Around the Empire

Here’s what’s going on around the My Opinion on Sports Empire.

The My Opinion on Sports Fantasy Baseball League is forming right now. You need to hurry and sign-up before all the slots are filled.

We are still looking for a writer to help us launch My Opinion on NASCAR.

My Opinion on Baseball has the AL East and Central previews posted. Here's a sample.

American League Central Preview
Chicago White Sox – Last Year’s Record 90-72, 3rd in Division
Weakness: Pitching, Contreras, Buehrle, Garland, Vasquez and Floyd are all probables for the starting rotation and each of them had an ERA above 4.00 last season.
Strength: Getting on base, the White Sox starting lineup has a combined .348 on base percentage.
What to look forward too: Sox, Tigers, and Twins will be in a heated race for the division crown. Three different winners in the past three years.
Red Flag: Weaker team overall could ruin division run late in the season.
Predicted Finish: 3rd 89-73

American League East Preview


Baltimore Orioles - Last year’s record 70-92, 4th in division
Strength: Batting, the O’s starting infield smacked a combined 88 homers last season led by Miguel Tejada’s 24. Tejada also posted a .330 batting average.
Weakness: Pitching, the six possible guys for the starting rotation have a combined average ERA of 4.65. That won’t be good enough to hang with the Yankees, Red Sox or even the Blue Jays.
What to watch for: A comeback season from Tejada back by a 25 home run 80 RBI campaign.
Keys to Success: Tejada having a career season and a surprise bat in the line up.
Red Flag: Not enough talent to have a winning season.
Projected Finish: 4th 71-91

The Baseball Forum has threads going about fantasy baseball, the AL East and Central.

Register for the forum here. Don't worry it's free!

Drug Bust Will Shock the Sports World

An Orlando pharmaceutical company that allegedly sold steroids and other performance enhancers over the Internet was raided yesterday and it will have huge implications in the world of sports on the high school, college and professional levels.


The Albany, N.Y., Times Union and ABCNews.com are reporting that investigators in the year-old case uncovered evidence that testosterone and other performance-enhancing drugs may have been fraudulently prescribed over the Internet to current and former major league baseball and NFL players, college athletes, high school coaches, a former Mr. Olympia champion and another top contender in the bodybuilding competition.


Albany County District Attorney P. David Soares declined to name any consumers but former major league baseball pitcher Jason Grimsley is reported to be on the customer list.


A team doctor for the Pittsburg Steelers was also questioned by a New York investigator over allegedly using his personal credit card to purchase $150,000 in testosterone and human growth hormone in 2006.

The physician, Richard A. Rydze, told the investigator the drugs were for his private patients, the paper said, citing an unidentified person briefed on the interview.


I guarantee that there are a lot of athletes, trainers and coaches that are going to lose a lot of sleep over this. Major League Baseball has no one but themselves to blame for the drug problems that they are facing. The Barry Bonds situation has been a fiasco from the start and players like Jason Giambi, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire were allowed to explain away their rapid body growth and continue on in baseball bliss.



This investigation was a year in the making and while right now the authorities are focusing more on the pushers than the users the users names will eventually come out and after that there may be a drastic change in the sports scene, on all levels.

UPDATE

Jose Canseco, Evander Holyfield and Gary Matthews Jr. have all been mentioned today in connection with this investigation.

Fantasy Baseball Time!

The My Opinion on Sports Fantasy Baseball League is now forming and this is your official invitation to join. Right now the league is set for 12 teams so don’t wait to sign-up or you might get left out.

Follow this link. Click the "Sign Up Now" button, Agree to terms, Click the "Join League" button, Click on “Join Custom” button and then enter the league ID# :130082 and Password: dolphinfan.

New York Yankees Q&A

The AL East Preview is up at My Opinion on Baseball and the New York Yankees are the pick to win that division. Like most teams there are still some questions out there about the Yankees so we found an expert to give us some answers.

Please welcome Steve from BronxBloggers. Steve was gracious enough to sit down and answer some of our most pressing questions regarding the New York Yankees. Thanks for your time Steve!

What do you make of the Derek Jeter/Alex Rodriguez soap opera, is there really something there that could potentially damage the team or is the media just blowing it way out of proportion?

