Hello, everyone, and welcome to Week 29 of THIS WEEK IN GIFs. We're growing ever closer to GIF TOURNAMENT III, which you should look out for around the first of the year. As with every week, the GIF we vote as the winner will receive an automatic bid into said tournament. I would tell you to vote wisely, but ultimately you should feel free to vote as wisely or unwisely as you please.

Voting will remain open until 11 p.m. Sunday. Before we get going, Matt Ufford, Dan Rubenstein, and myself would like to have a word about our favorite GIFs:

CULLEN JENKINS

(Via Bill Hanstock's Week in Worst)

If you're set on selling a fake injury to stop the clock in the NFL, this is the risk: if you can't sell it, you have to sprint off the field and demonstrate in no uncertain terms, "I WAS LYING EVERYBODY SORRY EVERYBODY I'M GOING TO GET OFF THE FIELD NOW THANK YOU AND GOD BLESS YOU!!!"

As Bill said, "this is like the Eagles' season, but in reverse."

J.R. SMITH

(Via @bubbaprog)

HOLY SHIT IT'S GUY FAWKES

JARRETT JACK

(Via @bubbaprog)

Consider that a half-court shot, in the NBA, covers about 16 yards, which is about a yard short of a very short NFL field goal. Instead of simply clearing a couple bars, of course, the player must fit the ball into a goal just barely larger than the ball itself, and the ball is situated perpendicular to him. I don't understand how the Hell this ever happens. Remember that 60 Minutes interview in which LeBron James just casually chucks the ball underhand from 3/4 court and swishes it? I pretty much regard that as a miracle.

I don't even understand how I hit a three-pointer when I do it. So either I'm kind of dumb, or basketball brings out supernatural powers in human beings. That might be a false dilemma.

MONTEE BALL

Montee Ball is the one Hedo Turkoglu tried to warn us all about. The number of people who understood that joke is roughly equivalent to the number of defenders Montee Ball is capable of stiff-arming, juking, or otherwise humiliating on a single play.

PAUL PIERCE

I'm used to looking at embarrassments like this and saying, "ha ha ha he is old." But I'm 30 years old now and I really need to cut that shit out.

BRET BIELEMA

Heyyyyy guys, confession: "calling the hogs" is a thing I didn't know about until this press conference. In the formative years, which y'all spent learning about things like this, I spent knowing what Jeff Treadway's batting average was. I feel like I missed out on a lot, but I suppose it's never too late to appreciate what looks like the world's most bashful faith healer.

JIM HARBAUGH

As I noted in the video, this GIF is not, of course, "from" this week. But it was discovered by the Internet this week, it's funny, and it was a bit of a light GIF week, so I decided to bend the rules a little.

First off: look at that GIF, and then look at this GIF.

You have a back-slapping problem, Jim, is what you have. Secondly: if this leaves you wanting more Screech, I suggest you check out Dustin Diamond's chess video.

VOTE!

Hello, friends, and welcome once again to TAILGATE JUDGMENT. Here's the drill, if you're new here:

1. You leave a comment below, describing what you had to eat and/or drink while watching football last weekend.

2. Time permitting, I will respond to your comment with a 1-through-10 rating, and I will do my best to explain my rationale.

3. You will accept this ruling as binding, absolute, and superseding of any and all court rulings at the municipal, state, and federal level.

I will start. Friday, I brined a Boston butt pork shoulder in a solution of salt, sugar, orange juice and garlic. Saturday, I slow-roasted it with a paste of orange juice, vinegar, oil and spices. Sunday, before leaving the house to watch more football, I ate it with three (3) scrambled eggs. This, of course, was an all-meat enterprise, leaving little in the way of balance, but I can think of very few things in the world more delicious than these two things. It led me to question whether balance is always of such great import, and led me further to consider whether I would scorn the Grand Canyon or Seahorse Nebula for lacking balance. I would not. I will issue myself a food rating of 9.

To drink Sunday, I had a Bloody Mary (made with Zing Zang, of course) and several Southern Tier beers -- the Hop Sun, a holdover from the summer, and the Old Man, an absolutely delicious Winter ale. For this, I will award myself an 8.

That gives me a collective score of 17. We will see whether any of you can do better.

Let's hear it, friend! What did you have to eat and/or drink on Saturday and/or Sunday while watching college and/or professional football?

Rather than wait for columnists to bait readers into blind Internet anger, we at SB Nation believe in setting the curve ourselves and doing so honestly. On Troll Tuesdays, we attempt to construct the most obnoxious column on earth. Let's talk about your loving, well-meaning father, his shortcomings, and the money he doesn't deserve.

This is your dad.

Pictured: Your dad's toolin' around on his "personal confuser"!

I know you love him, and why shouldn't you? He's one heck of a guy. He showed you how to ride a bike without training wheels, or he taught you how to shave, or perhaps he stayed up and talked with you over a cup of coffee on homecoming night after none of the boys asked you to dance. He's always been there for you. Remember the time you got back to your dorm room after visiting day and found he'd left an envelope on your desk? There was $20 in it and a note that said, "Everyone needs a treat sometimes, kiddo. How about you order yourself a pizza pie tonight? No anchovies, blech! Love you and so proud of you. - Your old man." You began to cry. Do you remember that?

I want you to know that I'm keeping all those things in mind when I say that I have observed a financial imbalance of sorts. You see, your dad makes a living wage, and college football players make nothing.

I know this is difficult to hear, but as wonderful as your dad may be, college football players simply deserve to make more money than your dad does. On a related, and perhaps identical, note, your dad deserves to make less money than college football players.

Here is why.

1. Your dad doesn't work as hard.

Left: Florida safety Matt Elam delivers an open-field tackle. Right: Your dad's enjoyin' an ice cream cone!

Many top-25 college football programs generate upwards of $50 million each year. Unless a player is lucky enough to arrange some sort of under-the-table deal, he can use exactly zero of those 50 million dollars to buy himself a winter coat or help his family pay rent. His countless hours spent in the gym, bruises and sprains all over his body, and on-field heroics are making someone rich, but it isn't him.

In lieu of actual money, this player receives a free college education, which is an arrangement by which you have to work harder than many people do at their jobs, and in many cases get jobbed into doing your superiors' work for them. But it's all worth it, because

More than half of America's recent college graduates are either unemployed or working in a job that doesn't require a bachelor's degree, the Associated Press reported this weekend.

welp

Meanwhile, your dad works 34 hours a week at the hardware store he's owned and operated since you were young. Business is slower these days, which doesn't really matter since the property was paid off a decade ago. He doesn't generate a terribly large amount of money for his town's economy. Typically, he whiles away his time by working on his crossword puzzles, re-reading Clear and Present Danger, and chatting with old friends who stop by for a box of drywall nails. He rarely works up a sweat, never gets booed by tens of thousands of people, and does not run significant risk of his knee being completely shattered and destroyed.

