This week on THE Ultimate Sports Blog Roundtable, Dustin James, Steve Cook, and myself discuss whether or not Tiger will win again, Dez or Demaryius, Brady's suspension, and the ESPYS.
Will Tiger Woods win another major in his career?
Dustin James: It pains me to say it, but no. Have you seen the guy play lately? He's about as far away from the Tiger Woods we knew and loved as you can get. It's sad to think that Tiger's career started to plummet after the scandal that ended up temporarily destroying his name. I wonder what could have been had Tiger actually been able to keep it in his pants?
Steve Cook: The simple answer is no. It's a shame, because in his prime Tiger Woods was the greatest golfer of all time. Anytime he was in a tournament was must-see TV because of his dominance. Now his appearances are considered must-see TV because of his incompetence. All great golfers eventually become irrelevant. Nicklaus, Palmer, Watson...all of these men got to the point where you'd only see them the first couple of days of a major tournament, they'd be way down the leaderboard, and you'd applaud them after their second round because of nostalgia & their previous brilliance. Tiger Woods is at that point before anybody expected. He shouldn't be. He's only 39 years old, there should still be a few years of contention left. He shouldn't be as far away from the top players as he is. Tiger's problems are mostly in his head. That sounds like an easy fix on paper, but anybody who's anybody knows that those are the problems that are the hardest to fix.
Jeremy Lambert: I'm doubtful. Golf is a sport where you can still win a major despite being past your psychical prime. Jack Nicklaus won a major when he was 46-years-old. Tiger is only 39, but his fall from grace was rapid and nearly unheard of in sports. He went from being the best golfer in the world to barely making the cut in the span of just a couple of years. He didn't forget how to play golf, he just isn't as relaxed as he used to be. He doesn't have that confidence that he used to have and he seems to be fighting with himself when he's on the course. Maybe he gets everything corrected and resurrects his career past the age of 40, but I don't know if it'll happen.
Who would you rather have on your team: Dez Bryant or Demaryius Thomas?
DJ: What a fantastic question. I would personally be pleased to have either guy on my NFL football team, but if you stick a gun to my head and make me choose....I'm taking Dez Bryant. Why? For a couple of reasons. One, Dez is a better football player, but just slightly. That's not a knock on Demaryius, it's just the truth. Watch the tape and you'll see for yourself. Two, Dez is one year younger than Thomas and age is important when you are talking about NFL players due to their short shelf lives. Three, the marketing and attention that the Dez Bryant name brings along with the personality. I love interesting things and I absolutely hate boring. I'm a Dez Bryant fan because the guy is interesting and can back it up on-the-field. True, he does bring some baggage with him, but so far in his NFL career, he's been about as much of a saint as you could ask him to be and he's not that bad of a teammate either.
Dez > Demaryius
SC: I'd take either one on the Bengals because A.J. Green really needs some help out there. Both guys are top-notch receivers & don't have many flaws in their game. The main difference I can see between them is that Dez seems more high-maintenance. Dude's out there complaining about money, getting in trouble slapping his momma around...you don't hear about Demaryius having these issues. You might worry about him being a Peyton Manning creation until you remember that he was doing crazy good stuff with Tim Tebow as quarterback. He says he wants to retire as a Bronco while Dez is worried about how he can possibly feed his family with less than 15 million a year. You might talk me into Dez being better on the field, but they're close enough where it's easy to just take the guy with the better personality. That's Demaryuis Thomas.
JL: This is a tough one. On the field, I think Dez is the better player. He's a wide receiver that can elevate a quarterback instead of the other way around. Off the field, Demaryius is going to cause less drama. He's not going to make a big fuss about money and he's not going to need a babysitter. That said, Dez has stayed out of trouble since 2012 and seems to be handling things well off the field, money gripes aside. When it comes down to it, I'm going with Dez just because I know I'm getting the best receiver in the game on the field and I trust that, as long as I pay him, he's not going to be an issue off the field.
How many games will Tom Brady end up being suspended for?
DJ: Good lord, I don't care. If there was ever a story that I was over....it's this one. I wasn't interested in it from the moment it happened (his "deflating of the ball" had nothing to do with the outcome of the game, get over it) and I just wish it would be over and done with so we could officially bury it already. However, since I have to answer the question, I believe Mr. Brady will be suspended for two games. Why two games? Because that seems to be the number everyone else is falling on and since I've removed myself as far away from this story as possible, I'm going to go ahead and listen to them.
SC: The longer this thing gets drawn out, the more I expect Tom Brady to be on the field for Opening Night against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Zero games is the safe bet here because Tom Brady is the franchise player of the greatest organization in professional sports & there is no way that he could ever do anything wrong. After speaking with Tom for a few hours, NFL Kommissar Roger Goodell must realize that the Honorable Mr. Brady is nothing but a fair & decent man, and never would have done anything with the slightest hint of illegality. And if we're being honest...4 games for deflating a football? Isn't that complete overkill? 4 games is what you get for doing drugs or getting charged with actual crimes against humanity. All that happened was a football got deflated. Big hairy deal. Just make Mr. Brady pay a fine & let us enjoy him play football, the game he has revolutionized for over a decade. He could quite possibly be the greatest quarterback-nay-the greatest football player of all time. How can Mr. Goodell deprive us of his presence? He must play against Pittsburgh on September 10th!
OK, so I might be somewhat biased on this issue because I'm a Bengals fan & our AFC North hopes would improve with each Steeler loss. So?
JL: Two games seem to be the maximum number. I'd be shocked if he got more. Think about this; Greg Hardy, a man who is facing domestic violence charges, got his suspension dropped from ten games to four. Brady's current suspension is for four games. You're telling me that possibly deflating footballs is equal to possible domestic violence? Roger Goodell has screwed up a lot during his time as commissioner, so it wouldn't shock me if he screwed this up as well, but Brady and Brady defenders have every right to be upset if his four game suspension isn't reduced.
Did you watch the ESPYS?
DJ: No. This shouldn't come as a surprise to most people who know me, because I tend to hate watching award shows. Very rarely will you catch me tuning into an awards show (the exceptions are MTV-related ones and the Emmy's because I'm a huge television fan), because the majority of them are utterly boring. Plus, if anything cool happens at the award show (like Ronda Rousey hitting Floyd Mayweather with a nice one), you can most likely catch it on Twitter within five minutes of it happening. SCORE ONE FOR SOCIAL MEDIA!
SC: Not a second of it. I hear it was a good night for Cincinnati stories, as Devin Still's daughter Leah & Lauren Hill both got honored with awards. That's cool. Other than that, I couldn't give a rat's ass about who is the Best Team or the Best Athlete or the Best Water Boy or whatever. It's ESPN giving people awards & celebrating ESPN. Who cares? Obviously enough people do to make this a thing every year, but that doesn't mean I have to watch it. FS Ohio was showing Game 7 of the 1975 World Series. ESPN was showing a replay of Todd Frazier winning the Home Run Derby. I had plenty of other options, so I didn't need to bother with the ESPYs.
I really don't get why people get all worked up about who gets an ESPY either. The whole Caitlyn Jenner backlash thing seemed so ridiculous to me. People debating whether or not Caitlyn was "deserving of an ESPY"...really? You're treating it like it's a damn Nobel Prize or something. ESPN can give their awards to whoever they want, and if they think the Jenner story is something worth celebrating, so be it. I wish the transgender movement had a better famous spokesperson because I can't take anything associated with the Kardashians seriously, but they have what they have right now. If you don't like it, don't watch it. Simple enough.
JL: Nope.
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