Steve: Lots of players go through personal difference and do not let it get to them on the field. The A-Rod/Jeter love story is nothing more than a media heyday with nothing else to cover. They are still friends and team mates and it will have no impact on either one of them.

Andy Pettitte is making his return to the Yankees but he and Mike Mussina are both getting up in years. Who is the ace of this pitching staff?

Steve: Chein-Ming Wang proved valuable as the teams ace tying the major league mark in wins and placing second in the Cy Young Voting. Both Pettitte and Mussina still have some oomph in their arms, but it's time that the younger generation needs to step up as commander. And who knows what Kei Igawa will bring and how successful Phillip Hughes is when he gets a call up.

How much will the loss of Bernie Williams affect this team, both on the field and in the locker room?

Steve: Yankees players and fans will certainly miss having Bernie around as he was a true Yankee and always played his best. However, the outfield holds enough talent and if Bobby Abreu does no re-sign, Melky Cabrera will step in. Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui are both Boston killers and will be a prominent force in the Yankees defense.

If you had to pick one of the following to go on the DL who would you pick and why? (Johnny Damon, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez).

Steve: I would have to go with Damon. We really do not have another player who can play the infield at a major league level.

What player on this team is really going to surprise everyone, good or bad?

Steve: Alex Rodriguez will bounce back and play as well as he did in the past. Kei Igawa has been making waves and may be a better sign that originally though. What not to be surprised about, Carl Pavano meeting the DL. He’s already been plunked once so far this year.

NASCAR Fan, Are You Out There?

They say that NASCAR is America’s fastest growing sport and while I have tried my absolute best to get into it, I can’t get my interest to move beyond just watching the wrecks on ESPN’s Sports Center.

Trust me, its not for lack of effort that I haven’t gotten into it. I really tried at the beginning of last season to follow it and even make a blog post or two about it. However, when baseball picked up my quest to discover the difference between the Nextel cup series and the Busch series came to a screeching halt.

Here’s the deal. I’m willing to give it another shot this season but not without help. I understand that Matt Kenseth won the Auto Club 500 at California this weekend and his teammates Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson finished second and third. What I don’t understand is how that turns into points in the race for the cup and if all three are teammates why is Kenseth driving a ford and Gordon and Johnson Chevy’s?

So tell me, two races into the season is there any hope for a guy like me or should I just stick to spring training for baseball and the upcoming NFL draft? I’m laying myself at your mercy NASCAR fan. I’m willing to learn if you are willing to teach.

Update

Thanks to all of you who have sent me e-mails in an effort to educate me in the ways of NASCAR. I really have learned a lot (like Kenseth, Gordon and Johnson aren't really all three teammates) and it got me wondering if maybe we should start another blog specifically for NASCAR. It could be very educational if we got the right person to write for it.

So, how about you? Are you a NASCAR nut? Do you like to write about the races and the drivers?

If you are interested please contact me for complete details.

NHL Brawl

I realize that the NHL is still living in obscurity but Thursday night’s fight may have been the best thing to happen to the league since the Great One Wayne Gretzky himself. Everyone, literally everyone if I’m included, is taking notice of this.

Thanks to YouTube we can live it over again as well. Video is about 8 minutes and will last until YouTube pulls it.

Dangerous Sports – Anything with a Board

Here’s a great idea. Let’s get a board, put some wheels on it and then try to ride and jump it over all kinds of stuff. Some people will get really good at it and make lots of money while most everyone else will just get hurt.

A Bronx Blogger Joins the Empire

Steve from the outstanding New York Yankees blog BronxBloggers has agreed to come on board with My Opinion on Baseball as a writer and moderator of the baseball forum on the Message Boards.

Man, that’s a lot of links for one paragraph but you get the point. We couldn’t be happier to Steve aboard and the launch of our new site. Stay tuned for information coming on the My Opinion on Sports Fantasy Baseball League early next week. You can take advantage of Steve’s offer for fantasy baseball advice in the baseball forum while you are waiting.

It’s a great day in the Empire! We are looking to start My Opinion on NASCAR next.

If you are interested please contact me for complete details.

The Market is Open!

Today is the trade deadline for the NBA and rumors are flying everywhere as to who is going where. Here are the latest rumors as well as my opinions on the deals to be done, or not.

