Tag Archives: ESPN

Power Ranking Ramblings: Week 15

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Welcome back for another round of Power Ranking Ramblings! The rankings that we crank out every week are identical in order to the nonsensical ones that ESPN spews out every week. This is partly because creating power rankings from scratch is a painstakingly lengthy process and Kevin gave me the death glare when I suggested that we come up with our own. However, the main reason we do it that way is because ESPN’s rankings are… well, they are just awful. You will seldom come across something as overly biased and ill-conceived as ESPN’s opinion on who the best teams in the league are. And it’s a lot of fun to call them out on this, so the point of our rankings is to rip on ESPN’s version as much as possible.

Or at least that’s how it started. I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but it’s been a fairly abysmal year for the NFL. Bad officiating, bad games and most importantly, bad teams. There are three squads in each conference who have a legitimate shot at winning the Super Bowl, and after that it’s a whole bunch of meh. So while making fun of the Worldwide Leader in Sports and its rampant stupidity is always a good time, we can scarcely allow the league’s overall mediocrity to skid by unscathed.

For those of you out there who refuse to believe that ESPN is really this dumb, you can see for yourself here…

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/18214694/nfl-2016-week-14-power-rankings-dallas-cowboys-new-england-patriots-oakland-raiders

…and then our version will be waiting for you when you get back. Like an early Christmas present!

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Power Ranking Ramblings: Week 14

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Welcome back for another round of Power Ranking Ramblings! The rankings that we crank out every week are identical in order to the nonsensical ones that ESPN spews out every week. This is partly because creating power rankings from scratch is a painstakingly lengthy process and Kevin gave me the death glare when I suggested that we come up with our own. However, the main reason we do it that way is because ESPN’s rankings are… well, they are just awful. You will seldom come across something as overly biased and ill-conceived as ESPN’s opinion on who the best teams in the league are. And it’s a lot of fun to call them out on this, so the point of our rankings is to rip on ESPN’s version as much as possible.

Or at least that’s how it started. I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but it’s been a fairly abysmal year for the NFL. Bad officiating, bad games and most importantly, bad teams. There are three squads in each conference who have a legitimate shot at winning the Super Bowl, and after that it’s a whole bunch of meh. So while making fun of the Worldwide Leader in Sports and its rampant stupidity is always a good time, we can scarcely allow the league’s overall mediocrity to skid by unscathed.

For those of you out there who refuse to believe that ESPN is really this dumb, you can see for yourself here…

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/18214694/nfl-2016-week-14-power-rankings-dallas-cowboys-new-england-patriots-oakland-raiders

…and then our version will be waiting for you when you get back. Like an early Christmas present!

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Power Ranking Ramblings: Week 13

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Welcome back for another round of Power Ranking Ramblings! The rankings that we crank out every week are identical in order to the nonsensical ones that ESPN spews out every week. This is partly because creating power rankings from scratch is a painstakingly lengthy process and Kevin gave me the death glare when I suggested that we come up with our own. However, the main reason we do it that way is because ESPN’s rankings are… well, they are just awful. You will seldom come across something as overly biased and ill-conceived as ESPN’s opinion on who the best teams in the league are. And it’s a lot of fun to call them out on this, so the point of our rankings is to rip on ESPN’s version as much as possible.

Or at least that’s how it started. I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but it’s been a fairly abysmal year for the NFL. Bad officiating, bad games and most importantly, bad teams. There are three squads in each conference who have a legitimate shot at winning the Super Bowl, and after that it’s a whole bunch of meh. So while making fun of the Worldwide Leader in Sports and its rampant stupidity is always a good time, we can scarcely allow the league’s overall mediocrity to skid by unscathed.

As usual, in case you want to confirm that we are in no way fabricating these rankings just to make ESPN look bad, you can take a look at theirs first…

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/18150681/nfl-2016-week-13-power-rankings-dallas-cowboys-oakland-raiders-new-england-patriots

…but only if you come back and read ours. We’re starving writers, man. We need as many hits as we can get!

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Power Ranking Ramblings: Week 12

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When Kevin and I started rambling about ESPN’s NFL Power Rankings, we had a very specific idea for what we wanted to do. The problem is I’m not sure that I ever made what we were doing all that clear and lately there’s been some confusion. Allow me to take a moment to illuminate everyone who isn’t quite sure what the purpose of our rankings are.

The rankings that we crank out every week are identical in order to the nonsensical ones that ESPN spews out every week. This is partly because creating power rankings from scratch is a painstakingly lengthy process and Kevin gave me the death glare when I suggested that we come up with our own. However, the main reason we do it that way is because ESPN’s rankings are… well, they are just awful. You will seldom come across something as overly biased and ill-conceived as ESPN’s opinion on who the best teams in the league are. And it’s a lot of fun to call them out on this, so the point of our rankings is to rip on ESPN’s version as much as possible.

