Geek Talk

This was emailed to me, not sure if it’s from a site or some newspaper but here it is! And yes I’m aware the site says Comic geek and I’ve posted two sports posts back to back so… How about that Spider-Man… there’s your fix. Read on for the article!

Deion Branch had a perfectly nondescript Deion Branch season with Seattle this year.

He caught 53 passes for 725 yards and 4 TDs. Had he played the first two games, he might have equaled his career high with 5 TD receptions, which he set last year with New England.

Branch did, however, set one personal record in Seattle: He caught 2 TDs in a game for the first and only time in his career.

Up in Boston, a city which includes some of the least knowledgeable sportswriters and personalities in the history of post-Neanderthalic man, Branch has been made out to be some sort of gridiron centaur – half Don Hutson, half Jerry Rice – a receiving god who instantly makes a team better the moment he steps on the field. They insist that the Patriots should have broken the bank for a guy who held out and refused to honor the last year of his contract.

These people are morons.

In Seattle, meanwhile, fans have a different view of things. They’re wondering how their team got hosed so bad for a decent mid-tier receiver. The Seahawks handed Branch a $13 million signing bonus and six-year, $40 million deal – and traded away their No. 1 draft pick in April – for a guy who’s now caught 18 TDs in five NFL seasons.

When you look at the numbers and the dollars, it’s clear that Seattle wildly overpaid for Branch.

He’s certainly been a bit better in the playoffs: Branch has surpassed the 100-yard mark four times in nine postseason games. This includes an 11-catch, 133-yard MVP effort in Super Bowl XXXIX with New England.

But even in the playoffs, he’s reached the end zone just twice through the air: once in Super Bowl XXXVIII against Carolina and once in the 2004 AFC title game against Pittsburgh (he scored a second TD that day on a reverse). Otherwise, he’s been shut out.

He was shut out again yesterday, in Seattle’s improbable 21-20 win over Dallas. Branch caught four passes for a pedestrian 48 yards and 0 TDs.

He may yet light it up in the postseason, carry Seattle to the Super Bowl and otherwise justify the resources the Seahawks expended to get him.

But we’re not counting on it.
For the record:

• The Patriots went 10-6 last year with Branch and scored 23.7 PPG.
• The Patriots went 12-4 this year without Branch and scored 24.1 PPG.
• The Seahawks went 13-3 last year without Branch and scored 28.2 PPG.
• The Seahawks went 9-7 this year with Branch and scored 20.9 PPG.

Branch seems like a good guy who did what any of us would do: He parlayed a Super Bowl MVP award into big-time money. More power to him. We’re effin’ jealous.

But the only other party to make out on the deal was the one who refused to pay him – let alone trade away their first pick in the draft to get him.

The Seattle organization will wish it had that pick once April rolls around. Most fans already do.