Jason Kidd
The New Jersey Nets are going to try their best to move Jason Kidd and the Los Angeles Lakers are going to do their absolute best to acquire him. The person in question is Andrew Bynum who the Nets want in return. I still say the Lakers will pull the trigger on this deal because if there is anyone who wants another championship worse than Kobe Bryant its Phil Jackson. He could be willing to trade the future (Bynum) to ride off into the sunset embraced in immortality. Look for the possibility of a third team getting involved as well.

Not only will the Lakers deal for Kidd they will also sign Scottie Pippen to a 10 day contract in order to see what he can still bring to the game. Pippen wants a deal with the Miami Heat but will settle for his old coach and pack his bags for a three month stint in L.A.

Deal or No Deal
Houston Rockets General Manager Carroll Dawson is shopping for a trade but not really willing to make one.

"There are ongoing talks," he said. "We're not close to anything. Probably nothing will happen. But you never give up trying."

Despite having one of the best big men in the league the Rockets will be satisfied to make it to the second round of the play-offs only to get bounced by the Dallas Mavericks.

The Orlando Magic are also looking to keep their team intact. Despite Vince Carter dropping the hint that he would like to get closer to his Daytona, FL. home the Magic will make no deals.

Juan Dixon
The Detroit Pistons are looking for a perimeter player and Dixon will be their man. Look for Detroit to make a trade, dealing Nazr Mohammed, Dale Davis or Flip Murray for Dixon.

Clearance Sell
Not only are the Memphis Grizzlies still looking at the possibility to trading Center Paul Gasol but they are also looking into the possibility of dealing Dahntay Jones, Brian Cardinal and Stromile Swift.

My bet is that Gasol stays and one of the other three goes, most likely Swift.

Updates

Juan Dixon has been traded to Toronto for Fred Jones.

Anthony Johnson was traded from the Dallas Mavericks to the Atlanta Hawks for 2007 second round draft pick.

No Credit = No Power

Sponsored Post

There is one fact of life that you will never be able to get around. Its the fact that if you have no credit or even worse bad credit then you are powerless when it comes to financing just about anything. 41

Protecting your credit should be a top priority of yours because bad credit will greatly decrease your chances for buying a home, securing a loan or even getting cable television. Not to mention that the worse your credit is the higher you are going to pay in interest if you are able to secure a loan. 56

However, there is hope for your damaged credit but you need to act fast. Get your Credit Report Repair now.

The Empire is Expanding

My Opinion on Baseball has officially launched and we couldn’t be more excited. Here’s a quick sample of some of the things being discussed over there.

Mariners
Could Learn Exactly How Fast Ichiro Is
The Seattle Mariners added three starting pitchers this winter -- Jeff Weaver, Horacio Ramirez and Miguel Batista -- plus designated hitter Jose Vidro and outfielder Jose Guillen in hopes of ending their three year streak of finishing the season in the AL West basement.

While the moves are giving fans a glimmer of hope as the season approaches they are also giving a particular Mariners' All-Star inclinations to try out free agency himself. Ichiro Suzuki is known for his on base percentage incredible speed but could soon be known for bolting Seattle as a free agent.

Yankees Already Producing Drama
Maybe it’s the fact their owner has no beef in over spending for players. Maybe it’s their 39 AL Pennants or 26 World Series Championships. Maybe it’s the pinstripes but for whatever reason people love to hate the New York Yankees and literally hours into spring training they are producing headlines that will be fodder for anti-Yankee message boards for weeks to come.

Bernie Williams is a no show at camp because he wants a
guaranteed roster spot and is bent on not playing unless he gets one. Williams is a five-time All-Star, a four-time Gold Glove center fielder, the 1998 AL batting champion and the 1996 AL Championship Series MVP and his absence is greatly noticed.

The site is still needing some work as well as a co-author. That’s where you could come in. If you have a passion for baseball and some spare time then we could use you in the My Opinion on Sports Empire.

If you are interested please contact me for complete details.

Wake Me Up When Things Start Making Sense Again

So, I’m really trying to understand this but all I can think of is the theme to the Twilight Zone in connection with the San Diego Chargers. Less than a week after firing Marty Schottenheimer, who went 14-2 during the regular season, the Chargers replaced him with Norv Turner, who has a career head coaching record of 58-82-1 with the Washington Redskins and Oakland Raiders.

