The Best and Worst Sports Takes You Have Ever Had

[Mr.TaterSalad]

Alright let's hear it, what are both the best and worst sports takes you've ever had as a fan? What take do you feel you absolutely nailed about a team, player, or situation and what take do you feel you have egg all over your face for stating?

Best Take (at least so far): Ken Holland will never win another Stanley Cup again as a GM or Front Office Executive

Back in 2014 and 2015 I was one of the early people around here to call for the firing of Ken Holland. After he brought back Dan Clearly for the 3rd offseason in a row I felt I had saw a pattern developing with the way Holland treated veteran players he was familiar with versus rookies  and younger players. The pattern was not just with Holland's preferential treatment towards veteran players, but also his extreme, unending loyalty to his own guys, giving them contracts way past their prime or for way more than they were worth. Kenny re-signing Clearly (when he was set to finally leave and go to the Flyers) or bringing back Mikael Samuelsson or giving out obscene deals to the likes of Justin Abdelkader or Darren Helm that hurt our cap flexibility were all examples of this. As were laughable contracts to the likes of Franz Nielsen and Stephen Weiss.

The other pattern I noticed was that many of the good moves this organization had made that setup our long run of success were done before Holland was GM in 1998 and were actually done my Scotty Bowman and Jim Develano. Where Holland often got the credit, many of the organizations most successful moves actually had their fingerprints on it and not his.

Finally, when Holland stepped down as GM, I made a declaration that wherever Holland went next, I had assumed Seattle at the time, that he would never win another Stanley Cup again as a top executive or GM. So far, so good on that one. He has two of the top 10 goal scorers in the NHL in McDavid and Draisaitl (neither of whom he drafted) and not only has failed to make a Stanley Cup with the Oilers, but has them stuck in neutral now in the Western Conference as the number 2 wild card team. He may yet prove me a fool and go out and win a Cup this year as the season is but half way through. However, Holland hasn't proven me wrong yet and I still predict he will not. Time will tell.

Worst Take: Thinking Connor Cook would be a good, game managing starting QB in the NFL

This one is pretty obvious and pretty damn bad as a take. I thought that whoever drafted Connor Cook would be getting themselves a good starting QB in the NFL. I never pretended to think Cook was going to be the next Payton Manning or even the next Matt Stafford. I did think he could be a strong, game managing style of QB though along the lines of a Brad Johnson, Trent Dilfer, Jared Goff, Jimmy Garoppolo. A guy who won't put up amazing, top 5 stats, but a guy you can most certainly win with. I was pretty adamant on what he would be and felt comfortable taking him as the Lions starting QB of the future. I was 100% wrong about that one. Cook not only flamed out of the NFL within 4 seasons I believe, but he was passed over in multiple rounds of the NFL draft. He had one playoff game where he started for the Raiders and looked dreadful. Shortly after that he was out of the league and playing in the XFL or AFL or wherever it was that wasn't the NFL. YIKES!

Edited January 20, 2023 by Mr.TaterSalad

[Edman85]

Best, and I have witnesses:  2015 Michigan/Michigan State before the punt I said Michigan State was going to win because a punt introduced the only chance of disaster. I suggested scrambling and chucking it down field out of bounds to kill clock.

Worst, after the 2004 draft I said Eric Beattie was going to be a better pitcher than Justin Verlander.

[RandyMarsh]

It was pretty much luck but I predicted the Ravens would win the SB in 2000/01 before the season started. My thought process was they finished 99 strong going 6-2 in the 2nd half then added Shannon Sharpe in FA and drafted Jamal Lewis and Travis Taylor who I both loved in college. 

Of course they won cause of their defense so my thought process wasn't why but still probably my biggest Longshot prediction that hit.

I couldn't begin to think of the worst cause there have been so many but I remember arguing big time with people on the old NBA boards about the 07-08 Celtics.

After they got Garnett and Allen everybody basically was crowning them and I was one of the few on the board that didn't believe in them and thought they would fail. Major miss on my part.