Idiots Write About Cincinnati

I used to throw out sports opinions all the time, remember? Do you miss those days? If no, go swallow a shotgun (or whatever). If yes, awesome. Really awesome.

Anyway, a handful of words have been written recently--both locally and nationally--about dudes who play for teams that I cheer for. And they were stupid words. Follow me...

Last week, ESPN.com's Jeffri Chadiha wrote a 'nothing is going on in the football world, I need to come up with something before deadline' column. Chadiha's idea was to list the ten players that teams can't win without. Somehow, he decided that chaps like Brian Urlacher and Antonio Gates were more valuable to their team than Carson Palmer.

Now, Urlacher and Gates are monsters, no question, and I usually try not to let silly columns like this rile me up...BUT, this is preposterous. Here me out...

If Urlacher went down with a skull injury tomorrow, his replacement would step in and be protected by Tommie Harris, Alex Brown, Adewale Ogunleye, Mark Anderson, Charles Tillman, Nathan Vasher, Mike Brown and maybe Lance Briggs. That's still a top seven defense.

As for Gates, if he injured his spine on a whitewater rafting trip, his backup would step in and block his ass off for Tomlinson and Michael Turner. And the defense would still be stacked. With Gates, San Diego would have a chance at a 14-2 campaign. Without? They'd still be 10-6 or better.

With Palmer, the Bengals should have a chance to contend for a title for the foreseeable future, and should be a mainstay in the playoffs. Without him, this is a 5-11 bunch (7-9 tops), especially with Doug Johnson being the current backup.

Jeffri Chadiha is a stupid idiot.

Another stupid idiot is John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Over the weekend, John Fay wrote a Cincinnati Reds Midseason Report, and he rated the top five offseason moves.

How can this guy possibly justify any move being better (or more important) than bringing in Josh Hamilton? Really, I would love Fay to answer that question. And I would still ask that question even if Alex Gonzalez had zero errors this season, as opposed to the fourteen he's produced thus far.

Josh Hamilton might be the reason the Reds win in the future; Gonzalez is just a guy that plays the position between second and third.

I care about the wrong things.

UPDATE: Wess's page has been updated. Sort of. So check it out, America!

Brad Spieser (Brad@Twinkilling.com)