Sportandfashion-news Super Bowl Preview: 8.) In Pot Roast's Honor, Greatest Fat Athlete Nicknames

Yes, Super Bowl week is finally here. We will be sick of everything by Friday night yelling PLAY THE DAMN GAME, but it is only right to be excited about it for the first couple days. As we have done in years past, we will be numbering our Super Bowl coverage and then posting a big link dump on Saturday so you have it all at your fingertips before the big game. 

There is not much exciting about Denver. I mean they really do not have many personalities on their team. It is almost like Peyton Manning does these mind tricks over the team he plays for and makes everyone acts like him. Von Miller is one of the only ones, but he is out of the season meaning there is not much. But there is one man that deserves a ton of love and attention especially from this blog... Terrance Knighton, Denver's defensive tackle also known as 'Pot Roast.'  I deem this one of the best fat athlete nicknames ever.

Before we get going on 'Greatest Fat Athlete Nicknames', I do want to welcome Knighton to the 'Buffet Club.' What is the 'Buffet Club?' Something I may or may not have talked about on the blog, but an old roommate and I created a list of defensive tackles we would like to eat Chinese Buffet with. The two locks are Vince Wilfork and Haloti Ngata with some different people rotation in and out. If you are not taking Knighton in this club, you're an asshole.  Without further ado some of my favorite fat man nicknames with thoughts included.

-William 'The Fridge' Perry - The epitome of fat athlete nicknames. Bow to your king.

-Bryant 'Big Country' Reeves: I am glad we live in a world where this picture exists. I also think every big hick looking Causcian center is now nicknamed 'Big Country'

-Frank 'Bag of Donuts' Winters: I do think people forget about how great this one is and it might be the best. NEVER FORGET... John Madden loved this one.

-Angel 'El Pato' Cabrera: Are ducks fat?  Is it because Cabrera walks a duck? Do I want to get extremely drunk and smokes two packs of cigarettes with El Pato? Yes, yes i do.

-Gilbert 'Gravedigger' Brown: Any time you get a Burger King burger named after you, you deserve to be on this list.

-Robert 'Tractor' Traylor: Always a good one as it worked with his last name. Any time you can do that, it is gold.

-Oliver 'The Real Meal' Miller - I FOUND THIS NICKNAME LAST NIGHT AND IT IS THE BEST THING EVER. Fits him perfectly.

-Charles 'Round Mound of Rebound' Barkley: This is a given.

-Pablo 'Kung Fu Panda' Sandoval: Any time your nickname sparks an entire fan base wearing panda hats while they watch baseball, it is a good one.

-Draymond 'Dancing Bear' Green: He really is not fat, but this is a hell of a nickname. One that I have used on myself becuase I am a tool.

-Butterbean - You are a boxer but also nicknamed after a turkey. At least he has America shorts.

-Larry 'Grandmama' Johnson - Is Larry Johnson fat? He got fat at the end of his career. Why do all NBA teams have fat man nicknames.

-B.J. 'The Freezer' Raji - One that Wisconsin fans would kill me If I leave it off this list, but still not worth eight million a year.

There are many other ones, feel free to leave them in the comments.

Charlie.

Manning Defies His Season in Denver's Big Win

For the last decade and change, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning arguably have the best individual rivalry in sports. It is about 'Who holds the key to the quarterback castle' along with other things. It pits two of the best going at it, and usually when they play against each other, you get their complete best. Denver delivered a dominating 26-16 win where they won by a lot more than actual score with Manning delivering a performance of a lifetime and New England finally ripping at the seams with all their injuries.

Maybe it is the media world we live in, or what happened last season but it felt like the pressure on Manning to win another championship was greater than ever before. He dropped the complete hammer on New England with a defining performance throwing for 400 yards only missing on eleven passes while completing over 30 and threw two touchdowns without any turnovers. Manning should have went with a Sam Cassell dance at the end of the game. Everyone talked for days, weeks, months about how Manning could not handle the big moment. Is this moment big enough or will he have to do it against the Legion of Boom for people to be impressed?  No matter what happens to this Denver team in two weeks, Manning should be recognized for his dominance of the American Football Conference all year.

I realize they give out the Most Valuable Player for individual performance during the regular season, but it really felt like this was Manning's game where everyone realizes why the Denver quarterback is taking home an MVP award next Saturday night. As well as realizing why he is one of the Greatest of All-Time in case anyone forgot over the last couple weeks.  One of the things that has bit him in the past was Manning making a mistake for doing a little bit too much. That did not happen on Sunday afternoon against New England. He utilized Eric Decker and Julius Thomas to the best of their abilities along with Demaryius Thomas whom had a huge day going for 134 yards with seven catches including a touchdown. Manning's ability to spread the ball around paid off big time.

Manning played great, and deserves every complimentary word about him yet Terrance 'Pot Roast' Knighton should get a ton of credit as well for paratolling the middle like one of the best defensive tackles in the league. Knighton came from Jacksonville in the offseason and is playingstrong in the last couple of weeks. After having three great games, Knighton played a part in shutting down New England's newfound rushing attack. LaGarrette Blount had only six yards on five carries making him completely obsolete. Knighton also made a key sack of Tom Brady on a critical fourth down play after he made a play to force it to a fourth down. Denver has their own injury issues this year, but the way Knighton played in the last six weeks has been a big reason why the Broncos had a resurgence on defense.