The third time needs to be the charm for Turner, who was fired from his first two head coaching stints, but you have to wonder how he could possibly do better than Marty ball did for the 2006 season. Only a play-off win in 2007 will make amends for not duplicating a 14-2 record but Turner has only won a play-off game once in his career.

People were quick to point out that the Chargers have been running Norv Turner’s offense that he installed during the 2001 season when he served as the offensive coordinator. Another thing Turner did today that will allow the Chargers to remain consistent was hire Ted Cottrell as defensive coordinator. Cattrell is already experienced and well versed in the 3-4 defensive schemes that the Chargers are currently running.

So the Chargers fired one coach and then hired another who looks to run the exact same offense and defense as the fired coach but has no where near the winning percentage of that fired coach. Raise your hand when you get confused because it appears to me that the Chargers best case scenario now for 2007 would be to duplicate 2006. Talk about exercises in futility; let me introduce you to the San Diego Chargers.

Here’s the thing to keep in mind when considering what the Chargers did last season. The Broncos sacrificed their season when they made the quarterback switch from Jake Plummer to Jay Cutler, the Chiefs had quarterback injuries along with the fact that they are coached by Herm Edwards and the Raiders are…well…the Raiders. There is no way the Chargers produce a 14-2 record next season!

As if the situation couldn’t get any stranger add Ron Rivera into the mix. Rivera put together one of the nastiest defenses in the league this season in Chicago. Under his leadership the Bears had a defense that literally won games for them and saved their season more than once.

Rivera has been interviewed eight times over the last two seasons for head coaching positions in the NFL, including the Chargers last week, but was cut loose by the Bears yesterday and wound up on San Diego’s coaching staff as a linebacker’s coach.

Curious question: Why would you name the guy who spent last year as an aide in the league office your defensive coordinator and name the guy who’s defense guided his team to the Super Bowl a position’s coach on defense. Here comes that Twilight Zone theme again.

Make Your Blog Work For You!

I’ve been blogging for almost two years now and while it is true that I didn’t start out to make money it has been nice have the extra cash. Over the last twenty two months I have tried just about every blog marketing resource out there but Pay Per Post is has been my bread and butter.

I can make more money in one night with Pay Per Post than I can in more than a week with text ads. The posts are generally between fifty and two hundred words and take around forty five minutes to complete from start to finish. Pay Per Post lists the opportunities that range from vacation spots to online shopping and anywhere in between. You just simply select the sponsor that you are interested in and create your post.

While there are other resources out there along the same lines it has been my experience that Pay Per Post not only provides the highest paying opportunities but also the most opportunities. Pay Per Post does charge a 35% service fee but when you compare that to the 100% markup that other services charge then you understand the value that you have with Pay Per Post.

Another thing that makes them great is that as your blog traffic grows so does your potential for earning more money. Their segmentation system awards bloggers with high traffic blogs. Some bloggers could make up to $1000.00 for a single sponsored post.

Time to Take Notice of the NBA

With the West wrapping up the All-Star Weekend with a 153-132 win over the East the NBA has officially started the second half of the season. While the NBA is never short on drama or excitement the second half of the season gives us the added excitement of the mad scramble to make the play-offs.

While the top spots in both conferences are still wide open the races you are going to want to watch are at the top of the East and bottom of the West. Here are the teams and races from each conference that you’ll want to take notice of.

Eastern Conference
Detroit Pistons – Current Position: First place in the east. The Pistons are being led by Rip Hamilton’s 21.7 points per game. Trends: Detroit went into the All-Star break winning four of their last five games.

Cleveland Cavilers – Current Position: Second place in the conference, two games behind Detroit, led by LeBron James’ 26.4 points per game. Trends: The Cavs also won four of their last five before the All-Star break.

Washington Wizards – Current Position: Third place in the east, 2.5 games behind the Pistons, led by Gilbert Arenas’ 28.8 points per game. Trends: The Slumping Wizards have lost three of their last five games.

Predicted Outcome: The Wizards will shock the NBA world by winning the top spot in the conference followed by Cleveland and then Detroit.

Western Conference
Denver Nuggets – Current Position: Seventh place in the West. The Nuggets are being led by Carmelo Anthony’s 30.7 points per game. Trends: The Nuggets have won three of their last five games.

