Three Way the NFL can Improve It's Product

If only the NFL knew what they were missing by not employing me as a consultant.

1. Make the coin toss to the Super Bowl a minimum of twenty four hours before the actual kickoff to the game

Sounds weird? Let me explain. The point of this rule, would be that the coin toss would generate the same sort of publicity as a public weigh in before a boxing match. Team captains can sneer at each other and great photo opportunities will be produced. Broadcast it on t.v., and suddenly NFL Network can add some much needed substance to it's weeklong coverage of Super Bowl that's lacking big time in it. Jamie Dukes and Marshall Faulk can predict who will win the coin toss, before the coverage kicks over to FOX for the official 'AT&T Coin Toss Show'. The teams and fans now know whose getting the ball to start the first and second halves before the teams even get on the field. Tell me that isn't a new, fresh way to view a football game, and tell me it won't get bigger numbers than Deion Sanders and Steve Mariucci half-assing their analyst duties.

So teams don't know who the inactives. The part of the coin toss procedure where teams choose sides supposedly based on breeze can still be done on the field before the game. This rule change shouldn't be a big deal. It's not like other competitive aspects of the game aren't compromised during the Super Bowl. Forty-five minute halftime, gimme a break.

Anyway, if Roger Goodell had any brains, he'd put this to an owner's vote today.

2. Let the Two Point Conversion count for Two Points, Offense or Defense

Sounds complicated? It's not. Everyone has watched a football game before when on a two point try, a pass is picked off, a fumble is recovered, and the play is whistled dead. The defense can run all they want, they're not gettin' those two points if they get the ball to the other team's end zone. This is silly. Why take away excitement from a football game? Adding in another factor into a team's decision-making process in going for two makes the game more interesting to me, personally.

So Roger Goodell, if you have any brains, you'll adapt the one rule college does better than the pro's.

3. Once the NFL goes to an Eighteen Game Schedule, go back to a Sixteen Game Schedule

This one's obvious.

NFL Week 7 Musings

-Sorry Raheem Morris. Don't be offended if I don't want to root for your reclamation project in Tampa. Your declaration that your Tampa Bay Buccaneers are "the best team in the NFC" after your 18-17 win over the St. Louis Rams sunday, does not endear me to your cause. No doubt your team has talent. LB Quincy Black and CB Aqib Talib are standouts on defense and WR Mike Williams has been a pleasant play-making surprise this season. QB Josh Freeman has the ability to manage a game and not throw back breaking interceptions.

However, if there's something that can keep this team from a playoff berth or even a winning record this season is the lack of a pass rush so far. The team has registered only five sacks through six games this season, and the team lacks a go to edge rusher. Perhaps the development of DT Gerald McCoy may bring a consistent pass rush in the coming years. But for now, Buc's fans should still file this season under 'rebuilding' status despite the 4-2 start.

-There is a definite lack of talent on the Denver Bronco's defense. The losses of OLB's Elvis Dumervil and Robert Ayers has revealed the lack of depth on the unit, and the defense has become sieve-like.

-Packers Coach Mike McCarthy needs to sit down QB Aaron Rodgers and drill into his head 'stop throwing interceptions'. He's still too early in his career to become what Brett Favre became later in his.

Here's What I thought of Week One

Maybe you missed these stories from the NFL's first week, maybe you didn't.

-The Kansas City defense was a truly pitiful unit last year. A unit that had trouble getting off the field and was seemingly littered with first round flameouts had alot to do with the Chief's 4-12 record last year. Outside Linebacker Tamba Hali and Cornerback Brandon Flowers had really the only notably positive seasons.

But Monday night against San Diego, suddenly those first round ne'er-do-wells grew up. Defensive Lineman Tyson Jackson and Glenn Dorsey had received mixed reviews throughout their first couple years in the league. On monday, San Diego struggled to establish their running game as both Jackson and Dorsey rarely were moved out of their gaps and frequently penetrated the Charger's backfield . Linebacker, Derrick Johnson showed immense talent at The University of Texas, but never quite realized that same talent at the pro level. His underachieving career finally came to a head this pre-season when he mostly played on the second defense throughout training camp.

Monday night he may have had the best game of any linebacker on opening weekend. Suddenly this doesn't seem like such a long season in Kansas City.

-Bob Sanders, Orlando Pace, Steve McNair. What do these three players have in common? They're the reigning and former kings of the 'it's only a matter of time before they get injured' category. Backup Strong Safety Melvin Bullitt has made a career out of Bob Sander's reliability (or is it the other way around) and is quick to remind us that Indianapolis doesn't lose much with him on the field. If Sanders keeps going down like this, Bullitt will become a household name.

-Let's play a game of 'Who Said It?'. Which Quarterback had the following quote on Sunday?

"I played terrible. It was as bad as I can play. I've got to be better. I missed alot of throws. The defense played good. We made enough plays to win. I personally made too many dumb mistakes."

A) Matt Moore, Carolina: 14/33, 182 yds., 1 TD's, 3 INT'S, 32.6 QB Rating, Loss

B) Matt Ryan, Atlanta: 27/44, 252 yds., 0 TD's, 1 INT, 67.6 QB Rating, Loss

C) Aaron Rodgers: 19/31, 188 yds., 2 TD'S, 2 INT'S, 73.1 QB Rating, Win

The answer is C) Aaron Rodgers.

-Criticize Eagles Coach Andy Reid all you want for any of the shoddy game management strategy he has displayed in the past, because you can forget it all. On Sunday the shoddiest decision he could have ever made was allowing Middle Linebacker Stewart Bradley back out on the field after watching him fall to his knees due to an apparent concussion, and that's exactly what he did.

-And speaking of the Eagles, Cornerback Ellis Hobbs is going to get picked on alot this year. Belichick and the Patriots let him and fellow Corner Asante Samuel walk for a reason.

-Charger's QB Philip Rivers shouldn't hold himself in too high a regard that he can't bring himself to see an anger management specialist. Rivers' on-field tantrums do nothing for a team that has repeatedly burned out when the games really start to count.

Going Around the NHL

-With the acquisition of Scott Walker, Eric Belanger, and Joe Corvo at the trade deadline last wednesday, there were going to be some controversial healthy scratch decisions needed to be made by the Washington Capitals. The lucky fellow for Monday's game against Dallas was Tomas Fleischmann, who's accumulated all of forty-five points in fifty-four games this season. Just an embarrassment of riches for the Capitals.

