The Basement View

Sad but true, this is my last week of picks for 2016 with the spread. For my second full year of picking games with the spread I did pretty well going 124-110 over the course of the first 16 weeks, and I am looking to improve on that. Here are my final picks of 2016. Week 17 picks Sources:(footballlocks.com, nfl.com) Don't forget to like, comment, subscribe, and share on your way out!

Fresh Start_131: 2016, what to say, what to say… With today being the last day of 2016, I want to write a letter looking back at a year that wasn’t the best year of my life, but was definitely needed for me. I would like to thank 2016 while also giving 2016 a well-deserved f*ck you. So here it goes… Dear 2016, Thank you for everything you have done for me. Thank you for teaching me a lot about this world in the roughest way possible. Thank you for making everything that made me a better person overall and everything with my YouTube channel and this blog hard. It was an incredible life lesson. Coming into this year, I had the best year of my life and I guess it was fitting that you would come up and smack reality in my face, after what seemed like a fantasy year in 2015. Thank you for teaching me how to deal with heart break and the difficulties of college, and balancing life around. Thank you for making me a stronger person. This year from end to end was overall a year from hell

Fresh Start_130: Baseball’s O.J. Simpson Trial With the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame ballot coming to a close and the finalist being looked over one last time, like Santa Claus the night before Christmas, baseball writers across the country will have a heavy standard to set with this year’s ballot. Clemens, Bonds, and Sosa all return to the ballot for their 4 th year of eligibility and the writers will have a very important decision to make. Of the 34 players eligible these 3 and Bonds and Clemens in particular will once again be in the spotlight. Their careers will be forever linked to steroids and well writers across the country will have to put the stamp on whether to let players in or not. Bonds and Clemens are the “stand alone” candidates for more than one reason and as a person who strongly opposes the use of HGH or steroids, I once again would leave these two out in the cold this year. And I hope my thinking hasn’t washed away with the new year. It has become an in

Fresh Start_129: Be on the lookout for this guy *A little note before today’s Fresh Start… The Week 17 picks will go up on Saturday morning, there is no Thursday game this week, so I want to get the most accurate lines as possible for the last week of my picks. I will be doing picks for the playoffs but without the lines. * It’s that time of year in college football where you start to look toward next season. With the majority of the bowl games over and done with—and the National Championship just about to get underway, let’s look forward to the 2017-18 college football season and one player in particular. That player is UCLA Quarterback Josh Rosen. Rosens’ 2016 season was cut short due to an injured left shoulder that he suffered in a loss to Colorado on November 4 th . Rosen will be entering his Junior season next year and he will currently be the 2 nd ranked quarterback on the big boards of NFL teams behind this years’ Heisman winner Lamar Jackson. Rosen might even have a be

Fresh Start_128.5: No More Sexy Rexy I don’t normally do this, but with the death of Carrie Fisher and the firing of Rex Ryan happening in the same day, I decided to split up the Fresh Start into 2 parts. Usually I would have just pushed the Rex Ryan article to tomorrow, but I decided to make this Fresh Start into two different pieces. I like this idea and I will be doing this on occasion—being that two different news stories like this, that impact two different communities like this doesn’t normally happen. The firing of Rex Ryan is impactful for both parties because of the position that Buffalo finds themselves in. It became evident that Buffalo wanted to part ways with Ryan after the team stalled midway through the season. It was a safe bet that Ryan wouldn’t have made it back as the head man in Buffalo even if the team didn’t stall at the midway point anyway. Rex Ryan has most likely had his last head coaching job in the NFL, and it was a good run. He had immediate success

Fresh Start_128: R.I.P. Carrie Fisher I wouldn’t feel like myself I didn’t pay homage to one of the icons that made a serious impact on my childhood. Carrie Fisher died yesterday and it just put a sad undertone to the rest of the day. I had an incredible day hanging out with family and friends, but I just wouldn’t be okay with myself if I didn’t put in my two cents. While Fisher did feature in other movies like The Man with One Red Shoe, Austin Powers, and Under the Rainbow—her most significant role was as Princess Leia in Star Wars. Star Wars quickly became one of the most famous pop culture reference and movie of all-time and Carrie Fisher was right in the heap of it all. Fisher played an extremely important role in the series and is as iconic as James Earl Jones or her co-stars Mark Hamil and Harrison Ford. Growing up my brothers and I would watch Star Wars over and over again, having lightsaber battles in all over the place. We were absolute nuts for everything Star Wars. W

