My Opinion on Sports

NFC Championship Predictions

2010-01-23T20:20:00.000-08:00

Minnesota Vikings	0	0	10	7	--	17
New Orleans Saints	0	13	0	7	--	20

In a game that features two great offenses it’ll be the defenses that steal the show. We’ve both quarterbacks throwing two touchdowns, Minnesota stuffing the New Orleans rushing attack and the difference being a Saints field goal.

	Vikings	Saints
First Downs	19	17
- Rushing	7	4
- Passing	11	12
- Penalty	1	1
3rd Down Eff	4/12	6/16
4th Down Eff	0/1	1/1
Rushes-Yards	31-114	32-49
Avg Rush	3.7	1.5
Comp-Att-Int	16-29-1	20-31-1
Passing Yards	207	261
Sacks-Yards	1-6	3-21
Fumbles-Lost	2-1	0-0
Punts-Avg	5-38.0	5-41.6
KR-Avg	5-21.6	4-23.3
PR-Avg	5-10.6	5-7.4
Penalties-Yard	3-30	2-20
Time of Possession	28:29	31:31

AFC Championship Predictions

2010-01-23T20:01:00.000-08:00

New York Jets	0	3	14	0	--	17
Indianapolis Colts	14	3	0	6	--	23

The team that “let up” in their regular season match-up allowing the Jets to make the playoffs will suffer the wrath of their own creation when the New York defense puts a halt to the Indy offense. Not! Indianapolis will struggle against a stout Jets defense but in the end Peyton Manning will have too many weapons at his disposal and despite a great effort of ball control offense and strong defense the Colts sneak out with a six point win.

TEAM STATISTICS

	New York Jet	Indianapolis Colts
First Downs	16	17
- Rushing	9	4
- Passing	7	12
- Penalty	0	1
3rd Down Eff	6/17	5/14
4th Down Eff	1/2	0/0
Rushes-Yards	42-165	31-115
Avg Rush	3.9	3.7
Comp-Att-Int	12-27-1	18-32-0
Passing Yards	110	248
Sacks-Yards	1-6	0-0
Fumbles-Lost	3-2	2-2
Punts-Avg	6-42.0	5-38.0
KR-Avg	6-23.2	4-28.0
PR-Avg	5-10.0	6-10.8
Penalties-Yard	4-35	8-44
Time of Possession	32:20	27:40

There's No Crying In Football

2010-01-18T19:58:00.000-08:00

The Dallas Cowboys should be embarrassed about their playoff performance against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday afternoon but if you were to listen to Dallas linebacker Keith Brooking its the Vikings who should be ashamed. Brooking says that Minnesota ran the score up on Dallas in their 34-3 divisional playoff win.

"I thought it was totally classless and disrespectful," Brooking said. "This is the NFL, that's not what this is about. I don't think there's a place for that ... I was looking for Childress. I didn't think it was right."

Brett Favre did throw late touchdowns with the game already in hand but before we feel sorry for Mr. Brooking let's remember a few things. First, this is the NFL. It isn't college, high school or junior high. These guys actually get paid to play football and that changes the dynamics of the situation. Don't get mad at the other team when you're the one who failed to do his job, Mr. Brooking. Second, the last I checked it was the Dallas defense's job to stop the Minnesota offense and not the Vikings job to shut themselves down. This is the playoffs and playoff teams are supposed to be the cream of the crop playing at their peak. If you don't like the other team scoring on you then stop them from doing so. Finally, I'm pretty sure that on that last drive the Dallas defense was trying to tackle Brett Favre so why would the not expect Favre to try to complete passes and score.

Pretend Playoffs - Championship Game

2010-01-13T14:18:00.000-08:00

Last week we saw Alabama knock off Texas in the BCS championship game and now this week we’re ready to crown the Crimson Tide as our 2009-10 NCAA Football Pretend Playoff Champions. While the BCS agreed with our champion the runner-up was a different story. We had a team from the state of Texas in the championship game but it was the one from Ft. Worth and not Austin. Granted TCU’s real life loss to Boise State hurts our formula here but we still have to finish the process.

In our system TCU reached the championship game by knocking off Florida in the Rose Bowl and then sneaking past the Longhorns in an Austin upset. Bama reached the championship game virtually unchallenged after crushing Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl and then Boise State in the semis. Now we’ve reached the championship game and we find the Tide still driving on cruise control.

Pretend Playoffs Championship	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Total
TCU Horned Frogs	0	6	3	3	12
Alabama Crimson Tide	17	3	7	6	33

College Football Pretend Playoffs – Semi Finals

2010-01-05T22:04:00.000-08:00

Teams Remaining
#4 TCU
#1 Alabama
#2 Texas
#6 Boise State

The four teams to survive our first round of the pretend college football playoffs were #1 Alabama, #2 Texas, #4 TCU and #6 Boise State. The playoffs now move to the home sites of the two remaining top seeded teams which means #6 Boise State will travel to Tuscaloosa to take on the top seeded Crimson Tide while #4 TCU travels to Austin for an instate showdown with the Longhorns. Who doesn’t think that would be fun?

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Total
#6 Boise State Broncos	0	16	3	0	19
#1 Alabama Crimson Tide	7	17	10	16	50

Boise began their season with a major upset over the eventual Pac 10 champion Oregon Ducks but they'd be no match for the SEC champions at the end of the season. Mark Ingram runs wild through the Broncos' defense in leading Bama to a rout and punching a ticket to Pasadena for the college football championship game.

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Total
#4 TCU Horned Frogs	7	0	6	0	13
#2 Texas Longhorns	0	7	0	3	10

Austin becomes upset city as the Horned Frogs kick their way to Pasadena to face the Tide. After playing to a draw in the first half TCU kicks two third quarter field goals to stun the Longhorns and the college football world.

Pretend College Football Playoffs Round One

2010-01-02T14:07:00.000-08:00

We’re ready to start our pretend college football playoffs and you may find a few surprises in the results. All first round games are played on neutral fields using the BCS Bowl System starting with the Rose Bowl between #4 TCU and #5 Florida.

Rose Bowl	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Total
#5 Florida Gators	9	3	0	6	18
#4 TCU Horned Frogs	0	10	10	6	26

Florida gets off to a quick start by actually taking a 12-0 lead in the second quarter but then TCU’s Joseph Turner takes over. Finishing with 187 rushing yards and two touchdowns Turner leads the Frogs to a 26-18 upset.

Sugar Bowl	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Total
#8 Ohio State Buckeyes	0	6	0	3	9
#1 Alabama Crimson Tide	17	7	3	6	33

Ohio State has no answer for Bama’s defense and the Heisman Trophy winner, Mark Ingram, has a banner day rushing for 142 yards and a score. Tide marches on.

Fiesta Bowl	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Total
#7 Oregon Ducks	0	0	0	7	7
#2 Texas Longhorns	10	7	3	10	30

The Longhorns hold Oregon to 151 total offensive yards while Colt McCoy passes for 230 yards and a score.

Orange Bowl	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Total
#6 Boise State Broncos	7	7	7	17	38
#3 Cincinnati Bearcats	7	14	7	7	35

In another BCS miracle the Boise State Broncos outscore Cincinnati 17-7 in the fourth quarter to end the most exciting game of the first round with a 38-35 upset win over the Bearcats.

College Football Pretend Playoffs: The Seedings

2009-12-28T09:26:00.000-08:00

The way it looks now it will literally take an act of congress to get a college football playoff and with a little more than a week remaining until Texas and Alabama face off in the BCS Championship Game we’re still left wondering what if. What if teams like Cincinnati and TCU were given opportunities to play for all the marbles? Would they get trampled over by a champion from a BCS or would they actually have a punchers chance at providing a March Madness like shocking moment? Unfortunately we’ll never know and instead we have a series of bowl games that look like this;

Rose Bowl – Ohio State/Oregon

Sugar Bowl – Florida/Cincinnati

Fiesta Bowl – Boise State/TCU

Orange Bowl – Iowa/Georgia Tech

BCS Championship – Texas/Alabama

Honestly, unless you’re a fan of one of those teams which game are you just nuts about watching? The Texas/Bama game should be fun for a championship but we’ve got to deal with Boise State/TCU before we get there. Really?

I’ve always argued that you could use the current BCS formula to select the top eight teams for a playoff and things would be much more exciting during the week between Christmas and New Year’s. How about this for the first round?

Rose Bowl - #4 TCU/#5 Florida

Sugar Bowl - #1 Alabama/#8 Ohio State

Fiesta Bowl - #2 Texas/#7 Oregon

Orange Bowl - #3 Cincinnati/#6 Boise State

Come on, you can’t tell me that doesn’t look like a better BCS Bowl lineup. Can you imagine the ratings for these match-ups? Advertising revenue would be through the roof with excitement and anticipation off the chart. The next round would move to the home sites of the two remaining top seeded teams and then finally a BCS Championship game that rotates sites as normal. It would be a lot of fun but we’ll never see it. So in the meantime we’re going to use imagination and computer simulation over the next week to play through our pretend playoffs.

Final Regular Season BlogPoll Ballot

2009-12-08T20:30:00.000-08:00

Rank	Team	Delta

1	Alabama	2
2	Cincinnati	2
3	Texas	2
4	TCU	1
5	Boise State	1
6	Florida	4
7	Oregon
8	Ohio State
9	Penn State
10	Georgia Tech	2
11	Virginia Tech	1
12	LSU	1
13	Brigham Young	1
14	Oregon State	3
15	Miami (Florida)	2
16	Stanford	4
17	Arizona
18	Nebraska	1
19	Pittsburgh	4
20	West Virginia	3
21	Utah	4
22	Oklahoma State
23	Wisconsin
24	Central Michigan
25	East Carolina
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Houston (#16), California (#18), Southern Cal (#21), Clemson (#24).

CBS Sports BlogPoll Ballot Week 13

2009-12-01T20:55:00.000-08:00

Rank	Team

1	Texas
2	Florida
3	Alabama
4	Cincinnati
5	TCU
6	Boise State
7	Oregon
8	Ohio State
9	Penn State
10	Virginia Tech
11	Oregon State
12	Georgia Tech
13	LSU
14	Brigham Young
15	Pittsburgh
16	Houston
17	Miami (Florida)
18	California
19	Nebraska
20	Stanford
21	Southern Cal
22	Oklahoma State
23	West Virginia
24	Clemson
25	Utah

Writing On The Wall For Charlie Weis

2009-11-26T00:08:00.000-08:00

While there’s been no official word out of South Bend regarding the job status of Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis it seems to be understood that Saturday will be his final regular season game, if not his final game period, on the sidelines. Weis himself said that he couldn’t make an argument against being fired after a 33-30 loss to Connecticut.

On Tuesday Irish athletic director, Jack Swarbrick, said that Weis would not stay in California to recruit following the game against Stanford but will return to South Bend with the team. Hmmmm, why wouldn’t an AD want his coach out on the recruiting trail? I can think on only one reason.

CBS Sports BlogPoll Ballot: Week 11

2009-11-18T06:23:00.000-08:00

Rank	Team	Delta

1	Alabama	1
2	Texas	1
3	Florida
4	Cincinnati
5	TCU	4
6	Boise State	1
7	Pittsburgh
8	Georgia Tech	2
9	Ohio State	1
10	Oregon	1
11	LSU	3
12	Penn State	5
13	Oklahoma State	2
14	Virginia Tech	4
15	Iowa	7
16	Stanford
17	Wisconsin	7
18	Clemson	5
19	Brigham Young	1
20	Oregon State
21	Utah	5
22	Southern Cal	10
23	Rutgers
24	Houston	11
25	Nebraska
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Miami (Florida) (#14), Arizona (#19), South Florida (#21), West Virginia (#25).

CBS Sports BlogPoll Ballot Week 8: I’m Joining The Resistance!