-The Olympics were a time for not so recognizable names to make them so. Ryan Miller accomplished this with flying colors. But perhaps lost in the praise of Miller, was much publicity for his USA teammate, Defenseman Ryan Suter. Finding himself paired with the transcendent USA Defenseman, Brian Rafalski, the silky smooth Suter was put on the ice by coach Ron Wilson for nearly every big situation throughout the team's Olympic run.

-This has been the second straight season Maple Leaf's Defenseman Tomas Kaberle should have been traded at the deadline and wasn't. At some point, pinning the blame on a stagnant trade market must end, and real, constructive criticism for GM Brian Burke must begin.

-My early Western Conference Final Pick: How about the Los Angeles Kings and the Chicago Blackhawks. Alot of similarities between this year's Kings team, and last year's Blackhawks team that went took a trip to the west finals.

-My early pick for the Eastern Conference Final: Could it really be anything other than the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals?

-And my Stanley Cup Final prediction is the same one I chose before the season even began: The Chicago Blackhawks and the Washington Capitals.

Non Super Bowl Sports thoughts

Basically for the next two weeks, your going to be inundated with Super Bowl, and a large majority of it won't have much substance to it, and if it has any substance to it, it will probably be shoved down our throat so excessively we wish it wasn't even brought up in the first place. Case in point, the New Orleans Saints' 'a city and its team' storyline has some actual merit to it, and is worth being discussed, but not to the degree it actually will be covered over the next two weeks.

And really, don't get me started on Super Bowl Media Day. It might as well be renamed 'Late Night Talk Show doing their 'Man on the Street' bits with jocks' day.

But thats enough about the Super Bowl, you'll get plenty of coverage of it elsewhere, but if you need a safe haven, just for a little bit, you came to the right place. So here are my thoughts on random topics that have nothing to do with the Super Bowl.

-Please take all this NFL Labor strife with a grain of salt. I don't doubt that there is some truth to the owner's and player's being far apart on a new CBA, but some of these statements coming out from both sides are simply jockeying for position at the negotiating table. I think the Players and Owners are reserved to the fact that the 2010 season will go uncapped, but the way NFLPA President Kevin Mawae and NFLPA Executive Director Demaurice Smith make out the situation, you'd think the 2011 season was only a month away.

And when I say take everything that comes out of this story with a grain of salt, I include those who cover and commentate on the NFL. Obviously, they need something to report on this story, and if they say to take these dire forecasts with a grain of salt, then they're pretty much undermining their own story.

At this point, the American viewing public doesn't think they can live without NFL on fall sundays. I would like to think Roger Goodell would be smart enough to foster negotiations between the two sides so as not to actually test this hypothesis out.

-There's just something about watching a team that does all the little things right. That is the 2009-10 Houston Rockets, a team I found myself rooting for, for that one reason only.

-For those of you who watched HBO Boxing After Dark on Saturday Night, does it really get much more impressive than what Yuriorkis Gamboa did to Rogers Mtagwa?

-At some point, the Calgary Flames won't underacheive anymore. Maybe those guys just aren't that good? Did somebody tell GM Darryl Sutter that adding a player like Jay Bouwmeester shouldn't cause a playoff team to miss them the next year. Even if they do end up making the playoffs, would another first round playoff exit be an acceptable outcome to the Flames' front office?

-Nothing against a wonderful city like Vancouver, but these Olympic Games already appear to look like a dud. Someone should've told Pierre De Coubertin that sometimes global financial meltdowns happen. Oddly enough though, I don't see it dampening the rest of the world's mood for World Cup Soccer later this year.

What interests me for this weekend of Football

There is no better weekend of sports than the NFL divisional round weekend. It is absolutely the highest drama football we see all year. Highest drama football? What about the Conference title games and the Super Bowl, silly? Those are dramatic yes, but if you make it to a conference title game or a Super Bowl, most ways you slice it, thats a very successful season that you can be very proud of. To me, having a first round bye and then losing your first-playoff game is downright embarrassing.

Coaches always say the fear of losing is a greater motivator than the joy of winning. I think this applies to what makes sports dramatic as well. Losing the Super Bowl isn't nearly as heart-wrenching as losing your first playoff game in the divisional round. The 2007 Patriots, while losing the Super Bowl in about as gut wrenching fashion as possible, still won the AFC title that season. On the other hand, the Kansas City Chiefs went 13-3 and had a first round bye in the playoffs twice in the nineties under Marty Schottenheimer, and twice they lost. Ask their fans if they would trade both those seasons for just one loss in the Super Bowl and I think it'd be a no-brainer. Alot of things just went right for your team to get eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, maybe even fifteen and sixteen wins, and to waste that by not even winning one home playoff game is about as depressing as sports fandom gets.

So, now that the stakes are set, lets look at the games.

Arizona Cardinals at New Orleans Saints 4:30 Saturday FOX

So Arizona saw their twenty-one point fourth quarter lead evaporate to the Green Bay Packers, yet they still sneaked by the Green Bay Packers on a blown call in overtime, in the meantime giving up forty-five points, thirty five of them while protecting a lead in the second half. Now this week they face virtually the same offense, only more varied with more weapons in the New Orleans, and do I think the Cardinals will win? No, I don't think the Cardinals will win.

Its been the opinion of many a football pundit, that perhaps because the Saints were up so much during the year, their defense could take more chances, play downhill, and thats why they had the success they did. Maybe so, but if Arizona plays defense like they did last sunday against a better offense, I don't think it will matter. I like New Orleans.

Baltimore Ravens at Indianapolis Colts 8:00 Saturday CBS

Apparently, the New England Patriots are the new "Sick man of Europe". 'They rolled over and died last sunday', 'they should've kept at least one veteran on that defense among the departures of Vrabel, Bruschi, Harrison and Seymour', 'Tom Brady just didn't look right'. Maybe these are all true, but give John Harbaugh and the Ravens some credit. They've done something nobody else has ever done: They were the first ever team to defeat the Patriots in their first playoff game under Belichick and Brady.