NY 500 #16 It was a very interesting Christmas weekend around New York sports. The Giants kicked off the festivities on Thursday night with the loss to the Eagles. It was an ugly loss, but not as ugly or atrocious as the Jets loss on Saturday to the Patriots. Eli and Fitzpatrick did not do a good job at all of leading their teams and putting their team in a position to win. The Giants defense did a better job of saving the game than the Jets defense, and the Giants didn’t just roll over when they got punched in the mouth. I have no words for the Jets loss—nor would I like to think of this game. As I said on Saturday after the game, this is a game you throw away and never look at again, and that is what I will be doing. For the Giants, they are in the playoffs and have nothing to worry about until 2 weeks from now. The Knicks didn’t deliver a late Santa gifts to their fans—although they came close and showed people around the NBA that they will be a tough team to beat late in the

Saturday, Sunday and Monday Week 16 Game balls This weekend was the last true stressful of football from a fans perspective. The playoffs are set in both conferences. There were some excellent performances from a ton of players in the league. Saturday was the main day of football this week because Sunday was Christmas, and the NFL had to give way to the NBA. So I have a special Saturday edition game ball. I will give that game ball to Green Bay Packers Quarterback Aaron Rodgers for a tremendous game against the division rival Minnesota Vikings. Rodgers has had a lack luster season, but shown up big time on Saturday. A-Rod went 28/38 for 347 and 4 touchdowns. In a last effort to save the Packers season, but it didn’t matter in the end. After an MVP season, Rodgers disappointed a ton of people with his injury riddled season of 2016. The Packers will not be making the playoffs, but at least Rodgers gets my special game ball. My Sunday game ball came in a winning effort and a pl

I would like to apologize that I haven’t been up to date with my schedule. I have made a mistake with my updates on this blog and my YouTube channel. I have made a small miscue with the timing of my updates and I would like to say I’m sorry for that. I will stick to the schedule the best I can for the remaining days of 2016, but I will absolutely crush 2017, and the schedule will be air tight. I will have an updated schedule for the weeks after football season—I have some ideas that I want to test to take the place of the football content. Let me know what you think in the comments down below, and make sure you tweet me suggestions on what you would like to see. My twitter is @notthefakejleo. Thank you for always sticking with me, and I do apologize for the lack of content the past couple of weeks. Don’t forget to like, comment, subscribe, and share on your way out!

Fresh Start_127: Middletown In the waning days of 2016, I am reflecting as I do every year on how the year went. Different things cross my mind, and I reflect on what I truly wanted to happen and aspire to do in 2016. Now, I will give 2016 an abrupt and well deserved thank you for what it has meant to me in the coming days, I wanted to reflect on something that has always stayed constant in my life… My home. My hometown of Middletown, New York has always been something I lean back on and use as a safety net. Even though I haven’t lived here my entire life, allow moving here at the age of 2 is pretty much the entirety of my life, this place will always have a special place in my heart. Famous people go on about their hometowns all the time and the love and aspiration that they have for it, and being a writer, you don’t normally here it from us. We are the people that will write the piece on a players’, singers’, or actors hometown—but never really get to express our feelings abou

Fresh Start_126: Christmas day recap After a fantastic holiday, us sport fans get sit and reflect on the massive Christmas Day games and the aftermath that affected many different landscapes. The NFL playoff picture was affected and the NBA has shown who some of the real contenders are. New York sport fans were entertained on Christmas Day with the Knicks kicking off all of the festivities yesterday. The Knicks were in an entertaining game but ultimately lost 119-114 thanks to great 3-point shooting from Jae Crowder and Marcus Smart. Al Horford also chipped in with 15 points,7 rebounds, and 5 assists. Kristaps Porzingis and Carmelo were them usual selves and produced 22 points, 12 rebounds, and 29 points, 7 rebounds respectively. The Celtics went 38% from the land of far beyond to help them win on the road and give all Celtic fans one more Christmas present. This was an excellent game to start off everything on Christmas day. Next on the docket was the Finals rematch of last

Fresh Start_125: Merry Christmas I am writing this in a rush to go back and enjoy the waning moments of this years’ Christmas with my family. That is what this time of year is about. I’m happy to have a wonderful family that comes together each and every holiday season. As much as I would like to make it about sports, from the amazing games on tv, to the new family tradition to have a family pool to bet on, I can’t make it about sports today. today is the day that embodies what family is supposed to be about, so if you don’t mind I would like to go back to mine. Have a wonderful rest of your Christmas, happy second day of Hanukkah, and I will be back to the usual programming tomorrow. Don’t forget to like, comment, subscribe, and share on your way out! 