It's quite a comfortable job. For this, he earns actual money that he can spend to pay actual bills and buy actual things. This is normally what happens when you put in labor, unless you are a college athlete or prisoner.

A college football player's dreams would come true if he could receive a third of what your dad does. Millions of fans tune in to watch this player and his teammates, but the idea of him receiving monetary compensation makes the majority of them indignant, and sometimes even angry. This is partially explained by the fact that most people are selfish and stupid, but how profoundly awful everyone is ought to be taken into account as well.

2. A football player is far more skilled than your dad.

Left: After surveying his targets, Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel abandons the rapidly collapsing pocket and runs an extemporaneous cost-benefit analysis of whether to find a receiver or run with the ball. Right: Your dad's crackin' wise at the hardware store! Workin' hard ... or hardly workin'??? Ha!

The skill set of an FBS football player is in great demand. He's on the team to begin with because his abilities are superior to millions of high school players across the country who would have done anything to claim his roster spot.

Let's review the skill set possessed by your dad:

• Can run a successful small business
• Can receive incoming product orders, complete inventory checklists, and stock merchandise in accordance with store planograms
• Can play "Imagine" on your Casio, which sort of became his Casio after you moved out
• Loves you very much

Well, goodness. Those are valuable skills, and he's certainly a capable, nice human being. I think you and I can agree, though, that these are skills shared by many, many others across the country. I understand that your dad has been a wonderful father, and I'm quite glad he was there for you, but to conflate this as somehow objectively "special" or rare" is to insult both our intelligences. That "#1 Dad" mug he's so proud of? Don't tell him, friend, but it rolled off an assembly line.

As fortunate as it may be for the rest of us, there are many dads out there are great as yours. There is only one Marcus Lattimore. He is special and your father is not.

3. Football players are courageous and your dad is not.

Left: South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore hides his face in anguish after suffering a horrifying knee injury. Right: Your dad's on his Saturday bike ride! Lookin' good, Pop!

There's a framed needlepoint hanging in your parents' living room that reads:

Our Dad is ...

Funny

Smart

Courageous

Loving

... And one heck of a Dad!

Now, I would question why you didn't even attempt an acronym here, but that is beyond the scope of this discussion, and I'd feel rotten strolling through your parents' home and deconstructing all the chintzy, thoroughly predictable bric-a-brac that they've elected to tack up on their walls.

I would, though, take issue with the "Courageous" descriptor. Your dad is a great guy -- really, he is -- but there's no call to get carried away and just assign him every superlative we can think of. Let's think for a moment on the courageous acts of our average college football player:

• Performing to a world-class degree under enormous pressure, with the career and life of his dreams hanging in the balance
• Risking enormous levels of immediate, excruciating bodily harm
• Placing his long-term health at risk
• Subjecting himself to instant performance feedback in the form of 50,000 people screaming at him
• Undertaking all these unnatural burdens as a 19-to-22-year-old

And now, let's consider your dad's acts of courage. To wit:

• Chased a bird out of the kitchen that time a bird got into the kitchen
• Bought Marvin Gardens with his last $280, declared that segment of the board "Dadville" in a foolhardy fit of arrogance
• Saw a snake on a nature hike and told everybody to get away from the snake

If that's your idea of courage, I'd suggest that you have major issues of bias at play, and it wouldn't hurt for you to examine those.

Now, what action am I advocating with all this? I don't know. I suppose I would suggest that once a year, the government allows a college football player to take money out of your dad's bank account, walk around in his house, and take all his things while your dad is made to sit on a stool in a clown suit and listen to rap music. He might like the songs about cars. He's a car guy.

lo, friend, and welcome to Week 19 of LUNCH JUDGMENT. Here is what happens now:

1. You leave a comment below, describing the lunch you ate today. (If you are a West Coaster, you are permitted to submit yesterday's lunch for judgment.)

2. I will then, time permitting, rate your lunch on a scale of 1 to 10, and do my best to provide a rationale.

3. You will accept this judgment as absolute, binding, and superseding of all local, state, or federal rulings.

Let's have it, then.

Friend, what did you have to eat for lunch?

Welcome once again, everyone, to THIS WEEK IN GIFs! We have an exceptional crop of animated sports GIFs for your consumption this week. Programming note: we will be launching GIF TOURNAMENT III in early January, in which our favorite GIFs over the last six months or so will vie for the championship. I am excited.

I conferred with fellow GIF enthusiasts Matt Ufford and Dan Rubenstein. Here are our favorites this week:

CARLOS BOOZER

(Via @cjzero)

If this GIF doesn't make you laugh, you and I are very, very different people. I don't believe in the "we can't be friends" meme because I value the companionship of people who are different from me. I am not merely passively tolerant. I actively celebrate who you are, whether you're similar or dissimilar to me, and I want you to know that I like you and think you're great. You! You, the person who are reading this! Maybe I'm being too forward, but I am overjoyed you're reading, and I don't really give a shit about being polite right now.

CAM NEWTON

(Via @bubbaprog)

I still haven't processed Cam Newton as a Big Dude. I think of him as 5'11" and 180, when in fact he's 6'5'" and 250. I'm not really sure why I have such a wrong perception, but moments like these do not help. In Mario Kart terms, Newton is Bowser and Yoshi at the same time.

BRIAN OKAM

This looks like when you're playing 21, and you have 21 points, and you have to go up to the line one last time and brick it to win the game. Which is treacherous, because if you hit the shot, you go back to 13 (or possibly zero, depending on which part of the country you're playing). But if you brick it and it gets tipped, you face the same fate.

That's one of the things that makes 21 my favorite pick-up game: it doesn't necessarily reward "being good at basketball." For one, you can just play garbage man all day by letting some other donkey man up and just camping under the net for the rebound. And for another, in order to seal your victory, you have to intentionally miss the shot. Sometimes your attempt to do so will look like Mr. Okam's attempt we see here.

Yeah, but he's actually trying to make the shot, though. It's like he's shooting with a wiffle basketball.

MANNY PACQUIAO

To casual boxing not-really-fans like myself, Manny Pacquiao is more of a celebrity than anything. To boot, he's a good-guy celebrity -- a thoroughly likable person who we perceive as we perceive, I don't know, John Oliver or Samantha Bee. Just a nice guy doin' nice things. Since he only fights twice a year, and since we'd have to reach into our pockets to even see him fight, that's mostly all he is to us.

I think that's what really gets me about this: Oh God, he's knocked out! Oh no, how did that happen? Oh, right, he punches people and gets punched for his job.