A couple of weeks ago, I wondered to myself as the Ravens were struggling to get past the Oakland Raider and clinch the playoff berth if maybe the Ravens aren't as good as they think they are. Last week, I didn't see the team thats tripped over itself for much of this season, I saw the team that went into Nashville last year and defeated the 13-3 Tennessee Titans.

One thing I'm sure of however, is that this years Indianapolis Colts are better than last year's Tennessee Titans. Not by alot, but it is a more daunting task for the Ravens this year to go into the dome in Indy and win than it was to go to Nashville last year and win.

If theres something Baltimore can rally around, its the fact that Peyton Manning is 0-3 when his Colts have a first round bye. Think about that, Peyton Manning has wasted three great years from the Colts by not even winning one playoff game. 'Course, theres that whole resting starters controversy the Colts have to answer to as well. And then theres the fact that the last playoff game we saw the Colts in at home, they got thoroughly whipped by the Chargers minus Rivers, LT and Antonio Gates, plus plenty of generous calls from the refs, and the Colts still couldn't pull the game out in the end.

Just thinking about it, this may be the most important game in Manning's career since the Super Bowl. With that, I still like Indy, by a hair, if that much.

Dallas Cowboys at Minnesota Vikings 1:00 Sunday FOX

Forget Romo, forget Favre, forget Witten. Virtually every one on one matchup is a wash for these two teams, except for one, actually two. How about the Cowboys Outside linebacking pair of Demarcus Ware and Anthony Spencer going against the Vikings tackles of Bryant Mckinnie on the left side and Phil Loadholt on the right side.

Both Mckinnie and Loadholt are big and powerful human beings, and sometimes they sacrifice technique for power. I asked my buddy, a former college football lineman to take a look at Phil Loadholt when he was at Oklahoma at last year. One thing stood out to him: He's powerful, but he relies on his upper body too much, and doesn't fully utilize his entire body. I'm sure Loadholt will face both Ware and Spencer at times on sunday, and if he hasn't corrected some of his technique problems, he'll have a very long day. As for McKinnie, his play has been so poor the last couple of weeks, I'll be the first one to call Bryant Mckinnie out as somebody who made the Pro Bowl on reputation alone.

To me the discrepancy in talent between Spencer and Ware against Mckinnie and Loadholt is too hard for me to overlook. I like Dallas.

New York Jets at San Diego Chargers 4:30 Sunday CBS

Last year, during the Baltimore Ravens playoff run, I couldn't get over just how well Safety Jim Leonhard was playing. He seemed to know where every play was going, and he used his above average speed to make those plays. All the while, being the steady, reliable player that allowed Ed Reed to freelance, and be, well, Ed Reed. Well, when his defensive coordinator in Baltimore, Rex Ryan, became the head coach of the New York Jets, one of the free agents Ryan insisted the Jets open their wallets for was Leonhard. So far the move has paid off, the Jets had the best defense in football, and CB's Darelle Revis and Lito Shephard, and Safeties Kerry Rhoades and Jim Leonhard make up one of the best secondaries in the league.

I don't know how, I don't know where, I don't know when, but Jim Leonhard will make a big impactful play during this football game.

Now that I got that out of my system, Norv Turner has won three playoff games in the two previous seasons as head coach of the Chargers. I expect after sunday, for that number to jump to four playoff wins the past three seasons. Even with a spirited effort from the Jets defense, I expect the Chargers to still put up points that the run-heavy Jets offense won't be able to much. I like the Chargers, and probably like them to come out of the AFC.

Christmas Day Predictions and Thoughts

-Prediction: The Falcons will finish 9-7 and for the first time in franchise history have a winning record in consecutive years. Regardless, the team needs to get more talented and in a hurry.

-Thought: I hope I'm not the only one who finds it just a little sad that Tony Gonzalez, perhaps the greatest Tight End in NFL history, so far in his career has played in a grand total of......THREE playoff games with zero playoff wins. With the elimination of the Falcons from playoff contention last week, he'll be shut out once again this year.

-Prediction: Regardless of how much Panthers QB Matt Moore can take advantage of the Giants injury depleted secondary, the 'finally playing up to their potential now that it doesn't matter' Carolina Panthers will defeat the New York Giants and strike a major blow to their playoff chances this Sunday.

-Thought: It's looking more and more likely that the New York Giants will face a Minnesota Vikings team next week that actually will have something to play for in week seventeen. The Vikings stumbles these last few weeks have allowed the Philadelphia Eagles and the Arizona Cardinal's to get in the race for the NFC's second bye likely forcing the Vikings to play their starters the entire game when the Giants come to Minny. Perhaps even with the second by sowed up by game time and nothing to play for, Coach Brad Childress may still elect to play his starters, not wanting to see his guys not playing until the divisional round. The Giants are the NFC wild card contending team that most need to win their final two games to get in, and right now they're the NFC wild card contending team with the toughest final two games.

-Prediction: A 9-7 team will make the playoffs in the AFC. Not bold enough? I'll even go one further: one of the two AFC Wild Card representatives will not be one of the two teams currently slotted in the AFC's two wild card slots. Yes, that means the either the Broncos or Ravens will not be extending their season into the playoffs.

-Thought: Just because these guys play on some seriously bad teams doesn't mean they shouldn't be recognized. Yes, I'm looking at you Eric Wright, Brandon Flowers, Tamba Hali, Aqib Talib, Jamaal Charles, Joe Thomas, Jerome Harrison and Jamar Williams.

-Prediction: Interim Bills Coach Perry Fewell, who's black, won't just be a rquisite Rooney Rule interview on the coaching circuit this January. He deserves to get some legitimate looks at being a head coach in this league. In a season were the Buffalo Bills have been crippled by injuries, the team, or whats left of it, have played with nothing but passion under Fewell.

-Thought: Nick Barnett is one of the biggest reasons for the Packers turnaround on defense this year. He'll make a couple eye popping plays per game while also playing about as good a pass defense as any inside linebacker in this league. If he wasn't just a role player the first few games of the season as the team was trying to slowly adjust him back to meaningful football, he'd be a legitimate all-pro candidate.

-Prediction: Wade Phillips will indeed be the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys by the time training camp opens next July. It'll just remain to be seen if Wade Phillips can shake his reputation of being a poor coach in the playoffs. Currently, Wade has the same number of playoff wins as the number of playoff wins the Cowboys have since 1997: Zero.