Minnesota Timberwolves – Current Position: Eighth place in the conference, 1.5 games behind Denver. Minnesota is led by Kevin Garnett’s 22.4 points per game. Trends: The Timberwolves have won three of the last five games.

LA Clippers – Current Position: Ninth place in the conference, a half a game behind Minnesota. The Clippers are being led by Elton Brands 20.7 points per game. Trends: The Clippers have lost four of their last five games including three in a row.

New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets – Current Position: Tenth place in the conference, a half a game behind Minnesota, led by Chris Paul’s 17.6 points per game. Trends: The Hornets have won four of their last five games.

Predicted Outcome: The Nuggets will not only hold on to their play-off position but they will advance up the standings. The Hornets will secure the final play-off spot and then get swept in the first round, breaking the hearts of the fans in Oklahoma City before they move back to New Orleans for good.

Franchises Available – MLB Blogger Needed

I’m trying to expand the My Opinion on Sports Empire. Okay I realize that it one blog is not an empire but someday it could turn into one and you could be a vital part of that. Here’s the deal, while My Opinion on sports is a general sports blog I would like to start a league specific blog about Major League Baseball.

The problem is that while I have the desire to blog about MLB I really don’t have the time to keep up with another blog so I’m looking for someone to partner with. The advantage to partnering with me is that My Opinion on Sports is already an established blog which already gives us readership, the ability for syndication and connections to advertisers. Caution: While advertising revenue is a possibility your passion for Major League Baseball should be your motivation in order to avoid disappointment.

As the publisher of My Opinion on Baseball you will have the freedom to post as often as you would like and also set the direction of the blog.

If you are interested please contact me for complete details.

A New Approach to Your Mortgage

Sponsored Post

Here’s a new idea for mortgages that may take some getting used to or even some convincing. Imagine being able to pay off your mortgage early without penalty. Would you be willing to do that if the opportunity presented itself? Would you still be as interested if it meant combining your bank account with your mortgage? Yep, you read that right. That’s the part that may take some getting used to.

According to The One Account website this program is supposed to allow you to repay your mortgage early, make more of your savings, pay less interest and get real financial flexibility.

The problem is that the site wasn’t real clear as to exactly how the program works. Either that or I wasn’t smart enough to figure it out.

Dangerous Sports – Basketball

We’ve spent the last several Fridays showing you the dangers that athletes and participants from various sporting activities face but what about the spectators? You know there are always the dangers of being in the wrong place at the wrong time?

The timing of this little guy’s mishap is so incredible that I would love to see the odds of something like this ever happening again.

Reggie Bush Just Can’t Keep USC Out of Trouble

Reggie Bush seems to have a problem with USC. Well, actually it’s the other way around. USC has a problem with Reggie Bush, particularly with the fact that he keeps on getting his former university in trouble.

Reggie’s “house gate” has received a lot of pub in recent months but now he may or may not have helped USC land a top rated recruit depending on which story you listen to at which time. The problem for USC is that it is against NCAA recruiting rules for a former player to help out in the recruiting process.

The recruit in question is Joe McKnight who signed his letter of intent a week ago today and then told an interesting story about a phone conversation he had with the former Heisman trophy winner from USC. McKnight said Pete Carroll set up a conference call so he and his high school football coach J.T. Curtis could talk to Bush and ease concerns USC might face sanctions from the house gate incident.

Once the L.A. Times reported the story along with the fact that it would have been a rules violation stories began to change. Pete Carroll denied that any phone call took place which created back peddling and claims that McKnight was just misunderstood.

Initially Curtis had told the Times that, "Coach Carroll was talking to Reggie on the speakerphone and Joe was able to listen and hear Reggie Bush's side of the story." However, after Carroll’s deny Curtis’ story changed. "He said when they came in his house, the discussion was brought up about probation and that's when the conversation came up that they had talked to Reggie, but Joe was not there," Curtis said.

Are you as confused as I am? So, there were questions over possible probation in which Reggie Bush was called to ease a kid’s mind in order to get him to commit, right? However, when notified that the call in question could actually lead to probation it all of a sudden never happened in spite of the fact that two people are on record saying that it did.

