Ourlads Draft Expert Dan Shonka gives the Diner...
Ben Stockwell & Paul Hopkins Four Downs with Stock & Doc This week the guys look at the issue of a rookie salary cap, whether the Bills will end up migrating to Toronto, what the Raiders have in store and begin their countdown to the new season through looking at each division in turn. This week – the AFC East.... ( full article )
Sam Monson Rookie Diary DCU vs. The Belfast Bulls – if we won, we were in the playoffs. Well this time ladies and gents, it's Game-day! I had packed my gear up on the Saturday, ensured everything was washed. I was prepared. This was going to be military precision: Awake at 7.20, up a 7.30, out by 7.45, pick up Dave at 8.00. . . I woke up, glanced at my watch: 8.01am !
... ( full article )
Paul Hopkins Doctor's Therapy: The Life of Brian In the next instalment of the column which takes a look at the range of characters and personalities around the NFL, we stay within the AFC North and consider the career and future prospects of Brian Billick, a man self-admittedly at a crossroads in his life... ( full article )
CJ Sanchez Comedy NFL Style I think the recently departed George Carlin said it best when he pointed out that "Baseball is played in the spring; the season of new life. Football is played in the fall when EVERYTHING IS DYING"... ( full article )
Mark Lyne-Austen Green Bay Packers 2008 Review / Preview This year, without Favre the Packers will have to turn to Aaron Rodgers to call the shots. Highly touted coach Mike McCarthy's side will be one to watch this season but so much will depend on how they rebound from the loss of one of the most inspirational players ever to step onto an NFL playing field... ( full article )
Neil Murphy St. Louis Rams 2008 Review / Preview Last year's 3-13 season was the Rams worst since the franchise moved to St Louis, with trouble on and off the field. The death of long term owner Georgia Frontiere prompted immediate speculation of a possible future move to Los Angeles. On the field, the Greatest Show on Turf gave way to sacrificial lambs ... ( full article )
Jody Jamieson Philadelphia Eagles 2008 Review / Preview When you break it down, the Eagles have had a great decade. Double digit wins in all but two years has the Eagles consistently being a contender. Unfortunately Philly sports fans, obsessed with winning a championship, are struggling to see where it may come from. The Eagles are a team who are always likely to contend for a post-season spot, without ever being favoured to win the Super Bowl... ( full article )
The Football Diner 2008 All-Time Draft What's It All About?
The annual collegiate draft is the NFL's great leveller, the mechanism by which the last can be first and the first can be last. We all know what happened in this year's 2008 selection meeting but imagine if your favourite NFL team could take part in another, one-off supplemental draft that would let them pick any player from their past to plug into their current roster. This is your chance to cure your team's blues...( full article )
Football Diner 2008 All-Time Draft Pick #3 - Falcons Picking third in this All-Time Draft, the Atlanta Falcons are a team with some big holes to fill, but also with some talented past greats to choose from. Atlanta finds itself as one of several teams in the NFL this year that is building a franchise from the ground up. A few months ago the obvious choice for the Falcons would probably have been Steve Bartkowski...( full article )
Football Diner 2008 All-Time Draft Pick #2 - Rams The Rams have a storied history that can boast some serious Hall of Fame players at key positions of need for them, and this might be one of the toughest choices in the entire draft. It must be tempting for the Rams to bring back a guy like Marshall Faulk, perhaps the most complete back ever to play the game, but the Rams have bigger holes to fill...( full article )
Get Involved ! Have Your Say ! !
Want to be a guest columnist? Got something to say? Your chance to get involved!... ( submit an article ! )
Ben Stockwell & Paul Hopkins Four Downs with Stock & Doc This week, the guys consider where Jason Taylor's attitude will get him, how Jim Brown would fare in today's NFL, whether brains and intelligence are really needed for football and what should the eligibility criteria for the Hall of Fame be... ( full article )
Sam Monson Rookie Diary With the regular season nearly finished, we find ourselves in a position to secure a playoff appearance with a win. Our fate is in our own hands, and the atmosphere around the team for the last couple of weeks suggests everybody knows it... ( full article )
Jody Jamieson The Curse Of Bobby Layne Curses are not only talking points, they are part of the very culture of American sports. From the Curse of the Bambino which the Boston Red Sox finally snapped in 2004 after being dogged by it for 86 years, to the Curse of 1940, which prevented the New York Rangers from winning the Stanley Cup until 1994... ( full article )
TB Draftee JOSH JOHNSON
The Diner caught up with Josh just before the draft as he readied himself for the most important two days of his football life so far in our Exclsuive Interview
Channel 5 Presenter MIKE CARLSON
Stops by the Diner to talk about his Ivy League days, Bill Belichick, SBXLII, chicken feet & a run down on how he thinks the top 10 in the Draft will go, all in our Big Diner Interview!
