Some Thoughts on Foil in the Oven and Ripping Wes Welker

This post may seem insignificant, but I think that it is important to acknowledge changing trends on our site. Also, if you just started reading during the NBA playoffs, this will give you more of an idea of our history:

Foil in the Oven began in the fall of 2007 as a weekly variety column. It was very long, included many different sports stories, and often sick music videos. Given that this was during the NFL season, the weekly format worked well. I always enjoyed writing these weekly editions, and I hoped that reading them would be very satisfying and that the reader would feel like they had just read some enlightening piece from a magazine.

Somehow, during the NBA playoffs, Foil in the Oven turned into a daily occurence. I guess it makes sense. In terms of sports news and excitement, a day is a week during the NBA postseason. My mind was always going a million miles an hour with basketball, so filling long colums each day was not hard.

Last week was strange. There was no basketball, and yet I found myself calling each day's post "Foil in the Oven", even though there was not enough news to really make a satisfying edition. In the end, I feel like the things I wrote were solid posts, but very unsatisfying when compared to the old Foil in the Oven editions.

Hence, for the time being, Foil in the Oven will return to its original form, it will take place once or twice a week. I will still post more often than that, but the posts will be different. Now, the daily editions of FIO may return during the Team USA run at the Olympics. We'll have to see. But, in the meantime, I believe that this is the best way for FOI to remain as satisfying and enjoyable to write (and, hopefully, to read) as it has always been. Plus, if I didn't do it this way, I'd have to write about baseball every day, and nobody wants that.

Now, before I rip Wes Welker, please rock out:


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"Asante's a great player, so it hurts not to have a guy like that. But then again, it's part of the business of the game. He chose money over championships, and that's the way it goes sometimes." -- Wes Welker

Now, I want to preface this by saying that I am well aware of the tendency of the media to overblow everything that athletes say these days. However, in this case I think it is pretty clear that Welker is expressing animosity towards Asante Samuel because of his decision to sign with the Eagles.

I have a few problems with this statement. First, let's just point out that Asante Samuel has already won two championships. Last time I checked, Welker has zero, unless he's talking about conference championships. So, the very fact that we have somebody with zero championships questioning the priorities of somebody with multiple rings makes me question the validity of this quote.

Next, everyone annointed the Patriots as the Super Bowl champions after week 1 last year. And yet, as we all know, the Lombardi Trophy currently sits in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Apparently Welker is feeling equally as confident heading into this season. Looking at the Patriots firepower on offense, I can't blame him. But, to suggest that leaving the Patriots for another team is "choosing money over championships" is totally indicative of the collective arrogance of this Patriots squad. They have been favorites for the past three seasons, and they haven't won it any of those years. Two of the previous three champions, the Giants and the Steelers, were complete surprises. The truth is that we have no idea how things will shake out this year. The Eagles were 8-8 last season. Their defensive front puts a lot of pressure on QBs, which should mean a lot of INTs for Samuel. They also have Brian Westbrook, one of the most dangerous players in the game, and Donovan McNabb. And, many Patriots fans tell me that "The Pats won it three years ago, in 2005. That's not a long time ago." They're right. It's not. Remember who they played in that Super Bowl, the Eagles.

Finally, I would just like to say that Welker just signed a five year deal for 18.1 million dollars. That is certainly nowhere near the deal that Asante got from the Eagles. But, much like Samuel, Welker is playing in the place where he can make the most money. It's true that he has the all-time Patriots record for receptions in a season, but everyone knows that he is so effective because of Randy Moss. The Patriots are paying him over 3 million a year because he is the perfect slot receiver for their offense. He couldn't earn more than this somewhere else because nobody can stretch the field like New England. So, essentially, Welker is doing the same thing as Samuel. He's with the team that can pay him the most money. The difference here is that Samuel has two championship rings. If Welker wants to keep running his mouth like this, he'd better catch up.

Please rock out again: