SI’s Peter King recently picked his all-time greatest NFL team (here). Typically, for King (see his QBs list from earlier in the year that ranked Vince Young above Donovan McNabb Young’s stats last year: 51.5% 6.2 ypa 12-13 td-int -8.1% DVOA…just saying…) his choices are pretty much a bunch of no-brainers (Jerry Rice, Jim Brown) and uninformed crap. First off, there is the idiocy of picking players you’ve never seen play without using any kind of statistical analysis. Some picks just seem to be utterly random (Sammy Baugh ahead of Ray Guy at punter???)

Another stupidity:=“C | Mel Hein | New York Giants (1931-45)

 

Its’s so hard to compare eras, obviously, and Hein played from 1931 to ‘45. But no player in history played both ways, every week, for 15 years and at such a high level for a good team.”

How the hell do you know that? Because someone told you? No other proof whatsoever.

 

Then there is the all time, most idiotic selection:

 

“K | Adam Vinatieri | New England Patriots (1996-2005), Indianapolis Colts (2006-present)

It’s no accident New England won three Super Bowls, all by a field goal … and got to the first one because Vinatieri made maybe the most clutch kick in history, a 45-yarder through a snowstorm to propel New England past Oakland in the 2001 playoffs.”

Are. You. Fucking. Kidding. Me? Adam Vinatieri is the best kicker of all time!? Because of one fucking kick! I guess kickoffs don’t matter nor does a lengthy career performing at a high level. Vinatieri doesn’t even belong in the fucking pro bowl, much less in the Hall of Fame or on any kind of greatest of all time list. All his other “clutch” kicks? (as in the non-snow game) 40 yarders indoors? That’s what you are paid to do! Plus if he hadn’t missed earlier kicks (1-3 in the Super Bowl anyone?), he wouldn’t have had to kick the “clutch” ones (because only scores at the end of games count, ask A-Rod). Vinatieri is possibly the most overrated athlete of ALL-TIME.

 

So moving past that, another complaint: Why are Mike Vick’s dogfighting troubles being mentioned in the same breath as the NBA crooked ref scandal? On the cover of Sports Illustrated it mentions how the NFL and the NBA are “rocked” by their respective scandals, wtf? How does the illegal off-field actions of a single player compare to a referee possibly fixing play-off games? They’re not even in the same universe. One, sorry PETA, doesn’t fucking matter aside from impact on the individual player (and I guess the team but an injury would have the same effect); the other introduces the idea that the games are fixed. I’m going to repeat that in all caps THE PLAYOFFS COULD BE FIXED. That compromises the integrity of the league in a way that hasn’t been seen for decades (CCNY scandal, Black Sox). There is NO comparison to Mike Vick, none, nada, zilch.

Everyday I’m more and more convinced that sportswriters know absolutely nothing about the actual sports they cover, and it just pisses me off. If I was as uninformed at my job as they are at theirs I would be fired.

 

Sorry for ranting.