ESPN Writer DAVID FLEMING Following on from the Diner's piece on the Pottsville Maroons, the author of Breaker Boys stopped by the Diner to tell us the full story
Sky Sports Presenter NICK HALLING Pops in to talk about the Playoffs, how he'd win the Super Bowl & fruit throwing Dragons! All in our Diner Interview!
NFL Greats Gary Clark Art Monk will head to the Hall Of Fame later this year. Gary Clark may well never receive that same honour, but he has a case that deserves hearing. Not that it matters too much to the majority of Redskins fans' that saw him play. For them, Clark won games, trophies and their hearts... ( full article )
John Heisman Bill Belichick might like to rub his opponents' noses in defeat, and he runs up the score like nobody in the modern game, but he has a long way to go if he's going to be remembered in the same light as John Heisman, the man who once put up 222 points, because he could... ( full article )
The Pottsville Maroons A Forgotten Icon The Pottsville Maroons are a forgotten icon, a team from the anthracite leagues that took on the NFL and won, and in doing so became the most dominant team ever assembled.
This is a team that earned the right to be remembered, and recognised for what it achieved... ( full article )
Fantasy Resource Ask The Maverick
Let the Maverick solve all your Fantasy problems... ( the maverick )
Fantasy Resource Fantasy Maverick Rankings
Rankings & cheat sheets... ( rankings )
Notes From A Keeper The Ultimate, Utopian Ups and Definitive, Diabolical Downs of Life as a Keeper Leaguer
In the end, it was a simple coaching mistake that finally terminated the Holybourne Prophets' 2007 season.
From the sidelines in the dying minutes, as fans filed out early to beat the traffic, as our starters worked frantically to pull something back on the field before me, I knew that I had done the inexcusable: left touchdowns, four of them, on the bench.
As long as Kevin Jones and Lee Evans, with two scores apiece, were riding the pine, the Prophets were finished with the playoffs...
( full article )
Spooflé News Feed Giants: The Reins Are Off Manning
Coughlin: Now We Can't Find Him
New York Giants Head Coach Tom Coughlin last night told the assembled Manhattan media: "The reins are off Eli."
But journalists were advised the coach was in no way being metaphorical.
"Meta-what? You idiots, I'm serious! We tied him up to the goal post in his training walker and somehow he just slipped out of there. We've plain lost him…" ( full article )
Dan Shonka 2008 Draft Recap General Manager & National Scout of the draft expert Ourlads' Scouting Services LLC Dan Shonka stopped by the Diner to give his unique gradings on this year's draft.What Dan doesn't know about the draft isn't worth mopping up with your napkin, so grab a coffee and a danish and take note... ( full article )
Sam Monson Undrafted Free Agency Winners and Losers One week after the NFL Draft, the majority of the undrafted free agents have found themselves a home. They have either been signed and invited to camps by NFL teams, or they're trying to walk on to an NFL team, turning up as UFAs hoping they can show enough to earn another crack... ( full article )
Chris Brophy Draft Review All the dust has settled from two frantic days, players are set for their new teams whilst GMs, scouts & coaches alike review their choices. Diner writer Chris Brophy casts his own eye over the draft results and awards his grades:
News NFL Makes UK Commitment NFL fans in the UK have never had it so good.
Following the success of the first regular season game to be played on these shores, a commitment has been made to play matches in the UK for three more years... ( full article )
Wembley 2008 After the success of last year's pioneering NFL match in London, the much anticipated follow up game has now been announced:
SD Chargers vs NO Saints
26th October 2008
... ( further details )
Archive Wembley 2007
It was the biggest weekend in history for UK NFL fans:
Ben Stockwell & Paul Hopkins
This week the guys look at the issue of a rookie salary cap, whether the Bills will end up migrating to Toronto, what the Raiders have in store and begin their countdown to the new season through looking at each division in turn. This week – the AFC East.... ( 
DCU vs. The Belfast Bulls – if we won, we were in the playoffs. Well this time ladies and gents, it's Game-day! I had packed my gear up on the Saturday, ensured everything was washed. I was prepared. This was going to be military precision: Awake at 7.20, up a 7.30, out by 7.45, pick up Dave at 8.00. . . I woke up, glanced at my watch: 8.01am !
