Cute wool hats, floating heads and stupid Tebow: Your NFL Wild Card Weekend Preview

I'm just relieved this isn't an animated gif in which the outer floating heads rotate around Boomer. (Image source: ESPN)

It’s NFL WILD CARD WEEKEND! And I know this because ESPN sent me the most frightening email yesterday to remind me. I’m normally all for floating heads, but I live in fear of falling asleep and having the floating head of Keyshawn Johnson bellow “C’MON MANNNN!” in my dreams. Also, what the hell is with the green glow? The Countdown Crew are aliens, I tell you.

Meet me after the jump for a quick look at Wild Card Weekend. I have to go find my tinfoil hat first…

Advent Calendar of Hotness 2011: Day 1

My tree is up, the big tree down in Rockefeller Center has been lit, it is Christmastime here in the city (and everywhere else), and thus, it is also once again time for the Ladies… Advent Calendar of Hotness!

Today’s ACoH is Houston Texans running back Arian Foster.

Four things we loved about Wild Card Weekend

Judging from the seating, 14 is the loneliest number. (Photo: Getty Images)

For a few of us, like Ladies… Fantasy Football League winner Games Mistress CuteSports*, it was a fun weekend of NFL Playoff goodness. The other girls are just waiting until Opening Day.

*this is what happens when you file a post way past your bedtime

Five Ways To Spend Labor Day

Yes, some people have to work today.

Happy last weekend of summer as we know it! For those of you not spending it at work, or moving to your dorm, or counting down the hours until you can put the kids on the school bus, we bring you five ways to spend that (hopefully) least of laborious days.

Hit and Run: September’s coming soon

Hands up: who cannot wait for September?

No, no, NO, Malcolm Sheppard of the Texans! That's not what I meant by "Hands up!" (AP Photo)

Oh, September. What’s not to love? The return of NFL football, baseball hurling towards the Fall Classic, hockey and basketball waiting in the wings. We’re almost there, but in the meantime, here’s a quick rundown of what happened the last weekend of August.

Who Dat? And while we’re on it, what was up with those ads??

Riding out the Ladies… Super Bowl excitement further, I’d like to extend my congratulations to Drew, Coach Peyton, and the city of New Orleans on winning the 44th Super Bowl!!!  And call it my nature, blame it on where my interests lie, but I found it only fitting to include this awesome video for K. Gates’ “Who Dat”, along with my own analysis and recap of the (incredibly disappointing) Super Bowl ads.

Hit and Run: Here Comes the Super Bowl!

Three more days to endure until Super Bowl Sunday.  Fortunately, I’ve had a busy week to take my mind off the waiting.  Also fortunately, there’s some great pictures coming out of Miami to whet your football appetite and save me from having to write too much.

First up, Daylife.com (via Getty Images), has a whole series of pictures of the painting of the turf, which I found fascinating.

You Like Me, You Really Really Like Me!

Clad in my favorite P. Manning jersey, and drenched in a fever induced sweat, I watched my Colts do work on Sunday and win a trip to Miami for Super Bowl 44!

Because sometimes it’s hard to think about the game…

(AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Sometimes, I just wonder how people can do it.

Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Pierre Garcon’s outward focus may be on this Sunday’s AFC Championship Game against the New York Jets, but we know where his heart will be – with his relatives in Haiti, relatives he has yet to hear from in the wake of the January 12th earthquake that crumbled Port-au-Prince and surrounding regions.

NFC/AFC Championships: A Hotness Retrospective

Fine, this was an excuse to post one more Mike Tomlin picture this year.

The big storyline in last year’s Super Bowl was the tradition rich Pittsburgh Steelers and their (then) five Super Bowl victories matched against the Arizona Cardinals in their first trip to the championship.  This year, 3 of the 4 conference finalists have either never been to the Super Bowl or have not been in decades. To put things in perspective, I took a look at the rosters of each team — both from their last trip to the conference game (win or lose) and their last conference championship — and selected a player representative of that era in the team’s history.  You might be surprised who I came up with.

Vintage (sort of) football hotness, after the jump.

Oh good, another person for me to have no respect for.

What the hell, Bud Adams?

QB crush? Caption this!

Is that Matt's hand on Kurt's...?! (Photo: Getty Images)

It’s Week 8 of the NFL, readers! I was going to choose a picture of our favourite douchewaffle in celebration of his upcoming visit to Lambeau, when I found…this. It’s a couple of weeks old, but hey, you need something to do before donning your Balloon Boy outfit to go pumpkin sacrificing. Happy weekend!