I would be remiss if we did not give New England some credit for the season they had this season. This Patriots team lost Vince Wilfork, Jared Mayo, Rob Gronkowski and countless number of others. New England still found a way to the AFC Championship. Bill Belichick did an excellent job with a team that snake-bitten throughout the season. Not to diminish what they have done, but this speaks to the futility of the AFC too. It is a night and day conference from the NFC. Peyton might love the conference, but it is nowhere near as good of a conference as the other conference.

Denver heads to their first Super Bowl since 1999 when John Elway went back-to-back, and it really confirms why the Broncos brought Manning to the Rocky Mountains. Even if they do not win the game, Broncos accomplished what they wanted to when Manning held up the 18 jersey. I cannot wait for Denver-Seattle. It is going to be a great one.

Charlie.

NFL Championship Weekend Picks

I cannot believe how annoying this week has been with the National Football League has been this week. People spent two days talking about what kind of pants San Francisco's coach wears for Christ sake. Those same folks talked about OMAHA, OMAHA for the entire week. People are asking Tom Brady and Bill Belichick about marijuana use in Denver. People are making ridiculous comparisons for Kaepernick versus Wilson. Needless to say, I am happy football will be here at 2:00 pm on Sunday. It is about damn time. 

New England at Denver 2:00 pm CBS - We all know about Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, and I promise we will get there shortly, but let's talk about the other pawns in this elaborate chess game. LaGarrette Blount is currently having a hot streak in the last several games, and become the key cog in New England's offense. Blount is a bruiser whom can wear Denver's defense down. New England could do many of the same things San Diego did the first time around. I think it would be foolish to not expect a big game from Blount. That being said, big ole Terrance Knighton has to be like his weight and be huge in this one. 

Knighton is having a breakout year for Denver manning the middle. It would be lazy and blogger-like to call him like Vince Wilfork, but honestly, he is having a Wilfork-like impact on Denver's defense. If there is one player on Denver's defense that can affect Blount running the football it is Knighton. He would be my defensive player to watch for the Broncos although I am willing to assume all eyes will be on Quentin Jammer as he fills in for the injured Chris Harris who is out with an ACL injury.  

Tom Brady has to be licking his chops with guys like Jammer and Champ Bailey playing in the secondary. Both are past their prime. These guys can be contributors on a good team, but they can be your starters especially when you are staring at Tom Brady. I understand the receivers Brady has right now are comparable to Taco Bell ground beef, but still, Brady found all sorts of ways to make it work despite the lack of talent. 

What is sort of lost on people when talking about New England is how good their cornerbacks are and if the officials let them play, I could see Peyton Manning have some issues and forcing some balls. To that point, Manning needs to be in control and look for shorter passes underneath to tear up the weak linebacker core. It is really not a game where Manning should be looking deep rather take his time and control the clock. 

In the end, I like New England. I feel like the Patriots are completely patch-worked but still know how to win this game. Blount becomes the key while Brady delivers some big plays taking advantage of a vulnerable secondary. NE 38-34  

San Francisco at Seattle 5:30 pm FOX - Did you know there is no love lost between these teams? Do you know these coaches do not like each other? Seriously, we all get it. Just like the Steelers-Ravens in 2010, we get the best rivalry going right now playing for the right to get to the Super Bowl.   

Russell Wilson is really the player to watch in this one. People hate saying bad words about golden child Russ, but he has not been in good in a month. He is essentially Alex Smith'ing or Trent Dilfer'ing his way through the playoffs. Wilson needs to come up with a couple big plays for Seattle to win this game. Not having Percy Harvin this week I actually think does not hurt as much as others might believe. They had to rework their offense a bit to get Harvin in on more plays, and now they are back to what they have been for the whole year.

One thing I noticed when watching a limited amount of tape is Colin Kaepernick tends to underthrow the football against Seattle. I assume this is a problem for him overall, but for whatever reason, Kaepernick still goes for the vertical option. Wilson is a game manager right now (I am not saying he is one for the record, rather that's what he is doing to help his team while he struggles if that makes sense), and Kaepernick needs to play that way as well. If he makes an early mistake, the demons of his struggles against Seattle with the 12th man will all return. If Kaepernick comes out blazing hot in this game, we could be in for quite the show from here plus it would probably put him on a special pedestal if he pulled off the upset.

The thing about Seattle's defense is I struggle to find a weakness for this team. Seattle did give up 300 yards of passing last week, but that was not indicative of how they played throughout the game. While with San Francisco, I am looking at how they struggled with Eddie Lacy earlier this playoffs and now face Marshawn Lynch, a guy whose been great against San Francisco in years past, seems like all sorts of trouble for San Francisco. The biggest thing for stopping Lynch is not letting him to get to the second level, and when the first hit happens, it needs to be the last one.  

I hope this game has some flow to it. I am worried we will get a lot of penalties, one team might take advantage early and not look back from it. I hope I am wrong though. I have Seattle in this game. I think Lynch is too much and Wilson will have his first big day in a long while. SEA 24-16 

Charlie.