In the next instalment of the column which takes a look at the range of characters and personalities around the NFL, we stay within the AFC North and consider the career and future prospects of Brian Billick, a man self-admittedly at a crossroads in his life... ( 
I think the recently departed George Carlin said it best when he pointed out that "Baseball is played in the spring; the season of new life. Football is played in the fall when EVERYTHING IS DYING"... ( 
This year, without Favre the Packers will have to turn to Aaron Rodgers to call the shots. Highly touted coach Mike McCarthy's side will be one to watch this season but so much will depend on how they rebound from the loss of one of the most inspirational players ever to step onto an NFL playing field... ( 
Last year's 3-13 season was the Rams worst since the franchise moved to St Louis, with trouble on and off the field. The death of long term owner Georgia Frontiere prompted immediate speculation of a possible future move to Los Angeles. On the field, the Greatest Show on Turf gave way to sacrificial lambs ... ( 
When you break it down, the Eagles have had a great decade. Double digit wins in all but two years has the Eagles consistently being a contender. Unfortunately Philly sports fans, obsessed with winning a championship, are struggling to see where it may come from. The Eagles are a team who are always likely to contend for a post-season spot, without ever being favoured to win the Super Bowl... ( 
Picking third in this All-Time Draft, the Atlanta Falcons are a team with some big holes to fill, but also with some talented past greats to choose from. Atlanta finds itself as one of several teams in the NFL this year that is building a franchise from the ground up. A few months ago the obvious choice for the Falcons would probably have been Steve Bartkowski...( 
The Rams have a storied history that can boast some serious Hall of Fame players at key positions of need for them, and this might be one of the toughest choices in the entire draft. It must be tempting for the Rams to bring back a guy like Marshall Faulk, perhaps the most complete back ever to play the game, but the Rams have bigger holes to fill...( 
This week, the guys consider where Jason Taylor's attitude will get him, how Jim Brown would fare in today's NFL, whether brains and intelligence are really needed for football and what should the eligibility criteria for the Hall of Fame be... ( 
With the regular season nearly finished, we find ourselves in a position to secure a playoff appearance with a win. Our fate is in our own hands, and the atmosphere around the team for the last couple of weeks suggests everybody knows it... ( 
Curses are not only talking points, they are part of the very culture of American sports. From the Curse of the Bambino which the Boston Red Sox finally snapped in 2004 after being dogged by it for 86 years, to the Curse of 1940, which prevented the New York Rangers from winning the Stanley Cup until 1994... ( 
Art Monk will head to the Hall Of Fame later this year. Gary Clark may well never receive that same honour, but he has a case that deserves hearing. Not that it matters too much to the majority of Redskins fans' that saw him play. For them, Clark won games, trophies and their hearts... ( 
Bill Belichick might like to rub his opponents' noses in defeat, and he runs up the score like nobody in the modern game, but he has a long way to go if he's going to be remembered in the same light as John Heisman, the man who once put up 222 points, because he could... ( 
The Pottsville Maroons are a forgotten icon, a team from the anthracite leagues that took on the NFL and won, and in doing so became the most dominant team ever assembled.
One week after the NFL Draft, the majority of the undrafted free agents have found themselves a home. They have either been signed and invited to camps by NFL teams, or they're trying to walk on to an NFL team, turning up as UFAs hoping they can show enough to earn another crack... ( 
All the dust has settled from two frantic days, players are set for their new teams whilst GMs, scouts & coaches alike review their choices. Diner writer Chris Brophy casts his own eye over the draft results and awards his grades:
NFL fans in the UK have never had it so good.
After the success of last year's pioneering NFL match in London, the much anticipated follow up game has now been announced:
Wembley 2007
Football Diner was there every step of the way from team Practises to Press Conferences. Re-live the historic weekend with our Archice Articles: