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I'm painfully bored at work.  Anyone want to talk Jaguars football?  Anyone off work already?

I can tell you this, I'm working for the weekend...

-Chris

Welcome again to BS, the column where we take a critical look at popular topics involving the Jacksonville Jaguars. Today's column revolves around the ever popular offseason topic of the Jaguars leaving Jacksonville. Various pundits have put the team in Los Angeles, San Antonio, Montreal, Toronto, and the new en vogue pick, London.

The Statement: Because the Jaguars play in the smallest market in the NFL and have rampant blackout problems, they plan on moving to another city for green pastures. While it seems the Chargers are the new leading candidates for the LA opening, the Jaguars would instead move to jolly ole England to establish the NFL as a true international brand. This would be slowly followed by the Bills moving to Toronto, the 49ers to Beijing, the Cardinals to Mexico City, and the establishment of the Mars Manhunters.

The "Evidence:" The Jaguars blacked out 12 of 16 games in 2003 and 2004, resulting in the infamous tarps on the stadium. The city of Jacksonville hasn't become Atlanta II, as the NFL hoped it would when they surprisingly awarded the team in 1993.

The NFL regular season games played in London so far have been a roaring success, and with the NFL falling badly behind the NBA in the international race, it  needs to make a move.

The Facts: Since the tarps have gone up, only one home game has been blacked-out. The big problem for the Jaguars is the lack of ticket sales in the premium areas, like club seats and luxury boxes. Sadly, the economy is only going to worsen this, but it's going to do that for every team in the league.

Now, we've gone over this a million times, so then, why would London be a terrible idea?

The travel expenses for one. Currently, the longest trip for any game a team has to make is when Seattle and Miami play each other. The visiting team makes a 6,000 mile round trip. The CLOSEST team to London, the New England Patriots would have to make a similar trip to play in London. The Chargers would have a nearly 11,000 mile round trip a head of them.

That alone is a huge expense for any team to incur. The owners who were in the same division would be furious at the huge expense being lopped onto their budget.

Let alone, would London really support a team? Outside of Toronto and hockey, when have American sports leagues and international teams mixed? The Grizzlies left Vancouver, the Expos are now the Nationals, hell even some NHL teams had to leave Canada.

These regular season games in London are akin to when the US national soccer team is doing well. It's a singular event that everyone can get behind and see something we usually don't pay attention to. How's MLS doing?

To get Londoners to dish out for season tickets is a huge financial risk.

The Verdict: Will the Jaguars ever leave Jacksonville? That is a question that can't be answered with any certainty. Until LA has a team, it's always going to be on the table.

As for the Jaguars ending up in London, well that's just BS.

Welcome to Bullshit, the column where we take a critical look at popular claims surrounding the Jacksonville Jaguars. In today's column, we're going to look at the persistent rumors the Jaguars are going to trade their first round pick for disgruntled Broncos Quarterback Jay Cutler.

The Claim: The Jaguars are in contacts with the Broncos to trade for Jay Cutler. They are motivated to do this because David Garrard slipped as a QB last season and is on the other side of 30.

The Evidence: Unnamed but "Credible" sources. Hmm, I wonder if they can point me towards Bigfoot, too?

The Facts:Now, let's look at the facts. Garrard set a career high with 3942 total yards and 17 touchdowns in 2008. He rushed for 31 first downs as well. Keep in mind this was with perhaps the worst wide receiver corps and offensive line south of Detroit.

Garrard may be over 30, but he has only been a starter for three seasons. Assuming the Jaguars get an offensive line in front of him again, his body should allow for at least another five productive seasons.

As for these "Credible" sources, I wonder where they're getting their info from. Since Gene Smith has become GM, he has stressed two things: Character, and picks over players. Since then, I have seen nothing that would make me think he'll go back on that. Why then, would he simply change directions now and trade the #8 pick for a Quarterback?

While Cutler has a 4,500 yard season to his credit, what else has he done? The Broncos have yet to regain their status when Elway left. Hell, even when Brian Griese and Jake Plummer were at the helm, the Broncos were a consistent playoff team. Cutler and the Broncos managed to choke a three game lead in the AFC West last year.

The Verdict: Why would the Jaguars, who just went through 3+ seasons of a constant QB controversey, put themselves right back into one? David Garrard is the epitome of a workman QB who gets the job done. Get him some more targets and some protection, and he'll do fine.

As for trading for Jay Cutler, well friends, that's bullshit.

-John

Things I never thought I'd post on Big Cat Country...

David Garrard, our embattled quarterback, will be a guest on the Rachael Ray show on Thursday.  No, the producers of the show did not pay me to promote his apperance.  In fact, if you made a list of things that I never expected to post on BCC, Rachael Ray is probably in the top five, if not number one overall.  David is going on for an NFL players cooking segment, where he makes his "Buffalo Chicken Dip" 

Notice the MVP spelled out in red peppers.

Anyhow, I thought this apperance was absurd enough to merit being posted, though I can't tell you exactly how to make this dip.  You see, the show's website has the recipies, but won't post the whole thing until after they air the show.  So if you're sitting at home today with a hankering for David's dip, you'll have to wait.

Here's what you'll need to make it though:

• 1 8-ounce package cream cheese
• 2 cups cooked chicken (a store-bought rotisserie chicken works best), shredded
• 1/2 cup buffalo wing sauce, recommended brand Texas Pete
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/2 cup blue cheese dressing (eyeball it)
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (eyeball it

I'd be willing to bet that you take the components, put them in a pyrex oven safe pan, and bake it until it's melted and brown.  I can't imagine this being anymore complicated than that.