The thing is that Reggie Bush could have actually been an innocent victim here. He just answered a phone call from his former coach to explain to a recruit how he can work the system to get his parents a free house…er…I mean tell the kid not to worry about probation because the NCAA seems to be closing its eyes to USC’s infractions…er…I mean tell the kid that to his knowledge he had done nothing wrong during his years as a Trajan. Its Pete Carroll’s job to know the rules and if this phone call did take place then Carroll did violate the rules and all Reggie Bush is guilty of is being on the other end of the line.

So how do you retract a story that hundreds people heard about a phone call to Reggie Bush for the sake of recruiting? You really can’t but J.T. Curtis gives it his best shot. "At the press conference, it seemed like he got 1,000 questions in five minutes," Curtis said. "If you saw what was going on it would be easier to understand.

Schottenheimer a Victim of Own Success?

I’ll be honest with you. I’m not a big fan of Martyball and I was more than relieved to learn that he would not be a candidate for the Miami Dolphins head coaching job. That said I also have to say this, Marty Schottenheimer was jobbed by the San Diego Chargers on Monday. They found just about every way to hose him over and did it. Why? That’s a great question and apparently the answer is that he was too successful.

Under Schottenheimer’s leadership the Chargers finished the NFL’s regular season with a league best 14-2 record. Following a play-off loss to New England both Schottenheimer’s offensive and defensive coordinators were hired as NFL head coaches, tight ends coach Rob Chudzinski became Cleveland's offensive coordinator, and linebackers coach Greg Manusky was hired as San Francisco's defensive coordinator.

All of those promotions are what caused Marty to get the boot from the Chargers. It now appears that if you are successful in the NFL and flood other organizations in the league with head coaches and coordinators then you get to wear the “dysfunctional” label.

"Events of the last month have now convinced me that it is not possible for our organization to function at a championship level under the current structure," team president Dean Spanos said in a statement. "On the contrary, and in the plainest possible language, we have a dysfunctional situation here. Today I am resolving that situation once and for all."

Assistants taking a promotion with another organization isn’t a new concept in the NFL and I guarantee that 14-2 is as close as the Chargers are going to get to a championship level for a long time.

If Spanos needs an example of dysfunctional then he should look no further than General Manager A.J. Smith. This is the guy who thought Drew Brees was done and watched him walk off to New Orleans. He’s the guy who refused to speak with the coach about personnel moves. In spite of all that Schottenheimer still put a winner on the field. No, that’s not dysfunctional that’s commendable. Spanos would have saved so much face if he would have just come out and states the truth. “We don’t like Marty because he is smarter than us so we are firing him.”

To make things worse not only did the Chargers fire Schottenheimer for an unjust reason, they waited until all the NFL head coaching jobs had been filled so that he has absolutely no chance of landing somewhere else. Now that’s a classy organization!

The Travels of Jason Kidd

One thing that is becoming increasingly clear as the NBA season marches on is the Jason Kidd will not finish the season with the New Jersey Nets. The Nets are seriously considering a deal that would send Kidd to the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers have offered two first-round draft picks and several expiring contracts, in return. Chris Mihm, Aaron McKie and Jordan Farmar have been mentioned, as has center Kwame Brown. Nets' center Jason Collins could also be involved.

Hold up though because the Cleveland Cavaliers are looking for a player to dish the ball to Lebron James and apparently would love to see Kidd and James on the court together but are pursuing other options as well. The Cavs have reportedly have made available every player on their roster, with the exception of James, available to the Sacramento Kings in exchange for Mike Bibby. A deal seems unlikely though unless a third team gets involved.

With all the trade rumors floating around and the deadline just 10 days away here are a few deals that aren’t going to happen.

· Corey Maggette will remain with the Clippers. The team has inquired about trading the discontented swingman but no one seems to have shown an interest.

· Ray Allen will not be going to the New York Knicks! In fact Allen won’t be going anywhere. The Sonics are fighting to stay in Seattle and dealing Allen would deliver a serious blow to an ownership group struggling to find favor among the fan base.

· Julius Hodge will not return to North Carolina to play ball. The former NC State standout has struggled to stay healthy and not impressed Bobcats coach Bernie Bickerstaff enough to pursue him following his release from Milwaukee.

"The problem with Julius is he's been hurt a lot," Bickerstaff said. "He just hasn't been on the floor a lot. What he needs to do is get on the floor and play some basketball."