2009-10-26T11:32:00.000-07:00

Raise Your Hand If You Want To Be In The Resistance

I’m keeping Alabama at #1 this week and dropping Florida to #3 just because I don’t agree with what the SEC is doing. Both teams struggled against lesser opponents on Saturday, Bama at home against Tennessee and Florida on the road at Mississippi State. The difference was that the Tide won with the assistance of Terrence Cody blocking two field goals. Florida won with the assistance of an officiating crew who once again gave the Gators a favorable call which was also once again the wrong call. Its clearly obvious by now to everyone who isn’t a Tebow worshiper that the SEC is protecting their “cash cow” and is working to script the season, much like a WWE event, so that we see a Bama vs. Florida SEC Championship game. I’m not buying the hype nor am I adding to it. Florida is a good team and could be the best in the country but I don’t want ESPN and CBS telling me that. I want to see them go out and earn that type of respect on the field without the assistance of a biased officiating crew. Until that happens you can count me in the group of people standing against the ridiculous nonsense we’ve seen the last two weeks from the SEC. We are the resistance and we call ourselves the Anti-Tebows. Lookout Georgia, you’re next in line to get hosed by SEC officials!

I've got 12 teams on the move this week on my ballot. Arizona and Notre Dame are new this week as I said goodbye to Texas Tech and South Florida.

Rank	Team	Delta

1	Alabama
2	Texas	1
3	Florida	1
4	Cincinnati
5	Boise State
6	Iowa
7	Southern Cal
8	LSU
9	Georgia Tech
10	Penn State
11	Oregon	4
12	Virginia Tech
13	Oklahoma State
14	Mississippi
15	Ohio State	1
16	TCU	2
17	Utah	2
18	Pittsburgh	2
19	Miami (Florida)	8
20	Houston	1
21	South Carolina	2
22	West Virginia	2
23	Arizona
24	Notre Dame
25	Brigham Young	8
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Texas Tech (#22), South Florida (#25).

SEC Officiating Crew Suspended For Sucking!

2009-10-22T12:36:00.000-07:00

If you don’t believe that the SEC tries to protect its top teams from being upset then you didn’t watch the LSU/Georgia or Arkansas/Florida games. In both of those games the underdogs were bidding for an upset late in the contest and the officials called a questionable personal foul swinging the momentum in favor of LSU and Florida. In both games the SEC came out and said afterwards that the penalties were unwarranted. In both games it was the same officiating crew.

After Saturday’s farce of a call that set the Gators up at the Arkansas 10 while trailing 20-13, Referee Marc Curles’ crew has been suspended. It was the first time that the SEC has taken such action against an officiating crew but it certainly was needed.

“A series of calls that have occurred during the last several weeks have not been to the standard that we expect from our officiating crews,” SEC commissioner Mike Slive said Wednesday. “I believe our officiating program is the best in the country. However, there are times when these actions must be taken.”

While I agree with the commissioner’s decision to suspend this crew, I also believe that it should have been for more than just one game. I also can’t understand how Commissioner Slive can think that he’s got the best officiating program in the country when he’s putting a crew on the field that favors the higher ranked teams and clearly doesn’t know the difference between shedding a block and a personal foul.

Do you have a disaster recovery plan?

BlogPoll Ballot Week 7 Says Goodbye To Kansas, Oklahoma and Nebraska

2009-10-19T09:04:00.001-07:00

Last week the BlogPoll guru said that there wasn’t enough movement on my ballot and this week he’ll probably say that there was too much. My top three teams are the same but just in a different order. Alabama has been the most impressive team that I’ve seen to date and I’m ready to put them at Number 1 now. Texas had a chance to make some noise by thrashing an injury depleted Oklahoma squad but instead squeaked by with a 3 point win. Anyone who thinks the Longhorns can play Bama or Florida to within two touchdowns right now is either crazy or named Mack Brown.

Pittsburgh (20), Texas Tech (22) and West Virginia (24) are all new this week to the ballot while a trio of Big 12 schools (Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska) say goodbye. Those are my thoughts, now let me hear yours!

Rank	Team	Delta

1	Alabama	2
2	Florida	1
3	Texas	1
4	Cincinnati	3
5	Boise State
6	Iowa	4
7	Southern Cal	2
8	LSU
9	Georgia Tech	4
10	Penn State	1
11	Miami (Florida)	1
12	Virginia Tech	8
13	Oklahoma State	1
14	Mississippi	3
15	Oregon
16	Ohio State	10
17	Brigham Young	1
18	TCU	2
19	Utah	3
20	Pittsburgh
21	Houston	3
22	Texas Tech
23	South Carolina	2
24	West Virginia
25	South Florida	2
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Kansas (#16), Oklahoma (#19), Nebraska (#25).

Dolphins Make AFC East A Tight Race

2009-10-13T10:36:00.000-07:00

Miami needed a win in a bad way over the New York Jets and they got it! Coming into the game the Jets had a one game lead on the New England Patriots and two games on the Dolphins. Leaving Miami the Jets were tied with the Pats and just a game ahead of the Dolphins putting the defending AFC East Champions in striking distance.

Miami torched a Jets defense that was highly touted going into the game for 413 yards and 31 points. The Dolphins controlled the ball for 33 ½ minutes and converted nine of their fourteen third down attempts. “I used to see all those gimmicks when I was coaching back in college,” Jets Head Coach Rex Ryan said about Miami’s Wildcat offense. Well, he may have seen it but he sure couldn’t stop it!

Speaking of gimmicks, Ryan had to use two fake punts to keep two different scoring drives alive and had it not been for those and a very questionable pass interference call that put the Jets inside the 1 yard-line this game would have been very ugly.

BlogPoll Ballot Week Six

2009-10-11T19:16:00.000-07:00

It was actually a normal weekend in college football in which most of the favorites actually won. Ten teams are on the move this week in my ballot with Auburn leaving and Nebraska coming on.

1. Florida (1) – Won a slugfest with LSU 13-3

2. Texas (2) – Beat Colorado 38-14 but 46 total rushing yards and 1.8 yards per carry cant be settling well.

3. Alabama (3) – Won 22-3 at Mississippi.

4. Virginia Tech (4) – Won 48-14 against Boston College.

5. Boise State (5) – IDLE

6. Ohio State (8) – Won 31-13 over Wisconsin

7. Cincinnati (7) – IDLE

8. LSU (6) – Lost 13-3 against Florida.

9. USC (9)– IDLE

10. Iowa (10) – Won 30-28 over Michigan

11. Penn State (12) – Won 53-3 over Eastern Illinois

12. Miami (13) – Won 48-16 over Florida A&M

13. Georgia Tech (15) – Won 49-44 at Florida State

14. Oklahoma State (14) – Won 36-31 at Texas A&M

15. Oregon (17) – Won 24-10 at UCLA

16. Kansas (16) – Won 41-36 over Iowa State

17. Mississippi (11) – Lost 22-3 to Alabama

18. BYU (18)– Won 59-21 at UNLV

19. Oklahoma (19) – Won 33-7 over Baylor

20. TCU (20) – Won 20-17 at Air Force

21. South Carolina (22) – Won 28-26 over Kentucky

22. Utah (24) – Won 24-17 at Colorado State

23. South Florida (23) – IDLE

24. Houston (25) – Won 31-24 at Mississippi State

25. Nebraska (NR) – Won 27-12 at Missouri

Next Five Out…
26. Notre Dame

27. Pittsburgh

28. Arkansas

29. Auburn

30. Wisconsin

Three Questions About The Angels/Red Sox ALDS With Halos Heaven

2009-10-08T14:56:00.000-07:00

As the MLB postseason marches on we have another guest with us today to share some thoughts about the playoffs. This time we’re discussing Angels/Red Sox with Rev. Halo Fan from the ever popular LA Angels fansite Halos Heaven. You can checkout all the Angels/Red Sox information and opinions (from an LA perspective of course) at Halos Heaven.

The Angels appear to have the best offense in a while, if not ever, with a major league best .285 batting average and club records for runs (883), RBIs (841) and hits (1,604). Is this the year that LA gets past Boston in the playoffs or do the Red Sox still have their number?

RHF: I think Game 1 is a must-win for the Angels. The Red Sox are, sadly, in their heads and there would be a demoralizing effect if Boston were to blow them out or have a dramatic come from behind victory Thursday. That said, the teams match up well and this could be our year!

Defensively the Angels have held David Ortiz and Mike Lowell to just a .167 batting average and 21 strikeouts. How much confidence does this give you in the Angels’ defense going into this series?

RHF: Torii Hunter is a gold-glover, Erick Aybar is a fantastic defender, Chone Figgins has now played 3B exclusively for most of 3 seasons and is superb with the glove. If anything, the Red Sox vets have been put into check by Angels pitching, it seems to be their newer members that give us fits - last year it was Bay and Drew with the big hits for example.

Is it true that Santana is moving into the bullpen for this series? How do you see that working out for the Angels?

RHF: Great move, Ervin throws hard and can stop the bleeding if there is a starter gets dumped on. He'll eat some innings and buy time for the offense to come back. HE would also do well as a set-up man in a pinch. Heck, I would take him as a closer compared to our weak Brian Fuentes in the 9th.

Prediction Time – Tell us who will win and in how many games.

RHF: Angels in 4. This is our year!

You can follow the Angels through the post season at Halos Heaven.

MLB Playoff Notes And Quotes: First Games Maintain Status Quo

2009-10-08T11:00:00.000-07:00

The Major League Baseball Playoffs provided us no sense of shock and awe on Wednesday when all three home teams won fairly comfortably. They Dodgers had the slimmest margin of victory for the home teams. After taking a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the first they never trailed the Cardinals again and went on to a 5-3 victory. The Yankees fell down by 2 runs to the Twins in the top of the 3^rd but outscored Minnesota 7-0 from there. In the early game the Colorado Rockies couldn’t find any offense in their 5-1 loss to Philadelphia.

“I had him 0-2 and I stepped off and wanted to give myself a chance to absorb it all. Then I threw three straight balls and allowed a double in the gap. Maybe it cost me a run. Whatever, we had a five-run lead.” – Philadelphia pitcher Cliff Lee on Troy Tulowitzki’s RBI double with two outs in the bottom of the 9^th.

“He was aggressive, he had good tempo and rhythm and he handled the whole flow of the game real good.” – Philadelphia manager Charlie Manuel on Cliff Lee’s 113 pitch performance.

“Up until the fifth, it was one of the better games he had pitched over the course of the month” - Rockies manager Jim Tracy on pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez.

“It felt just like the old place. We couldn’t have drawn it up any better for us.” – Derek Jeter on the first playoff game in the new Yankee Stadium.

“This is what you come here for. It was electric tonight.” – CC Sabathia on the atmosphere in New York.

“You get a two-run lead quick, and as soon as you go back out, it’s a 2-2 ballgame with a homer. That’s a little deflating.” – Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire on Derek Jeter’s 3^rd inning homerun.

“A lot of people believe they have one of the best bullpens in baseball. They kind of shut us down. They shut the door.” – St. Louis’ Ryan Ludwick on the Dodgers relief pitchers.

“It was a little sinker down the middle,” Kemp said. “We haven’t done too well against him, but we came tonight with the confidence. We were trying to make him battle and got him out pretty early and got to the bullpen.” – Dodgers’ Matt Kemp on his 1^st inning two-run homerun off Chris Carpenter.

“We had too many chances, too many chances. Their bullpen came in, and inning after inning, we didn’t get the big hit we needed.” – Mark DeRosa on St. Louis leaving runners in scoring position.

“I wasn’t making very many good pitches and they put some bats on the mistakes I made. I was either right down the middle or out of the strike zone and that’s not a good way to pitch.” – St. Louis pitcher Chris Carpenter on his pitching performance.

Three Questions About The NLDS With Purple Row

2009-10-07T11:52:00.000-07:00

We are literally just minutes away from the beginning of the MLB Playoffs with Colorado and Philadelphia leading the way. In a match-up between one of baseball’s best pitching teams (Colorado) and hitting teams (Philadelphia) we’ve invited the Colorado Rockies blog Purple Row to share some insights with us.

In 2007 the Rockies swept this series on their way to the World Series. Is there anything that either team can bring from that series into this one (confidence, tendencies, revenge) or is that ancient history by now?

