Interesting notes and opinions about Annual Football Mags.

|Zach| · 08-04-2005, 06:42 PM

The start of the article talks about how dumb it was for Detroit to retain Millen but I found the last half interesting. CP'ers no doubt prob buy a lot of these magazines...

http://www.salon.com/news/sports/col...ay/index1.html

Quote:

So I stocked up on preseason annuals and I've been obsessively reading them for a week or two now. The big news for 2005, if you don't know already, is the growing popularity of the 3-4 defense.

Because I hate to do anything that takes up my time and doesn't end up in the column, I'll tell you that my favorite is the book "Pro Football Prospectus 2005," a title that's appeared before but has now been taken over by the writers of FootballOutsiders.com.

I've written before about how much I like the innovative statistical work these guys do, and the book even features a back-cover blurb by me, which says, "A must for anyone interested in going beyond 'this guy has more yards, so he must be better.'" I'll stand by that.

I also bought four magazine-style annuals: "Pro Football Weekly NFL Preview 2005"; "Sporting News Pro Football 2005"; "Lindy's 2005 Pro Football"; and "Athlon Sports Pro Football: 2005 NFL Preview Edition."
My favorite of these is the Athlon Sports book. That's because it has a four-page photo spread of outrageously hot cheerleader babes.

OK, that's not true. I just need the page views, and besides, Lindy's has a seven-page spread. The real reason is that Athlon comes clean about its mistakes from past years. Most annuals confidently predict what's going to happen this year and only remind you of past predictions that come true.

If you make enough predictions, folks, some of them are bound to be right. Even I get one right once in a while. I picked the Lions to win the game that ended their three-year road losing streak.

But it's pretty fun to read the little box in each team's Athlon write-up called "2004 Revisited," which features a good prediction and a bad one, labeled "The Prophecy" and "The Lie."

A couple of sample 2004 "Lies": "Patient Chargers fans are likely in for more misery after suffering through last season's wretched 4-12 campaign" and "Despite all the changes on offense, the 49ers can be competitive this season." The Chargers went 12-4, won the AFC West and kicked away a playoff game they should have won. The 49ers went 2-14 and lost five games by at least two touchdowns.

I also like the Pro Football Weekly annual, which has a lot of good front-of-the-book material, though all of the annuals have too much fantasy stuff for my taste. PFW is heavy on the scout-speak, if you like that sort of thing, and has the most detailed position-by-position analysis of each team and a good stats section.

The Sporting News book is, like the Sporting News, solid in an unexceptional way, with lots of little features that look like they were dreamed up by a consultant, like a box for each team labeled "Nickel Package: 5 Things to Look For," as though there were exactly five things to look for with every team.

I'm having trouble with Lindy's because the typography is so awful I can't read it for more than a minute or two at a time, but I did manage to learn that first-year Titans cheerleader Kimberly rides Tennessee walking horses, which I hadn't known before.

Hydrae · 08-04-2005, 07:21 PM

Was this written by my brother? He is the only person I know who still buys these out of date mags each year. With the advent of the Internet, what is the point to buying something that is currently 2-3 months out of date?

tk13 · 08-04-2005, 07:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hydrae

Was this written by my brother? He is the only person I know who still buys these out of date mags each year. With the advent of the Internet, what is the point to buying something that is currently 2-3 months out of date?

Well, I don't really buy them anymore, but it is kind of nice to have the schedules, rosters, etc. etc... all that info in one little book you can open up and look at quickly. I don't really buy the football ones anymore... the only thing like that I buy is USA Today Sportsweekly's baseball preview issues, it's cheaper than those magazines and it's printed the week-of, so it's usually right up to date.

**Saulbadguy** · 08-04-2005, 07:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hydrae

Was this written by my brother? He is the only person I know who still buys these out of date mags each year. With the advent of the Internet, what is the point to buying something that is currently 2-3 months out of date?

Something to read on the shitter.

**chefsos** · 08-04-2005, 07:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saulbadguy

Something to read on the shitter.

Isn't that why they created laptops?

08-04-2005, 07:21 PM	#2
Hydrae Sandbox: Leander Lasercats Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Austin, Tx Casino cash: $2267000	Was this written by my brother? He is the only person I know who still buys these out of date mags each year. With the advent of the Internet, what is the point to buying something that is currently 2-3 months out of date?
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