Schmeelk's Weekend Tidbits By Zach

Editor's Note: In what might be becoming a weekly feature here at Sportszilla, frequent guest writer John Schmeelk weighs in with his thoughts on the weekend that was.

-Time for my hardcore analysis of the Broncos/Steelers game: Jake Plummer sucks.

-Oh yeah, and can Jerome Bettis please do something before we make him the big story of the Steelers? Hines Ward is every bit the Steeler Bettis is, how about we talk about him a little bit. And I realize Bettis has the years, but to me he just isn’t a Hall of Famer.

-The Panthers simply ran out of gas, and without a running game the Seahwaks did a great job of adjusting shutting down Jake Delhomme. Seeing how Seattle shut down Steve Smith only shows you how clueless the Bears were last week in their game-planning. For all the experts that said Smith couldn’t be stopped, I guess they didn’t see the Cowboys game earlier in the year. Luckily for Seattle, Mike Holmgren did.

-No more Phil Simms! On the Willie Parker non-fumble first he said it was a fumble, not knowing a forearm hitting the ground means a player is down. Then, after a producer in the truck informs him of the rule he says that even though the forearm means the player is down it should be a fumble. Then after the play was called dead, and a non-fumble he declares “That’s a good call!” Hello?

-For those Happy Gilmore fans – Jake Plummer is a CLONE of his homeless caddy in that movie. Though I’ll pass on seeing him bathe in one of the water hazards. And I doubt the caddy would have turned it over so much.

-This is how bad championship Sunday was: The highlight of the day for me was when in a pregame radio interview, Ricky Proehl made a reference to Tecmo Bowl.

-And no, Roethlesberger is still not as good as Tom Brady. He’s getting there but not there yet.

-Who’s having a tougher offseason than Ernie Acorsi? First his Giants get smashed and Eli Manning lays an egg, then the player he traded for Manning (with a number one pick mind you) dominates and goes to the Super Bowl. Oops.

-How come people are giving the Seahawks no chance in the Super Bowl? They have a better back than Pittsburgh, arguably a better or equal QB, relatively equal Wide Receivers, and an underrated defense. Why is Pittsburgh so much better?

-And how about that Seattle D? Was Ray Rhodes THAT bad of a defensive coordinator, or has the personnel gotten that much better? Likely a little of both.

-The Burger King Steve Young commercial is great. Everyone in the WFAN newsroom is debating what play they’ll use for the Super Bowl spot. My favorite suggestion so far was from Mike Francesca – the Scott Norwood miss. Maybe that will wipe that grin off the King’s face.

-And now we experience the WORST idea in the history of professional sports: The two week wait for the Super Bowl. Historically the games with that lay off are generally not close, and what are fans supposed to do next weekend? If this weather keeps up, maybe some golf.

-Kobe’s 81 was unbelievable, spectacular and something you have to see to believe. It also proves that he will never win another championship playing like he is now.

-For all you genius Knicks fans and writers that thought Stephon Marbury was the problem – boy the team is really doing well without him. Maybe he wasn’t the problem after all.

-If the Knicks did really turn down Penny Hardaway for Ruben Patterson and Theo Ratliff, they’re lost. It would give them a legit three that could defend and a shot blocker. And both contracts are up by the time the Knicks would be under the cap.

-Big shock of the season: The Devils are having a big second half and making a run at the Atlantic Division title. At least I think that’s what it is called.

-Up to midnight of Season 2 of 24, and I’ve learned a few things. Tony is more annoying than I originally thought, and the fat bald general could lead my army any day. Most importantly George Mason is the absolute man. He better get some serious props at the end of the episode from the President and CTU. It is bothering me that they refuse to use country names in the show – only referring to three generic Middle Eastern countries. C’mon, it’s alright to say Syria or whatever.

-Theo’s back at the Red Sox! Yay! Oh wait, he never left. But none of the bad moves the Sox made were his fault. RIGHT…. If Theo blew up Fenway Park and turned himself into police Boston fans would still lynch Larry Lucchino. Though, in fairness, Coco Crisp IS better than most think – but he isn’t a lead off hitter

-Aaron Hielmann better be able to start for the Mets… or there could be problems at Shea. On the bright side they have a plethora of hard throwing righties in the bullpen that can’t throw strikes and are terribly inconsistent. Pedro better stay healthy...

-That Snickers hair piece commercial that doesn’t make any sense is slowly growing on me. Mostly because of the music and the insane grinning vaguely ethnic kid that pops up at the end of the spot. That kid scares the snot out of me.

-Dick Jauron to the Bills? Awful choice, but more disappointing is that we won’t be able to see Marv Levy coach the team from his motorized Rascal on the sidelines.

-I also watched 40-Year-Old Virgin this weekend – I thought it was overrated. Not as good as Wedding Crashers. And what was the lesson we were supposed to learn. I don’t think it was: “Don’t put pussy on a pedestal…” but that’s what I got out of it.

-I might be getting a XBOX 360 today – I’ll have some nuggets on that at some point in the next couple days.


John Schmeelk is a former WNYU Sports Director and Cheap Seats host, as well as a current WFAN producer. He also somehow finds time to hang out with most of the Sportszilla crew on a fairly regular basis. If you liked what he wrote, leave a comment or e-mail us at sportszilla at gmail dot com and we'll try to convince him to write more.

Also, if you're interested in writing a guest column, send us a sample column. It should be no less than 250 words, no more than about 750 (though if it's good, we'll make an exception).