PR: I'm gonna go ahead and say no to this notion. There's a big difference between the 2007 Rockies and the 2009 Rockies. The 2007 Rockies were a relatively young team, roughly no playoff experience (I mean, like Matt Herges had some with SF, but nobody really substantial). The were probably a legitimately 83-85 win team, but they caught fire at just the right time and had that unprecedented run into October, capped with the miraculous play-in game vs SD.

The 2009 Rockies featured some young players as well, but the pitching staff had far more major league experience, basically the Rockies have really started playing to ability and were able to sustain success from June through the end of the season (with a couple of hot streaks to help recover from their early struggles). Essentially, the team has arrived and is nicely poised to sustain this successful season.

In terms of bringing something into this series from 2007, Colorado swept Philly, so we have no ill will there. Philly won the WS last year, so they've more or less forgotten 2007, or at least it's greatly diminished in their minds. The differences will be that the guys who were young and fresh, such as Hamels, Jimenez, and Tulowitzki, are more seasoned and have those 2 extra years of veteraniness about them.

Colorado has a deep rotation with five pitchers registering 10 wins or more. Conversely the Phillies have a pretty stout lineup as well with a combined 224 homeruns and four players with 30 or more homers. How confident are you in either Colorado’s pitching or Philadelphia’s hitting?

PR: I'd be more concerned from Philadelphia’s end! Out of the 8 teams in the postseason, only St. Louis and LA's pitching staffs rank ahead of the Rockies in terms of HR prevention (and even then, Busch Stadium played as a very home run suppressing park as compared to, say Coors or The Cit - which makes Pujols that much more impressive).

However, on the flip side of the coin, the Rockies are 2nd to Philly in home runs hit, but Philly's pitching is 2nd to last in the NL in terms of HR prevention (3rd in the majors). Don't play your "but the Cit" card, Coors Field still is a more homer-friendly park!

So to answer the question, I take our pitching over their hitting.

Colorado pitcher Jorge De La Rosa (4.38 ERA) won’t be a factor in this series due to injury. What does that mean for either team?

PR: Well my initial response was going to be "Strong LHP gone" but Philly has hit lefties and righties relatively the same this season - actually lefties a little harder. What this does to Colorado is it takes a pitcher who's been absolutely awesome this season past the first 2 months of the season (can we just strike April and May from the record? That'd clinch Home Field for Colorado, I'm pretty sure...). He's set franchise high marks for strikeouts per 9 innings, and if you saw the 4 innings he was able to muster in his final start vs LA before he got hurt, he has just disgusting stuff (.597 OPS allowed in Sept/Oct).

Prediction time. Tell us who’ll win and in how many games.

PR: I'm so awful at this part. I've been saying Rockies in 4 (steal one from Hamels in Philly, sweep Coors), but with the loss of DLR, we'll be seeing some combination of Contreras and Marquis in game 4, and that just doesn't make me comfortable at all. I'll stick with Rockies in 4, but a Game 5 isn't out of the scope of reality to me.

You can follow the Rockies through the Post Season at Purple Row. Our guest blogger today posts there under the name, RockiesMagicNumber.

Strapped For Cash, 1 Hour Loans Can Help

2009-10-07T11:50:00.000-07:00

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Receivers On The Move: Braylon Edwards To The Jets/Crabtree Ends Holdout

2009-10-07T07:16:00.000-07:00

It’s been a busy morning for NFL receivers as Cleveland receiver Braylon Edwards is being moved from Cleveland to the New York Jets and Michael Crabtree ended his rookie holdout.

Edwards had already been in the news this week for an incident in which he allegedly punched Edward Givens, a friend of LeBron James, early Monday morning. The altercation helped overshadow the fact that Edwards didn’t catch a pass for the first time in his NFL career on Sunday in a 23-20 overtime loss to Cincinnati.

Meanwhile, moving over to the West Coast, rookie holdout Michael Crabtree finally ran out of options and signed a six-year deal with the 49ers. Props to San Francisco for filing tampering charges against the New York Jets basically ending any talk that Crabtree could re-enter the NFL draft next year to become a higher pick and sign for more money. At 3-1 San Francisco is in first place in the NFC West and may not be in a hurry to get Crabtree on the field.

BlogPoll Ballot Week Five

2009-10-04T20:46:00.000-07:00

Another weekend of college football leaves us with more shakeups in the Top 25. This week a total of 16 teams moved from last week, 3 teams moved out (Georgia, Cal, Michigan) and 3 teams moved in. I didn’t punish the Top 10 teams that played closer to their opponents than we thought they should because if you punish one you should punish them all and that would have moved four more teams in on a ballot that is already very much in flux.

Go ahead and tell me where you agree or disagree with my rankings this week.

1. Florida (1) – IDLE

2. Texas (2) – IDLE

3. Alabama (3) – Won 38-20 over Kentucky.

4. Virginia Tech (4) – Avoided upset by North Carolina with 34-26 win.

5. Boise State (5) – Won 34-16 over UC Davis.

6. LSU (6) – Late game heroics win the day again for the Tigers.

7. Cincinnati (7) – Won 37-13 over Miami (OH).

8. Ohio State (14) – Won 33-14 over Indiana.

9. USC (12)– Destroyed Cal 30-3

10. Iowa (10) – Struggled but won, 24-21, over Arkansas State.

11. Mississippi (16) – Won 23-7 at Vanderbilt.

12. Penn State (13) – Won 35-17 at Illinois

13. Miami (21) – Won 21-20 over Oklahoma

14. Oklahoma State (14) - Idle.

15. Georgia Tech (18) – Won 42-31 over Mississippi State

16. Kansas (17) – IDLE.

17. Oregon (19) – Won 52-6 over Washington State.

18. BYU (22)– Won 35-17 over Utah State.

19. Oklahoma (11) – Lost 21-20 at Miami.

20. TCU (23) – Won 39-14 over SMU.

21. Auburn (NR) – Won 26-22 at Tennessee

22. South Carolina (NR) – Won 38-14 over S.C. State

23. South Florida (NR) – Won 34-20 over Syracuse

24. Utah (25) – IDLE

25. Houston (9) – BCS Busted by UTEP!

Next Five Out…
26. Missouri

27. Nebraska

28. Georgia

29. Wisconsin

30. Michigan

Raiders May Have Reached A New Low

2009-10-04T19:40:00.000-07:00

Maybe its age, possibly stubbornness or perhaps ignorance but Al Davis just doesn’t get the fact that the entire football world is laughing at the Oakland Raiders and has been for quite some time now. The organization has set the standard for what a losing franchise looks like, first round draft picks have been wasted on fourth round talent and the team has been a revolving door of coaches. Former players have are in line to bash the organization on everything from draft picks to team management.

However there may be a new low surfacing for an organization that has made a habit of reaching new lows. Head coach Tom Cable could be arrested at any moment for an incident in August where he assaulted one of his assistant coaches. Some sort of disagreement between Cable and assistant Randy Hanson left Hanson with a broken jaw and three other assistants as witnesses. Now there are criminal charges possibly pending and no one knows who would take over should Cable wind up in the pokey or suspended by the NFL.

“Everybody is trying to figure out who’s going to take over if Tom isn’t here,” said an assistant coach, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “John Marshall has a lot of experience, he’s probably the guy. But it’s nuts. It’s crazy when you start to really think about it.”

I say just put the old man out there and let him give coaching in today’s NFL a whack. He really couldn’t be any worse than anyone he’s thrown out there since Jon Gruden.

BlogPoll Ballot Week Four

2009-09-27T21:12:00.000-07:00

Four weeks into the college football season here’s what we know. Florida, Texas and Alabama are the three best teams in the country and after that it’s everyone else. The problem is in the ranking of everyone else because there is such parity that it will literally drive you insane trying to figure out who deserves to be where. Take LSU for example. Do the Tigers deserve to be #6? Well, yeah! They are 4-0 on the season and have done something that the majority of the people on this list haven’t, which is remaining undefeated. They probably deserve to be higher but truthfully I don’t think they could beat Virginia Tech or Boise State on a neutral field at this point. That’s the difficult thing here. As the season pans out this process will become easier and clearer but for now it is what it is. Feel free to tell me how you’d do it differently.

1. Florida (1)– Won 41-7 over Kentucky but the big story now is the health of Tim Tebow.

2. Texas (2)– Won a ho-hum game 64-7 over UTEP.

3. Alabama (3)– Won 35-7 over Arkansas.

4. Virginia Tech (9)– Shelled Miami 31-7. VT’s only loss is to Alabama.

5. Boise State (8)– Won 49-14 at Bowling Green.

6. LSU (6)– Late goal line stand saves the day for the Tigers. The problem is that it was against Mississippi State.

7. Cincinnati (13) – Won 28-20 against Fresno State.

8. Ohio State (14)– Won 30-0 over Illinois. The Buckeyes don’t really belong here and they did lose to USC but Washington just won’t go away.

9. Houston (NR) – Can we have two BCS Busters in `09. Who wants to see Boise State and Houston in the Fiesta Bowl? Not Tostitos!

10. Iowa (24)– Scored a big win in Happy Valley with a 21-10 win over Penn State. I’m proud to say that I had Iowa ranked last week even though they didn’t appear in last week’s BlogPoll.

11. Oklahoma (11)– IDLE

12. USC (4)– Did anyone see how pitiful Washington looked against Stanford. That’s the same Washington team that beat USC last week.

13. Penn State (4)– Upset at home by Iowa 21-10.

14. Oklahoma State (15)– Won 56-6 against Grambling.

15. Georgia (16)– Won 20-17 over Arizona State.

16. Mississippi (5)– Upset at South Carolina, 16-10

17. Kansas (19)– Won 35-28 over Southern Miss.

18. Georgia Tech (20)– Upset North Carolina 24-7

19. Oregon (21)– Upset California 42-3.

20. California (7)– Destroyed on the road at Oregon, 42-3.

21. Miami (21) – This is what I get for finally ranking Miami last week. I should have listened to reason because I knew better.

22. BYU (22)– Won 42-23 over Colorado State.

23. TCU (23)- Won 14-10 at Clemson.

24. Michigan (NR) – Survived Indiana 36-33

25. Utah (NR) – Won 30-14 over Louisville

Next Five Out…
26. Missouri

27. Auburn

28. Nebraska

29. South Carolina

30. South Florida

Gators Hurting From Flu

2009-09-22T21:54:00.000-07:00

Florida doesn’t host Arkansas until October 17th but a different type of swine is dismantling Urban Meyer’s defending national championship team. Both players and coaches are succumbing to flu like symptoms and being limited or even held out of practice. Coach Meyer had hold six new players out of Tuesday’s practice as the Gators are prepping for a weekend trip to Kentucky.

"We're all right," Meyer said. "We've just got to get ready. We're doing what we've got to do. What we can control, we control. Guys are wiping down everything. We're doing everything we can. I think we'll be all right."

Among the sick is starting linebacker A.J. Jones and he’s joined by at least eight other players who have been ill this last week. Could the Gators be walking into a trap this weekend? I think not but we’d better pay attention anyway just in case.

BlogPoll Ballot – Week Three

2009-09-20T20:37:00.000-07:00

Another weekend of college football brought another round of upsets among Top 25 schools. Sixteen teams made moves from my ballot last week and there are three new faces on the ballot this week. I had been holding out on Miami because I wanted to see them prove that they were who they appeared to be. Florida State’s win over BYU added legitimacy to Miami’s season opening win over the Seminoles and the thrashing of Georgia Tech proved that they are not a fluke. Welcome back to the world of college football, Miami Hurricanes.

1. Florida (1)– Won 23-13 over Tennessee. Game was closer than most figured it would have been.

2. Texas (2)– Won 34-24 over Texas Tech in a revenge game.

3. Alabama (3)– Won 53-7 over North Texas.

4. Penn State (5)– Won 31-6 over Temple.

5. Mississippi (6)– Won 52-6 over SE Louisiana

6. LSU (7)– Won 31-3 over LA Lafayette

7. California (8)– Won 35-21 at Minnesota.

8. Boise State (12)– Won 51-34 at Fresno State.

9. Virginia Tech (9)– Survived 16-15 at home against Nebraska.

10. Miami (NR) – I’ve been holding out on these guys but now I’m a believer. Their receivers seem to always be open and Harris looks to have all the time in the world to throw a pass.