-Thought: If the NFL is serious about broadcasting NFL games on the NFL Network, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to give the broadcast a slightly larger budget. This is the fourth year for these games and we've seen virtually no improvement in the game production value.

-Thought: Yeah, I know it's two straight, but...... Well, there are lot of things currently wrong with the Notre Dame football team. One thing thats not wrong is their television coverage. While it's debatable whether you think it's right that one team gets national coverage on a major network, I think the broadcast team of Tom Hammond and Pat Haden is actually pretty good. You'll hear no complaining from me if NBC decides to use that team for the early game of their Wild Card Weekend coverage.

Chargers vs. Titans from the Titans side

Yes, we're on the eve of the Chargers and Titans tomorrow in Nashville, (yes, I know what day they're playing on, doesn't mean I have to acknowledge it) and because it's the only meaningful football that day, your average december game with postseason implications gets thrusted into the spotlight.

The Titans, if anything, bring some badly needed drama to an AFC Wild Card chase thats high on quantity but relatively low on quality. Indeed it would be a dramatic for a team at one point 0-6, and staring down perhaps another painful rebuild this offseason, to turn it all around and make the playoffs. Sure the 7-7 record looks awfully pedestrian for a team coming off a thirteen win season, but it's the Titan's record in their last eight games thats gives Titan's fans hope: 7-1 with the one loss coming against the undefeated Colts. Consider that if the Titans had just played average red zone offense in that Colt's game, the Titans may well be 8-6 right now and we could very well be talking about the possibility of this team running the table to win their last ten games, an unprecedented NFL feat.

A victory tomorrow for the Titans seems like a daunting task against San Diego and their painfully simple yet freaking hard to stop-Offense. If NFL offenses were old world European cuisines, the Chargers would be sicilian: simple recipes, world class ingredients. Even more daunting for the Titans is the surprisingly average defense they'll trot out against the Chargers tomorrow night. The Titans, while disappointed they lost a player of Albert Haynesworth's calibur, looked like they would do just fine in withstanding it. Whether it's Big Albert's absence to blame for it or not, the defense has taken one big step backwards from last year. At one time a dominant passrusher, DE Kyle Vanden Bosch hasn't been the same player since his groin injury in the second half of the 2008 season. SS Michael Griffin looked like he was ready to join the Polamalu-Reed class of Safety in this league before the season began. Now, he'll fall far short of his big play totals he achieved in 2008.

Perhaps the most consitent Titan of this decade, is the one that won't be available to the team friday night. Just a few days ago it was announced that LB Keith Bulluck will miss the rest of the season due to a torn interior cruciate ligament.

It's looking likely, the Titans best chance to win this ballgame may be by way of shootout. Not to say Vince Young, Chris Johnson, and a superior Offensive line can't pull it out though. The Titans can also take solace in the fact that if they do dispose of San Diego, the only obstacle remaining on their schedule to a winning record is the very injury depleted Seattle Seahawks in week seventeen. Again, not to say a playoff berth won't happen, but a 9-7 record after starting 0-6 is a nice victory for the franchise in itself.

The blogs back up!

Just some impressions from Week Ten.

-Matt Ryan is regressing. Thomas Dimitroff and the Falcon's front office have surrounded Ryan with wonderful skill players and he's not taking enough advantage of it. A 78.8 QB rating is near  criminal when you have a guy like Tony Gonzalez running routes for you.

-Just how many of Carolina's good players can they lose and still expect to contend for the Wild Card? Not many linebackers were playing better than Thomas Davis and losing him for the year was a huge blow to the defense. Losing Jordan Gross for the year is an even bigger blow to the offense.

-Charles Woodson: Hall of famer, Period.

-Speaking of the Packer's defense, LOLB Brad Jones filled in more than admirably for the concussed Aaron Kampman. Some of those same pass drops in the flats that Aaron Kampman has struggled with all year, Brad Jones excelled in. It already looked like a strong possibility that Kampman wouldn't be a Packer next year. Now, with Jones' play it may be all that more likely.

-The NFC East is for anybody who wants to take it. Major injuries to Ken Hamlin and Marc Columbo makes the Cowboy's one game lead over the Giants and Eagles look awfully slim. I still like the Giants but they need to play better defense in the red zone.

-Yeah, the Rams put up a more than valiant effort against the undefeated Saints. Don't get too excited St. Louis. Your Rams are still very, very far away from contending. Priority number one for the Rams front office at this point is assessing just how serious Sam Bradford's shoulder injury is. Quarterback may be the only way to go for a team whose almost guaranteed a top five pick in next year's draft.

-Jacksonville fans get on David Garrard too much. This Jaguars team should not be contending for a wild card berth right now but they are, thanks to Garrard, and a 5'7 missile out of the backfield.

-Oh, and to go on record about the Jaguars possibly picking Tim Tebow in the first round to appease their Gator obsessed fan base: If a fan base demands their favorite team select their favorite local college hero in the first round when he's clearly not a first rounder to re-invigorate said fanbase, then I really don't think that fanbase deserves a team. 

The Jaguars could be playing very meaningful football down the stretch this year and seeing empty seats in the stands for those games makes for a very awkward situation. C'mon, Commissioner Goodell, it's time to right one of Paul Tagliabue's wrongs. I don't care where the Jaguars end up, I just hope they don't stay in Jacksonville.

-The Bengals will continue to field a no-name defense but it shouldn't stay that way. Jonathan Joseph and Leon Hall may be the best corner duo in football, and tackle Domata Peko is simpy immovable.

-Bud, your team was up 41-17 in the fourth quarter. I know Dick Jauron can be a pretty surly guy, but what could possibly be the reason for flipping two middle fingers at the Buffalo Bills sideline?

NFL Free Agency Thoughts

-The Cowboys cutting T.O. is a start but there are still a ton of problems to be fixed on this team. They have one of the worst Safety duos in terms of coverage in the league with Ken Hamlin and Roy Williams. Maybe LT Flozell Adams deficiencies in technique are finally catching up to him because it looks like he aged about ten years this past season. 

-What's the Marv Levy rule: the team the free agent leaves is hurt more than the team free agent goes to is helped. I really can't think of a better example if this than Albert Haynesworth going to the Redskins. The Titans have great depth at defensive tackle, but it's certainly unproven how well Jason Jones will play with more snaps and the Titan's free agent signing, Jovan Haye regressed last season in Tampa. 