ANTONIO BROWN

If Antonio Brown were a lineman, his instinct would be to fall on the ball and comfort it in its dying moments. As a skill-position player, though, he completely lacks such instincts. A 100 percent chance of losing two points is, of course, better than a 96 percent chance of losing seven points, but I can't really blame Mr. Brown for not processing that within the four seconds he was allotted.

I've been waiting since approximately 1989 for the NFL to grow corn mazes in the end zones and frankly I do not understand what the holdup is.

DAMN IT, CARDINALS

This happened during the 58-0 Seahawking of the Arizona Cardinals last Sunday. It was the third-worst loss since the AFL-NFL merger, and the Cardinals produced so many moments like this (eight turnovers!) that it was tough to settle on one. Usually, if a team is getting absolutely ruined, it'll eventually begin to play conservatively, emphasize ball protection, et cetera, so as to avoid total humiliation.

Instead, they played like your little brother played Cruisin' USA at the arcade. You crossed the finish line two minutes ago, but he's still standing on the gas pedal, tires screeching as his car grinds flush against the a poorly-rendered canyon wall. "Turn, dude! TURN!" Eh, he ain't listening. He's in his own little world right now.

RAJON RONDO

This shot is more understandable than Mr. Okam's above, because he's actually being defended. But it's funnier, because Rondo is world-famous for having an awful mid-range shooting game, and because this was a game-winning attempt.

ALDON SMITH

A special nomination from fellow GIF enthusiast Dan Rubenstein! Here's Aldon Smith, the 49ers' new franchise leader in single-season sacks, making a knock-knock joke of the Dolphins' offensive line. Speaking of Dan: y'all checked out Dan On Fire yet? Because it was perhaps the funniest thing on SB Nation this week.

COURTNEY KIRKLAND/KRIS HUMPHRIES

(Via Jordan Sargent)

DON'T THROW THE BALL AT THAT PIECE OF GLASS YOU COULD HAVE BROKEN IT WHAT ARE YOU THINKING

VOTE!

Welcome, friends, to another exercise in TAILGATE JUDGMENT. Here's how we operate, in case you're new here:

1. You leave a comment below, describing what you had to eat and/or drink while watching football last weekend.

2. Time permitting, I will respond to your comment with a 1-through-10 rating, and I will do my best to explain my rationale.

3. You will accept this ruling as binding, absolute, and superseding of any and all court rulings at the municipal, state, and federal level.

I will start. It isn't pretty, folks: I ate a Whopper.

Now, your first assumption might be that it was a meal of necessity, that perhaps I swung by a Burger King in a rush simply to have something in my belly. This is not so. I was watching football with some friends, we decided we were hungry, and we elected, on purpose, to drive to Burger King and get Burger King food and go back home and eat Burger King. I was on board with this because I hadn't eaten at Burger King in years. For dessert, I had a slice of apple pie from a local bakery. It redeemed matters somewhat. I will award myself a flat 5.

The drink situation was more pleasant: I had a couple of Southern Tier's double milk stouts. While nothing is as good as said establishment's Mokah, they were quite good. I will award myself an 8.

Your turn. I hope you ate better than I did.

What did you have to eat/and or drink while watching the football game or games of your choice on Saturday and/or Sunday, friend?

Here we go:

1. Time to punt.

2. My fantasy team [...]

3. Randy Edsall's Buick.

4. First-round longsnapper.

5. No time table.

6. Coach Jim Caldwell.

7. Hoosiers is on.

8. On First Take, [...]

9. Here's Joe Flacco.

10. Pro-style offense.

11. Baseball baseball baseball.

12. Down goes Mir.

13. Big East poncho.

14. Dear Steve Blake:

15. Coach Malcolm Gladwell.

16. Gregg Popovich's nightclub.

17. Alabama game plan.

18. Fredi Gonzalez's autograph.

19. Belk Bowl tickets.

20. Jacksonville [anything] [anything].

Spencer Hall, Bill Hanstock, and Bobby Big Wheel contributed to this list.

We're bitter, y'all. You're bitter, I'm bitter. Which is just as well, because as sports fans, we see more in the way of crappy games than great ones. For every NLCS walk-off, we've seen a dozen 9-4 losses in June, and for every NBA buzzer-beater, we've seen a handful of 25-point, fourth-quarter deficits in which the home team walks upcourt in front of 1,500 murmuring people.

Crappy games are unlike all the crappy movies and albums and books out there, because we can deftly avoid most of those with enough practice. Too often we're signed on to the whole deal, both good and bad, committing ourselves to watch every one-sided win and ennui-inducing loss.

As long as we're at it, we may as well celebrate such games however we can. I just got done looking through box scores across every major league, and I've come up with what I feel to be eight of the ugliest, saddest, crappiest contests of 2012.

Some of these were bad because they were one-sided, and others because the all-around play was abysmal. And if you think there's a horrible game I overlooked, you're probably right. I would love/hate to hear about it in the comments.

Oh, and, uh ... I barely actually watched any of these games, and was able to digest them from the safe distance of box scores and play-by-play accounts. As such, I have decided to sketch my impressions of these games in the hope of imparting a greater understanding of just what happened here.

Here we go, everyone. Hope you enjoy reading about things that are horribly crappy.

NFL.
DECEMBER 2nd.
JETS 7, CARDINALS 6.

Context:

- The Jets continued to roll with Mark Sanchez as their starter, despite his continued regression into the worst quarterback in football.

- After starting 4-0 on the season, the Cardinals dropped nine straight, thanks in part to quarterback Kevin Kolb's season-ending injury. Reflecting on the Cardinals' 4-0 start to 2012 is like looking at Stonehenge, in that we know it happened either via aliens or an elaborate network of pulleys.

- The Cardinals' hopelessness at the quarterback position can be observed in Larry Fitzgerald, one of the very most able wideouts in the NFL. He is on pace to rack up roughly half as many receiving yards as he did last season, and it's been six weeks since the last time he had more than 31 receiving yards in a game.

What's sad about this game:

- This was the worst passing game of the year: both teams threw for a combined 168 yards.

- Sanchez, who had been granted an almost absurd number of chances to not be terrible, was finally yanked by head coach Rex Ryan. Out trotted backup Greg McElroy. Fans were now witnessing a quarterback duel between a rookie sixth-rounder and a second-year seventh-rounder.

Thoughts:

This is the only game on this entire list that I actually watched. It was really something, watching two quarterbacks that were so thoroughly incapable. Both had passer ratings somewhere in the 10s or 20s. Goodness gracious. Thanks for the show, you guys. I genuinely mean that.

