Awesome!

Photo Caption: A really big picture of Marshawn Lynch.

So yeah, Lynch has now had gun issues and running-over-people-and-fleeing-the-scene issues. If he screws up again, he’ll be looking at a much longer suspension.

“I struggled [learning] the plays last year,” Bennett said Wednesday. “I was lethargic because of it. It probably took me until Week 6, Week 7 to pick them up.

“Toward the end, I started grasping the concepts. Once you put things aside and just play, you can play a lot faster.”

It’s easy to see why he couldn’t crack the Bears wide receiver lineup with all of those Pro Bowlers out there. Apparently, according to this article in the Chicago Tribune, Bennett looks much better running routes so far this year. That means you should probably draft him in the second round of your fantasy league. Just trust us.

Regardless of all this, we still don’t see Julius Peppers going to the Patriots.

It is getting to the point where fantasy baseball players have some choices to make. Your draft is fast approaching, and you have options to weigh. I know you have a lot of questions running through your head, so I’m here to help you sort them out. Well, not really me, but my “friends” in the blogosphere. At Off The Record, you won’t see a lot of fantasy baseball coverage, but we feel that it is still our duty (he said duty) to help get you prepared. Either bookmark this entry, or bookmark TheSportsIdiot.com and use the links on my site to find the best sites to keep you informed and ready to dominate.

There are some established sites that bring the noise every season. You should already know these guys:

Rotoworld.com (best site for up to the minute player news as well as great daily reads giving fantasy advice)
RotoAuthority.com (sister site of MLBTradeRumors.com, but with a concentration on fantasy. Also a daily read)
Razzball.com (great daily read as well)

If you want to dig deeper into things, though, check out these links:

BaseballProspectus.com (You have to pay for the good stuff, but it is definitely worth it. Best content I have ever seen.)
RotoRebel.com (Jonathan Gangi’s new blog. He used to write for Rotoworld, and knows his stuff.)
WhosTheCloser.com (Updated daily (once the season starts), this is where you can find quick info about closing situations.)

And then for some fun, and perhaps some good info (I don’t know, I just found them but I like what I see so far) check out SharipovasThigh.com.

If you use these sites in conjunction with your own resources and head, you will do well in your fantasy league. If you have any sites that you feel should be recommended, please hit the comments.

The Mets better hope that Santana and Pelfrey don’t miss any significant time. Both are being counted on to try to overtake the World Champion Philadelphia Phillies.

We think it’s a disgrace that no one has this guy’s back. All the indications are that he’ll be an elite QB in the NFL. He doesn’t throw short, medium or long passes very well. He doesn’t read defenses all that well. He needs to be coaxed to go back on the field in key games after he tries to quit. He goes all nutty and missing for periods of time.

What’s not to like?

We know this thanks to the good folks at Rotoworld, who apparently pay for that crap content. Screw you, ESPN, with your stupid “insider” pay-for-content content.

So anyway, onto Harrison. Yes, Harrison is from Philly, but he will be 37 when the season starts and isn’t an upgrade over anything they already have. He can’t get separation anymore and he looks like he’s afraid to get hit. Every year it’s the same crap. A receiver comes loose or wants to be traded and everyone links him to Philadelphia.

He stinks. He tried to retire early last year. Let’s see…what else? He’s hurt all the time. He stinks.

“I’m a big Kyle Orton fan. I like him leading our football team. He’ll do that this coming season,” said Smith.

“Of course you’re always trying to add different pieces to the mix, but Kyle Orton will be leading our football team this season.”

Good news, Bears fans! Another season that won’t end with a championship. Then again, it might help if the Bears gave him someone to throw to.

Jay Glazer and Adam Schefter already have said that they think Owens is done, and now Banks says he’s hearing similar rumblings.

“You can’t discredit the guy’s numbers,” one Cowboys source told him this week. “He makes plays. But the game is about much more than just numbers, and the game is much more than just one person. The headaches you have to put up with catering to someone aren’t worth it.”