The Haynesworth deal is certainly forcing the Redskins to rework their roster a bit. The Redskins live and die by their annual contract restructuring binge and it looks like this time it may have cost them Jason Taylor. Yes, Jason Taylor's main gripe was the amount of time he was required to stay in Ashburn for offseason workouts. But the fact that the Redskins were asking him to restructure his deal was directly effected from the Haynesworth signing.

The Redskins have to play this game every offseason. Ask veterans to restructure their deals so they can fit their new signings under the cap. They've done a great job of skirting the cap and certainly have one of the League's best capologists in Eric Schaffer, but they still haven't learned their lesson. Just because you can creatively fit yourself under the cap whilst signing veteran free agents doesn't always mean you should.

-I'll give the Jets this: Their at least trying, the only way they know, to be strong up the middle. With the signings of SS Jim Leonhard and ILB Bart Scott, that gives them Kris Jenkins at nose tackle, Scott and David Harris at the inside 'backer spots, and Leonhard and Kerry Rhoades at the Safeties. The Jets have plenty of holes, just none there.

-Hey Redskins, there was a reason the Bills released G Derrick Dockerry. After having a superb 2007, he really regressed last year.

NHL Trade Deadline Thoughts

Believe it or not, we are now less than a month away from the NHL trading deadline. Just some of my thoughts.

-The Senators have made up some ground in what looked like a lost playoff chase since firing Coach Craig Hartsburg, but all signs point to this surge as being too little too late. I'm sure owner Eugene Melnyk wants to assess the team's playoff chances all the way up until the trade deadline, but I believe the Senators would be better served just calling this a lost season. Antoine Vermette has been on the trading block for a while now, but the Senators would be doing a half-assed rebuilding job if only Vermette was traded at the deadline. As tough as it might be to find takers for Jason Spezza and his sizable contract especially in this market, the Senators would be gipping their fan base if they don't seriously shop him around the league. For a player who was once rumored to be a piece in bringing Roberto Luongo from Vancouver to Ottawa, the Senators know they could get a sizable haul in return for Spezza. 

-Not surprised at all by Michel Therien's firing in Pittsburgh. It was well understood very early on when the Penguins showed they weren't of the same calibur of last year's team, that if they missed the playoffs, Therien would be gone.

 The Penguins seem to be catching some breaks. It appears the Rangers and Canadiens are intent on  giving the Penguins as many chances to get back in the playoff race as possible. But for the Penguins to ask Malkin and Crosby to be even better than they have been this year is unlikely, because at this point thats the Penguin's only hope for Hockey in late April.

The last thing GM Ray Shero should be doing for the Penguins at the deadline is looking to pick up a rental Sniper like a Marian Gaborik to play on a line with either Malkin or Crosby. The Penguins should at least dangle Jordan Staal at the deadline. He's still in his rookie contract so he's a real bargain that will be easy to move with a very large return. Staal and the Penguins still have not seriously talked extension yet, because it's still very much a numbers game with Staal. Staal is best as a Centerman, but because of the two wunderkinds ahead of him, cannot crack the top six forward realm. If the Penguins were to sign Staal to an extension it would be a very expensive luxury for the team to have a player the calibur of Staal to get Checking Line Center ice time. Shero needs to put Staal on the trading block for the deadline when Stanley Cup dreams can make clubs shortsighted. Either that or place him back on the block before the draft so a bargaining war can be drawn out by other clubs.

-GM Brian Burke really wishes his Maple Leafs would stop dragging out their playoff fate. Burke sure wouldn't want Leaf's nation getting any delusions of the playoffs that could set up a P.R. annoyance when Burke tries to trade some high cost Leafs at the deadline. This overachieving Leaf's team has already made their chances at getting the number one draft pick remote, where they almost certainly would've drafted the London Knight's C John Tavares. Now if this Leaf's team plays the same way they played on saturday scoring a 6-2 win over Pittsburgh, Burke will be torn. 'Course, if the Leaf's had been as bad as expected, a guy like Dominic Moore wouldn't be playing as well thus keeping his trade value low.

I may be over-exaggerating the problem here for Toronto. It's not like if they trade a Moore or Nikolai Antropov at the deadline while still possessing a shot at the playoffs, means they'll sell less season tickets next year. Those are gonna' be sold either way. But this I do know: Burke would have just as soon liked to have seen this team be the worst in hockey rather than make a meaningless early playoff exit.

-D Jay Bouwmeester is not coming back to Florida. CBC'S Pierre Lebrun just reported Bouwmeester's camp turned down a $6.5 million a year deal from the team. He also reported that Florida would only trade Bouwmeester if they could get back parts that would help them currently in the playoff race. An Alexander Semin for Jay Bouwmeester deal was rumored a couple of weeks ago that would bring Bouwmeester to the Capital's, but that deal seemed unlikely even at the time. The Flyers and Devils are also in the mix. However the Flyers are right up against the Salary cap, so my preliminary guess for Bouwmeester's destination is New Jersey, who are one of the few contenders in good salary cap shape.

Just Some Random Sports Thoughts

Like the title says.

-Absolutely awful stuff to hear about Robbie Alomar. I'll try to remember him as the best Second Baseman of the 90's and the best since Ryne Sandberg, though this is hard to forget.

-It's no coincidence Favre announced his retirement five days after the A-Rod story broke. Brett could only take so much coverage not devoted to him. 

-Don't be so fast about all this talk of this retirement sticking; My sources tell me Favres been looking at houses in the Twin Cities.

-Move over Peter King. Favre's got a new best buddy and his name is Ed Werder.

-Last night's Duke-UNC game was the first full College Basketball game I've seen all year so I'm nowhere close to being an expert. However, I can offer this up: does anyone honestly think Wake Forest, or Duke, or Pitt are honestly better than the Tar Heels. UNC is in "La Joga Bonita" mode to me and my untrained basketball viewing eyes.

-Does Dick Vitale just seem to randomly choose who his play by play man is each game? No Dan Shulman, the man for Dickie V tonight was Mike "Holy Cow!" Patrick.