Representative sketch of this game:

COLLEGE BASKETBALL.
JANUARY 5th.
FLORIDA ATLANTIC 58, LOUISIANA-MONROE 30.

Context:

- Louisiana-Monroe has spent the last few years tooling around in the cellar of the Sun Belt conference. In 2011-12, they finished 3-26 and lost to Harding, which is a college nobody has ever heard of.

- From looking at their roster, we are supposed to believe that there are people around the age of 20, in the year 2012, whose names are Fred, Hugh, and Reginald. This team is probably fictional.

What's sad about this game:

- Louisiana-Monroe scored seven points in the entire first half. It took them nearly 10 minutes to score any points at all.

- At one point, Louisiana-Monroe went two and a half minutes without attempting a single shot, which hardly seems possible.

Thoughts:

There are a lot of Division I programs with hyphenated names. Every single one of them is bad.

Representative sketch of this game:

NFL.
DECEMBER 9th.
SEAHAWKS 58, CARDINALS 0.

Context:

- This is the Cardinals' second appearance on this list!

- In this game, one of the NFL's weakest offenses matched up against what is arguably the NFL's strongest defense.

What's sad about this game:

- In terms of point differential, this was the third-worst loss since the AFL and NFL merged in 1970.

- The Seahawks scored 58 points. Including this game, the Cardinals had scored 62 points over the last six weeks combined.

- The Cardinals committed eight turnovers. It was only the second time an NFL team had done so since 2001.

Thoughts:

The contemporary NFL places so much emphasis on turnovers, and rightly so. If I were a head coach, I would just shriek DON'T DROP THE FOOTBALL into a bullhorn until I passed out, and my team would go 10-6. It was startling, then, to see the ball given up this many times. Generally, bad teams prefer to play ultra-conservatively specifically to avoid giving up possession.

Watching the team take care of the football like that is, in a sense, touching. It's like their football is a baby bird. They might rush up the gut for 1.5 yards three times in a row, but they would never, ever dream of putting it in danger.

On this day, though, the Cardinals were an unfit parent, and the football was a wayward orphan.

Representative sketch of this game:

COLLEGE BASKETBALL.
JANUARY 4th.
DREXEL 60, TOWSON 27.

Context:

- In 2011-12, Towson finished with a 1-31 record. Dating back to the previous season, they were mired in a losing streak that would ultimately last a Division I-record 42 games.

- Towson would average 51.5 points per game that season. That was either the 344th-best mark in Division I basketball, or the very worst, depending on how you'd prefer to look at it.

What's sad about this game:

- The 27 points scored by Towson are the lowest in CAA history.

- Only one Towson player, Robert Nwankwo, scored as many as two field goals.

- Marcus Damas led Towson in scoring. He was 1-for-9 from the field.

Thoughts:

This team averaged a bucket every five minutes. I wish I were there in that crummy 2,500-seat gymnasium to witness it. What does a player look like when his team is 0-15 on the season and chucking up brick after brick? Do his eyes glaze over, or does he actually frown? Does he walk up and down the court, or does he gingerly lie down, arms at his sides, face down, such that his nose presses straight against the hardwood? That's what I would do. It would be terribly uncomfortable, but that's what I would do.

Representative sketch of this game:

COLLEGE FOOTBALL.
AUGUST 30th.
CONNECTICUT 37, MASSACHUSETTS 0.

Context:

- God only knows what for, but UMass football has been around since 1879. In 2012, it became an FBS program.

- The Minutemen played their first FBS game in school history against Connecticut, a Big East school that has actually won football games and received bowl invitations in recent years.

What's sad about this game:

- UMass collected only 59 offensive yards. This is the lowest single-game total for any FBS team in 2012.

- Six different UMass players recorded rushing statistics. In total, the team rushed 24 times for a net gain of three yards.

Thoughts:

My guess is that everyone affiliated with the Massachusetts football program knew they were going to get obliterated. If that's the case, why waste the opportunity by trying to run a conventional game plan? Do something for the sake of scientific discovery. Fake punt on first down. Have your running back wedge the ball in his face mask and run with it, just to see if the officials object. Make sure you at least have some kind of story to tell.

Representative sketch of this game:

NFL.
DECEMBER 16th.
RAIDERS 15, CHIEFS 0.

Context:

- The Chiefs-Raiders rivalry, one of the most storied in the NFL, has been reduced in recent years to a blood feud between two absolutely awful teams that do not matter.

- The four worst seasons in the Chiefs' 53-year history -- in terms of point differential -- have come in the last four years. The very worst has come in the 2012 season, which isn't even over yet.

- Entering this game, the Chiefs were 2-11, and the Raiders had lost six games in a row.

What's sad about this game:

- From the viewer's perspective, this game was abjectly terrible. All 15 points came from field goals.

- This was only the seventh 15-0 game in the post-merger era, and I would argue that 15-0 is one of the most miserable possible final scores. There are no touchdowns, it isn't a close game, and people generally dislike field goals.

- The Chiefs rushed 10 times for 10 total yards.

Thoughts:

A friend of mine at the SB Nation newsdesk, Pete Holby, is a lifelong Jets fan who does not find sorrow in his team's considerable failures. In fact, he celebrates them. As he's fond of saying, "I came for this party for the crying, not the cake."

Perhaps without fully realizing it, this is how I'm coming to appreciate my Kansas City Chiefs. I accept them for what they are: a Jesus-awful football team that plays in the city in which I was born but do not particularly care to visit, and wears Ronald McDonald-lookin' colors that cannot possibly be worn off the field with any degree of confidence, and is run by people who are inept or jerks or both.

This is an absolutely wretched sports franchise and I am yoked to it until the day I die. It's far easier, and more appropriate, to simply celebrate this team for who and what it is than to burden it with unreasonable expectations (not being horrible, being good ever, etc.).

Representative sketch of this game:

NBA.
JANUARY 23rd.
CELTICS 87, MAGIC 56.

Context:

- Not only were these Orlando Magic paid to play professional basketball, they entered this game with an 11-5 record, and thereby ought to have been at least kind of good.

What's sad about this game:

- The Magic's 56 total points were the fifth-worst of the NBA's modern three-point era (since 1979-80).

- The Magic shot .246. No NBA team had shot that poorly in a game in over seven years.

- Center Dwight Howard, a career .577 shooter who takes the overwhelming majority of his shots from the inside, somehow shot only 4-for-15.

Thoughts:

I have come to actively dislike both of these teams, probably because of overexposure, and holy Hell would I hate having to watch this game.

In one episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," Larry David speculates that someone would need to pay him $3,000 to watch Eat, Pray, Love in the theater. If you wanted me to sit down and watch this entire game, start to finish, I think I would have to ask you for $50. And I would still feel gross about it, because on my deathbed, I would not remember how I spent those fifty dollars, but I would remember exactly how I wasted those hours.

