I like to read and listen to Simmons. He's a good writer and an entertaining guy. His football knowledge is suspect at best and he's a gigantic Pats homer, but if you take him as pure entertainment and ignore him when he goes off on a Pats lovefest he's a great read. This week's picks column (with you shouldn't read for the picks since his picks didn't beat a single one of the Stampede Blue readers that submitted picks both weeks) was strange in a couple ways.
The first thing I noticed was it seemed as if they forgot to have a buzzkill editor go through it and cut everything that is anywhere near inappropriate. He got away with a lot this week.
The second thing is a question for everyone:
If you made an All-Star team for "Athletes with Latino Names Who Look Like Their Name Should Actually Be Something Like Jimmy Scott or Rick Stevens," would you call it the Jeff Garcia All-Stars or the Anthony Gonzalez All-Stars?
So, should Anthony Gonzalez's combination of Cuban decent and a lack of melanin make him the namesake of another new running-feature/observational joke?
And now finally the unexpected praise for Peyton:
You better sit down -- I'm about to say something nice about Peyton Manning. I sat in the Martha's Vineyard airport watching him steal that Minnesota game with a bum knee and a ravaged offensive line -- after unleashing a Hall of Fame Manning Face in the first half, no less -- and the thing that stood out was how, after a certain point, when Minny kept blowing chances to blow that game wide open, it became patently clear that Manning was going to make the Vikings pay, no matter how grim things looked. Now that, my friends, is a great player. I now will wash my eyes out with paprika.
I know he couldn't get the compliment out without backhanded shots about Peyton's knee and "the Manning Face," but Pats homer, Colts hater Bill Simmons called Peyton a great player.