According to Banks, there is also another line of thinking in the organization, and that is that T.O. is just all too easy to blame.

“T.O.’s getting blamed for everything that happened here this season,” another Cowboys source told Banks. “But he’s not the problem. They want to talk about how Terrell is so disruptive in the locker room, and that’s a lie. The guy didn’t do anything this year to warrant the type of stuff you’re hearing now. There’s a faction that wants to get him out of here, and if they want to let the guy go, they should let him go.

“But if you want to be quick to run him out of here, who are you going to get in here to replace him with? Even with our No. 1 quarterback missing three games, he scored 10 touchdowns and had 1,000 yards receiving. So who’s your No. 1 receiver if he’s gone? You let him go, and say you’re 9-7 again next year. Then who are you going to blame? Who are you going to blame then?”

Sounds like T.O. was the source. Roy Williams would be the #1 guy with Owens gone, just to answer his question. He’s not as good, but if he’s focused, he is a top-flight receiver.

But anyway, it seems that the internal debate is raging in Dallas. Ultimately though, it’s Jerry Jones’ call and all these people can talk all they like. Will Jones release Owens before he’s due to cash in on his $3.1 million roster bonus?

“Jerry’s capable of putting up with him another year, but it’s a case of what’s said next?” a Cowboys source said. “What’s coming next? When you win, and he gets his numbers, things are fine [with Owens]. But if not …. with him, it’s just dealing with headaches every day. I’d say it’s all up to Jerry Jones, whether he’s back or not. But it’s tedious, having him there. It’s tedious. And it takes a toll. He’s right about some things, in that you want to get him the ball. But you can’t be worried about it all the time. You can’t throw it to him just to throw it to him. It took a toll on Tony [Romo], but he’ll never admit it.”

All eyes are on you, Jerry.

Yeah, that’s pretty much it.

Our take? Anderson is better than whatever the Jets have in-house. We don’t like Kellen Clemens. We don’t think you can have the big payroll the Jets have and watch it all sink because no one can throw the ball. They can’t stand pat with what they have and there is no way that the division-rival Patriots hand over Matt Cassel at any price, so the Jets are kind of screwed.

Will the Jets trade for Donovan McNabb? We’ll bet Perry’s sweet, tight, virgin rear end that they will at least call the Eagles and find out what the asking price is. But that said, don’t expect a trade to happen. We typed this last part for search optimization purposes.

How about that huge deal they gave you before the 2007 season, Larry? Were they appreciative of you then?

Here’s the deal, Larry. You aren’t nearly as good as you think you are. Your success in past years had much more to do with a dominant o-line and Tony Richardson at fullback than it did with your pure running talents. Willie Roaf, Brian Waters and Will Shields were absolute studs who opened ginormous holes for you to skate backwards through.

So relax, buddy. Enjoy your contract. Meet the new GM and coaches before you go deciding you don’t like it in KC anymore.

Pioli was considered one of the masterminds of the Patriots dynasty.

MESSAGE TO HERM EDWARDS: You are f’ed.

“My back just spasmed up,” he said. “I was [sleeping], but I don’t now how I slept. I woke up and just didn’t feel like moving this morning. It feels better when they [trainers] rubbing on it, but that don’t last long. As soon as they stop, it starts back hurting.

“Everything they can come up with, we’ll just try,” he said. As for Sunday’s game, “it’s two days from now, we’re looking forward to it,” Portis said. “If it’s bad, it’s bad. Hopefully, it’ll be all right.”

Neither Portis nor Washington’s offense has been great lately. This doesn’t help.

“Jacobs has practiced, really, all three days,” Coughlin said Friday. “Barring something that would be a setback –- which means we have to see tomorrow morning, basically –- and hopefully he will go.”

We’d rather just shut it down than to run a boring, poorly updated blog, which is what OTR is starting to become.