11. Oklahoma (13)– Won 45-0 against Tulsa. Sooners have gone 8 consecutive quarters without being scored on.

12. USC (4)– Upset at Washington, 16-13. I think that the Trojans problems go deeper than quarterback.

13. Cincinnati (NR) – Won 28-18 at Oregon State looks to be the best of the Big East.

14. Ohio State (14)– Won 38-0 at Toledo.

15. Oklahoma State (15)– Won 41-24 over Rice.

16. Georgia (17)– Won 52-41 at Arkansas.

17. North Carolina (18)– Won 31-17 against East Carolina.

18. Florida State (NR) – Back on the map after 54-28 win at BYU.

19. Kansas (21)– Won 44-16 over Duke.

20. Georgia Tech (11)– One dimensional offense and lack of defensive speed cost them against Miami in 33-17 loss.

21. Oregon (22)– Snapped the nation’s longest winning streak with 31-24 win over Utah.

22. BYU (10)– Destroyed at home by Florida State.

23. TCU (23)- Won 56-21 over Texas State.

24. Iowa (24)– Won 27-17 over Arizona.

25. Pittsburgh (25) – Won 27-14 over Navu

Next Five Out…
26. Michigan

27. Utah

28. Missouri

29. Nebraska

30. Auburn

Barkley Or Forcier – A Roundtable Discussion

2009-09-15T20:27:00.000-07:00

Along with having a weekly vote in the CBS Sports BlogPoll comes the opportunity to participate in roundtable discussions with other members of voting blogs. College Game Balls is hosting this week’s discussion and did an excellent job of coming up with some thought provoking questions.

1. Which freshman impressed you more last weekend: the California dream Matt Barkley who quarterbacked USC over tOSU or white lightening Tate Forcier who slashed through Notre Dame? Which one would you like to have on your team? Feel free to write in another worth candidate.

While there’s certainly to be a ton of quality discussion over this it’s a no-brainer to me. USC’s Matt Barkley completed less than 50% of his passes with an interception and no touchdowns. Meanwhile Michigan’s Tate Forcier completed almost 70% of his passes (69.7) for 240 yards with a 2:1 touchdown to interception ratio. You didn’t even have to watch the games because just a simple look at the stats shows that Forcier had the more impressive performance.

Before you throw out the Barkley played in Prime Time at the Horseshoe let me quickly remind you that Ohio State is a failed two-point conversion away from possibly being 0-2 at the Shoe this season. Barkley also has the better supporting cast and you could make a great argument that USC’s come from behind win had more to do with Joe McKnight than Matt Barkley.

2. Let’s play a game of pretend the unthinkable happened. Commissioner __________ of your conference has been forced to resign after he was caught canoodling with some harlots. Great news, you’ve been chosen to succeed him. To make your mark you decide to make a big change. What is it going to be?

If I had to step in for Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe I really can’t think of a whole lot of changes that I’d make to the conference because I believe that the Big 12 is one of the best run conferences in the country. The two things I would do are to secure a warm/controlled climate for the conference championship game and continue to seek new bowl options.

I’ve set in Arrow Head Stadium for the Big 12 Championship Game and while I’ve witnessed the Sooners win there I was still miserable because I couldn’t feel my fingers and toes. With the new Texas Stadium and Edward Jones Stadium in St. Louis there is no reason for any Big 12 fan to suffer through that again.

3. This week the quality of games is kicked up a gear. Other than your own, which game are you most looking forward to?

The two games I’m anxiously awaiting this weekend (other than OU’s intriguing match-up against Tulsa) are Georgia Tech at Miami this Thursday night and Nebraska at Virginia Tech on Saturday.

4. What mascot and/or tradition would you thieve from another school if it was socially acceptable?

I’ll take the East Carolina Pirate for my mascot.

As for tradition I’ll take Texas A&M. Who wouldn’t love a crowd that sways, a band that carries swords and a kiss after every touchdown?

Cutler Shows Why Broncos Dealt Him/Urlacher Done For Season

2009-09-14T18:39:00.000-07:00

A bad situation got even worse for the Chicago Bears on Sunday night when Brian Urlacher went down with an injured wrist. With a chance to take home a victory over division rival Green Bay Chicago’s new All-Pro quarterback couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start. Cutler completed 17 of his 36 pass attempts with a ratio of 4 interceptions to 1 touchdown. He mounted a comeback in the second half and put the Bears in front 15-13 but the Chicago defense gave up a 50 touchdown pass from Aaron Rogers to Greg Jennings. Trying to rally his team again for one last scoring drive Cutler tossed his fourth interception on the night. You could make the argument that ultimately it was the Chicago defense that faltered and cost Chicago the game but then again Cutler giving the ball away four times sure didn’t help matters.

Speaking of the Chicago defense, they lost more than just a game Sunday night. Linebacker Brian Urlacher dislocated his right wrist on a play in which he hit Green Bay quarterback Aaron

Rogers. Urlacher underwent surgery on Monday and was placed on injured reserve meaning that he’s done for the season. Now the Bears are looking at going into the final 15 games of the season without Urlacher once again and they’ve got a gun slinger of a quarterback who at least for now has shown that he likes to gamble on the field and can’t pay his debts.

In a strange twist of irony Cutler’s replacement in Denver and former Chicago quarterback Kyle Orton had a prayer answered when Brandon Stokley caught a tipped pass and ran 87 yards to pay dirt in the final se

conds of the game to give Denver a 12-7 win over the Cincinnati Bengals.

Follow Your Favorite Teams Without Satellite TV

2009-09-14T16:43:00.001-07:00

What happens when you are a Miami Dolphins fan but live in Oklahoma City. Before you had to purchase a satellite TV package with some sort of league pass or just wait for the Sports Center highlights. Now that has changed with the ability to watch TV Online. It isn’t just sports though. Spreety TV Online allows you to watch your favorite television shows, find movies or even just catch up on the news. The best thing is that it is all free!

Blog Poll Week Two Ballot

2009-09-13T21:36:00.000-07:00

Two weeks into the college football season the picture is a little clearer as at least four teams have emerged as front runners in the BCS race. We’ve also got two schools making legitimate claims to become BCS Busters. Not a lot of movement on my ballot this week but there are a couple of new faces at #23 and #25. Feel free to share your thoughts.

1. Florida (1)– Won 56-6 over Troy.

2. Texas (2)– Struggled in the first half against Wyoming but got their act together in the second in rout to a 41-10 win.

3. Alabama (3)– Avoided the letdown after last week’s big game against Virginia Tech and routed Florida International 40-14.

4. USC (4)– Came from behind to beat Ohio State 18-15 in the game of the week.

5. Penn State (5)– Not very impressive in 28-7 win over Syracuse.

6. Mississippi (6)– BYE

7. LSU (7)– Less than impressive 23-9 win over Vanderbilt.

8. California (8)– Won 59-7 over Eastern Washington

9. Virginia Tech (11)– Rebounded from last week’s loss to Bama with a 52-10 win over Marshall

10. BYU (12)– Rolled Tulane 54-3

11. Georgia Tech (13)– Hung on for 30-27 win over Clemson.

12. Boise State (14)– Won 48-0 over Miami (OH)

13. Oklahoma (15)– Won 64-0 over Idaho State

14. Ohio State (10)– Defense couldn’t stop USC’s game winning drive.

15. Oklahoma State (9)– Had their bubbles burst in a 45-35 home loss to Houston.

16. Utah (16)– Struggled in 24-14 win over San Jose State.

17. Georgia (17)– Got their offense going against South Carolina but now have defensive concerns after 41-37 win.

18. North Carolina (18)– Struggled heavily in 12-10 win over Connecticut.

19. Nebraska (19)– Won 38-9 over Arkansas State

20. Oregon State (20)– Snuck by UNLV 23-21

21. Kansas (21)– Won 34-7 at UTEP

22. Oregon (22)– Struggling Ducks beat Purdue 38-36

23. TCU (NR)- Won 30-14 over Virginia.

24. Iowa (24)– Dominated Iowa State 35-3

25. Pittsburgh (NR) – Won 54-27 over Buffalo

Next Five Out
26. Cincinnati
27. Texas Tech
28. Miami
29. Missouri

30. Florida State

McNabb Hurt In Eagles Win

2009-09-13T17:39:00.000-07:00

It appears that the Philadelphia will need Michael Vick when his suspension ends in week three. After watching Donovan McNabb lay on the ground for several minutes after taking a few hits while running for the game’s final touchdown Head Coach Andy Reid had to be thinking about the Vick contingency plan.

Word is that McNabb has a cracked rib which means that he could be back in uniform next week or out for a month. Regardless of the amount of time McNabb misses, if any, that is a tough injury to overcome when you’re being pounded by NFL caliber defensive linemen each week. Looks like Michael Vick will need to shake of the rust very quickly.

Web Hosting Made Easy

2009-09-13T15:45:00.000-07:00

I don’t need to tell you that more and more people are looking to the internet each day for various things. Anything from paying your bills to booking vacations to managing your banking accounts can be accomplished online as well as simple things like reading the local paper and checking movie times and listings. For these reasons more and more people are looking to publish information on the internet. Some are seeking financial gain and yet others just like publishing their opinions on things like sports, politics, religion and much more.

To really get your name, or products, out there you will need to find a web hosting service that you’ll be satisfied with. Of course finding one takes a lot of time and research as you want to be satisfied with your terms of service as well as the price of your hosting package. Obviously you can take the time to research and compare all by yourself or you can use Web Hosting Rating.

Featuring a Top Ten list of hosting services, a web hosting directory and more than a dozen article categories on things ranging from Cheap Web Hosting to Shared Hosting and much, much more, Web Hosting Rating is a one stop shop for hosting services.

BlogPoll Week One Ballot

2009-09-07T22:54:00.000-07:00

1. Florida (1)– After Saturday’s 62-3 thrashing of Charleston Southern we still know absolutely nothing about the defending national champions.

2. Texas (2)– The Longhorns popped UL Monroe for 59 points but there could be possible concerns over the 20 points their defense surrendered.
3. Alabama (4)– The Tide’s offense rolled against a highly ranked Virginia Tech team in college football’s game of the week.

4. USC (6)– The Trojans didn’t hesitate to go full throttle in their 56-3 thrashing of San Jose State.

5. Penn State (8)– A 31-7 win over Akron has Penn State’s season off on the right foot.
6. Mississippi (9)– 45-14 win over Memphis

7. LSU (10)– The Tigers have some concerns on defense that were exposed in their 31-23 win over Washington.

8. California (11)– 52-13 win over Maryland may have been the most impressive win for the Pac 10.

9. Oklahoma State (12)– Won 24-10 over Georgia.

10. Ohio State (7)– The Buckeyes survived against Navy at the Horseshoe but barely.

11. Virginia Tech (5)– The Hokies are talented but they just couldn’t match Bama blow for blow.

12. BYU (22)– Won 14-13 over Oklahoma.

13. Georgia Tech (15)– Won 37-17 over Jacksonville State.

14. Boise State (16)– Won 19-8 over Oregon.

15. Oklahoma (3)– Oklahoma’s high-octane offense sputtered even before Sam Bradford went down.

16. Utah (17)– Won 35-17 over Utah State.

17. Georgia (13)– Struggled offensively in their 24-10 loss at Oklahoma State.

18. North Carolina (19)– Won 40-6 over Citadel.

19. Nebraska (21)– Won 49-3 over Florida Atlantic.
20. Oregon State (23)– Won 34-7 over Portland State.
21. Kansas (24)– Won 49-3 over Northern Colorado.

22. Oregon (14)– The Ducks look sloooooow against an aggressive Boise State team.

23. Michigan State (25)– Won 44-3 over Montana State.

24. Iowa (20)– Survived 17-16 over Northern Iowa.

25. Florida State (18)– Defensive worries emerge after losing 38-34 to rival Miami.

Next Five Out
26. TCU
27. Pittsburgh
28. Miami
29. Cincinnati

30. Texas Tech

Buckeyes Survive But #6 Ranking In Doubt

2009-09-05T12:41:00.000-07:00

As the early games of college football’s opening weekend are drawing to a close we’ve already learned that one of the nation’s top 10 teams may be a bit over ranked. I put the Ohio State Buckeyes at #7 in by BlogPoll ballot and they debuted at #6 on the initial preseason poll. The AP and Coaches Polls also have the Buckeyes at #6 but anyone who watched that game without any sort of bias would tell you that’s not where Ohio State belongs.