Considering this abomination occurred at the top echelon of competition, I consider it to be an absolute perversion of the sport. This is not what basketball was meant to be.

Representative sketch of this game:

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL.
AUGUST 31st.
REDS 9, ASTROS 3.

Context:

- At present, the Astros may be the worst franchise in professional American sports. They've lost at least 106 games in each of the last two seasons. The logos on their hats make them look like the guys who are coming to set up a new DVR in your living room. They actually might be those guys.

- Entering this game, the Astros were 40.5 games out of first place in their division. No team had been that far back on August 31st since 1998.

- Over their previous 55 games, the Astros were 8-47. That's a .146 winning percentage. For that percentage to hold, in the sport of baseball, for that long of a stretch, is absolutely phenomenal.

What's sad about this game:

I could have picked any number of games just as easily as I chose this one. See, since MLB plays far more games than any other sport, it naturally follows that there will be a lot more in the way of garbage time. The Astros had been in garbage-time mode for two-plus months entering this game. Nothing they did on the field really mattered.

It's not that they were soundly defeated by a 9-3 score. It's that this did not even matter. The Astros were like a word you strip of its meaning when you say it 100 times in a row: by the end, it was difficult to know what the team's purpose even was.

Hello, friend, and thanks for joining us for another episode of THIS WEEK IN GIFs. We're getting awfully close to GIF TOURNAMENT III, which will pit our favorite GIFs of the last six months or so against one another in early January. A couple of the GIFs below will make it into the tournament, depending on how we vote.

Before we get going, please allow Matt Ufford, Dan Rubenstein and myself a chance to plead the cases of our favorite GIFs:

SOUND GUY

HEY! HEY GOD! HEY LOOK DOWN HERE I FOUND YOUR CONTACT LENS OH GOD IT'S SO HEAVY

DANNY AMENDOLA

People groups of all sorts tend to foster a spirit of camaraderie. Strangers locked up overnight in the county jail talk and play checkers. People on the bus smile and nod at each other for years, even if they never talk. Regulars at the $100 table at the Caesars console one another after bad beats. Cyclists stop for anyone standing on the side of the road with a bike and ask them if they need a tube.

I am convinced that this social dynamic does not exist among the group of people who stand behind the end zone at NFL games. There are cops and sound guys and photographers and reporters and ushers, and if this GIF is any indicator, none of them give a shit about one another. Look at the guy to the left of the guy who gets chucked in the face. "Hm. How 'bout that? Welp, gonna 'graph me some Amendola butt. Heh."

WADE BOGGS

I was trying to decide who Wade Boggs is a dead ringer for. At first I settled on the Gorton's fisherman, but something didn't quite feel right. It took me a couple extra minutes to realize that he's Dr. Quest, and now I'm as happy as Mr. Boggs here. Ahhh. It's been quite a journey.

BRANDON WEEDEN

Brandon Weeden is throwing the ball away on fourth-and-three. Brandon Weeden will carve up your defense if you give him room to work like that. Brandon Weeden has the instincts of a winner. Brandon Weeden can beat you in so many ways. Brandon Weeden is in win-now mode. Brandon Weeden is the final piece of the puzzle. Brandon Weeden will exploit your every weakness. Brandon Weeden is here to clean up the streets, one punk at a time. The Santa Clause 2 is based on events that actually happened to Brandon Weeden.

DEVON WYLIE

I appreciate that Mr. Wylie demonstrates what he was trying to do by bringing his arms into his chest, not once, but twice. We've seen a few GIFs of a ball doinking a guy in the helmet, but in other instances the guy was turned away from the ball or something. This hit Devon Wylie directly in his face. Now, if the ball stuck in his face mask and he turned and ran with it? That would have been the most important play in the history of football.

KYRIE IRVING

When Jason Kidd made his NBA debut, Kyrie Irving was two years old.

SEAHAWKS ARE JERKS

Here we see the Seahawks, with a 30-point lead in the fourth quarter, successfully running a fake punt. Head coach Pete Carroll later said he felt bad about it, and that safety Chris Maragos was authorized to audible into a fake punt if the opponent's setup looked favorable. So basically, Pete Carroll has created a team so effective that he is no longer able to throw on the brakes.

DeMARCO MURRAY

Sunday, DeMarco Murray joined the Naked Butt on National Television Hall of Legends. The only other member, as far as I'm aware, is Dennis Franz. I don't really want to go to that induction ceremony very much.

VOTE!

Your failure to win your fantasy football league this season was not, in fact, your failure. Rather, it was the failure of the fantasy football format at large. It does not reward highly intelligent, analytical people like you. Remember that time you solved all the table puzzles at the Cracker Barrel? You're basically K-PAX, only cool and not a nerd because you like sports.

As you learned, fantasy football rewards blind luck. Anything resembling strategy or cunning is an illusion. Let's take a look at how your draft picks panned out, and agree that you should never play fantasy football again.

(The statistics below are based on Yahoo!'s average draft rankings for each player, and their totals in standard scoring leagues.)

Quarterbacks

Drafting a running back, meanwhile, was far more dangerous. You drafted Ryan Mathews over Adrian Peterson because you are a football insider, and a few picks later, your novice friend selected Peterson because he recognized his name from a Subway commercial or something. Just keep in mind that you are smart and that he is either not as smart or not smart at all.

Consider this: the running backs selected within the first 30 picks scored an average of 171 points, while those selected with the 31st through 65th picks averaged 156. That's a difference of approximately one point per game.

Why your cunning and well-considered running back selection didn't pan out:

• Maurice Jones-Drew injured his foot because the time he would have spent exercising his foot muscles was wasted on a contract holdout. As such, he is greedy and lazy, and your decision to draft him anyway is testament to your willingness to see past peoples' flaws. It is a fault, but it is a noble fault, and it is your sole tactical shortcoming.
• Ryan Mathews broke his clavicle because of bounties.
• LeSean McCoy was injured because the Eagles did not have a win-now attitude.

Wide receivers

Going forward, Calvin Johnson should probably be regarded as the surest bet in fantasy football. Last season, the numbers of his quarterback, Matt Stafford, were off the charts, and Johnson finished as the league's best fantasy wideout. This season, Stafford faltered statistically, and he only found Johnson for five touchdowns (as compared to 16 last season). Megatron remained the top wideout anyway by breaking the NFL's single-season record for receiving yards.