We can’t thank all of our readers enough. You guys have all been great and we had a ton of fun playing with everyone. Maybe we’ll do it again some day. We could have just let the blog die slowly and not update it, but that’s not fair to anyone. We thought we would give OTR a proper burial by at least letting everyone know that we are calling it quits.

Memorial services will be held Sunday, December 21st at 2 PM at the Lodi, NJ YMCA.

You can send thoughts and regards to MPerry_77@hotmail.com and MicahW@feverpitchmedia.com.

Happy Holidays to all of those in OTR land!!

Awesome season, Pacman Jones!

UPDATE: Adam Schefter of NFLN is reporting that the injury could actually be career threatening. If it really does end his career, his career will be over. At that point, he won’t ever play again. And then we’d never see him on the field again.

That noise you hear is Roger Goodell smiling. Seriously, he makes noise when he smiles.

“The only thing you can do now is show what type of man you are,” Russell said. “To know the circumstances, just keep on pushing and fight through it and hopefully build on something for next year.

Head coach Tom Cable, didn’t sound too thrilled about it.

“He said what? Build on what for next year?” Cable asked reporters. “You mean build on the big bag of monkey [expletive] that he’s proven to be? The only difference between him and a box of donkey [expletive] is the box. Right, I’m supposed to win football games with this fat [expletive] as my [expletive] “leader.” I’d rather have Todd [expletive] Marinovich right now than this [expletive]. You should see the impression my wife does of him in the family room. She puts a pillow under her shirt and makes this real retardo face and throws a Nerf [expletive] football at the lamp. Utterly [expletive] hilarious. I’m going to [expletive] my [expletive] pants just thinking about it.”

Cable then sighed as he wiped tears of laughter from his eyes.

“Ah…but that’s all off the record, obviously” Cable said as he looked up at the throng of reporters quickly exiting the room. “Off the record, right? You guys didn’t really write that down did you?”

Cable will most certainly be asked about his comments during his Wednesday press conference.

The suspension makes him a risky fantasy start for the rest of the year.

Avery has been summoned to a hearing regarding the matter, but as of right now, the suspension is indefinite.

“More than anything, he’s let his teammates down,” said Dallas co-general manager Brett Hull.

“I completely support the league’s decision to suspend Sean Avery,” Stars owner Tom Hicks said in a statement. “Had the league not have suspended him, the Dallas Stars would have. This organization will not tolerate such behavior, especially from a member of our hockey team. We hold our team to a higher standard and will continue to do so.”

After the recent Plaxico Burress arrest, I was interested in seeing how many points Plaxico Burress would have accumulated during the season.  Let’s review:

Tank Johnson Rule: If a player is arrested or charged with weapons possession, aggravated assault, or resisting arrest they shall receive 5 points for each.  (Plaxico Burress:  5 points)

Pacman Jones Rule: If a player is involved with any altercation or arrest stemming from a nightclub or stripclub, that player shall receive 5 points. If said altercation or arrest involves “making it rain,” that player shall receive 10 bonus points.  (Plaxico Burress:  5 points)

Should he even bother? He will get in more trouble with the team if he doesn’t show, but really, why even bother?

In case you are wondering, he’s referring to Plaxico Burress. Uh oh.

“It’s pretty hard to argue the guy didn’t have a gun and that it wasn’t loaded,” said Bloomberg, who lambasted the idiot WR. “You’ve got bullet holes in and out to show that it was there.”

Bloomberg made a note of the penalty that comes with this type of offense: “you go automatically to three-and-a-half years in the slammer.”

But, surely, Mayor, Plaxico Burress should be excluded from that, correct?

“And I don’t think that anybody should be exempt from that,” he added. “And I think it would be an outrage if we don’t prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.”

Based on Bloomberg’s comments, it’s very likely that Plaxico will start this week against Philly. He’s a must start in all fantasy football leagues.