NEWS

Fact or Fiction: Special Guest Edition

Ryan Gibbons & Steve Dugas, The Falcon and the Snowman


November 21, 2014


While Kurt is learning how to change a diaper, Steve Dugas filled in during this week's Fact or Fiction and certainly didn't have an agenda in doing so. Onto the statements!

Mike Evans should have been the #1 pick in the 2014 YFFL Draft.

Mike Evans Dear Steve, I'm sorry that I'm ruining your chances for "a top pick" in next year's "YFFL Draft". Please stop writing. It's not me, it's you. P.S. I will be unable to attend Brynn's birthday party.

Steve: FACT. Mike Evans has been the best rookie in the league to date. Despite just 4 starts for the Mallards, he sits 12th in WR scoring with 48 points (18 more have been lost to the bench). He has also been saddled with some terrible QB play and an early season groin injury, yet he has dominated the past month. Sure, Watkins has been a good player, but he is in Buffalo and will have to contend with a career of bad passers and terrible weather. Kelvin Benjamin and Jordan Matthews have been solid as well, but all sit a tier below Evans. Now if Tampa can just land Mariota at the top of the 2015 NFL Draft...

Gibbs: FICTION. Steve desperately wanted to include this question, I guess to show how he "won" the draft, but you could make a case for at least two of the guys that went ahead of him, given what we knew at the time. Keep in mind that the last guy from Tampa who blew up in a big way is now behind Bobby Rainey on the depth chart. Let's face it, nothing good comes out of Florida unless you like awful football teams, bath salts, senior citizens in white tennis shoes, and/or election incompetence.

Bobby should cut Robert Griffin III.

Steve: FACT. Griffin is what I refer to as a "Roster Clogger" - a guy who is just good enough to be on a YFFL team, but not good enough to make a difference. It's always better to roster a player with upside, even if they aren't playing at the moment. Griffin is too busy thinking he is already great and has skin as thin as wet tissue paper. Maybe he turns his career around in some small market like Tennessee, but Bobby can't wait for that to happen and will be taking a QB at the top of the 2015 Draft. With 2 clear-cut top QBs available and the White Guys, Llamas and Beans all needing one, Bobby is going to need to make sure he lands in the Stupor Bowl to get his new Franchise QB.

Gibbs: FICTION. It's close though. Once again, it's an RG3 ring circus surrounding this team (get it?!?!?!), with DC sports radio in full meltdown mode. Chris Cooley, and more importantly Jay Gruden, basically declared Peach MacLearn a better passer than Griffin (not exactly, but they would if they knew Peach), which is never a good sign for your career. With that said, it's still so hard to find good QBs in the YFFL that it's worth keeping him as a flier in the event he ever regains some semblance of the skills from his rookie year. If Mark Sanchez can be fantasy relevant in 2014 anything is possible.

Buffalo "Hey Bruce! Look over here! I think I just found J.P. Losman! He's perfectly preserved!"

Buffalo seems like an attractive place to live.

Steve: FICTION. I thought it was bad when I was out plowing for 30 something straight hours during the 38" Blizzard of 2012, but that is nothing compared to what they are going through right now. How does one even start to exit their house when there is 7 feet of snow at the front door? Yarmouth may be over-priced and over-taxed, but I'll stay put, thanks.

Gibbs: FICTION. Buffalo didn't seem like a nice place to live before it snowed so much that the Delaney brothers could sit on each other's shoulders and still not be above the snow line. Aside from that, the Bills have trotted out one of the worst stables of QBs in the NFL for almost 20 years (look it up, late period Drew Bledsoe is probably the top guy) and I can only assume there are Canadians skulking around your backyard constantly. Sure they have Buffalo Wings, but you can get those at the Maine Mall, too.

You can win in the YFFL without a top tier QB.

Steve: FACT. While Nick is convinced you can't win in this league without having Manning, Brees, Rodgers or Luck on your team, there are still 12 other teams in the league playing each other every week. It's about trying to build a complete team. Sure, we are all trying to get a guy that turns into a player who gives you a competitive advantage over the rest of the league, but it doesn't make sense why Nick is always skewering everyone who doesn't have one of those guys for not going out and landing one. It's not like the teams that have those QBs are putting them out on the front lawn with a "for sale" sign.

Gibbs: FACT. I'll get to the answer in a minute, but first I need to remind Steve this isn't "Settle All Family Business or Fiction". Keep it together Corleone... Anyway, this one's true. The Thugs won with Matt Schaub not too long ago, and Super Bowl participant Tony Romo is up, and down, and up, and down... Incidentally, I'm not sure Brees is in the top tier this year, but the Chickens are more fraudulent than the IDs high school kids use to buy Twisted Tea at Irving.

Matt Schaub The Thugs won a championship with this guy. #neverforget

Nick does not fact check his weekly picks segment.

Steve: FACT. It might be because Nick has to write the article on his smartphone while locked in a bathroom while his three boys pound on the other side of the door and scream at him, but we have to hold him accountable if we are ever going to make this a website a money maker. Just this week Nick completely missed an opportunity to hammer the Huskers for the Ray Rice trade and point out that the Huskers might end up with a top 5 pick that would be shipped over to the Merry Men to finish that trade.

Gibbs: FICTION. If anything, Nick needs to be more wildly speculative with his picks. I don't come to Nick's Picks for in-depth analysis, or even shallow analysis. I come to Nick's Picks mainly to see if he picked against the Llamas (yes) and whether or not he mentions the "embargo" (yes). While more facts wouldn't improve Nick's Picks, letting someone else set the lines would. I nominate Jonie Davidson.

Isaiah Willette will be a better basketball player than his dad.

Steve: FICTION. A young Isaiah is going to be so sick and tired of hearing stories while getting bounced on Grampa Willette's knee about the 1970's Yarmouth High School basketball teams that he played on that Isaiah will certainly turn to hockey instead. Plus, throw in the fact the Bruins will be good while the Celtics continue to be mired in mediocrity during his impressionable youth and Kurt has a hockey player on his hands for sure.

Gibbs: FACT. Only because Kurt's destiny is to project all of his unfulfilled athletic dreams onto his firstborn son, probably while telling him about the time he made a catch at the wall to win an indoor wiffle ball league back in '13.

Steve is long winded when it comes to Fact or Fiction responses and might not be asked back in the future.

Steve: FACT.

Gibbs: FACT. Steve is the RGIII of Fact or Fiction - he holds the ball way too long, then gets sacked or throws a pick. Hurry back, Kurt.