Fresh Start_124: Happy Holidays Please just enjoy your holiday today… Today is the first day of Hanukkah as well as Christmas Eve. Tis the season, and grab your favorite people, and enjoy you’re the holiday season. Days like today are meant for family and I will not keep you from spending quality time with you and your family today, it’s asking too much. So Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas from me to you! Don’t forget to like, comment, subscribe, and share on your way out! 

Honest Review #15- Just please end it, I give up! I don’t even know what to say, or way to begin with this game. Everything about this game just makes me sick to my stomach. From the Bryce Petty injury, to 2 Fitzpatrick interceptions, to the 239 total yards from scrimmage. I was excited to see Bryce Petty get to have reps in the Patriot-Jet rivalry and just see how he fared in Foxborough. For a team that fought and clawed the last time these two teams played, the Jets didn’t even get off the plane—losing 41-3. It looked like the Jets would get shutout until the last drive ended with a 29-yard Nick Folk field goal. Every aspect of this game was just awful. Nothing went the Jets way, and for a team that is still “together” they looked like the quit on Todd Bowles by the end of the 1 st quarter. I am embarrassed to be a Jets fan after this loss. I was not delusional; I knew that the Jets had a one in a million chance to beat the Pats in Foxborough, but I expected the team to at le

Fresh Start_123: The weekend TV guide I will enjoy this weekend with family and my comfortable couch because I will not have to do much to get some incredible games from both the NFL and the NBA on Christmas day. Starting at Noon EST and ending at about 11:30 EST or so I will have a selection of games you almost never get any time of year. With Christmas falling on Sunday this year the NBA had a tough scheduling predicament to make sure they get the highest ratings they could for their annual Christmas day games. Usually the best game of the day is around 5:30 EST that way the most amount of eyeballs can be in a given household to watch the “Prime-Time game” at 5:30. Instead this year, the Finals rematch of Golden State and Cleveland is on at 2:30 EST which provides a perfect Segway to a crucial divisional matchup between the Steelers and Ravens. After that, you get another divisional battle for a playoff spot with Denver and Kansas City playing at 8:30. If you aren’t completely sat

Week 16 Thursday game ball I am just done with Thursday Night Football for a year. Last night has the kill shot for me. Watching the game, I didn’t really think that, but re-watching the highlights this morning, it’s just unbearable and embarrassing at this point. If I was a Giant fan I would be worried about my team, even if they still get into the playoffs. Eli had his annual horrific game and looking over the plays that the Giants made on both sides of the ball has to concerning. Eli just didn’t look good at all and it shows with the 3 interceptions and 63 pass attempts in the box score. First off NOBODY throws the ball 63 times during a game, it just doesn’t happen. Secondly, nothing good will happen if you throw the ball 63 times. The Giants running game just is nonexistent at this point. If I was any defensive coordinator on any of the possible playoff teams, I would use this game tap as a template on how to beat the Giants. With Beckham reportable exploding in the locker room

Fresh Start_122: N o F un L eague Eighteen Thousand Dollars for cleats! CLEATS! That’s the penalty that Odell Beckham Jr. will be having to pay for his Craig Sager cleats that he wore on Sunday against the Lions. I don’t know how that is even remotely okay for the NFL to do. They have allowed their players to wear custom cleats during the season before—they even had a Sunday were that was the main focus around the league. That Sunday a couple of weeks back has to wear cleats for a charity of the players’ choice and raise awareness for it. I understand the NFL’s rule on uniforms and that the cleats were not team colors and that is why Beckham is facing the fine, but maybe it is time for a rule change. In Major League baseball, you allowed to wear different cleats (in some cases it’s encouraged). In the NBA you are allowed to have a different color way on your shoes, and the same for the MLS. It is appalling to me why a player in the NFL is not allowed to wear a different color cl

Week 16 picks   Week 16 picks Going 7-9 and not feeling too good about the picks is the worst thing in the world, but going into the 2 nd to last week of the season, I am hoping for a better outing. I am not confident again this week, so let’s see what happens. Sources:(footballlocks.com, nfl.com) Don’t forget to like, comment, subscribe, and share on your way out! 