You didn't get to select Calvin Johnson. Well, I mean, you could have passed on LeSean McCoy to get him, but there is no way of knowing who will be good or bad in football because of low sample size and Spygate. Regardless, it seemed worth your while to invest a top-round pick in a top-tier wideout -- seven of the first eight wideouts selected enjoyed good-to-great seasons.

Why your cunning and well-considered wide receiver selection didn't pan out:

• Cardinals quarterback John Skelton did not throw to Larry Fitzgerald because it seriously did not ever occur to him. The whole season, he was just like, "durr who should I throw to, durr I don't know," and then he got sacked. He should have thrown to him on every play because you have to thread the needle in today's NFL.
• You pretty much had to pick Larry Fitzgerald.
• You placed Larry Fitzgerald on waivers after Week 4 and then used your spot on the waiver wire to re-claim him because you heard someone on ESPN say he had "great ability" while you were washing the dishes.
• Your friend claimed Fitzgerald off the wire before you could. The next morning, you woke up with a terrible hangover and found that you had traded Brandon Marshall for him. You also found that you had series of texts to your friend, including but not limited to, "LETS MAKE A DEAL,""WHEELIN AND AND DEALIN,""I am riverbot gambler,""Beware the river gabler," and, "Do you hakl;".

Lessons learned from the 2012 fantasy season:

• You are brilliant and supremely talented, and to engage in a game that so cruelly rewards thoughtlessness and chance above other things is an act of self-hatred. You were designed for greater things. You are God's perfect angel.
• If you had been able to attend Stanford like you wanted to, you would have had more interesting friends. Instead, you are stuck in your hometown, marooned in social circles with your dullard high school buddies who depend on something as intellectually fruitless as fantasy football to maintain relationships with one another.
• Fantasy football is a means of observing a game with points -- non-real commodities -- and then assigning non-real values to those commodities. In so doing, fantasy football sits two full degrees of separation from reality or actual value. Whichever of your friends won your fantasy football league is a petty tyrant of his or her own daydream, and nothing more. That is pathetic. That person is pathetic.
• Yes, the champion of your league will soon come calling for your dues, which you were supposed to pay in September. No worries. Simply explain to your landlord that your rent will be short $100 this month, and that you're good for it next month. Think of your landlord as a bank that can lend up to $425 at any given time.
• You are a treasure, and I love you so very much, and you didn't need to win some crummy fantasy football league to impress me. I love you just as you are.

GIF TOURNAMENT III -- SWEET 16
(5) CLINT DEMPSEY VS. (4) COURTNEY KIRKLAND/KRIS HUMPHRIES

CLINT DEMPSEY.

Via @bubbaprog. Received 686 votes in Round 1.

The Dempsey GIF has to be the worst in the field.

EDITOR'S NOTE: despite Mr. Dempsey's victory in Round 1, the commentariat kind of hates this GIF. Keep on keepin' on, silent majority!

COURTNEY KIRKLAND/KRIS HUMPHRIES.

Received 735 votes in Round 1.

We're going places, Kirkland. We're gonna show this bracket a thing or two.

- Valued Internet subscriber nickjs21

NOT ON THIS COURT[NEY]!

- Valued Internet subscriber Jackson7

Courtney Kirkland is my odds-on favorite to win the whole thing.

- Valued Internet subscriber Devon Edwards

VOTE!

(1) ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC vs.
(8) BARRY ZITO
Voting is live!

(5) MARK SANCHEZ vs.
(4) JADEVEON CLOWNEY
Voting is live!

(6) PADRES BULLPEN CATCHER vs.
(3) SCREAMIN' MARINE
Voting is live!

(10) TEXAS FAN vs.
(2) TIM LINCECUM
Voting is live!

(1) TOMMY HUNTER vs.
(8) JOE MORGAN
Voting is live!

(5) CLINT DEMPSEY vs.
(4) COURTNEY KIRKLAND/KRIS HUMPHRIES
Voting is live!

(6) ACE SANDERS vs.
(3) DAMN IT, ASTROS
Voting is live!

(10) LAKERS FANS vs.
(2) CHIEFS SPECIAL TEAMS
Voting is live!

GIF TOURNAMENT III -- SWEET 16
(6) ACE SANDERS VS. (3) DAMN IT, ASTROS

ACE SANDERS.

Received 501 votes in Round 1.

That is beast mode on Skittles if I’ve ever seen it.

- Valued Internet subscriber 37214

Now that the voting is closed, I'm comfortable to inform you all that Ace didn't score on the play.

Was deemed out of bounds at the 1.

- Valued Internet subscriber Gamecock'n'Balls

VOTE ACE YOU ANIMALS

- SB Nation's own Matt Ufford

DAMN IT, ASTROS.

Received 654 votes in Round 1.

Can a team be inducted into the GIF HOF?

If so, the Astros definitely deserve to be in there. I wasn’t even sure which Damn it, Astors GIF was being displayed until I opened it.

- Valued Internet subscriber mrmadrew

Houston should just make all of the bases out of trampolines.

- Field Gulls' own Kenneth Arthur

Can we have a tournament made entirely of Astros GIFs?

- Valued Internet subscriber Wolf-fang

VOTE!

(1) ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC vs.
(8) BARRY ZITO
Voting is live!

(5) MARK SANCHEZ vs.
(4) JADEVEON CLOWNEY
Voting is live!

(6) PADRES BULLPEN CATCHER vs.
(3) SCREAMIN' MARINE
Voting is live!

(10) TEXAS FAN vs.
(2) TIM LINCECUM
Voting is live!

(1) TOMMY HUNTER vs.
(8) JOE MORGAN
Voting is live!

(5) CLINT DEMPSEY vs.
(4) COURTNEY KIRKLAND/KRIS HUMPHRIES
Voting is live!

(6) ACE SANDERS vs.
(3) DAMN IT, ASTROS
Voting is live!

(10) LAKERS FANS vs.
(2) CHIEFS SPECIAL TEAMS
Voting is live!

GIF TOURNAMENT III -- SWEET 16
(10) LAKERSBRO VS. (2) CHIEFS SPECIAL TEAMS

LAKERSBRO.

Received 599 votes in Round 1.

He borrowed this guy’s tickets for the game.

- Valued Internet subscriber nycbirdo

LakersBros are the Gonzaga of this tourney

- Valued Internet subscriber 37214

He HAD to know there was a camera on him, right? I mean, what’s he takin’ off his shades for? He already saw the play. His buddy sure ain’t payin’ him no mind. The dude must live every moment as if he’s on camera.

- Valued Internet subscriber Jackson7

CHIEFS SPECIAL TEAMS.

Received 358 votes in Round 1.

there is a bar by my work called chief's

It’s a denver broncos bar

I live in San Diego

I feel like it is a kindred spirit with that gif

- Valued Internet subscriber xmrblondex

Chiefs gets it

Purely based on the “Encapsulates the Overarching Culture of a Team” – it really is everything you need to know about that douchebag Chiefs squad.