How about you, do you have any special recipies for tailgating food?

-Chris

Once again, I found myself deciding to click on an article for my nominee of 2008's First to Worst in Sportswriting award, Peter King. Normally I just shake my head at the state of both his column, as well as Stewart Mandel's. However, this time I think it's worth a rebuttal. In his Tuesday Morning Quarterback, he was asked if Pat Tillman was hall of fame worthy.

Cris said the same thing last year on our HBO show, and I respect his opinion. But I disagree. The Pro Football Hall of Fame mandates that players be judged on what they do between the white lines and nothing else. Tillman was a good NFL player, not a great one. What if, for example, Jon Kitna enters politics after his NFL career, becomes a great American statesman, ascends to Secretary of State and brokers a truce between the Israelis and Hamas? Should we then elect Kitna to the Hall of Fame?

Sorry Peter, we have a term for that, and it's called a Straw man. We're not talking about politics or running for office. What Pat Tillman did was so far gone from the example you just gave, it's absurd.

Pat Tillman dropped a multi-million dollar offer from the Arizona Cardinals to join the US military to fight what he believed in. In an era where we may honestly see players like Terrell Owens end up in the Hall of Fame, I say THAT sends the wrong kind of message.

As someone who belongs to a family who has had a member fight in every war this country has been involved in since the Mexican War I can't help but feel you are doing a disservice to the soldiers on the battlefield.

In an era where players make more money in a season than the average fan in the stands makes in 15 years, Tillman's actions were the definition of courage, patriotism, and humility.

My signature, "I smoke, if that bothers you, take a look around the world we live in and shut up" by Bill Hicks, explains alot on my philosophy on life. I'm not sure about you guys, but I find the fact that this country spends more time discussing pointless issues rather than solving real problems or finding truly valid things to hold dear, upsets me.

While I respect every ounce of sweat every player has given to dedicating their bodies to play at the NFL level, Pat Tillman gave something much more. He gave his life for this country. He showed the kind of resolve, dedication, and committment we often only give lip-service too.

Pat Tillman deserves a bust in Canton, Ohio. In fact, he deserves to be the first one on display.

I'm terrible at picking games and even worse against the spread.  Therefore you don't hear a lot of talk about me betting on games, not that I'd ever partake in illegal activity like that.  But that won't stop me from joining with some of my favorite bloggers to see who is the master and champion of picks.  The real reason why I'm so bad at picking is that I often introduce irrational bias into the selection, which is always bad when money is on the line.

These are my compatriots in the Blogger Deathmatch!

-Ben Folsom, The Curly R
-Will Allensworth, Hogs Haven
-TexSkins, Hogs Haven
-Dagger, Post Game Heroes
-Brian Hunter, Common Prejudice NFL
-Michael Bean, Behind the Steel Curtain
-Derek, Iggles Blog
-River City Rage, Big Cat Country
-Gamecocker, Horseshoe Digest

The point spreads are taken from Yahoo! on Wednesday afternoon, so everyone is basing their picks on the same thing.  With that, here are my picks for the first week of the 2008 NFL regular season.  Winners will be in bold.  I'll also be editing this post so that I can include the rest of my picks before the weekend.  By our rules, the only one that HAS to be up tonight is for the season opener.

Thursday, 4 September

Washington at New York Football Giants (-3.5)

Sunday, 7 September

Arizona (-2.5) at San Francisco

Seattle at Buffalo (-1)

Cincinnati (-1) at Baltimore

Dallas (-5.5) at Cleveland

Detroit (-3) at Atlanta

Chicago at Indianapolis (-9.5)

Jacksonville (-3) at Tennessee

Kansas City at New England (off the board - pick 'em)

Tampa Bay at New Orleans (-3)

New York Jets (-3) at Miami

St. Louis at Philadelphia (-7.5)

Houston at Pittsburgh (-6.5)

Carolina at San Diego (-9)

Monday, 8 September

Denver (-3) at Oakland

Minnesota at Green Bay (-2.5)

Feel free to mock me in the Comments!

-Chris

[Note by River City Rage, 07/19/08 12:51 AM EDT ] We've added a new writer here at Big Cat Country.  I'd like to introduce to you John, who's kind enough to join our crew here at BCC! -Chris

As some of you have probably noticed my screen name in the bylines of a few recent articles, thought it would be good to let you guys know a little bit about the newest second rate hack writer for BCC.

My pseudo journalistic credentials include a two year writing stint for fearthespear.net, a Florida State Football fan site. In addition, I have published articles featured in the newsletters of several sties, including SECRivals.com, and GatorCountry.com. This is the first time I’ve written for a non-college centric site, but the Jaguars are my true passion so I doubt it will make a difference.

My parents got season tickets when the team was announced, I was at the first preseason game against the St Louis Rams, the first game against the Houston Oilers, our first win at home vs Pittsburgh, our first Monday night game, the 1999 AFC Championship game,  the first home game of the Del Rio era against Buffalo, and many other memories good and bad.

I’m a senior at Florida State University, currently majoring in rum and cokes International Affairs/Economics with a minor in journalism

All in all, as it seems the internet is diametrically opposed to quality control, I hope to keep BCC from falling into that trap.

Sincerely

-John