-File this into the category of things I wish ESPN would do, while knowing it will never, ever happen: How about putting the dreadfully underrated Brad Nessler on some of these mega college basketball contests. This may be asking too much, but how about putting him and Jay Bilas together for the next Duke-UNC matchup? Jay Bilas seems to actually follow the sport closely and seems to have a great depth of knowledge about it. 'Course, when did not having these skills stop ESPN from putting you on TV?

-The Orioles would've taken peanuts in return for Miguel Tejada if they knew they weren't going to have to deal with this mess again. The cunning of Ed Wade, everybody!

Sharks vs. Bruins reaction

Okay so what makes both the Sharks and Bruins such good hockey clubs? I watched last night's game to see for myself, and here's what I observed.

-Everything the Sharks do, it's coming out of their defenseman. Dan Boyle, Rob Blake, Marc- Edouard Vlasic, and Christian Ehrhoff are all really, really good. I don't think I've ever seen a team break out of it's own zone as quickly as the Sharks do, and that's all coming off excellent passes off the defenseman's stick.

And they're active too. I saw Dan Boyle act as the first forechecker into the offensive zone, which is just so rare among defenseman. Coach Todd McLellan really trusts his defenseman because their pinching and all around aggresive play in the offensive zone rarely causes the Sharks to give up any odd man rushes.

-It's been well publicized how Coach McLellan came over from Detroit to San Jose. With him, he brought so the same puck possesion system the Red Wings have been using for going on about twenty years now. Well, the Sharks aren't there yet. Not that twenty years in one system versus half a season should garner equal results, though. The Sharks have alot of skill and are very well equipped to play that style, but I'm sure Todd McLellan also knows this team's bread and butter. The Sharks are big and rough and let you know it. A line with Joe Thornton, Joe Pavelski and Ryan Clowe winning puck battles in the corner could absolutely punish opposing defensman come playoff time.

-With Boston first in the east and Montreal fifth, a Boston-Montreal playoff rematch in the second round could very well happen. These teams are so darn similar. Both teams love to trap in the neutral zone and gain speed the other way off of it. Forward and Defenseman depth are also as good as it gets in the league for both teams.

-Okay, Bruins fans. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Either David Krecji's the next Cam Neely or Milan Lucic is. They can't both be. Personally, I say Lucic is. Krecji's game is too European, too much puck possesion. Neely was about winning puck battles in the corner and being impossible to move in front of the net, along with possessing that great shot. The Neely comparisons are more appropriate for Lucic.

-You don't think Bruins Coach Claude Julien hasn't learned some tricks after stops in Montreal and New Jersey. This team is really well coached with about a million set plays that are more affective than you think. He gauges what his players can do as well as any coach in the league. He's done a particulurly good job in grooming Phil Kessel.

Baseball Notes 2/5

Here's what I think we know about the St. Louis Cardinals: They have a reasonably powerful offensive ballclub. (Only three teams in the NL scored more runs in 2008) They currently possess the best hitter in the world, Albert Pujols, who's also supposedly entering a hitter's peak years between the ages of twenty-eight and thirty-two. (He turned Twenty-Eight in January) They have a surplus of potential plus-hitting outfielders in Rick Ankiel, Skip Schumaker, Chris Duncan and Ryan Ludwick. We also know GM John Mozeliak might feel the urge to trade one of those four any time this season and could expect a reasonable haul in return, instantly bolstering his ballclub from a spare part. We also know they're getting a great bargain in starting RHP Kyle Lohse, who gave the team fifteen wins and a 3.78 ERA in 2008. But what will shape the outcome of the 2009 Cardinal's is something the team and the rest of baseball know absolutely nothing about: Just how effective will RHP Chris Carpenter be this season?

Bernie Milkasz of the St. Louis Post Dispatch recently talked to Cardinal's pitching coach Dave Duncan. One of the topics: coincidentally enough, Chris Carpenter's prospects for Spring Training.

Duncan said that team trainer Barry Weinberg told him that Carpenter can have a normal routine in spring training. Carpenter doesn’t have to be held back, or handled with extra care. He can throw and get his work in like all of the other pitchers.  That’s why Duncan is optimistic. Because Carpenter will be ready to go from Day 1 of spring training. No baby steps are needed.

So maybe that sheds a little light on the dark, dark tunnel that has been Chris Carpenter over the last three years. Before then, Chris Carpenter was as good as any pitcher in Baseball. He put together one of the more brilliant pitching seasons of the decade in 2005 when he was 21-5 with a 2.83 ERA. Hitters have always hated facing him, and many around baseball have lauded his 'stuff' as being the best in the game. However, instant domination shouldn't be expected from Carpenter this season. Being a solid anchor of a starting staff with occasional flashes of brilliance should. 

Would Cardinal's Manager Tony La Russa be disappointed that a pitcher once annually expected to win twenty games may only be pegged to win a fraction of that? Not at all, because if Carpenter wins fifteen games, thats fifteen more wins than last year. Any Carpenter is better than no Carpenter. And that's why the cardinal's don't mind being patient with their ace. This may seem like tedium for Cardinal's fans, but they know in their hearts just how much of a difference maker Carpenter can be. The Cardinal's don't mind talking Spring Training prospects for Carpenter as long as the conversation eventually shifts to postseason prospects for the team, as the two invariably go hand in hand.

Quick Super Bowl Thoughts

Your going to be reading about the Superbowl everywhere for the next week, so I just have a couple of quick thoughts.

-This topic was discussed heartily with those who watched the Super Bowl with me: Starting with Titans-Rams, we have lived in the greatest decade of Super Bowls ever. I still might go with Giants-Bills as the best ever, but the rest of the top five are all populated by Super Bowls in this decade for me.

-Four hundred plus yards of offense against statistically one of the best defenses in NFL history? Cards, its official: you guys aren't a fluke.

-Troy Polamalu didn't look fully healed to me last night. He didn't have the same burst, and he missed alot of plays he'd normally make.

-Santonio Holmes, meet John Taylor and David Tyree.

-Big Ben, meet Tom Brady and Joe Montana.

-Darnell Dockett played with a chip on his shoulder last night. He was unblockable for most of the game.

-Ditto for Lamar Woodley. Answer me truthfully: Has there ever been a better 3-4 outdside linebacking duo than James Harrison and Lamar Woodley? Really think about it, and leave your answer in the comments section. 

-Any inkling that Dan Rooney's been through this before? Right next to the Packers, the Steelers still have the best ownership in sports.