Next week’s polls should bring a drop for the Buckeyes in the rankings if votes are based on performance and not tradition and school name. The Buckeyes were exposed a bit in the defensive secondary and lacked a killer instinct on the offensive side of the ball. The good news for OSU is that they host #3 USC (another team that I believe is ranked too high #4 AP/Coaches) at home next week and have the opportunity to jump back up in the rankings.

Oregon Loses Game Then Player Loses Control

2009-09-04T22:53:00.000-07:00

Oregon running back LeGarrette Blount takes losing to Boise State personal. After last season’s loss in Eugene Blount was ready to take it to the Broncos and get one back. Saying that he owed Boise State an, “A** Whipping” Blount backed up his trash talk with 8 carries for -5 yards. Not necessarily the type of performance that portrays any type of a whipping.

Anyone want to guess what happened when Blount’s words were thrown back into his face after the game. If you haven’t already done so, this is the part where you watch the video.

For his efforts in thuggery LeGarrette Blount has drawn a season long suspension. I wonder what the NCAA is thinking of that pre-game handshake idea now.

Broncos Shopping Marshall And Jets Are Interested

2009-09-02T09:15:00.000-07:00

Remember when Denver Coach Josh McDaniels said that the Broncos weren’t going to trade Jay Cutler? Well Cutler is now a Chicago Bear and McDaniels is dealing with another troubled player that he says he’s not going to trade. If you’re able to read between the lines here you can see that receiver Brandon Marshall’s time in the Mile High City is limited.

Even though the Broncos aren’t actively seeking a trade with anyone rumors are that a price tag of a first round draft pick has been set for Marshall. Possibly willing to step up and pay the price to acquire him are the New York Jets who are about as deep at receiver as a rain gutter in the Nevada desert.

The thing to watch here is that the Broncos don’t want anything less than a first round pick, the Jets, right now, won’t give up a first round pick and Marshall is angry that he’s only making $2.2 million dollars a year. Who’s gonna budge first?

Preseason CBS Sports BlogPoll Top 25 – Help A Brotha Out

2009-08-18T20:10:00.000-07:00

Its time again to get the BlogPoll up and going. The poll will make its debut for the season on Monday and we’ve been asked to put our preseason top 25 out there for public scrutiny. Here’s how I’m thinking that the whole thing should shake out but what I really want to here is how you feel about it. Share, share and share!

1. Florida – Defending national champs and should remain #1 until someone knocks them off.
2. Texas – The Longhorns didn’t get shafted last year. They actually controlled their own destiny until they lost to Tech. There isn’t a system to blame for that but the name Blake Gideon should perk some ears up.
3. Oklahoma – Could have the best defense in the nation and make the climb to #1 if the new offensive line allows the offense to hum.
4. Alabama – The Tide return 9 starters from last year’s defense but have to find 7 new guys to produce on offense.
5. Virginia Tech – With Tyrod Taylor and 7 other returning starters on offense the Hokies are the frontrunners to win the ACC. Tech also returns 7 starters on defense.
6. USC – The Trojans are talented at every offensive skill position and unproven at quarterback. They are also replacing 8 starters on defense. The good news though is that they play in the Pac-10.
7. Ohio State – Terrelle Pryor has three returning offensive linemen to develop a core for the offense but he must break in new players at receiver and running back.
8. Penn State – Penn State has to replace a total of 14 starters between their offensive and defensive units but shouldn’t face a true test until October 3rd when they travel to Illinois which is plenty of time for the new guys to gel together.
9. Mississippi – Jevan Snead could be the best quarterback in the SEC not named Tebow and even then the only thing that separates the two is Snead’s inability to walk on water.
10. LSU – The Tigers are only a quarterback, a defensive line and a defensive secondary away from contending for the SEC title again. Perhaps the slogan in Baton Rouge should be “Geaux Patience!”
11. California – Jahvid Best could be the best running back in the Pac-10 and a defense that returns 8 starters shouldn’t be too shabby. The Bears also get USC at home on October 3rd.
12. Oklahoma State – The Cowboys are the new kids on the block when it comes to Big 12 powers but they’re going to need to show that they can play defense before anyone places them ahead of Oklahoma and Texas.
13. Georgia – A new quarterback and a new running back are two of the Bulldogs’ biggest obstacles but they do return four of five starting offensive linemen. Opening the season at Oklahoma State gives Georgia the perfect opportunity to get everyone talking about them.
14. Oregon – The Ducks are looking to play third fiddle in the Pac-10 but with both Cal and USC coming to Eugene they will have all the opportunities needed to make a run for the Rose Bowl.
15. Georgia Tech – With 9 returning starters on offense the Yellow Jackets are primed to make a run at the ACC title in Coach Paul Johnson’s second year.
16. Boise State – The schedule doesn’t look good for the Broncos. As the season opener against Oregon looms they must find support for second year starting quarterback Kellen Moore.
17. Utah – With 8 new offensive starters (including every skill position) the Utes will have their work cut out for them to come close to last year’s historic run. The good news is that they return the core nucleus of their defense.
18. Florida State – Quarterback Christian Ponder returns along with tight end Caz Piurowski and the entire offensive line. The Seminoles have always seemed to find producers at the skill positions.
19. North Carolina – Seven returning starters on offense and nine on defense have the Tar Heels thinking ACC Championship. They do have to take a Virginia Tech on the 29th of October.
20. Iowa – The Hawkeyes return 14 starters but have a schedule that takes them on the road to Penn State, Wisconsin, Michigan State and Ohio State.
21. Nebraska – The Huskers will be led in `09 by Ndamukong Suh and the resurgent Black Shirt Defense but only four returning starters on offense could be an issue in a conference where offense is king.
22. BYU – As crazy as it sounds the Cougars may have to rely on defense initially until the seven new offensive starters, including four linemen and all receivers, have a chance to get their feet wet. It’ll be a baptism by fire though with Oklahoma and Florida State being two of their first three opponents.
23. Oregon State – Jacquizz & James Rogers helped carry this team to 9 wins in `08. They’ll need a little more support in `09 to get the Beavers to the top of the Pac-10.
24. Kansas – If the Jayhawks don’t represent the North in the Big 12 Championship then they’ll have no one but themselves to blame with 15 returning starters from last year’s squad. They get Oklahoma at home but will have to face off against the Longhorns in Austin.
25. Michigan State – The Big 10 is getting a lot of love in my preseason poll and if the Spartans can get production from a new quarterback then they could be one of the surprises of the Big 10.

Next Five Out
26. TCU
27. Pittsburgh
28. West Virginia
29. Rutgers
30. Miami (FL)

2009 Big 12 Preview

2009-08-13T21:25:00.000-07:00

Big 12 Predictions

*North*	*South*
Nebraska	Oklahoma
Kansas	Texas
Missouri	Oklahoma State
Kansas State	Texas Tech
Colorado	Baylor
Iowa State	Texas A&M

2009 Predicted Big 12 Champion: Oklahoma Sooners

Preseason All Conference Team

Offense

QB – Sam Bradford, Oklahoma

RB– DeMarco Murray, Oklahoma

RB – Kendall Hunter, Oklahoma State

WR – Dezmon Briscoe, Kansas

WR – Dez Bryant, Oklahoma State

TE – Jermaine Gresham, Oklahoma

C – Chris Hall, Texas

OL – Trent Williams, Oklahoma

OL – Russell Okung, Oklahoma State

OL – Adam Ulatoski, Texas

OL – Brandon Carter, Texas Tech

Defense

DL – Jeremy Beal, Oklahoma

DL – Gerald McCoy, Oklahoma

DT – Ndamukong Suh, Nebraska

DL – Auston English, Oklahoma

LB – Travis Lewis, Oklahoma

LB – Roddrick Muckelroy, Texas

LB – Sean Weatherspoon, Missouri

CB – Dominique Franks, Oklahoma

CB – Aaron Williams, Texas

SS – Darrell Stuckey, Kansas

FS – Jordan Lake, Baylor

Special Teams

K – Alex Henery, Nebraska

P – Derek Epperson, Baylor

KR – Perrish Cox, Oklahoma State

PR – Dez Bryant, Oklahoma State

Rick Pitino Admits To Being Scum

2009-08-12T21:51:00.000-07:00

Louisville men’s basketball coach Rick Pitino was forced to admit that he had a one night stand with a woman he met at a restaurant six years ago. He also admitted to giving the woman (Karen Sypher) $3,000 in which she used to pay for an abortion. Pitino said that he thought the money was for her to get health insurance though. Really? How many times do you hear of guy purchasing insurance for a woman after a one time fling? Either he knew it was for an abortion or this was an on going affair in my opinion.

Regardless you have to assume that Pitino’s wife and five children can’t be happy with his “indiscretions.” I would hope that the Louisville fans are ashamed of his actions as well. As more information comes out this case, and it will, it will be interesting to see how much more damage his reputation takes. As for now though, Pitino is hitting the recruiting trail to tell a bunch of mommas how they can trust him with their teens as he spends the next four years shaping their character.

British Automobile Functions The Same As British Fighter

2009-07-15T15:39:00.000-07:00

It turns out that Michael Bisping’s bark was a lot worse than his bite. Bisping, a British MMA, fighter spent most of the Ultimate Fighter’s Season 9 bad mouthing Dan Henderson and boasting that he had never been knocked out. Rather than respecting Henderson’s knockout power, Bisping instead mocked him by saying that he had never been knocked out and gave Henderson the title “Decision Dan” and finally claiming that he would knockout the former UFC Champion.

By the end of the first round it had become clear that Bisping was in trouble and fighting an opponent who was clearly superior. At the 3:20 mark of the second round Henderson connected his right fist to Bisping’s face (above photo) and the Brit was done. Seldom do fighter’s live up to the hype that they create about themselves going into a contest but seldom do they fall as flat on their faces (or backs in this case) as Bisping did Saturday night.

In a strange twist of irony, Dan Henderson was rewarded for coaching on the 9th season of The Ultimate Fighter with a British made Range Rover. It performed as well as Bisping did in the ring, by breaking down while Henderson was on his way home from the fight in Vegas.

Find The Best Satellite TV Deals For Your State

2009-07-15T10:51:00.000-07:00

Trying to find an easy way to compare Satellite TV Providers? This may be the resource you are looking for. Compare Directv vs. Dish and determine which may be the best for you. You will be surprised when you discover how easy it is and how quick you get your information.

Satellite television providers, like Direc TV, have long offered an affordable substitute to cable television and with more options now than ever in digital programming at some of the best prices the market has seen, this is as good a time as any to make the switch. Football season is just around the corner so you had better hurry!

2009 ACC Preview

2009-07-13T15:15:00.000-07:00

It’s that time again! The preseason magazines have been purchased. The information has been digested and the opinions have been formed. Now over the next several weeks I’ll be cranking out my predictions and previews for the college football conferences beginning with the ACC.

ACC Predictions

*Atlantic*	*Coastal*
Florida State	Virginia Tech
Clemson	North Carolina
Boston College	Miami
N.C. State	Georgia Tech
Maryland	Virginia
Wake Forest	Duke

2009 Predicted ACC Champion – Virginia Tech Hokies

My Pre-Season All Conference Team

Offense
QB – Russell Wilson, NC State
RB – Jonathan Dwyer, Georgia Tech
RB – CJ Spiller, Clemson
WR – Aldarius Johnson, Miami
WR – Jacoby Ford, Clemson
TE – Greg Boone, Virginia Tech
C – Ryan McMahon, Florida State
OL – Anthony Castonzo, Boston College
OL – Thomas Austin, Clemson*
OL – Andrew Datko, Florida State
OL – Rodney Hudson, Florida State*

Defense
DL – Jason Worilds, Virginia Tech
DL – Darren Evans, Virginia Tech
DT – Marvin Austin, North Carolina*
DL – Ricky Sapp, Clemson*
LB – Mark Herzlich, Boston College
LB – Quan Sturdivant, North Carolina
LB – Darryl Sharpton, Miami
CB – Stephan Virgil, Virginia Tech
CB – Kendric Burney, North Carolina
SS – Kam Chancellor, Virginia Tech
FS – Deunta Williams, North Carolina

Special Teams
K – Matt Bosher, Miami
P – Kevin Jones, Duke
KR – TJ Graham, NC State
PR – CJ Spiller, Clemson

* Indicates second year I've picked this player for All-Conference

Educate Yourself About Short-Term Loans

2009-07-13T09:11:00.000-07:00

While the economy is turning around there are millions of people looking for Cash Advance Payday Loans Tips, Recommendations, and more. This website has all of your answers as well as links to reputable lenders.

