11-5 doesn't get you into the playoffs so I ask:
- what the hell is up with the play calling of the Jets?
- will Brady be able to return in 2009?
- are the d|Dolphins legit?
- why couldn't the Jags step up?
- is Scott Peoli headed elsewhere?
- what is to happen of young Matt Cassell?
- has the tide turned in NE sports where it is now all about the Bs and Cs?
I am boycotting the NFL playoffs.
Read more!Irony plays out in professional sports. Take these few nuggets from today's NFL story lines:
- Wideout Randy Moss needs just 11 yards receiving to pass Buffalo legend Andre Reed for ninth place on the NFL's all-time list. Moss enters today's game with 13,188. The Pats face Buffalo today in a must-win game.
- When do you ever remember Patriots Nation rooting for the J E T S Jets Jets Jets?
- Chad Pennington can kill two birds with one stone today by beating the team that dumped him for an aging QB and at the same time, stomp out the playoff dreams of all Patriots fans.
- The 2008 Lions could make history today...by going 0-16. No team has ever been THIS bad and could be forever enshrining in the Hall of Fame in Canton for being the football equivalent of the Bad News Bears.
So stay tuned today folks. Lots of story lines to follow today. Who will win? Who will capture the AFC East? Who will get their redemption? Will a losing team get a win? Will Matt Cassell extend the longest job interview in employment history?
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As you're sitting around your house, apartment or condo this morning watching the fresh white flakes hit the ground on the sidewalk outside, give the following two articles a read, especially if you're a Boston sports fan.
These are two pieces of two sports figures in Boston - one current and one former - that show the human side of sports. There stands Paul Pierce. The Celtics forward, once the seeming embodiment of what Jordan sneeringly called "New Jack players"—underachieving and self-involved, persona non grata with the national team after leading it to its implosion in 2002, bearer of a contract that will pay him $18,077,903 this season—is hunched over. He's a wreck. Havlicek hands him the trophy, and Pierce dips his head onto the legend's right shoulder. Pierce lifts his head, tears streaming down his cheeks, and it suddenly becomes clear that we're witnessing a rare moment in modern sports: not market-tested, not spun, close to pure.
Read the rest here from SI.Shifty receiver Deion Branch has made moves far better than this one. So have his Seahawks.
The former Super Bowl MVP held out of the New England Patriots [team stats]’ minicamp in June 2006, then all of training camp. He racked up almost $600,000 in fines from the team until his forced trade to Seattle in early September of that year.
Read the rest about Deon here.
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Ok, now that the Pats are on the verge of not making the playoffs (I'm still hoping they will pull it off), I think I need to address what I think is wrong with the team. It really comes down to two things...
...giving up big third down plays and turn overs.
If you look at the games that they have lost, specifically the Miami and Pittsburgh, you'll see how those two reasons added up to marks in the L column vs. W column.
Check out Mike Reiss' outline of one of the big runs the Steelers had on the Pats on soggy Sunday:
It's amazing how small one on one battles impact a game. As Mike puts it, the Pats lost too many one on one battles and ended up losing the war - the same way they did against the Colts, Jets, Miami and the Chargers.
The Pats need to get younger on defense. They need speed and strength. However, they need heady players like Jerrod Mayo. Strength is one thing, but strength in the head is just as important.
Deep down I know that this isn't the Pat's year. They need to retool on defense and aren't going to do it by signing previously retired players.
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Pretty cool post over at Reiss' Pieces about the Cover It Live service which Globe reporters will be using during Sunday nights game:Hoping to enhance the user experience, Boston.com will experiment with a different form of live blogging during Sunday night's Patriots vs. Colts battle in Indianapolis. The format, pioneered by a company called Cover It Live, allows our football writers to better interact with readers during the game, while disseminating information faster given its instant-messenger like format.
Pretty cool if you're a football but and are into the whole social media thing.
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You have got to be kidding me. Al Davis needs to do the world a favor and put a bullet in his head. Take him out to pasture. He's done.
From the Boston Herald: Davis started by answering a question as to why the team would part with the receiver, claiming Kiffin didn’t want Moss. Rambled Davis: ’What’s his name knew he could run, he’s a friend of Belichick’s. Mike Lombardi. Mike sold what’s his name, Belichick, on the idea that he could run. They tampered with him. I remember Bob Kraft saying that he had to look him in the eye and all that. They went down and worked him out, he could run. He’s their team, of course, with the quarterback." (Via The Point After.)
In a gathering following the press conference in which he fired his head coach Lane Kiffin, Raiders owner Al Davis accused the Patriots of tampering with regard to Randy Moss, who they acquired in a trade from Oakland during draft day last season.
Bob Ryan wrote an interesting piece about the cost of talent vs. conduct in professional sports. Recent examples: Pacman Jones, Willie Andrews and Manny Ramirez.
In each of these cases, the player conducted himself in a manner which would have gotten him fired from a job if he worked in the real world. Yes, what Manny did was not as bad as what Pacman Jones was accused of and what Willie Andrews was arrested and released from the Pats for (though this is Manny's second such incident - see the Manny/Youk dug-out spat a few weeks ago). Regardless, conduct incidents have been on the rise in professional sports. Is it a matter of more media attention and that nothing can slip through the cracks any more or can this behavior be blamed on created a generation of professional athletes who have had the world handed to them on a gold platter and they think they can do whatever they want?
I think it's a combination of both. The biggest problem in all of this is how team's handle these situations. Should Manny have been suspended for a couple of games? Yes, I think so. Should teams take a tougher approach with discipline? Yes, I think so.
They won't, however. Why?
Because winning is everything. Winning makes owners richer. It's a better investment to seek the counsel of crisis communication experts than suspend a player. "Handling things in-house" is the way these situations are handled. They are not handled by publicly spanking a player, taking away game-money, and/or having the player wear street cloths for an extended period of time.
I realize that we've won a number of championships in Boston over the past 7 years. It's been incredible. However, I'm sure their have been lots of incidents - big and small - that have transpired with players, which never came to light. Part of management's responsibility is basically to babysit and clean-up after these overpaid, adolescent billionaires. It's in the interest of their bottom lines to do so. It's a horrible thing to think about, but who's actually thinking about it? We've been too busy planning parades.
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Apparently, the 1990 NE Patriots are the worst team in the history of the NFL.
Yea, they were horrible, but are people forgetting about the Detroit Lions of recent years?
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