-Finally somebody rips off the NHL. I know they've been doing this for a couple of years now, but don't you think Joe Namath bringing out the Lombardi Trophy was reminiscent of another championship trophy ceremony? Perhaps next, all fifty three players could get one day to do whatever they want with the Lombardi Trophy.

-What will Ken Whisenhunt be preaching to his team once Mini Camp starts? Let's make it easier on ourselves to get back to this point next year and try to get a bye instead of having to win three playoff games.

-Two Super Bowls in four years? Are the Steelers the team of the second half of the 2000's?

-Enjoy this one, Pittsburgh. 

Super Bowl Blowout

Just some thoughts I had about Sunday's Game.

-Steelers CB Ike Taylor is going to have to be the Steelers best defensive player sunday. He's going to be matched up against Larry Fitzgerald alot. Taylor's come a long way from being benched during the 2006 season. Along with other Steeler corners Bryant McFadden and Deshea Townsend, he's had a fantastic year. 

Taylor's best attribute as a corner and specifically for covering Larry Fitzgerald is his height.  Taller than most Cornerbacks at 6'2, Taylor has demonstrated the ability, when asked to, play physical man to man coverage and jam receivers at the line. Often though, Taylor is not often asked to play man to man, but rather zone coverage in defensive coordinator Dick Lebeau's zone blitz scheme. However, I believe Ike Taylor could flourish in a role like the one Packers cornerback Al Harris has been asked to play in the last couple of seasons. Harris makes a living off jamming and rerouting receivers at the line of scrimmage. (oddly enough, Harris's team, The Packers, are switching to a defensive scheme very similar to the one Taylor currently plays in with the Steelers)

I believe the Steelers will obviously mix up coverage looks throughout the game, but the one I think they'll continually go back to is one were Taylor's on the line with Fitzgerald, but has a Safety clouding over the top of those two. That way, Taylor can pretty much do what he wants with Fitzgerald within the five yard bump zone, i.e. jump routes inside or outside, play trail coverage etc., with the knowledge that there's a Safety behind him if Fitzgerald beats him at the line. Watch for Lebeau to mix up this "cloud" look with zone coverages on the other side to force Kurt Warner to read the enitre field, not just one side of it.

The most important aspect to the Super Bowl will be how well Ike Taylor can reroute Larry Fitzgerald. The Steeler's shouldn't care much about what Fitzgerald does after he's been rerouted by Taylor. The important thing should be that Fitzgerald was rerouted at all. On almost every play, Fitzgerald is Warner's first passing option, and when Warner can't consistently throw to his first option, that could give the Steelers the extra split second they need for Woodley and Harrison to hurry and sack Warner.

-Cardinals G Deuce Lutui, C Lyle Sendlein and G Reggie Wells all have to be able to get some movement on Steelers Nose Tackle Casey Hampton. Any combination of Lutui with Sendlien or Wells with Sendlein needs to end with Hampton being moved and one of those players scraping either James Farrior or Larry Foote on the second level. The Cardinal's won't run it much, but believe me, if you just tee up the pass against the Steelers, then your Quarterback will end up hurt.

-Cris Collinsworth pointed out in the Cardinal's Wild Card Game against the Falcons that Cardinal's defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast had given inside/middle linebacker Gerald Hayes responsibility for just one gap in that game. Hayes has played exceptionally since Pendergast made the change, because it simplified things for Hayes and he was able to quickly diagnose plays and run to them without thought of much else. The Cardinal's have lots of talented players on defense, but many times I think they're effectiveness has been hampered by Pendergast's over-aggresive play calling. I have doubts about Pendergast's ability as a coordinator but he's done a smart job with Gerald Hayes.

-That said, I still think Pendergast does more bad than good for this Cardinal's defense. If he blitzes on Sunday as much as he has this season, I believe his corners will struggle matched up with no help against the Steeler's receivers.

-Steelers Safety Ryan Clark is one of the best Safeties in football. There was an article in Friday's Washington Post that talked about Clark's connection with his former team the Redskins. Clark had previously played with Sean Taylor in Washington, and Taylor was known to make big plays, but not without being caught out of position in other plays because of his freelancing ways. Ryan Clark helped fill the gaps in coverage that Sean Taylor left when he went to freelance, and he's continued to play that same way with the freelancing Troy Polamalu. Clark has great instincts with unbelievable range, and these skills help nurture Safeties the like of Polamalu and Taylor because he allows them to be great. 

The best comparison to another sport I can come up with to talk about the effectiveness of Clark's play is to compare him to Bobby Orr's defense partner. Orr's coaches knew they couldn't put another player like Bobby (not that there was one) out on the ice the same time as Bobby, because they'd have two defenseman out of position all the time because they tried to make plays. Orr needed a player who was his exact opposite: not very flashy but steady and did his assignments right. Thats what Clark is to Polamalu.

Baseball Notes-1/28

-Just when I talk about Don Sutton rotting away with the insufferable Bob Carpenter in Washington, news today broke that Don Sutton will be rejoining the Braves to call their games on the radio. So whose going to take Sutton's place as the color man in Washington: former Baseball Tonight analyst and Best Damn Sports Show host Rob Dibble. No more awkward celebrity interviews for you Mr. Dibble.

-I know there's been a ton of Braves talk around here lately, but then this was broken by dugoutcentral.com: The Yankees, with their surplus of outfielders could be talking to the Braves about dealing OF Xavier Nady. 

It sure seems John Scheurholz just refuses to rebuild with this club. I see them as the fourth best team in the NL East, Xavier Nady or no Xavier Nady. Last year they caught some bad breaks, but this team isn't much better than eighty-five wins to me.

-MLB.com reports a story that with ace setup man Pat Neshek out for 2009 with Tommy John surgery, the Twins setup job is between Matt Guerrier and Jesse Crain.

I slightly favor the Twins to win the AL Central with whomever they choose to setup Joe Nathan. But, it would've been nice for Ron Gardenhire to know his offense would only have to scratch out a few runs until the seventh inning behind a remarkably solid starting staff and then #*BAM*-$Neshek and Nathan. 

-While I'm on the Twins, it's still hard for me not to imagine Twins RF Delmon Young not  becoming an elite hitter someday. It'll be a miracle if he DOESN'T break out, and stroke it all over the place this year.

