Happy Constitution and Citizenship Day!

Happy Constitution and Citizenship Day everybody! I commemorate this day because in the United States, this is the day that our Constitution was ratified as well as the day that we commemorate all freedom loving citizens around the world.

I hope that wherever you’re at in the world, and whoever’s reading this, does really appreciate the freedoms, and rights they have in any Democratic Republic around the world. So here’s to all the freedom loving individuals in the various 196 to 250 countries in the world.

Happy Patriots’ Day!

Happy Patriots’ Day everybody! Like everybody else, I remember exactly where I was on September 11, 2001. I was in my high school drama class junior year. Such a tragic day! We were all in total shock. Words can’t express the deep sadness, heartbreak, and agony we all feel on this day!

 If Patriots’ Day is an unofficial holiday, it really should be an official national holiday because it was unfortunately burned into all of our brains, and none of us will ever forget those images.

Happy Labor Day!

Happy Labor Day! May you be rested from your constant struggles. Whether that’s work, or just the daily toils of life.

What you have to do is make the best of the situation, and find some joy in whatever you’re doing to make it seem less burdensome, and make the time go by easier, while being stress-free, and less life sucking!

2020 Projected NFL Standings, Playoff Results, and Super Bowl Matchup

Here’s my 2020 projected NFL standings, playoff results, and Super Bowl matchup, as well as the winner in my opinion.

 

NFL Standings

AFC East:
New England Patriots
Buffalo Bills
Miami Dolphins
New York Jets
 
AFC North:
Baltimore Ravens
Pittsburgh Steelers
Cleveland Browns
Cincinnati Bengals
 
AFC South:
Houston Texans
Indianapolis Colts
Tennessee Titans
Jacksonville Jaguars
 
AFC West:
Kansas City Chiefs
Los Angeles Chargers
Denver Broncos
Las Vegas Raiders
 
NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys
Philadelphia Eagles
Washington Football Team
New York Giants
 
NFC North:
Green Bay Packers
Chicago Bears (Nick Foles should be the starting QB)
Minnesota Vikings
Detroit Lions
 
NFC South:
New Orleans Saints
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Carolina Panthers
Atlanta Falcons
 
NFC West:
San Francisco 49ers
Los Angeles Rams
Seattle Seahawks
Arizona Cardinals

 

NFL Playoffs

AFC Playoff Picture:
1. Kansas City Chiefs
2. Baltimore Ravens
3. New England Patriots
4. Houston Texans
5. Buffalo Bills
6. Pittsburgh Steelers
7. Indianapolis Colts
 
NFC Playoff Picture:
1. New Orleans Saints
2. San Francisco 49ers
3. Green Bay Packers
4. Dallas Cowboys
5. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
6. Los Angeles Rams
7. Seattle Seahawks
 
AFC Wildcard Playoffs:
2. Baltimore Ravens defeat 7. Indianapolis Colts
3. New England Patriots defeat 6. Pittsburgh Steelers
5. Buffalo Bills defeat 4. Houston Texans
 
AFC Divisional Playoffs:
3. New England Patriots defeat 2. Baltimore Ravens
1. Kansas City Chiefs defeat 5. Buffalo Bills
 
AFC Championship Playoff:
1. Kansas City Chiefs defeat 3. New England Patriots
 
NFC Wildcard Playoffs:
2. San Francisco 49ers defeat 7. Seattle Seahawks
3. Green Bay Packers defeat 6. Los Angeles Rams
5. Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeat 4. Dallas Cowboys
 
NFC Divisional Playoffs:
1. New Orleans Saints defeat 5. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
2. San Francisco 49ers defeat 3. Green Bay Packers
 
NFC Championship Playoff:
1. New Orleans Saints defeat 2. San Francisco 49ers
 

Super Bowl

Kansas City Chiefs defeat New Orleans Saints
 
*1^st off, I realize this is the 3^rd year in a row I picked a Chiefs/Saints Super Bowl. But much like the elusive San Francisco 49ers/Buffalo Bills Super Bowl that never materialized in the nineties, these are the 2 best teams on paper, but then they start playing games, and other teams wither away, or show themselves to be better than projected by year’s end.
 