Fresh Start_121: Let them Sit! There is a known and needed commodity in the NFL is a great running back. There 2 really good backs in this draft being Leonard Fournette and Christian McCarffrey. Both of them are skipping their bowl games this season before they enter the draft. I have no idea why this is a big deal with these 2 players and their specific bowl games that they are participating in. Neither of them are participating in the playoff, so why is it a big deal? The running back position has a short shelf life to begin with, so putting their NFL livelihood in jeopardy doesn’t make any sense. The last go around with the boys won’t mean anything if you’re playing in a bowl like the Boost Mobile Bowl. Fournette is already injury prone, so even giving 15 carries might be too much. Both of the players have nothing to prove and can’t improve their draft stock any more than they already have in their college careers. McCarffrey is was a border line Heisman Candidate. Fournette

Fresh Start_120: Yet Another Update I would just like to write a little update article saying that “I’m back” and everything will return to normal. Over the past 2-3 weeks or so I haven’t been posting every single article that I would post on a daily basis or a weekly basis to boot. I haven’t posted many game balls or NY 500’s in a while and that is because I was studying and getting everything ready for Finals week. This past weekend I spent with family and friends—just getting rekindled with everything back home. So without me truly leaving, I am happy to announce that I am back full time and every article will be posted on the day that it is supposed to be posted from here on out. Here is a breakdown of what you should see from me on a daily basis: Monday-Fresh Start/Sunday game ball/NY 500 Tuesday-Fresh Start/Monday game ball Wednesday-Fresh Start/ Weekly NFL picks Thursday-Fresh Start Friday-Fresh Start/ Thursday game ball Saturday-Fresh Start Sunday-Fresh

Fresh Start_119: Ladies and Gentlemen I have an announcement In the season of giving I’d like to give back some eyeballs to the people that I believe deserve it. A little disclaimer before I start: I am not being paid by anyone of one these people that I am about to talk about, this is shut a small shout out to you guys! Being a small YouTuber it is tough trying to gain subscribers and keep a community together when you are starting out, it’s identical to how tough it is to gain traction on this blog. Anyway, being on the site and creating content for the site, you see people that are doing well that need some recognition for how well they are doing. Some may not want the recognition and would just like to keep on grinding and putting out content, but I want to just take some time to recognize a few people. The first one I would like to recognize is Philip Defranco. Now Philly D should need no recognition due to the fact that he is one of the biggest and longest running YouTube

Fresh Start_118: Building your team from the ground up (part 1) I talked about rebuilding in major sports yesterday, and while writing that piece yesterday, it gave me an idea later on in the day. That idea was how to build a NFL franchise from the ground up. While watching the abysmal performance by the Jets yesterday I got to thinking what really needs fixing and why we aren’t one of the best teams in the league with the talent we have on the field. As time wore on in the game, and my thinking process drifted more to this topic rather than the play on the field, I examined everything about the team and what we lacked that the great teams in the league had. Now some casual fans might say, well a quarterback to start. I’d say to them, look at Kansas City or Washington—their quarterbacks aren’t the best in the league and yet they are winning ball games. So looking up and down the field, I figured out how the Jets should manage their team and move the franchise forward starting in

Honest Review #14- Where is the offensive line? I don’t know how the losses keep getting worse and worse week after week. As the weeks go along, the team just keeps having brain farts all of the place, particularly on defense. The blown coverages this week were all over the place. The play of the secondary was awful—more specifically the play of the safeties on the Miami wide receivers. However, this game cannot solely fall on the secondary. The offensive line almost tried to kill the future of the Jets organization aka Bryce Petty. Petty took one of the worst hits I have ever personally seen from Cameron Wake and Suh. Petty didn’t play all that bad given to the situations that he was given thanks to the play of the offensive line. Petty did throw 2 interceptions and only one was his fault. The second interception was a fade route that got rushed due to the pass rush in Petty’s face. Bryce was 20/36 for 235 a touchdowns and those 2 interceptions. I liked our chances going i