Baseball Beat

-I promised you stuff on Tom Glavine and here it is. For those of you Nationals fans that were hoping Tommy Glavine would forgo returning with the Braves in order to try and reunite with long time Braves president Stan Kasten in Washington, think again. After reading about all that went down between Kasten and Glavine in John Feinstein's excellent "Living On The Black", their relationship is not as close as one might surmise. As Braves team president in 2002, Stan Kasten was heavily involved in the talks with Tom Glavine on a new contract. Feinstein described the negotiations between the two sides, particulurly between Glavine and Kasten, as being of "genuine anger". Glavine felt he deserved a four year deal, and the Braves were only willing to go up to three, along with ignoring deferred payment due to Glavine.

-Not that the Nationals would even want to fork over the money to get Glavine, and potentially sell some season ticket packages. Washington, so far this offseason has refused to sign free agent LF/1B Adam Dunn, in a move that makes gobs of sense for the Nationals. The only way the Nationals won't lose one hundred games this year is if they increase their offense, and the easiest most sensible way to do that would be to sign Dunn. Alot of people used to talk about the Nationals parkway rivals, the Orioles, of having confederate money. Well the National's may very well have confederate money, but we'll never know if they refuse top flash it. 

-The Arbitration hearing I'd most like to sit in on: Milwaukee Brewers second baseman Rickie Weeks. Just how much do non-partial arbiters award a player in arbitration for "tools" and "untapped ability"? I would guess not much, and thats why Weeks and his agent better scramble to get their preferred $2.8 million number closer to the Brewer's preferred $2 million number. The good news for the Weeks camp: Since Doug Melvin became GM of the Brewers in 2002, the Brewers have not had one arbitration hearing.

-Say what you will about GM Dayton Moore's tenure in Kansas City. He did right by avoiding arbitration with right handed starter Zack Greinke and signing him to a four year $38 million deal. The Royals have been very patient with the twenty-five year old Greinke, as he's battled through mental disorders and an experiment as a closer. Not that they had a choice: Right now, Greinke is looking like the gem of former GM Allard Baird's haul, and that is pretty rare in itself.

Van Wieren was a Class Act

-I decided to look at the online Atlanta Journal Constitution today to see what the status of Tom Glavine's talk of returning to the Braves was. Before I could get to Glavine, something caught my eye that immediately took my mind off the forty two year old lefthander, and onto the man that helped broadcast almost his entire career.

If you hadn't heard by now, former TBS Superstation Braves Announcer Pete Van Wieren has decided to retire from broadcasting. Yes, this news came back in October, but it slipped so far underneath mine and everybody else's radar that I only learned about it just now. Van Wieren had good reason to retire. He saw TBS switch their format from covering the Atlanta Braves exclusively, to showing games baseball wide in accordance with TBS getting the rights to broadcast Baseball playoff games. Earlier in 2008, Van Wieren's long time radio and television partner Skip Caray died. (Yes, he's Harry's son) Even while Skip Caray was alive, he hadn't been given the opportunity to call games for TBS and their new format. Van Wieren saw the writing on the wall and retired and you can't blame him for it.

But with the retirement of Pete Van Wieren, we've seen some of the last remnants of a great sports broadcasting tradition: Atlanta Braves Baseball on TBS. In 1976, TBS Superstation owner Ted Turner bought the Atlanta Braves in order to keep the team in Atlanta. He immediately put them on his TBS Superstation which soon started to be picked up by cable companies throughout the United States, many of them notably outside of the southeast of the United States. With Braves games being shown regularly on TBS, the Braves gained a sizable fan base outside of their traditional media markets, and the voices they heard were Van Wieren's and Caray's. 

One of the things I enjoyed about the broadcasts Van Wieren and Caray did, was that they treated it like a radio broadcast. What I mean, is if you have ever listened to a baseball game on the radio (and chances are, if your reading this then you have) you'll notice that the two announcers aren't so fixed into the constraints of one broadcaster giving the play by-play, and the other giving color commentary. One will usually act as the play by play man with the other giving color for one inning and then they'd switch the next. Well since, Skip Caray and Pete Van Wieren also announced Braves games on the radio together, they just treated their television broadcasts together like they would a radio broadcast. What you got from that were announcers who, because they didn't feel confined to traditional sports broadcasting roles, became very colorful with their announcing of the games. You didn't mind watching a blowout when these guys were announcing because you knew they'd come up with some conversation that would draw your interest and often times make you laugh.

But they also took their job very seriously, and while neither ever played the game seriously, both would offer great insight into the game. More often than not, I came away from watching a Braves broadcast on TBS learning something about Baseball that I hadn't known before.

With another former TBS Braves announcer, Don Sutton rotting away in Washington with an absolute yawn of a play by play man, Bob Carpenter, I realized that you Braves TBS guys are quickly dying out. Those guys could relate to any generation, because they spoke Baseball, and they spoke about it well. Pete Van Wieren, you'll be missed. 

Looking towards the Offseason

-I believe the Packers factored the playing ability of DE/DT Cullen Jenkins into their decision to switch to a hybrid 3-4/4-3 defense. Mike McCarthy displays a high regard to Jenkins' ability as an overpowering end on running downs as well as his ability to outquick opposing guards on passing downs. Jenkins was arguably the Packer's best defensive player through the first four weeks of the season until he tore his pectoral muscle and was placed on injured reserve. At 6'2, 305 lbs. the Packers coaches (what little of it there is) envision Cullen Jenkins as close to a prototypical 3-4 defensive end. They also  must believe that Jenkins will be ready for training camp so he can absorb the new defensive scheme.

-It should be a  matter of when, not if Giants CB Aaron Ross will be moved to safety. Ross has below average speed for a corner but his lack of speed might be well hidden by a move to Safety. Aaron Ross was abused by Braylon Edwards this past season, often on deep routes were Edwards simply ran by Ross. The Giants must recognize that Ross will have trouble being a corner in this league, much less a number one corner, what the Giants were asking him to be.

-I really doubt that Roger Goodell would approve the sale of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to former 49er's owner and actual Riverboat gambler, Eddie DeBartolo.

The big story here is that the Glazer family is finding financing a European soccer club is not as easy as it looked from across the pond. The Glazer's investment in Manchester United is starting to eat into the money they annually budget for the Buccaneers.