*Again on paper the Saints look like the obvious representative of the NFC. But will they be able to maintain their usual production, or have they started to decline, and show their deficiencies due to the last couple of fluky and miraculous collapses of the previous few years?

*Being that the 49ers lost last year’s Super Bowl, will they be able to repeat their success, or like most teams that lose the Super Bowl the previous year, will San Francisco have a drastic fall off and find it too difficult to return to the Super Bowl?

*In New England, now that the Brady/Belichick era is over, does that mean that the Patriots dynasty is over? The New England Patriots as of 2001 are considered 1 of the most successful teams of all time, but much like the 49ers dynasty of the eighties and nineties, is this the end of their winning ways? When will the dynasty collapse? I’m not implying that Cam Newton isn’t talented. His skill set just is totally different from Tom Brady. McDaniels and Belichick preferred style is a pocket passer. However, if anyone can get Cam Newton to a Super Bowl by playing within himself, it’s Bill Belichick. He is considered the modern Vince Lombardi after all.

2020 KC Chiefs Projected Depth Chart

2020 KC Chiefs Projected Depth Chart:

With that being said, there are 11 players on the field for each team at a time. So here’s how I think the roster will break down. The 1^st name is the starter, and the other names at each position, are his chronological backups. By the end, I wonder how close I get to who makes the roster.
 
There are 53 men on the football roster. At the beginning of training camp (July), and Pre-Season (August), the team starts out with 90. And by the beginning of the 1^st week of the Regular Season (which is usually the 1^st week of September), they cut the Pre-Season roster to 53.
 
Offense (25):
QB: Patrick Mahomes, Chad Henne (2)
RB: Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Le’von Bell, Darrel Williams, Darwin Thompson (4)
FB: Anthony Sherman (1)
WR: Tyreek Hill, Sammy Watkins, MeCole Hardman, DeMarcus Robinson, Byron Pringle, Gehrig Dieter (6)
TE: Travis Kelce, Ricky Seals-Jones, Deon Yelder (3)
LT: Eric Fisher, Martinas Rankin (2)
LG: Andrew Wylie, Stefen Wisniewski (2)
OC: Austin Reiter (1)                 
RG: Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, Nick Allegretti (2)
RT: Mitchell Schwartz, Mike Remmers (2)
 
Defense (25):
LDE: Alex Okafor, Tanoh KPassognon, Tim Ward (3)
LDT: Derrick Nnadi, Mike Pennel (2)

RDT: Chris Jones, Khalen Saunders (2)
RDE: Frank Clark, Mike Danna (2)
LOLB (SLB):  Damien Wilson, Willie Gay, Darius Harris (3)

MLB: Anthony Hitchens, Ben Niemann, Dorian O’Daniel (3)
CB: Bashaud Breeland, Charvarius Ward, L’Jarius Sneed, Rashard Fenton, Antonio Hamilton, BoPete Keyes (6)
SS: Tyrann Mathieu, Armani Watts (2)
FS: Daniel Sorensen, Juan Thornhill (2) 

Special Teams (3):
K: Harrison Butker
P: Tyler Newsome
LS: James Winchester
H: Tyler Newsome
KR: MeCole Hardman
PR: Tyreek Hill
 
The Punter Tyler Newsome is the Holder, MeCole Hardman is the Kick Returner, and Tyreek Hill is the Punt Returner to save roster spots.

Happy Fourth of July!

I just wanted to take the time to wish everyone a happy Fourth of July! This year’s quite strange with home quarantines, social distancing, and pandemics left and right. Normally I would be barbecuing with family, shooting off fireworks even though I have cerebral palsy, and listening to Jimi Hendrix’s version of the Star-Spangled Banner at some point, but my usual traditions have been put on hold like everybody else, so I’m trying to make the best of the situation on America’s 244th birthday! Hope everyone else is too.