- Valued Internet subscriber WolfOG

VOTE!

(1) ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC vs.
(8) BARRY ZITO
Voting is live!

(5) MARK SANCHEZ vs.
(4) JADEVEON CLOWNEY
Voting is live!

(6) PADRES BULLPEN CATCHER vs.
(3) SCREAMIN' MARINE
Voting is live!

(10) TEXAS FAN vs.
(2) TIM LINCECUM
Voting is live!

(1) TOMMY HUNTER vs.
(8) JOE MORGAN
Voting is live!

(5) CLINT DEMPSEY vs.
(4) COURTNEY KIRKLAND/KRIS HUMPHRIES
Voting is live!

(6) ACE SANDERS vs.
(3) DAMN IT, ASTROS
Voting is live!

(10) LAKERS FANS vs.
(2) CHIEFS SPECIAL TEAMS
Voting is live!

Happy Monday, friend. Over the weekend, you and I cast our votes and reduced the Sweet 16 of GIF TOURNAMENT III to the Elite Eight, and a couple of notable events came to pass. Firstly, the top overall seed of the tournament, ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC, fell to BARRY ZITO.

Secondly, we have managed to shed ourselves of all NFL GIFs. We have four baseball GIFs, two college football GIFs, and two NBA GIFs. Concordantly, perhaps, we have one GIF of a player doing something great, two GIFs of miserable failure, and five that are just plum goofy. It's possible that the NFL is just not silly enough for this tournament.

Today, I ask you to slack off at your job for yet another day and cast your votes in the Elite Eight round. Polls will remain open until 11 p.m. Eastern. We'll vote on the Final Four Tuesday, and hold the championship Wednesday. I'll be updating this page throughout the morning with links that will let you view/vote on the GIFs in question. If you'd prefer, you can follow me at @jon_bois, where I'll be tweeting out links as they go live.

Enjoy!

GIF TOURNAMENT III -- ELITE EIGHT

(8) BARRY ZITO vs.
(4) JADEVEON CLOWNEY
Voting is live!

(3) SCREAMIN' MARINE vs.
(2) TIM LINCECUM
Voting is live!

(1) TOMMY HUNTER vs.
(4) COURTNEY KIRKLAND/KRIS HUMPHRIES
Voting is live!

(3) DAMN IT, ASTROS vs.
(10) LAKERSBRO
Voting is live!

Our field of 32 animated sports GIFs has been narrowed down to eight. Vote, and help us determine which GIFs are great or awful or goofy enough to advance to the Final Four.

Happy Monday, friend. Over the weekend, you and I cast our votes and reduced the Sweet 16 of GIF TOURNAMENT III to the Elite Eight, and a couple of notable events came to pass. Firstly, the top overall seed of the tournament, ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC, fell to BARRY ZITO.

Secondly, we have managed to shed ourselves of all NFL GIFs. We have four baseball GIFs, two college football GIFs, and two NBA GIFs. Concordantly, perhaps, we have one GIF of a player doing something great, two GIFs of miserable failure, and five that are just plum goofy. It's possible that the NFL is just not silly enough for this tournament.

Today, I ask you to slack off at your job for yet another day and cast your votes in the Elite Eight round. Polls will remain open until 11 p.m. Eastern. We'll vote on the Final Four Tuesday, and hold the championship Wednesday. I'll be updating this page throughout the morning with links that will let you view/vote on the GIFs in question. If you'd prefer, you can follow me at @jon_bois, where I'll be tweeting out links as they go live.

Enjoy!

GIF TOURNAMENT III -- ELITE EIGHT

(8) BARRY ZITO vs.
(4) JADEVEON CLOWNEY
Voting will be live shortly

(3) SCREAMIN' MARINE vs.
(2) TIM LINCECUM
Voting will be live shortly

(1) TOMMY HUNTER vs.
(4) COURTNEY KIRKLAND/KRIS HUMPHRIES
Voting will be live shortly

(3) DAMN IT, ASTROS vs.
(10) LAKERSBRO
Voting will be live shortly

GIF TOURNAMENT III -- ELITE EIGHT
(8) BARRY ZITO VS. (4) JADEVEON CLOWNEY

BARRY ZITO.

Received 976 votes in Round 1, and 745 votes in Round 2.

it’ll be great if it can eventually come to Zito vs. Lincecum in a “Giants pitchers are weird”-off.

- Valued Internet subscriber JustWriteDK

Barry Zito, well, that gif is the distilled essence of six seasons and 4,358 batters faced.

- Valued Internet subscriber rustyspatula

He initially raises his glove in hope that the pitch will come down in the strike zone, and then looks up and locates the ball before slowly retreating as if to say “Shit, never mind”

- Valued Internet subscriber debater12

JADEVEON CLOWNEY.

Received 1,137 votes in Round 1, and 1,710 votes in Round 2.

the Clowney hit is just so insane. He starts on the defensive line, just jumps through the hole, and basically kills a guy. The helmet flies off the screen. OFF THE SCREEN! He then palms the ball one-handed. All this happened one play after Michigan was gifted a fourth-down conversion by the refs.

- Valued Internet subscriber srabin16

It looks for a second that Clowney has a 3rd arm when he picks up the ball.

Clowney hit the dude so hard that his arm became another of Clowney’s.

- Valued Internet subscriber Area Sports Athlete

I've seen it a thousand times, but Clowney still makes me scared. For myself. I am too scared not to vote for him.

- Valued Internet subscriber JTExperience

VOTE!

GIF TOURNAMENT III -- ELITE EIGHT

(8) BARRY ZITO vs.
(4) JADEVEON CLOWNEY
Voting is live!

(3) SCREAMIN' MARINE vs.
(2) TIM LINCECUM
Voting is live!

(1) TOMMY HUNTER vs.
(4) COURTNEY KIRKLAND/KRIS HUMPHRIES
Voting is live!

(3) DAMN IT, ASTROS vs.
(10) LAKERSBRO
Voting is live!

GIF TOURNAMENT III -- ELITE EIGHT
(3) SCREAMIN' MARINE VS. (2) TIM LINCECUM

SCREAMIN' MARINE.

Via @bubbaprog. Received 824 votes in Round 1, and 787 votes in Round 2.

Goodwin’s Right/Left/Right head looking is pretty BA with a Screamin’ Marine in his face. Kind of like how kids roll their eyes when getting yelled at.

- Valued Internet subscriber Jackson7

You can't stop this marine

Hat bobble is this year's Raptor mascot tail.