Getting some tips on regarding cash advance payday loans as well as an explanation of the benefits of these types of loans. There’s even a section on gaining financial independence to get you started on the right track.

What The Missing LeBron Dunk Could Have Looked Like

2009-07-09T14:00:00.000-07:00

So at LeBron James’ “Skills Academy” Xavier sophomore Jordan Crawford executed a nasty throw down on the King himself. Crawford and witnesses to the spectacle have spoken about his rim rocking of Bron Bron but unfortunately there is no video evidence. In what has become typical childish behavior LeBron James had every bit of video evidence destroyed. Now we can only guess what it could have looked like, which frankly is more fun.

Maybe it was the, “Hey, you’re wearing Fruit of the Loom” dunk.

Could it have been the, “I own you” dunk?

Maybe it was the, “Your face doesn’t belong on my poster!” dunk.

Regardless you get the feeling that Lebron wants you to think that it was more like this.

Hiding behind Nike policy LeBron doesn’t want to look foolish in front of millions as that dunk would have surely been an internet hit if the video got out. However, by robbing a kid of his glory and failing to give him the proper credit James could be doing un-repairable damage and causing the legend of “the dunk” to grow beyond measure.

Sammy Sosa Was On Roids, Who Knew?

2009-06-16T19:06:00.000-07:00

Was anyone really surprised at the news that that Sammy Sosa popped positive for a performance enhancing drug in 2003? We really didn’t need Captain Obvious to tell us that Sosa was a Roid Head but it’s nice to know that there’s some hard evidence somewhere in the universe to back up this knowledge.

This just further validates the position that the whole era of McGwire, Bonds, Sosa eras should all be labeled with an asterisk as well as the records broken during that time.

Notes And Quotes – NBA Finals Game One

2009-06-05T19:46:00.001-07:00

“I just want it so bad, that’s all. I just want it really bad.” – Kobe Bryant after scoring 40 points in game one.

“We’ve never had a shooting night this bad. We’ve just got to come out and play a lot harder than we did tonight.” – Dwight Howard after the Magic went 8 of 23 from three point range and just 30% from the floor.

“He was great. He was tremendous. We were giving him too much space on his pull-up jumpers and he did a good job of attacking us. I know this: We are a lot better than we showed.” – Stan Van Gundy on Kobe Bryant

“It’s just one game. It’s a long series. We’ve got a couple days to work on some things. We know how good we are, and we know what we need to do to win.” – Hedo Turkoglu after a 3-11 shooting night.

· Kobe’s 40 points were a career high for him in the NBA Finals and the 10th time he’s scored 40 in the playoffs.

News Anchors To Cheerleaders In Seconds

2009-05-25T18:14:00.000-07:00

This is why the NBA Playoffs are so great. These “professional” news anchors were reduced to Junior High equivalent cheerleaders in just a matter of seconds after just being overly pessimistic about Cleveland’s chances for a miracle shot with just a second left.

Of course after all the heartbreak Cleveland sports fans have suffered through the years, you really can’t blame them for their reactions. The Cavs are no longer victims of the greatest last second shot in NBA playoff history.

Answers for Small Business Loans

Direct TV Summer Programming Makes TV Fun Again

2009-05-16T20:34:00.000-07:00

There may not be a better time to switch over to DirecTV than during the summer months. With most major network programming heading into their summer rerun programming watching television can quickly become boring and somewhat uneventful.

The summer programming offered by direct tv gives where normal cable programming takes away. With access to shows cancelled by cable and sports programming that is unrivaled, switching to DirecTV just makes sense.

The sports package includes many exclusive channels that you won’t find anywhere else. The NASCAR HotPass, NFL Sunday Ticket and MLB Extra Innings are all at your access with DirectTV along with just about every movie channel available you really can’t go wrong.

Jason Taylor Is Coming Home

2009-05-14T21:04:00.000-07:00

Joey Porter led the AFC in sacks last season with 17 ½ but the Dolphins got very little support for Porter in putting pressure on the quarterback. That’ll change in 2009 with the homecoming of All-Pro defensive end Jason Taylor. Taylor turned down an $8.5 million offer with the Redskins and resisted the courting from the New England Patriots to return to South Florida.

“My heart has always been in Miami, and so I’m truly excited to call myself a Dolphin once again,” Taylor said in a statement. “I was presented with a number of different opportunities, but in the end the combination of this being the best situation for my family, my love for this community and my tremendous loyalty to a great organization made this an easy decision.”

Taylor has been to six Pro Bowls as a Miami Dolphin and was the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2006. He only signed a one year deal and my guess is that he’s back for one more productive season and then bow out in retirement, giving him the type of going away from Miami that he deserves.

Is The U.S. Getting Ready To Lose The Super Bowl To London?

2009-05-10T18:43:00.000-07:00

I’ve never been a fan of NFL games being played abroad and to be honest I just don’t get the point. When you compare the infrastructure of the league to other professional sports leagues the NFL is clearly head and shoulders above the NBA, MLB and NHL. They market like crazy and turn profits as often as a NASCAR driver turns left. So why punish the fans who made the NFL what it is today by moving it out of the country?

Pre-season games were one thing but then they led to regular season games and now representatives from the Mayor of London's office and Visit London, the city's official visitor organization, have received assurances from the NFL that there is a commitment to bring the Super Bowl there in 2014 according to an English newspaper, The Telegraph. While I admit that this is a genius business decision it is a horrible PR decision that will most likely have lasting consequences.

The Euro is killing the American Dollar in the world markets. The additional money to be made by moving the biggest single sporting event of the year to London is mind blowing and apparently worth the risk to the league’s management. However, the knowledge of being sold out to the highest bidder is something that fans will remember for a long time.

Marketing strategies can sometimes be too good, like selling the Super Bowl for possibly billions of extra dollars to gain the biggest payday in the history of the sport. The problem is that another strategy will be needed to win back the fans here in the United States when it’s over.

Power Steering – Don’t Know What You’ve Got Until Its Gone

2009-05-10T08:10:00.000-07:00

Have you ever driven a car without power steering? It isn’t easy! The worst is when your power steering goes out while you are in the process of changing lanes or taking a corner and suddenly without notice you feel a pull in one direction or the other. It really does make you appreciate something that you have always taken for granted.

Finding replacement parts for your power steering rack or power steering box doesn’t have to be expensive and complicated thanks to Power Steering Pros. Find the parts you need for your power steering with a full warranty and free shipping.

Lakers/Rockets Series Just Lost Interest

2009-05-09T23:34:00.001-07:00

With the news coming out late Saturday afternoon that Houston Rockets’ center Yao Ming would miss the rest of the playoffs with a broken left foot the attraction and interest in that series went out the window. Sure, there’ll still be a lot of thuggish, physical play between the two teams but what the series will be missing will be any chance of the Rockets winning now. I think I’m going to pass now and wait for the Nuggets/Lakers in the Western Conference Finals.

Get Up To Date Info On The Preakness Stakes

2009-05-08T21:03:00.000-07:00

Mind That Bird came out of nowhere to win the Kentucky Derby and has been the main storyline of the horseracing world since then. Now, we turn our attention to the next race in the quest for the Triple Crown. The Preakness Stakes will be run next Saturday and the field is already at nine horses with as many as five other horses possibly getting into the mix.

Doc’s Sports is your source for the latest information regarding the Preakness Stakes. Looking for Preakness Stakes Picks? They’ve got them. Find out who the experts at Doc’s Sports believe will win. Get up to date Preakness Stakes Odds and when all the dust has finally settled make sure to check back for the Preakness Stakes Results.

Manny Should Be Gone For Good

2009-05-07T20:29:00.000-07:00

MLB’s All-Stars are making a mockery of their sport and with years of warnings gone unheeded things are spiraling out of control. You can count me as a person who used to be a Manny Ramirez fan but not anymore. Even though his antics were sometimes over the top, not knowing what to expect from him next made him fun to watch. He wasn’t always the best example of what it meant to hustle either but yet he still managed to make mind blowing plays like catching a fly ball on the run, jumping off the wall to high five a fan and then throwing out a runner. It was just fun to watch.

Now, with the news of Manny popping positive the fun is gone and so should Ramirez. It has become abundantly clear that Major League baseball players think the league’s substance abuse policy is a joke. With Rafael Palmeiro, Roger Clemens, A-Rod and now Manny all being exposed as cheaters the owners need to either decide to really start dropping the hammer on these guys or just legalize it and let it go. A fifty game suspension is significant but not significant enough to get the high profile stars to buy in.

Offer up one of these guys as a sacrifice fly by giving them a lifetime suspension from the game and heads will really start turning. Until then Manny is just the next guy to get busted for doing what has unfortunately become the norm.

Project Management Templates

2009-05-05T22:18:00.000-07:00

Project Management Docs offers free templates for project management. All PMBOK Templates are based on the standards set by the PMBOK guide. Check out their most popular templates or just take a minute to browse through their most recently posted articles.

Brett Favre Looking For Revenge Against Green Bay

2009-05-04T22:47:00.000-07:00

As sure as you can bank on the Oakland Raiders making a mockery of the NFL draft you can also count on the Brett Favre talk dominating the NFL airwaves once again in the weeks following the NFL draft. It’s something that we should be used to by now and yet the majority of the sporting world is scratching their heads and questioning why?

Favre was able to bring life back to the New York Jets but not able to get them into the playoffs and ultimately ended up costing Head Coach Eric Mangini his job. Now Minnesota Vikings coach Brad Childress appears to be the next person to bear that burden. After retiring, again, Favre requested – and was granted – a release from New York and is flirting now with Minnesota.

Brett Favre has enjoyed a hall of fame career but his skills have diminished to the point where a comeback seems improbable. Is it his love for the game that keeps wooing him back? Nope! Perhaps it’s his love of the limelight? Not even close! Turns out Favre’s motivation is hatred. Hatred for a team that was once endeared to him.

According to a New York Daily News source Favre wants to play in the NFC North again so that he can stick it to the Pack.

"Favre can't stand Green Bay," the source said. "He wants to play Green Bay and say, 'I told you so.' His bitterness is creating this. I think he's calling Minnesota. I think Minnesota is talking about this as we speak. You haven't heard the end of Favre. No way. He is bionic. As long as somebody will let him in, he will play."

Oh the drama!

Create Your Own Custom Wall Posters

2009-05-04T22:03:00.000-07:00

Almost every sports fan has that one photo. You know the one you took at the game when you scored the premium seats. With your own digital camera you captured the game winning shot, the clutch catch or the play at the plate. You have tried to immortalize it by using it as the wallpaper on your computer or by displaying it on a digital picture frame. However, what you would really like to do is turn that photo into your very own wall poster. It isn’t the photo that has been the problem all these years you just haven’t found the right place to do the poster printing.

PsPrint offers the perfect solution for your poster printing needs. Be it for the sports enthusiasts, business needs, works of art or events and promotions. PsPrint is your go to source. By offering four different shipping options, four different size options and four different qualities of paper along with options in proofing and quantity options you are able to adjust your order to meet a budget.

The variety of options allows this to almost be the perfect option for little league sports all the way through the high school and college ranks.

Revisiting The 1999 NFL Draft

2009-04-30T21:53:00.000-07:00

Tim Couch was a bad pick for the Brown's but was he the worst of the 1999 NFL Draft?

