordie and Sean look to prop up their hero who has fallen to his lowest point. An interesting take that Jackie had afterward is that the hero aspect of the movie is actually pretty intriguing. When Sean and Gordie go to help the King, he’s in the worst shape he could be in. He calls them stupid, tells them wrestling is fake and that they’re dumb for trying to get him to come back and that they should give up. Instead of seeing the King as their fallen hero, they can only see, whether from stupidity or complete devotion, the achievements the King has had over his career. They are so loyal to following him that he starts to believe in himself again. That sort of fanatical devotion is hard to come by in a movie, but was not enough to give it a great score by Jackie’s marks. Something else that doesn’t sit well is the amount of straight up assault that happens in the movie with no cops. If this is a reality where assault on any wrestler outside of the ring is legal, there would be a lot of issues. People would be beat and bloodied all the time. Big shout out to Hacker’s Planet for having any and all information ever about everyone…on the net. It’s a shame that this movie didn’t focus more on Sean, because he seems to be one of the most genuine characters whose growth in the movie surpasses all other characters (plus you get to see his butt). Instead it’s the standard Arquette formula where Gordie’s too stupid to see what’s going on and too cartoony to take anything seriously.

Trouble at the Olympics for Lochte and crew. The female hurdlers are fast. Basketball team is good. Let’s ditch equestrian, sailing, shooting and another sport in favor of arm wrestling, ultimate frisbee, cricket and jai alai. #56.1 – PapelGone, Jordan vs. Lebron and Clothes #56.2 – Browns, Vikings and the NFL’s Power Problem #56.3 – The History of Umpires in Baseball #56.4 – Lochte’d and Loaded, Olympic Sports Replacements

The job of an umpire is by no means glamorous. Everyone is ready to turn on you in an instant and someone is always mad at you. It wasn’t always this way though. In the 1830s and 40s, umpires were distinguished gentlemen, highly trusted to settle disputes and wearing attire such as top hats. What has happened in the last 200 years that has caused such a drastic change in how people view umpires? John explains the history of umpires in baseball. #56.1 – PapelGone, Jordan vs. Lebron and Clothes #56.2 – Browns, Vikings and the NFL’s Power Problem #56.3 – The History of Umpires in Baseball #56.4 – Lochte’d and Loaded, Olympic Sports Replacements

The Cleveland Browns took the stage this past Friday to not much fanfare. Cody Kessler had a +2 point differential after passing for a touchdown on his first play then getting sacked in the endzone once and running out the back of the endzone once. It wasn’t all sadness for the Browns as RGIII had flashes of greatness and flashes of possible leg injury. Couch-dweller Justin tags in about whether the Browns or Lions are worse off in the football world and Geoff gives his rundown of the Vikings. We take a Zeke peek at the Cowboys offensive line and find out the average weight of an offensive lineman. All that and a bit more in 56.2. #56.1 – PapelGone, Jordan vs. Lebron and Clothes #56.2 – Browns, Vikings and the NFL’s Power Problem #56.3 – The History of Umpires in Baseball #56.4 – Lochte’d and Loaded, Olympic Sports Replacements