4 Hard Downs: Spring Break Sucks, Kickoff Sucks & NFL Draft

Spring break is broken, or at least it broke me, NFL Draft is so close and new kickoff rule

We are in the midst of party planning for a 6 year old birthday that I already did a family party for but is now the friend party. So I am very ready for Sunday, because we will be past this entire situation where I am trying to minimize the load on my wife and also not let a bunch of people just roam around my house.

All of which is on the heels of spring break. We will get to football, I promise, but whew it is a lot jampacked into 15 days.

So, let’s just SPOT THE BALL!!!

1st Down: SPRING BREAK SUCKS

There are people who like spring break.

I also assume they are people who like to travel or can just take time off work or; on the flipside, just don’t care about doing kid shit.

Me?

I’m none of those things. I don’t like to travel except for work. I can’t just take time off work, during my kid’s spring break I actually started a new show for Bleacher Report and booked two gigs. I also do care about kid shit.

I’ve already talked about liking kid stuff. We did egg hunt (multiple times), went fishing twice (caught nothing), built a log cabin out of her popsicle sticks, did reading and cooked together.

That also means I am not just working all day while they’re at school. Add in the birthday party and making my house ready to be acceptable to my wife and yeah…

Spring Break Sucks.

Or as I’ve seen insta parents call it, a rude awakening for summer.

Although summer we have the pool and that works for everyone, in different ways. My wife and kid get to go to the pool. My kid is doing swim team and gets to swim. They will both be tired and I will be at home working with dinner ready when they get back from a fun day.

2nd Down: New Kickoff Rule Is All About Offense

Friend of mine Max Brown posted this pretty succinct explanation of the new kickoff rule. He takes this and turns it into this vid:

maxbrowne

A post shared by @maxbrowne

This is just a way to get more points on the board. Points via special teams or points via field position. An absolute strip session where your kicker, like a Sebastian Janikowski who just absolutely put it out of the endzone is useless. It is creating 11 on 10 football because you can’t count on kickers to be a part of coverage.

If you kick it to far, you get penalized. If you kick it too short, you get penalized.

This is like cooking for a child.

You have to thread that needle and even then, you have to hope that it works out.

Going to draw this up because the single line and 5 yards to contact is going to eliminate a lot of what makes some guys real dudes.

And this is spoken as a guy who was an L2 and L3 (more on that this week).

3rd Down: I Don’t Think Going To See An RB In The First Round

Tomorrow I am doing a show about the top RBs and WRs for the 2024 NFL Draft. I just got my travel and everything setup so I will be there Thursday to Saturday and come home Sunday.

To reference up top, the rare travel but it is for work.

Ranking these running backs doesn’t make a ton of sense because outside of Trey Benson no one is a day one guy. Not because they aren’t good. Not because they can’t have an instant impact.

Because you can get more value somewhere else.

I like Jaden Shirden. I like Bucky Irving. I think Audric Estime is an interesting player because he isn’t fast but he is good.

I just think the NFL is focused on QBs, WRs and getting money.

RBs don’t get money.

The NFL lives in two separate worlds. A world where you need RBs, Safeties, LBs, TEs to survive. But also a world where QB, WR, EDGE are the spots that you pay and you’ll just figure out the rest. The other positions are in the middle with OT leading the way.

But Safeties, Tight Ends, Linebackers are what make up your kickoff coverage and return teams. Which they’re minimizing. Hence my point on losing guys who are dudes.

4th Down: The Masters This Weekend

I am a very non-participant who lives in a very The Masters hyped world. Tonight I am recording a The Masters draft for College Sports Now. This weekend, to circle back around, is my kid’s birthday party and any dads that do come will want to watch and talk The Masters.

This birthday party will have a bouncehouse and I just picked up 50 kid waters and beer and wine will be here on Thursday/Friday.

And all I can think about is figuring out how to manage The Masters because I’m going to have to navigate that. You tell me. What’s my play? Just manage the party or pretend I care while the dads who feel like they got dragged here want to talk about people I’ve never heard of?

Seriously, tell me.

Unrelated, my mom and dad came up with the perfect plan to make sure the bouncehouse isn’t wet or covered in pollen. Tarps to cover overnight. Hose down the tarps before you inflate the big boy. Because last year we had a nightmare of a rain and all the kids were running in and out of the house with wet clothes and we just went to a party where they spent hours using towels to try and dry it out.

Will report back and post some picks.

It sounds like I’m complaining. I’m not. I’m super excited and if The Masters is on that means I can work the party and make sure everything is in order and keep kids out of my office.

Cheers!!!