With last weekend’s NFL draft still fresh on our minds we can speculate all we want about who was a hit and who was a miss but the truth is that no matter how much we think the Raiders blew it we won’t really know until we see these guys careers pan out. In 1999 the Cleveland Browns thought they had their franchise quarterback in Tim Couch. They couldn’t have been more wrong with the overall top pick in the draft. Meanwhile, Jeff Saturday went undrafted out of North Carolina and became a three-time Pro Bowl selection for the Indianapolis Colts.

Taking a stroll back to 1999 here are the hits and misses of the first round along with the steal of the draft and the overall worst pick.

1. Tim Couch, Cleveland Browns – Miss – Couch only played five NFL seasons, throwing 64 touchdowns to 67 interceptions.
2. Donovan McNabb, Philadelphia Eagles – Hit – In eleven seasons McNabb has thrown 194 touchdowns to 90 interceptions, making the Pro Bowl five times and led the Eagles to a Super Bowl. He was also the 2004 NFL offensive player of the year.
3. Akili Smith, Cincinnati – Miss – Smith only stayed in Cincy for four seasons before jumping around to the Packers and Buccaneers before finally washing out of the NFL in 2004.
4. Edgerrin James, Indianapolis Colts – Hit – James was the offensive rookie of the year in 1999 and played seven seasons for the Colts rushing for 9,226 yards and 64 touchdowns. In his seven seasons for the Colts he made the Pro Bowl four times.
5. Ricky Williams, New Orleans Saints – Miss – The Saints traded up to select Williams as the fifth overall back but he never really fit in the Big Easy. He was gone just three seasons later with the highlight coming in the form off a cover photo for ESPN the Magazine.
6. Torry Holt, Saint Louis Rams – Hit – In ten seasons with the Rams, Holt went to seven Pro Bowls and helped the team win the Super Bowl XXXIV.
7. Champ Bailey, Washington Redskins – Hit – Bailey established himself as one of the leagues best shutdown corners. He was four-time Pro Bowl selection for the Skins before being traded to Denver in 2004 along with a second round draft pick for Clinton Portis.
8. David Boston, Arizona Cardinals – Miss – Stayed in Arizona only four seasons and washed out of the NFL after playing for Tampa Bay in 2006.
9. Chris Claiborne, Detroit Lions – Miss – Claiborne was gone from the motor city by 2002 and from the NFL in 2007.
10. Chris McAlister, Baltimore Ravens – Hit – McAlister has racked up 339 tackles and 26 interceptions in ten seasons with the Ravens. He’s been to the Pro Bowl three times and helped the Ravens win Super Bowl XXV.
11. Daunte Culpepper, Minnesota Vikings – Hit – With Randy Moss as Culpepper’s go-to guy he led the Vikings to the NFC championship game in 2000. Playing seven seasons in Minnesota, Culpepper made the Pro Bowl three times.
12. Cade McNown, Chicago Bears – Miss – McNown only lasted two seasons in Chicago and four in the NFL. He threw 16 touchdowns to 19 interceptions during his short career.
13. Troy Edwards, Pittsburgh Steelers – Miss – Edwards survived just three seasons in the Steel City before bouncing around to five other teams until 2007.
14. John Tait, Kansas City Chiefs – Hit – Tait played five seasons for the Chiefs and made the Pro Bowl in 2001. He returned to Hawaii for the Pro Bowl again in 2006 as a member of the Chicago Bears.
15. Anthony McFarland, Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Hit – McFarland never made a Pro Bowl appearance but was a mainstay on a Bucs defensive line that won Super Bowl XXXVII.
16. Jevon Kearse, Tennessee Titans – Hit – Kearse led the NFL in sacks in 1999 and was the league’s Defensive Player of the Year. In five seasons for the Titans Kearse made the Pro Bowl three times.
17. Damien Woody, New England Patriots – Hit – Woody was a Pro Bowl selection in 2002 and help anchor the Patriots’ offensive line when the won Super Bowls XXXVI and XXXVIII.
18. Matt Stinchcomb, Oakland Raiders – Miss – When you spend a first round pick on an offensive lineman he’s got to stick around more than five years.
19. Luke Petitgout, New York Giants – Hit – Played eight seasons for the Giants.
20. Ebenezer Ekuban, Dallas Cowboys – Hit – Played five productive seasons for the Cowboys before leaving as a free agent after the 2003 season.
21. L. J. Shelton, Arizona Cardinals – Hit – Shelton was a mainstay on the Cardinals offensive line for six seasons. He is currently with the Chargers.
22. Lamar King, Seattle Seahawks – Miss – King has been out of the NFL since 2003 after a short injury plagued season.
23. Antoine Winfield, Buffalo Bills – Hit – Played five productive seasons for the Bills before leaving as a free agent in 2004.
24. Reggie McGrew, San Francisco 49ers - Miss – Was gone after the 2001 season.
25. Antuan Edwards, Green Bay Packers – Miss – Played five injury plagued seasons for the Packers.
26. Fernando Bryant, Jacksonville Jaguars – Hit – Played five productive seasons with the Jaguars. Bryant is currently with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
27. Aaron Gibson, Detroit Lions – Miss – Only played in 16 games during three seasons with the Lions.
28. Andy Katzenmoyer, New England Patriots – Miss – Only lasted two seasons in New England due to injury.
29. Dimitrius Underwood, Minnesota Vikings – Miss – Underwood didn’t even make it through the 1999 training camp for the Vikings.
30. Patrick Kerney, Atlanta Falcons – Hit – Played eight productive seasons for the Falcons and made the Pro Bowl in 2004. Kerney is currently with the Seattle Seahawks where he returned to the Pro Bowl in 2007.
31. Al Wilson, Denver Broncos – Hit – Wilson was a five-time Pro Bowl linebacker for the Broncos. In eight seasons he recorded 580 tackles, 21.5 sacks and 5 interceptions.

Worst Pick of the Draft: Cade McNown, Chicago Bears (12th overall)
Steal of the Draft: Donald Driver, Denver Broncos (213th overall, 7th round) – 577 receptions, 7,989 yards, 43 touchdowns, three Pro Bowls

MLB Notes & Quotes From Monday April 27th

2009-04-28T12:31:00.000-07:00

“This club never gives in. I feel blessed to be a part of it.” – Raul Ibanez, Philadelphia. With the aid of two grand slam homeruns by Ibanez and Ryan Howard, Philadelphia rallied for a 13-11 win over the Washington Nationals.

“The night definitely belongs to Matt Harrison. They got four off him in the first two innings, and he settled down, kept the team in it, gave us a chance to come back.” – Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington. After giving up four runs early against Baltimore, Harrison retired 16 straight batters to help the Rangers come from behind to win 6-4.

“The guy throws like 100 miles an hour. You have to put it your mind to try and hit a mistake. I got a fastball up over the plate, and I didn’t miss it.” – Jason Bay, Boston Red Sox. Bay hit a three run homerun off Cleveland’s Kerry Wood in the 9th inning to lift the Red Sox to a 3-1 win.

“When he’s ahead in the count, he’s almost unhittable. Tonight was the Justin we expect to see every night.” - Detroit catcher Gerald Laird. Justin Verlander pitched seven scoreless innings against the Yankees allowing only 7 hits with no walks to give the Tigers a 4-2 win.

“It’s kind of funny. It seems that even when I’m struggling, I start feeling better and I look up at the schedule and we have a trip in here. It’s weird how that happens.” Lance Berkman, Houston Astros. Berkman hit his 20th homer at Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park, the most by any visiting player, and the Astros won their 10th consecutive game against the Reds on the road.

“There’s something going on out there. I got to find out. It’s only out there when we’re out there. It’s not out there when they’re out there.” – New York Mets manager Jerry Manuel. New York outfielders have already committed five errors this season. The Mets went on to beat the slumping Florida Marlins 7-1.

“You trust your defense. That’s why I throw that sinker no matter what time in the count, so they can hit it at somebody.” - Joel Pineiro, St Louis. With Monday’s 3-2 win over the Atlanta Braves, Pineiro improved his record to 4-0.

“I felt like a fan, I was pretty fired up. Whenever you get an opportunity to watch the greatest closer to ever play the game pitch for your team, it’s exciting for us.” - Ryan Braun, Milwaukee Brewers on watching closer Trevor Hoffman make his debut. The Brewers beat Pittsburgh 10-5.
“The ball was slipping out of my hand the whole night. I really struggled getting a consistent release with it. At the same time, it was putting a real crazy spin on the ball. I throw my fastball without seams and it was literally slipping the whole night. The closest thing I can compare it to is the way a knuckleball pitcher throws. You don’t walk six and have an outing like that, but the ball was just moving all over the place all night. I just stuck with it and battled through it.”

“That’s not how I like to pitch. It was weird conditions, it was misting out there the whole night. So my hand was wet and he ball just sits there and gets wet.” - Brian Bannister, Kansas City Royals. Bannister pitched 7 innings, allowing one hit, against Toronto in the rain on Monday night. The Royals won 7-1.

“Both times I said, ‘Jimmy, go talk to him. You could see he was just on the verge of keeping it together or not. Big moments in the game, so I just thought it was the right time to go out there.” – Tampa Bay Manager Joe Maddon. Maddon sent pitching coach Jim Hickey to the mound twice to calm down starter Jeff Niemann who worked his way out of both jams to help lead the Rays to a 7-1 win over Minnesota.

“I told him, ‘Run until they stop you.’ He did. I don’t think they ever stopped him. I think he’s still running if we go look for him right now.” - Ryan Spilborghs, Colorado Rockies. Spilborghs’ teammate Dexter Fowler stole five bases against San Diego Monday night. The Rockies won 12-7.

“Today was just nice, because I looked around in the seventh, eighth inning, and guys were smiling on the bench, having fun. It’s a feeling I don’t think we really had the whole year.” - Dan Haren, Arizona Diamondbacks. Haren led the D-Backs past the Cubs 7-2 with a complete game performance.

“I just had a very productive out. That’s all.” - Bengie Molina, San Francisco. Molina hit a soft roller up the 3rd base side that scored teammate Edgar Renteria for the game winning run. The Giants beat the Dodgers 5-4.

Kids Turning Pro Is Officially Out Of Control

2009-04-23T18:42:00.000-07:00

Each parent has the right to choose what is best for their own kids but at what cost. Even before LeBron James could finish high school and make the jump to the NBA we were looking for the next phenom to take over. Kids making the jump directly to the pros through the process of bypassing college had become so routine that the NBA had to get a handle on it by implementing a minimum age rule. Now, a loophole has been found around that and the standard being set is alarming.

Jeremy Tyler, the nation’s top junior class basketball recruit, has decided to forgo his senior year of high school to turn pro. I’ll give you a second to reread that last sentence.

No longer facing a challenge amongst high school competition and not really excited about renting his services out for a year to a university (He had committed to Louisville), Tyler is packing his bags and heading to Europe. Not yet eligible for the millions waiting in the NBA he’s instead settling for the hundreds of thousands of European ball instead of staying and finishing at his high school.

There are going to be tons of people who are going to say, “Way to go Jeremy!” over this and I’m not sure that I wont be one of them but I still question the decision. What’s the difference between a high school aged kid launching a professional career in music or acting and a kid turning pro in sports? Obviously we don’t see it in happen in pro sports very often but does this set the trend or set a scary precedent? Seventeen year old kids don’t physically bang bodies with thirty year old men in the world of music and movies but they sure do in the world of professional basketball. Dominating high school competition is a world away from finding success in the pros and Tyler is about to travel to that world. I hope he collects as much as possible because this isn’t going to be a guarantee of NBA riches in the near future.

It’s Getting Hot Outside! Make Sure Your Auto AC Is Working

2009-04-23T16:59:00.000-07:00

June is the worst time there is to discover that your air conditioner is not working. The absolute worst is when you have people riding with you on the first hot day of the year and you, along with everyone else, come to the realization that only hot air is blowing out. Suddenly your car turns from a fun ride across town into a twenty minute sweat box.