Hump Day Hotties: AFC & NFC South

Some of us Ladies have been looking forward to football season, so I thought what better way to get everyone hyped than to feature a hottie from every NFL team.  Each week for the next four weeks, we’ll be featuring lesser-known hotties from an AFC and NFC division.

So far we have featured hotties from the AFC & NFC North, East and West. This week is our final installment.  So take the plunge, and follow me after the jump to get a peek at some hotties from the AFC and NFC South.

Is It Football Season Yet?

If you haven’t noticed from the last couple of posts, the ladies cannot wait for football season to start. Training camp is in the full swing of things with the first preseason game coming this Sunday. But even still, real football has not started yet so it’s only natural that news is a little slow. The first game of the season is still over a month away. People are mostly grasping for stories to report on. So I have decided to sort out some of the more ridiculous, and entertaining, stories coming out of training camps.  Enjoy! Take solace in knowing football season is almost here.

NFL Training (Camp) Wheels: A Photo Essay

Right, Reggie. Back to work. We get it.

I love NFL training camp, not because football is upon us again (if it’s still hot, it’s still baseball season, in my mind) but because of the sheer entertainment value of the photos.   Reggie Wayne showing up to training camp in a dump truck, dressed as a construction worker?  Obvious publicity grab, sure, but funny in a look-at-the-rich-and-talented-athlete-being-a-cheesy-goofball sort of way.

Strangely enough, Reggie’s transportation related stunt reflected a similar theme in many of the less staged photos of training camps across the league : the many unusual ways in which the athletes travel to and around their team’s facilities.

Misery Loves Company… Lonestar Edition!

In this installment of our weekly exercise in the agony of defeat, we head south to Texas.  The heart of the Bible Belt, the home of Matthew McConaughey, Lance Armstrong, George Foreman, Nick Jonas, and the live music capital of the world; if the great fans of these teams can survive the Dust Bowl and bang bang McCoy, they can endure a few more years without championships!

Sunday Supplication

Dear Football Jesus (there’s a separate one for football),

Kind of a rough week. Do you read the Indy Star?

“Strong-side linebacker Rob Morris underwent surgery on Tuesday to repair a torn tendon in his left knee and will miss the remainder of the season. Among players held out of this afternoon’s practice were wide receiver Marvin Harrison (bruised left knee), safety Bob Sanders (bruised ribs), running back Joseph Addai (bruised shoulder) and tight end Ben Utecht (concussion).”

I know you’re busy, Football Jesus. It is Sunday, after all. But if you could find a minute to see my boys in blue safely back on the field? That’d be swell. And if not, well, I have a couple things I can try on my own. Morris is done for the season, but the other four? They still have a shot. They’re the good guys, every one, and they play the game with a joy you have to see to believe.

Hump Day Hottie: Brandon Stokley

You have only to look at my PEYTON MANNING IS A GOD THAT WALKS ON EARTH posts to know where my NFL loyalties lie, but on Sundays when it’s time to suit up, the royal blue jersey I’m rocking isn’t his. Or Marvin Harrison’s. Or Reggie Wayne’s, or Vinatiereireiri’s. It’s number 83, and the guy who used to wear it is a quiet, unassuming slot receiver named Brandon Stokley.

Let There Be Footbawl.

Blood season begins in earnest tonight. Last weekend was glorious, but without a lazy NFL Sunday of lolling and snacking to follow Saturday’s CFB whirlwind, it’s just not the same. In a few hours, the WORLD CHAMPION Indianapolis Colts welcome the New Orleans Saints to the RCA.

For me, this means four hours of screaming my lungs to shreds and basking in the reflected glory of one Mister Peyton Manning (time to reference that disclaimer again, I suppose). For the rest of you, well, this is Ladies, and I know why you’re here. It’s a marquee night; let’s have a look at some marquee manflesh:

Curse: Reversed

RIP Madden Curse, 1998-2007. You’ve left a slew of former greats in your wake: Marshall Faulk, Eddie George, Daunte Culpepper, Michael Vick, Donovan McNabb and Shaun Alexander. Well, no more- because much like Matt Leinart and the ’05 Trojans, you’re about to get shredded by Longhorn hottie Vince Young. He’s defeated much stronger opposition than you, including (but not limited to): Michigan, Oklahoma, USC, Ohio State, the NFL Draft, the Texans, the Colts, Merrill Hoge, communism, and evil everywhere… not to mention the SI Cover Jinx (six times). Farewell, Madden Curse! It’s been real, and it’s been fun- but it hasn’t been real fun.