Kevin Costner, Jennifer Garner, Dennis Leary, Frank Langella, Chadwick Boseman, Josh Pence, Tom Welling

Ivan Reitman

You can tell the kind of movie “Draft Day” is going to be by the company it keeps. The NFL and ESPN are on board, which means they approve of the story line, which means said story is safe as kittens. And holy cow, is this movie safe. That it manages to still be entertaining is to its great credit, and nearly all of that is because of Kevin Costner. Imagining this movie with anyone besides him in the lead role is unthinkable.

Sonny Weaver Jr. (Costner) is the general manager of the Cleveland Browns, and he’s feeling the heat. It’s the first day of the NFL draft – and only a few months after his father, and legendary Browns head coach, passed away – and Sonny is picking seventh. He’s fine with picking seventh, but the team’s owner, Anthony Molina (Frank Langella), is not. He wants Sonny to make a headline-worthy move, making it clear that it will cost him his job if he doesn’t. Sonny lets that pressure get the best of him by agreeing to trade a king’s ransom to Seattle for the first pick in the draft, much to the dismay of new coach, and Super Bowl winner (just ask him), Penn (Denis Leary). Having the first pick puts Sonny in position to take can’t-miss Wisconsin quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Bo Callahan (Josh Pence), but as the day progresses, Sonny learns things about Callahan that cause him to question Callahan’s character. Is there a way to take the decision he made to mortgage the team’s future and spin it into something he can be proud of?

Read the rest of this entry »

As men in a civilized society, we are conditioned to behave in certain ways and maintain certain beliefs. One of these beliefs is that to own a quality dress shirt, we need to not only overpay for it, but we also need to overpay for its maintenance.

When I opened the package containing the dress shirt from Mizzen + Main, I did it on a Sunday night, intentionally, because every Monday morning I go to the dry cleaner. Surely a dress shirt straight out of the mail needs to be labored over for optimal performance.

Imagine my surprise when I read the associated document which indicated NO dry cleaning and ironing would ever be needed to maintain the look and feel of the shirt.

A quality dress shirt that looks good, feels great and doesn’t cripple your wallet? Excuse me while I laugh my face off.  I threw the shirt in the dryer for 15 minutes to freshen it up, and kept my expectations low, which is exactly how I’ve started numerous dates throughout the years.

Once I pulled the shirt out of the dryer, wrinkle free and feeling as though it had been pressed, I noticed it had a feel to it like no other dress shirt I’ve encountered. It felt stretchy, yet supple. Relaxed, yet ample and up to the task. Again, very similar to numerous dates I’ve “enjoyed.”

I pulled the shirt over my torso and was befuddled at how the shirt fit me so well, as I had casually requested a “large” sample. There were no previously exchanged measurements, or painstaking trips to the Men’s Warehouse to act like I was buying a dress shirt in order to acquire my exact dimensions. And yet, the shirt fit my torso perfectly, with perfect sleeve length to match. It even made my biceps look outstanding thanks to the superior fit.

In a lot of ways, the shirts from Mizzen + Main are like the anti-Brian Weeden, sometimes Cleveland Browns quarterback. Weeden has the makings of a top notch QB, possesses the measurables, looks good in practice, but when the lights come on and you throw him onto the field, he won’t perform optimally and will definitely wrinkle under the press of an opposing defense. That creates even more pressure for the rest of the offense, including running back Chris Ogbonnaya, who so far this season is on pace for a career year.

But Chris doesn’t fold, which is why Mizzen + Main has employed him as a celebrity spokesperson. And even if he did fold, you could just throw him in the dryer for 15 minutes, and he’d be crisp, clean and ready to roll, just like my shirt.

So how do they accomplish this? There are four specific reasons, working together in concert, similar to the way Ogbonnaya worked with his offensive line to score the game winning touchdown in week four (coincidence?) versus the arch-rival Cincinnati Bengals:

1) Moisture Wicking Fabric

Moisture is pulled away and evaporates, heat is pulled away from your body and cool air seeps through.

2) Superior Fit

The shirt fits right off the rack, guaranteed.

3) Four Way STRETCH

Mizzen + Main has devised a fabric that is smart as you are.

4) Low Maintenance

No ironing or dry cleaning. Machine wash, hang dry and you’re ready to roll in 16 minutes. Does Mizzen + Main make women? They should.

This is a dress shirt you never have to iron or take to the dry cleaner, and it will cost you roughly $50. Tradition. Evolved. Indeed.

For more information on quality dress shirts from Mizzen + Main, follow this link.

And for Chris Ogbonnaya’s career stats, click here.

Football fans everywhere will be glued to their TV screens tonight as the NFL Draft starts at 8 PM EST on ESPN and the NFL Network. Millions more will be following the action on Twitter, which has become the ultimate meeting spot for sports fanatics. You can follow me our NFL guru, Anthony Stalter, during the draft on Twitter @AnthonyStalter, and you can follow me @clevelandteams. Yes, I’m a tortured Cleveland Browns fan, so the draft is my annual Super Bowl.

Cleveland will be one of the pivotal teams in the draft with the #4 pick, and many are predicting that they will take running back Trent Richardson. But the Minnesota Vikings are making noise about trading out of the #3 pick, and that could mean Richardson goes to a team at #3. These tow teams will be pivotal in a draft that could be very hard to predict after the first two picks.

You can follow Anthony’s NFL draft coverage at ScoresReport.com. You’ll see his mock drafts along with analysis of the top draft prospects and sleepers.

There are so many mock drafts out there these days that you can OD on all the various projections. Of course Mel Kiper and Todd McShay at ESPN has some of the best information out there. Here’s a 7-round mock draft at NFL.com that would make me and other Browns fans very happy. Michael Lombardi’s first round mock draft would be even better, as he has the Browns getting Richardson and then Micheal Floyd dropping down to them at #22.

Search around and you’ll find plenty of information and speculation about your own team. Then you can load up on beer and munchies, invite some friends over and enjoy the show tonight.