Suddenly the cost of repairing the air conditioner is just another added pressure that becomes intensified in the sweltering heat. By doing a little legwork on your own you can save money and get you backing to riding in comfort. Diesel Parts Pros has a selection of condensers, driers, air conditioning compressors and more parts for your auto such as a diesel fuel pump.

The Fridge Isn’t Running Anymore

2009-04-21T22:18:00.000-07:00

Last summer I saw William “The Refrigerator” Perry doing a promotion at a minor league baseball game in Oklahoma City. My first thought when I saw him was that he didn’t look healthy. He was in a wheel chair and most disturbingly looked skinny. I spent the evening explaining to my 12-year old son how he was once an imposing force for the 1985 Super Bowl Champion Chicago Bears and was actually larger than life in personality.

Turns out that my fears regarding his health were true. The Fridge has been diagnosed with a rare condition that occurs when immune system cells mistakenly attack nerve cells that support the muscles called Guillain-Barre Syndrome. He’s been hospitalized in a South Carolina hospital and is in serious condition.

I’ve never tried Perry’s barbecue sauce and I never looked at The Super Bowl Shuffle as anything more than a humorous attempt to capitalize on the fame the team earned on the football field. However, as a kid I did have the Fridge’s G.I. Joe action figure.

Perry conquered the football world with a Super Bowl Championship. He conquered the world of entertainment with several appearances on network shows and sitcoms as well as other celebrity events. He conquered the business world with the development of his own construction company. Here’s to hoping that he conquers this illness as well.

Organic Fertilizer That Kills On Contact

2009-04-21T21:38:00.000-07:00

So you say that you want to stay green while working hard to get a green yard that will be the envy of the neighborhood? The problem is that many chemicals that are used kills weeds and produce a healthy, green and full lawn could actually be harmful to the environment. So while your lawn work and treatments may produce the perfect yard there is a bigger issue on the table here.

That isn’t the case when it comes to ringer lawn fertilizer. The Ringer Lawn Restore features a slow release formula that helps to promote the type of lawn growth you desire while eliminating the undesired weeds in the process. This provides the user and eco friendly solution to their haunting weed issue.

There are several reasons to use an organic fertilizer in addition to what has already been mentioned. Using this product can also increase vitamin and mineral content in your soil among other benefits.

In addition to the lawn restore fertilizer, the Safer brand features some other great organic products. The ready to spray concentrate grub killer last up to seven days and helps control a variety of insects and pests. The mosquito and tick killer, is a new product that kills mosquitoes and ticks on contact eliminating your family from the dangerous diseases that accompany those pests.

MLB Notes And Quotes From April 12

2009-04-20T12:26:00.000-07:00

“I didn’t take into account that I’d have to get above the fan to get the ball. I watched the replay and it looked like his glove was outstretched on top of mine. It all happened so fast.” - Trevor Crowe, Cleveland, on the possibility of fan interference when trying to rob New York’s Jorge Posada of a two-run homerun. The Yankees beat the Indians 7-3.

“He’s got a bright future. He reminds me of Santana a little bit, his body and his mannerisms, the way he throws. Santana’s got those broad shoulders like he’s got. He’s similar, he’s got a similar arm slot, similar delivery. He’s going to be good.” - Jack Cust, Oakland, on Toronto’s Ricky Romero who pitched 7 scoreless innings. The Blue Jays beat the A’s 1-0.

“I went in and told the guys that this was a great series here. Three well-played games. We scraped and we scratched. If we keep playing baseball like we played in this series, we’ll be fine. I was pleased with the effort and I told them so.” – Milwaukee manager Ken Macha after his team escaped being swept by the Mets with a 4-2 win on Sunday.

“I think it’s embarrassing. I think it’s unacceptable. I think our fans have every right to be mad like we are right now. We’re going to have a brand-new bullpen tomorrow, and if those guys who come in don’t get it done, we’re going to continue getting guys out of here.” – Washington manager Manny Acta on his bullpen after they blew their third consecutive game on Sunday, a 7-4 loss to the Florida Marlins.

“I always felt like that was one of the things I was better at, getting a timely hit, getting a big hit for the team and hopefully I can get back to that. We needed something like that to give us some momentum.” - Jeff Francoeur, Atlanta, after his three RBI performance against Pittsburgh on Sunday ended a 22-inning scoreless streak. The Braves beat the Pirates 11-1 on Sunday.

“They got me good. They got me real good and I was not ready for it. After a game like that I don’t care what they put in it. They can spit in it and I’ll take it.” - Raul Ibanez, Philadelphia, on his teammates giving him a shaving cream pie to the face after hitting the game winning homerun to down the San Diego Padres 5-4.

“That was the guy that I remember from last year.” – Jason Bay, Boston, on teammate Jon Lester’s seven shutout innings on Sunday. The Red Sox beat Baltimore 2-1.

“I just wanted to attack the hitters with whatever I was throwing out there and try to execute pitches. I found a rhythm and went after it.” - Gavin Floyd, Chicago White Sox, after striking out seven Tampa Bay batters and taking a shutout performance into the 7th inning.

“Anytime I can get in the box, I love it. I just like the opportunity.” – Cincinnati pitcher Micah Owings on hitting a two-run double against Houston. The Reds beat the Astros 4-2.

“Trying to get them to hit my pitches, and they weren’t able to do it. That’s what I try to do every time: Be efficient and get deep into a game, and right now it’s working out.” - Glen Perkins, Minnesota, after going eight innings, allowing only 1 run, against the LA Angels. The Twins won 3-1.

“It felt good. Hitting a home run was the last thing on my mind, facing a guy who’s got really good stuff. I was just thinking contact, get on base, and set the table for the guys behind me. It was cool … when it helps the team out, it’s always a good feeling.” - Michael Young, Texas, on completing a two-run rally against Kansas City with a 9th inning homerun.

“Sometimes you have to put blinders on when it comes to certain teams. I just wanted to pitch well. It’s nice to go out there and feel like I’m contributing after the last two starts.” - Randy Johnson, San Francisco, on taking a no-hitter into the 7th inning against his former team Arizona. The Giants beat the Diamondbacks 2-0.

“I’m pretty happy. I’m very enthusiastic and very happy about it, but from the team’s perspective, it’s one game.” - Rick Porcello, Detroit, After getting the first major league win of his career, an 8-2 win over Seattle.

“I felt pretty good about this club leaving spring training. I just felt we were going to score runs. But to get off to this kind of start is pretty good,” LA Dodgers manager Joe Torre after Sunday’s 14-2 win over the Rockies marked the team’s 10th win of the season and 8th in a row.

Western Conference Playoff Predictions

2009-04-17T22:10:00.000-07:00

No.1 Lakers vs. No. 8 Jazz

Kobe Bryant vs Deron Williams should be the fun matchup to watch in this series but it won’t come down to who is the better of the two guards (Bryant) the deciding factor will be Utah’s inability to have an answer for Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum inside.

Prediction: Lakers in 5

No. 2 Nuggets vs. No. 7 Hornets

Chauncey Billups gave the Denver Nuggets a new identity and now as the post season approaches he brings championship caliber leadership to a team that desperately needed it.

Prediction: Nuggets in 6

No. 3 Spurs vs. No. 6 Mavericks

Here’s where I’m picking a first round upset. The Spurs are without their King of the Flop, Manu Ginobili, and Tim Duncan isn’t healthy. The Spurs were better in the regular season but the Mavericks are the healthier team.

Prediction: Mavs in 7

No. 4 Blazers vs. No. 5 Rockets

Brandon Roy and Greg Oden are set to make their playoff debuts and I believe that they’ll make a splash. The Rockets are notoriously known for tanking in the first round and why I believe that Yao Ming and the Rockets wont lay down I do think they’ll go down fighting.

Prediction: Blazers in 7

Earn Money While Looking For A Job

2009-04-17T21:21:00.000-07:00

How would you like to earn money just for posting resume online. Resumark is introducing a whole new way to look for a job. When you post your resume with Resumark you earn money every time a possible employer downloads your resume. With each employer download you earn a dollar.

However, that isn’t the only way to earn extra cash. By using their affiliate program you can earn fifty cents each time a job seeker posts a resume at Resumark. Still want more? Then you’ll want to participate in their contests. Right now, the first person to bring one hundred legitimate registrations with resumes to Resumark will win five hundred dollars. Have fun and earn money while looking for a job.

MLB Notes And Quotes From 4-13-09

2009-04-13T23:03:00.000-07:00

“We talked about starting a pool or something of who would get there first in the dugout before the game. We probably would have if it had went one more day.” - Paul Konerko, Chicago White Sox, on he and Jermaine Dye reaching 300 homeruns in back-to-back at bats. The White Sox beat Detroit 10-6.

“It’s definitely a different feeling in here. It’s like J.R. (manager John Russell) said, what you need to do as a team is put yourself in position to win, and that’s what we’ve been doing.” - Adam LaRoche, Pittsburgh, After the Pirates 7-0 win over Houston boosted their record above .500 to 4-3.

“I was aware, but I wasn’t really thinking about it. I was still trying to focus on making quality pitches, not so much how am I going to protect that, you know protect the no-hitter.” - Ted Lilly, Chicago Cubs, on taking a no hitter into the 6th inning and leading the Cubs to a 4-0 win over Colorado.

“We’re going to figure it out. I don’t know if it’s going to be tomorrow or it’s going to be June. I promise: We’re going to figure it out.” - Adam Dunn, Washington, After the Nationals dropped their 7th consecutive game, a 9-8 loss to Philadelphia.

“Dodger fans can’t expect this every day. The cycle is very hard. First of all, getting a hit is hard.” - Orlando Hudson, LA Dodgers, after hitting through the cycle and leading the Giants to an 11-1 victory over San Francisco.

“It’s one of those days. It was their day, an opportunity to celebrate what they did last season, and they had their way.” - Derek Jeter, NY Yankees, after getting beat 15-5 by Tampa Bay in a game where the Rays had 17 hits.

“Very cool. Maybe at the end of the season when I look back on this, I’ll have a greater sense of what happened here. But at the time, all I’m thinking is that it put us ahead.” - Jody Gerut, San Diego, after hitting a leadoff homerun in the first at bat, ever, at Citi Field. The Padres spoiled the Mets home debut with a 6-5 win.

“We got a lucky break Kinsler didn’t try to tag up, or else we’d still be playing.” - Gregg Zaun, Baltimore, on the Texas Ranger’s Ian Kinsler failure to tag up at second base on a line drive to the outfield. Kinsler’s out killed a 9th inning rally for Texas.

“I just tried to look for something in the strike zone—hopefully a fastball because he got behind the other hitters. I hit it in the perfect spot.” - Edwin Encarnacion, Cincinnati, on his grand slam that capped a 6 run rally for the Reds to beat Milwaukee 7-6.

“Mainly the first and third innings were the ones that had me worried the most, but luckily I got out of it.” - Zack Greinke, Kansas City, after his five innings of work extended his pitching streak to 25 scoreless innings. The Royals beat Cleveland 4-2 on Monday night.

“There’s a certain level for the game that you try to have, but sometimes in those situations you kind of want to stand there and watch it. You just try and do what you can to put the bat down and run around the bases the right way. It’s one of those where it’s hard not to watch sometimes.” - Travis Snider, Toronto, After hitting two homeruns to lead the Blue Jays past the Twins 8-6.

Despite playing their first seven games at home the Arizona Diamondbacks are only 2-7 on the season. Their latest loss was a 2-1 decision at the hands of the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday night.

Oakland’s Kurt Suzuki has hit safely in all of his 13 career games against the Boston Red Sox. The A’s beat Boston 8-2 on Monday night.

Great Deals On Luminox Watches

2009-04-13T20:20:00.000-07:00

LA Police Gear has long been a tremendous source for high quality tactical gear. By featuring products from over sixteen different brand names like Blackhawk, Under Armor, Benchmade Knives, Belleville Boots, Streamlight Flashlights and many others they are one of the best suppliers on the market.

Now, LA Police Gear is now officially an authorized Luminox Watch dealer. Known for superior quality and lasting durability the Luminox name is well respected and when you purchase one from an authorized dealer it is guaranteed to have warranty work done if the need should arise.
With over eighty different styles of watch to choose from they are sure to have one for just about every need or occasion.