Fresh Start_117: Reinvention It is really tough to rebuild any franchise in any major sports market in 2016. Every franchise wants to do well and wants their team to provide the best play they possible can on the court, field, or ice. Rebuilding is not easy by any means, and it is not encouraged by the majority of fan bases. In fact, in many cases rebuilding is look at as a failure and not a necessary step toward a championship (trust me, I know I’m a Yankee fan). In the Bronx, winning is expected every single season, and at this point it is almost second nature for many fans. The Yankees are expected to make the playoffs in a lot of people’s eyes, most notably their own owners eyes. That’s why at the trade deadline this past July, the owners disagreed with the direction Brian Cashman was trying to take the team, and rebuilding the organization. I was one of the few in favor of Cashman’s decision. But this isn’t the only big name franchise that has had to go through a rebuild in

Fresh Start_116: R.I.P. Craig Sager The sports world lost an icon yesterday in Craig Sager. Sager lost his long battle with cancer. Sager was 65 years old and made his mark by standing on the sidelines during NBA games. His iconic suit jackets matched his color personality during his interviews with the league’s best. Sager was part of the best crew in basketball on TNT on Thursday nights. The league is not going to be the same without him, and the sideline interviews will just feel off without the greatest to ever do it. Everyone around the game of basketball knows Craig Sager, and I don’t know any 3 rd crew member in sports that is as iconic as Sager was. He truly was one of a kind and his interviews added a special element to the broadcast that you didn’t get anywhere else. Like the late great Stewart Scott, this generation transcended Sager on social media as “the suit guy” at first. Scott and Sager made this generation look at the game of basketball in a different light. T

Fresh Start_115: The Patriot way As a Jet fan, I have seen the Patriots win a ton of games, a few Superbowl’s, and beat our brains in more often than not. But, there is something that I’ve always wondered… and that is, why do they always seem to that the ball always rolls their direction? It can’t be that it’s because they always do the right thing, or that they are always prepared for a situation, can it? What I am referring to is the pickup of now ex-cardinal wide-out Michael Floyd. Floyd got arrested for drunk driving on Sunday night and was charged with a DUI. Floyd was then released from the cardinals on Tuesday, and as expected it didn’t take long from him to find another team. In fact, he finds himself in a better situation than the one he left. Floyd is now in the best organization in all of football, and has Tom Brady throwing him the ball. Also not to mention, that he is now the main deep ball threat for New England due to the fact that Rob Gronkowski is out for the se

Fresh Start_114: 101.9 Sacramento Kings Hotline Not every team has the opportunity that the Sacramento Kings have this season. Sitting 4 games out of the 8 th seed in the West through only 24 games, the Kings have some decision making to do. Sacramento’s star player DeMarcus Cousins averaging 28/10/3 while also being 36.9% from 3-point land, and just dominating the league at the center position—the team needs to pick a direction to go. The Kings could either roll over and trade Cousins to a team like Boston, Toronto, or any other team that is in desperate need of a big man; or they could go all in and trade for a point guard like John Wall. Wall is an ideal target for Sacramento because of his connection with DeMarcus Cousins. If you forget, Wall and Cousins played their college ball at Kentucky together under the great John Calipari. Wall and Cousins seem to get along which is something of great value to Sacramento due to the fact that Cousins lack of feelings for the city of

Week 15 picks Week 15 picks In an up and down week, where I started 0-4 in the 1 o’clock games, I finish at 9-7 for Week 14. I said before the week that I hated the week for picking games. Although it did lead to good games and fun football to watch, people betting in pick pools and in Vegas had a rough go of things. I really don’t like this week any better than last, but I am hoping for the best! Sources:(footballlocks.com, nfl.com) Don’t forget to like, comment, subscribe, and share on your way out!

Fresh Start_113: Black Monday has come early It’s about time right? The Jeff Fisher era with the Rams is officially over, and like Eric Dickerson, we can all go on with our daily lives again… right? We should all be happy as NFL that Fisher is without out a job. Because let’s not kid ourselves here, Jeff Fisher is not a good coach. Fisher as a head coach in his career is 173-165-1 throughout his 22-year career as a head single caller. Fisher had his share of hardships as the head man for the Rams, but that is just life in the NFL. As a defensive coach, he has a very well coached defense—at least in his Rams career. The Bradford pick didn’t work and that is probably the biggest miscue that the Rams have had under Fisher, but it’s the NFL and you need to find a way to win games. And winning games for Jeff Fisher hasn’t come so easy in his Rams tenor. Fisher didn’t have a winning season with the Rams and honestly I don’t know how he lasted 5 seasons with the organization. To some o