Brad Freeman's All-Time Lifetime Hockey Team

My all-time hockey team during my lifetime.

Starting Lineup:

C: Wayne Gretzky (Edmonton Oilers/Los Angeles Kings) *favorite position player growing up

LW: Brendan Shanahan (St. Louis Blues/Detroit Red Wings)

RW: Brett Hull (St. Louis Blues/Dallas Stars/Detroit Red Wings)

LD: Ray Bourque (Boston Bruins/Colorado Avalanche)

RD: Paul Coffey (Edmonton Oilers/Pittsburgh Penguins/Los Angeles Kings/Detroit Red Wings)

G: Patrick Roy (Montréal Canadians/Colorado Avalanche) *favorite Goalie growing up

Bench:

C Steve Yzerman (Detroit Red Wings)

C Jeremy Roenick (Chicago Blackhawks)

C Mario Lemieux (Pittsburgh Penguins)

LW/C: Mark Messier (Edmonton Oilers/New York Rangers)

LW: Vyacheslav Kozlov (Detroit Red Wings)

LW: Paul Kariya (Anaheim Ducks)

RW: Claude Lemieux (New Jersey Devils/Colorado Avalanche)

RW: Jaromír Jágr (Pittsburgh Penguins)

RW: Teemu Selanne (Anaheim Ducks)

LD: Nicklaus Lidstrom (Detroit Red Wings)

LD: Scott Stevens (New Jersey Devils)

RD: Chris Chelios (Montréal Canadians/Chicago Blackhawks/Detroit Red Wings)

RD: Scott Niedermayer (New Jersey Devils/Anaheim Ducks)

G: Martin Brodeur (New Jersey Devils)

Non-Roster Players (in case someone gets injured since rosters have expanded from the traditional 20 players above to 23):

C Joe Sakic (Colorado Avalanche)

LD: Brian Leetch (New York Rangers)

RD: Al MacInnis (Calgary Flames/St. Louis Blues)

Honorable Mention:

C: Mike Modano (Minnesota North Stars/Dallas Stars)

LW/C: Peter Forsberg (Philadelphia Flyers/Colorado Avalanche)

G: Dominik Hasek (Buffalo Sabres)

G: Ed Belfour (Chicago Blackhawks/Dallas Stars)

G: Grant Fuhr (Edmonton Oilers)

*Being born in July 1984, much like basketball, I didn’t have a home team that was tied to one city’s market being from Kansas City, MO. So I got games from all over the country. A lot of my favorite players were guys from the eighties, nineties, and 1^st decade of the 2000s. I adopted the NHL’s San Jose Sharks as my “home team” because at the time I was growing up, the minor league hockey team we did have in Kansas City was called the Blades, and they were the Sharks minor league affiliate. People have asked me since you’re a Kansas City Mavericks fan, which is the new minor league team since the Blades don’t exist anymore, are you a New York Islanders fan because the Mavericks are the Islanders minor league affiliate now? To be honest, no I’m not. But I’m always happy for the players who played for the Blades, and the Mavericks now, when they make it to the NHL because it’s hard to make it to any of the major sports leagues for all 5 sports in general. However, like most Missourians I rooted for the Blues when they finally made and won the Stanley Cup Finals 2018-19.

*My favorite teams in the Western Conference were the Colorado Avalanche, Detroit Red Wings, and Chicago Blackhawks. That Western Conference Final between the Avalanche and the Red Wings during the 95-96 season was rather epic. My team in the East was the New Jersey Devils by the way.

*I wrote down 5 Goaltenders because even though my favorite player was Wayne Gretzky, when I participated in hockey games during PE class, or recess, I always made a great Goalie sitting in my power chair. It was my way to participate. So most of the time, I analyzed the Goalkeeper because that was the position I usually played.