- Valued Internet subscriber AU_Jonesy

Screamin' Marine should become the visual counterpart to the Wilhelm scream

- Valued Internet subscriber nickjs21

TIM LINCECUM.

Received 1,166 votes in Round 1, and 841 votes in Round 2.

It’s not as spectacular, but Lincecum rivals the ROLLERBLADING RAPTOR in number of times it continually crack you up despite having seen it 100+ times already

- SB Nation's own Ethan Rothstein

Tim Lincecum has to win because it's an artistic masterpiece

- Valued Internet subscriber voicecats

It's fun to imagine that for every game, the Giants have to assign someone to sit with Lincecum to make sure he doesn't choke on a seed, fall off the bench, etc.

- Valued Internet subscriber 85

VOTE!

GIF TOURNAMENT III -- ELITE EIGHT

(8) BARRY ZITO vs.
(4) JADEVEON CLOWNEY
Voting is live!

(3) SCREAMIN' MARINE vs.
(2) TIM LINCECUM
Voting is live!

(1) TOMMY HUNTER vs.
(4) COURTNEY KIRKLAND/KRIS HUMPHRIES
Voting is live!

(3) DAMN IT, ASTROS vs.
(10) LAKERSBRO
Voting is live!

GIF TOURNAMENT III -- ELITE EIGHT
(1) TOMMY HUNTER VS. (4) COURTNEY KIRKLAND/KRIS HUMPHRIES

TOMMY HUNTER.

Received 678 votes in Round 1, and 598 votes in Round 2.

This is a premeditated move on his part. He pulled this pose hoping/expecting the camera to eventually be on him. I like gifs for their spontaneity and this is not that.

- Valued Internet subscriber Ian Balls

When I think of the gif tournament I think about the images we see in the middle of a sporting event that we did not expect to see. Great feats of athleticism are expected. Home runs are expected.

Seeing a thrilled statue dressed like a relief pitcher is unexpected.

- Valued Internet subscriber Sam Godford

Not a lot of people know this, but he's still there. Still posing. Still staring. Just a thin layer of snow on his shoulders.

- Valued Internet subscriber nickjs21

COURTNEY KIRKLAND/KRIS HUMPHRIES.

Received 735 votes in Round 1, and 777 votes in Round 2.

I like Courtney Kirkland because we are seeing someone's dream come true.

No one sets out to be a referee as a kid – clearly, Courtney grew up wanting to be a basketball player. And a big man too, one who could own the paint. But Courtney is not a big man, and Courtney rode the bench in high school, and Courtney rode the bench for his D-III college.

But on the day of this gif, Courtney blocked a shot. Way to go, Courtney.

- Valued Internet subscriber Sam Godford

MORE LIKE KANYE KIRKLAND RIGHT GUYS

- Valued Internet subscriber JTExperience

I can not logically explain it. Every other gif ever had some kind of explanation. The Astros suck. Lincecum is goofy. The Chiefs suck. People trip all the time, its just really funny when it gets caught on tape. We got a whole article about the Screamin’ Marine But a ref leaping to stuff a free throw? WTF Kirkland.

- Valued Internet subscriber mrmadrew

VOTE!

GIF TOURNAMENT III -- ELITE EIGHT

(8) BARRY ZITO vs.
(4) JADEVEON CLOWNEY
Voting is live!

(3) SCREAMIN' MARINE vs.
(2) TIM LINCECUM
Voting is live!

(1) TOMMY HUNTER vs.
(4) COURTNEY KIRKLAND/KRIS HUMPHRIES
Voting is live!

(3) DAMN IT, ASTROS vs.
(10) LAKERSBRO
Voting is live!

GIF TOURNAMENT III -- ELITE EIGHT
(3) DAMN IT, ASTROS VS. (10) LAKERSBRO

DAMN IT, ASTROS.

Received 654 votes in Round 1, and 816 votes in Round 2.

Get up Young Man!

-reggie miller

- Valued Internet subscriber xmrblondex

I just can’t get over the wobbling of his legs on Damn it, Astros. It reminds me of a botched vault on Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games.

- Valued Internet subscriber sperren

The astros gif is the closest thing in form to rollerbladin' raptor that we've had

the awkward fall, the airtime, the rollover at the end…

- Valued Internet subscriber debater12

LAKERSBRO.

Received 599 votes in Round 1, and 822 votes in Round 2.

The most underappreciated fact about Lakersbro

Is that they are wearing the same exact shirt, which they clearly just bought before the game.

That, and the fact that this gif is now a window into the glorious days of two months ago when Laker fans were still full of hope.

- Valued Internet subscriber Gudgel

This is my pick for GIF Tournament III champion.

- SB Nation's own Matt Ufford

I vote for LakersBro because it gives Matt LeBlanc extra screen time

- Valued Internet subscriber The984

VOTE!

GIF TOURNAMENT III -- ELITE EIGHT

(8) BARRY ZITO vs.
(4) JADEVEON CLOWNEY
Voting is live!

(3) SCREAMIN' MARINE vs.
(2) TIM LINCECUM
Voting is live!

(1) TOMMY HUNTER vs.
(4) COURTNEY KIRKLAND/KRIS HUMPHRIES
Voting is live!

(3) DAMN IT, ASTROS vs.
(10) LAKERSBRO
Voting is live!

Hello, friend. Welcome to another installment of TAILGATE JUDGMENT. This is how we do things, if you're new here:

1. In the comments below, describe what you had to eat and/or drink during the game(s) Sunday. Perhaps you were at the game. Perhaps you tailgated. Perhaps you watched from home or at a bar.
2. I will then, time permitting, respond to your comment with a 1-through-10 rating for both your food and drink, and do my best to explain my ruling.
3. You will accept this judgment as absolute and superseding of all federal, state, and/or municipal rulings.

First, let's examine a disaster. WSB-TV's Zach Klein documented the presence of this abomination at the Falcons-Seahawks game in Atlanta:

New menu item at #Falcons playoff games "Sliderita"twitter.com/ZachKleinWSB/s…

— Zach Klein (@ZachKleinWSB) January 14, 2013

TAILGATE JUDGMENT and gimmickry are not necessarily at loggerheads. I'm certainly up for appreciating a shallow trick here and there. This, though, is a monument to to imbalance. Why someone would venture to pair a slider with a margarita is beyond me. Is that an ... orange? Is that a ... slice of bacon? I have grown weary of all these chuckleheads treating their plates and bowls as dumpsters, and now, apparently, we have decided to regard our tumblers as our own little garbage bins. Good Lord. Good grief. General Sherman, you missed a spot.

Sigh. It is your turn. Please do better.

You! Yes, you! Let's hear it, pal! What did you have to eat and/or drink while watching playoff football?