Or at least that’s how it started. I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but it’s been a fairly abysmal year for the NFL. Bad officiating, bad games and most importantly, bad teams. There are three squads in each conference who have a legitimate shot at winning the Super Bowl, and after that it’s a whole bunch of meh. So while making fun of the Worldwide Leader in Sports and its rampant stupidity is always a good time, we can scarcely allow the league’s overall mediocrity to skid by unscathed.

Just in case you want to verify that we didn’t alter one spot on ESPN’s gleeful rundown of the teams it loves and hates, you can check out their rankings here…

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/18094746/nfl-2016-week-12-power-rankings-dallas-cowboys-seattle-seahawks-new-england-patriots

…and then ours will seem even more entertaining to you. It’s Thanksgiving after all and if we can make you laugh or even force a slight grin, that’s a win for us. Enjoy.

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Power Ranking Ramblings: Week 11

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Welcome back to another edition of our Power Ranking Ramblings. It’s been a weird season, everyone, and it doesn’t appear that we are going to see a return to normalcy anytime soon. Dallas and Oakland are two of the league’s best teams? There’s a game in Mexico City this week? Jeff Fisher is finally playing the top overall pick even though Case Keenum would definitely get the Rams to 7-9? Crazy I tell ya!

Kevin and I don’t understand it any more than you do, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to stop rambling about how awful both the league as a whole and ESPN’s power rankings have been this year. As always, you can double check to make sure we aren’t making any of this up…

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/18044652/nfl-2016-week-11-power-rankings-dallas-cowboys-seattle-seahawks-new-england-patriots

…and then see if you like our version better. Thanks for reading!

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Power Ranking Ramblings: Week 10

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Whatever your thoughts on the election, we can all agree that our Power Ranking Ramblings are always a good time, right? By that I mean that Kevin and I always have a good time writing them. Whether anyone other than us is entertained is a mystery. Nevertheless, here are ESPN’s Power Rankings…

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/17993973/nfl-2016-week-10-power-rankings-new-england-patriots-oakland-raiders-dallas-cowboys

…and here are our ramblings. Our hilarious, insightful and relevant ramblings.

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Power Ranking Ramblings: Week 9

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Here’s the thing. Kevin and I both stayed up late last night to watch the Indians blow a 3-1 lead Cubs win the World Series, and we’re both pretty tired today. The fact that we even got these rankings to you before the Thursday Night Game is nothing short of a miracle. So I hope you forgive us if we don’t even really pretend to offer any real analysis this week. We pretty much spend the whole article giving ESPN a hard time. Without further adieu…

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/17931127/nfl-2016-week-9-power-rankings-new-england-patriots-dallas-cowboys-denver-broncos

…let the roast begin!

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Power Ranking Ramblings: Week 8

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One thing that has been universally true since we started these rankings: ESPN loves the Cardinals and Seahawks. Loves them. They must’ve been so torn last week when those two played, but were probably the only ones excited when the game ended a tie. That was like the best of both worlds for ESPN. You can check it out for yourself in this week’s rankings if you want…

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/17869586/nfl-2016-week-8-power-rankings-new-england-patriots-seattle-seahawks-denver-broncos

…or you can just take our word for it. Your call dude.

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Power Ranking Ramblings: Week 4

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The general consensus is that our rankings making fun of ESPN’s NFL Power Rankings last week were good. By good, I mean that no one told us that it sucked or reminded us not to quit our day jobs. That gave us enough confidence to bring this post back for another week, and I guess we’ll see how long you guys will put up with our ramblings before you get sick of them. As a point of reference, here is a link to ESPN’s actual rankings…

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/17636431/nfl-2016-week-4-power-rankings-denver-broncos-new-england-patriots-seattle-seahawks

…so that you know that we aren’t making all of this up just to make you laugh (or at least to give us an awkward smile). They really are sad and confusing. Enjoy.

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No Country for ESPN

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One of the main reasons that Kevin and I started Pegboards was that we had a hunger to write creatively about all of our hobbies and interests, but nowhere to do it. So we started a blog. Not to make money or to enlighten all of our friends and family as to how smart we are, but simply because we enjoy it. And the truth is we don’t always produce as much content as we’d like to. In fact, sometimes months fall off the calendar and our site is more silent and motionless than Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. You can chalk some of that up to laziness but it isn’t due to a lack of a desire. We have jobs and commitments and life has always had a habit of getting in the way of things you want to do. It just happens.

But one thing that always drove us was the success of Grantland. Dealing in equal parts with pop culture and sports, Grantland deployed a host of talented, mostly unknown writers to cover as many subjects as possible. The idea I’m sure was to draw readers in by appealing to their passions, then build a following of loyalists that truly appreciated the talent and hard work that was on display. Grantland was Bill Simmons’ baby, and I think his primary objective was to build a place that he’d want to work at if he were a young writer. It was the beacon of hope for people like Kevin and I, and now it’s all over.

ESPN pulled the plug on Grantland last week about seven months after dismissing Simmons. You can’t read Zach Lowe, Bill Barnwell or Andy Greenwald anymore, but you can watch Michael Smith and Jemele Hill act.

I hate everything.

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