Right Now on the Message Board

Andy Reid Takes a Leave of Absence

More Online Savings

Sponsored Post

Here at My Opinion on Sports we don’t just let anyone sponsor a post. Before we pass it on to you we want to make sure that it could be beneficial. To this we would like to introduce you to Ebates.com.

With more and more people doing their shopping online the sites that offer the most in savings are drawing the most people and Ebates.com could have the market cornered. Whether shopping at JC Penny, Dell, Target, Gap, Staples or any one of the other 800 stores through Ebates.com you can find things below retail and earn up to 25% cash back through your purchases.

Don’t just use them for gifts either. With their large selection of retailers you can take advantage of them for just about anything, including when you travel. Ebates can even offer you substantial savings on your car rental.

Dangerous Sports – High School Hockey

By now we have established the Friday tradition of showing you some of the most dangerous and amazing plays from the world of sports. Today’s comes from the high school hockey ranks where a kid just left himself wide open to be destroyed against the boards.



Sweet gravy man! Turn your body sideways or something. You have to know going up to the boards that the hit is coming. Then again this kid may not know much of anything anymore.

Right now on the message board
Cowboys Hire Wade Phillips

Super Colts

Congratulations to the Indianapolis Colts who overcame a start about as sloppy as the weather in Miami to win Super Bowl XLI 29-17 over the Chicago Bears. Here are some final thoughts on the game.

Peyton Manning was named Super Bowl MVP but did he deserve it? Manning did throw for 247 yards and a touchdown with one interception but Dominic Rhodes averaged 5.4 yards per carry going for 113 yards and a score. Joseph also rushed for 77 yards as well as racking up 66 receiving yards on 10 catches. Part of me thinks that Manning’s MVP award could be somewhat of a lifetime achievement award.

Was Rex Grossman as bad as he looked? I’m going to buy into the sloppy conditions caused sloppy play theory here. The tide did turn quickly for Grossman and the Bears but he did complete 71.4% of his passes and had a touchdown. Granted there were some fumbles and interceptions in there as well but before you pick on him to much name another part of the Bears offense that was effective.

Would the game had been different had Cedric Benson not gotten injured? I say no! Benson had two carries. The first was a fumble and on the second one he was injured. Chicago accomplished all they were going to in the running game with Jones.

Sloppy Bowl Halftime Report

16 – 14 Colts, Six turnovers in the first half between these two teams! Yes, I would say the weather is affecting the game.

How about Devin Hester’s opening kick-off! Take that away and the Bears are in serious trouble in this game. How about Vinatieri’s missed field goal just before the half! How huge was that to keep the Bears within 2 points.

For the Colts to win they just need to continue doing what they were doing in the first-half. Keep the Bears offense off the field and keep Peyton Manning in rhythm.

For the Bears to win they have to capitalize on Indy mistakes and move the ball and quit making mistakes of their own. Rex Grossman is going to have to make some plays for the Bears to have a chance and they are either going to have to start making tackles or get out of the zone defense.

Thanks to all who joined us on the message board in the first-half. See you again in the second!

Super Bowl Game Thread

Check in here early and often to leave your comments about the Super Bowl. The thread has been up so that you can post before, during and after the game. It should be a very entertaining one!

Dangerous Sports – Trampoline Basketball

The good news is that I am heading to Jacksonville Florida this morning for the Super Bowl. The bad news is that the Super Bowl is in Miami. I get to spend the next five days away from the frigid tundra known as Oklahoma City though.

As far as this week’s dangerous sport goes, well, the video speaks for itself. Enjoy!

Roger Clemens is an Admitted Failure!

Roger Clemens was the keynote speaker for the St. John's winter baseball banquet on Wednesday and the seven-time Cy Young winner made a confession.

"I'm failing at retirement," he said. "Let's just face it. I'm failing miserably at it."

Roger Clemens wants to pitch again. He wants to pitch so badly that he went out on Monday and Tuesday just to pitch batting practice for Houston’s minor leaguers. The Rocket showed that he is still capable bringing the heat last season when he posted a 2.30 ERA in 19 starts.

We haven’t seen Clemens on the mound for the last time. He’ll appear in Boston, Houston or New York in late May or early June. It just depends which one gets off to the best start and is willing to pony up $25 million dollars for a guy who won’t travel with the team until the play-offs.